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Well said. This is why I am a staunch supporter of gun ownership, but own no guns myself. As a service to society, I have judged myself unable to bear the heavy responsibility.

But I am very happy other private citizens, who have stronger character, own guns.

I hadn't heard about the scientific progress of the Cambodians under Pol Pot. Progress must have occurred since mere LAWS could never stop it.

Sarcasm aside, I think you meant "regardless of idiotic laws and politics, as long as they are not TOO idiotic. " Unfortunately for all of us, it is very difficult to determine the exact location of the "TOO idiotic" line, and current politicians seem to be pushing as far as possible.

My wife and I make our own syrup. This year was a poor production year (we got HALF of what we usually get), prices have soared and thefts like this suddenly have a big payoff.

But the "darkness" is more complicated than just the reduction. Since it is the COOKING and not the reducing that caramelizes the sugar and makes syrup dark, you can make lighter syrup by reduction without cooking.

That's why light syrup is so easy to get now since most producers use reverse osmosis to remove some water before cooking (to save energy) and thus cook it for less time. In fact, I've heard of producers here that do so little cooking, they add molasses to the final product to darken it so it looks like homemade syrup.

The late season stuff (known as "bud syrup" because the trees have already started to bud out) is always darker than the early, but that matters much less than cooking method.

No. Syrup is about 11 pounds per gallon, therefore 10^6 pounds is 90,000 gallons. That's only 9 large tanker trucks. You are correct that something isn't right. But it's your calculation: you're off by 2 orders of magnitude.

I like ebooks. Convenient to get & search and you get modern functionality (font size control, updates, smart indexing, etc). What's not to like? Only one thing: Giving up paper copies means giving someone else control of your library.

Even if you "download" ebook content and keep it out of the cloud, how are you going to read it? Oh, just use a networked device which.... oh, right, that's a fail because devices in the future will not even display forbidden content (and will report your attempt). Never happen because devices like that don't exist and besides people wouldn't stand for it? I was once told no one can possibly keep track of the websites you visit because that mechanism didn't exist and besides people just wouldn't stand for it. How'd that work out?

Only paper can be hidden and read back later without electronic intermediation. That means ONLY PAPER CAN BE HIDDEN. History tells us all unhidden documents are eventually taken. So use your ebook to read the latest thriller/romance/pulp. But PRINT ANY BOOK YOU WANT TO GIVE TO YOUR KIDS.

There is no way to hide an eBook. If you cannot HIDE it, you cannot OWN it.

That which cannot be hidden will eventually be stolen.

Because "The Zuck" cannot go into a back room and pass a law which makes you a criminal based on the data in your record. A government can. And then it's too late to go back and NOT give over the data....

This is a weak argument. If they wanted to track YOU, this is certainly true. But if they wanted to track EVERYONE, then they'd need the kind of system described here. There is a fundamental difference between the 2 situations.

So they've convinced us that WASTEPAPER BASKETS must be plugged in at all times (shredders and so-called "electric dustpans"). And I see everyone out with gas-powered BROOMS. And even the SAP which drips freely from our maples is, in modern sugar houses, vacuum pumped to a tank.

And now there's 200 comments where the people are proud of their kilowatt server arrays which are powered 24 hours a day for their PHOTO ALBUMS? Are you people shitting me? I mean, you're putting me on, right? You don't really use up 10,000 kWH per year storing your family photos, do you?

Hey, I've just invented the electric elevator-button-pusher. I save a TON of finger wear and tear.

Sometimes, humanity makes me sad.

An eBook cannot be HIDDEN. History teaches us any book not hidden will, at some point, BE TAKEN FROM YOU.

Three thousand hours clicking on that mouse, collecting weapons and gold. It's almost as if it was a huge waste of time.

The article didn't say the subject of the tracking had to ask for it, just their family members. That's not consent. And if these people are incapable of giving consent, then THEY HAVE NOT GIVEN IT. And that's a problem.

How about we force YOU to wear one, for your own good of course. YOU may not agree, but all of us here who really care about what happens to you have decided for you. What's the problem? It's a voluntary program--it was voluntary for us.

Wow! What an excellent idea! I don't know why I didn't think of it. I'm going to stream my TV from Netflix from now on. What a savings! Hey, it's not going to be a problem that my wi-fi connection has a Verizon Wireless Mobile USB radio (that's the only high-speed internet of ANY KIND here), right?

What wonderful shows! I could easily find 60 hours of video for the month to be streamed on my 5GB data plan (the biggest they allow). What do you mean I owe Verizon $18,543?!