Please watch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjALf12PAWc

That's not the scary thing. That's the only thing that is at all positive. You can't put the genie back in the bottle. And given that, the most empowering thing you can do for people is to make the same powers of observation available to everybody.

*Bullshit.*

Watch the news clip. He states was holding his hands up empty when he entered the room, and the police do not dispute this. There was, according to some reports I have read, a loaded gun in the room.

The fact that you embellished this part of the story makes me suspect that some of your other statements also might be less than the unvarnished truth.

People have been trying to measure intelligence for well over a hundred years now, but I have yet to see anybody precisely and fully define exactly what it is they are measuring.

And don't say IQ - the only thing IQ tests measure is the ability to do IQ tests. Read up on their history. There is nothing scientific about their origin.

If I can sit in my car and work at my laptop, or read, or phone the first client of the day I'll care a lot less about how fast I get there. Much like people today who take the bus or train to work.

Often people speed because they are driving and that' all they are doing. Most of the time they aren't even late, they just like going a bit faster and it's fun. You don't usually tell your taxi driver to put his foot down unless you really are late for that very important meeting.

GP's point is still valid though. Given similar materials and tools it's not unreasonable to theorise that two geographically separate cultures simply came up with the same general solution to the same problem.

Actually it's the Crown Law Office in NZ that is first in line to be sued. It is the entity that took action against him. And that would be a criminal case (unlawful arrest and seizure of property) although parties in the US might be liable for civil damages.

  Of course IANAL.

Actually the pirates are the products of the destruction of the Somali fishing industry from illegal over-fishing by foreign vessels.

Reference.

Reference.

Although I grant you that the lack of a functional government in Somalia was a contributing factor.

You don't see what's actually there, even with no artificial augmentation whatsoever. Your brain does a vast amount of subconscious processing of the light that comes to your eyes so that you can see all those three dimensional things.

Check out some funky optical illusions.

And use anacron or cron to run it

!/bin/sh
# Time Machine equivalent for Linux. This backs up the local root filesystem.

# Set variables
LABEL=HardDriveLabel
MOUNT=/media/${LABEL}
BKPDIR=${MOUNT}/backup/laptop
CURRENT=${BKPDIR}/current
DEVICE=/dev/disk/by-label/${LABEL}
EXCLUDES=${BKPDIR}/excludes.txt
LOG=${BKPDIR}/rsync.log
NEWDIR=${BKPDIR}/$(date "+%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S")
OPTS="-aqx"
UMOUNT=

SOURCES=/

die () {
    # If we mounted the disk, unmount it again
    if [ ${UMOUNT} ] ; then
        pumount ${DEVICE}
    fi
    exit $1
}

# Is the backup disk plugged in
if [ ! -e ${DEVICE} ]; then
    exit 1
fi

# Is the backup disk mounted
if ! grep -q ${MOUNT} /proc/mounts ; then
    pmount ${DEVICE} ${LABEL}
    UMOUNT=1
    # Give the disk time to sort itself out
    sleep 3
fi

if ! grep -q ${MOUNT} /proc/mounts ; then
    # Still not mounted, give up.
    die 1
fi

# Make sure the backup directory is there
mkdir -p ${BKPDIR}

if [ ! -d ${BKPDIR} ] ; then
    # mkdir failed, give up
    die 1
fi

# Set extra options
if [ -f ${EXCLUDES} ] ; then
    OPTS="${OPTS} --exclude-from=${EXCLUDES}"
fi

if [ -h ${CURRENT} ] ; then
    OPTS="${OPTS} --link-dest=${CURRENT}"
fi

if [ ${LOG} ] ; then
    OPTS="${OPTS} --log-file=${LOG}"
fi

# Perform the backup
rsync ${OPTS} ${SOURCES} ${NEWDIR}

# Did we create a new backup
if [ ! -d ${NEWDIR} ] ; then
    die 1
fi

# Now update the current soft link
if [ -h ${CURRENT} ] ; then
    rm -f ${CURRENT}
fi
ln -s ${NEWDIR} ${CURRENT}

die $?

As funny as this mysticism clearly sounds to some, there are theories that some human memories are stored, "in the cloud" - when they are stored socially.

I have read ( but can't now find the reference :-( ) studies where groups of people have been asked to remember details from long stories, complex scenes, collections of objects etc.

One person will be the subject of the studies, the others will be actors. The actors 'remember' details that were definitely false - a red ball being blue for example, and reports it as such in front of the subject. The subject will then report remembering the same false memory - and honestly believe it. He can probably visualise the blue ball in his mind.

When you consider how many conversations you have with other people during the day, how much of that is creating, reinforcing and editing memories for you?

Good points