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User: moortak

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  1. Re:Holy crooked election Batman! on Voting Machines Selecting Default Candidates · · Score: 1

    If there are structural errors that can be directed to the benefit of one party or candidate at the expense of the other the risk of limited voter confusion doesn't matter. Any error relating to confusion from a randomized ballot should result in no change to the outcome. Even a small error from a nonrandom ballot order can easily shift the outcome of a close race, even in a large district where voter error would likely average out.

  2. Re:I abstain on Voting Machines Selecting Default Candidates · · Score: 1

    Not many, but some. Go back to this mythic past where you imagine this grand integration and I think you'll find even more who spoke strictly French. Living in Cleveland there aren't many neighborhoods that are still strictly Hungarian either, but first generation immigrants didn't integrate in large parts of the country. Here's an example http://www.clevelandmemory.org/hungarians/pg229.htm

  3. Re:Holy crooked election Batman! on Voting Machines Selecting Default Candidates · · Score: 1

    The catch is that we know that there is a statistically significant difference in non-randomized ballots. We know that the person who picks that order suddenly has a way to sway the election by a few percent. Unless you can show a greater and candidate specific harm from a random ballot the safer course of action is random.

  4. Re:Holy crooked election Batman! on Voting Machines Selecting Default Candidates · · Score: 1

    Yes, but the unintended votes of a randomized ballot don't favor one candidate. We know that the ballot order effect is present it has been well studied. www.uvm.edu/~vlrs/PoliticalProcess/ballotordereffects.pdf If you can sway an election by a few percent you can drastically increase the odds of a specific candidate winning. It opens a lovely avenue for corruption. A randomized ballot should at worst cause errors that overall favor no particular candidate and don't impact the outcome.

  5. Re:I abstain on Voting Machines Selecting Default Candidates · · Score: 1

    You have a rather warped view of US immigration history. You can still walk around neighborhoods in any older city in the US where English wasn't the traditionally dominant language. The easiest examples are French in many parts of Louisiana and German in Pennsylvania. There's also a huge block of Hungarian speakers in cities like Cleveland and Polish speakers in Chicago. That isn't even going into some of the seriously insular Little Italy's and Chinatowns scattered about.

  6. Re:I abstain on Voting Machines Selecting Default Candidates · · Score: 1

    There's no language requirement for native born citizens.

  7. Re:This is simply misguided -- don't we know bette on The Future of the Most Important Human Brain · · Score: 1
  8. Re:This is simply misguided -- don't we know bette on The Future of the Most Important Human Brain · · Score: 1

    So clearly all those other world class athletes are slacking.

  9. Re:This is simply misguided -- don't we know bette on The Future of the Most Important Human Brain · · Score: 1

    You do realize that variations in livers can cause huge differences tight?

  10. Re:Chatbots... on Chatbot Suzette Wins 20th Annual Loebner Prize, Fools One Judge · · Score: 1

    For most conversations isn't that pretty much exactly what humans do. "Oh how was your weekend, Jim?" "It was alright, nothing special."

  11. Re:Diesels already do this. on Mazda Claims 70 mpg For New Engine, No Hybrid Needed · · Score: 1

    They probably don't because to draft effectively you have to be following at an unsafe distance.

  12. Re:NO history of civil code in China on China's Official Newspaper Pans iPad — Too Locked Down · · Score: 3, Funny

    This is no time for I ching.

  13. Re:Tattered Image on WikiLeaks Releases Cache of 400,000 Iraq War Documents · · Score: 4, Insightful

    That would be a reassuring thought if other clearly misbehaving military units hadn't been just as good at documenting their deeds. Regrettably it is entirely possible to commit horrific acts in a professional manner.

  14. Re:Clinton wouldn't have pushed the button on US Presidential Nuclear Codes 'Lost For Months' · · Score: 1

    Iran has had conventional strike capability against Israel for decades and hasn't made direct use of them lately. The leadership of Iran may be many things, but suicidal doesn't seem to be on of them.

  15. Re:Image rights and trademark on All Your Stonehenge Photos Are Belong To England · · Score: 1

    Rock and Roll Hall of Fame vs Gentile Productions ruled almost the opposite of that. In fact there is a particularly relevant quote from the majority opinion in that case."the Museum's building strikes us not as a separate and distinct mark on the good, but rather as the good itself. So trademark is out copyright is out do to section 120 of the copyright act. If US law were the deciding thing they would have to rely on some type of contract.

  16. Re:To Celebrate on Nintendo Entertainment System Turns 25 · · Score: 1

    Fuck Ninja Gaiden. That game stole way too much of my life.

  17. Re:Sure makes you feel old on Nintendo Entertainment System Turns 25 · · Score: 1

    There is an aspect of gaming from that era that is missing now. There's no unified whole. At the height of the NES era everyone had the same system, got most of their game news from the same magazine, and shared a pretty similar experience. With three major systems, tons of magazines, and countless websites there really isn't that shared culture occurring.

  18. Re:As a terrorist, I would love it! on Can Apps Really Damage a Cellular Network? · · Score: 1

    Messing with communications while committing your attack can make it far more effective.

  19. Re:The problem with walled gardens on Can Apps Really Damage a Cellular Network? · · Score: 1

    and they could make all of the phones blue as a warning.

  20. Re:BAD idea on The Spread of Do-It-Yourself Biotech · · Score: 1

    Yes, but trees are made of wood and take some real work to cut down with an axe. One axe blow can very easily kill even a large person if it hits right.

  21. Re:Just great... on The Spread of Do-It-Yourself Biotech · · Score: 1

    It doesn't need to be more deadly than what nature has cooked up, it only needs to be rather novel and deadly to cause some real problems. Look at the impact of foreign pathogens when invasions have occurred throughout history. A lack of preexisting immunity paired with potentially deadly symptoms can really mess up your day.

  22. Re:Their defense is... interesting on Norwegian Day Traders Convicted For Manipulating Computer Trading System · · Score: 1

    Only it was the other guy holding the gun/trading computer. As long as we aren't making the guy shooting the gun responsible then there really is no reason to punish the guys who exploit the misfires.

  23. Re:I'd rather make peanuts telecommuting on IT's Last Hope — a Job In the Boonies? · · Score: 1

    While people are going back and forth on whether city girls or country girls are more likely to rot your dick, we have numbers. It appears to differ state to state and disease to disease. In NC rates of syphilis are high in rural areas. In GA gonorrhea rates are higher in urban areas. http://faculty.mercer.edu/thomas_bm/documents/jgpha/documents/Archive/Raychowdhury,%20STD,%202008.pdf http://ajph.aphapublications.org/cgi/reprint/85/8_Pt_1/1119.pdf Whether it is in a barn or a warehouse wrap it up.

  24. Re:Anyone surprised? on Government Admits Spying Via Facebook · · Score: 1

    Given that he is the house minority leader and appears on some aspect of the national news circuit roughly once a week, it would seem a lot of people hav reason to care.

  25. Re:Associated costs on Lawyer Is Big Winner In Webcamgate Settlement · · Score: 1

    Total cost on a JD comes to what 150,000 maybe 200,00? Double that to 400,000 and this case pays for the entirety of their education and still leaves plenty of money to pay for costs. Two cases like this a year and they are making a damn fine living. A six figure education doesn't begin to explain rates like this.