/me strongly supports that... A nation has certain reasons for existance. One of them is to protect the community from harm by giving away certain personal rights and powers to the instruments of this nation, trusting it to weld them wisely and humane in the individual's stead. That means that the state also has to pay for the cost of this exercise of power - and part of that is the upkeep of prisoners. A death sentence, founded on the cost of upkeep of prisoners?? C'mon, what's next? Charging the family the cost of the bullet, like they do in China? Making shoplifters pay their time in prison?

One of the most misunderstood (i hope) or most dangerous (I fear) phrases I know is "Right or wrong, my Country". Maybe you should put that "Right or wrong, my Countryman!"

Ahhhh, I wanted to do this anyway... *wipes her mouth with her sleeve in a very manly style*

KISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS :D

Well, I remember reading a SciFi short story... I believe it was by Asimov, or in one of his anthologies... it was about Moses, sitting down to write the book of Genesis, that God had just unbusomed (is that correct in this context?) to him... he starts dictating it to Aaron, who was about to write it down. He starts like "4 Billion years ago...", where Aaron stops and asks him if he knew what papyrus cost... and that they had exactly enough for seven days, not for 4 billion years...

See? And concidents like these made life (and evolution, if you ask me) possible... ;)

Me myself being an absolute believer in darwinist theory wonder, why creatonism thinks that any INTELLIGENT founder would feel the need to create a world that doesn't change, instead of a world where the given set of rules make an evolution towards the goal possible... creating a machine that develops itself further is a goal that fills whole universities, a challenge to human intelligence. Why should a creator of a superior intelligence be any different, the more so as we are (by creationist views) made to be like him?

Why is it so unbelievable, that a system that develops itself towards the "crown of creation" (Actually, we are FAR from being that, if you want my opinion) was intended?

There is a given set of natural laws... like that water is the ONLY material I know of is actually more dense at a certain temperature ABOVE the solid state, meaning that there is USUALLY a reservoir of free water (a condition essential for the survival of higher life forms) at the bottom of any body of water that deserves that title... So to form this set of rules in the way it is would be quite brilliant, I think!?

Hmmmm that's a tough one...

What struck me first was the name of the topic you chose... I f you think that being with him does make a sacrifice for you, then I would advise against... apart from that, it would depend on the personality for me. I have a friend I met back at the university, he's a nice guy, sitting in a wheelchair, too... he's nice, I like to have fun with him on parties, gambling and stuff... but I know he requests complete and utter devotion to himself; if not by words, then he lets is wife feel it by deeds if he feels neglected (which he actually does a lot). And if his pure touch would make my body shake and Angels sing in my head, I wouldn't tie up with him any further than friendship.

I know another bloke, he is happy as a kitten, loves it to be with people, can't do a lot of things either, but he's always on anybody's side, happy about any care and sign of friendship, just plain fun to be with, and he's able to just send you away... "You have to refuel to get your power back!" would be something you might hear from him... and if he could never please me physically, I might bei thinking about being with him.

You get what I mean?

The same thing in the end - getting a patent only makes the copyright easier to handle!

Really? Debby, we should just meet some time... ;)

I usually don't bite...

I swallow whole! XD

Welcome from me, too...

Oh, cars and technics used in them are not copyrighted? I bet the people at General Motors, Mitsubishi, BMW and Volkswagen would hate to hear that... let alone the people at Apple and HTC, when it comes to cell phones. I should go and find another field to make money in ASAP.

Intellectual property doesn't end with music, movies and books, you know... that's just the part Jane Doe notices most.

And the reports on that topic may be exaggerated, but I know at least one company in the U.S. that cares about IP matters abroad enough to hire a pretty expensive lawyer from Germany (me *curtsy*) to take care of such matters in Europe, let alone in areas like Asia - here in Europe, we just LOVE chinese fotographers on any kind of trade fair, knowing we will soon see the works of our R&D departments coming back to us from there... R&D is essential for many branches, and taking a picture is WAY cheaper than developing the stuff yourself, you know!? I won't even go far enough to point out the Echelon installations all over the world...

I don't know much about american prisons, but from what I hear, the chances of spreading genes in a way that has a chance to reproduct are next to nil in American slammers, too!? Besides, I still hope that being human means I am a little itsy bitsy better than being animal... that's one of the reasons we as a race chose to make laws.

The idea of defective genes being responsible for criminal activities has been done away with a long time ago, along with creationism, in the most parts of the world, too...

And, finally: I would hate to think of someone actually breeding the human race... what if his thoughts on what a human should be would change at any given time?

Meaning you can shut down sites just by claiming that you are the owner of any IP on the site in question...

Like you have someone place a picture you hold the rights to in wikipedia... proving you have the rights to the pic... the court will issue an order to have this picture restrained. PLUS sending the bill for your lawyer plus court fees to the wikipedia foundation.

Just how many pictures would you presume it would take to make the wikipedia foundation stone broke, apart from the cost of the personnell to follow the court orders?

Now replace wikipedia with a site like wikileaks, and you have a great way to suppress all unwanted information on the internet...

"If you search for it, you can not find it" ;)

Well, welcome here, guy... hope you are found ;)

I absolutely agree with you on the point that nobody should just "take" the work of others... that's why I said "Stealing music IS a theft". The problem used to be (until VERY shortly ago), that as often as not you couldn't even legally buy some music... not even if you wished and were willing to pay for it! So people became accustomed to things like the old Napster, or Peer-to-peer networks for downloading their music...

I would be willing to pay half of what a physical album would cost me for a download - here in Germany, you still pay like 13-15€ for a top-ten-album, and maybe 1-2€ less for the download...

And that is just a side effect they try to keep away from us... but instead of making use of the internet as a decent way to market your product (the music, the movie) at almost no marketing price (no burning, no packaging, no transport, no storage), they try to make us pay almost the same for a legal download product as we do for a physical... and after doing so, they rant about "Online Piracy".

Stealing music IS a theft, but making the customer pay all the costs you don't even have is fraud...

S.O.P.A.: The wet dream of all american holders of intellectual property rights - except that it would have killed the internet as we know it. I work in that branch, and I can see what the supporters wanted, but it just wouldn't work - or work too good. ONE possible outcoome would have been an isolation of America...

Actually, it's an attempt of IP holders (and willing do-gooders, know-littles in the political institutions) to deal with new media by means of old media...

:D Kiss!

Hope the power supply topic gets better with the industrial use of fuel cells... the use of fuel cells in submarines (German Type 212a - had to look that one up with a little help from uj) is actually a promising start, because technology used in the military sector often tends to be a starter for civil use, too...

Besides, it kind of kindles the patriotic soul in me that these boats tend to drive the U.S. Navy nuts, from what the reports say, lol...

BTW, or back to the original topic: Another example against the "powerlessness" of electrical engines... they are powerful enough to drive ships!

Kiss again - sorry, you won't see me running from beautiful ladies, lol



THE OTHER CHEEK, Haley... at least I hope that's what he meant. Would be better for his health and my criminal record...

You MEANT the other cheek, didn't you, Romeo???