Oh, the irony!

I don't believe that Microsoft considers itself to be part of any "Free OS" market at all. Maybe they should be. I can't speak for all linux users, but I hardly consider myself to be a pirate. I use a legal OS: GNU/linux. But, alas, I'm certain that Microsoft would hasten to point out how the license code for the copy of XP that resides in a Virtualbox guest is actually the license code that came with the copy of XP which was OEM'd onto the laptop that hosts that guest and that the EULA was for XP to run on a real laptop, not a virtual laptop. Which makes me already a pirate in their eyes.

Cue the flamewar.

The claims look as spurious as cold fusion, and despite obvious violations of the laws of thermodynamics the idiots love to talk about how "hydrogen fuel cells" are recharged from "tap water" as if releasing hydrogen from water to use in a fuel cell didn't consume more energy than it makes available. So, you're right: water as an energy source doesn't make sense. But I'm still surprised that we're not already talking about using it as such.

First the Moon, and now Mars. We're finding water on both bodies. All we need now is an atmosphere, and maybe a little bit of heat. I'm a bit surprised we're not already talking about tapping that water as an energy source and oxygen source for a colony dome.

I don't think this is a solid rule across the country.

I'm familiar with incidents in my locale where a pedestrian has attempted to cross a "limited access highway where they are not allowed", been struck and killed, and the driver not faulted (unless he/she fled the scene, which is a different crime entirely).

I can think of one recent incident where a panhandler was struck in the middle of an intersection by a vehicle that had the right-of-way as the panhandler was walking back to the curb after collection a "donation" from a vehicle that had previously stopped. The panhandler walked across a turn lane, which was green, at night with dark clothing, and the only fault credited to the driver was that he/she fled the scene.

I can think of another incident several months ago involving a divided highway, not pedestrian accessible, and construction on an overpass above it that made it temporarily inaccessible for pedestrian traffic, and a minor who defied all of the signage to attempt to cross the highway on foot. She was struck, killed, the driver stopped as required, and no fault was attributed to the driver.

Seriousy, if someone pops out of the dark and winds up directly in the path of your 65mph car it cannot reasonably be the driver's fault. We don't blame trains for killing someone who hangs out on the tracks, against all warnings and common sense.

As I'm fond of telling my own kids, there are laws of the land and laws of nature and laws of physics. The laws of physics trump them all. You can violate the laws of the land and do things that are crimes against nature without violating the laws of physics, or you can be perfectly legal and in harmony with nature but an F150 still trumps a bamboo bicycle every day of the week.

*cough* Jack Thompson *cough*

With that much helium for coolant, all your audio will sound like Alvin and the Chipmunks

Essentially, he was found guilty of not reporting the $250K gift of home remodelling. Which he hadn't been billed for, and which was not supposed to be a gift because he expected to be billed and pay the bill, and had in fact received AND PAID interim bills for services. There may have been some botched paperwork from Stevens' office, but not to the level presented by the prosecution, and the majority of it was tainted by Bill Allen's dirty fingers.