You should actually read Citizens United. That's not at all what it says.

That decision had absolutely nothing to do with campaign donations or lobbying. Maybe you should read it.

And it's wrong a vast majority of the time.

For people that claim to be objective and science-based, people here sure don't seem to have the same rules of evidence for claims they want to be true and claims they don't want to be true.

Who needs evidence when you already know everything?

I was saying that "lobbying" and "bribery" have actual definitions as words.

So do you just ignore all facts that conflict with your narrative and make up word definitions as needed?

No. Lobbying involves talking and bribery involves illegal money.

If it's "not really a question" then you should be able to provide tons of evidence to back up your claims. How about it?

They pretty clearly copied Aston Martin's exterior design. But Ford only owns a small minority of Aston Martin.

I'm a big fan of Tesla. But I wouldn't exactly say that their $75k cars are "for the masses". I have a Nissan Leaf, which is less than half that price. It's a great car, but it's certainly no Model S.

On Slashdot, bribery and shadowy conspiracies are always the default answer.

Do you have any evidence that anyone was bribed in this case?

I believe there *are* companies out there where you can make it the main focus of your life, working for them, and actually have some justification for doing so.

In the current tech sector, there are really only a few that come to mind. I'd say Google would be one. Apple would be another. Facebook tries to be yet another, but I have mixed feelings on whether or not they've really "arrived" in that way.

I'm talking about companies that have earned a lot of respect for continuously doing things that make people's lives better. There are so many of us who go through life lacking "purpose". People get up every day and go to a job, just because that's what you're "supposed to do", come home and do a lot of little, relatively pointless stuff, pay the required bills... rinse and repeat.

Whether male or female, I can understand why some people would find that sense of purpose in working for one of these companies that's actually changing the course of society's future. (I mean, if you're talking about communication tools alone -- look how different things are today with the advent of the smartphone. Look how much easy access we have to music thanks to the digital music revolution. Look at what cellular data connected tablet devices allow people to do.) You can say what you will about Apple, Google, or even Intel or Microsoft ... but working on the right projects for one of them HAS to be more rewarding than working as a gas station attendant, a retail sales person at a clothing store, or any number of other misc. jobs out there.

So yeah... it's not for everyone, but I get why *some* people would actually want the work/life balance tipped heavily towards their work. It's just not something you want to feel is FORCED upon you, and probably not healthy at all if your job isn't one of the real "movers and shakers" that actually accomplishes major things.

Also on the logistics side, the amount of power required would be extraordinary even if there were no waste heat. The battery in my electric car is 24 kW-h. 70% of that is 16.8 kW-h. Wouldn't delivering that much power in 5 minutes require a 200,000 Watt hook up? Now imagine an electric "filling station" with 5 or 10 bays that could be used concurrently.

The outlet in my garage is 220V 30A (normally used for electric clothes dryers), and I think that's about as heavy duty as you can get in a normal American home. The battery charger is 6600W, to go along with that outlet.

So even if we had these amazing batteries today, there are still a lot of other problems involved in actually shooting that much energy into them that quickly.

"Cash" as in bills or "cash" as in a check? Everyone can handle checks, no problem. I'm talking about a stack of $100 bills.

The version I like is using excess power to pump air into an enclosed space, natural or artificial. Then at night, release the compressed air to drive a turbine. It seems more flexible than large water works. And in case of massive failure, you just get a loud noise instead of a million gallons of water everywhere. Datacenters and standing water door poorly together.

A different variation is what they're doing at Solar Two in California. It's a "solar thermal" plant, but unlike other thermal plants that heat up water, Solar Two uses a molten salt mixture. The higher temperatures involved allow the plant to continue producing electricity for up to 3 hours after the sun sets. By the late evening, demand drops off and base load plants can handle it. This technology dovetails nicely with nuclear power.

In the US, any cash transaction over $10,000 requires some paperwork and an ID. It doesn't matter if the transaction is at a bank, casino, or car dealership.

The Governor of New York got busted because an automated search of his bank records found a large number of similar transactions for $9000. Breaking up one large transaction into multiple smaller ones, under $10k, is a common evasion tactic called "stacking". It turns out he just banged a $9000 hooker a bunch of times.