It is fraud. But it was fraud that benefitted me without my fore-knowledge, so I did not report it.

(It was on a visa application for a trip I took through my college. The leader collected all our signatures, had the university notarize them all (!?!) and then submitted them to the appropriate embassy. I only found out about the notarization after I got the visa back with a copy of the notarized form...)

Right, because Notaries Public are always scrupulous, have high standards and ethics training, and never notarize documents signed outside of their presence.

I have signed documents and later found that someone had them notarized without my knowledge. Legal? No. Does it happen? Without a doubt.

It's going to be hilarious when the LonPen 15 is introduced...

This is a bit off-topic, but given the discussion about the Kindle, I thought it close enough.

The Google ad that was served to me was for...you guessed it! The Amazon Kindle.

I always think it's interesting how Google can pick up on key words and serve a proper ad, but it can't pick up that those key words are associated with other negative words. Is someone visiting a website about '$Product sucks' really interested in seeing an ad for $Product?

Do you suppose they could exclude such sites, but don't want to because of the loss of revenue it might be associated with? I wonder how much advertising revenue is generated by ads served to people who are expressly against a given product?

Anyone else wonder if, just a mere two thousand years from now, some future country will discover this and wonder what it is?

Just look at the Antikythera Machine.

Two quick amendments.

I agree with you--Chicago is corrupt. But Blagojevich was the State governor, not the City's. For that, you'd have to turn to Daley and his corrupt cronies (convictions pending). If you're going to point out the corruption present in my great state, please at least point at the right people. :)

Second, you're right about the assumption that people who aren't willing to pay for insurance aren't likely to pay a citation mailed to them. However, in Chicago, it is now possible for your car to get booted with two outstanding parking tickets. My assumption would be that these insurance citations would apply to that total. And since the Chicago Department of Revenue (yes, they don't even pretend it's for public safety...) can access outstanding tickets much more easily than they can insurance records, the probability of getting the Boot would be higher. Perhaps more people would pay.

2g1c

I highly recommend How to Ruin your Life by Ben Stein.

Excellent read and somewhat motivational. And, of course, it has Ben Stein's great wit throughout.

I can see how many people would be put off by EBM when all they really want is to 'feel better' or 'feel taken care of.' But seriously, aren't there people out there with more sense than that?

I, for one, would welcome being part of the process of deciding my own treatment in the way you describe here. I would hope there are others like me.

Seriously, where do you practice medicine, and are you accepting new patients?

Since it's already /.'ed, here's the Google Cache so you can at least read the text.

Seriously, nobody has suggested measuring time in terms of that bastion of measurements, the Library of Congress?

I know I was born precisely 1.23 LoC's ago.

The yellow cake is a lie...