Or perhaps we aren't. I'm still not sure how I feel about this. It is one thing to have a book with appendices and glossaries and indexes and illustrations. But this thing seems to be something else entirely and I don't know if I am really interested in this. I like open ended stories as much as the next wannabe post-modernist, but a novel that you subscribe to? Where you are interacting with other readers in a social media-esque way? Where the thing never really ends?

Still trying to decide how I feel. I suppose the thing is, while I like things that are unfinished, sprawling and messy (which is why I've never really given a damn about Stephenson's inability to write a coherent ending), I'm still attached to the notion of the messiness being constrained between the covers of a book, that I can close with a happy sigh and say, "Damn, that was good." That might be weirdly old fashioned. Stephenson may be getting at something here and, 100 years from now, this is what "novels" will look like. But I suspect that if that is the case, we may stop calling them novels.

"Evil" was straight up hyperbole. I was never a fan of his politics. But the dude was human and I'm just not the sort of person who can jump up and down and say "Yippee is dead!"

Perhaps because, though he was a dipshit, he was a) human and b) may not have actively revelled in his own evil. So it seems kind of odd to be all happy that he's dead. Personally, I won't miss the guy, but I'm also not really going to say 'Good riddance.' Something about the latter is a little cold blooded for my tastes.

On the other hand, if we have a bunch of little spaceships out there, there's always the chance that the population of one will manage to get its shit together and stop being retarded. The way things are currently, it's all our eggs in one basket. A very large basket, to be sure, but a single basket nonetheless. I like our odds (which are probably pretty low no matter what we do) better if we spread out.

But you can use Gmail even if your friends/coworkers/etc. don't have it. If you're the only one in your social circle on Wave, it's useless. I tried it, thought oh, maybe this would be nice if more people are on it, but that never quite happened fast enough.

Lawsuits against god have been filed. Wikipedia lists at least two factual instances (and numerous fictional ones). And I have a dim recollection of reading, at some point in the past, about a few additional suits vs. the deity that didn't make their way into Wikipedia's hallowed pages.

Lawsuits vs. god

The logical solution is to have juries composed solely of omniscient robots.

While modern Turks are certainly descendents of people who have been living there a good long time, they did, in fact, originate in Central Asia. "Turk" was sort of generic designation, adopted by Arabs, applied to most of the Turkic speaking tribes they encountered in Central Asia. Eventually, some of those tribes ended up in Turkey.

My point, which you so very cleverly missed, is that Turks are not Arabs. If, as you claim, you knew that in the first place, than your original statement - "Turks are arabs, no matter how much they pretend otherwise." - is a touch disingenuous.

Well no, actually. They are Muslim. But Muslim != Arab. Turks are an ethnic group originating in Central Asia.

I don't think that being Muslim means that one necessarily must demand that one's government is Islamic as well. Just as there are Christians in the US who don't necessarily want a Christian theocracy, why is it so shocking that Muslims in Turkey (which, as you pointed out, has a long history of being fiercely secular) would feel similarly. You might be a little confused as to what being Muslim entails.

Adults, having the benefit of maturity, are able to be stupid in ways which would be impossible for a child.

Because then when your car is stolen, you can be super fucked. Why not up the ante, and use your car as a giant filing cabinet for all your important documents as well?

Duh. Steam powered rocket.

No weight and no bulk? What is it made out of, magic?

Buddhism comes from India. Acupuncture comes from China. The monk in question was Vietnamese. "Same people" is a bit of a stretch.