...counting the drones on the New Jersey Turnpike

we've all come to mourn for America...we've all come to mourn for America.

Actually, if 0 BAC is the standard, then diabetics probably shouldn't be allowed to drive at all, as they are at risk of hypoglycemia, hyperglycemia, or diabetic ketoacidosis, all of which could cause unconsciousness or lesser impairment behind the wheel.

Note that I am diabetic and would not approve of this at all. But it does drive home how many things beyond Demon Rum can impair driving, and if you want to go by actual science and not moral panic, then most of us would probably be prohibited from driving most of the time by equivalent standards.

I read that and had the same thought, and came up with the same math. Even in midtown Manhattan, that pace doesn't seem possible.

The other thing that bugged me about the story is that the whole scheme seemed to me to be too global and highly coordinated an effort for $45 million. Further, he leader of the NYC crew skips the country and takes a bullet to the head, a risk he took for $100,000 in cash out of $2.4 million stolen? OK, he was only 23 so maybe that seemed like a good deal to him, but then that only raises the question of why would such a sophisticated operation put someone so green in charge of the NYC crew?

So yeah, a few things don't quite add up here, IMHO.

tink...tink...tink...

It looks like you're writing a diatribe. Would you like help, you insensitive clod?

Sorry...that kind of just wrote itself. ;-)

My friend has a Canadian business that gets some USD income that gets deposited to a USD account in a Canadian bank. That income is converted at the average exchange rate for the quarter. For individuals, I believe you just use the annual average (I don't have USD income, but am a dual US/Canadian citizen and have to file to the IRS, and use CRA's average rate in reverse to report my CAD income in USD).

See the CRA's web page for more details.

The difference between amblyopia and strabismus is pretty subtle...even after reading the wiki pages it is not very clear. My understanding is that amblyopia is when one eye is neurally impaired (i.e., in the brain, not a physical defect), where as strabismus is when the eyes are physically misaligned (cross-eyed or wall-eyed in lay terms). Both are called "lazy eye" and are closely related. I've had strabismus surgery, but according to the surgeon I did not have amblyopia because my problem was due to an actual eye defect, having extremely impaired right eye vision due to having a detached retina as a child.

And, sorry to say, the surgery did not seem to correct any of my myriad personality defects, though YMMV. ;-)

I think you missed the GP's point entirely. Is there an easy and foolproof migration tool for migrating data from say, an old Win XP machine to a new Win 7 install? Judging from my experience fielding questions about this whenever anyone I know migrates from Windows-to-WIndows...I'd say no. Migration to a new machine, regardless of the OSs involved, is still something that requires a "knowledgeable techie", and more often than not average users simply live with losing data in the absence of a knowledgeable helping hand. I won't deny that there are serious barriers for the average Windows user to migrate to Linux, but data migration is at best a minor one.

Just as an aside, that's not as unlikely as you think. There are quite a lot of people following Paleo/Atkins/LCHF diets who indeed will deliberately choose a product with more fat rather than less. Although it's rarely labelled, I always look for a fattier cut of meat rather than a leaner one, and always choose the 'regular' ground beef over anything labelled lean (lean ground beef makes for hamburgers that hold together poorly and stick to the grill).

I do agree, though, more information is better.

First of all, I'd question that figure...perhaps it's typical for an in-state student at a public university, but for anyone else including all foreign students, I'd be very surprised if today's bloated tuitions only covered a small fraction of costs. Also, even if that figure is remotely accurate, that doesn't mean the balance is taxpayer money....there is also alumni giving and investment returns on the school's endowment, which aren't tuition, but neither are they taxpayer money.

But even if I allow the point, how does that apply any differently to a foreign student on a visa than to a citizen? I don't hear anyone claiming "we" educate citizens who pay their own way for college, why is a foreign student who does the same any different?

And how is that different than when I paid for my own education as a citizen? Despite whatever taxes paid for the country's and university's infrastructure, I would certainly not entertain the idea from someone like Zuck that "we" educated me.

By the same logic, we could claim that "we" paid for the vacations of foreign tourists as they use our infrastructure and go to museums that are tax supported. And it would be just as absurd an assertion as Zuck's is here.

I also thought this was particularly galling:

"Given all this, why do we kick out the more than 40% of math and science graduate students who are not US citizens after educating them?"

Wait a sec...*who* educated them? Does the US gov't typically pay a foreign student's tuition, or do they have to either pay their own way or manage a grant/scholarship? My guess would be the latter case would be the overwhelming majority, with the only role of gov't in most cases being to grant a student visa. It's one thing to suggest that maybe 'we' should have program to help convert student visas to work visas, but to say we are "kicking out" people who were granted visas solely for education because they finished their education, which it is dubiously implied that "we" paid for, is simply dishonest.

I shudder to think what booby traps you set up to keep your house guests away from your silverware and jewelry.