Azalin

What are these advantages given businesses by the government?

Film is not one of my areas of expertise, but music and recording is, and there is a strong belief among some professionals that there is a warmth in analog recording that can't be attained with digital. If I had to guess, I'd say that also held true with some film makers.

Good grief, I watch few movies as it is. Looks like I'll be watching even fewer.

Anywhere I've been in Spain, Ireland, or the UK have separate restrooms for men and women.

I was unaware of that, but knowing a bit about Roddenberry's sensibilities, it makes perfect sense. That describes my feeling as a fan completely. I have no desire to watch any of the new DC-inspired movies, and those were the comics I grew up with almost exclusively.

Come on over to Texas. Even Austin, by far the most liberal city here, is sane compared with what you've got going on over there.

I watched the entire season and absolutely loved it. I'm definitely looking forward to next season. I've never read the comics either, but I know they've deviated from them considerably. Seth Rogen was saying that season 2 will be more like the original story.

Exactly! I'm almost 30 years his junior, and that's exactly how I sound.

Because college is no longer about learning, it's about having your ignorance validated.

I thought is was funny that as a Latino, he couldn't spell "sombrero".

http://heatst.com/culture-wars/one-college-ditched-its-entire-cinco-de-mayo-celebration-because-of-a-single-student-complaint/ “The massive flyer had Sam in a sumbrero [sic] with Feliz Cumpleanos on it,” the student wrote in a bias report reviewed exclusively by Heat Street. “The event advertised a burrito bar and salsa lessons for some reason and if this were an isolated event I wouldnt [sic] think twice about it. I feel as though whenever an event like this is taking place we go straight to stereotypes and it is EXTREMELY offensive! If that were not enough on Cinco de Mayo the dining services team decides than in honor of a glorious victory against french colonizers in Mexico we should decorate the dinning [sic] commons. The decorations included blow up chili peppers, pancho decorations, donkey piñatas and other overtly racist and clearly ignorant decorations.”

It looks to me like it's nothing more than businesses filling niche markets. Which reminds me - does Naked News still broadcast?

I don't see how it's ever been possible for any news organization to be truly objective. As human beings, reporters, editors, station managers, etc have always had their own values, emotions, morals, and personal biases. I believe that many of them, perhaps more in the past than in the present, have maintained a conscious effort to be completely objective, but even the best can only do so much. I believe things changed significantly during and after the Watergate hearings. Woodward and Bernstein's exposure of the government involvement in the break-in and subsequent cover up brought down a lot of powerful people, including a US president. My personal belief is that those events inspired many young people to become journalists, not to be reporters as chroniclers of events, but instead to "make a difference" - to be activists. At that time, the villains were Nixon and the Republicans, and I remember very clearly the anti-Ford and pro-Carter sentiment that was obvious in the reporting of Walter Cronkite, Harry Reasoner, Howard K Smith, followed by the antagonistic regard for Reagan by Cronkite's successor Dan Rather, Sam Donaldson, etc. CNN brought the 24 hour news cycle to cable television, even displaying a degree of objectivity early on. They eventually began to display the same biases as the major broadcast networks, which eventually left a market opening for Rupert Murdoch and FOX. With FOX reporting from a decidedly more conservative point of view and people like Rush Limbaugh dominating the AM airwaves, news - especially political news - turned into the confirmation bias machine that we have today. The irony being that with all these news outlets and blogs everywhere, it's even harder to get honest, accurate news without sifting through a mountain of crap to get it.

While I don't disagree, I think most people understand (or they should, anyway) that low-skill manufacturing jobs will never pay the kind of wage earned by people who design, program, and service automated production, and that the latter is the future of any real manufacturing that will exist in the US in the near future. Tech isn't just the future, it's already here. While I oppose this sort of thing on principle, Musk is taking advantage of the government's decidedly political stance on forcing clean energy instead of fossil fuels. I would do exactly the same thing were I in his position. Couldn't agree more. My mother's parents both worked at the Bassett furniture factory near Martinsville, Virginia for most of their adult lives. They worked their asses off, and earned a pittance for it. The demand for higher skilled, better educated employees in factories such as those is a win for everybody, imo.

Yep. Couldn't agree more. Good grief, they recast the entire crew of the Enterprise, and now they can't either recast one person, or write a convincing reason for him to be absent? How bloody unimaginative can you get? Besides, Checkov wasn't even an original crew member - he was added to the cast specifically to reach out to the teeny boppers of the 60's, and Koenig was picked because of his supposed resemblance to Davey Jones of the Monkees.

Again, his numbers are completely arbitrary, and by extension, so are any numbers plugged into his presumed methodology. People like Musk should be universally lauded, both for their ability to turn their vision into reality, and for their ability to do so within the onerous regulatory and restrictive environment we have in both the US and the rest of the world today.

I'm a fogey, and I know better. If they're younger than me and don't understand the advantages of automation, then they're just stupid. Lots of people do. I couldn't care less. Your numbers are arbitrary, and your use of the word "worker" is synonymous with "drone". Do factory employees want more jobs and higher pay? The only way to do that in the US and have any hope of competing internationally is to automate factories and get technical training, preferably a tech or engineering degree.

You're right, and what's more is that with robotic assembly lines you have a need for higher skilled employees. Instead of low-skilled people working the line, you now need programmers, engineers, and maintenance technicians. In addition, robots consistently perform one complete function (on average) approximately every 60 seconds with no breaks, and are able to perform tasks that are potentially dangerous, if not lethal, to humans. Way too many people buy into the "robots are putting people out of work" BS - all that's really happening is they're creating a demand for higher skilled (and higher paid) labor while helping to reduce on-the-job injuries. It's a win-win.

That looks great to me. I've never understood criticism of Musk's endeavors - I'd like to see more like him.

I believe this has already been posted, but it's buried pretty deeply by now, so here you go - somewhat NSFW:

I appreciate your honesty. I am not a Republican, but I believe very strongly that the party has been unfairly maligned by a continual propaganda assault from the left ever since the 60's, and that it's been going on for so long that it's an easy prejudice to hang on the party as a whole, based almost entirely upon lies. Most nowadays are unaware that it was the Republicans that were formed out of the Abolitionists, that they were the party that championed the civil rights crusade (which was opposed by rank & file democrats), and even were responsible for creating the EPA. Neither the Republicans or the Democrats are without their demons & firebrands through the years, but an objective look at actual (re: accurate) history will completely contradict the image that the Democrats have been able to bestow upon the modern Republican party.

If so, then a hell of a lot of sarcasm is going right over my head lately. An emoji can go a long way in helping avoid this sort of thing. Hogboy, is that you?

You don't know much about the history of the GOP, do you?

When you can out-Gatorman Gatorman, I believe credit is due.