Facebook doesn't really care unless it impacts their bottom line.

In this case, it only impacted their bottom line after they started getting negative press for being homophobic.

In fact, they probably like type-A asshats that spend their lives pursuing their site for potential violators... It's like having a free sysadmin on a petty powertrip!

Start reading it. They go through the basics and have articles on how amateurs can contribute to research.

But you really need to limit your expectations. Observational astronomy (even amateur-style) requires several hours of daytime prep work, followed by 1-2 hours of equipment setup and familiarization, before you even embark in a 3-4 hour observation run. After an observing run, you might have another 2-10 hours of data processing to do.

If you have a wife, two kids, and a day job, you will get pretty tired pretty quick.

Good equipment (solid mount, high quality telescope, imaging system, star stracker) is not cheap either and, sadly, most people need to invest in or borrow good equipment before they can really evaluate if they like it or if they want to stick with it.

From TFA:

Why would you want to subvert someone from installing Doom on your printer?

You clearly don't get what he was saying!

We want HALO-like suits that will let us jump 50 feet high, jump out of an airplane and land safely with no parachute, and lift 500 lbs with one hand while accurately shooting at something a mile away with a fully automatic weapon in the other.

This soft-suit is like increasing the fuel economy on a Civic when you really want a Ferrari.

...it's just flourishing in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Probably people who own an iPhone 5 and are debating upgrading to the new one.

Especially so if they like the smaller form factor of the iPhone 5, but would be willing to trade it for increased performance.

Your link is misleading. Autopilot can control aircraft at all times (climb, cruise , descent, approach, and landing phases) except during the taxi and landing phases.

Thus, with modern avionics, autopilot can control can be engaged immediately after takeoff (once flaps are off and gear is up) and kept on through landing.

A separate feature, called autothrottle, can be used to automatically control the plane's engines through the entire flight.

Of course, pilots are essential for programming these systems, monitoring them during flight, and stepping in during anomalous situations, but the planes really can fly themselves.

Ummm, have you driven lately? Most people with licenses also can't handle those obstacles!

You should actually ask for a share of the money that Google made off of your data.

Because there are a lot of square kilometers out there... especially when the blurb doesn't actually define what the surface area of observation is!

Yes, Seattle would be less screwed if the former Microsoft employees either left the city or got jobs with (smaller) companies that pay more taxes.

Take it to the limit, where a company gets a zero tax liability deal while still incurring indirect costs to the city (Their trucks damage the roads, their employees necessitate more city infrastructure such as lights, police, parking, power, waste, etc.): It is actually possibly for the city to lose money on such a deal since they have brought in additional people and incurred additional costs. The costs will be recouped from the taxpayers in that case and not from the corporation causing the costs.

Also, by continuing to give huge companies lower tax liability, we are essentially driving all companies towards monopolies by making it harder for the smaller competitors.

It doesn't seem unfair, it is unfair.

The big companies get tax breaks. The politicians get kickbacks, lobbying, and stay in office. The regular citizens pay higher taxes to make up for the company and the politician screwing them.

Microsoft employs >40K employees in the Seattle Metro area, while the other 3.6M residents (literally the 99%) get screwed.

Why is the parent modded as funny?

I mean, the post is funny, but I think he was also serious! It should be "insightful!!!"

Even if you voted for Obama twice, you have got to admit (by now) that he does do a lot more thinking and talking than taking action.

Of course, with politicians, less action is often preferable!

Well, you aren't forced to! You could just not have healthcare, be financially penalized for not having healthcare, and then die prematurely.

Plus, like all of the academic, financial, security, and IT institutions, the government is really sorry that your personal identity was compromised, but it was an accident OK? So let's not get too upset... they are doing the best that they can! (The hackers are just doing better!)

Plus, I am sure that they will give you one whole free year of credit monitoring to make up for it, but you'll have to give your social security number to yet another online entity to take advantage of that deal!

(Yes, I am being sardonic.)

From the article:

“As an officer, we are trained to multi-task and are exempt from certain laws in certain situations such as using a cellphone,” he said.

Not only are they trained to "multitask," they are also apparently above the law.

If a regular citizen were to accidentally kill someone in the course of they regular work duties, would that be OK? Because that seems to be what the Los Angeles DA's office is arguing.