Because they are far, far less standardized and more integrated into the systems of the car itself than tradition stereo DIN head units.

Being able to avoid sales tax in many cases is certainly beneficial to online retailers, but anybody who believes that sales tax is the primary force moving retail transactions online simply has not been paying attention. If all 50 states suddenly started collecting sales tax on Amazon sales today, Amazon would take a hit, but they would not suddenly collapse.

You say that like the existing mobile carriers aren't already doing that kind of bullshit. Remember Carrier IQ? Verizon/AT&T complicit in warrantless wiretapping?

Oracle is nobody's friend... And Larry Ellison doesn't even seem to try to hide it.

Campaign to get your pro-drug-war dickbag congressman, or even your county sheriff, out of office? I know, I know, it's wishful thinking, but maybe if enough people overcome their own cynicism we can make for some incremental change?

Amphetamine salts were first synthesized in the 19th century, and have been used therapeutically since the 1930's. They are among some of the most well understood and thoroughly studied drugs in use. Many instant-release ADHD meds have been around so long that they have been generic for DECADES. Yes, they have a tremendous potential for cardiac complications and other significant side-effects, but we've known about that for half a century. The chances of unforeseen side effects of amphetamines suddenly coming to light are about as likely as suddenly finding out that aspirin causes brain tumors.

There is a pretty wide disparity between "Luxury" and "Basic human right."

I'd hardly call indoor plumbing, 99.9% uptime electricity, or interstate highways to be "basic human rights," but they're pretty much essential for an modern, industrial society/economy.

I am also an RF engineer, and that was my first thought too: This is far too small to be any kind of steerable/smart antenna array. I don't know if there is some crazy, cutting edge hocus pocus out there, but I've always understood that antenna arrays need at least 1/2 wavelength spacing between elements. Same thing for diversity/MIMO antennas. At 2100 MHz, that's roughly 6cm. For 700LTE, we're talking 20+ cm. You're getting 2 elements in a mobile handset at best... good for maybe 3dB of gain over a single element?

Fancy smart antenna arrays probably have a strong future in base station towers, but mobile handsets are just too damn small.

As far as antenna efficiency goes, I was under the impression most handsets used (notoriously inefficient) electrically short microstrip antennas? You certainly can make an antenna arbitrarily smaller than a half-wavelength, it's just going to have very low radiation resistance and not be very efficient.

Actually, BMX stunt cyclists and serious downhill mountain bikers tend to wear full-face motocross helmets precisely because bicycle helmets provide crap protection. As far as cost and practicality, they're really not that heavy or awkward (watch what freestyle BMX guys can do wearing them) and a quality, name brand DOT certified motocross/dirt helmet can be had for under 100 USD.

Hardcore speed/fitness guys will never wear them because they're poorly ventilated and hot compared to bicycle helmets, but due to my experiences as a motorcyclist, if I were riding a bicycle in a busy urban environment with a lot of automobile traffic, I'd choose to wear a motocross/dirt style helmet.

When it comes to cutting edge particle physics research, "We can still do useful work here," sounds like a pretty compelling case to me.

In the United States, there is no such thing as a "trade dress patent." Trade dress is a legal concept that is related to both trademark and design patents, but it is certainly not a type of patent.

As far as the rounded rectangle thing goes, look up D504889. All you need to do to violate that patent is make an "electronic device" that kinda looks like that (a flat rectangle with rounded edges), no need to involve trade dress at all.

Ah, well I stand corrected then. But it raises a new question for me: over what metric is the "1 in 30" rate measured? Per incidence of intercourse or what? It couldn't possibly be over an indefinite period of, right? Way more than 3.3% of women trying to conceive eventually get pregnant.

I'd wager a guess that this perceived anomaly has to do with the likely scenario that women engaging in or anticipating consensual sex are far, far more likely to be using one or more forms of birth control than the rape-victim population as a whole.

Choosing actions at random seems wiser than what HP are actually doing, as random actions have a non-zero probability of being beneficial. Instead, what HP seems to be doing is deliberately shooting themselves in the foot over and over again, in the hopes that more bullets will heal their injuries.