haha, you think Clinton is extreme left wing? You need to recalibrate, she's moderate right wing if anything!

As much as I love fission, it is FAR away from being an solved problem from an engineering standpoint.

There are some serious material science problems that still need to be addressed for any of the fast/thorium reactors to be ready for production. All the current coolant technologies have serious downsides. Sodium doesn't play nice with water or air, and liquid lead doesn't play nice with pretty much anything.

I think these problems could be solved if we approached the problem as a whole as another Manhattan project.

I'm sure a large reason for this roll-out is the insane amount of money these ambulances can charge. This healthcare system rules! USA USA USA /sarcasm

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12...

I always like to think that any suitably advanced civilization eventually develops space-drives that can reach appreciable percentages of the speed of light. The time dilation effects would make traversing the galaxy relatively(heh) reasonable. The only hitch is that relative to all other lifeforms not moving at a such a speed would blink in and out of existence in the time it would take them to burp. Our current sliver of space-time is sooo tiny if you think about it like this.

What if there was a whole...dare I say...confederation of relativistic societies? In order to join you have to catch up. Otherwise you'll be gone in a blink.

Ha, all those cows were like "Shit, not again!! CHEESE IT!"

I'd be surprised if we didn't at least find some sort of microbial life...if we didn't though we better put some there! Hedge for DNA...humans, meh...we should do everything we can to allow DNA to survive forever. FOREVER.

"Despite that book being completely true to life"

Sweeping generalizations like that and using the world Feminazis doesn't really undo your attempt at analysis of the book.

Slightly rephrased: "I'm not racist, but god damn I hate $racial_slur. That said, that Arizona sheriff sounds almost purposely racist."

So...then...does this count as an endorsement of chemically induced synesthesia?

LSD: Boost your IQ *and* be convinced you're a snake-monkey who can read the secrets of the universe!

I read somewhere (maybe on another /. forum) that a lot of garbage dumps now contain more rare-earth elements than high density deposits. Would something like plasma gasification solve two problems at once?

Could be total bunkum...any body with real knowledge care to chip in?

I'm beginning to see the merit of this rube-based business model. Do you think we're in a rube bubble or is there a much larger untapped rube resource waiting to be mined?

We must underfund our schools even more to ensure more rubes!

Totally and truely my good sir. My tone was not of the perennial 'why is this on /.' I had seen the video with that lady about a month ago elsewhere. I suppose during it's initial viral wave. The addition of the spectral analysis to the video was awesome!

Oi, I realize this will woosh right over your partisan-baked brain, but I'll bite:

"What makes you think that anyone is entitled to someone else's money?"
How did they get that money in the first place? Through a societal system they are able to take advantage of. Never completely on their own like libertarians are want to believe. Our current monetary system is based on debt leveraged on debt based on a promise. It's purely imaginary, fiat, whatever. The real deal is the cost of energy, resource extraction (also a function of the cost of energy), and labor cost (which is decreasing due to automation/globalization). Money is just a convenient shorthand.

"you're trying to impose your beliefs as facts"
I'd like you to meet Kettle, Mr. Pot. Also...notice that I used words like 'could'. It was pretty clear I was speculating, not claiming anything as a fact (otherwise I cite that shit).

"How (who?) defines how much is "basic"? That is a good point. If I'm able to filter out your partisan ObamaPhone/Nike bullshit I can see where you are going (though your mental image of what constitutes a poor person is a hilariously on-message Fox News caricature). Who or what defines a living as basic is a pretty subjective thing. A good place to start is being able to eat real food and have a stable place to live. I'd go so far as to include internet in that mix.

"The problem with Socialism is eventually, you run out of other people's money."
Nice quote there Thatcher. Got any good Rand for me?

  "you're so useless, we'll pay you to not work so you will go away and we can ignore you"
That is not the message. The message is "everybody is worth something, regardless of whether or not you are capable of 'meaningful work'. Mentally ill people, physically disabled people, etc.

The value of meaningful work != the monetary value. With a basic income if somebody wanted to make art baubles and somebody else found value in them...how is that less meaningful than cleaning a bathroom at a movie theater?

So, having said that. I'm sure there would be some negative consequences. Since I'm speculating as much as the next guy, what would some be? If people got a basic income, then they wouldn't be forced to work in a Tobacco field for minimum wage (or less in a lot of cases) to make rent. What would happen O sage of the free market? Would the wages for these shitty jobs raise to meet the demand of the no-longer enslaved lower class? Would that then cause the price of cigarettes or whatever else to go up? Would inflation explode to make the basic income essentially worthless? (a possibility smarter economists than I say is unsupported by evidence...no cite though)

Seriously though, Mr. Libertarian, go fucking live on an island. If you want to say 'I got mine, fuck off' so badly, GTFO.

Good points. However, both the population increase as well as the increase in automation is happening at an exponential rate, not linear as I infer (perhaps incorrectly) your statement to be.

This would also address more than solely unemployment though. It could lead to the abolishment of the minimum wage, which expecting people to live on is sort of a joke anyhow. It could provide a means for a single mother to actually be around enough to raise her kid(s) which has all sorts of positive societal benefits. It could lead to a flourishing of small businesses as they would no longer have to fully support the entrepreneur in addition to employees. It would remove the stigma of welfare on the lower classes and remove the perverse incentive to say unemployed (eg once you start working you lose your welfare and end up bringing in less money than being solely on welfare).

Honestly though, I think it'll remain firmly in fantasy land until we can obtain a cheap and abundant energy source. Either widespread solar/wind + future grid, or next gen fission, or maybe even fusion (one can dream), or some combination of all three. Fossil fuels are clearly not cutting the mustard.

I'm curious to know what your take is on a basic income for all US citizens versus our current 'conditional' welfare system. What do you think short term and long term outcome would be? Would the increased tax burden on the upper classes result in a total collapse rendering a basic income useless? My personal opinion is that it is necessary given the increasing rate of job automation coupled with our increasing population size (not to mention aging). Am I delusional? If so, why?

This has been around for a long time (think 1000s of years). I suspect this particular video became popular due to her attractiveness and plunging neckline. That's not to say she isn't amazingly talented though. She most certainly is!