Genes, being a part of a species' DNA, ought to be considered 'prior art' and unpatentable.

Don't know why this is modded "troll". Poster is talking about a Pigouvian tax, raising prices to reflect external costs not captured in the market price.

Collusion may be explicit or implicit but antitrust laws should be written and enforced so that no one firm has the market power to lead or lower prices.

But it's not just about hedging bets.

It's about learning, using science as a technique that has most bearing on the physical world, and using other tools (including religion, social science, literature, and art) on the non-physical world.

(Yes, for any being with senescence, a non-physical world exists).

I used Windows ME for a year or two and it was perfectly fine, so...

True, the web cams are still active. http://www.cyriak.co.uk/lhc/lhc-webcams.html

Also- WTF is wrong with all the people from outside the US trying to dictate what is right for us? Why don't they leave us the hell alone and focus on their own problems.
Dunno, ask Iraq. Or Iran. Or Vietnam. Or Grenada.

Surely the GP was being ironic?

The development costs will be a one off...
Having maintained windows, linux, solaris and novell based networks my experience is basically...

You require competent staff to manage any system properly, microsoft marketing says otherwise so windows networks often end up being operated very badly by incompetent staff (and have major security and stability problems as a result)... Generally only more competent people even know linux exists, so the cheaper less competent staff will never even think to try linux - if they did the results would still be bad but probably not as bad as a poorly deployed windows setup.

If you don't mind a poor setup, windows will cost more than linux but you will probably not be able to find as many extremely cheap low skilled staff pretending to have linux skills as windows...

If you want a good secure linux setup you need decent staff...
If you want a good secure windows setup you not only need decent staff but also a lot of third party software...

It's also my experience that you need more staff to maintain a windows setup unless you cut corners...

The problem is corner cutting, people think they can cut corners with windows but the end result is a huge insecure mess.. 99% of the companies i've ever been to simply don't have the budget to maintain a windows network properly..

American is a nationality. Socialism is an ideology. The two are not mutually exclusive. I am an American socialist.

Besides, do you object to our socialist police force, our socialist fire department, our socialist postal service, our socialist military, our socialist public education system, our socialist health regulatory agencies (which make decisions for us about what food is safe to eat and water is safe to drink and which drugs are safe to take)? How about our socialist public roads? Or our socialist health insurance program for seniors? What about our socialist unemployment insurance?

Last I heard, those were all American. And last I heard, most Americans liked them.

Damnant quod non intellegunt.

You say the 20 to 40% is a made up number. That instead they have 3 to 5% profits. Well, maybe on paper that they're reporting. Why is it that the latest health care bill mandates that by 2012 (I think) that Health Insurers must have no more than 15% overhead (85% must go to health care and health improvement programs) including administrative costs and profits. Social Security operates with 2% overhead. So, they're allowing for 13% profit. The insurance companies are screaming like it is the end of the world. Why? Because currently they're yanking down way more in profits. They're hiding the profits in bullshit "Administrative Overhead" (like taking Golf trips to Bangladesh to have sex with underage children). I don't trust this industry as far as I can spit!

I fully agree that a helmet is a great idea. I'm just saying that there is bound to be a lot of things other people also think are great ideas as well that you won't like so much.

Of course, I have heard from others that they prefer NOT to wear a helmet because it increases the chances that they'll end up quadriplegic rather than dieing in an accident. Right or wrong, that's a choice they've made. It is probably cheaper for the taxpayer if they just die rather than requiring rehab and special equipment for decades.

I certainly would not think that refusing medical coverage because someone wasn't wearing a helmet, butcher's glove, plate mail, etc to be a good idea.

It's also incontrovertible that not skydiving will prevent 100% of skydiving related injuries. The same for rock climbing, skateboarding, etc. Many people do things that are not really NECESSARY but do carry a risk of medical expenses. Those who don't are often sedentary, and so have a risk from that.

Ah, well then I suppose we disagree on the definition of "theft," (I would have thought that most would say that wrongness is the difference between taking and theft, just as it is the difference between killing and murder) but that's OK. So you are saying that something can be "theft" but not wrong.

How then is it a criticism of health insurance reform to call it "theft" if calling it "theft" doesn't mean it is wrong? Why isn't it a kind of "permissable theft" like seizing an enemy's property in wartime?

by JonKatzTheSecond (63445274) on 20-03-18 22:01 (#815223905)

By season 14, Futurama seemed to outlive itself. Its humor was meant for the early years of the 2010s when the world was scared of global warming and still revered "Heroes" and "Lost" as the pinnacle of science fiction. When three-eyed omnivores and impoverished Jewish space lobsters were still 'hot' - and not in a weird way. It was a time when an old man could still dream of leading an army of mutant gorillas to global conquest, and maybe, just maybe it was possible (the U.S. still wasn't frozen over and Joe Biden hadn't developed his mighty telekinetic powers). A time when Seattle wasn't a gaping canyon and the Grand Canyon wasn't filled with coffee cups and flannel shirts, and the President still hadn't solved the "War on Terror" with a game of "Quarters" and two-falls-out-of-three Jell-O Wrestling, only to lead to tyrannical world domination by the Mormons. It was a simpler time. Futurama is as dead to me now as electric cheese and skeet shooting using Senators.

Seems like the actual barrier could be near the road with some guard rails in front of it and the rain reservoir quite far away. Reducing the risks somewhat. Besides the news networks would love this.