Speaking as someone who drives from washington to boston on a semi-regular basis, I go to great pains to avoid "drive through Manhattan" and everyone else I know who does this feels the same way.... In general, though, if what you want is a car to drive from washington to boston, an electric car is not yet a smart choice. If what you want is a car to drive 10 miles (or even 50) to work every day and go grocery shopping . . . it could be a great choice.

I think the question wasn't "why should we want a new userspace console" it was "why not have both?"

I have been told by several people who would know, that at least prior to 9/11 this wasn't only a Good Idea, it was unofficial US government policy that was made quietly clear to senior leadership in physics and computer science departments throughout the country.

I disagree. Aleve brand Naproxin Sodium is not, of course, three times as effective as generic. It is, however, far more Aleve. You get what you pay for is, generally, true. But you need to be aware of what, exactly, you're paying for, and ask if YOU value it. Generally, the salesman lies about what, precisely, it is that you're paying for.

I have to believe that it would be essentially impossible to get any sort of credit if your business plan included moving large rocks towards earth . . . given that it can't even be vaguely possible to get insurance for that sort of downside risk.

The point of having an ambassador is to tell foreign countries when things impacting your nation in some fashion against your interests are doing so. The US has every right, and, to its citizens, an obligation, to 'lobby' the EU in its interests. The EU has every right to ignore it, too, of course.... if you're an EU citizen and disagree, don't complain to us, just lobby your own government even more powerfully. The US government doesn't begin to have the resources to outlobby a united EU populace.

I dunno, I had a cousin whose family raised a very nice steer. They named him and everything. Called him 'beef stew'.

Generally it includes some language about the use of vacation that it has to be scheduled in accordance with schedules and supervisor approval etc. which . . . complicates matters.

errr. Silicon valley is not in Los Angeles, Hollywood is. Hollywood's support for this bill makes sense, silicon valley's does not.

But we don't. If only we did, to some extent -- the treasury could use the funds. I might go so far as to grant that we've helped some nasty people stay in power for various reasons over the years, but we still, always, pay MARKET PRICE for oil. About the only thing we insist on is that people sell it to SOMEONE (which admittedly, does help keep market prices down SOMEWHAT, but its still ridiculously high compared to the cost in most of the countries in the middle east)

LBJ's great society welfare and social security reform/expansion were after the Civil Rights Act . . .

That said, the reason the 17th amendment PASSED is because state legislatures had gotten so infamously corrupt on the appointing of senators that most states had already moved to direct election based on popular protest movements ALREADY. And, even today, I would argue that state legislatures tend to be more (directly) corrupt than congress. (Congress is indirectly corrupt, of course). For exemplars, since MA was used as an example, I point out . . . the bulgers. If you want an example of why its a bad idea, just look at what blagoveich (sp?) nearly pulled off in Illinois...

Also, the 17th amendment has nothing to do with proportional representation, and nothing to do with the two party system.

I can't speak for the UK, but in the US they regularly hand out grants for programs to increase child interest in reading....

Which is a wonderful 'free' software perspective. But from a legal perspective, the GPL IS a EULA, because rather than "does not limit your rights etc." legally it "grants limited rights" (that is, unlimited rights for private use, specific conditions to distribute.) Those rights have to be granted unless the work is in the public domain, which GPLed works very specifically are not.

The secret is not, as you observed, the amount. But the precise terms. In basic, what Mozilla and google exchange is pretty well known, but the precise terms are I'm sure something they'd rather not confirm. (does google pay by the click, how much? by quota? etc. etc. etc. is all information that google's comptetitors (and, for that matter, other advertising partners) would like to know. Personally, I've always assumed that Google intentionally "overpaid" on the initial transaction to help out Mozilla -- which would make them even more insistent on keeping the precise terms quiet.