If he's going to show 200 years, he needs to adjust for inflation. If the average UK salary was $400 (in pounds) in 1840, that's 20oz (@$20/oz through the 19thC). Gold price now is ~$1,350/oz. Average salary (from the graph) is about $40,000. That's about 30oz. So, in real (1840) dollars, it's only a net increase of $200, not $39,600.

That's only 44,280 hp*s (horsepower per seconds). It's hurling a small object at a speed of only 16.3 million furlongs per fortnight. They need to get it up to at least 88 million fpf...

As somebody who was there when it happened. I told them it was coming. I said, "Hey, keep driving around those large chariots and eventually this whole place is going to flood." A friend of mine said he was going to build a boat. Took him 100 years. He probably could have done it faster if he had stimulus money. But, hey, times were tough back then.

Heck, I'd like to see her delete passwords and lock IT systems without a computer.

It's more recent than that, actually. If you notice one of the links, that the article summary completely plegerizes, is dated March 2007. So, we not only have old news, we have a three year-old blog entry that laughs about it---and an article summary that plagiarizes.

It's been in Space for seven months? It is a space ship, after all. A future flight will be one of the last of America's deep space probes. I've heard the pilot is William Rodgers; but I don't remember his call sign.

I know you're being cheeky, so I'm a fellow traveler.

A friend's son's research suggested that CO2 levels correlated with temperature change, but only after the temperature had shifted. So, no causation. Of course, there is also the historic data that shows that our temperature swing is not unprecedented, nor accelerated by us.

And while we're trying to create cars that somehow magically scrub CO2 from the air, the quality of air in Beijing is being given "hella bad" ratings.

I wish the focus would be on something akin to "quality of life" or "being good stewards of our environment" than some quasi-religious tilt to Gaia.

No, it's additive, not multiplicative. Totally different result.

God. That's my theory. Proven.

"As copyright law was originally written, you sued only over financial damages. For roughly 200 years, you had no basis to pick and choose except financial harm. The law still doesn't give you that right in the US - if it did, it would include what are called 'moral copyright clauses', as, for example, the ones now used in French law which the US has deliberately avoided including in treaty. Now that parts of copyright law have been criminalised, you are in effect arguing that your right allows you to compel the state to engage in selective prosecution of crimes, as is expressly forbidden in the bill of rights, for damned good reasons."

Where in the U.S. Bill of Rights does it forbid selective prosecution?

"Come on, mods: if you can't be honest about yourself, what can you be honest about? Shut off Olbermann and Beck, accept what our country is, and just deal with it. Seriously."

I don't accept where our country is going, any more than I would accept my girlfriend is sleeping with my best friend. Some things require a reaction, especially "where things are going" is a retrenchment in what our ancestors sought to leave behind.

"The article lays out a laundry list of culprits, from child-rearing practices and the self-help movement, to video games and social media, to a free-market economy and income inequality."

Our Free-Market economy was around 30 years ago. I vaguely remember reading about that sort of economy stretching back into the 18C and 19C, including the "Gilded Age." I would argue that income inequality was also around 30 years ago. What does that really mean? That college kids today don't have as much discretionary income as their peers around 1980 (30 years ago)? I submit these two situations are factors the article wished was the cause.

Child-rearing practices and self-help has changed radically in the past 30 years. It was the 1970s that saw the rise of the dual income among middle-class parents. Children are immediately carted off to day care as soon as the mother can return to work. The family wants that income, needs that income to maintain the house they own so they can be in the school district they want. Of course, two-incomes is a doubled-edged sword; because so many are in this situation, it makes it more difficult to have a comfortable living on one because prices (at least home prices) account for the higher family income.

I've heard at least one woman complain about how she had a child so she could pay somebody else to raise it. In East Europe there are orphanages where kids are not give familial affection or attention and end up sociopaths. Is it any wonder that carting kids to day care has a negative affect on empathy?

Okay, under the copyright law, everything is copyrighted by default; unless something has sent it to the public domain (age, author release, etc.). Registering a copyright just gives the copyright holder the ability to sue for damages (verses just an injunction). So, every song downloaded is copyrighted. So, I have a hard time accepting the innocent infringement when the individual actively downloads music.

According to the [Copyright Law], the only scenario she might exercise is that "[she] consciously and intentionally copies from the plaintiff's work, with a good faith belief that the conduct is not infringing." And IF she proves this, then the court may "reduce statutory damages below the minimum of $750 to as low as $200." The RIAA was asking for $200 per song anyway.

If you read the rest of the link, then to pull of Innocent Infringement, she has to prove good faith and a reasonable belief the works were not copyrighted. What's reasonable is what a jury can agree to, essentially. So, if you found 12 random people on and asked if it was okay to download known music for free.

[Copyright Law]: http://itlaw.wikia.com/wiki/Innocent_infringement

"Yet Texas ranks 49th out of the 50 states in education. Instead of trying to raise the standards to match the states that are the most successful in education students, we're intent on lowering our standards to match the states that are the worst."

Texas ranks #25 (http://www.morganquitno.com/edrank.htm), which is pretty good as its immigrant population is 1/6 its total population. (http://www.migrationinformation.org/datahub/state.cfm?ID=TX#1). Many of those came in just the past ten years, and 3 of 4 are from Latin America. So, they do pretty well for a state that has a language barrier.

"Actually the superior educational system in Germany has helped them a lot. They are the number one exporter of manufactured goods. And they're able to make all these superior manufactured goods despite the fact that they are among the most labor-friendly societies in the world"

What makes it superior? Germany is #1 in exports? It exports more than China? According to Wikipedia (the source of all true knowledge), Germany is not #1 globally. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_exports) It is #2 after China. And, this is based on 2009 numbers, when the U.S. manufacturing sector was hard hit by depression. Our manufacturing states have greater than 25% unemployment. Oddly enough, unemployment is greater were labor laws are pro-union.

What you wrote above suggests that one requires a good education to be an assembly line worker. In fact, you don't have to have a good education. You don't even have to be literate.