Essentially an ancient way to kill sheep, with an anonymous guess factor thrown in for the button presser's.... not sure exactly sure what. So, the goal when executing a human is to make it so that whomever provides the approval gets to be anonymous, yet the executors (in doing their job) don't get the individual responsibility, but, who was responsible for the decision that ultimately said "execute him"? I would imagine that if you vote "Yes" to execute someone, or if some person made that decision, they would all be fully willing to flip the switch. If not, then the lack of responsibility in any of those parties should be called into question. How can you say "Execute that person" yet not be willing to execute that person yourself? Why must that be made subject to "I pressed, but don't know if it was me who ACTUALLY did the act, therefor can sleep well..." nonsense? No. If you choose to execute someone in a group or individually, be prepared to perform the act, no?

You may like to pick up and learn something of Cellular Automata, if you're astonished by and interested in the relationships between math and nature, it may help provide some concepts that fold the two together in extremely interesting ways.

The issue isn't about burying heads in sand. People here discuss pollution daily. It's on the news, it's in the media. The premier, last Thursday, made a speech about pollution and how the gov't vows to continue fighting pollution, calling it a "blight on people's quality of life and a trouble that weighs on their hearts". There is a huge effort in China to try to curb the pollution issue, and as someone who lives here and has serious concerns about the air, I can attest to watching the AQI (US consulate sourced) in a variety of cities.. and I believe pollution is *actually* getting a little better in the last couple years compared to airpocolypses that was slamming our lungs in the past. I don't claim to know why this docu. was removed from Chinese media specifically but I would guess it has less to do with the content itself, and more to do with controlling the narrative. Rest assured, though, pollution isn't being 'hidden' from the Chinese public, it's being breathed in daily.

This isn't "news", you can find articles stating the exact same information from like, 2011. Some due diligence please!

In this case the "may be refused" portion could be justified under the case where security measures which are required to identify legal tender are not recognisable or have been damaged, which would be sufficient means to refuse the money as legal tender.

"well, russia is a shit-hole"

How much time have you spent in Russia? I'm guessing none.

I think you're missing out on the whole 'public' thing. This situation is so big and so public that it would be devastating for the US gov't to try sneaky shit and get around any legal promises made.

They'll have to install tamper proofing on electrical outlets everywhere to prevent the robots from committing robot suicide?

That's not the problem. The problem it it has been done before for rocket engines that have actually been fired up - the metals used were superalloys, in SpaceX case Inconel specifically. Those rocket engines have been in use for some time - and the problem with this story is that it lacks credibility in the "we're first' market for several reasons.

Not if his name is Jor-El.

RE: "cleaning up hospitals properly" I just recently read about a robot that is designed to keep hospitals clean from a wide variety of pathogens: http://www.xenex.com/ -- looks interesting/promising.

Drug approval requires so much heavy lifting in the US that costs to develop new drugs skyrocket, and the only drugs that get developed are those that are taken routinely for high profit. Boner pills flourish, antibiotics stagnate. The solution here isn't to jack the price of antibiotics to an astronomical level that a very small percent of the population could possibly afford - drugs and surgeries in the US are already way overpriced with major corporations snorting all of that profit up - the solution is to reduce the cost of R&D and approvals.

My last chest x-ray in China took about 25 minutes -- walk in, no appointment, cost $12 USD, includes assessment (albeit I don't know how great the assessment is), and it's not kept in some locked away book.. I take that xray home with me.

Chinese farming is too expensive these days. It's far more lucrative for the Chinese farming businesses to outsource to 'nam.

When the writing is as good as it is - and Oliver is really allowed the freedom to shine in his delivery, that's all that is needed. I've really liked ALL of the key focus segments of his shows, and they're always up on Youtube if you don't have HBO and want to watch it "legitimately". He also makes web-exclusive bits on his channel...strongly suggest subscribing to his channel if you're a fan.

John Oliver has a wonderful gig and his show is fantastic, OP, what makes you possibly consider that as a 'solution' to Stewart's unfortunate departure?