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Comment Drug dealer business model (Score 5, Insightful) 124

The fine print on this announcement is that the patents are not really free. You have to apply and be accepted to the program (serious contenders need not apply?) and the royalty-free license period only goes to 2020. This is just enough time to develop and start producing something and then you can get hit with big royalty payments.
This is sucker bait.

Comment Re:Don't mess with my jetset lifestyle (Score 2) 232

Globalism hasn't worked out so well for the U.S. Corporations have transferred a lot of skilled manufacturing jobs to low wage countries with fewer pollution controls and then ship finished goods back to the U.S. (creating more pollution). The result has been that the well paying manufacturing jobs have disappeared and everybody is working at Walmart for minimum wage selling cheap shit from China.
Globalization increases pollution and lowers living standards in developed countries. In low wage countries, they have more pollution. Wealthy people just buy more cheap shit, creating more pollution.
The only comparative advantage corporations exploit is their ability to drive down wages and not pay for their pollution.

Comment Re: Don't mess with my jetset lifestyle (Score 1) 232

Why do you want to go to London?
Really, a lot of air travel is unnecessary... even a lot of "necessary" air travel is unnecessary.
If the price were higher to pay for the negative externalities of air travel, there would be a lot less unnecessary air travel.
If you have an economy built on pollution (i.e. Hawaii), maybe you need to think different.
OTOH, Elon Musk thinks electric airplanes are possible. They would have the potential to reduce pollution.

Comment Re:Can you say... (Score 1) 266

If you think that the medical industry exists only to make money, then the drug companies are rational.
All of your anger at the government is really anger at companies who have corrupted government. In the US, government works for corporations and rich people and has been completely corrupted (some people call this fascism).
The government created patents to help companies, not people.
Get rid of patents... problem solved... no more evil drug companies.

Comment Re:I suppose this is a good thing... (Score 4, Interesting) 87

Most hydrogen comes from natural gas (with lousy conversion efficiency. If you get your hydrogen from electricity, it has even worse efficiency. It uses about four times the electricity to make hydrogen and then convert it back to electricity in your "fool cell" vehicle as just putting the electricity in your vehicle and bypassing the whole hydrogen part.
Plus, electricity is everywhere, literally everywhere. Anyone can just plug in at home and work, etc. With hydrogen, you have only ten places to refuel in California... not going very far.

Comment Bring back the 60s (Score 1) 68

Looks like they are using hand me down software from the US from the 1960s written in a language called Jovial.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new...
"Prof Thomas said the NAS system was written using a now defunct computer language called Jovial, meaning Nats has to train programmers in Jovial just to maintain the antiquated software."

Submission + - Darwin Awards study says men are far more idiotic than women (cnet.com)

mspohr writes: In a study published in the British Medical Journal (http://www.bmj.com/content/349/bmj.g7094) and reported by CNet (and others): "Scientists analyze the past 10 years of silly, avoidable deaths and find that almost 90 percent of the "protagonists" in these scenarios were male." "According to “male idiot theory” (MIT) many of the differences in risk seeking behaviour, emergency department admissions, and mortality may be explained by the observation that men are idiots and idiots do stupid things." The BMJ Abstract: "Sex differences in risk seeking behaviour, emergency hospital admissions, and mortality are well documented. However, little is known about sex differences in idiotic risk taking behaviour. This paper reviews the data on winners of the Darwin Award over a 20 year period (1995-2014). Winners of the Darwin Award must eliminate themselves from the gene pool in such an idiotic manner that their action ensures one less idiot will survive. This paper reports a marked sex difference in Darwin Award winners: males are significantly more likely to receive the award than females (P0.0001). We discuss some of the reasons for this difference." Yes, please discuss...

Submission + - Fury at Airbus after it hints the A380 may be mothballed (independent.co.uk) 1

schwit1 writes: Airbus plunged deeper into crisis yesterday as customers reacted with fury to its suggestion that it may stop producing the fabled A380 super-jumbo in 2018 because of poor sales. The prospect of the European plane-maker, which employs thousands of workers in the UK, mothballing the giant passenger airliner sent shockwaves through the aviation industry yesterday and triggered a major fall in the company’s share price.

Sales of the A380 have been sluggish because of a limit to the number of routes where a 500-seater is needed. No airline has ordered A380s at all this year, while in July, the Japanese carrier Skymark Airlines cancelled the six it had ordered.

Chief financial officer Harald Wilhelm started the speculation frenzy when reports emerged that he had told investors Airbus might have to discontinue the plane unless it can invest in improvements to make it more attractive to customers. Although analysts and rivals have suggested it for some time, it was the first time the manufacturer had talked publicly about the humiliating possibility.

He said the A380 manufacturing programme would break even next year but not into 2018 without new engine types. That decision on the engine has to be made soon, because it would normally take about four years – and $2bn – to develop.

Comment Re:Unlicensed taxi broker (Score 1) 280

"If four members of Seal team 6 decide to save a few bucks, risking the chance that the driver is going to attack the four of them, then they should have that choice."
"Even those four members of Seal team 6 are exposed for the taximan to give them the "tourist sightseeing" which makes a 20 buck trip into a 200 one."

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This is what usually happens to me when I take a "well-regulated" taxi (in many cities in many parts of the world... I can follow the route on Google maps and calculate just how badly I am being screwed.)

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