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Comments · 249

  1. Re:So lets sell off the unprofitable areas. on Comcast Offers To Shed 3.9 Million Subscribers To Ease Cable Deal · · Score: 1

    SHHHH!!! Don't tell the city dwellers how great it is!

  2. Re:Everyone is a potential criminal in L.A. on L.A. Police: All Cars In L.A. Are Under Investigation · · Score: 1

    So, make the Abnegation the leaders and you're all set. Except then the psychos in the Erudite will envy that control and will start a war to gain it. Oh, and Marcus will be acting as an Abnegation while he's really a self serving psychopath who learned that to hold power he could act as a selfless person.

    Funny - I though Divergent was poorly written drivel (around a somewhat entertaining story), but as a reaction to your post it seems pretty intelligent.

  3. Re:A lot of hunters are asshats on Drone-Assisted Hunting To Be Illegal In Alaska · · Score: 1

    3 to 4 weeks - not months. And it will be on the ballot this fall to outlaw it. It's a trickier vote than you'd think too. On the surface, baiting seems like cheating to me as a bow and firearm hunter, but I have not hunted bear. I know that there is a population problem in Maine and there are public safety concerns as the move into more suburban and urban areas. I also know from my years in the woods (hunting, camping, hiking, etc) that they are very hard to spot. I've only seen a handful of bears in the woods and only one that I might have been able to get a shot off on if I'd been hunting for it. State Biologists are currently supporting the baited bear hunt as a way to control the population.

    Back to the topic though, I certainly don't support drones for hunting. At least not for animals like moose. Here in Maine I've never known anyone who's had a moose tag and come back without one. Maybe in Alaska it's different, but they don't appear to be all that hard to hunt (though I've never had a moose tag myself).

  4. Re:When you have a bad driver ... on Is the Porsche Carrera GT Too Dangerous? · · Score: 1

    My physics class in high school taught me that the rolling coefficient of friction is higher than sliding, thus stopping you faster. 23 years of winter driving in Maine has taught me that ABS (or pumping the pedal if you don't have ABS) will stop you in a shorter distance.

  5. Re:When you have a bad driver ... on Is the Porsche Carrera GT Too Dangerous? · · Score: 1

    Wrong -
    American liberalism: You can do whatever you want so long as it's the popular thing.
    American libertarianism: You can do whatever you want.

    And if you're right about what everyone else's liberalism is, maybe I'm a liberal. I haven't seen evidence of that though.

  6. Re:Going, going, not quite gone on How Blockbuster Could Have Owned Netflix · · Score: 1

    "Can't yet move?" There are an awful lot of people out there living in areas without high speed internet by choice who still like to watch a movie now and then. Not everybody wants an urban or suburban lifestyle.

  7. Very close to my take on it on Movie Review: Ender's Game · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I thoroughly enjoyed the movie version of Ender's Game, but agree wholeheartedly with the reviewer's take on what succeeded and what failed. In fact, I probably enjoyed it so much because I expected much less. The glaring failures were all necessary to make a successful movie, but they still managed to indicate the most important philosophical points. Yes, Graff was harder than in the book (and Anderson's softness was used to make up for this), Bean was introduced too early and wasn't adversarial at first like he should have been, and what were they thinking with the romantic overtones with Petra... But we know why Ender did what he did and how it affected him, and that didn't change from the book.

    My one sadness about this movie is that it didn't inspire my son to read the book (he started it last year, read the first paragraph of Graff's pre-chapter conversation, and decided he didn't want to read it). But at least my copy is now on loan to one of his friends who was inspired to read it.

  8. Re:Right to Choose on Indiana Nurses Fired After Refusing Flu Shots On Religious Grounds · · Score: 1

    Devil's Advocate time here. I've long since stopped caring about the abortion debate, but how does that make it different from the abortion debate? The whole abortion debate is over whether abortion DOES put "people in their care at risk". Is the fetus a person, in other words.

  9. Re:Arbitrary Labels on Dr. Richard Dawkins On Education, 'Innocence of Muslims,' and Rep. Paul Broun · · Score: 2

    To some, sports is religion.

  10. Re:Target audience on Commercial Amphibious Vehicle Is Part ATV Part Jet Ski · · Score: 1

    Have you met any rednecks? They may not make much money, but they will blow all their credit on something like this. And their kids credit, neighbor's credit, and the cash from that liquor store they knocked over.

  11. Re:Here we go! on Peter Jackson Announces Third Hobbit Movie · · Score: 1

    Funny - I really enjoy the beginning of the Silmarillion, but as many times as I've read about half way through the book I just cannot finish it. It holds my attention very well to a point (and it's been many years, so I couldn't even tell you what that point is anymore), but then gets rather long-winded. I want to read the rest because I keep hearing about all of these great stories that I haven't gotten to yet, but I just haven't been able to get there. Maybe next time I start at the mid-point.

  12. Re:The most used ten chords on Study Finds New Pop Music Does All Sound the Same · · Score: 1

    I also dislike a lot of "modern metal", but I don't really care about understanding the words. Which is very fortunate since I very much enjoy folk metal and don't understand more than a few words of Finnish or Swedish (words I happened to pick up from listening to folk metal). What I don't like about a lot of the modern bands is the fact that they focus more on the aggression than the music. Yeah - having a good angry rhythm is great, but if the "melody" consists of one or two notes played fast with no variation, it gets awfully boring. On the other hand, if you've got a guitarist throwing more notes than should be humanly possible out there, but has no ear for melody it's just as bad.

    I'll second your list of Tyr, Subway to Sally, and Skycad, and I'll also add in Finntroll and Korpiklaani as a couple bands I consider "required listening" for folk metal.

  13. Re:Scary on Sweden Moving Towards Cashless Economy · · Score: 1

    Mr. Smith was hanging out on Acacia Avenue closer to 30 years ago. I knew his neighbor Charlotte. She lived across the way at #22, but that was in 1982.

  14. Re:twitter, I like you on Techrights Recommends An Apple Boycott · · Score: 1

    Considering that the link you provided has plenty of responses saying the same thing, I'm pretty sure you know what he meant. Just in case, here it is in plain english. The article you linked to showed what Android devices looked like before the iPhone and iPad came out. History tells us that the iPhone came out before the first Android phone. Therefore there was no Android device that looked different prior to the first iPhone like the article claimed. In fact, the picture showed a series of Windows-based devices in the "before iPhone" pictures. It is therefore a bad article and shouldn't be used as a reference whether you're wrong or right.

    Personally, I abandoned the whole smart-phone thing as a bad addiction, but I won't buy an iOS-based device for my house. My computer is too valuable to install iTunes on. That and they're over-priced.

  15. Re:And you choose the NFL as your example? on NFL: National Football Luddites? · · Score: 1

    As a Red Sox fan who doesn't live or die by how the team is doing, I probably watch more Sox-Yankees match-ups than the rest of the baseball season combined. I don't think those games are too slow-paced. Yeah - they take forever, but it's the Sox and the Yankees! I can watch that game for 6 hours with a good group of guys and be very happy about it!

    Of course, it's still better to watch how the Patriots or the Bruins are doing on any given game day.

  16. Re:Yeah... that is generous on US Senator Proposes Bill To Eliminate Overtime For IT Workers · · Score: 1

    There are people working and claiming to not be able to keep themselves housed or fed. Ask them to bum a cigarette or borrow their smart phone to look something up on the internet though... Most of them have money to spend on those things.

  17. Re:Lovecraft AND Metallica? on The Uncanny Valley Explained · · Score: 1

    Made much less remarkable by the fact that "The Thing That Should Not Be" by Metallica is, in fact, based on Lovecraft.

  18. Re:Steve Albini Wrote About This A While Back on RIAA Math: Sell 1 Million Albums, Still Owe $500k · · Score: 1

    Yeah - I enjoyed yours too. Great stuff! Thanks for listening.

  19. Re:Steve Albini Wrote About This A While Back on RIAA Math: Sell 1 Million Albums, Still Owe $500k · · Score: 1

    Just wrote down the URL so I could check out your music after work. I've also gone it alone and recently put my first album up at bandcamp also. Haven't checked the style of your music yet, so it could be a completely different style and of no interest to you, but I figured I'd put it out there in case you (or anyone else reading) might want to check it out anyway.

  20. Re:More cycling will also benefit you anyway on UN Backs Action Against Colonel Gaddafi · · Score: 1

    The benefit of living in a rural area with a 45 minute commute is worth more than switching jobs or living in a city to me. You want to talk quality of life? I can enjoy acres of the outdoors without excess noise and light pollution without leaving my yard. My kids can go out and play without having to go to a park and be closely supervised. Etc. etc...

    Yeah, it'd be nice to work closer and bike, but there aren't a lot of decent jobs in a rural area for a software developer like myself. I telecommute a couple days a week and that makes up for the commute. Like I said before, I would bike on occasion, but the lack of a shower here prevents that.

    And yeah - not all cyclists act like I described, but certainly enough do that I wouldn't say they're any better than drivers. Back to the original point, remember that not all drivers are impolite either.

  21. Re:Legality? on AT&T Cracking Down On Unofficial iPhone Tethering · · Score: 1

    Actually, that contract has expired and you're living month to month. They can raise your rates at any time now even if the contract lacked the BS about being able to amend terms at any time.

  22. Re:More cycling will also benefit you anyway on UN Backs Action Against Colonel Gaddafi · · Score: 1

    I agree on most of that. Just one issue. Do you really think that cyclists are "more polite" than drivers? Really? I don't see it around here*.

    I see cyclists thinking that they own the road, not paying attention at intersections, yelling at pedestrians as they bike down the sidewalk (illegal), and having the attitude that they can ignore the cars because it's the car driver's responsibility to look out for them. Yes - it's my responsibility to look out for you, but when you skip out into the middle of the intersection 5 feet in front of my car I can't stop or swerve quick enough to miss you.

    That said, I've often wished I could bike to work in the summer. It's 32.5 miles each way on not-so-great-roads, so if I left myself enough time (say 2+ hours each way) I COULD overcome the pain in the rear to do it. However, I've got no shower at the office. My coworkers would not appreciate it. Oh yeah, and my wife works about 15 miles in the other direction, so moving would gain us nothing.

    *here being New England.

  23. Re:No surprise on Medical Researcher Rediscovers Integration · · Score: 1

    I love it. Someone claiming the superiority of his home schooling over public schooling, but then an AC points out the flaws in his discussion. Both of those flaws, by the way, were taught to me in my public school education.

    I'm not saying that home schooling won't work, but if you're going to pick on public schools for poor teaching methods, at least make sure that your teaching methods and facts are correct.

  24. Re:because it's a distraction and dangerous? on Could Anti-Texting Laws Make Roads More Dangerous? · · Score: 1

    Yeah - that'll work.

    In so many areas there are few enough people going in a given direction at a given time that's it's far too expensive to contemplate putting in public transportation. I would say that in a given day there are no more than 5 people traveling from the town I live in to the town I work in during the AM hours and back in the PM hours. In fact, I'd be surprised if it was more than 1 or 2. Most people in my town travel a different direction to a different city for work.

  25. Re:because it's a distraction and dangerous? on Could Anti-Texting Laws Make Roads More Dangerous? · · Score: 1

    I work in a craphole city that I don't want to live in. I play in the country - miles and miles away. I would either have to live in a dirty crowded area and give up my hobbies, or give up my job that I've been at for 10 years and love. Just for the sake of giving up my vehicle.