Public companies can also have a mechanism to halt a hostile takeover, it's called a poison pill. Generally it involves some kind of massive payoff to the current staff, but it can also be the automatic issuance of new stock which dilutes the holdings of the company attempting to do the acquisition. The first known use of the latter technique that I'm aware of was the Westinghouse corporation which issued massive amounts of stock when JP Morgan tried to take them over, ultimately providing them with enough money to complete the Niagara power station project.

The trackball was the weakness of the 8820, any of the later bold models with the optical trackball would be vastly superior from a reliability standpoint.

You're talking about someone who managed to make it his paid, full-time job to write X-File fanfic and hang out at Star Trek conventions, most likely putting everything on a government expense account. The word you're looking for isn't "stupid", it's "brilliant".

I'm just going to skip the bit about you calling someone else braindead and asking them to turn in their geek card for displaying poor math skills and leave this bit here while we move on to the bonus round.

In your own words, what is the relationship between the radius and circumference of a circle? Please be precise, as your geek card is at stake here.

I don't know. Why don't you ask TekSavvy?

They have a similar name. Perhaps they have a similar policy.

This!

Why not a simple odometer reading? They come up with some algorithm that computes statistically what percentage of odometer usage translates into Oregon road usage... and then just apply that. No privacy concerns. You drive further... you're taxed more. Simple.

Exactly, just last week I was reading about a proposed Canadian mine that was vetoed by the native council, not due to environmental concerns, but because of uncertainty over environmental impact in the future because current and projected prices didn't actually support opening the mine in the near term but the company looking for approval was looking for a 50 year lease on the land. If Russia ties up a lot of the world supply and shuts down mines they own then the price will rise and mines like that one will come online, it's not like they're going to take over so much of the world supply that we'll be shutting down reactors due to lack of fuel. The real fear I'm sure is that Westinghouse and GE and their suppliers will have to pay more for yellowcake in order to produce their overpriced fuel rods.

And then the Intern goes to Ask Slashdot, and we start the whole thing over.

It's some kind of Internception.

I'm not even going to start answering that, but I am curious about one thing.

Which major corporation are you the CIO for? Please be honest, as I stand to win $20 here.

Don't worry folks. I always carry around a copy of "Atlas Shrugged" for hitting people like this on the head at times like these.

Probably have to keep receipts and get a refund from the DOT office running the trial program.

Since it's primarily weight per axle that determines the wear caused on the roads, and the point of the tax is to maintain roads, it seems logical that heavier vehicles, whether they be SUV's or big sedans like the Tesla, should be charged more. It's not like a Leaf is particularly heavy (it's basically the same weight as the similarly sized Chevy Cruze).

Uh, most workplaces aren't going to be happy if a coworker walks by and you have a GNAA troll or similar up on your screen...