Being that the iphone is more useful. I expect it goes thew more rigor on the average then an android.

Agnostics that hold no belief are atheists.

Agnostics that entertain any measure of belief are theists.

Agnosticism is a position taken with regard to knowledge.

Theism and atheism are positions based upon belief, faith. The one does not replace the other.

Agnosticism is about knowledge. the Theism / Atheism poles are diametric opposites: belief and non-belief. There's no middle ground definable by knowledge, or lack thereof.

Agnosticism is not a third position. You're either a theist -- that is, you hold some measure of belief in a god or gods -- or you're not, and you don't. From there, you can, if you like, assert a state of knowledge to bolster your choice, or a lack of a state of knowledge to do the same thing. But your position is still either you believe, or you don't.

The whole point about belief, or not, is that it is contingent upon faith. Knowledge is not.

Hope that helped some.

...is a little monitor that hangs over your lips, showing a silent movie of your lips saying (in a loop) "I suspect I'm under surveillance" while underneath, you can be saying anything you like. :)

An interesting issue is, the photons that formed the image were not on their property at the time, nor do they have a legitimate claim to ownership of those photons just because they happened to bounce off their stuff. They probably bounced off a lot of other stuff, too. "My photon! MY PHOTON!" has more than a little bit of the ring of insanity about it. :)

If you don't want a photonic record of your actions, the sensible answer is to avoid photons that can form such a thing, i.e., stay inside your dwelling with opaque curtains drawn, erect a fence and a cover, etc.

Orwell was an Optimist

The big challenge for atheism is not God; it is that of providing an alternative to Spock-ism. We need an account of our place in the world that leaves room for value."

Atheism is the lack of belief in a god or god. Nothing else. It's not about science, it's not about ethics, it's not about morals, it's not about values. When you say you're atheist, you're saying you do not hold any belief there is a god or gods. That's all. There's no dogma, no book, no set of "therefore we believe these here other thingamajigs", nothing.

If you want to know what an atheist thinks about something other than belief in a god or gods, you really must ask them, or you're simply letting your imagination paint a false picture of the world.

I think it is the even number rush.
The original iPhone (iPhone 2) Had a good demand on it.
People gradually got the iPhone 3 and 3g (incremental improvements nothing show stopping)
There was a big demand on the iPhone 4 (The higher res screen, and FaceTime)
The iPhone 4S 5 and 5S were incremental improvements the bigger screen on the 5 is nice but not enough to get people off the 4.
The iPhone 6 with a significantly larger screen means the people who have been hanging onto the 4 needs an upgrade.

Well the argument that it is better for the environment never really holds much.
So to get people to switch we need the following.
1. Cheaper then our current sources of energy. A little cheaper we can get some traction, a lot cheaper we will get good movement.

2. Economics 101 low demand means low price. The issue is low supply (in terms of it being packaged) that is keeping its price high. Making a technology to do this cheaper will help improve supply because people can produce Hydrogen and make money off of it.

3. Danger isn't as big of an issue as people think. Granted the fuel in our cars is safer then hydrogen. But good safety measures in place there shouldn't be that big of a deal.

True... However the dealership model is one of the few decent middle class jobs creator in the country that doesn't require a lot of education and/or certification.

Direct sale just means more profit to the big auto makers (Their price will not be lowered) and less people will benefit from the auto economy.

Well sometimes the courts are easier on a person if they admit to do what they did and apologize for it. Vs wasting the courts time trying to convince them that he did didn't do it, or was just in doing it.

Apple never has been ahead of their competition based on raw technical feature.

Apple wins by taking the modern features that have been proven and implement them in a way that is either unique or better perfected.

Any company and make a phone by placing a faster processor, and a bigger/higher resolution screen. However the details are what makes it a device that you play with for a few days and no longer use (like my old Palm-pilot 3 that I have, mostly due to the fact it didn't have a rechargeable battery). Apple does have a tenancy of putting a lot of though in subtle things that don't normally fall on the feature list.

However if you want big fast processor. Go with an Android phone. That is their market, you have more choice

I have the same problem with mine. But the issue is about speed.
After 3 year web pages do more and more and you need a faster method just to view pages.

Also there is a style factor too. I know we are not suppose to look cool or trendy. But if you have an old phone you do look like you are too cheap.
I am not proposing going out and getting the next phone every generation... But get one when you realize your old phone is getting out of date.

Tax-wise it seems tricky. It seems (you're nuts if you take advice from a random stranger on this) that it's considered an asset, and if bitcoin gains in value you have to pay tax on that

Like most assets, don't you (in the US) just pay tax on it when you sell it and realize a profit? Just like stock?

That doesn't seem tricky at all.

But are they implemented?

My credit card company has just recently send new cards with the microchip.
Now I have seen the chip reader on 80% of the card readers I have seen.
And only Wal-mart has it implemented and working. Target has the new reader, but it isn't implemented.

So the upgrading of the card readers happened to make people feel good, however like so many other IT projects their implementation was half assed.