The entire point of everyone having a gun is so the GOVERNMENT is not safe - from the people.

Oh give it a fucking rest you American Gun Nut Anonymous Coward. The government has drones, warthogs and TANKS. You really think the Colt 45 you keep under your pillow and caress every night before falling asleep is going to make a difference?

Now go away and watch your VHS copy of Red Dawn again and leave the rest of us in peace.

Have you seen the Iraqi military in action lately?

Saudi Arabia has 200,000 active-duty military personnel, in a country led by old men who consider the middle ages to be a little too progressive for their liking.

Google Maps puts inappropriate weight towards making a route more complicated with short freeway hops

I wouldn't exclusively blame Google for this though.

I travel regularly to the USA on business, and I've used rental GPSes (Garmin / TomTom) as well as Apple and Google services on my phones. They all seem to do this equally - I'm always puzzled why I'm merging on and off in a 1/4 mile....

It's interesting how Joe Q. Public continues to think that their data and voice zips around the globe via satellites, when in reality the vast majority moves on our terrestrial networks.

Just last week I overheard someone commenting on how their text messages were going via satellite.

It is easy to look like victim and bully peoples [sic]

You just quote the parent in your reply and presto problem solved.

For me, one of the most interesting (yet seemingly ignored) cultural component is the droids.

In the Star Wars universe, Droids like Artoo and Threepio and, presumably, millions of others, are self-aware and intelligent. They appear to feel physical pain and have emotions like happiness, fear and sadness.

Yet as near as I can see in the canon, droids have no rights whatsoever. They can be bought and sold, ordered to their death, kidnapped by Jawas, melted, sent to the spice mine of Kessel or smashed into who knows what.

...and don't me started on restraining bolts.

I for one look forward to staring face to face at strangers

What in the picture of the config suggests you'll be staring face-to-face?

Try 18 hours Melbourne (aus) to London. Overnight.

Well, when you consider it used to take 3-4 weeks (by ship) this feels like an improvement to me.

This design violates current social norms for personal space. As such I dislike it.

Did you RTFA? In the picture, the people next to you are further away than they are today, and you're not looking directly at anyone.

How the hell did the motor manufacturer prevent the flight?

As you say, it's a prototype on loan for testing, and the contract terms explicitly say Siemens get to say what they can and can't do with it.

The Airbus thing is complete bull; they'd have zero interest in preventing a test flight like this, and plenty of professional interest in seeing it fly.

Oh come on, every Windows installation slows down with usage, to the point of requiring to be formatted.

Incorrect. I'm writing this on a circa-2012 consumer grade HP PC, running Win 7. Performs the same as the day it arrived here and it's never been reformatted / rebuilt.

At work I've been running my first-gen Surface Pro daily since Spring of 2013. No reset, no reformat.

That is only for tax purposes, more or less.

It is about rather more, and rather more important rights than that.

Marriage is about people being together, not about the government allowing it or not.

And that is only related to religion if you decide you want it to be.

Now if we stop talking about mice and start talking about people we can look at what the science has always shown. There are things called diseases of modern culture. As in indigenous people who don't eat like western cultures have low cancer and mental illness rates and no heart attacks.

Except that science has never shown that. Atherosclerosis has been found in mummies (not just from Egypt but also Peru, the southwest America, and the Aleutian Islands), and the idea that modern Inuit have low rates of heart disease was never evidence-based

Fats and proteins don't spike the blood sugar.

But protein does spike insulin.

What science actually shows is what it's always shown: a diet based around whole plant foods, high in fiber and moderate to low in fat and protein, is the most healthful for primates, including those weird bald ones.

I usually buy direct in store. Shipping time zero. Prices have adjusted, at least around here, so that in-store prices aren't much different from the online ones.

Typically I'm browsing at a book store on the way home from work, and discover a book I might like. I could order it and get it a few days later, or walk out the store, book in hand. I'm an adult, with disposable income, so a hundred yen or two price difference doesn't matter to me. Being able to get the book right then does. Amazon is great for finding out what other people think about the book before I buy it.

Another example was my used oscilloscope. Buying second-hand things online is a gamble, and returning it is a major pain (get a cardboard box, arrange for the return and get and fill in a return label, be home to do the delivery). I went to a local shop instead. They hooked it up right in the shop to make sure it worked and to show me the basics of using it. And had there been a problem they would have come by in a car to pick it up directly. Much better. But Amazon did tell me which of the available models were better for me.

I'm happy to see improvements in the review system. I rarely buy anything from Amazon (shipping takes time, returns are a hassle), but I often use their pages to check reviews and compare items before I buy them.