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User: rmdingler

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  1. There is a workaround on Researchers Fooled a Google AI Into Thinking a Rifle Was a Helicopter (wired.com) · · Score: 1

    While the visual street signs will remain once driverless technology is >/= human performance, traffic signs and intersections will begin being fitted out with remote transmitters that communicate with your vehicle's on-board system, which will communicate with other vehicles on-board systems.

  2. Re: Yes, but that's not the issue. on The Majority of Americans Prefer To Be Greeted With 'Merry Christmas' Over 'Happy Holidays', a Poll Finds · · Score: 1

    But isn't wishing a Merry Christmas like wishing someone to have a great weekend? It feels odd when someone says it even though you're going to work all weekend, but it's just a custom and well intentioned.

    Yes, I believe you're onto something there. Christmas may have begun as a Christian Holiday, that perhaps borrowed from earlier religious celebrations, yet it has evolved into a seasonal celebration with family and loved ones in which giving is emphasized.

    In some respects, Thanksgiving has evolved into the same sort of family gathering, but being thankful for the blessings one has is the focus.

    Neither are exclusive to devout, even irregular, church goers or god worshipers.

  3. Re:If it's a good substitute, it should replace be on Should Plant-Based Meat Replace Beef Completely? (pbs.org) · · Score: 1

    I find your comment cold, sarcastic, and frigidly chilling. How does one get a point across to someone as clothesminded as you?

    Clearly, you come bearing the the gift of a nice suit, preferably from Savile Row.

  4. Re:Yes on Should Plant-Based Meat Replace Beef Completely? (pbs.org) · · Score: 1

    And you will be consumed by bacteria, which are now egging you on through your gut to eat more so you die soon and they can feast.

    Unless there's some truth that we, and all animals, live symbiotically as a host for these microorganisms.

    In a mutualistic relationship, both the bacteria and the host benefit. For example, there are several kinds of bacteria that live on the skin and inside the mouth, nose, throat, and intestines of humans and animals. These bacteria receive a place to live and feed while keeping other harmful microbes from taking up residence. Bacteria in the digestive system assist in nutrient metabolism, vitamin production, and waste processing. They also aid in the host's immune system response to pathogenic bacteria.

  5. Re:Yes on Should Plant-Based Meat Replace Beef Completely? (pbs.org) · · Score: 1

    No, it is not. Read a book about it. First of all, meat only has half the calories per weight than carbs or fat. Secondly, to yield a certain amount of calories via meat, you have to feed the animal ten times as much food, that is mot efficient in any meaningfull way.

    Where do you source your calorically dense fat?

  6. Re:Yes on Should Plant-Based Meat Replace Beef Completely? (pbs.org) · · Score: 1

    Why do we need high energy density foods? Outside of disaster relief situations.

    We don't, for the most part, in the food wealthy first-world.

    Neither do we need the leftover evolutionary penchant for sweets that survives in us from when eating the ripest fruits was an evolutionary advantage for our primate ancestors... because the sweetest fruits pack the most caloric energy.

  7. Re:Yes on Should Plant-Based Meat Replace Beef Completely? (pbs.org) · · Score: 2
    I'm not here to apologize for the waste not/want not practice of using the whole dog.

    Additionally, we only engage in coprophagia to correct digestive deficiencies.

  8. Re:Yes on Should Plant-Based Meat Replace Beef Completely? (pbs.org) · · Score: 2

    You are outnumbered by vegetarian lifeforms.

    Yes, the food that my food eats.

  9. Re:Yes on Should Plant-Based Meat Replace Beef Completely? (pbs.org) · · Score: 1

    You're not wrong. Yet, the relative length of time humans have been able to afford the fattening of their least hardy specimens is a mere blip on the timeline of their existence.

  10. Re:Yes on Should Plant-Based Meat Replace Beef Completely? (pbs.org) · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Meat is the most calorically efficient food on the planet. Does one suppose omnivores/carnivores evolved and spread so pervasively for no reason?

  11. Re:Overturn? No. on Can the FCC's 'Net Neutrality' Decision Be Overturned in Congress? (newsweek.com) · · Score: 1

    Congress can certainly pass law that makes the net neutrality decision illegal going forward, and thus FCC must replace it. That's not overturning it, though.

    The problem is that congress has turned into a binary partisan farce where votes are cast not based on what the congressman thinks, but whether it opposes the adversary. So it won't happen. There's really no way out of this quagmire either, from within the system itself.

    It's pretty much overturning it though.

    You're spot on about the Congress. Until voters realize that gaming the system into a two-sided duopoly that constantly gridlocks the people's business ("because of the other side").

    A similar sentiment in 2015 when Obama's team instituted the net neutrality rule:

    Congressional committees have launched probes to determine whether the White House exerted “improper influence” on the development of the Federal Communication Commission’s (FCC) recently approved net neutrality rule. The FCC is an independent agency headed by five commissioners, one of whom is selected by the President to be the Chairman. Critics of the approved rule argue that it noticeably deviates from initial proposals put forth by the FCC and, instead, closely aligns with the approach the President publicly outlined in November 2014. Because of this shift, and reports that the White House was involved in “thwart[ing]” the FCC in its initial proposals, the committees question whether the President has overstepped his authority in a manner that threatens the independence of the FCC. It is generally thought that because the President cannot control independent agency action, such agencies are free from presidential influence; however, news of the events at the FCC has given rise to the age-old question—just how independent are independent agencies? This two-part post examines whether there are any legal limitations that prevent the President from influencing independent agencies.

  12. Re:Alloys and wonderf materials on Experts Cast Doubt on 'Alien Alloys' in the New York Times' UFO Story (scientificamerican.com) · · Score: 1
    I come bearing praise instead of mod points, but What an insightful viewpoint!

    Any technology far enough beyond our civilization's current level of understanding might well be disregarded as a compass to a troglodyte.

  13. Re:Or in other words... on The Lower Your Social Class, the 'Wiser' You Are, Suggests New Study (sciencemag.org) · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Yes, and too many folks who attain the highest social strata have anyone left around them to keep them grounded in reality. Not to single out the President because it affects many persons of privilege, but one Of President Trump's great weaknesses is an inability to accept criticism without perceiving it as a personal slight.

    Some advantages of being born poor?:

    You learn how to fix things other than by writing a check.

    All your well-being is less likely to be tied up in one commodity (money)... many suicides during the Wall Street crash of 1929.

    The greater the struggle of any life form, the hardier the stock.

  14. Fear not. There's still hope for your revenues. on Apple Says Apps Must Now Disclose Odds For Loot Boxes (kotaku.com) · · Score: 1

    Forcing the State-level lottery commissions to reveal the minuscule odds of a jackpot, and even the insightful math regarding the chance of breaking even over a long enough timeline, has done little, if anything, to diminish lottery sales.

  15. Hell, that's mainstream baby, no matter who's in or of the White House.

  16. He will continue to serve on the company's board.

    So either, no, it's not a sexual assault allegation, or Alphabet is confident all the proper payoffs have been made and the targets of abuse will keep quiet forever... smart money's on the former.

  17. Re:Direct Extraction of money from local economies on Walmart Is Planning a Store Without Cashiers (recode.net) · · Score: 1
    Some sort of cottage industry will arise, given a long enough timeline.

    Perhaps a few: replacing and even airing up tires, topping off fluids, cleaning senor/camera lenses, and making repairs once on-board diagnostics determine a fault has occurred.

  18. Re:Direct Extraction of money from local economies on Walmart Is Planning a Store Without Cashiers (recode.net) · · Score: 2

    And when 3 million truckers lose their jobs almost over night (3-5 year period), it's going to be really hard to employ them quickly. Some will never work effectively again.

    If the implementation of autonomous trucking is too hasty, there will indeed be many millions of jobs lost, and not all of them will be truck drivers. Fuel sales are typically minimal profit for all except the government, and roadside truck stops and service stations make a good bit of their present business off the human needs of the drivers.

    Gradually inserting this (admittedly more efficient) form of transport would have the benefit of easing the transition. If it is implemented too quickly, many who do lose employment will have little to do but throw handfuls of roofing nails onto the highway.

  19. Another reason I'm not a Bitcoin thousandaire on Youbit Shuts Down Cryptocurrency Exchange After Second Hack, Files For Bankruptcy (bbc.com) · · Score: 5, Insightful

    From the onset, I wanted to like the idea of a non-governmental currency that had a cash-like anonymity, even though a lot of informed folks likened it to a Ponzi scheme.

    Beginning with the Mt. Gox debacle though, this now rather routine loss of millions by an exchange is where I lost faith in the Bitcoin as an investment option and an alternative to government issued fiat currency.

    This is why we can't have nice things

  20. Now you're questioning on Cloud-Based Repository Leak Exposes 123 Million American Households (zdnet.com) · · Score: 1

    As for how this happened, ZDNet says, "the bucket was configured via permission settings to allow any AWS 'Authenticated Users' to download its stored data. Authenticated users are any user that has an AWS account."

    Hey, we had security protocols; that you find them inadequate, well, maybe that's a you problem.

  21. Re:Anything tied to Obama is bad on Internal FCC Report Shows Republican Net Neutrality Narrative Is False (vice.com) · · Score: 1

    Fair enough, but I have a great number of friends who vote exclusively straight-ticket Republican that are trying, desperately, to sort out the Trump Presidency.

  22. Re:How much more negative stories do we need? on 'Loapi' Cryptocurrency Mining Malware Is Causing Phone Batteries To Bulge (newsweek.com) · · Score: 1

    Well, this is a way of driving the economy. All those bulged batteries will need a replacement.

    The glazier's fallacy pretty much explains the failed logic of your contention.

  23. Kim's securing Bitcoin to subvert embargoes on US Says North Korea 'Directly Responsible' For WannaCry Ransomware Attack (npr.org) · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Makes perfect sense, after it was recently reported the fearless leader was accumulating the crypto-currency...

    On the other hand, demonizing a political opponent is a sensible Machiavellian move.

  24. Re:The enemy is us: the Partisans. on Internal FCC Report Shows Republican Net Neutrality Narrative Is False (vice.com) · · Score: 1

    Maybe so, but here's the sordid truth: people vote these politicians in because they are not Hillary, or, not Trump... not for their position on Net Neutrality.

  25. Re:Anything tied to Obama is bad on Internal FCC Report Shows Republican Net Neutrality Narrative Is False (vice.com) · · Score: 1

    You can play the political fill-in-the-blank game, too.

    Trump's defeat of Hillary Clinton in the Presidential election virtually guaranteed Obama would remain the partisan figurehead of revulsion for the right, but she would've sufficed just as well had she been a little more electable.

    In the same breath, Teddy Cruz would be just as repulsive to the left. Without some incentive to come toward the middle of the road by the vast majority who make up the duopoly, it's amazingly simple to disarm the democracy.