You know, opt you in, when you opt out, recategorize it, and since it's a new category, opt you in to the new category by default; wash, rinse, repeat.

"By default, you are opted in to share your GPS information; you are permitted to opt out after you realize we are collecting it."

"We now have a new category of information which we have opted you in to share by default called 'location'; you are permitted to opt out after you realize we are collecting it."

"We now have a new category of information which we have opted you in to share by default called 'position'; you are permitted to opt out after you realize we are collecting it."

"We now have a category of information which we have opted you in to share by default called 'venue'; you are permitted to opt out after you realize we are collecting it."

"We now have a category of information which we have opted you in to share by default called 'place'; you are permitted to opt out after you realize we are collecting it."

"We now have a category of information which we have opted you in to share by default called 'travelogue'; you are permitted to opt out after you realize we are collecting it."

"We now have a category of information which we have opted you in to share by default called 'iternarary'; you are permitted to opt out after you realize we are collecting it."

"We now have a category of information which we have opted you in to share by default called 'orienteering'; you are permitted to opt out after you realize we are collecting it."

"We now have a category of information which we have opted you in to share by default called '10-20'; you are permitted to opt out after you realize we are collecting it."

"We now have a category of information which we have opted you in to share by default called 'safety monitoring'; you are permitted to opt out after you realize we are collecting it." ...

-- Terry

If it's sprayed on, you can wash it off before you eat it.

-- Terry

Apparently no so impoverished as to be unable to afford a call center.

...your parents basement.

-- Terry

Access to space has been relatively controlled by economic expense. I'm pretty sure the real reason access space has been kept expensive and most recent designs have not been of the DC-X variety is to require use of runways and other infrastructure has to do with politics and fear of kinetic bombardment weapons.

I expect that Blue Origin, Masten, and others are likely aiming to change this, although I expect there to be prohibitions on sales of used vehicles to certain individuals and organizations (John Travolta was allowed to buy his 707 on a technicality).

-- Terry

lol

-- Terry

"The spokesperson would not name any other specific areas that are not labeled."

In related news, the members of the band "America" have issued a press release declining to give the name of the horse in the song "A Horse With No Name".

-- Terry

The government is effectively paying him $67M to take $4B and invest it in Singapore instead of the US.

More power to him, so long as the government is insisting on getting paid AMT or capital gains now on unrealized income from an appreciated investment which hasn't been sold.

The problem is that they want their poind of flesh now, rather than waiting for it to turn from an investment into "mall money" (money you can take down to the mall and spend).

I knew, though not well, a Netscape guy who was a paper multimillionaire when the Netscape IPO happened. In order to make it a long instead of a short term capital gain, and thus pay less tax, he did an exercise and hold, rather than a same day sale. Then the .bomb happened and the stock price tanked. So there he was with a couple hundred thousand in share value, and the government wanted their 35% of the $27M they valued it at at the time the options were exercised.

Eventually he killed himself, rather than going to Federal (debtor's) prison for tax evasion, since you can't dismiss taxes owed through bankruptcy.

Capital gains taxes as a matter of public policy are potentially defensible, even though they make you pay taxes on an investment of after-tax income and therefore amount to a surtax, but AMT is just asinine: the government can wait to get its money until I get my money.

-- Terry

I base it mostly on the fact that the people in charge did it more than once, and as far as I can tell, the same the same people are still in charge, despite exchanging their "Hi I'm Bob!" stickers for "Hi I'm Frank!" ones.

I'm still waiting for my Habeas corpus back from after 9/11: http://www.aclu.org/pdfs/safefree/patriot_report_20090310.pdf

While we are at it, I'd like the ability to make private phone calls again: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_641A

I'd also prefer U.S. citizens get tried and convicted before they are killed: http://www.mediaite.com/online/us-citizen-and-top-terrorist-suspect-anwar-al-awlaki-killed-in-drone-attack/

I do get why Obama failed to deliver on his Guantanamo Bay closure campaign promise: extraterritoriality buys you the ability to not enforce constitutional provisions for the prisoners. Not really sure how I feel about that one.

-- Terry

Just start Pharma patent terms after FDA approval. Apply the same to anything that's patented that requires regulatory approval, with the caveat that regulatory approval must be actively sought, and have a watchdog timeout to stop amendment based submarine patents (e.g. if you can't get it approved in 5 years, the patent expiration clock starts anyway). Problem solved.

-- Terry