Reminds me of the three wishes story from "Planescape Torment".

An elderly man was sitting alone on a dark path. He wasn't certain of which direction to go, and he'd forgotten both where he was traveling to and who he was. He'd sat down for a moment to rest his weary legs, and suddenly looked up to see an elderly woman before him. She grinned toothlessly and with a cackle, spoke: "Now your *third* wish. What will it be?"

"Third wish?" The man was baffled. "How can it be a third wish if I haven't had a first and second wish?"

"You've had two wishes already," the hag said, "but your second wish was for me to return everything to the way it was before you had made your first wish. That's why you remember nothing; because everything is the way it was before you made any wishes." She cackled at the poor man. "So it is that you have one wish left."

"All right," he said, "I don't believe this, but there's no harm in wishing. I wish to know who I am."

"Funny," said the old woman as she granted his wish and disappeared forever. "That was your first wish."

People just don't line up in China, period! This Apple store incident does not come as a surprise to me.

I visited Shanghai two years ago and was waiting at the subway stop. I was the first waiting in line to get into the subway car. When the subway arrived, people behind me just rushed in, instead of waiting for the passengers in the car to exit. Needless to say, I was the first in line, and ended up not getting into the subway car. And Shanghai is suppose to be the most civilized city in China!

By contrast, when I was in Taiwan the same month, I also took the subway in Taipei. Everyone lined up according to the direction. They waited politely for passengers to get off, and entered the car one by one. People also yield their seats to elders or pregnant moms.

Having people camp out at Apple Store may be a good idea in other countries, but not in China. In China, people just would not patiently wait in line. They would try to cut the line whenever they could. They would elbow you or shove you out just to advance their queue.

Sure. Please do the following calculation in your head (you can use your fingers too)

Let's say a bag of wood weighs 8 pound 9 ounces, and you want to buy 3 bags. What is the total weight in pound and ounces?
Versus, you have 8.9kg of wood, and you want to buy 3 bags, what is the total weight in kg?

I am sure you'd be able to multiply in BASE16 if you are trained for it, and memorize the BASE16 multiplication table when you were a kid. But for the rest of us, BASE10 is what we learned and used to.

Wait till the religious fanatics hear this. I have already heard claim from them years ago that radioactive decay is not constant, and that's why carbon dating can not be trusted. The fossils are not a few million years old. The Earth is only a few thousand years old.

I bet these religious fanatics will now site this article as their proof!

Family doctors are pretty much useless. Why do I need to book for an appointment, wait like 30-40mins at the clinic even though I have an appointment, and only able to talk to the doctor for 5mins?

I went to do my annual check-up with the family doctor a year ago, and I complained to him about my day-time sleepiness. The doctor simply dismissed it as "bored at work". I basically had to google the symptom myself afterward to discover that I might have sleep-apnea, and then book another appointment to tell the family doctor to just give me a referral to see a sleep specialist to do more comprehensive test. Lord and behold, my self-diagnose was confirmed by the sleep lab, and I even knew that the treatment would be CPAP before the sleep doctor suggested it.

The point of the story is, yes, there will be paranoid people who suspect they are dying of rare diseases because of their headache and whine to their doctor all day. For most people, they are better off googling their own symptom first, get a general understanding of what could be the cause of it, so that you can better talk to your family doctor on what test to do and which specialist to see.

Hey, you don't go to see a car salesman before doing your homework, why go see your doctor without getting a better idea of your own health?

No one said the RFID device has to be an ID or carry any unique information. Cellphone is a bad idea because it is unique and can be traced/linked directly to you.

Couldn't RFID device be just a simple transponder on you so that the firefighters & rescue workers can quickly pinpoint how many people are still trapped in the building during fire or after an earthquake?

There is no invasion of privacy. It could just be a device that signals "hey, someone is still inside"

More importantly, what does the EULA says?
Will anything that's "installed" or "uploaded" inside the robot automatically become the properly of the Robotic Company like what Facebook does to its users?

God, just get the blind student Braille e-book reader instead! http://images.google.com/images?ndsp=18&hl=en&um=1&q=braille%20e-book&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi

I know at least a dozen female friends who carries their Canon/Sony/Samsumg digital camera in their purses at all time. Whenever I go camping, there are at least 2 people in the group who'd bring their digital camera along. And your point is ?
-

Wow, you must love Monty Python's "Argument Clinic" sketch.
-

So you've just proved that we do initiate face-to-face contact with other animals even if we can't communicate with them. And your point on why Alien doesn't just show up is?
-

This makes absolutely no sense that I don't even know what to say
-

And Alexander Bell produced a functioning phone and became a millionaire. Where's your detail photo of UFO? If I have unlimited time, I'd go investigate every claim ever made. But unfortunately I don't. This is why Occam's Razor exist. It doesn't tell you what's real and what's not. Occam's Razor helps you to eliminate outrageous claims and concentrate your limited time and effort on the plausible ones.
-

I wasn't sure if you were being sarcastic or being serious in this post. But your second post about "Skeptic/Sceptic" showed that you are actually serious in what you said.

Economist Steven Levitt also had an interesting story of how he almost got arrested because he bought a last min one-way flight, and that he carried research paper on terrorist activities:

I almost got sent to Guantanamo
By Steven D. Levitt
http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2005/07/14/i-almost-got-sent-to-guantanamo/

Here are 2 words for you: "Citation Needed". Give me a reputable newsource that reported what you said above. I live in Canada, and have a few friends living in Calgary. I've never heard such things.

Oops, this year's St Patrick's day is on Mar 17, not 15. It was last year that's on Mar 15. My bad.

I thought "a modest proposal" involves eating Irish children. Coincidentally, this year's St Patrick's Day is on Mar 15.
So how about we make kids into pie to celebrate Pi Day, and then eating the pie to celebrate St Patrick's Day?
(Those who don't get it, please google Jonathan Swift's essay "A Modest Proposal")

A mammal that injects venom into their prey through specialized teeth?
Sounds more like the his mother-in-law