Don't get too excited, I'm sure once the oil and coal lobbyists get done with it, they will have determined that O2 is a "green-house gas" and have all lawns taxed by the square inch for their "Oxygen-footprint"...

-Oz

Right on! However I am of the opinion that such market models are short-lived for a reason. They don't create anything of REAL value. If Facebook and Google are monitoring my use of other sites while I am signed into their site, it just means that they have more information about my web-life. If I never spend any money on Facebook, then they won't earn any money from me. They might know a web-site that I did buy something from, they might even know what I bought, and how I paid for it, but if they didn't refer me to the site, they havn't even provided the site with any real service. When you boil it all down, all you have left is what advantages the web has always provided, access to people, resources, products, and information that you would never encounter in your localized physical world. It's things like that make me wish people would get serious about the web and quit trying to use it EXCLUSIVELY as a means to rip people off in one way or another. Unfortunately it will take the full collapse of the fossil-fueled components of our economy for us to utilize this wonder of human thought to it's "TRUE", and "REAL" potential!

-Oz

Not entirely accurate. The right-wing christian theocrats always assert that same bull. The fact is that our founders were mostly secular deists, and as such did not found this nation on "christian" values. Note the distinct lack of the words "Jesus", "God", "Lord", "Savior", and "Bible" or any reference to them in our founding documents? As a matter of fact, the only such "religious", or "spiritual" reference is to a "creator". Any serious Constitutional scholar can tell you that it's a reference to the Secular Deist concept of god, and not the "christian" ideal so commonly misassociated with that word.

I mean really, we'd just liberated ourselves from one of the most oppressive theocratic empires the world has ever known. With that in mind, what makes you or anyone else think that the first thing we did afterward was seek to establish a theocracy here?

-Oz

Yes and No. If you still allow a business to deduct operational and upgrade costs, you'll stimulate investment, and spending in general. However, we also have a regulatory system that seeks to extort every last red cent from businesses before they can even open their doors. There are many other countries run by people who don't really care about the environment, or the health and well-being of their citizens, so we hike taxes here, companies move ops there....plain and simple.

-Oz

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII like it! However, I'm more a fan of flat taxes. I figure up to 10% total between state, fed, and SS.... ZERO EXEMPTIONS!!!! You make money and are a US citizen? 10% of your accrued wealth for the year goes to tax.No class warfare, no candling, no penalizing success, or other politics....You are an American, you pay 10%! Before you know it, unemployment would sink faster than a whale turd, and we would be well on our way to technological and social superiority once more! With this action though, we would also need to cut some of our permitting and licensing fees. If CDL's were free we'd never have a need for skilled truck drivers.

-Oz

These problems have nothing to do with night shifts or the people that work them. Having worked a couple of 12 hour night shifts in my work history. I found that there are a couple of easy answers to these dilemmas. Prioritize your health! Don't drink soda. If you need a boost, those stupid 5 hour energies work just fine on a consistent basis. EAT FEWER CALORIES! A nice grilled chicken breast, and a piece of fruit for your first break,the same with something with a few carbs in it during your lunch, and a grilled chicken breast (season as you will) w/ a piece of a different fruit. during your last break. Drink lots of water...iced if possible.

GO TO THE GYM AFTER YOU GET OUT OF WORK! You don't have to be there long, or do it all in one visit. At least 45 minutes of cardio ( I break it up into 3 15 minute cardio sessions on 3 different machines) , 3 sets minimum of 20 reps for abs (any exercise, as long as it is like a partial or full sit-up) and maybe 2 or 3 muscle groups (shoulders, lats, pecs, bis, tris, quads, hamstrings, calves) a day. Do this 4 days (or more) a week and in 4 months you will look awesome! Also for guys....gyms in the early AM are filled with cougars and other single women...lots of opportunity, just remember that you are really only at the gym for yourself. Ladies, the better you look the more we want to look at you...admit it it is just the same the other way around. Also for men and women, there tends to be a strong differential between the attractiveness of someone who takes really good care of their body, and someone who does not....Case Closed.

Oh, and one last thing. Don't try to live like people who are not on the same schedule as you. Nothing causes more stress than bouncing back and forth from normal hours to night shift hours.

-Oz

Developing what may eventually be their own demise. Just when you thought software companies couldn't be run any less intelligently, or that developments couldn't become more cost-prohibitive, they do something like this! I swear it's like an invitation! May as well hand someone a BFG-9000 and say "shoot me".

-Oz

I guess that is what happens when you are setting the standards which will eventually be used to tax people out of the ability to earn a living. I am an eco-freak, but honestly if as much effort had been put into developing space travel, or cold-fusion as has been put into extorting people out of burning fossil-fuels...we'd have already cleaned up the detritus from the ills of the industrial revolution, entered the post-nuclear age, achieved super-luminal speeds, and be well on our way to starting another Earth somewhere by now.....

-Oz

Although they aren't even up and running yet, Greece has been investing a ton of money into cold fusion as a means of powering their country. Although to some this may seem far-fetched, despite the lack of interest and funding from other governments, there has been a great deal of private venture capital being thrown at commercial cold fusion power solutions for the last decade. Oddly enough, I think the revelation of it's eminence and true potential, are now being realized by the powers that be, hence the recent talks by the likes of Germany about the abandonment of nuclear....

-Oz

As a non-scientist, I tend to view things more along the lines of IP that translates almost directly into consumer goods, and or services. However, your description of the peer review/publication process lends no weight to TFA's assertion that copy-right kills science. None the less, I found your response enlightening, and found no grounds to consider this "troll-fodder". As to my answer to your question....Cost-prohibitive market control? Also a publicly-recognized attribution of the IP's originator. If nothing more, it could provide a legitimate (industry recognized) reference should you ever have to sue anyone for using it without your permission, or due compensation.

-Oz

The only people who copyright and patents are really issues for, are those who want to utilize the IP of someone else (who went through the time and effort of conceiving, beta-testing, and proving a concept) without bothering with licensing the right to use it....and without any intention of compensating it's originators. I can't stand these bitchy leaches who can't be bothered with thinking for themselves and would rather just steal the fruit of your efforts and tell you to screw yourself when you ask them to pay for it.

As a matter of fact, I would go so far as to suggest that it is these fucking leeches that inhibit science more than anything. I mean really, why go through the investment of time, effort, and even money to create original IP if some asshole is just going to walk up and snatch your ability to make money off of it for yourself?

The only problem I have with copyright and/or patents is these fucking companies that patent and copyright their works then shelve them, and hold the patent and/or copyright just to keep other people from being able to utilize them. LICENSE THAT SHIT, AND SELL THE RIGHTS TO PRODUCE IT TO OTHERS!!!

-Oz

Just in case no one has already done it....I'm calling "bullshit" on this one!

-Oz

Try that at U of O....I am certain my estimate would most likely prove conservative compared to the reality.

-Oz

What this brainiac doesn't get is that the "reason" we aren't pursuing "STEM" career-paths in college, has nothing to do with "potentially" better applicants being shipped in. Instead it has everything to do with the fact that APPLICANTS ARE BEING SHIPPED IN, WHILE JOBS ARE BEING SHIPPED OUT!!!

More and more it seems that you cannot go to college without taking out student loans. If I am going to borrow up to $50,000.00 a year to go to college, I want to know two things: 1) Is this really the field I want to spend the next 20 years in (because it is likely that I will be paying those financial aid loans off for that long)?, and 2) Will there be employment in that field that will allow me a decent living (while paying my financial aid loans off) when I get out of school in 4 to 6 years?

With out-sourcing and inshoring moving up the corporate ladders, the likelyhood of finding such employment becomes more and more finite. With that knowledge in mind, unless you are a mathaholic, software whiz or total computer-freak, the option of borrowing up to 300k on training for a job-class that may soon be unavailable to you seems somewhat less than intelligent.

-Oz

Because someone in the entertainment business finally gets it!!! I predict that if this film is worth the time wasted watching it + 5 minutes, it will become one of the most heavily viewed widely distributed films EVER!!!

-Oz