How the hell could it "help with a murder investigation" to provide them with a sample of your DNA?

Presuming you are innocent, you are simply opening yourself up to a false positive match, either now or in sometime in the future.

You have everything to lose, and nothing whatsoever to gain.

In the case of a degraded DNA sample, it's possible to have the statical odds of you being a match for a sample in the range of 100,000 to 1. That doesn't seem so bad unless you consider that there might be 1,000,000 records on file. Statistically that's 10 database hits, and if you are the lucky one cold hit, combined with the apparent belief that juries find scientific evidence infallible, you could easily be convicted. It *has* happened before that the only evidence that links a suspect to a crime is a cold database hit.

Just don't give them a sample without a court order, ever.

Ahh, thanks for that.

It's been a while since I've seen that.

I still totally think CFLs suck. :)

...is power cycling them, not burn time.

Lets see how they fare when power cycled a few thousand times.

I've never had a CFL last more than a year or so. Mythbusters did some interesting testing on lamps a few years ago. IIRC they set up a rig that turned all the lamps on and off every 2 minutes, 24/7. Within a month I think they were all dead, except for the good old cheap to manufacture, low carbon footprint to manufacture, dimmable, yet inefficient filament incandescent bulb.

I believe the current government is maneuvering to buy back the wholesale arm of Telstra. It should be in public hands IMO, and it sure would make the NBN (National Broadband Network) a lot more viable. ... and I don't think it's the wrong thing to do.

Maybe the RIAA don't want the PR?

I don't think it would look good for them winning a settlement of *quick maths*.. 214 songs by $80000 equals 17.4 million dollars so soon after the Jamie Thomas-Rassett verdict.

What if the artist is contracted by the record company to write a certain number of songs for an upcoming album?

Wouldn't that be a commissioned work and therefore the copyright would be owned by the record company?

I guess it all depends on the nuts and bolts of the contract that the artist signed. Perhaps the record companies don't want the details of those contracts being made public. :)

When the Apollo 11 LEM took off from the surface of the moon, the blast would have obliterated any footprints in the area, In fact the US flag was knocked over flat according to the astronauts.

You have to show proof to the registrar that you have the company name registered, (for a .com.au), and for others, such as .org.au you must show your organisation is substantially tied to that name.

Personally I think it's a much better system than being able to randomly register anything. Owning a domain name you have no legitimate claim to can result in you losing your registration.

If Brad Pitt took this test it could cause a space-time paradox, possibly starting a chain reaction that could destroy the entire universe. Admittedly, that's a worst case scenario. :)

Just don't mention the war...

So... unless this blimp can do 120 mph on solar powered batteries it may just be blown where mother nature decides to take it.

The wind is very strong up there at times.

Never click on any ad ever...

Even if you get a referral from a website, like a price crawler, just type in the native url in a new browser. I simply don't support web advertising ever.

If there is no identifiable revenue, then then ads will eventually disappear. Muhahhahhha.

But I'm not bitter...

In Australia we have only two rights under our constitution. The right to a trial by Jury and the right to vote.

Voting is also compulsory here, you have to register to vote when you turn 18, whereby you are added to the electoral role. This role in paper form is present at the polling booth. When you vote your name is checked off and you add a paper vote to a ballot box... *geek mode on* Just like in Battlestar Galactica *geek mode off*

If your name has not been checked off your role on election day you are fined for not voting.

Of course you have to be citizen to be registered to vote in the first place.

Criminals in jails are required to vote just the same as anyone else. I personally think thats a good thing.