I can guarantee that people around you still use cheques, it's that you just don't do business with any of them. I never used cheques before I got into a business where exchanging multiple thousands of dollars at a time was the norm.

Cheques are just a standardized format for authorizing money transfers. There is no substantial difference between a paper cheque and an electronic deposit/withdrawl.

Here are some quick answers I just pulled out of my ass after watching the movie once.

#1: There were plenty of programs walking around in non-glowing cloths. Cloths that glow seem to be a dress convention, rather than a strict rule. Like jeans and a t-shirt or a suit, white shirt and tie.

#2: You're complaining that some things in the computer world were represented literally instead of metaphorically or as a pixelated analogue. Ah bloo bloo bloo bloo bloo.

#3: If I was lord and master of a virtual world I would kill people like that all the time, or however else I wanted.

#4: The movie strongly implies the villain in question is intelligent and has a degree of free will. The character obviously summoned his strength to exercise his free will in a way contrary to his masters wishes.

#5: People who play both sides usually end up getting killed by one of them.

#6: You're really bad at watching movies.

#7: Does the movie really need to explain the details of how a flesh and blood person can go into a computer? It's hand-waved because explaining it would be stupid. It would also be stupid not to just assume that programs can go out the same way flesh and blood got in.

#8: You're nitpicking in the most pedantic way possible.

#9: You just used "Avatar" and "realistic" in the same sentence.

In conclusion: Tron: Legacy could have used a better script but it did cover its bases and didn't really fall down anywhere. A solid B+. Would watch again, maybe not in 3d the second time though.

"Halo is About Multi-Player or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Car Analogy"

With that attitude the last thing I would call you is "oldschool" or "old". Videogames have always had to stand on something other than multiplayer and graphics, and anyone who was actually "old school" will run out of fingers and toes counting videogames that had mind blowing stories. Story can be done as competently in videogames as anywhere else, the designers just have to care.

What America's aristocracy cannot do with the law they will do with money.

To paraphrase Spider Jerusalem:

Imagine an underground nightclub full of perverts and freaks and people with sexual organs you didn't know existed. Imagine you're standing in that nightclub and the time comes to vote for what you're all going to do that night. You vote to watch television, and everyone else, as far as the eye can see, votes to rape you with switchblades. That's 4chan. You're welcome.

Name one profession that is _not_ filled with petty politics, sucking up to superiors, back stabbing and arguing over parking spots?

Fabrication/welding.

I've graduated from university and I have trade tickets. I can tell you when it comes down to nuts and bolts pretty much everything else is of secondary importance to your practical skills.

No he didn't.

The problem with these energy storage techniques for renewables is every single one of them would be more economical if they were used as load leveling systems (suck extra energy during down times, release in peak hours) rather than supply leveling systems (suck extra energy in high production hours, release it in low production hours).

The reason for this is day-to-day and monthly power consumption is a very easy thing to predict, so we know very well how much storage we need and if it will or will not be enough. Using these systems we can level the load and allow the greenest power sources (nuclear, followed by hydro) to produce the vast majority of power we need (because they can run at near 100% 24/7).

The wind is a very much harder thing to predict. So how much storage is needed? Who knows. What we DO know is that every single wind power station is going to need gas turbine backups for when a) the wind doesn't blow, b) demand is high and c) storage is depleted.

Using energy storage to allow nuclear and hydro to run most economically is a far better choice than using it to level the output of wind power.

No they aren't. The earth's atmosphere is notoriously corrosive. Most radioactive materials are just, well, radioactive.

Sure, but most radiation induced cancers probably come from sunlight and radon gas, not a tritium leak virtually nobody is exposed to in any meaningful dose.

The fact that your spin-detector can't sense anything from the summary is indicative of greater problems.

But I digress. Let's begin with the title.

Of the seven words in that title, three are designed to create a perception of the situation that is far worse than reality.

"Another": indicating more than one, or the latest in a series, or a connection to a greater ongoing situation. This is a spin word because it gives the impression that tritium leaks are special events that deserve special attention. This is not true. Reactors have been known for a very long time to create tritium and leak it, sometimes deliberately. CANDU reactors release tritium into the surrounding environment as a consequence of their design. They are allowed to do this because such leaks are not dangerous.

"Crumbling": indicating an advanced state of disrepair and decrepitude, a state of 'going to pieces', extreme unsoundness in structure or the inability to support it's own weight. This is a spin word because only a technical, literal definition of "crumbling" can apply to the reactor in question, the same definition that can be applied to anything, because everything not being created is in a state of entropic decay.

"Springs": indicating a sudden or forceful event. This is a spin word because it gives a false picture of what is plausibly taking place. Many reactors leak tritium as it diffuses through concrete and steel or in their cooling water. Any sudden or forceful leak of tritium would most likely be accompanied by a sudden and forceful leak of super-heated steam, which obviously hasn't happened.

Onto the summary.

"Decrepit", "sprung" and "poorly run" are all loaded words. They make unsupported judgments about the reactor in question. The supposed problem is then also attributed to a number of other reactors the reader may or may not know about. This sentence assumes a problem and is constructed to make it appear to be widespread.

The use of the words "radioactive leak" is also spin, since anything radioactive escaping from anywhere can be counted. Dropping an ionizing smoke detector on the ground could be described as a "radioactive leak".

This is spin, but it relies on the reader taking Greenpeace to be in a position of authority to make such judgments.

This is the only non-spin sentence in the summary. It may or may not be factually correct, I don't know, but it's stated as a fact and does not contain any loaded language I can see.

The spin here is the loaded question which implies that the current release of tritium into the environment is a problem worthy of attention and further control.

So, yeah, there's the anti-nuclear spin. Lots of loaded words, ill-defined terms, misleading wording and an appeal to authority thrown in to boot.

People starve today not because there isn't enough food to go around, but because of politics. The world lines up cargo planes full of food aid to avert a humanitarian disaster and they idle on the tarmac while the 'leaders' of the starving people claim there isn't a problem and say the aid is unwelcome.

If Halo's so damn easy you should breeze right through it with no trouble whatsoever and no skills or tactics required.

This was, in fact, my experience with Halo and Crysis. Parent must suck at games.

Even at seven or eight years old I knew that was a truly stupid idea.

It really isn't. Deep ocean trenches are very cold and very low in oxygen. A mild-steel barrel will last a very long time on the bottom and will become encased in the sediment that constantly falls at that depth and pulled into the earths crust, because it's in a subduction trench.

I'm not saying it's the best way of disposing of waste, but it's not "truly stupid".

Also, if they were disposing of low-level nuclear waste "safe disposal" is synonymous with "sprinkling it on your cornflakes in the morning". Low level waste is literally less radioactive than your smoke detectors or radium watch dials, and is often not radioactive at all.

The healthcare systems and the relative health of virtually every developed nation on the planet show that people will make healthy lifestyle choices even when healthcare is provided at no cost to them. Do you think living with chronic disease is not bearing the cost of the choices that led to it?

Paint still adds weight. Remember the Space Shuttle's external fuel tank used to be white, but they stopped painting it because they could save weight.

Reflective coatings have very little utility against high powered lasers. The best mirrors we have only reflect 90% of the light that hits them (these are pampered telescope mirrors mind you) and 10% of 1mw is still 100,000 watts. Any polishing will be distorted and any reflective coating will be baked off in a very short period of time. Such coatings might give the rocket an extra second or two, but no more, and even less if more powerful lasers are used.