You may find it comforting that the keyboard on an iPad sucks too. Even with my short stubby fingers I have less problems typing on an iPhone than on an iPad. As soon as typing on the iPad reaches a certain speed, characters get dropped out (characters that, frustratingly, gave visual feedback on on the onscreen keyboard). And I *hate* having to dive 2 keyboards deep to reach the common math symbols.

How about asking the native Alaudans? We should now better by now than to continue our colonial past.

Have you been listening extensively to Peaches by any change?

So it is worse to call somebody a fool than to threaten them with eternal damnation, or torture in hell? Or reincarnation as a dog? Most religions I know of do not speak to kindly of non-believers. And some even follow that up with actions.

Just as me, you _think_ you're not a fool (Please keep reading to the last paragraph - more explanation there). And I am sorry if you feel insulted, but I *really* can't take the belief in god any more serious than the belief in gnomes.

Elementary probability theory: the change of something happening is always 1 after it happened. The chance of my mom meeting my dad is 1, because if they hadn't, I wouldn't be here to calculate the chance. The chance of having rolled any series of dice is 1, but the chance of rolling the same series again is 1/6 * 1/6 etc.

I totally agree! There a lot people a lot smarter and better than me that are fools. That is because a certain level of foolishness is needed to operate properly, to motivate yourself and others, etc. The Dutch writer Matthijs van Boxsel turned the need for foolishness (or as he calls it, stupidity) into a lifelong study. An English translation of his magnum opus is available on Amazon.

The picture on their site does not even a show SWAT team (which would be a ‘arrestatieteam’), it shows ‘Mobiele Eenheid’, i.e. Riot Control. Or does anyone think they would use those batons to hit the bomb-proof door? Also, that kind of shield is good against bricks, but not against bullets.

Mobiele Eenheid is very seldom used for police raids. They only keep these at hand when they suspect a lot of bystanders that will interfere with a riad (trailer parks, really bad neigbourhoods), not when they raid a bunker.

Simple: NK is a buffer state. If SK +NK would join, then American troops would be standing, on SK soil, right on the border with China. They obviously would hate that.

So what China does, is to keep the NK regime alive no matter what. But, they really hate what is happening now too: anti-ballistic systems in the US, and probably soon as well in Japan and SK. Because the GP is absolutely right, this weakens the militairy capabilities of China itself.

That is because Philips is a top brand. We (used to) deal a lot with fluorescent tube lighting at work, and Philips always was the brand of choice, because of the long lifespan, high energy efficiency, and good color reproduction (high CRI value). But, being a top brand, they also have far higher margins.
Whether the extra quality is worth the double or triple price, is a personal decision.

No, only Iran disagrees, plus maybe Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, the PLA. That are the only allies it has in the ME, and even those countries might not like a too powerful neighbour.

And how would you turn this Renault Laguna key one notch?

Renault cars with automatic transmission also come with an automatic parking brake, that switches on as soon as you switch off the engine. No cable in sight.

These kind of tricks don't have anything to do with people not understanding technology - it has everyting to do with the scammers understanding psychology. There are lots of ways to raise to the trust people have in you (which are not rational at all) that seem to get exploited, either by knowledge or by experience, by scammers and fraudsters worldwide.

One example would be the amounts 419 scammers ask to 'free your money'. Usually this is some weird amount like 423,50 instead of 500. Well, this is because a weird amount surprises us, and makes us more likely to believe the rest of the message!

What is happening here might be related to the 'authority by proxy' mechanism (don't take my word on it, I am not a psychologist in any way, I just like to read the science section in the newspaper). This is where people find it more likely for something to be true when you quote somebody else as the source. I.e. if I say "Cucumbers are bad for your teeth" you are less likely to believe that then when I say "Doctors say cucumbers are bad for your teeth". But if I can lie about the cucumbers, I might as wll lie about the doctors - there is no rational difference.

I’ll ask my dad. We had a giant printout of a bikiniclad lady in the living room in the 70’s.

Definitively not. Color E-ink does exist, and what's more: it exists in large sizes. This stuff was developed for digital signage projects.

Check out Magink.

Unfortunately in most real world situations it is easier to either use a billboard, or a LED screen.

Ever heard of the Islamic republic of Iran? That did not come about peacefully.
Or the Banco Ambrosiano scandal?

Also 45, but I remember being stinkin' jealous at my big brothers' Rocket Base and Moon Landing.