Bingo. Great cast, great movie, and the perfect successor to 2001: A Space Odyssey and Dr. Strangelove.

Most of the headlines start with "US Lands..."; "Private Company Lands..." would have been an improvement but how about real attribution: "Intuitive Machines Lands...". Let's give these guys the credit they deserve. What's great about the US is that we have private companies doing things that are difficult even for nation states, and yes there should be mention of the fact that a highly reliable and economical ride was another private-company miracle called SpaceX (that first-stage SpaceX booster came back for a vertical touchdown at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station -- its 18th launch and landing). I feel like I'm living a science fiction novel and it's because we have this great partnership between government and private industry, with a heavy emphasis on private industry. Fanfare is deserved.

Exactamente. We need personal finance-literate kids graduating from high school â" this is fundamental to their success as individuals and participants in what should be our unapologetically capitalist society. With respect to California requiring âoethisâ or California requiring âoethatâ, this is what you get when you allow the state to control your kidsâ(TM) education. Communism, my friends, has never worked and never will. The Peoples Republic of California is rotten to the core.

I guess the *certain* IT workers that are going to be replaced by AI are going to be incapable of retooling to do something else -- what a slight to anyone who's actually ever worked (which IMHO, does not include most Economists). I think it's still true that STEM != AI, and I take offense with anyone that discourages the one thing that makes life possible in this amazing world we live in, which is STEM. Many excellent points already made here, particularly that STEM is a foundation for just about anything -- this is true. I would add that it's a misconception to think that STEM is void of empathy and creativity -- think about medical advances that have been spurred by the tragedy of disease, and the inspiration that's required to produce something new (those of you who've had the experience know what I'm talking about). STEM is full of creativity, it could not be otherwise. I believe that there will always be room for human ingenuity and creativity, and that AI will not replace us. If and when it does, I hope it replaces the Economists first.

or, in other markets, keep shufflin' those deck chairs!

Is $4 Trillion the present value of all future cash flows that the US represents? If so, the US should buy this bargain basement deal and then tax Rest-of-World into oblivion. The world's last remaining engine of innovation -- driven by champion of individualism -- is priceless. The global ecosystem needs a driver, and for better or worse it's the USA. Don't worry, folks, the USA is in slow decline... it's likely that someday soon we'll all enjoy the pleasure of being equally poor in the fairest of all global societies. Extraction of bullshit penalties like this would certainly hasten the socialist, commie-bastard fantasies that illustrate man's fatal flaw: the combination of a sense of superiority, entitlement, jealousy, and sloth that subverts individualism and champions equality. Fuck if these mythical agrarian societies have been so wronged, tell them to turn in their cell phones, learn to speak Japanese, German, Chinese or Russian, decimate their populations, and we'll talk about the balance of their account. Bite me.

No need to add to the anxiety. Give them a comp day (of their choice) and back off. If you've been doing your job correctly they'll want to stay and they'll know that you will make it up to them. Hey, this is part of the world we live in. Keep the faith and you won't have a problem.

Bletchley Park, which has gotten plenty of Slashdot coverage over the years, is a must. It's just an hour north on the train and a short walk from the train station. Go to Euston Station for the ride north.

The Faraday Museum http://www.londondrum.com/cityguide/faraday-museum.php is worth the trip.

Greenwich Observatory and the National Maritime Museum are musts, as well. http://www.nmm.ac.uk/
You may want to read Dava Sobel's book about John Harrison before you go, if you haven't already. See the real H* clocks. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Harrison

Take the laptop.

"Best of breed", no doubt.

Private industry has done so well in the US: telcos, airlines, utilities, "contractors" in Iraq, not to mention the entire financial sector. Deregulation and privatization in the US has shown that private industry has difficulty regulating itself or indeed acting in a responsible manner. Oversight with accountability is absolutely essential to success.

Hate to be so negative but I don't see anything good in this whatsoever. There are some things that are too important to be left to private industry. Building is one thing, running a program is quite another.

I'm about as free-market and capitalist as you can get, but there is a time and a place for government regulation.

Maginot Line, folks. Point-to-point encryption is one (important) element of a business network, but it's not sufficient to secure the business network. As such, its implementation would need to be assessed with respect to the total network security budget.

Hey all,

We've already visited one former Surveyor site: Apollo 12 astronaut Pete Conrad visited the Surveyor 3 spacecraft in November of 1969 -- check out the stereo picture:

http://www.nasaimages.org/luna/servlet/detail/NVA2~4~4~4237~104763:Apollo---Surveyor-Stereo-View

will be tough but I speak from experience with a couple of nonagenerians (grandmother and great aunt) and a couple of septagenerians (aunts both) -- they will do things in Windows... things that will be difficult for you to figure out on the telephone. You need to be able to get to their desktop if you're going to have a chance at all (e.g. some flavor of VNC). The most important thing I learned during the many hours I've spent over the years supporting family members: mouse usage basically becomes a random variable with seniors as their motor control declines. So a) they have no idea where and what they clicked and b) they will frequently do things that produce inexplicable results. An example: a family member called one day to describe a gray screen covering about 90% of the display. Turned out that my grandmother had (somehow) unlocked the toolbar in Windows and dragged it all the way to the top of the screen, rendering the machine useless. Try figuring that out on the telephone. I've never found a tool that would allow me to freeze the desktop and menu items so that they didn't get scrambled... just plan on periodically having a UI puzzle on your hands. Having remote desktop access will help but the only problem there is that you may not be trusted to take remote control, i.e. privacy is an issue. Sigh. Seniors really need only a couple of apps: web, email, and Solitare. Windows is overkill and will be the pebble in your shoe.