Completely disagree. Current employer is a web/software development company. Standards are not high, and (country) Indians are being over-promoted because their peer group will think they're underperforming if they aren't rewarded as if they're overperforming (even if they truly are underperforming, or worse, costing the company money, i.e., for many of them, it would be better simply if they were not here, and were not replaced), and there is a ton of pressure because the Indians are not professionals and break things, constantly, and non-Indians are expected to work overtime to fix their mistakes. Some time in this environment will definitely prepare you -- but I don't recommend it.

It took millennia (billenia?) to fall, if you count the time involved gathering matter together, exploding it to make heavier elements (twice), then gathering it together again and having two planets collide to form our moon, the basis of life on this planet. So, you're also off by several orders of magnitude, if you wish to be adequately pedantic. Or, you could say it fell in a microsecond, that being the last decision the ruler made to doom it.

I haven't gotten to that point yet, because of the extra steps involved. I just go to the address bar (generally after a Ctrl+T, meaning no additional step; using Google Chrome) and type "wiki something" where 'something' is what I was interested in, and the first link is to Wikipedia and I click it. That's the pattern >99% of the time.

"Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law."

Former wife used to badger me with "what, are you notifying the ghosts that you're turning?" No, (expletive deleted), I am ensuring that this pattern is repeated every time I change lanes, regardless of whether there is anyone to receive the communication. That way, I won't end up driving like my dad.

Perhaps the "turn signal" should not be conflated with the "emergency hazards"? (Potential patent.)

Perhaps there could be a 30-second shutoff timer for the turn signal? (Potential patent.)

(I too have driven in Boston, and agree that using one's signals just means the other driver(s) will fill the gap... Not that it has changed my behavior for the negative; now, I just choose not to enter that gap, when driving in Boston: I get there slower, and in one piece.)

I was going to make the same argument, just a little less eloquently. Thanks, AC.

Does Iran need to? MIC sinks one warship; MIC gets contracts for another 30 years.

Has the military designed a bunker buster that could get under the White House? I ask this seriously. One scenario is the White House goes rogue, and needs to be put down; another scenario is the enemy obtains these munitions, and uses them against the US.

Thanks, and I agree -- it's not an original idea to devise some sort of financial IED to slow down the invaders/occupiers/imperialists/etc.

I somewhat like the idea of it becoming harder and harder to both run a bank, and be a customer. I think if the people making the rules had a systemic view, they would instead make the leverage-based business model illegal. Rather than the paying customers' collective actions. Because failure is built in to the system (hence the systemic view is required, because looking at just parts of the system, you don't see the full elephant).

I had the following idea a few days ago, regarding the banking issue, and would like to hang it off your post for the world to perhaps use, or if not at least be entertained by.

The idea stems from fractional reserve banking; the fact that a bank does not have all of the money it would require on-hand if all depositors chose to remove their deposits on the same day.

It also stems from the Occupy movement.

So without further ado: Occupy Bank of America. Open an account, deposit a thousand dollars. Do this over the course of a month or so, get people to get their friends to sign up, etc. On a chosen date, everyone goes to their local bank branch and closes the account, removing all funds as cash.

Please poke holes in this idea? (I'm sure there are many, like, banks have metrics tons of cash on-hand, the 99% doesn't have enough wealth to make this happen, etc...)

I like the extrapolation: my body is a series of tubes that allow communication between remote parts of my body. The internet is similar, in that it allows communication between remote parts of the world. I really like the biological metaphor, because it truly is like the world is developing into a new organism. A much larger, much harder-to-destroy organism. (For the karma, it's something like a car as well. ;)

Yes, but if you're the last toe, then you must vacate the line. At least, that's how I recall it from a movie, the title escapes me but it was something about a part of a building; "Pinky! Get off the line!"