air pumps are no-where near as difficult to deal with as oxygen tanks when lugging them around/replacing them. I agree that there is still work to be done, but this is a HUGE step. Obviously the ultimate goal would be an entirely self-sufficient internal apparatus, but I would disagree that this isn't useful.

Really? Here in the U.S. It's 200 with the contract, something like 400-600 without.

I said a large portion, not the average. My whole point was that status symbols are a perception, not based on how many people can afford them.

Seems like you misunderstand what a status symbol is. At $200 starting with 2-year plan, an iphone is still well outside the price range of a large portion of the population. A status symbol is not something that is unusual, merely a cultural symbol of attaining a certain level. You would in no way expect the workers at your local McDonalds to be sporting iphones. Status symbols are perceptions, not percentages. Status Symbol (wiki)

I agree completely. Matter of fact, I own a 360 purely because of the controllers. It feels better/sturdier than the PS controllers and I love having actual triggers.

Not quite. It was polygamist, but only on one side of things. That makes a huge difference when you're examining the evolution of a social norm.

Doesn't seem relevant to anything actually... They developed a custom software interfacing with SQL server and it had bugs. They were worried that a system without a password could be accessed by someone. That article must have been written on a very slow news day. Although props to the reporter for actually getting a response from MS rather than just reporting that there may be bugs with nuclear software.

While I agree with the "google fu" sentiment, office has been a high selling point on just about every internship/entry level position I've held. Especially if you combine it with a bit of programming knowledge and a VBA object reference. I've had quite a few managers impressed with a simple VB script when it took their 100+ csv files and made nice graphs of them for a proposal or report. I've also discovered that if you have a good enough knowledge of the suite, you end up increasing productivity all around. For example, showing someone how to use proper formatting tools rather than the spacebar can save a lot of time for everyone who's working on the document.

The date of their writing is disputed, and you're assuming a historic account is inaccurate merely because it was written after the event? You can't assume they made it up, you can certaintly think that, but you can't assume it.

Most calendar EOD prophecies have very little to nothing to do with our current calendar. Campings is based on solar and lunar movements, not the calendar itself. The mayan thing is about the Mayan calendar, which I'm fairly confident wasn't butchered by Caesar. Now, that certainly doesn't give them any credibility, but let's at least not mock them beyond the extremely deserving amount :-)

meteors worked last time...

"I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened."

You should probably read the section before that. At the beginning of the chapter, Jesus said in reference to the temple that not one stone would be left on another. The disciples then asked him when these things would happen, and he proceeded into a rather lengthy explanation with one "rabbit trail" into the end times to address/correct the idea that Jews thought the end of the world would come when the temple was destroyed. He then wrapped it up by answering their initial question of when the prophecy about the temple would come to pass. The structure of the passage makes a lot of sense when you think of the flow of a conversation. People tend to not really look at the surrounding text when talking about this verse and instead take it out of the context of the conversation, a dangerous practice albeit a common one on both sides.

FYI, destruction of the temple was around 70 A.D. Within the timing of the current generation prophecy.

That argument never works. The people who originally found out were not informed by their own post, so it stands to reason that someone else can definitely figure it out as well.

I agree with you, I'm just saying if apple does something drastic, the labels may respond in like. Whereas google has no ties with them right now (at least that I'm aware of, maybe I'm wrong).

The label companies have leverage on apple though, they pull out of iTunes and chaos ensues.