From what I recall, whilst scanning for CRTs was technically feasible, simply parking an empty van with "TV licensing detector" written on the side was the a far easier and cheaper method.

I would have thought sticky would be a more apt adjective. Each to their own I suppose.

What is the rationale behind "seatbelt laws are wrong"? I suppose I've grown up with seatbelt laws so I don't think about them, other than the fact that they're not there to protect just you, they're also there to protect the people you're sharing the car with.

In the UK, most (if not all) coaches have seatbelts. The announcement on my local service into London is "this coach has seatbelts and it's a legal requirement to wear one" - and I do, because I've seen what happens when one of those coaches crashes on the motorway.

Which is pretty flawed - the seats may well stop you flying through the windscreen, but it quite likely there's some poor bastard in that seat who's going to get clobbered. In the UK they used to have a road safety advert that went along the lines of

I think it's an age thing too. When I was growing (admittedly this is about 25 years ago) up there was an old lady that used to walk into town. We often gave her a lift and she would pull the seat belt across her, and hold it but not plug it in. I don't know anyone in my age group (or my parents' age group) that don't wear seatbelts - but then they've been mandatory in any countries I've lived in.

Hey, I didn't see you all over there...

I wasn't actually disagreeing with you - it was just an opportunity to share an anecdote about a complete muppet I once knew. Yes, taxes are definitely an expense.

Absolutely, I *don't* trust Al Gore on climate science. You know who I do trust - climate scientists who've had their work peer reviewed. It's got nothing to do with jealousy and loathing, it's got everything to do with not trusting everything somebody says simply because they're absolutely outstanding in a separate field.

Yeah, I think the AC was getting confused with the people who thought that light a fire under gas bottles would cause explosions - some of them were doctors. Ironic that the more educated ones were more inept. I saw it more as a sad indictment of British education - they'd all been schooled over here but didn't understand basic science.

Of course, you can take the whole "taxes are another expense" too far. I know somebody who tried putting his previous VAT return into his purchase ledger - effectively trying to claim the VAT back on the VAT he paid out to HMRC. It wasn't done on purpose - he was just an idiot.

In 40 years people have also got a lot heavier.

No, they're both evil - the difference [IMO] opinion is that Wall Street does their evil in public and doesn't pretend that it's for your own good.

Moving Dropbox data to the Republic of Ireland makes it more legal for the NSA to access the data - they're definitely not accessing US citizen's data - not that I imagine it makes much of a difference.

The difference it does make is that it's harder for the TLAs to get warrants to access the data - they now have to go via a foreign government's legal system, rather than the US rubber stamp system. The Irish government *appears* to have been less than accommodating - as show in the Microsoft email case:

The Faulty Logic at the Heart of Microsoft Ireland Email Dispute

That, and the fact that Dropbox probably have to pay a shitload less tax now.

I had a guy in our office asking why his Sky Go account wasn't working in Chrome - apparently they've no plans in ditching silverlight even though MS discontinued development three years ago - and since NPAPI has been disabled in Chrome (and will be removed in September). It also broke another colleague's Java cribbage game.

So, Google can do 60fps HD using HTML5 video and Sky need still need silverlight. I'm guessing it's a DRM issue, but if Netflix can do it then you'd have to imagine that News International can too.