If you read the article it goes into detail about said issue. Basically, the project will not itself distribute any non-free materials, but you can load your own (and people do, it seems, for full functionality). So for example you may have to use the binary blob to get your WiFi working on your phone. I wouldn't be so dismissive about the possibility of drivers being developed for certain handsets that are fully open sourced, via some stab at reverse engineering. Now as far as quality....

Wow, you used Windows Me?

My point is that our food sources are not as good as food sources of the RECENT past.

An opinion certainly, but a point too.

Now, you probably won't die from food poisoning, but things that kill you slowly (but fairly surely if you look at a large sample) like pesticides and heavy metals are in our food chain as well.

I agree with the majority of your post but

Do we really have cleaner food (pesticides, GMO drift, soil contamination, water contamination, poor soil quality) than ever? E. Coli from fast food tomatoes is not unheard of at all. Meat has to be cooked so carefully temperature wise largely because of factory farming. You don't hear about food contamination issues unless its as big as the Peanut Corporation of America issue years back (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peanut_Corporation_of_America). And there is a good example of how things can go wrong despite this huge system in place to keep our food free of contaminants (in PCA's case it was salmonella). They hadn't been inspected in years. And that's the norm apparently. US FDA inspects less than 10% of incoming foreign produce, and I don't know numbers on domestic/import produce, but at the grocery store I see mostly produce labeled from another country. I won't argue with reliable, but I feel today's consumer has to be more scrutinizing about the source and processing involved in their food than say our grandparents or even our parents when they were young.

No. Pharmaceutical grade speed was commonly prescribed in the 50s and 60s (perhaps a greater time period). It was a sort of, hey just tell the doctor you need it type thing, like allergy medicine. He checks for contraindications but basically just gives it to you. It was not known for being expensive to produce, that is NOT why we have illegal meth labs. We have illegal meth labs because getting your hands on said pharmaceutical speed these days (if you use stronger product than the average ADD medicine) is much much harder than it was before. Also, once you become a meth addict to the point that people notice it, good luck getting any kind of speed prescription, its a big liability for the doctors office.

Brighter than dying of cancer, but we are dealing in hypotheticals, right?

Well, methane is a greenhouse gas more potent than C02. Also I believe its relatively clean burning itself compared to cardboard, paper, or wood scraps.

Evidence that supports the idea that animals may be able to experience empathy will result in us treating animals more ethically, or at least I'd wager some scientists involved feel that way. I doubt they get some sick pleasure from it, I do understand your concern though.

My guess is they would add in fat as close to beef fat (tallow), as possible. And some iron (If it could be heme iron I don't know) and other minerals. Don't forget the inedble gristle, OK, forget that.

Actually, there was probably a lot less violence. No more rum running.

Do you think finding a hit man is hard if you have nearly unlimited money at your disposal?

I think I've just found the material I want for the pigment of my next tattoo.

Ah, the mod point fountain is always run dry when I read insight like this.

Riiiight, the country that only inspects 10% of incoming produce is going to do 'more with less' somehow in this situation. Keep dreaming please.