TFA links to the National Federation for the Blind's article about this topic. Here's the most relevant snippet: >> While there are no national data on pedestrian injuries or deaths related to low-noise cars... Ok - guys: get some data! This is just plain ridiculous to pass a law based on a mere assumption that quiet cars might cause a problem. If someone can prove that this is a plague upon the nation - great; pass the law. But otherwise this is a fake problem. I've owned a civic hybrid and a prius. Neither were really noticeably quieter (even when the prius was operating electric only) than your typical accord / camry. Does anyone have any data at all anywhere showing the increased incident rate for quiet cars? I'd love to see it, but I'm pretty sure it's not there.

Well, with most hybrids, the electric motor actually provides the most benefits between 1-12 mph. A lot of fuel is generally wasted getting a car from - 15 mph & that's why how hybrids are able to save on consumption.

So killing the motor at those speeds would really render a lot of hybrids less efficient.

one word: library

Hey dude - people only pay for MS licensing if it makes business sense. I can assure you that if there were some better, cheaper alternative - companies would use it. A corporation's job is to make money, period. If there's a way for a business to make more money & it involved never buying another piece of software from MS, they would.

Corporations don't love Microsoft, they don't love paying for stuff. But in a market-based economy, people and corporations are willing to pay for something that adds value.

So either everyone who buys software from Microsoft is stupid, or maybe you just are missing a few pieces to the puzzle.

I laughed so hard when I read this. Thanks man, that was awesome.

>This is why I am not entirely thrilled about the web.

Not thrilled about the web, eh? Hmm. I'm not sure this is the web's fault, to be honest.

If you pay attention to the comment you're replying to, you'll notice the post didn't suggest that all data be accessible by any and all unknown 3rd parties. But what he/she says is that when you do your tax return online with TurboTax, they have access to your data. That _is_ reasonable. Just like when you walk into a brick-and-mortar H&R block to do you tax return: H&R Block has access to your data too. There are privacy laws to prevent them from doing bad things with the data. But if you give info to any company, on the web or otherwise, they have access to your data.

or, maybe more properly, Gnubuntu?