Why yes, that's an even better idea. Let's all have the gov't hoard all sorts of gold that could actually be used for something useful instead... You'd love for your graphics card to triple in price because now the gold for the contacts and other components is all scarce now, wouldn't you? A gold standard has a big downfall in common with BTC... it's naturally deflationary. A modest rate of inflation is not necessarily a bad thing, but having to go from paying 1/4 of your net income on your mortgage now to 1/2 of your net income in 15 years doesn't sound so hot either does it?

I'm sure that the Boston program is only down temporarily - stupid monkey with the wrench broke things. But never fear, it will be back again in the near future under a new guise... And when it does, I will keep singing that one Rockwell song every time I get in my car...

While I don't doubt your statements, it's probably a little further off than you might think still. Consider this: this 1911 gun still costs between 10 and 20 times the normal cost for a 1911 manufactured using conventional methods these days. As the price difference shrinks, I suspect the cries for more draconian laws (not just patent or copyright) will get louder and louder.

Nice, you compiled that whole post of yours with the -pedantic flag. And you ended up with a resulting program that doesn't perform the functions that the whole rest of the threads here pertain to. Perhaps somebody forgot to typecast it, but in reality what people who are complaining about the handling of the issue on behalf of the twits (that's what Twitter users are called, right?) to Github is not actual feminism. It's *militant* feminism which threatens everybody's freedom of expression in what should otherwise be an open society. (Note: I'm not talking Constitution or law here, I'm talking about culture.) Is a project like c+= sophmoric? Crass? Offensive to some people? Yes it is - on all counts. But perhaps the offensive material is meant to be a social commentary to get people to understand that things can go too far to the other extreme as well. (Yep, I'm giving everybody here the benefit of the doubt.) In the end, I think that if the facts are portrayed correctly here, then perhaps Github overreacted to those who already overreacted. It isn't as if the project was a networking stack named "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion"...

"Perhaps the British should also work on reforming their laws on free speech (or lack thereof)." -- While I am all in support of the right of free speech (excluding the "yelling fire in a crowded theater kind"), isn't it a bit pretentious for somebody not a citizen or residing within a given country to tell them they need to work at making their laws more like your own? If I'm not mistaken, in a strict legal sense, the USA is amongst the minority.

Not to mention that the other difference is that we the captive audience to somebody's cellphone conversation only hear half of the conversation, which is far more annoying that hearing the whole conversation at the same volume level.

The house always wins anyway. :-)

That depends highly on where you live. Not everywhere has this option. Even in states where it is common to find 87 as 100% gasoline, it is still extremely hard to find 91+ octane as 100% gasoline. My car requires 91 or higher.

And if I had a child that was born on that day, that child would be preparing for his Bar Mitsvah by now. That's how many years they've been making us take off our shoes to go through insecurity. How many more years will we be made to do this nonsensical action, let alone get groped and have hands stuck in our pants by strangers who are no more than the equivalent of mall security?

Or how about all those idiots doing 45 in a 65 zone gtfo of the inside lane. That's for passing, and I shouldn't have to pass on the right in the USA. (And don't tell me that this is due to traffic conditions, because the right lane is routinely wide open in the places I'm discussing.)

I remember back in the late 90's early 2000's when a commercial Russian airline flight crew got a little too drunk and tried to land their plane on the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem highway, which is a few kilometers away from the landing field at Ben Gurion Airport. That being said, I think there's low risk in general of these scenarios.

And if you ask me, this is the wrong solution to a trivial problem. Should having to carry around a few pieces of lightweight plastic in my pocket be the biggest inconvenience to me in my life. The solution here sounds waaaay more complex than just having one single piece of plastic with a switch on it that flips it between card a to card b to card n... or just carrying 6+ pieces of plastic.

Here they tend to not even look at the signature and go straight to the "show me id" stage. I do have a problem with that, and it usually involves me getting delayed while they have to call a manager over to give them permission to check my signature. They like to claim it's because they can't understand what is written on my signature... since when is that a requirement?

Apparently the Los Angeles County volunteer sheriff deputies are put through a battery of polygraph tests as a condition to their employment... as volunteers who are... unpaid... We also know of the military employing polygraphs as a precondition to holding a certain job description. I personally would flat out refuse to go through a polygraph as a condition of employment or in any circumstance at all, to which I would be denied said employment with little recourse. Ain't nobody got time for (bullshit like) that!

OMG they're not using $flavor_of_the_month!!!