Surely the ability to keep America powered with "cheap" domestic oil is far more important than drinking water, right? I mean it's not like Americans drink tapwater, bathe, or eat vegetables anyway. Also, Beta sucks.

The fact that the government gets billed $15 million every time it's used to test a satellite when the actual testing cost is $130 and a half dozen doughnuts?

WHAT?

Yeah suddenly everyone is taking Crestor because Atorvastatin apparently is no longer good enough once the patent expires.

I'd like to nominate myself as much more random than some of the recent nominees.

"Wasting" time makes absolutely no sense when you consider that in the long run, we are ALL dead. Our parents. Us. Our children. There is NO future except for returning to the dust and ashes that make up our universe, only to eventually be transformed into iron-56 and sucked into the last black hole (or whatever). Therefore all that "production", all those "accomplishments", everything the human race ever was or shall be are mere meaningless fictions.

Where "production" and "efficiency" become important is where the politician, the priest, the capitalist, or any other person who wishes to enslave humanity to his will needs a tool with which to brow beat his peers, to stampede the herd in the desired direction - a direction that is always favorable to him, but not necessarily to the herd. When a man talks to me about how I should live my life and invest my time for the good of "all" he is either blindly repeating something he heard elsewhere, or is very obviously trying to take advantage of me.

The desire to achieve and to produce must arise from within through satisfaction and curiosity, not be enforced with the whip. Telling people they are "wasting time" is the whip.

Not really. Let me explain to you a little bit about Technetium moons and the OTEC cartel... seriously any economic player activity is a fraction of the passive wealth attraction created by harvesting Technetium from moons. While moon mining does not in itself create cash because the material must be sold, said material is in such great demand because of its role in advanced production there is always a market for it at any price. OTEC members could cease all "other things" and still finance all their activities from this passive mining. So the money/time argument isn't really valid in this case, whether the players log in or not they're rich enough to squish any upstart. The "other things" those players do with their time they do strictly for fun.

Exactly, they are destroyed in the hope of one side improving their economic efficiency by exerting a larger military influence/dominance in a region (if only by locking down a staging system and all the military hardware stuck in it) and another side preventing them from doing it. Of course when the ball starts rolling no one knows with certainty where it's going to stop. CFC came out on top this time for whatever reason, so they gain $200k worth of influence in the area. How this will affect the broader EVE economy is anyone's guess. Either way, grrr goons...lol

FUCK YOU. How dare you presume to have the right to decide what is "better" for other people to do with their time? Doing nothing at all has real value to any economy - it's called rest. Entertainment which you see as a total unproductive waste of time has real value to any economy - the entertained emerge as more satisfied individuals, better willing and able to cope with other tasks. Life is about balance, not production. And you sir are way, way out of balance.

No, but actually reading them might.

No I'm pretty sure that "foreign" languages exist so that people in "foreign parts" can communicate with each other, not simply to entertain and culturally enrich Americans. Besides you cannot learn "culture" through language. You have to actually er, live the culture. I don't base this on "stuff I saw on a travel documentary", I've actually lived all my life in several foreign countries and I am fluent in 4 languages. The "cultural enrichment" aspect of learning/speaking a foreign language is good only for the PTA meeting.

Yeah those poor banks, only earning an up to 3% "cut" of every single transaction, billing most of their customers for regular "transaction" fees, hardly paying out interest at all to savers, getting money for free from the government (because you know, they're too big to fail) and charging their debtors usurious interest. Poor, poor banks. Changing the terminals is so EXPENSIVE.

Seriously, they pass a regulation saying all terminals must be changed by x date and surprise, you the merchant are going to have to pay for it - didn't you read your contract? But it's ok we'll deduct the cost of the new equipment and installation directly from your account so you don't have to worry... This is how the real world works. Me big bank. You small business. Me screw you.

You are trying to secure something that is inherently insecure. Currency is not art. It is DESIGNED to be given to someone else. That's its function. Be it a coin or a cheque or a magnetic strip or a bunch of TCP/IP packets, there will always be a way to hijack currency simply because currency has to move from person A to person B. All you need to do is figure out how to stand between them. Theft is the ultimate "man in the middle".

Cost of breaches? My dear sir, haven't you noticed that banks are now too big to fail? There is no cost to anything for a bank. If there is a cash flow problem simply go talk to uncle Ben and he'll hand you another few interest free billions - much easier than actually having to work (gasp) for your money. Consequences are for the little guy. When he gets in trouble we buy him up cheap. But seriously do you know how HARD it would be to actually secure the network? It's not like the card holder is responsible anyway - at least not directly. We'll just destroy the value of his currency and the solvency of his government and pretend to fix the problems while doing nothing at all. It's better for everyone trust me.

You're in the right direction but not thinking radically enough. The US will want all financial transaction data everywhere. Cos, you know, "terrorists". Go on, let Uncle Sam into your wallet. Surely you have nothing to fear if you have nothing to hide, citizen. Oh by the way we've noticed you have too much money, more than your "fair share". Somewhere buried in the 13,000 odd pages of US tax code there's something you or your accountant missed, your money is ours now. Hand it over quietly and maybe we don't throw you in jail.