Let's see the first line of the summary is:

"Funded by the NSF, Rice University professors and students are bringing a prototype Wi-Fi system for free to Pecan Park in Houston."

"Free?" You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

I think OPM ("Other People's Money") is what you're looking for.

Maybe they should change their name to SuddenDisconnect?

I've got your reality right here. Well, strictly speaking, 584,000 of the 600,000 USPS workers are covered by the no-layoffs clause. Sue me.

From their labor union's blog:

http://labornotes.org/node/1947

(as far as I know, the layoffs they were fearing did not materialize)

And from the CATO institute:

http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/the-postal-services-union-problem

And then remove their union contract that states that they can never decrease their workforce, even if they don't need as many workers due to reduced volume.

Here's what I don't get: the Political Left tells us out of one side of their mouth that only the government can be the perfect master of fairness in the workplace, and out of the other side of their mouth they tell us that government workers need unions. At the most, one of these can be true. Some would argue that neither is true...

I actually took a "free trial" of the web site (hey, I like Jeremy Clarkson's columns), and there's a lot more to it than the paywall. They also did a complete site redesign, and it's hideous - I couldn't find a damned thing on the new site, and actually reading stories involved some bizarre CSS windowing. The entire site is basically a CSS version of "Flashturbation" (CSSturbation?) - a bunch of developers showing off how technically clever they are in the process of making a crap product.

That being said, £1 a week would be much too high, even if the site didn't suck sweaty rhino ass.... £1 pound a day is flat-out insane.

Am I the only one who grasped the dissonance between the words "comes into its own" and "$795 million in grants." Have we really stooped to the point where people have mentally redefined success and functionality as the ability to successfully lobby the government for cash?

You keep using those words. I do not think they mean what you think they mean.

They could have just not responded, and then later claimed it got stuck in their "spam" folder.

Stupid lawyers probably wouldn't get it anyway.

TI Extended Basic - you just flipped me into serious nostalgia mode.

I already paid once for my car. Those car companies want me to pay again every time I replace my car or buy an additional one. Even if I have two or three cars I still only drive one car at a time. Why should I have to pay more than once? Stupid, greedy car companies. The government should do something about this.

That's *exactly* what I was thinking. Nobody bothered watching it in theaters. The discs aren't selling well. They just want some buzz.

This actually hits on one of my personal bugaboos - scientists that claim to know something "definitively" while the research or hypothesis is still warm from the metaphorical oven. Unfortunately, the institutions that employ them have figured out that you can get funding through "science by press release" - the initial press release gets the headlines; the retractions are hardly noticed (except on Slashdot). The scientists themselves are certainly culpable as well for going along with this - they should know better. Only a small percentage of theories stand the test of time. Yes, I understand that it's 2010 and we all want answers right now, dammit, but 99.99% of the time life just doesn't work that way.

So anyway, "definitively" - You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

Pretty much. I have a fairly comprehensive cable package (not a big deal; I can afford it), but I'm getting ready to drop it anyway after many, many nights of "500 channels and nothing I want to watch." On-Demand helps a bit, but I'm thinking that Netflix or just buying DVD / BluRay makes more sense at this point. If I price out the programming that I actually "look forward to" I'm probably paying something like $20 / hour / month (with a massive pile of crap added on for "free").

There is some value to be had for the convenience and being able to participate in the social interaction geared around the current shows, but I'm not sure it's worth it. Offsetting that, not having 500 channels of crap will probably be life-enhancing (after a period of adjustment).

Let's put them in charge of health care.