As an example case, I recently heard about a friend-of-a-friend who lives in Denmark (I think), and got free education, healthcare, and various other support services while he was a student. After entering the work force as an engineer, he now makes enough to live comfortably while gladly paying 60% in taxes.

60% sounds a bit high but it's in the ballpark. The important point is to add up the total cost that an american would have to pay in order to get the same benefits. If You do the math then the tax doesn't seem particular high in comparison. But it's still the Danish national sport to complain about it.

Yeah. Did that with the in laws pc. Worked for years until the old fart took a computer course, demanded the admin password and immediately hosed the thing.

After that, I couldn't be assed to fix the thing again.

Solitary confinement in a Danish prison - doesn't that just mean he gets the jacuzzi all to himself?

The danish arrest house I walked past today is so ancient and run down that he's likely to get a shower in his cell whenever it's raining. At this time of year it's going to be a really cold shower.

The thing we have going with solitary confinement is a disgrace. Solitary confinement for months is standard procedure for anything above shoplifting.

Yah this doesn't make much sense to me. If you want to question someone, why does this require shipping him around?

It's not like they're sending him to gitmo. It's the country next door. 300 miles at most. He doesn't even need to show his passport. Chill out dude.

If you can find anything that resembles a math library with the correct tools then go with Python. Numpy is everyones friend here.

If you have to do the whole thing from scratch then Fortran is the fastest platform. I can't say I've meet anyone who enjoyed Fortran but it's wicked fast.

My point is that the two groups argue in two distinct and incompatible frameworks. Add to that, the techies think the non-techs are irrational while the non-techs think the techies are untrustworthy.

I'm pro nuke, but that's not my point. There is plenty of blame to go around here.

It's not common knowledge but most coal contains small amounts of radioactive material. When the coal is burned, this is either released into the atmosphere or put in some glorified dump along with the rest of the ashes.

I say coal fired plants are plenty radioactive and not nearly as conscientious about handling as the nuclear guys.

Lets not beat around the bush. The alternative to nuclear power is coal and coal fired plants are shooting up like mushrooms all over the world.

On one side we have a lot of people talking technology and facts about something that few people understand and can't observe.

On the other we have people who are afraid, on a gut level, about something they don't understand and a deep mistrust towards the technical people. The technical people consider these guys stupid and irrational.

A sane dialogue is a complete nonstarter. They can't even agree about what's sane.

why we keep spending money interfering with civil wars 1/2 way around the world??

The risk of NOT being involved in a war is getting dangerously high. We need a new one in the pipeline before we wind down the current ones.

They may not be nefarious, but they do add particulates that had a demonstrative effect on atmospheric temps during the 9/11 airspace shutdown.

Contrails contributes to an effect called global dimming where some sunlight is prevented from reaching the earth. The 9/11 ban on flying provided a perfect experiment for measuring the effect and the researchers where surprised at how large the effect was. The dimming effect goes some way to counteract the CO2 greenhouse effect.

As to the chemtrails, there were an air force program once where they tried to eliminate contrails by adding various chemicals to the exhaust. The solution turned out to be unpractical and were dropped.

Part of the reason for this is that in just about every society across recorded history, the degree of upwards mobility was much worse.

Yeah, and compared to a corpse, I'm in excellent health.

Hard facts: The essential American myth is that of unlimited upward mobility. The hard truth is that the upward mobility is a lot higher in most of Europe. Especially in those loathsome socialist, scandinavian countries.

The US is rapidly approaching the social structure of central- and south america when they were dictatorships while being in complete denial about it. Not that I care, it's fun to watch from a safe distance.

Can we please put developers in the back seat as run of the mill production workers like they belong. I respect a minority of software architects, but plain jane code toads need to be getting the treatment and pay of the few steps above fry cook that they are.

Giving developers that kind of treatment causes a very low productivity and little attachment to the company. That's going to hurt your bottom line. But hey, it's your bottom line. I'm not going to complain the karmic blowback that's going to hit you.

BTW. Welcome to the select few i my foe's list.

The research that linked autism with this vaccination was soundly debunked within a few years of being released. The original paper was fully retracted in 2004, and the researcher found guilty of misconduct and fraud.

True story: As soon as I was diagnosed with asbergers my parents had instant and perfect recollection of how my behavior changed radically after my MMR shot. A shot which happened more than 35 years before the diagnosis.

This despite the fact that anybody who have read the blue book instantly diagnoses my my entire family with various autism disorders.

Scape goat is the word.

You can also do smart things you can't do with ICE, like putting the motors right in the wheels. IIRC Goodyear's patent on that, which has been holding back the industry for at least a decade, is due to expire next year.

Halt it right there. Putting the motor in the wheels is a terrible idea. You want the wheels to be as light as possible so that they tracks the up's and down's of the road as rapidly as possible (remember F=ma, F is constant due to the cars weight so accel of the wheel depends solely on its mass). This maximizes grip and control of the vehicle. A second effect is a reduction of wear and tear of the roads since there is less hammering on the road by unsprung mass.

The imperative is to move as much mass as possible from the unsprung part of the vehicle (wheels) to the sprung part (rest of the car). This dynamic is even more pronounced for high performance motorcycles where control is essential.