Except ccc.de isn't actually blocked. I'm visiting a friend in the UK right now and have no problem reaching ccc.de through PlusNet nor do I have any trouble reaching it through an EE mobile internet connection.

If the roads are very much from safe, why is the UK's road safety record so much better than most other developed countries?

It's over 100% because the %age shown on the site (if you read the FAQ) is %age of domestic demand. If production is >100% it means they are exporting power.

Wiritng cursive has crossed the line for decades (just teach them so they can write legibly, which is still required - but all that cursive shit, no).

However long division and other things such as doing multiplication by hand are important skills that should still be taught: it internalizes the idea that a big difficult calculation can be made easier by turning it into several smaller calculations. It's a bit like learning asm in computer science - you're (probably) never going to use it in the real world but it's important to know in the understanding of how a computer actually works.

If anything I think schools need to be able to get more people to be able to do mental arithmetic and estimation. If you understand these even if you only ever use a calculator it gives you the skills to sanity check the result (how many times have I thought "that's not right" after entering something into a calculator because it disagreed with a mental estimate, then discovered I had miskeyed a number, especially on a touch screen)

France right now, at this very second, is fuelling 98% of their demand with nuclear.

http://www.gridwatch.templar.c...

I guess these psycopathic British drivers is why Britain has some of the safest roads in Europe and the world (with around only half the fatalities per million kilometers compared to the US or Canada)

The car industry conspiracy doesn't hold any water - French carmakers are famous for making really good small diesel engines.

I don't think so. The French make awesome small diesel engines, if this disadvantages anyone it will be the French.

In 2014, I have driven more than 45 miles from my origin on exactly two occasions, and one of those was in a rented long wheelbase van.

Doesn't look at all like a Dalek to me, it looks more like something that Aperture Science would design. (And it would say "No hard feelings" if you pushed it over, assuming you could push over this lumbering 300lb thing)

The original game is fun to play. Last month at Retromañía in Spain we had the original game running on the Russian pdp-11 clone for which it was created (unfortunately the pdp-11 clone had to be emulated - we actually have a real pdp-11 but it's a DEC built one and the original code won't work very well on it due to the lack of the Cyrillic character set). It's a good bit harder than the PC version which I think was the next version of Tetris to be written.

Except snipers usually want to be stealthy, this machine makes an incredible racket.

Last time I bought a vehicle (a motorcycle) I actually bought it with my debit card! The bank called back to make some security checks, but other than that, buying a motorcycle was just like buying the groceries - insert card, enter PIN, ride home on new bike.

You should expect a basic, clean, functional room though with what was advertised to come with the room.

I've stayed in a £35 a night Blackpool B&B (Windsor House or something it was called) and it was perfectly acceptable. The room wasn't huge but it was clean and comfortable, the shower worked fine, it had free WiFi, and a full English breakfast included and was much better value than most so-called "low cost" hotels like Premier Inn. I stayed recently in a 25 euro a night hotel in the centre of Zaragoza in Spain and this was similar - no way could you describe it as "luxury" but it was clean, the bed was comfortable, the shower worked just fine and so did the WiFi. It is perfectly possible to have an entirely acceptable hotel room for this price.

Boredom is a big human factor in many accidents. We *should* be making a big deal about the boredom of people in charge of some incredibly dangerous weapons. Certainly in other safety related fields, boredom has resulted in serious fatal accidents (for example automation in airliners leading bored crews to trying experiments, leading to a crash). Attributing it to the "pussification of America" just shows this opinion to be rather ignorant of the serious consequences of ignoring human factors.

On the pussification of America, bring it on. If it makes the US a more peaceful place, and a country less likely to start wars, this bodes well for the planet. Pussification is good for our long term survival as a species now we have developed nuclear weapons.