I don't understand why there has suddenly been such a huge push to eradicate the rebel flag. It isn't like there has been a sudden groundswell in people who are opposed to racism or race-related violence...

Same reason there is a sudden call for gun control/banning violent video games in the wake of a school shooting, or a call for increased airport security after and a terrorist attack, or a call for mental health advocacy after a celebrity suicide. In the wake a tragedy, people feel the need to do "Something" (or more correctly, feel the need for someone else to do "Something"). Generally, that "Something" has little or nothing to do with preventing future tragedies. When the news cycle moves on to the next tragedy, it will be forgotten.

If Java tries to change by default search engine to Yahoo, one of my 27 toolbars will quickly change it back to Ask.com

"You tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is, never try." - Homer J. Simpson

...demanding that our Government Grant Snowden Clemency

... Now if you want to push for him to get a pardon that would be different.

Actually it would be exactly the same. In fact, if you type 'Clemency' into Wikipedia, it redirects to the page for Pardon.

I use Yahoo Pipes to "repair" RSS feeds that only have one-line summaries and replace them with the whole article. Does anyone know of an alternate that does the same?

With an automated car, you'd just leave them scattered around the city powered down and turn on the closest one when you got a new job.

Because if there's one thing NYC has an overabundance of, it's parking spaces.

As many others have pointed out, the windows serve many purposes beyond aiding the driver. In fact there is very little in a car (other than the controls and instrument panel) that are specifically intended for the driver (mirrors maybe?). A better question would be, what could change in a passengerless vehicle (package or pizza delivery, street cleaner, snow plow, Google Street View camera car, etc)?

Even if you buy the argument that a trade agreement is a national security issue, the level of secrecy is still outrageous. Congressional oversight committees regularly deal with REAL top-secret, national security documents and do not have this level of restrictions.

According to Edge the tech industry is rife with sexism, racism, homophobia, and discrimination and although it is a multi-faceted problem, the talent myth is part of the problem.

Ageism (as usual) is not mentioned, though it is just as big a problem.

When the iPhone first came out it didn't have apps. People where expected to use the browser for 3rd party apps.

Translation: The app store wasn't ready when the 1st gen iPhone was released (Apple had already been experimenting with 3rd party apps for the iPod before the iPhone was even announced). Like all Apple products, the 1st generation is beta testing of an incomplete product (iWatch buyers beware).

A capitalist decided, on his own, without government interference, to increase pay.

And that's such a rare occurrence that it made headlines around the globe.

"I use them for smuggling. I never thought I'd be smuggling myself in 'em. "

If you do it right, you don't even need to change the references:

Desert Youth Radicalized by Bearded Religious Zealot
He seemed to others like a typical teen; having fun with his friends, going into town to pick up some power converters. But the boy's foster parents were worried he would follow a local anti-social, desert-dwelling hermit on some "damn fool ideological crusade". There are reports the old man may have lied to the youth about his birth father's involvement in the religious movement in order to gain his trust. From there, the two joined up with a couple of mercenary smugglers involved in human trafficking in an attempt to sneak past coalition blockades and gain access to military facilities. The old cleric apparently martyred himself in the initial attack on the base, which only strengthened the youth's resolve to follow in his mentor's footsteps. Even the mercenaries appear to have been radicalized, abandoning their business interests to join up with the movement.

While still ridiculously expensive, a high-speed (or even regular-speed) rail line linking Asia and North America would at least be a little more practical. No need to build (and man, and resupply) gas stations/rest stops/etc every 50 miles or so across thousands of miles of frozen tundra. I'm not sure how far a train can go without needing to refuel, but they never have to stop to pee.

Sure there is. All you have to do is use stegnography to encode your message into a photo, then use that photo in what looks like a spam email message, then pretend your computer is taken over by a botnet and send the spam to a few thousand email addresses (including the one you actually want to send to). Absolutely no useful metadata there.