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Comment A solution to the problem (Score 1) 297

People who refuse to vaccinate (either themselves or their children) are also not allowed:

Airbags, ABS, and Seatbelts in their cars
Smoke detectors or fire extinguishers in their homes
Insurance of any kind (that's socialism, right?)
Chlorinated water from their water service
Flame retardant furniture
Any other safety device mandated by government ever

The problem will take care of itself rather quickly when all of the anti-vaxxers have died off.

Comment A few counterpoints (Score 1) 200

First of all, jogging is fucking stupid. Second of all, who is going to be a bigger burden on the health system, an obese diabetic with hyptertension, heart disease, and a myriad of other chronic health problems, or a stupid jogger who gets lightheaded when they stand up and just keels over dead one day?

Do your civic duty and become a stupid jogger

Sincerely,

A stupid runner/cyclist whose most recent cardiac calcium score showed no significant calcification of anything despite spending 20+ hours/week in the zone.

Communications

If a Financial Institution Mishandles My Data, What Recourse Do I Have? 224

grahamsaa writes: My sister recently consolidated her student loans, and the bank e-mailed the paperwork, which included her name, address, date of birth, social security number, drivers license number and bank account information to the wrong e-mail address. The address (a gmail address) is associated with a real person (not her), so someone now has all of her personal details. My sister claims that she read her e-mail address to the bank representative over the phone twice, but that it was transcribed incorrectly.

The real issue is that the bank was willing to use unencrypted e-mail at all to send sensitive information, and I told my sister that at a minimum the bank should cover electronic credit monitoring for her for a minimum of a year, but I feel like that alone probably isn't enough. While my sister should have insisted that they use a more secure means of sending this information, I think it should be the bank's responsibility to ensure that this kind of thing doesn't happen. What kind of recourse does a person in my sister's position have? Did the bank violate any laws (she lives in Connecticut in the United States)? Is there a standard penalty for this kind of thing? I'm not a lawyer, but I know some of you are. What are her options in this case?
Data Storage

Former NATO Nuclear Bunker Now an 'Airless' Unmanned Data Center 148

An anonymous reader writes A German company has converted a 1960s nuclear bunker 100 miles from network hub Frankfurt into a state-of-the-art underground data center with very few operators and very little oxygen. IT Vision Technology (ITVT) CEO Jochen Klipfel says: 'We developed a solution that reduces the oxygen content in the air, so that even matches go outIt took us two years'. ITVT have the European Air Force among its customers, so security is an even higher priority than in the average DC build; the refurbished bunker has walls 11 feet thick and the central complex is buried twenty feet under the earth.

Comment It's all about ratings (Score 1) 397

It's purely about ratings. That's it. It's not politics, climate change, incompetence. It is willful stretching of the weather models to generate more severe predictions, and hence more ratings. And, I would not be surprised to learn that makers of emergency supplies provided incentives to weather forecasters to predict more extreme weather.

The simplest explanation tends to be the correct one. The simplest explanation for everything is money.

Comment Re:Spying on the world is unconstitutional in the (Score 1) 282

Indeed, the Bill of Rights is an enumeration of basic human rights that are to be protected for everyone, not just US Citizens. This nuance seems to be lost in the halls of government, though.

If you are on American soil, regardless of your Nation of Citizenship, you are entitled to have your basic human rights protected.

Government

Verizon, Cable Lobby Oppose Spec-Bump For Broadband Definition 255

WheezyJoe writes Responding to the FCC's proposal to raise the definition of broadband from 4Mbps downstream and 1Mbps upstream to 25Mbps down and 3Mbps up, the lobby group known as the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) wrote in an FCC filing Thursday that 25Mbps/3Mbps isn't necessary for ordinary people. The lobby alleges that hypothetical use cases offered for showing the need for 25Mbps/3Mbps "dramatically exaggerate the amount of bandwidth needed by the typical broadband user", referring to parties in favor of the increase like Netflix and Public Knowledge. Verizon, for its part, is also lobbying against a faster broadband definition. Much of its territory is still stuck on DSL which is far less capable of 25Mbps/3Mbps speeds than cable technology.

The FCC presently defines broadband as 4Mbps down and 1Mbps up, a definition that hasn't changed since 2010. By comparison, people in Sweden can pay about $40 a month for 100/100 mbps, choosing between more than a dozen competing providers. The FCC is under mandate to determine whether broadband is being deployed to Americans in a reasonable and timely way, and the commission must take action to accelerate deployment if the answer is negative. Raising the definition's speeds provides more impetus to take actions that promote competition and remove barriers to investment, such as a potential move to preempt state laws that restrict municipal broadband projects.

Comment Re:Bullshit (Score -1, Troll) 153

"I work in a cosmology department."

That's pretty cleverly-worded there. You could be a sophomore year co-op student, or a janitor for all we know. You've made an appeal to authority (fallacy) on an incredibly vague claim of authority, and then supported your argument with Internet comics.

Weak-ass..

Comment I have an even better idea (Score 4, Insightful) 304

Let's just enforce existing laws and get dangerous drivers off the road. THERE IS NO RIGHT TO DRIVE. If you are a dangerous driver you can and should be taken off the road.

A coworker of mine was hit a couple of weeks ago by a woman who, after fleeing the scene, was discovered to have had caused FOUR injury accidents in the trailing 12 months, had been dropped from her insurance two months prior, and who, despite all of that, had not had her license suspended, and was not even ticketed for leaving the scene of the accident she caused with my coworker.

It's our complete unwillingness to hold people accountable for their actions that has created the need for EVAN M0AR government regulation to "protect us from ourselves."

People who are incapable of driving shouldn't be driving. Period.

Businesses

Smartphones, Tablets and EBay Send SkyMall To Chapter 11 65

alphadogg writes SkyMall, the quirky airline catalog, looks as though it may be grounded before long. Parent company Xhibit has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and seeks to sell its assets. In an SEC filing, Xhibit explains that it has fallen victim to an "intensely competitive" direct marketing retail industry that now includes the likes of eBay and Amazon.com. Smartphones and tablets are largely to blame for SkyMall's downfall, according to the SEC filing. "Historically, the SkyMall catalog was the sole in-flight option for potential purchasers of products to review while traveling. With the increased use of electronic devices on planes, fewer people browsed the SkyMall in-flight catalog."

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