Just want to say that I think the playbook UI is garbage too. There are few specific comments I have, any maybe all tablets are like it, but it just feels awkward and poorly tested to me. I am always accidentally closing applications, fighting with the autocorrect / word chooser or whatever its called, constantly switching between keyboard layouts to enter data, can't get the cursor into the correct position when typing in text fields, etc. Everything feels like a fight with the machine. Another example, maybe I'm doing something wrong, but when entering a url in the the browser, slashdot.org, it will never suggest the top level site but instead will give me three choices like http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/13/01/29/1944232/rims-bb10-campaign-requires-some-serious-work, in the address bar. This ensures I have to type the whole domain name every time.

I got the playbook as part of the developer challenge when it first came out and was really excited about it. I have been consistently disappointed with it (remember how version 2 of the software was going to make it so much greater, then it was delayed for months and finally did almost nothing). Right now it is collecting dust somewhere

It's OK to ask (although you probably could have looked it up) and I understand that younger people might not know this, but it's pretty sad to me that his has been modded up. I think it says something about the way the userbase of slashdot has changed.

I believe it. And I don't care. I would also not be surprised that a higher percentage of male athletes use steroids. Cheating is an unfortunate byproduct of being competitive (although maybe an evolutionarily advantageous one).

It does piss me off though to see garbage like

in the summary.

I agree with what you say about raising tax

But complaining about having to be frugal while you go to school. Really?

You are making an investment. Of course you should have to pay for it. You already spend four years of your life not working and going to school, presumably so you could get a better paying job, now you are doing it again. Under a government funded loan system, you were able to borrow money to make an investment. Another government program is giving you free food. You have nothing to complain about.

Someone please mod this funny.

I often joke that if I ever have to apply for a (non-academic) job, my chances will be better if I just put 'prison' for the four years I was doing my Ph.D. in order to explain the time gap.

There's not much chance of gravity pulling something into us in that way. Think about how long it would take for a ball dropped a few hundred thousand km above the earth to fall to the ground. Any object moving fast enough that it has passed the earth by during that time will not be pulled into us.

As you imply, reviewing articles is a part of academic life. The 'pay' is part of a faculty member's salary if you want to think of it that way. When applying for tenure or promotion, faculty routinely include reviewing work in their cv.

What Elsevier journal are you paying to publish in? I have published in multiple Elsevier journals and have never been asked to pay a fee. I think this may be the policy of your particular journal?

The biggest problem I see with this is that the research funding will end up going to those with the best grant writing skills and not necessarily the best scientists. I have no idea how to solve this problem, and get the actual best people working on it, but this is as important as any other aspect of the project.

The problem is the unions. I don't think that needs any explanation.

Thank you, I'm not sure how the AC got modded. You would think that seeing a 747 cost $1,000,000 per 1000 km to fly would have raised a flag for someone.

This is easy to say, but not many people are going to pay 5X the price or more to fly with an airline that pays their employees extra and is nice to their customers. Unfortunately, consumers are getting what they want from the air travel industry, a race to the bottom.

Look up eddy currents and inductive heating

Quebec City is not a major Canadian airport. All major airports have pre-clearance, little regional airports do not. I used to fly to Boston from Fredericton and had to clear customs in Boston, but Fredericton Airport is basically a shed with one international flight a day (usually with about five people on it).

Toronto, Montreal, even Ottawa which is a tiny airport, Vancouver, Calgary etc, all have pre-clearance