There are no laws against drunk driving anymore. There are laws about not being able to potentially operate a vehicle if a machine determines you have enough alcohol on your breath.
Yes, and rightly so. It protects you as a driver against corrupt cops who misuse a field sobriety test to get convictions of anyone who looks the wrong way at them.
It protects you from dangerous drunk drivers with good lawyers who can cast doubt on the police officers veracity or character.
However arbitrary the limit set by the machine is, it is a lot better than having no exact cutoff.
If you bothered to check what happened to the $4 billion, you would find out that they paid dividends and bought back stock. They didn't lose the money!
On the contrary, they didn't get anything real for that money, I'd call it a loss.
Let me spell it out for you (in case I didn't just miss the sarcasm):
The owners of MS ( commonly called "shareholders") do indeed get something out of dividends and share buybacks: In the first case they get cold hard cash, in the second case they get an increased ownership in the company (which means a bigger share of future dividends, or a better sale price, should they decide to sell their MS stock).
Batteries(95% efficient) * Electric Motor(95% efficient) = 90% efficient
ICE(20-25%) * Batteries(95% efficient) * Electric Motor(95% efficient) =
23% efficient
As long as most electricity is generated from fossil fuels, that calculation is slightly erroneous... With electricity generated from coal (as most of it is), the top line should read:
Coal plant(55% efficient) * AC power transmission(93% efficient) * Batteries(95% efficient) * Electric Motor(95% efficient) = about 50% efficient
Admittedly that is still better (and a lot more flexible on what you use as the power source), but the advantage is much less vast than you make it out...
But you have to think like a lawyer, and ask how somebody could exploit the law. With your very vague laws, a rich bigot with well-paid lawyers could easily set precedent to outlaw abortion for rape victims, or to punish attempted suicide etc etc.
Your second law could easily be used to jail copyright infringers... or those who aid and abet... etc etc...
The law has become very specific -- especially criminal law -- in order to remove these ambiguities.
Compare that to the support lifecycles of most linux distros and see who comes out ahead.
Alright. Windows: Pony up $199 for Vista now and Win7 next year, or pay for each separate XP hotfix.
Linux: Free upgrade to either a cutting-edge new distro or a year-old stable distro, free updates of each component from apache to KDE via the package manager of your choice (or you can pay for development of hotfixes as well if that floats your boat).
It may not be traditional economics, but there is an optimal price for every song that will make the most money. I don't have a formula to figure out what that might be[...[
It is traditional economics, and it is called the "single price monopoly pricing problem". Wikipedia has the formula and background info. Of course if they really want to properly gouge their consumers for all their worth, they'd also introduce some price discrimination...
A motorbike on which you don't get wet? It was called the BMW C1 - a nice idea that flopped for obvious reasons: More expensive, more gay and more sluggish than a scooter (just like the PUMA), and unlike a car it doesn't protect you against really bad weather (just like the PUMA).
Have you actually looked at those graphs that you posted? The Vostok graph actually shows that the CO2 concentration was fairy constant between 200 to 280 ppm, even on a 500,000 year scale. So it might be a slight pointer for worry that in less then 200 years, humans have managed to increase the concentration to way beyond that to almost 400 ppm!
(You might be right in the need for preparing for the worst, though.)
If your surgeon is trying to sell you a $32,000 surgery on your feet because of hyspotoxiomosis of the anterior legamoid deltamint, and you came in for a mole removal, you don't have to be a PHD to see he just wants to fund his next vacation.
Yes, some people (not you, presumably) would check out what a second surgeon is saying, and a third, and so on - because you cannot say for sure as a layman. And when 99% of surgeons (none of whom will perform the operation) agree, some people (not you, maybe) would actually pony up for the legamoid peppermint operation...
There's skepicism - and then there's sticking your head into the sand... Given that so many of those "GW high priests" have tenure anyway (read: no risk of anti-consensus views) and would achieve global fame for disproving the GW "myth", your cynicism about their aims and your lack of cynicism about the anti-GW high priests and salesmen (who have vested interests that are way more obvious) is disingenuous.
The problem is that today in PA, the price of gas (this afternoon) is $1.83/gal x (1.4086 pound / $) x (gal / 3.7854 L) = 0.68 GPB / L (you have a 33% markup in taxes over our taxes!)
You have the exchange rate wrong - a dollar isn't worth 1.41 pounds (yet), it's the other way around. So your gas is $0.34/L, because in the UK, maybe 80% of gas prices consists of the tax (like in every European country).
You use the word "steal" a bit too enthusiastically, I think...
Most wikipedia articles contain "stolen" content from IMDB? (I guess you mean copyright infringement?) Tag it, remove it, kill it with fire... Wikipedia doesn't want illegal content. (And I am fairly certain that "most" articles are fine, contrary to what you say...)
Synopses breach the rights of creators? Don't make me laugh. It is now illegal to summarize the plot of a movie/TV series/book in your own words? CliffsNotes won't be happy to hear it...
Creating highly-visible and extensive articles about Wheedon's work (as opposed to creating these articles on a niche fansite) is encouraging people to "steal"? Again, your leap of logic is dizzying me...
4) [Eisenhower] was also the person ultimately responsible for the fact that the civilian population was rationed food at 800 calories per day whilst the occupying forces were getting 4500.
Do you have a reliable source for that? Not that I don't believe you, but my google search on this only turn up some far-right websites as sources....
"The U.S. corporate tax burden is smaller than average for developed countries.[1] Corporations in 19 of the member states of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development paid 16.1 percent of their profits in taxes between 2000 and 2005, on average, while corporations in the United States paid 13.4 percent."
... Most people use passwords. Some people use passphrases. Bruce Schneier uses an epic passpoem, detailing the life and works of seven mythical Norse heroes.
Simple: They won't distinguish between licensed and unlicensed, they will just throttle everything but HTTP(S), POP and IMAP traffic down to oblivion or outright filter any non-standard activity.
In fact, Carphone Warehouse (aka TalkTalk) is already doing that. I can get 200-400kB/s on http downloads, but only maybe 1-4kB/s on any traffic on non-standard ports (ssh or p2p etc).
And yes, of course it is just a method to clamp down on customers who actually use the bandwidth they paid for - the "piracy" argument is merely a very convenient justification for the ISPs.
So if I just take your car out of your driveway and joyride across town, then leave it at a gas station after refueling it, that's not theft? No, it is not theft, because there is no intent to permanently deprive me of the car. It is a form of criminal conversion, a lesser offense -- although in some areas joyriding is apparently defined as pretty much equivalent to theft...
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There are no laws against drunk driving anymore. There are laws about not being able to potentially operate a vehicle if a machine determines you have enough alcohol on your breath.
Yes, and rightly so. It protects you as a driver against corrupt cops who misuse a field sobriety test to get convictions of anyone who looks the wrong way at them.
It protects you from dangerous drunk drivers with good lawyers who can cast doubt on the police officers veracity or character.
However arbitrary the limit set by the machine is, it is a lot better than having no exact cutoff.
Did anybody but the cops who tasered him hear him muttering that? Didn't think so.
If you bothered to check what happened to the $4 billion, you would find out that they paid dividends and bought back stock. They didn't lose the money!
On the contrary, they didn't get anything real for that money, I'd call it a loss.
Let me spell it out for you (in case I didn't just miss the sarcasm):
The owners of MS ( commonly called "shareholders") do indeed get something out of dividends and share buybacks: In the first case they get cold hard cash, in the second case they get an increased ownership in the company (which means a bigger share of future dividends, or a better sale price, should they decide to sell their MS stock).
Nope, it would still take you about 11 and a half hours - its 50 MegaBITS and 250 GigaBYTES...
Students and children would pay slightly less, but normal people who can afford it would pay a whole lot more...
Batteries(95% efficient) * Electric Motor(95% efficient) = 90% efficient ICE(20-25%) * Batteries(95% efficient) * Electric Motor(95% efficient) = 23% efficient
As long as most electricity is generated from fossil fuels, that calculation is slightly erroneous... With electricity generated from coal (as most of it is), the top line should read:
Coal plant(55% efficient) * AC power transmission(93% efficient) * Batteries(95% efficient) * Electric Motor(95% efficient) = about 50% efficient
Admittedly that is still better (and a lot more flexible on what you use as the power source), but the advantage is much less vast than you make it out...
THOU SHALT NOT KILL. THOU SHALT NOT STEAL.
But you have to think like a lawyer, and ask how somebody could exploit the law. With your very vague laws, a rich bigot with well-paid lawyers could easily set precedent to outlaw abortion for rape victims, or to punish attempted suicide etc etc.
Your second law could easily be used to jail copyright infringers... or those who aid and abet... etc etc... The law has become very specific -- especially criminal law -- in order to remove these ambiguities.
Compare that to the support lifecycles of most linux distros and see who comes out ahead.
Alright. Windows: Pony up $199 for Vista now and Win7 next year, or pay for each separate XP hotfix.
Linux: Free upgrade to either a cutting-edge new distro or a year-old stable distro, free updates of each component from apache to KDE via the package manager of your choice (or you can pay for development of hotfixes as well if that floats your boat).
I think it is pretty clear who comes out ahead.
It may not be traditional economics, but there is an optimal price for every song that will make the most money. I don't have a formula to figure out what that might be[...[
It is traditional economics, and it is called the "single price monopoly pricing problem". Wikipedia has the formula and background info. Of course if they really want to properly gouge their consumers for all their worth, they'd also introduce some price discrimination...
A motorbike on which you don't get wet? It was called the BMW C1 - a nice idea that flopped for obvious reasons: More expensive, more gay and more sluggish than a scooter (just like the PUMA), and unlike a car it doesn't protect you against really bad weather (just like the PUMA).
Have you actually looked at those graphs that you posted? The Vostok graph actually shows that the CO2 concentration was fairy constant between 200 to 280 ppm, even on a 500,000 year scale. So it might be a slight pointer for worry that in less then 200 years, humans have managed to increase the concentration to way beyond that to almost 400 ppm! (You might be right in the need for preparing for the worst, though.)
If your surgeon is trying to sell you a $32,000 surgery on your feet because of hyspotoxiomosis of the anterior legamoid deltamint, and you came in for a mole removal, you don't have to be a PHD to see he just wants to fund his next vacation.
Yes, some people (not you, presumably) would check out what a second surgeon is saying, and a third, and so on - because you cannot say for sure as a layman. And when 99% of surgeons (none of whom will perform the operation) agree, some people (not you, maybe) would actually pony up for the legamoid peppermint operation...
There's skepicism - and then there's sticking your head into the sand... Given that so many of those "GW high priests" have tenure anyway (read: no risk of anti-consensus views) and would achieve global fame for disproving the GW "myth", your cynicism about their aims and your lack of cynicism about the anti-GW high priests and salesmen (who have vested interests that are way more obvious) is disingenuous.
This is why the German autobahn is safe (I believe it's more safe than American interstates, but I can't find a source to back that claim up).
Wikipedia has the data, sourced from the International Road Traffic and Accident Database.
[citation needed]
Seriously, point me to a reputable source that describes who cherry-picks in the PISA/TIMSS tests!
The problem is that today in PA, the price of gas (this afternoon) is $1.83/gal x (1.4086 pound / $) x (gal / 3.7854 L) = 0.68 GPB / L (you have a 33% markup in taxes over our taxes!)
You have the exchange rate wrong - a dollar isn't worth 1.41 pounds (yet), it's the other way around. So your gas is $0.34/L, because in the UK, maybe 80% of gas prices consists of the tax (like in every European country).
Thanks!
4) [Eisenhower] was also the person ultimately responsible for the fact that the civilian population was rationed food at 800 calories per day whilst the occupying forces were getting 4500.
Do you have a reliable source for that? Not that I don't believe you, but my google search on this only turn up some far-right websites as sources....
"The U.S. corporate tax burden is smaller than average for developed countries.[1] Corporations in 19 of the member states of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development paid 16.1 percent of their profits in taxes between 2000 and 2005, on average, while corporations in the United States paid 13.4 percent."
Besides, it is on the Nobel website, equivalent to all the other prizes. If it's good enough for them...
So you might be technically right, but only in the pedant's sense.
... Most people use passwords. Some people use passphrases. Bruce Schneier uses an epic passpoem, detailing the life and works of seven mythical Norse heroes.
He presumably misspelt Norman Walsh, as in nwalsh.com.
[citation needed]
In fact, Carphone Warehouse (aka TalkTalk) is already doing that. I can get 200-400kB/s on http downloads, but only maybe 1-4kB/s on any traffic on non-standard ports (ssh or p2p etc).
And yes, of course it is just a method to clamp down on customers who actually use the bandwidth they paid for - the "piracy" argument is merely a very convenient justification for the ISPs.