Is it just to make it more humanish? Wouldn't it make more sense to just have cameras in all directions and have it see 360 degrees? Someone smarter than me, please explain. Robotics is not my thing.

Great plan, except that there are a ton of people who consider themselves a 'reasonable person' who are actually completely off their nut. Not quite sure how we decide who gets to administer whoopass and who doesn't.

This was literally my first thought. People lose their shit over finished laundry sitting idle in a dryer for a half hour. How civil are they going to be about sharing something that controls their ability to get to work and make money?

I watch with CC on because it keeps me from missing anything in the dialogue (I've got ex bar musician's ears, unfortunately). For the most part I'm very pleased with it. The one shortcoming I find with it is that often times I'm denied the pleasure of a well-timed joke or delivery. By the time they say it, I've already read it. But a small price to pay for not having to have the TV blaring.

185,000,000 volkswagon beetles

And as someone with allergies (celiac), it's 100x easier for me to click 'no bun' than to have the conversation where the 17 year old stops everything and says with a dumbass smirk 'Wait, you don't want a bun? So, just, like, the meat?', and then gets a manager who shows them where to click 'no bun.'

Sam's club in the US has it, but you do it from your phone. You scan the items as you put them in your cart, and hit the 'checkout' button when you want to pay (using a credit card you've already entered into the app). On your way out the door someone scans a barcode on your phone and does a quick verification that what's in your cart matches what's on the receipt. Very slick system, and you get 3% cash back or something like that for using it.

From a social impact of the individual's criminality, the threat has passed, hence, there's no need to lock him up at our expense.

From an economic impact/motivational factor for society, there's civil suits. Let him have his pockets drained until he's repaid the costs he caused others to incur.

I can't imagine you'll be paying anything less than a $5/pound premium on the lab grown stuff. If I had to be on anything about this, it's that it isn't going to be cheap.

I keep one under the desk, incase workplace violence breaks out.

-Rick

The US fleet is replaced at ~5% per year. So even if all new vehicles in 2020 are full electric, it would still be over 2 decades to "phase out" petro consumer road vehicles.

That said, I'm rebuilding my turbo diesel with the intent to get another 5+ years out of it (should be cracking 300,000 miles by then) with the hope that an affordable full electric with sufficient range capacity in the winters of Wisconsin is available. :)

-Rick

They make it work by being dual-mode. It only switches to compression ignition when it determines the appropriate conditions. A fair bit of the time, it'll be on standard spark ignition. Basically, they manage to control the intake and exhaust flow at a higher compression ratio that they can predict predet and control it.

The bigger problem I would expect, is getting it to pass emissions. I would guess that it'll do great on CO2, but it'll blow NOX worse than a Diesel.

At which point, your sentiment rings true. If you're going to have Diesel emissions, why not just have a Diesel engine and enjoy the perks that go with it?

-Rick

I still like the theater on one condition: I go to morning showings. I took a few hours off work and went to Episode VII the day after it was released at a 9:30 a.m. showing. It was me and about four other people in the theater. The evening and afternoon shows were sold out for at least a week solid. (No, I'm not interested in debating the merits of Episode VII. It was one of the rare films I just wanted to see right away.)

Eliminating the crowds eliminates 90% of the nuisances. And it's nice giving a film your full attention now and then, even if I only do it a few times a year.

Sounds like a great idea, not! Nobody knows what the long term effects will be for this kind of experimentation. They should do some long term studies on volunteers first before making this kind of stuff widespread.

You can get a decent pair of them for $30 or so. I have a pair that I wear at the shooting range. They are outstanding. The only downside is that if it's a windy day it can get pretty annoying with the wind noise in your ears. (more expensive pairs probably have solved this, but I'm cheap.)