It didn't. One of those games says '97 on it. So it was AT LEAST open until then. Ok, that's still potentially a long time. But it's not 30 years.

Next they will discover Flynn himself!

Everyone seems to be pushing up the date this place closed. Sensationalizing the time capsule perhaps? TFS says 80s. TFA says early 90s. One of the games in the photos is "Cherry Master '97". Hmm... I wonder how much research it would take to determine when that game came out? "Early" 90s indeed. So the place was open at least until 1997.

But what was the alternative? Just another politician who did not even bother to "talk the talk" to "the kind of people who read Slashdot"? Should we have expected better from McCain or Romney? I never doubted that most of Obama's promises would be BS but I thought that at least the few concesions he does give to the people to keep them satisfied would at least be in our favor this time. What a disapointment!

I don't trust any statistics about percentages of accidents that are caused by alcohol though. My understanding is that if there is an accident and if anyone involved in the accident has any measurable alcohol in their system then it gets counted. Even with a thoroughly drunk person you can't PROVE that the accident wouldn't have happened anyway.

Don't get me wrong. I think drunk driving is a problem and people caught doing it SHOULD be punished severly. I just don't trust the police investigating accidents to come up with truly un-biased opinions of wether each and ever accident was caused by alcohol or just coincidental.

Except for all of those people killed by drunk drivers...

In developed countries stupid people tend to have more children.
Running a brain takes a lot of calories. In places where people have to worry about starvation I wonder if IQ might even be a liability.
We are really lucky that humanity ever even achieved inteligence. It will be extremely lucky if we actually manage to keep it.

Well, maybe in some third-world places people get healthier. That is, if they ever even get access to this modification. Everybody else just pees more. Given that so many are already drinking pop, coffee and beer when their bodies need water we might actually see health go down in the first world due to dehydration.

In related news FAA administrators ban all technological progress. In a hearing scheduled for some time where anyone who might pay attention will be at work they will be discussing the potential banning of airplanes altogether in favor of long distance trebuchet.

Yes. 3 events. Two in which simply showing the gun was all it took to END the situation. In the third I didn't actually have a gun but convinced a group of muggers that I did. No one was hurt. Neither did I report these events to anyone. Nor has any statistician ever asked me about it.

What do we need so many more programmers for anyway?

The internet was world-changing. I have no doubt that in 1990-something more getting more programmers in the world was a very laudable goal. What do we need a world population filled with coders for now though? Endless UI permutations? Is there really a whole new, currently un-thought of world changing application just waiting to be written for the benefit of humanity? What is it, an iPhone game? Come on!

We need more scientists working on clean energy solutions. They are going to need to study things like physics and chemistry. Somehow I don't think learning to type things like "$polution=0;" and "$efficiency=100;" are going to cut it. How about some more medical researchers? I would really really love to see many or any of the diseases and/or bad effects of time that eventually kill us all cured before the day that they do me in myself.

How about some engineers to invent more and better labor saving devices to make our lives more enjoyable. While they are at it they can always come up with some new manufacturing methods allowing us to produce more stuff for less time and money. Of course, with that kind of thing it would be nice if we had some philosophers or politicians or whatever come up with some ways we can all benefit from this saving of labor rather than just a few. You know.. ways that work, not like the things which have been actually tried. I can't wait for my 20 hour work week!

Of course.. while we are making life here on Earth better there is still the fact that Earth is only a small part of a very large universe. Surely there are great things waiting out there somewhere! How about an actual space program, one with an actual goal of spreading humanity out there? Of course that will require rocket scientists, engineers and all sorts of support people.

Meanwhile life does go on. We will still need people doing all the ordinary things, growing food, preparing it, running stores, building things, fixing things, teaching our children and everything else. Yes, some will even be needed to write code. But surely not everyone! I don't see how programming has somehow become more important than everything else that we need to encourage all children to become programmers rather than whatever they otherwise would have been.

Wireless is finite in a different way than wired. It isn't just about the bandwidth the network is already capable of. Wireless can only be expanded so much. Adding more cellphone towers indefinitely eventually means that they are too closely spaced and interfere with one another. This can be helped by transfering more spectrum away from other services and to the cellular service however even if we gave up all other forms of radio communication and just used the whole RF spectrum for cellular there is still only a finite amount of spectrum available and no expansion may be had beyond that point.

Fiberoptic cables however may each contain their own set of channels. Lay two cables across one another and they do not interfere. The network may "always" be expanded just by adding more cables. Copper cables might interfere with one another a bit but this can be mitigated with shielding.

Techincally even this IS fiinite, I suppose there is some number of cables where the earth becomes like a giant "yarn ball" however I don't think we really have to worry about reaching that point.

But when will Elon Musk build his Iron Man suit?

Maybe they are buying a warehouse full of old AOL dialin modems.

Well, the UK seems to mirror most of the crap the US government does. Which eurpoean governments would you like us to look at? And how do we get our corporate masters to buy one like them?