Humanity adapts to its environment. When it needed to be smarter to survive, it got smart. When it was rewarded for being foolish, lo and behold. When it all crumbles and we have to live by our wits again, enough will to continue the cycle. All this has happened...oh, skip it, you know the rest.

With all the engineering that goes into safety, majority casualty incidents require either catastrophic failure at the worst possible point, or a deliberate act. I'd wager the latter is far more common than the former.

And here I was hoping to see someone 'walking' around hovering on firing rockets...

They haven't been for quite some time—this just made it obvious.

While the 'perfect absorber' bunk is new to me, there's a tale I heard from a bud who was posted up in Alaska for a while that apparently it does damp or scramble the IR signature. Supposedly the military learned this the hard way, when night watchmen with IR gear kept running into polar bears that steadfastly…

The Ptolemaic Dynasty was descended from Alexander the Great's proxies—you might call them Greco-Egyptian. In fact unless I'm badly mistaken (always possible), those letters are Greek, which would seem to corroborate the timing.

We used to call that "going with what works". History's going to look back at the Copyright Era (Error?) as a bizarre, but thankfully transitory, episode in the long story of how humans worked with ideas.

A Nolan Riddler might just mean a natty green jacket, a black fedora, and maybe a discreet question mark on your tie.

...shark jumps you!

¿Cómo se dice "phoning it in" en español?

I've seen enough hentai to...aaaaaah, skip it.

Note to self: Design hardened umbrella capable of withstanding giant hail. Just in case.

Black widows and guns. This was in question?

Shhh! We only barely caught that batch of Bazooka Joe before it hit circulation!

Probably meant to differentiate between "Catholic" and "Orthodox Christian" but left out a word.

"ensuing" would be more appropriate. Also more likely.

I actually agree with that—there's such a thing as doing too well sometimes, and Komen (despite that tomfoolery earlier in the year) is nothing if not a well-oiled machine when it comes to promoting its cause. I guess I'd feel better if they remembered the other cancers and assorted dread diseases while they were at…

True. Breast cancer by definition is a bit better at, erm, getting folks' attention...

/shrug

Ovarian cancer is what took my mother. Whenever I see those pink ribbons, I wonder how much money is being diverted from things like that—which desperately need a crapton of research for early detection and effective treatment—just because breast cancer has the better marketing campaign.