I've witnessed people who got arrested BECAUSE they refused to show ID.

what i would like to see is more places that will sell you the NIBS (roasted beans)

Heck any of y'all that want to increase your chances with the ladies get going on how to make Chocolate FROM THE BEAN.

Being in the industry what would you suggest as to the grinder for somebody making for say 3-5 close friends??

I would bet that even when robotics are good enough a down armoured IronMan suit would be cheaper (even if its IM and a flock of drones).

Now that I think about it, if Philae did not bounce off of the comet, then the screws must be doing their job and I would think the harpoons might not be needed at all. I would assume the harpoons were in the plans because the engineers couldn't be sure the screws would work on the surface of a comet.

My understanding is that the harpoons were one of two ways that ESA was going to secure the probe to the comet. There were also screws that were supposed to attach the legs to the surface. So if they can still fire the harpoons they ought not have an issue with Philae flying off into space, but does anyone with more information on the relative strength of each? And if the harpoons could not be fired... what is the real risk of the probe shifting? I mean what would cause it to shift in the first place once settled on the comet?

No it isn't worthless. Most small shops could probably get by with using it exclusively.

think of what a plumber has to deal with if they have a Blackwater line with say 15 gallons worth of back pressure or some of the more involved plumbing nightmares (like how to get a LIVE snake out of a blackwater line).

90% of the time in plumbing you can get away with cut and fit stuff (as long as The Code Allows It) but then there is the 10% of the time you are dealing with having Blackwater all over the carpet.

also it takes more than 3 months (even if you only sleep eat and "play' only 48 hours TOTAL in those 3 months) to learn stuff like (how to get a 90 degree angle from 12 feet of rope and three pegs) much less be able to tell WHY this will work every time.

and if you can do say Chocolate then you will have Multiple Attractive Members Of The Opposite Sex DEMANDING chances to eat with you (previous statement may not need the with in it).

Well, they can certainly file, but they would lose. I remember a business law case we went over many years ago where Hallmark Cards trashed a bunch of their cards, someone salvaged them and got sued. The case ruled against Hallmark. I'm not finding it in a Google, but remember the case from the class.

I wonder if some of these folks were already regretting their decision to tie up money in a space flight. People's finances change, life situations change, priorities change... and this is a convenient way to try to get out of the financial obligation.

No evidence on my part... just idle speculation.

Grandiloquence is an occupational hazard for a solo musician. There you are, alone onstage, playing works that are acknowledged to be monumentally great with breathtaking ability. It can be hard to avoid assuming the trappings of greatness.

Exhibit A is Dejan Lazic, who made his Washington debut Saturday afternoon as part of the Washington Performing Arts Society's Hayes Piano Series at the Kennedy Center's Terrace Theater. Lazic, 33, is a pianist, composer and sometime clarinetist. A few years ago, he made a strong mark as a performing partner of cellist Pieter Wispelwey. More recently, his claim to fame was turning Brahms's violin concerto into something dubbed "Piano Concerto No. 3," which he recorded with the Atlanta Symphony earlier this year. The feat ranks somewhere on the "because it's there" spectrum of human achievement: attention-getting, large scale and a little empty.

His recital of Chopin and Schubert on Saturday was unfortunately on the same spectrum. The selection of those two composers is usually a way to demonstrate a pianist's sensitivity as well as his virtuosity. This performance, though, kept one eye fixed on monumentality. Some of the pieces, such as Chopin's Scherzo No. 2, sounded less like light solo piano works than an attempt to rival the volume of a concerto with full orchestra. This scherzo became cartoon-like in its lurches from minutely small to very, very large.

It's not that Lazic isn't sensitive - or profoundly gifted. The very first notes of Chopin's Andante Spianato and Grande Polonaise Brillante at the start of the program signalled that he can do anything he wants at the keyboard, detailing chords with a jeweler's precision, then laying little curls of notes atop a cushion of sound like diamonds nestled on velvet. Again and again, throughout the afternoon, he showed what a range of colors he could get out of the instrument, switching from hard-edged percussiveness to creamy legato, crackling chords to a single thread of sound. The sheer technical ability was, at first, a delight.

Soon, though, all of the finesse started to seem like an end in itself. Every nuance of the music was underlined visibly with a host of concert-pianist playacting gestures: head flung back at the end of a phrase; left hand conducting the right hand; or a whole ballet of fingers hovering over keys and picking out their targets before an opening note was even struck at the start of Chopin's Ballade No. 3. There were fine moments, but they stubbornly refused to add up to anything more than a self-conscious display of Fine Moments. The final movement of Chopin's Second Piano Sonata was in a way the most successful part of the program: sheer virtuosity, and perfectly unhinged.

Schubert's B-flat Sonata, D. 960, was a chance to shift into another gear and show a more reflective side, but it was a chance Lazic didn't quite take. The notes, again, were exquisitely placed, and there were things to like, but the human side fell short. All of the precision didn't help bring across the lyricism of the first movement's theme, or the threat of the bass growl that keeps warning off ease from the bottom of the keyboard. The second movement, instead of being a searching, tugging quest, was reduced to merely very pretty music.

The pianist was received with reasonably warm applause, but it didn't last long enough to draw an encore - which ought to get his attention. He's a pianist of prodigious gifts, and he's too good not to do better, to move beyond the music's challenges and into the realm of its soul.

Growing up in the 1970s, there were many books by reputable scientists who were absolutely sure that the Earth will have mega-famines and enter an Ice Age by the year 2000. They were absolutely certain that no economic growth will ever occur in China or India, the Cold War will last a thousand years, and air pollution will require everyone to wear oxygen masks at all times.

This is the biggest problem with H-1B visas.

Wanna bet that the following has happened with H-1B holders

1 holder finds out about something illegal or otherwise questionable in the business And is then told to keep silent or you will get fired and deported.

2 requiring bribes to keep your job (or "extra" fees that a US worker does not even hear about)

3 Off Books/Unpaid work

4 requiring Daughters/Wives "model" for or "entertain" the managers/ friends

or worse

yeah ruffled underpants inspire great feats of hacking.

how does that formula go

time to complete hack = (Complexity of Hack * age of target) / (number of persons interested * interest factor of hack)

yeah any Porn Filter that does not include a locked room and armed marine guards will be hacked in minutes to seconds