How do you think the service knows where traffic is backed up at? If nobody shared their GPS data there wouldn't be any traffic feedback. I'll admit comparing it to Facebook status updates is a bit of a stretch, but I wouldn't call the idea of a service pooling GPS data so users can see where traffic jams are "a completely retarded argument."

I thought it was generally accepted that Hiroshima and Nagasaki convinced Japan to surrender, thus preventing more deaths in the long term than were directly caused by the bombings. The title of the article is "Nuclear power prevents more deaths than it causes", thus "As did bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki." It's not the most substantial or relevant comment, but I don't see how you get blaming heat stroke on solar power out of that.

If you read the full story behind what's going on here, you'll see that the lawyers who filed this motion are all getting dragged in front of a federal judge that they've managed to piss off. The judge has been throwing phrases like "defraud the court" and "incarceration" so Monday's hearing should be fun to watch.

He said "thousands" which I think 2000-3500 qualifies for.

I don't see where they said what PGP's intended purpose was, only the effects it had on society. You make all these rude noises about unsubstantiated crap, and then the only thing you really said was refuting a claim that the GP didn't actually make.

Same here. I went Slackware -> Gentoo -> Ubuntu

Where exactly are you buying these $1.30 phones at? ;-)

As long as you make sure most of the value is in the precious metals of the setting. Diamonds aren't worth shit for resale.

My bet is on something similar, but instead of freezing our bodies, we just upload our minds into the ship and modify our perception of time in software.

Just because an idea is obviously stupid doesn't mean the government wont try it... In fact it often seems that the stupider the idea the more likely it is to be accepted by politicians.

I would agree if you had to do something violent to be denied a gun permit. Unfortunately in the USA you can lose your right to bear arms for any felony, many of which have nothing at all to do with being violent or dangerous.

Just because that's the way things are, doesn't mean it's the way things have to be for an optimal society.

I could deal with a beak to become a super genius I think. Having my genitals shrink away to nothing on the other hand...

Actually, with utorrent and VLC you can stream most music and videos so you don't even have to wait for it to finish downloading all the way (assuming the torrent is healthy enough of course, anything that came out in the past year or two is usually streamable within 30 seconds or so).

I've got as much love for Wikipedia as anyone, but I think anybody trying to use it to rebuild civilization would be rather frustrated. It's full of articles that let you know things existed, who made them, how popular they were, etc. without enough detail to tell you how to make one yourself.