Facebook is only able to buy them because they can raise insane amounts of money selling shares (or buy partly with shares), and guess who is buying those shares...

Then you just switch to internal navigation and let the drone go fully autonomous. A smuggler could launch the drone anywhere within the drone's flight range, from a moving vehicle, whatever.

This is a race that the guards aren't going to win. Of course, it's not like anyone's ever been able to stop contraband getting into a prison anyway.

-jcr

Lay off the boot licking, sunshine. The heavy metals aren't good for your central nervous system.

-jcr

What are they going to do, delete Eric Holder's account?

-jcr

I don't think anyone was expecting the iPhone to be the staggering sensation it became.

I was wildly optimistic: I expected to see the iPhone get 25% of the smartphone market within five years. ;-)

-jcr

Just because occupations have popped up to replace these lost jobs in the past doesn't mean that they will in the future.

Any job that can be done by a machine should be done by a machine. The upshot of labor-saving technology is lower costs of whatever goods or services are produced.

I see no reason to eschew technology because of your fear of your impending incompetence.

-jcr

and what about the welfare for the people automated out of there jobs?

In 1900, about 80% of the people in the USA worked on farms. Today, it's more like 4% or less. They found other work.

-jcr

As an American with some familiarity with history, it doesn't surprise me at all. Rulers and would-be rulers have always held the people in contempt, and you can see plenty of examples of it all around you there in Europe under the Fourth Reich.

-jcr

What the court did, was provide a pretext for the government to pretend that the fourth amendment doesn't say what it says. A right remains a right, even when it is violated.

-jcr

Krugman actually doesn't prove himself wrong at "every opportunity",

He called for a housing bubble as a remedy for the dot com bubble. He said that the internet would have no more impact than the fax machine. I could go on, but the point is proven.

Your top "thinkers" maintain that it is foolish to pay attention to mere evidence

Evidence abounds to support free markets. If you're too stupid to see it, that's your own problem.

a former libertarian

Bullshit. You were never a libertarian.

-jcr

NYC public transit is the one thing most New Yorkers have in common and it makes for better citizens here.

My first impression was that you are an idiot, but I see now that you're actually a brilliant satirist. Well done!

-jcr

Apparatchik from a tax-dependent transit agency is bad-mouthing private alternatives. HIs approval is neither sought nor required.

-jcr

Yup. We'll see if it lasts better than Technocrat. Hopefully enough people will move over that it will have momentum. I'm willing to give it a go - I'll avoid checking Slashdot for a few weeks and see if Soylent picks up enough to be a viable replacement.

Hah! I'll remember to call you a n00b when I see you post there :-)