This isn't "protectionism". This is moral meddling. The US wants the ability to control who gambles on what where. They don't have that ability with a foreign company. This isn't "protectionism". It's simply a reflection of the fact that in this area the US is "attempting to legislate morality".
For this explanation to work, we have to buy that someone really believes that betting on horse races and lotteries is more moral than betting on sports, poker, or roulette. And that's a pretty tough sell to anyone with an ounce of skepticism. Yes, they want to control who gambles on what where. But why? Because there's a lot of money in exercising this control. Oh, and there also temporary allies who want to prohibit all of it.
There's even a specific exception for gambling within a state:
(B) INTRASTATE TRANSACTIONS- The term `unlawful Internet gambling' does not include placing, receiving, or otherwise transmitting a bet or wager where-- `(i) the bet or wager is initiated and received or otherwise made exclusively within a single State;
Now you could fairly argue that the Feds don't have the authority to restrict commerce within a state. But they do seem to find their way around that when properly motivated. From the perspective of the offshore sites, the UIGEA explicitly forbids foreign competition. The US doesn't have uniform laws throughout the country and that's OK, but it doesn't really get the government off the hook here.
I think what we have here is moral meddling combined with specifically targeted protectionism through political influence bought with campaign contributions.
Besides, they make money on games sales and those need units sold, not profit made from hardware.
That's self-fulfilling. They could be making more money on hardware. They can't sell more than all of the Wii hardware that exists, so they could bump it up a bit and not miss out on software sales. I suspect that the market price isn't _much_ higher than retail, or else they'd be increasing the price with some subtle bundling.
The whole thing is completely warped. We have this whole system set up to handle this. It's called price. Nintendo and the retailers could charge a bit more and the problem goes away. But no, they can't just sell a product they want a marketing scheme.
It is hard to find the same in today's environment. You don't see a lot of 12-year-olds programming the computer any more. We have created a whole generation of "users" and I don't see an easy way to change that...
The generation before thought we were coddled because we didn't build our own hardware.
"Thimerosal is a preservative that has been used in some vaccines since the 1930's, when it was first introduced by Eli Lilly Company. It is 49.6% mercury by weight and is metabolized or degraded into ethylmercury and thiosalicylate."
"Methylmercury is a neurotoxin."
"As part of the FDAMA review, the FDA evaluated the amount of mercury an infant might receive in the form of ethylmercury from vaccines under the U.S. recommended childhood immunization schedule and compared these levels with existing guidelines for exposure to methylmercury, as there are no existing guidelines for ethylmercury, the metabolite of thimerosal. At the time of this review in 1999, the maximum cumulative exposure to mercury from vaccines in the recommended childhood immunization schedule was within acceptable limits for the methylmercury exposure guidelines set by FDA, ATSDR, and WHO. However, depending on the vaccine formulations used and the weight of the infant, some infants could have been exposed to cumulative levels of mercury during the first six months of life that exceeded EPA recommended guidelines for safe intake of methylmercury."
They think ethylmercury is likely safer than methylmercury.
"Infants excreted significant amounts of mercury in stool after thimerosal exposure, thus removing mercury from their bodies."
"FDA is continuing its efforts toward reducing or removing thimerosal from all existing vaccines."
So, mercury is bad, but they think people are OK with this level of mercury exposure. They believe it's enough of a risk that removing mercury from vaccines is a good idea.
Given that, I don't think it's fair to paint the anti-vaccination crowd
They, more than likely, see it as a colossal waste of taxpayers money. Unlike, say..., sending millions of dollars in cash into a warzone with no accountability whatsoever.
I find this sort of logic tempting. But isn't it setting the bar a bit low if we say, "This activity is not as stupid as the war in Iraq. Therefore, let's do it."
Discussion forums are full of very helpful, very talented developers. When someone posts some code in one it's seen by many eyes... it's commented upon, criticised, improved and refactored into a neat package much in the same way as a popular open source project only on a smaller scale. Code from forums is often a very high quality, well tested, and well thought out solution... plus it can be very specfic to your precise needs if you ask the right questions to get the ball rolling.
Right. For instance, I borrowed some code from a forum awhile back. It helped me get promoted to team lead. I'm sure no one will notice.
In fact, according to Mr. Taubes, everything the medical profession advocates, in terms of eating and exercise, is at best a waste of time, and at worst, may actually be killing us. He says it isn't fat we should be worrying about, but instead carbohydrates, especially white flour and white sugar.
OK, who doesn't recommend whole grains and avoiding sweets for overweight people? The quacks are all over the place, but I think we know (and have known) that vegetables & whole grains are the way to go.
That's what happens when the judicial system is an adversarial system - the prosecutor feels that the defendant is his enemy, because his record is dependent on the percent of cases he closes with a conviction. At the same time there is little to no penalty for convictions that are later overturned, unless they happen to be VERY high profile cases. I am not saying that another system is better, but this problem is certainly inherent in the system.
I don't have the impression that the prosecutors knew the science was bad.
The average citizen doesn't know the difference between a billion and a trillion. The Pirahã with one, two, and many. We have 1 to a million and more money than we can imagine. I don't think we can conclude anything from the survey, except that people have no concept of how much money we're spending on the military.
If they did, they wouldn't elect the people they do. The shit politicians we elect are *obviously* shit politicians. Few try and say they're not going to do that, so they vote for the joke politicians: Ron Paul, Ross Perot, whoever.
'I don't think it's good for them, the violence, the obsession,' said Karen Kimball, 55, of Hale, Minn., another nonplayer who estimates her 17-year-old son plays 25 hours weekly. 'No longer is it, Let's go out and throw a football.'"
The kids and I play catch with the football. As soon as I stop watching, they're crashing into each other and dragging each other to the ground. That's the way football is actually played competitively. They see that and imitate it (without pads of course).
I understand what she's saying, but what an ironic choice of non-violent activity. I know I'm coming off like a weird hippy, by sometimes I see football games and think that we're not nearly as far separated from the Roman crowds watching the gladiators as we pretend.
Of course, then the question becomes, how do you regulate online gambling based in places like Antigua or Costa Rica? I think that's where the US has a legitimate beef concerning internationally-based online gambling, because there's no way to know whether US citizens are getting ripped off or not.
The government doesn't give a crap about that. If they allowed domestic online gaming, we'd find out how much the players value that oversight.
But, it seems most likely that the alien race isn't in competition with us for the same resources, due to our vast difference in time and/or space. I can certainly imagine someone on Earth sharing interesting information with the universe.
Slashdot Mirror
I screwed up my link.
UIGEA
For this explanation to work, we have to buy that someone really believes that betting on horse races and lotteries is more moral than betting on sports, poker, or roulette. And that's a pretty tough sell to anyone with an ounce of skepticism. Yes, they want to control who gambles on what where. But why? Because there's a lot of money in exercising this control. Oh, and there also temporary allies who want to prohibit all of it.
There's even a specific exception for gambling within a state:
Now you could fairly argue that the Feds don't have the authority to restrict commerce within a state. But they do seem to find their way around that when properly motivated. From the perspective of the offshore sites, the UIGEA explicitly forbids foreign competition. The US doesn't have uniform laws throughout the country and that's OK, but it doesn't really get the government off the hook here.
I think what we have here is moral meddling combined with specifically targeted protectionism through political influence bought with campaign contributions.
That's self-fulfilling. They could be making more money on hardware. They can't sell more than all of the Wii hardware that exists, so they could bump it up a bit and not miss out on software sales. I suspect that the market price isn't _much_ higher than retail, or else they'd be increasing the price with some subtle bundling.
Why the past tense? Is there any real reason they couldn't start charging more now? Not really.
The whole thing is completely warped. We have this whole system set up to handle this. It's called price. Nintendo and the retailers could charge a bit more and the problem goes away. But no, they can't just sell a product they want a marketing scheme.
My country for a mod point.
The generation before thought we were coddled because we didn't build our own hardware.
Given that, I don't think it's fair to paint the anti-vaccination crowd . . .
.broadly as fools.
. .
I'm reading the FDA's Article on Thimerosal and it's a little mixed.
"Thimerosal is a preservative that has been used in some vaccines since the 1930's, when it was first introduced by Eli Lilly Company. It is 49.6% mercury by weight and is metabolized or degraded into ethylmercury and thiosalicylate."
"Methylmercury is a neurotoxin."
"As part of the FDAMA review, the FDA evaluated the amount of mercury an infant might receive in the form of ethylmercury from vaccines under the U.S. recommended childhood immunization schedule and compared these levels with existing guidelines for exposure to methylmercury, as there are no existing guidelines for ethylmercury, the metabolite of thimerosal. At the time of this review in 1999, the maximum cumulative exposure to mercury from vaccines in the recommended childhood immunization schedule was within acceptable limits for the methylmercury exposure guidelines set by FDA, ATSDR, and WHO. However, depending on the vaccine formulations used and the weight of the infant, some infants could have been exposed to cumulative levels of mercury during the first six months of life that exceeded EPA recommended guidelines for safe intake of methylmercury."
They think ethylmercury is likely safer than methylmercury.
"Infants excreted significant amounts of mercury in stool after thimerosal exposure, thus removing mercury from their bodies."
"FDA is continuing its efforts toward reducing or removing thimerosal from all existing vaccines."
So, mercury is bad, but they think people are OK with this level of mercury exposure. They believe it's enough of a risk that removing mercury from vaccines is a good idea.
Given that, I don't think it's fair to paint the anti-vaccination crowd
I find this sort of logic tempting. But isn't it setting the bar a bit low if we say, "This activity is not as stupid as the war in Iraq. Therefore, let's do it."
Right. For instance, I borrowed some code from a forum awhile back. It helped me get promoted to team lead. I'm sure no one will notice.
Yeah! That'll really stick it to Vivendi!
He must have used some kind of phasing.
What do you like to eat?
OK, who doesn't recommend whole grains and avoiding sweets for overweight people? The quacks are all over the place, but I think we know (and have known) that vegetables & whole grains are the way to go.
I don't have the impression that the prosecutors knew the science was bad.
The average citizen doesn't know the difference between a billion and a trillion. The Pirahã with one, two, and many. We have 1 to a million and more money than we can imagine. I don't think we can conclude anything from the survey, except that people have no concept of how much money we're spending on the military.
I think after about 2 months I'd say, "Screw it, I'm sick of staring at this 'buffering' animation."
Why, in your view, is Ron Paul a joke?
If DX10 is valuable to the gamer, couldn't MS license it the game companies?
The kids and I play catch with the football. As soon as I stop watching, they're crashing into each other and dragging each other to the ground. That's the way football is actually played competitively. They see that and imitate it (without pads of course).
I understand what she's saying, but what an ironic choice of non-violent activity. I know I'm coming off like a weird hippy, by sometimes I see football games and think that we're not nearly as far separated from the Roman crowds watching the gladiators as we pretend.
Would they consider it cheating unless they use something more complex than a 2,3 Turing Machine?
The government doesn't give a crap about that. If they allowed domestic online gaming, we'd find out how much the players value that oversight.
I think the parent is an insightful post.
But, it seems most likely that the alien race isn't in competition with us for the same resources, due to our vast difference in time and/or space. I can certainly imagine someone on Earth sharing interesting information with the universe.
Yeah, but but does it not run Linux?