The people certainly never requested any of that.

Sure they did. They demanded a warm security blanket be wrapped around them at all times, in exchange for loss of privacy and liberty. No one protested at the state and federal legislatures. No one (other than the Tea Party) dominated primaries to ensure that people that supported beliefs of freedom received party nominations... and on and on.

America has always valued the cantankerous Individual above the glorious Collective, that other cultures prefer...

Not sure if you're being sarcastic or not...

"America" demands the nanny-state, be it the TSA groping grannies for 10 years, the militarization your police...on and on.

None of the Glorious Collectives behave like Boston did after the Marathon bombings... HIDE IN YOUR HOUSE AND TREMBLE IN FEAR.

Seems we used to do it that way - but that was when the airline routes were REGULATED for the public good ... that went by the board as soon as they got enough congressmen in their pockets

You're conveniently forgetting how expensive airfares were in those good ol' days.

I realize this is Slashdot, where the edge use-case is required to 'win' every time and defines why anything will fail, but for the sake of argument imagine this: For every given flight where there is one individual so asleep on takeoff and landing as to be nearly comatose, there are 150+ who are awake and listening the instructions. The 'no earphones' rule was made for those, Rip Van Winkles excepted.

And yes, they probably should have woken you up, particularly if you're between someone and an exit door.

The only reason for the ban was RF interference

This is incorrect - It was *a* reason not the *only* reason.

Landing and takeoff are the most dangerous times of the flight. If the flight crew have to should instructions to you they don't want you to have earbuds stuffed in your ears with music drowning out their instructions.

Time for other airlines to get with the times

Many airlines are ditching in-flight screens in favour of content that streams via WiFi directly to your device.

Time for other airlines with screens to get with the times.

I don't think the Internet killed Saturday morning cartoons. I think corporate-inspired churn in pursuit of ever more income pushed out some very lovely and entertaining cartoons in favor of what was, quite frankly, awful junk. Poorly drawn, badly scored, badly scripted, and almost uniformly missing the hilarious innuendo and subtleties that were present in your typical 'toon from the nineteen-fifites and -sixties.

I'm a Gen-Xer born in 1967. Saturday Morning in the good ol' days (early-to-mid 70s) had a large share of crap, mostly forgotten today...

Josie & the Pussycats / The Grape Ape / Gilligan / Planet of the Apes / Waldo Kitty / Space Nuts - And that's just off the top of my head. None of this stuff was particularly highbrow, the Filmation-style animation would be laughed at today....

RealPlayer - Talk about a wasted opportunity. In the '90s those guys OWNED streaming "Internet Radio" and the nascent business of streaming video. All squandered as their player degraded into a process-hogging bloatware-laden pig that people began uninstalling in disgust.

Not only is the arm installing the cameras Canadian, so are the cameras! The company that makes them is headquartered in Vancouver.

We already have the tech to go to Mars

Yes and no. Even in your example, we have the tech to get machines to Mars but we still don't have the tech to get humans there.

Amongst other things -

- We don't yet know how to deal with the ionizing radiation on the way there

- We don't yet know how to build a lander to get humans safely down on Mars, then back up for the journey home.

Somewhere in the world is the person who keeps posting this on Slashdot.

In Soviet Russia, Beowulf Cluster build you!

Prior to Windows 8, what exactly where people using to start applications if they were not using the start menu?

They clicked "Start" then started typing "wor"... and hit enter.

Presto. MS Word.

It's OK as proper SF, but the main character is depicted almost as lacking emotions.

He's not lacking emotions. It's just that when something bad happens he curses and then sits about working the problem.

At one point Venkat comments on it by explaining that he's a NASA Mars Astronaut - One of the best in the world at coping with difficult situations.

"He's stuck out there. He thinks he's totally alone and that we all gave up on him. What kind of effect does that have on a man's psychology?" He turned back to Venkat. "I wonder what he's thinking right now?"

LOG ENTRY: SOL 61 How come Aquaman can control whales? They're mammals! Makes no sense."

travel forced on employees

I'm a frequent business traveller. I appreciate getting out of the office and getting in front of customers and other users.

I would give you a mod bump if you weren't anonymous.