Additional terms such as "you must allow the user to modify the software"? Doesn't vendor lock-down violate the GPL in this case?

I don't understand this. Google, the creator of the software, has basically said "we want this to be changeable by the user". Which means that, by locking the OS down, the manufacturers are going against the spirit of the developers' wishes. Why didn't Google put a clause in the manufacturer/provider contract "The user will always be allowed full access to the device being managed by this operating system"?

I remember when I was in Japan a few years (14) ago. I was thirsty, and saw a vending machine. I bought myself a nice, cold Japanese cola. Or so I thought.

Turns out, Kirin wasn't a cola - it's a beer. Big signs, written in Japanese, said something to the effect "If you are under 21, please don't buy from this machine." No cameras, no ID swipe. Trust. Apparently, they could trust a 16-year-old to not buy something that was not allowed to them, or at least not to be stupid about it.

Depending on the way you decease, you could dye your surroundings blood-red, shit-brown, or any other bodily colour.

In my experience, not having good lights leads to a better bang.

10 years old is one thing; like I said, when my eldest is 10 and has the home-alone course, she will be trusted to stay at home with her younger brother. However, the original post was regarding leaving a 4-year-old home alone. Four years is NOT enough time to be left alone in a house. A four-year-old does not know how to call for help if anything happens. A ten-year-old is.

"Unattended" is one thing. I don't watch my kids like a hawk 24 hours a day. But there's no way in Hell my kids will be home by themselves when I'm at the supermarket. Not until my oldest is 10, and has passed a "Home Alone" class offered by our local community center.

You ever try defending yourself from a child abandonment charge? A 4-year-old is nowhere NEAR responsible enough to look after themselves. Where I live, leaving ANYBODY with a single-digit age is asking for an investigation. No matter how mature or responsible you think that child is.

What exactly does WikiLeaks have running under the hood? Can they prove that, as soon as they posted something everybody in the world wants to see, it was blocked by DDOSing instead of, say, hijacking their DNS?

I think that everyone and their dog wants to see what's been put there, and their web infrastructure can't handle every world government and agency attempting to see what the Americans have said about them.