It isn't just the calls...

Her discover card had fruadulant charges and her Amazon account had a social engineering attempt. She is so far beyond just phone calls.

To my lay eye (IANAL and all) this is enough to justify more than imminent threat but actual harm:

subsequent to the breach at St. Josephs, her Discover credit card was used to make a fraudulent purchase and that hackers had tried to infiltrate her Amazon.com account -- posing as her son. Also: telemarketers were using the stolen information. Peters claimed that, after the breach, she was besieged with calls and solicitations for medical products and services companies, with telemarketers asking to speak to her and with specific family members, whose contact information was part of the record stolen from St. Joseph's.

For this judge to say it is simply ignoring the actual harm done is mind blowing...

If American military developers are not allowed to sell theirs, someone else will.

This is the same as me saying, "If I don't kick you in the nuts someone else will." Does that make it justified?

You actually pay attention to "customer" rating???? You poor thing! And if I said there were unicorns in your living room you would go looking too right...

News flash!

Things posted to the internet aren't always true...

While it definitely should be a try it at your own risk situation, the reality is people will basically lie to the retailers face saying they did nothing and expect a refund/replacement.

That's fraud and they should be charged with such. A few cases of fraud going through and that shit will stop real fast.

A Libertarian like myself would point out, the government has no business banning drugs, because a free citizen ought to remain free to kill/harm himself in any fashion he chooses.

The problem with that line of thinking is when the drug user crosses the line into the rights of others like they so often do. When the drug user commits other crimes to get the drugs up to and including killing innocent people.

We have a great experiment in Colorado not just economically but socially. I have seen that the legalization of recreational pot they have a very large surplus in taxes but the figures on crime have not been widely published. I am most interested in the drugged driving stats.But I doubt they will separate that from the drunk driver stats.

There are 3 main types of schooling in America.

1. Public schools -- These are schools funded by public sources such as taxes and lottery earnings, etc.. They are often portrayed as crime ridden and failing in educating but this is often a function of the community they are in. Poorer communities tend to have poorer public education systems. It does have the advantage of socializing that other types of education lack (more on this later).

2. Charter / private schools -- These are schools that derive their funding from private sources such as tuition or through vouchers for poorer families. In the case of religious private schools, they also concentrate on their religious teachings as well as the standard curriculum. You find these in richer communities and they have the advantage over public schools because they can pick and choose whether the student will attend. Many see them as siphoning out the best students from the public school system and reducing the resources availible to public schools.

3. Home schooling -- This is where the student is taught at home for various reasons (some valid, some not) mostly for the reason of the perception that the previously mentioned types do not suit the needs or beliefs of the parents. The difficulty with home schooling is one of credentialing and certifying that the state approved requirements are being met. Home schooling requires a much higher degree of involvement on the part of the parents which often can't be the case due to the necessity of having both parents working to make ends meet. You do mostly see home schooling being done by parents who either have a high degree of distrust in the public forms of education or have a religious reason. Lastly, there are some areas that are remote or that have extreme weather conditions where home schooling is the norm. But these circumstances are fewer in the US because of the extensive network of public / private schools available and public funding of busing.

Personally, I think home schooling is a bad thing for kids since it doesn't teach them the proper socialization they will need as adults. It is often done for all the wrong reasons in all the wrong ways which can and often does hold the child back making things worse for that kid. And as the poster of this article has noted, it does tend to be the parents that can't let go of their offspring that want to keep them home all the time. This is unhealthy IMO. I personally believe that home schooling should be the choice of last resort since it does require a much higher degree of commitment from parents which often can't be met especially in poorer communities.

I think you've had too much Placebo...

"This is you brain.... This is your brain on Placebo... Any questions?"

it's global theft ring rakes in billions a week with no taxes...

And how is that different from Google, Facebook, Amazon, etc...? They make billions and haven't paid taxes in years either?

Apple is a public company. There are significant penalties for misrepresenting their financial situation.

Press release != financial statement. Many (read most) companies tend to overblow their own accomplishments in press releases while being more (not fully) conservative in their financial statements.

And If Chewbacca lives on Endor, you must acquit!

You're saying money changing hands impacts how often the accidents happen?

The short answer is yes. It is an economy of scale. Money changing hands means more passengers to be profitable. More passengers means more chances for accidents involving payouts. More payouts means more risk thus higher premiums.

Now to put it in the proper context:

The key word in this isn't insurance. It is commercial. Any time you have dealings with the general public there is an increased risk they will sue (some for just about any reason just to take the insurance for a ride).

You know... Google is your friend...

https://www.techdirt.com/artic...

It isn't so much that they got an obligation but they did get tax breaks as an incentive with no repercussions for going back on the deal.

A tax break==owed taxes not paid==taxpayers took up that slack. So yes, it was taxpayer funded in that sense.

On the other hands, those 'millions of Americans who are starving' they starve simply because they are too fucking lazy to work

Or they have a felony conviction for pot on their record and every job application asks if they have ever been convicted of a felony. The background check companies are allowed to do will reveal those that lied.

Let's face it, the system of denial because of legal issues is huge in the US which also happens to have the largest prison population in the world. Convicted felons, whether they served their time honorably or not, are denied a job, a home, the right to participate in our political system and in general to be considered "rehabilitated". In short, they are stigmatized from the first arrest for the rest of their lives.

At the risk of getting modded to oblivion, I consider Apple Pay the same as I consider Google Wallet. It is like broadband availability in that it will be predominately a big city thing. In rural areas like where I live I don't see it working. Hell, I saw my first Apple Pay commercial this holiday season and even the bigger stores such as Walmart in my area doesn't have the receivers for this. It simply requires too much involvement from too many entities to be feasible everywhere. First, the buyer has to have confidence in the tech and more importantly the security of that tech. We aren't there yet. Second, it requires the merchant to install the receivers which are costly and again, the trust that it will be secure has to be there. Lastly, it requires the cooperation of the bank to honor payment requests from the receivers.

Again, this may work in larger cities but in the vast majority of rural America I don't see it.