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User: ultranova

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  1. Re:Ridiculous! on Marvel's New Thor Will Be a Woman · · Score: 1

    NOT new. We've had Postus, the frog headed god of messengers and package deliverers, as a deity in one of our homebrew D&D campaigns for about 25 years now.

    Most people who have lived somewhere with a postal system have probably prayed to someone that their mail gets where it's intended to. But in the context of Marvel Universe, a mail god is a novel idea, or at least a lot more so than yet another iteration of "muscles, weapons and severe psychological problems" -formula.

  2. Re:Ridiculous! on Marvel's New Thor Will Be a Woman · · Score: 2

    mail god

    Aaand we have a new character idea right here.

  3. Re:Responsible party? on CDC Closes Anthrax, Flu Labs After Potentially Deadly Mix-Ups Come to Light · · Score: 1

    The outcome is fines paid by one part of government to another, but it does focus the leadership to get it right

    Or discourage reporting any incidents. If losing a container of Anthrax means you get punished, then you have strong incentives to not tell anyone and hope you'll find it, rather than rise alarm and put the place in a lockdown.

  4. Re: Patience, my pretty... on A Box of Forgotten Smallpox Vials Was Just Found In an FDA Closet · · Score: 1

    All to stop a flu that never exceeded 5 infections contained to Fort Dix, and only 1 death directly attributable to the flu.

    A flu with a 20% mortality rate amongst young men in top shape? Yeah, no reason to panic...

  5. Re:Exciting Times on Chimpanzee Intelligence Largely Determined By Genetics · · Score: 1

    But for now, crossing a human with a flower may not result in a talking flower, though it still could be a pretty looking flower.

    For some reason, this very scenario is present in two games of the Sims series.

  6. Re:Why are the number of cabs [artificially] limit on Lyft's New York Launch Halted By Restraining Order · · Score: 1

    Sure, if your only goal is efficiency. But if it is, you're boring.

    You're the one who claimed any inefficiency means "no progress". So I guess I'm arguing with a boring troll. Bye.

  7. Re:I've always thought that the best way for Israe on A Skeptical View of Israel's Iron Dome Rocket Defense System · · Score: 4, Insightful

    We value life, they value heaven.

    According to yourself, you value an personal ancestral connection to the land. And you also said you think it's the same for Hamas. So please don't try to twist things into a "good vs. evil" or even "sane vs. insane" narrative. It's not.

  8. Re:Subject bait on A Skeptical View of Israel's Iron Dome Rocket Defense System · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I have a personal connection to this land. So does somebody else. Hence, war!

    I'm starting to wonder if the best thing anyone could do for the Holy Land and its residents was to detonate enough dirty bombs there to force everyone to decide whether living there is worth more than their own lives, rather than just their neighbours.

    Oh well, with any luck climate change will clear the place through desertification.

  9. Re:Subject bait on A Skeptical View of Israel's Iron Dome Rocket Defense System · · Score: 1

    Don't spend the whole comment section arguing about causes and consequences of the conflict, who started it, who deserves is, etc.

    Stay on topic and discuss the technical aspects of the missile system, at least that is what should be discussed here.

    Why? Surely analysing the mechanisms of society and their failure modes are far more deserving of the title "stuff that matters" than the mechanisms of systems used in the resulting mess. Or do you have some kind of ulterior motive to keep this conflict from being discussed or analysed? Do you, for example, fear that your side - whichever it is - might come up looking bad?

    And if that's the case, perhaps you should look beyond whatever gains you think your side might have from the conflict to the long-term benefits of establishing a less violent and chaotic world.

  10. Re:What is the point? on Biohackers Are Engineering Yeast To Make THC · · Score: 1

    I'm not a user, but my understanding is that pot is a very hearty plant, easy to grow and cheap to grow. Why invest money, time, and effort in learning to get the THC without it?

    Because yeast is still easier, and it would be to everyone's advantage if at least some of the alcohol producers switched to pot. Except the "thank God for dead soldiers" crowd, of course, since they're never happy as long as someone else might be.

  11. Re:Why are the number of cabs [artificially] limit on Lyft's New York Launch Halted By Restraining Order · · Score: 1

    So your argument against permitting people to hire their services is that it will threaten others' wages? Congratulations, you just cast your vote for no progress ever. Please move back into a cave, and give up your PC.

    Strictly speaking, I don't need a PC to stay alive and capable of working. That means the PC is a luxury; I have one because at some point of my life, I had spare income. That, in turn, is an inefficiency - I could had undercut other workers by asking for less. So, if you advocate a perfectly efficient job market yet have anything you could give up without dying, you either are a hypocrite or don't know what "economic efficiency" means.

  12. Re:Why are the number of cabs [artificially] limit on Lyft's New York Launch Halted By Restraining Order · · Score: 1

    This is the reason why people have so much debt: the entire economy has become a "competitive market" where those participating in it - employees - barely survive, no matter how much it produces.

    No, people have so much debt because they insist on buying things they can't afford. No, you really don't NEED a Tesla. Or even a new car. A five-year-old used car will do fine. Nor do you NEED the latest tech toy. Etc, etc, etc.

    So do you agree with me? Because you seem to be saying the same thing I did: employees, in an efficient market, can't afford anything beyond they NEED - in other words, they're just barely surviving. Which is only natural, seeing how "sellers barely survive" is the very definition of economic efficiency in a marketplace, even in the job market.

    Which is an awesome thing for anyone who is buying the labour but horrible for those selling it. In fact it's so bad it historically led to the birth of Communism due to unbearable conditions. Sane countries avoided revolution by deliberately introducing inefficiencies - such as labour unions - which forced employee profits up to the point where they could live. The US, on the other hand, uses easy access to credit to hide the truth. But the problem is, debt can't grow forever. As it reaches its limits, both economy and social stability in general deteriorate. The vast majority of people simply can't afford anything.

    The US is trying to compensate that problem, in turn, by blaming indebted people for being "irresponsible", when in truth they've done nothing wrong. They simply had the bad luck of being born in a "market liberal" country and believing the lies they were told. Perhaps they could had faced the ugly truth earlier, but in any case the sheer mass of debt build up is forcing the issue now. It'll be interesting to see if US can introduce the necessary inefficiencies to its job market before the smoldering anger passes the tipping point and the country goes up in flames. Judging by comments like yours repeating the frankly stupid propaganda, and the continued arming of the police with military gear, which is odd if the nation doesn't expect to use them in military-style missions against its own population, I'd wager "no".

  13. Re:Why are the number of cabs [artificially] limit on Lyft's New York Launch Halted By Restraining Order · · Score: 1

    Why not let everyone who qualifies swim in the taxicab business leaving those who cannot stand the waters perish?

    1) Do you really want two-ton land missiles driven by desperate people who are driven to cut corners to stay competitive?

    2) More generally, as you noted, a competitive market is a swim-or-sink situation. That means profit margins will get razor-thin. That sounds awesome until you realize that wages are also a form of profits. In other words, a competitive market is good for customers and horrible for everyone else in it. This is the reason why people have so much debt: the entire economy has become a "competitive market" where those participating in it - employees - barely survive, no matter how much it produces. So of course anyone who can tries to use whatever leverage they can to make any markets they're competing in less efficient. It's the only way to avoid starving.

  14. Re:and... on "Internet's Own Boy" Briefly Knocked Off YouTube With Bogus DMCA Claim · · Score: 1

    The whole point of the DMCA is that you can take stuff down but you have to put your own ass on the line in order to do so.

    No, the point of the DMCA is that those with money can take stuff down.

    We do this for a reason. The DMCA was written like that for a reason. What we see right now is the direct result of lack of enforcement.

    What we see right now is the real face of copyright. This is the spirit of all such laws, no matter what their letter might say.

  15. Re:These people on Google's Experimental Newsroom Avoids Negative Headlines · · Score: 1

    For one, you don't edit the news. You relay the facts as is.

    They did. The relayed fact was both correct and relevant. All this noise is about choosing one fact over the other when both could not be picked.

  16. Re:sounds like North Korea news on Google's Experimental Newsroom Avoids Negative Headlines · · Score: 1

    How about instead of trying to spin it one way or the other, try publishing the facts.

    The facts of what? "Intoxicated man takes a taxi, family of four gets home safe and sound"?

  17. Re:sounds like North Korea news on Google's Experimental Newsroom Avoids Negative Headlines · · Score: 1

    Worse than that. It's like Brave New World news. The only things fit to publish are the things that keep us happy(and thus amendable to advertisements in this case). It's not trying to make on specific entity look good, it's trying to engage in actual mind control via selection bias.

    Ironically, this might actually end up giving a more accurate picture of the world, because disasters and scandals tend to be big and flashy, while good news come as constant stream of small things. Overall, the stream drowns out the flames - our civilization would had never gotten off the ground otherwise - but it's the odd flame that becomes ever so more newsworthy by its very rareness.

    Politics of fear are based on and enabled by this very phenomenom, and we've all seen them cause completely irrational - and often very destructive - decisions. So feel-good popular newsfeed could very well end up undermining demagogues by acting as counterpoison to fearmongering.

  18. Re:Spaceport along the Gulf of Mexico on SpaceX Wins FAA Permission To Build a Spaceport In Texas · · Score: 1

    Why didn't I think of that.... penal colony for illegal immigrants involving long term imprisonment and hard labor.

    Does a private prison company gaining sentience and posting on Slashdot count as AI, some kind of group mind or just a regular evil overlord?

  19. Re:Hi speed chase, hum? on The First Person Ever To Die In a Tesla Is a Guy Who Stole One · · Score: 1

    Nature -- specifically evolution -- disagrees.

    Evolution doesn't deal with life or death, it deals with the relative abundance of properties in populations. If anything, our innovation - cultural evolution - is such success precisely because it removes death from the equation. Now the main thrust is on the evolution of our various superorganisms - cultures - rather than our bodies, thus allowing adaptation at blitzkrieg speeds compared to even bacteria, much less any other complex organisms.

  20. Re:Why is this news? on The First Person Ever To Die In a Tesla Is a Guy Who Stole One · · Score: 1

    In other words, even though the statement about cars kill a lot of people is true, the statement does NOT make the cyclist are menace to be false.

    "Menace" is a subjective value judgement. "Cars kill a lot of people" does affect "cyclists are a menace" because both are statements about the dangers of various forms of locomotion. Locomotion itself is unavoidable, so the question becomes which form is safest, and "menace" implies cycling is far from it.

  21. Re:UK is not a free country on UK Gov't Plans To Push "Emergency" Surveillance Laws · · Score: 1

    All majorities are potential wolves, unless restrained by government limits that are respected. They respect the limits because they know they aren't the only majority.

    So why would they be "potential wolves" in the first place, if they understand this?

  22. Re:I found this article to be more informative on After NSA Spying Flap, Germany Asks CIA Station Chief to Depart · · Score: 1

    The Gestapo actually wasn't that good at spying. The German people were, however, quite good at turning their neighbors in to the Gestapo.

    Which means Gestapo was good at spying. The indicator is whether you get results, after all, not whether you get them because you're smart or scary.

    There's a lot of myth concerning the Nazi police force. It's unfortunate that even today people repeat it without thinking.

    "He who thus domineers over you has only two eyes, only two hands, only one body, no more than is possessed by the least man among the infinite numbers dwelling in your cities; he has indeed nothing more than the power that you confer upon him to destroy you."

    Tyrants stay in power, not because they're stronger than their very source of power, but because they're good at building myths. A nation, company or any other organization is nothing more than a myth shared by its members. And the myth of the Third Reich is so strong it still persists, long after its embodiment is gone, as a kind of ghost nation. Time will tell whether Hitler will take up permanent residence in our collective pantheon along the Caesar's and Napoleon.

  23. Re:Moron Judge on Judge Shoots Down "Bitcoin Isn't Money" Argument In Silk Road Trial · · Score: 1

    Fortunately we have laws that define those pieces of paper as legal tender, which differentiates them from little bits of hash solutions and things that people define in internet forums.

    "Legal tender" where? I don't have to accept your funny paper. Not that you could send it to me anyway, since only fools tell their Real Life adress over the Internet, and even if I did, it would take days - and neither of us would have proof that the transaction actually happened. And of course, it's not like I'm obligated to give you credit in the first place, especially not in an Internet forum.

  24. Re:Bitcoin isn't money but it's still a financial on Judge Shoots Down "Bitcoin Isn't Money" Argument In Silk Road Trial · · Score: 1

    Silk Road used it is to launder money.

    Silk Road didn't use Bitcoin to launder money, Silk Road used Bitcoin to transfer money and a tumbler - a series of transactions meant to disguise the "border" transactions between Silk Road and the rest of Bitcoin economy by blending into the crowd - to launder it.

    Except it was not really even proper money laundering, since it didn't invent a legal source for the Bitcoins being withdrawn from the system. That would had required a cover firm, a suspiciously succesful gambling site or something.

  25. Re: "Emergency" laws. on UK Gov't Plans To Push "Emergency" Surveillance Laws · · Score: 1

    The British actually need to learn the difference between a pedophile and a child molester.

    Alas, they're too stupid to do that.

    To be fair, the words are used interchangeably outside of medical profession. A pedophile would gain nothing by coming out, and likely lose a lot, so the only ones the public knows about are those caught molesting.

    So it's not necessarily a matter of not knowing, but not having any reason to care.