Just because it's what has worked so far for "nature" doesn't mean that it's the best way or the way that we have to do things.

Ideally we'd figure out what bacteria are in dirt that we need to expose some kids to for healthy immune system development and we'd use that knowledge to more directly influence immune system development. "Nature" can't do that but luckily we might just be rational conscious entities with that potential.

We can afford to keep the "weak" alive as a species and I posit that it's better overall for community emotional, moral, and intellectual health.

I put nature in quotes because it's an idea that we made up and does not necessarily reflect reality (but it might).

The Kindle had (shitty) pdf support the same month as the Nook launched, though I'm sure the Nook competition is what pushed Amazon to add it.

DRM is not really an issue with a Kindle (or a Nook) because with Calibre you can automatically strip DRM from files and convert from any format to any format.
It is trivial to buy from non-DRM sources and read those books on a Nook or Kindle.

Amazon once removed copies of books that it sold that it didn't have the right to sell and promptly said they wouldn't ever do it again.
They also once canceled a woman's account (which may have wiped her device) due the kindle being resold or something. I don't really remember. I just remember that people made enough of a stink that they gave her back her account.

What really bothers me about Amazon is that their Kindles phone home with data about the books you read/location data/etc. Well, unless you keep your antenna off or manually kill that process.

And B&N helped kill all of my local bookstores before Amazon was even a thing. As long as authors get paid to keep writing books I don't even care anymore.

I run lynx/links/etc in a chroot jail, you insensitive clod!

In my experience most of the major browser exploits attack vulnerable plugins (flash, java, acrobat/pdf viewer, etc) or abuse scripting.
If you restrict or disable said plugins and javascript then I'd say you're pretty darn safe.
Granted, most "web 2.0" websites work like shit without javascript enabled but some stuff still works. For the more sane of us there are things like NoScript.

It's kind of hard for plain text and images to do bad things though I suppose it's been done before.

For many years I only ran Noscript and tried to resist running ABP because I'm sympathetic towards ad supported websites, having once run one myself.

Then when I came across justin.tv/twitch.tv I ran into flash ads that were LOUD and did not obey their flash player mute settings and left a permanent small graphic over the video even after the ad was done.
That was too large of an insult for me and I immediately installed ABP.
Occasionally I whitelist small websites that have "We see you have ABP and we're begging for revenue" messages but generally the rest of the ad-supported web is going to pay until they get their act together as an industry and regulate themselves.

Couldn't they make a script where they plug in a new nexus 7 and it roots and images a device based off of the initial working device and they're good to go?

That leaves 2 months of sunk costs working on the initial setup (what they claim in the video) and handling packaging/billing/shipping/tax.

First of all, this is neat. I've used usb host mode on my HP Touchpad to run a wireless adapter for kismet before just to see if I could.
But mostly I don't think this is for consumers or enthusiasts .

Let's say $300 for the most expensive nexus 7 and they're selling this for $800.

Maybe $100 for all of the other extra hardware (very generous as the wifi adapter is $15-20, etc)

That means you're paying $400, half of the device, for them to: compile a custom kernel for android (turn on packet injection), install an ubuntu chroot, install most of the packages from apt, and build a couple of them from source.
They're using an ubuntu chroot so no need for android custom gui apps.

$400 is a pretty hefty convenience cost but I guess I could see where for business purposes that would make sense for some people.

5 positions with 200+ resumes and you can't look at each resume?

I can read a 1000 page hardcover in three days without pushing it. Granted, a page in a book requires less time than a resume needs but I'm pretty sure I could at least look at each resume within a reasonable time frame.

Sure, resumes are probably a lot more boring to read but that's why it's called work.

The funny thing is that a kindle can actually be cheaper than a textbook now.

I hope you step on a lego.

Maybe...I know beekeepers are having population issues due to mites/disease/colony collapse disorder.

Honestly, according to the statistics if we could just stop black males (and somewhat hispanic males, black females, and white males) from getting murdered so much then we'd be pretty close to first world European country homicide rates.

We still wouldn't touch them on firearm-related homicides but that would look somewhat better.

Sources:
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr60/nvsr60_03.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_firearm-related_death_rate
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate

I agree a lot with your post except for that leading statistic.

2009 Cause of death stats by the CDC:
Accidental discharge of firearms: 554
Intentional self-harm (suicide) by discharge of firearms: 18,735
Assault (homicide) by discharge of firearms: 11,493
Total: 30782
Source: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr60/nvsr60_03.pdf

That's 16% less than "over 100 a day" and nowhere near even third splits
A less misleading and sensationalist introduction would be "about 31 people died a day from gun-related homicides."

I honestly don't see guns involved in suicides as an issue as people that want to kill themselves are going to find ways to do it.
The number we obviously need to work on is the 11.5k gun homicides, especially when you compare us to other countries.

You can use noscript or any adblock addon to block this.

Look for something like <script src="http://184.178.98.*/static/FloatingContent/243/floating-frame.js" type="text/javascript"></script> in the head.
Craft rules as appropriate.

You'll care when your ISP starts doing this because no one cared when it happened to others...

First they inject for "emergency notifications" and then next they'll inject for "advertisements to keep your bill down" or something even worse.