Obligatory xkcd https://xkcd.com/1102/

Hm, again just speaking for me, not anybody else, but i love the ability to use shorthands (g for google, m for maps, w for wikipedia, etc + a ton of work related ones) for different search engines in the URL bar. Is there anything that speaks against this type of dual usage of the URL bar? I cannot come up with something off the top of my head.

I'm a little bit confused as to what you are implying. Do you seriously think the reason that the automakers formed a cartel is that there were regulations for cleaner diesel engines? As in, they would not have formed a cartel (empowering them to earn more money) if those regulations were not in place. That seems to seriously mix cause and effect in my opinion.

I'm pretty sure, that the rationality is that it saves google a lot of money. Most of the time people will only look at the first couple of images anyways, so not loading preemptively saves a ton of bandwidth.

Well, the important thing is "halfway through the competition". I don't know how to calculate the statistical significance here, but it seems sensible that it would need to be a bigger lead after playing more games.

Performance.

I have to disagree vehemently. It vastly depends on the speed that you are traveling with on your bike. As soon as you aproach the upper 20s (km/h, European here) it is way too dangerous to be traveling on the side walk. Here in Germany we have dedicated bike lanes which unfortunately mostly run on the side walk, meaning that pedestrians often do not look up to check if a bike is coming. More dangerously though are the cars taking right turns, because even if they bother to look you will be right in their blind spot. Add to this cars coming out of driveways or sidestreets, only bothering to stop and look once they reach the actual street and you get quite a dangerous mix. Whenever it is allowed thus, I always ride on the street and counting the number of close calls or accidents I had it is a lot safer. Basically the only danger when riding on the street are butthurt drivers who make it a point to overtake you with a 10cm gap even if the opposite lane has no traffic, because you are supposedly occupying 'their' street.

So true and almost poetic :)

There is a nice blog of a family living pretty much the same way you do: http://almostfearless.com/ I have been following it for some years and I'm really enjoying it. I am still quite young, but people like you or they are who make me think I might actually have kids one day ;)

Who says we humans are the point of this hypothetical simulation? Meaning, the tree could very well still make it sound because it is useful for the simulation.

C'mon that was obviously a joke... How cranky can one be?

Maybe the pictures you saw were of saltwater fish? It says it's the first freshwater fish that they recorded.

While this is a very nice reply, the problem is that the majority of the population will not be able to formulate it clearly and concise like you did and/or will simply conform social norms and accept the blocking.

Well, actually it's quite embarrassing that they're only doing this now...

I did not debate that, it's also quite obvious, that it is good for Microsoft - in a variety of ways - , otherwise they wouldn't be paying $$ for it ;)