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If 100% of eligible voters bothered to go vote,

What good would that be? They'd vote for the lizards anyway.

Except the pricing for actually printing books is awfully low, almost negligible. I believe it's less than 3 dollars for a standard hardback, and much less for paperbacks. So the main cost of physical books is in royalties to the author, publishing house costs (editing, marketing, etc), and then distribution and retailing. See the following: http://futurismic.com/2009/10/02/ebooks-cost-a-lot-of-money-to-make-will-no-one-explain-why-that-has-to-be-so/ .

eBooks actually make matters worse right now, because with each format, there is a new round of editing that needs to go on. There are many cases where the ebook costs the publisher significantly more for far less return. That said, there are some wonderful publishers doing good things with eBooks right now. OReilly and Pragmatic bookshelf are putting out good technical books in DRM free form for good prices. New, many of the ebooks are almost half the cost of the dead tree versions. It's these books that I find most useful. I travel, and it's very convenient to carry 3 technical books on my eReader and also have them search-able and accessible on my laptop than it is to carry 3 500+ page books.

Okay, i'll look like some troll already mods, but give me a second.

I just feel that this is just another promo ad that gets sent to tech sites from some publicists to get the title of the technology spread with their name on it.

this article, (06/29/2009)
Brain controlled wheelchair developed at University of South Florida (02/11/2009)
from European scientists, Brain Controlled Wheelchair (05/11/2008)
Ambient Tech creates brain controlled wheelchair (09/06/2007)
Brain controlled wheelchair from spanish inventor (01/29/2007)
University of Electro Communications in Japan develop brain controlled wheelchair (08/11/2006)

Yeah I'll stop. Mod me down. I just think it's odd that this stuff gets press like it's something brand new. Perhaps sell us by saying its much better? Something. Please.

...I just really hate how 'technology' has been used to God-ify everything so every instance of it inspires me to, like, be mean and stuff...

Then this article headline should drive you off your rocker...

I'd say the system of checks and balances is pretty much moot anymore, considering how much power the judicial system has gotten in the past 10 years. And not to mention private groups (hell, Mr. RIAA) getting nearly the power of a government body, when it comes to controlling citizens.

Well, that's two. Add in the obvious Executive overreach, and it's a hat trick. And the rest of us are on the losing team.

I'm tagging this one Mallory,

Want to read more free/cheap sci-fi and fantasy?

Strange Horizons - a weekly e-magazine, donation-supported.

Futurismic - a monthly e-magazine (focused on futuristic stories and articles about future technology), also donation-supported.

I've been reading both of these for a few months now, and the stories are great! I'm planning to donate in their fund drives, because I think the quality is superb.

Now that they've got that done, they can work on getting people to function on less sleep. I want to be a microsleeper.

Funny how the stock market crashed the day [19 oct 1987] before 5X5 Go is solved [20 oct 2002].


"Time Fractally" in a Push kind of way ... ?