ribuck

Snowdog, you use words like "work" and "labor". By the time the creator has crystallized their creativity into some tangible form, they have done the work. If someone else makes a copy (in the absence of a contract to the contrary), it's the copier who is doing the work to create the copy. The originator doesn't do any further work to create the copy, and the copier is not exploiting the originator by doing whatever he likes with the copy he made.

Can't you politely decline, saying that you'd feel uncomfortable celebrating a piercing? If pressed further, you can explain that you consider bodily mutilation to be a decision that children can make themselves when they are adults. I think that's what I'd do in your situation. As you say, the piercing is going to happen regardless. But that doesn't mean you need to be complicit in fooling your sister-in-law into thinking that everyone considers piercing to be uncontroversial, normal, desirable even. Also, you'll feel better if you have been authentic to your beliefs. You can give your niece lots of love and affection in the future, whether her ears are pierced or not.

That's very nicely done! There's also "Star Trek Rhapsody":

Ken Glasgow's Philosophy Park Lytton BC by MartialArtsNomad.com, on Flickr

Orbiting is not necessary, but neither is it a problem. On the way towards attaining escape velocity, the rocket needs to pass through orbital velocity anyway, so it can hang in orbit for as long as desired without penalty.

In the UK, "Happy Birthday" is under copyright until 2016. In the US the copyright will expire in 2030, but some claim the copyright is invalid in the US. Nevertheless, Warner collects a couple of million dollars in royalties each year, so lots of lawyers must consider "Happy Birthday" to be still copyrighted. As for your comments about monetary transactions and misrepresentations, these have nothing to do with copyright. Copyright, as the word suggests, is about the right to make copies. I have the right to make copies of Shakespeare's works because the copyright has expired. I have the right to copy Shakespeare whether I charge money or not. I even have the right to copy Shakespeare if I misrepresent the authorship. On the other hand, copyright law does not permit me to copy the movie "Star Wars", even if I charge nothing and make no misrepresentation, because its copyright has not expired.

I assume that you get copyright clearance each time you sing "Happy Birthday". If not, I don't think you're arguing in good faith.

There are some good Jeffrey Tucker quotes here: http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/395323.Jeffrey_Tucker

"Age does matter: Immigration New Zealand refused to grant immigration application for an Indian boy, aged 22, married to an NZ woman, aged 59"

Wait until noon. Stand the ham sandwich on its edge. North is opposite the shadow of the sandwich. You do need to know which hemisphere you are in (in the northern hemisphere, north is in the direction of the shadow).

There's a piece of folk wisdom that says the ideal age for a female equals half the age of the male plus seven.

If your situation is uncertain, always rent. When your situation is settled, consider buying depending on the circumstances at the time.

I offer reciprocity. I will forgive the pope if he behaves morally and lives according to the non-aggression principle.

Here's the Galt's Gulch Chile song. It gets pretty catchy once you've heard it a few times: http://tatianamoroz.bandcamp.com/track/galts-gulch-chile-theme-song "Miles away, in the valleys of Chile, There's a place you can go, build a villa or chateau, Spend lots of time with people who understand, That you don't have to be a slave: draw a line in the sand. You'll smile when you see all the opportunities, Innovate, and create, all you dreamed could ever be, A world that is free, no more stifling regulations, Just time for meditation, and a home for liberty.

You can't cure your brother's hate by "hating the hate"! In your situation I would keep spending time with your brother and your nephew. Make friends with the nephew, and be a good role model by showing that peaceful inter-personal relationships are rewarding. Let your nephew see that you have friends from a range of ethnic backgrounds. With luck, your nephew will naturally generalise the peaceful relationship that you have shown him, into his own future peaceful relationships with people of all races.

And with your opening sentence, you have answered your subsequent questions. If Mary has a music file and makes a copy of it, she has employed her own resources to make a new piece of property (the new copy of the music file), without the use of force. The original performer created their performance, using their own resources and without force. The performer didn't make all future digital representations of that performance. Those were made by others, using those people's own resources and without force.

Here's a chart of the number of cases, showing a rapid drop after the polio vaccine was licensed. It also shows a pronounced drop two years earlier during the pre-licensing tests when almost 2 million children were administered the vaccine: Source: http://www.drwile.com/lnkpages/render.asp?vac_effective That's a fairly informative page, which does address many of the issues that have been raised on this forum by LovePrevails. Now we can return to considering the coercive aspects of vaccination...

When I was at university in the 1970s, plenty of people were working part time and studying part time. The university scheduled enough evening classes that it was even possible to work full time if you wanted. Of course it took five years instead of three to get the degree, but it's a great way to gain qualifications while earning money.

I've not been to Costa Rica, but in other Spanish-speaking countries I've discovered that speaking ANY Spanish is enough to get the same prices as locals get. I'm sure I still stand out, but not so much when compared to the loud English-speaking tourists. Incidentally, people from the United Kingdom become just as loud as people from the United States, when speaking English in a non-English-speaking country.

I'm sorry you found my post unsatisfying, Don. Unfortunately, I don't know how I can fix that. I just don't think the politics surrounding the helium reserve are very important. A rise in the market price of helium will cause an increase in recycling, an increase in extraction, and an increase in private reserves (held by speculators). It's a self-repairing "problem".

You don't need to worry about helium. Like the article says, helium is abundant although at the moment it is too expensive to extract it except from natural gas. There is a boom in natural gas at the moment, which is likely to continue for at least a few decades. If the natural gas runs out, the price of helium will rise a bit and people will find a practical way to extract it from sources other than natural gas. When I was a child in the 1960s, people were worrying about an imminent helium shortage, but look where we are now! Helium is sufficiently cheap and plentiful that it isn't even effectively captured and re-used.

Cheap energy now enables us to improve technology so that our children will pay even less for the things that we take for granted. The imposition of massive debt onto our children might break them. High energy prices will not.

Fair point. Even so, if circumstances change such that ant colonies require a smaller proportion of soldier ants, then evolution will favor individual ants that are less likely to develop into soldiers. If it's the same with humans, there's still no reason to assume that the proportion of alphas and betas will remain fixed.

Line three ("we must use our instruments and our senses") assumes that our senses are real. So the argument fails in line six when it contradicts its earlier assumption.

That reminds me of a dream I had a few months ago. In my dream, the freedom movement in the UK suddenly swelled (as a result of some current events) and I was swept into power as Prime Minister. Of course I started to dismantle the state. At first it went well, but before I could eliminate the state completely, there was a welling-up of fear of life without government. So I packaged up the remaining pieces of the state into a DRO called "The Firm". Those who wanted to, joined The Firm and lived their statist lives to their heart's content. Everyone else lived voluntaryist lives. It worked out really well in the dream!