Clearly you've never met someone like my wife.

Treating a telescope like a jackhammer isn't going to work well.

They just haven't figured out your jackhammer just looks a lot like their telescope.

I saw the headline, my brain went "so he's being held in contempt, as would any other person refusing to answer a question, right?"

Of course, I already knew the answer.

I love when people say they feel dumb because they didn't know something, because then I get to share xkcd with them, too.

A balrog? At this time of day? In this part of the country? Located entirely within the confines of the walkway leading from the crack of doom?

I'm sure that would have looked great to all the gathered men who were still alive.

"oh yeah, the elves showed up and one of them went up to the crack of doom with Isildur after his father died, and the elf came back alone and wouldn't tell us what happened inside. Something's fucky. We better prepare for an attack from the elves."

Whether anyone actually threw hands immediately or not, men and elves would have a far shittier relationship after that.

The question is, did more suffering occur because Elrond didnt do this? We can't know.

(but probably)

"while not criminal"

Hmmm. Making threats? Of a political nature in order to coerce change?

In my neck of the woods, we call that "domestic terrorism", but they freely admit that to the world:

It kind of reads like the thought process of someone who just woke up, too.

For OTHERS, yes. But many want the cutting edge for themselves, at no cost to themselves.

I always see people commenting on stories like this with things like "how does anyone actually believe that/think anyone will believe that?"

Well, that's exactly the point. It's not about the death being convincingly accidental. It's very much about sending a message to others.

You don't eliminate the competition and agitators with the exact same method of execution for 30+ years (with a few false-flag apartment bombings thrown in for good measure) and expect to keep things covert.

The only way they could make it more obvious is the "he hogtied himself, ate a cyanide capsule, jumped out the window and shot himself twice in the back of the head on the way down" trope.

If

Data = current AI

Then

Modern lifeforms = aerobic bacterium,

Modern flip Smartphones = Motorola Microtac,

SR-71 = Wright Model B,

Rimac Never = Ford Model A.

Comparing Data to modern ai is just an insult to Data.

Ew gross.

This guy doesn't have a shirt on!

Be pantsless like a normal person.