I don't want to live in a world like that.

I went out to California recently. The drive out took 10.5 hours and the drive back too 8. Why? Because I knew where I was going and was able to drive faster without fear of missing my off-ramps. This is not a unique experience.

So I would say it has nothing to do with pessimism or optimism, but rather that you know what you're doing on the way back – the routes, the roads, you are already packed, et cetera.

Will Arneson get a memorial too? He deserves one as much as Gygax in my humble opinion.

The atheists I have known have always been the nicest, most considerate, most compassionate people I have ever met. To the point that I would say religion makes for rotten, awful people so fixated on preparing for the next world that they destroy the world they are in now and make it horrid for everyone.

Young people (and a lot of adults) are already not reading or paying attention to historical documents. They'll soon just have a better excuse than being idiotic.

I second Johnny Cat's statement.

We had compulsory chess in my elementary school years. An hour every day. All it accomplished in me was a focused beam of pure hatred towards the game and an utter lack of respect for my classmates as they were either snide winners or crybaby losers.

Yes, a 19 year old child is too old. They are mentally no more advanced and have only attained the right to vote and maybe legally smoke. It's dangerous to allow someone with no appreciable differences to associate with others of like kind.

She named him Beckett. That would turn a normal, naturally homosexual kid into the realm of hyper-gay. That's about it, fabulously flaming or normal is nurture, orientation is nature.

And where is the control sample? Surely there had to be some sort of moderate, sane person to slap in the machine for that.

maybe in 150 years, but not in 50. The modern laptop has a form similar to a typewriter, so it is the electronic versus the primitive mechanical. However, what they will use in the future will also be electronic, so the visual cue of the laptop's primitiveness will have to be more distinct – perhaps as typing in mid-air or thinking words onto the screen.

But who will be the great hero to uninvent the cell phone?

I have to admit, just having those two gestures for reply and reply all, would increase my workflow considerably.

As for what neat things to share on April 1st, go to an amassed backlog of thing from the past that were not shared.

All of the competent people I know are warm. The incompetent people generally tend towards cold, abusive, or extremely idiotic.

#3 does exist. It's called alcohol. :D