In a word, yes.

What is ethical and moral is dependent on the culture. If a culture's idea of what is ethical and moral conflicts with your own, then you are free to not do business in there. You can also sit on your high horse and complain about how unethical and immoral they are (by your standards), while they don't give a damn what you think.

My wife grew up in the Boston area and was there during the Blizzard of '78. Her school was shut down for a week.

Scaled Composites' role in Virgin Galactic has been winding down for a while. IIRC, the LA Times story mentions this, possibly in a quote from the Scaled Composites guy.

The Spaceship Company was formed as a joint effort between Virgin and Scaled (Branson and Rutan). Scaled built the first WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo, but the plan was for TSC to build the subsequent ones. Virgin bought out Scaled's part of TSC in 2012.

Why is it surprising that Scaled's role is continuing to wind down? Isn't that the way that things work with them anyway? They work with clients to develop designs and build prototypes, not refine a product (i.e., the planned Virgin Galactic fleet).

When I worked in Germany, my car was a weekend toy and I took the U-Bahn to work. However, most of the people in my group drove to work as did my "handler" (the guy who dealt with the paperwork so I could work in Germany).

Another trick that is becoming more common is notching the pavement with an inset for the Botts' dot so it doesn't stick up into the plow blade.

Except for these?

I get into the "Life in a Police State" meme as much as the next guy, but if you think that this stuff started after 9/11 or any other recent event, I suggest that you study more history of this country.

The FBI has been ignoring the 4th Amendment and using available technology to do so since the organization was created. Before that, the Feds would contract with detective agencies, like Pinkerton, that would often ignore the 4th Amendment (as well as others). Local law enforcement have been ignoring it and, when caught violating it, retroactively making up enough story (depending on how friendly the local judiciary is) to artificially demonstrate compliance for even longer.

The person who wrote "the rot started in 1787" is correct. People with authority often (usually?) lose sight of what they are defending and need to be reminded of it. This can take the form of new laws or lawsuits or civil action or something else.

But the real problem is that, on the whole, the people of this country only really care about the particular rights that they wish to exercise when they want to exercise them and otherwise don't give a damn (or, to be more polite about it, are too busy living their lives to be concerned).

Yeah, and it probably has nothing to do with this.

If you don't want to follow the link, it is NYC Taxi drivers selling their medallions to operate a taxi for close to a million dollars. It seems to be around 300,000 Euro for one in Paris.

But English is the official language of California by ballot proposition and constitutional amendment (Article 3 Section 6).

I call BS. The last MAX train leaves PDX at 11:49pm. There are about three flights that get in too late to catch that train. And, depending on how much you tip, the taxi ride from the airport to downtown is about $40.

How much money did NTSB spend on the investigation of the Payne Stewart's Learjet accident or Steve Fossett's accident?

As other have noted, Virgin Galactic/Scaled Composites/The Spaceship Company are seeking FAA certification for SpaceShipTwo, so, of course, the NTSB would be involved in the investigation of the crash.

So, the SF Police and the Coast Guard weren't involved in the investigation of the America's Cup sailor who was killed while practicing in 2013?

Here is the link.

How is this even close to right, as least as it applies to what happened on Friday? One test pilot/engineer (not a half dozen space tourists) was killed and Virgin Galactic is continuing on.

Why is this insightful?

According to Apple, the latest version of OS X is supported on mid-2007 hardware. I am running late 2007 Apple hardware (and 2012 hardware). I don't intend to upgrade to Yosemite, but I could. I get more life out of Apple laptops than I do out of inexpensive Windows laptops.

iOS devices are another story. Apple abandons them fairly quickly.