Isaac Asimov wrote an essay about the first amino acids many years ago. It was included in a collection of essays (Why does ice float?, Why is the night sky black?and more...) titled, "The Left Handed Universe". So old the info may be long out of date, but an interesting read if you can find it.

There's a book about In-N-Out called, appropriately enough, "In and Out Burger", by Stacy Perman.

" In fast-food corporate America, In-N-Out Burger stands apart. Begun in a tiny shack in the shadow of World War II, this family-owned chain has steadfastly refused to franchise or be sold. It is a testament to old-fashioned values and reminiscent of a simpler time when people, loyalty, and a freshly made, juicy hamburger meant something..."

Even a JohnnyCab has a joystick which a person can use to drive. Well, after ripping out the robot driver... but, still...

I would think you'd need either the IMEI or phone number in order to even try to "target" (whatever that means) a specific phone. Otherwise, how would you do it?

Gonna miss trustworthy reviews containing sound, technical details. Much nicer than some YouTube review of a hard drive with inane drivel such as, "...and here you can see the label. Now, I sure wish they had decided to put the label on in this direction, instead. And, while we're at it, the label is just too large. A smaller label would be much neater and still able to hold all the information."

Is that "inevitable" as in, "We have no control over it" or "inevitable" as in, "We've already decided"?

Cities across the U.S. have been changing traffic patterns & street layouts in order to discourage automobile traffic. Changing four-lane streets to two, for example. Where I live there is a section of a 4 lane interstate which bottlenecks down to two and has been traffic-troublesome for decades. Now there's a plan in the works to finally expand that section of freeway and, of course, people are lining up to protest the expansion.

I'm not sure cities with this anti-auto traffic management philosophy truly want to make street traffic more efficient.

I just finished a book, "Epic Fails", by Salvador Jiménez Murguía, published in 2018. An entertaining read about such failures as the Microsoft Zune, new Coke, the mullet. etc..

One of the things that surprised me was that they mentioned only one Google product (Google Wave). I mean, regarding Google failures, how could you stop at just one?

The book, "The Idea Factory", by Jon Gertner, is a good history of Bell Labs.

Check out Better World Books for a great place to find used books at very reasonable prices.

The book, "How Music got Free", by Stephen Witt traces the origins of digital music piracy.

They can no longer afford the affordable internet program... hmmm...

I worked at a factory where they would study submitted suggestions and, if the idea would save production cost, a percentage of the savings would be payed to the submitter. Sort of a suggestion bounty. The program was discontinued because it cost too much.

That explains a lot of things from my past.

Even after all these years since I read that book of yours I still chuckle when I recall your story of playing with the TOP SECRET stamp while visiting the office of an FBI Agent. Thanks for the memories.

I don't know anything about the Kobo app but have had several Kobo E-reader devices over many years. I always have Wi-Fi turned off on these devices. I sideload my books and so have no need for internet connectivity. They work fine without internet.