I disagree. I still believe a limit on the patent would make prescription drugs cheaper. Right now they are pretty much a monopoly and can sell for whatever they like. Maybe 5 years is too short. Maybe 7-10 years would be more like it.
I agree. Health care is much more important. Also, only the federal government probably has the resources to provide it to all citizens.
How to get it done though, well, let us see.
One, you can have patent reform. Have drug related medicinal patents expire after like five years. This would hypothetically lower the cost of prescription drugs.
Two, non-tax related laws. Require businesses to provide a basic health care to their employees if they employ over a certain number. Perhaps require all businesses having more than 150 employees to provide a basic health care plan. There'd be stuff like as to what needs to be covered, and what percentage the company has to cover (like 80% of the cost of a doctor's visit, etc.).
Three, a single payer health care plan or whatever it's called. Have people opt in to a federal health care plan, covering certain things, for like $300-400 per year. Children should be exempt though. I don't know how much health care the average person needs, but imagine if we set aside simply $300 billion per year. Modify how those EBT cards work. Allow clinics, hospitals, and pharmacies to get the EBT system. Allow people to simply slide their card deducting from a debit system to pay for their medical care. It's already done for foodstamps, so why not extend it to medical care, but for anyone opting into the system?
If I'm not mistaken, the court really messed up in Canada. That is definitely censorship.
Unless the poster of the hate speech can be proven that he or she has incited someone to perform a crime (i.e. encouraged), then I don't think there is anything that can be done about it.
What's wrong with simply banning the sale of games labeled for certain age groups to those not of those agre groups? Adults can play whatever they want. Adults can think for themselves.
I should have better explained it, and I should have added a few things too.
Yes, commercial copyright 50 years or to the death of the creator, whichever is longer. Also, options to renew it for commercial copyright.
When I said personal copyright at 10 years, here is what I meant. At the 10 year mark, someone could legally download/copy a piece of work without threat of lawsuit. They cannot sell it. They cannot use it for commercial uses (music in grocery stores for example) or profit (theatre). When I said this, I simply meant if someone downloads it off the net for free, or copies it from someone else's legally obtained disc, they can make personal copies all they want, period. The copyright owner would have had 10 years to make money off of it that way, now they don't. However, this is still different from commercial use, such as companies selling "Best of the 80s" type music, etc.
When I spoke of this, I was only referring to like media, such as t.v. shows, movies, music, etc. I wasn't referring to creative ideas such as Mickey Mouse, etc. That would be a seperate area altogether.
The logic is as follows. Why would someone bother paying $2 to download an episode which they can record for free off of their television? It's only a matter of time before it becomes easy to encode the recorded t.v. show onto their iPod. As soon as that happens, some organization or company is going to be threatened due to the loss of revenue and try changing the law.
Copyright laws are out of control it seems like. In my OPINION, the below would be just fine.
First of all, make media (such as music, movies, television, etc., not books or e-books) have commercial copyrights expire at 50 years, personal use copyrights expire at 10 years, and educational use copyright non-existant. - Commercial use as in making money off of it, like using it in a movie, selling it to someone, etc. Personal use should be self-explanatory. Maybe I should say home use. (Selling tickets to a home viewing would be illegal since it's commercial use, not personal/home use.) Educational use such as in doing research, I guess.
Fair use would be making personal copies for one's own use. Someone has already legally bought a copy, and regardless of what the license says, it should be legal, and isn't immoral, to make a copy for oneself. Maybe someone bought a new DVD. I think it's perfectly reasonable to make a back-up copy.
Someone giving a copy away to others should be a civil matter on both parties. Civil as in sueing for the price of the DVD plus legal costs among other things. Either way, it'd be way below that $250k fine or whatever.
Someone selling a copy should be a criminal matter.
450 megabyte download? Too bad I don't have a big enough hard drive to download that onto, but maybe I will if and when I get a second hard drive.
(Here's my attempt at some humour, so hopefully I don't get modded down if someone takes me seriously.) I wonder what that's going to be like on their servers. Posting a story like this on slashdot linking to a place where there's a 450 megabyte file.
That is kind of funny. The concept of people robbing restaurants for their vegetable oil instead of doing what they do now, just drive off after getting their gas at gas stations.
I mean more like developing a solar panel that will last more than 30 years while remaining efficiency. A solar panel that will deliver more than 0.5 kilowatt hours per 12 hour day.
I don't think it's an issue of the number of scientists, but rather how many do something so useful as to significantly change our society for the better.
If the federal government wants to increase our scientific advancements, it would be in their best interest to offer prizes for such things as solar panel efficiency, new energy devices, spaceship design (easy way to get to Mars if we had to), cure for certain diseases, etc.
(I don't know if they currently do prizes or not. I haven't read up on it.)
By prizes, I mean maybe a tax-free cash payout, no personal income taxes for the person for life, etc. Prizes that would guarantee security for the person for life.
Is the "X-Box Fat" the original controller the X-Box came with when they first came out? If so, let me comment.
I usually don't like controllers with the directional buttons on the left side (like the N64 controller, I had to hold it in a weird way), but I seemed to enjoy the comfort of the X-Box controller. Then again, I think my hands are pretty big anyways.
It would kind of bother me if a college were to require buying a laptop.
One problem would be the issue of financial aid, and whether the student can really afford it. Sure, if it was grant money, no problem, but if you're financial aid is using loan money, that has to be paid back with interest.
Another problem is the issue of multiple computers. What if the student already has a computer, specifically a desktop, that he or she is comfortable with?
I'd rather see the school loan out computers, but requiring a security deposit.
Slashdot Mirror
I disagree. I still believe a limit on the patent would make prescription drugs cheaper. Right now they are pretty much a monopoly and can sell for whatever they like. Maybe 5 years is too short. Maybe 7-10 years would be more like it.
I agree. Health care is much more important. Also, only the federal government probably has the resources to provide it to all citizens.
How to get it done though, well, let us see.
One, you can have patent reform. Have drug related medicinal patents expire after like five years. This would hypothetically lower the cost of prescription drugs.
Two, non-tax related laws. Require businesses to provide a basic health care to their employees if they employ over a certain number. Perhaps require all businesses having more than 150 employees to provide a basic health care plan. There'd be stuff like as to what needs to be covered, and what percentage the company has to cover (like 80% of the cost of a doctor's visit, etc.).
Three, a single payer health care plan or whatever it's called. Have people opt in to a federal health care plan, covering certain things, for like $300-400 per year. Children should be exempt though. I don't know how much health care the average person needs, but imagine if we set aside simply $300 billion per year. Modify how those EBT cards work. Allow clinics, hospitals, and pharmacies to get the EBT system. Allow people to simply slide their card deducting from a debit system to pay for their medical care. It's already done for foodstamps, so why not extend it to medical care, but for anyone opting into the system?
... notes The Outer Limits episode "In the Blood".
Maybe then we can tell how big God is. (Attempt at humour.)
If I'm not mistaken, the court really messed up in Canada. That is definitely censorship.
Unless the poster of the hate speech can be proven that he or she has incited someone to perform a crime (i.e. encouraged), then I don't think there is anything that can be done about it.
This is definitely censorship.
What's wrong with simply banning the sale of games labeled for certain age groups to those not of those agre groups? Adults can play whatever they want. Adults can think for themselves.
I should have better explained it, and I should have added a few things too.
Yes, commercial copyright 50 years or to the death of the creator, whichever is longer. Also, options to renew it for commercial copyright.
When I said personal copyright at 10 years, here is what I meant. At the 10 year mark, someone could legally download/copy a piece of work without threat of lawsuit. They cannot sell it. They cannot use it for commercial uses (music in grocery stores for example) or profit (theatre). When I said this, I simply meant if someone downloads it off the net for free, or copies it from someone else's legally obtained disc, they can make personal copies all they want, period. The copyright owner would have had 10 years to make money off of it that way, now they don't. However, this is still different from commercial use, such as companies selling "Best of the 80s" type music, etc.
When I spoke of this, I was only referring to like media, such as t.v. shows, movies, music, etc. I wasn't referring to creative ideas such as Mickey Mouse, etc. That would be a seperate area altogether.
The logic is as follows. Why would someone bother paying $2 to download an episode which they can record for free off of their television? It's only a matter of time before it becomes easy to encode the recorded t.v. show onto their iPod. As soon as that happens, some organization or company is going to be threatened due to the loss of revenue and try changing the law.
Copyright laws are out of control it seems like. In my OPINION, the below would be just fine.
First of all, make media (such as music, movies, television, etc., not books or e-books) have commercial copyrights expire at 50 years, personal use copyrights expire at 10 years, and educational use copyright non-existant.
-
Commercial use as in making money off of it, like using it in a movie, selling it to someone, etc.
Personal use should be self-explanatory. Maybe I should say home use. (Selling tickets to a home viewing would be illegal since it's commercial use, not personal/home use.)
Educational use such as in doing research, I guess.
Fair use would be making personal copies for one's own use. Someone has already legally bought a copy, and regardless of what the license says, it should be legal, and isn't immoral, to make a copy for oneself. Maybe someone bought a new DVD. I think it's perfectly reasonable to make a back-up copy.
Someone giving a copy away to others should be a civil matter on both parties. Civil as in sueing for the price of the DVD plus legal costs among other things. Either way, it'd be way below that $250k fine or whatever.
Someone selling a copy should be a criminal matter.
Isn't it currently considered fair use to record television shows off of one's t.v. set? How will this affect fair use laws?
So you don't consider a WiFi connection coming from someone's residential property to be personal property?
The difference between your comment and the story at hand is you mention community property, the story mentions personal property.
If city governments were to simply create free WiFi, and someday WiMax, then people piggybacking on other people's connections may become moot.
Are games with hidden malware comparable to trick or treat candy with poison or razor blades in them?
I didn't know it was as high as 5%, but that's one reason why I disable a lot of scripting by default and enable on a per site basis.
That's the size of the download.
450 megabyte download? Too bad I don't have a big enough hard drive to download that onto, but maybe I will if and when I get a second hard drive.
(Here's my attempt at some humour, so hopefully I don't get modded down if someone takes me seriously.) I wonder what that's going to be like on their servers. Posting a story like this on slashdot linking to a place where there's a 450 megabyte file.
That is kind of funny. The concept of people robbing restaurants for their vegetable oil instead of doing what they do now, just drive off after getting their gas at gas stations.
When I checked out an address for myself, zillow did the best, Google did the second best, and maps.live.com did the worst.
I've tried Google Maps looking at where I live. I prefer http://www.zillow.com/ which is tens of times better in resolution.
(This isn't an aim at advertising. It's just my opinion because I tried the rest.)
I mean more like developing a solar panel that will last more than 30 years while remaining efficiency. A solar panel that will deliver more than 0.5 kilowatt hours per 12 hour day.
You mean cheap, but not free, tuition to children of professors, as in any kind of teacher?
I don't think it's an issue of the number of scientists, but rather how many do something so useful as to significantly change our society for the better.
If the federal government wants to increase our scientific advancements, it would be in their best interest to offer prizes for such things as solar panel efficiency, new energy devices, spaceship design (easy way to get to Mars if we had to), cure for certain diseases, etc.
(I don't know if they currently do prizes or not. I haven't read up on it.)
By prizes, I mean maybe a tax-free cash payout, no personal income taxes for the person for life, etc. Prizes that would guarantee security for the person for life.
Is the "X-Box Fat" the original controller the X-Box came with when they first came out? If so, let me comment.
I usually don't like controllers with the directional buttons on the left side (like the N64 controller, I had to hold it in a weird way), but I seemed to enjoy the comfort of the X-Box controller. Then again, I think my hands are pretty big anyways.
It would kind of bother me if a college were to require buying a laptop.
One problem would be the issue of financial aid, and whether the student can really afford it. Sure, if it was grant money, no problem, but if you're financial aid is using loan money, that has to be paid back with interest.
Another problem is the issue of multiple computers. What if the student already has a computer, specifically a desktop, that he or she is comfortable with?
I'd rather see the school loan out computers, but requiring a security deposit.
The Houston police chief isn't an elected position, is it? If it's not, lucky for him. If it is, I'm sure he won't be chief next year.