Robots probably cost a lot less in the long run. Think of the industrial horse farms that would be needed to supply the military. A small assembly line could crank out thousands of these a month.

Funny thing is, on Solidot, GP anon would be rated 5, and jbolden would be rated -1.
The common sentiment on Chinese social media would also corroborate those ratings.

A little comparing your own underbelly with other's best faces, plus some cultural ignorance, and you get comedy like this on both sides of the ocean.

I think this is more likely to be for rapid replacement of GPS & other military satellites in response to other countries developing/having anti-satellite technology. Net-centric warfare is where everyone is going, yet the network part remains the most vulnerable.

with 2 'N's
Same company that developes QQ

Average Twitter celebrity = Charles Xue
Bradley/Chelsea Manning = ???Chinese military whistle blower???

Average Twitter celebrity: still tweeting; Charles Xue: arrested, made to confess on TV
Bradley/Chelsea Manning: 35 years in jail; ???Chinese military whistle blower???: the world will never know this man or his fate

It's probably more about culture than about the object itself. I would guess because it was central to the huge media coverage, it has come represents the moment when the public consciousness expanded to the (preexisting) accessibility of homemade firearms. It marked a "holy shit I didn't realize that" moment for the general population.

I wonder if this will alter the metrics used by college ranking organizations. IIRC, US News ranking system considers the number of tenured professors teaching undergrad as one of their measures of success, which has been offered as an explanation of why Princeton has been shooting up the ranks in the past years (and actually edging out Harvard this year).

While I think that's true for real disease in the biological sense, strange disease-like phenomena can arise from a confluence of seemingly unrelated factors.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dancing_Plague_of_1518
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dancing_mania

And it raises the question if these phenomena spread like disease and harm like disease, should they be viewed any differently?

If they were indeed corporatists, they would be be championing and empowering Tesla as one of the new generation of technology conglomerates that allows the US to out-compete its economic adversaries. It seems to be some small-town protectionism from representatives who fear accusations of "destroying Texan jobs", or worse *gasp* "allowing Californians to make money off of Texas" when elections come around.

Well, some would say that a political entity being "more tactful/less blatant about achieving its end goal" is "more insidious"
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2712605&cid=39277125

Most Slashdotters can understand that being a Liberal does not necessarily make one a Socialist or Communist. Why then do we accept the pigeonholing of all Libertarians as Anarchists/Anarcho-Capitalists? Those among the political right who cast the diverse group we know as Liberals into Socialist/Communist box are mocked for their ignorance -- and rightfully so. Yet, those among the political left who cast the diverse group we know as Libertarians into the Anarchist/Anarcho-Capitalist box are applauded, rewarded as is the case here through moderation.

Another way of making your argument is to say that if the US government were to ban protest at the National Mall tomorrow, you would not feel a sense of loss or think worse of the US government. Because that's essentially what you're saying when you imply that there is no difference.

Probably some operation that mirrors the app store and resells for cheaper (no cut for you, though)

Technology giveth, and politics taketh away.

iPad has palm rejection?