That would be pretty fucked up if the military and academic networks had nothing to do with it. I guess that's why international diplomacy is usually steered away from vigilantism, and those nations who engage in vigilantism are treated with a certain level of disdain...

You put your local github repo on some server, and then have it push its updates to Github. Should anything happen to that server, you can use Github to get a copy. The chances of Github and your local server losing your data is clearly much lower than either on its own, hence it making sense. Or just hate on Github because you are scared and don't understand stuff. Whatever's easier.

When you freelance do you tell everyone to make their own "cloud", costing them hundreds of times more per megabyte? I really hope not :) Knowing how to properly administer an S3 backup solution would make far more sense, as that is cheaper, and far more reliable.

Your second house transparently gives you your stuff back? Awesome!

Can't you figure out how to use chopsticks? Poor baby.

"Homogenous"? Your xenophobia is showing.

It's not really your own cloud, just a centralised bunch of disks with a poor backup system. Getting your data from Amazon is easy, obviously, as that's the whole point. I've been using them for years and never had problems in that regard. Couple that with encryption, and you can take the benefits of Amazon's system (low cost, geographical spread, high availability, high speeds) without the down-sides. You can also couple Amazon's offerings with their virtual machines, something you can't do with your attempt of a cloud.

So your time is free? With encryption it doesn't matter who gets a copy of your files, making your "total control" argument seem rather silly. And you only end up with 30TB as well. Ouch.

But it can be legislated away if driverless cars are safer than their meat-driven alternatives.

I'd rather call you a sick fuck for driving beyond the range of your vision and braking, as that's endangering your family every single time you drive them. A safe driver would never voluntarily get in a position where they have to make such decisions - they'd give themselves enough distance to brake for anything that might happen. Where did you learn to drive? They didn't teach you too well.

The computer is in a very good position to know when those components develop faults, as it knows with far greater precision when it takes more effort/time to perform some function (turning, braking, accelerating, etc.). Monitoring the other components is also trivial, and a computer can do a much better job than a human.

They banged on about Mexico, and then got contacted by the Mexican ambassador who demanded to know why they decided to blurt out clearly untrue, decades-old clichés of lazy poncho-clad Mexicans under sombreros and food which tastes like vomit with cheese. It was quite a famous incident.

He did say it. He admitted it. He chose to say it, knowing full well what a shit-storm it would cause. The problem is it was being paid for by the BBC (regardless of whether it was aired or not), and in front of a public audience. He takes their money, he has to abide by their rules. Simple as. It's harmful to his paymasters because they have an image to uphold, one backed by a royal charter.

Because your explanations are nonsensical. Clarkson created a rude, offensive persona in order to raise his profile and add edge to the show. He's been pushing at the envelope of acceptable behaviour for someone in his position (not a satirist or comedian, simply someone reviewing cars), by making racist jokes and other base attempts to get laughs and stir the pot. Then he goes and hits someone because he couldn't have steak and chips, and gets fired. Then people like you try and explain away his obvious behaviour (cultivating said image) as if it didn't happen or was somehow blown out of proportion (even when JC himself admitted it happened and was wrong). That's what's trollish - your desperate attempt to pervert the truth in order to maintain your crush on JC.

And the circumstances which dictate whether you pay it or not are very straight-forward, and very easy to avoid.