I'm very surprised that many seem to simply accept the rhetoric of this story and its talking points.

Exactly why are these chips being included and disabled, as opposed to not including them in the first place? No one seems to be questioning this part.

Can anyone shed light on this? What is the back story here?

It's one part of a multi function chip and there's no reason to special order a version without FM.

Fun fact: at least for small orders you can get PICs cheaper than 555s.

> I don't know that it's worthwhile to compare small countries with ethnically homogenous populations, homogenous communities, different social values, and citizens with reduced access to weaponry to a large, ethnically diverse nation, with diverse and segregated communities, with different social values and history, and citizens with greater access to firearms.

Your total lack of knowledge about Northern Ireland is showing. Try walking down the Falls Road or Shankill in Belfast, and see if you see a homogenous community (for bonus points, go into any bar in the area flying either a Irish or UK flag proudly, and see if you find much agreement about segregation or firearms). I had a friend in school in Ireland whose family moved from Belfast (in late 1990s!) because he and his brothers were badly beaten for being Catholic. But I'm sure that was a mistake, as they were an ethnically homogenous population.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Troubles

thomasfl's comment did point out Northern Ireland, whose communities were so segregated there's a mini Berlin wall in part of the city ("Peace Line"), and where there's plenty of firearms and also high explosives.

Disarmament was a critical and controversial part of the peace process.

Actually there are several peace walls in Belfast; and also there are more now than there were during the '70s / '80s.

Also, there are parties on both sides of the divide who are still armed; it's just the largest and most politically engaged groups who are no longer armed.

After reading your comment and it's parent I had this thought:

Whereas the case for firearm ownership in the US is ostensibly to call to arms a militia to overthrow a tyrannical government, what has actually happened is the populace are too busy shooting each other to realise tyranny.

Although, I think, to believe what I just wrote requires a bunch of biases and leaps of faith with regard to rates of violence governmental tyranny. I'm reading Steven Pinker's 'The Better Angels of Our Nature', which is doing a good job of highlighting that, even in the US, violence has decreased over time.

Edit: a word

> homogenous populations

What I think you mean to say is "populations that are treated with equal discretion and respect by police, and, when they are very young, by school discipline."

Otherwise someone might think you are a racist.

I'm pretty certain the article goes on to say that it was sold from News Corp 3 years ago to another advertising company. So News Corp hasn't owned it for a while.

Would the expiration date not proportionally correlate to the date the eggs were laid?

Although, this sort of integration was encouraged and took place in Brazil and the mixed-race Brazilian offspring of today still seemingly and disproportionately prefer to be categorized as 'white' based on year-to-year census results.

Stopping putting the race questions in the census would certainly help.

Who cares about that? Just having that question is an implicit assumption that race matters.

Although Paris is the most visited city in the world. It also has a reputation amongst the global cities as being unfriendly. Enough that the Paris Tourist Board and Chamber of Commerce have launched a campaign to educate service workers on treating tourists better. Tourists also do not spend as much money in Paris. It is number 3 in that regard. This is likely due to Paris' centralized position. It may more likely be a stop-through on the way to a visitors' final destination.

You can be perfectly fine on English in almost any large city in the world, but there is more of a friction in Paris when interacting in English than in many other European capitals.

I know the reputation, but the times I've visited Paris everyone has been extremely helpful and polite. What I do see, occasionally, is American and German tourists who ignore local customs, behave rudely, and then get offended when the Parisians respond rudely to their own boorishness.

The only really bad experience I've ever had in Paris was with an eastern european cab driver who droned truly horrendous racist screeds about black African prostitutes ruining Paris my entire ride.

It's time to stop repeating like a parrot what everyone said 10 years ago.

Nowadays people in Paris are friendly enough and speak english.

Google appears to already take care of the 'fast routes become slow routes due to popularity' issue. Frequently in London, Google Maps will pop up a "Faster Route Detected" alert and will divert onto a quicker path. Sometimes three separate "Faster Route Detected" alerts will pop up during a single commute.

Google Maps would also change my London commute route on a daily basis given the changes in traffic patterns.

I have often thought the applications like Maps should randomise the suggested routes (within reason) to spread the traffic load around and improve things for everyone.