Yeah, how much? I'd bet my time is worth far more than the ad revenue they get from me. For instance, Super Bowl ads this year averaged $4M/minute to reach an audience of 111M viewers. So that's $4.34/hour/viewer. For the Super Bowl. So let's assume the cat-video-watching audience is worth more than the Super Bowl watching audience. For my $2/month subscription I'd be able to skip 25 minutes of solid ads. Again, no-brainer, at least for me.

I'd definitely pay $2/month to remove the damn ads. Same goes for Hulu - why don't they have this option?

It's a system where by bringing a lawsuit, the plaintiff self-insures that they are not bringing a frivolous or unlikely-to-win lawsuit: http://ankoj.blogspot.com/

Because human lifetimes are limited, and the value-to-you goes to zero when you die.

"That place is so popular that nobody goes there anymore."

I just got a Solo Wheel - it's harder to learn than you'd expect by looking at the videos (way, WAY harder than learning to ride a Segway, which was pretty much instantaneous for me.) But it's an absolute blast once you do learn, and the one nice day that I've ridden around in public, I had dozens of strangers coming up to me and asking all sorts of questions.

I really want one of the RYNO Motors gadgets next - planning to ride one of those all over Burning Man.

And this thing looks like a blast as well, but those treads look dangerous as hell!

I would like any food prepared in a plant that is reputed to be haunted (built on a burial ground, or had any particularly gristly deaths on premises,) to be labeled as such. There's no harm in doing so, and that way I can at least make an informed decision whether to put that into my body.

http://betsofbitco.in/ has no restrictions on location. They're probably totally legal here as well, because except for sports gambling, and futures markets specifically, there are no US federal laws prohibiting gambling. Several laws (The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006, The Federal Wire Wager Act, 18 U.S.C. 1084) prohibit the transfer of funds by wire for purposes of gambling, but gambling itself is only regulated at the state level (with the two specific exemptions above.)

They're being used quite a bit for online gambling because they allow for instant deposits, instant withdrawals, zero risk of charge-back, and for some online casinos, provably fair wagering.

Actually, that's more or less true - a number of studies have found that blue (color of food, color of room, etc.) suppresses appetite. Some molds are blue, so it's plausible that there's an evolutionary advantage to being disgusted by blue food.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission regulates all futures trading in the US, and does so quite aggressively. However, they can't sink their claws into Bitcoin: Try http://betsofbitco.in/ for a US-friendly idea futures site.

I don't know if the FBI is interested in scams, but banks are not. This summer I noticed a "too good to be true" Craig's List ad (a pair of brand new jet skis for $3000) and decided to see how the scam worked. I baited the scammer who wrote back with a story about being shipped off to Afghanistan and needed to sell the jet skis right away. He suggested using an "escrow agent" and sent me details for a wire transfer.

The bank for the "escrow agent" was a JP Morgan Chase branch in Petaluma (?) California. I got ahold of the branch and explained what I had done, and said "I know you can't give me details on one of your customers' accounts, but I bet there have been wire transfers into this account, and in-person cash withdrawals for the same amount from it - am I right?" They confirmed (oops!) that that was the case and put me in touch with their fraud division.

After explaining the whole story to the fraud division, I suggested they set up a sting: Make their online banking site report that I had made a $3000 deposit, let me know when that had happened, and I'd tell the scammer that I had made payment. When he shows up at the branch to withdraw the money, nab him.

The bank never called back.

If PETA thinks that Pokemon is bad, I would like to direct them to this so-called game that makes a sport out of tipping cows! I would like to encourage PETA to protest my game in the most vocal way possible, because, damn, it's tough getting free press for a gambling game. Get it on Slashdot, on Gamespy, on CNN and on Time Magazine's site. Please? PETA? I'll give you a soy cookie!