And the entire time my stomach would be churning from me worrying about all the additional failure modes offered by such an arrangement. Even with humans handling the luggage, about a third of my recent family trips (necessarily involving two checked items per person) have seen one or more bags get lost or delayed.

I'm not a luddite, but I'm not an early adopter either. Until the bugs are worked out of a robotic valet-slash-chauffeur, I'll still be most relaxed when I can just put a carry-on in the overhead bin.

If it could do that, why even get on the airplane?

Just opaque the windows and sleep or work or otherwise entertain yourself privately the entire trip... If I could buy a car that could do that for my twice daily, 45 minute commute, I would.

You know, sex robots have been a prominent trope in SF and geekdom practically since the word was coined, but the idea doesn't do anything for me.

I require the other participant to express honest desire, act on it, and receive real pleasure. I prefer a photo or video recording of such behavior over a machine, or even a real person who's just faking it.

I dunno, maybe that makes me weird or something...

British commandos' desert kit is pink. A dull greyish carnation color. It melds into the sand better at a distance.

And you didn't have them warn your 2007 self to sell all your stock and real estate?

You're an idiot!

You'd have a planet whose entire population would have synchronized menses.

Although I suspect that if they wanted to, the mission planners could issue de-synced birth control regimens to force the cycles out of step. Not sure if there's a reason, to but I wouldn't be surprised if someone tries it during long mission isolation experiments.

At least for one week out of four, once all the women sync up.

Obviously. Because dwarfs with high constitutions get saving throw bonuses, and they all get to hit bonuses vs. space orcs and galactic goblinoids.

Don't you mean complement it?

That was my thought. They're going to make themselves even MORE out of touch with even MORE of the various American subcultures.

No. It will dwindle to include only young sociopaths who can fool a lie detector.

You should go scrawl "Free Candy" on his car with a bar of soap...

(Maybe he'll even like it and make it permanent.)

Indeed. Slashdot is a nebulous ghost of what it once was. The insightful and informative community seems to have departed for elsewhere, leaving us with trolls, juveniles and politically motivated archive-oriented moderators.

Wish I had a mod point for you today.

I'm very unhappy with the state of PBS in Los Angeles.

For the second biggest TV market in the US, it has a miserable selection of mediocre PBS stations, and very little original content (unlike say WGBH or KQED) but it seems like KOCE is slowly stepping up its game...

I received worse injuries playing Little League baseball and horseback riding than I ever saw anyone receive playing with pyrotechnics.