Nope, they don't underlie the scientific method. They are merely tools of the scientific method. Immeasurably useful tools, but it is the scientific method at the base, not mathematics, logic or philosophy. When experiment shows that mathematical models can successfully predict observed phenomena, those mathematical models are used. When experiment fails to show that such models do so, they are tossed out. They may still be of interest to mathematicians, but scientists have no further use for them.

But what about Q?

We'll have to ask M.

you aren't getting contacted by a Nigerian 411 scammer with some dead relative or something or other and trying to deposit a magical sum of money in your account.

And then he offers to look up phone numbers for you! Perhaps you meant 419.

Case in point right here in my home state of Virginia: The state's Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control stores (commonly called "ABC stores"). As part of the state's alcohol laws, licensed stores can sell wine and beer, and licensed bars and restaurants can sell booze by the glass. If you want hard liquor by the bottle, you have to buy it at an ABC store, which are state-owned. They turn a profit, and that profit goes into the state's coffers.

I've never had a wireless cord get unplugged from moving my PC.

I've never had a Cat5 cord get unplugged from moving my PC. Unless it's physically broken, it latches securely in place. You may wind up on a shorter tether than you realized, but you won't unplug it, at least not unless you're much rougher with your equipment than you should be.

It must take longer to boil water in the US then. In Aus a standard electric kettle has a 2.4kW resistive heating element.

You don't see many kettles with built-in heating elements here. People heat their kettles on the stove, which will either be gas, or if it's electric, will be on a special high-capacity circuit.

I can see it now, a comic book super villain and his swarm of programmable insects.

You mean, like this guy?

And who will be blamed? Why, the researchers who discovered this incredible negligence, of course! "If you hadn't shown the hackers how to do it, we never would have this problem!"

Silly man, everybody knows, "Step #3: Profit!"

My company does this. You're entitled to reimbursement of your Internet connection charges (not the whole cable bill, of course) up to $50/mo. This actually doesn't cover my whole ISP bill (thanks, Comcast!), but hey, every little bit helps.

"Looks like you've blown a seal." "Just fix it and leave my personal life out of this."

You can't.

This isn't necessarily universal, as it's not required like 911 access, but you can certainly do it on my phone. Go into "People", select "In case of emergency" (it's big and bold at top) and you can select contacts from your contact list to be emergency contacts. These can then be called from the lock screen with the "Emergency contacts" button.

My Android 4.1.2 on a Verizon DROID 4 certainly has it. It's required to be there. Look at the bottom of your lock screen (It *is* a lock screen, right? Requiring a code to unlock the phone? It's not there if your phone's not locked and you can just swipe to select the function you want).

It would really surprise me if your Android phone *doesn't* have this feature, because it *is* required by law. Mine certainly has it.

The *right* way to cover the "hit-by-a-bus" scenario is to put all your passwords into an encrypted repository, and only give your wife the password to the repository. Ideally, the repository should then be placed in a safety deposit box that can't be accessed outside of the hit-by-a-bus scenario, but that would admittedly be an extra expense and arguably overkill.