FYI The article is dated Tuesday 31 March 2015 03.40 EDT

Just curious, couldn't they make it out of bulletproof glass? Then the aesthetics would be great because it's clear and yet the glass is slippery so there's nothing to grab hold of in order to climb over.

I have not clue how this relates to their business model, but more power to them anyway. I hope society learns a lot from experiments like this -- will its solar panels really supply enough power? At 60k feet they can cover a humungous land area, which potentially means millions of customers. I can't imagine the power consumption of laser communication between this unit and all of the potential customers. Can this really cover an area that big or is it just flying that high to stay out of flight levels of commercial aircraft?

So many questions that this experiment might be able to answer.

I think her best chance at the nomination was in the 2008 election, and she failed to secure it. If she runs again, there are lots of other options who would be much better both politically and from a competency standpoint.

Agreed, and both sides use that same childish argument ALL THE TIME. Sometimes I think we should put them all over our knees and spank them like the misbehaving children they are.

But no, we still re-elect most of our incumbents every 2, 4 and 6 years in both parties because we aren't really interested in change, we just want to act like we are.

Ok, I'm not big on all the hubub around these emails either -- but we need to be the change we want to see in the world. If Democrats like Hillary want our political discourse to be better then they need to set the standard, not act like children and point the finger back across the aisle. If all we're going to do is wait and see which party will do the right thing first, then they will NEVER do the right thing. We, as a governed populace, should be looking for a government that does the right thing even when it means admitting they had previously done the wrong thing.

I don't think this is remotely true. Most religions don't reflect kindly on suicides, and most people committing suicide aren't looking for "Anything better", they just want their pain to end. If what follows suicide is "nothing" then they will not feel pain anymore. They will feel nothing, which is preferable to someone in that kind of distress.

Religions can be credited with a lot of bad things in society but I don't think this is one of them.

It's not evidence that the availability of guns is the causal factor in the attempt.

GP didn't say guns were a causal factor in the attempt. You did. He said they provide an easy way to kill yourself with a high success rate, which is a pretty obvious statement. He said nothing about cause at all.

Yet you post AC so nobody can look at your own post history. Way to build credibility.

Ya, exactly. Not sure what was trollish about my original post but whatever - the mods around here have really gone downhill lately.

But there is a way to downvote. See the comment above the GP, what is happening is that all the negative, trolling comments are getting upvoted when you'd think they'd be downvoted.

This is no different than a local (physical) bulletin board.

There IS a difference. When you post on a local bulletin board you walk up to it in person and stick the paper on the board. There is risk to your anonymity and there is also more effort required. A barrier to entry, but one not so high that good-intentioned folks will be stopped by it -- just enough to keep the lazy trolls off the bridge.

And am *I* the one who gets to decide what is and isn't? Or you?

Yes. That's how democracy works (or is supposed to). No individuals decide, instead we all do as a society. Yes, that means the decisions won't all go your way.

Perhaps that is true in an ideal world, but in the real world, the police make snap judgements on credibility of threats and often times deprioritize this kind of situation because more often than not it is just a troll. Sure, it's wrong, but again this is how the world really works -- so when you receive a threat you have to protect yourself first, then ask others to help protect you. In the GP's example, this means sacrificing some of your education in order to protect your own life.

Do you trust the police to protect you if you are threatened like this? Remember, I asked about trust, not expectations.

Saying the wrong thing that offends someone on a college campus these days will get you kicked out faster than banging Dean Wormer's wife.

What's wrong with that? Freedom of expression doesn't have anything to do with freedom from the consequences of being a jackass.