Better be nice to your off-spring. All the years they took off with their juvenile antics and incessant noise they may pay back later if they like you.

... is absolutely possible. That is what the company I work for has been doing for a while now. For commercial entities we market it as social network sentiment analysis.

The technology can tell you immediately how your brand is trending, analyzing twitter feeds, facebook, blogs, web searches etc.

It scales nicely. And yes, we have a very large footprint in DC.

This was actually part of why I left the US. As a consultant it seemed security clearance was becoming more and more important. Not the line of work I was interested in.

Having lived in the EU, US and now Canada I think it's strikingly obvious that the DNC has a "policy (...) far to the right of that found in the EU."

E.g. where else in the Western World do you find a right wing party that wants a completely commercially operated healthcare (mandatory but no public health insurance).

This is simply an untenable position for any Western right wing party outside the US.

You apparently live in a very dangerous place, to be that anxious.

Watched TV lately? Used a GPS? How about looked up a weather report?

If you haven't done any of this lately, then maybe you really don't need satellites.

As someone who has Amazon Prime (I got it for like $39 as a grad student and it's still good until this summer) and uses a Roku, I can tell you that I would definitely not be paying for a "KindleTV" + Prime if they dropped my Roku.

Why? Because their library sucks, the interface is fucking terrible, and the way they don't group show seasons together into one show is just wrong.

Amazon doesn't need to work on a Roku replacement, they need to work on a Prime Video replacement and pronto.

If they could now re-design a furniture store where customers would buy furniture which would be then delivered to their homes already assembled would be a huge step forward. Oh wait...

School districts do this to when levies don't pass. They immediately cut athletic programs and bus service.

My bad, I meant to include the source: http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/budget_bib_fy2011.pdf

Behavior Detection Officers (BDOs): An increase of $20M and 350 BDOs (210 FTE) is
requested to further enhance TSAâ(TM)s Screening Passengers by Observation Techniques
program. The FY 2011 request includes a total of 3,350 officers, to enhance coverage at
lanes and shifts at high risk Category X and I airports, and expand coverage to smaller
airports.

[...]

Transitioned validated multi-cultural indicators of hostile intent, and demonstrated a
mobile device that enables TSA Behavioral Detection Officers to record observations,
automatically calculate behavior-based scoring, and share information among peers
and with supervisors in near-real time. This potentially saves TSA an estimated 60 -
120 FTEs.

I did my masters thesis on this subject and the TSA is doing the same thing the Israelis are. In fact, they spend a lot more than you would think on doing it. The problem seems to be that because people A) don't recognize this effort, B) because it's just as expensive as the machines, and C) it's just as ineffective because it ignores the fact that terrorists could walk into the building strapped with explosives in front of the screening area and kill hundreds+ of people.

So I was bored and decided to watch a few of the pilots. As someone who loved Netflix's House of Cards, I was excited to see what Amazon had in store for us of similar caliber. Well, suffice to say that spreading their dollars across numerous pilots instead of one single show gets you what you expect: utter trash.

Those Who Can't, a story about three teachers (gym, history, and Spanish) was utterly terrible. They hated a jock in the school who was constantly annoying them and being the stereotypical douchebag. The script was jerky, the acting was bad, and the entire premise was overdone. Not impressive in the least, in fact in many instances it was downright painful.

Alpha House starts out great with Bill Murray getting arrested and John Goodman watching as he freaks out but it goes downhill from there mostly because Murray is not on the show after that first 45 second cameo. The vulgarity (something I don't mind in the least and use regularly myself) is there for vulgarity's sake, not because it makes sense in the dialogue. The show itself is slow, boring, and pointless. It's like Amazon was trying to make fun of House of Cards on SNL but failing as SNL tends to do so well.

While I haven't watched all the pilots yet, I really don't think I have much desire to do so. I am still waiting for more House of Cards and certainly more Arrested Development on Netflix but this Amazon shit is just bad. They need to get their shit together and up their game if they think they're going to compete with Netflix's first-run flagship.

... the people watching from the outside would die of boredom.

I am a SAS developer and have never run into any such problems but I won't say I don't believe you. However, the benefit of that large licensing fee is the easy access to SAS help resources (real live people living over there in Cary, NC) who get back to you VERY QUICKLY for ANY level of technical question you have.

Their employees, at least the hundred or so I've met over the years when presenting at SAS Global Forum, have been INCREDIBLY friendly and helpful.