I've read most of them now and the highlights for me are Look To Windward, Player of Games and Fearsum Endjinn (stick with that one). I also rate Excession and Matter though I know a lot of other people think they're weaker.
Atlas Shrugged has been called the 'second most influential book in America' so I can understand why it gets mentioned a lot. I found it an unimaginative, tacky bore. It's at least three times the length it should be, the characters speak in diatribes and are impossible to empathise with. At best it's interesting as a thought experiment and it did affect my outlook on life but, really, I read it because I thought I should, not because I wanted to.
I also found Red Mars a bit of a struggle in this way too. It seemed similarly ideological to Atlas Shrugged but from the other direction. It was worth reading for the sheer attention to detail and imagination though.
I find it amazing that there still hasn't been a film or TV adaptation of Iain M Banks. Not that such a thing would be necessary or a validation of his writing; but I'd love to see it imagined and realized visually. It's a vision of perhaps the best possible case for the human future - if we don't fuck up.
The Culture series is one of the most uplifting series I've read. When I'm reading it, I'm just smiling thinking "yeah, that's exactly how humans should develop". Also, ships named Well, it works for me.
But when the government privatizes services, that agency problem always exists. Instead of contracting to one service like any other entity, government would always need to contract with several. You're just making a stronger argument for not privitizing government services.
Moreover, laying all the blame at the feet of government for these companies being scumbags is precisely why I said private industry has the wrong culture for this sort of thing.
If you read the article you will see that they do it most likely cheaper than the prison can do:
JPay’s rapid rise stems in part from the generous deal it offers many prison systems. They pay nothing to have JPay take over handling financial transfers. And for every payment it accepts in these states — prisoners typically receive about one per month — the company sends between 50 cents and $2.50 back to the prison operator.
The government does have the power, and they most likely are outsourcing this part of their non core infrastructure like most other companies do, to save money.
lichess doesn't seem to be giving it enough juice to perform at its stated levels at the moment.
On my first try I managed to draw the highest AI level, rated at 2510, while my rating is under 2000 irl. (I was unable to find an "offer draw" button so relied on the 50-move rule)
Against stockfish running on my PC that would be impossible.
http://en.lichess.org/reDfuSvI
I will grant you your first point if you can point me to a specific Indian law that says cartelization fines are a function of a multinational's global sales?
As to your link on EU fines, it very clearly states that fines are a percentage of "relevant sales", defined as "usually the sales of the products covered by the infringement". I don't know how you came to the conclusion that means global sales?
