It can't compete with a regular human-guided vacuum in terms of getting up all the dust and such, so I'd really love it if the company would stop and focus on what the Roomba does best.

I have a Roomba, and the one thing it does better than a vacuum is suck up pet hair. Cat hair, dog hair, snake hair, doesn't matter. This is the Roomba's big talent, but the company seems to want to focus on everything but that.

It's always puzzled me that Japanese scientists are spending so much money and energy on creating robots to "cure loneliness" in one of the most densely-populated places in the world. Can they not say "hello" to a stranger and go from there?

How about tagging the criminals who brag about how thug-life they are? Or how many felonies they have, as if it's a mark of honor?

As a Corrections Officer, I'd be happy to take the money they're going to waste on this "psychic computer" and just tell them which ones are going to bounce right back into the pokey.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the correct pronunciation of pho is "FUH" not "FOH". Which would make those T-shirts sound naughty.

Somewhere out there is a frat house, madly searching the internet for where to buy one of these.

I used to amass lots of huge packets of this stuff when worked in shipping/receiving and it made a great additive to cat litter.

To quote Miss C: "But then I recall that they all smelled bad, the food expired, they were closed on nights, weekends, and often Wednesday as well, they wouldn't hire anyone they weren't related to, and they didn't care that their customers promised to buy a lot of x product if they would only stock it please."

Yep, there was a small neighborhood grocer who turned down the AC in his refrigerated meat case to save money. All the meats were green or gray. Eww.

The successful small grocers around my area tend to specialize, ala Middle Eastern, Indian, Mexican, etc.

Money buys security, as in every paycheck keeps you (hopefully) from being homeless.

Aww, as a former broadcaster, those sure bring me back. For the news, those test patterns were to help calibrate the camera's colors.

"Dad, it hurts! Can we go to the hospital now?"

"No way! I've got to get full video/photo documentation on how I manfully stab this fish onto the internet first.Then maybe we'll go for ice cream. You like ice cream right, princess?"

I think the annoying/boring part was actually part of the satire, which made it really funny to me.

I live in Texas, where it does frequently get to be 104 or 106.

However, it's 2010 and we have air conditioning. I cannot imagine the misery of that heat in a city without AC in 1936.

That "freakier the better" is what makes Austin beautiful! Without Austin to keep the rest of this state centered, it'd be... Mississippi.

And we definitely can't have that.

Don't mess with Texas, baby.

Just a few years after this article, the inhabitants of Auschwitz and the like were dining on sawdust bread -- proving the author's prescient views.

This couldn't be a more pimped out ChiMo* vehicle if he added a "Hanna Montana Concert Photographer" placard to the dashboard.

*ChiMo = child molester in prison slang