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I would think so considering Apple offers their Macbooks as "millions of colors" rather than 16.7 million, who knows though if the color/response time is a big enough issue they may be required to state whether theirs is 6-bit or 8-bit. Then again, if your producing videos or print, you damn well ought to understand the problems inherent in selecting your tools.

Finally! I had been wondering how Bill Gates was going to share his fortune! This sounds like the technology that can make it happen!

Damn. Where the hell were these teachers and assistants when I was in school? That girl is fuckin' hot. Some of the others aren't too bad either. Not saying I'd sleep with them, but at least they'd be fun to look at during class. All my teachers were at least 40+, and none of them were very fun to look at.

One other thing I noticed on that site was the seemingly short prison terms. I'm not 100% sure, but I'd imagine a 31 year old male teacher having sex with a 15 year old autistic girl would be in a lot more trouble than 2 years in jail and 3 years probation. I mean, if that doesn't deserve a harsh sentence, what does? I mean, the women don't even go to "bang me in the ass" prison. Talk about a double standard.

You should look at this. http://crime.about.com/od/sex/ig/female_pedophiles /Heather-Shelton.htm

Heather Shelton, a 22-year-old teacher's assistant at a North Carolina high school was charged with sexual activity with a 19-year-old student.

Only in America can sex between two consenting adults be construed as pedophilic rape and molestation. I also recall a 16 year old boy serving a 10 year sentence for sex with a 14 year old. Both were under the age of consent. I don't have a url for that one, but it was on night-time news. There are real victims being created by these insane laws.

The accounting concept of "goodwill" doesn't mean what you think it means.

http://beginnersinvest.about.com/cs/investinglesso ns/l/blles3goodwill.htm

Because here around 70% (europe) of the gas price is due to taxes (it used to be that way but now it is probably around 60% due to the oil price raise). I do not think you gas in the US is taxed as much.

Here are some link about this tax rate on fuel in europe :
About.com on fuel gas price (first paragraph)
US reluctant to match Europe Gas price taxation

Quote :
For decades, European countries have imposed high taxes on fuel to encourage conservation and fuel-efficient technologies while funding public transportation. In England, the Netherlands and Scandinavia, the taxes on gas are more than twice as much as the underlying cost of the fuel.

It's a public knowledge that Estonian happily served in Nazis SS (extermination unit). Here is your camp (search for Estonia): http://history1900s.about.com/library/holocaust/bl chart.htm

I stand corrected. Vaivara "was apparently established in 1943 as a camp for Soviet prisoners of war" .. "by the Nazi regime" (wikipedia), for the purpose of "Concentration/Transit" (your link).

Happy? Are you an Estonian by any chance? You can be happy all you want, but normal people of the world hate pro-Nazis scum like you.

No, I'm finnish, and I'm happy that I was born in a free, independent and successful country. I'm happy I didn't have to learn russian and I'm sorry that our estonian neighbors are so much worse off because of the russian occupation.

Call me names all you want but trust me - I will be against any racial prejudices, concentration camps and fascism. I'll raise my voice against them if I see them, be it in my home country, Estonia or Russia. Moving a statue and hurting somebodys feelings falls a lightyear short from being a condemnable "nazist" act.

It's the Russia I am worried about now. The government is strengthening its power, oppressing opposition, lessening press freedom. Then there's Putin-jugend.. Russia is the country that's taking the steps Germany took a hundred years ago.

Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger. -- Herman Goering at the Nuremberg trials

Can you please provide proof for that claim? It's a public knowledge that Estonian happily served in Nazis SS (extermination unit). Here is your camp (search for Estonia): http://history1900s.about.com/library/holocaust/bl chart.htm

That said, I'm happy that Finland "embraced" the Nazi Germany Happy? Are you an Estonian by any chance? You can be happy all you want, but normal people of the world hate pro-Nazis scum like you.

let the bugger speak in all his quasi-political-philosophical glory:

"Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns -- the ones we don't know we don't know."

http://politicalhumor.about.com/cs/quotethis/a/rum sfeldquotes.htm

it has a mental and verbal cadence to it. i think rumsfeld would have had a better career as a poet, or a religious mystic, or a fortune cookie fortune author, or horoscope writer

maybe donald rumsfeld and yogi berra can team up and deliver us magical koans to contemplate the mysteries of life

Actually, I'm right.

2 seconds of googling found http://inventors.about.com/library/bl/toc/bl_paten t-infringement.htm and there are plenty more to be found. A brief quote:

[quote]
Patent infringement, by the Government, of privately owned patents, is governed by 28 U.S.C. 1498, which provides that a suit against the Government in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims is the exclusvie remedy for patent holders who allege their patented invention has been infringed by the U.S. Government or by one acting for the Government. The primary purpose of this statute is to protect and relieve contractors from any liability for infringement by the owner when an invention is used by or manufactured for the United States. By virtue of this statute, the Government may be held liable to the patent owner for payment of the "reasonable and entire compensation" for its unauthorized use of the patent. Unlike a private party, however, the Government cannot commit the tort of "patent infringement." Governmental use of a patented invention is viewed as an eminent domain taking of a license under the patent and not as a tort.
[/quote]

As long as the government gives "compensation", the only issue is if the compensation was fair or not. They can NOT infringe. They can even NOT give compensation, and the only remedy is to seek compensation for actual value, NOT for infringing.

First, we have the description of the Insight from the Honda Web Site. You'll notice that the EPA highway mileage for this version (2006) are 6 MPG higher than the city numbers (66 versus 60). My estimated highway mileage in 2001 was higher.

Second, you might You might also find the owner opinions at insightcentral.net interesting. I've not posted there, but there are some excellent relevant quotes:

I have gone from L.A. to Pennsylvania on four tanks of gas. You have to have the right tire pressure, good gas, follow big vehicles, and just know how to get the most out of the car.

This is certainly a driver's car in many respects. Beyond it's fun-to-drive factor, the central fuel efficiency display has this almost subliminal effect on your driving, helping you to learn how to get the most efficiency out of the car. I think this is an often ignored part of the overall equation.

the Insight's gear ratios take a bit of getting used to. You really have to think of 1st and 2nd gears as accelerating gears, 5 (and at residential speeds 4th) as a cruising gear, and 3rd as highway passing gear. Acceleration is very lively in 1st - enough so that I find myself hesitant to put the pedal to the aluminum in first. Acceleration is also more than adequate in 2nd. These two gears are enough to take you from 0 - 60, which leads to the much talked about Insight 1, 2, 5 gear shifting pattern that some owners adopt for best efficiency (and a little fun along the way).

I bought the car in Kansas in June, then I moved to Maryland in September. On the 1200 or so mile trip, I averaged 73.1 mpg! That was cruising at about 70mph.

Finally, I would point you to a review of the Insight written in about 2005 titled, appropriately enough "Defeating Ignorance With Insight". Here's another relevant passage:

the Insight's estimates of 57 city/56 highway for the automatic transmission and 60/65 for the manual are impressive. And as amazing as those numbers are, real life data shows that it is possible to beat the EPA estimates (See Elsewhere on the Web: GreenHybrid.com mileage database). Forget about getting only 300 miles on a tank of gas.

The reviewer is right, of course. I got 600 miles on my last tank of gas, and filled up (on Friday) for $28.00. That's fairly typical, in my experience, but what do I know?

Simply stipulate that only "open" religions can be given these benefits. That is, only religions in which all the religious texts are freely reproducible and the religious services are open to anyone without payment, will be given full benefits.

google

It really depends on what you're searching for. Most of the tyme I start a search with Google myself however sometimes I find Alta Vista is better. I've done searchs with Google that didn't return any results but I would get some at Teoma, before Ask.com bought it out, or Mooter. And for a couple of areas of searchs I start right away with About.com. Actually it was Google that led me to using About.com. Googling for archeology/anthopology led me to About's section on it. A later Google led me to About's photography section.

google

It really depends on what you're searching for. Most of the tyme I start a search with Google myself however sometimes I find Alta Vista is better. I've done searchs with Google that didn't return any results but I would get some at Teoma, before Ask.com bought it out, or Mooter. And for a couple of areas of searchs I start right away with About.com. Actually it was Google that led me to using About.com. Googling for archeology/anthopology led me to About's section on it. A later Google led me to About's photography section.

for the Reich is to have PATRIOT III include language to require logging and storage of unencrypted copies of all data that has an endpoint on said ISP's server. All your POPS belong to us..... For the guy a few posts earlier who asked the obvious question about when we're going to get riots in the street, watering Jefferson's "tree of liberty": the two obvious answers are that 1) thanks to the efforts of those who really run the country, consumers (formerly known as "the people" or, in even more archaic terms, "voters") have been relieved of the burdens of "critical thinking" and "political dynamism" since about 1974, and 2) just in case, the Best Congress Money Can Buy has been funding military semi-lethal weapons and domestic deployments (Posse Comitatus? The Decider says it's "just a scrap of paper") since shortly after the events in Item 1. Short version: The United States of America was a Constitutional republic from 4 March 1789 to sometime around November 1974; a hybrid state from 1974 to 12 December 2000, and a fascist kleptocracy since that time. This is just another warhead tossed onto the pile to see how high the rubble of freedom can be bounced.

Quoth your sig:

Who the f*** decided that sentences on the Internet shall no longer be formatted with two spaces after a period?!

Because this is no longer needed, now that we have proportional fonts.

Seriously. Who the fuck decided that bitching on the Internet shall no longer be researched before posting? For homework, figure out why the authors of HTML force all spaces after the first to be trimmed in the output.

You realize that they can't say anything else, especially on TV. Article 88 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (the laws that govern the conduct of the military) binds the officers and since that worked out so well, they made DoD Directive 1344.10 which extends it to all members of the military. They can't say anything else.

I agree with the direction of your post, but there are some ... let's call them clarifications.

1. Joseph Smith, not John, was the one with the hat. 1a. It wasn't the hat that was magic, it was a stone, that he dug up and PUT in the hat, and then he'd stick his face in the hat and the stone would talk to him and he'd say what the stone told him to, so that his loyal amanuensis could write it all down.

2. Most Quakers these days aren't so into the crazies. Shakers were but they're mostly extinct. Likewise, most Southern Baptists and their crowd don't do the shaking and speaking-in-tongues (glossolalia, it's called) and handling snakes and other weird things like that: many consider those to be sinful. Pentecostals, however, are WAY into the shaking and the gibbering.

A lot of religious Christian types absolutely do believe in big, world-affecting miracles, at least in the past: many of them will tell you earnestly that NASA had to repeatedly recalibrate the Apollo landings to account for a missing day -- but not quite a full day, because two different time-stop miracles are described in the Bible. They're thorough, even if the whole idea of weird time issues thousands of years ago would have any relevance whatsoever on the Earth/Moon system being ludicrious. (Of course, it's not ludicrous if there was a defined start time, at which the Earth and Moon were created like they are -- which they believe -- but it is if the E/M system is a few billion years old and doesn't really have a discernable start.)

There are ways to encourage voter participation without breaking anonymity.

In Australia, all citizens who are eligible to vote must attend a polling place on election day. Anyone who doesn't vote is fined (unless they have a sufficient reason, like illness or injury). Apparently several other countries do the same.
Ref: http://www.australianpolitics.com/voting/systems/c ompulsory.shtml

This web page:
http://geography.about.com/od/politicalgeography/a /compulsoryvote.htm
has a discussion of some of the pros and cons of such a system.

I did a bit of research and I stand partially corrected...

It seems that what I said was the case until 1982. (source)

Since 1982, the legal drinking age for U.S. military personnel (on active duty only!) has been the same as the age legally enforced by the location of the military base. Or in the case of bases within 50 or 100 (conficting sources here) miles of an US-to-[other nation] border, the base commander has the option to allow it to go as low as the lowest age legal for either the local laws or for the nation across the border. Also, bases in other countries can have a drinking age as low as 18, but also dictated by local laws and customs. (source)

Apparently, Wisconsin and New Hampshire are/were proposing to allow military bases in their states to have a drinking age of 18.

"The minimum drinking age on a DoD installation located outside the United States shall be 18 years of age. Higher minimum drinking age will be based on international treaties and agreements and on the local situation as determined by the local installation commander."

http://usmilitary.about.com/od/justicelawlegislati on/a/drinkingage.htm

>I'd rather support our godawful tobacco taxes

You dont pay tax on cuban cigars. Cuban cigars are smuggled in, no cuban items are allowed for sale in the US.

No trailers? We need this 'punishment' where I live. Make children under the age of 18 unable to see movies after 9pm and I'll be at the theater a lot more often.

If you want to quote numbers, you should be complete. Below is a summary for 2007

• 586.1 billion (+7.0%) - Social Security
• $466.0 billion (+4.0%) - Defense
• $394.5 billion (+12.4%) - Medicare
• $367.0 billion (+2.0%) - Unemployment and welfare
• $276.4 billion (+2.9%) - Medicaid and other health related
• $243.7 billion (+13.4%) - Interest on debt
• $89.9 billion (+1.3%) - Education and training
• $76.9 billion (+8.1%) - Transportation
• $72.6 billion (+5.8%) - Veterans' benefits
• $43.5 billion (+9.2%) - Administration of justice
• $33.1 billion (+5.7%) - Natural resources and environment
• $32.5 billion (-15.4%) - Foreign affairs
• $27.0 billion (+3.7%) - Agriculture
• $26.8 billion (+28.7%) - Community and regional development
• $25.0 billion (+4.0%) - Science and technology
• $20.1 billion (+11.4%) - General government
• $1.1 billion (-47.6%) - Energy

• $1740.7 billion - "Human Services"
• $571.1 billion - "Defense"

I won't even bother getting into a discussion about tax policy--you might as well argue which religon is best. I will point out the following facts:

• The top 5% of earners paid 53% of the income tax
• The top 1% of earners paid 33% of the income tax
• The bottom 50% of earners paid less than 5% of the income tax

The reason I didn't comment on whether the law was just or not is because I wasn't asked. Furthermore, I can not change it, so I have to live with it. However it's still better than some other countries' sentences for similar crimes.

The minimum sentence is only 1 1/2 year. You may say it's too much, but the Thai people have declared it, and it is their country.

You say that he's neither lenient nor forgiving....can you give examples of this? Because I can give more than enough examples of his compassion--even though their math is wrong, they're missing a 0, in addition to making sure his people have food.. And remember, it isn't the King who's calling for this but rather Naai Vissanu Meeyo.

It may be better to think of this in terms of the Mohamed cartoons or the Holacoust denial. All the time politicos get slammed in the paper, so it's not a matter of free speech, but rather respect. I don't know why you could expect people to respect your tradition when you won't respect theirs. They're not telling you to not disrespect your political/ruling figures, but to extend respect to theirs.

http://jobsearchtech.about.com/cs/labor_laws/a/whi stle_blower.htm You would be held liable if you performed the illegal act(even if it's an order), but you are protected by law if you tell on the company for it's illegal activity.

-l

I'm curious how (sustainable) biofuel isn't environmentally friendly? It's carbon neutral, leverages our existing overproduction of food crops, seems all good all round. The only thing I can think of is that it's smelly and bad for your valve seats... obviously logging old growth forest for biomass doesn't count here, just things like maize and grain crops.

Hydro plants are protested against because they flood large areas of wildlife habitats and peoples' homes. That's an 'environmental' issue but not an emissions one.

I agree, though, that jumping on the 'alternative' bandwagon is far too fashionable and often counterconstructive - take, for example, the fact that the Prius uses more fuel than the Golf TDi[1]. Like any other engineering issue (and conservation is one at heart) you have to look at the data and not just follow the emotive hype. For instance, modern nuclear reactor designs are far safer than the old, cold-war era designs, and potentially very fuel efficient. If it weren't for the "nuclear is bad" mindset of the general public, they would be the perfect mid- to long-term energy solution.

[1] Of course, that's not a fair comparison because the TDi runs diesel fuel which has a higher energy density, but I'm pretty sure the total energy cost of a Prius over its lifetime is higher than that of a TDi.

Actually, the Army can apply the UCMJ to civilians, which includes a charge for not following orders. The laws used to state that it could be applied, in times of war, to civilians serving with or accompanying an armed force in the field. If the contractors are operating out of a U.S. base, or are getting some of their security from the U.S. military, then this may apply. For the family at home, they might not be chargable under the UCMJ, but their serving family member is. They get a headline in the local paper and their family member gets docked pay, reduced in rank and spends some time confined or locked up. Or, they could just get a bad fitness report which effectively ends their career.

Recently, there has been a change of the wording to include when a "contingency operation" is going on. Details of the wording change can be found here.

This makes perfect sense as a civilian working with the military could be in a position of causing harm to military personnel. For example, if the on-scene commander tells everyone to be quiet, and a civilian starts talking/arguing/making noise with them, they may be placing everyone at risk. After knocking them out to keep them quiet, they will bring them up on charges when, or if, they get back to base. You aren't in your cubicle farm back home - in the field the stakes are a bit higher.

it's a great political trick. Constantly lag a decade or so behind the country, and you have the full support of whatever idiots you can currently convince the country is going the wrong way.

continuing on with my naivety. i am, as of yet, not convinced that bush/cheny intentionally lied or if they were just mis-informed or seeing what they wanted to see. if my mechanic tells me i need a muffler belt and that sounds good and i want to protect my car, it doesnt mean i lied when i tell my wife why we need one, just clueless. after i am sold blinker fluid and get laughed at i should reconsider my stance on automotive maintenance... not sure if stupidity is a crime.

Why is this a troll? My AP US history text listed pretty much the same things (minus the military cancellations and "religious right" discussions).

Wikipedia lists most of the same stuff, too. (Scroll down, it's a long article.)

And to further the GP's point: "Bush=Bad" with no reasoning whatsoever is modded up, while "Carter=Bad" with many reasons is modded down. Never mind ye that Carter finally managed to mach Bush's lowest approval rating by the end of his presidency. link and link

Somehow, DOUBLECLICK is the biggest concern? Not a chance. This is media hype perpetuated by the competition crying foul. I really wish people would concern themselves with actual privacy issues. It's just advertising data, people.

Ti you it make seem like just advertising data, but it qualifies as stalking in Texas.

It's interesting that Homeland Security looked to someone from doubleclick to protect personal privacy.

It's kinda funny how marketing-speak changed the name "web bugs" to the almost religiously enlightened sounding "web beacons" that help track what you've read, and through your IP, where. They say you can opt out. That sets a cookie!
Web bugs can be in email, web pages, even some documents.

The combination of web bugs and other techniques can still mine considerable data even with cookies off or frequently deleted.

I generally have liked Google, but it seems this is not the only instance of them connecting with slime.

Actually, many pesticides are at least somewhat effective nerve agents against mammals in high enough concentrations. Certain people can be extremely effected by certain pesticides over and above average reactions, too. Many of them are toxic in other ways instead of or in addition to being nerve agents in people. In the U.S., the EPA makes no suggestion that pesticides are not toxic to humans. They rate them by how toxic they are and how quickly they break down. They then clear some of them for use in certain concentrations with certain labels and certain restrictions on who can use some of them. Pesticides are known to be a danger to the nervous, endocrine, and reproductive systems. The health benefits of having higher yields and therefore cheaper prices on foods -- especially fruits and vegetables -- is often thought to outweigh the risks. This may be true when properly designed pesticides are properly used and your food is properly cleaned before you eat it. As with most things in life, though, there are trade-offs.

I, for one, have been in the emergency room for a number of hours before with what the doctors called giant hives due to exposure to pesticides. Giant hives are just like regular hives, only my hives were 2-3 inches wide, 4-8 inches long, and up to a quarter of an inch raised from the normal surface of the skin. They itch like hell, are pretty painful, they're very discolored, and they can last for days or weeks. They're caused by a number of things, but mine were caused by pesticide exposure. The doctors were monitoring to make sure my throat didn't close since I had such a strong reaction in the skin.

Lots of people are even saying that lower IQ scores, more asthma, and other health problems among children are due the amount of pesticides used in schools. ADD, Asperger's, and many of the issues that have been increasingly diagnosed are neurological in nature. Those rates may or may not have something to do with pesticides. The truth is, no one really knows what the levels of pesticides in U.S. schools is doing to kids. The EPA has guidelines to reduce exposure due to suspicion that it can't be good to have children inundated with the stuff. The state of Washington a few years ago pass a law stating that parents must be notified when there children's schools would be using pesticides. The state of New York has a nice writeup on a study it did in which it states that 87% of schools in NY used pesticides, that no pesticide be considered completely safe, and lists the more usual effects of several common pesticides and herbicides.

Regular soap only makes the germs fall off. See http://chemistry.about.com/library/weekly/aa081301 a.htm. Its the anti-septic types of soap that are dangerous.

I don't have a link to post, but in my old college psychological research methodology class, our book had a full chapter of foils that happen. All of them are well know, and most of them have good design work-arounds. But the big one was that people like to answer how their expected to answer, to make the researcher happy.

Through a quick google: http://psychology.about.com/od/dindex/g/demanchar. htm

i was surfing about.com's list of religious symbols awhile back and found out, much to my shock and amusement, that the goatse.cx guy is an ancient celtic god

(link is pretty safe for work)

This is the "haha" factor for you! Government *prints* money. As much as they want. And US is probably one of the worst countries in that regard. IT just hasn't cought up with them yet.

Money is viewed as a money supply. M1, M2 and M3. US doesn't even publish M3 money supply!!!

For more information about M1,M2 and M3 money supplies,
    http://economics.about.com/cs/money/a/money_supply .htm
    http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/data/M3SL.txt
    http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/data/M2SL.txt
    http://research.stlouisfed.org/
    http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/M2

Regardless, money supply is increasing now faster than before. How? Gov't is printing money. It is preferable that the money supply is representative of some real value, but it is not. US has been running a huge trade deficit now for a number of years, yet the currency has not devalued as much as needed. The reason is that other countries like China and Japan are storing their USD and not buying stuff with it. So it should be clear that money just represents a perceived value, not a real value.

When gov't "borrows" money, it may mean A LOT of things. In the US, they just transfered the money from the retirement plan (whatever it is called - social security?) which is currently overpaid, and spend the money. Now that they'll need to dip into the retirement funds, well, there's nothing in that "account" so they'll just move it from elsewhere. To get money you can issue bonds, increase taxes or just print money. The problem with printing money is inflation (devaluation of the fiat (or paper only, like USD) currency). They more you print, the less a single unit is worth. So essentially inflation caused by money printing is exactly the same as a flat tax.. Right now the inflation in the US could be lowered by slowing down of the money printing. *But* US can't do that because they have to pay for the deficits. So instead of increasing taxes, they just print money. The result is exactly the same (less purchasing power for people), but when you increase taxes the politicians get blamed, but when they print money the "economy" gets blamed. Another problem with printing money is that countries that hold huge amount of USD will start to see their stockpile decrease in value. So they will start to spend. And this will drive inflation in the US.

The US economy may be nearing a tipping point where the USD will be devalued by as much as 50%. For example, USD lost 30% with respect to CND (Canadian $) in the last 2 or 3 years. It used to be 1.6 CND/USD, but now it is 1.12 CND/USD. If a US person got a CND savings account that got them NO return at all (0% interest rate) they would have gained 43% in 2-3 years. An investment of 100,000 USD to canadian currency would result in 160,000 CND. Today, 160,000 CND is worth about 143,000 USD. This is all because of devaluation of USD due to US trade deficit. And the US trade deficit is NOT yet accounted for because China and Japan hold over 1 trillion USD!! They spend that, and USD is devalued further.

The GP probably described the tax system as best as one possibly can. You are just a little ignorant that the value of fiat currencies is arbitrary.

PS. Gov't does actually need to *print* money. They just punch in a number and that's how much money is lend out. It only takes a fraction of a second to create another billion and thereby decrease the value of current money.

not to burst your bubble , but yeah...

Nobody cares how many men are becoming ... nurses.

My point was that the presence of the bacterium is not the cause of ulcers, but simply an effect, a symptom indicative of some deeper problem. "The fact that treatment now is becoming more and more ineffective" simply indicates that the treatment does not address the cause.

From the fine article: The alarming statistic that nearly 60 per cent of patients remain hypertensive, even though they are taking drugs to alleviate the condition, emphasises the urgency of looking for new mechanisms by which the body controls blood pressure, and finding new therapeutic targets to drive fresh drug development. (emphasis added)

While the connection between this protein and hypertension might be interesting, it is mostly irrelevant to successful treatment of the condition. Teach a person with high blood pressure how to fully relax their body, take care of the acid/base imbalance, perhaps address other nutritional deficiencies [Omega 3 intake?] and functional problems, and the need for constant dosages of antihypertensive drugs of any sort will usually go away. But such an approach can't be patented and sold in a bottle, so society's health is compromised to protect the profits of our medical-industrial complex.

Achieving good health is simple; the medical system we have today makes staying/becoming vibrantly healthy difficult, because it can't see the forest for the trees.

...because there was no fire.

Correction

FTL: The plane's high-octane fuel exploded, hurtling flames down the side of the building and inside through hallways and stairwells all the way down to the 75th floor.

http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/thepoliticalsystem/a /foxbush.htm

According to http://inventors.about.com/od/wstartinventions/a/W alkman.htm: "By 1995, total production of Walkman units reached 150 million." That's from 1979-1995. From 2001-2007, just over the same time frame, Apple has sold double. That's pretty impressive, considering the incredibly popular nature of the Walkmen. I think I've only now just got what a phenomenon iPods have proven to be.

Gotcha... I can't say whether they were truly guilty of anything, either. Sometimes in the free software world, we find developers caving to corporations' demands thanks to those corporations' well-funded legal departments (thankfully, the EFF can sometimes help fight back when it's cases of just plain bullying), which is very unfortunate. They could have maybe trademarked GAIM from the start (I *think* that's okay under some open source licenses, as long as it's done properly)... I just think it's unfortunate that they gave in to AOL's wishes when they might not have had to.

My understanding of trademark law is that whoever registers a trademark gets to own it, even if someone else was using the name first, with the exception of the original user being very well-known and taking action against the trademark-filer as soon as possible (if they don't fight the party which was granted the trademark immediately, I believe this effectively forfeits their right to do so); after someone trademarks something, they are required to notify anyone else in their market with an identical or nearly-identical name that the name infringes on the trademark. I'm not sure to what extent the trademark owner has to legally pursue other parties with an infringing name. (For example, if Xerox took offense to a photocopier named SIRex ('simply, instantaneous, reproduxion'), is Xerox obligated to file suit, send a C&D letter, or just notify me that they have a trademark for a similar product and that I should tread carefully? If my product advertisements say "SIRex is not affiliated and Xerox, and SIRex machines are not produced by Xerox," would Xerox be okay enough with that?) a useful FAQ from the USPTO and FAQ about filing trademarks

As of 2003, there were 52 million school age children in the US (http://usgovinfo.about.com/cs/censusstatistic/a/l atestpopcounts.htm).

As of the end of 2006, there were 42 million iPods sold (http://reviews.cnet.com/4531-10921_7-6416165.html )

It strikes me that a large percentage of the Michigan school kids probably already have iPods.

These former record holders in the US achieved ~110 mpg in a Prius.
http://hybridcars.about.com/od/news/a/100mpgrecord .htm
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05220/550484.stm

One of them achieves 59 (US) mpg in a non-hybrid 2005 Honda Accord by adopting crazy hypermiling techniques. See http://hybridfest.com/MotherJones.htm.

but Monopoly should never take days,

You're right. But everytime I've played it, it has; or at least would have it we played it to the bitter end, which we almost never did. Monopoly is boring after everything is bought.

After an hour or two of Monopoly the board should be full of houses.

And you know. After playing the same game for 2 hours. Most players are bored with it.

Or unless people are refusing to trade cards so that nobody can form a complete colour group and build houses, in which case it's stalemate and you might as well call a draw.

That too is incredibly common.

You could, I suppose, invent a new game in which money did not ever leave the game and return to the Bank - perhaps you could put the money from fines and fees and so forth into some jackpot, and designate a square such that anybody landing there would collect all the wealth accumulated there - but that game would last forever, become incredibly frustrating once everybody had so much money that they didn't care about landing on Mayfair, and would basically not be Monopoly.

You know what? People do do that! It's a house rule. They money goes Free Parking.

The house rule I always played with to end the game quickly was the "game comes to an end a set number rounds after all the properties are bought." You calculate everyone's netvalue and you declare a winner.

B