Nah I'd prefer a SD slot over HDMI.

I'm not sure why you and parent thought I was talking about "iPhone users".

It is nice that the iPhone fits your needs but it did not fit mine on the two occasions when I considered purchasing one and I stated the specific reasons it did not. Given your dismissive comment I know you really don't care about my opinion so there is no point in elaborating any further.

Like ethnic/racial/religious profiling? Somehow I think the Constitution will get in the way of that.

On the other hand the first, second and fourth amendments don't seem to get in the way of the TSA so whats the big deal about ignoring another amendment?

I agree with you to a degree... a little bit more here or there won't make a difference. But where it mattered for me the iPhone didn't measure up at the time (EDGE vs 3G), and later 600mhz single core with 3G vs 1000mhz dual core with 4G... both times it was a big enough difference that it was quite noticeable. Apple has since closed the gap quite a bit, and as I said with the iPhone 5 I don't think there will be a practical difference.

As far as screen size I really think that is a personal preference thing. IMO 3.5" is just too small, and running around trying to use a phone with one hand isn't one of my priorities. And since Apple finally caved and added another 1/2" I'm guessing they saw enough of a market they were missing to make that change.

Browsing on the flip phone? Sparingly. Entering web addresses using T9 was not particularly quick, and the browser was rudimentary. I used it much more tethered to a laptop, and for that purpose it was fantastic.

I had a RAZR 3G. When the original iPhone was announced I was all ready to pick it up... touch screen, games, music, what was not to love? Then I saw that it didn't have 3G, so I would drop from 3.6mbps max to 0.384 max on EDGE. Not happening... so disappointed.

3G wouldn't show up on iPhone for a full 2 years after I already had it on the RAZR.

The thing with the 5 is that it largely catches up to what is out there now for Android. Every iPhone ever released has been a year or more behind in technology, whether it was 2G vs 3G, 3G vs 4G/LTE, screen resolution, CPU speed/cores, etc. Now iPhone has a decent screen (not 720p HD but close), LTE, and fast dual core CPU. I don't see Android making a large leap over that in technology in the short term, so you can finally get an iPhone and won't have to be embarrassed about the features that it is missing. Just make sure you overpay as much as possible to get the storage you think you'll need because you still can't add or upgrade that ($200 for an extra 48GB is insane).

Criminal verdicts have to be unanimous so one idiot on the jury won't condemn you to death, at worst it would be a mistrial. But as we saw in the OJ case it is sometimes possible to get twelve idiots.

SpaceX received $390M worth of public funding from NASA so in reality it is not totally commercial, yet.

ISS speed is 7.7 km/s and escape velocity is roughly 11 km/s... it would have to be a really big "push".

I did not call Social Security "welfare". Stated are the actual 2012 budget amounts for Welfare and MediCAID.

Social Security and MediCARE spending is significantly higher (about 600B each), but as I said they are self funded by separate FICA and HI payroll taxes. Of course what Congress actually did with the trust fund is another matter.

Medicare and Social Security are technically self funded by FICA and HI taxes so they are not the spending problem.

DoD (925B), Welfare (430B - includes 100B in unemployment) and Medicaid (333B) are the top three, and by themselves currently spends every dollar of revenue... everything else (another trillion) is just piled on the debt.

But would it be faster sending information from one side of the Earth to the other than satellites or undersea fiber? If so financial institutions will be all over this.

No, I was exaggerating for emphasis. Maybe sending them to Guantanamo would be more appropriate. :-)

Yes, the dictionary definition is fine.

• funeral
• 1. a ceremony at which a dead person is buried or cremated
• 2. a procession of people escorting a corpse to burial

I think it would be more difficult to define "protest". Several of the recent Westboro activities has incited counter-protests... but I'm ok with those being banned as well. You're either a party to the funeral service, or you just really don't belong there.