Traveling faster than light does not necessarily violate causality.
If I could travel instantly from place A to place B which is 1 light year away, I would arrive at B long before the light arrives. However, the "absolute" time at place B is exactly the same as at place A, the fact that an observer depending on optical information via photons lazily traveling at the speed of light from B to A would only be able to see me arriving there a year later has nothing to do with causality. If I instantly travel back to A, I am still not arriving any earlier than I departed, and hence have not moved in time, only in space - and once again I cannot violate causality.

In a nutshell - their new "flagship" is failing to catch up with the innovation shown in Samsung's and HTC's new models. Comparing specs, the iPhone 5 looks like a yesteryear product. Looks like Apple is following Microsoft on a downwards spiral soon - as soon as the current generation of uncritical gullible fanboys dies out.

It is changing. In our clinic we were in the process of transitioning towards an "all Apple" environment (iphones, ipads, Macbooks, imacs and mac minis). However, witnessing with great concern Apple's customer hostile approach worsening rapidly over the last couple of years we decided to reverse the process. In phones it was easy - the Galaxy S3 is a vastly better device. In laptops it is not easy, we still find Macbooks unrivaled in build quality and features, and there is nothing on the market we could find that would come close to the desirable specs of a mac mini.

As a result, we are now transitioning to a mix of generic PC hardware and Mac hardware mostly running Linux (some desktops still running OSX), and Galaxy S3 phones and soon the new Galaxy note tablet too. While it is a slow transition, I can see many like minded people in my area making a similar transition - the walled garden walls have become far too high for many, the sun is not coming through any more.

Only two years ago I probably would have still praised the advantages of the OSX ecosystem. Nowadays, they have become as disgusting as Microsoft had 10 years ago - and that was the last time I used any Microsoft products. The writing is on the wall for Apple too - instead of keeping innovating they merely try to maximize their profit through litigating any competition and locking their existing customers completely in. When corporates become intolerably arrogant it is only a matter of time before people turn their back.

This seems to be a common issue permeating across most developed countries. Decent people just wanting to live in peace, raise their kids, and have some fun - and rabidly mad governments out of control brutalizing their citizens on behalf of the multinational corporations and a couple of hegemonial superpowers without any accountability. The lame excuse for "democracy" in those countries is a mere detractor from the fact that they have long become entrenched oligarchies who will destroy any real competition prior to election time.

Last time the establishment was changed in living history was ... when?

You might be sorely disappointed then. At least with the iphone 3GS and iphone4 we have in our family, we too have to reboot on occasion in oredr to get out of the "no signal" in areas where there is definitely a good signal. Doesn't happen often, but happen it does. It does certainly not happen any mpre often than on my son's Galaxy S2.

In terms of stability and reliability I would rate them "on par", but in terms of user friendliness and features in our family's collective opinion the Galaxy2 wins by a small but significant enough margin for the remaining 4 iphone users in the family wanting to make the switch. Everybody in my family is sick of Apple telling us what to do and preventing us from doing what we want to do through their appstore monopoly abuse.

"The world’s most advanced car, the Tesla Roadster,..." .... really? I guess you both understand bugger all about cars and never left the USA.
To begin with, most of the Tesla is based on the European Lotus Elise, only the electrical drive train comes from the USA. Admittedly a very good one, but the car as a whole is nowhere near as advanced as let's say the BMW 750 LI compared to which the Tesla looks a bit primitive, and yet they are even in the same price class. Throw more money at your car, and the Europeans and Japanese both have even far more advanced options to that. The US has remain a backwater of car development for the past 2 decades, and is only getting worse.

Whom are you referring to? The country where
about 1 in 12 live in extreme poverty (http://www.worldhunger.org/articles/Learn/us_hunger_facts.htm) and more than one in 6 live below the poverty line (http://www.worldhunger.org/articles/Learn/us_hunger_facts.htm), and where almost half of the people have creationist delusions due to lack of education (http://www.gallup.com/poll/155003/Hold-Creationist-View-Human-Origins.aspx)?
Or do you refer to that tiny developing country in South America?
Trust me, from a general European point of view the USA is a country where too many people are dirt poor, hungry, and generally backwards. And if you would ever travel to Europe you would understand why. Ecuador at least has an excuse for being poor, the USA have none.

I disagree. Prostitutes at least provide a service, at times at considerable personal risk, with considerable effort and skill. At least the legal ones do not blatantly rip off customers or generate artificial demand. I'd rather have a prostitute in my family than a patent lawyer or similar parasites of society - and I really mean it.

If we apply current economic wisdom, infinitely. The more we use water, the more it will become... until all surface is covered by water for all to enjoy.

Man, that was a WINDOWS computer! Surely nobody is crazy enough to access the Internet wit that, so there must be another computer with a safe OS to access it ...

format c: - voila, all crapware removed. Then go to http://www.distrowatch.org/ and select a non-crappy OS and install. There, saved you $99 bucks.

The UK is a tiny market at the verge of Europe, by many not considered as part of Europe but as a US colony for obvious reasons.
The fact that they drive on a different side of the road than the rest of Europe makes European cars more expensive for them, and not all models get converted. Just to give you an example - VW alone sold 3 times the cars in Europe than GM did in 2011, and then you have Mercedes, BMW, Peugeot, Citroen, .... - actually VW is currently the world's number one car maker, closely followed by Toyota. Both brands made by small countries with much fewer cars even per capita than the US, and neither needs the gigantic government subsidies that are required to keep GM alive - why do you think that is?

Any specs or references to back this up?

If GM had spent that money on a bit of engineering to get their cars a bit closer to the efficiency of European cars, perhaps people would buy them more? No amount of avertising money will get enough people to buy yesterdecades technology cars

Nice thoughts, but I have been living in this land of Oz for the past 15 years, so no invitation required. I have diligently avoided all US airports ever since they invaded Iraq and embarked on this totalitarian downward spiral, though I miss my trips to conferences in beautiful Hawaii and Florida a bit. While I agree that Aussie international airports are still more pleasant places to enter a country than US international airports, both are rather unpleasant places compared to the majority of Asian and European ones in my experience. Both could do with a lesson in respect and politeness towards visitors from places like Singapore, Seoul and Osaka. Try entering any Australian airport without an Aussie passport and you'll learn very quickly that you are regarded as human 2nd class (but at least still human) to the authorities. Maybe Perth is better in that regard than Sydney, Brisbane or Melbourne?

Haven't seen the most reviled politician (John Howard perhaps? Though Julia is trying hard to outdo him in that regard) running around without bodyguards either, though that could be due to me trying to stay well away from such beasts. If you don't think Australia needs human rights enshrined in it's constitution, try to picture yourself in the shoes of some kids in the detention centres, or try to picture yourself in the shoes of Joe Average 10 years down the track if the current trend continues.