I suspect it's being strangled, like most oversized organizations, by people in the administration who focus on preserving jobs, salaries, and benefits of all the little people whose fate is in their hands, rather than the goals of the organization.

An even cheaper alternative for non-permanent setups: old twist-ties from loafs of bread. I keep them in a kitchen drawer for future use. These and color-coded cables seem to work well to keep things organized.

A soldier shoulders the majority of risk in war.. where does the profit go? A laborer without benefits risks the financial future of themselves and family, where does the profit go? If a poor man puts the future of his entire family on the line for a company, whereas a rich stockholder puts a small fraction of his investments into that company, how can you consider the distribution of profits to be fair?

We've become accustomed to the reality of the dollar in today's world, but acceptance doesn't make it justified. There are countless rules that construct the reality of today, and they can be changed to meet moral expectations of society. It is foolish to think the system is perfect today, and its obvious the OP's questions were made in this regard.

Sweet, DIY AI driving! Do you know of any enthusiast forums? I'm so there.

Certification could be required for AI systems through legislation, but how could this be enforced? Unless there's a collision investigation, whether it's a human or a machine turning the wheel is hard to tell. Perhaps all vehicles will be forced to integrate a government-endorsed AI which overtakes the driving controls under dangerous conditions.

Just like the tax man.

To me, if a thought process isn't innate, then I must consciously traverse it, step-wise. I suppose processes that I haven't been rigorously taught may consist of a set of steps which are only somewhat dependent on order, and I stumble my way through fulfilling requirements as necessary. Either way, I must consciously make my way from one part of a sequence to another.

This involves calling up the next step, which can be fast if the steps have been rigorously learned, or slower if I must analyze the process and determine (perhaps through logic) what the next step should be. At the same time I must temporarily save any data pertinent to the current stage of the entire process, to be utilized either immediately or further down the "processing pipeline."

I believe that makes a decent generalization of conscious thought processes for me, and it probably applies to most people. The act of performing this process in itself is a conscious decision, which the mind's eye must also keep itself aware of. Otherwise, it could get distracted, and lose itself in some tangent during a step in a thought process and either hamper the efficiency of the process or never finish it altogether.. All of that can also waste considerable processing power ;)

Evolution is easy enough to comprehend. You could say the reason for anything related to humans is because of evolution.. Just because evolution happened doesn't make it the answer to 'why'.. Then again, one could argue causation is only an opinion dependent on your take of the question.

Intelligent folk should be above it. Both parties are broken, neither party aligns with your beliefs. Government isn't a sports game - the only real winners or losers are the people. The people of the US are giving up their independence and freedom to numbing mountains of laws and bureaucracy. They are ignorant of government spending and its resultant inflation and debt. The almighty dollar is the foundation we all stand upon and if you don't recognize the need for concern, you need to start paying attention to what our own accountants are saying - your Congressmen are not.

I've always assumed the Fed was a legit organization, but this statement intrigues me. It assumes the Fed makes a profit. What if the Fed didn't profit, but rather lost money? Wouldn't that mean they handed out a bunch of money without getting paid back? Sounds like someone still profited..

And how do they determine what is profit? Perhaps the Fed earns 5 billion in interest from legit loans to banks. They also drop 5 billion in loans to certain unnamed parties but the recipients go bankrupt and the money isn't repaid. Did the Fed break even? Somebody walked away with 5 billion..

Also, if the Fed is handing out loans at a lower interest rate than the market, wouldn't that put the recipients (banks) at a consistent advantage to every other borrower (individuals)?

so while the concept of parallel universes is necessary to comprehend statistical analysis, this does not indicate parallel universes actually exist, only that reality acts as if they do. kind of like an invisible friend..

sorry, it's early, and after reading the article and the comments I still don't see a consensus on whether the second child can also be a boy born on a tuesday. is this an interesting statistical analysis or an interesting english analysis?