I hope I am dead way before those years! :P

Don't worry. Some future events are extremely easy to arrange for yourself.

When I was very young, my parents invested in encyclopedias. I read the Encyclopedia Americana A-Z cover to cover. Later, in 6th grade, I did the same thing with the current edition of Encyclopedia Britannica. This gave me a HUGE boost in school and life.

Unfortunately, I don't see how the same is possible any more. There's just too much in any electronic encyclopedia to read all of any more. On the other hand, instant access to any information, porn and billions of opinions all easily from a variety of search engines totally makes modern internet a paradise for me.

The only excuses for stupidity nowadays are laziness or mental disability.

Once again, Mom, thank you for forcing me to learn to touch type.

encyclopedias from the early 1900s were blatantly racist and often stupid. encyclopedias from the 1950s reflected the cold war biases of their authors.

Yes, but they still had good reputations. Current opinions aren't able to retroactively cancel encyclopedia sales in the early 1900's.

wikipedia is a steaming pile of shit,

I must respectfully disagree. I find the hard science stuff to be extremely useful. I find software and pc specification articles to be a godsend. The only areas I don't bother much with are politics or religion, and even then, things like birthdays and dates in office are still useful.

...but its better than anything that came before it, which is why people use it and why encyclopedias are dead as a medium unless someone can figure out a new business model where the authors get payed[sic] for their work.

According to your following hint, somebody has already figured out how to pay authors.

(hint - wikipedia already has many articles where authors have been payed[sic], its a dirty secret that nobody likes to discuss, but fundamental to understanding how the site works)

Which I would consider to be a very good thing, though that's new information to me.

Overall, I consider Wikipedia to be about as reliable as a group of highly intelligent, fiercely opinionated friends.

With the older commercial encyclopedias, accuracy and reliability reputations made or broke companies.

With Wiki being free and volunteer, these restraints famously don't exist, leading to exactly this kind of thing. Not good or bad, it just is.

I LIKE arguments in my research sources; sources should be challenged. If the challenges are in the source itself, so much the better.

I telecommuted years ago and am preparing to do it again.
1. Be away from your cube as much as possible. Get your co-workers used to phone/ chat/ video call to contact you. be "down the hall" or 'with ______ in a meeting'. and can communicate electronically now or f2f by later appointment.
2. Webcam: dress your office and body professionally. Videocall people NOW to get them used to it.
3. Some people are going to HATE you for this. Sow all the goodwill you can and never mention to anyone who doesn't have to know. if your office on camera looks like your work cube, so much the better.
4. If you're asked directly, say it's a temporary arrangement for medical reasons. If they dig, remind folks about medical privacy laws.

Good Luck!

Oh, like he 'pranked' Dennis Hopper?

No, like the SNL skit "Pranksters" http://www.kewego.com/video/iLyROoaft1UI.html

I jumped out and pranked him to death with a tire iron. ... I hate Stiffley Stiffersons; I wanna prank them for hours in my basement.

I lock them in my basement, then Christopher Walken and I prank them.

A way to fix carbon permanently is to bury it underground in a specially capped storage facility. Just so long as it doesn't decay, and just acts like a rock under the dirt, we're doing good.

I call the above 'burying paper in a landfill'. Al Gore has an old newspaper he keeps on his desk that was perfectly preserved in a landfill.

So we take trees, that suck CO2 out of the atmosphere, turn them into paper to sell and finance the operation. Collect the paper and "carbon sequester" it underground in a capped storage facility (landfill). We're saving the planet!

Given the above, the worst thing you can do is recycle paper.
The more recycled, the less new produced.
The less new paper produced, the fewer Douglas Fir trees planted in the managed forests.
The fewer new trees planted, the less CO2 pulled from the atmosphere.

Someone with more environmental awareness please show me where the logic is flawed. I'm unable to find it, and I've looked.

Live long and prosper.

Are you guys seriously thinking the US will get ANY of it? The Afghan gov't stopped caring about the US the day we announced we were leaving. The Afghan gov't has already been cutting it's deals with the Taliban. The US is exactly on the other side of the planet. Hell, we don't even have a friendly neighboring country to get the ore through. What do you think we'll do? FLY it to the US? The Chinese have this locked tight. If we tried to set up any sort of operation, Al-Queda would kill our people, if the Talibani didn't get to them first. The whole point under discussion is us taking the value away from the Afghanis. Can't happen. For anyone else, it's a cheap operation with cheap labor. For us it would be a military operation with expensive contractors getting killed every day. Cannot happen. The Chinese have this one in the bag.

Yeah, I know a guy who has been there on business a few times. He mentioned a 'mountain that was basically solid copper'. The Chineese bought it and are running a new set of railroad tracks directly back to china. As this is in China's back yard, it takes a lot of pressure off the demand side of our markets. Prices will fall on these minerals, or at least not rise so fast. The 'I hate American capitalist pig-dogs' brigade can rest easy. There is no way on earth to get Americans to be miners in Afghanistan price competitively with Chinese slave labor.

Sexconker:

Please keep yelling and ranting. While others may find it rude and upsetting, I'm saying "Good lord, I've been an idiot!"

"My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord; neither be weary of His correction: For whom the Lord loveth He correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth." Proverbs 3:11-12

I'm atheist, but I'll take good advice anywhere I can find it.

Preach on bro, your time isn't wasted, you've led at least one wandering fool (me) closer to the light.

Thank you.

Dear parent-posting Anonymous Coward,

Thank you, thank you, thank you. You have pointed me to a wealth of information. At bare minimum, it will save me at least $50 in entertainment paperback purchases, since I'll spend at least that much time reading where that site has led me.

Also, the Wozniak who made the system isn't the Apple guy. I know you know, but I say that for the benefit of others.

Thanks again, A.C.

hanzie