Comparison to MTBE makes perfect sense. Ethanol is the direct replacement for MTBE in gasoline. Both were added to, ostensibly, reduce smog.

I've personally seen lobster for sale in Maine for as little as $2.80/lbs. That's cheaper than hotdogs.

It was originally a concept car called the Lincoln Futura (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln_Futura).

So it's like buying two amazing cars in one! A Ghia body worked over by George Barris.

If you were confused by the Napster saga, the big media companies only care about squashing competition. Napster helped their bottom line. ANd taking it down hurt their bottom line. It wasn't about infringement, anymore than the radio is about infringement.

It's about control.

If this succeeds, they're unnecessary. They are the gate keepers. An artist needs them. But they don't need artists. They can take any dancer or model who can't sing and turn them into a pop star.

What if you're tired? If you've taken no drugs, but worked twenty hours in a row? You WILL fail an impairment test. But you've done nothing wrong. Maybe you shouldn't be driving. But then, the state SHOULD be providing affordable and comprehensive public transit. Infrastructure is the government's #1 job, not that they seem to take it very seriously.

If you're in Europe, you can tune this out. Even in most American cities public transit is abysmal. In Boston for example, the subways shut down at midnight. For reference, the bars close at 1AM. That's in a major city. Most Americans don't live in the cities. And most suburban and rural areas don't even have taxi services available. In most of the US, rhetoric aside, driving isn't a privilege: Driving is a necessity.

Oddly, American towns and cities did had good public transit a hundred years ago. Back then, even most small towns had trolley services. Then a conspiracy destroyed public transit. It's OK though; after making millions destroying public infrastructure and lobbying against light rail, GM had to pay a $5000 fine. For more details, watch "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" It covers the basic story pretty well. The real life bad guys were a shade more cartoonish than Christopher Lloyd though.

And then there is the question of enforcement. Would the testing be done in the same, "at the whim of the guy with the badge" approach we have now? We don't inspect or enforce pretty much any public health issues in the US. Food safety, Drug safety, traffic safety, etc.: All public safety in the US is set up to assign blame after stuff hits the fan. It didn't used to be like this either.

How do you objectively test for "situational awareness"? I don't know of ANY way to do it, that isn't completely at the whim of the person conducting the test. Most cops should not be taken at their word. Right now, there are huge scandals in Massachusetts over these exact two things. One over a police lab making up evidence, falsifying data and generally doing bad things; for more than a decade. And second a failure to oversee a compounding center, and just generally assigning blame later after many people contracted fungal meningitis from contaminated shots. And the only reason it was exposed was that one doctor took on themselves to track down the cause of an odd outbreak.

It's a common brush-off answer. But it ignores reality completely. If you can't balance on one leg and touch your nose, while reciting the alphabet backwards... you fail. If you refuse to walk a straight line backwards in icy, sub-zero conditions... you fail. It doesn't matter that you have artificial hips, knees, or limbs.

Or does this seem like a way to punish free users and play a victim card at the same time.

"It's not us doing it to try and force people into paid plans. It's... um... pirates?"

The solution is simple:

Give a token homework grade (like ~ 10%) for participating and make everything in the final grade else be based on original projects and tests. Make the students use given files.

Then, if they cheat, they only cheat themselves.

That philosophy is a-typical in hiring managers. I've seen too many hiring managers who want that recent college grad (specifically a 22 to 24 year old grad), since he/she will work 80 hours a week without complaining about it. The person with 15 years of experience wants more money and a more reasonable work environment (like spending time with his/her family).

At my last job, they laid off my entire team, except for the guy who graduated 2 months before and lived for the job. No girlfriend. No hobbies.

Also, 3 years out of the job market is considered to be your fault by hiring managers, no matter what. It doesn't matter that you couldn't find a job. And often, people are willing to make ridiculous compromises to get a job these days.

It's the same in the US. In the US, the test is supposed to mimic driving conditions in Southern California. 70 degrees F ambient. Statistical mix of hills, flats and valleys, for Southern California.

All done on a rolling road.

Your mileage may vary.

As an American, I once saw a profound vision of the future, which shows how the Americans of the future will truly get around.

I want my hoverchair, darn-it!

Wow! While I am amused by the theft of 80,000 lbs of nuts, I wonder what it has to do with Slashdot's mandate. Is there some secret walnut sniffing device being deployed? Are they using formerly secret walnut scanners?

Or am I missing something?

As an engineer, I believe that Scott Adams has it right, once again.

I seem to remember that there was an offer to fly generators in from a US Aircraft Carrier (I believe the Enterprise) that was anchored off coast. I also seem to remember the offer being turned down by the Japanese government, since they had generators on trucks enroute. I think they also had a problem with all the coolant wiring being flooded.

I know the trucks didn't get there until the next day, since the roads were a mess, and by then it was too late to do any good.

"makes it very easy for nations to monitor traffic."

Mr. Kettle, you are black. Sincerely,
Mr. Pot.

P.S. We need all you nations that are worried about dissent to worry about copyright infringement instead.

But not 82 year old nuns apparently