People who don't have the ability to think quantitatively and rely purely on metaphor for all reasoning wouldn't even understand the concept of the speed of sound. They probably wouldn't also read space articles. So why cater to them?

Really, what objects in space do we fully understand? (I'm not being sarcastic!)

We don't even fully understand the earth yet, and we can perform direct measurements on it.

Well, if you read the article (I know, I know... reading them is overrated), you would have read that they were trying to modify a gene that can mutate to cause a disease. Of the 71 of 86 embryos that survived their tinkering, 54 were tested to reveal that only 28 were successfully spliced and only a fraction of those contained the replacement genetic material. As a bonus failure, they induced a number of mutations elsewhere in the genes.

They concluded that it was a colossal failure that would result in a seriously messed up offspring and that technology is not ready for that application yet. (No consideration of if just THEIR technique was poor.) With the appropriate spin (do not try this at home), they were able to get their results published in a high citation journal.

I, for one, welcome our new genetically modified Chinese overlords.

You shouldn't be. Now they are going to take longer to write your ticket ("I'm sorry sir, the computer system is slow today...") while the dog is en route or they will manually search your car because "you looked high." "Is that a bottle in the back? It looks like an open bottle. Please step out of the car sir." "Why are you reaching for your glove box? I didn't tell you to do that. Put your left hand on the wheel and open the door, slowly, with your right, right now."

Hot Beaner/ricer cars will get you flagged. (I drive one too.) But after your insurance and license checks out, it mostly has to do with how you relate to the officer. Use sir/ma'am a lot. Apologize profusely without admitting guilt after they tell you what you did wrong. Look them in the eye when they talk to you, but don't do it defiantly. Reach for your wallet and registration slowly, and tell them you are going to do it first. Keep the inside of the car looking neat and remember that if you want to look like a gangsta, you might actually get treated like one.

They're just pulling a string to see if it looks promising. Are they stereotyping you? Sure. Beaner/ricers will get pulled over so they can search for drugs. They'll pull over white women in Beamers after lunch and dinner to see if they look intoxicated.

Remember that the police have tremendous latitude to fuck with you or fuck up your day/week/month, if properly motivated. Even if you ultimately win, your lawyer and court trip will cost you around $5K. So try really really hard to convince them that you are not a problem. That doesn't make it fair, but they are people too and get grumpy. Especially when they make $40K, spend all day in a small car carrying 40 pounds of shit on their bodies, generally deal with assholes (best case) or people who want to kill them (worst case), and have traffic stop quotas.

...I'd want a high-velocity bullet in the head, from a single person, at close range.

All of these other methods, like lethal injections and nitrogen, are absolutely grotesque, overly dramatic and not "humane" at all.

With a bullet, there is nothing to debate over. The rounds are cheap and easily available. There is no horrifically botched execution in the case of a misfire. And the hydrostatic shock destroys your brain instantly, so there is no pain.

Let me break the bad news to you now. Your choices in the presidential vote will be:
1. Hillary Clinton,
2. Jeb Bush,
3. An independent candidate that will not win.

There. Now you can ignore all of the primary drama and spend a long time thinking about who you will vote for. Note that you will be supporting an oligarchy either way!

Look at the bright side! At least Hillary is not actually related by blood to Bill. Unlike George Sr., George Jr. and Jeb!

You're missing the point: They want concessions (and will get) in the form of monetary benefits to allow the telescope to be built.

This happens for every new telescope. They protest at lower levels in between telescopes to maintain their credibility. It's an unexpected twist of capitalism combined with democracy!

I completely disagree. If there is roadway traffic, you don't need to check your speedometer as the safest and smoothest thing to do is to simply travel with the traffic. If you drive much faster than the bulk traffic flow, you risk causing an accident. If you drive much slower than the traffic, you risk getting rear-ended or clipped as irritated drivers people pass you. You also substantially disrupt traffic flow and actually slow down everyone's commute.

If there is no roadway traffic, it really shouldn't be much of a burden to check your speedometer every 5 seconds, preferably right after you scan your mirrors.

Devices like this actually promote driver inattention and complacency. People get bored and their minds wander. Or they think that it allows them to spend more time on the phone. All this new feature is going to do is result in some idiot driving at the speed limit, in the passing lane, exactly matching the speed of the car right next to them and perfectly blocking all traffic, while dicking with their cell phone while 2000 irritated drivers piling up behind them.

I think that you are not fully considering all of the possible implications of your comments.

I would argue that MySpace and Facebook have not provided us with a new form of intelligence.

The logical conclusion for an AI would be to eliminate itself of its less-efficient human parasite and utilize all available resources for the most efficient mind, which will be itself.

Evolution for some is extinction for others.

No, no, no. You likely wouldn't if you don't even have the testicular fortitude to post under your actual handle.

The Patriot Act tested Americans' willingness to fight for our rights and we failed.

You could fight, but its a lot easier to just sit back with a drink, watch episodes of "24," and bitch on /. The government knows that and ensures that you have reliable access to liquor, electricity, and the internet while restricting your ability to obtain useful guns, ammo, body armor, and explosives.

Many of the powers in the Middle East haven't figured this sheepifying formula out yet, which is why they continue to endure social unrest.

I always figured the GPS unit in the Hertz cars was a theft deterrent.

When I rent from Hertz, I personally hate being in the same space as the GPS unit. It would definitely make me find another car to steal.

Wow... Was the summary written by Putin? (Hello Mods: The author is even Russian!)

There may be no current commercial need for the SLS, but you can bet that it will appear once the system launches successfully a few times.

Also, I'm sure the US military and NASA will be excited to be able to launch heavier and heaver things into space and stop being reliant on Russian launch technology, especially with the Russians dusting off their 1950's era bombers to test NATO defenses.

It strikes me that Apple is continuously trying to find the balance between minimalism and functionality.

What's unfortunate is that they generally err on the side of minimalism. This would be fine (great even!) if they restricted that philosophy to products intended to be small like the iPad and MacBook Air, but it becomes a problem for the user when they start applying it to their Pro product lines and even their mainline models.

Some can learn to live with a hardwired battery and hard drive, even though it goes against most techies' core philosophies. But when you start taking out ports, it gets really fucking annoying if you don't have the requisite dongle RIGHT NOW when you need a connection to work.

And what is the ultimate limit to this philosophy? Sure, you can make the laptop a lot smaller and prettier if you take out the physical keyboard, and the hard drive, and the RAM, and the keyboard. But, at some point, the laptops become so small they they are actually annoying for average-sized people to use for real work. Also, it doesn't look as pretty or feel as convenient in use when there are 50 cables, port extenders, and dongles attached to it just to restore the device to some level of base functionality.

Jobs always had a hard time with that point as he got older. It's unfortunate that Cook seems to have inherited it as well.

Wait, you think that the Republicans aren't already doing this?

The only reason that this is even an issue is because Clinton didn't perpetrate the facade of having a token government email account.

Nice spin, but there is a large distinction between Petraus' intentionally distributing classified documents (to someone he was sleeping with) and Clinton keeping her unclassified email on a non-government server (and not intentionally sharing it with anyone).

It's also interesting how you refer to one of those individuals formally and one informally.