We use EMV in Canada. It's great. No more sending your credit card away to be copied and used by corrupt restaurant owners. You can wave the touch less functionality turned off by your bank. I have mine all turned off.

People said years ago they wanted their governments run like businesses. Well. Here you are. And they've done you a level better: government isn't run like a business; it's run by a business.

If you put the quantum computer in a box, how will you know if it's at run level 5 or not?

that laws do not always prevent people from breaking them. However, without the law (or let's say "agreed upon norm") in place, it is impossible for others to say "hey, you aren't supposed to do that," which then makes reprisals tough to justify. We can all point our fingers at North Korea for example and call them crazy because we've agreed that you are not supposed to starve your people for instance. So, while those treaties may be imperfect, they do help to provide a framework within which we as a civilization can operate. Besides, what does it hurt to have them?

Oddly enough Genesis never mentions an apple. It only says they were not to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good an evil. Given that this stuff probably happened somewhere in the Middle East, it's more likely a fig tree that should have been removed, or at least had a large electrified fence placed around it with armed guards (imported from Texas, of course, where you can smell the freedom), and large signs (in English, so everyone could read them) saying "Keep Away From Knowledge of Good And Evil." Because, you know, knowledge of good and evil is, well, evil. Or something.

I have a myoelectric prosthetic arm, that always holds me up at the TSA line. I have even taken it off in line and sent it through with my laptop. That doesn't help, I found. After the guy on the other side of the scanner asked me (the only dude standing in line with one hand coming out his sleeves) "Is this your arm?" (boy, it was all I could do to not point to the guy behind me and say "no, I think it's his"), he made me go stand aside while he x-rayed it again and dusted it for explosives, then dusted me for explosives, and after I'd cleared the first metal detector get scanned and groped as if I hadn't cleared the first scan. I was not amused. Another time, in Atlanta, I left the thing on when I went through the scanner. The fact that it was electric so flummoxed the TSA there that they x-rayed it with it still attached to my body from several different angles, causing me to have to stand in all sorts of strange angles to accommodate their stupidity. I told them several times I could remove it, but they insisted I keep it on. Then when the x-rays showed that the electronic hand had WIRES AND BATTERIES, they freaked out and called their boss over to have a look. It was freaking amazing that they didn't turn blue and pass out for forgetting how to breath without illustrated instructions.