"the hypothesis by String Theory that micro black holes would be formed and quickly evaporated"

Better no black holes than black holes that didn't evaporate.

It's different than a Ponzi scheme because in this case, no one wins.

. . . except the bankers

No, driving time is unproductive time. You waste 45 minutes driving while your boss could be working while he is sitting on the train, because he isn't driving.

It doesn't have to be. During my commute I listen to these things called "podcasts" that allow me to catch up on news, learn more about economics, and improve my foreign language skills.

There are several other countries (Venezuela comes to mind) that are watching Iran push the international community around and may feel they can do the same exact thing and go down the road of nuclear arming.

Especially worrying since Venezuela has been known to give weapons to rebel groups in neighboring countries.

Venezuala is almost totally dependent on American refineries to process it's sour crude. The US could cripple the country tomorrow if it wanted.

Maybe that's why they're making deals with the Chinese to process their crude.

Taxing sodas, cigarettes, snack food, and alcohol to fund health care makes more sense than the tax on medical devices being proposed. Logic has long since left politics which has devolved into taxing whichever group has the worst lobbyists.

FDR (socialists as he was) did the right thing with the glass ceiling laws. It should be illegal to package assets together and flip properties to financial firms.

I think you're referring to the Glass-Steagall act

But yes, I believe the repeal of this law was a major contributor to the current mess.

it's not like there's any information available on the internet or anything.

ok, I read the socialistworker "Why we're protesting the G20" link you posted and still have no idea why they are protesting. Most of the rather long page describes how and "you have a right to."

The only actual reasons given are:
"But they have not shared with us or consulted with us, the majority of the world's people, about exactly what they will be discussing."

The desire for the G20 to "respond positively on certain kind of issues"

"We need a better world, a different world, in which that democratic principle permeates everything."

Yeah, and I'd like a pony. Grow up, get a job, and actually do something with your life, because whatever you're doing now isn't have any impact.

Can't comment on anywhere else, but in the UK having insurance makes no difference to your treatment in the NHS. It means you can go to a private provider, but it makes no difference to your NHS provision.

I'm a Yank who spent nine years in Britain. After the first couple of years on the NHS, we gave up and went private for just about everything. As an example, my son needed three different operations. Each time we were told it was a six month wait on the NHS; we went private and were able to schedule the surgeries in 2, 3, and 6 weeks.

Technically you are correct that insurance doesn't change your treatment within the NHS. However, in several instances, we started with the NHS, only to switch to private at which we got better, faster service by the same doctors in the same hospital. So your statement is certainly misleading about the effect insurance has on health coverage in the UK.

In a sad anecdote, I watched our British neighbor go from a vigorous rambler to a shut-in after the NHS repeatedly brushed her off and mis-diagnosed her. Heaven help you if you're above 60 on the NHS. I'm convinced the NHS's philosophy is that all medical problems go away (from their perspective) if you wait long enough.

The "Democracy in Iraq" hasn't been considered much of a showpiece for emulation outside of the same group of people in the West who were cheerleaders for the war in the first place.

True. But I doubt there would have been the need to rig the vote if Hussein was still in charge of Iraq. Removing Iraq as a threat enabled people to focus on things beyond their immediate security.

For banking, taxes, etc., use the "Trusted Internet." For Slashdot, YouTube, Google, etc., use v1. But then I thought what would happen down the road: most businesses (i.e. content providers) want to know who you are so they can target their advertising. More and more of the Internet stables would move to v2, leaving v1 as a spam-filled world with a low signal-to-noise ratio: very similar to what Usenet is now. And v1 would suffer the same fate as Usenet: most people won't use it much, it will cost the ISPs more to provide, and there will be politicians calling to shut it down due to the terrorists/pedophiles/anarchists/communists/bogeyman. At that point, say goodbye to anonymity on the Internet.

When the fuck have electric grids started spanning all 24 timezones?

Two people rated that insightful? One of the points of this project is to reduce the distance electricity has to travel.