I remember going to a dairy farm in South Africa (about 25 years ago) that used ostriches to guard the dairy cattle. An ostrich can disembowel you with a single kick, and they are mean.

Verizon received tax breaks from the New Jersey government of $2.1 billion in 1994, in exchange for a promise that every household in the state would have 45Mbps symmetrical fiber by 2015 (50% of them by 2004).

Verizon then donated heavily to the political powers of NJ, and was released from their promise with no penalty.

Who's the parasite again?

You're a Johnny-come-lately.

I remember connecting to bulletin boards with my 300 baud modem (circa 1988), and I could read the discussions as they came in. That's right, my reading speed was about the same as the transfer speed.

The modem used to overheat, and I would have to put it in the freezer for a while so I could use it again.

Japan is nowhere near able to feed itself. It produced under 40% of its caloric needs in 2011. It does produce all the rice it needs (thanks to ridiculously subsidized and protected farmers), but is the world's largest importer of corn.

I would also be surprised if it had any significant textile/clothing industry; everything now comes from other countries in Asia.

I suppose it's theoretically possible that vandals are risking arrest to remove -- and not break or damage -- a single antenna (out of the several on a cruiser), the one antenna that could embarrass or implicate officers in inappropriate/illegal behaviour, but it's ludicrous to suggest that it is likely or even probable.

I'm pretty sure that people who work in retail are basically on camera all the time, certainly when they in the public areas of the store. In private, of course they should not be monitored. Unless, perhaps, you count ankle monitors that some convicted felons wear as an alternative to being in prison.

If you were in England, you would be on some of the estimated 6 million surveillance cameras: 70,000 operated by the police, 300,000+ by schools, 13,000 by the London Tube, etc., and most of the rest private individuals and corporations.

Given the track record of police abuses in the U.S., and the dramatic [fall in complaints about police behaviour](http://www.policefoundation.org/content/body-worn-cameras-police-use-force), plus the usefulness of having on-the-spot video evidence against criminals, I would support mandatory cameras for all of them.

But there's a lot of really good stuff that your old books aren't covering, and so you may not be using. OOP in PHP, media queries in CSS (for responsive layouts). The old books can be good if used for occasional reference, but you need a lot of other sources too (kind of what the second half of your comment was saying).

I believe that the Kobo is an Android device, and can easily be rooted. So that may work.

Ummm, Erin Brockovich doesn't have a very good record as far as using real science to help people fight against polluters. Check http://www.quackwatch.org/01Qu..., for example.

Agreed I was working for Japanese companies (in Japan) for seven years, and it was soul-destroying.

I read that book a few months ago, and really enjoyed it (especially the early, near-future part). He's a very thoughtful writer.

Also note that in Japan CDs are still commonly $30-40, about 3x what they sell for in North America. You'd have to be stupid to willingly be gouged like that.

When I started going to concerts in about 1980, an arena show (Rush, Molly Hatchet and Nazareth were three bands that played at the arena near me) cost about $6-8 ($16-20 in today's money) per ticket. Nowadays, a typical show at the arena near me costs 3-5x as much, and big names 5-10x. Where is all the money going? Surely a tripling of the gate should compensate for a lot of lost recorded music sales.

GIB looks interesting, but the last release was more than two years ago.

For over a hundred years, people have been using the power of radio waves to generate enough electricity to operate a radio with earphones.