Just as a note, I had an upper GI tract study done with barium sulfate about fifteen years ago to diagnose a hiatal hernia. They showed me a clear X-ray video of my swallowing and the pouch in front of my stomach that was causing my reflux and pain. For such a simple test, it's a great visualizer of stomach problems.

(The next two bowel movements I had were literally like lead bricks. If you want to mine more barium, I'd say check the sewers.)

I expect that without barium sulfate, the upper GI study will be replaced by endoscopy, where they put a camera on a tube down your throat to video the stomach from the inside. I've had that procedure done also. It's more invasive, more expensive, and requires general anesthetic.

If they make 40% and are taxed 35%, that's not enough. You know that the top 1% own more than 90% of the wealth in this country, right?

A fair tax system would tax based on wealth, not income. Because if the system is just a little regressive, just a little biased in favor of the rich, there will be a gradual process that distributes all the wealth to the top. That's what's been happening and it's not healthy for our economy. Now the poor need their entitlements just to survive, and the rich are hanging on to their ill-gotten gains like a dragon's horde.

If you redistribute that wealth we won't have to spend like crazy monkeys because people will make enough honest wages to survive on their own. It's the greed of the rich that is the problem here.

Correct me if I'm wrong -- I'm not a web developer -- but aren't Perl, Python, and Ruby all run on the server-side? There's a need for client-side implementation, and Javascript is it. (The only alternative I'm aware of is ActiveX, of which the less said the better.)

I'll second this nomination. JL8 is a fantastic 'newspaper format' comic. It's a shame he was forced to change the name (it used to be 'Little League').

Data at home? Not counting music, about a gig and a half. If you add the music I'm over 100 GB. I'm not sure if music counts as 'data'.

Data at work? Over 1000 TB, and in the cloud.

But I don't work that way. Does anyone?

When I'm writing, I have my draft in one window, my notes in another, and a browser open so I can research. When I program I have one window for the editor and one in a shell ready to compile and run. When I work with spreadsheets it's rarely one sheet at a time, and usually I'm getting the numbers from a shell or browser window. About the only applications I use on their own are games. I need multiple document windows for almost every productive task. It sounds as if Metro disables this basic, necessary work environment. I just can't see myself ever using that part of the OS.

If I'm not ever, ever going to use Metro, why would I want Windows 8?

This. I've pried the Windows key off my keyboard because it breaks out of games and it's inconveniently located between two keys that games use often. I can get a new keyboard, but I'd rather just stick with an OS that works the way I want it to.

And the only people knowledgeable enough to write the manual aren't allowed to communicate electronically!

The fear is not that invaders will take your stuff. The fear is that they are there to kill/rape/imprison you and/or your family. (And yes, 'imprison' is a factor -- many gun owners expect their personal defense to protect them from the government.)

Whether it is a useful deterrent or not is in doubt. Most home invaders are either well-armed or on heavy drugs, or both.

Blame the existence of the second amendment for giving citizens that they have a chance, solo, against government forces. Also blame television for making people think that violent home invasions happen once a week.

The news reports keep shifting, but the latest that I heard (on network news Monday 12/17) is that Lanza had a combat shotgun that he left in his car. All his killings were performed with the semi-auto rifle. At the end, he used a handgun to take his own life.

The 'lunatics' are angry young men. They pop up whenever there is economic injustice. That's why Egypt, Libya, Syria, and Greece are burning right now. When conditions are bad, the young men snap. It's a human trait; hell, it's a primate trait. You see the same incidents in chimpanzee tribes that don't treat their young males well, although of course chimps don't own guns.

There are three angles by which you can attack this problem:

Make society prosperous enough that no one becomes angry at it. That's unrealistic.
Monitor, jail, and either kill or treat all people with a hint of mental problems. In bad economic times, that will mean imprisoning a large fraction of your male population.
Eliminate guns. Determined lunatics will use bombs or knives, but it can be more difficult to kill people in mass that way, especially on a sudden impulse.

That's a decision our society needs to make, whether tragedies like this are acceptable losses for the freedom we gain by owning guns. So far we as a nation has said that yes, we are willing to live with a lot of senseless murder to keep our freedom. It may not be logical, and you and I might disagree with the majority, but it's their clear choice so far.

Being in a democracy means that every so often, the mob votes to throw you into a volcano. Freedom isn't free; sacrifices need to be made, and sometimes children's lives are the cost of that freedom.

The kangaroos will gut you, the snakes will kill you, and there isn't an inch of Australia that isn't covered with deadly spiders. It's pretty easy to die on the whole god forsaken continent, especially if you get lost. Shame that it's so beautiful.

As far as I know the emus are harmless.

Two points to note: We *are* running out of raw materials for synthetics, as they are made using crude oil. And the hagfish slime fabric would likely first replace similar natural fabrics such as silk.

With those points in mind, I think hagfish harvesting might just be economically viable. At least we've finally found a use for the disgusting things.

City of Heroes had a cash shop also. Not as mandatory for the PvP-based GW2, but I consider the comparison a wash. CoH players spent more cash on costumes than GW2 players spend on elite equipment.