Most TiVos (all?) are contract manufactured. My Series 2 was made by Samsung, and the cheap fan predictably failed after 2 or 3 years. Not long thereafter, the unit became flaky due to overheating; on a hot day it shut down. I disassembled first the unit and then the fan, and lubricated the fan. Reassembled, it worked fairly well, but the overheating had caused permanent damage and the unit completely stopped working a few months later.

My point is that TiVo isn't exercising sufficient control over their contract manufacturers/licensees, and the bad hardware, not TiVo's design, is responsible for poor reliability.

I have the impression that some VCRs and ADAT had FF->PLAY delay compensation, particularly since these tape machines needed to compensate for physical momentum anyway. What did the TiVo patent consist of, anyway? "Like a VCR, except with hard drives"?

Society consists of a large number of individuals. Would you mind explaining how any individual of a society, none of whom live on, depend on, maintain, or add value to, a particular piece of real estate, has any valid claim on that real estate that one man lives on, depends on, maintains and adds value to?

The fact that society consists of a large number of individuals does not confer upon them rights that not one of them has individually. All it gives them is the immoral power to violate the rights of an individual.

It's not GOVERNMENT BAD, IT IS LAZY LEGISLATION!

And what entity wrote the legislation?

I live in a small rural town, with maybe 500 yards of sidewalk. About half of it is between and near the school, library, and town hall. The town does indeed run a tiny snowplow to clear all the sidewalks - it's a question of safety and efficiency; it would be a bit foolish to insist everyone with a 50 foot frontage keep their own portion clean.

Assuming the square of concrete is 3x3 feet, that's 4.5 cubic feet of concrete if it's 6 inches thick. About $50 if you mix your own from bags from a local hardware store.

You didn't say how many squares, but this sounds like a do-it-yourself project, if you could get away with it.

The city I came from - Stamford Connecticut - bought the land from the resident (Shippan) Indians. The Indians forgot they had sold it and complained, so the settlers bought the land from the Indians again. And again. Net three times the Indians were paid for the land.

There's been plenty of nastiness on both sides; don't pretend otherwise.

Flood the market with fake rhino horn.

Abzug? Shame on you for missing.

Just corporations? Are you sure you don't also want to blame partnerships, sole proprietorships, and babysitters? Are you including charitable corporations in your attack?

Archaeologists are likely to insist that all findings be photographed and measured in situ, and the entire cave be dug out with low pressure air and camel's hair brushes. A big find might halt production for years or indefinitely.

Unless you know in advance how "authorities" are going to react, it's pretty much a crap shoot.

From all appearances, he didn't fill it with cement, he walled it off, which has at least 4 advantages.

• The limestone cave, with which the south is riddled, is left undamaged.
• The cave is not defiled by current investigators, who are likely to be incompetent compared to investigators who will look at the cave when it is rediscovered in a few hundred years.
• The time and money of whoever would investigate is not being wasted on something likely to be worthless.
• The time and money of both the builder and the owner is not being wasted.

undocumented, potentially important history (which belongs to us all)

There isn't a square inch of Earth which doesn't fit that description. This is just the noise of an interfering fussbudget, exaggerating the importance of his own pet peeve.

Mining rights vary by state.

If current US citizens had learned from history, we wouldn't be in the mess we're in now.

There are many practical difficulties to seceding a Hawaiian Island. One is that the US may not approve, and has the muscle to prevent it. Another is that once independent, he would need to have a defense force of some sort to protect from rogues who'd like to seize a paradise for themselves. On the plus side, tax advantages.