...before removing a freedom from the American people. I recognize that texting while driving can be very dangerous, but it is so important to question our urge to legislate things when it may not be necessary.

If we are concerned that texting is dangerous and should be banned, shouldn't we make it illegal to eat while driving? Should we ban drive-thru food? What about making it illegal for children in the backseat to distract the driver? Where do you stop? Statistically speaking, I'm convinced that there are far more dangerous activities than texting while driving - where do we stop legislating freedoms to insulate Americans from harming themselves out of negligence?

Removing a liberty from the American public should not be done without very serious consideration of the matter. There are very few degrees of separation between a nation that is concerned about the safety of their people to a police state.

As a pre-med, I find this immensely interesting. However, the problem with this argument (as the OP implies) is that it's a law firm. Of course they're going to tell us that robots are botching surgeries; they're God-damned medical malpractice attorneys. They'll say that any procedure or medicine, no matter how well-researched, is botched.

I spent time volunteering in the operating room at Banner Gateway Medical Center in Gilbert, AZ and had the opportunity to sit and watch numerous robotic surgeries. Contrary to popular belief, you don't press a few buttons and let a humanoid robot walk over to the pt and start cutting them up to do a hysterectomy. The physician directly controls the highly precise robotic arms and looks directly into a laproscopic camera in a terminal in the operating room. Robots don't botch surgeries, surgeons do. Oh, and doctors don't jack up the cost of medicine, medical malpractice attorneys do.

Everyone I speak with who actually sees the results of surgeries (techs, nurses, surgeon's, patients) told me that the robotic surgeries were absolutely the way to go. They reduce recovery time by making far more precise and far smaller incisions and they give the surgeon the opportunity to be sitting during surgeries that can exceed 4 hours - that's a big deal. If I had a laparoscopic surgery and robotic surgery was an option, I'd be all over it.

Google Scholar search will give you dozens of articles to peruse about how well researched this field is. And of course, the people who make the surgical robot Da Vinci Surgery, have plenty of sources they cite: http://www.davincisurgery.com/da-vinci-surgery/clinical-evidence/robotic-surgery-references.php.

If you have a question about medicine, ask a doctor, not a lawyer. No, I don't work for Da Vinci, but I do work for doctors and I see the ridiculous hoops they have to jump through to avoid shitty litigation like this.

It would be foolish to judge the truths a man believes in by the apparent weakness or hypocrisy of that man.

If a man claimed monogamy in marriage was good for society, but due to his own moral failure, had multiple partners, would we then conclude that adultery was best for all men?

It would be best that we use our minds and experience to find truth and not look for the man who looks the best to decide what truth is best for us. Otherwise, we will just be sheep for the media to direct.

ATTN Amazon.com customers:

Terms of Service Update:

In the unfortunate circumstance when our website is hacked and all of our customers' login information and credit card information is stolen... it's not our fault.

Thanks for using Amazon.com!

Seriously? A person asks an honest question (and somebody thought it was insightful, because it got posted!) and people find it necessary to try and enlighten the submitter by telling them that their question is stupid. Sometimes the condescension and arrogance of of slashdotters are as frustrating as splinters under my fingernails.

If your wife tried to bring you into her life or something she's interested in, would you consider it an attempt to rob you of your interests or individuality, or could it actually be a gesture of love by inviting you into her world? I happen to also be a gamer and would love my wife to game with me, but if she asked me to go on a photography outing with her, I'd be all over it!

Whoa, whoa, whoa.. Who clicked insightful on this one?

Instagram has not had ads since it began in 2010. That's the whole point. Thus far they HAVEN'T made money. For three years, Chad's been maintaining a crapload of data for free. I would say that's rather generous, wouldn't you?

That said, I won't pretend to feel sorry for a business that's been sold for a billion+ dollars. They have enough green tissues to blow their noses with. But I won't hesitate to criticize 8 million users who get angry when they realize that online services aren't free. Nothing's free, kids...

I can appreciate your desire to eliminate a class of poverty in America, but the issue is complicated - as history demonstrates. So I pose a few questions to you.

Does freedom allow people to make poor decisions?

If someone would rather not work and be poor, is it best to force them to work, or should we just let them be poor and figure it out on their own?

If such people (as referenced above) exist, then is it best to give them money and equalize the classes or to educate them and empower them?

Is America a place where anyone can succeed by persistent hard work and self-discipline? If not, can we make it such a place?

Does a government exist to impose equality across the peoples, or to empower people to better themselves?

Is it possible to force an equalization of wealth across a nation without eliminating freedom? If not, is it worth it?

It's because of the wave nature of electrons!

Whoa, hang on, it's because of the particle nature of electrons!

Pssssh, fools! Relativity! E=MC^2. You're welcome.

Wait, wait - I got this - we have this cat in a box and it dies, or something... I'm pretty sure this has something to do with it.

Hold on, I think it's because of innumerable, invisible vibrating strings that permeate the universe.

Noooooooo, it's from this thing called the Higg's Boson and once we understand it, it'll explain it. Ah, shit. Now there's two.

Well, no one really understands gravity, so it is probably caused by whatever causes that. Um, dark energy/matter, perhaps?

Well, at least there's a parallel universe wherein we do figure it out.

Just because something's complicated doesn't mean we don't try to figure it out. If we see a trend or occurrence in a scientific discipline that is unprecedented or poorly understood, then we try to find the a reason or cause for such anomalies. In this case, finding a cause (or several causes - which is more likely to be the case) could help us prevent similar incidents in the future and potentially save lives. Isn't that worth the speculation? Besides, societal trends, regardless of the complexity of a society, are still less complicated than theoretical physics.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=HlZRcxvGIWE&NR=1

Thank God someone will be out there to defend us against stuff like this.

T&C's exist because bad laws exist, so we give websites the opportunity to get around them.

Maybe we could just let people learn to be responsible with their information and let the market work like it always does. If a website leaks your information, then don't use it. Why should we have the right to sue them?

...and regardless of the size, color, or style of the font, people will still ignore it.