At least PBS has quality content still, honestly. Nova has gone down hill a bit in presentation, but that's a generational culture thing. As a Gen-Xer, personally despise anything with hype, melodrama, and electric guitar riffs in a DOCUMENTARY! Frontline OTOH, still golden; probably the best non-biased documentary series out there.
I never saw a PBS documentary before I got Netflix, I can see why no Australian TV station would buy one and it's not just because we've got better alternatives from the BBC and other British and Australian production companies. The PBS documentaries were terrible in quality. Ignoring the fact they start off with electronic panhandling, the presentation was lacking and the narration was lacklustre.
And projectors! How else can I connect to those projectors if not VGA? And their life-span is probably decades. I think the new projectors actually have alternatives to VGA optional, but usually this is HDMI, which I predict is going away sooner than VGA. (HDMI being replaced by DP)
HDMI is going to be around for a long time as it's become the defacto standard for TV's supplanting RCA (the red, yellow and white plugs). TV's these days are still coming with RCA ports as well even though most devices are HDMI so they'll be the main port on TV's for quite some time. I dont think display port is going to gain any traction (it's been trying for years and nothing) simply because most devices support HDMI, it'll pretty much become like DVI, used mostly by computers to connect to high res monitors and playing second fiddle to VGA (HDMI in display port's case).
Also can we stop using DP as an acronym for display port as it also stands for "divided portions" and "double penetration".
It is also worth noting that British crime data is fiddled with at every level all the way up to Scotland Yard. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new...
Also murders in England and Whales are only counted after arrest, conviction, retrial and been jailed. This is unlike literally every other country where "Dude he was murdered and we do not know the killer" is the rule to count as a murder.
That is pretty much the difference between a death and a homicide (and an application of the innocent until proven guilty principle). There are many other classifications of death such as accidental or deliberate manslaughter (murder/homicide == intent to kill, manslaughter == unintentional death). Its not the fault of the British that other countries get it wrong.
So in effect, they are suppressing behaviour that is completely legal.
No they aren't. Its a case of "their house, their rules".
You aren't forced to use Facebook, there are plenty of other option for selling guns that are not Facebook. They are legally permitted to choose what products they permit to be sold in their marketplace, it's no different to a Christian bookshop refusing to sell Playboy. They're not suppressing your rights, they're saying that they dont want to sell guns. If you dont like their policies, you are 100% within your rights to not use their services.
The UK price of the $699 tested 256GB SSD model is unbelievably expensive in comparson - it's over 800 pounds ($1200) which is sheer madness and will kill its UK sales. Add the fact that it's very hard to find it with Windows 10 Pro pre-installed (there's another 100 pounds - $150) and this will see near-zero UK business sales.
Asus has never been a big business seller. They sell to people like me who are mobile gamers or professionals who want a lightweight and powerful laptop that is extremely reliable and dont mind shelling out a few extra coins for it. Asus is pretty much the king here, especially if we consider the price point.
I've been waiting for Asus to update their Zenbook range with Intel's latest CPU because my old Asus U46SV is getting a bit long in the tooth. It's a 4 year old laptop (2011 model) that has seen 4 continents and the biggest problem I have with it is that it wont run new games and the case has become unglued around the hinge (I could fix it with some model cement, I just cant be arsed as it's just cosmetic). I just need a Zenbook with a Nvidia graphics chip and I'm set. I dont mind about the price being more than a Dell or HP because I know Asus will go the distance and forget about Mac's, I've seen them struggle in the tropical heat when my Asus had no issues.
From what I see, this Zenbook is missing USB-C, but the Macbooks are being built with this feature. This may or may not matter to most people. At least to me, a lack of USB-C makes a laptop un-buyable in 2016.
Considering that almost all of my USB devices are still USB 2 or 3, not having to buy all my peripherals again is considered a feature, not a drawback.
In fact the USB-C port is the only thing I dont like about my new Nexus 5x. It doesn't offer anything new and is incompatible with my old cables.
Apple put their money on style, market appeal and, in a word, "shiny".
Woz is much. But shiny, he is not.
With Woz, we'd get actual great Apple products, they just wont appeal to Apple's core audience who dont care about reliability, modability and usability and just want to be told they're awesome for buying Apple.
Lamborghini - too bad they didn't copy the Yugo or Ford Pinto. Now they are on the dustheap of history
Rolls Royce - A sad story. Gone out of business because they just didn't realize that the only metric in cars is cheap.
Ironically these two companies are the exact opposite of the point you're trying to make.
Both Lambo and Rolls have been bounced around between owners for decades, bought up by starry eyed companies, sold when they realised they weren't making much money from halo cars. In the 90's Lambo changed hands 3 times and wasn't really profitable until Audi/Vokswagen got a hold of them and mass produced the Gallardo (the single model has accounted for half of Lamborghini's sales through out it's entire history). Lambo is doing well by producing lackluster cars these days (the Hurracan is not as exciting as a Gallardo was, I have driven both, its not hard to find a place where they let you track supercars for about US$4-00 a pop).
Rolls is the same, Vickers sold it to Volkswagen who sold it to BMW who have diluted the brand. The story is similar with most supercar brands, I pretty much consider it the death knell when a supercar brand introduces an SUV to cater to the mass market.
If you want to see real incest, look up a chart of who owns who in the automotive world.
The deal closed less than 24 hours ago. We're going to look at all options in order to improve the experience. And, no, that doesn't mean we're going to roll out a crappy new interface without listening to user feedback. We want to make sure we get it right.
Hi Whiplash,
First off, thank you for starting out by engaging the community but as you undoubtedly know we're a cynical, suspicious, curmudgeony lot...
Well let me put it this way, many of us would like some kind of idea as to what Bizx's long term plans for/. and SourceForge are. Presumably a sum of money exchanged hands for these sites and brands and it is not unreasonable for Bizx to expect to make that money back by some means.
The promises of listening to the community and doing right are all good and well... but as I said we're a cynical and curmudgeony lot so we're quick to go into "we've heard all this before" mode. Also that Bizx is a marketing company, knowing their motivations and desired outcomes would help allay many of our suspicions.
BTW, FWIW I hope for the best (experience sadly, has taught me to expect the worst).
Also feature request: may we have an option to have an automatic translation of US customary measurements into Metric.
They're talking about putting in an engine w/ 300-400 hp, which doesn't sound like a huge number, but the original car weighed 2700 lb. If they're close to that weight with a decent transmission it will be damn fast.
I can see a few problems though. The original frame/engine mount only had to deal w/ 130 hp, so probably some modifications needed there. The weight distribution was 35/65 front/rear. With a presumably heavier engine/transmission and anything else needed back there that ratio could get problematic.
For those of us not stuck on an ancient measurement system, that's 225-300 KW at a weight of 1225 KG.
For comparison, I have an 14 yr old Nissan Silvia S15, it has 180 KW and weights in at under 1250 KG. Mated to a 6sp manual transmission (because automatics suck) it is damn fast with around 6s 0-100 and 13s quarter miles. However where the S15 comes into it's own is in the corners. The combination of low weight, rear wheel drive and good weight distribution means that it can turn much faster than heavier, more powerful cars. This thing has run rings around a Holden Commodore V8 (a 4dr Chevy Camaro) on a track despite having 100 KW less (yep, 14 years ago Nissan built a turbo 4 capable of 180KW, today GM makes 6.2L V8 with 280 KW, to add insult to injury, the SR20DET started production in 1989, the S15 was pretty much at the end of it's production life).
However it will never be that light because of all the crap they have to include like TPMS. Even a 2L FWD hatchback has trouble coming in at under 1400 KG,
One problem with this analysis is that it doesn't take into account *successful* conspiracies.
You're confusing conspiracy (a covert plan) with conspiracy theory (the irrational belief that some secret plan is arrayed against you).
When a conspiracy it real, it isn't a conspiracy theory. But you can be forgiven as the article and summary dont make this distinction. Given that the article is talking about things that are easily disprovable like "vaccine autism", "moon landing hoax" and "climate change denial" it is referring to conspiracy theories rather than actual conspiracies (which would be more like the way the tobacco companies sought to suppress evidence that tobacco caused cancer).
Also most real conspiracies eventually come out. This is what is meant by the "free" part in "information wants to be free"
more importantly, since when is advertising considered press or a protected form of speech and does this mean I have to allow [insert activist nutjob's opinion] to be plastered all over my computer.
Beyond that, where does it say that even protected speech must be listened to. All that free speech says is that the government cannot take away your right to hold an opinion (specially about politics). It does not mean that I have to listen to some nut jobs opinion. He can voice his nonsense but I can respond by telling him he's a wanker, should shut the fuck up and get out of my establishment.
Of course, nobody in the soviet bloc or even china has ever experienced communism. They experienced totalitarianism
Communism + Reality = Totalitarianism
Extremist philosophy + power == totalitarianism.
It doesn't matter if it is a socialist or capitalist philosophy, both when taken to the extreme and given a modicum of power will result in a totalitarian regime.
And you'd be able to participate in the Commonwealth Games.
But that aside, what would have happened is the same thing that happened with a lot of other Commonwealth nations, you would have voted for your independence much like Australia did in 1901.
Also WWII would have been over much, much faster. One of the things that kept Britain from mounting an offensive in 40 and 41 was the lack of escort ships which the US refused to trade with Britain. Hence Churchill can be quoted as saying "you can always count on the Americans to do the right thing, after they've tried everything else".
The funny thing about guns in cities is that they are only loosely related.
Chicago. Last year. Same laws for the entire city. Some zip codes had NO shootings, and others had around 100. What is the difference? Poverty.
No surprise, but zip codes with no shootings have money. Zip codes with dozens of shootings have poverty. So, instead of focusing on the guns, why not focus on the REAL problem?
Does anybody think that lax gun laws would actually create shootings in areas with money? Chicago already HAS strict gun laws, and that does not seem to help much.
And before anybody says "The criminals get their guns from cities with looser laws," compare Chicago with Dallas. About the same size, but Dallas has more lax laws, and less homicide.
The problem with this is, you'd need to admit that gun culture in the US is horribly broken and that is something the gun nuts and RWNJ's are unwilling to even allow the question to be raised, let alone admit to it.
Shootings will continue until the US changes it's attitudes on guns. Until they're treated as a potential hazard which can be handled safely under the right conditions (much the same as a car) the US will continue having gun problems. When attitudes become more sensible, gun control will be a natural consequence rather than a precedent. However the US has a long history of trying to put the cart before the horse.
Have you ever considered that you might be a bigot?
No, the religious right is not trying to force their religion on anyone. The Left has been trying to take away religious freedom, but that is a different thing.
Have you considered that you may be the bigot here.
Especially since you think that "left" is an insult and you seem to be opposing it at every opportunity with fanatic fervour.
It's now virtually impossible to travel through any public space in a major metropolitan area without being captured. They're everywhere, the image quality is better, and the ability to store images for longer has increased.
I'm supposed to think this is a good thing?? I would rather double my insurance costs. People still think automated image recognition is a conspiracy theory. People freely give up every detail of their lives for the privilege of staying connected to their friends on social media. People pay hundreds of dollars for phones that track their location at every moment. What the actual fuck is wrong with 80% of society? I can't believe this massive divergence in values. Am I literally the only person left who cares about his privacy?
The thing is, almost all the security cameras are private. Image recognition has been available to private businesses for some time and gets used in the pub/club industries. Walk into a casino in Vegas, you're getting taped from 3 different angles and having your face compared against a private database shared between casino owners.
There is another reason why bank heists are down. The dollar value you get is pitiful. If you are extremely lucky you can get 20-30 thousand in cash from an American bank. Cash over 10,0000 grand is routinely(daily) transferred to more secure premises.
Banks like people aren't carring cash on hand as a result of debit and credit cards. I used at most $200 in cash last year. Usually at fairs and festivals. Everything else goes on my Amex card that has fraud protection
Ironically, your credit card is now more likely to result in stolen money than cash. Now a thief doesn't even need to stick a knife in your face to steal from you, they dont even need to handle your card these days as they can skim your card wirelessly.
I know your response will be "but I have fraud protection"... I have to point out two things:
1) Who is paying for it? Banks are profitable businesses, where is that money coming from?
2) "The bank has my back" is one of the silliest and most naive statements I've ever heard.
Ultimately it is you who is paying for it, via higher prices caused by merchant fees and a bank will only do what they are legally forced to do for you. If the government didn't force them to guarantee your security, they'd leave you high and dry with either money missing or worse, money owing.
So, an empty chamber and storing above 5 feet high is about as child proof as you need for a semi.
Spoken like someone who doesn't have kids.
Kids love to climb. They'll drag chairs around if there's nothing they can use as a makeshift climbing apparatus.
The only way to childproof a gun is to keep it unloaded (unloaded, not just unchambered) and locked in a gun safe. Then you keep the keys/combination out of sight and reach.
My retired father used to have a modest recycling operation that ran next to his trailer home. He would help a neighbor dismantle old vending machines to avoid expensive county dump fees, cleaning up and providing free wood for a retired neighbor to build chicken coops for sale and separating the metals to take to the recycling center. That's how he spent his free time and made $50 a month at the recycling center. Someone complained to the county and the county wasn't thrilled that someone was circumventing those expensive dump fees. So he was ordered to cease operations or face prosecution for running an illegal business from home.
And there are some Americans who'd call Australia socialist.
This kind of cottage industry is very much permitted in Australia, even celebrated culturally. I know a fair few people who run business out of their homes, everyone from hairdressers to cabinet makers. There are a few extra rules about working in a residential area, mostly around noise and mess, but if you keep your yard in order and dont run power tools/trucks at all times of the night you're generally free to go about your business.
Star Wars is an awful franchise. Star Trek is far superior -- better characters, better plots, more imaginative, better writing, etc... Star Wars should cease.
Star Wars is a space opera. Star Trek is more real sci-fi. Both have their purposes, and can co-exist. why do we have to choose?
Star Trek is also space opera. They just had some better writers. Not that Star Wars was all that bad, but it was the fact they had some decent actors in there (Alec Guiness, Harrison Ford) and a very compelling story.
Star Trek also had more episodes (about 800 ish from memory for all 5 series). so it's easy to get 10 episodes of pure gold from that than 7 movies. That being said, ST had no problems falling back on a bit of deus ex machina to solve problems. Things like "repolarising the deflector shields" (you think for all their vaunted brilliance, Starfleet engineers would put the batteries in the right way the first time) or "ejecting the warp core". This got worse during the Berman/Braga era.
Star Trek, especially TNG and later series were more about exploring the human experience and aspects of humanity were often the focus of episodes (racism, violence, compassion) more often than not, reflected in alien species. Data's character was largely a means to examine human emotions. Star Wars was more about telling a grandiose story (much like B5 did).
But I digress, I agree completely both can co-exist and a lot of people like both (myself included).
Slashdot Mirror
At least PBS has quality content still, honestly. Nova has gone down hill a bit in presentation, but that's a generational culture thing. As a Gen-Xer, personally despise anything with hype, melodrama, and electric guitar riffs in a DOCUMENTARY! Frontline OTOH, still golden; probably the best non-biased documentary series out there.
I never saw a PBS documentary before I got Netflix, I can see why no Australian TV station would buy one and it's not just because we've got better alternatives from the BBC and other British and Australian production companies. The PBS documentaries were terrible in quality. Ignoring the fact they start off with electronic panhandling, the presentation was lacking and the narration was lacklustre.
I still see it on monitors and TVs.
And projectors! How else can I connect to those projectors if not VGA? And their life-span is probably decades. I think the new projectors actually have alternatives to VGA optional, but usually this is HDMI, which I predict is going away sooner than VGA. (HDMI being replaced by DP)
HDMI is going to be around for a long time as it's become the defacto standard for TV's supplanting RCA (the red, yellow and white plugs). TV's these days are still coming with RCA ports as well even though most devices are HDMI so they'll be the main port on TV's for quite some time. I dont think display port is going to gain any traction (it's been trying for years and nothing) simply because most devices support HDMI, it'll pretty much become like DVI, used mostly by computers to connect to high res monitors and playing second fiddle to VGA (HDMI in display port's case).
Also can we stop using DP as an acronym for display port as it also stands for "divided portions" and "double penetration".
It is also worth noting that British crime data is fiddled with at every level all the way up to Scotland Yard. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new...
Also murders in England and Whales are only counted after arrest, conviction, retrial and been jailed. This is unlike literally every other country where "Dude he was murdered and we do not know the killer" is the rule to count as a murder.
That is pretty much the difference between a death and a homicide (and an application of the innocent until proven guilty principle). There are many other classifications of death such as accidental or deliberate manslaughter (murder/homicide == intent to kill, manslaughter == unintentional death). Its not the fault of the British that other countries get it wrong.
So in effect, they are suppressing behaviour that is completely legal.
No they aren't. Its a case of "their house, their rules".
You aren't forced to use Facebook, there are plenty of other option for selling guns that are not Facebook. They are legally permitted to choose what products they permit to be sold in their marketplace, it's no different to a Christian bookshop refusing to sell Playboy. They're not suppressing your rights, they're saying that they dont want to sell guns. If you dont like their policies, you are 100% within your rights to not use their services.
The UK price of the $699 tested 256GB SSD model is unbelievably expensive in comparson - it's over 800 pounds ($1200) which is sheer madness and will kill its UK sales. Add the fact that it's very hard to find it with Windows 10 Pro pre-installed (there's another 100 pounds - $150) and this will see near-zero UK business sales.
Asus has never been a big business seller. They sell to people like me who are mobile gamers or professionals who want a lightweight and powerful laptop that is extremely reliable and dont mind shelling out a few extra coins for it. Asus is pretty much the king here, especially if we consider the price point. I've been waiting for Asus to update their Zenbook range with Intel's latest CPU because my old Asus U46SV is getting a bit long in the tooth. It's a 4 year old laptop (2011 model) that has seen 4 continents and the biggest problem I have with it is that it wont run new games and the case has become unglued around the hinge (I could fix it with some model cement, I just cant be arsed as it's just cosmetic). I just need a Zenbook with a Nvidia graphics chip and I'm set. I dont mind about the price being more than a Dell or HP because I know Asus will go the distance and forget about Mac's, I've seen them struggle in the tropical heat when my Asus had no issues.
From what I see, this Zenbook is missing USB-C, but the Macbooks are being built with this feature. This may or may not matter to most people. At least to me, a lack of USB-C makes a laptop un-buyable in 2016.
Considering that almost all of my USB devices are still USB 2 or 3, not having to buy all my peripherals again is considered a feature, not a drawback.
In fact the USB-C port is the only thing I dont like about my new Nexus 5x. It doesn't offer anything new and is incompatible with my old cables.
Nope. Woz is a tech geek. Jobs was a salesman.
Apple put their money on style, market appeal and, in a word, "shiny".
Woz is much. But shiny, he is not.
With Woz, we'd get actual great Apple products, they just wont appeal to Apple's core audience who dont care about reliability, modability and usability and just want to be told they're awesome for buying Apple.
Lamborghini - too bad they didn't copy the Yugo or Ford Pinto. Now they are on the dustheap of history
Rolls Royce - A sad story. Gone out of business because they just didn't realize that the only metric in cars is cheap.
Ironically these two companies are the exact opposite of the point you're trying to make.
Both Lambo and Rolls have been bounced around between owners for decades, bought up by starry eyed companies, sold when they realised they weren't making much money from halo cars. In the 90's Lambo changed hands 3 times and wasn't really profitable until Audi/Vokswagen got a hold of them and mass produced the Gallardo (the single model has accounted for half of Lamborghini's sales through out it's entire history). Lambo is doing well by producing lackluster cars these days (the Hurracan is not as exciting as a Gallardo was, I have driven both, its not hard to find a place where they let you track supercars for about US$4-00 a pop).
Rolls is the same, Vickers sold it to Volkswagen who sold it to BMW who have diluted the brand. The story is similar with most supercar brands, I pretty much consider it the death knell when a supercar brand introduces an SUV to cater to the mass market.
If you want to see real incest, look up a chart of who owns who in the automotive world.
The deal closed less than 24 hours ago. We're going to look at all options in order to improve the experience. And, no, that doesn't mean we're going to roll out a crappy new interface without listening to user feedback. We want to make sure we get it right.
Hi Whiplash,
/. and SourceForge are. Presumably a sum of money exchanged hands for these sites and brands and it is not unreasonable for Bizx to expect to make that money back by some means.
First off, thank you for starting out by engaging the community but as you undoubtedly know we're a cynical, suspicious, curmudgeony lot...
Well let me put it this way, many of us would like some kind of idea as to what Bizx's long term plans for
The promises of listening to the community and doing right are all good and well... but as I said we're a cynical and curmudgeony lot so we're quick to go into "we've heard all this before" mode. Also that Bizx is a marketing company, knowing their motivations and desired outcomes would help allay many of our suspicions.
BTW, FWIW I hope for the best (experience sadly, has taught me to expect the worst). Also feature request: may we have an option to have an automatic translation of US customary measurements into Metric.
XServe died because it was useless and nobody was buying.
Incorrect. Xserve was a great product line and it made money, but it just wasn't big enough for Apple to keep around.
-jcr
So basically you've just said he's right and no-one was buying it.
However much you try to sugarcoat it in fanboy logic.
They're talking about putting in an engine w/ 300-400 hp, which doesn't sound like a huge number, but the original car weighed 2700 lb. If they're close to that weight with a decent transmission it will be damn fast.
I can see a few problems though. The original frame/engine mount only had to deal w/ 130 hp, so probably some modifications needed there. The weight distribution was 35/65 front/rear. With a presumably heavier engine/transmission and anything else needed back there that ratio could get problematic.
For those of us not stuck on an ancient measurement system, that's 225-300 KW at a weight of 1225 KG.
For comparison, I have an 14 yr old Nissan Silvia S15, it has 180 KW and weights in at under 1250 KG. Mated to a 6sp manual transmission (because automatics suck) it is damn fast with around 6s 0-100 and 13s quarter miles. However where the S15 comes into it's own is in the corners. The combination of low weight, rear wheel drive and good weight distribution means that it can turn much faster than heavier, more powerful cars. This thing has run rings around a Holden Commodore V8 (a 4dr Chevy Camaro) on a track despite having 100 KW less (yep, 14 years ago Nissan built a turbo 4 capable of 180KW, today GM makes 6.2L V8 with 280 KW, to add insult to injury, the SR20DET started production in 1989, the S15 was pretty much at the end of it's production life).
However it will never be that light because of all the crap they have to include like TPMS. Even a 2L FWD hatchback has trouble coming in at under 1400 KG,
You're confusing conspiracy (a covert plan) with conspiracy theory (the irrational belief that some secret plan is arrayed against you). When a conspiracy it real, it isn't a conspiracy theory. But you can be forgiven as the article and summary dont make this distinction. Given that the article is talking about things that are easily disprovable like "vaccine autism", "moon landing hoax" and "climate change denial" it is referring to conspiracy theories rather than actual conspiracies (which would be more like the way the tobacco companies sought to suppress evidence that tobacco caused cancer). Also most real conspiracies eventually come out. This is what is meant by the "free" part in "information wants to be free"
more importantly, since when is advertising considered press or a protected form of speech and does this mean I have to allow [insert activist nutjob's opinion] to be plastered all over my computer.
Beyond that, where does it say that even protected speech must be listened to. All that free speech says is that the government cannot take away your right to hold an opinion (specially about politics). It does not mean that I have to listen to some nut jobs opinion. He can voice his nonsense but I can respond by telling him he's a wanker, should shut the fuck up and get out of my establishment.
False analogy. You visit the web page, and not the web page visits you.
In Soviet Russia, web page does visit you.
Of course, nobody in the soviet bloc or even china has ever experienced communism. They experienced totalitarianism
Communism + Reality = Totalitarianism
Extremist philosophy + power == totalitarianism.
It doesn't matter if it is a socialist or capitalist philosophy, both when taken to the extreme and given a modicum of power will result in a totalitarian regime.
Without the guns, we'd still be the Colonies.
And you'd be able to participate in the Commonwealth Games.
But that aside, what would have happened is the same thing that happened with a lot of other Commonwealth nations, you would have voted for your independence much like Australia did in 1901.
Also WWII would have been over much, much faster. One of the things that kept Britain from mounting an offensive in 40 and 41 was the lack of escort ships which the US refused to trade with Britain. Hence Churchill can be quoted as saying "you can always count on the Americans to do the right thing, after they've tried everything else".
The funny thing about guns in cities is that they are only loosely related.
Chicago. Last year. Same laws for the entire city. Some zip codes had NO shootings, and others had around 100. What is the difference? Poverty.
No surprise, but zip codes with no shootings have money. Zip codes with dozens of shootings have poverty. So, instead of focusing on the guns, why not focus on the REAL problem?
Does anybody think that lax gun laws would actually create shootings in areas with money? Chicago already HAS strict gun laws, and that does not seem to help much.
And before anybody says "The criminals get their guns from cities with looser laws," compare Chicago with Dallas. About the same size, but Dallas has more lax laws, and less homicide.
The problem with this is, you'd need to admit that gun culture in the US is horribly broken and that is something the gun nuts and RWNJ's are unwilling to even allow the question to be raised, let alone admit to it.
Shootings will continue until the US changes it's attitudes on guns. Until they're treated as a potential hazard which can be handled safely under the right conditions (much the same as a car) the US will continue having gun problems. When attitudes become more sensible, gun control will be a natural consequence rather than a precedent. However the US has a long history of trying to put the cart before the horse.
Have you ever considered that you might be a bigot?
No, the religious right is not trying to force their religion on anyone. The Left has been trying to take away religious freedom, but that is a different thing.
Have you considered that you may be the bigot here.
Especially since you think that "left" is an insult and you seem to be opposing it at every opportunity with fanatic fervour.
Also your sig is ironic.
It's now virtually impossible to travel through any public space in a major metropolitan area without being captured. They're everywhere, the image quality is better, and the ability to store images for longer has increased.
I'm supposed to think this is a good thing?? I would rather double my insurance costs. People still think automated image recognition is a conspiracy theory. People freely give up every detail of their lives for the privilege of staying connected to their friends on social media. People pay hundreds of dollars for phones that track their location at every moment. What the actual fuck is wrong with 80% of society? I can't believe this massive divergence in values. Am I literally the only person left who cares about his privacy?
The thing is, almost all the security cameras are private. Image recognition has been available to private businesses for some time and gets used in the pub/club industries. Walk into a casino in Vegas, you're getting taped from 3 different angles and having your face compared against a private database shared between casino owners.
There is another reason why bank heists are down. The dollar value you get is pitiful. If you are extremely lucky you can get 20-30 thousand in cash from an American bank. Cash over 10,0000 grand is routinely(daily) transferred to more secure premises.
Banks like people aren't carring cash on hand as a result of debit and credit cards. I used at most $200 in cash last year. Usually at fairs and festivals. Everything else goes on my Amex card that has fraud protection
Ironically, your credit card is now more likely to result in stolen money than cash. Now a thief doesn't even need to stick a knife in your face to steal from you, they dont even need to handle your card these days as they can skim your card wirelessly.
I know your response will be "but I have fraud protection"... I have to point out two things:
1) Who is paying for it? Banks are profitable businesses, where is that money coming from?
2) "The bank has my back" is one of the silliest and most naive statements I've ever heard.
Ultimately it is you who is paying for it, via higher prices caused by merchant fees and a bank will only do what they are legally forced to do for you. If the government didn't force them to guarantee your security, they'd leave you high and dry with either money missing or worse, money owing.
Someone makes something death-proof, they just go and make a bigger death.
Or something like that.
They'll make a car Kilodeath proof... then someone comes up with Megadeth.
So, an empty chamber and storing above 5 feet high is about as child proof as you need for a semi.
Spoken like someone who doesn't have kids.
Kids love to climb. They'll drag chairs around if there's nothing they can use as a makeshift climbing apparatus.
The only way to childproof a gun is to keep it unloaded (unloaded, not just unchambered) and locked in a gun safe. Then you keep the keys/combination out of sight and reach.
I 'av ner problem typing zee french on zis keyberd layoot!
Speak for yourself, I have always found the "snooty" key too far to reach, considering the amount I need that accent when typing French.
My retired father used to have a modest recycling operation that ran next to his trailer home. He would help a neighbor dismantle old vending machines to avoid expensive county dump fees, cleaning up and providing free wood for a retired neighbor to build chicken coops for sale and separating the metals to take to the recycling center. That's how he spent his free time and made $50 a month at the recycling center. Someone complained to the county and the county wasn't thrilled that someone was circumventing those expensive dump fees. So he was ordered to cease operations or face prosecution for running an illegal business from home.
And there are some Americans who'd call Australia socialist.
This kind of cottage industry is very much permitted in Australia, even celebrated culturally. I know a fair few people who run business out of their homes, everyone from hairdressers to cabinet makers. There are a few extra rules about working in a residential area, mostly around noise and mess, but if you keep your yard in order and dont run power tools/trucks at all times of the night you're generally free to go about your business.
Star Wars is an awful franchise. Star Trek is far superior -- better characters, better plots, more imaginative, better writing, etc... Star Wars should cease.
Star Wars is a space opera. Star Trek is more real sci-fi. Both have their purposes, and can co-exist. why do we have to choose?
Star Trek is also space opera. They just had some better writers. Not that Star Wars was all that bad, but it was the fact they had some decent actors in there (Alec Guiness, Harrison Ford) and a very compelling story.
Star Trek also had more episodes (about 800 ish from memory for all 5 series). so it's easy to get 10 episodes of pure gold from that than 7 movies. That being said, ST had no problems falling back on a bit of deus ex machina to solve problems. Things like "repolarising the deflector shields" (you think for all their vaunted brilliance, Starfleet engineers would put the batteries in the right way the first time) or "ejecting the warp core". This got worse during the Berman/Braga era.
Star Trek, especially TNG and later series were more about exploring the human experience and aspects of humanity were often the focus of episodes (racism, violence, compassion) more often than not, reflected in alien species. Data's character was largely a means to examine human emotions. Star Wars was more about telling a grandiose story (much like B5 did).
But I digress, I agree completely both can co-exist and a lot of people like both (myself included).