Halloween is one of the greatest of the New Year celebrations. Ghosts and ghouls were supposed to be able to come out at the juncture between the old and new year. The tradition of dressing up in costume was to scare away or confuse the real ghosts and ghouls. Of course, nowadays, it is about candy which is what fuels many a programmer ....

Yes, Tesla was a bit eccentric in the latter part of his life. On the other hand, his behavior is quite symptomatic of exposure to high frequency electromagnetic radiation. Just because he fried himself doesn't make his accomplishments less impressive. Madame Currie had a similar problem when radiation which nobody thought was bad for you at the time.

This is New York City where if you rent or lease space, you are automatically the bad guy. Why rent or lease and incur the liability?

It is always good to know that the language designed by committee has in fact passed the committee.

I admit, I have the engines. I hooked them up to my Delorean and the Mr. Fusion I've been keeping in my garage.

Warren Buffet / Berkshire Hathaway is WAY behind on their taxes... See:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/29/warren-buffett-taxes-berkshire-hathaway_n_941099.html

Warren Buffet despite his foibles as we know is a crazy good investor. The question in my mind is why invest in newspapers when there is some evidence that they are a dying business model. On one hand, there is always going to be a need for news (and writers / journalists) but a much more decentralized model seems to rule day as many of the blogs do (such as Huffington Post). I would be really interested in knowing what his game play is as far as the newspapers are concerned. It could be they simply allow him to play in the political arena at a higher level than before.

I'm not a fan of Warren Buffet at all as he despite his carefully nurtured "grandfather" demeanor plays real hardball and screws people left and right. (The lady who used to own Business Wire got screws IMHO as she just sold it to him cheap simply because she liked his "grandfatherness.") In addition, he is well known for advocating higher taxes on the "wealthy" on one hand and not paying his taxes on the other. As many say: "Watch what Warren Buffet does -- not what he says."

The whole point of HTML's markup language is to separate structure from content so that client side devices can render the HTML (and XML/SGML) in a matter most appropriate for the user. It was planned from the onset that many different devices could render a page differently. For example, there used to be completely text based browsers and clearly they rendered pages differently than graphics based browsers. While I'm not sure if they were ever built, there were even discussions of audio based browsers for those who are sight impaired. The ability to modify how a page is displayed is central to the entire concept of HTML. Using an Adblock add-on is simply utilizing HTML in the way it was intended. If the publishers do not like it then there are many less flexible formats that render a page exactly how they want it -- most notably PDF files -- that they can use to publish their content.

It is only a problem if the new guts of the printer are there primarily to defeat DRM. If the new guts are there to add additional functionality that the 3D printer developers haven't added yet, one could easily argue that that is the primary purpose and the non-implementation of a feature isn't in itself a feature.

A separate backup is a really good idea. I ship cocoa beans by container on a regular basis and while I haven't had any significant problems (yet) it will no doubt happen -- and at the most inconvenient time. It is a regular occurrence for containers to be washed overboard or to simply be "lost" (before or after customs). I'd make digital copies of all your most important pictures and paperwork and ship your copies separate (perhaps by FedEx). This way unless a meteor plummets out of the sky wiping out an entire hemisphere one copy will make it to your destination. Additionally, be sure to purchase the extra insurance on your goods. Money may not truly replace all that you can potentially lose but, it will make your life much much easier. Be prepared for your stuff to get hung up in customs as this happens frequently. If your container gets hung up, be prepared to pay "drayage" which can be from $100-$200/day for the storage of your container while customs decides what to do. Yea, there is _no_ _way_ to speed up customs once they have set their sights on you. It could take a day or it could take a week, their choice. You will not be able to remove your container from the port until all the storage and handling fees have been paid. Good luck on your trip.