Feel free to rant about this. Or to try and change it. Individually you are pretty powerless, though. But if indulgence in a false sense of self importance is what keeps you going to your job every day, they sure won't go out of their way to shut you down.

If antibiotic development wanes long enough, eventually some rich people will be threatened by new infections for which there are no cures.

Once that happens, antibiotic development will instantly become a top priority for governance and major industry players.

The summary did call the person in question the robot's owner.

I think the robot should obey the owner's wishes and get them the drink. But it should sigh audibly when asked to and mumble under its breath while giving it to them. Maybe occasionally snipe at them in a passive-aggressive manner. "Should I cancel all productive activities that you had scheduled on your calendar for today?" "Would you like vodka in a glass or should I set it up as an IV drip into your arm?" "Would you like me to make a bunch of regrettable drunken Facebook posts for you, or would you rather do it yourself?"

This is UK, they don't really count as European (true Scotsmen usually do, but this MP isn't)

Well, you've got to stretch the definition of Religion pretty far to encompass Buddhism. It offers no God, nor any Commandments (though lots of guidelines for monks and others seeking enlightenment). Hardly a religion by most definitions.

It takes practically zero performance to rotate an image.

"Of 12 day care facilities affiliated with tech companies, six—that’s half—have below-average vaccination rates, according to the state’s data."

So half of the sample is below average? Hmmm!

One thing I've noticed about software engineers is that too many of them are lacking the critical statistics skills they need to function effectively. Perhaps it's because we tend to think in Boolean terms of true and false. Thus, "I have a 1:450,000,000 chance of winning the lottery" turns into "I have a chance of winning the lottery", which is a different wording that is remarkably easy to misinterpret as a "50:50" chance, even though both outcomes are statistically equal to false. They apply that same lack of understanding to any risk, including vaccination (a 1:3,000,000 chance of a serious adverse reaction becomes "a chance of a serious adverse reaction".)

They don't come naturally. Those are skills you have to learn. Most end up being naturally taught, but some people miss it.

Which he will always do until you teach him better social skills. Don't look at it as some medical disorder, look at it as a skill gap. I have the same problems and I'm 28. There's no one to help me now and no one ever tried. The older you get with poor social skills the worse it gets. People don't fault kids for social awkwardness, but you're a creepy crazy guy if you're socially awkward after being a teenager. People don't give you any benefit of doubt. You exist to kidnap or harass people as any mistake you made was on purpose and for some specific reason. 'Why does this person not have any friends? He must be dangerous, lets stay away from him.' Social awkwardness is a self perpetuating problem that can quickly spiral out of control into deep depression and suicide.

You won't help him by teaching others how to behave around him. You can't teach everyone he'll meet in his life. You have to teach him how to interact with others.

Because everyone else ignores (or hates) him or at least that's how he sees it. When no one talks to you, that one person who does must be really interested in you. Why else would they talk to you? No one else does.

Please don't let him end up like me. Teach him social skills like you might teach someone math. Read about some specific type of communication or behavior and then practice and practice and practice it. You might have to deal with anxiety issues as well.

That could indeed be at the heart of one of the solutions to the paradox. As a civilization becomes more individualistic and inward focusing, breeding might drop off to the point of extinction. Think about it, if you could live 10,000+ years and have all of your needs (including emotional) met by synthetic means, would you bother having children? How many people would give any thought to the species as a whole continuing if we were not forced to deal with each other?

If the threat of bad whether justifies a travel ban, just think of the other threats that can be used to justify such a ban or even worse. It's just a bad precedent. There needs to be a concrete threat to safety and infrastructure, while that may not be most efficient or ideal, it's a free country and it stays free until no other options exist. It's hard to say we live in a free country when the government can take such drastic measures on a whim.

We are having record highs in the Puget Sound area. Highs in the upper 50s and even into the 60s.

If only they could translate what my 18 month old is saying!

In the industry paid-for response TruthLand they admit that it was due to fracking, but claim that the particular well in question was not properly protected with a concrete barrier. They claim that it should not happen elsewhere if the wells are constructed properly and steps are taken to avoid contamination.