I don't know specifically about Google, but have been involved in a couple of companies that were bought up. It doesn't seem to happen immediately, but you're eventually expected to assimilate as policies, vision statements, etc. are all merged. These can take a couple years at large corporations. The level of oppressiveness will also vary depending upon the purchasing companies corporate culture. I worked for a large engineering firm that was bought up, and we completely lost the engineering feel as everything became more about finance rather than building good products...it was rather depressing, but I understand it.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I'd bet Google required all of their employees to sign up, or just signed them up w/o asking them.

That's also how the believers work.

Svavar Knútur is great... the music's really pretty, but between songs he's a standup comedian. ;) That said, some of his songs are funny too... one of his songs (in Icelandic) is about a guy on his way to propose to his girlfriend when he gets bitten by a zombie, and he meets up with her and is trying to propose while slowly turning into a zombie and increasingly wanting to eat her instead... but it turns out that she was bitten by a zombie too, so they end up living happily ever after ;) Oh, and then there's this song.

Yes! I had all but shut down my old Yahoo portal because I was content with iGoogle. Their excuse that all of the content was available elsewhere, while true, fails to see the need for a single URL that can bring up all of your frequently used stuff. Now I'm back to using the somewhat sucky Yahoo portal...it was better before they also forced change to the "modern" version.

Well, his toilets flush in the wrong direction too, so that would make sense.

I honestly don't give a shit if it's a good product. For those of us with gmail accounts, it was virtually forced upon us. Want me to try something new?...ask first. Don't pull the same crap as Apple and U2 did. It may have been their best music ever, but I won't listen to it just on principle. This is an idiotic and rude marketing technique that needs to cease.

If Earth becomes Venus-like then those with innovation and drive will innovate a way to protect themselves, while those that don't will eventally adapt, growing a hard, rocky skin and blood based on liquid metals rather than water. The climate has changed in Earth's past and life survived; if our future is to be a tribe of hideous rock monsters ruled by clever, pitiless human overlords in protective bubbles, then bring it on. It's not a reason to hinder economic growth.

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Vote freedom. Vote prosperity. Vote Reanimated Corpse Of Ayn Rand in 2016.

I more prefer my apocalypse-themed music to be romantic and slightly nerdy ;)

So, maybe I misunderstood but, "Eat the rich" implies that you believe they're all evil, or at least the vast majority of them. I'm not sure what your definition of rich is, but FWIW I know or have known several self made multimillionaires (my youngest uncle, my dad's best friend, a couple others, and even my dad who was a small business owner, and would have by definition been a "one per-center"). They aren't the uber-rich, but I've witnessed the envy of many who seemed to think they deserved what these guys earned.

As to equity and relative power, I'm all for removing the lobbyists, and the money influence from politics. We should all have equal representation.

Wolves don't post as AC.

Damnit Drinky, I mark your posts overrated at every opportunity! Don't ruin it for me!

In all honesty, while we do frequently disagree, I prefer the debate of issues vs. the sliminess of moderating someone down with an opposing viewpoint. I even occasionally learn that my position isn't as well thought out as I originally believed.

Cheers,

Oh I'm sure it would only be one sided, not.

Agreed, but then don't confuse faith with the word false. I'm not a religious person, but the lack of tolerance I see here is pathetic. People believe, so let them, as long as they're not trying to push their ideas on you, why do you give a fuck? Sure there are fringe religious wackos out there, and I would agree that they should be shunned. But the same could be said about some atheists I know.

If you can't be tolerant, you're part of the problem.

You forgot cheapest! More proof that nuclear power is the cheapest low-carbon power source, not a tech more popular on K street than Wall Street that gets by via being absolved of all potential liability for major accidents, getting huge loan guarantees, and being allowed to pass off cost overruns to consumers at-will and even still has trouble finding investors. Nuclear power has always been more popular on K-Street than Wall Street.

How did that "nuclear renaissance" work out for you all? Yeah, that sure bombed out fast. Gotta love an industry with a negative learning curve, where costs continually rise with time and scale rather than dropping (aka, learning of new potential problems and risks faster than refining the technology to lower costs).

Nuclear scares the public a lot more than it actually poses a risk to their health or life. But you know who it scares even more? Investors. Given the race out the door today, can you imagine what it'd be like if the industry wasn't let off the hook for potential damages over a maximum in the event of a major accident? No insurance company would touch the industry with a 10 foot pole. Nuclear accidents may not be good at killing people, but there's one thing that they're damned good at and that's costing a bloody fortune to remedy.