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User: Reziac

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  1. Re:I wish I'd thought of that on Car Thieves and Insurers Vote On Keyless Car Security · · Score: 1

    It Depends. New plate every year used to be fairly standard practice, but that was a Long Time Ago.

    Back in the olden days, Montana used to sell you new plates every year, which is quite the nuisance. This went away in the 1970s (I believe in 1975 since I recall changing the plate on my first car only a couple times), and tho current law says plates shall be replaced every five years, I suspect that's gone by the wayside with the switch to a one-time, permanent registration for vehicles 11 years or older.

    At least as of 1984, California sold you one plate (which could be transferred to a new vehicle) and an annual sticker.

  2. Re:I wish I'd thought of that on Car Thieves and Insurers Vote On Keyless Car Security · · Score: 1

    Presumably anything can be cut, given a hard enough blade, but are those "recommended locks" actually any better than the cheap standard locks for the job of discouraging a bungler armed with a hammer?

    [The main thing I use padlocks for is to make stealing my trailers too inconvenient for the casual thief.]

  3. Re:Extracts from the Notebook on Century Old Antarctic Expedition Notebook Found Underneath Ice · · Score: 1

    I've read Amundsen's account. The problem with Scott's party wasn't the type of food (Amundsen's party largely ate their surplus sled dogs on the return route, which was planned as a way of not having to haul as much weight on the return leg) but that Scott simply didn't bring =enough= food, and they were unable to find some of their caches on the return route. More than that, their clothing was inadequate, especially their footgear.

  4. Re:Research in this area is probably a good thing. on Incapacitating Chemical Agents: Coming Soon To Local Law Enforcement? · · Score: 1

    Yeah, I remember someone mentioned how requiring bicycle helmets correlates with an increase in serious car-vs-bike accidents, presumably because of the false sense of security (but also probably because it impacts peripheral vision -- we use that far more than we're consciously aware).

    Or as someone's sig says, "Safety is a tyrant's tool; no one can oppose safety."

    With enough such tools, it becomes possible to oppress the citizenry in complete "safety".

  5. Re:Research in this area is probably a good thing. on Incapacitating Chemical Agents: Coming Soon To Local Law Enforcement? · · Score: 1

    Safer is good (and more information via research is good too), but I think what will happen is more use against the public for more trivial reasons, because after all, it's "safe".

    Kinda like how pepper spray and tasers were safer than being shot, and LEOs became inclined to use them against the most trivial or even no resistance.

  6. Re:Why dont they screen doctors before they come b on NY Doctor Recently Back From West Africa Tests Positive For Ebola · · Score: 1

    If the choices boil down to "wall them off and let them die" or "spread the epidemic far and wide" -- yeah, I know which one I'd choose.

    So far it appears that the more treatment is attempted, the worse it gets, because the caregivers are at such risk, and some will need treatment in turn... rinse and repeat until there are no caregivers left.

    Quarantine may not be kind to the victims, but spreading it around so everyone can share isn't kind to anyone.

  7. Re:which idiot is letting these people fly... on NY Doctor Recently Back From West Africa Tests Positive For Ebola · · Score: 1

    I suggest sending Air Force One to Liberia, with Obama aboard. Wonder what tune he'd be whistling then...

  8. Re:Responses: for New York etc on NY Doctor Recently Back From West Africa Tests Positive For Ebola · · Score: 1

    Even if that worked, high doses of vitamin C can cause bleeding. Hmmm... maybe it was the gun after all.

  9. Re:Why dont they screen doctors before they come b on NY Doctor Recently Back From West Africa Tests Positive For Ebola · · Score: 1

    And if an individual's immune response is slow or poor, there may not BE any antibodies until too late for the test to catch.

    The obvious solution is a 4 week quarantine (to make sure every case is discovered -- a few may incubate beyond the usual) everyone who's been in West Africa.

    This isn't "denying a citizen entry"; it's delaying it due to sheer common sense.

    Better, tho, would be to quarantine the affected parts of West Africa as best we can; let people in, but don't let them back out. Because what we're doing now is pretty much guaranteeing ebola's spread.

  10. Re:Research in this area is probably a good thing. on Incapacitating Chemical Agents: Coming Soon To Local Law Enforcement? · · Score: 1

    You could also quickly and easily negate any sort of protest... including protests against using chemical restraint on the public.

    Who are the "bad guys" is generally dependent on what laws you have and who enforces them. YOUR side won't always be in charge.

  11. Re:A tragedy, but stretching the bounds of relevan on Incapacitating Chemical Agents: Coming Soon To Local Law Enforcement? · · Score: 1

    My first thought was -- what if it hits a kid or small adult? I'd guess their dosage assumes a roughly 150 pound adult, because that way it'll stop the "more dangerous" persons. I guess anyone under the presumed body mass had better not get hit, eh?

  12. Re: Africans. on Oldest Human Genome Reveals When Our Ancestors Mixed With Neanderthals · · Score: 1

    I'd noticed that too -- that there's a broader range of physical types among Africans than everyone else combined. And as I once put it, turn everyone the same shade of green, and the African faces will retain the most individuality.

  13. Re:Death? on The Inevitable Death of the Internet Troll · · Score: 1

    It's the same with other animals. Males beat each other up, settle their differences, then go have a beer together. But females never quit til the target is dead.

  14. Re:Slashdot, Stop Spinning the GamerGate Content on The Inevitable Death of the Internet Troll · · Score: 1

    While I'd agree that some arguments are more or less valid than others -- how can you know, if you don't get to hear both sides? Maybe both sides are right, or both are bogus!

    It shouldn't be up to the news media to decide which side the rest of us get to hear.

  15. Re:Why scary? on 6,000 Year Old Temple Unearthed In Ukraine · · Score: 1

    In fact that was my first thought -- they didn't discover a temple; they discovered Ugg's Rib Joint.

    Or possibly a communal kitchen, which wasn't so uncommon way back when.

    See also Digging the Weans, by Robert Nathan.

    http://www.joshpachter.com/pag...

  16. Re:A Serious Deficit, You Say? on Hungary To Tax Internet Traffic · · Score: 1

    This is why I think government's revenue should be limited to export tariffs. That way it's directly dependent on people doing well, and having the wherewithal to generate a surplus. Which is what our own gov't depended on for a century and change, and was thereby kept in check. The income tax and property taxes changed everything, because gross income is always greater than net surplus.

  17. Re:Nah, this is just stage 1 on Hungary To Tax Internet Traffic · · Score: 1

    What if the "pointless content" it gets rid of is YOUR content??

    Don't assume the people in charge will always be on your side.

  18. Re:Compelling, but a mix still better... on NASA's HI-SEAS Project Results Suggests a Women-Only Mars Crew · · Score: 1

    It's a different grade of fighting, tho. Males fight until everyone settles out where they are in the social hierarchy, then it stops; this stable endpoint is disrupted when the goal is always promotion. Kinda like always adding a new male to the mix.

    But the root difference is that males fight to secure their own status, while females fight to kill anyone they see as competition. Males beat each other up, then go have a beer. But when females see another female as a rival, it never ends til one is dead. Can't quite get away with murder in the office, but the virtual hairpulling just goes on and on.

  19. Re:Compelling, but a mix still better... on NASA's HI-SEAS Project Results Suggests a Women-Only Mars Crew · · Score: 1

    Depends if the job requires physical strength.

    My concern would be more along the lines of what I've observed in all-female offices. The social environment is a lot more likely to get ugly for those of lower status than when there's even one male present.

    Incidentally this is nothing unique to humans; in most animals, an all-female group fights a lot, but add even one male and things calm down. All-male groups may fight at first but soon find equilibrium. All-female groups never give it up until all the "targets" are dead.

  20. Re:Prison population on As Prison Population Sinks, Jails Are a Steal · · Score: 1

    I note an amazing correlation between the rise in prison population and the 'war on drugs'. I wonder what the graph would look like minus all drug-related sentences.

    About half the prisons in California, land of three strikes and tough-on-crime, are private for-profit entities. Draw your own conclusions.

  21. Re:Analog displays are better in some situations. on Liking Analog Meters Doesn't Make You a Luddite (Video) · · Score: 1

    A damn good example of mechanical vs electronic is the controls for washing machines. Mechanical controls last until they break from fatigue in the metal or plastic, which usually takes 2 or 3 decades of heavy use. Electronic controls, given the damp environment of a washing machine, tend to go bad in just a few years regardless of use level.

  22. Even if PETA doesn't directly participate in terrorist acts, they do support ALF and the like financially, and have done so consistently and for a long time, and it's not like they don't know what ALF uses the funds for. PETA has also said flat out that in their opinion ALF is not a terrorist group.

    So I guess it depends where you draw the line on what qualifies as supporting terrorism. You don't have to be active yourself to cheer them on and help them behind the scenes.

  23. Re:Too bad... on Wind Power Is Cheaper Than Coal, Leaked Report Shows · · Score: 1

    More sensible might be a windmill on every dwelling's rooftop, thus using space that's already committed. (Same with solar.)

  24. Re:Too bad... on Wind Power Is Cheaper Than Coal, Leaked Report Shows · · Score: 1

    And "when health impacts are factored in" which could cover everything from the coal miner to the industry that makes the heavy equipment to folks downwind, IOW infinitely expandable to fill the desired level of cost.

  25. Re:To their defense on Too Much Privacy: Finnish Police Want Big Euro Notes Taken Out of Circulation · · Score: 1

    The main way taxes on consumption are circumvented is through barter.

    As to public records, they may be nominally public, but usually not free to view -- at the least you may have to pay for the clerk's time to retrieve them. I recall one locality that charged a $30 flat fee for access to the stacks. In my county, access to public records requires a $38/each fee or a $200/year subscription (otherwise you only get to see a PDF that's often too grainy to read).