If you're in Mars doing a one-way mission with no hopes of returning. What would you do before you died?

I'd make an effort to fuck with people's minds in the future.

I would make an elaborate treasure map of ancient alien civilizations in areas that are suitable for future human settlements. That way when people find my map and realize a government building is built on a location that apparently has ancient alien bones, treasure, etc., they think it was a government conspiracy or cover up and madness will ensue (but I'll be laughing from the heavans).

I would look for a cave and set up fake cave paintings like Prometheus pointing towards the Sun. That way they may send some poor sap to go explore the sun for possible clues (and possibly make great discoveries along the way) but in the end a lot of people will die because the Sun is really dangerous.

And the day I will fall to near death I will walk as far as I can, fall flat on my face, break my protective suit and have my right arm point in some arbitrary direction, so when rigormortous kicks in, my arm stays in that position. That way people will wonder what the hell I was pointing at.

I guess I want to be an asshole astronaut lol.

Regardless of Mr. Mannings outcome, the "average american" would still view him as a spy/traitor/terrorist sympathizer.

This trial will end in two ways... either he is found not guilty of all charges and he let go; or he is found guilty of the minor charges, while the major charges are dropped and the judge finds his pre-trial confinement as punishment enough for the guilty charges and lets him go.

Manning is small fries. This trial is also taking the spotlight away from General Penetration (I mean Petraeus) mistress who had tons of secret documents, etc. on her personal laptop.

The relative ease of pirating Windows 8 by what the article describes is still not enough to persuade me into using Windows 8...

Sorry, Microsoft.

Back then, the common folk couldn't read, couldn't write - they talked and remembered. They learned by trial and error and memorized the procedures that lead to the results they desire. THis is how they built monuments, pyramids, etc. The pyramids of giza are technically third-generation pyramids.. the generations previous to them were inferior because they learned how to build them via trial and error, to put it so simply.

Back then, people could recite Homer's illiad in verbatim (or very close) because stories, news, and information was passed around by word-of-mouth, not by paper, or books. The gospels were remembered and only written well after jesus died and well after many of the disciples died.

Some would say that the advancement of technology can help us use our mental capacity to retain more advance information by taking the burden of "rudementary" knowledge.

STEM degrees, as well as law and medical doctorals help people from low-income backgrounds and families have rich and successful lives.

I've seen and worked with many people who came from humble beginnings growing up and putting themselves through college for that engineering degree or medical degree has surely helped them have the rich life they now have.

By rich I don't mean just money, but stability, low stress, etc. - it sure makes life easier.

I'm also one of them. Partially put my self through school with the help of student loans and small pell grants while I worked part-time. My parents didn't make enough to pay for school. Now I'm in a secure job, going back to school to get my masters (paid by employer), live in a decent neighborhood, drive a new car and overall am happy with my accomplishments.

But that's just my 2 cents.

Giving more kids the chance to make it out in the real world by getting a skill-degree is worth trying.

Historically, people pursuing art degrees, obscure sociology degrees and the like usually were from affluent families and were likely to inherent a bustling company left by their parents.

I remember a Dirty Jobs episode where Mike Rowe was at a fish farm that recycled their water.

They used tilapia/carp to eat the poop.

Here's a clip of the show on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGoR4dbE1os

Regardless, stay away from fish harvested by Chinese. They are either grown in poorly maintained farms, or fished from endangered parts of the ocean where fisheries are nearly depleted.

Well yeah, I know i can't have my cake and eat it, too, unless I was Romney.

The evolution of society is a rollercoaster ride. It has its ups and its downs.

The Internet makes you stupid.

I used to visit Somethingawful a lot and one of the features they had was they would reveal such weird subgroups, such as forums and websites and report them in an amusing manner. Some great examples are the flat-earth society forums and furry forums. Of course, Somethingawful is also known for uncovering child-predator sites and gather as many IPs, etc. to report to police officials. Each of these articles revealed just how dedicated these members are into believing that what they believe is perfectly normal and that everyone else that doesn't believe is wrong.

What I've learned, and SA has pointed this out numerous times in those articles was that the Internet makes you stupid. The Internet has become a place where people with different beliefs, weird fetishes, etc. can find others with similar beliefs.

This is good and bad. What is good is that I can read about sexual fanfiction stories for the show Castle and its cast, which I thoroughly enjoy. The bad thing about this is now you have these groups that are big enough to permeate into mainstream society and garner enough political power to contribute to government policy (i.e. Scientology, Tea Partiers, Creationists, etc.) and de-evolve society into their way of thinking.

I just don't like the term "BrewPi".

Most beer drinkers will read it as "BrewPee"

No thanks.

"It's important to encourage girls to take up a professional career. So that in the future we have a strong motivated work force that costs only 60% of what it costs to pay a man."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jEmwtA_Ys4

Is this man made or part of a natural cycle?

Is 30 years enough to make a conclusion? Or should we wait another 50 to 100 years to see if humankind has contributed to this?

Also, what about Russia's thousands of leaky natural gas pipelines (and possibly more that have been undocumented) that reportedly dump 8 times more natural gas into the atmosphere per year than the amount of oil Deep water horizon' well had dumped in 2010???

Last I checked methane is more potent greenhouse gas than CO2 (which we humans do put out more) and don't forget the numerous natural emissions of CH4 into the atmosphere.

We as humans know way too little. It's not one thing thats causing this, which is what is being fed to us by the Media. It is many other things. From a mathematical perspective... we only have one equation, but too many variables.

that his products still "sticks it to the man". I can picture him flipping the bird to EC...

It is the execution of the list that would result in bad things. Fortunately, the government doesn't have the gusto to use a list in the ways you describe...

Except for republican and democratic campaign coordinators... that's real fucking scary...

Also, Structural engineering has evolved over time (underwent evolution)... it's not like the international build codes magically came to be a superior ultimate being.

Human residences evolved from sticks and feces-laden mud all the way to hi-grade structural steel, carbon fiber reinforced concrete, carbon fiber beams, etc. to construct buildings as tall as the imagination can take us.

Creationism's whole basis is that a supreme being (GOD) simply put things where they are now. It reinforces the notion that people are incapable of coming up with brilliant scientific discoveries and achieve scientific enlightment because things came to be from a supreme being, not from your brain.