Obama isn't a dictator? I bet the friends and relatives of this guy would see things differently. And no I'm not defending him in any way, he was definitely a bad guy. It's truly saddening that Obama supporters are now drinking the "9/11 changed everything" Kool Aid.

My understanding is that the opposite is actually true. Silver for example has a lot more industrial uses than gold but the market is much more volatile. Admittedly part of the reason is that the silver market is much smaller than the gold market, but another major part has to do with the business cycle.

For example, if there is a huge economic downturn, silver will get hit harder since industrial demand will drop as the economy contracts (i.e. less people buying audio wires). Since there is little industrial gold demand, the price will actually be more stable.

Thats exactly correct. For a good description of the properties of money, check out the following link:

http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article10370.html

You can currently hook up a tablet to your laptop as a second monitor. My understanding is that depending on the software your using though, it can be a bit laggy. It would be nice if someone decided to design a tablet specifically for use in conjunction with a laptop.

Does anyone know what the best laptop/tablet solution is?

From my understanding, programmers making 300 - 400 thousand in the financial industry are typically quantitative analysts or financial engineers with masters degrees or Phds in these fields. Their primary duties are things like modeling complicated financial scenarios or finding statistical anomalies to exploit in high frequency trading. Yes they code their strategies but I don't know if I'd put them in the same category as your typical programmer.

Two Missing options depending on context

1. I get my nourishment through intravenous you
      insensitive clod!

2. I'm the top not the bottom you insensitive clod!

This is why I think we may see Apple (even Google) move into the console gaming market. Apple probably won't create a console with bleeding edge hardware to compete with Sony and Microsoft, but what I do see them doing is throwing in decent 3d graphics capabilities into an AppleTV or something similar, and potentially competing with the Wii. I think with Apples app distribution network, it's too good of an opportunity to pass up. And as a side note, look at Gamespot.com. They already have a section for iPhone games.

Exactly... Economics is a social science, not a hard science.

High frequency traders argue that they provide liquidity to the markets. They'll also throw out terms like "Price Discovery". This basically means that they make it easier for everyone else to buy/sell positions at the right price. Whether or not they're full of crap I don't know.

IANAL but the U.S. has a court system that can enforce criminal negligence. If Walmart starts selling exploding landmine toys, they can be sued for putting people in danger. Additionally, parents should do the due diligence of investigating the safety of toys before buying them. Do we really need a giant bureaucracy funded by tax payers to literally go through every product sold in the U.S. and go through a rigorous safety inspection? Do you have any idea how much that would cost? Why not just let private safety rating agencies do the job? Or how about buy only American toys made locally? Finally, there's always going to be ignorant parents that don't do their homework. What ever happened to the idea that having kids is a RESPONSIBILITY. Well, be responsible and don't buy cheap Chinese toys from Walmart.

America had a choice,,, Ron Paul. The sad part is that the 2012 election will once again reign in "change" in the form of a Republican "conservative". Both parties are bought and paid for with the exception of a few individuals. Wake up people!