Obviously, everything is impossible until it isn't.

And right now, that's absolutely the case.

Let's stop all funding and research on everything that isn't economically feasible right now!

This article from 2 years ago and its accompanying chart make a good case that we'd have fusion already if we as a civilization seriously funded it. As you can see on the chart, actual funding towards fusion research has been laughable and of course, here we are still "30 years away".

That'd be a hoot: they'd open the box only to find a dead cat inside, answering that question...

Monsanto suicide genes

A myth. Show us where you can buy these, please.

BT soyabeans, which causes all manner of illnesses in humans and animals

Myth #2. BT toxic is completely inactive in mammalian guts due to the acidic environment and lack of appropriate receptors to latch onto. Cry proteins are digested like any others.

Maybe next time, have the first clue what you're talking about before you spout oft-repeated bullshit.

Computers didn't exist in 1789 either, so kindly get off the computer and from now on please make all your freedom of speech Slashdot comments available on paper only, or accept the freedom of speech limitations that the government deems acceptable in current technology.

Have you priced out autopilot airliners, military hardened equipment, medical implants, or other mission critical has-to-work hardware? That level of certainty usually comes with a price tag far, far beyond the commercially available version. So now only rich people can afford guns.

In the martial arts communities, videos of gun disarm techniques are always taken with a grain of salt and it is usually understood that when trying to grapple a gun away from someone, there's probably still a good 50/50 chance you're going to get shot trying to take someone's gun away from them even for a trained self-defense professional. So I don't think most people have to worry about having their guns grabbed out of their hands and turned against them. This is also a terrible, terrible idea for the 95 lb woman who carries a gun as an equalizer to keep from getting raped by the 200 lb guy who manages to take away the smart gun from her because it wouldn't authenticate in time/improper grip to enable firing/RF interference/etc.

William Blackstone might want to have a word with you. Should we really be worried about rounding up a whole bunch of "bad guys" to keep them from doing bad things because of the chance that a few of them might be innocent? Think of the children!

Education obviously hasn't worked...

That's probably because gun education has typically been removed from schools. It used to be schools had gun clubs and kids were regularly seen carrying their rifles around campus. These were people that were taught how to properly use and respect a gun. Now, public gun education pretty much amounts to "abstinence only!" sex-ed. How's that working out for us?

New Jersey since 2002 has been waiting for smart guns to be available so their law can kick in and make them mandatory for all guns sold there. Police, of course, will be exempt from this law. Imagine that.

Because now we get to live in a world that's minus one piece of shit baby rapist/killer.

Ahhh, that makes a lot more sense now. :)

He said above 16Khz. That's 16,000 Hz. The article you're linking to is showing subs trying to produce very low frequencies.

Furthermore, Steinways are inconsistent in quality; since they are made by hand, you can get two Steinways that are not of the same standard, which is frustrating when you are trying to buy one.

This is a feature, not a bug. The quality is always the same, but differences in the wood as it is shaped through the manufacturing process lend each instrument its own character as opposed to the more consistent but cookie-cutter instruments coming out of other factories.

Steinway instruments fresh out of the factory are designed to be only a starting point. The selling feature of the Steinway design is that it is so very customizable to the preferences of the player. A low tension scale design coupled with a unique hammer construction and asymmetrically tapered diaphragmatic soundboard give the voicing of a Steinway a very large potential tonal palette. It is typically up to the dealer selling the instrument to have technicians that will spend a few (or more) hours tweaking the piano to your final preference. Other instruments are more consistent from unit to unit, but sacrifice that flexibility as a result. It's relatively easy to make a Steinway bright and loud like a Yamaha by shaping and lacquering the shit out of the hammers, but it's quite difficult to take a high tension scale Yamaha and make it dark and moody while still having good dynamic control.

I generally agree with the rest of your comments though.

Yamaha pianos that are comparable in design and construction method to Steinway pianos are significantly more expensive, particularly in the concert grand range.

For someone to say that a Steinway piano which is a low tension scale design is indistinguishable from a less expensive piano such as the Yamaha, a high tension scale design, tells me that someone doesn't play or listen to piano very often. The scale designs make for very different tonalities, volumes, and sustain lengths. The high end piano artists market for Steinway pianos also tells a very different story, considering that Steinway doesn't give their pianos away for free, whereas Yamaha does so regularly purely to gain marketshare, yet the vast majority of touring concert piano players prefer Steinway pianos.

There are cheaper concert grands, but hardly anyone plays them. Steinway tracks all major concert halls and their performances the world over to see what pianos are being played and how often. Each year the number of major concert hall performances fluctuates between about 95-98% performed on a Steinway, with 2-5% performed on something else.