Frankfurt is indeed full of cars. Still the public transport is full of people. By the way, I was faster from Offenbach center to Frankfurt center on my mountain bike than a Ferrari that really rushed from traffic light to traffic light.

Well, except for BMW, all the brands you have listed belong to the same company. That might be the explanation.

I do play games - sometimes - Deus Ex 3 right now. But never on the phone - it is just not comfortable for that. Emails and the browser are different, been using these on my phone ever since Windows Mobile 2003.

The Army alone has about 500,000 soldiers. A lot of them are in support roles but a private military also needs support.

Where are the families of the people in the private military? Because if they have to go back to the USofA (the "enemy" in this scenario) to visit Mom and Dad then there's going to be a problem. So you'll need room on the uber rich estate for the families of your military. And your support personnel.

Which brings up the infrastructure to support those families. Schools, hospitals, etc. Which means more support personnel.

Which means more schools and hospitals, etc.

Of course you can skip that if you want to. But remember who has the guns.

Not exactly failed. Russia still owns a big chunk of Karelia.

Pretty much this. The whole push to have 'everyone' code is because it's trendy and is a definable skill, unlike 'learning how to think' or reason. And it segues quickly into 'jobs' which makes everybody happy. Further, there is this odd belief among many people (including a whole raft of Slashdot posters) that software can do anything and the world should be viewed through the lens of a Von Neumann machine.

Coding is a subset of human activity, not a superset. Even modeling, as championed by TFA is only a small part of human learning.

But schools are in a tough place. They are supposed to teach everyone, from the next Albert Einstein to the kid that will be sweeping the floor. They're supposed to push the latter child farther and faster than they could possibly go while not slowing down the new Einstein. All the while acting as in loco parentis, cop, judge and diaper changer.

For only $29.95 per child.

That is all.

When I was a kid, and mum and dad weren't at home, my brother and I would eat raw egg yolk mixed with sugar. In one way or another we're all alive due to luck, I prefer not to push mine too much.

One of the largest internal migrations in US history was in the early 70's when 20 something hippies started leaving cities in droves and building mud brick utopias. Only a handful of the communes survived more then 2ys. The common cause of downfall was human nature - a bully would arise in the commune and take ownership of the land by pushing people out one by one.

I grew up during the cold war, the term "plan C" sound vaguely familiar. The military is expected to "plan for every scenario", it's unsurprising they came up with silly plans for a nuclear - most primary school kids knew that fallout made "duck and cover" a sick joke. It's an attempt to make people feel like they can "do something" other than dying.

I wonder who they were?

Follow the oowwwnnnnllly road, follow the oowwwnnnnllly road...

One hundred million unorganized, inebriated, confused, uncoordinated, ill disciplined bozos who haven't slept outside of a building since cub scouts.

Yeah, I'll take the military any day.

The interesting thing with these facilities is that they all have fences and barb wire facing inwards - not to keep people out, but to keep people in.

"You have attributed conditions to villainy that simply result from stupidity"

Heinlein

Mr. President! We must not allow a mine-shaft gap!