While I am not entirely sure about how discriminatory the Indiana law is ( I have heard convincing arguments on both sides) the idea that Tim Cook should use the same logic when addressing an issue of rights in the US (a democratic country of which he is a citizen) as in Saudi Arabia (a monarchy with heavy religious influence, to which he is a foreigner) is absolutely ludicrous. If anything, it only says he should be more proactive about issues in the US, since it sets an example, good or bad, for the rest of the world, and it is more within his sphere of influence. This also seems to be trotting about hand in hand with the idea that Apple is somehow boycotting Indiana, which is itself a bizarre falsehood.

I never said it was barren, I said it was dismal. Went back and looked again. First thing I notice is how the entire image looks washed out by smog. They have hundreds of identical apartment blocks, separated from industrial hell by a half-assed canal. On the north side they have what looks to be slums. Apparently they have parks. Half the place looks like it might have been made yesterday, which I assume it was. Still not impressed.

Lest you think I'm biased against China, Ordos to the south looks like a much nicer place to live. though I gather it has its own issues.

Tonight on our program, a man who made his living defending the practices of a massive extra-legal spying organization will defend the practices of that organization. But first, a look at sports.

600 röntgens per hour

Holy shit. Russia wins by a mile.

It killed Tasha Yar.

Also is it just me, or are there a suspicious number of ACs chiming in about how there is only a really tiny sludge lake and Baotou is in fact wonderful? Because I looked on Google maps, there was pretty big sludge lake and the place looks pretty dismal.

This is a massively underrated comment.

A roughly 1.8 x 1.8 mile catchment, with about half a square mile of "water" - is that really small for a sludge pond? And the rest of the city "appears quite nice"...where exactly are you from?

While you have a commendable grasp of physics, I think you are underestimating motorcycles. The OP might be hyperbolic if he has a stock motorcycle, but if he owns a competition drag motorcycle he is likely telling the truth. Also motorcycle tires have a peak COF of around 1.2, roughly the same as car tires.

If not, allow me, as it seems appropriate:

“This invention (writing), O king,” said Theuth, “will make the Egyptians wiser and will improve their memories; for it is an elixir of memory and wisdom that I have discovered.”

But Thamus replied, “Most ingenious Theuth, one man has the ability to beget arts, but the ability to judge of their usefulness or harmfulness to their users belongs to another; and now you, who are the father of letters, have been led by your affection to ascribe to them a power the opposite of that which they really possess.

“For this invention will produce forgetfulness in the minds of those who learn to use it, because they will not practice their memory. Their trust in writing, produced by external characters which are no part of themselves, will discourage the use of their own memory within them. You have invented an elixir not of memory, but of reminding; and you offer your pupils the appearance of wisdom, not true wisdom, for they will read many things without instruction and will therefore seem to know many things, when they are for the most part ignorant and hard to get along with, since they are not wise, but only appear wise.”

So we can't say we weren't warned.

SAP is like the computing version of steampunk, only unfortunately not as cool and all too real.

At least since 1979

The Europeans go in trepidatiously, carefully measuring things, trying to understand the asteroid. A couple months later the US flies in fast and hot, and blows everything up, mission over. As an American, I love it.

I think your experience hits one of the major problems, we expect all types of education to fit the same time period, usually because that's all the students can afford, both in tuition and in opportunity costs. This is amplified by the commonly held belief that the purpose of college is to increase one's employment opportunities, when looking at the problem in this one dimension invites a high degree of min-maxing. The truth is that education just takes longer than we are willing to invest.

That has a lot to do with the fact that most of these places are using much newer systems. The first line on the Shanghai metro was opened in 1993, and much of the system opened with the last 5 years. In comparison, NYC has some subway cars from 1964 still in use. The US has been slow to upgrade major systems because it is politically hard to mobilize the capital to replace existing infrastructure, not because we lack the knowledge.

I am eager to see the kind of responses this headline is going to generate here, where STEM is the bread and butter of most of the userbase.