Actualy I would agree in part that piercing a child's ear before they are at least old enough to ask for the procedure themselves is also morally wrong. The difference being though that an ear piercing can heal back to nearly the original condition.
Typical male circumsion is not reversible. And it should be noted that there is variety among female circumsion, in some procedures it is merely ceremonial and involves drawing a single drop of blood. But even that very liberal form is outlawed in the USA.
Male circumsion has also not always been as extreme as it is today. The modern method as another poster mentioned came about from the marketing of circumsion to prevent masturbation.
Also note that around 100 infants a year die as a result of male circumsion and around twice that from complications. Meanwhile we see fit to ban the manufature and sale of such horrific devices as drop side cribs that killed around a dozen kids in the last decade.
Where do you think you'd be refilling one of these things? If it's at a station I would expect them to keep large tanks on hand that they keep constantly filling from large compressors. If at home, which is a big benefit over most current cars, you'd just plug it in and let it's compressor run. The recharge at home would be slow, but still better than no recharging at home. At a station it would be fast to refill.
The problem is that if the schools are publicly funded they can't discriminate like that because you can turn down the vaccinations for religous reasons and such. A better alternative might be to give each school a maximum allowance for unvaccinated children. Maybe make it a ratio of vaccinated to unvaccinated kids, giving preference to children who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons. Allow the numbers to be tweaked dependant on mitigating factors like smaller classes and such. The idea being that you give the school a way to limit and manage risk without outright banning kids from school.
Many of the vaccines still contain aluminium, which can be toxic in the bloodstream. Although that's actually the whole reason it's there. By adding the aluminium the body's immune system will react more strongly and so less viral material is needed.
It's kind of like how for bull riding competitions they put a belt on the bull that causes pain to piss it off. This ensures a better show as otherwise the bull might not care enough to buck the rider off.
There is some concern though about whether when giving a young child a barrage of vaccines all at once it could be pushing the toxicity level higher than necessary. The method my family has chosen to mitigate this is to spread the shots out a bit.
So far the only one I think we are outright skipping is Chickenpox. It seems like every child I know who has recieved the vaccine has ended up with chickenpox more than once. It appears to not give much in the way of lasting immunity and could possibly be setting us up for a large adult population that isn't immune. The majority of deaths from chickenpox have been from secondary infections due to poor sanitary practices.
Rich and poor are pretty flexible relative terms. I'm earning around 75K a year myself. I wouldn't consider myself rich, but I am certainly doing very well. That amount is considerably more than the average household makes in my area. In some parts of the country that would be a pittance but for where I have chosen to live I can do so rather comfortably.
It helps that we are careful with our money. We're saving for retirement, improving our home and driving older vehicles. We don't have expensive entertainment bills like subscription TV. We don't buy the latest gadgets, I use a PC that I upgrade piecemeal, the wife uses a 6 year old laptop and an ipod touch we bought used from a relative. I wear clothes I bought 4 plus years ago.
Basically by not living extravagantly I hope to someday be able to consider myself rich.
I must respectfully ask that you refrain from insulting weasels in such a crude way. This is a public forum after all and it is patently unfair to compare such a noble animal to the likes of a corporate executive.
That is correct, except he doesn't have any of that right now either. If the embassy was forced to close the personnel would likely leave in diplomatic tagged vehicles which are given the same protections that an embassy building is.
On top of all that some parts of BC are super temperate so far as the climate goes. I had a friend from there that claimed to regularly scuba dive in the winter.
I believe one of the primary things that changed was the seperation of church and stare... erm I mean Banks and Investment Houses.
Under the Glass Steagal Act banks were purely banks. They held cash savings for people and business while using that money to make loans to individuals and businesses. Because they are allowed to loan out more money than they actually have on hand they can be at risk of suffering a large number of defaults on loans and then not be able to meet withdrawl requests from cash accounts. This is why banks always seek to be FDIC insured, in order to obtain that they must abide by the federal standards designed to prevent them from becoming insolvent.
Investment Houses are similiar to banks. They were not however insured by the FDIC. They focused on growing the assets of their members. This meant accepting much higher risks when making investments. To obtain the desired growth they focused on trading Stocks and Commodities on the associated markets.
When the Act was repealed many of the largest banks and investment houses jumped into each others business whole hog. This meant that you know had banks with a lot of capital and less restrictions on what kind of risks they could take. What could possibly go wrong. Well for starters, how about bundling debts such as toxic mortgages into "investment vehicles", getting your pals to rate them as very safe investments, and then selling them on the open market.
I am sure there are many more things that got broken but this is the primary one that I remember and understand. I think it was Frontline that did an episode some years ago about how the markets melted down and the regulating agencies that had been effectively castrated for having the balls to speak up about the risks in the market. It struck me as very well done and showed that both major political parties were more interested in their gravy train than the health of the economy.
The trouble with Minecraft's system requirements was that it actually didn't utilize the GPU for much of anything. The game was completely driven by your CPU and RAM. I haven't kept up on the technical requirements since I initially started playing it. But even when Penny Arcade started it's boost into the stratosphere it was runnable on old hardware with only 2 gigs or RAM, I played it with a 3 year old AMD XP Athalon or some such. It would give me lag and hiccups periodically but it was playable, doubling my RAM let it run at over 90 FPS without any lag or hiccups at all.
The reason Minecraft is so heavy on processor cycles is that at any one time a player will have around 3.3 million blocks within their sphere of influence, this used to actually be around 6.6 million but apparently air is no longer a seperate block. Each of those blocks need to be kept in memory and checked for updates every tick. Is there any other game out there right now that tracks that many objects and has the kind of graphics that FPS players are used to?
I seem to remember reading about an indestructible cookie that some academic had created. It was actually a number of cookies sprinkled around the system. They checked on eachother constantly and in the case that one was deleted the others would recreate it. One part of it was actually a graphic file, possibly a GIF if memory serves.
The NYSE though is the middleman already. They are there to facilitate the trade between the apple grower and whoever is buying the apple. I don't see the advantage in adding a second middleman who is given market advantages just so he can make more money at the expense of the seller and the buyer.
It sounds like the following: The apple grower takes his product to his existing middleman, the NYSE, and says I want at least 5c per apple. A buyer at nearly the same time puts in a buy order with the middleman for 6c per apple. I would expect the middleman to match these two orders and split the difference for the price at 5.5c and takes his minor commision. This way both the seller and the buyer get what they wanted, in fact a little more.
What it sounds like is happening is that the second middleman, HFT, skips the first buyer in line and grabs the apples for 5c and then sells them to the guy he just skipped in line for 6c per. This sounds fair because both the original seller and buyer got what they were looking for albeit at the worst price they were asking for.
At best so far as helping the market the HFT has provided a ever so slightly faster sale than the seller would have had, although if the HFT is skipping the line then that's not true as they are displacing another buyer. In this day and age do we really need to give advantage to market vultures, which is actually a disservice to vultures the world over as they are important parts of the ecosystem.
A nice strawman example could go like this. Natural disaster strikes. Everyone is at the stores buying up emergency suplies, I leverage my savings account and buy out all the bottled water. Then turn around in the parking lot and sell it all off for a profit.
I'll probably be sticking with XP at home until window 9 or 10 comes out. We only went to 7 at work in the last six months or so, and that came with enough dumb changes in the way the UI works, even with Aero turned off.
If Valve is able to pull off a linux transition I might make linux my new desktop OS of choice.
I think you and the parent are using different definitions for "Assault Rifles"
Some have defined them as shortbarreled rifles with a pistol grip and a butt stock. Others don't consider the same weapon an assault weapon unless it also has multiple modes of fire, usually including burst and fully automatic.
The first definition is a little silly because anyone can shorten the barrel of a.22 and swap out the regular stock for one that has a pistol grip. The functionality of the weapon that really makes it more dangerous is the extra firing modes. And while it is possible to legally purchase weapons with burst and full auto firing modes in the USA it requires some very expensive and time consuming licensing requirements, I've heard anywhere from 4k to 10k per year to maintain such a license.
Not that it's a strict limitation but the weapon used in CO was a $1,200 gun. Sadly enough that does put it out of the reach of a large section of the population simply from a cost perspective. And the good thing is that the guy was too much of an idiot to realize that a few much cheaper junk quality shotguns would have allowed him to do more damage in that situation.
According to an article I read awhile back the ATF agents were actually making a real effort to arrest and prosecute some of these gun mules. They ran into resistance amusingly enough from the Prosecutor that was supposed to be working with them. At first he wasn't happy with the evidence and wanted more, specifically wiretap recordings. So the agents applied for warrants for the wiretaps and the prosecutor then sat on them for weeks if not months. When the warrants finally went through the phones that had been authorized for monitoring were being phased out and they had to start all over again. In one instance they had actually stopped a homeless man who had just purchased a $10,000 50 cal sniper rifle and were instructed by the prosecutor to cut him loose because he didn't want to press charges. The "whistleblower" was a man looking to get revenge on a supervisor that he didn't like/agree with and refused to work in a professional manner with.
I actually agree with the Legislative branch holding the AG in contempt. Although the AG wasn't trying to cover for the ATF, he was actually covering for his own organization of appointees that had failed the ATF team.
That appears to just be the titles of specific sections not the actual criminal code its self. It is entirely possible that in the code it states the angles and directions from which the plate must be visible, or that the code does not specify and so leave it open to interpretation.
That depends on the jurisdiction and such. Where I live a recently expired registration is usually a fixit ticket where you just need to get the situation remedied and the ticket will be waived, usually you still have to pay the $50 court fees though.
As for the moving violations he has a very good point. In most cases an automated stop light or speeding fine doesn't stop the dangerous behavior that is happening. And stopping the dangerous behavior is the whole point of a traffic stop. And for legal reasons it is purely a fine with no points associated, so that you don't risk losing your license. This makes these offenses purely revenue generation, and turns breaking these laws into more of a financial question. If you had the money there would be no reason not to just run red lights when you thought it was safe or speed excessively, as you wouldn't be risking your license or even the annoyance of a traffic stop. Steve Jobs would have loved this one given his penchant for driving a recently leased vehicle to avoid needing a licenseplate and then parking in handicap spaces.
Now suppose in ten years or so when these automated methods are more widespread for traffic enforcement, will police staffing be cut back? I'm betting it will, because currently revenue from traffic violations is the main driving force for cities to keep police officers on staff. And how about car theft, if I were to steal a car what incentive would there be for me to obey traffic laws at all if the risk of being stopped by an officer is non existant. I might get caught more quickly if the owner realizes the car has been stolen and reports it quickly enough, but until then I can truly joy ride without the risk of a traffic stop and ensuring arrest.
Then we have cases like happened up North last winter I believe. Some cities weren't able to keep up with clearing snow from the streets so it was just piled to the sides completely blocking regular right hand turn lanes. The drivers easily adapted and turned right from the lane that was normally a straight only. Any driver that turned right on red as was legal, at a light monitored by an automated red light camera got a nice fat fine in the mail. Any police officer on the scene would have realized what was happening and not bothered to issue any citations. The cities solution though was for everyone that thought their ticket was improper to contest it, on their own dime and time.
So far as the plate scanners go I'm alright with them so long as they are completely incapable or retaining data that is not directly tied to some infraction, and are being actively used by a police officer. That way when the scanner spits out a violation it can actually be acted on immediately. That way your stolen car might actually be reclaimed before it makes it to the chop shop.
GRRM also pretty much hates Fan Fiction as he considers it a breach of Copyright. So burning all his notes would deny people that would be interested in expanding on his work. I like his books in general but the man is a genuine certified asshole.
A shotgun loaded with Slugs could be a serious danger to neighbors in the event of a shootout. Buck shot is probably a better option though as it'll take less precise aim, and the individual pellets will slow down much faster than a slug going through walls.
While I doubt that my 3 year old daughter could rack the slide on my handgun I think she could easily manage a pump shotgun by accident given that the weight of the gun is possibly enough if she kept her grip on the slide handle (wrong technical term) and fumbled the rest of the gun.
Not to mention that the bond amount is a complete joke. Apple has how many billions of dollars in liquid assets? Losing out on sales of a flag ship product in such a major market is worth a lot more to Samsung than $96 million. Because it's not just lost sales but customers who may end up buying an Apple product in the mean time and sign a multi year contract. This is similiar to the court fines that Microsoft had to pay while they delayed the court in their monopoly case years ago. Even though the fine was over $100,000 a day it was a joke compared to what they were making every day they continued to get away with it.
Well actually I didn't care about it at all except for two factors. The first was the worst part, that is that blizzard was horrendous at banning CD keys used for spam advertising those services. Every time you joined a public game there was a constant stream of spammers joining and dropping until the game filled up completely with people or bots that were actually there to play.
The second issue was annoying but easy enough to work around. That is the sellers would get most if not all all their items and runes through duping. Blizzard had some process running that periodically checked for duped items and would then remove them from your inventory. Because it didn't run 100% of the time it was possible to trade for an item, use it for a few hours and then have it disappear seemingly at random. For regular items there wasn't reall a way around it that I know of. For runes though you could put them into a socketed item and they would generally be safe. That meant though that you had to trade for and build your runeword items in a specific order or risk losing the rune in the meantime. EVen then blizzard had the option to run a more indepth process that would actually check for duped runes in socketed items and remove them, which would completely break the item as you couldn't just replace the missing rune(s) as they had to be socketed in a specific order to form the runeword. Another method was to cube up the runes to the next higher rune, creating a new rune.
Where I work the contracting companies have brought on at least half a dozen people that I know in the last four years that did not previously have a clearance. Yes, it costs them extra but they'll do it if you are what they need/want.
Alternatively becoming a civil servant for a short time could net you the clearance. When civil service jobs are advertised to the public the requirement is usually something like "must be able to acquire and maintain a XXXXX clearance" Which means that having the clearance is not required to get the job, but that you have to be able to qualify for one and losing it means losing your job.
Ultimately qualifying for a TS SCI clearance is trivial if you haven't been in trouble with the law and don't have a bad credit history or history of financial problems. It might cost some money to get the paper work all done and a bit of waiting, but don't let it stop you from persuing a career that requires it.
Slashdot Mirror
Actualy I would agree in part that piercing a child's ear before they are at least old enough to ask for the procedure themselves is also morally wrong. The difference being though that an ear piercing can heal back to nearly the original condition.
Typical male circumsion is not reversible. And it should be noted that there is variety among female circumsion, in some procedures it is merely ceremonial and involves drawing a single drop of blood. But even that very liberal form is outlawed in the USA.
Male circumsion has also not always been as extreme as it is today. The modern method as another poster mentioned came about from the marketing of circumsion to prevent masturbation.
Also note that around 100 infants a year die as a result of male circumsion and around twice that from complications. Meanwhile we see fit to ban the manufature and sale of such horrific devices as drop side cribs that killed around a dozen kids in the last decade.
Where do you think you'd be refilling one of these things? If it's at a station I would expect them to keep large tanks on hand that they keep constantly filling from large compressors. If at home, which is a big benefit over most current cars, you'd just plug it in and let it's compressor run. The recharge at home would be slow, but still better than no recharging at home. At a station it would be fast to refill.
How about just leaving the car in a not so great part of town with the keys in it while procuring a "new" car from a resident.
The problem is that if the schools are publicly funded they can't discriminate like that because you can turn down the vaccinations for religous reasons and such. A better alternative might be to give each school a maximum allowance for unvaccinated children. Maybe make it a ratio of vaccinated to unvaccinated kids, giving preference to children who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons. Allow the numbers to be tweaked dependant on mitigating factors like smaller classes and such. The idea being that you give the school a way to limit and manage risk without outright banning kids from school.
Many of the vaccines still contain aluminium, which can be toxic in the bloodstream. Although that's actually the whole reason it's there. By adding the aluminium the body's immune system will react more strongly and so less viral material is needed.
It's kind of like how for bull riding competitions they put a belt on the bull that causes pain to piss it off. This ensures a better show as otherwise the bull might not care enough to buck the rider off.
There is some concern though about whether when giving a young child a barrage of vaccines all at once it could be pushing the toxicity level higher than necessary. The method my family has chosen to mitigate this is to spread the shots out a bit.
So far the only one I think we are outright skipping is Chickenpox. It seems like every child I know who has recieved the vaccine has ended up with chickenpox more than once. It appears to not give much in the way of lasting immunity and could possibly be setting us up for a large adult population that isn't immune. The majority of deaths from chickenpox have been from secondary infections due to poor sanitary practices.
Not exactly what you are asking for but frighteningly close.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/24/world/europe/norway-breivik-trial/index.html?hpt=hp_t1
Rich and poor are pretty flexible relative terms. I'm earning around 75K a year myself. I wouldn't consider myself rich, but I am certainly doing very well. That amount is considerably more than the average household makes in my area. In some parts of the country that would be a pittance but for where I have chosen to live I can do so rather comfortably.
It helps that we are careful with our money. We're saving for retirement, improving our home and driving older vehicles. We don't have expensive entertainment bills like subscription TV. We don't buy the latest gadgets, I use a PC that I upgrade piecemeal, the wife uses a 6 year old laptop and an ipod touch we bought used from a relative. I wear clothes I bought 4 plus years ago.
Basically by not living extravagantly I hope to someday be able to consider myself rich.
I must respectfully ask that you refrain from insulting weasels in such a crude way. This is a public forum after all and it is patently unfair to compare such a noble animal to the likes of a corporate executive.
That is correct, except he doesn't have any of that right now either. If the embassy was forced to close the personnel would likely leave in diplomatic tagged vehicles which are given the same protections that an embassy building is.
On top of all that some parts of BC are super temperate so far as the climate goes. I had a friend from there that claimed to regularly scuba dive in the winter.
I believe one of the primary things that changed was the seperation of church and stare... erm I mean Banks and Investment Houses.
Under the Glass Steagal Act banks were purely banks. They held cash savings for people and business while using that money to make loans to individuals and businesses. Because they are allowed to loan out more money than they actually have on hand they can be at risk of suffering a large number of defaults on loans and then not be able to meet withdrawl requests from cash accounts. This is why banks always seek to be FDIC insured, in order to obtain that they must abide by the federal standards designed to prevent them from becoming insolvent.
Investment Houses are similiar to banks. They were not however insured by the FDIC. They focused on growing the assets of their members. This meant accepting much higher risks when making investments. To obtain the desired growth they focused on trading Stocks and Commodities on the associated markets.
When the Act was repealed many of the largest banks and investment houses jumped into each others business whole hog. This meant that you know had banks with a lot of capital and less restrictions on what kind of risks they could take. What could possibly go wrong. Well for starters, how about bundling debts such as toxic mortgages into "investment vehicles", getting your pals to rate them as very safe investments, and then selling them on the open market.
I am sure there are many more things that got broken but this is the primary one that I remember and understand. I think it was Frontline that did an episode some years ago about how the markets melted down and the regulating agencies that had been effectively castrated for having the balls to speak up about the risks in the market. It struck me as very well done and showed that both major political parties were more interested in their gravy train than the health of the economy.
The trouble with Minecraft's system requirements was that it actually didn't utilize the GPU for much of anything. The game was completely driven by your CPU and RAM. I haven't kept up on the technical requirements since I initially started playing it. But even when Penny Arcade started it's boost into the stratosphere it was runnable on old hardware with only 2 gigs or RAM, I played it with a 3 year old AMD XP Athalon or some such. It would give me lag and hiccups periodically but it was playable, doubling my RAM let it run at over 90 FPS without any lag or hiccups at all.
The reason Minecraft is so heavy on processor cycles is that at any one time a player will have around 3.3 million blocks within their sphere of influence, this used to actually be around 6.6 million but apparently air is no longer a seperate block. Each of those blocks need to be kept in memory and checked for updates every tick. Is there any other game out there right now that tracks that many objects and has the kind of graphics that FPS players are used to?
I seem to remember reading about an indestructible cookie that some academic had created. It was actually a number of cookies sprinkled around the system. They checked on eachother constantly and in the case that one was deleted the others would recreate it. One part of it was actually a graphic file, possibly a GIF if memory serves.
The NYSE though is the middleman already. They are there to facilitate the trade between the apple grower and whoever is buying the apple. I don't see the advantage in adding a second middleman who is given market advantages just so he can make more money at the expense of the seller and the buyer.
It sounds like the following:
The apple grower takes his product to his existing middleman, the NYSE, and says I want at least 5c per apple.
A buyer at nearly the same time puts in a buy order with the middleman for 6c per apple.
I would expect the middleman to match these two orders and split the difference for the price at 5.5c and takes his minor commision. This way both the seller and the buyer get what they wanted, in fact a little more.
What it sounds like is happening is that the second middleman, HFT, skips the first buyer in line and grabs the apples for 5c and then sells them to the guy he just skipped in line for 6c per. This sounds fair because both the original seller and buyer got what they were looking for albeit at the worst price they were asking for.
At best so far as helping the market the HFT has provided a ever so slightly faster sale than the seller would have had, although if the HFT is skipping the line then that's not true as they are displacing another buyer. In this day and age do we really need to give advantage to market vultures, which is actually a disservice to vultures the world over as they are important parts of the ecosystem.
A nice strawman example could go like this. Natural disaster strikes. Everyone is at the stores buying up emergency suplies, I leverage my savings account and buy out all the bottled water. Then turn around in the parking lot and sell it all off for a profit.
Yes, you can indeed polish a turd.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorodango
I'll probably be sticking with XP at home until window 9 or 10 comes out. We only went to 7 at work in the last six months or so, and that came with enough dumb changes in the way the UI works, even with Aero turned off.
If Valve is able to pull off a linux transition I might make linux my new desktop OS of choice.
I think you and the parent are using different definitions for "Assault Rifles"
Some have defined them as shortbarreled rifles with a pistol grip and a butt stock. Others don't consider the same weapon an assault weapon unless it also has multiple modes of fire, usually including burst and fully automatic.
The first definition is a little silly because anyone can shorten the barrel of a .22 and swap out the regular stock for one that has a pistol grip. The functionality of the weapon that really makes it more dangerous is the extra firing modes. And while it is possible to legally purchase weapons with burst and full auto firing modes in the USA it requires some very expensive and time consuming licensing requirements, I've heard anywhere from 4k to 10k per year to maintain such a license.
Not that it's a strict limitation but the weapon used in CO was a $1,200 gun. Sadly enough that does put it out of the reach of a large section of the population simply from a cost perspective. And the good thing is that the guy was too much of an idiot to realize that a few much cheaper junk quality shotguns would have allowed him to do more damage in that situation.
According to an article I read awhile back the ATF agents were actually making a real effort to arrest and prosecute some of these gun mules. They ran into resistance amusingly enough from the Prosecutor that was supposed to be working with them. At first he wasn't happy with the evidence and wanted more, specifically wiretap recordings. So the agents applied for warrants for the wiretaps and the prosecutor then sat on them for weeks if not months. When the warrants finally went through the phones that had been authorized for monitoring were being phased out and they had to start all over again. In one instance they had actually stopped a homeless man who had just purchased a $10,000 50 cal sniper rifle and were instructed by the prosecutor to cut him loose because he didn't want to press charges. The "whistleblower" was a man looking to get revenge on a supervisor that he didn't like/agree with and refused to work in a professional manner with.
I actually agree with the Legislative branch holding the AG in contempt. Although the AG wasn't trying to cover for the ATF, he was actually covering for his own organization of appointees that had failed the ATF team.
That appears to just be the titles of specific sections not the actual criminal code its self. It is entirely possible that in the code it states the angles and directions from which the plate must be visible, or that the code does not specify and so leave it open to interpretation.
That depends on the jurisdiction and such. Where I live a recently expired registration is usually a fixit ticket where you just need to get the situation remedied and the ticket will be waived, usually you still have to pay the $50 court fees though.
As for the moving violations he has a very good point. In most cases an automated stop light or speeding fine doesn't stop the dangerous behavior that is happening. And stopping the dangerous behavior is the whole point of a traffic stop. And for legal reasons it is purely a fine with no points associated, so that you don't risk losing your license. This makes these offenses purely revenue generation, and turns breaking these laws into more of a financial question. If you had the money there would be no reason not to just run red lights when you thought it was safe or speed excessively, as you wouldn't be risking your license or even the annoyance of a traffic stop. Steve Jobs would have loved this one given his penchant for driving a recently leased vehicle to avoid needing a licenseplate and then parking in handicap spaces.
Now suppose in ten years or so when these automated methods are more widespread for traffic enforcement, will police staffing be cut back? I'm betting it will, because currently revenue from traffic violations is the main driving force for cities to keep police officers on staff. And how about car theft, if I were to steal a car what incentive would there be for me to obey traffic laws at all if the risk of being stopped by an officer is non existant. I might get caught more quickly if the owner realizes the car has been stolen and reports it quickly enough, but until then I can truly joy ride without the risk of a traffic stop and ensuring arrest.
Then we have cases like happened up North last winter I believe. Some cities weren't able to keep up with clearing snow from the streets so it was just piled to the sides completely blocking regular right hand turn lanes. The drivers easily adapted and turned right from the lane that was normally a straight only. Any driver that turned right on red as was legal, at a light monitored by an automated red light camera got a nice fat fine in the mail. Any police officer on the scene would have realized what was happening and not bothered to issue any citations. The cities solution though was for everyone that thought their ticket was improper to contest it, on their own dime and time.
So far as the plate scanners go I'm alright with them so long as they are completely incapable or retaining data that is not directly tied to some infraction, and are being actively used by a police officer. That way when the scanner spits out a violation it can actually be acted on immediately. That way your stolen car might actually be reclaimed before it makes it to the chop shop.
GRRM also pretty much hates Fan Fiction as he considers it a breach of Copyright. So burning all his notes would deny people that would be interested in expanding on his work. I like his books in general but the man is a genuine certified asshole.
A shotgun loaded with Slugs could be a serious danger to neighbors in the event of a shootout. Buck shot is probably a better option though as it'll take less precise aim, and the individual pellets will slow down much faster than a slug going through walls.
While I doubt that my 3 year old daughter could rack the slide on my handgun I think she could easily manage a pump shotgun by accident given that the weight of the gun is possibly enough if she kept her grip on the slide handle (wrong technical term) and fumbled the rest of the gun.
Not to mention that the bond amount is a complete joke. Apple has how many billions of dollars in liquid assets? Losing out on sales of a flag ship product in such a major market is worth a lot more to Samsung than $96 million. Because it's not just lost sales but customers who may end up buying an Apple product in the mean time and sign a multi year contract. This is similiar to the court fines that Microsoft had to pay while they delayed the court in their monopoly case years ago. Even though the fine was over $100,000 a day it was a joke compared to what they were making every day they continued to get away with it.
The grey market was pretty atrocious in Diablo 2.
Well actually I didn't care about it at all except for two factors. The first was the worst part, that is that blizzard was horrendous at banning CD keys used for spam advertising those services. Every time you joined a public game there was a constant stream of spammers joining and dropping until the game filled up completely with people or bots that were actually there to play.
The second issue was annoying but easy enough to work around. That is the sellers would get most if not all all their items and runes through duping. Blizzard had some process running that periodically checked for duped items and would then remove them from your inventory. Because it didn't run 100% of the time it was possible to trade for an item, use it for a few hours and then have it disappear seemingly at random. For regular items there wasn't reall a way around it that I know of. For runes though you could put them into a socketed item and they would generally be safe. That meant though that you had to trade for and build your runeword items in a specific order or risk losing the rune in the meantime. EVen then blizzard had the option to run a more indepth process that would actually check for duped runes in socketed items and remove them, which would completely break the item as you couldn't just replace the missing rune(s) as they had to be socketed in a specific order to form the runeword. Another method was to cube up the runes to the next higher rune, creating a new rune.
You are correct to some degree but not 100%.
Where I work the contracting companies have brought on at least half a dozen people that I know in the last four years that did not previously have a clearance. Yes, it costs them extra but they'll do it if you are what they need/want.
Alternatively becoming a civil servant for a short time could net you the clearance. When civil service jobs are advertised to the public the requirement is usually something like "must be able to acquire and maintain a XXXXX clearance" Which means that having the clearance is not required to get the job, but that you have to be able to qualify for one and losing it means losing your job.
Ultimately qualifying for a TS SCI clearance is trivial if you haven't been in trouble with the law and don't have a bad credit history or history of financial problems. It might cost some money to get the paper work all done and a bit of waiting, but don't let it stop you from persuing a career that requires it.