Uh no. By not pulling that lever, you'll fail to stop the death of 300, but you also won't cause the death of 3. In no scenario discussed is the lever-puller a murderer except if they decide the children should die, and pull the lever.

Not only is that true, but deaf kids should be able to feel the train coming. Having spent much of my youth living next to some train tracks, putting coins on them (not in stacks, of course) and so on, you can definitely feel it before you can see it. Or, you know, feel it hitting you, then feel nothing.

But then you would also need amazing roads, or you'd have an amazingly bumpy ride. One of the many advantages to today's ridiculously heavy cars is the potential for an amazingly smooth ride.

Any kind of car will always suck. PRT makes more sense than cars. If you were going to overhaul transportation, you wouldn't do it by making just another car.

And it won't, if you know how to use your robots.txt.

What do you mean, "were" awesome? NOD32 is still the best game in town. Not sure what you mean by "didn't play those MBA games"...

ESET is by far the best I've had the opportunity to use.

Yeah, it's actually worth paying for: it's unobtrusive where it needs to be and I've not seen anything sneak by. The big things that break other AV doesn't hurt ESET. I make it a pre-requirement for anyone who wants my help on their Windows, and so far... no "I've got a virus" type requests. :)

Well, overuse of helis I get, that's definitely endemic. Presumably they'll solve this problem by weaponizing drones ;)

When I read the originally released "list of fracking chemicals" I concluded that "fracking fluid" was a code word for "refinery waste". I see, sadly, that I was correct.

Out here in California you can get cited as if you'd spilled transmission fluid for a vegetable oil spill in your home biodiesel facility. And meanwhile, states are pumping refinery byproducts into the ground deliberately and getting paid for it.

It's all gone mad.

"we know electrical trumps mechanical more often than not"

We do? In what sense? A mechanical switch is simply a mechanically activated contact plate/circuit. That's as simple as it gets, really. Sure, you've got mechanical wear and tear, but mechanical items have progressive wear, often - their failure mode is not immediate unless it is a catastrophic failure.

Mechanical/electrical switches for ignition have one/two failure modes: your car won't start, or your car will stop. The second is drastically less likely than the first, and applies to almost every motorized vehicle, ever. It hasn't exactly been a major concern.

A simple mechanism is inherently less likely to fail than a complex one performing the same task. Good systems people know this: cyclomatic complexity is bad.

From what I'm understanding, 'switchgate' is merely the failure of the electronics associated with the mechanical switch, and circumvented safety measures.

This sounds a lot like the many lines of bullshit we've been fed by various government and corporate bodies, in the past. They're pushing this shit through regardless, using something they fucked up for an excuse to fix it with something nobody wants. (My recollection is that the 'complaints' have largely revolved around the $200+ chipped keys automotive makers have been using, after all... We don't hate the keys, we hate electronic meddling -unubtrusively- with our mechanical devices (ie cars).)

Basically, automakers just want more control of your vehicle, and the revenue stream which results from fixing it.

(Side note: Remember when they said electronics would reduce the cost and maintenance on vehicles, in the late 1980s/early 1990s? That was true, in so far as the cheap stuff that broke was often replaced. But they're replacing everything with electronics now, and so many of the things that should not be 'electronic' (ie just need a simple electrical signal to work), are.

The idea that the primary mastermind behind 3D gaming and 3D accelerated instructions, not to mention one of the most recognized names in all of computing, would have stolen ideas from a "who's that?" company is just absurd.

^Fgoat

Thanks, Lumpy. You stole all my fire. And speaking of fire, you can use it to clean the hair off of the goat before you put it into a pit with coals. Or the pig. The wild ones tend towards hairiness. And deliciousness. They are also a serious environmental problem in the USA right now. We need more hunting, stat.

They are not in fact especially expensive.

If you go to a gun range enough you can probably find a cop with your body size who has an old vest lying around who will be willing to sell it to you, maybe even if you explain what you're on about. They're probably as good as a new vest, and a massive upgrade from no vest. Figure out which range the cops go to. Kiss their asses. You're going to need to if you're planning to get into a situation where you need all that shit.

They do if they want to be sure of a conviction, which they do if they're going to bother with your petty little crime at all. They've got pastries to consume.

HA! HA! HA!

No. I mean, you hope. But not really. The speed limits are based on standards until someone gets run over or dies in a fireball, then they diddle them.

Yeah, that's what the standards are based on. Divided or not, how many lanes, how much separation, blah blah blah. Then they raise the limits if people clamor, or lower them if people die.

You know, they're getting these from the government for nothing, right? Retired military gear that we're paying money to store gets sent out to police and firefighters for the cost of transport and they pay for training and paint.

Why does it cost more to send SWAT when nothing happens? They're not using up consumables, fuel and burritos aside. That's just bullshit. Pay them more when they get shot at. Or shot.