Apparently, this is quite true. According to a UC davis study: which was published in the January issue of Journal Animal Cognition: The performance of drug- and explosives-sniffing dog/handler teams is affected by human handlers’ beliefs.

The study, published in the January issue of the journal Animal Cognition, found that detection-dog/handler teams erroneously “alerted,” or identified a scent, when there was no scent present more than 200 times — particularly when the handler believed that there was scent present. ....

The handlers were told that there might be up to three of their target scents in each room, and that there would be a piece of red construction paper in two of the rooms that identified the location of the target scent. However, there were no target scents — explosives or drugs — placed in any of the rooms. ...

Although there should have been no alerts in any of the rooms, there were alerts in all rooms. Moreover, there were more alerts at the locations indicated by construction paper than at either of the locations containing just the decoy scents or at any other locations.

There are numerous ways a view screen could be disabled (object smashed it, software error, etc.)

Yes... just like there are numerous ways that a pilot could be disabled: object smashed him, criminals snuck into the cockpit carrying some boxcutters, etc.

However, they can provide some extra shielding to the view screen, just like they can lock and reinforce the cockpit door and provide other security features.

A pilot is also required to be able to operate the plane using backup instruments without looking out the window --- it is part of the standard pilot training and qualification process, and they have to do this routinely.

Every large aircraft has manual backup systems that allow it to be safely piloted under IFR, even when there is zero visibility.

Which is why it's on ~1 out of 9 t-shirts, ~4 out of 10 underwear, and 3 out of 100 tatoos. They could license it for 1$.

Perhaps they can get around the "license requirement" for this memorial by purchasing a $10 T-shirt off the shelf. And simply don the product they purchased to the statue after folding.

The product then is already licensed; and the statue is not an article being used in trade.... it makes no difference if you wear it in public or attach it to a statue: you purchased a product that included the right to contain that logo licensed to the apparel distributor ---- the trademark holder's consent simply isn't required (they already consented to the mark's usage).

They could also "treat" the shirt by covering it with some chemicals, plastics, and protective coatings to help preserve and protect it. and possibly take some other steps to "emboss" or emphasize the mark, as long as the logo itself remains unaltered.

This would have been a total non-issue had they just done it and not asked anyone or publicized it.

I'm not sure that's true. These big publishers hire companies such as RightsCorp to "monitor and search for unauthorized usage" of their "intellectual property".

If their rights protection contractor(s) found a Superman statue: there's no way these greedy b****rds could resist that potential revenue stream.

Police K-9s are routinely used during roadside automobile stops to establish probable cause in cases where consent to search is not granted.

Police K-9s who can sniff illegal substances. Silicon memory chips/processors are not an illegal substance.

That's not generally the case with event tickets, where one person may entirely reasonably be buying tickets for a themselves and anyone else that he or she specifically intends to go with so that they can all sit together.

This is also the case with small development shops --- usually you have more than 2 or 3 developers/testers, and you don't need just "one" occulus ---- you need at least 2 or 3 to do some serious development and testing.

Engineering, at least in the classic sense of human engineering, is a directed, (generally) intelligent effort to change the environment.

This is before, software users frustrated with technical support, got in the habit of routinely demanding to speak to an engineer.

As a result..... first line tech support personnel now have titles such as "support engineer", and those that build products now have titles such as 'individual contributor', 'analyst', development specialist, or 'architect'.

What is so magically different about showing me an advert in the game for something else that it needs laws creating to stop it?

Because 'paying for more action' during gameplay is fundamentally the same as a slot machine at a casino; there's a big difference between placing an advertisement VS an "instant in-game purchase" experience of one of thousands of unlockables.

It should be treated exactly like casino gaming or other forms of paid gaming. (Personally, I am not in favor of it being banned completely --- but it should be heavily regulated, and the vendor should be responsible for 200% of the amount of unauthorized purchases by a minor)

If I go into a bar and order a beer does the bar owner have to hide all the more expensive beers, food etc so that I can't be tempted with it. Should the waitress be locked up if she asks if I'd like another?

Buying a beer at a bar is not merely monetized human behavior; there is actually a tangible physical good being purchased, which had to be manufactured, and a significant portion of the product's price at the bar is the cost of materials required to manufacture that unit.

Furthermore, the bartender is not going to just give you instant gratification of a drink with no questions asked ---- you have to present physical credentials; if you are a 5 year old, you cannot go to a bar and buy one.

Humans also cannot drink a very large amount of beer... so there are natural physical limitations on how many 'expensive beers' you can order and drink during a visit.

I think Amazon's problem is going to be that just refunding the purchases doesn't help the parents. If the kid maxes out the credit-card on in-app purchases, the parents have to deal not just with those purchases but the fees and interest from over-limit charges

Top recommendations: (1) Use a $20 pre-paid debit card as the CC loaded on your Tablet for in-app purchases, OR a Virtual Account Number (VAN),

Note... however.... I am sure Amazon themself should have a limit on the amount of in-app purchases, and if there's a sudden unusual deviation from your normal pattern of purchases, your CC company is likely to flag it as possible fraud and call you.

what part of the gaming industry isn't preying off of exactly the same neurons as gambling?

It's just fine if they 'prey' off the exact same neurons as gambling. Selling a game package for a fixed dollar amount, or a subscription fee agreed upon before you start playing should be just fine. The customer is agreeing to payment for entertainment, which is clearly without coercion, since they have not started playing yet.

Selling an 'expansion pack' containing additional content while users are not playing the game should also be legal, as long as the expansion pack is announced in advance and not prompted for purchase in the game, or given a 'sample' of the expansion.

The player has not been exposed to this pleasure yet, therefore they can make a rational choice.

What should not be legal for any video game:

1.) Selling "replays" or re-attempts to try again. For example: no selling additional lives or continues, or the ability to perform any task within an app must not be a "consumable" that more can be obtained by making a purchase, or other activities outside the app (such as sharing with X friends).

2.) Selling ability to access something shown or advertised in game, for example as a "locked" mission, "premium" campaign, or "bonus option", should be illegal.

3.) Selling an ability to skip any mission, challenge, level, or allow faster completion, should be illegal.

4.) Selling player "strength enhancements", powerups, extra health, extra uses of a special ability, or other reduction of difficulty.

5.) Selling badges, awards, or other recognition of gameplay abilities or player customizations.

6.) Selling additional "time" playing the game, or additional "spins", "turns", or "plays" should be illegal ---- for example, limiting the number of times a certain challenge can be attempted per day, but allowing players to pay a premium, subscribe to a premium service, or share with X friends, for additional plays: should be illegal.

suddenly cannot recover anything following a series of six separate 'hard drive crashes' on RAID-7 systems, so that the IRS' evidence can no longer prove criminal intent by leaders of the government.

I read the sections of The Internal Revenue Manual pertaining to Emails as criminal records.

And I am personally convinced, that the IRS objective is malicious compliance; instead of creating a searchable permanent digital record of all employee e-mail, it seems they go out of their way to say "Preserve digital versions only for limited periods", and it's up to each employee to manually print the approximate hardcopy of the data and have the printout, of anything to be deemed "a record":

1. 1.10.3.2.3 (07-08-2011) Emails as Possible Federal Records - Advises Employees - To save emails and attachments that meet the definition of a federal record be added to the organization’s files by printing them and filing them with related paper records.
2. They are using Microsoft Exchange. This is an e-mail server application that has a feature called personal archive, which they apparently choose not to use, even though a few thousand terabytes of cloud storage is much cheaper than the equivalent pieces of paper and filing procedures.. In addition, there are many archiving applications available for Exchange, and there is a Journaling feature in Exchange which can be used to support permanent archiving of all mail.
3. They impose a 500 megabyte limit on their users' mailboxes. The Exchange software default is 2 Gigabytes, in other words: they are going out of their way to coerce employees towards deleting mail, and intentionally making the system 100% reliant on the employee ---- so that any error on the employee's part results in no record generate.
   
   Note: Their employee manual specifically advises employees to delete mail: Delete some mail from your mailbox or contact your system administrator to adjust your storage limit. (Consider whether any of the items you want to delete may be a federal record. IRM 1.10.3.3.2 above.)

To see someone making a claim that atoms are mini solar systems in the 21st century isn't too far different from someone claiming the Sun orbits the Earth.

You're either a nasty troll, or you just aren't paying attention at all. The claim was not that atoms are mini solar systems: quite the opposite; that our solar systems themselves are subatomic particles at a grander superscale: a superscale at which our entire solar system weighs something like 3 × 10^-29 grams. And the passage of time from our point of view is such that when we perceive 1 second of time passes, at the superscale, approximately 10^-29 seconds has elapsed.

Our "gravity" may be analogous at the superscale, to what we call the electromagnetic force. And at this larger scale, our stars would essentially be the core of the atomic unit, and the cloud of large rocks orbiting them would be analogous to electrons.

Since, the whole thing is that, our universe is essentially at a "quantum level" compared to whatever is happening at the "super scale"; we have no way of reasoning about what the laws of physics would be at the super scale. There may well be new forces and spatial dimensions emerging at the larger scale, analogous to our weak forces such as gravity.

There needs to be a cost for issuing overbroad DMCA takedown notices.

I have a proposal: civil forfeiture of copyright assets spuriously alleged to be infringed, if the number of legitimate uses affected by wrongful DMCA letter exceeds 10 per work per calendar year.

If you buy a shared hosting account the ISP is hosting the content on their machines

I am replying to the parent. I am agreeing that buying your own hard disk storage and network endpoint is the way to go if you are concerned about a provider giving an overzealous response to a DMCA letter.

Further, I am disagreeing with the parent's point They will respond to DMCA's by sending it to you, but you must respond or they will disconnect your machine

Since you can avoid that by finding a Tier1,2, or 3 internet service provider who will specifically agree to not do so, and this provider is still protected by the safe harbor.

Then I point out the need to be judicious in your selection of DNS registrars. Although DNS registrars are not protected by DMCA safe harbor and also not hosting the content, some large corporations _will_ target DNS registrars and send them DMCA letters, and some DNS registrars will overzealously shutdown the domain.

Finally, I would add.... that none of these methods mean that you won't ultimately be liable if there would be a legitimate reason for a DMCA takedown request.

However, when co-locating: it should be within nobody's power but yours to decide to turn services off due to copyright issues, until and unless you infringe and a court order is issued requiring your entire site to be removed.

No, they really are not. Gravity has very little effect at the atomic level, but at the level of solar systems is the primary force.

No, they might very well be. But it is just speculation --- accomplished science neither shows whether they are or not. It's just speculation, either way.

Iif you subscribe to the Bohr model of an atom... our solar systems are a larger scale universe's atoms, then the force we call "Gravity" could be the larger scale universe's electromagnetic force, and then Earth would be an "electron" orbiting the Sun, which would be our nucleus.

The laws of chemistry and physics applicable to the universe at the different scale would have to be quite different.... which is not to say that our solar systems are not another universe's fundamental particles.