Those glyphs aren't meaningless. You just don't know what they refer to.

We didn't need a remote. There was only the one channel.

Here's a thought: combine driverless cars and driverless buses for a commute. One of the chief problems with buses is the sometimes long waits when one needs to change buses, but if a company could assure that one never needed to wait more than two minutes to change from car to bus or bus to car, the advantages in reducing traffic might be well worth it.

Consider, a small queue of buses waits at an interstate entrance ramp - only two or three buses, not enough to waste much time but enough to be sure no one will need to wait long for a delayed replacement vehicle - and most of the cars that would have gone onto the interstate stop and their passengers get onto the bus. At two minute intervals, the bus hits the road - taking probably 30 and perhaps (if a double-decker) over a hundred cars off the road. If this is happening at rush hour and at every major intersection on main routes going into a center city, ten thousand cars could be replaced on the roads by one or two hundred buses. Aside from reduced parking, consider the reduction in traffic in city centers. Add in traffic lights (or other controls) coordinated on the fly with buses, and riders could be assured of a smooth commute into town almost every time.

Of course, not everyone would be going to exactly the same place, but walking two or three blocks is healthy anyway, and not much further from a destination than most parking lots - or for more spread out city centers, more cars could be waiting at the exit ramp - with less than 30 seconds to transfer. With reduced traffic and higher safe speeds, commute times could actually be reduced, and of course commuters could spend their time more productively than driving. Driverless services could include options for breakfast or a snack on the buses, or even bunks to take a nap on long commutes - and of course wi-fi and the like.

True. I think many families will continue to own cars, because on long drives it's nice to have a comfortable space that is one's own. Also, I keep certain things in my car so I'll have them when I need them - a few basic tools, a flashlight, an extra coat - things like that - and I think that is common. Still, many families that now have two or three cars may discover that they need only one - and even that would free up an awful lot of space and reduce costs considerably.

True - self-driving cars will make car ownership unnecessary for most people and could reshape cities - a point that Brad Templeton made a long time ago.

http://ideas.4brad.com/robocars-are-future

Presumably all these driverless cars will have cameras and could report reckless driving - with video footage - to the police in real time.

I imagine that might put an end to such abuses pretty quickly.

Yes. I hate that damned unskippable content so much, maybe I'll finally have to stop getting the authorized releases.

The fluorescent fixtures frequently used in offices are already made to replace one or two ceiling tiles. Not only could a new LED fixture do the same, but there are already LED replacement lamps that may increasingly replace the lamps in existing fluorescent fixtures. They're expensive right now, but expect prices to drop.

One of the founders is a specialist in international law.

This isn't about cheap workers. Housing alone will run about $1600 per worker per month (at the low end). This about having the right workers in the right place at the right time.

The exclusive economic zone is 200 miles, but International Waters is only 12 miles out.

The residents can get a business visa to come onshore for business meetings, they just can't perform any actual work in the United States.

It's true that the residents must abide by the whims of the owners, but the owners in this case are businessmen who want to create a good space for business in order to stay in business. That's a lot different from relying on the goodwill of a single eccentric individual.

"A fact lots of well educated people don't seem to understand regardless of the number of studies showing this effect."

Obviously this fact conflicts with their world view. I have observed this effect in action, however, on multiple occasions, sometimes to comical effect - such as people believing I said the direct opposite of what I actually just said.

It's a mistake to presume that Al Qaeda is staffed by religious fanatics. They are generally opposed to their own governments as much as ours, and attacked the U.S. because the U.S. was supporting tyrannical and corrupt governments in their region. Hopefully the Arab Spring has changed this somewhat.

Like most religious wars, religion in this case is just used as justification. The conflict has other causes.

Absolutely agree on all counts. I might also note that out of curiosity I once looked at a few passages of Mein Kampf in English translation. The scariest thing about it was that the passages I read could have been written by just about any politician working today.

Um, Obama only got out because the government of Iraq insisted we get out, and seeing as the US ostensibly invaded Iraq to give the Iraqis self-government, Obama couldn't very well dispute the wishes of that government. I don't give a whole lot of credit to Bush or Obama on that count.