Please pull a 4.0 with 350,000 and show what that looks like, while refreshing its internals where necessary. I have just the engine for you. Please hurry. I am very lazy, and it is very old.

While it is impossible to make 1:1 correlations between the United States - with its extremely rare combination of historical factors - and other nations, there are other nations similar enough to ours that we could begin looking for some solutions there. Many nations focus on rehabilitation and education, rather than…

Well-said, and heartfelt. Would-be street racers, we’re all there with you: we want to do it, too. But the public roads (and the typical lack of safety equipment you find there) just aren’t the place. Too many “civilians,” people who didn’t ask to take the risk you’re putting them in. And yes, it IS a risk, no matter…

Oddly, different pallets are made of completely different types of wood, and one of the skills of pallet-recyclers is picking out what’s made of what. Now, obviously, pallets in general aren’t going to be high-grade hardwoods or whatever, because they’re inherently semi-disposable industrial goods, but it’s amazing…

I thought I would never switch to ebooks, so much was my love for the written word. I’ve something on the order of several thousand books (and the badly-settling house to prove it; this will make two homes I’ve done structural damage to, now), so my commitment to the format was pretty extreme.

Exactly correct. I’d love to blame booze or distraction-by-pretty-lady, but really I’m just not paying attention to what I’m doing 90 percent of the time. :)

Derp on me. Absolutely: “Evolution, not revolution.”

All of my machines that’ll take the upgrade (with the exception of some legacy machines intentionally running DOS or Windows 2000) I’ve switched over to Windows 10 (preview, obviously) weeks ago, with few problems, and no show-stoppers. This includes some pretty mission-critical devices, if that says anything about…

And for you poor people out there - that’s me, too - much of the capability we’re talking about here can still be yours:

Very, very much looking forward to this. Details on the vehicle, and your experiences living in it, will be extremely welcome, as I’ll be doing this full-time in 2-3 years, probably with a lot less van than you’ve got (but with more off-road-ability, given the places I tend to frequent). It will be extremely rewarding…

Standing up.

I’d disagree that traffic will never be 100 percent “cars capable of anticipating sudden stops” within our lifetime, but I’m planning on living a good long while, so that could be the difference. :) But I agree that the programming of these cars will need to work with the current technological framework, whatever that…

You’re the bestest!

Relativism isn’t an answer, there is objective truth (the fundamental laws of physics) there are objectively better societies (those that increase the number of members while at the same time increase their personal welfare and wellbeing)...

I’m all for efficiency, and cost-savings, but this doesn’t seem like the best option for me. Microfiber cloths on a Swiffer, plus microfiber cloths on a Swiffer Mop (with home-made cleaning solution) have a lower initial cost, lower ecological cost of manufacture, are safe on all types of flooring, are fully…

Once the technology is stable - and we’re not there yet - the human will be the liability. We’ll phase into automation, handing tasks the computer is better at off, while retaining manual control for the situations in which the human is still superior. For a while, we’ve let the car do things like manage throttle on…

Those decisions will definitely need to be part of the programming of these vehicles - along with lots of moral calculus like “pick between killing your passenger and killing two bystanders” - but this specific situation will be aided by the fact that car-to-car communications will mean that the car behind you will…

Ultimately, the question is one of what it is that makes humans in particular deserving of specific legal protection under the law. We currently make these laws pretty blindly: things that are human are protected in one way, things that aren’t are protected in others. (Sometimes, in pretty stupid ones, as in the case…

How do we estimate cratering rates on Pluto? We don’t exactly have a ton of exemplars to go on (we have objects of similar size and mass, but not location) so we must be estimating indirectly; how?

I suppose it’s important to note, because of the deleterious health effects of pollution, but it’s a little sad we’d need the reminder. This is like mapping “number of BMWs” and “income.” Us poor people can’t have nice things because we don’t have a lot of money. That’s how an economy works. If people have forgotten…