Oh, and Venezuela will just be a bonus.

I'd say drill now. Make the middle east irrelevant. Then we'll have fewer reasons to go to war there or meddle in their affairs. They'll have less money to sponsor terrorism and totalitarianism with.

Google has done more to damage online anonymity than any other entity, commercial or otherwise. They force you to create real name accounts whenever they can get away with doing so and call it an 'identity service'. They want your real world contact info to create any account with them, then consolidate all those accounts and then they drive the other services (who don't yet do it) out of business. When the government comes with a warrant, they just hand the data over. Anonymity is the last line of defense against despotism and Google is killing it. [/rant]

While on the subject, when are we going to establish repeater stations around the solar system so that space probes don't need massive transceivers and line-of-sight to communicate with the Earth?

Wow. That fuselage's black, curved rectangu... Christ! It's violating the Apple iPhone patents!

Someone should invent a generator powered by stories about battery breakthroughs.

Indeed. It's the Hedonic treadmil. Research suggests that no matter how much (a) you do, your happiness (or lack thereof) will return to your baseline level over time. If you don't adjust that level, you'll forever be chasing improvement.

I actually apply a lot of (b) (i.e. expectation management). Which reminded me that I forgot another relationship I noticed over time:

Expected Life = Needs + Wants

Wants ~ What you see other people have

I found that being deliberately oblivious to what others have or not comparing what you have or have achieved tends to normalize expectations to match what you actually want. Was it Will Smith who said "People spend money they don't have, to buy shit they don't need to impress people they don't like".

Happiness = Perceived Life / Expected Life

Perceived Life = Actual Life x Perception

Therefore, to be happy, either a) improve your life, b) reduce your expectations or c) change your perception. Looks like this guy went for a mix of (b) and (c). At least that's my take on it.

Make me happy. You would like me when I'm happy.

Perhaps you're using iPhone maps?

Because he decided to use the Force?

Or, we randomly make subtle changes to our purchasing habits to throw the system off. If I buy the occasional diaper, will the system flag me as a mom? Or how about I buy a few kosher products? If enough people do that, the system will be useless.

Does this mean that very large refractive telescopes will make sense again? If we sandwich a few of these with the metasurfaces tuned right, could we build a telescope that is a slab instead of a tube? How about telephoto lenses built into camera phones? Or cheaper orbital telescopes?

And if you manage to deal with the Major problem, then you're down to dealing with the Private affairs of in-Sergeants. This kind of airborne Corporal punishment just does not work. It's General knowledge.