Sorry to break it to you, but I don't feel that jailing a random person is a fair trade off for losing a friend/family member permanently. We want prevention and not reaction. The law is a decent first step, make the cost/benefit for texting bad to reduce incentive to do it. It won't work for everyone but it works for many. Next, educate with the new income from fines and increased insurance costs.

Going 60 in a 55 zone isn't necessarily unsafe if you're capable of handling a vehicle at the speed. Going 85 in an 80 zone isn't necessarily bad either if you can handle it.

The problem is that you can't tell who can and who can't. Do you go by their word? I wouldn't trust a system that states everyone is capable until proven otherwise because the "proven otherwise" scenario usually means harm to others

Just a little something off topic, but do some research sometime in your car and figure out where you're going and if the 5mph is worth it. I did the work on my car and found that going 10km/h over the speed limit saved me (on average) 2 minutes at the cost of 10% fuel consumption.... wasn't worth the trade off in the long run

Look at it from the other direction. I have a very skilled friend that's having a hard time making money off the graphical design business because he hasn't made a name for himself yet. He uses that site to collect money to pay bills as his contributions are just as likely to get picked as someone with a big name because the exposure is similar for all 'contestants'.

Seriously, I don't need to have my password as Po0g33!ln1h3xB6a to be secure. On my home network I often use passwords that are simple words twisted a bit. My home wifi pass is simply "Bl3wB1rd". Easy to remember, somewhat secure... if anyone is desperate to get into my wifi and has the skills to crack that I'm sure they'll crack anything else I can conjure up.

They have little handheld computers that swipe the credit card so its fairly quick but more often than not there were issues where people:
A) Didn't have their ID immediately accessable
B) Credit Card didn't swipe
C) Too drunk to get their wallet open
D) Too dumb to accomplish any of the above.

I've seen I.M. live before so I knew what was getting, I have been waiting 10 years for Dream Theater however and was rightfully pissed when the first song I heard was concluded with "Thank you everyone!"

"and to banish long will-call lines"

Bullfuckingshit

I went to Iron Maiden last week. I showed up with my friends roughly 15 minutes before the opening act (Dream Theater) was scheduled to hit the stage. I got in on their second last song.

Fuck paperless, I have sworn off any concert that uses them from here on out because of that experience. And no, it isn't reasonable to require everyone to show up 1 hour before the show just so they can get inside in time to see the opening act

--Flash video of a Yahoo! Answers question.

I agree, I mean in order for them to take you to court they need (apparently) a picture of your IP downloading the file. If they get caught fabricating these lists then it'll be lights-out for this blackmail system.

Obviously (if tests prove successful) BP will be buying this stuff by the boat-load. By successfully separating the oil to a (most likely) usable state they can recoup all that oil they lost into that darned ocean.

That damned water is contaminating our profits!

But for those of us who prefer running, certain sports, etc. "Workboots" just don't cut it. My last pair of shoes were some simple DC skater-style shoes. They lasted me two years until I wore the sole down so far it burned a hole through the bottom. I went to buy another pair of DC because they were so good to me but I sadly found that my local store didn't have any leather ones anymore. Only synthetics and the sole on the new shoe was thinner than some parts of my two year old shoes...

You're right saying consumerism is a part of the problem but the solution isn't "HEY EVERYONE BUY x PRODUCT"

I actually disagree with this point. The reason why certain aspects of MMORPGs are so addictive is because of the link between effort and reward. In WoW if you spend x amount of time performing your profession you WILL get to 450/450. People see the link between how much time they spend doing something and the reward that comes from it: something that is not guaranteed in life.

For example, no matter how much time I try I doubt I'll ever become a professional sports player. I've played soccer for probably 17 years of my life and have won medals on a provincial level. But no matter how hard I will not make it professionally. I have had numerous ankle injuries (breaks and multiple sprains) as well as acute asthma that prevent me from becoming a hardcore sprinter. Here, I could put 5 years of effort into practice and training but I'll bet you $50 that I'll still be in the same place I am now, if not slightly further ahead. Here the link between effort and reward is broken as a simple reality comes into play that some don't find out until their 30's... just because mommy told you that "you can do whatever you want in life" it doesn't make it true.