> There reason for this is that cell phones don't significantly increase the danger of accidents

That's absolutely true. Using a cellphone while driving, on the other hand, may increase the danger of accidents. I have not personally done any studies, but I have caught myself doing stupid shit while talking on a cellphone. So nowadays I usually end the conversation if it becomes too involved, despite having a built-in hands free system in one of my cars.

> So, how is banning reading a newspaper and applying makeup a police state, but banning cellphones isn't?

You can prove that someone was on the cellphone by consulting carrier records. So, if there is an accident, and one of the drivers claims the other was on a cellphone, a warrant can be issued, and the issue can be resolved.

If a driver claims the other driver was eating, there's no way to prove it... unless a camera happens to record it. Nowadays, there is no technology problem with having a camera in every car, room, etc. A police state may find this a good thing. Not saying the UK is a police state, but quite a few people in the UK have been penalized for having an accident while eating/drinking, because a camera happened to be recording them at the time.

> anything else that's distracting and requires one to take a hand off the wheel

So you are saying that my cars should be illegal to operate? I happen to like manual transmissions. By the way, most studies show that hands free cellphone are not significantly less distracting that handheld ones.

We cannot ban all distracting activities, for example paying attention to your baby in the backseat or thinking about the problems with your current project. We can ban and penalize some easy to prove activities like texting and cellphone use. We can attempt to penalize being sleepy, eating, applying makeup, reading a newspaper, smoking, if we are willing to live in a police state.

So where do we draw the line? I'd draw it at the easy to prove, and I would only enforce it when there is an accident. I have no pity for those whose cellphone records show activity at the time of the accident.

So where do we draw the line?

Oh joy. Publicity has increased the chances that yet another person's life will be risked on the evacuation flight, which will be undertaken earlier than originally planned.

I hope the crew and the medical attendant make it safely back... and the stroke victim, of course. But if they all die in the premature rescue flight, I hope that one of their relatives gets away with arranging the murder of whoever set up the publicity site. And yeah, I am deliberately not posting anonymously, fucking karma be damned.

Back in the dark ages, in a military outpost stationed on top of the Balkans highest mountain, a Party official's son had a kidney stone. We had to get him down, my best friend lost a finger, and another of the guys lost a few toes. I had 30 square centimeters of dead skin on my face and hands. The crisis had passed, but he was freaked out and hyperventilating.

Two years later, the Party fell, and a bit later he drowned in a outdoor shithouse. I doubt the two were related... he had been involved in much worse.

Keep dreaming.

Try peacefully assembling in a fire station's driveway, in the middle of the I-405, or on the path of police activity. Bring a copy of the Constitution, if you wish... See how far it gets you.

If it interferes with someone else's rights, if it prevents access to public services, if it conflicts with existing laws, if it lacks locally required insurance, if it incites a riot... these are exceptions that have applied in US cities where I have personally lived.

Like most anything in the Constitution, it's a great idea, a great ideal, and severely crippled if frowned upon by the Powers that Be.

> Peaceful protest doesn't require a permit you fucking fascist.

Yes, it does. If you want to peacefully stand in the lane I use to get to work, you better have a permit, so that I can demand to know what idiot issued it.

If you are protesting without a permit, you are breaking the law, and the police should arrest you. If the law is unjust, your arrest may prompt a change in the law. If the law is 'don't block a public thoroughfare', I doubt you will get it changed.

There was a joke in the Bulgarian army.

The master sergeant says "Whoever is too dumb to remember should write things down, the way I do."

I never understood it. I have no complaints about my memory, but it eases my mind to have things written down... I even remember things better once I've written them down. Now a days, I put stuff in my organizer. I even have an entry "Stuff to read/watch/play when I have time."

It has not been long enough, but I am not quite agreeing with the glowing reviews. The story so far is great, and the levels/cities are really well designed. The graphics are good, while nowhere near The Witcher 2 or even Crisis/Metro. The great, internally consistent style of the game world more than makes up for that.

But the combat, oh, the combat. I started both one shooter and one sneaker character, and tried two difficulty levels with each. I have not found a combo that worked satisfyingly. The shooter mode is stupid easy until you crank up the difficulty, and then it becomes a 'pop in and out of cover' chore. (Disclaimer: I despise cover combat)

The sneaking is immensely satisfying, until you clearly screw up, wait for hammer to fall... and the guard brushes against you and walks on without detecting you.

It needs work. It is nowhere as bad as Alpha Protocol, or whatever the spy game was called. It is enjoyable, and I do not regret buying it. I hope it will be polished after release, the way the Witcher 2 still is. But even if it is abandoned, the way AP was, it is still worth playing.

I do not think a kilo means what you think it means,

Seventeen young kids may add up to 500kg. Seventeen adults will be significantly more. They would have to weight 65 pounds on average,

Just in case someone wants to reinstall the original Witcher: The Patch 1.4 on this page http://www.en.thewitcher.com/the-witcher/1/ will remove the DRM that comes on the retail CD. You will need to download the appropriate language patch in the same directory. And then you can apply patch 1.5 for extra content.

CD Project are trying. They fucked up big time with the registration servers, but I do not think it was trough malice. Never attribute to malice that which, yada, yada...

At the time of your posting, CD Project had already released a patch that upgrades the retail version of the original Witcher to the Enhanced Edition without checking registration.

But the only way that I know this is because I read a bit of Polish. As far as I know, there is no announcement in English and a bunch of frustrated people are complaining about being unable to play the original Witcher.