We tried a simplified version in the 60s with tower blocks. Shops at the bottom, flats on top, all the amenities anyone would need within walking distance. They quickly turned into ghettos where no-one wanted to live. Turns out that for a successful community you need space, diversity and people travelling around to interact with outsiders. Otherwise it turns into a medieval village pretty quickly.

You may be productive but your houses suck. They are poorly insulated and you waste a lot of energy heating and cooling them. Compare them to German homes that need only a fraction of the energy to maintain a pleasant environment.

The reason for this is that the US hates socialism. Germany mandated that new homes are well insulated and low energy, and provided improvements at little or no cost to existing ones. In the US such things are expensive extras and since energy is extremely cheap most people don't seem to care about them much.

Just do what the EU did and demand better quality. We introduced RoHS for a reason, and now are looking at ways to make manufacturing cleaner in China too. They need to sell to us, we are massive market (bigger than the US) so what we say they have to abide by. If we say only so much CO2 and PM2.5 per product they have no choice but to clean up and meet those requirements.

Just to be clear, RoHS wasn't just about protecting us from harmful stuff, it was about eliminating it from the manufacturing process and from recycling/landfill (which also often happens in China).

In the end prices haven't really gone up due to it, they just fell at a slightly lower rate. Very slightly lower.

It's amazing how many people seem to think they can assault people and damage property without consequences. All that will happen is you will be arrested and hauled before a judge, and the glasshole will buy a new pair with the money you were forced to pay them in restitution. No-one will applaud you, they will just be shocked that you are such a violent asshole and hope you never come back.

Science will never be able to play back memory because it doesn't work like video. It works by association. When you remember seeing that car it's actually just a reference that says something like "blue sedan, modern shape" and your brain fills that in. If you like Subaru's modern shape it will tend to look more like a Subaru if the memory is positive, or more like a crappy Ford if it's negative.

The thing is we already reached the point where almost everything that happens in public is on tape somewhere, all Glass and mobile phones are doing is making it easier to access the recording and upload it to YouTube.

Be honest, do you really think that owning a gun protects you in any meaningful way from the government? If your local police force, let alone the feds, decided to persecute you would it help maintain your freedom? Would even a few hundred armed militia be enough against them?

The reason it works in Switzerland is that they have low poverty rates. Actually their definition of poverty is way above the US one. They also have good mental healthcare. Therefore there is very little reason for most people to commit crimes, and thus being armed isn't a problem.

In the US there is much more poverty and desperation, and a shocking lack of mental healthcare. Therefore it is a problem that so many people have guns. Unfortunately US politics are not conducive to fixing those two issues.

Actually there was no increase due to the restrictions on gun ownership, and in fact there was no noticeable effect of any kind on crime.

The only thing that did change was a fall in the number of suicides by gun, although it is questionable how much effect the ban itself had. The thing is Australia never had mass gun ownership or high crime like the US did.

The problem is that while lethal self defence is sometimes necessary the stats clearly show that if you own a gun the increased chance of accidentally shooting someone (including yourself) or the increased danger of being shot because you produced a weapon when confronted outweighs the benefit.

I get it. Guys like to feel they are in control, and think that is they are armed and can do something they will defeat the other guy coming at them. The reality is that if someone points a gun at you the best thing to do is run. Cowardly perhaps, but sensible. If you want your family to live, run. If you can't run, don't resist. Most criminals have little reason to add murder to robbery or trespass unless you are trying to kill them, and your valuables can be replaced where as your kids lives can't.

Freedom of the press has evolved over time. These days bloggers enjoy some of the same protections as journalists when publishing.

Also, you completely misunderstood what he said. He isn't saying the limits should be the ones we had 200 years ago, in fact the problem is that things haven't changed enough since then.

He might be wrong about some things, but the American Dream(TM) lie is well understood. The UK had a its own version called Thatcherism. The idea that anyone can make it if they work hard. Well, maybe they can if they get really lucky, but for the majority they won't get rich in their lifetime. Not to say that they will have bad lives or anything.

The problem is people vote for tax cuts for the rich because they think they will be rich one day. They vote based on ideas that only really affect the rich because they think they are upper-middle class, when in fact they are working class. The majority of working class people in the UK think they are middle class, it's that bad. My aunt was a school cleaner and my uncle a factory worker, they thought they were middle class.

You must have missed the bit about much of the cheap, social housing where the rent controls actually kick in being owned by non-profits who exist only to provide social housing. In the UK local government used to fill that role, building a lot of low cost but good quality housing.

Everyone needs housing. You can't really chose to live in a cardboard box under a bridge as an alternative to renting or buying a property. It needs to be a social thing, with a free market on top for people who can afford it.

There is a standard, it's called MirrorLink. Even Apple supports it.

The problem is that if they do prosecute you in the UK the failure to mention when questioned anything you later rely on in court can harm you defence. It is assumed you making it up later if you didn't mention it when questioned. Maybe you could convince a jury you just didn't want to talk to the police, because they are well known for being corrupt scumbags, but it's one hell of a risk.

Some manufacturers, like Toyota and Subaru, have been offering MirrorLink capability for a few years. It lets you mirror your phone screen to the in-dash screen, complete with touch control, and you can use any navigation app you like.