Potato starch rumor is debunked here: http://www.slate.com/articles/life/food/2013/01/calamari_made_of_pig_rectum_the_this_american_life_rumor_isn_t_true_but.html

I see a lot of criticism with regard to the Patriot Act, but a lot of it is due to misinformation and it isn't going to have a practical effect in most cases. The United States has mutual legal assistance treaties with other countries so unless you're storing your data in Venezuela, they'll probably be able to get it if terrorism is suspected. Canada has the Canadian Anti-Terrorism Act, which is very similar to the Patriot Act, except that no one ever talks about it. In the event that there is a bona fide suspicion of terrorism I don't think the U.S. would have trouble getting access to data in Canada, whether or not the Patriot Act existed.

Looks like you really bought Apple's lawyers' argument hook line and sinker. I've never heard anyone explain how Amazon is going to bankrupt Apple and also jack up the prices of ebooks despite there being billions of real books that have the exact same text in them that one can buy or borrow. Also, why can't the Justice Department wait until Amazon actually starts screwing people? Right now Apple's screwing people hard by price fixing, and it doesn't make much sense to me to allow Apple to screw people now so that in a lawyer-imagined fantasyland of the future Amazon won't screw people.

They're about 12 bucks on Amazon (more if you want the iPhone model), but they're cheap, comfortable and pretty durable. Sound is fine, but I'm no audiophile so I can't really tell the difference between earbud sound quality when I'm listening to MP3s.

I don't understand why this has to be a binary choice between bank's fault or borrowers' fault (unless you have some sort of political agenda). The borrower is clearly in the best position to know whether he can pay the money back or not. However, there are cases where the banks should have been able to figure out that they would not be able to. When I represented foreclosed homeowners I saw both situations. Some people were caught unaware by unexpected circumstances and others would not have been able to pay the money back unless they hit the lotto. The one thing that you don't see mentioned too much is the role Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac played in the crisis. If you really feel the need to place the blame, it is there. I think that it isn't mentioned too much because it doesn't fit in with the Democrats' "Wall Street is to blame" narrative. Everyone wants to blame this on unregulated entities running amok, but really the main cause of the problem was probably with government-sponsored entities.

You could not be more wrong. You can't sue a company for not making enough money. You need some sort of gross misconduct, self-dealing, misrepresentation, illegality, corporate waste, etc. The bar is extremely high and Plaintiffs very rarely succeed. Take a look at the following from the wikipedia so you do not misrepresent the law in the future: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_judgment_rule The lawsuit you are referencing, I believe, alleges misrepresentations, which are illegal, as opposed to underperforming, which half of the stock market does all the time.

I plan to write to my congressman.

This does not sound like a good idea at all.

As I have noted from your other armchair legal opinions, you do not understand the law. You do not know anything about Penny Arcade's corporate structure or how they pay their bills or Child's Play's bills. You are accusing a charitable organization of fraud without any basis in reality. Here is a quick sample from the FAQ on their website: Q. Does Child's Play charge administrative fees? A. We try our best to have every dollar that comes in go right back to the hospitals, but there is a slight administrative cost that does get paid for with donations (for example, shipping $200,000 worth of Nintendo DS' to dozens of hospitals worldwide is not free, sadly). Historically, these charges have not exceeded 2-3%. It's true that we're a non-profit, but unlike most non-profits, we're not in it to create a self-sustainable entity. We do it to give. Again, I ask you to please stop polluting the internet with misinformation. These people are doing good work to make the lives of sick children better. By defaming them you are taking trolling to a whole new level.

American mortgages are for the most part standard documents. They are some of the most well-understood legal documents in the world. The bank cannot just make up terms at will. Your understanding of the law is based on half-understood apocryphal anecdotes from the internet. I went to law school, took two bar exams and am practicing real estate law. I am telling you, as an expert, that what you are saying is entirely incorrect. Please stop polluting the internet with misinformation.

I do this for a living. You write on a fourth grade level. I think the burden is on you to prove that I am grossly misinformed. I am looking at a standard mortgage from Fannie Mae right now. It just doesn't say what you think it does. You must read as well as you write.

IAL. I read, review and edit real estate loan documentation all day. I have never seen the term you are referring to, and would never allow a client to sign a document with that term in it. Generally it is considered bad practice to sign a document with terms you do not agree with and hope that the other party does not enforce them. Also, if they did not ever intend to enforce a term, why would anyone put it in?

How much more market share does the ipod have to gain before you concede that Apple has a monopoly on MP3 players? This article says that they have 90% of the market http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/24795/ That seems a little high to me, but I can't remember the last time I saw someone with a non-ipod mp3 player.

If I remember correctly, every time an article on the PSP came up, people on here kept saying how stupid it was to have a UMD drive. Now everyone seems to think it is stupid NOT to have one. This is like the Snakes on a Plane of consoles. They probably thought people meant what they said on the internet.

Still probably isn't a terrible move for Sony even if it doesn't sell too well, as I suspect that they are moving toward convergence with cell phones and that this is a mere incremental improvement.

Yeah you can buy a 360 without the additional attachments, but if you do buy them, they are going to hose you with their proprietary hard drives and wireless adapters. If you end up spending $130 for a 120gb hard drive and $77 for a wireless adapter and the PS3 isn't really more expensive, plus you get free online play. I'm sure not everyone needs a blu ray player(well aware of the people who still insist that it barely looks better than a regular dvd), or wireless, and that xbox live is superior to PSN, but I think that for the average gamer there really isn't much of a price difference once you take everything into account.