This assumes that they will actually store any of it on their servers. It wouldn't surprise me if the information stayed only on the device or your computer if you wanted to sync with it. If it were Google making this device one would probably assume that, yes, they would be collecting the data and analyzing it in order to sell advertisements, but Apple generally seems content to no bother with your data as they seem content to make their money selling people $100 worth of parts and components for $300.

The problem with an association is once you get a group of established players forming an association they'll have little incentive to let new streaming companies join since it can only hurt the existing players, at which point we're back to square one with having multiple entities to deal with in order to get the music out. The other potential problem is that having a single association to deal with creates a monopsony which hurts the artists ability to get fair value for their work. Any new bands are probably going to get really bad deals as they can either put up with breadcrumbs or not have any of their music available on any of the member streaming services. Even established acts might have problems if there's no competitive pressure.

Personally I don't think it's an issue. There aren't that many different streaming sites out there right now and you'd think that most would want to make it as easy as possible to get new groups signed up. If an artist's manager can't handle dealing with this, what value are they actually providing to earn their pay? Smaller acts are probably used to dealing with dozens of different people when setting up gigs at various venues so I would imagine that anyone with half a brain could come to terms with a streaming site if they wanted to put a bit of effort in to do so.

According to the government's own environmental impact report there isn't any anticipated impact. From the report:

It sounds like this isn't the first time they've dumped there and that those prior events have not had any noticeable negative effects and that they've tested what's going to be dumped there to ensure that there aren't any contaminants. It's starting to appear as though this is just a lot of environmentalists throwing a fit for no good reason.

You should also include the ~$1B loss that Google incurred as operating expenses while owning the company. It's still worth taking a loss on the sale in my opinion and that patents that they acquired may well be worth even more than the loss. Motorola was going to continue bleeding money and placed Google in an uncomfortable position with the other hardware manufacturers.

It could be 40 kg, which converts to ~88.18 lbs. However, the author of the article may have just rounded it to down.

Or the more likely explanation is that it's just some arbitrary weight that happens to be close to 88 lbs. or 40 kg.

They were used to file a suit against Apple, not against claims made in an Apple filed suit. Defensively would be showing that they now had patents which covered their method for accomplishing those things which Apple accused them of infringing. Don't mistake deflecting a blow from throwing one of your own.

The composition of the milks are different. Cow milk contains more protein in general, and some proteins that are not found in human milk. Some people are unable to process those proteins. Also, intolerance to milk of any kind generally occurs later in life. If an individual were not able to digest it in infancy they would die and their genes would not be passed on. Perhaps with modern medical science, they would live, but this would not have been the case thousands of years ago.

They haven't done it directly as far as I'm aware, but they've essentially done so by proxy. I think they're the only company that's figured out that they won't make any money even if they do successfully sue someone as the lawyers will eat away most of whatever award they would receive and the case would still be tied up in appeals for years and years to eat away whatever's left.

Speaking of things which lack substance, your post is a prime offender. You make claims without support, which in this case turn out to be false as I was able to do some quick searching and found some the patents in question: # 6,557,054 and # 6,658,464. I was also able to locate the actual document filed with the court that lists the other four patents.

You're certainly entitled to your own opinions about the patent system, and while I'm sure I probably would agree with you on several points, your post is nothing more than a lazy attempt at preaching to the crowd that is wrought with inaccuracies or outright falsehoods. The OP is right that the linked article isn't very good and leaves out a lot of important information that would be useful to readers. It didn't take more than 10 minutes to dig up this information, so I question why the author of the actual article couldn't be bothered to find out this information.

Personally I doubt that these will hold up. I haven't specifically gone over all of the claims, but the abstracts make it appear as though there's likely prior art. One of the patents in question seems like little more than a description of a screen.

I'd tell him to pound sand until he can provide some answers about privacy protections and safeguards preventing the government from illegally spying on its citizens.

I was also interested and did a quick Google search and found a few different results:

Male-to-Female Transsexuals Have Female Neuron Numbers in a Limbic Nucleus

White matter microstructure in female to male transsexuals before cross-sex hormonal treatment. A diffusion tensor imaging study.

It seems as though there are some differences in the brain for transgendered individuals in that areas of their brain are more similar to the gender that they think they are rather than the brain of the gender that typically corresponds with their biological sex. It also appears (at least from these studies) that hormone therapy is not responsible for those changes. There isn't anything to suggest what causes this to occur, so it could be biological or social, but I doubt it would be largely due to social causes as that would seem to imply that people could become far more intelligent simply by acting like a genius. At the same time, I don't think it's genetic (or entirely so) either as it intuitively seems as though being transgendered probably produces a less fit individual as I can't imagine having to cope with your brain telling you that you're in the wrong body for your whole life making life easier, especially if everyone else treats you as though you're insane.

Simon LeVay also published some similar research about 20 years ago that examined differences in the brains of homosexual and heterosexual men, so some of that research might also provide some insight into what might cause the observed differences.

Replying to fix mod. This is a fairly spot on assessment. If 4K weren't 2 syllables I imagine that they would be using something else as well.

Funny you say that, but there was a story from a week or so back that just about amounts to that.

They're not, but when there are an ever increasing number of patents to comb through, it becomes impossible to determine if there are any out there that you violate. Add in a number of inane patents like "X, but on a computer!" and it just becomes cheaper to deal with the legal consequences after the fact. Whether a person thinks software should be able to be patented at all, I think everyone can agree that the system as it is needs an overall.

Although a sample size of one doesn't make for a good study, some of the results that this person has seen can help us gain a better understanding about the product. For example, is it typical that a person consuming 2400 calories will lose weight, even though their body only needs about 75% of that to maintain its weight? That might indicate that the Soylent is not being digested well or that it's have some other effects on the body.

At least this person took the time to document their experience. It's certainly added more to human knowledge than a snarky internet comment.