Every time I use a keypad, touchscreen, or other computerized device outside of my own desktop or laptop, I use my longest finger as my pointing finger. This is a habit I picked up my father, who is a longtime computer engineer.

He and I both find that using the longest finger to control such devices is very cathartic.

Your point is incisive and thoroughly annoying to me and my worldview.

To answer as completely as I can:
I do not wear a helmet all the time (for example, when walking or entering the bathtub) because I am not placing my safety in the hands of my fellow Americans when doing so. When the margin of safety is a foot and a half at best and there's nothing between me and the car passing me (like a curb would be were I pedestrian, or a grab bar in a tub) at speed differences of twenty or more miles per hour I would like to improve my chances of surviving being knocked off my bicycle cheaply and effectively.

No, my question is actually "Is spending $25-$50 for a marginal or even theoretical reduction in the chance of serious brain injury worthwhile considering the immense value I place on the spongy tissue behind my eyes?". It is rhetorical, because for me the answer is "yes".

Please, I love science! Show me more science!

I can't respond to number one quantitatively because I've literally never cycled without a helmet on, ever. All I know is that American drivers scare the bejesus out of me. I trust them enough to not clip me when they pass me in the bicycle lane when I stay in it and that's about it.

As for point number two I'll take your word on the studies (I can't be assed to dig anything up). I will still wear a helmet because I feel the additional protection is absolutely worthwhile.

By the by, I never suggested anywhere that I thought mandatory helmet laws for all was a good idea. I live in California where the helmet is legally required until age eighteen, and I can literally count the number of children on bicycles with helmets I've seen on two hands. I personally think you should wear one or not as it suits you. I was just explaining why I didn't understand why people would want to not protect their brains, their selves, their perception of who they are, and all the money ever spent by or for them.

I never understood people who don't wear helmets when cycling. It's the soundest investment advice ever. The way I see it, all of the money ever spent on or by me ever was invested into that spongy liquid soaked warm stuff between my ears. Every single tax dollar, every single Christmas present, even the money I gave to charity.

If I can reduce the chance of damage to literally the most valuable thing in my life by wearing a $25 helmet OF COURSE I'M GOING TO WEAR A HELMET DO YOU THINK I'M STUPID?

Yes, I'm going to become a legal vehicle driving on roads next to American drivers who zip past me at differences of twenty or thirty miles per hour with inches to spare and I'm not going to wear a helmet because I can't be bothered and/or it makes me "less cool"? I don't think so.
Idiots.

I live in California.

Correct. I have one.

Any idea what to spend a $25 Amazon gift card on that's not a video game, now that I have the "pleasure" of paying sales tax on it?

I mean really. What should I get? Ebooks? A life time supply of aglets?

Well, for one I simply don't use disguise kit and the build and destruct menus as much as I do my main weapons. I personally have no difficulty quickly hammering 4 and 5 for my build/destruct menus. You may be right about spy's knife, I absolutely never play the class and wouldn't know myself. I've rebound slot3 to "A" for easy reach, and I've never had any trouble getting out my melee weapon when I needed it, and I play no small amount of demoknight.

Ever since Valve added the automatic reload option, I've rebound R to serve as a voice menu shortcut. Hold down R, and then leftclick and rightclick become "yes" and "no" respectively. Scroll up becomes "positive" and scroll down becomes "negative". Release R, and controls are restored instantly.

I own Metroid Prime 3 on wii. I agree, it feels very natural, and is quite pleasant to use. But as an avid multiplayer FPS gamer, I can tell you instantly why your idea of using the wiimote fails.

Boot a Metroid Prime game on you wii, load a game, and do a 180 degree turn.
Go ahead, I'll wait.

Did you notice? It took several seconds to rotate 180 degrees, and another second to recenter your aim. That's why your argument falls apart. Mouse-using players can achieve 180 degree turns in literal fractions of a second, depending on individual skill and current mouse sensitivity. And because the crosshair is always in the center of the screen, you're centered already and you may fire at will. A learned habit of every multiplayer FPS gamer is to continuously check their six. This means 360 degrees of sum total rotation, every couple of seconds. You can't achieve that with the wiimote controls of Metroid Prime.

Which isn't to say it wouldn't be possible to achieve better control. Imagine a thumbstick on the wiimote that controlled orientation (and could be depressed to act like a secondary button). Change visual orientation rapidly with sufficient fine-tuning and waggle the wiimote to control the crosshair.

Here is what I do in TF2:
Scroll up for slot1
Scroll down for slot2
press 3 (or rebind, or whatever) for slot3.

No muss, no fuss, instant weapons select for both my ranged weapons and a quick button press for melee.

People do all kinds of strange things. I know a guy who always rebinds mouse1 to move forward and the numpad for other functions. I know another guy who used HJKL as movement keys. Compared to them I'm normal, I use ESDF for movement.

No.

This is the single most inflammatory and weaselly-worded sentence in the article, and it's the first frigging one.

Perhaps it's pedantic by this point, but I am tired of stupidity like this and I'm just irritable enough right now to attack some misinformation.
"Anonymous" is not a group. It's not a collective. It's not even an "it". Anonymous is synonymous with "the masses", with a specific connotation of anonymity and being on the internet. I'll grant that XxXTeamNameChosenByMiddleSchoolersXxX is a "member" of anonymous, but that's like saying that Barack Obama is a "member" of the human species, it doesn't mean anything useful.

Stop doing this.

It's less of a minority than you might think.

I have discovered that I still love books, but for portability and easy reading, an e-ink e-reader beats out everything else.
I can hold it in my left hand, lovingly flip the page with a gentle stroke of the thumb, and because it's so light and easy to use I commonly forget I have it in my hand. I can hold five hundred books in a quarter the mass of a single thick paperback, always have my place, flip the page as fast or faster than a real one and with less effort, look up words I don't know, use it as a notepad, use it as a browser (on wi-fi), and because I've rooted the thing I even have an IRC client on it.

I'm already allergic to a major component of food cuisines the world around. Specifically, I am allergic to milk proteins. Want to give it a try? Go for a week without eating any dairy. No milk, no pizza, no ice cream and no cheese. Read every label, don't eat anything with whey or casein in it. Your mind will be expanded. You have literally no idea how many things on supermarket shelves have milk byproducts in them.

I have a few notes to share with you if you want to try this: 1. The less processed the food, the less likely it has milk byproducts in it. 2. Real sourdough has no dairy. 3. The only labels you don't need to read are the ones that say "vegan" on them. 4. Most soy cheeses have milk proteins in them anyways. 5. Soy is your friend.

Optionally, you may try my other food allergy at the same time: Shellfish.

So long as we in the US continue to subsidize corn and raise livestock on it, meat will remain in easy reach of residents of the united states. That's not even considering how an entire huge segment of the population would take the news that they can't do big barbecues anymore. I'm not saying this is a good thing, I'm saying this is what I anticipate will happen.

The most useful script and language to learn is the lingua franca of the twenty-first century.
Spelling, grammar, the common pitfalls, and for bonus points: writing and reading for comprehension.
Everything else can flow from there.