That was the point I was trying to get at. The shear number and complexity of laws means that laws get broken all the time without anyone even knowing it.

The only thing that has saved us from this problem so far is that it's not (currently) possible to enforce 100% of the laws 100% of the time.

Red light cameras made it possible to achieve 100% enforcement of only a single law, and look at the mess that created.

The fact that it's possible to make a profit from catching crimes (for governments and contractors) only makes the problem worse, because it provides an incentive to make it easier for people to accidentally break the law (by shortening the yellow lights for example), in order to extract more value from their investment.

Yes, that's exactly how the police see it: If you are black, you are automatically guilty and can be shot on the spot, if you are white, you are probably innocent

I don't know about Georgia, but in some states, if the cop who pulled you over ISN'T the the same cop that actually measured you speed, (one cop on an overpass, one cop on the road, for example) and only the ticket-writing cop shows up to court, you can get the ticket thrown out as hear-say

(Because the ticket-writing cop who showed up to court up isn't the person who actually measured your speed, he can't testify how fast you were going, he can only testify how fast he was TOLD that you were going.)

Every year, the ability for law enforcement to detect crimes and enforce laws gets better, but the laws themselves don't change.
Perfect enforcement of imperfect laws is a recipe for disaster.

The Islamist terrorist groups perform attacks in order to limit free speech, and in response, these counties help the terrorists along by limiting speech even further?

Who's side are these guys on anyway?

I was making a joke too (at Sony's expense)

I doubt anyone has forgotten.

A stubbed toe can be more important than a war, when it's YOUR toe that's been stubbed.

In related news, home rental is increasing, while home ownership is decreasing, despite the fact that a mortgage is cheaper than rent.

If there was a companion video game to go along with the movie, there would be some mention of it in the leaked Sony emails.

Warm, dry, clean, well-fed, not being hunted, sex partners shipped in from all over the world....

Sounds like a luxury hotel when compared to a rainforest.

I watched the video, and what he shows is physically impossible.

It is simply not possible to get a full-wave 20kHz signal out of a standard 44kHz sample rate, unless the equipment is literally "making up" parts of the curve on the fly.

Throughout the video, at no point does he mention WHICH sample rate he is using. He could be using something significantly higher than CD audio's 44kHz sample rate, which WOULD give a smooth curve on a 20kHz signal (but it would also be cheating)

It's like taking someone running at 10 footsteps per second, filming them at 5 frames per second, and yet still somehow capturing all 10 footsteps (even though some of the footsteps MUST have occurred BETWEEN frames)

Depending on how it is taxed when being returned (as a gift), vs. when it was originally awarded (as an award), he may actually end up owing MORE taxes.

For example, if the original award was estimated to be worth $1 million, he will have "donated" $1 million worth of assets, however it is now worth $4.7 million, which means he will have received $4.7 million in "gift income" that he has to pay taxes on.

This doesn't even take into account the possible difference in tax rates between gifts and awards.

I would argue that the internet itself has caused a dramatic change. The only reason we don't notice it yet is because we are at the very beginning of that change.

It allows a collective level of thinking never before possible at any point in human history. Never before has it been possible for a large group of very smart people scattered all over the world to collaborate on an idea in real-time without ever meeting face-to-face.

It is social interaction that has driven changes in human society, and if you accelerate the social interaction, it will accelerate the social change.

We have seen smaller examples of "jumps" in social interaction speed before, like the invention of the written word, followed by the printing press, the radio, and the TV. Each one of these inventions accelerated the rate of social change even faster than it was before, and as long as we continue to advance in technology, we will continue to increase the speed of social interaction (which also accelerates the rate of technological advancement, creating a feed-back loop).

I predict that the world 100 years in the future will be FAR more different than 100 years in the past. We are already seeing signs of it within a single generation (Millennials, vs. Gen Xers vs. Boomers) with each generation being progressively more different in their way of thinking than the previous generation. If you go back more than 300 years ago however, you don't see very much difference in thinking between generations.

What is COG?

Quitting is usually not an option, because there are bills to pay. It's called "wage slavery". Sure, you are "allowed" to quit a job whenever you want, but it could mean losing your home and all your worldly possessions.
Being homeless and starving might be preferable to being bull-whipped by your owner, but it's still not happy times.

There is a difference between creating a sustainable business based on toll roads, and simply taking advantage of a temporary wrinkle in the supply/demand curve.

  Just because you can take advantage of a temporary situation, and make some quick cash, doesn't mean it's a profitable endeavor under normal circumstances.