Actually, according to wikipedia poverty in the US has been raising since between 1970 and 1980. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/US_poverty_rate_timeline.gif

Ragenomics!

At some point i think we're going to have an iRobot moment that makes us question the harmlessness of computers. Either we'll figure something out about how to deal with civilians killed by machines, we'll just call them casualties like we do when an innocent gets caught it crossfire, or the military will write a personal "i'm sorry we killed you" letter.

I'm just surprised no one's made a connection to iRobot yet.

Since you mention economy we're spending lot of money supporting those soldiers over seas. Plus, we could use the national guard to guard the nation--just in case something like a hurricane ever occurs.

Many of the CS teachers i've met have told me they don't like the language or principles they're being payed to teach. I learned C++ with a teacher who thought C++ wasn't a good language, C being worse, and thought the class should be taught with Java. Now i have a Java teacher who dislikes object oriented programming and Java. I even once had a teacher for Computer Organization and Assembly Language who was just called in to do that class. He was barely (if at all) a teacher.

Feels like the school industry treats IT like much of what i've heard of the corporate world: Make it work; we don't care how.

Are people being punished for thinking things, and only thinking, or kicking cats to death? Thought crime is more: i thought of masturbating and got arrested an hour before i was able to get home and commit the crime.

I don't really think it's fair to put this form of totalitarianism, and the one we see in this story together as one. What scares me about this story is not thought crime, but privacy. And isn't this possible in the states, too? And to some degree, don't we already do shit like this in the states, too?

A really good documentary that relates to this situation. The Take.

What really contradicts the bible: people. The bible is interpreted, not understood. Even if god created all the animals, what if the way it decided to do that was with evolution--that'd make a stable and consistent world. What if it started the universe with a big bang? What if it made life out of nothing, like those scientists are trying to do? Why is it if god did it, man can not?

But, really, what is god? What if god is a metaphor for random chance (environment), karma (good will), and determination (strength)? Since the bible does not describe god, does interpreting it as a metaphor contradict anything?

Basically, what i'm trying to say is that it very well may contradict the bible if your perspective is that life is made of anything more than organized molecules. But, if you're open my interpretation, nothing contradicts the bible except oneself.

OK, maybe it's a little silly of one to say they want an artificial simulation over a real-world experiment, but i think a Game of Life simulation would be killer based off this. But really, will we really be able to say we can understand this WITHOUT making a game of it? Simulating it artificially could only come from being able to predict the behaviors.

So, because it'd be cool, because it would test our understanding, because it would be educational, i wanna see a game produced!

Maybe, but I think the real reson Lego Sims 2 couldn't be made is they're still developing Lego Sims, the first.

Lego Suit Lego? I played that.

No, for April Fools Day, I'd expect something more like Barby Doll Rock Band -- be that fake-rebellious punk rocker you always idolized! Barny Rock Band -- I love U, U love me, and that's about it. Halo Rock Band -- because Halo isn't popular enough. ACLU Rock Band.

Lego? I really do believe it.

I call upon the slashdot community to respond with ONE idea that LEGO couldn't decide to slap their product on and call it the child friendly version of games we'd usually play thinking about adult connotations with, despite a teen rating, which they usually go especially for just to sell more copies.

Let's see... OK. There will never be a Sexy LEGO Beach 3. Or will there?

Without lame stories, it just wouldn't be /.! Now, when people who don't care stop commenting on them, that's around when pigs will fly and its wonders will cease.