Is the database of married couples in Minneapolis also public...?

Nutrition labels on processed and fast food read like science fiction and have pretty depressing effects given what they do to a human body. That people continue to eat such "food" as their primary source of calories is just gravy.

I've always wanted to know what establishments and homes that my local officials, politicians, lobbyists, and CEOs travel to and from...

How long until someone tapes a "Wi-Fi Direct-enabled smartphone" to someone's car and the app is set to go off randomly? Or just puts a transmitter in the middle of the street and sets it to go off randomly?

How long until the RIAA jumps on the words "peer to peer" and that "music files or contact information could also be securely transferred from the home computer to a vehicle’s infotainment or navigation system" via Wi-Fi Direct devices?

How long until a deranged geek realizes that anyone running a Wi-Fi Direct app can be triangulated, tracked, and shot with a weapon hooked up to an automated targeting system?

How long until SETI is ported to Wi-fi Direct apps? Granted, there would need be some hacking needed on the car's CPU/OS as well.

It's not overly clear, but you'll want to click on the "Show Topic List" in the upper right corner.

If you want to jump directly to conventional space weapons: http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/spacewarintro.php

IBM buying SCO would be a win for SCO's backers. They would point at the purchase and say, "How nefarious! IBM had to buy SCO to cover up IBM's perfidy and malfeasance! Linux really does infringe and contains tainted code! Open Source is Teh Evil!"

Seriously, can you really patent the idea of taking metrics in order to evaluate performance? Even with the idea of software patents, that seems overly broad.

New resources in Canada are being exposed (i.e. thawing out.) Canada can make a claim on Arctic resources which are now in a "land rush" due to also being exposed and explored. Canada is the largest country in the world in terms of landmass and is positioned to potentially have a milder climate to grow crops in when global warming/climate change severely disrupts the climate and weather of the US farming industry.

So we might as well make the "annexation" easier via cultural means instead of doing so via a crude, overt coup or invasion.

P.S. I'm not sure if I'm being funny or serious.

I can think of a few reasons that drug cartels would want to end prohibition:

• If the drug cartels were consolidated or whittled down to a few, then direct confrontation between a few very large cartels would probably be too bloody and costly, so it would make more sense to reach an "agreement" and maintain a monopoly. Think OPEC.
• The money and the customers aren't in Mexico. Legalizing drugs in Mexico doesn't make them legal in the U.S., so the price stays high, while production costs go down, and profit increases.
• Being legitimate makes a Drug Lord's life a little less stressful, turns them from thugs into powerful respectable gentlemen, and gives them an opportunity to establish a legacy for their family and children. Being the next Morgan or Rockefeller might be pretty tempting

Plus, going legit could also mean a shadow government to avoid directly antagonizing the U.S. Who's in charge of Russia right now? The elected President or Mr. Putin, the unofficial actual leader of Russia?

Given the levels of organization, sophistication, business savvy, and ruthlessness needed to run a modern day, world wide drug organization, why haven't they gone legit and taken over Mexico's politics? Seriously, at some point it just be easier to influence the Mexican government into passing laws that legalize drugs and turn Mexico into a legitimate drug clearing house for the world.

I leave it up to an economist/historian to point to relevant examples in History where the only way to increase the profit of an illegal market was to legalize the market.

So not only did a civilian institution create a MWD, it has *civilian* security guarding it...? Does this worry anyone else?

Firstly, conversely, capitalism isn't foolproof either. It can develop natural monopolies that require government action to control or to break-up.

Secondly, in regards to your statement that "nothing wrong with capitalism," I would counter that under pure capitalism, *everything* can be bought and sold, including votes. So if government officials aren't supposed to be bought off, then that implies that capitalism has something wrong with it and needs to be kept in check.

I guess I'm saying that capitalism has significant advantages, but it's definitely not the sacred cow that many of our politicians like to portray it as. The real question is when do we start debating as to whether capitalism has failed or whether government has failed or whether the voters have failed or some combination thereof?

It is about wealth distribution. The top richest 400 families own more wealth than the bottom 50%. Do you really believe that ~2,000 Americans provide more value and have more worth than 150 million Americans?

If wealth, aka money, represents time and skills, do you really think that 400 American families can provide more skills and time to society than 150 million Americans?

If wealth represents physical wealth, such as land, do you really think 400 American families can make better productive use of that much physical wealth than 150 million Americans?

Capitalism is a tool to support society by efficiently allocating resources and promoting individual initiative. Society, and thus capitalism, depends on people to make it work. If 50% of our population isn't benefiting from capitalism, then 50% of our population is going to stop supporting society. And when push comes to shove, it's 150 million Americans against 400 families. Who are you going to bet on? Or do you think that a dwindling middle class is going to keep 50% of Americans in check in order to preserve the top few percent?

plus their office is practically outside my front door (as opposed to my current 45 minute commute each way). This would make a massive difference to my life.

The commute alone is worth switching for. That's an (unpaid) hour and a half of your life that you get back.