I should have guessed that this post would gather responses from folks making ridiculous comparisons to things that are not even close to the same. Playing in traffic is ACTUALLY dangerous. Eating off the floor is not, unless that floor just so happens to have one of the few dangerous bacteria that can sometimes…

And it seems highly inefficient. Why not just use the solar power to directly charge the battery, rather than separate the hydrogen and oxygen using electricity, only to recombine it to make electricity? I get that the water in the charging station is effectively acting like a large battery, but they could use, I…

Very true. And if you buy organic produce, it comes pre-loaded with salmonella and e.coli. And if you use those reusable cloth bags at the supermarket, you are just asking for it.

So, according to this, none of my children should have survived past 9 months, which is about the age that they started crawling around and eating everything they could find on the floor in any room of the house (including the bathroom). Heck, when they started walking they realized how many tasty treasures are often…

I understand the intent, but its not likely to work well and then, of course, there is all of the unintended censorship that inevitably comes from automated systems (like blocking sites containing educational information about rape or child molestation) or other abuses of censorship. I can't imagine this being…

There is one more reason for piracy. The free market. No, I don't mean that people stealing is a legitimate part of the free market, but there is a tendency for people to want to pay for what they believe things are worth, and the entertainment industry is notorious for trying to manipulate supply and demand and fix…

I've tried many rippers over the years and have never found one that is easy to use and consistently rips DVDs and Blu-ray discs. I have some friends who are a bit more "tech-savvy" than I am (and I am reasonably tech savvy) and they are successful with it, but I haven't been. Its just not as easy as ripping a CD,…

EXACTLY. I remember complaining to someone about this before (with digital music) and he was trying to tell me that it is wrong to make a digital backup of your own music. His argument is that if you buy a plate, and break the plate, you have to buy a new one. Likewise, if you buy a record, and break the record, you…

Kids movies! Seriously. Have you ever seen what small children do to optical media discs? And have you ever seen how many crappy previews are packed into those $25 dics? Previews that you can't skip because it tells you "The Operation Is Prohibited." I mean, even if I wanted to watch the previews the first time, I…

Not an "IT Union" per se, but there is a federal employees union (several, actually). The biggest is: http://www.afge.org/ But there are more than 80 http://blog.ohmygov.com/blogs/general_…

I love the way that, in a world of on-demand streaming content and DVRs, advertisers can no longer take our attention for granted and hit us with crap commercials. They now have to work just as hard as other content providers to make entertaining commercials that people WANT to watch. . . and share.

It does make me…

I think its inevitable that something like this will eventually happen, as the user experience on all devices incorporates touch navigation and, in the future 3D spaces. But Google has never been on the cutting edge of GUI design. That's one of the reasons Bing has taken more market share from Google than most people…

I used to have that very conversation with my local fireworks stand. Most of the time, when other customers leave, they would reach under the counter and pull out bottle rockets for me.

Many of the states shown as blue ban anything that explodes or shoots into the air. Furthermore, many localities within those states ban fireworks outright. I would not use this map to make any decisions, not even as a starting point.

Assuming you have a light that will cooperate, if you can turn it on and off faster and faster, eventually, it would appear as if it is stuck on, but producing half the light output. The average between on and off. As you approach infinity, there becomes no distinctive difference between a light that is on, producing…

We've already seen proof that hackers can hack computers implanted in cars (like the tire pressure sensors, etc.) to wreak havok. I'm just wondering what the future will be like if we actually start implanting these kinds of devices in our bodies. Someone is blasting you with music and you aren't quite sure where its…

Why stop there? Why not go the next step with self-driving vehicles so you can program the car to drive to a destination and back again on its own. "No, sorry, we don't deliver. Pick up only." "That's okay, my car will be there in 10 minutes, just put the food in the passenger seat." Or how about telling the car to…

Now that he has revealed who he is and who he worked for, his company and the government can crack down to make sure this doesn't happen again. I guess they probably would have figured it out eventually anyway.

It doesn't matter how often it is or isn't taken. The issue is that it has to be taken right away, and that means having $50 readily available. A young woman can't say "oh, crap, I really need to this pill, so let me save up some money, many sell a few things, and come back in a few weeks. . ." Sure, its cheaper than…

Time only appears linear because our brain assembles events in a specific order in order to make sense of what is happening. It is possible that everything in the future has already happened and free-will is just an illusion.