When credit cards and bank accounts are given to children, a parent signature is required. If phones and ISP's are paid for through such venues, then they are automatically age-checked. If a parent is allowing a child to use a device the parent pays for, they should be required to opt in the device to allow the child to access mature material.

Minor grammar fix: "the low-hanging-fruit of solid state electronics R&D has dried up."

I don't believe it's because of the tax-breaks, for they still exist, but that the low-hanging-fruit of solid state electronics R&D have dried up. Software has replaced hardware for many functions of machines, and software needs less "big lab" R&D since it can be done in pajamas. Corporate hardware labs just stopped being able to pay their way.

If say quantum computing started spewing innovations, a similar "gold rush" of R&D may appear again. This is not saying "everything has been invented already", but rather that technology doesn't progress at a steady pace. The AI boom (bubble?) has produced AI labs, but I doubt its lab boom will last as long as the solid state boom.

Google moving the deadline up and saying "because our own quantum tech is progressing faster than we thought"* sounds like using one of their branches to spin another.

* Paraphrased

so will Mila Mozilla.

What about the Strait of Hormoooz?

What, you give male aliens a mulligan?

"Sorry, but we don't have an insurance code to cover 'sub-atomic vaporization chain-reaction'."

Eric

It's a Fonzi Scheme: Ayyy Aiiii!

Such meteorites tend to be sterilized via thousands of years drifting in space and re-entry heat. We don't know really know if such is comparable to a direct surface sample.

I don't miss a signal typo.

...they better test their safety in a space station rather than Earth. There's a slim but non-zero chance they have microbes we have no immunity for.

Just shows you even the stupid can become officer.

Or President.

Anti-trust is dead, long live monopolies! Competition is for "losers"