We in the US have the "Do Not Call List" where you can opt out of telemarketing. All telemarketers are supposed to abide by the DNC list. This particular endeavor is targeted at finding and eliminating the groups that ignore the DNC list, and also are scammers. The "Rachel with Cardholder Services" scam is, if I recall, about fixing your supposedly damaged credit rating, or paying off an imaginary forgotten credit card or some other financial woe they invent to strip the gullible of their money.

I'm going to assume a 30/70 split, where 30% is better technique, and 70% my local jeweler not knowing to look for it.

which translates to 'No one had to bleed in a mine for seven cents a day to get this lab made gem, and as you know, bleeding in a mine is the definition of romantic."

Because I'm mildly insane or something, I bought a lab made sapphire online, and when it came in the mail, I promptly took it around to the local jeweler, and asked him to take a look at this stone I had. He sits down, looks at it for a bit, goes "Huh." and moves to a more powerful microscope, looks for a bit longer, and finally says,
"I don't see any flaws or inclusions, but I also don't see and bubbles, so its not glass.... I guess we can send it to a lab in New York and find out what it is if you want?"
At that point, I said that it was not that important, and took my rock and left, because I was not really sure how he would react to being told I already knew what it was.
The point is, we can manufacture perfect gemstones, better than nature makes them.

exactly, try dragging the crazy old bat's who still write a cheque for 11.79 at the grocery store into the 21st century with this cashless shit, and you will discover quickly why we're not even close.

The argument that is going to get used against you next is something like:
" when I'm running, i can barely breathe, much less talk coherently enough to say 'skip' in a voice the computer will understand. "
and
the cord of the earphones with the controls is flopping all over while I run, i don't want to fumble for it. Proprioception on the other hand (sense of where the body parts are in relation to each other) will let me nail a button on my wrist really easily.

of course, the appropriate responses to those arguments would be:
"Get less fat, so you can breathe and talk while running, you stupid ugly lardo."
and
"Your momma flops around a lot also!" wait, that might be wrong, its probably "Well, run your headphone cords through an arm band or something to keep them under control."
to which I assume there is another layer of arguments and comebacks, ad infinitum, until the heat death of the universe.

Wasn't there a Kickstarter for someone wanting to make a real pip boy 3000?

Nah, Where I live, the city's water is supplied entirely by a well field, (no running surface water) which is well above, and many miles from, the outlet for the cities waste treatment plant, so there is little chance of it being treated sewage.

Water! the bud lite of the soda world!

And to anyone who is all pissy about the chlorine taste of their tap water, follow these simple instructions:
Obtain 2 Glass or stainess steel water pitcher. One with a Lid, and one without. (I use a glass pitcher and a gallon glass Jug in place of a pitcher with lid)
Obtain 1 cheesecloth.
Optional: obtain 1 Brita water filtration pitcher and filter.
Sort your 2 pitchers into Pitcher A, the open top pitcher, and Pitcher B, the one with a lid.
Fill Pitcher A from the tap, place the cheesecloth over the top to block any invading insects or floating dust, and place on your counter, out of direct sunlight.
Wait. Overnight is long enough.
Pour the contents of Pitcher A into Pitcher B, and place Pitcher B in the refrigerator, refill Pitcher A from the tap, replace the cheesecloth, and set on the counter again.
Once the water in Pitcher B is cold, you are free to drink it, or use the optional Brita pitcher to add one level of filtration to it. The Brita is up to you, depending on how the final flavor of the water is after Pitcher B.
(it can take out a few more off flavors, but does make the water taste a little like potting soil if you let it warm up after filtering it with the Brita)

So what happens here is, Chlorine will evaporate out of water at room temperature pretty quickly, and because it has already done its job of killing whatever was in your water, it is free to go. The chlorine taste leaves faster with wider mouthed containers (more surface area exposed to air I suppose.) Couple that with the fact that the colder the substance, the less you can taste it, (which is why things like ice cream and popsicles require so much sugar) and this system works really well for making chlorinated water more palatable. If you drink a particularly large quantity of water, You may need a couple pitchers to let air, and stagger their filling so you always have one that has sat about 8 hours, but for 1 or 2 people, a gallon pitcher works well.

Popular Science just ran an article about Pharma in the drinking water, with a nice chart about how much water you would need to drink to get *one* pill worth of X drug. As it turns out, it takes years of drinking nothing but tap water to get a single dose of any of the detectable pharmaceuticals that make it through into tap water.

Buy one of those finished mini-houses they sell (for about the cost of a new car, check the internet), anchor it down on your mini-lot, and live in the sucker, and mow the grass yourself, with a reel mower, which uses manpower, not gasoline. That gets you out of 2 out of 4 of your problems, leaving you with the sewer blackmail and the hatred of mown grass, but at least you won't be paying a grass tax, and expensive rent, which will help your state of mind.

Died "near" a Tesla.

Yes it is side stepping, because the second you unsnap that tether, the 'kite' becomes a 'drone' (Despite how much i despise that term being used for hobbyist RC craft). which, as of late, is subject to a slew of FAA regulations. Also, I suspect if you flew a kite high enough in the right place, (like in the approach path of an airport) the FAA would come down on you like a sack of bricks.

Illegal, because to film this, he probably flew above the 500 foot RC ceiling, as well as flying at night in a cloud of firework smoke makes following the "maintain visual contact with the aircraft" rule virtually impossible. Dangerous, because if the craft where to be hit, and not entirely disabled, it could easily veer into a vector that took it well out of pilot control, and end up crashing into the general public at large, all of which makes the FAA pretty unhappy.