Maybe we should try to read the apples that we have already and see if there is any knowledge already in them? It would suck if they already were imbedded by the ancient astronauts with the secrets of FTL drives, cancer cures, the Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything, etc... and we overwrote them with Bieber.

Hey now, don't be a downer! It works in Kerbal Space Program!

1) Put our collective knowledge into edible form and grow it on trees.

2) Put them in the Forbidden Garden for security, with stern warnings against eating the apples.

3) Adam and Eve wonder what the apples over in there yonder trees taste like.

4) *CRUNCH* *MUNCH* *SLURP* Mmmm...would be good baked in a nice crust with some cinnamon and sugar...

5) Bake-off and Pie eating contest!!

6) Angry lord of the orchard evicts Adam and Eve

7) Perpetual guilt and ignorance ensue.

This sounds like the makings of a good book, especially if one could work in some nudity action between Adam and Eve.

Does ISIS have its own version of the Pentagon? Is this a building with eagles on it with a big ISIS flag waving over it? Do they have to worry about cutbacks and base closures?

My impression of ISIS is a crowd-sourced and funded guerilla organization. Said "ISIS Command Center" was probably Seldom Bin Leyd's garage where he kept his beater Toyota pickup with the stack of 20+ year old RPGs in the bed. Seldom Bin Leyd naturally was spouting off online during his WOW session (erm, "training") about his "command center", and essentially got swatted with a few JDAMs.

I think we just happened to catch one of the stupid ones. The competent guys in ISIS probably are glad this guy got wasted.

I can see it now - EU gets a nice clean shiny new OS from Microsoft. The next Tuesday a patch is released, MSNSAUS-007 Critical. In the fine print:

"This patch will allow a friendly U.S. operator to cause code to execute on the computer of a user. Such code could take any action that the user himself could take, including but not limited to creating, changing or deleting data, or communicating with an external web site."

They should hire Abe Vigoda to do ads for them.

Of all the issues important to the American voter; income, taxes, security, Chafee decides to waste several lungfuls of hot air on the metric system.

I think blatant stupidity like this should automatically disqualify one from being president, but sadly we let them continue in their quest.

Where it is useful, we use the metric system. Where it is useful, we also use British units. Let the engineers and scientists figure out when to use which system.

Vote Barns, Furlongs, Fortnights and Hogheads for America! Metric is a Communist plot, I tell ya!

A problem that has been the bane of evening hikers is that LED headlamps suddenly quit when the voltage drops below a certain level, even though the battery may still have a considerable charge remaining.

We miss the old days of incandescent bulbs where you at least had some warning of a flat battery as the light faded in a slow, predictable manner, which gave you time (and light) to dig out fresh batteries or otherwise manage the situation. LED lamps tend to just die without much warning, and Murphy's Law requires that the lamp will fail when you are doing something dangerous that requires special care with your footing.

If this technology is available at the consumer level for headlamps and such, we'd love to hear about it.

Well put. Just realize that you can have a nice guy as a boss, but they have to do their jobs and worry about their *own* business. Sometimes the motivations line up such they need to do something bad to you, like fire you, whether they want to or not.

Starting out as a naive new engineer, I thought that my boss would have at least some interest in seeing my career progress. WRONG.

No matter how nice and friendly your boss seems to be, their motivation is to get more work out of you cheap. They are not interested in your future. Promotions mean more pay, and they don't want to pay you any more. They are not interested in your well-being. Nothing personal (usually), just business.

You must be your own advocate. You are the CEO of *your* business, and you are selling your time to another company. Make sure it is worth your while, because the other guy will do everything in their power to low-ball your compensation.

Don't be cocky. You may be good, but you're never that good that you can't be fired. Don't piss people off. Keep emotionally neutral in all your dealings. Think about your boss's situation before making demands.

Live frugally when you start out. Sock money away so you can survive for extended periods without a job. You may never need to tap those funds, but knowing that they are there will give you strength in your negotiations. If your boss senses you are terrified of losing your income, they have you by the balls and you will be their bitch working every Saturday. Deny them that advantage by being willing and able to walk out the door at a moment's notice.

Be only as loyal to the company as they are loyal to you. If they *are* working with you to increase pay and promotions, great, but more often than not they will drag their feet on these things. If there is simply no promotion or pay increase potential, look for greener pastures.

Pay attention to the fiscal health of the company. Remember that it can be costly to replace an employee, so they may want to negotiate to keep you on board, especially if you have been bringing value to the company. Don't make crazy demands when the company has had a bad quarter.

Windows 7 EOLs in 2020. I really hope MS gets their head out of their ass by then and makes a sensible release that doesn't make the user base miserable. We just want the stable productivity back we had on XP/7 please. A lot of us are still working on desktops (and will be in 2020) and, guess what, it is work that we can't do on smartphones.

Ummm....they have these things called "airplanes" now that can fly over the oceans pretty regularly. I'm afraid the terrorists have also heard about them, unfortunately.

The state of U.S. government politics and our "we don't cover the news, we MAKE the news!" media pretty much guarantees any attack will be "showy".

+1

If you're making $210k now, downsize some of your frivolous expenses (yes, you have frivolous expenses) and put 6 months or more of cash in the bank now. Go find a copy of Smart People Finish Rich by David Bach, and follow the advice. Getting a financial advisor/coach would be even better.

You do not want to be pressed to take any old job because you need to feed the kids. Take control of the situation, get your finances bulletproof, and *then* look for your next move.