Here in Canada there are vast areas that can only be accessed by plane or ice road, so all the heavy hauling of equipment, gear, and non-perishable food gets set up in the winter. And yes, there are numerous vehicles sunk (though fewer than you'd think)- the semi's create a dip in the ice that can fracture when approaching the bank if you go too fast.

Actually, I'd argue that the Alberta provincial PC Party has moved (comparatively) centrist with their new leader. So much so that the more right wing elements were up in arms enough to do the usual take-their-ball-home conservative political party split (Alliance, Tea-Party) and formed the Wild Rose Party, a super-right wing party that basically said that they'd crap all over the urban centres to please their rural neocon masters.

Polls had them getting a solid majority, with up to 40% popularity, right up until the recent election. Fortunately for the rest of us, the 'undecideds' came out en mass and thumped them soundly, giving the PC's the province once again... hooray for reasonableness. Though I can hardly believe I just used the word 'reasonable' in describing any modern political process or outcome...

In this case, completely, 100%, totally illegal. You cannot represent yourself as Elections Canada when in fact, you are not.

It's almost like the legal system is set up to generate more and more lawsuits, isn't it? It seems like the people who are in charge of creating the laws have some sort of vested interest in keeping the legal system complex, thus requiring more and more specialists in law (I dunno, I'll use the term "Lawyers" to describe these specialists).

Remind me, what percentage of politicians are lawyers?

:-/

So your response to an individual who says that he doesn't trust someone who puts aside rational, scientific thought for a belief system in the "sky daddy" is that the rationalist is a "worshiper of selfishness" and that "Bit picture thinking is clearly out of the question for you." And you conclude with "You can thank the Sky-Daddy for some future event that hasn't happened yet."

You sir, are exactly the sort of anti-rational thought individual who is fighting tooth and nail to hold back progress of society and harm everyone* for your personal belief in a bunch of fairy tales told by a group of iron and bronze age desert wanderers. YOU are the problem- smell yourself before you start attacking others for not sharing your personal belief system.

We got nailed with a BSA audit, and we dutifully complied. We counted up all our licences, did a full systems audit, etc, and found we were out by 1 licence, which we purchased and listed as such on the audit. Note that the audit requires you to do a complete licence count back to Windows 95 and such- things that are 15+ years old.

The BSA's response? "We don't like some of your keys, so trot out all purchase records back to 1998." This was two years ago. We keep financial records for 7 years, as required by law, so we did not have receipts back that far. According to the BSA, we are therefore out of compliance, and have to repurchase the software.

We said to them, "we're done with this, this audit has cost our company thousands of dollars in effort, and will no longer comply with your requests." Haven't heard back from 'em since.

I've used both extensively (I work for a book publisher), and I feel just the opposite. e-ink displays seem muddy and washed out to me in anything less than direct sunlight- though I will admit they look great in sunlight. But where LCD shines (cough, sorry for the pun) is in page turns- that half-second pause for each turn makes moving past the CIP, index, and title pages irritating. And if your'e trying to read anything other than a novel, getting 100 pages in can be a nightmare. We make reference books that basically are for all practical uses unusable on e-ink devices.

As well, I find that personally, I run into low light situations far more often than over bright ones. I remember taking a flight, and the person across the aisle from me had a Kindle but due to his reading light not working, he had to pack it away and not read for the 4 hour flight. I read an ebook while listening to tunes on my iPad, then switched to a movie, and kind of chuckled to myself.

I know you said "specifically for reading ebooks", but I also find the fact that the iPad (and presumably the Fire, though I haven't used one of them yet) can do so much more than a simple e-reader that picking one of them up is a far better idea for most people than a single-use device. Your milage may vary tho.

Radical. What do you think we are, barbarians?

I hope my post has in no way offended you, and if it did, I offer my sincere apologies.

"Juggers coming! Juggers coming!"

...now all we need is a dog skull, and we're all set.

I used to work as an in-school tech at a Junior High School, and to this day I remember being in the lunch room one day and hearing one of the teachers proudly comment on how they always waited a minute or two after microwaving food, so that the microwaves could "dissipate". This lead to a discussion of the 3 or 4 teachers around about what things worried them- with the emissions from the smokestacks of the local refineries being the winner after some discussion.

Then one of them pipes up, no word of a lie, and says, "I hate when those smokestacks are billowing smoke out, but I hate it more when they're not- who knows* what they're emitting when you can't see it!"

/facepalm