Well, that's one solution. Another is for them to use their real name on Facebook and a fake name in class... some hilarious options come to mind.

I don't think colonizing before terraforming (assuming we even bother) is putting the cart before the horse, unless you assume that the only way humans can live is on an Earth-like planet. Why should we limit ourselves that way? As for needing more advanced technology, the way you push technology forward is by trying to solve specific problems. Basic research is also useful, but directed, focused efforts get farther, faster.

Up to a point, that's true. But you simply raise the same question again: Are you arguing that since we're letting some of our rights slip we should also let the 2A go? Or do you believe that if we ignored the 2A that would some how make it easier to defend freedom of speech and association? I'd argue that it would help to undermine them, by providing yet another precedent showing that the "living Constitution" means whatever we want it to, making it meaningless.

Because it hasn't yet gotten bad enough to justify large-scale rebellion. Let us hope that it never does.

I think that the right to keep and bear arms serves two functions in this respect. The first is that it preserves at least a semblance of the ability to resist tyranny by force. The subtler and perhaps more important function is as a bellwether... and a trigger.

Must mean they've already caught all the murderers, rapists, serial killers, and other dangerous criminals, now they have to turn to this.

FBI doesn't do murders, rapists, serial killers, etc. Those are the business of State & local law enforcement.

The FBI mostly does counterfeiting and kidnapping (and they only do kidnapping because the Lindbergh Baby was a potential source of good publicity for J. Edgar Hoover).

Actually, lots of people wanted an Xbox One at launch. The XB1's sales curve has been really weird.

It had pretty great month-1 sales. It would have had the fastest month-1 sales of any console in history - if it hadn't launched alongside the PS4 (which broke the previous records by an even larger margin). But some time shortly after Christmas, the sales basically flatlined. First MS switched to talking about "units shipped" rather than "units sold" and then it stopped issuing new numbers at all.

By piecing together bits and pieces of retailer and regional sales data, it's possible to get a broad understanding of where the console stands now. Having originally been tipped to pass the Wii-U and take second-place in current gen sales somewhere around April, it appears that it probably only did so some time in September (and indeed, it certainly hasn't officially been announced yet, so there's at least an outside chance it's still in third). It's had several significant sales blips, driven first by the price cut when Kinnect was removed and then again by Destiny, but background sales outside of these blips have been generally very slow throughout 2014.

It's actually pretty similar to (though marginally better than) the sales profile for the Wii-U. That console actually sold well during its first 6 weeks or so on sale, before flatlining. Each first-party Nintendo game since then has caused a small 1-week spike in sales, but after Mario Kart, diminishing returns appear to be kicking in.

In regional terms, The Xbox One appears to be in a fairly solid second place in the US (behind the PS4), a distant second place in Europe (again behind the PS4) and third place in Japan. Indeed, the PS4 is also doing badly in Japan - home console gaming is dying in that market and even the Wii-U (which holds first place there) is doing badly compared to the last gen consoles.

The Xbox One does still have a few big irons in the fire and isn't quite in a Wii-U style Last Chance Saloon yet (if Smash Bros and Bayonetta 2 don't turn around the Wii-U's fortunes this Christmas, the console essentially can be considered dead). Forza Horizon 2 is a fairly big draw and Halo 5 will be a bigger one. But MS have certainly gone backwards since the days of the 360, when they dominated the US and managed a reasonable draw with Sony in Europe. In marketshare terms, the Xbox One looks a lot more like the original Xbox.

Though in general terms, this has been an extremely boring year for console games anyway. People get excited about new console releases, forgetting that they tend to be followed by 12 months during which there isn't much worth playing for them. It's always the later years of the cycle that are more fun in terms of game releases.

Say what? Why would I "fix" a problem by buying a new OS. If things get massively out of whack, you reinstall the original OS. What forces people out is dropping of driver support and bug maintenance and, quite honestly, you are going to expect that after a while.

I'll agree - upgrades should offer productivity benefits, and for the most part the past 3-4 iterations have been essentially cosmetic upgrades and shuffling of the deck chairs, making it harder - not easier - to maintain the OS (since controls are now buried in 2-3 different places, and the obvious ones are dumbed down for basic users). There are some advantages to 8 in maintenance, but they're overshadowed by the layering of control. Adaptive screen brightness on my laptop, for example, is controlled in 3 separate places, and it's an OR function for the "on" condition - all three must be turned off to eliminate what I can only describe as the most annoyingly 1980s version of a screen dimmer ("fading" in halting 5% steps based on average screen luminance instead of room brightness).

The OS should be doing all of this automatically.

And, while I'm at it, WTF is up with keeping a pagefile in 2014? I have 24GB of RAM and turn the pagefile off. I've never seen my commit above 13GB, even with multiple RAM heavy programs running. (FWIW, I've never encountered a PF problem in 5 years of running without one)

Actually, that's pretty impressive given that iOS barely fits into a 16GB iPhone.

Wait...if we have robots to install new cameras, will that mean we no longer have to send people outside for cleanings?

Israel is our extra special hand puppet^W^Wfriend and we would never hack them because we own them and we don't need to hack them. They're doing precisely what we pay them for.

HAHAHAHA. There's no way that this went down without the blessing of the superiors. None. They knew what they were doing, and they did it on purpose.

Living in the US, I have never had to fill out a Medicare form either.

And don't have to use paper much when dealing with the hospital/doctor - usually there's one form I have to initial four times, then sign (I really hope I'm not promising my first-born to Satan on that form), which I read once many years ago, and now just initial and sign.

Everything else - scheduling follow-ups, test results, etc. I get at their (nominally) secure (enough for HIPAA) websites....

Sure, but by "suspension" you mean dampers and maybe springs, and anti-roll bars are fairly inexpensive and trivial to upgrade. Bolting on the turbo is more work by far. And as stated before, you need a better tire and wheel package. So what, 1-3k depending on provenance? Before you get to the turbo, obviously. Since there's no cars to pull parts from, you do have to buy everything new, not actual Subarus where everything interchanges and they about snap together like Lego. I'd rather have an Impreza, anyway; I prefer my Subarus with AWD. I bought an A8 D2, which is kind of like the Impreza's classy uncle. I suspect that if you put the D2 next to a GC5 the similarities would leap out. Off to go do that in an image.

Pliny is more bitter than hopfather, it says so right on their website, and it also says so in my mouth. And the younger is even moreso, and I can't figure out why anyone would give a shit about the elder any more because it has clearly. gone. down. hill. Last time I actually made it in for the younger (which I only do by accident, because life is too short to make plans around when a keg of beer is opened) it wasn't that good, either. It was missing something important from the hop character. Since they got mobbed, Russian River has lost the ability to give a fuck. They really need to expand, but make bullshit noises about keeping it small and not being able to do the same quality of beer if they grow. But they're not keeping the same quality of beer now, so what do they have to lose?

Is that what happened to your taste buds?