You're right. I was looking at it from a story arc perspective rather than a quality perspective.

I wonder if there is a way to reorder that fits the best episodes of season 5 in appropriate places in season 4. Then we could still get the "far in the future" ending, which was an excellent way to end the series.

I know it's difficult, but the series arc works better if you ignore season 5.

I was going to respond, but it's too easy a target.

> Fact is that micro pollutants are just now entering the threshold of human understanding

Or perhaps micro pollutants are just now entering the threshold of human measurement, and the News is reporting it because it's a new thing. (Hence the name.)

Perhaps, but with the understanding that part of your time will now be devoted to maintaining the automation you created.

Wow, that sounds like a similar problem I was having with a dlink router years ago. It worked like a champ until my connection was upgraded (from 15Mbps to 25 Mbps) and then it started regularly rebooting. I read online it was something to do with the router not being able to keep up with the speed of the modem, an overflow would occur, causing a router reboot. Replaced router, worked fine. Later used old dlink router when setting up DSL at mother-in-law's house, and it worked fine. Still in use now. If she ever switches to cable modem / fiber, it'll probably have to be replaced, though.

I'm not him, and this was years ago, but when I moved from Comcast to Speakeasy DSL, (lucked out and got 3Mbps over my phone lines -- the best Verizon could do was something like 750K) I also made the decision that I also didn't need the ubiquitous cable TV and unlimited long distance calling that was bundled in. The savings really was about $150/mo. But arguably, that's cheating, because fewer services. But not really cheating, because they were services I wasn't using.

Currently have fiber to the house and no cable TV at all, and pay a fraction (a sizable fraction, but a fraction nonetheless) of the bundles Comcast keeps trying to sell me.

> This video is nothing more than an ad.

I've watched it and I agree. That's even more insidious because it serves to reinforce the expectation that the car doesn't need someone reasonably alert in the driver's seat.

There's an old urban legend about a guy leaving the driver's seat of an RV (on cruise control) to use the bathroom. Personally I've never believed it, but it does serve to illustrate something about expectations.

Judgement (and self-preservation) isn't a step function, it's more like a bell curve. And you can bet your bottom dollar that there will be a hopefully small but nevertheless significant portion of the population, down on the left end of the curve, who will think it's ok to have nobody in the driver's seat, or (more likely) someone asleep in the driver's seat, while the car is driving itself. It's statistically inevitable.

...because the expectation, among the unwashed public, is that a self-driving car will, you know, drive itself. It's even in the name. That there still has to be an operator in the driver's seat with hands near controls and looking outside is counter-intuitive to the concept of "a self-driving car".

I mean geeze, google "autopilot related accidents". And pilots get a lot more training than mere automobile drivers.

Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!

In Modern Family, it's the handheld camera that will flag a joke. There will be a pause in the conversation for the audience to "get it", and the camera will twitch or zoom in and out slightly to tell you there's something to get.

Although, I'll admit that this is less irritating than a canned laugh track, it's still a "tell".

Side issue: Why isn't Modern Family considered "gay blackface"?

Yes. And to a certain extent, in TBBT, Leonard serves (with varying degrees of success) as Sheldon's social handler.

Is it possible that Snowden still knows a way to get into the machines he used to manage?

A long time ago, I left a company where I had been the sole admin for several years. I had been training up a PFY who eventually replaced me. His last assignment was to find my back door and close it. From my new job, I'd occasionally log into my old machines, have a look around, and send him an email to watch for this thing or fix that thing. He eventually figured out that the usenet news service account had a password.

I know I know, but it was a different time.

Point is, maybe there's new leaks because Snowden still has a back door into his old machines?

I'm not a vi fanatic, I use it because it's commonly available, not because it's particularly powerful or intuitive.

Back in the old days, when IBM PCs weren't yet everywhere and people were still commonly using terminals, I used to tell new users to play Rogue for an hour or two before trying to learn VI. It helped.

Well... ok... but why would you go to a BBT taping if you hated the show?