Those sneaky bastages! If I got my hands on a man who would farg another man's icehole, why I'd take his dwork, and nail it the farging wall.

Aside from complete marketing "cool" factor, my guess would be that it a cheap touchscreen is (now) cheaper than all of discrete control knobs. You only need one cutout in the center console, and you don't need all the extra wires and switches and things. Also, it is easier to configure different virtual controls on the one touchscreen system for all the different vehicles, trim lines and vehicle configurations you make. The touchscreen may even be a little more reliable than the physical controls, assuming someone doesn't punch it.

I too appreciate the physical controls, and it's not clear that the touchscreen really adds anything to the experience besides the "cool" factor.

I second Extra Credits. They provide a lot of good analysis and breakdowns of why some games work well, and how others could be made to work better. Here's a link to the YouTube site:
https://www.youtube.com/user/ExtraCreditz

I also liked "Shut Up & Sit Down", who seem to do very good play reviews. They might be a little "mature" for an 11-year-old, so I would check the sit out first and make your own call.
http://www.shutupandsitdown.com/

have mercy on your soul.

The entire future of the planet may depend on us tracking down Billy Ocean... and stopping him.

So business as usual, then?

So if these keyboards are so durable, why do you need to refurbish them?

I kid, I kid... I have an Model M at the office that I love to pieces.

Here's a link to the press release from UMD with some links to the professor's web site.

http://cmns.umd.edu/news-events/features/2356

Fish, and plankton, and sea greens, and protein from the sea!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiyPqbyHXIg&t=2m5s

Sorry, this is apropos of nothing, but it just... popped in there.

What about cyclotron radiation from the ions in the meteor plasma trails? Could charge carriers be orbiting in the plasma trail under the influence of the Earth's magnetic field, and radiating RF in the megahertz band?

Ahh, that's the problem... I'd been telling everyone it had a ten-inch screen.

As I seem to recall from back when the History Channel showed history, the original function of the "wrist watch" was jewelry, especially for ladies. Men wore pocket watches, and wrist watches were women's bracelets with a built-in timepiece. From what I remember, wrist watches weren't really appropriate fashion items for men until World War 1, when mass troop coordination required everyone to have an easily accessible timepiece, and wrist-watches fit the bill. So having the wrist watch return the status of jewelry isn't too unprecedented.

I find I prefer to wear a pocket watch at the office. I'm not a good typist, and wearing a wrist-watch bothers me when I use a keyboard. The pocket watch lets me have a convenient timepiece that stays in my pants. Plus you can get some really fancy pocket watches.

I've had similar feelings about the current policy of giving out student loans to anyone who qualifies for any course of study. While it probably in the Federal and State governments' purview to make sure we have adequate qualified people in all courses of study (beyond the usual demands of the market), how many Classical Studies majors (not to pick on them) does the United States need to produce every year, and do we need to subsidize or encourage them, and if so, at what level.

My only observation is regarding your comparison between your student loans and your mortgage. I understand the purpose of your comparison, but it is far harder to give your education, versus your house, to someone else if it doesn't work out. :-)

While I'm as much [citations needed] as the next guy; you could, you know, go through the trouble of explaining what this world-fixing solution that "industry / the green lobby / the government doesn't want me to see" instead of forcing me to wade through the YouTube videos. When you do it this way it looks like the worst kind of shyster "at home infinite electricity" solutions.

to the "Stop Hitting Yourself" game.