If you haven't been fucked by your insurance company yet,[...]; you can't win or even hope to break even.

Well, while you probably didn't have any say in being born in America, you (probably, criminal record and skills permitting) have the option of leaving to live in the civilized world somewhere. Maybe the Canadians would accept you?

"Cash" as in bills or "cash" as in a check? Everyone can handle checks, no problem.

Cheques are either completely dead, or about to die. The banks are about to shut down the cheque-handling infrastructure and have been actively discouraging them for years. I honestly don't know if they've been shut down yet because I haven't seen one being used for ... ages.

Regardless, I got rid of my last chequebook in ... about 1989. Which was about 4 years before I got my first credit card.

The only reason for the ban was RF interference. That is no longer a problem with modern devices, so the ban should end.

So, you want the flight attendants to inspect every device before it gets used, to check that it's on the list of "modern devices" which are not a problem?

Right, I can just see that working.

Would deleting/destroying your keys be considered destroying evidence?

That varies by jurisdiction. And, of course, if you've gone down the "hidden container route", then they've no way of knowing if you've given them the key to all the data.

You do have key management issues with lots of keys ratting around though.

"The rest of you can go on ahead," they said, as if we mighty fly on despite the loss of a teenager.

Why would that be a problem? You're talking about someone who is close to the 18 end of teenagerhood, but even so, so what? I was hitch-hiking form one end of the country to the other when I was 14 (which was about 11 years before I first flew in a fixed-wing aircraft). Make sure the kid has a charged mobile phone, get on the plane, sort him out with a hotel room by phone, and then get on with sorting out how to move him on to catch up with the rest of the family.

Beside, whose fault is it that the person hadn't got appropriate ID? Yours, or the young adult? They're often whinging about not being treated like adults, so ... here's your power, take the consequences if you get it wrong.

It really sucks that we're stuck with Latin-1 here.

I wonder if my recently-sorted set of cat icons will work. Slight chance.

U+1F638 ; GRINNING CAT FACE WITH SMILING EYES ; U+1F639 ; CAT FACE WITH TEARS OF JOY ; U+1F63A ; SMILING CAT FACE WITH OPEN MOUTH ; U+1F63B ; SMILING CAT FACE WITH HEART-SHAPED EYES ; U+1F63c ; CAT FACE WITH WRY SMILE ; U+1F63d ; KISSING CAT FACE WITH CLOSED EYES ; U+1F63e ; POUTING CAT FACE ; U+1F63f ; CRYING CAT FACE ; U+1F640 ; WEARY CAT FACE ;

Bollocks, no.

I imagine the pills are fine, but any subsequent burps are rather unpleasant.

I'd imagine that the technicians designing the pill choose appropriate packaging materials that (1) wouldn't rupture under chewing (because NOBODY reads the instructions on the package, EVER. Well known fact.) and (2) don't release their contents until after acid immersion followed by a return to more normal pH (indicating that the pill has passed the stomach and is now in the small intestine, where the bugs are desired.

You know, people do think these things through. Unlike people looking for a quick laugh on Slashdot.

then African nations will stop stamping US passports (that was the solution to the Cuban embargo).

Or do what some countries do to this day - put your visa stamp on a slip of paper loose inside your passport.

The visa stamp is a proof of your legal visitor status inside the country (typically including paying some sort of entry tax, and not carrying that proof is a crime punishable by a fine - which disappears into a pocket along with the constable's gun disappearing into his holster) ; outside the country, you don't need it.

you do realize you need a passport to enter this country, and that this passport lists your country of origin and every country you've traveled to, right

(1) Not relevant to the question of someone getting out of the infected area. And

(2) My #1 passport contains the Muslim countries I've visited, and some of the others. My #2 passport contains American, Israeli visits and many others. The non-troublesome countries I distribute between the two passports as necessary for getting visas.

Why do you only have one passport? Don't you travel much?

Sounds good to me.

Trite, but true.

I spend a significant part of my working life teaching this to people fresh out of university. I don't see me running out of this sort of work.

I lived in an apartment under a crack cocaine dealer when I got my first 2400bps modem. I recognised the deal being offered then. The deal is the same now, but the free gear is being stopped.