Man, after reading that I feel like I could suit up and go out there myself to help. A really great article (and link). Thank you. Just in case, if the ISS needs help, I'm ready and willing to go.

To a politician, there is no such thing.

"Did you have sex with this woman?"

would have to turn into "Did you exchange bodily fluids, perform intercourse, oral sex, including, but not limited to fellatio, have any physical contact with either one or both of your penis and her vagina?" Basicaly, the reporter would have to define "sex" before the question was asked and we then know the reswponse would be, I find your question disgusting and not worthy of a response". Thus changing the direction.

Rare are the politicians like Mr. John Ford who pauses, only to ensure his truthful answer is accurate...."Yes".

What I'd wish is that reporters would not let go a question till an answer was given....

"Congressman Moneybags, did you divert funds from the children's hospital and towards a defense contractor instead?"

"Hospitals serve an important part of our community. So does defense and we need to understand that we need the defense for the children. Can you imagine a world where children are threatened by terrorists. I want to ensure that all our children are safe and secure where ever they go unlike my esteemed colleagues that appose a strong defense and continue to increase spending on welfare programs".

Wait what? The reporter ignores this obvious obfuscation and falls into the trap..."So MB, you feel we need to spend more on defense" This is what I see time and time again with today's so called reporters.

Google is in R&D to make Robo-Cop II? maybe Glass is the first step in taking over our brains. Sure, at the moment they just sit on our head, but by 2015 we'll need a neural tap to get a true network experience. Once in place Google can then download their override malware (which comes with its own ads), take over the brain and integrate it into the automated car.

By the way, that is how crazy your statement sounded It is possible these companies are lying, but your hyperbole took all the wind out of the presentation.

Did you miss that part?

dak makes a very valid point.

You mirror my thoughts. At times I also most wish that republicans would take and hold all three branches. It will hasten the fall of this country and perhaps, maybe, possibly out of the upheaval, a better system can come to pass. Right now I feel democrats (or maybe better to say caring politicians) try to slow the fall, give hope to the hopeless and serve only to make this country suffer more. Gangrene slowly pervades our system, our society and the caring politician, a minority today, only allows the infection to spread, albeit slowly.

We live in a time of a heartless society.

I love the ACs below that slings arrows from hidden view. girlintraining makes a value point and I'd mod her up. If you are going to protest, TIme and place do matter. Also you audience matters and picking on a bus load of techies expends too much cap;ital on a little target. Had they protested in front of google, had the, as she suggested, parked themselves in front of the people who are really driving up prices then they could garner more positive interest in their cause. All they did was pissed of people who work for a living, negate any value attempted by using violence, and most likely hurting, not helping their cause.

To the ACs, get some brains cells to stop the knee jerk reaction, or come out of the woods so we can put a name to the small minds that carry it.

May you consider this one as an alternate?

I have mod points, but could not figure out Insightful, funny, or interesting so I post for all three and hope others mod you up.. Well said.

Not quite, the Moon is the stuff, the boss...I'm thinking all the Rubes that seem to get in the way of human progress. In simple terms, we, as a species could coordinate efforts to gain access to needed resources or we could fight against each other, potentially losing all. In a strange way, we are the Boss and t he team, depends on how its played.

True statement about the high ground, but as another post mentioned, the moom is pretty far away. A laser fired at the Earth would be hard to defend against, but the power requirements would be damn high I figure (IANAS). Simply limiting to amount og power generation in one spot (or combined) could help contain that threat. I found this on a quick search

I'm not to worried about lasers.

Now missiles could be a problem. But I see again that pesky distance thing. We'd certainly see either a launch or a object coming back from the Moon pretty soon after launch (I'd be looking all the time). Best possible time I found was this:

But it was a fly by. Seems like the average is @ 5 days. That is plenty of time to set up a missile defense. Also, the missile has to survive dropping into a good sized gravity well without burning up.

So in terms of defense, the Earth feels generally safe because of distance and we have a gravity well with am atmosphere. The moon, for defense, also has distance, but might be more vulnerable to orbital lasers and a missile attack since there is no friction to deal with upon arrival. From a military point of view, there seems to be less strategic value then one would think. Now orbital platforms around Earth...that is more worrisome. I'd also worry about colonists living in the asteroid belt getting a wad about something and directing BIG boulders at the planet. That could be a bigger issue.

Isn't lovely how we can think of so many different ways to destroy mankind (sigh).

I feel like we (us humans) are playing this D&D game. We get to a level, we need to spend some time acquiring EXP and stuff before we can level up. Your comment makes me think we just found a dungeon run that would really require a larger cooperative party to beat it and get the prize (H3). Once we get that prize our energy production goes up, civilization continues and we level up.

Now the scary part is that (1) we're not doing so well at cooperative game playing (2) the bosses are starting to get harder and harder to beat because of (1) and I feel (3) that *We* could suffer a major loss in this current game run and we don't get a life restore option. We fail, we are done.

(use to play too much WoW)

All good sources, but not visible to the masses. Unless ABC, NBC, CNN, even FOX come out and say "that was crap" most people wont get it. As those stations have much to lose calling out a major government agency, doubtful they will run with this story.

Oh if NPR cold do a report...

You took a huge magical leap from one point to another. I was with you, in spirit, up to the ellipsis, then you just don't make sense.

Sure, it is crazy that after a few thousand years we still fight each other as a species, though I put some of that blame on religion (not Faith). That we spend trillions on "security" be it internal or otherwise is just plain nuts when we could do so much more with our capital including getting more hjumans off this rock. But then you have to go and make a point about the ACA that makes you sound nuts, negating the better points before.

The ACA does nothing to hook people on drugs any more then the EPA makes us all compost and ride bicycles. The ACA sets standards for Insurance companies to provide health insurance to the citizens of the US of A. It increases medicaid requirements so more people who could not afford to even see a doctor for a minor issue can now do so. You want hooked on narcotics, point a finger at the Cigarette manufacturers who legally push the most addictive drug upon our species.

SO let's just say you didn't make that last statement. That you are an insightful person that had a momentary lapse and press on with the notion that we really do not need agencies like the NSA sucking the dollars and the privacy away from people of this world.

I'd take it one step more. In settings, list all available permissions and allow the user to set a "default" settings or other settings so that they do not need to always go through all permissions. This way when the app is being installed they can apply the template of their choice then adjust for any custom issues.

Honestly, I am surprised that this is even an issue. I've only started into the smartphone world recently, but find it disconcerting that I have to allow so much access to what should be my system. A free app that wants to dish up ads I can accept though why they need contacts location etc etc etc no I don't. But an app I paid for scrapping my personal data without any way for me to say no...bad. I've not downloaded/paid for a number of apps for just that reason. In the end, it is still a phone, like my old dialer and I'm okay not having the world at my fingertips 24/7 if it means the world does not know so much about me.

That type of thinking never crossed my mind till I started hauling horses. Before, I would consider doing "something" to avoid hitting some small animal. Now when I am going down the road with @ 4000 lbs of horse and trailer (and another 1500 lbs of truck) and I see a small animal in the road I say a quick prayer for it as I am not doing anything but continuing straight ahead.

One day this idiot passes me on a double yellow section of secondary road. The car then pulls in front of me and then has to hit the brakes. As I can't just "slam em on" I braked as safely as I could, but figured "We're gonna hit his ass". Thank goodness he roared off (idiot) and I only had to change my pants. Times like that I think autonomous cars would not be a bad idea; they would at least subscribe to the rules of the road.