Comment Re:Good luck with that! (Score 1) 361
The way to preserve your savings over the long term is to dump the Federal Reserve Note, which they are steadily eroding in value, and switch to something else that the Fed can't run off a printing press.
Yes, like shares invested in the S&P 500, whose real value in 2010 was 50x (5000%) that of its 1950 value. (graph) Certainly an improvement over gold, whose real price compared to its 1950 value has ranged in various years from 55% to 450%. (graph)
Are Power Users Too Cool For Ubuntu Unity? 798
darthcamaro writes "There are a lot of us that really don't like Unity. Ubuntu Founder Mark Shuttleworth defended Unity today, arguing that even 'cool' power users should like usability and ease of use. Then again he admitted that some of us are just too cool even for Unity. 'There is going to be a crowd that is just too cool to use something that looks really slick and there is nothing we can do for them,' Shuttleworth said. 'Fortunately in Ubuntu there are tons of options and lots of choice and ways to skin the cat.'"
Comment Re:Why would you need one? (Score 1) 193
the excellent Phantom Menace review, part 3
Proton Beams Sent Around the LHC 115
feldhaus writes "The BBC reports that the first beams for over one year have been successfully sent around the complete circumference of the Large Hadron Collider. Engineers do not yet have a stable circulating beam but they hope to by 0600 GMT on Saturday."
Comment Re:What the? (Score 3, Informative) 653
You're looking for Pheidippides.
Comment Re:Carter is Republican scapegoat for islam hate (Score 3, Informative) 812
I got my information from history books with a neutral point of view that were reviewed for accuracy.
...
Ronald Reagan is vilified for the Iran-Contra Scandal in which it is said that he traded weapons in exchange for getting the Hostages released. But if what you said was true, and Carter negotiated the release before Reagan took office, then the whole Iran=Contra scandal is false.
Good god. In Iran-Contra, the Reagan administration facilitated the sale of arms to Iran in the hope of freeing hostages in Lebanon taken from 1982 onward, years after the Iranian hostage crisis.
So what history books have you been getting your information from?
Microsoft Update Quietly Installs Firefox Extension 500
hemantm writes "A routine security update for a Microsoft Windows component installed on tens of millions of computers has quietly installed an extra add-on for an untold number of users surfing the Web with Mozilla's Firefox Web browser."
Comment Re:I said "Government owns everything" (Score 1) 873
The ratings failed because the mathematical foundations of the system failed. Portfolio theory is not a panacea. Government economists would have used the same math to arrive at the same results.
Really? Remember this?
From an April 2007 instant-message exchange between two S&P employees:
Rahul Dilip Shah: 'btw -- that deal is ridiculous'
Shannon Mooney: 'I know right... model def does not capture half of the risk'
Shah: 'we should not be rating it'
Mooney: 'it could be structured by cows and we would rate it'
Shah: 'but there's a lot of risk associated with it -- I personally do not feel comfy signing off as a committee member'
That suggests that the math didn't mislead the ratings agencies -- they ignored the math in order to make more money.
Comment Re:Nukes could solve a lot of issues (Score 1) 1563
Very good... But. It turns out that the Back to the Future script refers to jigowatts. See WP.
