Even for going small distances like to Mars space radiation is a big problem. The fastest probes that we send out (that don't have to carry a complete ecosystem for us to live) could need more than 25k years just to get to the closest star system, at more than 100 times less distance than that planet. Probably no human will ever reach another solar system, so visiting there is badly out of the question.

Whats left? Contacting with a possible civilization there? Our planet has been with this size and in this orbit for more than 4000 millon years, and had a capable to send signals to other systems (maybe in very short range) for just 0,000000025% of that time, and who knows for how much time we will be around or trying to communicate. Was a civilization willing to communicate be around there 500 years in the past sending signals to us so we could get now a hint that someone is there?

How you spend your time online, what you play, what websites you access. That information can be correlated and traced back to you. Say you move to another country, fire up steam. bam IP address, etc. Anytime you are tied to a website that you are communicating with you are leaving breadcrumbs from which who you are, how you spend your time and what kind of person you are can be reconstructed with math and theory.

Really? My motto is don't treat your idiots and children like users.

The problem isn't the name calling. It is that the name calling actually works on people too lazy to think for themselves. They get their marching orders from whatever talking point memo is out (both Left and Right wing) and march in formation.

And while I don't agree with many people politically, I at least have respect and can converse with people I don't agree with, if they at least have a reason for their political beliefs (wrong or right). I often have common ground with people I normally wouldn't agree with, because my viewpoints are reasoned, and sometimes we have the same reasons for the same views.

Above all, the drones are massive and collectively drown out the reasoned voices. And this is to our own shame!

Or, in other words .... "what could possibly go wrong???"

Which, means, they should be merged and brought back together.

This is the unfortunate case of Open Source failure, and a pretty big one IMHO. The fact that they remain split is huge problem, because now I cannot recommend either, even though they are both decent. I have no idea which one will actually survive and prosper, or which one will die a slow painful death. Merging them is really the only REAL solution for my concerns.

He wants more than fame, he wants to establish Russia as a global power, again. Problem is, his economy is mostly natural resourced exporting - which means it's pretty weak on manufacturing or services.

Snowden was probably ordering a pizza and his recorded voice was mixed and dubbed into the phone call.

In any case, everything you need to know about Putin's "Open Russia" you can tell from his control of all media.

The problem with low level languages, isn't anything technical about the languages.
It is about a common attitude among programmers.

As a kid, We learn things by taking steps up.
We Walk/Run, Then we Ride a Bike, then we Can Drive a Car. It is a simplistic way of viewing things. One is better then the other, and you need to be better to use the better method.

The same idea goes with programming languages. (I'll Show my age hear)
You code in Basic, then you go to Pascal, then you can do C finally you will be able to code assembly. It is common for the C developers who start doing C to think oh I am programming in C now, I am an experienced coder, and I will laugh and snark at all you Basic Programmers now. So many of the C applications will have a lot of issues due to these ego's of the time, and people really using the C Language as the wrong tool for the job. It is like using a Car to go a few blocks where your bike or walking would be easier and faster.
So their are ton of legacy apps in C which are not secure because the Managers of software companies thought the same way, and wanted to code it in the Best Language. Even if such an app would probably work and perform much better in Visual Basic.

1) I'm not sure if this is the original source of this or not, but I started making an effort to move around more after seeing Sitting Is Killing You. I just wish it were available in a more compact form than the giant infographic. (Update: seems to be from Medical Billing & Coding, but their copy is gone. Also, the copy at lifehack org/articles/lifestyle/why-sitting-is-killing-you.html has a higher google rank but those assholes cut off the last slide with the credits and references.)

2) A blog I read linked to this blog post just yesterday:

I think is has more to due with Microsoft lack of advancement in Office... For the most part what we are doing in Office 2013, is the same stuff we were doing in Office 95.
Sure there were some incremental changes that took advantage of newer technologies, some new UI changes that I am not sure if it makes things better. But for the most part things haven't changed too much.
Word is still a word processor,
Excel is still a spreadsheet
Outlook is still a memory hog
Access is still causing businesses to slowly go bankrupt.
Power Point is still making meetings boring.

Using Open/Libra office, we get the stuff that we wan't it is compatible enough to not look like a jerk (say even 10 years ago) for not being able to read the document.

I for one welcome arresting people who seem to think it is a good idea to enter someones home just because they didn't get to update all their locks on their home.

Sure it is easy to update your PC, but if you have a mission critical application running, you need to make sure you take all the right steps even with the security vulnerability to make sure it doesn't go down.
 

However, if there is anything in which I have confidence, it is this administration's commitment to slow, methodical, blame-laden screwings of the lower- and middle-class.

In what way has the lower and middle class been screwed by the present administration? I'll agree that the previous administration was great for the rich and crappy for everyone else, but I posit it's slowly improving.

The lower and middle classes have been getting royally screwed for at least half my life, and I retired earlier this year. The screwings started with Reagan's Capital Gains cuts, which caused an orgy of hostile corporate takeovers leading to layoffs and lowered hours. I was hurt badly when my employer staved off an attempted corporate pirate raid.

No, that suppository arrives with the Clinton Administration. I reckon she's wreckin'.

I certainly hope so, it would be nice for the US to raise to the level of the rest of the industrialized world from our historically barbaric health care "system". American health care is far from #1 in any measure except cost; ours is the most expensive. It's neither logical nor rational.

As to Clinton, if she's elected and half as good as her husband the country will be in fine shape. It would be incredibly hard for her to be anywhere as bad as George Junior, the worst President in my lifetime (AFAIC we've really only had two good Presidents in my lifetime, Eisenhower and Clinton, and as I was very young I could be wrong about Eisenhower but love that interstate highway system, as well as his cautions about a military industrial complex).

I'm more worried about Illinois. Dillard was Chief of Staff under Thompson and Edgar, and Illinois did pretty good until Ryan got in, and it deteriorated worse under Blago. It hasn't gotten much better under Quinn, but unfortunately Dillard lost the primary and the stupid Republicans nominated the only one of the four candidates that would get me to vote for Quinn.

Liars always lie. I think people mistrust statistics because they don't understand statistics, or worse, understand a little, just enough to be dangerous.

I worked with data and statisticians my whole career. I'm not a statistician, but learned a lot about the discipline from working with them. One of my co-workers had written a textbook on the subject that was used in colleges. Very interesting discipline.

"The points is SO WHAT? Where's the Evil part?"

NSA and other government agencies taking advantage of security holes in steam or infiltrating valve to spy on you and collect data (aka conversations, etc, etc). Anything chained to online DRM naturally leaves you open to being spied on.

Not only that, should valve store sensitive data on their servers about you (studies/etc). This could be stolen by hackers. Online just opens a huge can of worms. You're not thinking about what being exposed to the online world really means. This is why DRM is such a pain in the ass.