Neutron-star density, as in one baseball of the stuff weights as much as 1000 Mount Everests. This stuff would fly through the Earth without too much resistance, even without slowing down too much.

It's due to the rotation of the earth, duh! Those down-under rotate the other way, but they are upside down also, so it compensates.

You haven't met my wife, who does the exact opposite: When traffic is dense and difficult, I tend to focus more on the road than on what she is babbling about, which causes her to become mad with me, making the whole situation even more challenging.

Yes I did the same for my parents, who were stressed about doing stuff like online banking on an XP machine after support ended. Installation was a breeze, everything looked perfect, amazing OS. It put itself nicely next to the existing XP installation, just in case they really didn't like it. Good to go, but...

Then the little annoyances started: Caps lock doesn't behave like it should (not a US qwerty keyboard), everything is a mix between English and our local language, the included firefox doesn't play nice with the online banking website, and so on. I know that each of these problems is easily resolved by someone that knows a little bit what they are doing, and some google skills (set up capslock behavior, learn to deal with English, included firefox version has known issues with some extensions, etc...). But for people that never even heard of linux before, that use it only for "where do I click for my online bank, and the internet?", this is a nightmare. Ever tried to apt-get somthing over the phone with people that don't even understand why every command has to be typed just right?

Long story short, they still use XP. Next time I am over, I can try to get everything set up right, but for a first user experience, this is very unfortunately a bad experience.

TLDR: Linux, why you always have stupid small problems and shoot yourself in the foot?

If we can only export refined oil, it means we have to refine it on US soil. This is a dirty business, producing loads of crap you don't want in your environment. This ban forces us to destroy our own environment, while exporting the goodies that come out of it. This doesn't seem long-term smart.

Exactly. In the Netherlands and Belgium, there have been hundreds of youths recruited to go fight in Syria. Dozens of them have been killed already, often by fellow fighters or competing groups. They mostly end up with the most radical factions, related to Al Quada, adhere to strict Sharia law, and are too extreme for all other groups (citizens and "decent" rebels alike). These are the guys that send back videos of them decapitating innocent elderly people, playing football with their heads, raping and mutilating anyone who dares cross their path. Recently, a bunch of these guys were found in a large villa with a pool, living in luxury, in some conquered village in the north of Syria. Their passtime: kidnapping, raping and killing innocent women. There were 30 bodies already...
We do NOT want these people to come back to the west. They are DANGEROUS, and I fully agree that whoever goes to Syria right now gets at least some questions on return.

You just reinvented futures, and how to earn money with them. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futures_contract

The contract you are mentioning is like a futures contract. Futures contracts can be traded just like any other security on exchanges. AFAIK, there are no futures contracts in bitcoin, yet...

Yes. Now imagine 1500 used rods, totaling 250 metric tons of spent fuel, mixed with 200 brand new shiny unused ones, lying in a large pile of mikado in a damaged pool on bent supports 30 feet above the ground, partially cooled by seawater that is eating away the zirconium rod housing, and with the roof collapsed on top of it. What could possibly go wrong...?

Please read the entire article. They state explicitly that the 300 beta versions that are gonna be sent out in a month will have 4 buttons instead of a touchscreen. The one that ships in 2014 will have a screen instead. The display on the touchscreen will be overlayed on the TV as well, so you don't have to look at the screen if you don't want to. There is no reason to assume the screen won't be in color, that technology is more than mature.

The trackpad is clickable as well. touching it will bring up the selection screen briefly, but will not actually select something, for that you have to click.

If you allow trades only every 10 minutes instead of continuous, you will end up with a whole lot of additional problems, and the big players will take advantage of it again anyway. Let me explain.

First of all, the "price" of a security is the price at which the last transaction happened. Normal people like me and you consider this "the price" of that security if we want to buy it. Suppose you want to buy a security at a certain price. You give an order out, buy 10 shares at price X. If a sell order for shares at price X exists, these orders are matched up, and depending on the sizes of the orders, executed partly or completely. These order are public knowledge, and the order books are visible: I can see that there are 1000 shares bid at price X, 900 at X-1, 789 at X-2 etc..., The same for the ask, so many shares at X+1, X+2, and so on.

Several algorithms use this knowledge. If I want to buy a gigantic amount of a given stock at once, I will be forced to buy the 1000 shares that are offered at X, then the next 900 offered at X+1, etc., so I will end up paying way more than X on average. The final price paid will be "the" price of the security after my buying spree, and will be significantly higher than X.

Now how can you make this work with 10 minute trading intervals? Normal people can't find out the current "price", since the last transaction was 10 minutes ago. You could look at the bids and the offers, and their volumes, to get an idea of what the price might be in the next trading slot, but these bids and offers can be made and cancelled within milliseconds. If I bid X, and see an offer for X-1 appear, I can cancel my bid, and bid X-1. It would be stupid otherwise.

HFT firms will still run their algorithms, manipulating these orderbooks to steer the price, and putting in bids in the very last millisecond. It might end up being even more profitable for them, since all the "sheep" that cannot trade so fast, or god forbid, use a keyboard to enter trades, will be fleeced even more: Now you see an order come in, you quickly frontrun it and make one cent of gains (before someone else is able to react). In a 10 minute system, you see order coming in, and have plenty of time to manipulate and steer the price before the orders will be executed.

I'm a European living in the USA for half a year now. In Europe, I cook every day, usually with nothing but fresh vegetables, sometimes canned veggies, some herbs, and high-quality meat (no antibiotics or hormones are allowed in Europe). We bake our own bread, use olive oils and butter, drink plenty of wine, and generally feel healthy.

Here in the USA, some people don't even have a kitchen. The bread tastes horrible, spongy consistency and very sweet. People eat breakfasts that look more like dinner to me. Eating out 3 times a day seems the habit, not the exception. Go into a bar and everyone is chugging pint after pint of beer, often accompanied by liquor. My wife didn't want anything alcoholic, and she got a very confused look from the bartender, "so, a coke then?". People are walking around with large recipients of ultrasweet soda's or stuff that has to pass for coffee but tastes more like melted ice cream. The entire country smells like bacon. In Europe, people try to avoid eating fries more than once a week, here it is considered a vegetable, and I see people eating them twice a day.

I gained 30 pounds in 6 months here, and I know why. I also know that once I am back in Europe I will lose all of it without any effort or ever going hungry. In fact, my body craves all the veggies I am currently not eating, and even thinking about a nice veggie soup or ratatouille, and then looking down to a supermcfatburger with extra everything makes me want to trow up.

It is very simple: If you, as a customer, buys an electronic device in the EU, and it malfunctions within 2 years, you are entitled to a free repair or replacement. There is no discussion possible. The store you bought it from has to take care of it, whether it is the manufacturer itself or some reseller. Its their problem.

Agree completely. I used to be a gaming addict back in the university days, mainly counterstrike and racing games, and these skills once almost saved my life. Driving to my parents house, we were on a busy road when the car in front of me had a collision and spun around. I could immediately respond, and avoided hitting it myself. My brother that was with me in the car was terrified, and didn't even realize what happened until we stood still much further. I am sure the gaming made the difference between an adrenaline-fueled insta-response, and a panic-driven "whathappens! whatdoIdo! crash!".

For IEEE journals, the pay for a reviewer is zero. As other people stated, it is considered part of the job, and an honor actually, since you are regarded an "expert" in the field.