Couldn't this "half-life" just as easily be explained by lack of talent and/or tendency to learn and advance your skills?

In any reasonably advanced profession, like coding, there are usually some few tasks that require relatively high skill and many tasks that require relatively little skill. The former tasks you would give to someone fresh out of university, the latter you would give to someone who has proven themselves to be capable of them, which probably means a couple of years of work experience. As time goes, the code monkey either rises to become an experienced, highly skilled coder/designer/analyst/whatever, or he doesn't. And since 25-year old code monkeys are usually cheaper than 40-year old ones even if they are doing the same work, and 25-year have some small probability of being a good investment in the long term, the older ones, who from the employer's point of view seem to have peaked already, get less and less attractive.

So someone who doesn't have the talent, dedication, interest or intelligence required to work on difficult tasks is simply going to get discarded after a couple of decades. I'm pretty sure this happens in all advanced professions.

Eh, no. The name Greenland was a marketing trick by the early viking colonialists.

Why would the EU having more power be less democratic? The European parliament is elected just like the national ones.

Isn't that exactly the theory behind copyright as well?

"... that would amount to making it possible to monopolize ideas, to the detriment of technological progress and industrial development." If only this common sense extended to all patents as well. As if that would ever happen.

*wooosh*

That annoys me as well. Why the hell are people using off-site javascript files in their webpages for things that could just as well have been done locally? Just copy the bloody files, it's not like there are no decent free javascript libraries.

Don't use Facebook, and occasionally venture out of the basement?

I propose building a network of proxies which transmit encrypted data 24/7. If nobody's downloading then they transmit random data so the ISPs are unable to tell if you're actually downloading anything or not.

Hello, Freenet.

They aren't useful for backup either. Hard disks are cheaper and easier to handle, and often last longer.

The only reasonable use for DVDs is for when you need to send a couple of GB to someone with a slow or capped internet connection.

Spelling aside, you are also factually incorrect. There are a number of different legislative methods used in the EU, but in none of them does the Council of Ministers initialise the procedure.

Depending on the type of legislation, it's either

• Commission proposes -> Council and Parliament amends and accepts or rejects (codecision procedure)
• Commission proposes -> Council consults Parliament -> Council ignores Parliament and amends and accepts or rejects on its own (consultation procedure)
• Commission proposes -> Council amends and accepts or rejects -> Parliament accepts or rejects (consent procedure)
• Commission proposes -> Council amends and accepts or rejects
• Commission dictates!

I have 10000 times my own income, you insensitive clod!

...just try to stir up some controversy to re-awaken the crazies.

Doesn't OS X have any filesystem-level encryption like ecryptfs or encfs on Linux? Seems like a weird oversight.