> What does Green party stand for, anyway?

Green stuff. ;-)

> The reason is because their natural constituency (of which I am
> one) is smart enough to know that "Nadering" Obama and
> ending-up with Romney is not in our best interests. I would rather
> have the Greens in charge, but that is not an option; a liberal voting
> for the Green Party is a vote for Romney.

So with other words, you are a Democrat! Got it. ;-)

>> and Ron Paul elected president before this will happen.

> FOUR MORE WEEKS, FOUR MORE WEEKS...!! :-D

Of course this was meant as a joke. ;-)
We all know, that in reality Gary Johnson (L) will be elected President! And then we don't need to encrypt our phone calls anymore...at least not because of the government snoops, because Pres. Johnson has shut them all down! :-)

> and Ron Paul elected president before this will happen.

FOUR MORE WEEKS, FOUR MORE WEEKS...!! :-D

The question is, do you WANT to retrain in that field? Or rather do something else entirely, if you're gonna invest such time regardless? Do some honest soul searching, brother...and Good Luck!

Actually it may be the case:

"According to some unofficial information, the new PlayStation 3 super-slim model (CECH-40) is powered by IBM Cell microprocessor made using 32nm process technology as well as Nvidia RSX graphics processor produced using 28nm fabrication process."

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/multimedia/display/20120919071155_Sony_Debuts_Smaller_and_Lighter_PlayStation_3.html

have a die shrink down from 45nm?

> a way to fuse babies with robots

Do not, I repeat, DO NOT put frickin' lasers on their heads!! :-o

> I'm never going to get one of these because they had to add
> region locking

I second that.

> the trust issue has been largely fixed with IM. Most networks won't
> deliver a message unless someone is explicitly whitelisted.

The same thing could long have been done with e-mail. Especially if the messages were routinely GPG-signed. You could whitelist senders the first time you get a message from them.
Everything else goes by default into the SPAM folder (unless sender's signature is known & verified via GPG intermediates).

Why aren't we doing it? Because no freaking client I know of ever turned encryption and signing on by default! And that's why we have such a sorry state of affairs on so many levels, incl. spam and phishing, which is only an authentication issue.

> As for Switzerland, you might be unaware that there's a rampant
> and growing "screw rich foreigners, they deserve to get taxed
> more" sentiment. As in an über-tax the blasted creeps who buy
> Swiss Francs as a store of wealth, screwing exports in the
> process kind of sentiment.

Actually you are unaware or uninformed. Swiss have little against the rich...themselves being pretty well-off for the most part (compared with other places).
The tax you're referring to is basically a flat-tax for rich foreigners living in Switzerland but who are not working there (if they would, they'd pay normal taxes on their wages).
Instead it's based on their living expenditures and thus the tax for these very well-off foreigners is in most cases *significantly lower* than for folks, swiss or foreigner, who are actually working for a living. So if anything, the Swiss feel, that the same (tax) rules should apply to everybody.
What this has to do with swiss francs and exports, probably only you know (again...those folks LIVE there by choice, not because they feel philantropic about the swiss economy!).

> Oh and let's not even talk about his insane fiscal policies, which
> can be summarized as pure unrepentant goldbuggery and free
> market fundamentalism.

As opposed to...?

> > TFA doesn't mention [...] anything about [...] promoting violence

> Ahem. 'A visit in 2009 to Slough, in Berkshire, where Mr Larkin held
> a class intended to teach how to "maim and kill in self-defence"'

Dude, get out of your Disneyland-Mindset and acknowledge reality. Self-Defense, by definition, is gonna be ugly. If it isn't, then YOU are gonna look and feel ugly after an unprovoked and unavoidable attack...or your loved one's respectively, as they stand around on your wake because you had nothing other than cotton-balls to deal with the situation!
To teach inflicting harm in the course of self-defense is absolutely reasonable, and has nothing to do whatsoever with "promoting violence"! In fact, anybody claiming to teach 'self-defense' or 'martial arts' without teaching violent ways to disable the (attacker's) human body is a scam!

> there is nothing more heartbreaking than to tell some girl those
> pictures of her dead mother are most likely gone forever because
> her laptop got trashed and she didn't have backups.

1. Console sad girl over lost pictures
2. ??
3. PROFIT!!

> You can't hand someone cash over the web.

That is, in fact, the single-most important shortcoming of the much-touted 'e-commerce'. What would I give to have in-browser pre-loaded wallet (let's say, 20 bucks), where I could instantly buy something off a web site...without having to register first, type my address and all that other cumbersome and privacy-invading nonsense. Imagine a TRUE one-click purchase via instant anonymous e-cash transfer! The way we buy things...and the way people sell things...would change dramatically. But only, if the pricing is correct...which it will be eventually, when artists (among others) can sell directly and get ALL the proceeds without middlemen-skimmers a la Apple, Record companies, Publishing houses etc.pp..