--Communication without disturbing anyone nearby (on public transport, during lessons at school, in the office)

-There exists a mental technique called 'patience'. The huge downside to instant communication, and instant gratification from it, is that we fail to realize that half of our thoughts aren't important enough to actually send.

Not sure what patience has to do with not disturbing people. Regarding what is important enough to send, you appear to be viewing this technology as strictly for business purposes. Often the act of sending a text, regardless of content, fulfills the purpose of letting the other party know you are thinking of them. You know, being social.

"This one goes in your ear, this one goes in your mouth, and this one goes in your butt. No, wait..."

"taste more like the number 2 brand"

You have to try the shitty soup!

Apples and oranges. Video games rarely if ever require me to find a creative solution to a problem. Likewise my job never requires me to be in constant twitch mode ready to shoot anything that moves. Two different parts of the brain.

"Yankovic wrote the parody and debuted it live on the Dr. Demento Show."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Another_one_rides_the_bus

The best athletes are smart and the fans recognize that. It takes both brains and physical ability to be a top athlete.

As others have pointed out, we in the area have been on alert for this forever. Nothing would be better than having it happen so we can put it in our past. It will be dealt with and then remembered nostalgically - we're in full-blown "remember Mt. St. Helens" anniversary mode right now.

Thanks for the link. Also worth noting:

First violation for illegal immigrants: $500 fine plus jail costs

First violation for employers of illegal immigrants: Fill out some paperwork

This should be the real outrage - employers creating the supply of illegal work are barely punished. We can throw as many people back over the border as we want, but nothing will change until the supply of jobs is cut off.

1. Unless you live in Hong Kong.

2. Adrien Brody was on Ferguson last night talking about taking his parents to the premiere and forgetting that he *spoiler* has sex with the creature.

Your numbers logic is still crap. People drive every day, shoot much less often. Most auto fatalities are unintentional, reverse that for shooting deaths. The ratio of shooting deaths:guns fired is astronomically higher than auto deaths:miles driven.

Also, very few people own more than two cars whereas gun collectors are much more prevalent.

All you have to do to cash in is burn down your house!

Yet another attempt to monetize as an afterthought. Expect several more links to "Premium PSN" to clog up the XMB alongside the multiple redundant store icons, non-hideable ticker, and forced-at-startup "What's New" button. Remember the first issue of Qore, with all the promoted extras which turned out to be one bad (and hidden!) Pong clone and access to exclusive game content that was not realized for several months? That is an idea of to expect here. My guess is that the giveaway games will be of the type that require followup, not-free DLC to be fully realized.

"The average student debt load in 2008 was $23,200 -- a nearly $5,000 increase over five years."

This is fueled mainly by the boom in higher priced private colleges (University of Phoenix, etc.) and their shifty recruitment practices. Exactly in the same way that mortgages were being given to unqualified homeowners, there has been a huge rise in the numbers of students enrolling at colleges who will let anybody in the door. Recruiters are paid per enrollment in many cases. Frontline covered it recently:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/collegeinc/ (you can watch the show online here)

One of the standout statistics was the 10 percent of public university students are in default, while private colleges have a 44 percent default rate.

Proof of concept. The ultimate goal is to put man on other planets, and the best way to get there is to put man on other planets. It is cyclical that in order to convince people to do something we must first do that thing, but that is how the human brain works.

Or the "Sirens of Titan" joke, which took me a while to get and I've read the book.