Well, how much do brilliant people who spend their lives trying to get you to click on ads add to society? Not to mention something awful like Zynga.

Still those people enable things like Google that do add a lot.

The issue with HFT is, in the old days the marketmaker got first look, and in exchange was limited in what they could do in terms of front-running and market manipulation, and was supposed to maintain an orderly market. The HFTs took over the liquidity-providing functions but it seems pretty wild west, and if the market really goes nuts they step away.

Still, the only reason there is big money available to build things like Google is because there is a liquid stock market for them, and one that learns and evolves, which HFT is part of.

I posted a URL-shorted link to Gawker's infamous Weiner 'c*ck shot' headline - mysteriously disappeared from my timeline. I thought maybe it was a glitch but I saw it in Tweetdeck timeline, so apparently it went out, and was subsequently 'disappeared.' Seems to be a lot you can't talk about.

Do you like my whiteboard underwear? In comes with a dry erase marker in there, just feel around.

sounds like something an orgone generator could have easily cured because 1) due to parts shortage the station was OFF and 2) it was a RECEIVING station.