Why wouldn't Chernobyl be an ideal place to park nuclear waste? A large "exclusion zone" around the plant is already cordoned off with some degree of security. There have also been ongoing efforts to consolidate the waste and construct dry storage containment facilities for it. Just expand the construction project so that it has more capacity.
The USA recently gave an enormous aid package to Ukraine, maybe they should return the favor by taking and storing some USA nuclear waste?
Would it be too dangerous or risky to move it across the ocean and over/through Europe to get it there? Otherwise, why not?

I *think* what they're saying is that if they know it was you who bought the gas, took out the cash and ate at the restaurant, they can figure out that it was also you who went to the supermarket, and identify all of your other purchases for which they have records.

From what I can tell, they first need to know the identity of the individual who made those 3 particular purchases. From that, they can link the individual to the entire set of his/her purchases in the "anonymized" CC data.
I'm very concerned about privacy issues, but this doesn't really surprise or disturb me. It would be quite a coincidence for another person to engage in transactions at the same three places I did and at approximately the same times.

" Indians are just good at science."

That perception exists in the West because the people from India that we tend to encounter are 3 or 4 standard deviations above the mean intelligence in a population of 1.2 billion.

Repeal the corporate income tax and personal income tax in favor of a consumption tax. Now, before you can say "that will hurt the poor" check out

http://fairtax.org/

Under this system, you get a tax "prebate" so that a poor person would still pay zero net tax over the course of the year. The consumption tax that they would pay on spending their meager income gets refunded before they pay it.

Think about it. Whether you're producing electronics or growing potatoes, work is the most productive activity in the economy. Consumption is the least productive. Furthermore, the ridiculously complicated tax code is where politicians love to include handouts to favored constituents. With the fair tax, the complexity disappears.

That's a very good question, but DARPA actually did define "counterfeit" in the SHIELD RFP. It was a very broad and very verbose definition that covered used and other sub-standard parts.

Their broad definition of "counterfeit" includes the cheap knockoffs that might be functionally equivalent but substandard.

Exactly.

I think the most glaring example is in the area of financial regulators. The U.S. federal government has the SEC, OTS, CFTC, FDIC, OCC and a financial crimes unit of the FBI.
Yet they FAILED to prevent the 2007 financial crisis and have FAILED to investigate and prosecute any of the big financial institutions for criminal activity? That undoubtedly demonstrates complicity or incompetence, but AFAIK, nobody in these agencies has been fired or reprimanded for their negligence/complicity.
Rather than investigating WTF is wrong with all of these agencies and ferreting out the corrupt and incompetent, government's solution is to create a NEW regulatory agency. Add the CFPB to the above list!

Yes, the Americans who believe big government serves to protect us little people from the big bad corporations are either stupid or extremely misguided. All the new laws and regulations are meaningless when the regulatory agencies refuse to enforce them. Why spend billions of dollars paying these people to NOT do their jobs? If we fired them all, we'd get the same outcome for lower cost.

The big telecoms are perennially in the top 20 companies/organizations in terms of annual lobbying expenditure. In 2012 for example:

https://www.opensecrets.org/lo...

#10 AT&T $17,460,000
#15 Verizon $15,220,000
#16 Comcast $14,750,000

Imagine what they dump into PACs and campaign contributions? How many regulators are past or future execs in these companies?

The concept of the "mind monkey" has been around for centuries in Buddhism. i.e. the mind sort of naturally jumps around like a monkey. When I took a yoga class that included meditation, the instructor said that you need to give your mind something to do. That's why you focus on your breathing. He said to let your thoughts come and go but treat them as if you were an outside observer and return your focus to your breath.
The constant flow of information we have today absolutely must affect out psychology. Maybe our minds jump around even more? I think the goal of meditation remains the same.

I think that's precisely what I'd be do as well. I wouldn't be able to resist experimenting with the only electrical device in the room. At least once anyway.

The whole problem with corporations is that government grants them privilege without responsibility.

By shielding the executives from any personal civil responsibility by the nature of corporate law, AND shielding them from any criminal responsibility by failure to prosecute clear instances of criminal activity, the incentives become completely warped.

I agree that boycott is a good tool, but rich corporate execs should have to follow the same laws as the rest of us. We should also reform some of the limited civil liability provisions of corporate law and/or attach extra legal responsibilities in exchange for the legal privileges.

The government wrote the laws stating that execs are required to act in the best interests of their shareholder. I don't know why people get so angry at corporations behaving exactly how we should expect them to.

Nor do I understand why people who incessantly complain about corporations don't work on reforming corporate law. There is no reason why the legal privileges that come from incorporation cannot be balanced with a set of legal responsibilities. Right now however, their only responsibility is a single-minded focus on the bottom line.

The motors and defrosters can fail, but the mirror can still be adjusted and cleaned by hand. Once the camera fails, you're blind. Seems like a camera would be equally if not more vulnerable to ice buildup and more delicate to clean. For winter drivers, they cameras will also need to withstand months of being splattered with salt (or whatever other chemicals are used) and sand. I think I'll take my chances with the mirror.

The fact that we have differences of opinion is all the more reason for the government to butt out and let the manufacturers and consumers decide.

The Keystone XL pipeline will be carrying nasty chemicals over a distance of some 2000 miles. It will be crossing areas of pristine wilderness, wetlands, countless rivers and streams and freshwater aquifers that serve as drinking water supplies.
Look at the recent episode in West Virginia. There is no possible way for the Keystone XL operators to guarantee that there will be 0 leaks, especially as the thing ages. What if 100,000 barrels of tar-sands crap spills into a body of water? Is there any amount of money that could compensate for the potential damages?
Global warming is BS, but there are plenty of good reasons NOT to build the pipeline.
I figured that Obama would cave in during his second term. Notice that he didn't have the guts to make a firm decision before the election.