Because I am drunk, this Independence Night,
        I watch the fireworks from far away,
        from a high hill, across the moony green
        Of lakes and other hills to the town harbor,
        Where stately illuminations are flung aloft,
        One light shattering in a hundred lights
        Minute by minute. The reason I am crying,
        Aside from only being country drunk,
        That is, may be that I have just remembered
        The sparklers, rockets, roman candles and
        so on, we used to be allowed to buy
        When I was a boy, and set off by ourselves
        At some peril to life and property.
        Our freedom to abuse our freedom thus
        Has since, I understand, been remedied
        By legislation. Now the authorities
        Arrange a perfectly safe public display
        To be watched at a distance; and now also
        The contribution of all the taxpayers
        Together makes a more spectacular
        Result than any could achieve alone
        (A few pale pinwheels, or a firecracker
        Fused at the dog's tail). It is, indeed, splendid:
        Showers of roses in the sky, fountains
        Of emeralds, and those profusely scattered zircons
        Falling and falling, flowering as they fall
        And followed distantly by a noise of thunder.
        My eyes are half-afloat in happy tears.
        God bless our Nation on a night like this,
        And bless the careful and secure officials
        Who celebrate our independence now.

Rollover protection is part of why A pillars are so much thicker now. The first time I drove one of them, it amazed me how much I had to keep moving my head just to keep track of what was across the intersection.

Good point. I'd never thought of it that way.

The problem you miss is that some of us would rather not even pay for the addled video. Prime didn't change its fee when they added video, so give me a video-free alternative at a lower price. I resent paying for something I don't use.

I wonder if anyone has ever done studies of ad effectiveness vs frequency. If they had half the ads which were twice as effective, they could charge twice as much and have the same revenue and happier customers. There must be some sort of Laffer curve. No ads == no revenue but more watchers. 100% ads == no watchers and no revenue. Where is the sweet spot? Some old TV shows were 55 minutes long with 5 minutes of ads, then they switched to 50 minutes and 10 minutes, so they have to chop out 5 minutes to syndicate them.

I bet the broadcasters have done the studies, and 10 minutes must produce more revenue, but I'd really like to see those studies.

When they first bundled video with Prime, I figured it wouldn't be too long before it went south. It did. Series would include the first season only, they dropped a few I was in the middle of watching, they shifted some shows to Britbox and others which had been included.

Then they announced the ads, and I stopped watching. You're going to charge me for something I didn't ask for and can't get a reduction for not using, AND you're going to interrupt it with ads? No thanks. Stopped watching. Well, I was probably watching only one or two shows a week.

But it still annoys me that I'm paying for something I don't want which is supported by ads. I've been watching how much free shipping I get and comparing to Walmart and others. It's close enough that one more screwup and I might dump Prime.

I wouldn't be surprised if the multiplicity of keyboards does contribute. I learned in keypunch days, on cards, and they all had the same keyboards. Probably the first 10 or 20 years after were on desktop machines with builtin keyboards and they were all the same, or PCs where I could supply my own keyboards. Then came the world of laptops. It seems like every one has a different feel and different layouts for functions keys, numeric keypad, and CTRL/SHIFT etc. Right now, I have several laptops, all from the same manufacturer, and yet they have annoying little differences (half size arrow keys vs full size, ESC and ~/` subtly different) which always slow me down when switching. I could plug in my own keyboard, but then they wouldn't be laptops any more, and I'd probably have to buy a dozen keyboards before finding one I liked.

I never took a class, I don't follow any particular pattern. Someone told me my fingers look like a spider crawling over the keyboard. But I don't watch my fingers, so far as I'm concerned, I do touch type.

And it does come with experience. The more you type, the more your fingers know where the keys are and you look less and less.

If you want to take a class to touch type, go ahead. But I would not call it necessary. Just type, and the more you do, the more you learn, like anything else.

Sorry Mr Pedant. This is 2025, not 1937. Can you show me where one of these hydrogen jet engines is for sale today?

Not enough, and not at night or on cloudy days.

I remember reading about this and electric planes in Aviation Week and other media long ago. Hydrogen takes up something like 5 times the volume of jet fuel; there's no room for it. Hydrogen jet engines don't exist, and using fuel cells to spin electric motors is going backwards. Batteries might some day be energy-dense enough to be useful, but their weight doesn't diminish during flight like liquid fuel does.

The basic arithmetic just doesn't add up. Short range electric airplanes are not only short range, but their payload is limited. They're solutions in search of a problem.

Think of it from the other end. Assume I am telling the truth, and that the audience did give a standing ovation. Instead of just saying unpossible, think what it would take for you to do so, or people you know.

How about if you had seen nothing but silent movies with an organ accompaniment for years? Then you see a new movie with spoken dialogue and no dialogue cards. Would that not be astounding enough?

What about the first color movie? The Wizard of Oz was one of the first big releases in color, but starts in black and white and switches.

Star Wars was not quite on those levels, but it had a huge impact. That is why people stood and applauded.

I was in Japan in August or September 1978, 15+ months since its release in the US, and Star Wars was showing there. I met a couple of Mormon missionaries who had been in Japan when it was released in the US so had not seen it, and when it showed up in Japan, they were not allowed to see it. But they sure wanted to talk about it.

Nobody. But that crowd did. Remember, this was before CGI, when 2001 was still the gold standard for science fiction movies.