It's because the real purpose of the vehicle is to drive around and show off to everyone that guy who uses Google Plus.

But she said the family's main concern was the lack of understanding from TSA agents that they were dealing with a 4-year-old child, not a terror suspect.

Umm, devil's advocate: why can't the 4-year-old girl be considered a terror suspect?

I mean, once we start saying things like "well she can't be a terrorist, she's a grandmother!" or "she can't be a terrorist, she's just a 4-year-old girl!" aren't we essentially letting the world know that these are the loopholes that can allow you to get past the TSA?

Do I think the 4-year-old girl was a terrorist? No. Do I think it's impossible though? No.

You're a terrorist cell. You need to get the (whatever) to your guy on the inside so he can hijack/blow up the plane. You find a family in a generally unsuspecting demographic. You kidnap the mother. You tell the father that unless he has his 4-year-old girl smuggle (whatever) to the terrorist who has already crossed the gate into the terminal you will kill the mother. The little girl won't actually be on the plane, she'll just be giving the (whatever) to the terrorist, then she's free to go and the father gets his family back.

Is that a movie plot? Sure. Is it likely to happen? I don't know but probably not.

But is it completely unreasonable to pat down people who don't fit a terrorist stereotype? No.

I can understand that taxes might be aggravating, but was this summary written by a third grader? I'm pretty sure submitter meant aggregated (or more likely aggregate).

(He/she also meant affect.)

I missed this article yesterday since I was too busy huddling into a basement to avoid tornadoes so I doubt anyone will read this comment, let alone moderate it, but I think there's a small bit of information that might be essential here.

Something that people should realize is: Dallas Love Field, which is where this incident occurred, is a relatively small airport.

Dallas has two airports, Dallas Love Field and the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW Airport). Dallas Love Field was the first airport (it's the one JFK flew into right before his assassination), DFW Airport was built in the 1970's.

Dallas Love Field is 1,300 acres and has one terminal. Until a few years ago only one airline flew out of it, Southwest Airlines (there's four airlines now). DFW Airport is the second largest in the country at 18,000 acres, five terminals (that have to be traversed by monorail) and dozens of airlines flying in and out.

The reason I point this out is that there's a lot of outcry in this discussion of "why did this shut down HALF AN AIRPORT" and I think most people are thinking it's DFW Airport they're referring to in the article, not Dallas Love Field (as in, most people not in the Dallas area might think that Dallas Love Field is the main airport of the Dallas area). The reason they shut down half the airport is because the airport is not very big to begin with. The isolated area of DFW Airport that would have been shut down in the same instance is probably the same size as the half of Dallas Love Field they did shut down.

Not that this justifies putting students in handcuffs but I thought I'd point out that the scale of the reaction needs to be considered.

So, what is your nationality? Also, are you hot and single?

Serious (albeit very late) answer... With my hand resting normally on the shifter, I get a constant very good data input for how fast the engine is turning and in which gear the transmission is set. With this one-hand data input, and with some experience with the vehicle in question, I know both how fast I am traveling and how fast the engine is turning, so I know pretty much all of the immediately important vehicle data without moving my eyes off the road at all.

I know they teach 10-2 (or whatever) and that you can get a feel for engine speed through other inputs (other vibrations, hearing, etc.), but I find that the more direct connection through the shifter is the best source of that data.

That doesn't mean the show is funded by NPR any more than if a McDonald's employee sells me a necklace it would mean McDonald's is in the jewlery business.

Actually I think for most people that would mean McDonald's is in the jewelry business. Same as jewelry stores. I think what you meant to say is that it doesn't mean McDonald's is in the jewelry creation and manufacturing business.

Apple devices are consumer electronics, they're designed to be replaced every year. You're supposed to go out and buy another iPhone or iDevice at the next keynote speech. That's what you're supposed to do.

You are wrong in so many ways that it's pretty amazing. Apple supports iPhones with OS upgrades for at least three years, historically. And you're signed in for a two year contract so no, you're not supposed to buy a new one every single year.

I prefer to have a device that is rugged and the vendor is not just trying to milk me into buying the next one.

You're taking offense to the fact that Apple is trying to entice people into buying their new phone? Tell me what vendor you're using that isn't trying to get you to buy the next one. If you say HTC I'll smack you. And as per that chart above, good luck finding another vendor with the long term support of OS upgrades.

at what point would a variant of the board game Monopoly be different enough to ensure Parker Brothers couldn't sue you?

I don't know for certain, but it appears that as long as you don't call it "Monopoly", don't feature the same graphics and fonts (i.e., the train logo), and don't use the same street names, you can do whatever you want.

Meet Late for the Sky Games. They are a company that, as near as I can tell, is 100% Monopoly clones like you describe. They make them for colleges (Aggieopoly, Longhornopoly), cities (Miamiopoly), little kids (Pirateopoly) and apparently they'll even make a custom version for you if you'll buy 1,000 units. As you can see, they even use the "-opoly" suffix. They've been doing this for decades now.

I believe it's that the rules of a game can be patented, but patents expire, and Monopoly is an old game. That's how they "get away" with it.

Also I believe that this is the reason that Parker Bros. went hogwild on the licensing thing (Star Wars Monopoly, Dallas Cowboys Monopoly, Hello Kitty Monopoly, etc.) because they saw companies like LFTS (who have apparently sold 7M copies of their games) and said "well shit, we should get in on that"

FTFA: 'Police received similar complaints about the signal Friday during a "teen night" event at the center, the woman said she was told.'

So, rec-center-owned wifi access point is found on teen night to have an offensive SSID. The likely scenario is that, with a bunch of teens there, many of whom are carrying wifi-enabled devices, one kid noticed that the AP was not password-protected (or possibly had an obvious default password) and decided to log into it and, well, be a dumb kid by changing the SSID to something that made his friends laugh.

Password protect the AP. Lesson learned. Everybody move on.