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Comment Re:Doublethink (Score 1) 686

I don't know if your thesis is right, because I'm betting that a substantial number of people who took the survey don't even know that Snowden is in Russia. That is my problem with surveys like this. I would love to know why informed people support or don't support him - I'm not so interested in what ignorant people think.

Comment Re:Doublethink (Score 3, Informative) 686

I was referring to this study. The largest source of news for Millennials is Facebook. That might seem like "the news" to someone without epic stupidity flowing through their veins, but some of us are so full of epic stupidity that we still think of Facebook as a place to get biased, self-reinforcing information from your little circle of "friends".

Comment Re:$100 billion for 150 miles? (Score 1) 189

I think you underestimate the strength of those tunnels, but that is kind of a tangent.

I agree that it would be easy to disrupt the economics that underpin society. Look at all of those unguarded electrical poles. Most highways could be completely clogged with just 3 or 4 coordinated drivers simply parking and walking away. The fact that we have so few people actively engaged in such behavior tells you just how rare the motivation to carry out such things is - or how ineffective it is to simply piss people off rather than to terrorize them.

Comment Re:$100 billion for 150 miles? (Score 1) 189

Right, so one of those was an on-board bombing which killed a whopping 2 people. That is exactly my point: you could kill 2 people without smuggling something on board. You brought the TGV into the discussion, and I'm not very familiar with the system. I'm sure a determined terrorist could find a way to kill more than 2 people, but I could just be ignorant. Certainly it would not be hard in the US with typical commuter rail, Amtrak, or subways.

Comment Re:$100 billion for 150 miles? (Score 3, Insightful) 189

Trains don't have security because it would be trivial to attack them without being on them. Short of acquiring a fighter jet or missile, this is not the case with aircraft. Why bother blowing yourself up on a train when you can do whatever you want to it from anywhere along it's permanent track? Dumbasses demonstrate this tactic all the time by stopping on grade crossings.

As for the NYC airports, only Laguardia is isolated from rail. JFK is linked to Jamaica, which is served by both subway and LIRR. Newark is served by Amtrak and NJ Transit along the NE Corridor line.

Comment Re:I don't understand (Score 1) 67

But the backhoe operator is paid a lot more than the shovel operator. Because automation boosted his productivity by 50-100x.

Yes, and he displaced x number of workers in the process. On the other hand, his increased productivity allows projects which previously were cost prohibitive, so he creates some more good jobs at the expense of those very low-end jobs.

I don't think drones can boost package delivery productivity enough to even pay for the drone itself -- unless the people delivering the packages are artificially overpaid by 5-10x already.

I think you are probably right with today's technology, but this area has been progressing very quickly. Package delivery is not something that really requires a human, so it is ripe for automation. When we get to the point where regular people are being chauffeured around by self-driving cars, it is a bit insane to imagine a man hand-delivering letters to fixed locations every day.

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