Well, you Americans will insist on having a Government run by family dynasties.

I'm not convinced Jesus of Nazareth existed at all.

I wear a Citizen Quartz watch which cost me about $NZ100 in about 2006. It is a nice watch, it keeps pretty accurate time and shows the day and date. When I bought it there were lots of other watches for sale. I could have spend $20 or $8,000, but around $100 seemed the appropriate price based on my income and the quality on offer. When the time comes for me to replace my watch, I will need to consider whether a connection to my smartphone is something I need, so I will consider whatever smartwatches are available when that time comes. However $100 or so is really the most I would be prepared to spend, so the various Samsung watches I see around ($300 - $400) and now this Apple watch ($350 US which will wind up being NZ$800 or so) are just too expensive. I suspect I am reasonably typical among the watch wearing public too, based on how few of these items seem to sell.

I used to see the sad Mac icon about twice a day on average. Early 90's trying to use Photoshop. We would restart at least twice during the day.

I was wondering about that myself, (not that the Martians surfed) but how high the waves might get. First of all the gravity on Mars is about 38% that of Earth, Secondly, the sea in that totally convincing graphic looks like it goes around the whole planet, like the Southern Ocean on Earth, so would 100 metre waves be possible?

Public Domain's not the issue here, when the American Statistical Society opposes this bill, there must be some serious problem somewhere.

There's no way of doing that. Feynman said "I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics". You've probably got no chance. :-)

I'm not sure Iran is quite what you think it is. Sure the current government there is dictated to by a Theocracy, but it is also (after Israel) the most democratic system in the entire middle east. Elections in Iran are a (somewhat limited, it is true), vibrant exchange of ideas, and candidates are elected to the People's House (Parliament) who have quite different views to the Mullahs. Also the people of Iran are not all sword waving Muslim extremists. I give the current political system in Iran a generation, and it'll be swept away by a new generation who won't be dictated to anymore. Source: Regular political arguments with a (Muslim) Persian, (Christian) Iraqi, a (Muslim) Egyptian, and me, an Atheist Westerner.

You may be correct, and what you say is plausible, but I have the feeling that the Islamic bit of the Islamic Republic might be a bit half hearted. I worked with an Iranian lady who laughed when someone mentioned how Muslims don't drink. "You've never met a bunch of lushes like the Iranians" she said, and told us all a great story about the purchasing of (illegal) booze in Tehran in the 1980's. I wonder if their attitude to these things is that rules are made to be broken.

They have very high food costs.

No people will be put in this sub. It will be a drone.

The pdf says: "Measurement of the trace organic components of the sea, which perhaps may exhibit prebiotic chemical evolution, will be an important objective, and a benthic sampler would acquire and analyze sediment from the seabed." Why would the seas on Titan only exhibit prebiotic chemical evolution? Titan is about the same age as Earth, surely? Would love to know more about the possibilities of evolution of life in such an alien environment.

I vaguely wondered about flash over the weekend just gone, as I reinstalled Windows. Then I forgot about it and installed the various programmes I use, (Office, Photoshop, Chrome). I won't need it at all it seems.

I'm not sure I understand you correctly. Since the EU was formed, (or, more precisely, it's previous incarnations as the common Steel market, Common Market etc) Europe has been at war with itself no times. Over the previous 15 centuries or so since the fall of the Roman Empire, there has been no period of peace as long. I would say the EU has been nothing but success, as it has prevented young men like my Father from being drafted into an army and sent to fight a bunch of young men he had no real quarrel.

The only job I've been drug tested for is my current one. The factory guys are all drug tested randomly, and management decided that it was only fair if everyone had to be tested too. I'm not sure if it has any relevance, but the company is American owned, (but I'm not in America). Luckily for me my drug of choice is made with water, grain, hops and yeast.