This reminds me of a story I saw in Newscientist (http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg16622432.700-internet-exiles.html) a couple of years back about the Principality of Sealand (www.sealandgov.org).
Not belonging to any particular country, it's also not subject to any particular country's laws, including privacy laws.
I find it interesting that the found of PayPal is investing in a technology that would allow his company to circumvent any nations' Freedom of Information Act or Money Laundering Act.
Hell, he could take all your money and as long as Paypal's servers are on Sealand, there's squat you can do about it.
But that'd mean that the US already owns the entire moon, being the only nation to ever have set foot there (and even planted a flag).
They didn't say "I claim this island (trabant) in the name of blah." but with some careful editing of the historical footage, I'm sure that could be rectified;-)
We also get all the above you've mentioned (uncanny, how did you know that??) So yes, I concede your point that it's still a choice for people between eating healthily and unhealthily. I'm just saying that it's _easier_ to eat unhealthily when the junk food is just there ready for the taking. You're not crossing that mental hurdle of having to spend your money on something that you know is bad for you. You just walk past it and scoop up a pack of crisps...
That is in fact something that the makers of voting machines are considering, albeit not with punched cards.
The idea is this: you vote on the screen and the computer spits out a ballot that has your choice on it in human-readable form, as well as a barcode, that identifies your choice. Then, if you don't trust the result that the computer gives you, you can recount the ballots by using the barcode and if you don't trust that either, recount by hand from the human-readable format.
The only thing you need to get the electorate to do is check their paper ballot to ensure it's correct before they drop it in the ballot box.
(this is called a Voter Verifiable Paper Trail).
And what about Google then? Where I work we also have a free kitchen and it's just sooo tough to walk past the cans of coke calling out to you from their perfectly temperated racks.
I think that free kitchens/snack bars are like allowing programmers to turn up in shorts and flip-flops: to many it's an incentive to work there.
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This reminds me of a story I saw in Newscientist (http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg16622432.700-internet-exiles.html) a couple of years back about the Principality of Sealand (www.sealandgov.org). Not belonging to any particular country, it's also not subject to any particular country's laws, including privacy laws. I find it interesting that the found of PayPal is investing in a technology that would allow his company to circumvent any nations' Freedom of Information Act or Money Laundering Act. Hell, he could take all your money and as long as Paypal's servers are on Sealand, there's squat you can do about it.
But that'd mean that the US already owns the entire moon, being the only nation to ever have set foot there (and even planted a flag). They didn't say "I claim this island (trabant) in the name of blah." but with some careful editing of the historical footage, I'm sure that could be rectified ;-)
We also get all the above you've mentioned (uncanny, how did you know that??) So yes, I concede your point that it's still a choice for people between eating healthily and unhealthily. I'm just saying that it's _easier_ to eat unhealthily when the junk food is just there ready for the taking. You're not crossing that mental hurdle of having to spend your money on something that you know is bad for you. You just walk past it and scoop up a pack of crisps...
That is in fact something that the makers of voting machines are considering, albeit not with punched cards. The idea is this: you vote on the screen and the computer spits out a ballot that has your choice on it in human-readable form, as well as a barcode, that identifies your choice. Then, if you don't trust the result that the computer gives you, you can recount the ballots by using the barcode and if you don't trust that either, recount by hand from the human-readable format. The only thing you need to get the electorate to do is check their paper ballot to ensure it's correct before they drop it in the ballot box. (this is called a Voter Verifiable Paper Trail).
And what about Google then? Where I work we also have a free kitchen and it's just sooo tough to walk past the cans of coke calling out to you from their perfectly temperated racks. I think that free kitchens/snack bars are like allowing programmers to turn up in shorts and flip-flops: to many it's an incentive to work there.