One of the most interesting concepts I've taken from Scott Adams book God's Debris, is that laws are made for the common good of society as certain behaviour is detrimental to the community for a number of reasons.

Whilst on the surface this is a reasonably obvious statement, I've spent an increasing amount of time thinking about this. Things that don't work for society have punishments attached, and there's a whole hidden economy here - for simplicity's sake, I'll call it Naughty Tax.

If you're running late for an important business meeting, you might weigh up the cost of a speeding fine versus how important the meeting is (and what impact there is of being late). This is a fairly common example, and shows that most people might make this comparison every day. Taking this a little further, you might regularly speed through streets on the basis that the percentage of times you get caught and the penalties are worth it for the convenience gained by doing what you want to.

There's a potential mindset here for individuals to consider the legal system less as a system of denouncing certain behaviour, but rather as a tax for doing what you like. We've all heard of the phrase stating that the rich keep on getting richer, and if you think about it in this context - the rich have a much higher capability of paying naughty tax, therefore the equation balances in their favour.

Right about now, I should probably note that I'm in no way advocating anything such as child exploitation, murder or rape - these are things that violate my personal code, and I think should be 'taxed' to the highest amount (long jail term, etc).

Likewise, if this behaviour were to become the norm - this behaviour would cause exactly the type of effect that the laws were introduced to stop, impacting on society in a negative way.

It would be interesting to see what society would be like if instead of condemning behaviour in the current manner, it was generally regarded as a tax - would the tax be higher to stop people from doing it then? Because If that were the case, then today's tax is clearly not high enough - because we can already make the choice to break the law.

I'll leave you all to ponder the rammifications of that one :)

This technology thing sure is amazing, just look at how quickly my comments to an ex-housemate were removed!

My original comment. I know it's passive-aggressive - but the guy has made it clear he has no intention on making good on his word...

A co-workers comment, made within minutes (note the quick absence of my post):

Moments later, all the posts are gone!

I sure do hope technology progresses quickly to have an equivalent of beefy collections guys, but at this rate I'm sure it's not too long at all! :)

Here I am, ready to report on the Magic Fruit after my first experiences. For this experience, we went to the shops and purchased a variety of sour foods. Here's the results:

* Lemon Juice - Tastes like honey with a twist of (non-sour) lemon. If you've got a cold, I'd highly suggest having a glass of hot lemon juice straight (after taking Magic Fruit.)

* Lime Juice - Much the same as lemon juice, just not as sweet. I think the aftertaste is because I didn't get a good coating on the back of my throat.

* Vinegar - This is very hard to explain, other than saying it tastes exactly like Vinegar, but without the intense, biting quality.

* White Onions - Sadly, these are much the same as usual, though will a little less harshness from the pickling liquid.

* Soy Sauce - Like vingear, this tastes exactly like Soy Sauce, but without the saltiness. It's hard to explain

* Salt & Vinegar Crisps - These turned out to be sweet and sour crisps, very delicious. The sweet vinegar flavour contrasted to the saltiness of the chip, and together they complemented each other very nicely.

* Wasabi - This one was really quite strange. Our normally hot wasabi was reduced to a warm, wheatgrassy flavour. It wasn't unpleasant, but was definately a different taste.

As well as these basic tests, we've been told that we should try these with a pint of Guinness. So on the way back from the shops we did...

* Guinness - Oh My God. It's like the heavens opened up and blessed us. What was previously a bitter and moody drink was literally a sweet nectar of awesomeness, and you could easily down an entire pint of this in 10 seconds.

In short - this shit is awesome, go buy some.