jqm

Also preferable to the shark jumping you.

Grabbing a bit of Syria would hardly have been worth the propaganda disaster though. The world wouldn't have reacted very favorably... particularly the Muslim world.

And yes, Israel has some extremely good technology. But they also have some pretty fierce enemies. See their incursion into Southern Lebanon a few years back for instance. They also don't have that large of a population. It probably is in their best interest they aren't seen as expansionist.... for the moment at least.

I guess I'm ok with Stuxnet. What I am most decidedly not OK with is the assassination of Iranian scientists. Iran has a right to be upset... it's only a wonder they aren't more upset.

I keep hearing young people don't want to farm but I think there are plenty that do. The problem is, they don't have the experience, nor the millions of dollars in credit required to buy a farm.

Programming for a career does appear to affect the soul. I mean soul in the sense of self and relation to the world around self and general sense of happiness. I thought it was just me but I'm noticing it in others. Don't get me wrong... the excitement of solving problems and making things is addictive. It's a really nice high. But it definitely take a toll as certainly as laying bricks or driving semis day after day does. I don't have any actionable advice. I try to take time to do other things.. projects in the physical world. It helps some. Maybe you should get a job and change environments. Maybe you should do something else for a while. IDK... but I do feel for you.

Yes, this appeared to be a very lazily written article. It basically lists a bunch of variations of materials molders and postal workers.

I've never actually owned a smartphone. Well.. that's not true. I had one of the first internet connected phones (I think) back in 2001. I used the internet like 10 time on it. It was (as you can imagine) pretty horrible.

Fast forward to now. I don't want the internet at all times. I don't want a $100 a month phone bill. I don't want a $500 device that can fall in the toilet. And most especially, I can't abide little tiny screens. I have $12 Nokia flip phone. My monthly phone bill is less than $25 on pay by minutes. I also have an internet phone at home which costs maybe $30 a year or so and I use for most outgoing calls.

I look at everyone, (including my GF who couldn't live without her smartphone) and wonder what it is I don't get. Sure, mobile net could come in handy at times. So I went and got a nexus 7. It hasn't been powered up in 6 months and that was just to make sure a web app I was working on displayed correctly. I'm a tech guy. Not a Luddite (I don't think). But I just really can't stand smartphones for some reason. All that poking at a little tiny screen... when I have a keyboard and 2 27" inch monitors in the next room along with a couple of laptops. A spiral notebook at the cost of 33 cents works really well for keeping shopping lists and notes. And the form factor is a lot better too. I guess I'm getting old. I just don't get it.

That's certainly the hope. But I'm not sure it will turn out as intended though. The thing about people on Facebook is that they are people on Facebook. It might capture some of who they are (or who they want people to think they are anyway) through the lens of social networking. But it's going to be at best a one dimensional view and I'm not sure how effective at summarizing or manipulating people (that part is coming later:).

Right? But worst case, they can probably deduce how Scalia would have voted (which certainly wouldn't be allowed even though it's likely to be pretty accurate in this case).

His choice of words was harsh but I think he does have a fair point. The demographics of rural areas don't make for good dating opportunities for educated, secular professional young people.

I looked at a couple. Probably for the same reason a girl in the mall looks at how other girls are dressed. And my analysis... OMG such a slut! (kidding... but I do like looking at other people's work).

Ya, well, we're all gonna die one day too. (Maybe). I can't prove it though and I'm unsure of when. But please indulge my worrying about it's immanence. I am a glass half empty kind of guy.....

As for the apocalypse, I've been waiting since 1980. And its coming to the point I've about given up. I'm still eating long term dried food rations packed in 2006 and they don't taste very good. I'm kind of starting to suspect that things change but somehow life keeps right on going.

Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.

-Marcus Aurelius

I'm self employed and have an away from home office also.

Like OP it makes a break between work and home. Plus, a few times clients have dropped by to see something. Also, I get dressed and see neighbors from adjoining offices on a regular basis. So I don't become a totally socially inept nerd.

I don't have any kids but if I continue with this, I fully expect to get more than 43,000 worth of value out of the office over a 10 year period.

Weren't Americans (or at least their ancestors) generally dissatisfied with their lot in the first place and that's why they became Americans?

I don't know that dissatisfaction and mistrust is genetic but I'm guessing it probably gets passed on culturally, at least to some extent.

IDK... that could have happened at some point.

Besides, that's like saying "no one ever got all baked and left their child in a hot car because they were carrying a gun.." In other words, it's kind of a pointless point.

My understanding is that there are a relatively small proportion of "Syrians" fighting against the Syrian government.

I wish the whole left-right paradigm would fade away. Personally I feel it's a bit of an artificial dichotomy.

I'm all for governance by good sense with an eye toward improving society in general.

From black lung to carpal tunnels.....

This is one guy I wish would just go away. He seems to be perpetually advocating for war.

Same thing on Firefox/Linux

Nature is good but isn't necessary to trip.

The first time I took LSD was under less than ideal conditions. It was in high school... and I mean during school hours my junior year. It was 1988. Yes, stupid and irresponsible I know but it was a great experience.

I only took 1/3 of a tab... a friend had it and we split the tab between three of us. Coincidentally there was a field trip that day for Jr's and Sr's and I had not turned in my permission slip and so didn't get to go. I suppose that's how I justified taking LSD in school to myself. Everyone else was already gone on a trip so....

The friend who had the LSD was a "bad kid" and was in in school suspension so he went to sit under out of class supervision all day. The other friend got on the bus and went off on the field trip. I went to mostly empty classes.

I had guitar class that semester. The class was mostly freshmen and sophomores with shag hair aspiring to be the next Metallicas and Iron Maidens. They were a pretty wild group. I on the other hand was outwardly at least pretty studious and responsible and respectful of authority.

The class had a sub teacher that day because the regular teacher was chaperoning the field trip. So there wasn't a real lesson... just a bunch of amateur Bevis and Butthead antics while the sub teacher read a magazine and I sat in the back watching the whole thing with a godlike sense of enlightenment. At one point one of the kids wadded up a paper and threw at the sub hitting her in the head. I didn't see who it was but did see the paper hit her. So she flips out and starts yelling. And I'm trying not to burst out laughing. Not because she got hit by a paper, but because of the utter ridiculousness of the whole situation. Here we all were, on a little ball of mud in infinite time and space and we don't have anything better to do but sit in a room wasting limited time and acting up and throwing papers and get upset when we get hit by a papers. And that's what life in society was... silly monkeys acting out because they didn't understand the deeper implications of existence. And now I knew how trivial it all was and it was entertaining to watch.

So the sub gets really mad and calls in the assistant principal. He come in and says "OK, who threw the paper?". No one speaks up. I'm just grinning away in the back at the petty foolishness of the whole thing. He sees me and singles me out.

(principal) - "Who threw the paper?"

(me) -"I didn't see who threw the paper"

(principal) -"Ok... if you don't tell me who threw the paper you will get detention"

(me) "If you have come to a place in your existence that it is your destiny to give me detention, than I will take the detention, but I did not see who threw the paper".

At this the assistant principal stops and does a double take. He pauses for like 30 seconds completely confused and bewildered (and briefly wondering about his destiny). But he can't back down so he gives me three days detention. So I tell him "I accept that this is who you are and this is what you feel you must do, but it does not in any way affect who I really am". At this he does another double take, gawks for a bit and then leaves the room.

Later he comes up to me at lunch and apologies for his anger and rescinds the detention. And he is looking at me like I'm some kind of strange wizard or something. I just smile and say ok, fine and keep eating my lunch.

I never looked at the social/organizational aspects of school the same again. I also never took LSD in school again. I'm in my 40's now and even though I did have other experiences later I haven't for nearly two decades and wouldn't take LSD at this point. I'm not against it.. I just wouldn't take it. I don't think I need to. I have gotten out of it what I think I can... some useful, some maybe not so useful and honestly I have zero interest in exploring it any further. Sorry for the long post. I think the original point is that sometimes being in a normal situation under the influence of LSD can give you a whole new perspective that is actually more truthful. It breaks the layer the mind puts on reality and you have no choice but to see a more objective view of the situation. It's certainly not reliable though and a lot of confusion results sometimes in people thinking things that aren't really so. And sometimes you mind needs to put a layer over reality for you to function. Just my opinions.

I see your point, but to be honest I'd probably pay not to have to attend Christmas parties at many places I've worked at. I suspect I'm not alone in feeling like this. Point being I don't know that this is really much of a perk......

A few hundred bucks per attending employee for a Christmas party is a lot by most working people's standards... probably like 12x + what their company would spend.

Adobe Contribute... i.e. Adobe code mangler.

That's been my experience in the past with these kind of tools as well. Its easy to make a mess.

A better candy bar. Most of the commonly available ones are far too sweet and filled with cheap filler like peanuts or sugar spun air (I guess they call that nougat or something).

It's like they keep reducing the quality somehow... I can't put my finger on it. I swear candy bars were better quality when I was a kid. I know it seems small... but a really good candy bar would go a long way to improving my world! Disrupt Mars!

Agreed on benefit to the group. But that doesn't mean it wouldn't also be a vast improvement for society in general.

Because one stands to gain from an idea doesn't in and of itself make the idea a bad one.

I saw the Challenger explosion live. I was a sophmore in High School in Florida and standing outside at lunch. Shuttle launches were a fairly regular thing and I'd seem many. But this time I could see the trails as parts fell away to earth. It wasn't like the fuel tanks the fell away usually. I was talking with a guy named Wes. He said "that doesn't look right". It didn't. After lunch there was announcement that the shuttle had exploded.

It doesn't seem that long ago really. The weird thing is.. in that same amount of time in the future I'm going to be a 75 year old man:)

What do you mean? That comment was useful.

We can't have unclosed parentheses or the compiler will throw an error.

The massive and rapid dissemination of knowledge the internet has provided will produce vast and unknowable changes over the next several generations. I believe it may be ultimately a considerably larger change than the industrial revolution. Knowledge changes everything.

(Of course then there's Facebook so maybe I'm being overly optimistic.

I believe that is the solution to the problem and I'm not sure why others don't see it.

Stop taxing labor. It's counterproductive. Tax what really does belong to everyone... the land and raw materials.

This approach (in addition to more morally just in my estimation) would have the added benefit of built in environmentalism. There would be a financial incentive to do more with less, to conserve and to recycle.