How about "Some people want to feel safe, so if people are willing to pay to get screened before boarding a flight, then the service should be available.". For the rest of us I don't mind a basic metal detector + bag scan without all the shoe and liquid nonsense.

After deregulation, In all EU countries there is an "infrastructure manager" (IM) They are responsible for maintaining and expanding the telecom infrastructure. They charge ISPs for using their infrastructure. The ISPs buy this capacity and resell to individual consumers.

Why does this work? The IM is ONLY responsible for infrastructure and it's in their interest to fulfill the market need for more capacity if such a demand exists. Thus it's in their interest to EXPAND coverage and infrastructure because that's how they make money. They're a regulated monopoly.

In the US...

The monopolies (AT&T, Comcast, Verizon) are responsible for both expanding infrastructure AND selling access to end-users. This means that it's in their interest to sell as much end-user service as they can, using the least amount of investment possible. It's not in their interest to expand capacity, unless someone kicks them in the ass because of a lack of capacity.

NB. In the EU, the IM can be an old state telecom that has been privatized. Sometimes a part of the company is also an ISP, but the accounting books must be separated. This type of deregulation works a lot better in some countries than others. The system is not perfect, but IMO it's a lot better than the one in the US.

Petrol is not taxed (as heavily) in the US as it is in Germany, it's not subsidized. This, however, does give an advantage to the automobile. Oh yea, the USofA also goes to war over petrol while Germany and some other EU members try to stop using petrol. But I digress.

This is more of a cultural issue. I bet in Germany the % of those paying would be a lot higher, unlike in the anglo-saxon counterpart countries.

Old Soviet Jokes about the Chinese Space Program: 1. There is a knock on the door in the MIR space station. The cosmonauts open the door and see a Chinese guy. They ask him: "How did you get here". He responds: "Simple you see. We built a human pyramid" 2. TV Bulletin: "Yesterday, the Chinese launched their first satellite into space. During the launch, 2.45 million Chinese suffered a hernia."

Sounds like a good idea.

If you are investing in LED lighting, which is superior to CFLs, please be sure to also match your screens with LED backlighting. You want the highest CRI on your light sources. Sunlight color temperature is 5500K, incadescent is 3300K. The post about 4200K is spot-on.

Dimmable light sources are a must.

Oh, and consider screens that are color-correct. I have 2 monitors on my desk right now and only one of them is easy to calibrate for colors properly. 42" industrial panels for the video wall will probably be more cost-effective and easy to replace without mounting headaches as the standards are well-established now.

I am designing a NOC as well, so I am looking into this as well.

That would be the silly "Legal Notice" in the local paper. It generally serves no purpose beneficial to the business owner. It helps data miners who sell this data on newly created businesses to their customers.

I've never bothered complying with that requirement when creating businesses.

A corporation would have to file that legal notice as well.

That statement likely means "You normally have to pay for it, but now you can access wsj.com at no extra charge from a Starbucks-hosted network in addition to the rest of the Internet". I don't think that's a bad thing. :)

Please see http://www.highwayrobbery.net/ for details (it's a site about how to beat these tickets).

Short version: these cameras decrease safety. Someone was kind enough to rear-end my vehicle for stopping at the end of yellow. In another case, a police vehicle nearly smashed into me. If there was no such camera, I would have behaved differently.

Last year I flew around 115K. Domestically, mostly in First, because of free upgrades. Internationally, upgrades are harder, but if you have status, it gets easier.