Well, I have a hybrid (Honda CR-Z), it has 136HP, 138lb/ft torque in a smaller package, so similar driving experience to your Golf. It also has handling modeled on a BMW M6 (the lead designer's personal ride), with sport sized tires, tuned suspension, etc. My average over 26,000 miles is 43mpg.

It was $19,000, also nicely equipped. The only large difference is the CR-Z lacks a second row, but my Fiancee arn't planning any kids in the near future, and her car's a 5 seater, so its no big deal for me.

The amusing thing is we both have fun-to-drive, reliable, economical cars, but they're unpopular because of myths and long-held-beliefs about their powertrains and small cars in general.

No, no he didn't. Lemme go get your sword :-)

He is... http://blogs.reuters.com/talesfromthetrail/2012/03/20/no-doubts-as-to-obamas-irish-ancestry-now/

"$10k-$18K more than a Prius or Civic Hybrid, or similar gas vehicle?"

Except that the difference isn't nearly that large. My brand-new hybrid (Honda CR-Z) was $19,300. An insight will run you 2k more, which makes it only 10k more expensive then a Nissan Versa Base, which doesn't have A/C, Power anything, ABS, etc. A more fair comparison is something like a Nissan Sentra, which similarly equipped is about $16,000, or only $5k different. Also, you don't plug in most hybrids, like the Prius and the Honda Civic Hybrid, so there's no cost for electricity.

But continue to pull numbers and facts out of thin air, while I save money in the long term with my Hybrid.

I don't have a blind spot. I have two 2" convex mirrors, one on each side view mirror. I can without turning my head see the entirety of the area around my car, thanks to each mirror overlapping with the others.

I for the life of me don't know why these aren't mandated - they don't cost more than a few bucks to manufacture, and they work great.

I'm not an expert, but I don't think the shuttle was designed for staying in space for more than about a month or so at a time. For one thing, it leaks oxygen. I don't think the space station is capable of supplying enough power right now to keep it operational when the power cells on the shuttle run dry.

If you're looking for tangibles, you can try this:
http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-07/ten-tech-innovations-nasas-space-shuttle-trickled-down-non-astronauts

But in reality, the entire benefit of the space shuttle program isn't just in "stuff". Lots of the benefits can't be boiled down into metrics, like inspiring children, boosting national pride, etc. I'm not going to claim that with these benefits the shuttles were worth their cost, but you're missing a lot of the point if you only look at the tangibles.

You're comparing apples and oranges. the original "apps" for iOS were just supposed to be HTML5 websites. WebOS uses html, css and javascript as part of the native apps that run on the device, and you can also write WebOS apps in C or C++ (through this wasn't true for the first six months the device was out). I don't know about Windows Phone 7, but im pretty sure that those apps are on the phone, not just special websites.

Now you're changing your requirements to fit my evidence. You asked me to find any full English transcripts for 2006 onwards. I was able to find full English transcripts from Osama's broadcasts in 2011 in about 20 seconds, thereby disproving your assertion that "it's not possible". Since you then threw in the "mid 90's", I would suggest:

http://www.amazon.com/Messages-World-Statements-Osama-Laden/dp/1844670457

It's a very nice guide to Osama's writing from the mid 90's up to 2004, I used it in a class on modern Islam.

If you're worried about the accuracy, we're back to "learn it yourself" or consider finding someone you trust who already knows the language to verify the translation. This is back to trust, which you frankly seem to be trying to avoid. You could even use a site like mechanical turk - get several different disconnected strangers to translate it, and if they agree then you can probably trust the results (or there's a very large conspiracy, at which point there's no good advice I can give you.)

As to your issue with learning Arabic: "Do you seriously suggest that citizens of a supposedly free country must learn Arabic instead of insisting that their democracy actually functions?"

what? A functioning democracy isn't usually described as having free translation services for citizens too lazy to do the work themselves. Ignoring that, if you're really concerned about the lack of quality translation, you don't need to learn all those languages. Just find some people who share your distrust in everyone else and split up the work. I took first year arabic as part of my Middle Eastern studies minor - its a complete bitch, but it's not impossible. When I was in Morocco there were many shop owners who could speak passable French, Arabic, English, Spanish and Dutch. If you really wanted to learn these languages so you could study the world outside the english enclave you could, but I think you prefer to shout about how the man is oppressing you by not providing timely translations instead.

Finally, I think you have the sleeping part backwards. I went out of my way to learn about the Middle East, assimilate in Morocco and learn some Arabic. You just whine about the government not doing this for you. You're just in a nightmare of your own making.

http://english.aljazeera.net/Services/Search/?q=osama%20translation Turns out they have transcripts of almost all of his most current speeches and writings.

Ok so why don't you just learn Arabic? You can take classes at lots of State U's. UNH has two years of it, and 50 kids a year enroll in the elementary Arabic class.

"We just got a config file and made it clear that we didn't mean any harm" - AKA they were unable to get to any meaty stuff, and now claim altruism rather than failure.

I use it with two displays - a 22" and a 24", using the proprietary Nvidia drivers. While that's my "home" machine, at work I use Win 7 and Mac OS X frequently, so I'm sort of used to dealing with several different desktop "paradigms". I like that Unity is simple, attractive, and leaves me lots of space. If you're already using ubuntu, there's really no harm from trying it, since you can go back to whatever else you were using easily.

I switched to Unity last month. It's popular to bash Unity on Slashdot these days, but I really like it. Everyone else can keep using gnome, kde, whatever.

Actually the pyramids of giza are located on the border of El Giza, Egypt, plus the whole complex is called the "Giza Necropolis", so while they are usually referred to as the "Pyramids of Giza", it's not really incorrect to call them the Pyramids at Giza, since they are after all in Giza.