It only works if you suck monkey balls, preferably in space. Sucking on donkey balls actually doesn't do anything.

Sorry to break it to ya.

Yeah, I also run AdBlock for safety first, and to remove ads I will never click on anyway second. AdBlock is the most important security software for surfing the internet.

I'm sorry about the websites that depend on ad revenue. But if the advertising companies can't get their shit together and instead abstract their business model in such a way that it's impossible to know where an ad is coming from, it's their fault not mine.

This is the one thing that drives most non-native English speakers crazy. Interestingly I found that many native English speakers are not even consciously aware of this difficulty in learning the English language.

Stuff like
You have to polish my car until it is shiny.
But: The Polish car salesman made me a good deal.

Or
I read something in todays paper.
But: did you read that one article?

Then, for good measure you have words that sound the same but, of course, are spelled differently, like knight and night or were and where. Yes, my username also became victim to this consequence.

IT IS MADNESS!!!

You can get up and take a five minute smoke break every 30 minutes.
Sitting on your ass all day sounds so bad, taking up smoking might actually be a net-win.

I continue to be shocked about the sad state of affairs in the U.S. concerning services like Internet access, health care, power grid, water and food supply... I read recently that most of the "chocolate" you buy in the U.S. has zero cacao in it.

It seems to me most of it is due to the extreme "free market" policies with as little as possible government regulation and other socialist evils in it.

Which ironically results in funny facts like two cable providers dividing the market between them, each reigning over their own territorial monopoly, Americans paying exorbitant fees for subpar health care, power outages after every hurricane or chocolate without chocolate in it.

And when you get lucky by getting a president like Obama, with the balls and ability to change some things, ever so little as your congress and political bickering allows, everyone starts hating on him.

It would be funny if it were not so sad.

As a guy with some degree of competence on the subject, I would say that something like the Matrix (fully immersive virtual reality) is already on the horizon, whereas Terminator style virtual intelligence is not even on the radar yet.

Barring any amazing breakthroughs that change everything.

If this universe (or what you perceive as reality) is a simulation or some other kind of contrived illusion, then it is very possible that the human brain runs on a bit of "magic" which is impossible for us to recreate.

Indeed. I'm sure you give all your excess money to charity rather than buy yourself a TV, DVDs, go to a restaurant or on vacation.

There are three things about Star Trek which are unbearable to me:
1. The Holodeck, which is just one massive plothole
2. Badly done time travel, which is yet another massive plothole
3. Badly done aliens, with a lame explanation.

That episode made by the fans just utterly obliterated any interest I might have had by starting right with big mistake no. 1.

Intelligence and knowledge... they are not the same.

They voted only -after- Russia took military control over Crimea. All the while Russia was claiming that the soldiers were not Russian, and they had removed flags and ensignas from uniforms and vehicles - a ridiculous move, as everyone in the world knew they were Russian soldiers.

You know someone is doing something wrong when they are
trying to hide it.
Later, when everything was under control, Putin admitted yes, they were Russian soldiers. As if this was clear from the beginning and the Kremling had never claimed anything different. Reminded me of 1984... warp the past to suite your present.

So this is your Democracy... Russian style.

Same thing happening now in eastern Ukraine, with "maybe" there being "inofficially" Russian solders there. "On vacation".

All languages are derived from a precursor language. What makes a derivative 'crappy'?

If any language is a crappy derivative, then English has the most going for it. Maybe as a native English speaker you never realized, but English is a terribly inconsistent language concerning spelling and pronounciation.

I'm not equating all religions as equally bad. I think that most religions are a tool to exert power. That power can be used for good or for bad. The decision is up to the people who wield that power.
At the moment western societies are doing well also thanks to the comparatively little power that religion has over the people living in those countries. Power that unfortunately has historically mostly been used to oppress and control rather than to support people.
In the middle east, religion still plays a large role, and many people look towards a bleak, uncertain future. That makes it easy for madmen and hate preachers to abuse religion for manipulating people to further their own goals.

The teachings of Christ may be about Love. That didn't stop the Spanish Inquisition from exiling, torturing and burning heretics and unbelievers at the stake, all with the blessings of the catholic monarchs and the pope. The teachings of love didn't help Galileo and other scientists and deviants in the course of christian history.
It is only thanks to the Age of Enlightenment and the departure and emancipation from religious doctrines that western societies have earned the freedoms they enjoy today. It is certainly not thanks to any teachings of Jesus.

That's why, again, it's not so much about what is written in the books. It's about the people and how they choose to interpret them to further their own goals.

Remember that in the middle, and late middle ages, the Islamic world was the advanced, progressive, cultured and tolerant civilization, far ahead of western Europe. Christian Europe was a place of endless war and bickering and of religious zealots.

Especially in Al-Andalus, under moorish rule, muslims, christians and jews lived peacefully together in what was perhaps the most advanced, safe and free place to live in the world, at the time.

It's not really about Islam or Christianity. Both holy books contain a lot of questionable, self-justifying violence. It's about the human beings who interpret and lay out the words. This, in my opinion, is one of the greatest problems with the abrahamic religions. The holy books contain so many contradictions and inconsistencies, you can justify just about anything by picking out the relevant parts that serve your cause.