I have to agree. I remember cable back in the mid 70s, and it had commercials then. The only difference was you got more channels from places far away that you couldn't pick up over the air. It let my grandmother in rural Arkansas pick up TBS, WGN, WWOR, and similar channels with advertising including local ads for places we couldn't even use.
I don't ever remember cable having no commercials except for a few select channels like C-SPAN, PBS, community access, etc.
You make some valid points, but taxing/not taxing employer provided health insurance doesn't seem particularly relevant. Its not mandatory for employees to take it. Its just a perk for those who want it. Similar to a gym at work, or employees who offer tuition reimbursement. The latter having not been taxes and now it is.
You know that once we put a human on Mars, then the goalpost will move. And should we blindly strive to achieve "humanity's greatest achievement"? The pyramids are amazing and all, but did take 20+ years with thousands of slaves.
"Putting men and women on mars and getting them back safely is a good start."
The surface gravity on Mars is only about 38% of the surface gravity on Earth. Anyone who spends an extended time on Mars will never be able to return to Earth and survive. So, the end game would be at best to create an off-chute of homo sapiens.
No one is stopping anyone from going on their own dime. Now if you want to use billions of taxpayer dollars for a mission everyone says is dangerous and highly likely to fail with no likely ROI in the foreseeable future other than fame and glory, its only seems fair to consult those who are funding this endeavor.
"The chances of survival of the human species are almost 100% outside of a two sided nuclear war or a extinction level asteroid impact. "
Even if there were a settlement on Mars, do you think if an "extinction level asteroid impact" killed everyone on Earth, the people on Mars could be self sustaining forever?
Also, if there were "a two sided nuclear war" that took out all life on Earth it would have to be between the US and Russia. And if that happened and either side had an outpost on Mars, wouldn't you think its likely the other side would have created a nuke they could send to Mars to take that installation out?
"Humanity need to move on and discover outside the planet to survive in the long run."
This is true on a billion year time scale. The sun will eventually kill all life on Earth. Does that mean we need to do anything about it now? A level 5 hurricane will hit every metropolitan area on the Atlantic before we need to be on Mars, but practically no one seems to think we need to worry about that.
"We are too afraid of them, we as a population doesn't want to go further into space"
We aren't afraid to explore Mars. We just don't have any reason to that makes financial sense beyond what we are doing now. With that logic you could argue we are afraid to do anything we aren't doing like...
Explore the center of the Earth Explore Pluto Landing a manned mission on the Sun Creating habitats on the bottom of the ocean Building mobile cities Creating nuclear powered PlayStations
"Oldest human fossils are found in Asia not Africa"
You should alert Google, National Geographic, and the rest of the scientific world so they can be as smart as you! (https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1GGRV_enUS751US751&ei=6sojXJ3fIuHH_QbwkoywBg&q=oldest+human+fossil+location&oq=oldest+human+fossil+location)
Yeah. Its so simple. You made my point. What is simple and obvious to us today was not before it was discovered.
Like I was saying, 200 years ago people could have been communicating worldwide via radio waves and the top scientists in the world would have had no idea it was happening or even though to see if they could detect such activity.
public schools hospitals public roads military public roads
socialism: a political and economic theory of social organization that advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole
All the items above are paid for by the masses via tax and managed/regulated heavily by the government for the greater good. If you don't like socialism, shut down the schools and military and sell the roads to private entities to be made into toll roads.
""Being arrested for drugs"... "People voted for those laws"
Nearly all drug laws were created by politicians. I don't believe any were put to a vote by the people. Do you think the masses voted for cocaine to be legal at one point?
The US literally has laws against growing and possessing some plants. We aren't as free as you think. And some laws that restrict our freedoms are not 100 years old. In TN, it is illegal to share your Netflix password. In IN its illegal to catch a fish with your bare hand. There are about 20,000 laws just governing the use and ownership of guns. We can't even tally a count of how many Federal laws there are in the US (http://www.kowal.com/?q=How-Many-Federal-Laws-Are-There%3F)
I agree that with what we know today, "the laws of physics simply do not provide any way that we could build faster-than-light space ships".
But what if our current knowledge prevents us from even observing FLT activity. Imagine just 200 years ago. It could have been argued that Europe could not communicate with the US any faster than it takes a person/pigeon/entity to travel that distance. At best, something could be extremely "loud" and shout across the ocean to relay information. The amount of energy/decibels to facilitate that would be both impractical and likely destructive to anything nearby. Introduce the telegraph and suddenly information could be communicated at light speed with relative easy and small power requirements. At that point in time though, communications like that would have been crazy science fiction and regarded as fantasy.
Today, to reach FTL travel it requires an infinate energy among with other engineering issues. I don't know if there is a similar solution to FTL travel/communications, but I can't 100% rule out that someone won't be able to figure out some "trick" in the next million years.
"Marriott got hacked due to the incompetence of their CIO and IT department."
Is it honestly possible to 100% safely lock down a network with PCs in 6500+ publicly accessible locations worldwide where 100k+ hourly employees need constant access?
Its like blaming them for allowing a guest to bring in 7 suitcases loaded with bombs. A determined hacker should be able to break into any network that large and likely compromise some of their data.
"So unless they setup as an LLC, register a business name, and register for a DOT number that's on the vehicle, how can they write that off as a business expense."
You don't have to be a LLC with a registered business to be self employed and write off expenses.
"Let see. I think companies should be fined a minimum of $500 per user record lost. Unless its a true 0-day"
That sounds great until how you define a record. Does a receipt you don't take at McDonald's for a shake that ends up on the floor count as a lost record? And how do you define and qualify a "true 0-day"? And why $500?
If you did have fines like this, you would be the one paying for the increased security because Marriott or whoever would have to spend millions and maybe billions to ensure this never happened and that money has to come from somewhere.
Slashdot Mirror
"How the hell does advertising enhance programming?"
It allows it to exist in many areas. Local weathermen need to get paid somehow.
I have to agree. I remember cable back in the mid 70s, and it had commercials then. The only difference was you got more channels from places far away that you couldn't pick up over the air. It let my grandmother in rural Arkansas pick up TBS, WGN, WWOR, and similar channels with advertising including local ads for places we couldn't even use.
I don't ever remember cable having no commercials except for a few select channels like C-SPAN, PBS, community access, etc.
"I found the web unrecognizable and unusable without adblock."
I guess I'm a badass who can successfully USE the web without blocking ads. Maybe if you practice, you can get there too one day.
I can't believe a credit card company would have high card fees. At least that sounds like an EU problem. They never do that kind of stuff in the US.
If I park my car in a public space, would that be legally "abandoned property"?
You make some valid points, but taxing/not taxing employer provided health insurance doesn't seem particularly relevant. Its not mandatory for employees to take it. Its just a perk for those who want it. Similar to a gym at work, or employees who offer tuition reimbursement. The latter having not been taxes and now it is.
"Better yet, tax the health insurance "benefit" just like any other pay."
They do. Its called a Cadillac plan.
Skinner doesn't know what he's talking about. Just ask Superintendent Chalmers. Who ever heard of calling hamburgers steamed hams?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
"what would be humanity's greatest achievement"
You know that once we put a human on Mars, then the goalpost will move. And should we blindly strive to achieve "humanity's greatest achievement"? The pyramids are amazing and all, but did take 20+ years with thousands of slaves.
"Putting men and women on mars and getting them back safely is a good start."
The surface gravity on Mars is only about 38% of the surface gravity on Earth. Anyone who spends an extended time on Mars will never be able to return to Earth and survive. So, the end game would be at best to create an off-chute of homo sapiens.
No one is stopping anyone from going on their own dime. Now if you want to use billions of taxpayer dollars for a mission everyone says is dangerous and highly likely to fail with no likely ROI in the foreseeable future other than fame and glory, its only seems fair to consult those who are funding this endeavor.
"The chances of survival of the human species are almost 100% outside of a two sided nuclear war or a extinction level asteroid impact. "
Even if there were a settlement on Mars, do you think if an "extinction level asteroid impact" killed everyone on Earth, the people on Mars could be self sustaining forever?
Also, if there were "a two sided nuclear war" that took out all life on Earth it would have to be between the US and Russia. And if that happened and either side had an outpost on Mars, wouldn't you think its likely the other side would have created a nuke they could send to Mars to take that installation out?
"Humanity need to move on and discover outside the planet to survive in the long run."
This is true on a billion year time scale. The sun will eventually kill all life on Earth. Does that mean we need to do anything about it now?
A level 5 hurricane will hit every metropolitan area on the Atlantic before we need to be on Mars, but practically no one seems to think we need to worry about that.
"We are too afraid of them, we as a population doesn't want to go further into space"
We aren't afraid to explore Mars. We just don't have any reason to that makes financial sense beyond what we are doing now. With that logic you could argue we are afraid to do anything we aren't doing like...
Explore the center of the Earth
Explore Pluto
Landing a manned mission on the Sun
Creating habitats on the bottom of the ocean
Building mobile cities
Creating nuclear powered PlayStations
"Oldest human fossils are found in Asia not Africa"
You should alert Google, National Geographic, and the rest of the scientific world so they can be as smart as you! (https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1GGRV_enUS751US751&ei=6sojXJ3fIuHH_QbwkoywBg&q=oldest+human+fossil+location&oq=oldest+human+fossil+location)
Yeah. Its so simple. You made my point. What is simple and obvious to us today was not before it was discovered.
Like I was saying, 200 years ago people could have been communicating worldwide via radio waves and the top scientists in the world would have had no idea it was happening or even though to see if they could detect such activity.
You also forgot...
public schools
hospitals
public roads
military
public roads
socialism: a political and economic theory of social organization that advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole
All the items above are paid for by the masses via tax and managed/regulated heavily by the government for the greater good. If you don't like socialism, shut down the schools and military and sell the roads to private entities to be made into toll roads.
"The people with most of the money don't want to pay people what they're worth to do the work."
They pay what they're worth. They don't want to pay what YOU THINK they're worth.
""Being arrested for drugs" ... "People voted for those laws"
Nearly all drug laws were created by politicians. I don't believe any were put to a vote by the people. Do you think the masses voted for cocaine to be legal at one point?
The US literally has laws against growing and possessing some plants. We aren't as free as you think. And some laws that restrict our freedoms are not 100 years old. In TN, it is illegal to share your Netflix password. In IN its illegal to catch a fish with your bare hand. There are about 20,000 laws just governing the use and ownership of guns. We can't even tally a count of how many Federal laws there are in the US (http://www.kowal.com/?q=How-Many-Federal-Laws-Are-There%3F)
I agree that with what we know today, "the laws of physics simply do not provide any way that we could build faster-than-light space ships".
But what if our current knowledge prevents us from even observing FLT activity. Imagine just 200 years ago. It could have been argued that Europe could not communicate with the US any faster than it takes a person/pigeon/entity to travel that distance. At best, something could be extremely "loud" and shout across the ocean to relay information. The amount of energy/decibels to facilitate that would be both impractical and likely destructive to anything nearby. Introduce the telegraph and suddenly information could be communicated at light speed with relative easy and small power requirements. At that point in time though, communications like that would have been crazy science fiction and regarded as fantasy.
Today, to reach FTL travel it requires an infinate energy among with other engineering issues. I don't know if there is a similar solution to FTL travel/communications, but I can't 100% rule out that someone won't be able to figure out some "trick" in the next million years.
"Marriott got hacked due to the incompetence of their CIO and IT department."
Is it honestly possible to 100% safely lock down a network with PCs in 6500+ publicly accessible locations worldwide where 100k+ hourly employees need constant access?
Its like blaming them for allowing a guest to bring in 7 suitcases loaded with bombs. A determined hacker should be able to break into any network that large and likely compromise some of their data.
"So unless they setup as an LLC, register a business name, and register for a DOT number that's on the vehicle, how can they write that off as a business expense."
You don't have to be a LLC with a registered business to be self employed and write off expenses.
"Wealthy people would pay $7k for a single dinner."
Not the ones who drive a Leaf. There probably aren't 10000 people in the world who would pay $7k for a dinner. Note I said "would" and not "could".
If you get points for staying in their hotels, they have to track that somehow.
"Let see. I think companies should be fined a minimum of $500 per user record lost. Unless its a true 0-day"
That sounds great until how you define a record. Does a receipt you don't take at McDonald's for a shake that ends up on the floor count as a lost record? And how do you define and qualify a "true 0-day"? And why $500?
If you did have fines like this, you would be the one paying for the increased security because Marriott or whoever would have to spend millions and maybe billions to ensure this never happened and that money has to come from somewhere.