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Read the original here.

Reminds me of the story by Heinlein, All You Zombies.

There's a Heinlein story to this effect, All you zombies.

Not clear what point you're calling "mostly a myth" - that it was a property crime? or that it was a crime at all?

If the latter, as far as I can see, the Visigothic Code you've cited comes down squarely against rape, and in favor of punishing the "ravisher." If the former, I'd say that the wording used supports the notion that it was considered less "a crime against the woman," and more a "crime against chastity / crime against her family," for which restitution, corporal punishment, and even enslavement of the "ravisher" were justifiable - the beneficiaries of the restitution were not (primarily) the woman.

http://libro.uca.edu/vcode/vg3-3.pdf

For once, someone who isn't afraid to dump old idioms.

Just one quibble. When you say:

since time travel has never been done

... I'd like to point out that it's done all the time ... tomorrow you'll be in what today you consider the future.

Considered by many as the best sci-fi short story every written - and it's got time travel with a few twists.

You are unfairly excluding huge segments of the American population there and you better stop right away. Limiting a free university education to "anybody who is willing and able" would be slap in the face to many minorities. The minute you open up "free university education" they will be forced to admit those that are not willing and certainly not able. Barring them would be clear discrimination and illegal.

Of course, this would lead to university degrees in basket weaving and newspaper reading. Oh wait, we already have those - check http://www.uca.edu/divisions/academic/honors/pub/v ino/0203/vino21_4.1/newDegree.htm.

While it may not be open to all, at least the current system keeps most of the complete slackers out of the university program. The real problem is people that believe that everyone must have a university degree and be a "knowledge worker". The short answer is that not everyone is qualified to do such work and exporting all other jobs to China will eventually come back to bite us.

There is a record of an African slave in Hispaniola as early as 1502, brought by the Sevillian trader Juan de Córdoba.

The parent's link is helpful, but I found these to help after reading the above:

http://techreports.larc.nasa.gov/ltrs/PDF/conf-1 3- ispa-unal+dean.pdf
and
http://www.sbaer.uca.edu/research/2003/swdsi/Pap er s/011.pdf

These show a lot more in examples, and explain more of the math.

Copied from GROKLAW comment, with some spelling corrections only

SCOX = BRE-X

BRE-X if you remember was a struggling small town Canadian mining company.

Midland Walsh, one of the principals (founder?), was famous for suing a former employer and getting a settlement for an undisclosed sum.

BRE-X suddenly said they found these incredibly huge gold deposits in a mine in Indonesia.

BRE-X said they had their own secret teams of experts, whose identities they couldn't reveal, supporting their claims (assaying of core samples for gold).

Industry experts criticized the techniques for assaying which were unorthodox, didn't follow industry standard practises.

The company's reports (with incredible claims) were criticized by industry experts for the same reasons. The industry experts were ignored.

Despite this media and stock analysts preferred the company's version to that of the industry experts. Some analysts really pushed the stock hard.

As more and more discrepencies in the companies story came to light, the company produced a series of increasingly unsatisfactory explanations, which were debunked by industry experts too.

The stock prise rose and rose on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Massive relatively uncritical media coverage.

Insiders cashed out millions of stock. I think it was a tiny fraction of the total company, but still a lot of money to them.

Eventually it turned out the samples from the mine had been faked. All was revealed. The stock price crashed so badly in a single day that it broke the software for the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Links to BRE-X story:

Short summary: http://www.goodreports.net/bregoo.htm

Long version of story: http://www.sbaer.uca.edu/Research/1999/SRIBR/99sri 091.htm

The tech stuff: http://minerals.state.nv.us/programs/min_fraudami. htm#bre-x

Could this tin-foil hat theory be true?

For #1: Lots of people report difficulty (impossiblity) of buying SCO Linux IP licenses. They don't seem to be actively trying to actually sell their new product - or actively pursue their riches by litigation strategy.

For #2: So many secrets - the code gold, the code analysts, the Linux IP customer, etc

How to disprove: SCO to provide, or some enterprising reporter to find and properly verify any of the SCO secrets

• FACT: most Business startups fail.
• FACT: most successful business ventures make no profit for at least the first two years.

What makes you think Open source companies are any different? We should be shocked if any succeed given the number of market and institutional impediments they face.

It took at least two hundred years for the existing business model to develop. Expect it to take more than a few years for a new model to take hold. The inroads Open Source has mode so far are nothing short of phenomenal.

Even Microsoft is starting to see the writing on the wall. Software as a retail item is an all but dead model. that is why they are pushing for a service based model. That is why they see Open Source as such a threat. I've said it before and I'll say it again,"What happens when Open Source matches commercial quality and usability? What happens when software becomes a commodity?". My answer is that you have to sell the service. You will still need someone to install, maintain, customize and use the software. For most, the software is the tool. Like a hammer to build a house.

• FACT: most Business startups fail.
• FACT: most successful business ventures make no profit for at least the first two years.

What makes you think Open source companies are any different? We should be shocked if any succeed given the number of market and institutional impediments they face.

It took at least two hundred years for the existing business model to develop. Expect it to take more than a few years for a new model to take hold. The inroads Open Source has mode so far are nothing short of phenomenal.

Even Microsoft is starting to see the writing on the wall. Software as a retail item is an all but dead model. that is why they are pushing for a service based model. That is why they see Open Source as such a threat. I've said it before and I'll say it again,"What happens when Open Source matches commercial quality and usability? What happens when software becomes a commodity?". My answer is that you have to sell the service. You will still need someone to install, maintain, customize and use the software. For most, the software is the tool. Like a hammer to build a house.