"for the express purpose of posturing to prove their wealth"
Likely the entire production run is pre-sold in China.

But not just any "large surface" will do. It's always amusing to see someone with a fancy camera with the flash pointed straight upward towards a vaulted, black ceiling.

... drones on legs.

Bounties are quite effective compared to long term grants just because of human nature. Which gets quicker results:
"Hello, research foundation, we'd like to give you a nice annual salary as long as you present annual reports on how well you're progressing"
Or: "Here's a whopping pile of cash that's all yours as soon as you come up with the goods."

3a) When women travel outside North America and Western Europe, the latter part of this is less applicable to various degrees. Indeed, in some parts of the world, not adhering strictly to expected female behaviour can be fatal.

In space, weight's analogue is called mass, and it does matter.

Oh boy, another case of testing in production.

Clarke's third law: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinquishable from magic

You have to find your own WiFi; your house, Starbucks, McDonald's, etc. If you haven't connected to one, then it falls back to a cell tower. The assumption is the user has a wide variety of hotspots to which the phone is already set to auto connect.

I hope not. Most are not from the USA.

Whoa there, you forgot the 5th government solution that causes way more long term problems than the 4 you listed:
5. Provide it "free" via an entitlement program

I supposed they can claim this on a semantic technicality; since no one has done it before either succeeding or failing with current technology, you can't really say it has been demostrated to be false. Their attempt, if they actually get off the ground, will be the demonstration.

When writing for the C-64 you HAD to write code like that.

Pay and retirement for teachers vary state by state because teachers are employees of local governments. Perhaps the retirement packages in your state aren't great but in my state they sure are.

When someone bombs a mall or hijacks a plane, that's pretty clear they're trying to create a fear of shopping or travelling. But what is it that the isis team is trying to do with their beheading videos? What exactly are they trying to make us fearful of, getting our heads sawn off? I didn't really need a video to have that already high on my "do not attempt at home" list. Fear of being an aid worker in a combat zone? Anyone who is in Syria and the like as an aid worker has either accepted the risks or is hopelessly naive, so that can't really be it either. So, whatever reason they have, the actual result of showing these videos is to firmly illustrate what complete barbarians they are and to dissuade anyone who might be thinking to just live and let live with these people.