From TFA:
“Nobody is required to pay an ETF,” Gerace said. “You always have the choice of buying a mobile phone at full price with no ETF. Or you can buy a device at a discount with a one- or two-year contract. If you stay with your contract, you don’t pay a fee at all.”

But what's the point, with a device Verizon classifies as a "smartphone?" They flat-out refuse to allow you to choose NOT to have a data plan, even if you have a phone with wi-fi capability and can't justify paying $30/mo. for a data plan you'll never use (I always have wi-fi available, unless I'm driving, in which case I'm not going on the internet with my phone).

I called and spoke in person to several Verizon reps, and they all told me that, even if I bought a device they classify as a smartphone independent of a contract, they will still automatically bill me for the $30/mo. data plan; they don't give you a choice.

One big difference is that if you're operating out of Washington state and have your business incorporated in Nevada, you're NOT operating in another COUNTRY. Sometimes -- as is the case in how states set up their tax laws -- each state is treated somewhat like a country. But they're all part of the U.S.A. This is not a trivial distinction; the "State vs. Federal" tangle is an integral part of US politics (see "Constitutional Convention," "Civil War," et. al.).

I'm not a fan of this idea, simply because just about every site I've seen that decides to enforce 'password security' also decides to do stupid crap like disallowing special characters. They won't allow a password such as 'rOf1m@0z' in favor of what they consider 'secure,' such as 'passWord123' -- blargh!

...and we usually shorten that to 'Winter' and 'Construction.'

Is it any surprise that, with such an article, I had to do a double-take to properly read "...inferior levels of maturation."

The point of a house shill isn't to generate revenue for the casino by passing on their winnings, it's to generate revenue for the casino by filling out the table. People don't get excited about sitting down at a poker table with one or two other people, in general, and the house shill props up the numbers so more people will play. Also, you're ignoring two important points: 1) The shill is staked by the casino, and casinos (ironically enough) don't like to gamble with their money, so it's fairly obvious that the shill's winnings aren't their main concern & 2) A shill good enough to consistently make money for the casino would just find someone else to stake them at a much lower % and then go off on their own (though in truth, lower percentages are quite common; being a shill is historically a great way to 'get your feet wet' in poker)

Yes, it's television, but the show Psych is actually a good example of this. Main character Shawn was trained by his detective father to pick up on subtle clues and make conclusions no one else could; but no one believes him, since he's such a slacker, until he attributes his conclusions to being psychic.

They tried, but couldn't find enough MySpace users who had graduated high school. All the Livejournal users were already done with college, and now putting their liberal arts degrees to use in retail. And unfortunately, they were unable to get a hold of either Orkut user in real life.

Ok, even if I don't agree, I can at least see the logic between "full movie dl's = less ticket sales." But this is a freaking action movie without completed special effects. Can you honestly tell me there are a significant number of people interested in seeing an action movie, minus special effects, who aren't also the fanboy-types who will see it in theatres?

First off, if he's posting about how much fun he's been having, he should have known better; more to the point, his lawyer should have warned him not to. When my mother was involved in a lawsuit many years ago, she was advised to do, basically, nothing. The problem is that not everyone is in a position where they can sit on the couch all day, and sometimes they must get up to do chores, even if it causes great pain. Unfortunately, when a PI takes video of a person doing various work (or even play; even people in pain have a psychological need to enjoy life at least a little), they tend to edit out the part where you quit every five minutes and break down, emotionally, in pain.

"You won't know if it's any good until you try it!"