What is "recent" ? Western powers were kept out for a long time because of malaria. Once that was controlled, the British invested heavily. But lack of reliable local labour forced then to bring in large numbers of Indian and Chinese, as well as Europeans, to get anything done. You cannot do that now, plus there are massive barriers with the local bureaucracy. Just getting spare parts into the country is extremely slow, even with bribes.

Unfortunately, sub-Saharan Africa goes *way* beyond that level. Its hard to explain to someone who has never been to Africa. We've had President Mbeki of South Africa, the most advanced economy in Africa, denying that HIV causes AIDS and treating victims with herbs instead of anti-retrovirals.
President Zuma thinks it is OK to rape an AIDS-infected woman if he showers afterwards. Yes, the US has some dumb people, and past presidents, but they are not really in the same league.

Why do these crazy conspiracy theories always blame the Jews?

You say dick, May called him a knob, Clarkson would refer to himself as a "bell-end". Thats what he gets paid for - a professional arsehole would be a better metaphor IMHO. And we love him for it.

But does one vs ten picosecond matter?
And I'm pretty sure you do not want a laser of this size pointed at your arm, unless you are looking for instant amputation.

Why should anyone care about the power level, as opposed to the pulse energy?
ie why does it matter if the kilojoule is spread over one or ten picoseconds? Without this vital piece of information, it is hard to get excited (pardon the pun).

I just mean it enables the US to develop new weapons, e.g. bunker busters, without live testing. Yes, the simulations are that good. I'm not saying this is necessarily a bad thing, especially as the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty was never ratified. But the NPT is a problem.

I think I'd prefer the weirdo with the camera to the weirdo with a gun as a neighbour, any day.

Its in the same category as punching someone because they "looked at you funny".

This particular backyard is just a few blocks from the Blue Lick Airport.
Surely he can expect a little less privacy? The operator says he was photographing a friends house. Seems reasonable - you don't normally hover directly over your subject.

In any case, it is no excuse for firing a gun in a city.
In any (other) civilised country, he'd have a very hard time arguing why he should get to keep his gun license after that.
    No chance of a white guy losing his license in Kentucky, I suppose? (Why am I hearing banjos?)

It is not the NSA driving this, but the Department of Energy.
The current fastest supercomputer in the US is at Oak Ridge - the nuclear weapons labs since the Manhattan Project.
It enables the US to violate the spirit, but not the letter, of the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
And now China has a bigger computer, so of course we need more supercomputers, and more Mine Shafts.

... we really want be able to delete every stupid thing that happened before we were 30. Especially those political posts.

I'm pretty sure I read this morning that these interstitials are what wiped out the wooly mammoth.
http://www.livescience.com/516...

Rhetorical question. Feel free to take it seriously (who does gain what from DRM?), but thats getting off-topic.

Just saying that a self-destructing email is like uncopyable media. Neither works as claimed, but that doesn't stop it making a lot of money for the people selling it.

No, it was just missing the sarcasm tags. Sorry, I misjudged the tone/audience. But still preaching to the choir here :)

They don't even protect the digital path very well, because the consumer needs the keys to view the content.
The idea is fundamentally broken. (As are the above-mentioned DRM schemes.)