I emailed the contact info on the site telling them about the problem, and heres what I got:

"There is a problem on the site. I have reported it to our hosting team and I am hoping that it will be fixed really soon.

Thanks for your interest and I am sure once the problem has been resolved that you will have a wonderful time looking at the insects we have up on line.

Kind regards,
Julia"

So hopefully, soon.

David Friedman wrote about a very similar type of unregulated share taxi type service called "Jitney Transit" in his book "The Machinery of Freedom" (in the chapter called "99 and 44/100ths percent built", a reference to the fact that the infrastructure is already there). It basically consists of stations throughout a city where people in need of a taxi can wait, everyday drivers can pick them up at will. He elaborates on how such a system would work, safety issues, everything you could imagine. It's worth getting the book just for that chapter (although I say that about every chapter).

yeah, they're supercool. The Blaschkas did more than just plants though. Their seacreatures are even more beautiful I think.

have you ever seen Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka's work? It's magnificent.

#16, M
Yeah, it's true, they're vultures, they're scavengers taking advantage of the situation, and they'll always exist. Making regulations and increasing the scope and size of government will only create more opportunities for corruption, because they're the ones who have the most influence with the lawmakers. They're the ones making the rules. The government is the problem here, not the companies.

Get rid of the regulations, stop the lawmakers from setting up a rigged system, and real competition will help get rid of all this corruption.
Things are a lot more complicated than just "big business is bad".

I never understand why people get angry at the companies like Blackwater and Walmart. It's the government's fault for getting so involved in business and creating these monsters.

It's like getting angry at vultures for eating your dead family members, when it was the invisible disease that killed them. Business is just doing what business does, taking advantage of the situation, which was created by a government thats too big.

I guess its just easier to hate big business than it is to hate the real cause, big government. People always miss the point of everything.

tyler cowen's review sums up that book pretty well

best link ever

In my last comment, replace but as long as there are no laws forcing people to run business a certain way, it can easily change. with but the fewer regulatory laws, the easier things are to change.
Nipping the "but there are already so many regulations for ISPs" argument.

In my last comment, replace but as long as there are no laws forcing people to run business a certain way, it can easily change. with but the fewer regulatory laws, the easier things are to change.
Nipping the "but there are already so many regulations for ISPs" argument.

You're ignoring the fact that establishing an ISP either requires regulation (to give you permission to run on the telcos' wires) or regulation (to give you access to the spectrum or rights-of-ways necessary to get your wires through the country).

Indeed, telcos are nothing but greed wrapped in a thick, greasy blanket of government-created regulatory monopolies. That isn't capitalism -- it's a kind of regulatory socialism, not subject to market forces in the same way that, say, restaurants are.

Cory Doctorow is right about ISPs, but I still don't think MORE regulation is the answer. Regulation invariably becomes a tool of big business, always, and in every situation. So you're right, shopping for ISPs is not like shopping for restaurants with the best service, but less regulation is still the best answer for consumers. People may well have to deal with tiered internet while technology catches up, but as long as there are no laws forcing people to run business a certain way, it can easily change.

Think about it this way:
With NN, how do we change it if the laws get out of control? We have to get a majority, elect a person who we think will start change, and then HOPE that one person will help change the laws. And the big business that is benefiting from the laws will fight us all the way.

Without NN, it just takes one company, looking for profits from an ignored segment of people who want non-tiered internet to set up infrastructure, a minority can make that happen.

So one provider tiers their Internet, don't use that provider. Use Copowi or some other provider that doesn't. When one company does something you don't like, just shop somewhere else, that's how capitalism works, it evolves. If someone can make money providing something people want, then that thing is provided. Making a law against it will put politicians in charge, and guess who has more pull with politicians? Not you and me...lobbyists do, people from the big companies. So instead of shopping somewhere else, and giving them an incentive NOT to tier, you want to make a law, and give the big companies the power to regulate the Internet any way they want? Plus you make government the steward of the Internet, so they can continue to regulate it for the so called benefit of the country, maybe they'll start blocking Arab sites, to stop terrorism.
This is what people don't understand about Net Neutrality, the regulators ARE the big companies.