Mammoths don't travel at 500+ mph. Planes don't leave footprints or take great, big dumps on the ground to announce where they've been. Now, if they create a mammoth that can travel at 500 mph across water, I concede that yes, we may lose track of it.

I have personally frozen cells in a step-down freezer, then submerged them in liquid nitrogen for years, taken them back out, thawed them, implanted them, and had them grow. So...way.

Sure. Woolly mammoths are pretty big. One might even call them mammoth. If one gets out, it won't be that hard to find.

Besides, we shouldn't be talking about creating a population of these things yet. Lets create one and see how that goes. It's not like it's going to run off into the forest and sprout more.

No, but you also can't call the manufacturer and insist they unlock it for you. If they happen to offer that service, sure, you can use it, but the manufacturer might very reasonably require you to prove you have the legal authority to do so, which is pretty much what Apple is doing.

The inheritor is legally entitled to the data on that device (as they would to any other intellectual properties like writings, patents and works of art created by the deceased)

That may be true, but I don't see how you giving someone your iPad creates an obligation on the part of a 3rd party to help you read it. If you're going to give someone your iPad after you die, give them the password, too. Maybe dear old mum is quite happy for them to have the physical device, but didn't want her children pawing through her digital life. Who is Apple to decide that?

Jokes aside here, Apple is just being a dick, which is really what we can expect from Apple.

Quite possibly. Were I Apple, I'd want to help out, but I also wouldn't want to set the precedent that you can call me up and ask me to unlock someone else's device and I'll do it. Now if you give me solid legal cover, like, oh, say...a court order, then absolutely I can help you out.

Actually, that's not what I see. At that very same Home Depot, I paid for my stuff and saw the little notice pop up on the cashier's register "Would you like to pay for this with your Home Depot Charge Card?" Cashier said not a word about it and just dismissed the notice and saved me having to decline their annoying credit card offer. (No, I don't want another credit card, and I most certainly don't want a store credit card.) You might be right that most still have policies that call for doing this stuff, but a lot of drones have tired of it, and I appreciate it. Large companies may still push annoying practices, but if someone with a brain or conscience cuts them off before they reach me, I'll give them a pass for it.

Maybe it's regional, but the upsell is uncommon enough that I still notice it. I don't always object, either. I bought new homeowner's insurance and they wanted to sell me every other kind of insurance. I just told them "Here's what I'm paying now, if you can beat it, give me a quote." Didn't hear a word back from them.

If an employee didn't ask every customer about a cell phone AND a satellite dish they were fired. Even before that turnover was like a fast food place.

Funny, that's the kind of thing that makes me quit shopping at a store. Last time I set foot in an OfficeMax was when the manager walked away just shaking his head in dismay at what a stupid decision I made not to buy the extended warranty on a camcorder. I probably spent a decade not so much as walking into a Radio Shack after they actually refused to sell me a battery because I wouldn't tell them my phone number.

Just yesterday, I had somebody come up to me at Home Depot and tell me they were "giving back to homeowners" and did I own a home? Yep, sure do! What would I change about my kitchen? Well, I'm actually here for a deeper sink. Blahblahblah, they wanted to sell me cabinets. Hey, thanks for wasting my time lying about what you're doing. You're selling cabinets, not giving anyone anything. I won't quit doing to HD over that, but I will quit talking to your little sales weasels. I hate being rude to people who are just trying to make a buck, but don't waste my time with drivel like that.

Anyway, sorry for the minor derail. My point is that there's money to be made in just selling people what they need without a lot of annoying up/cross selling.

M99, aka etorphine. I enjoyed that show and had to look it up to see if it's real. It is.

Interesting. I had the same experience with one of the oxycodone + NSAID combos. I forget which one. Might have been vicodin. Anyway, I had a severe toothache that was going to be a Monday morning root canal. Oxycodone over the weekend was the pain management plan. I found it was less effective than the 600 mg of ibuprofin, so I quit using the oxycodone and went back to the IB. I was still in pain, but less pain.

Then every patron with a brain and a spine says "No thanks, I'll take my chances. I won't hold you liable if I lose it, which you wouldn't be anyway." Granted, there aren't many people these days with both, but I'll tell you where to shove your bus before I hand over my phone.

They probably cut science class one too many times and never took the make-up tests.

Exactly.

We should at the very least stop enabling the endless price hikes by putting the university's skin in the game. As it stands now, you can take out huge loans for college. The university gets their cash before you even enter the classroom. If they sell you a degree that is worthless, they don' t have to care (much). They still get paid. If you can't pay the loan, they don't care, they already got paid. You also can't generally default on the loan through bankruptcy, so those loaning you the money don't care if you ever make a dime back on the degree, either. They'll still get theirs.

Room and board is usually a separate line item on the bill, so tuition is not going up because students want (or get) individual rooms.

Won't help. The primary impediment to travel is other cars. If you can get everyone else to buy ice tires, or hell, just teach them to drive on snow, I'd be fine.

Not even that. 50.5 million people voted for Dubya, or about 16% of Americans. If you want to cut to a more reasonable "Americans eligible to vote", then 26% of that 194 million voted for him (or Gore, for whom 51 million voted). There were 129.5 million registered voters, so 39.4% of them voted for Gore and 39% for Bush.

Even if you go to people who actually voted in the election, Gore got about 48 1/2 %. Still not a majority.