The Trek franchise reads like a novice writer grappling with current issues and mistakes from previous ideas.

TOS - WW2 submarine warfare. The good guys were good guys, the bad guys were bad guys. Parallel's America's involvement in WW2. Color enhanced to show off capabilities of color TV. Lots of sexy 60s stuff, but a wildly diverse crew. Hard to appreciate now because aside from the skirts, cultural makeup looks like a typical office.

TNG - cold war superpowers. Lots of neutral zone talk and dealing with lesser civilizations. Federation flagship with a psychic and a super-robot deal with interpersonal issues. Very little sex because the boomers grew up, aids freaked people out and lots of preteens watching. First opponent is a god, because well, what other stories can you tell with superpowers and supermen?

DS9 - USSR is gone. Superpowers were boring to write about anyway. Story about a broken down space station on the edge of civilization. They have NOTHING. Maybe the captain, psychic and superman in TNG shouldn't have been white, white and ultrawhite. Brought back some diversity, extended the inter-alien diversity. Grapples with issues of multicultralism in an inclusive society while surrounded by warring cultures.

Voyager - stories about stations which can't move are boring. Story about a ship hopelessly far from anywhere. Easier to write for. Just flip coins to figure out crew diversity and use AD&D encounter tables to randomly generate plots.

Enterprise - Maybe it was too easy to write for Voyager, everything was new. Prequels are hot. Let's delve into the history and backstory.

Enterprise - hmm. maybe should have hired writers which knew the backstory...

"It's a pity because we love the iconic things this series has given us, but at this point I think the franchise is far beyond salvation."

Agreed 200%

I LOVE your similitude! I'm using it everywhere, from now on.

"Cheerios? Man, that is the "Thomas Kincade" of breakfast cereals."

Alabama and Oklahoma have orgasm.

No purpose if we cease to exist after we die? Is not leaving a better world for our descendants not purpose enough? Is not making life better for our fellow humans not purpose enough? What is it with Christians and their "if humans do not matter for eternity they do not matter at all" sickness?

You are a member of a very unique species: a species able to define a purpose for itself. Nature spent 13,500,000,000 years creating a brain capable of this unique task. Honor the effort and use it. Or, wallow in your nihilist mental squalor. It's up to you.

There are certain things I wish I knew decades earlier. Some of them are things you can only learn by the school of hard knocks. Other things can be picked up in books.

Give her a list of books that she should read at certain ages. Not just fiction/science fiction, but books that made you think about the real world and how to live in it.

I know that I want my kids to read "The Boglehead Guide to Investing" by the time they take home their first paycheck. Being able to invest in the future is something that can start at a young age.

It's true, but subtle and depends on the jurisdiction.

I should add all the qualifiers, IANAL, I don't play one on TV, blah blah. This is Law 101 stuff.

http://www.legalmatch.com/law-library/article/breach-of-contract-defenses-unclean-hands.html

Suing somebody for selling you bad weed should be thrown out because you're committing a crime in buying it.

Why wrongful death could be tried by the family of a burglar against somebody who set up lethal traps in a house....... I have no idea. There's probably a good case with a lengthy judgement about it somewhere... but if you're ever thinking of doing it, in most places it's criminal to set up those kinds of traps.

Robbery is still criminal.

For civil stuff, you can't come before the court with "unclean hands". I.e., if you were breaking the law when the offence occurred, the court won't hear the case.

Just wait til Bill Gates begins twiddling with these mosquitoes at the genetic level - as threatened. What could possibly go wrong, for the Sorcerer's Apprentice?

"Dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal"
"Beacon of freedom and promoter of democracy"
"Greatest nation on earth"
"Home of Free"
"Highest standard of living in the world"
"Best health care system ever"
"Dedicated to rule of law as determined by the will of the people with regard for the defense of the minority"
"Capital is the best expression of democracy at work"

The hits keep coming for the Homeland.

Agreed that the Lenovos are pretty good. Current T-series and X-series are very good laptops. Carbon, Yoga and X1[234]0 being a little odd.

The Acer-built IBM Thinkpad i1400 sets a low-quality mark for the Thinkpad brand. I remember the 760 line burning people's laps, the 520 edge systems were flimsy... 600 systems were okay, but heat, power etc, not impressive. The T-series brought some consistency in quality, but there were always golden models a notch above the others. I still know of people clinging to their T20. I stil have a very much working X24...

It's hard to compare pre-2005 laptops though, materials, batteries, cooling, power consuption, etc, etc., have all improved so dramatically. The cost has dropped too, 'premium' machines are very affordable now. The x24 MSRP was >$2400. Today a Macbook Pro Retina starts at half that.

All this said, Lenovo bought the Thinkpad line a long time ago now. Anyone who thinks that Lenovo hasn't proven themselves yet, never will.

The article's title is sensationalist and the caption feeds that sensationalism.

The content itself is more nuianced.

records were corrupted last year

"computer programmer pressed the wrong button between May and July last year".

we lost the outcome of it as a computer programming error.

"made a mistake in the language that I used"

He added: "That lost the results data from those records. So they had been properly put on the system by the officers as a result of stopping and searching people, but we lost the outcome of it as a computer programming error.

"We have been working really hard to recover that data. I have personally overseen the sending out of several thousand emails to officers and follow-up audits.

"Corrupted" could mean anything from the records being absent to the programmer forgetting to include references to officer badge numbers. The error may have been a missing test case in the code before it was promoted to production, or if they're not that automated, somebody in UAT missing something.

Although, maybe the corrected code was something like:
If ( ageofsuspect <= 12 )
{
printf("Error, you cannot randomly search people 12 and under. Did you mean 16?");
getuserinput(ageofsuspect);
}

It didn't occur to me that it actually included the private key for its own root certificate in the local proxy...

Unbelievably stupid design.

bankofamerica.com courtesy of Superfish:

https://i.imgur.com/Ky0Bwih.jpg

Not sure about the source of the screenshot, independent confirmation would be good.

"I know! Let's compete with a non-product, technology PoC that has no proven market, PLUS a high-degree of resistance and hostility by prospective customers!"

"That's why you're the boss, J.T. and why you make the big dollars."

"The onyl solution to pregnancy and STDs is common sense, unfortunately this "solution" will only act as a smoke screen for many."

My girlfriend menstruates 24x7x365 when on birth control. Others affect her blood pressure severely or cause enormous weight gain and acne.

We've been monogamous for years and rely on condoms.

Your opinion that people in our situation don't matter is misguided and immoral.