When either colbert or stewart shows video of (generally) politicians contradicting themselves, i would say it is fair game for quoting. They are really good at digging up footage like that.

Quoting the monologues, yeah, that is a stretch.

Yeah, apparently they changed something in the wiring so it isn't a computer reset, it is actually new software. I'm just not quite comfortable torrenting car software. (not that I didn't consider it)

This is obnoxious but not entirely new. My 2005 volvo has a 'feature' where the power steering pump can only be changed by volvo as the software 'needs an update' before the car will start again. Can't even have another garage do it, you need the volvo computers.

I guess it is just a way to ensure the dealership garages stay in business.

citation needed. Pretty sure it is china and then japan.
yup
Hell, even belgium seems to hold more US treasuries than UK. Unless you mean that somehow City of London has high volume and Japan is buying those treasuries through London banks, which is possible but completely unrelated to who owns them.

The sale of treasury debt is a risk in a few ways. It gives the holder of that debt power to call the debt (rather than rolling it over) which could bring you up short. It is also a sign that you are living beyond your means and your creditors are in a better position to buy your assets than you may be to hold on to them.

I'll take the NYC subway over the London underground any day. Besides being air conditioned, the subway runs 24 hours a day. None of this last train around midnight scramble for people that don't live right in zone 1.

so wouldn't it just be dd instead?

not the GP, but if you are willing to do the work... I would like to see "comparative annual deaths rates from cancer, diabetes, general malnutrition, violent crime with deaths directly attributable to lack of ready access to competent medical care, etc"

That hasn't been my experience, I would say it is more or less exactly opposite. When I first came over, i had US insurance and was able to go private for care (w/ little cost to mysefl). Generally, the private/Harley st doctors I saw were top class. In the NHS, i have largely seen newer doctors (either younger or immigrants) or less competent and older doctors.

Afaict, when you are starting out, you go w/ the NHS to repay schooling and build a client base. If you are any good, you eventually decide to make real money and start a private practice. So you have the chance of getting a really good younger doctor but the odds are against you. Now, our obstetrician was fantastic and she did work w/ the NHS once per fortnight. (I was never sure if that was out of altruism or an effort to maintain some sort of standing in the NHS). So there is a chance of getting a really good private doc when you go through NHS but the odds are a bit longer on that.

Now this was generally docs for pregnancy/infant care, minor illness and a few minor hospital visits. Maybe intensive/ER care is different, I (thankfully) cannot speak to that.

Don't get me wrong, i think the NHS is actually a great system but the private docs I have seen have been much better than the public ones.

Not so much. We vote for people to represent us and they will have to make decisions across a broad spectrum of potentially unknown (at voting time) issues. You are always voting for a person. Preferably, one that will make the decisions you would (or even better ones).

We do the same, everything is audited and the data is held since the beginning of the system. We manage the size of backups w/ RO sections that are only synced once, etc. keeping things on disk is pretty cheap.. consider it a cost of doing business.

Over a one year period, sure, lots of people probably don't need care but the number of people who will never, over the course of their lives and up to their death, see any sort of healthcare must be vanishingly slim. Between the natural causes and accidents, you are going to need care at some point.

I think of this in somewhat the opposite way. The tighter communication loop is a huge boon in efficiency.

Say meeting somebody in town later today. What we had to do to meet before cell phones was:
- pick a time that we were certain everybody could be there. this means leaving plenty of buffer time b/c I don't really know how long my other errands will take and who knows about parking, transportation, etc...
- pick a place everybody knows well enough to describe a specific, non repeating spot. Not meet me at Grand Central, but meet me at Grand central, the northern lexington exit just on the street.
- wait around if either of those things fall through b/c who knows where they are/what happened.

Now, none of that was particularly hard but it did lead to a lot of wasted time when compared to "lets meet somewhere in midtown in the early afternoon" and keeping each other updated as you progressed towards the time/place.

I can't tell you how many devs I met who are completely ignorant of how the machine works outside their IDE. Not all by any means but that was a real surprise for me as I supported more, varied applications.

Any intelligent and dedicated person can learn either of these fields and perform well. Many could probably retrain themselves between fields but if you really think you could step in and do a better job than a competent admin you must be working on a pretty small scale. There is no magic but there are practices and protocols that are there for a reason. if you don't understand them, you won't know which you can ignore and which matter. Pretty much exactly the quagmire I get into when I start to write something bigger than a few k lines.

Though, your tone and the way you refer to yourself, pretty much syncs w/ the expectations from Rockstars.

Says the guy posting on /.... wtf?

reminds me of people bitching about the evils of science by posting on the internet.