I agree with you up to a point. However, make no mistake that there is a significant difference between a car I don't have to drive and the modes of public transit you have cited. To wit, a car (driven by me or a computer) will take me directly from A to B. No walking, no changing lines, etc. Aside from the fact that most people are incredibly lazy (I'm including myself in that number) the difference in time and convenience is significant. Yes there are cities where that difference is quite small (NYC, London, amongst a few others) but these places are very much the exception and not the rule.

Absolutely correct. Investigations of aviation accidents involving autopilot errors, and the study of human factors more broadly, have shown that humans are really bad at passively monitoring while automated systems perform all tasks. This should come as no surprise, I suppose, as doing so is incredibly boring making it very difficult to maintain focus and extremely easy to become distracted.

Hey don't sell them short! We only know about the pr0n surfing they're doing at work. They're probably putting in another solid 8 hours at home!

They're already receiving all DNS requests from the infected systems, I think they could probably handle serving up a lightweight web page in addition to this.

That this is a stupid patent and may, in fact, be prior art, doesn't mean Google's motivations are nefarious. Indeed, if you are correct that it is prior art, then all the more reason for Google to apply for this patent even if they have no intention of enforcing it. If Google could receive the patent despite prior art (or lack of originality), then another organization could possibly have done the same thing and then turned around and sued Google. If you had billions to lose and were working in a broken patent system, you would apply for some dumb patents too, just to cover your ass.

Mod this down. 0 isn't low enough.

So if I find a book lying in the street can I pick it up and read it, or do I need to call the publisher to get a license? I think you're overstating the scope of copyright just a *tad*.

"Canadians hand count all votes before the nights end. We have preserved one of the cleanest examples of democratic election on the planet." Well said. And online voting would destroy this. Canada does it very well right now. You get a ballot. You put an 'X' next to the candidate you support. Real people count all the Xs. It's not very sexy, but it works, and if there's any suspicion of tomfoolery there's a paper trail to look at. We have a good electoral system not because we're inherently awesome as Canadians, but because our electoral system is based on good and sound ideas. Online voting is a (really cool but) bad idea.

You're right the patent is on the gene. Ok so they own BRCA1 and BRCA2. Fine so if we want to test for THEIR gene then we have to pay for the privilege. So let's make an analogy to a patent on a device. If I own the patent on a really useful device I have the exclusive right to sell it and reap the benefits of that ownership. But if that device injuries some of the users, well then I'm going to be liable. Well I say apply the same logic to the drug companies, sure we'll pay you for doing genetic tests, but if it shows my breast cancer is being fueled by a BRCA1 mutation, you're paying for my treatment!