No, silly! They are the minions.

Mostly managers are the only ones with walls and doors, in the otherwise "open" floor plan.

Well, no, I'm pretty certain that the expensive workers, i.e. the management, doesn't participate in this "wonderful" floor plan.

I'd bet money that Zuckerberg, Bloomberg, and all their lawyers and accountants had sound proof walls and locking doors.

I find their selection is marginally different from Google Books or B&N. However, I also find that inevitably, Amazon has the lower price, for me, than those other two, so that is where I generally buy, especially if it is from an author, or on a subject, I'm not familiar with. Even though I know that Amazon is pandering to me to try to lock me in by habit at the expense of the authors.

For the authors that I know I like, I try to go out of my way to purchase as close to directly through them, or from their recommended source as I can.

I know that buying from Amazon is not in my long term best interest, but for a product I don't know that I will value, even as high as Amazon does, or for a product that I don't know gets any more money to the actual author, rather than just higher profits for the middle men, I'll put my near term interst over speculating that something else is a better long term strategy.

Or just maybe, what is currently in the short term best interest of the consumers, is not at all in the best interest of independent writers. And just maybe, when Amazon has put all of the other options out of business by pandering to the masses at the expense of the producers, Amazon, just might turn on the consumers and start to gouge them, once they have no where else to turn?

Soldiers and Sailors are cheap to replace and have no lobbying power. Sony, and more importantly MPAA, have loads of influence in D.C. We went to war based on WMD lies just to increase profits of Halliburton. You seriously think we wouldn't invade NK if MPAA really wanted it?

Um... that may be, but they've got nuclear warheads, and missiles capable of hitting a strategic ally that we still have some responsibility towards for defense.

You say that like you think Sony would care.

75MB symmetric, with all movie channels plus the junk that never gets watched but can't be declined, $230/month on Verizon FiOS in Dallas.

Plus still paying ~ 30% of income in taxes when income tax, property tax, sales tax, use fees, etc. are all considered.

I'm certain that it's because the current Libertarian Party platform has been hijacked by the Fascist Party and bears little to no resemblance to traditional libertarian values, policies, or ideals.

The Democrats and Republicans, however, have always been under the control of the Fascist Party, so their current actions (ignore the platforms, both parties already do) are consistent with their traditional views. The Greens have no coherent platform and are so inconsequential the Fascists haven't bothered with them.

If you think your local bar doesn't have cameras and audio recording covering most, if not all, of its premises, you're delusional.

Lawsuits, vandalism, and outright theft are too prevalent for any business owner not to take it seriously, and get everything recorded they can for later evidence, if needed. Heck several of the bars I go to, have cameras setup all over that stream constantly to the internet.

Understand this. If you are in public... YOU ARE IN PUBLIC. You have no reasonable expectation of privacy sitting in a booth or on a barstool. Your intimate conversation, business deal, or random chit chat is being overheard by everyone around you. Oh, and that guy wearing Google Glass? Yeah, he doesn't care about you and what you say or do any more than the other folks around, unless it's really juicy and worth immediately posting to YouTube, along with the other 5-10 people who will whip out their camera phones as soon as they notice you're making an idiot of yourself in public. Glass wearers either don't record 24/7, only turning on recording when something interesting is happening (just like everyone with their cell phones), or if they do record constantly, I can assure you they don't go back and re-watch all the boring minutia over again.

Maybe invent a flying car?

Of course not, that's why he's probably violently homophobic as well.

And I'm sure that he very secretly wishes he would be hit on by persistent females frequently, so he can't imagine why a woman would object to what would be his greatest fantasy.

Your torch goes out.

You are eaten by a Grue.

Because saving history is such a load of crap?

I guess if you never knew it existed, then you can't miss it, right?