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User: danbert8

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  1. Re:How is this legal? on Employers Switching From Payroll Checks To Prepaid Cards With Fees · · Score: 1

    Workplace safety has improved because employers have found that it is more valuable to have healthy employees and that injuries have a huge cost associated with them. At least in my industry, safety is driven so hard from the top of the company that it actually frustrates the guys doing the dangerous work, union or not.

    As far as the working hours, what if an individual wants to work extra hours and overtime, but the union rules don't allow it. What exactly are "reasonable working hours"? Why should the workers be able to dictate what the most efficient and optimal working shift is?

  2. Re:How is this legal? on Employers Switching From Payroll Checks To Prepaid Cards With Fees · · Score: 2, Informative

    You can see the results of union representation in Michigan. How are those strong unions working out for Detroit? I don't think wages and standards of living are based on union strength. Texas isn't exactly a union friendly state and they are doing pretty well.

  3. Re:How is this legal? on Employers Switching From Payroll Checks To Prepaid Cards With Fees · · Score: 1

    The advantages of a union being? I am a project manager and I hire both union and non-union crews. There are good crews that are union and there are good crews that are non-union. Similarly there are bad crews from both types of shops. I'd rather pay extra to get a good union crew vs a crappy non-union one, but apples to apples, the non-union crews generally have a better attitude and more productivity.

  4. Re:How is this legal? on Employers Switching From Payroll Checks To Prepaid Cards With Fees · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yes unions are so great that in many states and in many professions you are forced to join one. I have no problem with voluntary unions, but unions can be just as oppressive as employers.

  5. World's Oldest and First Ass on 700,000-Year-Old Horse Becomes Oldest Creature With Sequenced Genome · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'm glad we now understand the genetic base of the jackass. Maybe with this knowledge medical science can remove those genes from human DNA.

  6. Re:Good ... on Supreme Court Overturns Defense of Marriage Act · · Score: 1

    It's ok... The SCOTUS ruled it's a tax. The government has unlimited taxation powers right?

  7. Re:Good ... on Supreme Court Overturns Defense of Marriage Act · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Except dogs can't enter into legally binding contracts. I'd say let's just jump to letting consenting adults enact whatever household contract they want to and have any government benefits be for a "household" not a "married couple".

  8. Re:I dunno, Fred on With an Eye Toward Disaster, NYC Debuts Solar Charging Stations · · Score: 1

    http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--QpavhZBvxU/UHNOf86tS3I/AAAAAAAAAYc/o4FP-qmUfT0/s1600/ghostbusters-4.jpg

    You never know what kind of bright lights the EPA can create though...

  9. Re:It's incredible to me on Bill Regulating 3D Printed Guns Announced In NYC · · Score: 1

    I am being helped either voluntarily or by mutual exchange of goods or services. Also, someone helping me does not obligate me to help others. Forcing help using government guns to enforce is no different than slavery, albeit temporarily.

  10. Re:It's incredible to me on Bill Regulating 3D Printed Guns Announced In NYC · · Score: 2

    I'm an Atheist Libertarian and I don't speak for anyone but myself. The only request I have of other people is that they stop taking my money and forcing my actions. I don't understand what's so wrong with that policy. When you say humanist, what you mean is forcing charity. I want to help people, but I don't want to be forced to help people that don't want help.

  11. Re:It's incredible to me on Bill Regulating 3D Printed Guns Announced In NYC · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I don't think the constitution says anything about you individually having the right to own a gun

    Ahh my favorite argument from people who don't understand this little clause:

    Amendment X: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

    If the Constitution doesn't say anything about it, that implies it's might right and the government cannot restrict it. However in practice I realize the government could give two shits about the Constitution.

  12. Re:Start here on White House: Use Metric If You Want, We Don't Care · · Score: 1

    It makes perfect sense... 100 is fucking hot, 0 is fucking cold. 50 is comfortable in a sweatshirt, 60 in a long sleeved shirt, 70 in a t-shirt, and 80 in a swim suit. Basically the Fahrenheit system is based on normalized temperatures that exist on earth, not some physical property of a common chemical.

  13. Re:Start here on White House: Use Metric If You Want, We Don't Care · · Score: 1

    Yeah, soils typically have a specific gravity of like 2.5... So that's your scale factor. But you see why civil engineers typically use english units. They units are based on tangible quantities, not some scientific ease of math basis. When we need easy math, we use kilopounds and decimal feet. The fact that metric units are based on a scientific standard is irrelevant. As long as there is a standard and it's consistently used, there isn't a problem. As far as people complaining about units like 12, 8, and 4 instead of 10 is ridiculous. Plenty of times you end up working with fractions instead of decimals, and that's why english systems use the even units so they can be split into fractions. Math might be easier for decimal, but most of the people doing construction work AREN'T GOOD AT MATH, but they understand half, third, quarter, etc. That's why construction typically uses english units.

  14. Re:Start here on White House: Use Metric If You Want, We Don't Care · · Score: 1

    I had a 2010 Pontiac G6 with only MPH ticks on the speedometer. It was a pain in the ass in Canada...

  15. Re:Wow... on Windows Blue Is Officially Windows 8.1, Free For Existing Users · · Score: 4, Insightful

    That's your problem... You are assuming power users. Do you know how many people I know who still go to the edit menu to select COPY and PASTE rather than using keyboard shortcuts or even right clicking?

  16. Re:Your mileage may vary... on Why US Mileage Ratings Are So Inaccurate · · Score: 1

    No, speed studies show that most people (85th percentile) drive 70-75 mph on interstates. No studies show that more than 1/2% of people drive 120. I personally think the government should get out of it and private firms like Good Housekeeping or Underwriters Laboratories could create their own fuel efficiency test and market those numbers. Then companies could compete to have the most accurate number for what most people will experience.

  17. Re:Drive conservatively! on Why US Mileage Ratings Are So Inaccurate · · Score: 1

    I am a male and over 25. I happen to a be a civil engineer who has studied traffic design and optimal flow patterns. I also happen to have taken several defensive driving courses offered by very different organizations. I also have taken several advanced driving courses through the National Auto Sport Association. In addition to all of that, I spend more than 10 hours per week driving controlled access highways.

    As far as my driving habits, I drive less than 10mph over the speed limit, and leave a generous amount of following distance. I don't even own an automatic transmission vehicle and I do all my own maintenance. I know cars, how they work, how they behave. I know roads, how they are designed, and how to optimize their use. I know people, their behaviors, and their attitudes.

    Yes, lane discipline requires more lane switching. If you properly adjust your mirrors and you have the foresight to buy a car with good visibility, you have no blind spots. If you follow the good practice of checking your mirrors often you are aware of the vehicles around you and always aware of when you can make a safe lane change without taking your eyes off the road (doing a head turn). Drivers on the autobahn manage to safely have high speeds and large speed differentials without statistically higher rates of accidents because they are well trained drivers and keep to the right except to pass.

    In my knowledge and experience, far too many people think they are justified in sitting in the middle lane because they are going the speed limit or better when there is no justifiable reason to be there. All it does is force more lane changes or right passes from people following the rules and form the worst case scenario for safety which is essentially a rapid in the middle of the road. Merging traffic is only an excuse in old urban highways where there are not adequate acceleration lanes. In the rest of cases, those defensive driving instructors should be teaching people the accelerator pedal is the only pedal you need to merge into traffic. You need to be going the speed of traffic on the highway or greater before you attempt to merge. People in the right lane have the right of way and have no obligation to move over or give you space, it is simply courtesy to do so.

  18. Re:bollocks on US Senate Passes Internet Tax Bill 69 To 27 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Canada, Denmark, and New Zealand are higher than the US on the Heritage economic freedom index. They openly admit to some socialism and they are freer than we Americans are. Finland and the Netherlands are also pretty high up there.

  19. Re:Drive conservatively! on Why US Mileage Ratings Are So Inaccurate · · Score: 1

    Defensive driving instructors are morons... They teach you to minimize your own risk and hassle at the expense of everyone else. There is a reason that the shoulder is car width on the right so you can dodge either way in the rightmost lane. And if they properly taught people how to merge, there would be no problem with being in the right lane. You don't have to move over if you look far enough ahead and plan. Heaven forbid you have to turn off your cruise control and pay attention...

    Uniform Vehicle Code in the US says: "a car driving below the "normal speed of traffic" should be driven in the right-hand lane." though laws vary by state. See attached link for more details on a state by state basis.

    http://jalopnik.com/5501615/left+lane-passing-laws-a-state+by+state-map

  20. Re:Drive conservatively! on Why US Mileage Ratings Are So Inaccurate · · Score: 1

    Yes that works fine until I am cruising in the right lane (where I am supposed to be) when I come up to you schlopping along in the middle lane. Do I go two lanes over to pass you or do I just stay in my lane? Also, what a car that is overtaking you wants to be overtaken again? Maybe you should learn how to merge properly...

  21. Re:Drive conservatively! on Why US Mileage Ratings Are So Inaccurate · · Score: 1

    Uniform Vehicle Code in the US says: "a car driving below the "normal speed of traffic" should be driven in the right-hand lane." though laws vary by state. See attached link for more details on a state by state basis.

    http://jalopnik.com/5501615/left+lane-passing-laws-a-state+by+state-map

  22. Re:Your mileage may vary... on Why US Mileage Ratings Are So Inaccurate · · Score: 1

    Yeah, about that. Your margin of error is pretty tiny. I would like to see your dataset before you make claims like that. If you knew anything about how gasoline is transported, sold, and marketed, you'd know that in a certain region it is highly likely that all of the stations you listed got the exact same gas out of the exact same pipe. The only difference is a tiny amount of cleaning additive that doesn't change the energy content of the fuel.

  23. Re:Your mileage may vary... on Why US Mileage Ratings Are So Inaccurate · · Score: 1

    Exactly, it's stupid to make peak fuel efficiency on the highway 55-60 when auto makers KNOW people drive 70-75. It's essentially the government mandating we intentionally waste fuel to have a test that isn't realistic for what people actually drive.

  24. Re:Drive conservatively! on Why US Mileage Ratings Are So Inaccurate · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Incorrect. The correct driving lane is the rightmost lane you can occupy. If you are going 100mph you should still be in the right lane if you aren't passing. Idiots like you cruising along in the middle lane are why I end up passing you on the right. If you are in the correct lane you will NEVER be passed on the right.

  25. Re:The answer to the question on Defense Distributed Has 3D-Printed an Entire Gun · · Score: 2

    Any holy shit all those guns and not one murder? How does that even make sense? None of them had a background check or a wait! Any one of them could be a murderous asshole and shot up the whole place.