What if I need to, say, rush my wife or kid to the hospital and I happen to not give a shit of the "check engine" light is on or one of the brake lights does not function?

What are these "books" you speak of?

This will make 2012 the year of the linux desktop for sure!

Try cranking up the difficulty of an RTS on a not-so-good computer and you'll immediately notice how things slow down

Not sure where you got that price from. If it's actually "consumer grade" (i.e. appropriate for use on skin) you could make a killing making these

Fuck! Nature is amazing!

What the hell does his height have to do with anything?

I do understand that this is Slashdot and everyone here is American, but still...

Given that my English is of a high standard and that I had to look up this word means that many people reading this article will have to do the same. So why not be nice and save them the effort.

renege /ri'neg/
Verb:
Go back on a promise, undertaking, or contract.

Yes, that is what makes them awesome.

A good example of using these kind of RPG-like incentives is fitocracy.

Something similar has been running in Latvia for a while now. People can sign online petitions that are submitted to the parliament if they get enough signatures. The identity verification is done by logging in with your bank details (as there is no official electronic ID as of now). Some of the successful initiatives include tighter tax control for shady offshore companies and stricter control of whether MPs actually obey their vows.

This is what I just read:

Heck, even Myspace users — many of whom are probably ghost accounts — suffered for eight minutes over the month.

Just don't advertise your data plans as "unlimited"