As long as it isn't drones buzzing over my property I'm for it.

Revisiting underground tube systems is a far better idea than letting anybody and his uncle fly drones over the publics head.

Surely I'm not the only one who noticed the guard whose belly hung so far over his beltline that it jiggled as he trotted towards the scene. Surely there has to be some physical fitness requirements for his job.

Maybe I misunderstood the question? I thought it was about whether or not humanity could achieve its current level without the use of fossil fuels?

So knowing that you seem to have some understanding of it. Interesting!

Why are you bringing up such a high level abstractive language as C in this discussion of assembly language?

...stations be free of this forced payola as well? If not, is there are list somewhere of which dieties must be worshipped to escape this tax?

Of course there are. The point is that when you "abstract" them away you hide them.

...do you know what the machine is doing with the codes that you type? Abstractions neccessarily lead to assumptions.

That depends. Are you more interested in how something happens, or are you more interested in preventing something from happening? I think that is the factor that differeniates technicians from scientists.

Who can sight read assembly anymore?

Everybody who is interested in "How Things Work" can read assemblly code. Those who depend on hopes and prayers do not.

Which just goes to show you that people need to be better educated on how to compare the risks and benefits of the substances that they consume. We have a good understanding of what ASA does, and a good understanding of what APAP does. It is not beyond a person of normal intelligence to weigh the benefits and risks of each.

x86 assembly is not that difficult to understand. You MOV, CMP, and JMP to memory addresses according to the values in the processors registors. My guess is that exponetially more exploits are introduced when what you MOV and CMP and where you JMP to is abstracted away than when it is not.

ASA, or aspirin, is first line treatment for heart attacks and all hospitals have it in stock, and plavix is prescribed a lot more often than warfarin for anti-platelet therapy. Research aspirin's side effects and you will understand why it just isn't handed out willy-nilly. If ASA were a new drug coming to market it is doubtful that it would be available over the counter.

If they only provided cable television, that would be fine. What Comcast has now is a monopoly over the roads that enable people to access the internet.