Since I am now retired, I can peruse Slashdot endlessly. I applaud this info since it convinces me that my voicing the statement “That is just par for the course” is Never overused.

So it goes Thank you K. Vonnegut

I recall a National Geographic article covering the massive volcanic eruptions in 1999 due to the Gakkel Ridge in the Arctic Ocean. Maybe these eruptions have slowed down and the water is cooling off. It seems these pictures have been removed from the National Geographic website, I wonder why...

What is the current status of the Gakkel Ridge? Lava + Big Ice Caps= small ice caps...

I try to keep up with it, as there was a M4.7 earthquake on October of 2016. It is a slow moving crack that may be speeding up. If the Magnetic Poles flip, who knows what the effect will be.

I agree wholeheartedly with cayenne8. Tyranny of the majority, in a pure Democracy, is a distinct possibility. CA is a good example of this tyranny. The more conservative parts of CA are overwhelmed by San Francisco, the LA and the SD areas. Maybe the Electoral College should reflect the votes of each Congressional District.

I was introduced to Forrest Mim's books, by browsing through a Radio Shack about 1974. I was into model rocketry and trying to learn basic electronics at the time and found his material very instructive. I consider him a gift to anyone trying to gain insight in electronics, from the level of a hobbyist all the way to a professional.

What about the people who are willing to work, but unable to find work?

The unemployment rate isn't down to 3% yet (not even the white-washed one put out by the government that ignores discouraged workers and the underemployed), so these people are definitely out there. What about them?

Many will claim that when people really WANT to work, they'll figure out a way to make it happen, despite the fact that they themselves have not had to "pull themselves up by their bootstraps" in recent years, and thus have no real understanding of how difficult things still are in many sectors of the economy.

The labor market is soft. With very few exceptions, most of those who ARE employed haven't seen a meaningful wage increase in many years.

"Free" or not, the market has failed many of those looking to trade their labor for income in recent years, and with automation taking the place of increasing numbers of human workers, society is going to need to figure out how its members are going to support themselves.

Variations of "I've got mine, so fuck you" may go over well at a Trump For President rally, but those words will provide scant protection when the torches and pitchforks come out. ...and without a solution to the decades-long spiral the labor market has seen in recent decades, the torches and pitchforks WILL eventually come out. It will be a catastrophe for everyone when they do.

Given that Zuck is constantly begging for most H1Bs, I strongly suspect that this is a ploy to open the "expendable imported labor" tap a little wider.

"Oh me! Oh my! My company lacks diversity! If only there were a place with millions and millions of 'minority' developers that we could hire (at below-market wages and working conditions, teehee) to balance things out!"

What I can't figure out is why MBA types assume software developers are too stupid to see right through bullshit like this. Just because we don't like to play the ass-kissing, office-politicking game doesn't mean we don't recognize all the moves...

Fat has a bad reputation, as we have been brainwashed into believing that all fat is bad. We are all children of the trans-fat (hydrogenated vegetable oil) lie, in that it was healthier than saturated animal fats (Hog lard or Beef tallow). We evolved our present brain capacity, primarily due to eating a fair amount of saturated animal fats. That is not to say that too much of anything good, is better.

Now that InterEsterified Fat (IE fat) is gaining popularity as a replacement for Trans-Fat (Hydrogenated Vegetable Oils), we are being told that they are healthier than everything else, which there is sparse evidence for.

I saw where a recent Korean study showed that fermented milk proteins may have heart protective abilities. That looks good for Kefir sales and consumption, as well as all of the numerous bacteria within the Kefir and how it is a better way to populate your gut, than fecal transplants.

I also recently read a research article where consumption of trans fats was shown to effect short term memory in young men, that may be why my memory was worse when I was a teenager and ate anything I could find, in the 1970's.

It really looks like, if it is artificial fat, it is likely that mammals are unable to process it safely and the results of long term use could be hazardous to a long healthy life.

Why? One big reason...

What percentage of current-generation Android phones will be able to get the next 2-3 major releases of the OS?

5-10% ?

What percentage of current-generation iPhones will be able to get the next 2-3 major releases?

~100%.

The apple phone does everything I need it to, and because of OS fragmentation on the Android side, third party apps are typically better / more stable. (Exceptions always exist, of course.)

I'm quite happy to hear arguments to the contrary, but my broad-brush perspective is that while Apple's ecosystem is a walled garden, Android's ecosystem is the wild west.

I'm willing to accept a garden with walls if it means I don't have to constantly worry about what unpatched vulnerability is ripe for exploitation on my phone.

Haven't heard that one before...

It's called COINTELPRO, guys. Until you have death-penalty level safeguards in place for misuse/abuse of information gained through mass surveillance, you don't get to do it.

Not with our permission, anyway.

They are trying to scare us to get their way. This sounds like what Terrorists resort to, to get their way. These people are no different than Terrorists and they should be treated as such.

A punch is not a bullet, and not all provocations are the same...

Is it wrong to shoot someone for their speech when they are not trying to provoke you personally?

Yes. No exceptions.

Is it wrong to punch someone for their speech when they are not trying to provoke you personally?

Yes. No exceptions.

Is it wrong to shoot someone for their speech when they ARE trying to provoke you personally?

Yes. (However, whether or not there are exceptions to this rule -- and what those exceptions might be -- would be a different (and fascinating) discussion all its own.)

Is it wrong to punch someone for their speech when they ARE trying to provoke you personally?

Highly, HIGHLY debatable, and probably not answerable by any objective standard, as every culture has its own definitions for what the "acceptable" provocations are.

Pope Francis' comment falls within the scope of the fourth question, not the first. Don't make the mistake of confusing the two.

For me, working in an office is about maximizing Communication.

Well, lucky ducky you.

For ME, the office is about getting the Assigned Task done in a reasonable amount of time.

Collaboration is sometimes necessary for that. In those cases, an Open Office is helpful, but certainly not necessary (they're called "legs").

However, most times, Collaboration is not necessary, in which case Open Office is about as helpful as a rabid badger being shoved down your pants.

People can make sanctimonious statements about filtering out environmental distractions being a "higher order" neurological activity, but those of us doing actual Grown-Up work often need to concentrate on the Assigned Task for extended periods of time without interruption, and Open Office sucks up mental bandwidth that would be INFINITELY better spent on the Assigned Task.

I wonder if it's any accident that this happened AFTER the mid-term elections, but well before the 2016 presidential election season really gets underway...

(You think Christmas comes early? Hah!)

Cuban exiles are a big voting block in a big battleground state, but obviously somebody decided to risk kicking this hornets' nest now in the hopes that the furor will die down by 2016.

I'm not going to spend time working on something that'll be rejected out of hand by the deletionist admins / basement-dwellers / other powers-that-be.

Life is short. No point in wasting it.