With shrinking cable television viewership, and the talk of making internet a utility, of course many of these companies want to find new ways to make money. The customers don't really get a choice - not enough people can get up and move to actually hurt many of these companies in any significant fashion. Look at cell phone plans. The real question is if there is collusion in the industry... To be certain: consumers don't get a real choice when the players are so few and so big.

It's an easy plan I've layed out in the case I get wealthy, depending on level of wealth:

• 1) Pay off all my debt
• 2) Moderately Upgrade items I use (No Supercars, lavish houses or jets, that just encourages isolation)
• 3) Put enough money in retirement accounts to live a comfortable lifestyle into retirement (so I can also blow most of the rest of the money)
• 4) Fill college funds for my kids
• 5) set aside money for my family, only help with most pressing items

• - This also lets me know who in my life is a gold digger, and who will continue to treat me the same. I don't want to be a bank, but "everyone gets one"

• 6) Setup a scholarship for kids to go to school (most average student, best manners in a video game, whatever)
• 7) Setup funds for charities like homeless shelters, work programs and other items to get people on their feet
• 8) Continue working in fields I love (life needs challenges)
• 9) give away random gifts to strangers

• - my favorite atm is giving $5 starbucks gift cards to parents when their kids are being obnoxious in public, sometimes you just need a break!
  - paying electric bills for all customers who are behind
  - buying groceries for the people who are clearly just trying to get by
  - paying for all the kids in the school to go to sea world, local zoo, etc

in the case of billions, I like the Musk idea - improve the world, help build what you've always wanted. Things get hard and frustrating, but I think remembering to be a normal human and not flaunt your money or lifestyle goes a long way. I also think those hard parts of life is what gives us the most return - accomplishing something hard is far more satisfying than doing something easy.

So what's the over/under of this planet being inhabited entirely by Nazis or Prohibition gangsters?

Now is probably not a good time to continue to use a medium developed by Sony for storing critical information.

It's not the World Trade Center, and it's not Bali. It's a single cafe and a maximum possible body count than your typical school shooting in the US (which can hardly hold the news media's attention for more than a week any more).

This news wouldn't have made it out of Australia (if even NSW) if it weren't for the Islamic bogeyman angle.

Well, someone played a Sony music CD on the web server, and...

Four red pegs should do it.

What does any of that have to do with the story here? The tracking device wasn't added by the police or even at the behest of the police, but by the buy-here-pay-here dealer, operating a business of the same respectability as payday lending and rent-to-own stores, who expect their customers to default. This wasn't done for cops but for repo men.

By all means complain about a violation of privacy, but it isn't by the state. Rather this is the result of a financial system that promotes, aggravates, and profits off of poverty.

This post is factual, poignant, germane to the topic at hand... and yet, in this crowd, this post can legitimately, literally be modded as "flamebait."

Exactly: pinpoint heat sources will see that energy rapidly disbursed throughout the entire suit rather than stay concentrated in a hot spot.

Water's heat conductivity, its ability to spread heat out into meaninglessness, is one of the reasons why it's effective at extinguishing fires.

Face full of sparks at the 2 minute mark.

But they themselves can't get it to work, as was highlighted in the link I posted. So why would a Europe unable to deploy Galileo use GLONASS instead of GPS?

And it certainly isn't like Europe doesn't have its own space launch capabilities.

Russia has absolutely nothing to gain and much to lose by trying to fuck with this launch.

The Russian GLONASS has its own problems, and the whole point of Galileo is a GNSS that is independent from the US. Do you think the Russians like falling back on US technology? Or do you think they're planning to rely on Beidou?

I'm well aware of the difference between handgun and long gun terminal ballistics.

I evidently mis-read your comment about 9mm and .38 being the same size, which is what I was addressing. .38 is slightly larger, but the larger powder charge behind the 9mm makes it a more effective round. That being said, more effective round is easily eclipsed by shot placement.

And again, a round from a long gun is head and shoulders above any handgun round.

All good points.

Though the .38 is actually .356" where a 9mm is .355". It is a minor detail and one thousandth of an inch is irrelevant. Though folks will load .356" for lead in 9mm.