Wouldn't it be cheaper if all the people buying hamburgers just paid those people to sit on their ass?

I'm not really sure about that. It could be that men and women felt a different amount of dislike for the shock. It was my understanding that men and women have different pain thresholds (men's is higher, even though women like to use the whole childbirth thing against us, which... is fine by me).

I think it would be interesting to see what % of people actually didn't mind it at all, and did it correlate with any other personality traits or, um, professions...

I also don't think it would bother me at all, but I know it would really bother my wife. I know she can't be "alone with her thoughts" or they quickly turn negative. I've never really understood that. I'm constantly wanting to turn off the radio if we're in the car together so I can think, and she insists that we keep it on. The thing is, she's not depressed or anything. It's some kind of normal response that I completely don't understand.

The other thing that comes to mind is that in prison the really bad punishment is solitary confinement. It always seemed to me that if I had to go to prison and be stuck in a building with hundreds of possibly violent convicts, then please sign me up for solitary! I think they do have writing instruments and books, etc. too. Weird.

The Bohr model is not an accurate description of atoms, so it's pointless to try to compare anything to it and claim you are comparing to actual atoms.

2. Not entirely. There are planets without stars, and there are stars which orbit stars (well, stars which orbit a barycentre between itself and another star, which may or may not be inside the other star).

"Republic" doesn't mean what you think it does. It has nothing to do with democracy. It simply means a country that is not ruled by a dynastic leader. That's it.

So both parties have an official policy of republicanism if they are not actively seeking to replace the president with a leader chosen by dynasty.

Your claims are not mutually exclusive. Labour have had some shady dealings in the past, as have the LibDems (but less so). Both Labour and the LibDems have not engaged in the anti-poor-people tactics of the Conservatives in levels anywhere near as great. This is evident in the cuts to public spending by the Conservatives (which hurts poor people most), the attacks on unions, and the spates of privatisation.

They have a ridiculously small turning circle, surprising acceleration, and a roomy, disabled-accessible interior.

Your comment about fat people is absolutely pointless, as you well know, and doesn't exactly reflect well on you.

Cabbies talk, you know. They hang out frequently and discuss the state of the traffic and the roads. They do this because they know it helps them to all be aware of such things. Google also doesn't have good historical data, whereas cabbies can tap into the knowledge of Londoners (themselves & their colleagues) who have lived there their entire lives. Google's data on utilisation is nowhere near as accurate as cabbies' as Google isn't driving these streets every single day - their data is simply not as granular as cabbies'. The way you spell "utilization" hints you might not know precisely of which you speak...

Google doesn't know that stuff, though. Google's map data is great - don't get me wrong - but it doesn't know about the fluctuations in traffic that the cabbies do. It doesn't know about that accident that happened 30 minutes ago, that the cabby saw earlier, or that small street which is marked incorrectly on Google Maps which is navigable. It also doesn't know what "That road of Essex Road where there used to be that pub called the Red Lion or Red Dragon or something" refers to, which is something plenty of cabbies would know, as their knowledge extends far beyond The Knowledge, and includes plenty of historical data for well-travelled routes.

So yeah - Google is great, but it's not up to the standard of even an average black cab driver.

Two wrongs don't make a right. That is no justification for acting like a muppet.

Well, to counter your story I've used black cabs on numerous occasions, and had great experiences. They were courteous, fast, knew the routes like they were channelling the gods of the A-Z, and were reasonably priced. So I guess we cancel each other out. Not to forget their cars are specifically designed for London's streets, and can fit 5 people in the back with ease.

London cab drivers can't exactly step up their game without insane amounts of investment - they're the best of the best. They already spend years studying to become a taxi driver, and they already know central London and most of the rest by heart. They already know where the traffic jams are at any given time of the day, and the current best route from where they are to where they need to be. I think they're scared this Uber nonsense will take their fares away, which they have worked insanely hard to even be in a position to serve, and bring the reputation of their profession down. There's no way Uber can compete with the quality of the black cab, or even probably price (if you factor in the length of route selected by an utter professional), but until people realise that, there could very well be a horrible time for the black cab drivers.

You're half-way there... We are indeed social animals, and we are inherently tuned to respond to talking. The problem with hearing a phone call is you only hear one half, so the natural rhythm of talking is disrupted to the point of being jarring, as there are long periods of silence in the middle of a conversation, and to make matters worse, said conversation is often louder than normal, due to the inherent shortcomings of microphones, speakers/headphones and voice transmission.

Instead of "conversation", think of "piece of music", and then figure out why it might be jarring to be exposed to only half of it, in sporadic sections.