I'd make popcorn in Professor Hathaway's house, of course.

Last I checked, the Kindle is capable of reading and displaying quite a few non-DRM formats. You're stuck with DRM if you purchase books from Amazon, yes, but nothing about the device itself locks you into DRM.

As of 2011, Russia uses feet.

Incorrect. In China, they do not use the term "Flight Level", but merely specify an altitude in meters. In Russia, they use foot-based Flight Levels as of 2011. See here.

You were saying something?

It probably would, but it's still easier to work with muliples of 10. That is, after all, the entire idea behind the metric system. It just happens to work well in this application using Imperial.

It's a bit academic, since we're pretty clearly stuck with what we've got, and it (usually) works. :) Changing over would be a nightmare. I still wonder how Sweden managed to switch from driving on the left to driving on the right overnight without complete chaos. Okay, maybe it wasn't totally smooth.

You are correct. They're (wisely, I think) taking baby steps to get there, observing the performance of the engine and the vehicle with each increment and making any necessary enhancements and improvements based on returned data. The most recent test was a 20 second engine burn. IIRC, the eventual goal prior to passenger flights is a 90 second burn, so it'll be going much, much higher.

That is for passenger convenience/understanding. The pilots are talking to ATC in feet and in English, no matter where they are in the world. I prefer metric for almost everything, but like it or not, this is an accepted side effect of the United States pioneering commercial airplane traffic.

Also, it's actually somewhat convenient because 1000 foot vertical separation for flights in opposing directions is a good distance. There's no metric equivalent that's as easy to compute, so this is a rare example of Imperial actually creating easier math instead of harder.

You can find information about the functions of the Equadorian Coast Guard (which is part of the Navy) at http://www.armada.mil.ec/fuerza-operativa/coguar/ . Health emergency-related airlifts would fall under the first of their tasks, "Salvaguardar la vida humana en el mar." The map of what they consider "el mar" can be seen at http://www.coguar.dirnea.org/images/stories/guardacostas/mar_ecuador.jpg .

Airlifting people with medical emergencies from the Galapagos Islands to the Ecuadorian mainland is part of the Equadorian Navy's job description. You'd have received the same treatment and so would I.

Now, the quality of the medical care you receive afterwards might be affected by your wealth or influence, but the airlift is something they do for anybody who needs it, and it happens all the time. The only reason this is "news" is because of the notoriety of the patient, not because of the airlift.

FTFA: And any game hoping to top this list would have to beat off strong competition from World of Warcraft, perhaps the best online role playing game.

Yep, you lost me right there.

...or you could live in a country where it's absolutely commonplace to use BIC/IBAN to transfer money for all payments, both for bills and for individual-to-individual, and the banks don't charge a cent to do it. The concept of a cheque simply doesn't exist here.

If a friend asks me to loan him 20 bucks, and I don't happen to have it in cash, and don't want to tell him to fuck off, I'll say, "sure, just give me your account number" and it'll be in his account in seconds. Easy peasy, no charges, no Bic to bust out.

Of course, this wouldn't have been so easy before ubiquitous smartphones, but what with the majority of people here having smartphones and dataplans (and my bank having a pretty kickass mobile app so I don't have to use a clunky phone browser), it's really the way to go.

Hahaha. Oh wait, you were serious? Let me laugh even harder.

Think about carefully next time you're driving down the road in a vehicle that gets around 12% effeciency from the gasoline it burns.

Okay, the whole polling group was 1003 people, but the Slashdot blurb is speaking specifically about those who say they oppose the printing of gun parts at home. TFA says "Just those who agree that Americans should be allowed to own 3D printers were then asked... Do you think Americans should or should not be allowed to print their own guns or gun parts in their own homes?" Only 62% were okay with home use of 3D pritners, so in fact the number of people questioned about home manufacture of guns or gun parts was just 622 people, not 1000.

It's the night before Vappu. We're way too busy getting drunk in Finland.