Saw an article comparing the owner Elon Musk to a real life Tony Stark. So, I did this: :^) http://earth2eddie.blogspot.com/2012/05/tony-stark.html

More than just insecure. He's created beings with limited capability intelligence (us) that have a tendency to disbelieve he exists. Keep in mind since he's all-powerful, he's programmed us to doubt him. He's hidden himself and planted all kinds of evidence point towards him not existing. Then in his little game, if you don't believe in him and proclaim your never ending love for him, you get tortured FOREVER. Let me repeat that FOREVER. So you've got this little blip of time to not f@#$ up, and if you do, dragons eating your eyes forever (or whatever ridiculous b@#$shit happens in hell. That's got sadist written all over it. If a man kept you in a hole and tortured you everyday that you didn't get on your knees and say how much you loved him..what would you call that person? We're supposed to be his children that he loves, right? God has basically set up our existence as this precarious, horrific game. Can you imagine putting your 5 year old daughter on a wooden plank over a swimming pool of sharks and saying "well, if she loves her daddy, and listens to me she'll get out of this ok, if not it's her own fault." Is that a loving parent?

On one hand, I see articles saying that being able to program is more important than ever and that everybody should learn how to program, and then I see articles like this. I can definitely see merit in both viewpoints. On the other hand, (I guess I have three) the entire job market's in the toilet anyway.. (Full disclosure: I'm 40, have been a coder since age 9, do little in my current job)

Also, what happens to all of the software engineers that are brilliant, analytical, but social awkward. I guess it's become a billionaire by 30 or you're toast.

Haven't you seen the movie where we mine the moon and it ends up breaking apart and crashing down on our heads?

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-april-10-2012/exclusive---elon-musk-extended-interview-pt--1

If you prevent them from doing it they'll scream persecution. It's time to stop trying to drag these people in to the 21 century. Give them the freedom to be as stupid as they want. Teach that dinosaurs never existed..that all the bones were planted by atheists, that the world is 2000 years old. Prune the bad parts of American history. Whatever they want. Let them completely go off the cliff. The smart people leave. The state becomes a laughing stock and no one takes it seriously. Natural selection on a grand scale.

True. I noticed it happened in the reverse sometimes. I had a cable modem in a small city in Ontario long before most major US cities were offering the service. I seem to remember hearing some Australians friends talking about having fast Internet before us as well. Something about putting in huge amounts of fiber optic..

My wife's originally from Canada, and I lived there for a while. I noticed that Canada would try new things, including tech, and later you'd see it in the states. They're smaller and more nimble (1/10th the population) and North American companies could try new things there and see if they work. Also, maybe there's the benefit of: if the idea crashes and burns, it's not noticed in the states and the company doesn't need to worry about damaging their brand in the states.