The most interesting aspect of MMORPG gaming is interacting with other players and attempting to influence the direction of the game by conversing with the game designers. That can occur at any level.

In WoW, the power of a character increases with the time spent playing the game. The power comes primarily through leveling to the cap and once at the cap it's from getting better gear. If you're able to start at the cap, then all the time that would have been spent leveling can be spent getting better gear, for a net increase in character power given the same time investment as a character that starts at level 1. However, for a serious raider, the time spent leveling to the cap is miniscule compared to the time spent playing at the cap, so the level skip does not make a difference in the long run, so I'm in agreement that there isn't a substantial pay-to-win aspect to this.

"A proof is a proof. What kind of a proof? It's a proof. A proof is a proof. And when you have a good proof, it's because it's proven."

Jean Chretien, former Prime Minister of Canada

The extra cost for a rental copy is not for the disc (or tape) itself, but rather for the right to rent out the movie to consecutive users. Should the original disc/tape be lost or damaged, then the replacement for the disc/tape would be the cost of the physical media. The privilege of renting out the disc/tape transfers from the lost/damaged disc to the new disc. The number of licenses to rent discs that the rental company has is unchanged.

In a rational world, anyway.

Arresting someone for theft under $10 ("Monster-In-Law" on DVD retails for about $5) seems to be a gross misuse of taxpayer dollars. A more efficient punishment would be to seize wages/tax refunds/etc. in the amount of the theft + some additional punitive amount.

http://dilbert.com/strips/comi...

How did they get the malware deployed onto thousands of POS terminals without anyone noticing?
After the malware collected the data, how did the POS terminals report the stolen data back to the controller?
Are these POS terminals just directly connected to the internet?

Janet Black: Doctor Manhattan as you know the Doomsday Clock is a symbolic clock face analogizing humankind's proximity to extinction, midnight representing the threat of nuclear war. As of now it stands at four minutes to midnight. Would you agree that we are that close to annihilation?

Jon Osterman: My father was a watch maker. He abandoned it when Einstein discovered time is relative. I would only agree that a symbolic clock is as nourishing to the intellect as photograph of oxygen to a drowning man.

Have to call BS on this. Anyone in WA can choose to observe the vote counting process. Fraud by one party could only occur with exceptional incompetence by other parties and independents.

http://www.secstate.wa.gov/elections/pdf/An_Observers_Guide_to_Washington_State_Elections.pdf

"Anyone has the right to observe any part of the election process. Major political parties also have a responsibility to provide observers to monitor the election process. A political party is designated as a major party if one of its nominees received more than 5 percent of the total votes cast for President, United States Senator, or a statewide office in a General Election in an even numbered year. Observers may watch all parts of the election including opening absentee ballots, counting ballots, and securing ballots. Prior to an election, County Auditors or Elections Departments contact the political parties to inform them of how many observers will be needed."

A consequence is that you don't know whether your vote was actually counted for the candidate you believe you chose, so long as the election results show that candidate receiving at least 1 vote.

If that is true, these people are the most cowardly and despicable people on the planet, because they have watched hundreds of millions of innocent children be murdered every year and done nothing effective to stop the murder. For example, they shop and work at grocery and drug stores that sell the tools that will be used to murder these children every night. If I walked into a store and saw a row of shelves with "Baby Killer 9000, 99.9% guaranteed kill probability, 12-pack, on sale for $9.99" then I'd go to the police and BBB to get that item removed from the shelves. I haven't seen any of these "believers" protesting at any store I go to.

I get the joke, but to be anal I think that it will be 2020 when four astronauts leave for Mars to bury the previous four. The ones who leave in 2018 will arrive with no bodies on the planet to bury. (There may be up to 4 bodies in the spacecraft.)

Agreed. For more examples, look at the salaries of executives at "non-profit" hospitals.

http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/compensation-issues/ceo-compensation-of-the-25-top-grossing-non-profit-hospitals.html

The government does not compel you to drive.
The government does compel caregivers to provide health care to you.

The Crimson Bolt might say: "Unless we increase human population to the point where we exceed the capacity of the planet, we can never know for certain what the maximum capacity is."

Suppose there was a minimum income tax amount of $N per year (where N is some number set by law and greater than 0). Thus the 47% number would be reduced to 0%, as every adult would pay some income tax, at least $1. Would that make Mitt happy? Or would he then find something else to complain about? Perhaps Mitt would then complain "Why do I have to pay more income tax than my housekeeper?