My wife and I played Everquest II when I was in my thirties, and our guild was basically run by middle-aged women. One of the best parts of the game was camping boss mobs--sure, it took a while in that game but it was fun socializing with a variety of people from around the country, and the world. There were also limited online game references back then so it was a chance to compare strategy notes. The demographic of mature folk made for a pleasant social gaming environment.

I was in 3 different long lasting D&D groups in the 1980s. I think most of us would have loved to have girls join, but no girls played with us in that decade. Whenever we got the balls to ask a girl to play they just looked at us like we were crazy, like they would get nerd cooties. I went to a D&D convention in New Haven at that time and I remember there was only one girl out of about 500 guys. She was very popular, with a whole lot of guys wanting to be in her group.

There certainly was a social penalty for me being a nerd at that time, but I didn't feel I had a choice. I loved gaming and it was part of my identity. At that time, however, I think there was a larger penalty for female nerds coming from the non-gaming community than for male nerds. Any girl joining our very small and admittedly not very attractive group probably would have been marked as a pariah by mainstream social groups.

We'll get there within a decade after building a space elevator.

Not quite sure where you see the No True Scotsman. I believe you believe it is "Countries over 100 million". As in, "No countries over 100 million can compare their infrastructure to countries under 100 million," which I don't think quite fits the Scotsman. You retort with "Country A can be compared to city B". I say that is comparing apples to oranges.

I'm tired of the fact that the United States, a country that spans a continent and contains more than 300 million people, is constantly compared to countries with populations comparable to New York City. If you are going to compare anything infrastructure related in the US to another country, make sure that country has at least a hundred million people.

DM: "You walk into an underground chamber. At the other end of the chamber is a large chest with a lock. On either side of the chest is a marble pillar carved into the shape of a woman. The woman on the left has a sword and the woman on the right has a battle ax."

Thief: "I take out my lock-pick and walk to the--"

Magic-User: "Don't move! Those statues are going to come to life!"

Thief: "What makes you think that? That sounds quite unlikely to me."

Magic-User: "You're new around here, aren't you?"

Astronomers expect a certain amount of lithium based on current theories of element formation in the early universe. Apparently they are wrong, bringing about, as Asimov observed, the most exciting phrase in science, "Hmm...that's odd,"

Hmm, interesting. That's not how I interpret the phrase "It's reasonable to expect..." at all. I interpret it as "Reason tells me that a certain outcome is the most likely to occur." I think we should take a poll to see which is the most common interpretation.

Sorry, but it really is unreasonable to expect ALL people from credibly threatening the lives of others. After all, these are people we are talking about. Maybe you don't have a lot of experience with people, but some are really messed up. Since we are talking about credible threats, it's reasonable for us to kill anyone who makes these credible threats.

As a disclaimer I'll point out that the above threat is not credible.

If you live near a star and you have solar panels, you won't need expendable fuel.

Unfortunately, for most people's everyday online activities, they can get traced back by a sufficiently informed an connected agency and are not truly anonymous anyway. I see a future where anonymity and privacy are going to fade away, and most people will just shrug and say 'meh'. We give away privacy for convenience ever time we use a credit card. We do it every time we use a smart phone. Currently, it only exists for those who actively try to be anonymous.

The only way the Russian's can "win" this propaganda war is if they can somehow convince those Europeans who make decisions about sanctions that they had nothing to do with the downing of the passenger jet. People will want to know where that Buk missile launcher came from, who gave the order to shoot, and where that missile launcher is now. If there is any evidence that the Russians had any direct involvement with this, no amount of propaganda will help them outside of the regions where they have complete control of the media.

But can you ride on it?

They have a 'bit' of a smog problem in Guangzhou, but the hotel I was at had an excellent breakfast pho bar.

Hold on a sec ... is he trying to say that bitcoin can help rectify problems caused by weak currencies?