If someone is old enough to walk into a store and purchase a product, then that person is probably old enough to not be significantly harmed by hearing, seeing, or playing the content. The ratings should exist as a guide to parents, who shouldn't purchase these products for young children. By the time they're teenagers and have their own money and transportation, there are more pressing things to worry about than if they're seeing boobs in a movie, hearing explicit lyrics in a song, or turning enemies into a mass of blood and gore in a video game. Let's worry about keeping them in school, off of drugs, and not pregnant.

Galactic Civ 2 and Sins of a Solar Empire are both Stardock, and they're solid games. I wouldn't put them in the same category at Valve's stuff, but there are worse companies out there. That said, I think Valve should keep doing what they're doing whether or not it causes a delay in the frequency of game releases.

FTA: “Thirty years ago computers were an all-in-one product, with the keyboard, memory and components built inside,” Mr. Altman explained. “Over the years that has changed, and we believe there is a huge potential to revive the early format.” Gee, I wish they made computers with all the components built together as one unit. Maybe they could call it a laptop or tablet.

I agree. There are several newer designs for nuclear reactors that are much safer than current plants in the US, Japan, Europe, and elsewhere. The problem, at least here in the US, is that these safer designs aren't being built. Instead, we're stuck with plants that are more than thirty years old since we pretty much stopped building them following the incident at 3 Mile Island. No one was hurt in that accident and not a single case of cancer is attributed to it. Yet we've experienced the accidents at the Massey coal mine and the explosion of the BP oil rig over the past year and no one suggests we stop using coal and oil. I'm also in agreement with the idea of holding corporations responsible for disasters. I'm not a fan of limiting corporate liability and footing the taxpayers with the bill. That's the problem behind many work-related accidents. The companies put profit ahead of safety because the cost of paying for the occasional disaster is less than the potential profits of doing thing in an unsafe manner.

How many coal miners and oil rig workers are injured, die, or contract chronic diseases each year compared to the number of people (workers and general public) harmed by nuclear accidents?

I agree. The Late Philip J. Fry is my favorite episode, even better than Jurassic Bark.

I have to ask, does whatever you do for a living come close to making the same positive contribution to society as an average teacher? You say that teachers whom are motivated and genuinely want students to learn are rare. Why do you think people, especially those with degrees in the maths and sciences, choose to teach? For the money?

I agree with your first point. Indeed, they did have two years and didn't take full advantage.

Afghanistan was handled wrong while the US diverted resources and attention to Iraq. People called Iraq a quagmire too and wanted us to leave. We stuck around a while longer and ended up with something at least a little better. That's not to say we wouldn't have been better off never going to war in the first place. I think giving Afghanistan a little more time might let us leave in a similar manner. Not exactly victory, but not necessarily Vietnam-redux either.

I never meant to imply propping up a dictator is OK. It isn't. I think many of our foreign policy problems are a result of supporting regimes that we should not. I was just pointing out, that superpower or no, Egypt has us over a barrel with the Suez Canal and Israel unless we (or someone else) is willing to use force. Pragmatism isn't always pretty.

Not backing down on the France thing. It's bigotry. I hate the religious stupidity here, but the solution is educating the morons and not letting their ignorance infiltrate our laws. Restricting freedom to accomplish a goal is the same sort of solution as the Internet "kill switch". Bad idea.

Okay, he's gone. Obama can't roll back the clock, he has to deal with the reality he's presented, including having the House controlled by Republicans. Most things people of being critical of are a result of the need for pragmatism. Packing up and going home from Afghanistan is a bad idea. Closing Guantanamo needs to happen, but what do we do with the prisoners? How we deal with them will set legal precedent far into the future. Most Americans supported the protesters in Egypt, but the government had to tread a fine line. What would've happened if they were suppressed and crushed? We still need them to keep the Suez open and play nice with Israel. It's easy to criticize, but the dealing with reality is much more difficult. Maybe the US deserves the most criticism because it's the most powerful, but there are many nations that don't have problems of their own. The UK's surveillance of it's people puts the US's to shame. France's treatment of immigrants is shameful. Italy's PM makes a farce of their government. Everyone has their problems, but I don't usually see the Americans piling on with negative sentiment towards other countries, especially fellow democracies. If the US does something wrong, it needs to be pointed out. However, let's keep things in the realm of reality, like with this kill switch. Be against it because it's yet another power that the government doesn't need, no matter what the intentions. There's no need to suggest the US is anything like these authoritarian dictatorships that would actually use such a power to suppress its people. It simply isn't true.

That's a definite possibility, although her role at Secretary of State is still very high-profile and enables her to affect more change than she would be able to as VP.

Can you point me to sites that are available outside the US, but not within it? Where is this censorship you speak of? If I opened up shop in a brick-and-mortar store, started distributing bootleg copies of music and movies and the authorities shut me down, would that suggest to you that the government was oppressing free speech? Don't conflate arguably flawed or misguided copyright and piracy laws with censorship.

Many of you here who are Americans like to pretend we live in an Orwellian distopia and many of you who aren't American like to bash on us because it's been fairly fashionable since we became less useful to you following the Cold War. However, let's be real for a minute. The kill switch is a bad idea, but we all should know that the government would only use it in the case of massive attacks from a foreign entity. It's a misguided attempt at having a protective measure, not a tool to control communication and access to information among the citizenry. The US hasn't ever shut off radio, television, or telephone networks en masse, and it isn't going to shut off the Internet. I oppose the kill switch because the government shouldn't have that power, but I also know that the likelihood of it ever being used for nefarious purposes is close to nil.

Yes, because Obama is so unpopular that he would be challenged from within his own party for his reelection bid. /s Try 2016, not 2012.

According to Nvidia's press release, the chip is more powerful than a locomotive and able to leap buildings in a single bound. Powered by Earth's yellow sun, its only weakness is kryptonite.

Dumping a wall of text beginning with claims of a drug company conspiracy is a good way to have your comment as the ravings of a nutter. However, my friend has brain cancer (glioblastoma) and I decided I'd at least dig a little deeper. It seems that DCA may be promising, although you probably should have included links to more objective websites. The study appears to be legitimate research, but a human trial of only five patients is hardly conclusive. I'm going to pass this information on and hope it isn't all nonsense.