Okay, thanks. The reports are coming in fast and furious, and the "facts" are not always true.

In this case, it does appear that the shooter was the son of a teacher. Still incredibly sick.

This just makes me incredibly angry and sad at the same time. The shooter was a PARENT of one of the kids at the school? Seriously? As an American, I have to wonder how we can be so screwed up that events like these are a regular occurrence.

It sounds like some adults put themselves in harms way to try to stop or slow down the shooter. They are heroes. To the bastard who did this, you'll rot in hell.

You must have some inside information that no one else has. No one knows for sure who burned it down, but none of the suspects were Christian, And considering it was burnt before 0 AD, I am not sure how you would think it was.

But, if there are no pixels, how will I detect photoshops? I've seen quite a few in my day...

No it wasn't. Not even close. Simply because a fund is running a surplus doesn't mean it is fully funded. The simple fact of the matter is that the promises made were always much larger than the taxes being paid in, even allowing for growth of those tax dollars over time.

When first rolled out, the payroll tax was a whopping 1%. Even with the shorter life spans, it wasn't enough and the designers knew it.

Does tidal lock preclude habitability? i know this means one side of the planet would be much hotter than the other, but given the right conditions, I don't know that this precludes life. I would imagine there would be some very interesting weather patterns, but if the hot side is within a reasonable range, it would simply mean that only half the planet would be inhabitable, I would think.

I'm almost 40 years old, and have been driving for almost 25 years. So, I've actually seen cars and don't need a wikipedia article to tell me something that is pretty obvious. I'm assuming you are much younger. Go talk to someone who grew up in the 60's and ask him for a citation for "a lot of people smoked pot in the 60's".

I hate to break up your self-loathing session, but cars are a hell of a lot better designed than they were 25 years ago. 25 years ago, a car typically lasted 100,000 miles and generally cost more to maintain that it cost to replace. Today, cars that go through basic maintenance can easily go 200,000 miles. Your 25 year old Toyota is an outlier.

And Voyager's lasting 35 years isn't that amazing relative to Spirit and Opportunity. Unlike those two rovers, Voyager has a relatively easy and unchanging environment. Once Voyager is going, it has a nuclear battery to power its systems, and is mostly just adrift in space. I believe it can do very minor course adjustment, but nothing like the rovers had to deal with. And Kepler is freaking amazing when you consider what tolerances it must be designed to. Engineers 35 years ago couldn't come close to designing the Kepler mission.

I am not sure why the self-loathing is so popular on Slashdot, but it couldn't be further from the truth.

Sounds like you stopped reading the summary a bit early. They already did the math to get to $146M/yr. Frankly, I don't believe it.

Isn't one of the "good" characteristics of chocolate is that it begins to melt in your mouth? If it doesn't melt at 104F, I don't see it melting in my mouth.

In effect you propose to lower the standard of living in the western world to be on a par with that of the eastern world.

Uh, no. You make some baseless assumptions and put words in my mouth. If you disagree with my conclusions do so, but saying I said "xxx" is offensive.

You assume that salaries in the east will increase, which they will - but not to anything near the point where western salaries are today

I bet you this will turn out to be false. the "east" is a broad term covering billions of people. Some countries will do very well, and I bet you there will be a substantial middle class in both China and India that will rival the U.S. middle class. Why do you think the U.S. is so special? Is there a racist undertone?

And even if it doesn't increase to West levels, it doesn't matter. Productivity does matter. If the U.S. invests in its people, in education and in infrastructure so that it is three times as efficient as China, then it can afford a 3:1 salary ratio. The markets will help to enforce that. Also, don't get caught up on 3:1, I made up the number. If China becomes more efficient than the U.S., it will have an income premium in those areas. It isn't complex, and we've been seeing it happen for at least 60 years in Asia already.

The only thing that could be counted on would be supply and demand - and the supply of labor will continue to outstrip demand in the east which will keep labor rates suppressed.

What you have said above is indicative of your not understanding economics. By definition, supply cannot outstrip demand or vice versa (this was a favorite rant of a couple of economics professors I knew or took classes from). If you don't get something fundamental like this, I'm not sure you get the more complex pieces.

Labor rates have been increasing in China and will continue to. Over the past decade or so, labor has gone from under a couple bucks a day to around $4/hour in some parts of China. This is even more true if you factor in China's currency manipulation -- labor price is much higher than China is allowing it to be. I expect the boom to turn to bust, followed by a more reasonable increase for a few decades

Does this mean China is a utopia? Of course not. But you see very similar path in China as the U.S. a century+ ago and in other countries that transformed into developed counties. Japan is another country to look at. Despite being resource poor, transformed itself from a feudal society to a world power in a relatively short time. If you are suggesting China and India cannot do the same, I am at a loss why. More people? That is very superficial. Ineffective governments? that can change. And the U.S. has had many periods of ineffective government.

The pain and the loss that will be felt in the west will be a lowering of salary until there is parity between west and east and a subsequent loss of social services due to a much smaller tax base.

Another baseless assumption. Eventually, societies realize that they have to treat their people well... more accurately, people demand that they be treated well. Look at the United States in the early 1900's and you will see it wasn't a worker's paradise. People got killed trying to unionize. But eventually worker's protections got put into place. China is more authoritarian and has little free speech rights, so the people's rights will likely go down another path. Regardless, China is not immune to market forces and the desires of human nature. Believe it or not, they are capable of the same transformation we are. People are people wherever you go, and they have the same desires. if you are as well traveled as you say, you will recognize this.

Bottom line, we are in a transition period. I am concerned that the U.S. is more focused on infighting than on positioning itself for the new 21st century. But I challenge you to tell me why the U.S. is entitled to the top economic standing if it isn't willing to reinvest in itself.

Um, no, actually you have explained why having many competitors is a good thing. A duopoly or oligopoly is a limited form of competition where bargaining power is collected with the very few sellers. In cases like this, especially where there is a valuable resource being limited, government regulation is very much appropriate.

Capitalism, overall, is a very good thing and is responsible for our standard of living. It does not mean that it should be unchecked despite what our libertarian friends might think.

Apparently, your reading and/or logic skills are lacking. Nothing in my post even remotely said this, and in fact said quite the opposite. Try again.

You mean the promise that they would announce it at a conference in December (I believe the 8th or so)? You'll have to chill a few days as we are still in November.

You have a lot of long words there, but no content. Care to try again?