In general I agree with you, but this is pure bullshit. Obama did not outlaw trucks.
or artificially increase gas prices
Gas prices won't need to be artificially increased either. There's only so much petroleum and with Chinese and Indians driving up demand prices will naturally rise. Sure there are oil wells where it is not economically feasible to pump oil and with higher prices they will become feasible but even so oil will run out.
This isn't the first plug-in the General has produced
The EV1 failed because GM wanted it to fail. First off it was rented and not sold. Next it was only rented in California and parts of AZ to the general public. They were also offered to some GM and GM dealer employees in Atlanta, GA. After the trial some people who had rented EV1s asked GM to be allowed to buy them but GM refused.
Helmets are mandatory in Florida, where I used to live, too. But I live in Minnesota now and they are not required here.
Plus comfort level is higher in a helmet. A full face helmet with visor closed at 70mph is way WAY better than no helmet.
I prefer wind in my hair and as for safety I'd rather die than be saved, if I were saved, by a helmet. Riding my bike I already survived a head injury, specifically a Traumatic Brain Injury or TBI. I was not wearing a helmet however it not have done me any good if I had. My head was not hit, instead my injury was caused by the sudden shaking of my brain, much as Shaken Baby Syndrome injures or kills infants. And you could say I almost did die, while in a coma the docs told my family bit would be a miracle if I lived. Since then the docs and therapists I've seen also said it was. However I totally disagree, I wish I had died even today almost 13 years later.
in Ohio at all.
80% of our electricity is coal generated.
Apparently Ohio's potential wind power is pretty good, onshore as well as offshore. According to one person mentioned in the second link above Lake Erie along the Ohio shore can provide more than 100% of the states electrical needs. It may not be enough with a lot of EVs on the road but to discount EVs in Ohio just because most of the state gets it's electricity from coal doesn't work.
I assume the gasoline doesn't keep well because tanks are metal, and there is some sort of chemical reaction happening, or perhaps some metal is getting dissolved into it. In that case, wouldn't the problem be fixed by keeping the gasoline in a plastic container in your trunk? That way you still get to use it as a reserve in emergency scenarios, and it hopefully wouldn't go bad.
First gasoline eats or dissolves plastic. Next, even in an inert container such as a glass bottle it will separate and precipitate.
I used to think the same, I didn't believe in taking out a loan to buy something that's going to depreciate in value. However you can earn more investing money than what you'll save in interest. That is in a better economy, however in good tymes and bad tymes some companies pay dividends. PPG Industries has paid out dividends, 37 years in a row. The board of directors declared a quarterly dividend of $0.53. It closed today at $55.15 a share. There are other companies like that who increase dividends every year.
Car loans are usually about 6%.
That depends. Bankrate is showing a dealer interest rate of 1.9% and credit union rates of 4.5%.
most people (myself excluded) don't buy cars based on solving their problem (need for transportation) for the least amount of money.
I've bought 7 vehicles, 6 used ones I paid for in cash, and the 7th was new I paid with a loan I got through the dealer. Of the 6 used ones, the longest one has lasted was about 3 years, and that was even though I rebuilt the engine in it. My new one I bought in 1999, almost 10 years ago, and I still have it.
What both you and the GP left out is higher fuel prices can make it worthwhile. GP used $3/gallon however last summer gas got up to $4.50. What happens when it gets up to $10 a gallon? And that's if the Volt cost $35,000.
Financially what may be better would be to keep the vehicle you already own, use a bike, and invest in businesses involved in plug-in hybrids as well as alternative energy.
A top of the line motorcycle like the FJR1300 that has bags to carry stuff and a back seat area to hold a large backpack to hold the laptop+other items is 48Mpg typical and cost less than $13,000 with insurance being lower.
I've been thinking about getting a motorcycle and saddlebags. I don't know, is insurance for motorcycles lower than for cars? I imagine the cost depends on whether helmets are worn or not.
I might actually have a lot of months where the car isn't running on gas.
If you sold cars for a living you should know gasoline does not keep well in a tank. And engines should be run at least a little every few days or couple of weeks.
Not me. Carding people, even older looking people, is nothing more than a defensive measure. I once worked in a convenience store and if someone came in to buy alcohol or tobacco I carded if they didn't look at least 40. Law enforcement would have Police Explorers, young people contemplating careers in law enforcement, go in and try to buy age restricted merchandise. Anyone caught selling to under aged people were arrested and charged with a crime. Some people wouldn't card just the person buying but everyone in the party. I've been to places that will not sell to parents who have children with them. I think all this is BS.
This is why most businesses have work hours between 8-6; why most businesses require business-casual dress; why most businesses value time-to-market and minimized budget over technical quality; and so-forth.
Citation needed.
I know or knew nobody who has hours like that, except my sister but she runs her own business. When I last worked regularly, I'm on disability, I and almost every other employee of the company started working at or before 7am and most days work was done at 3:30pm.
Teacher unions are better for bad teachers but not for students. Try to fire a bad teacher in California or New York public schools, it's nearly impossible.
Get out under that fucking rock you live under and watch as this bill is attempted to being rammed down the throat of the American public.
What bill? Did Obama submit one? Or are you talking about all the bills floating around congress Obama had nothing to do with? And you are wrong, Bush not Obama imprisoned people denying them habeas corpus and pushed the unitary executive theory wherein the president holds almost all power. Actually those still at Gitmo, whom Bush put there, Obama wants to put on trial. If that your definition of tyranny then you need to learn what it really is. May I suggest OneLook.
Our Government already has! In the some odd 30+ years of my life, I've never experienced just how bad it has gotten. The unemployment, crime, corruption, incompetence, hubris: It's just nuts!
It has been much worse in my life tyme than it is now. In the 1970s we had staqflation, high inflation and unemployment. We had lines blocks long just to get gas, the lines in the southeast after Hurricane Katrina offered a taste of it. Crime was higher then too, crimerates have been falling since the 1990s.
Good thing our politicians have premo health care. I suspect they're going to need it after the angry mobs get done with them.
Especially if politicians try to socialize medicine.
Governments get their authority from the governed. If enough don't like a policy, the representative and the policy is changed.
Yea, that worked real well for the French during the Reign of Terror from 5 September 1793 to 27 July 1794 as well as for Czar Nicholas II who's family was murdered on 17 July 1918. Fact is is almost every political revolution is bloody.
In a good economy yes, but not the way the economy is now. People without jobs, especially if they're long term unemployed, will take a pay cut just to find work.
This 40 hour work week minimum seems to be mostly an American tradition (misfortune?) too. Britain's typically have 35 or 37.5 hour weeks, often including lunch. I expect other European countries have similar or even shorter work weeks.
The US has longer work hours than some countries in Europe but shorter than others. As for the length of work hours in the US, as early as 1842 Boston ship carpenters had 8 hour work days. By the 1870s 8 hour days were a central demand of unionizers, other labor organizers, anarchists, and socialists in the US.
We should also not discount the effect long commutes have on our performance, either.
I think that's a big problem in the US, for 2 reasons. In some places people can't afford to live closer to where they work and there's no employment available in their fields near where they live. Next many zoning boards don't allow much mixed zoning. I recall about 10 years ago a neighbor near where I lived had an indoor pool they used to teach swimming. They were required to have a license and when it came up for renewal all the neighbors in the area were invited to a hearing to decide whether a renewal would be granted. Where I live now if I wanted to start a business using my home as an office, to be legal, I'd have to go through a city or county board to get a license. Even as a photographer/designer or web developer. As a condition of being granted one I may have to pay to make sure it was handicapped accessible as well.
Maybe the solution is to elect men who aren't corrupt?
Like that has worked out so far. HAHA! I seriously doubt most people who go into politics or government start out corrupt. "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely" isn't just a saying. Even the USA's Founding Fathers couldn't avoid it. Alexander Hamilton, who is believed to be one of the writers of the Federalist Papers advocating a weak federal government with most political power resting in the states, grabbed for more power at the federal level as president.
Or better, actually weed out corruption! What a novel idea...
Like that hasn't been tried before. Ah but it was tried, after J Edgar Hoover and Richard Nixon abused their power. The power of both the FBI and presidency was cut down because of the scandals arising from abuse. Bush Jr then grabbed for more power after 911 though. I didn't hear many Republicans or conservatives complaining about that. But they're out now complaining, and making up stuff, about health care reform and Obama.
Only rarely does a politician come out in opposition to what his or her party proposes or pushes for on substantial issues.
The article doesn't mention whether the edited card created would pass a digital signature check - if such a check has been incorporated, it would almost certainly not pass inspection by a terminal that checked signatures.
It does pass a legitimate passport signature check. What it does not pass is "a system for detecting a fake passport chip like this", the system is only used in 5 countries though.
Personally I don't care either way, except as it discredits the notion IDs can be made unbreakable.
I would support a scheme without this database
Not only do I not support a national ID, but I actively oppose any such thing, with or without it being tied to a database.
I suspect that he modified the cloned data -- but could not, of course, produce a digital signature for the modified data
According to a "Wired" article "he showed was how he could take a writeable RFID chip, load it with data (name, birthdate, photo, etc) then hash that data and make a self-signed certificate using the same parameters of a legitimate passport signature so that passport readers would accept it as legitimate."
That article goes more into what was done and what they were not able to do. Such as not being able to fool a way to detect fake passport chips. However the system is only used in 5 out of 45 countries.
The power to require ID, "papers please", and to track citizens to start with.
Except in a very few specific cases, the government does not have that power, nor would I suggest we give the government that power. But seeing as how we've been talking about the justice system, I'm not really sure what you're getting at.
Except that we were talking about national ID not the justice system. Look at the browser title. And what I am getting at is that government will abuse any power it can, no matter who is in power.
such as electronic voting, passports with chips etc -- is that geeks are often against it. Geeks, who generally love technology and gadgetry, are saying no.
Actually I think it's logical geeks are the one who often oppose stuff like this. They are the ones who would know the problems with them and how they can be abused. Unless of course they get caught up in the euphoria of new technology.
Slashdot Mirror
In general I agree with you, but this is pure bullshit. Obama did not outlaw trucks.
or artificially increase gas prices
Gas prices won't need to be artificially increased either. There's only so much petroleum and with Chinese and Indians driving up demand prices will naturally rise. Sure there are oil wells where it is not economically feasible to pump oil and with higher prices they will become feasible but even so oil will run out.
Falcon
This isn't the first plug-in the General has produced
The EV1 failed because GM wanted it to fail. First off it was rented and not sold. Next it was only rented in California and parts of AZ to the general public. They were also offered to some GM and GM dealer employees in Atlanta, GA. After the trial some people who had rented EV1s asked GM to be allowed to buy them but GM refused.
Falcon
here in michigan it's a law.
Helmets are mandatory in Florida, where I used to live, too. But I live in Minnesota now and they are not required here.
Plus comfort level is higher in a helmet. A full face helmet with visor closed at 70mph is way WAY better than no helmet.
I prefer wind in my hair and as for safety I'd rather die than be saved, if I were saved, by a helmet. Riding my bike I already survived a head injury, specifically a Traumatic Brain Injury or TBI. I was not wearing a helmet however it not have done me any good if I had. My head was not hit, instead my injury was caused by the sudden shaking of my brain, much as Shaken Baby Syndrome injures or kills infants. And you could say I almost did die, while in a coma the docs told my family bit would be a miracle if I lived. Since then the docs and therapists I've seen also said it was. However I totally disagree, I wish I had died even today almost 13 years later.
Falcon
in Ohio at all.
80% of our electricity is coal generated.
Apparently Ohio's potential wind power is pretty good, onshore as well as offshore. According to one person mentioned in the second link above Lake Erie along the Ohio shore can provide more than 100% of the states electrical needs. It may not be enough with a lot of EVs on the road but to discount EVs in Ohio just because most of the state gets it's electricity from coal doesn't work.
Falcon
I assume the gasoline doesn't keep well because tanks are metal, and there is some sort of chemical reaction happening, or perhaps some metal is getting dissolved into it. In that case, wouldn't the problem be fixed by keeping the gasoline in a plastic container in your trunk? That way you still get to use it as a reserve in emergency scenarios, and it hopefully wouldn't go bad.
First gasoline eats or dissolves plastic. Next, even in an inert container such as a glass bottle it will separate and precipitate.
Falcon
I used to think the same, I didn't believe in taking out a loan to buy something that's going to depreciate in value. However you can earn more investing money than what you'll save in interest. That is in a better economy, however in good tymes and bad tymes some companies pay dividends. PPG Industries has paid out dividends, 37 years in a row. The board of directors declared a quarterly dividend of $0.53. It closed today at $55.15 a share. There are other companies like that who increase dividends every year.
Car loans are usually about 6%.
That depends. Bankrate is showing a dealer interest rate of 1.9% and credit union rates of 4.5%.
most people (myself excluded) don't buy cars based on solving their problem (need for transportation) for the least amount of money.
I've bought 7 vehicles, 6 used ones I paid for in cash, and the 7th was new I paid with a loan I got through the dealer. Of the 6 used ones, the longest one has lasted was about 3 years, and that was even though I rebuilt the engine in it. My new one I bought in 1999, almost 10 years ago, and I still have it.
Now I'm thinking of buying a used motorcycle.
Falcon
they are a loss no matter how you look at them.
What both you and the GP left out is higher fuel prices can make it worthwhile. GP used $3/gallon however last summer gas got up to $4.50. What happens when it gets up to $10 a gallon? And that's if the Volt cost $35,000.
Financially what may be better would be to keep the vehicle you already own, use a bike, and invest in businesses involved in plug-in hybrids as well as alternative energy.
A top of the line motorcycle like the FJR1300 that has bags to carry stuff and a back seat area to hold a large backpack to hold the laptop+other items is 48Mpg typical and cost less than $13,000 with insurance being lower.
I've been thinking about getting a motorcycle and saddlebags. I don't know, is insurance for motorcycles lower than for cars? I imagine the cost depends on whether helmets are worn or not.
Falcon
I might actually have a lot of months where the car isn't running on gas.
If you sold cars for a living you should know gasoline does not keep well in a tank. And engines should be run at least a little every few days or couple of weeks.
Falcon
compliment
Not me. Carding people, even older looking people, is nothing more than a defensive measure. I once worked in a convenience store and if someone came in to buy alcohol or tobacco I carded if they didn't look at least 40. Law enforcement would have Police Explorers, young people contemplating careers in law enforcement, go in and try to buy age restricted merchandise. Anyone caught selling to under aged people were arrested and charged with a crime. Some people wouldn't card just the person buying but everyone in the party. I've been to places that will not sell to parents who have children with them. I think all this is BS.
Falcon
This is why most businesses have work hours between 8-6; why most businesses require business-casual dress; why most businesses value time-to-market and minimized budget over technical quality; and so-forth.
Citation needed.
I know or knew nobody who has hours like that, except my sister but she runs her own business. When I last worked regularly, I'm on disability, I and almost every other employee of the company started working at or before 7am and most days work was done at 3:30pm.
Falcon
Unions are better for students and teachers.
Teacher unions are better for bad teachers but not for students. Try to fire a bad teacher in California or New York public schools, it's nearly impossible.
Falcon
Get out under that fucking rock you live under and watch as this bill is attempted to being rammed down the throat of the American public.
What bill? Did Obama submit one? Or are you talking about all the bills floating around congress Obama had nothing to do with? And you are wrong, Bush not Obama imprisoned people denying them habeas corpus and pushed the unitary executive theory wherein the president holds almost all power. Actually those still at Gitmo, whom Bush put there, Obama wants to put on trial. If that your definition of tyranny then you need to learn what it really is. May I suggest OneLook.
Our Government already has! In the some odd 30+ years of my life, I've never experienced just how bad it has gotten. The unemployment, crime, corruption, incompetence, hubris: It's just nuts!
It has been much worse in my life tyme than it is now. In the 1970s we had staqflation, high inflation and unemployment. We had lines blocks long just to get gas, the lines in the southeast after Hurricane Katrina offered a taste of it. Crime was higher then too, crime rates have been falling since the 1990s.
Good thing our politicians have premo health care. I suspect they're going to need it after the angry mobs get done with them.
Especially if politicians try to socialize medicine.
Falcon
Governments get their authority from the governed. If enough don't like a policy, the representative and the policy is changed.
Yea, that worked real well for the French during the Reign of Terror from 5 September 1793 to 27 July 1794 as well as for Czar Nicholas II who's family was murdered on 17 July 1918. Fact is is almost every political revolution is bloody.
Falcon
they really do need you more than you need them.
In a good economy yes, but not the way the economy is now. People without jobs, especially if they're long term unemployed, will take a pay cut just to find work.
Falcon
This 40 hour work week minimum seems to be mostly an American tradition (misfortune?) too. Britain's typically have 35 or 37.5 hour weeks, often including lunch. I expect other European countries have similar or even shorter work weeks.
The US has longer work hours than some countries in Europe but shorter than others. As for the length of work hours in the US, as early as 1842 Boston ship carpenters had 8 hour work days. By the 1870s 8 hour days were a central demand of unionizers, other labor organizers, anarchists, and socialists in the US.
We should also not discount the effect long commutes have on our performance, either.
I think that's a big problem in the US, for 2 reasons. In some places people can't afford to live closer to where they work and there's no employment available in their fields near where they live. Next many zoning boards don't allow much mixed zoning. I recall about 10 years ago a neighbor near where I lived had an indoor pool they used to teach swimming. They were required to have a license and when it came up for renewal all the neighbors in the area were invited to a hearing to decide whether a renewal would be granted. Where I live now if I wanted to start a business using my home as an office, to be legal, I'd have to go through a city or county board to get a license. Even as a photographer/designer or web developer. As a condition of being granted one I may have to pay to make sure it was handicapped accessible as well.
Falcon
Maybe the solution is to elect men who aren't corrupt?
Like that has worked out so far. HAHA! I seriously doubt most people who go into politics or government start out corrupt. "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely" isn't just a saying. Even the USA's Founding Fathers couldn't avoid it. Alexander Hamilton, who is believed to be one of the writers of the Federalist Papers advocating a weak federal government with most political power resting in the states, grabbed for more power at the federal level as president.
Or better, actually weed out corruption! What a novel idea...
Like that hasn't been tried before. Ah but it was tried, after J Edgar Hoover and Richard Nixon abused their power. The power of both the FBI and presidency was cut down because of the scandals arising from abuse. Bush Jr then grabbed for more power after 911 though. I didn't hear many Republicans or conservatives complaining about that. But they're out now complaining, and making up stuff, about health care reform and Obama.
Only rarely does a politician come out in opposition to what his or her party proposes or pushes for on substantial issues.
Falcon
You can copy the data, and modify the copy, but the signature won't check out, making the exercise pointless.
Passport readers do accept the signature as legitimate.
Falcon
The article doesn't mention whether the edited card created would pass a digital signature check - if such a check has been incorporated, it would almost certainly not pass inspection by a terminal that checked signatures.
It does pass a legitimate passport signature check. What it does not pass is "a system for detecting a fake passport chip like this", the system is only used in 5 countries though.
Personally I don't care either way, except as it discredits the notion IDs can be made unbreakable.
I would support a scheme without this database
Not only do I not support a national ID, but I actively oppose any such thing, with or without it being tied to a database.
Falcon
I suspect that he modified the cloned data -- but could not, of course, produce a digital signature for the modified data
According to a "Wired" article "he showed was how he could take a writeable RFID chip, load it with data (name, birthdate, photo, etc) then hash that data and make a self-signed certificate using the same parameters of a legitimate passport signature so that passport readers would accept it as legitimate."
That article goes more into what was done and what they were not able to do. Such as not being able to fool a way to detect fake passport chips. However the system is only used in 5 out of 45 countries.
Falcon
The power to require ID, "papers please", and to track citizens to start with.
Except in a very few specific cases, the government does not have that power, nor would I suggest we give the government that power. But seeing as how we've been talking about the justice system, I'm not really sure what you're getting at.
Except that we were talking about national ID not the justice system. Look at the browser title. And what I am getting at is that government will abuse any power it can, no matter who is in power.
Falcon
such as electronic voting, passports with chips etc -- is that geeks are often against it. Geeks, who generally love technology and gadgetry, are saying no.
Actually I think it's logical geeks are the one who often oppose stuff like this. They are the ones who would know the problems with them and how they can be abused. Unless of course they get caught up in the euphoria of new technology.
Falcon
van Beek says he didn't change data on a passport chip.
That's true, however he also said "I'm making another chip which works like the original chip, and that's the chip I'm reprogramming."
He changed another chip.
Falcon
So van Beek denies that he can actually change the data
The Wired article said he did reprogram the new chip after it was made like the original chip.
Blame the government for the policy
I do, and I don't want the US to follow Britain's lead. I eagerly await the REAL ID Act being overturned.
Falcon
"Wired" magazine has a better article.
Falcon