But for nearly all intents and purposes, the government *does* exist. It is a legal construct, and the people elected to represent our interests possess the power, via legislation, to affect many aspects of your life. You're right that "other people grant you rights", but they don't do it as individuals, they do it via the legal entity known as government. One of the things that's handy about having a "government" grant you rights, pass legislation, etc, rather than individuals is that you don't have to re-affirm legislation every time there's an election. Collectively, we agree to the legal construct because life would be chaos otherwise.

I look forward to these calls - any time the CND shows "OVERSEAS" I get ready.

"Hello Sir, I'm calling from....your computer is...." the usual crap.

"Which computer? I have lots"

"All of them" (that was funny)

"Which IP address?"
Lather, rinse, repeat.

Finally tell them I use Linux. One guy actually called me a liar when I said that. I held him on for a few minutes denying I used Windows (if he's going to lie to me, I will return the favour) - he got more and more angry, finally called me a fucking arsehole and hung up. My kids came and asked why I was laughing so much.

I was wondering about that - doesn't lack of fibre lead to an increase in colon cancers?

I don't think the "inventor" has given enough thought to the complex dance of gut flora (good and bad), macro and micro-nutrients, and the sheer diversity of humans. One size does NOT fit all. For example, if you're somewhat prone to colon cancer (genetically), a healthy diet of conventional food with lots of fibre may be all that's keeping that cancer from developing.

What about the decrease in effort for the digestive system to process "soylent". Wouldn't your digestive tract eventually weaken and degrade from not having enough work to do?

At least he doesn't advocate giving up conventional food completely.

Small market (number of customers), large range (geography), lack of competition, and risk. Delivery to some locations entails a moderate level of danger, e.g. if you drive to my place, it's possible that you'll meet a venomous snake along the way.

Nuh - it's fat/oil. Collapses beer foam very quickly. Try this (and it's only in the interest of science that I recommend wasting a beer this way). Wipe a smear of cooking oil around the inside of a clean empty glass. Do it as far down the glass as you can get your finger, then tilt the glass and pour cold beer down the side of the glass to make sure the beer comes into contact with the oil. Put the glass down then pour cold beer the same way into another clean glass. Observe which one keeps the head longer.

There are some valid reasons to add certain salts/minerals to beer when brewing - some water supplies lack trace elements or salts needed by the yeast. I wouldn't recommend dumping plain ol' NaCl in there, though - it's a yeast growth inhibitor.

Sounds unlikely to me - although some films were produced to "enhance" skin tones. Kodak had a specialised film made for weddings and portraits, and I can't remember seeing anything other than caucasians in the example brochures. You can enhance any part of the spectrum you want, but enhancing caucasian skin tones would negatively affect other parts of the spectrum. Besides, it's a creative decision as to how a film should "look", so it's largely up to the director, art department, and editor what the finished product looks like. You can have blue & orange (the current fad), or wash it all out a la 70's westerns - there's lots of ways to influence the final product - choice of emulsion, choice of lighting, and choice of post-processing, to name a few.

Well the AS400 when delivered did have a dud service processor - wouldn't IPL. Never seen so many embarrassed CSRs. As soon as a new module turned up, it went in and life went on.

And it wasn't a problem at all. Once it was loaded with software+data and tested, we stuck it in the corner and forgot the tech support phone number - that thing ran for almost 6 years without anything other than routine maintenance. It became more expensive to keep paying the maintenance contract on that model than it was to buy a new model + maintenance.

The manuals on the other hand, were too big to fit in my backpack to take home and read.....

Computer systems are often complex, and if you've ever tried to use, administer or otherwise manage a large IBM installation, you'll be grateful for the "sequoia". There's more to computer systems than PC clients and Apache servers.

The manuals for my first AS400 (E35) took up more space than the machine. Fortunately it's all available online now.

Nice thought, but I value a surgeon's "1 hour" to remove my inflamed appendix higher than your "1 hour" to help dig my vegetable garden - but I'd offer both of you a beer at the conclusion.

+1 Larry Niven reference

You betcha. You can like or dislike a character, but if your response is "meh", then the story-tellers have failed. It might be the script, direction, or acting, but someone, somewhere has not done their job.

Manufactured infant formula doesn't contain the immunity/protective factors that human breast milk contains, therefore infants (especially those already compromised by other environmental conditions such as slum dwelling, chronic sub-standard diets in the region/country, etc) fed on that formula are denied the benefits of said protective factors, thus leading to increased levels of disease and consequently death in infant populations. Human breast milk (with some exceptions such as maternal drug intake - both prescribed and "recreational" drugs, and some maternal diseases) is nearly always the best food for infants. It's sterile (unless the mother has certain diseases), and has the ideal blend of nutrients for infants. Manufactured formula can come close, but it shouldn't be promoted as the superior quality food, except in the cases I mentioned above.
 
As always, it's the mother's choice whether to breastfeed or not, but she shouldn't be misled about the benefits/quality of one over the other.

Aw, crap. Federal MHR ballots are not optional preferential - you've got to number EVERY box or it's an informal vote. It's going to be interesting - I'm in the electorate of Fisher http://www.aec.gov.au/election/qld/fisher.htm - 10 MHR candidates (including Peter Slipper), and 82 senate candidates. I'm going to download the CSV and try to work out my numbering before I get to the polling booth.

The VOTER decides the preferences, i.e. it's the voter who writes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and so on, not the parties. All the parties do is print how-to-vote cards that get handed out near the polling stations. It's always been the voter who decides preferences, so if you the voter can't be arsed doing a little research and making your own decisions, and are happy to fill out your ballot according to your party's how-to-vote card, then you deserve the consequences.

Admittedly the senate ballot paper is a pain to fill out completely (numbering every box rather than put a "1" above the line, as most major parties would have you do), but fer crissakes, it's only once every few years, and worth a little research and mental arithmetic.

That reminds me - I should find out if the MHR ballot is optional preferential - that's the best system - you can vote 1 for your preferred candidate, then further numbering is optional.

Try this - it will make your cycling a bit more strenuous, though:

buy a goose-predator-shaped kite (or 2 or 3 of different species for variety), tie it to your bike seat on a sping-loaded line, and pedal off. The kite starts to fly up and behind you; the faster you go, the higher the kite flies, and the earlier it gets seen by the geese ahead of you.

BAM, geese fly away before you reach them.