NPR stations get less than 10% of funding from the state. CBC/ABC/BBC ABC are going through funding woes because they refuse to parrot the company line that the current governments want them to. Its either state funding or corporate funding in the form of advertising, your choice but I know that for me the so-called state funded operations seem to exhibit more independence.

Nope, but I don't think CNN/MSNBC/FoxNews run exposes on your local politicians either.

Didn't recommend you drop your locals, just recommending a few english-language alternatives for an informative and different view on the happenings.

At least the NHL now offers Internet access to the majority of their regular season games. Maybe the rest of the leagues will follow suit in the near future.

Turn on some English-language Internet radio feeds:
-- BBC
-- CBC (Canadian)
-- ABC (Australian)
-- DW (Germany)
-- Local NPR
-- Al Jazerra

That will get you some different views on the happenings in the world. They have been talking about the Ebola situation in West Africa for six months not the last 3 weeks of hysteria on US cable news channels. My 23 yo daughter was shocked none of her friends had a clue about the Ebola situation because she had been hearing about it for six months.

You are correct that you don't have to go to Dell to upgrade your copy of Windows but you sure as hell might need Dell to provide specific drivers for your hardware. The issue is the phone vendors need to make sure the hardware drivers are compatible with your new version of android before you upgrade or your phone might be broken. This is the reason so many phone lose a bit of function when you install CM.

I am not defending the lack of updates just giving the reason that Andriod is updated through the manufacturer and not Google. Unfortunately too many of the phone manufacturers would prefer to sell you a new phone instead of investing the time to test the old hardware with a new O/S.

Power dips can be as destructive as surges and that cheap surge protector does nothing for those. If it is valuable a line-interactive UPS is the way to go. Learned my lesson after burning out the power supplies to two TVs and a couple of desktop computers. The TV repair guy suggested the UPS and life is good.

You are aware that Volkswagen and Audi are the same company? That A3 you covet is a Polo with different sheet metal.

Does home-made gunpowder qualify as technology?

If you can't vote in the election, you can't contribute to the candidates in the elections. Eliminates outside money.

So you are saying that you have no problem with the city folk subsidizing you. Sounds like that's what you are saying.

Yes, Yes he is.

Union breaker
Deficit balloons
Trickle Down
Sandinistas
Iran-Contra
Ollie North
Nancy making decisions when he gets Alzheimer's

You fucking got me started

Nope, as a carpenter I bring the hammer (phone) but sure as hell don't pay for the nails (minutes/GB).

See the difference now?

Just because it's an accounting cluster fuck doesn't meat that the company should get out of paying.

It's an accounting cluster fuck to determine your vacation eligibility so guess what, no vacation for you.

Sure you would have, just been excluded from some jobs. 25 year retiree and red-green color blind.

At my induction physical I failed 14 of 15 color cards. Tech told me I was color blind and I replied all you had to do was ask me I could have told you that.

BTW: Purple does not exist and is a conspiracy by the color-normal people against the disabled.

How about so that Verizon customers can access Internet resources at something near the speed advertised and paid for.

I think Verizon customers have a case to sue Verizon for non-performance.