> You know, that's starting to sound a lot like local government.

Gah. And have everything run by politicians, skimming off the top? Activists who think they own the joint, screwing it up more by muddying the waters at board meetings because they think their issues are more important than everyone else's? I'd sooner have my eyes cut out with a power drill.

That said, I've been contemplating lately - government ownership and management of the last mile cables, and negotiated leases to cable companies might be able to add some competition to the mix.

Post-scarcity is something that will never happen. Something will always be scarce - see Neil Stephenson's "The Diamond Age". The universal constructors produced everything imaginable, except what was most valuable - i.e. hand crafted items such as furniture. Even if energy becomes as cheap as air, people will take it for granted and something else will be seen as scarce.

> you can't feed everyone steak in air conditioned restaurants

Luckily, economics provides for this situation. As demand rises, so do prices, until people can't afford to eat that way anymore. Seen the price of beef lately? Luckily, once those prices rise, so does the supply - i.e. more farmers start raising cattle - bringing prices back to equilibrium. The other thing economics says is that as prices rise, people switch to substitutes - in our example, pork, chicken, even lamb is making a comeback in the USA after 50 years as a niche menu item.

In other words, you're right - you can't feed everyone steak, which is why you charge more for it.

You had me until:

>They didn't have him put away they had a MK Ultra meat bot put him down.

I feel the need to invoke Hanlon's Razor and the old Usenet TINC principle.

Overpopulation is only a problem in India and China. The rest of the civilized world, especially Japan, is having severe problems due to negative population growth. Population is predicted to plateau and start shrinking after around 2060. I am not worried about overpopulation.

As far as limited resources, we are only limited by the amount of energy it takes to extract those resources, and those sources of energy can and will transition to renewable sources as consumables become expensive. Indeed, we are already seeing that transition come into play with wind and solar electricity, electric cars, and efficiency drives. At the same time, we're seeing new sources of consumables come online as prices increase - see shale oil - and as technology advances to the point that we are able to extract more cheaply, effectively, and efficiently - see natural gas.

Overpopulation and resource limitations will work themselves out naturally.

Nah. Oracle would rather kill Solaris than let that happen.

The two parties in this country are what are known as 'big tent' parties. The Republicans have the businesspeople/capitalists, the religious people, and the libertarians, whereas the Democrats have the environmentalists, the immigrants, labor, and socialists.

The goals of those microparties are not always aligned - see the labor vs. environmentalists in cases such as the spotted owl in the Pacific Northwest logging community.

The Democrats have done a far better job of making their microparties play nice with each other. The Republicans, on the other hand, have had a revolt over the last few years where the Libertarians have been fighting with the Religious people, leaving the capitalists looking as the only sane ones in the tent

This is why you're seeing this laser today. This is your "use case."

Only an extremely powerful and fast laser can defend against a hypersonic missile. This laser is a defensive weapon, created to counter the Chinese hypersonic threat, although no one is saying it specifically.

Whoever modded you a troll should be chastised for misuse of mod points. OneNote is exactly what he needs, and will work with his office software.

Open Source is great, preferred in many situations, but nothing else will satisfy the poster's compatibility requirements. End of story.

They know the Chinese have managed to penetrate them precisely because they have penetrated them the same way.

The US is a nation of immigrants from countries all over the world who were so apathetic to their citizens that said citizens left their home countries to make a better life for themselves. Damn straight we couldn't care less about the rest of the world - the rest of the world didn't care about us. Think about us as Lao Tze - who shook the dust from his sandals as he left China, never to be seen there again.

That summary made no sense.

Really? I wouldn't be too sure.

It's about calorie density, and calories per dollar.

Crappy food is cheaper per calorie, is denser per calorie, is quick and easy, and you can eat more of it because it doesn't fill you up.

See this and this.

Not all states require annual inspections. My state, for example, only requires emissions inspections (not mechanical inspections) every two years and only in something like five counties of the state.