Well, the percentage of the earth's surface that is black tarmac (and similar asphalt surfaces) has been increasing steadily since the beginning on the previous century....

Cat-5 or Cat-6?

In a state which still practices excecution, I wouldn't want to settle for any amount of error

Also, it's not just the police/government mistaking someone's identity that is scary

I find myself bemused by people....

I'm constantly amazed by people who think you have to do only 1 thing to fix *any* problem

Most problems need a multi-pronged approach.
For instance the budget: It's not spend less or find more income. It's a combination of both.
Overweight? Diet and exercise
Unfriendly foreign power (or neighbor): Carrot and stick

Were that the case, I would expect to see pillars of salt all over the place.
And a lot more lightning strikes picking individuals out of a crowd (or off certain pulpits).

I wish the engineers (EE, working in telecom) were required to spend a year working as a field tech installing and maintaining the system before the company allowed them access to AutoCad.
The stupid, obvious, un-maintainable things that come out in most of the work orders are just staggering.
Most times we're up to at least a Rev.C work order before the damn thing is able to get running the way it should be.

... and apparently, spelling is too hard for "prople" like me.

And, of course, doing science here demonstrates to local school kids that it's something that can be done here, by prople just like them.
As opposed to the "durr science is too hard for us. I'm gonna get a good job at starbucx. I don't need to learn this math-n-science stuff" approach that seems to be the current norm.

People get a sense of accomplishment from making things. That provides a psychological boost.

That's all there is to it.

Of course making things isn't the only way to get a sense of accomplishment, but making things does create a physical object that re-enforces that good feeling whenever we see/use it.

Routing and signal processing.
If they're doing a lot of processing as part of their noise reduction, there could be a significant delay added (in each direction)

There are still a lot of retailers whose POS won't accept chip-n-pin, 3 or 4 years after it was introduced here.

Also, I don't think anyone will be in a hurry to jump on this bandwagon if there are multiple, non-compatible "standards" out there.
And there's this too:

In other news:
a petroleum pipeline explosion has killed at least 100 so far today in Kenya.
From linked article:

"The scene is horrific, with charred bodies all around. I cannot differentiate between men and women or boys and girls. All that is left are bones, and the only way to identify the children is from their smaller skeletons."

Pretty much my first thought too.
A couple of private trackers that I'm on have recently reversed their policy on VPNs, now allowing them for existing members who can demonstrate an e-mail address or IP from NZ

And , yes, there are cappers, uploaders and seeders from NZ.
It's cool seeing travel shows from other places. I've learned a lot about the Kiwis since I joined.

That sounds more like evolution in action than anything else.
Survival of the fittest.

not that it's a great idea to be (inadvertently or intentionally) creating environments nasty enough to need evolution to be part of the survival strategy.

It still is.
As you said, all you need to do is physically go to a ticketmaster retailer (or *gasp* even the venue's box office), and you can select any exact seat you want if it's not already sold.