8% tax free return is pretty damn good. S&P 500 does not do 8% consistently, no way in hell.

And since it is solar power, it is also clearly stellar.

I was thinking more on the lines of:

http://xkcd.com/1200/

Well, most LCD refresh rates are 60fps (or a multiple thereof), so 57fps as an "average" means that you get 60 FPS, but 2% of the time skip a frame (or more). You don't need to have the best eyesight in the world to notice dropped frames..

More importantly, it allows a tiny group of people to rule over the country / world by force. Today (with super advanced weaponry and even with nuclear weapons), if a dictator or "really bad group of people" took over the any mostly homogenous society (ie. the US) for example, they wouldn't be able to maintain power because the military would simply not follow orders to kill other civilians. Nuclear weapons are overly blunt to control a population.

With fully autonomous robots, this becomes possible.

Do you know how little it costs to fully stock candy / snacks / soda? In my previous company, I volunteered to make sure that the kitchen in our startup was fully stocked and I basically ordered anything that people wanted that was available through Costco business delivery (never had to say no to anyone). It costed less than 500 dollars a month for 15 people. That is virtually nothing compared to salary and office rent, especially when you take into account taxes -- the fact that paying a salary is taxed while spending the money on stuff is deducted.

Yeah, full meals would be more expensive, but not supplying free premium drinks and snacks is just cutting costs in the wrong places.

Are you kidding me? As a skilled software engineer, it is much easier to get a work permit to nearly all developed western nations than in the U.S.

HBO probably already realizes that. But of course they are owned by Time Warner...

Only if it is a legitimate acceleration. Then, the car has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.

Obviously you don't know about the "Ballmer peak"

But everyone does buy at least once and sell at least once. Insider trading can hurt those people significantly if they happen right around when you buy or sell.

Actually, to be fair, that's not entirely true. This comes up often enough in households where one partner makes considerably more than the other. The one that makes less may be more inclined to stay home and take care of the kids / house full time rather than spend money on extra child care because of high taxes, even though they may enjoy their job and already have good quality time with the kids. Judging on a pure economic output basis, having the lower income partner work is favorable.

On the flip side, I totally agree that income taxes in the US are not progressive enough.

But it really doesn't make sense, for especially Intel. They are deathly afraid of ARM making them irrelevant in the post-PC world*. Why would they be so short sighted when cash isn't a problem for them.

* I can't believe I used that phrase. I feel dirty.

Apparently they open sourced it over Steve Job's dead body.

As the crowd you associate with gets older, they have more money, and thus pirate less.

I'm sure if you talk to a bunch of high schoolers, piracy becomes much more common.

Be careful what you wish for. While I think its the right way to go to unbundle channels, watch out for the unintended consequences. Less popular channels will be removed because they are not profitable. Think about what makes up for popular TV (in America at least). You may end up the choice of watching the Kardashians or Jersey Shore.