Imagine you have a store the size of you typical WalMart Supercenter, packed with aisle upon aisle of app boxes. There are 5-6 generalized sections, and absolutely no organization within the sections - apps just set in rows on the shelf. Except it's not even that convenient, because when you walk into the store you are in a small space with what are effectively endcaps for each section. To get through to the rest of the store, you have to go around the side of this front display area through a small, unmarked door. So you usually just pick what's on the endcap and checkout because even for people who have wandered into the main body of the store, they find it's just stocked with thousands upon thousands of seemingly identical products for a single task - most of which mirror an app that's on the end cap with a 4+ star review from a million users.

It's dysfunctional, but in a very Apple way.

Or just fill it with beer and duct tape the door on.

Seriously. Nobody is willing to pay the necessary premium to bring this to market. Indegogo, Kickstarter, etc. provide a way to get funding, but even then you don't see keyboard phones popping up, though everybody and their brother seems excited to build another 3D printer.

What would you pay for a slider, and could you find 1000 people willing to put their money where their mouth is? Android is open(ish) so you don't even have to make your own OS. With a couple thousand people you might be able to get the cost down to $5000 a piece.

What is your definition?

And exactly why do you think that Putin invaded Georgia, Crimea and now close to doing the same in East Ukraine, if not Ukraine?
Chamberlein allowed Hitler to do the same tactic as he sought resources. That lead to a global war. What exactly do you think is going on now?

Finally, shell and others have all the major contracts for the oil/nat gas.

No, congress.
And they would know and never lie to us. Would they?

Oh, I agree with you.
I worked on aspects of the US PAT act. As such, I became aware of some of capabilities (snowden released more than I knew, but has missed other things; thank god). NSA having them is not a fear to me, BUT, I always thought that they needed a LOT OF OVERSIGHT. Sadly, once the act went through, the GOP pretty much removed CONgressional oversight of the NSA. That was their way of disavowing responsibility for their actions. But, I have no doubt that many terrorists actions were caught. In fact, I suspect that this is one of those, though others claim that it is not likely.

BUT, the idea that ANY of this equipment could be turned over to police, FBI, DEA, etc is just TERRIFYING. Oddly, a number of the GOP have called for just that, which I can not image a worst situation. We would have a true police state (which in many aspects, I think that we can argue that we already are in one).

As to the Dutch sitation, if that data is limited to say another intelligence group and not a local police group, it makes good sense. After all, the goal of groups like NSA and GCHQ is not to go after local citizens, but to find others from outside of the nation that are threats to their nations.

Those states were gerrymandered by the GOP. Impossible to vote out the GOP until the courts shoot that down (and yes, it meandering in the courts, though it is possible that it is only about federal).

A Tesla with an extra 1/2 battery pack would bust that record.

So, really, with a half-pack of bonus batteries in the trunk of a Model S Elon Musk could easily set a new world record?

I love the quote, "Five hundred kilometres is pretty much as far as a normal person would want to drive in a single day." Oh, man, I've driven further to see a live show, and driven back essentially the next day (It's ~750km to NYC from my house). I wouldn't want to drive that every day, but It's not unusual to top 500km for a long weekend/vacation trip which we do multiple times a year.

Better, faster, cheaper.

Choose two.

FTFY

Probably not. This isn't a place of business in the traditional sense - it's a purchased seat on an airplane. It would be more akin to selling you an item, posting a poor review, and then the shop owner taking it back unless you deleted the review.

Exactly, though I probably would have re-tweeted both the original and the SWA legal threat immediately upon landing.

No, It was What If and you are misremembering it.