Yeah. Using mysterious black box software and making/trusting claims about its security is a bit naive.

In all aspects of education, from primary school to university, the growing swarms of administrators soak up the budget. In some school systems, they vastly outnumber the actual teachers, have better pay, and yet contribute nothing to the operation of the schools.

Of course the Chinese can manufacture good quality products. The fact that they very often don't has less to do with Chinese capabilities and more to do with their customers. When a company is uprooting its entire manufacturing capability and moving it overseas, they are in a serious cost-cutting mindset. Shipping the manufacturing to China and maintaining the current quality will save a little bit of money, but shipping the manufacturing to China and cutting quality to the bone will save so much more.

Doing something like this is a big sale for the top executives and it may not pan out in the long term. If they're going to tank the company, they need to cash out now, while there's still something left of the brand name.

Maybe on the moon, but not on this planet.

It really wouldn't, though. Just like the case with health-tracking apps and baby monitors, if the target of the monitoring is interested in being monitored there are cheaper and more reliable methods than this. The prime applications for this involve involuntary monitoring, probably law enforcement for the most part.

There are many many people in Texas named "Jody Williams". If you consider that Jody can be short for Joseph, there are even more. Nutjob, indeed.

The DSO Nano from Seeed Studio almost fits that bill. The specs aren't amazing, but at $89 with its own screen it's useful for education or light tasks. I keep one in my bag for emergency troubleshooting in the field.

They have a more capable version, too, for anyone who's interested.

Most of the elements you listed are period 4 or lower (sorry, I said "group" in my previous post, ugh) and within the first 30 elements: iron (26), magnesium (12), lithium (3), zinc (30), copper (29), chromium (24), nickel (28), cobalt (27), vanadium (23), and manganese (25).

The only exceptions from your list are arsenic (33), selenium (34) [both period 4], and molybdenum (42). Arsenic is largely extremely toxic to biological systems and is only used by a few specific bacteria species as a homolog for a more commonly used element (phosphorus). Selenium and molybdenum do have slightly more common biological roles, but are toxic in high concentrations. Many of their roles could probably be filled by sulfur and chromium, respectively, if they were not present (though perhaps less efficiently).

Life here has certainly made use of the available elements, but (assuming it could get started without heavy metal catalysts) most of the elements required are a pretty small subset.

Elements past period 4 aren't plentiful enough to appreciably change planet formation. 90% of the mass of the earth is contributed by just iron, oxygen, silicon, and magnesium. The relative abundance of period 5 and above elements is absolutely tiny.

Biological systems don't tend to use anything heavier than group 4 elements, and the heavier elements actually tend to poison their proper function. Assuming the "primordial soup" didn't need platinum or something to catalyze early reactions, our flavor of life could be made with a much smaller vocabulary (the first 30 elements or so).

That entirely depends on the institution/department and the negotiated contract. At no university I've been at could a tenured professor totally check out (stop teaching/researching/administrating) and continue to collect a paycheck or remain employed. It makes no sense for an institution to not have certain performance expectations of the faculty set in the contract.

In any case, it's unlikely an absentee professor would make it past the next post tenure review. Tenure doesn't make you unfirable, it just ensures you have access to due process before being fired.

316.081 Driving on right side of roadway; exceptions.—

(2) Upon all roadways, any vehicle proceeding at less than the normal speed of traffic at the time and place and under the conditions then existing shall be driven in the right-hand lane then available for traffic or as close as practicable to the right-hand curb or edge of the roadway except when overtaking and passing another vehicle proceeding in the same direction or when preparing for a left turn at an intersection or into a private road or driveway.

(4) A violation of this section is a noncriminal traffic infraction, punishable as a moving violation as provided in chapter 318.

The Missouri "Keep right" laws don't support your scenario, though. According to this, all drivers should drive as far to the right as safely possible except if passing or preparing to turn left. If another car is able to pass you on the right, then you are not driving as far right as possible. In your scenario, the person in the left lane is violating the "keep right" law and the person in the right lane is violating the speeding law. Both of your hypothetical drivers are in the wrong.

In fact, the wording in the statute doesn't mention the speed limit at all, but refers to a "regular flow of traffic". If everybody else is speeding and you're driving the speed limit, you are violating the statute by refusing to move into the right lane. Leave speed limit enforcement up to the police... it's not your job.

Ask, and you shall receive.

That must vary by field.

In the sciences, if a professor doesn't bring in funding for research, doesn't have any administrative roles, and doesn't teach, they don't get a paycheck. Their lab space will eventually be taken away and they will be left with only an office (which may be downgraded, Office Space style, to let active faculty have the nicer offices). It's a pretty pathetic way to go out and very few people seem to do it.

Although of questionable constitutionality, as it may run afoul of the right to due process, an increasing number of criminal laws in the US are strict liability only, meaning that intent is not required to be demonstrated. Theoretically, prosecutorial discretion keeps these laws from being applied in ridiculous circumstances, but practically...