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Learn economics and facts before you speak...

Oh, this is going to be good.

- Volatility is COMPLETELY NORMAL and EXPECTED process of adoption of a new distributed currency into a free and open market.

Citation needed.

Fiat is only "stable" due to manipulation to target, see the Fed's own whitepapers on that.

So if you abandon all pretense of manipulation to target, you get volatility. Nice own-goal.

IN FACT, Fiat is extremely volatile when priced in cryptocurrency.

Yes, due to the volatility of the cryptocurrency. Now price either of those in real world goods, like a pizza.

- Blockchain design model itself has NEVER been "hacked". Only the shitware and shitcorps and shitcoins surrounding it has been.

Counterpoint. Unless your "blockchain design model" manages to exclude every cryptocurrency deployed to date.

- NOT your keys, NOT your Cryptocurrency. Read the news... banks get "hacked" ALL THE FUCKING TIME MATE.

Not as frequently as cryptowallets, not without recourse (insurance because thank you state banking laws), and not with the ability to disappear with nary a trace because thank you Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation).

Sounds plenty learned to me.

Except, of course, that Liberty University has a long history of having leading figures on the left come and speak to its student body. Ted Kennedy was a frequent speaker, and last year, students were required to go to a Bernie Sanders speech.

The students were respectful and listened, even though they disagreed with Sanders on most points.

I wouldn't go to or send my child to Liberty U, but the differences between a Liberty University and a Berkeley or Evergreen or Yale or Middlebury are pretty stark. Liberty U expects a respectful audience and gets one, the others have let the inmates run the asylum.

The Hells Angels motorcycle club are huge philanthropists http://blogs.roanoke.com/dancasey/2012/12/outlaw-bikers-turn-santas-helpers-in-toys-for-tots/
and most of *them* are good community citizens rather than cycle-riding gangbangers.

When you belong to an organization that has members who ARE gun slinging gangbangers and you shield those members from prosecution then you deserve to be painted with the same stinky brush because you are enabling their abuses.

Hell, a couple of years ago, a guy was killed by a *(US) Civil War* shell. And that was one that not only had sat either in water or the Virginia mud for nearly 150 years, it had been flushed with water to try to make it inert.

Somehow, I think you have completely missed the point. The data used for these types of broad generalizations is not specific to an area, it is aggregated. Your strawman argument isn't very interesting -- do you actually believe that preferring Firefox means you are probably a criminal? The shark attack VS ice cream example is not a premise of the argument.

It's obviously not true for arbitrary geographic areas. And it's obviously not true for long term time frames - sharks attacks have gone down since 2000, I doubt world wide ice cream sales have.

The data does not suggest reported shark attacks have significantly gone down since 2000.

Reported shark attacks have been in an up trend since the 1980s.

And actually, Ice Cream sales have been going down a bit, since 2000, the product has been losing some some market share to other frozen desert items. And bad years.

I expect both reported shark attacks and ice cream sales have bad years, where they may randomly deviate from the trend. Not all correlations are the strongest type possible.

Btw, NASCAR does this already on some tracks for safety reasons. You don't see any of those cars going 200+ mph. Even though they are completely capable of it.

Yeah, and restrictor plates certainly have done wonders for safety!

The gay part was tangential to the point. Later on Anton marries, not because being gay is bad, but because he was lonely and their is a strong theme of "Community" throughout the books. By marrying, Anton once again joins the community at large.

So in this fictional universe of Card's, you can't be part of the community if you're homosexual, except if you deny it and live as a breeder?

And you don't see the inherent bigotry in that?

I've gotten the impression that he disapproves of homosexuality for moral reasons, but doesn't hate or even disapprove of those who are homosexual at all. A catholic friend of mine put it best "Hate the Sin, NOT the Sinner"

Rubbish. Card makes this same claim that he "condemns the sin but loves the sinner", but it's thin cover for bigotry. Homosexuality is no more a sin than is preferring rum to tequila.

A sin is an error, a mistake, a failure to hit the mark. One's inborn preferences regarding love and sex are not a mistake.

You can't disapprove of something that that is a part of people's fundamental nature without disapproving of the people who are that thing. "It's not that I hate people with red hair, I just hate red hair. So does my god - in his great love and mercy, he condemns redheads to eternal torment. Here's a bottle of hair dye. Come back when you've hidden your gross deformity. Love you!"

Card is a bigot and a loon who wrote one really good book a long time ago. His bigotry seems to have be absorbed from his church; in most cases I'd have some hope for someone in that situation, that they might grow out of it. But Card's support for George W. Bush demonstrates that he's just too clueless. Anyone who calls W "the most moderate, thoughtful, rational and responsible president since Dwight D. Eisenhower" is not merely ignorant, but is trying really really hard to stay delusional.

I disapprove of bigotry, mental laziness, and delusional thinking because unlike homosexuality, they are choices that can be changed. If Card were merely stupid, mentally retarded, brain damaged, he'd have my pity, but not my disapproval. Instead it appears that he has a reasonably sound mind - he just chooses not to use it.

Sounds like super awesome fun.
Wonder why no-one has thought of that before?

http://www.roanoke.com/politics/fraud/wb/102600

A pack of thieves attempted to steal scrap metal from an abandoned factory in Kladno. Unfortunately for them, they selected the steel girders that supported the factory roof. When the roof supports were dismantled, the roof fell, fatally crushing two thieves and injuring three others.

Stuff like this must happen pretty often. Two guys broke into a shut-down foundry near here with the intent of stealing copper wire. Unfortunately for them, they cut into a 12 kilovolt line that was still energized. One of them died from suffering burns to 60% of his body.

http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/124519

Maybe you can't stop it but ask yourself this: What if he had walked into a police station at Virginia Tech and done this? I guarantee 50 people wouldn't be shot. Someone would have shot him before he did much damage. As it stood, he had free unfettered access to unarmed people. That's why so many died.

If he had tried this at the mall in Christiansburg or the MR hospital or the Roanoke Gun Show, he would not have been as successful. Even at the local public schools, he would have to take out the police on campus. Ironically, on the day of the VT shooting, a students was walking around Blacksburg Middle School (where my daughter goes to school) trying to sell a gun out of his backpack. Laws restricting guns just don't work. 4/16 proved that. All you do is put power in the hands of people willing to break the law...like the VT gunman.

http://www.roanoke.com/news/nrv/wb/wb/xp-120342

NC is not the only state doing this.

Recently a man was charged and
convicted for selling vegetable oil to motorists in Roanoke, VA, after an 6-week investigation by four secret policemen who collected evidence against him. It's pretty clear that the appropriate action was to alert the 'felon' to the special tax requirements associated with gas distibution, and not to burden the court system.

Two men in Wisconsin were recently fined.

TFA also mentions the old man fined in Illinois, though he was given an individual exemption.

NC is not the only state doing this.

Recently a man was charged and
convicted for selling vegetable oil to motorists in Roanoke, VA, after an 6-week investigation by four secret policemen who collected evidence against him. It's pretty clear that the appropriate action was to alert the 'felon' to the special tax requirements associated with gas distibution, and not to burden the court system.

Two men in Wisconsin were recently fined.

TFA also mentions the old man fined in Illinois, though he was given an individual exemption.

Well here is what Bradford B. Wiles, a graduate student at Virginia Tech. had to say about it. He was actually there, so his perspective might be relevant.

On Aug. 21 at about 9:20 a.m., my graduate-level class was evacuated from the Squires Student Center. We were interrupted in class and not informed of anything other than the following words: "You need to get out of the building."

Upon exiting the classroom, we were met at the doors leading outside by two armor-clad policemen with fully automatic weapons, plus their side arms. Once outside, there were several more officers with either fully automatic rifles and pump shotguns, and policemen running down the street, pistols drawn.

It was at this time that I realized that I had no viable means of protecting myself.

Please realize that I am licensed to carry a concealed handgun in the commonwealth of Virginia, and do so on a regular basis. However, because I am a Virginia Tech student, I am prohibited from carrying at school because of Virginia Tech's student policy, which makes possession of a handgun an expellable offense, but not a prosecutable crime.

I had entrusted my safety, and the safety of others to the police. In light of this, there are a few things I wish to point out.

First, I never want to have my safety fully in the hands of anyone else, including the police.

Second, I considered bringing my gun with me to campus, but did not due to the obvious risk of losing my graduate career, which is ridiculous because had I been shot and killed, there would have been no graduate career for me anyway.

Third, and most important, I am trained and able to carry a concealed handgun almost anywhere in Virginia and other states that have reciprocity with Virginia, but cannot carry where I spend more time than anywhere else because, somehow, I become a threat to others when I cross from the town of Blacksburg onto Virginia Tech's campus.

Of all of the emotions and thoughts that were running through my head that morning, the most overwhelming one was of helplessness.

That feeling of helplessness has been difficult to reconcile because I knew I would have been safer with a proper means to defend myself.

I would also like to point out that when I mentioned to a professor that I would feel safer with my gun, this is what she said to me, "I would feel safer if you had your gun."

The policy that forbids students who are legally licensed to carry in Virginia needs to be changed.

I am qualified and capable of carrying a concealed handgun and urge you to work with me to allow my most basic right of self-defense, and eliminate my entrusting my safety and the safety of my classmates to the government.

This incident makes it clear that it is time that Virginia Tech and the commonwealth of Virginia let me take responsibility for my safety.

link:
http://www.roanoke.com/editorials/commentary/wb/80 510

As a former alumni of Va. Tech and former resident of Roanoke, VA, I would like to thank the Va. Tech talking heads, other liberal colleges around the state, campus police, Larry Hincker and all the other anti-gun crowd pundits who had a hand in striking down (illegally IMO) sound legislation (House Bill 1572); legislation proposed by the honorable Del. Todd Gilbert that would have allowed students and teachers, who hold a state-issued concealed carry permit, to carry a concealed gun on campus(es).

By there very unconstitutional actions they were complicit and abeted Cho Seung-Hui in the killings of 33 students yesterday at Va. Tech. There is no guarantee, but if the students/teachers of Va. tech would have been allowed to lawfully carry a concealed weapon on campus (without the fear of ejection from the college) this tragedy may have been averted. My sympathies to the families who have been affected by this insane action by a seriously disturbed murderer.

HB 1572
http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?061+su m+HB1572

Virginia Tech's ban on guns may draw legal fire
http://www.roanoke.com/news/nrv/wb/xp-21770

A bill being considered in the House of Delegates challenges the authority of public universities to restrict weapons on campus.
http://www.roanoke.com/politics/wb/49915

Gun bill gets shot down by panel
http://www.roanoke.com/politics/wb/50658

College spokesman celebrated 2006 defeat because it would help make campus safe
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTI CLE_ID=55226

Va. Tech: Gunman Student From S. Korea
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/04/17/ap/natio nal/main2693365.shtml

As a former alumni of Va. Tech and former resident of Roanoke, VA, I would like to thank the Va. Tech talking heads, other liberal colleges around the state, campus police, Larry Hincker and all the other anti-gun crowd pundits who had a hand in striking down (illegally IMO) sound legislation (House Bill 1572); legislation proposed by the honorable Del. Todd Gilbert that would have allowed students and teachers, who hold a state-issued concealed carry permit, to carry a concealed gun on campus(es).

By there very unconstitutional actions they were complicit and abeted Cho Seung-Hui in the killings of 33 students yesterday at Va. Tech. There is no guarantee, but if the students/teachers of Va. tech would have been allowed to lawfully carry a concealed weapon on campus (without the fear of ejection from the college) this tragedy may have been averted. My sympathies to the families who have been affected by this insane action by a seriously disturbed murderer.

HB 1572
http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?061+su m+HB1572

Virginia Tech's ban on guns may draw legal fire
http://www.roanoke.com/news/nrv/wb/xp-21770

A bill being considered in the House of Delegates challenges the authority of public universities to restrict weapons on campus.
http://www.roanoke.com/politics/wb/49915

Gun bill gets shot down by panel
http://www.roanoke.com/politics/wb/50658

College spokesman celebrated 2006 defeat because it would help make campus safe
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTI CLE_ID=55226

Va. Tech: Gunman Student From S. Korea
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/04/17/ap/natio nal/main2693365.shtml

As a former alumni of Va. Tech and former resident of Roanoke, VA, I would like to thank the Va. Tech talking heads, other liberal colleges around the state, campus police, Larry Hincker and all the other anti-gun crowd pundits who had a hand in striking down (illegally IMO) sound legislation (House Bill 1572); legislation proposed by the honorable Del. Todd Gilbert that would have allowed students and teachers, who hold a state-issued concealed carry permit, to carry a concealed gun on campus(es).

By there very unconstitutional actions they were complicit and abeted Cho Seung-Hui in the killings of 33 students yesterday at Va. Tech. There is no guarantee, but if the students/teachers of Va. tech would have been allowed to lawfully carry a concealed weapon on campus (without the fear of ejection from the college) this tragedy may have been averted. My sympathies to the families who have been affected by this insane action by a seriously disturbed murderer.

HB 1572
http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?061+su m+HB1572

Virginia Tech's ban on guns may draw legal fire
http://www.roanoke.com/news/nrv/wb/xp-21770

A bill being considered in the House of Delegates challenges the authority of public universities to restrict weapons on campus.
http://www.roanoke.com/politics/wb/49915

Gun bill gets shot down by panel
http://www.roanoke.com/politics/wb/50658

College spokesman celebrated 2006 defeat because it would help make campus safe
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTI CLE_ID=55226

Va. Tech: Gunman Student From S. Korea
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/04/17/ap/natio nal/main2693365.shtml

Except VTech had a "gun-free zone" policy.

And to think, they had recently ensured no CCW holders could carry their weapons on campus: "Virginia Tech spokesman Larry Hincker was happy to hear the bill was defeated. "I'm sure the university community is appreciative of the General Assembly's actions because this will help parents, students, faculty and visitors feel safe on our campus."

They attempted to change their "Gun-Free Zone" nonsense by allowing the students with concealed carry licenses to do so...

http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/wb/xp-50658

My favorite quote from the article...

Virginia Tech spokesman Larry Hincker was happy to hear the bill was defeated. "I'm sure the university community is appreciative of the General Assembly's actions because this will help parents, students, faculty and visitors feel safe on our campus."

Calling yourself a "gun-free zone" is NOT going to deter a criminal.

what's sad was they voted down concealed carry on campus last year...
http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/wb/xp-50658

Gun bill gets shot down by panel
Tuesday, January 31, 2006

...Virginia Tech spokesman Larry Hincker was happy to hear the bill was defeated. "I'm sure the university community is appreciative of the General Assembly's actions because this will help parents, students, faculty and visitors feel safe on our campus"...

http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/wb/xp-50658

http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/wb/xp-50658

Gun bill gets shot down by panel
HB 1572, which would have allowed handguns on college campuses, died in subcommittee.
By Greg Esposito
    381-1675

A bill that would have given college students and employees the right to carry handguns on campus died with nary a shot being fired in the General Assembly.

House Bill 1572 didn't get through the House Committee on Militia, Police and Public Safety. It died Monday in the subcommittee stage, the first of several hurdles bills must overcome before becoming laws.

The bill was proposed by Del. Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah County, on behalf of the Virginia Citizens Defense League. Gilbert was unavailable Monday and spokesman Gary Frink would not comment on the bill's defeat other than to say the issue was dead for this General Assembly session.

Virginia Tech spokesman Larry Hincker was happy to hear the bill was defeated. "I'm sure the university community is appreciative of the General Assembly's actions because this will help parents, students, faculty and visitors feel safe on our campus."

Del. Dave Nutter, R-Christiansburg, would not comment Monday because he was not part of the subcommittee that discussed the bill.

Most universities in Virginia require students and employees, other than police, to check their guns with police or campus security upon entering campus. The legislation was designed to prohibit public universities from making "rules or regulations limiting or abridging the ability of a student who possesses a valid concealed handgun permit ... from lawfully carrying a concealed handgun."

The legislation allowed for exceptions for participants in athletic events, storage of guns in residence halls and military training programs.

Last spring a Virginia Tech student was disciplined for bringing a handgun to class, despite having a concealed handgun permit. Some gun owners questioned the university's authority, while the Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police came out against the presence of guns on campus.

In June, Tech's governing board approved a violence prevention policy reiterating its ban on students or employees carrying guns and prohibiting visitors from bringing them into campus facilities.

Does anybody know if Virginia Tech has a policy against firearms on campus?

Gun bill gets shot down by panel
Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Virginia Tech spokesman Larry Hincker was happy to hear the bill was defeated. "I'm sure the university community is appreciative of the General Assembly's actions because this will help parents, students, faculty and visitors feel safe on our campus."

http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/wb/xp-50658

This is why it is wrong for your second amendment rights to end at the boundary of a school. Nothing is preventing from people illegally bringing guns on to campus. The same argument applies, well, anywhere.

Just to fill everybody in, the campus is designated a "gun-free zone." There was a state bill last year to change this, but it didn't make it out of subcommittee.

Of course, in all likelihood, we'll end up seeing even more restrictions that feel good but end up in more people being hurt. There have already been talking heads on TV advocating "making university buildings into lock-down prisons, with no classroom windows, and wanding of everyone going in and out."

A decade later I still lived in Blacksburg (and still do today). I happened to get into a conversation on the bus with a freshman who lived in Pritchard. He told me the same story about the Coke machine, including the fact that it was "a couple years ago".

I'm fascinated with the story's persistence. A coworker who went lived in Pritchard in the mid 1970's told me that he had heard the same story at that time. Some kids in my church who live in Pritchard this year have heard the same story (including the "couple years ago" part). The legend has lasted thirty years now.

A couple years ago my friend Tom Angleberger, a columnist for the Roanoke Times, asked his readers for help on tracking down the legend. He got some reliable appearing (but not fully verifiable) evidence that the incident happened in the early 1970's. He even tracked down the alleged culprit (who, supposedly, was expelled for the prank), but the guy wouldn't return Tom's phone calls. Can't say I blame him, really.

So... it's not like it was a very good prank, but somehow it's survived the test of time.

In Virginia, Level 3 destroyed people's property without getting their permission. They keep trying to get the power of eminent domain to get land for free.

Here are some related links:

http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/xp-14617
http://www.courts.state.va.us/opinions/opnscvwp/10 40481.pdf
http://swvalaw.blogspot.com/2004/11/are-we-back-in -business.html

Level 3 is just plain evil.

"In the "information age" as they used to call it, secrets and closed policies just aren't feasable anymore."

Really?

This would seem to contradict you:

"The Bush administration filed sealed documents with the U.S. District Court in Manhattan in the case that the American Civil Liberties Union brought, aiming to keep hidden dozens of photographs. The ACLU is seeking information on treatment of detainees in U.S. custody.

The administration incredibly contends that releasing the pictures would violate the Geneva Conventions rules by exposing the prisoners to additional humiliation."
From: http://www.roanoke.com/editorials%5C28746.html

Hate to say it buddy, but even under FOIA, it often can take up to a decade to get information from the government. This is especially true given this administration's extreme interpretation of Executive Priviledge (can't say Clinton was any better, but at least he was only trying to cover up sex scandals versus real crime). John Roberts' past judicial record is also being kept from the public. For those saying that it's lawyer-client confidentiality, keep in mind who the client is when we're talking about the Solicitor General (hint: it's "We the people...").

We've a long way to go still before we reach a transparent government.

I am a weather spotter for the national weather service and I have seen some interesting storms here in VA... We once had a storm so intense that the sky was dark enough around 2:00pm that you could see stars in the breaks of the clouds and the moon was "shining." That was freaky - apparently, that storm spawned a "small" tornado that threw individual blades of grass through a telephone pole. In 1985, the southern part of the state, where I am originally from, experienced the "Flood of 85." The Roanoke river crested at a record 23 feet... tons of damage was done, but some amazing stories, like that of an aging Labrador retriever in Eagle Rock that pulled its master to safety out of the rolling waters of Craig Creek, came out of it... Here is a photo of the Roanoke stadium.

I have my moments of snotty trollery, but that wasn't one of them

The mods tell me that I do too.

but the html preview converted my post to a working link in the middle of completely unformatted, unreadable text. GAAH!

Use the "Plain Old Text" mode and it will come out ok.

The Roanoke Times (www.roanoke.com), and the article was in the 5/02 paper *I think*.

Actually it was 5/01 here is the link

Aha! The Christians do it too!" as much as it was an anecdotal reference to "hm, it seems that the RIAA can't even impress the really *good* people.

People often do hold Christians to a higher standard (as the article points out). But the article does offer a more complete view, as it seems there have been discussions about it between a methodist youth pastor and others.

As an aside, the Christian church is quite fragmented as compared to a century ago, with some of the more well known denominations becoming apostate (with other denominations never being "Christian" to begin with). In fact, I would say that quite a few are nothing but a group of secular people socializing on Sunday mornings. Christian in name only.

It's also interesting to note that divorce is the same among Christians as it is non-Christians. You would think that it would not be, but it shows that Christians have the same weaknesses as other people.

I actually ran across some Christian music sharing on IRC and thought to myself huh??? and was somewhat aghast at it.

The economics and ethics of filesharing have been discussed here on slashdot ad nauseum. Personally my view is if you could download a song for around 35 cents and "own" the music (and be allowed to have first sale rights), there would be no problems whatsoever with filesharing. As people would just find it easier to have a decent connection than play around with IRC and Kazaa.

I'm sure that for those 2 million downloads an artist (a Christian one especially) would clamour after such a deal.

The hook is that the middlemen will never go after it. A decade ago I spoke with one Christian musician who was touring with her husband to different churches and selling CDs. She was not a big name by any means, but she had nice music and was a good singer.

I spoke with her a little bit after the show, and she lamented (and was in fact extremely angry) on how she was actually losing money with the way her label was selling her music, and taking all the profits for themselves (not unlike Courtney Love said in Salon.com).

This was before the internet. All the internet did was interrrupt the middleman's profit model of greed. I do not think artists are earning any less, unless the record companies are blaming lost revenue on filesharing and cutting back on the artist's pay (which certainly is not beyond them).

With digital recording equipment becoming plentiful, expect artists to cut out the middleman entirely. Also, there are those artists who really are not going to be overly concerned about how much they make on a song, who will record their own music and release it directly to the consumer. So all this will (have to) lead to extreme downward pressure on the cost of music. Another factor is that there is only 24 hours in a day, and there are numerous interests competing heavily for the average person's attention. I know I watch a lot less TV these days.

The old entertainment industries will not let their monolithic business structure erode in front of there eyes. They are left with no alternative but to sue every music infringer they can find. I suspect that they have warehouses in Bangalore filled with people who do nothing but try to download music from others so that they may prosecute them.

The truth be known, I do not think it is about illegal downloading of music. These people (contrary to what the record insustry wants you to believe) a

First, see this article from five years ago.
Now, take a look here and here.
Is it any real surprise that the Japanese are leading the way? It's just a matter of time...

You misunderstood the nature of the original McDonald's hot coffee lawsuit, as did most people. See the very informative site here for details, but basically it boils (no pun intended) down to the fact that McDonalds keeps it's coffee at 185 degrees F. Standard restaurant coffee temperature is around 165 degrees, but the coffee stays fresher (hence having to be re-made less often) at 185. At 165 degrees, a spill will probably cause first degree burns, but nothing serious. At 185 degrees, it causes third degree burns in under two seconds. You know, the kind that leave you with scar tissue for the rest of your life? McDonald's probably wouldn't have been found negligent if it was just the temperature, but prior to the famous lawsuit they had settled over 700 scalding claims relating to this practice. They admitted they knew it was a hazard. And the 81 year old woman only sued them because they refused to pay the medical bill for the skin grafts and 7 days in the hospital she suffered.

There are problems in the system. Major problems. But you need to find a new example to throw around. (That, or specify which case you're referring to. Feel free to refer to this coffee case instead of the famous one that got the labels put on. :)