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posted a link

Justin.tv More Pervasive, Methods Questionable

8 hours ago - via Bookmarklet - Link

americanm and Cee Bee liked this

"Anonymous people are using sites like justin.tv to rebroadcast mainstream media over i.p. to TV’s receiving the streams over i.p. in stores that then rebroadcast out of windows to city passerbys in the streets of New York City." - Andrew Baron

I took these photos when walking by a FILA store on Madison Ave streaming justin.tv - Andrew Baron

Hit the 'sports' section on any weekend and you'll find nearly every football (soccer) match from around the world. - Andrew Leyden

posted a link

Putin accuses U.S. of Orchestrating Georgian War

7 hours ago - via Reshare - Link

Michael Fidler liked this

Putin says US orchestrated conflict in Georgia to benefit McCain campaign - Andrew Baron

Putin comes from a long line of Russians who believe their own propaganda. - Andrew Leyden

He's was with Bush at the Olympics when they announced it. I thought that it was very strange timing. He could have had them wait 4 hours until the olymoics opening ceremonies where over. But, during a demonstation of world peace, with the world watching, he decides its a good idea to start a war. A little strange. - Michael Fidler via twhirl

favorited a video on YouTube

The World's Largest Record Collection

6 hours ago - Link

Eric Kerr, Baard (not bored) and sean percival liked this

great video, can't believe no one has tried to pick the collection. - sean percival

posted a message on Twitter

“Comcast metered broadband official, will destroy internet. Revolt now or forever hold your peace: http://tinyurl.com/6nj2q2”

Thursday at 4:00 pm - Link

Dave Winer, Susan Beebe, Roger Benningfield, Vox and 10 other people liked this

nobody cares about this story :( - Andrew Baron

I'm in Canada on Rogers and have been stuck at 60 GB a month for years. 250 GB is huge :( - Nick Munson

Show 22 more comments

Yeah, suck it up. I'm an Australian-- not only do I have slow internet (512kb/s) I'm on a 20GB cap. :-) - David Adam

Its been like this in the UK for years as well and as Nick said 250GB is a lot in comparison to what we get - Arthur Guy

Do you feel that if you had unlimited bandwidth, you would use the internet more? And for different reasons? If I had a cap on my bandwidth, I would always be worried about what pages I visit and would probably not use the internet as much. - Andrew Baron

Considering that most people have 250GB drives or less, this is really a pretty large monthly bandwidth for all but the most extreme users. Even streaming music constantly for a month at 128kbps would yield only 44GB download (assuming I did my math right). - Logical Extremes

I have access to a fast unlimited connection at work and I don't download that much more than at home so no I don't think I would use the internet more if it was unlimited. - Arthur Guy

What about all of the musicians and people who use youtube? They will not be able to compete and suddenly it could cost millions of dollars again to distribute your work. - Andrew Baron

250GB is hardly a "cap". That's a LOT of data. If you're a residential customer, you would just about have to be on the internet 16 hours a day to reach that limit. Business customers don't have the cap, I don't think. - Jason Huebel

I fully agree that unlimited bandwidth is best for a lot of reasons, but I think it comes down to whether Internet is a utility or a free market, and the US hasn't really made up its mind. It's certainly not a free market (evil oligopolies at best in each of the phone/cable/satellite markets), but we haven't set it up as a free god-given right like TV was in the '50s and '60s either. - Logical Extremes

I'm completely 100% OK with this. If you want unlimited data, you're going to have to pay for it. - Ben Jackson via twhirl

Also, even if you can d/l a lot of mp3's at 2 megs each, will you be happy when your friends are downloading songs that are no longer compressed and may be 100megs each or even a gig each? For people who use software like Miro and iTunes, we are stuck d/l videos with low quality due to technical restrictions but as the bandwisth goes up, the compression will go down and soon we could d/l full quality files that could cost 250G per. - Andrew Baron

@Ben Meanwhile, while most people on FF will pay an extra fee to raise the cap, guess who will not be able to afford a higher cap? Yep, the people who could use the opportunity the most. Thus, it naturally shuts out people from participating. - Andrew Baron

One last thing to consider. Maybe 250G seems like a lot to you now because the internet is the way it is. The US, for instance, is moving quickly towards Fiber speeds as well as TV over IP and in two years from now, many people will use up 250G transfer in each and every sitting. - Andrew Baron

You're assuming that most people who can't pay for this will go over 250GB. 99% of them won't. I think that tiered bandwith plans benefit everyone. Grandma won't be paying for stuff she isn't using and the people that use more then average bandwith have to pay for it. Fair is fair. - Ben Jackson via twhirl

Andrew The issue is that most ISP can't afford that amount of bandwidth. So, rather then jack up everyone's prices (unfair) they're jacking up people who take a disproportionate amount. - Ben Jackson via twhirl

Just posted a link to my FF regarding bandwidth "neutrality" etc - Ben Jackson via twhirl

I think the key is not to be able to discriminate on what kind of traffic it is. In other words, Comcast (and every other provider of bits) should not be allowed to distinguish TV bits from YouTube bits, and set a cap or tiers from there. If that's done, then what is the harm of paying for what you get? - Logical Extremes

rabble rabble rabble! - xero

@xero I loled... - Ben Jackson via twhirl

If you saturate a T1 12 hours a day for 30 days, you have 250GB. Just sayin. - Matthew Davidson via twhirl

If most people wont use that much bandwidth, then why the need to cap it? - Andrew Baron

It's not for most people, it's for the people that go over it. - Ben Jackson via twhirl

A T1 is 1.5MB. Cable companiers are offering 3MB or more these days. With an always on connection and a desire to have your own digital version of the library of congress a person could do it theoretically. I agree, though, that most will not go over the 250GB unless you do download a lot of movies or MP3's every month. - Jason Shultz via twhirl

You guys are clearly Comcast business supporters. Who would outright "support" this? Im not buying it. Om Malik is not buying it either: http://gigaom.com/2008/08/28/m... - Andrew Baron

I'm with you Andrew, metering is not the way to go. Sure 250GB seems like a lot now (to some, myself not included), but capping and metering place arbitrary limits on future innovations that may take up larger amounts of bandwidth. As we move ever closer to the browser being the OS this is a huge step in the wrong direction. - Aaron Krug

Here in the uk, our ISP's are selling connections at below cost. The rise of video is making them face bankruptcy. Sadly, they seem to have painted themselves into a corner where it comes to price. Never forget that the net was originally metered by the minute, every other comms system is metered. Personally, I view DPI is a *far* bigger threat to the net than metering ever will be! The ability to analyse packets in real time and censor or replace that data? Now that TRULY sends shivers down my spine. - alphaxion

posted an entry on YouTube :: Videos by ROCKETBOOM

Spotlight: The World's Largest Record Collection

15 hours ago - Link

posted a message on Twitter

“Thanks to all, I'm hearing mostly *both* & less heavy on links. Since I've been posting links more to FF, that kinda works. Will try both.”

23 hours ago - Link

posted a message on Twitter

“Dear everyone, do you prefer I tweet about what I'm doing throughout the day, or do you prefer commentary & links to interesting stories?”

23 hours ago - Link

How about all of the above and then we can discuss it on FF. - Carlos Ayala

I prefer things that are deliberately two-way oriented. Commentary, and talking, and reacting to others, and sharing. - Dave Coustan

I prefer day-to-day activities and commentary, but few links. - Jason Huebel

posted a link

10 Important News Stories as Depicted by 5-Year-Olds | Cracked.com

Thursday at 3:35 pm - via Bookmarklet - Link

Lindsey Smith, Michael J Cohen and Ray Grieselhuber liked this

posted a message on Twitter

“http://twitter.grader.com Measures your Twitter juice famo.”

yesterday at 5:12 am - Link

Mo Kargas and Steve Garfield liked this

Twitter Grade: 99 - Rank #55 out of 6404. - Steve Garfield via twhirl

That site lead me to http://www.websitegrader.com/ very helpful. - Steve Garfield via twhirl

Damn Steve, there is only one point left to perfection. What will you do then? - Andrew Baron

posted a message on Twitter

“Official day off.”

yesterday at 4:35 am - Link

Timothy Griffin and Michael J Cohen liked this

published a photo on Flickr

photo.jpg

Thursday at 6:24 pm - Link

posted a message on Twitter

“Checking out new site design from Tilzy TV. http://www.tilzy.tv/”

Thursday at 2:56 pm - Link

posted a message on Twitter

“It seems like Manga icons didn't stick. Does anyone else get the feeling that the trend only lasted a few days and is now mostly over?”

Thursday at 2:15 pm - Link

Eban Crawford, Jason Kaneshiro and Michael J Cohen liked this

i bloody hope so - Zee at WeDoCreative

Yep... and then the next one comes along at some point. :-) - Herb

yes - Jason Kaneshiro

Yes, and not a moment too soon. - Eban Crawford

posted a message on Twitter

“Anyone know whats up with the Summize/Twitter search? It usually takes a couple of hours for most notes to update. Is there a better search?”

Thursday at 1:09 pm - Link

I noticed the same thing yesterday. - Sylvain Nadeau

been like this for 48 hours, big surprise, twitter buys it fails :). see http://www.seanpercival.com/bl... - sean percival

It's been anything but real-time for the past few days for me. Started with 20 minute delays that kept getting longer.. boo :( - embee

thye have an incomplete search index.. http://status.twitter.com/post... - Peter Dawson

its started on sunday and got moved to incident status on monday - >http://status.twitter.com/post... - Peter Dawson

posted a message on Twitter

“I almost have 3000 followers (2968). This is a serious milestone. I'll have to do something special. . .maybe send out a tweet.”

Thursday at 12:49 pm - Link

lol, I celebrated 10 followers on FF the other day; good times. Congrats, those are some serious numbers. - Aaron Krug

posted a message on Twitter

“Sarah's @pop17 live show just started on Mogulus at http://www.mogulus.com/pop17”

Thursday at 12:04 pm - Link

posted a link

Computer Virus Make it's Way Into Orbit

Thursday at 10:31 am - via Bookmarklet - Link

Mark Derricutt, Timothy Griffin and Sacca liked this

"Nasa has confirmed that laptops carried to the ISS in July were infected with a virus known as Gammima.AG. The worm was first detected on Earth in August 2007 and lurks on infected machines waiting to steal login names for popular online games." - BBC - Andrew Baron via Bookmarklet

posted a link

My Freindfeed Stats

Thursday at 10:12 am - via Bookmarklet - Link

mike "glemak" dunn liked this

true i do at that andrew ;) - mike "glemak" dunn

posted a link

Dubai Carbon Neutral Pyramid will House 1 Million

Wednesday at 6:30 pm - via Reshare - Link

Ben Borges, Stonis, Farzad َZamani, AdibA and 17 other people liked this

"The ginormous pyramid will cover 2.3 square kilometers and will be able to sustain a “community” of up to 1 million. Timelinks claims that their Ziggurat will be capable of running completely off the grid by utilizing steam, wind, and other natural resources. The tightly knit city will also feature a super efficient public transportation system that runs both horizontally and vertically, and plans are being drawn up to utilize both public and private green spaces for agricultural opportunities" - Andrew Baron

So now all I have to do is figure out how to get me one of these... - Aaron Krug

Show 3 more comments

I'm waiting for it to blast off! - Chris Rivait

Reminds me, perhaps not inappropriately, of a data center. If you can get millions of brains that close together and they don't take up much room... - Ray Grieselhuber

Good point, Ray. - Eric Sessions

This reminds me one of those pyraminds from Stargate SG-1. - imabonehead

Hope it doesn't fall over. - Ian Tindale

دیگه شورشو درآورده این امیر دبی شهربازی درست کرده جای شهر - Farzad َZamani

posted an item on Tumblr

Rocketboom Hires Group of Writers

Wednesday at 8:39 pm - Link

MG Siegler and jeneane is in the house liked this

They might be able to use this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v... - jeneane is in the house

Thanks for the suggestion @Jeneane but eh, not sure that will work more than once or twice. - Andrew Baron

posted a link

A Handy Guide to Piracy

Wednesday at 6:32 pm - via Bookmarklet - Link

Rory, Richard Griffin, Adam Loving, Thaddeus Clark and 15 other people liked this

this has been updated: piracy vs theft vs sharing http://i33.tinypic.com/2yor21y... - Alan Le

Does that mean it's okay? - Sarah

Show 8 more comments

Ask the artists who receive no money for the file sharing if it's okay. - Akiva Moskovitz

I'm as against the heavy-handed crap the RIAA keeps pulling as the next guy, but that's an absolutely idiotic graphic. If the artist isn't getting paid, you've stolen from the artist whether or not someone else is missing their copy. - Vincent Ferrari

the Radiohead model shows that it can work. It mostly affects the middle man. - Alan Le

<rant>Some proportion (maybe high) of people who share files would never have bought them in the first place -> file sharing is good for the artist because someone may decide they quite like this artist and buy stuff / go to a show at a later date. Music is about the statistical return of an annuity, not the retail sale of a single unit.</rant> - Alex Gawley

@Akiva I'd be more than happy to buy a CD in a store for $20 if I thought the artist was getting even a majority of that money, but we both know they aren't. In fact, I gladly paid Radiohead that same $20 when I bought the album from their website. I don't want to steal from artists, but if its a choice between downloading a song off the internet and having the artist get ripped off or going to the store and getting ripped off myself by the music industry, my choice isn't that hard. - Aaron Krug

I have to agree with Alex. - Oliver Ortega Chua

So your disgust with the music industry excuses you making sure the artists get less than they already get. Makes sense to me. - Akiva Moskovitz

Yes, the artists appear to be starving, Akiva. Let me state that I am pro-payment to the original artist, but my impression would be there is far too much money in this scene anyway. The money is in the "middle-men". - ChangeForge via twhirl

I'd like to see you take that philosophy into a local record store and go ahead and physically shoplift some CDs. You know, to really prove your dedication to the artist. - Akiva Moskovitz

Excellent illustration. I hate how people perpetuate the myth that piracy and theft are one and the same. I'm not saying what's wrong or right - just that they aren't the same thing. - trextor

Vincent: If Bob pirates a song, the artist isn't getting paid. If Bob doesn't pirate the song, the artist still isn't getting paid. If Bob watches the video for the song on his DVR 250 times in a row, the artist isn't getting paid. If Bob decides to buy a song from the artist's competition, the artist isn't getting paid. Seems to me that whether or not the artist gets paid is at best a secondary consideration when trying to identify the theft/not-theft of a situation. - Roger Benningfield

posted a message on Twitter

“Craving watermellon juice.”

Wednesday at 6:18 pm - Link

drink water and stare at a picture of a watermelon, same effect ;) - xero

posted a link

Over Ten Million PSPs Sold, Top Five Games Are...

Wednesday at 3:33 pm - via Bookmarklet - Link

Aaron Krug liked this

1. Monster Hunter 2nd G (Capcom) March 27, 2008 Release: 2,396,642 copies sold 2. Monster Hunter 2nd (Capcom) February 22, 2007 Release: 1,706,387 copies sold 3. Crisis Core - Final Fantasy VII (Square Enix) September 13, 2007: 790,705 copies sold 4. Monster Hunter Portable (Capcom) December 1, 2005: 668,964 copies sold 5. Phantasy Star Portable (SEGA) July 31, 2008: 545,242 copies sold - Andrew Baron via Bookmarklet

posted a message on Twitter

“Checkin out the new Friendfeed design: http://beta.friendfeed.com/and...”

Wednesday at 3:31 pm - Link

Sylvain Nadeau and Caroline liked this

posted a link

Auto Facial Attractiveness Enhancement Engine

August 17 at 4:21 pm - via Bookmarklet - Link

Bryan Clark, Shayanlinux, Chris Selland, David Lynch and 28 other people liked this

I don't think I'd want to be subject to that enhancement. I've learned to like my imperfections. - Hutch Carpenter

Still a very cool technology - Sheraz Mahmood via twhirl

Show 17 more comments

Does it work better than Hair Color for Men? - Russellreno

ok so whats the real world app going to be ?? model your face and then get a nip, tuck and a lift ?? Riya and Polar Rose had facial recognizability built into the core. - Peter Dawson

One part of tech that is advancing quickly without any notice from Silicon Valley is the software that will drive the Human Gnome Project. It always starts with the artists, then the military, and then reality. John McCain said he knows where Bin Laden is. Yea, Ill bet he does! I'll bet he *IS* Bin Laden!! - Andrew Baron

I like the first one better because the second one looks fake & a bit creepy. - Mike Cohen

Will probably be very useful among the DATING sites! :-D - Éric Senterre

OK, NEW AVATARS, EVERYBODY!! - Josh Haley

yikes - Noah David Simon

Brain implant here we come! - James Tenniswood

it seems to be all about head size. Phrenology anyone? - Noah David Simon

Oooohh....she's had her face reshaped....bet that hurt! - Mark O'Neill

@andrewbaron I like the lovely typo in your comment about << Human "Gnome" Project>>. This software will surely "dwarf" any other software development project ;) - Pierre-Philippe Martin

Um, what's wrong with the first pic? If she smiled... - Rick Powell

@Rick, I actually think she looks nicer in pic one, even without smiling. She looks kinda luck a stuck-up beeotch in pic two. - Laura Norvig

Silk purses and sows ears? - Dennis Howlett via twhirl

very interesting. - Ryan

I think these pics are tweaked to appeal to the opposite sex. - Jason Kaneshiro

Humans aren't vain at aaaaaaall. - ::Kristen::

The process detects deviations from the archetypal face. If you take the process and apply it in reverse, accentuate the deviations, you essentially have a caricature. You could put hundreds of boardwalk charcoal sketchers out of business! - Rick Wolff

Actually, some of the "enhanced" pictures look distorted. Symmetry is supposedly a vital ingredient of beauty, that and the golden ratio. - Patrick Beard via twhirl

there was a post coming from truemors about a study that broader faced men are more aggressive. so based on that assumption that a more attractive face is ovalesque we can then assume a less attractive male will be more aggressive and therefor sexier to a female. http://www.livescience.com/cul... - Noah David Simon

posted a link

Michael Phelps Goes Crazy!

Monday at 9:46 pm - via Bookmarklet - Link

Adam Helweh, nouhad, americanm, Mark Derricutt and Michael J Cohen liked this

ahahahahahahhaha... I was dying over here. Thats great. ALl hail the GIF file. - Adam Helweh

This is just dying for for sound fx and music. :D - Andrew Baron

hahahaha - nouhad

OMG SOO FUNNY - Luke Jeffrey Smith via twhirl

posted a link

OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG!

August 24 at 8:06 pm - via Bookmarklet - Link

dkb, Yolanda, Martin Gommel , marcel weiss and 20 other people liked this

I'd be saying the same thing!!! - ::Kristen::

OM GOMG OM GOMG OM GOMG O - that's the sound of the rat about 2 minutes later when it's eating the hell out of some cheese! - Aaron Baer

want - Caroline

The thumbnail looks like Krispy Kreme donuts. I would have the same reaction. - Louis Gray

posted a message on Twitter

“'Just got off phone w/ @BaghdadBrian - he is back in America and doing well eating at Chili's! RB interview scheduled for the morn in NYC.”

August 24 at 11:02 pm - Link

posted a link

Countdown to London 2012 Olympics Underway

August 24 at 10:45 am - via Bookmarklet - Link

Zee at WeDoCreative and Kol Tregaskes liked this

Just 1433 Days left! - Andrew Baron

i had completely forgotten that logo. - idnan

Show 6 more comments

really can't believe they paid for that logo - how it got past review when everyone uniformly points out how it looks quite rude! - alphaxion

I remember when it was first announced there were animated 'rude' versions put out and every time I see it now I just think of them. - Arthur Guy

You're all more than welcome to come and join in the fun, and the logo is vibrant sharp and young, note it spells 2012, you would love a Rorschach inkblot test alphaxion. - Phill Price

@phill I've taken a few online... very rarely get what people usually see, though it's not all rude ;) - alphaxion

http://www.davidairey.com/lond... - AJ Batac

The london2012.com website is offensive to my eyes, to be honest. The colors actually make me wish I had a monochrome monitor. I am looking forward to the London games, though. I'm thinking about going. - Jason Huebel

a scary 8 minutes at the beijing closing ceremony, looked so shallow compared to the chinese aesthetic - gregory lent

thanks for the 14 month old link AJ. Shallow? I'm sorry we have to disagree, and you'll have to wait for the full thing to see it in it's glory gregory - Phill Price

I think I'll want to go to London, too. I just hope the street maps don't look like that logo. ;-) - Chris Baskind

posted a link

Presidential Era Gas Prices

August 24 at 10:32 am - via Bookmarklet - Link

Grant Bierman, Steve Rubel, David Cook, AJ Kohn and 16 other people liked this

Here's the interesting bit for me... Plus and Premium are still 10 cents apart. So the price for Regular has increased 352%, but Plus only 300% and Premium by 274%. Over time, assuming the 10 cent gap is a hard and fast guide to gas stations, it may be more economical even for drivers with boring cars that don't need it to get the highest quality fuel? (In other words, why not have a 30 cent gap between each level?) - Louis Gray

I like the first pic, not the second. - Patricia(Trish not Patty)

Show 34 more comments

we're still paying $7 more than that in the UK so count yourselves lucky - Phill Price

The real question... is premium subsidizing regular, vice versa, or do they all really cost the same to manufacture? - Logical Extremes

Louis: Because you want to encourage people to pay extra for the higher grade fuel? The smaller the gap, the greater the chance of upgrading. - Andrew Burd

don't give them any ideas, (but maybe its because the price of crude is up, not the refined product) - ishak via twhirl

http://mattb4rd.com/eloi/?p=42 - Mattb4rd

Alot of nice points. - Andrew Baron

Well, we can see here that W and Cheney have served their masters well. Really well. - Tad - just Tad

@tad who, european banks? - ishak via twhirl

@louisgray your mind is really interesting ... born to calculate, naturally - gregory lent

Not like Baron cares...daddy can just loan him gas money...ooops did I say that? - Andrew Feinberg

hehe - just rabble rousing... though I'd guess that since he and cheney and rice all came from the oil industry their buddies are pretty happy - Tad - just Tad

Trish: Especially considering profits are going into the pockets of the man on the right. (our right) :) - Mona N.

Bottom-right. I wouldn't doubt bottom-left too. - ·[•_•]·

I just deleted a comment and blocked a person due to being lame with personal attacks esp. that have nothing to do with this article. Its the third person Ive blocked on ff. I also have blocked two people from Twitter. I'm not sure if its the right thing to do, but found myself to be happier not having to be constantly bombarded by them because I dont think they are nice or valid and actually forget about them for long periods of time. - Andrew Baron

Actually Mona, it's more likely you and I that are the profiteers: http://www.energytomorrow.org/... - Mattb4rd

Mattb4rd, sure would be nice if my funds were seeing the kinds if gains big oil are. Besides, there are probably many investors that don't invest in funds that invest in fossil fuel related industries on moral grounds. Similar to not invest in the tobacco industry. Personally, when I invest in energy, I prefer to invest my money in renewable. So I don't own any big oil. - ·[•_•]·

@Andrew I hope I'm not one that you blocked. My link to the Obama / X!a photos is editorial commentary. One thing has nothing to do with the other. It's the same as your photos in my opinion. - Mattb4rd

@nicerobot Find a new mutual fund or 401K. Mine have averaged better than double digits for decades. Big oil nets around 9%. - Mattb4rd

Andrew, about the blocking. It's your purgative. My personal opinion is to never delete a comment but blocking persons whose content you have decided you never want to see is completely reasonable. - ·[•_•]·

Andrew: life is too short to deal with jerks :) - Mona N.

you can block me too, i don't mind - gregory lent

Though Bush certainly hasn't helped oil prices, I think the characterization here is unfair. You're talking a 16 year difference in inflation. - Aaron Brazell

Finally. +1 Aaron :) - Mattb4rd

we need to pay a lot more for gas, just to cover the social costs, pollution, etc. and to create incentive to move on to the next step.. american auto industry wants to have congress give them 50 billion.. the same mind wants low fuel prices ... http://money.cnn.com/2008/08/2... - gregory lent

Are you saying 16 years of inflation should lead to a 4x multiplier? - Jason Carreira

I'm talking about these kinds of percentages: "Exxon Rides Oil and Gas Prices to 36% Gain in Profit" http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07... "reported a 33 percent gain in second-quarter profit" "Profit from oil and gas sales climbed 68 percent to $10 billion" http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.d... Yet the stock prices are not reflecting these same percentages. - ·[•_•]·

@nicerobot that's because their profit margin is the same. Their costs have gone up that much as well. - Jason Carreira

Funny how most of that increase has happened since the Democrats proclaimed themselves "READY TO LEAD!" in January of 2008... - Vincent Ferrari

@nicerobot The root of the "evil big oil" argument is that only a few elites benefit from gains. My take is that you and I are the beneficiaries of such a "windfall" and that's not a bad thing. "You and I" includes the bafrillion people that are employed by "big oil", their families, and their family's families. More even than you and I, the US Government, the biggest drug dealer on the planet via taxation, is by far the largest beneficiary. The US Government, by the way, is not W and his cronies. - Mattb4rd

No, it hasn't - Jason Carreira

@Matt, yes, I feel so enriched when I fill my car... - Jason Carreira

A large part of those "costs' are bonuses and salaries of their executives as well as spending to the refineries that they own. You're fooling yourself if you think owning stock in big oil is offsetting gas price increases. - ·[•_•]·

@Jason: Maybe you shouldn't inhale so deeply while pumping gas :) - Mattb4rd

Have the salaries of _all_ the employees of big oil gone up relative to the price of gas so that the employees are not impacted at all by gas prices? If not, then you're argument fails because it means the employees have essentially taken a pay cut because their own company is costing them more to work for them. - ·[•_•]·

Additionally, by your argument, if I employ lots of people, it doesn't matter how I obtain the money I use to pay them? Anyway, I'm not opposed to companies making a profit as long as they pass it on to shareholders and employees. The reason big oil sucks is because they are _actively_ fighting against moving to renewable energy. That's what's frackin evil!! - ·[•_•]·

@nicerobot. Your honesty is refreshing. The logical fruition of your thought process, as it is outlined here, is that capitalism is evil. I'm about to post some photos of 2 "cappulatte's" I just made. That's more fun to talk about. :) - Mattb4rd

Capitalism is evil in some regards but I'm not an absolutist so it isn't either-or. Watch a documentary called "The Corporation". I agree with much of what is presented in that documentary. At the same time, capitalism is a wonderful system in many respects. It just isn't suitable for anything requiring compassionate, humane endeavors. If more people were to clearly undersatnd when capitalism works and when it doesn't we could probably solve a huge rift that exists between republicans and democrats. - ·[•_•]·