You were trying to claim that people either can be in support of monopolies or that they cannot be in support of any monopoly. That is obviously a black and white situation and entirely untrue. And there are multiple reasons that there are monopolies on running wires through neighborhoods. The number one reason is safety. Do you realize that there used to be almost free reign in running electric wires in the US? Take a look at these photos of NYC. You can see thousands of wires all over the neighborhoods. It was dangerous and an eye sore. Having unlicensed and under insured Uber drivers is potentially harmful to unknowing and unsuspecting customers. This is the reason that taxi licensing exists. Are you proposing that we no longer require any sort of licensing for anyone to drive on the open roads? What is the justification for Uber to be allowed to run an unlicensed taxi service? If its okay for them to operate without licensing, can my 95 year old grandmother drive unlicensed through your neighborhood?

I agree with you. The US Political system is in shambles right now because everyone believes that it should be a two party system. They are two sides of the same coin.

Oh don't be so foolish. The world is NOT black and white, first of all. And I would be willing to bet that 90% of the Slashdotters on here would be HAPPY with a municipal monopoly on fiber lines in their streets. They would love the open competition that such a monopoly would allow. There are advantages to monopolies in some cases. Furthermore, there is no "taxi monopoly". I have yet to see a single city in the US or Europe that has only a single taxi/livery company. The fact that the city/county/state licenses those companies does NOT make it a monopoly.

I actually did find Apple Pay useful once. I went for a quick run to the store with my girlfriend and didn't bring my wallet, but happened to have my phone. Had I brought my wallet, however, I would have just used my card. It was handy to have a backup plan.

Long term use of these drugs do create a change in your biochemical system. Not a permanent change, but there are, in my opinion, two types of addictions: a chemical addiction and an emotional one. You are either trying to escape pain/stress, as you say, or your body stops producing the chemicals provided by the drug. You could have a procedure done to block the pain and would still have a hard time quitting long term opioid use.

I believe that the Geneva Convention (or some addendum to it) prohibits the use of hollow point ammunition in military rounds. That is why we use FMJ.

Florida has some pretty generous laws with regard to carrying and using a firearm for defensive purposes. To help balance that out, the laws are very strict with regard to actually using a firearm in a threatening manner. Since a BB gun often looks similar to firearms to the lay person, they fall under the same penalties.

Is this where Google+ got their Circles idea from? I wonder if Satan had filed a trademark on Circles in the US?

Retailers and banks are upgrading their terminals and cards respectively because of a new law that either took effect in January of 2015 or will in Jan of 2016 (I forget which). The law puts the responsibility of a fraudulent transaction on the head of the party with the least amount of security. If the card offers chip security and the retailer uses mag stripe, then the retailer is responsible for fraud. If the retailer has a chip terminal and the card only has a mag stripe, then the bank is responsible. Any mom and pop business that gets burned by this once will upgrade ASAP, I'm sure.

My guess is that one is a list of donations for the proceeding 12 months while the other is just for the 2015 calendar year. This would mean that he received almost no donations in the 2014 time period.

That, of course, depends entirely on what you are doing. I have a dSLR and a waterproof (33ft) camera. If I am hiking, snorkeling, or something like that, I would use the waterproof camera. If I want to do tricks that require manual control of the aperture, shutter speed, long distance shots, or very low light shots, I would use my dSLR. If I am just out and about living my life, I will use my phone. Just because you have not imagined a use that requires a real camera does not mean that those uses are non-existent.

I think in this case, the sheer scale of the crime would warrant a harsher sentence than your street corner pusher. The guy was helping many people sell product and then launder the proceeds back into currency they could actually use. I expect a general to face stiffer penalties for breaking the rules than a private. I'm not saying life in prison is necessarily called for, but he shouldn't get 3 years out in 1 kind of treatment.

Not to mention that this depends entirely on the person. If my math is correct, this article is suggesting than running faster than a an 8:45 mile can be dangerous to you. I'm a pretty big guy. I can run an 8:30 mile for 5 miles without becoming short of breath. If I were a foot shorter, perhaps that would be a very strenuous pace for me. I don't see how running that fast could be dangerous for me if I am running at the same number of strides per minute as someone who runs slower than me.

I lived in Venezuela during the military coup of 2002. The US embassy actually did make arrangements to potentially helicopter out US citizens if the situation got bad enough. So they do look out for US citizens abroad, when possible. I would call in twice a day to determine whether or not I was supposed to try and escape the country. And no, I was not a US Government employee there at the time.

The encryption chip prevents someone from duplicating your card, at least in theory. They could make a copy of your card using an ATM skimmer and then steal your PIN and you wouldn't even know that someone had access to your bank card.