This is a novel. That's about the only thing Jack Daniel's doesn't have a trademark on. Christmas lights and ukuleles, but not novels. JD has no case here, and should not be sending C&D letters to authors, no matter how nicely worded.
According to the USPTO, JD's trademarks are for:
Cigarette lighters not of precious metal
Non-metal key chains, non-metal key rings, wood boxes and chests, glass signs in the nature of furniture mirrors, tables, picture frames, desk top organizers, wooden bar stools, folding chairs and portable stadium seats, ceramic and glass bottle stoppers with cork, corkboards and bulletin boards; leather key fobs
Umbrellas, luggage, duffel bags, athletic bags, backpacks, luggage tags, key cases, knapsacks, tote bags and all purpose canvas carrying bags for use as luggage or in travel and sports
Posters, notepads, paper napkins, mounted and un-mounted photographs, paper coasters, calendars; pens, pencils and cases therefor; notice boards, namely, dry erase writing boards; postcards, banners made of paper, tablecloths of paper, paper placemats, desk pads and stationery-type padfolios
Belt buckles and clasps for clothing, all made of non-precious metal; ornamental novelty pins
Cloth banners and pennants, household towels, linens, bed blankets, table covers not of paper, textile placemats and textile wall hangings
Glass and plastic drinking containers, flasks, ceramic mugs, ceramic pitchers, ceramic jugs, wood coasters, cork coasters, ceramic coasters, swizzle sticks, bowls, household food and beverage containers, glassware for beverages, metal serving trays of non-precious metal, portable beverage dispensers, portable picnic coolers, wooden cutting boards, portable drink dispensers, plastic water bottles sold empty
Ornamental lapel pins, clocks, watches, cuff links, necklaces and bracelets
Lamps, barbecue grills, flash lights, pen lights, electric Christmas tree lights and electric lamps
Guitars, guitar picks, guitar straps, banjos, ukuleles, drum sticks, practice pads for drumming; stringed instrument accessories, namely, straps, strings and slide cords; instrument carrying bags and instrument cases
Mustard, coffee, cakes, candy and sauces
Decorative magnets, decorative switch plate covers, mouse and mouse pads, sunglasses, protective eyewear, headphones, musical instrument amplifiers and cell phone cases; guitareoke system, namely, player-operated guitar-shaped video game controllers for electronic video game machines
Adult collectible die-cast miniature scale model vehicles, balloons, games, playthings and sporting goods, namely, dart boards, dart sets consisting of dart flights and darts, pool cues, pool ball racks, pool balls, cue racks, parlor games comprised of wooden blocks, outdoor activity games in the nature of pitching bungs into galvanized buckets, baseball bats, golf putters, golf ball markers, golf balls, golf clubs, hand grips for golf clubs, golf bags; gaming equipment, namely, poker sets comprised of cards, chips and arm garter sold as a unit; metal golf towel clips; cornhole sets, namely, bean bag games, and Christmas tree ornaments
Floor mats; carpets and rugs; cloth wall coverings
You realize that doping goes way back before the pros were making millions, right? Also, payment rates have zero correlation to risk. If it did, coal miners would be making a whole lot more than their bosses, and programmers would make a whole lot less than janitors.
Athletes of all stripes push their bodies to the limits, whether they're doping or not. That's sort of the point. Anything less than "to the limits" is considered half-assing it. Of course, they used to have football coaches that wouldn't let their boys drink water on the sidelines, so maybe what "to the limits" means could use some refinement.
I don't know about you, but on the rare occasion that I bother to work out, if I don't ache the next day, I feel a little bit cheated.
But what about the invisible hand of the market. Won't someone step in and offer lower cost insurance and undercut the greedy companies? Or will we just wait for it to get so expensive that people start to want single payer?
Reminds me of the Invisible Hand Society. "There Ain't No Such Thing As Government Interference"
Effectively, people who don't go to church are already taxed. Economically speaking, getting a tax break for donating to a church is very similar to others having to pay a tax for not donating to a church. It's not 100% the same since there are some benefits to keeping your money or donating it as you see it, but it's definitely not as far-fetched as you're trying to make it sound.
As long as we keep putting idiots in office who have signed the Grover Norquist "no tax" pledge, we can expect a lot more of this type of word play. Expect a lot more fees, incentives, penalties, anti-bonuses. Whatever you want to call it. Economically a tax penalty for not doing something is the same as a tax break for doing it. Why they didn't just do it that way is beyond me. It's the same to my bottom line, and insignificant in the grand scheme of the federal budget.
People are so irrational; Republicans would have loved a tax break if they had insurance. But that just sounds dumb, right? "I know how to fix our healthcare problem, let's reward the people who already have health insurance!" Of course what the Democrats came up with doesn't make sense either. "I know! Lets punish the people who already can't afford insurance! People will love it!" Bunchafuckinidiots.
It's not just iPods. My father-in-law had a very reliable electric pencil sharpener from the 80s. The one gear that was plastic finally crapped out this year (while I was using it, of course). We found a replacement part on eBay for $10 plus shipping. But you can go to Office Depot and get one for $13, so what's the point? It was sad to have to chuck such a sturdy piece of kit.
It has had little to no effect on the Assad regime in Syria. That crazy bastard can murder an entire village and blame it on "foreigners." Youtube be damned.
If you think $850 a year will pay for retirement, you need a new retirement planner.
You do bring up an interesting point, though. Why are so many things based on a fixed percentage? Credit card companies should charge a nominal fee per transaction, not a percentage. Right? Is there some scalable cost associated with the transaction? I guess maybe insurance against fraud and default. Who knows.
Same deal for real estate agents. Why does a realtor get the same 3% regardless of how much the house is worth? Surely the effort that goes into selling a $90,000 in a declining part of town is actually more than the effort required to sell a $250,000 in a nice neighborhood. That house practically sells itself, but the other will be on the market for weeks.
Spec's (spirits and fine foods) offers a discount to those paying by cash. It's illegal in Texas to charge more for paying with credit card, but the courts have ruled that a discount for paying cash is something different. (That's the story I've heard, no citation) It would be interesting if enough stores started to do something similar. But most won't, because dealing with cash is approximately as costly as transaction fees levied by CC companies. I find it hard to believe, but that's the reason a friend in retail gave me.
It's the same reason I'm OK with seat belt laws. If I have to pay the bill for somebody (either directly for indigents, or indirectly by increased insurance premiums), he sure as hell should be trying not to smear himself all over the pavement. However, I think laws like this (or the soda ban) should be at the most local level possible.
The problem is that as insurance companies get larger and encompass multiple states, the "most local level possible" becomes the federal level. Although, I guess insurance companies already adjust premiums based on residency, so maybe it's not such a big deal. I would be curious to see if New Yorkers get a discount on their premiums if this ban goes into effect.
To me, it almost seems like this is a benefit of government funded healthcare. We're already footing the bill for idiots, via increased premiums. But the government can't say "we have to make this a law because it's costing us too much money." So now my life is more expensive because my representatives in congress can't make a ban (or at least a tax) on, I don't know, let's say parachuting. I would like to point out that my company actually charges a higher premium for smokers. That's a step in the right direction. Unfortunately, if we want those who pose the biggest risks to bear the brunt of insurance costs, it leads to a dystopian future where those with a familial disposition to cancer or heart disease will pay for it.
I don't know what the right answer is. But I do know that making it costly (or illegal) for people to do stupid or unhealthy things is a good idea.
Seems like the "Former President" so-and-so has fallen out of favor. Almost all media outlets just call them all President these days. I find it annoying, though. Regarding CNN, I think you are thinking of MSNBC. They were pretty slanted. CNN was too boring to be slanted.
I think you have totally missed the point. We don't know how useful a theory is until decades after its discovery. The technologists and engineers have to have time to shape it into something useful. In 1772, when LaGrange points were discovered, do you think anybody ever dreamed of having a satellite perched at one of them to warn us about solar storms? Of course not. It was pure theory, an interesting quirk in the solution to a purely mathematical function.
Quantum dynamics was purely theoretical physics just a few decades ago. Now we have microscopes and hard drives that depend on quantum effects to properly function. What about general and special relativity? Without them we wouldn't have GPS. It's all just "theoretical physics" right?
Who knows, maybe in 50 years we'll be using string theory on a daily basis to teleport to dimension X to mine trilithium for our ludicrous-speed drives. You don't know. Trying to classify theory and science as two different things is false dichotomy at its worst.
I love my Dish DVR, especially the fact that the REV is a smaller increment than the FWD. I tried to use my in-laws U-verse DVR the other day, and couldn't stand their skip ahead feature. I've noticed that the Cobert Report has a full 30 seconds of applause after the opening {whatever the TV equivalent of a splash screen is}.
The other good thing that button is for is all those damn shows where they say just before the commercial "coming up..." and then they give 15 seconds of the next part of the show. Then, they'll restart 15 seconds before where they left off. Just about any reality show fits this mold. Especially on the Food Network. They have about 25 minutes of material that they stretch into an hour. Which is ironic, because that means they leave more stuff on the cutting room floor to make time for the recaps.
Do you have call waiting? Doesn't that have the feature of leaving the call active for a certain amount of time? If so, these scammers would likely stay on the line hoping that your phone's strange behavior would lend credence to their tale.
Have you ever tried to do 3D printing? It will be quite some time before a RepRap will be able to produce the tight tolerances required for the soul-inspiring "snap" of Lego bricks. Even half of the no-name brand bricks can't get it right. Some of them can't even control tolerances enough to keep the bricks from falling apart or not be able to snap together in the first place. It costs a lot more money to make a 1.00 mm part than a 1.0 mm part.
When my 5 year old put his stickers from a set all over a box, I emailed Lego, and they sent me a new sticker sheet. I had offered to pay but they said, no charge. Same thing with a couple of parts that he lost. When my five-year-old scratches his Just Bieber CD... well I sure as hell don't try too hard to replace it. But if I did ever want to replace a big label CD, I doubt they would be accommodating.
Lego allows Peeron to keep scans of all the old instruction manuals online. Even though copyright hasn't technically expired, they realize that they're not likely to print old instructions. They're too busy printing new instructions. Compare that to the RIAA that sends C&D letters to lyrics websites, and tries to shut down guitar teachers from posting lessons online.
BrickLink, LugNet, etc. don't get harassed by Lego. As long as they don't use the name Lego in the website, pretty much anything goes. They have an interest in making sure the AFOL stay active. We go on to raise the next generation of Lego fans that way.:-)
Yeah... I had half a mind not to post it, or at least post it anon. The whole "too soon" thing. But then I figured, whatever method of demise awaits me, I hope somebody would get a good laugh out of it. Besides, the play on words was too priceless to pass up.
Off topic: I rented one of those puppies a few years back. Felt like I was driving around in a Nerf ball. The slightest gust of wind sent me swerving onto the road braille. Took it about a mile to get up to highway speeds.
Even more worryingly, I've noticed a lot of articles talking about new ad-skipping technologies (http://www.dishtvblog.com/dish-news/the-dish-hopper-adds-all-new-feature-auto-hop-that-will-allow-for-a-commercial-skipping-option/) and several people I know have been talking about how they always skip the ads. Which makes me think: gee, people don't want to pay for their entertainment and they're becoming more empowered and pushy about being able to skip the ads, too. I wonder how anyone is supposed to pay for the costs of creating stuff?
I don't know. Maybe by the monthly fees charged by the cable and satellite companies? Where does that money go, if not to the people creating stuff?
I guess product placement is a little harder for things like insurance (which seems to be 50% of the advertising these days). But yeah, I've always hated it when a character reaches for a box of "Flakes o'Corn" instead of Corn Flakes. The opposite is only obnoxious when they put a lampshade on it. "Gee, Wally, I just love these Kellog's brand Corn Flakes!" *facepalm*
There's definitely a balance that can be struck. Allowing the blue oval to be seen as the good guy drives up in his Ford SUV, OK. Having another character ask him how he likes getting 37 mpg, not OK. Even in non-fiction like Restaurant: Impossible it can get annoying. "Let's load all this stuff into the back of my Lexus. Good thing it has a hands-free back door opener!" Gaaa!
Remember, this was flying around for the sake of showing off a plane - a sightseeing tour that they wanted those on board to have a memorable impression of.
In Soviet Russia, terrain have memorable impression of YOU!!!
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This is a novel. That's about the only thing Jack Daniel's doesn't have a trademark on. Christmas lights and ukuleles, but not novels. JD has no case here, and should not be sending C&D letters to authors, no matter how nicely worded.
According to the USPTO, JD's trademarks are for:
You realize that doping goes way back before the pros were making millions, right? Also, payment rates have zero correlation to risk. If it did, coal miners would be making a whole lot more than their bosses, and programmers would make a whole lot less than janitors.
Athletes of all stripes push their bodies to the limits, whether they're doping or not. That's sort of the point. Anything less than "to the limits" is considered half-assing it. Of course, they used to have football coaches that wouldn't let their boys drink water on the sidelines, so maybe what "to the limits" means could use some refinement.
I don't know about you, but on the rare occasion that I bother to work out, if I don't ache the next day, I feel a little bit cheated.
You missed the point. There was an app where Romney misspelled America.
But what about the invisible hand of the market. Won't someone step in and offer lower cost insurance and undercut the greedy companies? Or will we just wait for it to get so expensive that people start to want single payer?
Reminds me of the Invisible Hand Society. "There Ain't No Such Thing As Government Interference"
Effectively, people who don't go to church are already taxed. Economically speaking, getting a tax break for donating to a church is very similar to others having to pay a tax for not donating to a church. It's not 100% the same since there are some benefits to keeping your money or donating it as you see it, but it's definitely not as far-fetched as you're trying to make it sound.
As long as we keep putting idiots in office who have signed the Grover Norquist "no tax" pledge, we can expect a lot more of this type of word play. Expect a lot more fees, incentives, penalties, anti-bonuses. Whatever you want to call it. Economically a tax penalty for not doing something is the same as a tax break for doing it. Why they didn't just do it that way is beyond me. It's the same to my bottom line, and insignificant in the grand scheme of the federal budget.
People are so irrational; Republicans would have loved a tax break if they had insurance. But that just sounds dumb, right? "I know how to fix our healthcare problem, let's reward the people who already have health insurance!" Of course what the Democrats came up with doesn't make sense either. "I know! Lets punish the people who already can't afford insurance! People will love it!" Bunchafuckinidiots.
It's not just iPods. My father-in-law had a very reliable electric pencil sharpener from the 80s. The one gear that was plastic finally crapped out this year (while I was using it, of course). We found a replacement part on eBay for $10 plus shipping. But you can go to Office Depot and get one for $13, so what's the point? It was sad to have to chuck such a sturdy piece of kit.
It has had little to no effect on the Assad regime in Syria. That crazy bastard can murder an entire village and blame it on "foreigners." Youtube be damned.
If you think $850 a year will pay for retirement, you need a new retirement planner.
You do bring up an interesting point, though. Why are so many things based on a fixed percentage? Credit card companies should charge a nominal fee per transaction, not a percentage. Right? Is there some scalable cost associated with the transaction? I guess maybe insurance against fraud and default. Who knows.
Same deal for real estate agents. Why does a realtor get the same 3% regardless of how much the house is worth? Surely the effort that goes into selling a $90,000 in a declining part of town is actually more than the effort required to sell a $250,000 in a nice neighborhood. That house practically sells itself, but the other will be on the market for weeks.
Spec's (spirits and fine foods) offers a discount to those paying by cash. It's illegal in Texas to charge more for paying with credit card, but the courts have ruled that a discount for paying cash is something different. (That's the story I've heard, no citation) It would be interesting if enough stores started to do something similar. But most won't, because dealing with cash is approximately as costly as transaction fees levied by CC companies. I find it hard to believe, but that's the reason a friend in retail gave me.
It's the same reason I'm OK with seat belt laws. If I have to pay the bill for somebody (either directly for indigents, or indirectly by increased insurance premiums), he sure as hell should be trying not to smear himself all over the pavement. However, I think laws like this (or the soda ban) should be at the most local level possible.
The problem is that as insurance companies get larger and encompass multiple states, the "most local level possible" becomes the federal level. Although, I guess insurance companies already adjust premiums based on residency, so maybe it's not such a big deal. I would be curious to see if New Yorkers get a discount on their premiums if this ban goes into effect.
To me, it almost seems like this is a benefit of government funded healthcare. We're already footing the bill for idiots, via increased premiums. But the government can't say "we have to make this a law because it's costing us too much money." So now my life is more expensive because my representatives in congress can't make a ban (or at least a tax) on, I don't know, let's say parachuting. I would like to point out that my company actually charges a higher premium for smokers. That's a step in the right direction. Unfortunately, if we want those who pose the biggest risks to bear the brunt of insurance costs, it leads to a dystopian future where those with a familial disposition to cancer or heart disease will pay for it.
I don't know what the right answer is. But I do know that making it costly (or illegal) for people to do stupid or unhealthy things is a good idea.
Seems like the "Former President" so-and-so has fallen out of favor. Almost all media outlets just call them all President these days. I find it annoying, though. Regarding CNN, I think you are thinking of MSNBC. They were pretty slanted. CNN was too boring to be slanted.
I think you have totally missed the point. We don't know how useful a theory is until decades after its discovery. The technologists and engineers have to have time to shape it into something useful. In 1772, when LaGrange points were discovered, do you think anybody ever dreamed of having a satellite perched at one of them to warn us about solar storms? Of course not. It was pure theory, an interesting quirk in the solution to a purely mathematical function.
Quantum dynamics was purely theoretical physics just a few decades ago. Now we have microscopes and hard drives that depend on quantum effects to properly function. What about general and special relativity? Without them we wouldn't have GPS. It's all just "theoretical physics" right?
Who knows, maybe in 50 years we'll be using string theory on a daily basis to teleport to dimension X to mine trilithium for our ludicrous-speed drives. You don't know. Trying to classify theory and science as two different things is false dichotomy at its worst.
I love my Dish DVR, especially the fact that the REV is a smaller increment than the FWD. I tried to use my in-laws U-verse DVR the other day, and couldn't stand their skip ahead feature. I've noticed that the Cobert Report has a full 30 seconds of applause after the opening {whatever the TV equivalent of a splash screen is}.
The other good thing that button is for is all those damn shows where they say just before the commercial "coming up..." and then they give 15 seconds of the next part of the show. Then, they'll restart 15 seconds before where they left off. Just about any reality show fits this mold. Especially on the Food Network. They have about 25 minutes of material that they stretch into an hour. Which is ironic, because that means they leave more stuff on the cutting room floor to make time for the recaps.
This went way off-topic. Sorry.
Do you have call waiting? Doesn't that have the feature of leaving the call active for a certain amount of time? If so, these scammers would likely stay on the line hoping that your phone's strange behavior would lend credence to their tale.
Here is why you're being irrational. There are already nano-particles in your ketchup.
Have you ever tried to do 3D printing? It will be quite some time before a RepRap will be able to produce the tight tolerances required for the soul-inspiring "snap" of Lego bricks. Even half of the no-name brand bricks can't get it right. Some of them can't even control tolerances enough to keep the bricks from falling apart or not be able to snap together in the first place. It costs a lot more money to make a 1.00 mm part than a 1.0 mm part.
My thoughts on why Lego is not like RIAA:
When my 5 year old put his stickers from a set all over a box, I emailed Lego, and they sent me a new sticker sheet. I had offered to pay but they said, no charge. Same thing with a couple of parts that he lost. When my five-year-old scratches his Just Bieber CD... well I sure as hell don't try too hard to replace it. But if I did ever want to replace a big label CD, I doubt they would be accommodating.
Lego allows Peeron to keep scans of all the old instruction manuals online. Even though copyright hasn't technically expired, they realize that they're not likely to print old instructions. They're too busy printing new instructions. Compare that to the RIAA that sends C&D letters to lyrics websites, and tries to shut down guitar teachers from posting lessons online.
BrickLink, LugNet, etc. don't get harassed by Lego. As long as they don't use the name Lego in the website, pretty much anything goes. They have an interest in making sure the AFOL stay active. We go on to raise the next generation of Lego fans that way. :-)
Yeah... I had half a mind not to post it, or at least post it anon. The whole "too soon" thing. But then I figured, whatever method of demise awaits me, I hope somebody would get a good laugh out of it. Besides, the play on words was too priceless to pass up.
Off topic: I rented one of those puppies a few years back. Felt like I was driving around in a Nerf ball. The slightest gust of wind sent me swerving onto the road braille. Took it about a mile to get up to highway speeds.
Even more worryingly, I've noticed a lot of articles talking about new ad-skipping technologies (http://www.dishtvblog.com/dish-news/the-dish-hopper-adds-all-new-feature-auto-hop-that-will-allow-for-a-commercial-skipping-option/) and several people I know have been talking about how they always skip the ads. Which makes me think: gee, people don't want to pay for their entertainment and they're becoming more empowered and pushy about being able to skip the ads, too. I wonder how anyone is supposed to pay for the costs of creating stuff?
I don't know. Maybe by the monthly fees charged by the cable and satellite companies? Where does that money go, if not to the people creating stuff?
Nothing quite the scale of Hoover dam of course...
Are you sure about that? Worldwide mega colony
I guess product placement is a little harder for things like insurance (which seems to be 50% of the advertising these days). But yeah, I've always hated it when a character reaches for a box of "Flakes o'Corn" instead of Corn Flakes. The opposite is only obnoxious when they put a lampshade on it. "Gee, Wally, I just love these Kellog's brand Corn Flakes!" *facepalm*
There's definitely a balance that can be struck. Allowing the blue oval to be seen as the good guy drives up in his Ford SUV, OK. Having another character ask him how he likes getting 37 mpg, not OK. Even in non-fiction like Restaurant: Impossible it can get annoying. "Let's load all this stuff into the back of my Lexus. Good thing it has a hands-free back door opener!" Gaaa!
Remember, this was flying around for the sake of showing off a plane - a sightseeing tour that they wanted those on board to have a memorable impression of.
In Soviet Russia, terrain have memorable impression of YOU!!!