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Comment Re:Metric (Score 1) 74

Convert that 5.56mm or 7.62 mm to inches and you will find two very common caliber rounds.

Yep. It's not all that hard to label a round with SI AND Imperial units both.

Do note that 5.56mm is NOT equal to .223, nor is 7.62mm equal to .308. It's all about supply chains - you're less likely to get a million rounds that don't fit your guns if you give each of the many (for instance) .30 caliber rounds a different label (.30-06, .30-40, .308, to give a few examples).

It should also be noted that the 5.56/7.62 labels were the original labels, not the .223/.308.

And try to ignore that bullet diameters are measured differently in Europe than in the USA (between the lands and between the grooves, respectively, as I recall), so 7.62mm (measured the way they do in Europe) is larger than 7,62mm (measured the way they do in the USA). Luckily, 7.62mm NATO isn't actually 7.62mm the way either of them is measured....

Comment Re: We already have these (Score 1) 112

What's interesting is, today we'd like to give these jobs to really expensive machines instead of people -- right at the moment when jobs for people are disappearing.

Hmm, once upon a time, the word "computer" referred to a person. Now we give the same job to a (comparatively) expensive machine.

And of course, all those blacksmiths were put out of work by various pieces of heavy (and expensive) machine in various factories...

And what about the farm-hands replaced by tractors and combines? Or switchboard operators replaced by automatic units?

In other words, can you say "Luddite"? Sure you can....

Comment Re:Alamo Broadband's complaint (Score 0, Troll) 318

Basically the rule says to not use equipment to arbitrarily slow speeds down for competitive reasons.

The rule says they can't charge more for faster access, among other things. Which is intended to prevent making "fast lanes".

It would have the interesting side-effect of making a sizable chunk of existing consumer plans unlawful, since most, if not all, ISP's offer several tiers of access - pay $50, get 50mb/s (or whatever), pay $100, get 75mb/s, pay gobs more, get 1Tb/s, that sort of thing.

As an example, AT&T offers five different rates for internet access, ranging from 3mb/s to 75 mb/s. So, four of those rate plans just became unlawful under the rule. Which I imagine would force AT&T to drop the four higher speed plans, since they can't provide all the speeds at every location....

While I doubt seriously the FCC has a problem with that, the fact that it's in the rules that they picked to enforce means it's available as lawsuit material just whenever someone decides to pull out lawyers against an ISP....

Comment Re:Metric (Score 4, Funny) 74

The biggest and most powerful military force in the world says imperial units are just fine.

Which, presumably, is why we use 5.56mm rounds in our rifles, 9mm rounds in our pistols, 7.62mm in our machineguns, 60mm, 81mm & 107mm mortar rounds, 105mm, 155mm & 203mm artillery, 120mm tank guns, 25mm IFV guns, and an assortment of artillery rockets in various SI calibers, right?

That said, if a mile was good enough for Big Julie, it's good enough for me. And multiplying by 1.6 isn't really all that stressful to those of us bright enough to handle decimal points....

Comment Re:Ban women from using taxi apps (Score 1) 49

I confess to not reading TFA, though I did read TFS. I fail to see how the cabbie can get LESS information than specified in TFS - he needs to know your name in order to identify his passenger, cellphone number is displayed whenever someone calls me (and I'm not even a cabdriver), and home address is (more likely than not) where you're being picked up OR where you're being dropped off....

Comment Re:This is the cost incurred for outsourcing defen (Score 5, Interesting) 337

The US imposing military will is hardly the same as countries FORCED BY INTERNATIONAL TREATY TO NOT REARM expecting defense from its allies..

Remember that little thing with all the jewish people going to camp? well germany's not been allowed to have a military build up.

Umm, Germany has the eighth largest military in the world. Or were you unaware of that?

Japan has the ninth, in case you were interested.

Aside from the Big Three (US, Russia, China), Germany is behind India, UK, France, and South Korea. Which puts them about where they were in 1939 (what, you didn't know that the Wehrmacht in 1939 was smaller than the French Army, much less the combined Anglo-French forces they faced in 1940?).

Comment Let me guess... (Score 4, Insightful) 97

So, everyone expects to be perfectly anonymous at a Customs Checkpoint, eh?

Really? Going to a place where the guards on both sides of the border check your identity routinely, and people expect anonymity as a matter of course?

Could we perhaps find something more important to be outraged about? Like LSU's baseball team embarrassing themselves last night? Or the morning coffee being cold? Or the birds waking my wife up early (therefore grumpy)?

Comment Re: It is time to get up one way or the other (Score 1) 1089

The average working-poor person I mentioned in my other comment spends 16 hours a day at work, commute-time included. Most of them have two jobs. In welfare-to-work states they often can't get foodstamps if they have less than two jobs. And the work is in the rich neighbourhoods where they can't afford to live so 4 hour commutes are not unusual.

I'm curious...just where is this "average working-poor person" living that this is true? I've never lived anywhere where a four hour commute is normal for anyone...

Comment Re:Recycle and bioplastics (Score 1) 98

I have a stack of long florescent bulbs in an unused corner of my garage, old bulbs from the fixture over my worktable, collecting there since I moved to this house in the early '90s. I never did figure out where to take them or how to safely dispose of them. I guess it'll be my descendants' problem.

You are doing the same disposal strategy I am.

Ditto. I've got that same stack of long fluorescents in my garage. And there they'll stay, I expect....

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