The corn syrup thing is just a myth. They switched from sugar to corn syrup five years before the introduction of New Coke.

You get a nice certificate and nothing else. The IAU hasn't even started the process to create the procedure to name exoplanets.

So if you owe someone in the US money, they have to accept its value in US dollars to settle the debt.

This only applies to debts owe to one of the levels of the US Government. Private parties can reject US currency for any reason, else signs like will not except dollar bills larger than $20 would be illegal.

Yes. And the penalties are awesomely high when you're caught.

Probably not since there wasn't a person called Merriam Webster name is from the Merriam publishing company's purchase of the Webster dictionary publishing license after the death of Daniel Webster.

A Webster, yes. Two different Merriams, yes. A Merriam Webster, no.

This is true for Brazil only. There are no official retailers of the iPhone in Argentina due to import restrictions

Either way it wasn't a technical issue with the screw, but a business issue between Ford and Robinson.

Ford wanted to use the Robinson since it was shown to be a better screw for mass production, but couldn't come to an agreement with him to license the screws in order to allow them to be made in sufficient quantity for Ford's manufacturing use.

So Ford moved on to another screw type.

From the article all that's dying is likely the name. The same technologies will still exist and be limited to Xbox and Windows only. No OpenGL.

"[D]igging up the streets, put the wires in" is considered a fixed costs because the cost doesn't change whether you have one customer or a million. It's not a recurring fixed cost, but it is a fixed cost.

Yes and no. Only the first $11,725 owed to you has a priority. The rest is considered unsecured and it leaves you behind everyone else.

The company can file to increase the limit above $11,725, but it's not guaranteed it will be either accepted or will be filed.

Since AIG was re-organized, I'm pretty sure it's a different group of psychopaths and not the same ones that caused the collapse.

Sold is probably the wrong word here. The bank suffered a slow bank run and then the bank portion was seized by OTS/FDIC. That part was sold to Chase for $1.9 bil, which was a way below market price since all the non-secured assets were left with the holding company.

The rest of the company still exists and has been fighting the government ever since on taxes, the grounds for the seizure, etc.

I'm not a lawyer, but there would likely be case for a seizure without just compensation must be paid under the 5th Amendment. The courts consider patents to be property so invalidating all of them according to the courts would be the same as taking the patent owner's property (that they paid for via application fees and put money into defending). I don't know if they'd win, but they'd at least try to litigate on it.

There are probably other things that the Government would be sued for if they blanket invalidated existing patents, but I cannot think of any more at this time.