Apropos of nothing, where are you getting your information?

Your post reads almost like one of those sock puppet things, you know? Paid to promote a particular point of view, without regard to truth or logic.

I'm not saying you're a sock puppet, mind you. It just that your post was a little one-sided, overly emotional and outspoken for the scope of the incident.

Sort of like the "say it loud enough and often enough" propaganda type of post.

How has this incident personally affected you, that you get so riled up about it?

I'm still partial to that tactical nuclear strike.

But ... but ... it's "on a computer"! And even "on the internet"!

That's twice the reason to throw sense and logic out the window!

Where's terrorists when you need them?

Seriously, people. Am I the only one who can see how they can instantly score a lot of sympathy and good PR if they chose the right targets for their planes?

In case you're wondering, I know why you don't get invited to parties...

We get a new barrage of online anti-bullying laws. While at the same time, nobody gives half a shit about real life bullying.

Ya know what I'm talking about. The kind where REAL people REALLY hurt you and your feelings. Starts in school, doesn't even end in the workplace. And? Zilch. Nada.

Could it be that the ones making the laws ARE the offline bullies? And just unable to retaliate otherwise when their targets fight back with weapons that require more brain cells to employ?

Not to mention that each piece of hardware is built with the assumption of there being extant suppliers for its component parts. For Apollo hardware, this is rarely true, so you'd have to retool and test for each part. The sad thing is it'd actually be cheaper to build a brand new Saturn-V equivalent than to make an exact duplicate.

This is actually one of the sorts of cases where 3d printing (no, generally not things like plastic filament extruders... meaningful printing, like laser sintering, laser spraying, etc, as well as CNC milling, hybrid manufacture techniques and lost wax casting on a 3d-printed moulds) has the potential to really come into its own: all of these sort of parts that you only ever need half a dozen of them made but might some day suddenly want some more a couple decades down the road. Another interesting advantage on this front is also that of incremental testing - I know of one small rocketry startup that has set themselves up to sinter out aerospikes in an evolutionary fashion - they print one out, connect it straight to test, measure its performance, scrap it and feed that performance data back into the generation of the next printout, in a constant model-refining process. Combustion simulations can be tricky to get right, but real-world testing data doesn't lie ;)

Whoops, I was wrong - it's nearly 2 kilograms per person here, not 1. But you've still got us beat :) (Also, it looks like America is up to 207 million pounds of fireworks per year, a big increase... so 285 grams per capita per year).

I just think it's really weird how Americans see themselves as a major-fireworks nation when they set off so few.

Oh come on, what's New Years without an ER visit? ;) But yeah, I know some of your places have fireworks bans due to drought and the like.

In case you're curious, here's what New Years looks like here. It goes on at that intensity for at least half an hour, half intensity for maybe an additional hour or so, quarter intensity for another hour, etc. All this comes after the "brennur", which is about a dozen house-sized bonfires scattered all over town.

Basically, if one can make it burn or explode and there's nobody who objects, we'll set it on fire. Often while drinking heavily ;)

New York City for example usually sets off 20-25 tonnes of fireworks on the 4th of July. Meanwhile, little Reykjavík sets off about 300 tonnes on New Years' Eve. Americans average shooting off about 200 grams of Fireworks each over the course of the entire year, combining fireworks shows, personal usage, etc. Icelanders average about a kilogram per person just on New Years'.

And I know it's not just Iceland. I had a friend from Peru who moved to America and was terribly disappointed by what passed for a fireworks display there versus in her home country. Seriously, aren't you guys supposed to be the ones who enjoy blowing everything up? ;) Or do you get it out of your systems in the Middle East? ;)

(Note: not meant as an insult :) )

"using its enormous data assets to make meaningful connections between people and facilitate organic engagement within a rich ecosystem"

Sounds like a drunken data orgy with the NSA.

I'm not a "troll", I'm an Agitation Engineer.
   

And, like, everyone else in the arena?

I don't question it being competitive. Or requires training and skill. Hell, I even don't question that it's a sport. Or rather, I don't want to get into a discussion about it because, well, it's useless. There still is a reason why your playing of DOTA or whatever else the game du jour is will replace Superbowl Sunday any time soon: It's boring to watch.

And sadly that's true for ALL so called eSports. It simply isn't interesting to watch someone play a computer game. Yes, maybe due to novelty some people will wanna know what the hubub is about, but as soon as the novelty factor wears off, it's back to "meh". It's simply no fun to watch people play a computer game when you can play it yourself instead.

Soon to be the official SI unit describing the minimum distance between two blunders.