Right, because a patch with the density of 5.1kg of material per square km, and whose size estimate (by non-media and non-biased advocacy groups) is about twice the size of Hawaii, is totally gonna form a thousands-of-km-long land bridge that animals can just stroll right over between Asia and N. America.

I'm not saying the garbage patch isn't an ugly testament to the worst aspects of human activity -- certainly it is -- but at least restrain from spouting nonsense that borders on science fiction. Unless of course hyperbole was your goal, in which case I digress.

Sorry, but I can't get any coding done on anything without a physical keyboard. My current Android tablet is awesome to have around, but it's not a "workstation" by any stretch. Even my smallest laptop is infinitely more productive. Part of it is architecture (x86/x64 vs ARM), most of it is interface and applications. No, not "apps", those are useless for production because they're limited by physical interface -- no one's going to do any serious coding on a touch-based thumb keyboard.

It will be until tablets can do as much as workstations -- and that includes natively running the programs needed to get work done, to which they are not even close (unless you're just writing up formatted documents and calling that "work").

As a decades-long desktop- (and now laptop- and tablet-) user, I do not want "cloud based solutions". If the cloud-based bullshit goes down, or if the power goes out locally, or my ISP decides to take a crap, my shit better still be there... or rather, HERE. Locally. On a disk. It can be one of my hard drives, or my USB SSD drive, or my LAN-accessible network drive, whatever, but if I don't have direct access and control of my shit, then something is WRONG, and all the "cloud" solutions in the world won't help me at that point.

My second Android tablet, an Asus Transformer, came with some kind of cloud storage service. I've never touched it; never felt the need to. I'm not paying someone else to store my own stuff, especially when most of it won't even run on ARM devices anyway.

Yeah, I use Dropbox to keep files synchronized across devices. The difference? I still have access to my shit when I can't access the "cloud" for any reason.

Honestly, this "cloud" nonsense has to stop. The marketing bullshit has to stop. Just call it what it is: Internet-based storage. Which means, if you can't access the Internet, you can't access Your Stuff. It's off-limits to you. WTF is the point? As a remote backup? Ok, I can see that. But as real-time storage that you can't control? Screw that.

That "paltry $100 a year in savings" would buy me nearly a year's supply of toilet paper. Good stuff, not the cheap garbage. The rest of your post is just stupidity personified for the sake of looking superior or clever, I can't tell which, nor do I care, since you fail at both, dumbass.

Dunno what your smoking, or the dumbasses that modded you up, but no man with a shred of self-respect would subject himself to what you described (which I can only describe as "fiction").

Really, if you wanna be a man-bashing hater I think you can come up with something better than that.

Let's dissect this, shall we? Just for shits n' giggles. :)

Firstly, the offending reporter, Nicholas Kirstof, works for the NYT -- a publication that is hardly a bastion of conservatism. (Not a complaint, just an observation.)

Secondly, you've identified a highly specific and narrow subset of "rednecks". Not all rednecks are anti-education, not all rednecks are science-illiterate (nor, by presumed extension, anti-science), not all rednecks are anti-education, and for the really fun part, not all rednecks ascribe to what is commonly accepted as conservatism.

Tangentially, I've noticed a theme around here, which basically states that the terms conservative, redneck, anti-science, bigot, and racist are all treated as if they were synonyms. Such a thing I can only attribute to the left-wing echo chamber (note I distinguish left-wing from liberal; the two are not synonymous, and the former is sadly succeeding in co-opting the latter... but that's a different rant).

Less generalization and black-and-white thinking, and more critical thought, please. And thank you in advance.

The TSA has never stopped a terrorist from boarding a plane. Since the TSA's inception, terrorists have been thwarted by passengers (eg. the "underwear bomber" of Christmas '09), and do note that airport security let the guy get onto the plane in the first place.

But hey, you go right on cheering for the actual erosion of our hard-fought-for liberties for the sake of imaginary security. The TSA does not exist to protect us, it exists to provide the illusion of protection. It stems squarely from the "OMG do something even if it's wrong!" panicky mindset of those in power who have a pathological need to give the public appearance that they're doing something, useful or not, and not a one of 'em in the bunch willing to stand up and say "don't panic, let's stay calm and figure this out" because THAT sure as hell doesn't get anyone reelected.

Thanks a pantload to dumb, panicky sheep like you willing to spend your freedoms like currency to purchase safety, bleating to the government to save you, and dragging the rest of us along in your massive herd of stupidity.

9/11 won't happen again, but not due to any government action. It's because on that day, everything anyone thought they knew about hijackers changed. Before, it was always assumed they wanted hostages to use as a bargaining chip. Now everyone knows differently. The next time terrorists try to hijack a plane, it won't be the TSA that stops them, it'll be the passengers with vivid memories of what happened last time, and won't allow that shit to happen again. When you know your captors WILL kill you, you're much more incentivized to fight them to the death, because then at least you have a chance.

Jihadist terrorists won on 9/11 but they basically screwed themselves for similar endeavors in the future. They played their best ace, but like Daffy Duck, it's a great trick but they can only do it once.

Why do I only find these kinds of comments the day AFTER I've spent all my mod points?

Honorary +1, sir.

Seriously? For trying to get classified information to further his writing career?

Yeah. Real patriot, that one.

And apparently he was also a liar. You sure you wanna back this guy for a medal? I sure as hell wouldn't.

Oh FFS, are you a flesh-and-blood human or an algorithm? If the latter then you can be forgiven for not comprehending an almost painfully obvious undertone. If the former, well, you're SUPPOSED to be a hell of a lot better at figuring this stuff out than a computer.

Unless you're a lawyer more concerned with winning a case at any cost than finding the truth of the matter, such pedantry is unbecoming a sentient being.

You knew damned well what the OP meant.

Based on that image, Rob Halford is clearly a Hunter -- he appears to be wearing the Tough Scorpid set.

Hey, you! Quit being calm and rational! We're having an ideological screaming match over here, keep it down would ya?

Sure, today I don't have mod points. Figures.

Dammit, there's a really good joke in here somewhere, but I just can't find it...

Because different people sometimes do things differently.

Shocking, I know.