Interesting timing. I was just talking with my wife about how amazing it is that a 10 or 11 year old kid in the outfield can solve this problem in the outfield in the moments after a ball is hit, and then run to that position to catch the ball. There is a lot of correction happening until the catch, but the main calculation is pretty quick. Also note that most kids step IN as their first reaction, even when it's going to be over their heads, but the good ones do not, and they track the ball amazingly well.

This includes top & bottom spin, lateral spin (slice & hook) on the ball, and other interesting complexity. While the visual pickup and transfer to the computer are very difficult for a computer, it is bordering on trivial for a competent ball player.

Money is ONE source of power. There are many others, which,, depending on the context, can be far more important. These Sources of Power are offered up for your consideration.

You must be an anti-free-markets Communist or Socialist? Which is it? -Alan West

I have a simple solution that would make nearly ALL of this go away.

Create a new "File Under Constrained Key, Yourself" rule that states that ANY and EVERY person responsible for creating or modifying tax law, regulation or code shall file such taxes without benefit of professional help or outside reference besides the tax forms themselves (contrained key).

I imagine the tax code would become simple faster than you could say, "Go F*** Yourself!" The name could be our little inside joke, but the principle is completely serious.

That would be a certain business failure, because everyone here already gets sarcasm just fine.

[Citation Needed]

What you're referring to is really Positive Predictive Value of a test. When you have a low percentage of actual positives (terrorists, in this case) in a population, and a something less than 100% PPV test, then NEARLY ALL of those caught in the dragnet are false positives.

The insidious part is that nearly every target, being a false positive, is not just that a waste of resources to pursue, but that to the extent false suspects are hassled, they may become irritated resisters or sympathizers, fraying the fabric of a watchful citizenry. If I'm falsely suspected, hassled, randomly selected for special screening every time I fly, and treated like a bad guy, I'm going to be far less likely to want to help the "good guys." If you're legitimately trying to catch criminals and terrorists, casting a wide, intrusive net (like suspecting those who want privacy or those who breathe) only makes the job more difficult and less effective.

Corn-based fuels should never have been considered as and end-game. The whole point is to build out the infrastructure while R&D drives us to next-gen feedstocks such as cellulosic or algae. Hemp has been mentioned as well, but folks tend to think about the oils (and other fringe benefits?) more than the cellulosic angle, which is probably more important. If we hang our heads and call it a scam or a failure, it means we've lost sight of this as a stepping stone to a potentially highly sustainable fuels end game. I don't think we can *afford* to abandon the vision. What's the alternative, with peak oil crossing increasing global demand? Suck it out of sensitve areas of the arctic? THAT is a predictable failure before it begins. We cannot outrun the numbers on petroleum, and we cannot deal with climate change effectively unless we confront this. We MUST work through the next stage in the game plan.

When I was a kid, someone once told me something I never forgot: "No matter how 'bad' someone thinks they are, one day they're going to run into someone who is much more 'bad.' If they think they're the baddest guy around, that will be a *very* bad day for them."

Seems Christoforo used to think he was the baddest guy around.

It is called *espionage*.

Many countries frown upon spying on government officials, even to the extent of imposing life imprisonment or execution.

Given corporations' statuses as people, it would seem logical to try them based on the laws of the country in which they operate.

I'm not a proponent of the death penalty, so would instead ask that News Corp, if/when found guilty, simply be locked up for life, just as any other "person" would be.

I defy anyone to challenge that logical conclusion.