Mod parent interesting. This kind of sounds like the environmental equivalent of Karl Marx's theory of class struggle: when revolution eliminates the privileged class, the lower class rises to take its place. Of course, this hypothetical environmental version of Marx's "worker's revolution" would not solve the environmental problem any more than the political version has solved the class problem, but for a different reason: the planet can't sustain a 2% that consumes like this.

...heat ray.

That's good to know, 'cause I kant wait to eat them. :-P

With proper design of the hardware and protocols, congregation of people should be an advantage, as it is right now for the Hong Kong protesters and their mobile devices.

I understand your point about the technobabble. However, Ms. Qualters' résumé appears to be somewhat less fluffy that the quote would suggest.

Basing it on the game was an enjoyable element, to a point. What ruined it for me is the ridiculous way the aliens sunk the ships: by hurling these bombs that were peg-shaped (per the game) so that they spun end-over-end, yet penetrated the ship at various points in more-or-less correct orientation (also per the game.) For a species that was capable of interstellar travel, that seemed like a spectacular technological fail.

I think your friend is influenced by this.

1. ATMs probably come standard with Braille. It's not worth it to create a special non-Braille version for the drive-ups.

2. Lots of people use drive-up ATMs without actually driving up to them. I know I have.

3. An AC poster already pointed out that blind people can take a taxi to the ATM.

Corn can be used to create ethanol fuel. Is such corn "wasted" because it is not eaten?

Uneaten food that is diverted from landfill serves a purpose when it is rescued for composting, albeit one that was not intended when it was sold in the grocery store. Also, it reduces the use of valuable landfill space, thereby lowering the cost of trash disposal. So I would contend that it is not wasted (at least not entirely) when it is diverted from landfill.

Y'know, I could say Larry Ellison can go fuck himself.

But then again, I wouldn't be surprised if he married himself.

I suppose about as much as a Space Shuttle has to do with a person standing next to it. I took it as a scale-comparison, but I understand your point about the story creating a potentially false impression that this is an evolution of 4G.

Some 4G implementations have a theoretical upper limit of 1 Gb/s for low-mobility agents.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4...

In my modest experience with older Apple products, I have found that they were about the same as others in quality. They didn't "suck" any more or less than their competitors.

Back then, Detroit was trying to pressure their own retailers to sell their cars at a lower markup. The law was Good (TM) for the retailers because it protected them from their suppliers. There were plenty of retailers to drive prices down through competition; they didn't need the suppliers to compete in the retail market.

Now, Tesla doesn't distribute to independent retailers, and they want to keep it that way, because they're not keen on having their products in the same showrooms as retailers showing other products. As far as they're concerned, Tesla is revolutionary, and would look queer and out-of-place amongst other vehicles with internal combustion engines.

Tesla doesn't trust retailers to present their product fairly in this context. And I can see their point: if their only contact with the consumer is the conventional auto retailer, you can bet all the other car manufacturers would freak out at having to share the showroom with Tesla, and would put pressure on the retailers to sing their own song.

In short, Tesla doesn't think the market will be fair to them unless they sell their product through their own stores. And since the retailers aren't selling their product, they're not competing with them, and so the law is an anachronism in this context.

I can imagine that explanation being plausible in a Jesus-belt state, but not Massachusetts.