The problem is this: Prank or not, Krebs opened his front door and suddenly had multiple guns pointed at him. Add in a sudden loud noise and at least one of the cops might have opened up on him. And once one cop starts firing, they ALL open up. I want to see more investigation before guns are even pointed at people.

Nothing new here really. Public photographers have been harassed forever; ask any practicing street photographer. Cell phone camera users would be in the same boat except that they are in the majority now. Google Glass users are in the monitory currently, so they can be bullied. Give it time.

LOL. Retro diet means Saccharin.

Unless you know what state (or country!) the OP resides in, you can't say with certainty what assault is, or whether it differs from battery. Here in Washington state, yelling at a cops is definitely not assault under state law. There isn't any crime of "battery" at all.

I'm inclined to agree with you about the 45% decrease in population being beneficial but the trick has always been choosing the 45% who are "made redundant", and who is doing the choosing.

Most of the people here aren't making their money off intellectual property, they are creating code for someone else, or running systems. Other than being cleaner at the end of the day, it's not much different than turning wrenches or dragging cable.

But that is besides the point. We object to being screwed because we are in fact being screwed. Once music has been purchased, charging us again for every little thing we might want to do with it is sticking your wallet where it doesn't belong.

Ha, as if some exhausted / suicidal Foxconn employee is any less likely leave a loose screw in the battery compartment.

Anything we might do by accident a terrorist can do on purpose. Imagine a satellite sized object launched into orbit whose sole purpose is to detonate and disperse 100,000 ball bearings. Even more fun if a high inclination or retrograde orbit is used. Still, space is pretty big so shotgun blasts like this could probably be dealt with like we deal with the Van Allen belts--- just make a run for it and get out of the danger zone as fast as possible.

Maybe you're right about the career opportunities, but for proof I'd want to know what the last guy who maintained Hawking's rig is doing now. Is he launching his own company or did he just get sick of the job and go back to mending broken appliances? Also, Hawking is pushing 70 years old and he still has ALS. Would you bet on his lasting another five years, with your livelihood hanging in the balance?

Well, NASA used to be the only game in town, unless you were a Soviet. Now, a bright and motivated person can choose to cobble together the $200K for a Virgin Galactic flight. It's not orbit, but you can be sure that if they take your money you're going, unlike at NASA where even if you're hired you never know.

Yeah, but if they hired you today, you're not going into space tomorrow. You're at the back of line, leaving plenty of time get into shape. Like most want ads, this one was written by someone at a desk, someone with an ass every bit as wide as yours, who is relying on folklore and inertia as much as actual experience in crafting the requirements.

Heh, no, I don't want to return to a classical universe. I like computers too much for that. I just wish there was some way quantum theory could make intuitive sense. Besides enabling the construction of modern computer hardware, quantum theory has firmly poked its head into the bailiwick of even software types like me in the form of BQP and what other NP problems it might contain, so I can't really ignore it. But at the same time, whenever I read a description of superposition I feel like a rube being enticed to play three card Monty.

Yah. King has already inspired copycat school shooters with his fiction, and then there's that "fly an airliner into a skyscraper" thing from Running Man. Dude should start keeping his nightmares to himself.