OTOH, my daughter will NOT get the cervical cancer vaccine, because HPV is preventable in behavior

Who is at risk for HPV?

Anyone who is having (or has ever had) sex can get HPV. HPV is so common that nearly all sexually-active men and women get it at some point in their lives. This is true even for people who only have sex with one person in their lifetime.

How do people get HPV?

HPV is passed on through genital contact, most often during vaginal and anal sex. HPV may also be passed on during oral sex and genital-to-genital contact. HPV can be passed on between straight and same-sex partners --- even when the infected person has no signs or symptoms.

Most infected persons do not realize they are infected, or that they are passing HPV on to a sex partner. A person can still have HPV, even if years have passed since he or she has had sexual contact with an infected person. It is also possible to get more than one type of HPV.

Of course their wage base is slightly higher than us mere mortals.

US Household Income

According to the Census ACS survey, the median household income for the United States was $50,502 in 2011, the latest data available.

US Per Capita Income

The ACS 1-year shows the per capita income in the United States was $26,708 in 2011, the latest year available.

I don't understand this "I don't want to be recorded" that people always go on about with this. Seriously, what is so special about you that a stranger would want to record you?

-- The Segway. The Bluetooth headset. The pocket protector.

What do these three technologies have in common? They all pretty much work as promised. They all seem like good ideas on paper. And they're all too dorky to live.

Now, far be it from me to claim that nerdiness equals lack of popularity potential. But I contend that dorkiness and nerdiness are two different qualities. While nerdiness implies a certain social awkwardness that's ultimately endearing, dorkiness connotes social obliviousness that opens you to deserved ridicule.

Or just as likely, they just faked the data.

Or how about a class action lawsuit?

Internet was in many households long before Microsoft implemented it on the "commodized PC platform".

In 1990 the Internet had existed for only 7 years; just 3 million people had access to it worldwide. 73% of these people were living in the United States, 15% were in Western Europe.

LibreOffice comes pre-packed in most Linux distributions. If you want OpenOffice you have to download it from Apache.

There's no more Carl Sagan, no more Bill Nye on television, nothing except Mythbusters to inspire future generations of engineers and scientific thinkers.

So instead of drawing a cartoon face yourself, which is something everyone can do...

It's just like the horror that is Microsoft Song Smith, where Microsoft wanted to automate the "tedious chore of composing music" by letting a computer generate tunes instead.

only allow individual human beings to donate to campaigns, and then only in campaigns they can vote in. Bam, money out of politics instantly.

I'm not sure this is the best example, because congresspeople would have another incentive to support the measure: all of their home town local shops will have also been calling them up (and directing their customers to do so as well) in support of it,

Senators who voted last week for the bill allowing states to directly collect taxes on sales via the Internet, AKA The Marketplace Fairness Act of 2013, received 40 times as much campaign donation money (yes, that's four-oh, not just four) from businesses in favor of the bill as those who voted against it received from businesses that were against Internet sales taxes. Was this bribery? Of course not!

Monsanto has a policy...that prohibits farmers from saving or reusing the seeds once the crop is grown. Farmers must buy new seeds every year.
That's a very harsh policy and they probably charge a premium for their seed, it must be tough to be a farmer nowadays.

You need to set the price as high as possible to sell otherwise unsellable stuff. Caviar, escargots, oysters....

Unlike in Europe, oyster consumption in North America after colonization by Europeans was never confined to class, and oysters were commonly served in taverns. During the early 1800s, express wagons filled with oysters crossed the Allegheny Mountains to reach the American Midwest. The oldest oyster bar in the United States is Union Oyster House in Boston, which opened in 1826. It features oyster shucking in front of the customer, and patrons may make their own oyster sauces from condiments on the tables. It has served as a model for many oyster bars in the United States.

By 1850, nearly every major town in North America had oyster bar, oyster cellar, oyster parlor, or oyster saloon --- almost always located in the basement of the establishment (where keeping ice was easier). Oysters and bars often went hand-in-hand in the United States, because oysters were seen as a cheap food to serve alongside beer and liquor.

By the late 1880s, an "oyster craze" had swept the United States, and oyster bars were prominent gathering places in Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Denver, Lousiville, New York City, and St. Louis. An 1881 U.S. government fisheries study counted 379 oyster houses in the Philadelphia city directory alone...