So, two things.

If you're in the northern midwest of the US, you're not at the same latitude as Moscow. Moscow is 55 deg north, the continental 48 stop at the 49th parallel. So, unless you're talking about Ketchikan, which is decidedly not "midwest", then you need to adjust your memories a bit.

Second, as you should well be aware, latitude alone does not define how cold a place gets. In fact, southern Alaska and the Cascades region in general is generally more temperate than New England. Jet stream, currents, regional topography, all that stuff makes a difference. Going to guess based on your commentary that you're in the Montana/ND area, so comparing Helena with Moscow puts them on about par, with a full nine degrees difference in latitude.

No, "barbaric" is the way we treat people with mental illness and ailments that point to it. Rather than fix the problem, it's easier to take a puritanical view and pretend it's that individual's personal failings that caused the problem instead of society's failing to treat it. When this inevitably results in recidivism, it's just easier for society to hit the guy with a brick and make the problem go away.

We make the monsters and then claim that the monsters have to be killed because they can't be unmade.

Boston: If they can make bridges out of light, you have to wonder if they can make anything else.
Maggie: You mean...Light beer?
Boston: I was thinking more of a light house.

I could mod this as incorrect/misleading, but it's better to just reply with the correct information.

Boston is an anomaly when determining statistics of metropolitan areas. Unlike many larger cities like LA and Chicago, Boston has a fairly small land area. New York City is more than six times the land area of Boston for example. Whereas many metro areas grew over time, annexing adjacent cities and and towns, many of the towns in the Boston area resisted this move and were never annexed - They operate independently of the city proper. So while the Boston *metro* area grows, Boston itself has little room to do so.

That said, while there is crime in Boston (nobody would argue otherwise), your low statistic focuses only on Boston and not the Boston metro area, which includes places like West Roxbury, Dorchester, and Jamaica Plain, where the gun violence rate is much higher. To put it another way, using your statistic to make this argument would be like citing the murder rate in NYC based solely on the numbers in the Manhattan.

Oh. My. God. Lego City Undercover. Forget everything else, even Mario.

Is this how Ballmer issues missions to his operatives?

Not sure about the parent specifically, but I would guess that most of the people trying to draw attention to the problem already *are* "dealing with it". Many of the folks that are so concerned about the problem already have taken steps to do their part in ways more significant than "Don't buy a smartphone" - the real issue is convincing the disbelievers that they should act as well. He can't very well save the world by composting/recycling/bicycling while you're delivering pizza in your H2, now can he?

You make it sound as if hipsters are the ones warning us of the crisis. Well, you got the first three letters right anyway...

Wow, I guess that Phoronix site really is "well known"!

Jesus got banned for repeated violations of the TOS. He got caught duping some fish and bread and then started handing it out freely. He was also flagged for poshacking when a GM found him be walking on water.

He told his guildmates that he'd be back on a new account, though.

The light bulbs thing isn't about you saving money. It's about everyone making a very small change in their lives which results in a very large change for us all on this blue marble of ours. Making every single little government line item into "What does it do for me?" is part of how we got into this stupid mess in the first place.

"Greenhoue effect" by scorpius (235526)"

This is exactly the sort of dismissive post I would expect to see from one of Venus' scorpion overlords!