The problem of abuse on forums and online can be solved with good moderation. Unfortunately, most online sites don't bother to have someone ban users or delete posts based on users abusive behavior.

A properly moderated site enforces civil behavior - psuedonym or not.

Personally, I can accept that with technology advancements, the speed of which crime / terrorism / evil can adapt and execute has gotten equally faster. Countermeasure that do not keep pace have been or will soon be rendered obsolete. Therefore, losing some privacy may be a necessary evil.

The problem is the lack of any checks and balances to prevent abuse. If the NSA has to access my phone records because they have credible evidence that doing so may prevent a crime, no problem. By the time they apply for and receive a warrant or wiretap, it may be too late.

But the NSA employee who happens to disagree with my political beliefs, or is screwing my wife, or merely wants to discredit or inconvenience me (or worse) because he thinks I cut him off in traffic... those are the missing protections that need to be put in place along with the access of my data.

Mod Parent +1 for use of a computer analogy in a discussion about cars!

The Ti-994a was also my first, and really was a great machine for game programming, considering the era.

It supported sprites and collision detection. I remember writing a (poor) clone of centipede, and an original, adolescently-influenced game I called "Gasman", where said hero of the game was chased by baddies. You would vanquish said baddies by letting them get close on your tail and then... well, you can figure out the weapon system. I was 13 or 14. :)

From there came the C64, which will always have a fond place in my heart. Tasting the next realm beyond basic with "Peeks" and "Pokes", and eventually assembly language.

Great times, indeed.

Texas also has pushed back on the manufacturer-direct model

http://money.cnn.com/2013/05/20/autos/telsa-car-dealers/index.html

I especially take offense with this argument:

In reality, if Tesla were to go out of business, individual mechanics would open shop assuming there was a business demand. If there wasn't any demand, then it wouldn't matter if the sale originally involved a dealer or not. (Unless said former-dealer was unclear on the concept of business.)

That's very insightful. +5 for you,kudos. Except the example posted where the op supported a warrantless search wasn't arbitrary.. it had a defined circumstance (timeliness of knowing the data might save a life.)

Maybe my sarcasm detector is still spinning up this morning. Are you missing the probably inevitable outcome that when firearms can be replicated easily, at home or a dark basement, that it's going to be come *easier* for criminals to get them?

And your statement isn't universally true either. Mexico has very strict gun laws - it's very hard for law abiding citizens to get them. And that hasn't lowered gun-related deaths there.

The relationship between gun laws and gun crime involves other variables. Poverty... stable government... education levels...unemployment... culture... Honestly given the complexity involved, I'm not even sure we have a big enough sample size to truly build a reliable model.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DW-2xaIDtMk

It' still price prohibitive, but people need to quit saying, "3D printing is only good for making plastic crap."

I'm surprised the Print-Your-Own-Gun folks haven't created their lowers on one of these yet. Maybe that's because these machines still cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Cost will eventually come down here, too.

I've found that often times, people who go through life thinking that everyone else is an asshole, often turn out to be the assholes themselves.

It'd be just as fine if you did read 'super' as 'sugar' : http://news.discovery.com/tech/sweet-sugar-batteries-120927.htm

Discussion: http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/12/09/28/234255/sugar-batteries-could-store-20-more-energy-than-li-ions

Instead of spending millions on pest control and mitigation, we should spend those dollars on marketing, showing the benefits of using these snails as a valid food source. Once enough people perceive them to be edible, or better yet, desirable, then the problem solves itself to the benefit of our food production system.

Collectively speaking, we Americans have had the luxury of eating premier proteins (beef, chicken, pork) for so long that we've become spoiled and will have a hard time getting over the 'yuck factor' involved here.

I'm surprised that no one has made (or at least, made public) an AR lower using Direct Metal Laser Sintering. As others have mentioned, the stress on the lower receiver isn't terribly great, so I would think DMLS lower's would perform fine?

So,let me get this straight. Instead of inventing something in the US, you recommend taking it to China, where "Their economy is driven because they copy, then improve, in an iterative process without regard for intellectual property considerations..."

Truly you have a dizzying intellect.

It's not really 'weird instances'... you're describing Jeavon's Paradox

In a nutshell, it states that increased efficiency of a resource actually increases the depletion of said resource. e.g, as MPG of cars increases via efficiency, more people will accept longer commutes, resulting in a net increase in the use of fuel.

Exactly this. If anyone wants a great read, check out :The Big Scrum: How Teddy Roosevelt Saved Football

FTS: "In its infancy during the late nineteenth century, the game of football was still a work in progress that only remotely resembled the sport millions follow today. There was no common agreement about many of the game’s basic rules, and it was incredibly violent and extremely dangerous. An American version of rugby, this new game grew popular even as the number of casualties rose. Numerous young men were badly injured and dozens died playing football in highly publicized incidents, often at America’s top prep schools and colleges."