Way to be a wet blanket... I'm in full support of protecting the environment but people really take the mindset to the most idiotic extremes. There's nothing to spoil up there, except maybe the view.

Personally, I'd love to look up at the moon and be able to see signs of human activity. It would be tangible evidence that humans are finally moving towards the stars. Although, considering that in orbit you can't see signs of human activity, I'm pretty sure the moon would look no different either.

Don't forget, we're dealing with wholesale ignorance on the part of the media.

Having recalled stories from back when the Carrera GT was introduced there weren't many reports that the car was particularly dangerous. This is a track-oriented high end sports car. Most cars in that performance category are challenging to drive near the limits. I do have to admit a caveat; most in the automotive press gush over every new model that comes along, saving criticisms for when the car is well past it's prime. But the fact remains that there are a multitude of performance cars out there that are notorious for being difficult to drive.

Just because a car handles well doesn't mean it does the driving for you. Unfortunately, this is where the vast majority of people display massive ignorance, because they do believe that a car will save you from mistakes and incompetence. And they're convinced that the better it performs the better it will do the job.

The two guys in that Carrera GT were supposed to be more competent than most given that they have race cars. But given that they weren't career racers doesn't mean they were actually competitive, let alone any good at it. There are gentleman races all over the country where rich men bring high priced toys to the track and many show an embarrassing lack of skill.

But let's assume these guys were decent. That still doesn't change the fact that they were on an unpredictable public road, engaged in a dangerous activity. These guys crash all the time at tracks, even when they're good; they aren't pushing hard enough to win if they aren't risking a crash. So take that mentality to the open road and problems ensue. There's a reason why car insurance rates are higher for race car drivers.

All this doesn't consider the possibility that the Carrera GT might have been modified by Paul Walker's shop. I don't think that's particularly relevant, because the stock car was fast enough. But if it were the car would likely have been even more difficult to control.

Unfortunately, we've got all this ridiculous analysis when the reality is actually quite simple. A couple of guys went out for a joyride, wrecked and died. It's no different than when some kid does the same in a Honda Civic.

What? BP is headquartered in London. By most standards that still makes them a British company.

I'm struggling to comprehend why people are making such a big deal out of Apple's free upgrade. This is no different than what Microsoft has been doing for well over a decade, offering service pack upgrades for free.

I'm convinced that the fundamental motivation behind Mavericks being free was because of the recent release of Windows 8.1. That was billed as a fairly substantial update compared to Mavericks which, at least superficially, hasn't changed a whole lot. Apple wouldn't have come out of this looking good if they had charged for it.

Linux has nothing to do with any of this.

I would have said that the fact that iWork is being bundled for free shows that Apple is concerned. I suspect that Apple is trying to make themselves more relevant in spaces Microsoft and Google both dominate because they're falling behind. I used iWork for several years. It's a very capable bit of software and I didn't miss Office much at all. However, it was no better than Office and had plenty of it's own annoying quirks. I suppose that for many the fact that it's not Microsoft is appealing. And there are a lot of ignorant consumers out there who just assume everything Apple is gold. Whether that perception is sustainable indefinitely remains to be seen but they've definitely done a pretty good of keeping it up job thus far.

The fact that we're seeing more open debate about Apple's products, however, implies that the veneer is wearing a bit thin. Apple is unable to offer anything to distinguish themselves from the competition beyond the luxury appeal. The fact that Apple hired Angela Ahrendts from Burberry is a pretty good sign of where they're heading. I don't doubt that they're well aware of the consumer dynamic where rational purchasing decisions go out the window once you're perceived as a luxury brand. That may alienate a huge swath of the population, but they'll still be the aspirational brand. The 1% of gadgets.

I think it comes down to the fact that Microsoft just released Windows 8.1. Like all previous service pack updates, substantial or otherwise, this one is free. The difference here is that the release of that has hit so close to the release of Mavericks. In that light, charging for an OSX update that doesn't feature too many obvious changes likely wouldn't go over well amongst many. So Apple traded some minor profit for good publicity.

I can appreciate the appeal of meticulously recreating a game. That said, I don't personally see what's so satisfying about it. If you've got the skill to do this you've also got the skill to make a unique game.

On top of that, if a company just wants to crush your efforts why continue doing them any favors? Regardless of whether or not Nintendo is appreciative, they're getting free marketing from this. Just change all the assets so that it looks and sounds like something unique. Stop supporting Nintendo.

What's currently happening in Washington doesn't fundamentally impact most people day to day. If anything, it's probably a good thing because spending has been curtailed somewhat. The fact that certain high profile programs have seen funding cut is nothing but a political ploy to make citizens feel some of the pain. We're supposed to believe that the sky is falling but meanwhile all of Congress continues enjoying it's countless benefits. Nor has it prevented our vice-president from going on vacation.

The problem is that while Americas are playing tic-tac-toe the powers that be are playing chess. To this day people continue to argue in defense of their political parties of choice while we continued to be screwed by everyone. Both sides of the aisle are clearly pandering for influence and power, usually playing to different constituencies and except when they're trying to appease the same corporate masters. When when they're pandering to regular systems they inevitably screw everyone else in favor of their particular constituency. It's all garbage.

And meanwhile people seem generally okay with the fact that we're being spied on. That's the most troubling thing here, that people continue to be so fiercely loyal to Obama despite the fact that he's proven himself to be no different than Bush. There's that obnoxious "thanks Obama" meme going around that continues the theme of making fun of anyone who criticizes the president. Where were all these people when Bush was being criticized for something as ridiculous as the weather?

The problem isn't that people criticized Bush, it's the double-standard being applied to Obama. Case in point: Ann Romney wears a $10k outfit and she's out-of-touch; Michelle Obama wears an equally expensive outfit and she's so stylish, adorning the cover of countless magazines. As long as people continue this mentality of my guy is better than yours we're screwed.

China is doing a great job of accumulating it's own massive debt. At some point it will probably turn into a race to see who gets there first although I'd give China the edge because I think their economy is not sustainable. For at least a decade some have suggested that China has been exaggerating it's economic growth and from what I know I tend to believe it. Sure things are great, for a very small subset of the population. Meanwhile the majority is exploited in the name of economic success.

Not that China doesn't think ahead. They're currently Africa's largest trading partner. And while America blindly throws far more money at Africa than China does, China is building infrastructure. So the average African is exposed directly to the benefits of a relationship with China while the US, ironically gets little recognition despite the fact that in all other ways they do more. Of course, while China does all that, they're stripping Africa of every resource they can get their hands on.

The US is in the difficult position that they're the world's military. Everyone bitches about a supposedly imperialistic America, but every time something goes wrong somewhere they expect Americans to show up guns blazing. And the European defense industry is only happy to have America as their biggest customer.

Meanwhile, China has been working hard to build their own military might. So while they're currently playing aloof they clearly have other ambitions. Or at least they're hedging their bets. But if I had to guess I'd say their end goal to replace the United States. However, while China has more to gain economically, I'm convinced if their economy took a dump they'd turn to a militaristic approach. There's nothing like a foreign enemy and a cause to distract the people from domestic problems. And their are perfect regional targets that I'm not convinced the US will stand up to defend.

Right, Meego and Symbian phones were legitimate competitors to the iPhone, perhaps in your own head. Unfortunately, in the real world they were nothing but dead ends. There's no way in hell they'd ever viable competitors, particularly considering that Nokia just didn't have the resources to make either a viable platform.

If Nokia had stuck with that crap we'd be looking at another Blackberry. Probably worse because I doubt they would have survived this long. You might not be happy with their sale to Microsoft but this was the possible scenario for them. Android would have just turned them into an also-ran.

Assange's reaction is interesting because everything I've seen about that movie led me to believe it was going to be an overly positive portrayal.

While I think Wikileaks is a good thing for the world, I also think Assange is an attention whore and mostly self-serving. I've found it rather obnoxious the way he's been deified by some in the press. He's not the one putting his neck on the line to disclose secret information, but he's wrapped his whole personality around it. People have been leaking information well before the advent of Wikileaks. It's not like the service is the be all and end all for anything. There are a million and one channels for making information public this just makes it somewhat more convenient.

What you're trying to argue makes no sense whatsoever. Everything has it's caveats, including everything from Apple. All the flavors of Linux feature a multitude of caveats, many of which are worse than anything you'll suffer with Microsoft. Let's take Office as an example. I use OpenOffice at home and have used iWork for a couple of years. They're both pretty good, but nowhere near as good as Office, even with it's quirks.

So really, the decision comes down to which products offer the fewest compromises, or which of those compromises bother you the least. With open source, are willing to put up with quite a lot of crap for the sake of what it all represents.

Microsoft's biggest problem with now is their brand. People are incapable of appreciating anything from them because they continue harbor a negative impression of the brand. It's at a point where people are grasping at straws to find fault with the company.

You make good points, but you're missing the fundamental problem with education in America: the parents. That's the biggest problem I've seen, by far. There are countless early learning programs for the poor, at least in my area and the more widespread problem they face is that they're under utilized. Because few people care enough to sign up for them. No amount of salary increases is going to help teachers if their students don't care to learn, or if they're wasting much of the school day just trying to maintain some semblance of discipline.

Compounding the problem is the fact that parents who do care get fed up and move out. Or, if they can't manage that they get their kids in private or advanced learning schools. There are some serious cultural problems that need to be addressed, particularly in the inner city, before we can start talking about improving education.

This just goes to show the extraordinary stupidity of school administrators and politicians. iPads and the like are toys, nothing more. Anyone who spends even 15 minutes observing a kid on one of these devices would see that. Kids will gravitate towards the most entertaining educational game they can find at which point it's just a game. Pencil and paper is still a far more effective set of tools for learning. And for older kids, you're basically just giving them a glorified text book. At that point they'll try to hack it, like these kids in LA have, or they'll never touch it because it's boring. Then let's not forget the logistics of the whole program, and how many of these will get destroyed throughout the school year.

Politicians have convinced the stupid population that more money is always the solution. They're more interested in pandering for influence than solving problems. So they'll build a beautiful school in some crime-ridden inner city neighborhood, and stuff it full of expensive crap like these iPads and expect that the problems are going to solve themselves. Within 5 to 10 years the school has devolved back into the dump it was meant to replace. Why? Because too many parents don't give a shit. The ones who do care get fed up with the problems and move out. So there's no concerted effort to fundamentally address these problems. Except for teachers, the ones who haven't given up anyway. Unfortunately, they're perpetually underpaid because even though a municipality will raise taxes for schools it doesn't mean it will go anywhere useful.

So many things would improve if parents were held more accountable for their kids instead of offering yet another handout, this time in the form of an iPad.

You're right and I think, outside of a few exceptions, the problem generally applies in Europe as well. Europe is already seeing significant population decline as it is, but it's much worse in more rural areas as everyone continues to fixate on moving into the cities. Unlike the US where you get an urban core and then a suburban buffer, in Europe typically there's a more immediate transition from urban to rural. The reason being that instead of building single-family homes, townhouses and condos they typically go straight for big apartment complexes.

So what you see are villages all over rural Europe largely populated by people over 50 and elderly. And everyone else in sprawling cities. Where I have family there have been instances where villages have been largely depopulated only to eventually be overtaken by the adjacent city.

Although, Europe generally seems to be more stable in terms of climate and geology. And Europe is old enough that I expect people have a good sense for what environmental risks may exist. We're talking about cities in some cases well over 1500 years old, as opposed to American cities that are barely 200 years old.