I'm not sure that always holding drivers responsible for accidents with bikes in every situation is a good idea if you're at first trying to encourage cycling without a supporting infrastructure; it might be better to actually encourage better use of the roads on both sides before cycling is a common form of transportation in a particular area. While I've had a friend clipped a couple of times by cars (who often like to then just flee the scene), I've seen far more situations where the only reason the cyclist was not sent off of their bike was because of either sheer dumb luck or a particularly good set of brakes on the car that actually had the right of way (I usually see cyclists run a red light roughly once every week or two, and stop signs basically multiple times per day, regardless of what's actually happening at that intersection). Unfortunately with cycling as a main form of transportation being uncommon, while many drivers are unaware of how they should react many cyclists are also unaware of what they should be doing for basic safety and tend to treat riding on the road like riding on the sidewalk.

If my city had better bike lane coverage-- it isn't bad, but it's spotty and sometimes lazy-- it probably wouldn't be a bad idea, but when you're still at the point you need to be concerned about bikes going down the yellow between rows of cars (another thing I see not infrequently one some of the one-way streets) and speeding out into intersections from spots that are difficult to see from *both* sides of oncoming traffic I don't believe that sort of law would be appropriate. It's frustrating, though, when cyclists who are actually well-mannered and make excellent use of the don't seem to be getting the kind of protection (or respect from other cars) that they need.

A site I use (one which I would like to have a strong password) has an interesting system where they have very specific password requirements (uppercase, some numbers, letter, punctuation) which is all well and good... but then they only allow 8-12 characters. In the meantime, the username (which also requires a number in it, for some reason), is 6-20 characters.

I cannot fathom why they allow longer usernames but don't allow longer passwords.

Local brick and mortar stores already get my business far, far more often for one primary reason: convenience. OK, a second reason too: shipping costs often drive the cost of goods up to what an item would probably cost with a sales tax anyway. The time when it's really useful to buy an item online is when it's a generic item being sold without the massive markup certain things get in physical stores (cabling, I'm looking at you). Local small businesses have much more to fear from chain retailers than they do from the internet.

Sales tax is a particularly frustrating tax, as it's fairly regressive and I'd personally rather see property taxes and the like be the big way to raise money for local government. Unfortunately, my state is one of the states in which the voters shortsightedly decided to cap property taxes.

Actually, no. This is not why nerds are socially awkward; I'm usually fine with helping people with most tasks (even tasks I'm not particularly skilled at doing). The problem arises when I get asked to fix someone's computer and they are not even aware of the vocabulary used to describe the problem. In person this isn't so much of a problem (I can just sit down and look at it), but more often it's a question being asked over the internet or (even worse) over the phone. Spending 5 minutes to explain every term you use to try to diagnose a problem creates an issue that doesn't show up elsewhere; if someone asks me to help them move a couch, I don't have to spend 20 minutes asking where they want to move it because of communication issues, I can just pick one end of the damned thing up and help them move it. On the other hand, I cannot just tell my mother that if the router is going bad, I usually release and renew to see if that fixes it, then look at firmware updates if there are any, then begin checking wireless and port forwarding settings depending on what my problem is. She's still stuck at the IP address and which password (the wireless or the one set for the router?) she needs to enter. Moreover, a lot of people seem to actively try to avoid learning common terminology. Do I know where the starter or alternator in my car is? No. Do I have some basic information on what they do? Yes. Yet even intelligent people seem to just stare at their computer as if it might explode if they know too much about it. So while I'm fine with helping someone move if I'm free or assisting someone in cooking (though I'm terrible at it), helping most people with their computer is simply extremely frustrating.

As far as I can tell, most crime-fighting is funded with heavy hyperbole, poor logic and appeals to emotion instead of sound thinking.

Except that City of Heroes/Villains rarely costs more than $30 for most of the boxes I can think of. They almost always come with a free month, which is $15 off. Oh, and there are no paid expansions, so once someone buys the original box, that's all they're going to really have to buy. After that, revenue is either: A. Optional packs of small costume items or temp powers they sell (usually around $10). B. Codes for stuff from special boxed versions. While these tend to cost $20, they come with a free month once again, so they effectively cost $5. Oh, and you can just buy access to City of Heroes/Villains online and download the client. It's $20. I should also mention that when I bought my copy way back when, it came with several free things like maps and toys. It's pretty obvious that they're not making a huge amount from box sales (in fact, I think one of the developers has actually stated this on the forum).