I despise CFL lights. I figured that it was fluctuations in the power that were frying the inverter circuit. People didn't believe me until I started writing the dates I installed the bulbs on the bulbs.

I also hate that 99.9% of the population simply tosses bulbs out in the garbage and now that mercury is in my food.

Another argument:

Since the infrastructure is owned mostly by the public, removing net neutrality is a regulatory taking against all the public and therefore having anything other than net neutrality would require just compensation to all the public.

This isn't a musical instrument they are attempting to create, it's a musical brain capable of playing instruments (digitally).

One thing is, if you start getting rid of all those musical jobs, the career starts looking worse, and little Billy who's a talented musician might decide to become the next Justin Beiber instead of the next Beethoven.

FTFA, "The fear is that electric vehicles are so silent that blind people can't hear them coming,"

Am I a bad person for laughing when I read the parent thread?

Hey man, look at what I just found! They were just sitting over there on that wall, a whole pile of free legos!

Oh, come'on, what a lame argument. Your local gas station owner could always switch companies (especially if he's environmentally responsible). Also, he's probably a millionaire and can afford to lose some business. Finally, even if all of us "morally outraged" people quit buying BP gas, we're such a small segment of the overall population they'd only see a small dip in their profits anyways. Basically, you're demonstrating the classic example in psychology of a narcissistic personality, "If I stop buying gas from them, they'll go out of business." Also, you're acting like a victim. "There's nothing I can do about this that won't hurt me more than I'll hurt them."

No, because typically politicians are not ugly.

I find it funny how a bunch of geeks instantly lose sight of reality when you talk about "the future." There would still be plenty of things that have value in a "replicator" society. Land (which some people want to own miles and miles of), natural resources (so that you can replicate entire fleets of cars), rare resources (who wants to design a circuit board with copper when you could be using platinum!) Sunlight, wind and other sources of energy (replicators sound a lot like teleporting pieces together to me)

But the fact of the matter is, there's never going to be a physical replicator any time soon.

It can probably be helpful in the same vein as the patriot act, warrant-less wiretapping, and many other government uber-powers.

While I generally feel the government shouldn't be in charge of raising our kids, they ARE in charge of educating them (if your kids go to public school).

Also, unlike so many other government programs and tax breaks, this actually helps out poor families more than rich families. If little Delray can make money by studying, he's less likely to go "hang" with a bad crowd and steal money. He even has a chance to help provide himself with a better life now AND later.

I agree, the Pope is bunk.

-- A Lutheran

I always figured it was an ironic statement. You know, we trust God, but nobody else at all. Especially not politicians.

My time is worth $15 an hour (plus benefits). My time alive is priceless. (But I haven't lived while suffering cancer, either)

Actually, counting it as a percent is idiotic. If you have 1000 viewings of a show with 1 commercial, and a 1000 viewings of a show with 50 commercials... which show has better commercial coverage?

The one with 1 commercial. Scarcity increases value. I watch every commercial that pops up on hulu. I watch 5 seconds of commercials on TV.

At college, the school did exactly this. They shut down every computer that was infected. If you get into a car accident on the highway, you might get your license suspended. So why shouldn't you be responsible for your actions online?

But at college, they also did all the things you mentioned. Also, the local police monitored the connections, because a week into the semester, the police came into my class to arrest a freshman for downloading things of an illegal nature.