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User: mark_reh

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  1. It's the next step in the on Police Body Cam Privacy Exploitation · · Score: 2, Insightful

    devolution of American Culture. We had "Cops" on TV, but that was edited and sanitized. Now we go straight to the video. Next it will go to a "Max Headroom" style live feed direct from the cops camera to your TV.
    Wonderful. That's show biz!

  2. Reminds me of... on The Largest Kuiper Belt Object Isn't Pluto Or Eris, But Triton · · Score: 1

    Lime and limpid green, a second scene
    A fight between the blue you once knew.
    Floating down, the sound resounds
    Around the icy waters underground.
    Jupiter and Saturn, Oberon, Miranda
    And Titania, Neptune, Titan.
    Stars can frighten.

    Blinding signs flap,
    Flicker, flicker, flicker blam. Pow, pow.
    Stairway scare Dan Dare who's there?
    Lime and limpid green
    The sounds surrounds the icy waters underground
    Lime and limpid green
    The sounds surrounds the icy waters underground.

  3. Re:I moved from bay area to Dallas about 15 years on Florida-Based Magic Leap Builds Its Team With Bay Area Hires · · Score: 1

    yeah, well, there is that...

  4. I moved from bay area to Dallas about 15 years ago on Florida-Based Magic Leap Builds Its Team With Bay Area Hires · · Score: 2

    And even then, the money I no longer paid to California in income tax more than paid the mortgage on a 3000 sq ft house I had built.

    Yeah I had to give up some stuff - never ending traffic jams, earthquakes, brush fires, wine snobs, ethnic variety of restaurants, shitty service everywhere, shitty public schools, milder weather, nice views from places I could never afford to live, but I managed to survive.

    California is a great place if you are rich enough to be able to afford to live there without working. For everyone else it is hell on earth.

    Florida? Hmmm. I lived there once. Not too sure about the politics- the frightened old people population ensures that it will remain hard core republican for at least another generation. Dallas wasn't much different- there it was frightened stupid people who kept the politics "amusing". The weather can be rough for some, but if you like water sports Florida has nice, warm seas.

    Yeah, I think I'd take Florida over California.

  5. Re:Typical!! on Dealer-Installed GPS Tracker Leads To Kidnapper's Arrest in Maryland · · Score: 4, Informative

    A car's radio antenna doesn't work at GPS frequencies. That's why cars with GPS always have a separate antenna for it.

  6. Re:Nothing? on Mathematical Proof That the Universe Could Come From Nothing · · Score: 1

    One through nine, no maybes, no supposes, no fractions. You can't travel in space, you can't go out into space, you know, without, like, you know, uh, with fractions - what are you going to land on - one-quarter, three-eighths? What are you going to do when you go from here to Venus or something?

  7. Re:Nothing? on Mathematical Proof That the Universe Could Come From Nothing · · Score: 1

    Yeah, we already know everything worth knowing.
    There's no point in studying anything any more.
    Everything useful has already been invented.

    Yeah aerogel baby! The answer to all our problems both personal and scientific!

  8. Re:tuBgi8l on Marijuana Legalized In Oregon, Alaska, and Washington DC · · Score: 1

    I think it's like the old numbers stations on short wave radio. They're sending coded messages to someone.

    Or they want us to think so so that we'll waste money trying to trace them and decode them.

  9. Sure it does, but it aids businesses more on New GCHQ Chief Says Social Media Aids Terrorists · · Score: 1

    so there's nothing to be done about it.

  10. So Cody Wilson gets more free press. on Online Payment Firm Stripe Boots 3D Gun Designer Cody Wilson's Companies · · Score: 1

    That guy can't lose. No matter what he says or does he comes away with more free advertising/press.
    For his next innovation, a 3D printed drone that fires a 3D printed gun...

  11. Of course, they wouldn't want to be refunded in on Court Order: Butterfly Labs Bitcoins To Be Sold · · Score: 1

    bitcoins!

  12. All I can say is on Silicon Valley Swings To Republicans · · Score: 1

    "if you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas".

    Good luck to them. They deserve whatever comes of this now and in the future.

  13. Not so fast... on Space Tourism Isn't Worth Dying For · · Score: 1

    Poor folk will benefit from this, too. Eventually, after enough people have died working out the kinks in space travel, those rich folks will start flying around at ever increasing altitudes (as if looking down their noses at us isn't high enough). After a while, they're going to get tired of roughing it and start taking some poor folk with them to be their servants, as they do on their yachts and planes.

  14. Re:You shouldn't need insurance for most things on Statisticians Study Who Was Helped Most By Obamacare · · Score: 1

    I think you missed something. She is a physician and I am a dentist and we are telling him if he wants to make real money, skip medical/dental school and become an administrator. How does that sound like my wife and I chose our professions because of money? And of course, money should enter into one's career decisions. It seems like it doesn't for many people, which is why you have people studying anthropology/paleontology/art history/french poetry/etc. and racking up $50-100k in student loan debt without any thought as to how they will repay it with a degree in anthropology/paleontology/art history/french poetry/etc.

    I used to be an engineer. After going back to school for 6 years to become a dentist and accumulating $150k+ (at 6.8%) in student loan debt I now make about what I used to make as an engineer. Clearly, $ is not my only motivation.

  15. Re: West Virginia too on Boo! The House Majority PAC Is Watching You · · Score: 1

    this is from the final scene in "Killing Them Softly":

    "Thomas Jefferson is an American saint because he wrote the words 'All men are created equal', words he clearly didn't believe since he allowed his own children to live in slavery. He's a rich white snob who's sick of paying taxes to the Brits. So, yeah, he writes some lovely words and roused the rabble and they went and died for those words while he sat back and drank his wine and fucked his slave girl. This guy wants to tell me we're living in a community? Don't make me laugh. I'm living in America, and in America you're on your own. America's not a country. It's just a business."

  16. Re: West Virginia too on Boo! The House Majority PAC Is Watching You · · Score: 1

    I vote for the candidate who most looks like Darnell on "My Name is Earl".

    This is 'merica, goddammit, we have a RIGHT to vote on any single issue that bothers us, irregardless of weather it matters or not!

  17. Re:You shouldn't need insurance for most things on Statisticians Study Who Was Helped Most By Obamacare · · Score: 1

    I don't know. I get exposed to a lot of stuff others wouldn't. I now test positive on TB skin tests so I have to have chest x-rays instead of skin tests. Every time I get a cold and start coughing I wonder "is this TB?".

  18. Having paid off $150K+ loans recently, I have to on Colleges Face New 'Gainful Employment' Regulations For Student Loans · · Score: 1

    say that the system for loaning students money is completely screwed up. There is no discrimination with regard to course of study- loans are made to study medicine and underwater basket weaving and everything in between. That's just stupid policy. Loans should be made and interest should be charged based on the risk of the loan going into default. People who want to study the most workplace demanded fields should get the most money at the lowest interest rates and those who want to study fields that have low demand should either not get funded or should pay a much higher interest rate.

    I know, I know, the world needs art historians and paleontologists, but the world doesn't need 50,000 art historians/paleontologists every year. The world can only support a few of each. Such fields of study should be reserved for those who can afford to fund the study themselves, or a lottery should determine who gets student loans for those fields in proportion with the number that can be supported by the economy.

    If the feds aren't going to discriminate in lending based on field of study they have no business preventing people from escaping the debt through bankruptcy.

  19. Re:You shouldn't need insurance for most things on Statisticians Study Who Was Helped Most By Obamacare · · Score: 4, Insightful

    That's like saying that rich people have to pay taxes shown in the tables that the IRS provides to everyone with their tax forms. There are so many accounting tricks and loop-holes in the laws that that 15-20% limit is NEVER going to be achieved. The real solution to the problem is universal healthcare funded directly by tax payers. The republican complaint against it is that you'll have to hire an army of people to administer it- BIG GOVERNMENT! What we have now is insurance companies with armies of administrators and lawyers working to prevent spending on health care because it is more profiable to collect premiums and not pay money out. With a single-payer system you have an army of people working to ensure spending is going to health care and not fraud. I know which I would rather fund.

  20. Re:You shouldn't need insurance for most things on Statisticians Study Who Was Helped Most By Obamacare · · Score: 5, Interesting

    You don't understand. Your visit to the doctor costs what it does because of the complexities of the insurance system, including both health insurance and malpractice insurance. Doctors have a lot of overhead to pay, and in hospitals, they are just employees with no control over their schedules. If the administrators put 40 people per day into their schedule, they see 40 people per day. People without insurance use the emergency room to fix problems after they occur, a very expensive way to deal with health problems - something which Obamacare was feebly attempting to address. Everyone else who uses the place has to pay more to cover those costs. Every time a doctor makes an error the patient calls a lawyer. Doctors order test after test to cover their asses against malpractice suits- they are told to do so in "risk management" seminars put on by insurance companies that they must attend every year to maintain their malpractice insurance. The system is full of waste at every level. Doctors are not the cause of the problem. They have been made to look that way by insurers and hospital administrators who want to deflect attention away from themselves.

    When you look at Las Vegas, what do you see? You see huge luxury hotels, bright lights, excitement, partying, etc. Where does that money come from? From losers. Yet it's the winners who get the attention. Yeah, great, Vegas baby! Now look at insurance companies. Huge luxury office buildings, executives who make millions- it's a lot like Vegas. Where does the money come from? Losers like you and me who have to pay ridiculous premiums for minimal coverage. Yeah, Insurance baby!

    My son has expressed an interest in studying medicine when he graduates from high school. My wife is a physician and I am a dentist. We have suggested that he get a degree in business and become a hospital administrator. Those people make $ millions with no special skill set and without the arduous training imposed on healthcare providers.

  21. I don't think charging is much of an issue. on How Apple Watch Is Really a Regression In Watchmaking · · Score: 1

    I see two other problems as issues.

    1) not familiar with the iWatch, but if I have to touch it with my opposite hand to display the time it's a loser. People stopped wearing LED watches (except for a recent resurgence among hipsta-doofusses) because you had to touch them to display the time. Also the fact that you couldn't see them in bright light was a problem. They were replaced by LCDs that didn't require touching any buttons to see the time, but still require buttons to see them in darkness. Many analog watches aren't visible in darkness anyway, so this isn't such a big deal by comparison.

    2) Current rechargeable battery technology will require that the battery or the entire watch will require replacement every two years or so. Maybe not such a big deal because the technology will surely change and people will want to upgrade just like they do with their phones. Problem or not, better plan on getting a new one every two years. Maybe they'll just bundle them with phones so both stay in sync technology-wise.

  22. Now I can pay much too much for a 3D printer that can duplicate a chess piece or salt shaker.

    I can't see the point of a 3D scanner that only scans small objects, unless it does so with very high resolution. In fact, I can't see the point of any 3D scanner that doesn't scan with very high resolution.

  23. Those are the same companies on Employers Worried About Critical Thinking Skills · · Score: 1

    that don't want to pay taxes that fund education. What the hell did they expect?

  24. Re:good on 3D-Printed Gun Earns Man Two Years In Japanese Prison · · Score: 1

    Until you start wondering if someone on a plane you're sitting in might have ebola. The disease isn't the problem, the fear is the problem. Fear spreads faster than the flu.

  25. Re:The ebola plan you propose would not work. on 3D-Printed Gun Earns Man Two Years In Japanese Prison · · Score: 1

    You don't understand. While ebola might be a poor weapon compared to something like smallpox in terms of its ability to kill large numbers of people, it is readily available (just a plane ride or two away) and produces HUGE amounts of fear. Fear is the goal of terrorism, and fear is what is expensive. All those people blowing themselves up don't usually manage to kill more than a few others in their immediate vicinity but that's OK because killing a lot of people isn't necessary to instill fear. People never know when someone is going to try to do it near them, so they stay away from markets, cafes, etc. that are easy targets. Airlines can't sell tickets when people are afraid they'll catch ebola on a flight. If people aren't traveling, all the associated businesses suffer. Everything shuts down.

    Remember 911? What did the response cost? Trillions of dollars wasted on pointless wars, lost business, creation and operation of the TSA, universal government surveillance of US citizens, etc. And what did it cost the terrorists? A few hundred thousand to have a few guys trained to fly jets.

    The day a news story breaks about government agents arresting a terror suspect at a border and finding that they recently traveled to west Africa is the day everything stops working for months.