That begs of the question of whether or not somebody else has the authority to make that decision for the patient. I contend that the answer is no, and that the original question is moot. An individual can choose whatever treatment they want, and if they die, well... they die. As long as no force or coercion is involved, it's fine.

> The only thing that leaving a computer on will do is get you a massive electricity bill.

So you're telling me that the sentient AI that I've been growing in my basement for the past 15 years.. isn't?

Well, f%!# me.... :-(

Indeed.

Please hope the Brits don't make first contact with ET, their track record isn't so hot when it comes to handling these things...

Why type a URL? We all have copy and paste. In all my years on the internet I've never used a URL shortening service or seen the need.

QFT.

Cool. Just don't drink the water.

> The only thing that would probably appease the EU is if a fork of MySQL was established that would allow an easy transition or as others have mentioned that MySQL is spun off.

Aren't there about a dozen forks of MySQL already?

> Do people not understand the concept of what identification is and why we need it?

I'm wondering if *you* understand the concept of identification and why we need it, to be frank. But more to the point...

> Your drivers licence has become so much more than just a "drivers licence."

Why should a government issued "drivers license" be the gold standard for identification, and why should anybody be bound to require the presence of such an ID for a private transaction (like opening a bank account, purchasing alcohol, buying a gun, boarding an airplane, etc.)? The government can't do anything else right, why would we trust them with our identities? And even more to the point still is this.. it's just not a proper role for government to mandate anything about how we identify ourselves. The only proper roles of government are to provide rule-of-law, protect private property rights, and - arguably - to enforce contracts.

Now if the government wants to say "fine, if you expect us to enforce your contract, then identify yourself to our standards" then ok... but they have no basis to tell another private person/entity that they must - in turn - require a government sanctioned ID in order to conduct business with me.

Unfortunately the NC state government are just lap dogs for the Feds. Our DMV has been one of the most aggressive about complying with RealID, and otherwise participating in the feds privacy violating schemes, for years now. Sad for a state with an unofficial state motto of "First In Freedom", huh?

Some Daleks, a few Cybermen, a couple of Autons, some Silurians, and a handful of these things:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmVuIWffmM4