Actually the main purpose is to wound as many enemies as you can. Each wounded soldier takes 2-3 support people to care for them. The purpose of engaging in battle is to gain the specific objective (hill, town, city) as described by the mission objectives. A lot of killing takes place, yes, but it's actually the wounded that count the most from a tactical standpoint.

Helping makers of internal combustion engines create more efficiencies certainly does help direct competitors of Musk's.

Tell that to the failed Mars Climate Orbiter. If we'd settled on one set of units (either would be fine) it probably wouldn't have been lost.

I'm not sure where you got that one. The only credible theory related to it is the Chicxulub crater, which is on the Southern edge of the Gulf, near the Yucatan Peninsula. That's what's left by the impact that many believe killed most of the dinosaurs, as well as many other species. It's not even close to the size of the whole Gulf. What theories are you talking about?

It is just another example of shoddy tech/science journalism, to use the latter term loosely. Sensationalism gets people to click.

He just described it incorrectly. You don't have to be a douche about it. It ionizes a small area of the air, creating a 'plasma field' (their words) that disrupts the shock wave.

Grumpy? Not at all. You wouldn't want to see that; nobody does :)

It's just an example of a solution looking for a problem and thus opening the doors to more potential problems.

I'd rather make my own security decisions. I don't need the 'AI' in my phone deciding if it's me or not.

I didn't do anything of the sort. It 'doesn't necessarily' disqualify an applicant is all I said. It does not. The converse of that is it also often does.

It is not illegal to deny employment on the basis of criminal background. That's the very reason so many employers do background checks. It doesn't necessarily disqualify a person but it certain can be used in the decision making process.

Few if any corporations have ethics. They generally (not always) do what is legal, but not necessarily what is ethical, and almost never what is morally correct. They exist for one purpose and that is to make a profit.

The AC was making an ignorant reference to the fact that Zachary Quinto, the new Spock, is gay.

Then he wouldn't have posted anonymously, if he motives were how people perceived him and his legacy. Your comment was less than helpful.

Well to be fair they also do it very politely when they kill anyone.

It is GPL so they really couldn't sell it to anyone anyways. They could I suppose but it would be meaningless and a foolish move on anyone who would shell out the money for it.