Why is that? It can start and land vertically, so you don't need a runway. You just need some "parking space" in your garden. Judging from the scene where that guy is lying under the wing, the total wingspan is around 10 meters. More than a car parking space, but definitely not requiring an airport or runway.

The reason is simple: FedEx is not an "Internet company". It's old school offline business, and those companies often have managers/deciders in their 50s or 60s that grew up without Internet, and thus have still no idea how it works. They think in decades, and forget that a decade in online business is like a century in old school business. To line it up: the managers at FedEx who decided about the Flash campaign probably think they are super modern, because 10 years ago they had read that Flash is a cool technology.

The "Computerspielemuseum" (video game museum) in Berlin has been around since 1997. It's quite cool, and they have everything from early arcade machines to modern stuff. They claim that they were the first with a permanent exhibition worldwide.

Rethink what you are saying. "It's against the constiution, but it's their job, so it's OK."

So if, let's say, a hired assassin would kill someone from you family, would you say "well, it's against the law, but it was his job, so it's OK"? I doubt it...

If the NSA's job is to sabotage allies, then they've a wrong job. Period.

How poor must a country be that it derives its pride from an ancient (and objectively inferior) set of unit measurement?

A global measurement system is not only useful in science, but also in trade. And today, global trade is more important than ever. Believe me, for an individual it is just a matter of "getting used to", and within a generation, nobody will miss the old and clumsy units. But for trade, science, industry and generally everybody that has to deal with international contacts it will make a HUGE difference.

See where massive health care, strict gun laws, strong labor rights etc. lead you to... now Sweden pays the bill - they have not enough crime and prisoners.

Good that the US does not follow that way - we dont' want to lose our world leading role in imprisonment!

Yes, it should read "the modern automobile". Then the above statement is correct.

I really wonder why a cutting-edge IT company like Google is using such a crappy date format in their patent example... it's not properly sortable and ambiguous. I know, it's just an example... still, it shows the obvious inexperience of whoever is responsible for filing that patent.Something like "C:\temp\1999-12-01\" would be the better way...

Well, that's a different case. The Japanese and the Germans are on the same "side" as the US - they generally don't copy, but invent themselves (e.g. the automobile, which has been invented in Germany). Thus, they have the same problem - their products are copied by China, India etc.

All religions are "made up". Only difference is, with modern religions we still know that they were created by humans, whereas "old" religions seem to be "just there", so for most people it's easier to believe these religions were not man-made.

CeBIT is the world's largest IT fair. Do you really think it will be cancelled because some Chinese product pirates feel annoyed?