You may be technically correct. I'm sitting in my chair right now, so I'm not standing.

The original idea of Java in the browser was that it would be sandboxed, that applets would run only in the browser, and therefore that it was safe. I suspect Flash had the same intentions behind it. ActiveX was just stupid, back when what Microsoft knew about security was that it was towards the back of the dictionary. There's no fundamental difference in security between Java, Flash, and Javascript.

Moreover, plugins and Javascript have different purposes. Plugins are what I install in my browser to do various things. Javascript in web pages is what other people want me to run.

Nah, I use NoScript. It's a bit of a pain, but I really don't like random people running programs of their choosing on my computer, no matter in what language or interpreter/compiler.

Eugenics has a bad name, and not just from Hitler. There have been some pretty horrifying eugenics schemes in lots of places. As an idea, it seems to make sense, but then so does communism, and I haven't seen any attempts at communism on a national scale that turned into anything good.

Think of it as having a number of character sheets with the dice rolled, and being able to select among them, rather than having dice loaded for 6s.

We remember Einstein primarily for relativity (which isn't the only major thing he did), but the reason for that is not really related to intelligence. Poincare worked out all the applicable math before Einstein did. The difference between the two is that Einstein followed the math where it was going and was willing to ditch fundamentals of physics (like space, time, simultaneity, etc.). You aren't going to find that on an IQ test.

Which is why I'd absolutely love to see something besides plurality of votes in US elections. My city has a ranked-choice voting system (although, without primaries, the number of choices got out of hand last election), and I'd love to see it on higher levels. After the Minnesota gubernatorial election that Jesse Ventura won (as an independent), I heard a lot of people starting sentences with "At least it wasn't", with either the Democrat or Republican candidate following.

There's a lot of things besides intelligence that govern how much money one gets, including, for example, how much you want money. I've had a few career opportunities that would likely have gotten me a lot more money, but that I thought would make me less happy. (I make enough money developing software so that making more is not a necessity.) If I had more entrepeneurial spirit, I might have followed through on some ideas to start businesses, and might have become a lot wealthier (or not), but that spirit isn't intelligence. I've seen people substituting hard work and determination for talent, and being reasonably successful at it. On the other hand, I know some intelligent people who are probably sacrificing $70K/year of income in order to serve in their church.

My attitude is that, if I don't have to pick a given OS for the applications (often games) that run on it, and if the form factor is bigger than a phone, I'll just run a standard Linux distro. I don't see the use for a locked-down computer from a company that makes its money with user information that doesn't even run Guild Wars 2.

Right. If our government officials have done nothing wrong, they have nothing to hide, and nothing to fear. Could I get statistics on government intrusions into people's privacy, please, with justifications?

The other difference is that HIV is hard to catch. You need sex, or some visible amount of blood, or you're pretty safe. Ebola apparently can be caught from minor errors in onerous procedures.

Okay, what's your medical and/or epidemiological background? I'm interested in what people who know something about this think.

How about "would work but people would evade them"? To get everybody to abide by a quarantine, it has to be made tolerable. No killing of pets, help for lost income, that sort of thing.

Um, in one case I consume electricity and in the other packets. Both are rate-limited depending on the equipment, and possibly by agreement. In both cases, my suppliers have to have a physical connection to the last mile connection. There really isn't any difference. If I'm only using, say, 60 amps of electricity, that's 60 amps on the line regardless of where it's coming from. If I'm downloading 4 Mb/s, that's 4 Mb/s on the line regardless of where it's coming from.

In short, you're saying that you simply won't hire somebody with demonstrated ability in a field, and would prefer to take your chances on somebody who might or might not be good? Get the legal department, or your lawyer, to advise you on the patent issues.