Fixed that for you.

The human brain is a neural network that provides ample resources to ponder any concept one may choose to contemplate to a much higher degree than any other animal. Unless someone is claiming they are simultaneously contemplating more than 10% of all the concepts mankind can possibly conceive of the entire universe, the notion that we can use 10% of our brains at once is actually a staggeringly high number.

Here's a figure that's much harder to explain: the human brain uses 20W of power at all times. Calculus exam - 20W. Epic sex with a supermodel - 20W. meditation - 20W. Fast asleep - 20W. It seems counter-evolutionary for the brain to not have a power-saving mode since it uses 20% of our average energy expenditure, but the same is true of all animals, except during hibernation.

Copyright infringement is not theft or plagiarism, it's tortuous interference. If you provide to people a copyrighted work when they could only otherwise get it legitimately by paying the copyright holder, you're on the hook for the copyright holder's losses. Just because you don't understand piracy doesn't mean you get to pretend it's ok.

I have the perfect analogy for this. I'm a sound engineer, and for mixing live shows on digital consoles I can save my mix parameters of a band onto a USB key and recall them onto a same-model digital board in a competing music venue. If I load the mix I was paid to prepare by venue A into the console at competing venue B, does venue A have the right to sue venue B?

The answer is this: if I charged venue B less because I'd already done the work paid for by venue A, then venue A could reasonably claim half the difference. So at best, Google owes Oracle half the cost Sun paid Mr Bloch specifically to write those precious 9 lines of code. Oracle should take the $150,000 and run before they're ordered to pay Google's legal bill, which is inevitable if they push this any farther.

Ok, the country with by far the most internet users is China, you want to give them a 22.5% interest in regulating the internet? Or instead, lets prioritize on a per capita basis, the country with the highest internet usage per capita is Greenland. They're the most vulnerable to regulation, so let's put them in charge. India has only 10% per capita online, but they're #3 for most users. The top G8 country per capita is Canada at #4.

You figure out a way to get big countries with low per capita usage and small countries with high per capita usage to agree on anything, and I bet the Nobel committee would come a-knocking. In the meantime, the country that ranks highest in combined number of users and per capita usage is the US. At least they're predictable. Next on that list are Japan and Germany. Eerie isn't it?

And for the record, I am not American.

I'm no chemophobe, I just want to not put any of these 12 harmful chemical groups on my skin or down my drain. Unfortunately they're in EVERY!! SINGLE!! mass produced skin lotion and shampoo.

(Had to upstage your exclamation point emphasis to show that even in the extreme it doesn't make words any more meaningful.)

BTW the most common artificial sweeteners (saccharin, aspartame) are not only far from organic, they were discovered in labs by accident, not even trying to work on anything edible. See, if a sweetener is organic, it's not artificial then is it?

I believe the term "takes one to know one" has never been more fitting.

But it's true, Macs are now plentiful enough to attract the attention of malware purveyors, and the fact that the target market is so unsuspecting must be making them salivate. It's certainly in M$'s best interests to make this known, and they're doing the Mac fanboi's a favor by putting them on alert.

And before someone sharp-shoots me on the apostrophe, it's acceptable to use one when otherwise the plural forms a misleading word. "Fanbois" looks French...

They'd be a perfect offense on a civilian crowd. Why wait for real terrorists to strike when you can just facilitate them or even just stage it yourself.

"This just in, terrorists have taken command of two flat-top SAR missile platforms and are raining missiles all over London. MI5 has been granted emergency powers to arrest and detain indefinitely without charge" etc.

I am not a tax attorney, but doesn't the US also have the highest tax write-offs for lobbying, political contributions, and other means of influencing the government? As usual, the rules benefit corporations with the means and willingness to manipulate the system. There's high taxes to preclude benevolent corporations from prospering, oil restrictions that only the most corrupt corporations can circumvent, FDA restrictions so costly only the most corrupt pharmaceutical corporations can afford, and don't get me started on the SEC, military contractors, or the health system. They're all exactly how the most corrupt corporations want them.

So would you rather US corporations dodged taxes, or essentially spent them to subvert the system against its citizens?

Here's my terms:

Terms Of Service notifications are completely meaningless from corporate entities with absolutely no substantial liability for violating them. Go piss up a rope.

So this is the new way of getting malware on our computers, corporate endorsement. Still see it for what it is.

Yeah, let's downplay the need for safety measures. What could go wrong? Whatever you do, don't employ the truly fail-safe measures that CANDU reactors have proven effective since the 60's. I mean, where's the fun in that?

Coming? The Great Hiatus has been upon us since May 23rd, 2001.

How does this solve the problem though? I've twice bought GPS units for my tour van and returned them at the end of the tour because they either had bad maps or didn't track accurately. If a DL scan was required to return them, I would refuse because it's absurd, and then never shop there again. Even if I allowed them to scan my DL just to get that one return, I still wouldn't shop there again, certainly not for the 90 day period. Either way, they lose business, their volume-purchasing discount drops, their overhead remains unchanged, so prices will go up, not down.

While I can appreciate that you don't want to be penalized for other people's abuse, this is nowhere near a cure. It is an extremely arrogant security theater clusterfuck resulting only in a collection of DL scans to be targeted by identity thieves. How can anyone seriously trust Best Buy for its security or trustworthiness of their staff with this. Another laugh meter broken.

It's even cheaper if you get a grease cleaning system using a Dieselcraft centrifuge. For roughly $1000 you can collect and clean waste vegetable oil for use in an unmodified diesel vehicle costing only pennies per tank in hydro and using absolutely no chemicals apart from cleaning the rig, which can be standard dish soap.

The down side is that small diesel cars are all imports, so you're paying a diesel tax and an import tax if you ever need engine repair ($150/hr and up). Volkswagen and Mercedes both use proprietary bolts for example. Since the grease is so cheap to process, you can just get a larger vehicle, but then you're processing more grease to run it and creating more pollution etc.