Quote (balrog66 @ Dec 22 2016 05:42am)

I honestly think it is overrated. It's definitely still one of the biggest if not the biggest innovative area in the world, but respectively to other innovative areas I see it as overrated. When people think about technology, their first thought generally is Silicon Valley (with good reason, mind you). But the significance of other innovative areas is severely underrated.

Areas like Seoul, Daejeon, Amsterdam, London, the Rührgebiet, Bavaria, the Eindhoven Brainport, Paris, etc etc are pretty much never mentioned whilst still being responsible for tons of technological innovations. Whilst they individually might only compete with Silicon Valley in select fields, as a whole they have greater impact.

Quote (Voyaging @ Dec 22 2016 10:46am)

I mean those places probably aren't 10% as important over the last ~50 or so years.

Quote (Landmine @ Dec 21 2016 09:58pm)

There's nothing you've stated with any form of evidence. I think you're just an uniformed liberal.(like most of the people in California)

Quote (balrog66 @ Dec 22 2016 05:56am)

Maybe for the computing industry.

Other industries aren't as Silicon Valley focused.

Quote

A Chinese auto glass tycoon has caused a stir by shifting part of his empire to the United States and setting up a factory in Ohio, citing high taxes and soaring labour costs at home.

Cao Dewang's $600-million investment comes after Donald Trump threatened to declare Beijing a currency manipulator and slap 45 percent punitive tariffs on Chinese imports to protect American jobs.

The 70-year-old tycoon's decision to open a glass factory in the eastern American state of Ohio in October -- a rare case of jobs being exported from China to the US -- triggered an outpouring of criticism on social media.

Quote (balrog66 @ Dec 22 2016 04:56am)

Maybe for the computing industry.

Other industries aren't as Silicon Valley focused.

Quote (excellence @ Dec 22 2016 11:21am)

https://www.yahoo.com/news/china-tycoon-moves-jobs-us-citing-high-taxes-093204655--finance.html%27



[x] winning [ ] not winning

Quote

John Bolton’s bad mustache is just a bad excuse.

Bolton, one of Washington’s most belligerent hawks, sports a hairy caterpillar over his upper lip that makes him look like an escapee from a 1970s porn film. According to The Washington Post, Bolton’s mustache might have cost him the secretary of state job because President-elect Donald Trump is fastidious about the grooming of his employees:

Several of Trump’s associates said they thought that John R. Bolton’s brush-like mustache was one of the factors that handicapped the bombastic former United Nations ambassador in the sweepstakes for secretary of state.

“Donald was not going to like that mustache,” said one associate, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak frankly. “I can’t think of anyone that’s really close to Donald that has a beard that he likes.”

Can this be true? The fact is, Bolton’s extreme views, such as his repeated calls for the bombing of Iran, have raised the hackles of even Republican senators like Rand Paul (who threatened to block Bolton if he were nominated). Isn’t it more likely that Bolton’s mustache, far from being a deal-breaker, was just an excuse the Trump transition team cooked-up to justify not pushing forward a nominee they knew would lose?