Given how pro-patent the Federal Circuit has been in the past, this is noteworthy. Remember that it was the Federal Circuit who opened the gateway for software and business method patents.

I have a suspicion the supremes are a bit peeved at them right now for all the shitty decisions they've been making since the 90's, and they really are concerned that their authority will be undermined by the SCOTUS' recent decisions and the lower courts applying them.

The way I see it, this is basically them saying, "Hey everybody, we're still relevant!"

Math is big. It encompasses everything from continuous (calculus) to discrete (logic). It abstracts even from there into levels only mathematicians would understand.

People who don't know math think it's just calculus or just algebra or just linear algebra or just abstract algebra or some other high level mathematical discipline. They forget that working with integers is math. Set theory is math. Graph theory is math. Boolean logic is math.

Math is more than all those things combined. it is, at its core, the perfect application of rules unto objects. The rules can be arbitrary. Rules themselves can become objects by moving to a different level of abstraction. But it doesn't matter. It's all still math. As long as there's a rule and an object, it's math.

Anyone who has any relationship to a computer that doesn't understand this is not suitable for working with (but not necessarily on) computers. That is to say, it's like asking a car salesman to devise the final layout of the parts of a new car model. You might just end up with the brakes in the glove compartment.

He's one of the founders of the current oligarchy, certainly.

Uh, no. Those aren't free. They're free for you the end user. But somebody pays for them. Just because it's not you doesn't make it automatically free.

In most cases, those people are called donors. Donors can be someone unaffilliated with the organization, or they could be the very same people providing the service. Likewise, donations can come in numerous forms like time, resources, goodwill, even money.

Sometimes, society pays, i.e. everybody pays. And when everybody pays so that only a few people benefit, that's when there are problems. Fortunately, none of those on your list fall into that category.

So no, those things you listed aren't free. To claim that they are free is to ignore the people who've paid for them so that they can be free for you.

Well yeah, they'll just collect all your phone's data and sell it to other companies instead.

I'll take an ad-encumbered game or an in-app purchase game that doesn't collect my info over one that has none of these but does. Of course, the ad-encumbered and in-app purchase required apps probably still collect my phone data for sale anyway.

$200? I'd start at $400 and negotiate from there. Somebody's gotta pay for those rising medical care costs after all.

MBA programs exist to line the school's coffers, which they then use to hire more administration (MBA grads). It's the biggest ongoing scam in education in the past 20 years.

I wouldn't be surprised if it is directly responsible for the soaring higher education costs.

Now, the Executive MBA program, that's different. That's where the new inductees into the ol' boy's club get to meet each other.

FTFY.

Google's doing exactly this, and Google's quickly backing off supporting net neutrality. I wouldn't look to them to take the lead. In fact, I'd probably shy away from any relying on corporations. They only do what's in their best interest, which if we're lucky, aligns with public interest. The EFF does good work, but I think the EFF is not very visible and probably could use a new PR/marketing guy along with a ton more money.

Net neutrality would largely be moot if there wasn't government-granted monopolies on internet infrastructure everywhere, or if the communications was declared an essential public utility (like water, sewer, etc.), or if ISPs were even given common carrier status (like phone companies). None of these things happened during Clinton's deregulation-happy administration when ISPs were just starting up, and now we've got yet another big mess on our hands (not nearly as large as the other mess, but it's still pretty damn big).

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

Now, if some domain squatter had taken over the name the moment the domain expired, that would be funny. Giving them 7 weeks is just ... well, sad.

You're mostly right, except that Warner Communications which owned both Warner Bros. Studio and Warner Music (Warner Bros. Records at the time) merged with Time Inc. to form Time Warner. They weren't bought; they're the "Warner" half of Time Warner, with Time Inc. being the other half.

But yeah, there were a ton of spin-offs and sales all through the 90's and 2000's.

Considering Miyajima is in the south, away from all the geological activity farther up north, the effect of the earthquakes will not be nearly as great.

Then again, volcanoes are an unpredictable thing. Even minor shifts of the crust can have major implications, if the shifting, however minor, is just right. Sometimes, it's a matter of when. But I'm sure there are instruments monitoring these things. If there was any change detected, it'd be on the news as well.

If yellowstone blows, the rest of the world would have the big problem. It'd basically start a nuclear winter. The last time one of those supervolcanoes blew, only something like 10% of the human population at that time survived.

Western USA would merely cease to exist.

On the other hand, it'd be just in time to counteract the effects of global warming.

Wow, TFS is copied almost verbatim from the first two paragraphs of TFA. The only difference is the awkward cutting and editing that ultimately contort and torture the prose in TFA.

Way to add value, editors!

How well did they do? You decide! From TFA:

Don't feed the troll. If the best counterargument to a logically stated position is simply "no", then there's no point in discussing this further.