Not directly. Not as an individual. But diverting resources to quackery is bad for society; not so bad in this case that it's high on my list as "health supplements", but not totally benign either.

That's speculation. Feasibility is no guarantee of performance.

I read the attached article, and there were two specific complaints cited. The first was security, which is a non-functional requirement; that could well be a failure of the customer to do his homework on requirements but presumably a competent and honest vendor could have done a better job on security. It's often the vendor's job to anticipate customer needs, particularly in projects of the type customers don't necessarily have experience with.

The other complaint is that the curriculum wasn't completely implemented. If the vendor failed to deliver something it agreed to, that's purely the vendor's fault.

Sometimes bad vendors happen to good customers. Bad vendors happen more often to bad customers, but every project involves taking a calculated risk.

Well, until the details of how the contract was awarded and how the vendor failed have been thoroughly investigated, it's premature to fire anyone.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for accountability and decisiveness, but picking someone plausible and throwing them under the bus isn't accountability. In fact that may actually shield whoever was responsible.

Open is nice, but the Cyanogen people need to pay the bills.

There's no point to CM if it's not secure. If they're installing Microsoft blobs by default, it's not secure. We know Microsoft openly cooperates with the NSA on eavesdropping technology - I even wonder if this is a subtle warrant canary.

Assuming the least-bad possbility, then if they want to offer an easy-to-use tool to install a tested Microsoft bundle from the CM servers, then fantastic - for people who want to make that trade-off.

Virginia is overwhelmingly Democratic at the state executive level, so it's not that surprising that they voted Democratic at the Federal level. Most of VA's population growth over the past decade has been in the urban and suburban NOVA and Tidewater areas as well, which are Democrat voting strongholds.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

PA has been voting Democratic for decades, so it seems neither of us know WTF you're talking about.
http://www.270towin.com/states...

Not even. "This treatment has been approved in Europe under the name Duodopa since 2004."

"They were more interested in getting *their* solution jammed through for a personal victory than the greater good."

Please -- you just described at least half the population, and probably 90% of managers.

You're spouting nonsense. There is nothing about "minorities" in the Federal law, which takes precedence.

http://www.eeoc.gov/laws/pract...
http://www.eeoc.gov/laws/statu...

"What these people don't understand is that they are lowering said life style."

What do you expect them to think? "Oh, sorry, I don't want to affect your much higher standard of living. I'll just stick to my subsistence living with my postgrad education then."

Would you care that you were "lowering said lifestyle," if half the standard of living where you're going is multiple times better than the standard of living where you are now? Probably not. I certainly wouldn't.

The blame doesn't fall on people wanting to work for a better life. I don't blame them at all, and most of them are good people, just like anyone else. I do blame a system that is stacked toward hiring foreign nationals before citizens. That's a policy problem and a regulation problem, and to a lesser extent, a problem with the businesses that take advantage of these policies -- although they're making good business decisions.

Most of the blame, though, lies squarely on the shoulders of elected officials, and the people who elected them or failed to participate. We can't just not pay attention and then expect things to work themselves out. Nobody is going to give more of a shit about your interests than you do, so make your voice heard, and tell others to do the same.

The tyranny of a prince in an oligarchy is not so dangerous to the public welfare as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy. -- Montesquieu

If there's no air gap between the passengers and the engines on your flights, then I'll take another flight please.

Look, rape happens all the time. It happens more often in economically disadvantaged communities, and by family members, but we don't talk about that. We talk about frat guys, or jockeys, or the people we "least expect," because that makes headlines. Rape is not an epidemic on college campuses, although there is an epidemic of paranoia. Most guys are scared shitless of possibly doing something uncool, let alone "creepy," let alone being accused of rape. If we want to deal with the real epidemic of rape and sexual assault, then we should create programs in grade school for students to tell an adult about what happens at home. If we teach children and young teenagers that they won't be ignored, and that someone cares about them, then they won't be afraid to report things when they're adults on college campuses. Most rapes and sexual assaults are committed by people who themselves were abused or assaulted, who never found resolution. If we get to those people before they get the chance to victimize others, then we've made everyone safer. I'm not one to beat the "think of the children" drum, but this is a problem that's rooted in childhood, so that's where our focus should be.

You start with a true statement, and then go on to make a baseless and unsubstantiated attack. First, you really can't claim to know what an entire segment of the population thinks. (If you do, Randi would be happy to hear from you.) Second, I think Socialists would argue that the distinction is very important -- central to their beliefs, in fact.

fuel needed for the landing is inefficient compared to a splashdown parachute recovery

The barge/ocean is just a temporary measure. The vision is twenty rockets launching a day and returning to the launch site to prep for the next launch.

There were about 120 rocket launches last year. SpaceX's mission statement is to reduce the cost of launches by 100x, and utilization rates go up as costs fall, so it's not just 100x more launches - twenty a day is probably very conservative if they hit their price targets.

Queue the folks who can't imagine what anybody would do with more than 640 launches a year.

But it appeared they could come down slowly. Pretty close to hover.

Yeah, I think that's the inevitable end-game - there is plenty of time to make small adjustments right up until the point of contact with the solid parts of the planet. AIUI, they're so close to empty on the fuel tank after the burnback that they're trying to get it down on the pad ASAP. They can only attempt these landings for now on launches that don't require as much fuel as others - supposedly the next iteration can hold more fuel.

If only there were a two-wheeled vehicle where your legs moved. They could even be used to *power* the device.