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User: fiannaFailMan

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  1. Re:What about when I get there? on Obama Proposes High-Speed Rail System For the US · · Score: 1

    High speed inter-city rail means that when I get to my destination I have to rely on public transportation (not very efficient in most US cities), or rent a car.

    If I'm renting a car, this doesn't reduce congestion.

    How's that any different from flying?

  2. Re:I like rail! Great mass transit in Europe on Obama Proposes High-Speed Rail System For the US · · Score: 1

    Why do you think that's automatically a 'pork barrel' scheme?

    Rail systems are absolutely superb in European countries (very often it's FASTER to take a train then fly by plane).

    USA could use something like this.

    'Pork Barrel' has become a euphemism for any government spending that people disagree with. Spending billions on infrastructure that doesn't benefit my car company? "Pork Barrel."

    Spending billions on a jumbo jet with a laser cannon on the nose? "Essential investment in our nation's defense."

  3. Re:No on Obama Proposes High-Speed Rail System For the US · · Score: 1

    While I like the efficiency of trains, the US moved freight traffic to the highways because it created more flexibility in placement of factories and retail outlets. We built our houses and our lifestyle in a manner that took advantage of individual transportation vehicles. We don't have the density or the lifestyle desire to move to a hub and spoke system of fast rail. Air traffic has a better ROI for ...

    And that, my friend, is why the US, with 5% of the world's population, consumes 25% of the world's resources and has to spend so much on a military to keep those hydrocarbons flowing, along with all the other foreign policy implications that go with it.

  4. Re:In a word... on Obama Proposes High-Speed Rail System For the US · · Score: 1

    No.

    Hell with high speed. 99.9978% of americans dont need to go from NY to LA via high speed rail.

    Where in TFA was this NY to LA route mentioned?

  5. Re:WE should end free trade. on Tesla CEO Says Gov't Loan Is 99% Sure and Deserved · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Additionally, there is a strong ethical argument against protectionism. "Buy American" is essentially a racist statement. You're implying that the value of an American is higher than that of someone from another country by saying that it's better to protect industries in this country to protect the jobs. At some point, we've got to start calling out "Buy American" for the racist statement that it is.

    I couldn't agree more. Remember all those grandstanding congressmen grilling the auto makers but making sure to get their soundbites in about how they all drive American cars? If I were up there I'd be saying "I drive a Mitsubishi Eclipse because the cars you guys make all suck! Now get your asses in gear and make cars that people want to buy for a change!"

    It reminds me of the talk about protecting 'American' jobs, all the anti-visa and anti-immigration groups calling for protectionism of American workers. Feck that sh1t! Let the best man for the job get the job whether he happens by an accident of birth to hail from Belfast, Belgrade, Bangalore or Boston.

  6. Re:Thanks a lot, Obamabots. on EFF Says Obama Warrantless Wiretap Defense Is Worse than Bush · · Score: 1

    Quite.

    McCain and his wolf-hunting, lipstick-wearing, half educated Bimbo sidekick would have been a much better choice, wouldn't they?

  7. Naming on Segway, GM Partner On Two-Wheeled Electric Car · · Score: 2, Funny

    I think the GM name is a bit tainted these days, and as for Segway, that's synonymous with venture capital funded half-baked ideas that failed to learn the lessons of previous marketing failures.

    How about something with a classical ring to it, like 'Sinclair.' And for the model name, well how about C for 'cool' and 5 for the number of people who will need to buy it? There. Sinclair C5. Perfect.

  8. Re:other potential things on Nine Words From Science Which Originated In Science Fiction · · Score: 1

    I don't believe all sci-fi happens in the future. I believe there are a few stories that explore the origin of life on earth for instance or time travel into the past.

    Battlestar Galactica, for example.

  9. Re:other potential things on Nine Words From Science Which Originated In Science Fiction · · Score: 1

    And as for you not being a fantasy fan, I somehow get this feeling that you do in fact like LoTR (which has the dragons & wizards & trolls thing).

    Huh? I'm not one bit interested in LoTR. I tried to sit through one of the movies and just came out wondering what all the fuss was about. Sorry.

  10. Re:other potential things on Nine Words From Science Which Originated In Science Fiction · · Score: 1

    I was hoping Cybernetics would have caught on better than it seems to have. That's an exciting field but it only seems to be referred to in terms of 'body part prosthetics' and other dull and uninspiring labels.

    Although the wikipedia entry seems to wander off into more generalized talk about control and systems - maybe I'm misunderstanding the word.

  11. Re:Futurists on Nine Words From Science Which Originated In Science Fiction · · Score: 1

    I'm drawing a blank too...

    Well there's the Space Gun from Brave New World that was going to shoot people into space, that never caught on because the physics weren't understood by the writer at the time.

  12. Re:other potential things on Nine Words From Science Which Originated In Science Fiction · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Science Fiction is just a subset of Fantasy.

    Is it? I remember Arthur C Clarke saying that Sci Fi is something that could happen, while fantasy is something that could never happen.

    It always baffled me how the two genres (at least in my mind they're quite different) were always lumped together in bookstores. I was always a sci fi fan but wasn't much into the dungeons, dragons, wizards and trolls thing.

  13. Re:Obama's failure to think half a step ahead on Obama Calls For Nuke-Free World · · Score: 1

    End result of Obama's plan: Defenseless US et al against those whose moral duty to act includes nuking us.

    You're being a tad premature, don't you think?

  14. Re:There's wind in them thar.... oceans? on Offshore Windpower To Potentially Exceed US Demand · · Score: 1

    FFS. Does everything have to be seen in terms of a terrorist threat these days? Why don't we dismantle the Golden Gate Bridge, demolish the Empire State Building, and melt down the Statue of Liberty and send it back to France before some terrorist decides to target it?

    Sheesh!

  15. Re:There's wind in them thar.... oceans? on Offshore Windpower To Potentially Exceed US Demand · · Score: 1

    I'm sure there are laws about international waters, but does the closest state own the rights to waters offshore? Could they issue "property taxes" to windmills offshore? And how to they determine who has first dibs to build things at sea?

    IANAL but I'm sure that offshore oil exploration has already led to plenty of legal precedents and international agreements. Whether the energy being extracted is fossil or renewable, the principle should be the same.

  16. Re:Glad to see.. on Angry Villagers Run Google Out of Town · · Score: 1

    Don't want interlopers driving through your community? Make it gated and pay for your own maintenance instead of expecting the local government to take care of it for you.

    I'm not sure if there's such a thing as gated communities in the UK, or even if such a thing is allowed. Anyone...?

  17. Re:Surprising on Angry Villagers Run Google Out of Town · · Score: 1

    Given the shape of popular british paranoia these days, I would have expected the google car to be identified as an agent of the paedophiles and run out of town for that reason...

    Could be worse, could be hassled for being suspected paediatricians.

  18. Re:Darn! on Irish Domain Registry Banning Adult Domains · · Score: 1

    Answered my own question, so I'll share: iedr.ie

    All applicants applying for a .ie domain name who are not situated in the 32 counties of Ireland, must demonstrate a Real and Substantive Connection with Ireland (with the exception of those applying with a registered Community Trademark)

    Examples of acceptable documentation demonstrating substantial trade or commercial activity within Ireland are as follows:

    • Copies of invoices (showing trade to or from Ireland)
    • High-quality brochures
    • A signed letter on headed paper from a bank manager, firm of chartered accountant(s), registered auditor(s), tax consultant(s) (where the tax advisor identification number is displayed), or solicitor(s) confirming the applicants trade with Ireland.

    Interesting gray area there. The 32 counties of Ireland include the 6 counties of the north that actually ceased to exist as administrative areas in the 1970s when town and county councils were replaced by a single tier of local government. The 26 counties of the south have since been rearranged slightly and there are now about 29 county or county-level councils in the south.

    The original 32 counties still live on in popular culture, particularly in sporting terms as used by the Gaelic Athletic Association, but do not all have the same legal standing they used to.

  19. 'Creepy?' on Yeast-Powered Fuel Cell Feeds On Human Blood · · Score: 1

    What's so creepy about that? Would you prefer implants to be nuclear powered?

  20. Obligatory on Irish Domain Registry Banning Adult Domains · · Score: 1

    Down with this sort of thing!

  21. Re:just move out of Ireland? on Irish Domain Registry Banning Adult Domains · · Score: 1

    Vive la revolucion!

    Phrase you're looking for is 'tiocfaidh ar la'. It's Irish for 'I'm a fuckwit living in the past who thinks it would be a great idea if we all started shooting each other and letting off bombs the whole time just like in the good old days'.

    'Tiocfaidh ar lÃ' means 'our day will come.' It's used by people who support a United Ireland, including the ones who opposed the IRA. For 'fuckwits' see the people who tar all Irish nationalists with the same brush and who think that the troubles that started in the late 1960s just spontaneously combusted rather than being the result of 50 years of one-party Protestant rule in the north, where the number of votes you had depended on your religion, and where job ads could legally appear in the papers including the words 'catholics need not apply.'

    'Fuckwits' indeed. 'Informative' my ass.

  22. Re:Not so big an issue on Irish Domain Registry Banning Adult Domains · · Score: 1

    Sounds like a good time to take it to the Euro Court of Human Rights, or at least invoke the ECHR. There are times when I'm glad that Europe is there as another level of appeal for cases like this.

  23. Creationsism and ID on Mixed Outcome of Texas Textbook Vote · · Score: 1

    creationism and [the similar theory of] intelligent design

    1. Creationism is a hypothesis, not a theory.
    2. Intelligent design is a hypothesis, not a theory.
    3. Creationism and ID are not just similar, they are the same hypothesis, just packaged slightly differently.
  24. Re:Not so fast... on Colbert Wins Space Station Name Contest · · Score: 1

    And it was a write-in campaign that got the name changed to Enterprise from Constellation.

    I thought NCC1701 and NCC1701-A were Constitution class ships. Stargazer was Constellation class.

  25. Re:The Devil Comes for Republicans on Alaska's Mt. Redoubt Has Erupted · · Score: 1

    Didn't Jindal actually call it "something called volcano monitoring?" Just in case we missed how opposed he was to it, he let us know that he wasn't even interested in what it actually was.