Why not fill it with an assortment of human knowledge and history and send it off into deep space for alien archeologists? The human race may no longer exist but we can live forever as material for museum exhibitions!

God, the Father, is being an irresponsible parent by letting wars, torture, pain and anguish continually occur amongst his children without doing anything to stop it. No striking anyone down with lightning; only random and baseless floods. It's time to sue God and report Him to the children services agency.

The Japanese robot moon base is a spectacular announcement. It provides the ability to perform all kind of work and activity on the moon without the burden of human life support, or risk to humans considering cosmic radiation cancer risk, silica moon dust hazards, etc.

But here on Slashdot, many respond with nationalistic bickering and insults. Shouldn't this tech-savvy bunch be smarter and above this?

Maybe humans in their present physical and psychological state aren't meant for really space? Off World will end up being a refuge for the robots and replicants.

Darwinism again in action. So let's just have a nanny state and "protect" everyone from their genetic information.

"Not at all. The issue here isn't statistics. It's that less-than-brilliant people could potentially be making huge, life-changing decisions based on this test."

Maybe Darwinism should take its course.

"Yes, the tests might give you an idea about your risks for certain health problems, but there is no real benefit to these kits. The same testing (or better) is available through labs, if someone feels it's necessary."

These genetic test kits are processed by CLIA-certified labs using state of the art equipment (Illumina for example - http://www.illumina.com/systems/iscan.ilmn ).

"Not to mention, as someone said above, family history is a pretty accurate (and free) way to get similar information."

Not if: 1) you don't know who your family is; and 2) there's a history of mis-diagnosis. Looking at a family that is now recognizing widespread Celiac Disease and gluten-intolerance, decades of past GI-related ailments in deceased family members including ulcers, gastroesophageal reflux disease, colon and esophageal cancer suggests a common basis that was never considered in individual cases. I've seen bad drug interactions diagnosed as epilepsy, peanut allergies diagnosed as candida to chronic infections, other food allergies diagnosed as Barrett's esophagus, allergies diagnosed as personality disorders, etc., etc., etc...

The kits that Walgreens proposed having in their stores seemed to have an element of bait and switch in them (low initial cost followed by a variety of add-ons), so the tests packages should be clear as to what the consumer is really getting. On the other hand there are big pharm companies making huge amounts of money off consumers who neither understand their meds, nor side-effects/contradictions, nor general effectiveness, nor how lifestyle changes can often be far more effective than the meds they're prescribed.

As soon as I heard about the iPad 3G, the first thing I though of was velcro-attaching it to the dashboard to use as a GPS unit, with full true Google Maps functionality ("My Maps"). A couple of 3m Command Jumbo Hook "velcro" strips should hold an iPad on the dash just fine, until some company makes a decent suction mount.

Never heard of Mark Fiore before Apple making a stink out of an app. Checked out Fiore's website and love it, can't wait for the iPad app !!

The Independent Voters of Illinois-Independent Precinct Organization (IVI-IPO) sued the City of Chicago this morning, charging that because of the meter deal taxpayer money is illegally being used to benefit a private company, Chicago Parking Meters LLC. You can click on to the Chicago Reader blog story here...

http://www.chicagoreader.com/TheBlog/archives/2009/08/19/ivi-ipo-sues-the-city-over-the-parking-meter-deal

Ben Joravsky and Mick Dumke of the Chicago Reader have been excellent investigative journalists uncovering the corrupt parking meter fiasco. What it comes down to is the meters being sold off for peanuts ($1.5 billion over 75 years is nothing), and the public's right to know trashed. Clauses in the meter contract have been said to inhibit transportation innovation in the city. If one wanted to expand bike lanes or add streetcars and needed to remove meters to facilitate that, the city would have to pay LAZ/Morgan Stanley for lost revenue. Here's a link to their blog postings on the Chicago parking meters...

http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/ArticleArchives?tag=parking%20meters

And hats off to the Independent Voters of Illinois-Independent Precinct Organization (IVI-IPO), finally someone steps up to sue the City of Chicago. I'm becoming a member today...

http://www.iviipo.org/membership.html
http://www.iviipo.org/

My dad had over 35 years with a civil engineering company as a project manager, and in many years brought in 10s and sometimes 100s of millions of of dollars of additional contracts annually just because clients liked him (something that wasn't required by his position like some engineering and consulting firms these days). Any animosity with coworkers was with the marketing and contracts department heads, which got to some of the company partners. While it was a situation where most of the partners loved him because he was a nice guy and incredibly profitable, some other partners for years were bad-mouthing him about his "tactics to generate new work" and the way he fraternizes with clients.

His department wasn't hurting for work and he was supposed to be put on a new project (he liked working and there was no policy to encourage or force retirement). One Tuesday he gets into work at 6:30am before most people and finds out he can't log into the network. At 9am someone from HR and a guard come by, gets escorted to the HR office where he finds out he's been laid off, paperwork is done, personal articles would be boxed and shipped to him, he's escorted out the door. After decades of exemplary service to the company, he was essentially curbed and dumped on the street like a piece of crap with little explanation. His own line of management apparently didn't see what was coming, their department was profitable while the layoffs were otherwise in departments that weren't cutting it. My dad was depressed and confused since he didn't see it coming after decades of praise and bringing profits to the company far beyond what was required by his job.

Turns out he was one of a dozen employees that were laid off the day before, just that he had taken it off so wasn't around for it. The tactics employed for the others were not much different. The others were stopped at the entrance before entering, HR business was conducted near the entrance where other employees could pass by and see, something entirely new for the company.

Also turns out that the only substantial reason for letting him go was that it looked bad to be laying a bunch of people off and keeping a worker who was past retirement around. They figured that at 70 he's already set with a retirement package, social security, his annual and sick leave payouts, and now a big severance package that accounted for 35 years of work, so he's fine. The severance package was great but the layoff tactics employed were horrible, especially considering his decades of past service to the company. My dad even said they could have talked to him about leaving and he would have left, he previously had the impression they wanted him to work as long as he wanted, especially when plans were in motion for him to be on a new project, but they just resorted to the HR boot with little explanation, probably to scare and shake up the other employees, with no consideration for my dad's feelings.

For a couple of days my dad's buddies, some of his coworkers and I spent a lot of time counseling him, but I think the only thing that saved him from depression were the unsolicited job offers that were rolling in within days, for more than he was being paid before. He started working for a new company within 2 weeks that he loves to this day and wonders why he stayed at the old one for so long, kind of like being a victim of abuse, after time you just take it as being normal.

Being laid off like that still gnawed at him for months until he was invited to the old company's Christmas party (like what do those a-holes want?), then some of the partners tried to provide a dinner invitation to ask if he'd like to come back as either a full-time employee or an independent contractor. And he told them, with the way the company let him go, punted to HR and tossed out, why should he come back? Why should he work for a company that doesn't show respect to its valuable employees?

Earlier that same year, I know other well performing engineers and project managers who were booted in similar displays at other companies to kind of shake up the office, like it didn't matter if you were good or bad, you're nothing more than a commodity that can be tossed. Kind of runs counter to the logic of rewarding the good and firing the bad, but who knows what they teach the MBAs these days, or what crap is being fed to them at whatever evil management conferences they go to.

Over the years I've seen enough where I network and maintain relationships with other good and competent people in my career field, with little regard for companies/organizations or whether projects get completed by me unless I feel it helps my resume. For anything I do, I ask if this is good for me, will a project help me later on? I work for a paycheck and will jump to whoever will pay me more. In the past 15 years, twice I've provided 2 weeks notice where I requested immediate termination of duties so I could go on a vacation before I start my next job. In one instance it was a huge bureaucracy where the managers could have cared less and would've given me the HR boot as policy. The other time they scrambled to exceed the pay I would've gotten at the new company, and while they couldn't increase my vacation time (and piss of coworkers) I now get an additional annual bonus to compensate if I want to take time off without pay (an extra two weeks of pay with two weeks of vacation time). I've been with them for awhile now, content, maybe a little bored, and plan towards being self-employed, hopefully as a tavern owner within the next five years. I've been trying to get them to hire someone new and younger to mentor up for their benefit but they drag their feet, reacting only when there's a crisis, no forward planning. I can't let that be my problem.

I just figure that if you're good, and a company says they love you, make them display that love in dollars. If a company looks at their employees as nothing more than commodities, leave. If you find you need to leave, show them about the same consideration as they give those who they let go.