And paper and pencils aren't either. Chalk and slate boards do just as well, don't they?

WiFi is a part of modern life, and is only likely to become an even greater part of these children's future. By crippling their access to it at school you are doing nothing to help them prepare for the rest of their life.

I lost a grandfather, and he was a prolific reader. So I want to remove the scourge of books from schools because they must have caused his death. I realise this is nonsense and illogical, but just let me have this one. Another parent I know lost a mother to pencils. Let her have this one. And I heard about a guy whose son died from arithmetic. Let him have this one. Our school now doesn't give much education, but at least us parents feel better.

You can have every sympathy in the world for this father's loss. It's terrible for him. But he has no right to enforce what is nothing more than a manifestation of his grief on everyone else's education.

And who are you? How are we identifying you? We're talking about a currency here with a billionaire "Satoshi Nakamoto", who no-one knows for sure who the hell is.

A currency that allows for that level of anonymity doesn't lend itself to taxes.

How would you feel about your customers sending tracking images to you with orders/complaints/queries? Just to "fine-tune" whether they deal with you again? I imagine it could be statistically enlightening to see how quickly you open emails, how often, and how long the response takes. Not so keen?

I appreciate your efforts to ensure that your emails lists are on target and not spammy, many companies are not so diligent. (Particularly with confirmed opt-ins.) But you have no automatic right to collate any further information about your customers unless they intentionally provide it. Tracking images are sneaky and most certainly not used by your customers intentionally. There is a reasonable expectation of privacy when reading your own email on your own computer.

You're right about two things though. The days are long gone when spammers cared about whether an address was valid or not. They are not incurring any costs spamming to invalid addresses. All they care about is how many suckers they hook with a response. And yes, the cached image hits are yet more information being sucked up by google, that will inevitably be sold in some way in the future.

I think you'll find the extrapolation of choice by all crazy people was that it would lead to people marrying goats.

Which was kind of like saying if a shop offers the choice of buying bread or milk, that will inevitably lead to the sale of heroin and automatic guns.

If only the OP had mentioned this useful and relevant function, you could have read it there.

How to get modded informative; repeat what the OP says.

Well done.

The value of your insight is severely compromised by your idea that you can quantitatively measure "good music acts" and "quality musical artists".

The quality of the act and the music they play is almost entirely a matter of opinion. It cannot be measured without being influenced by your taste in music. Therefore you cannot demonstrate in any meaningful way that they are increasing in number.

Fact is, the "boy bands" and "talentless whores" you describe will continue to make money because people are willing to pay them. Even when playing live. Your evaluation of their quality makes zero difference to their business model.

I was all for it until you mentioned his dinner. At that point a line was crossed!

This guy does nothing to deserve our sympathy. He was on the school grounds, using the school's tennis courts after being specifically told he did not have permission to be there. Then he decides it's a good idea to plug into the school's electricity to get a free charge for his car. What kind of thinking allows him to do that? And when he's called on it, he gives the cop grief.

He knew exactly what he was doing, and he knew he had no right to that electricity. We only have his word for it that it was only 20mins charge. He could have been doing this every day for weeks. Anything that happened to him is a result of him purposely being a dick.

Privacy as a right is not an absolute unchanging concept because "privacy" is not an absolute concept. It changes.

Someone's idea of privacy in Victorian London 1880 may not to be regarded as either a right, or even reasonable, in Atlanta in 2013. Whether it's a change for the better or worse is a matter of opinion, of course.

There is nothing to suggest that the concept of "privacy" won't continue to change in the future, while still remaining what people think of as a right. Obviously your example is extreme and unlikely, but if it becomes common place for others to enter your property, then your expectation of privacy there may become questionable.

amateur = not full time job. Done in a minority of their time either unpaid, or for extra cash.

professional = a full time job. Majority of days spent doing this as a living.

It's not an evaluation of their talent, it's a simple matter of how much time they can devote to it, and how much they can invest in it.

The Rolling Stones are hardly a typical example, and I'm sure Toronto love it, but not exactly helpful for everyone else.

So you are suggesting that musicians, rather than being on a commission based on sales, become employees of some music company, paid by the hour? Like, say, a programmer. It's an idea. But people tend to disparage treating music as a production line. They value the freedom given to an artist. That's what makes them special.

Or are you saying that musicians become amateurs, and fit in their hobby around their real living? Again, an idea, as long as everyone is happy to accept that no-one really has the time to produce as much music, or devote a lifetime to mastering it.

You are placing all the value of music in its ability of being written by amateurs, performed by amateurs, played and enjoyed in a pub, with beer. That's a really narrow definition of music.

Not all music is like that. Not all music lovers are like that. Some music really does take full time professionals to compose and master. Some music you really don't want to listen to in a pub.

Or maybe it's just some guy on the internet who holds an opinion? Sometimes the opinion is unpopular and contrary to others. Sometimes it appears incorrect (depending on your evaluation of the facts). Sometimes, like many personal opinions, it isn't entirely unbiased.

It can happen, isn't illegal, and kind of the point of having the discussion.

I didn't. You've got the wrong address. Or I am someone who had it delivered to the wrong address on purpose, so I can steal it.