Apparently you can be convinced of pretty much anything, yourself. Except things that make any sense, that is.

No.

Keep the cockpit door shut and locked.

If a hijacking occurs and the hijackers somehow control the cabin, as long as they can't get through a locked, (hopefully) bulletproof door, there isn't much they can do to anything outside the plane. As soon as the pilots know something is up, they can make an emergency landing and let ground response teams take it from there.

But without access to the cockpit, they can't turn the plane into a missile, and if they can't get into the cockpit, what do pilots need guns for?

Follow your skepticism through to the people who have actually analyzed all the "skeptics'" claims, only to find that they have no merit.

I used to be skeptical, too. I was reluctant to trust the "official" story. But I studied both the conspiracy theories and the analyses of them, and as more and more information came out, it became obvious that what really happened is more or less what the official story says.

WTC7 is viewed by conspiracy theorists as the best evidence for government deception, however the building was severely damaged by the falling towers (there are photos, look them up), and fires raged within until they compromised the building's structure, causing a collapse. There are first-hand accounts describing the damage and the intensity of the fires. I'm more inclined to believe people who were actually there, who made decisions about whether to continue putting firefighters' lives at risk (what got "pulled" was not the building, but the firefighting crews), than guys on the Internet who just want to think they're smarter than everyone else.

I'll note that basically the same thing happened with the 3DS, and then it started to recover after a) a price cut and b) finally having a decent library. Now its sales trajectory is quite healthy. I wouldn't be surprised if the Wii U follows the same pattern.

It was an unqualified success from Nintendo's standpoint, in that it moved tons of units. It didn't move lots of third-party games, a problem that Nintendo has long had and continues to work on, but the console itself made lots of money for the company and certainly sold beyond their wildest expectations.

Good thing I didn't make it the "entire explanation," then.

It's hard to know where to begin in shooting down that idea. Nintendo and Valve have massively different company cultures, to the point that I think attempting to merge them in any meaningful way would be a complete disaster for both. Valve also depends on open platforms--Nintendo's entire business model revolves around closed ones. It would be hard to find two companies who are more complete opposites.

Yes, they say opposites attract, but that's an insightful sounding cliche, not a fact of life. The reality of trying to merge such vastly dissimilar companies would be a nightmare for both.

Yeah, Nintendo's handheld units print money. The 3DS had a rocky start but it's doing very well now.

Likewise, I suspect Nintendo will turn the Wii U ship around. It won't be as popular as the Wii--the Wii was a one-time blip that I doubt anyone will repeat--but the Wii U will probably do fine once it has a decent library and gets enough household recognition. I hope Nintendo learned a lesson there: don't launch a console that causes naming confusion and don't launch one without a good set of launch titles!

If standing up for your principles was always easy, it wouldn't be notable or praiseworthy. Yes, the day might come when you have to weigh standing by your values against putting food in your mouth. That's generally what it means to really believe in something. If you believe in something but are unwilling to sacrifice anything for it, how much can you really say you believe it?

Yeah, I get a lot of job leads from LinkedIn, too, and they're almost always unsolicited. It's usually not shot-in-the-dark stuff that I'm not qualified for, either. They're targeted inquiries. I like it.

Indeed. AMC's official stance is that this is one season of 16 episodes. For Apple to make the decision to consider it two "seasons" as far as "season passes" are concerned--well, I hope they've got some good fine print on that, otherwise they're boned. To me, "season pass" means "season pass," not "half a season pass." If Apple doesn't like it, they should take it up with AMC.

The problem is that, in a country lacking a strong democratic tradition (i.e. Egypt), the democratic process is likely to be (and was being) subverted by whoever fills the power vacuum, in order to prevent ever being dislodged. The Muslim Brotherhood is radical and uncompromising. They were not interested in sharing power, nor are they interested in sharing it now that Morsi's government has been deposed. It's their way or the high way. Unfortunately, blocs that want power-sharing and compromise represent a minority of Egypt's fractious political allegiances.

It is difficult, to say the least, to have a country with a new democratic process actually stick with it long-term when such a form of government and civil society is not in their cultural DNA. It takes time to build that tradition to the point where you have stable, orderly transfers of power after elections. Look at the US: no matter how chaotic our election campaigns are, no matter how confused or bizarre, people do not end up taking to the streets to kill each other over them. At worst, we call upon the courts to resolve them and then live with that decision. We are invested in and believe in the process, even if we don't always like the results.

I'm not saying the coup (and it was a coup) was a good option. It may, however, have been the best of limited options. I suppose time will tell. You could argue that Egyptians should have waited until the Brotherhood outright canceled or rigged future elections before taking action, but then you and I are not the ones who have to live with the consequences of it, either way (unless you live in Egypt, in which case I apologize for speaking for you!)

It may be a long while before Egypt finds stability and reconciliation as they attempt to transition from one-party rule to plurality and compromise.

GET OUT

I'd rather be a K-Mart. Nobody would even know I exist.

Correlation != causation.

Countries with much more regulation of healthcare than the US have lower prices (and better outcomes!)

Explain that, if you can.