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Step back and look at things from China's perspective and it's a completely different view. They are badly energy dependent on imports of oil and nat-gas. Their move into the south china sea is very aggressive towards their neighbors, but totally logical if you think about it from an energy...

I've read about a bunch (several million homes) of those ghost cities scattered all over china. It's a serious problem. Someone needs to do a "The Big Short" style documentary on this. The china stock market is down a lot this year and it's looking like it has a lot more to fall before it's...

Now that the new 'NAFTA' is worked out on paper, I suspect Mexico is a top destination for a whole bunch of companies. Cheaper labor than China and shipping stuff to the US is a fraction of the cost. On another front, China has a real problem with national debt... much worse than even the US...

Another few years and Hollywood may be a completely different place. It's a good thing they're practicing all their political skills today, because they may need them soon in order to find a job.

I was thinking it was only around $20K / year to house an inmate in prison (in Texas). How does it cost $40K / year to take care of a homeless person in SF?

Well, that's Britain and Monty Python. No matter how PC they get, being a bit edgy in the UK seems to stay in style. Besides, trashing Christians seems to be OK with Hollywood and most critics. I think you could get your funding to make that movie. :) None of them have the guts to actually...

So, basically your average Mel Brooks movie? Can you just imagine someone trying to make Blazing Saddles today?

Ditch all the unnecessary PC stuff and just make good movies then they won't need a new fancy AI program. If the story needs some gay guys.. fine. Adding some just so they can score a few PC points... well, not so fine. They've become so obvious and desperate in their efforts to push...

James Bond's car has arrived:

Why can't the Star Trek announcement just be about a new ST movie coming out... give a brief intro and name the actors / directors / producers... nothing else? If it's a great movie, then everyone will praise it (and the women who worked on it). If not, it's just another mediocre / bad movie...

I don't know if they suffer from outright 'corruption', but their image of being only after the truth and politically non-partial has certainly taken a beating.

Oh Wow, Good Nyborg!

We'll know one way or the other about China in the next 4 or 5 years... same with Russia. The Russian demographics are so bad that their army will only be roughly half the size by 2022. The average male lifespan is around 60 years old in Russia.... combined with them forgetting how to have...

China is just doing what it has to for survival. They have a huge debt (worse than the US by a fair amount) and an aging population (the 1 child policy has left them among the fastest aging countries on the planet). They need heavy government control or it may all fall apart. China's economy...

I still have my 1981 Rotel turntable and several hundred albums to play on it. I still occasionally play vinyl records as I really like some of those old albums (which still sound great as I've taken care of them).... BUT it should be noted that I haven't bought any newer music on vinyl since...

How many of us are old enough to remember Max Headroom?

I wonder how long it's going to take Hollywood to figure out that their $20 million / movie actors are just about to be digitized out of a job.

I'm wondering how 'fuel taxes' are going to be handled. Diesel and Gasoline taxes help pay for the roads. Right now EV's aren't taxed like that... but when enough of them are on the road, they will be.

http://federal-budget.insidegov.com/d/d/Jimmy-Carter

Silicon valley was the birthplace of much of the worlds innovation for the last few decades. It's not anymore. It's still a powerhouse, but it's just one of many.

I love how everyone gets their panties in a wad against all businesses and their owners... even though most people wouldn't have a job without them. They also tend to forget that the US isn't alone in the world anymore. It's possible that the US is already behind in the race towards automation...

Russia is all about state security because Russia is one of the least defensible countries on the planet. It's huge in area and the population centers are easy to march into... like most all the rest of the European plain. If you have some time (an hour), this is a really interesting look at...

Here's hoping they add the Asus X99 Deluxe... It's not on the list 'yet'.

I finally upgraded to ios 11 last week. Those little red notifications don't bother me.

Buffett gets bashed on a regular basis by 'new investors' who think his way of doing things is antiquated. Those that knock him had better look back at his record and note that he still beats the market averages year after year...

Wizardry... My favorite old 'low graphics' game. Until all the griefers finally ruined it, Ultima Online was great. All the pickpockets that stood around trying to grab your stuff, while wearing nothing themselves, became a huge issue. If you killed them to get rid of them, you got flagged as...

I've always thought a small moon base would be a better spot to launch deeper space missions from (Mars or bust!).

I'm betting Verizon is going to regret paying that much.

If taxes start falling due to robot labor, governments will likely assign robots an hourly wage equivalent (based on type of job being replaced) and tax the companies accordingly. If a robot replaces 3 jobs, then that robot will have a really high wage scale attached. I also suspect most 1st...

I agree the tech is still in the future (as well as insurance revisions, legislation on who would be liable in an accident, etc), but I think the government will be OK with allowing it to happen. The government will just figure out a way of taxing the AI as if it was a 'real' person it's...

High rents, high debt load, online price competition / low profit margins.... There's plenty of reasons brick-and-mortar is having a hard time.

Douglas Adams - I figure rats and mice are pretty interchangeable: Mice are merely the protrusion into our dimension of hyper-intelligent pan-dimensional beings who, unbeknownst to the human race, are the most intelligent species on the planet Earth. They spent a lot of their time in...

Still rockin my iphone 5S. It's a good little phone that does everything I need it to.

Energy / carbon emissions have been going down (per capita) in the USA for a decade and will continue to go down going forward. The question isn't about the US or the industrialized world cutting back on carbon. The question is the 'emerging market' world. The west became powerful because we...

I think this is one profession everyone can agree has too many practitioners of. Fewer lawyers isn't necessarily a bad thing!

Our entire highway system would have to change. There would have to be lanes dedicated to only allow autonomous vehicles or human drivers would be causing way too many wrecks vs. the AI one's. There's also the huge problem of economics. How many people do you think will be able to trade in...

If and when they ever figure out / let us buy ONLY those channels we actually want... at reasonable prices and with an included DVR so I can fast forward through all the damn commercials.... I will consider rejoining the cable market. It's not likely to happen, so I'll gladly continue to forgo...

It might be $1000 today, but it will only be $50 in 5 years. Only the extremes (rich or poor) will have any hope of any privacy soon as the rich will find a way and nobody is ever going to bother keeping track of the guy that can't afford anything being offered.

It's a bit more expensive, but satellite internet is available just about everywhere. It may not be great for gaming, but it's perfectly fine for streaming movies. You can get 50GB of download data each month (25mb download speeds - 3mb upload) for under $100 / month.

I'm betting in the long run, the movie studios will try and corner piracy by making all major movie releases have a subscription service only option. So, you won't be able to buy a physical copy of a movie on Amazon any more, but you will be able to buy the digital version and stream it on your...