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User: WrongMonkey

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  1. Re:Free sppech? on Supreme Court Rolls Back Corporate Campaign Spending Limits · · Score: 1

    The top tax bracket for individuals is 35%.

  2. Re:America's downfall was person == corp on Supreme Court Rolls Back Corporate Campaign Spending Limits · · Score: 1

    We've been comparing ourselves with Rome since at least the 70s.

    The Roman Empire took a couple of centuries to fall from its peak, so the people making the comparison for a few decades still might be right.

  3. Re:Joke video on Nano-Scale Robot Arm Moves Atoms With 100% Accuracy · · Score: 1

    Atomic Force Microscopes start in the range of $10,000, you could easily build one in your own basement. Electron Microscopes are more expensive, but still very common at labs doing this type of thing. Depending on what types of bonds are being formed, there's all types of spectroscopy that could be done. Really, verifying the results is just basic chemistry.

  4. Re:a game that tells the truth about religion on Religion in Video Games · · Score: 1
    That's one way of looking at it. Another way is that the total population of the world changed by at least a factor of 10 between the Crusades the the Soviet Union, so expressed as a percentage, they're about equal.

    Yet another way of the looking at it is that both are equally bad, but atheists are just more efficient.

  5. Re:Sh..... on $26 of Software Defeats American Military · · Score: 1

    Interesting example because at least some of the Allies (the Soviet Union) were clearly not good guys in any sense and committed atrocities that were equal to or greater than those committed by the "bad guys".

  6. 5. Recreational drug use on Poorer Children More Likely To Get Antipsychotics · · Score: 1

    Prescription drug abuse is across the country.

  7. Isn't it obvious? on Poorer Children More Likely To Get Antipsychotics · · Score: 1

    The drugs are being sold by "patients" or used recreationally. Prescription drug abuse is the prevalent type of drug use. This is easy money for the poor kids.

  8. Re:I am very sceptical... on The Limits To Skepticism · · Score: 4, Insightful

    While I agree with you're basic premise of opening up the data, I think your view of the statistics is a bit limited. Anyone can draw a trend line and calculate error bars, but when multiple data sets have conflicting data, it requires to a great deal of understanding of experimental methods, theoretical models, etc. to determine which datasets are most relevant to make what kind of conclusions. The "tricks" come from matching up tree ring data, ice core data, satellite data, direct measurements and many others. Understanding the strengths and weaknesses these methods is where an expert is needed and why your undergraduate math major is less than useful.

  9. Failure rate? on Virgin Galactic Unveils SpaceShipTwo · · Score: 0, Troll

    This whole project isn't going to last past its first accident. Some millionaire going up in flames will kill idea of space tourism.

  10. Re:How much for hte tickets on Virgin Galactic Unveils SpaceShipTwo · · Score: 0, Troll

    And what if the failure rate is comparable to the Space Shuttle ~2%. How many people are going to pay for a 90 minutes, $10,000 that has a 1/50 chance of killing you?

  11. Re:It's ugly but it's the future of space explorat on Virgin Galactic Unveils SpaceShipTwo · · Score: 3, Interesting

    nuclear rockets aren't clean enough to use on a populated planet.

    Why does this keep getting repeated? An Orion-type launch would require less than 1000 nuclear devices of about .15 kT yield each. Considering that the US and Soviet Union test thousands of devices with much high yields with minimal environmental impact, using nuclear rockets aren't the doomsday scenario that people think.

  12. Re:Behold, a free market evangelists dream takes f on Somali Pirates Open Up a "Stock Exchange" · · Score: 3, Insightful

    But that's necessary even if you defend only property rights. Even a libertarian government would still have police to defend the property rights and courts to settle disputes which mean they would have to tax which means they would have to take money by threat of violence and imprisonment. You're not avoiding the dilemma, you're just prioritizing the "rights" that are important to you over the rights that are important to people less fortunate than you.

  13. Re:icing on the cake: on Glenn Beck Loses Dispute Over Parody Domain · · Score: 1
    Comparing "red state" to "blue states" is ridiculous. Apples have more in common with oranges than Utah has in common with New York. Cherry picking (uncited) stats proves nothing.

    Even within a states, comparisons are dubious: Austin, TX, is one of the safest cities in the country, but Dallas and Houston are among the most dangerous. How does your red/blue ideology account for that?

  14. Re:I don't get it... on MIT Grad To Make Digital "SixthSense" Open Source · · Score: 1

    Don't be such a jerk. There are plenty of reasons to be sceptical about the utility of such a system. The history of technology development has plenty of "clever" ideas that were ultimately dead ends (eg Cue Cat). "Find that killer app" is very difficult step. Your example didn't convince me since none of those activities (reading, email, teleconference) can't already be done as good or better with a laptop or handheld computer.

  15. Re:Oh sweet on Landmark Health Insurance Bill Passes House · · Score: 1

    Considering its a health insurance bill and not a car insurance bill or a life insurance bill, then no it doesn't and it shouldn't address your unrelated concerns.

  16. Re:Most Sci-fi/Fantasy is teen-lit fare on The Gathering Storm Discussion · · Score: 1

    Transmetroplitan is a direct riff on Hunter S Thompson. The Sandman struck me as being extremely derivative of the a lot "New Wave" fantasy from the '70s. Stuff like Roger Zelazny, Philip José Farmer, Michael Moorcock, Ursula K. Le Guin.

  17. Re:Most Sci-fi/Fantasy is teen-lit fare on The Gathering Storm Discussion · · Score: 1

    I've read all those. They're good comics, but they're not good enough to elevate the whole genre. Transmetropolitan and Sandman are basically rip-offs (or homages to be nice) of previous works, they don't even stand on their own. Watchmen works best as a deconstruction of superhero comics and if you don't care about the genre in the first place, it has nothing to offer.

  18. Re:bad idea... on Porn Surfing Rampant At US Science Foundation · · Score: 2, Insightful

    That's not how you do a citation. At least name the journal. A Web of Knowledge search give no results for those author names and year.

  19. Re:How to make science popular? on How To Make Science Popular Again? · · Score: 1
    Sorry you went to Stereotype High School, but the top 5 people in my graduating class (myself included) were all in varsity sports and have all now gone on to have careers in advanced science. Practically all the scientists I know participate in some sports. We play on softball teams or run marathons or rock climb,etc. There are very few top scientists who are fat, slobby nerds.

    And the fact that you don't think there's any strategy in sports just demonstrates your own ignorance. I don't know where to even start with that.

  20. Re:Why are we assuming they are similar to us? on Fewer Than 10 ET Civilizations In Our Galaxy? · · Score: 1

    That means you can't just make up magical anti-Darwinian species that doesn't try to fill every available evolutionary niche because they have mysteriously got a gene to tell them to stay home.

    Honestly, that basically describes humans. Sure there is a small fraction that want to explore and colonize the universe and an even tinier fraction who is willing to put forward the effort to try to achieve those goals. But you'll find that the vast, vast majority of people of this planet don't care and are more than to stay on the planet.

    Most people never even move a few miles from the place they were born. The explorers in our species are the exceptions.

  21. Re:Dude, the bill doubled in a decade. on Arizona Considers Selling Capitol Buildings · · Score: 1
    Jeez dude, I just gave one example of a plausible situation where tax revenue would need to benon-linear with population. An even more likely one is that since Arizona is a growing state they need to plan with that growth in mind. Roads, police stations and schools aren't instantly built like in SimCity. So they have to spend money as if the population is larger than is it currently is because it will soon catch up. I could come up with dozens of reasonable scenarios to account for the trivial 1.2% discrepancy.

    And then you reply with crazy tax theories. How is that relevant? Do you think the state of Arizona has any constitutional authority to tax IP?

  22. Re:Dude, the bill doubled in a decade. on Arizona Considers Selling Capitol Buildings · · Score: 1

    If anything, the increase in population should yield a net increase in revenues, so that you wouldn't have to raise the rates.

    Again, using your own link: 42% of Arizona's budget is K-12 education. 10% is university education. Taken together that's over half the state costs right there. So if a typical family of 2 parents with 3 children moves to your state, the state gains the revenue of 2 additional tax payers, but incurs the cost of 3 more kids to educate. And since those people are probably going to move to the sprawling suburbs, you're going to have non-linear growth in transportation costs from simple geometry. Do you see how government spending might be not perfectly in sync with population growth? And 1.2% over the bare minimum is not egregious.

    Suck it up, pay your fair share or move to the libertarian paradise of Somalia.

  23. Re:Dude, the bill doubled in a decade. on Arizona Considers Selling Capitol Buildings · · Score: 1

    According to your own link, population/inflation is up by 5.8% annually; raising spending by 8% annually isn't out of line. And Arizona is near the bottom of the tax revenue per capita list http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_tax_levels So you're not paying that much to begin with.

  24. Re:Let us do the math. on 220-mph Solar-Powered Train Proposed In Arizona · · Score: 1

    Wow, you and at least two people are still laboring under the delusion that highways are paid for exclusively by gas tax. Check out this $42 billion Arizona transportation plan that is paid for by an increase in SALES tax. http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/0504transpo-projects0504.html

  25. Re:Let us do the math. on 220-mph Solar-Powered Train Proposed In Arizona · · Score: 1

    That's fair enough. Let's apply the same math to highways. Billions of dollars for highway construction and maintenance. A million drivers a year times $0 per driver and that will paid off when? Help me out, I'm fuzzy on the math here.