So they'll get several millions guaranteed sells then?

Well, as I recall, he committed a crime of unsafe bicycle driving. Repeatedly.

I salute you and your well-thought, calm, polite and really mature position. Alas, as history shows us, most often than not mature people were not the one to rule this world. And they have really slim chances of doing this in the foreseeable future. That is why we have paranoid sociopaths in our "ruling class", who really think that one-sided total control is what will keep them in power indefinitely. And that is why we have almost as paranoid "freedom fighters" unable to even think of the compromise - they, too, are often lack the ability to see the whole picture, to separate "idea" from "idealism", and are happily ignored by the majority of the population.

Speaking of which, we catastrophically lack that calm, rational, mature majority, who would be able to separate apples from orangutans and unnecessary power grab from legitimate enforcement of sane laws. But to have such a majority is a much more crazy dream than even the society with absolute freedom of information and respect of privacy.

Hah! I see your Jim Carey and raise you Rowan Atkinson!

Hell, what's wrong with immature amusements once in a while? I bet most of bearded and mature 40+ years old Russian-speaking programmers will at least smirk upon seeing this news. Not to say anything about younger ones. There's already a discussion on habrahabr.ru with some... immature but amusing comments. Creativity, even in this form, is something that adds flavor to life, don't you think?

It won't take off in Russia (mainly because almost no one here uses Raspberry Pi), but this release will give something to talk about on our tech forums for couple of days for sure. Immature? Maybe. Amusing? Quite so.

I seriously doubt that there is anyone here who honestly believes in any good outcome of this initiative. Cut copyright terms? Implement saner policies? Right... what, there are communists in that Committee?

I think we really need a "+1 Scary Insightful Funny" mod here.

Orthodox Christianity had strong support from the government and KGB in the later Soviet years - from 70-s onward almost every high-level church hierarch had also been an KGB officer. On the other hand, Soviet ideology was rapidly becoming a religion on its own - with the cult of undead Lenin-Osiris, heavy symbolism and obscure irrational ideology. It was so backward and unnatural that it never took off for real, but it was enforced on every citizen of USSR from the very birth (and I'm speaking literally here - red stars and Lenin's portraits were mandatory in all clinics, nurseries and kindergartens. When powers-to-be realized that it doesn't work, they fell back to (secretly) supporting Christianity. By the 1990 it was full-on religious restoration throughout all of Union - and Party was behind it, no doubt. The rest is history.

One can say that it is true only while there is someone who somehow perceives the concepts of "triangle" and even "property". So unless you can say that all Psyche is supernatural, properties of a triangle is not a supernatural entity, it's just a psychical object - as natural as any physical object, just of the other nature (pun not intended).

I think we all know answer to this one, right, my fellow meatbag?

Even when Tokamak was introduced for the first time, it was obvious that idea of using fusion process as a heating element (using steam or other inefficient way to convert heat to electricity) is simply laughable. Laser-based fusion is horrendous even as a concept - it's as barbaric as trying to create mass transit using 19-th century tram carriage propelled by small-scale nuclear blasts. There is absolutely no engineering elegance in it, even less than in the first-generation (fission) nuclear plants.

I find Focus Fusion or some other non-billion-budget projects much more appealing - not because they have more chances to succeed (most of them don't), but because they represent something new. New technologies, new designs, new way of thinking at least. Compare NASA and SpaceX - yes, latter would not be possible without the former, but for now our real chance to progress towards easily accessible space-travel lies with (comparatively) small private companies, not with some inefficient hulking money-consuming monstrosity. Of course I would be glad to any form of cheap fusion energy, or any form of "consumer-grade" space-travel, but for now my hopes don't lie with NIF or NASA.

His name is James, James Cameron
The bravest pioneer
No budget too steep, no sea too deep
Who's that?
It's him, James Cameron
James, James Cameron explorer of the sea
With a dying thirst to be the first
Could it be? Yeah that's him!
James Cameron

Oh yeah!

I have a faint feeling, judging by comments, that we have a major case of 'whoosh' here.

Hmm... people, who used to burn factories, were they from the police or army? Were they backed up by the full extent of the law, publicity and all-powerful corporations? I don't think that Industrial Revolution and Luddites are correct analogy to modern times and reactional forces like RIAA.