Quit being a Godwin Nazi, Hitler.

The Potomac is 24ft deep at the mouth. The USS Wisconsin, which is the closest battleship to the Potomac, has a draft of 36ft. However it would be worth noting that DC is likely within the firing range of the mark 7 guns of an Iowa battleship located in limited parts of Chesapeake Bay. I'm not sure if those parts of the bay have sufficient depth for the battleship.

Let's posit for a moment that New Horizons (launched January 2006) did just overtake MH370 (disappeared March 2014) and the lost plane is actually on an escape trajectory out of the solar system.

Then losing connection with the probe isn't a big deal. We'll just whip up another one add in the propulsion technology on MH370 and we'll have another probe at Pluto in about a year and a half.

I'm happy as long as one person catches the reference.

It wouldn't cost much money at all. In fact a number of industrial machines where the users need to get to an area that can be dangerous during operation to load or unload the device can use a simple visual sensor and mirror to detect if any object has entered the enclosed area and require a button on a control panel outside the area to be pressed to resume operation. I'd be surprised if the manufacturers of equipment don't include it or something like it as a standard safety feature. Our laser cutters use it. It's simple and effective to ensure that no humans are in the enclosure during operation but it also may not be effective or work depending on how and what types of maintenance needs to be performed. In the case cited by the article this was a repairman or machinist doing something to the robot that was outside what a standard employee would be subjected to.

Yes, practically all nations with the German culture are given the western technology group. You don't start getting into the eastern or Islamic technology groups until you hit Poland or the Balkans.

It doesn't seem like Microsoft is selling Bing Maps to Uber only some of the underlying tech. I imagine Uber has been courting both MS and Google trying to get some sort of map technology for their business. It's a great business decision on MS's part. There's a high probability what they're selling is not at all risky for Microsoft and they may have also be receiving up front payment which puts the government threat to Uber as a non-factor.

Self-insurance will require that some amount is set aside and cannot be touched thus it will be available should the insurance be required. This means you're locking up a sizeable amount of your assets where you can't get access to them. The people that can afford to self insure are not the majority of Uber drivers.

First we need to develop time travel technology that lets you go back in time.

10%? Are you suggesting that Slashdot has a population of homosexuals that exceeds the general population ratio of 1.6-3%? Additionally, are you suggesting that this higher than average population of Slashdot users are all seeking to get married?

Corsica is the common source of troublesome political figures with French ties.

Exiling is best done using Elba Island or St. Helena.

You can ask that guy I quoted but condoms do serve more purposes than just protecting from STDs.

I still believe the worst SCOTUS decision was Wickard v. Filburn.

Wickard vs Filburn.

There ya go.