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Comment Aren't they called Currents? (Score 1) 61

Generally when talking about water, the definition of a wave specifies it is on the surface:

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/wave"a disturbance on the surface of a liquid body, as the sea or a lake, in the form of a moving ridge or swell."

If you are using another definition of the word wave (such as that used by physics to refer to light, sound, etc.) when talking about water, you really should specify what you mean.

Comment Can't even keep his own lies straight (Score 5, Insightful) 525

He thinks the UN can run a conspiracy? HA HA HA HA HA. These are the people that can't get anything done, who put major human right criminals on the human rights committee.

If the President tried to set up something like that, Congress would refuse to fund it, Russia would Veto it, and the French would be against it just because the US was for it.

But even assuming it was possible for the UN to run a conspiracy, his own statements contradict him. Errors do not equal "Conspiracies", they equal incompetence. Conspiracies would involve intentionally falsified data - such as his personal statement that the UN is running a conspiracy.

Comment Re:What we need is,,, (Score 1) 190

They don't really use SSN as a secret identifier, they use it as a NON-SECRET identifier. That is, its used like a username, not a password.

The honest trust is, that even if it was stopped being used like a username, it is still very easy to find out. The first 5 numbers are assigned based on birth date and location. 90% of the time you can predict it from stuff found on Facebook. The last four are supposed to be random. Which means from a set of just 10,000 facebook pages, I should easily be able to randomly guess multiple people's social security number.

Comment What we need is,,, (Score 2) 190

The right to get a "Victim Social Security # Change".

Specifically, we need the right to - at our option, not the government - go into the social security office and say "my identity was stolen, take my picture, DNA and finger prints, give me a picture ID social security card".

Once you have a VSS#, no one is allowed to open an account under that VSS# unless they do so in person, so the account opener can see the photo and/or finger prints match what the SSA have on file.

Obviously, this must be at the citizen's option, not the governments.

Such a system would put a hard wall up protecting victims of identity theft from further exploitation.

Comment The problem is not the Police - it's the lawyers. (Score 3, Insightful) 509

The laws on the book in the US are already good. The problem is the prosecutors and the judges do not enforce the law. They expect you to sue - at great cost - to ensure your rights are obeyed, all the while the judges ignore the laws.

The solution is simple:

Pass the following laws: 1) Prosecutors can not prosecute or even investigate accusations of legal crimes by police that they may in the future have to work with. Instead, each state should set up an "Internal Affairs Office of Prosecution", whose sole job is to prosecute police and similar law enforcement officers. They will be judged on how many convictions they get, and only the best will be allowed to become managers.

2) After rule #1 has been in place for at least 5 years, require every one appointed to be a Judge to have previously successfully prosecuted at least one police officer.

This system attempts to counter the natural prejudice prosecutors and judges have in favor of the police while at the same time creates a strong motivation within the government to prosecute their own.

Comment Failng to fire (Score 0) 249

If a guy has 18 separate complaints against him, then:

1) Not only should he be fired - if only to save money on investigations, but ....

2) the idiots that did not fire him after the 10th investigation should also be fired for incompetence.

P.S. I am of course assuming that all 18 complaints weren't from a single incident or from a single person, or members of a single drug gang. But that should not be that hard to detect.

Medicine

The Medical Bill Mystery 532

HughPickens.com writes: Elisabeth Rosenthal writes in the NY Times that she has spent the past six months trying to figure out a medical bill for $225 that includes "Test codes: 105, 127, 164, to name a few. CPT codes: 87481, 87491, 87798 and others" and she really doesn't want to pay it until she understands what it's for. "At first, I left messages on the lab's billing office voice mail asking for an explanation. A few months ago, when someone finally called back, she said she could not tell me what the codes were for because that would violate patient privacy. After I pointed out that I was the patient in question, she said, politely: 'I'm sorry, this is what I'm told, and I don't want to lose my job.'" Bills variously use CPT, HCPCS or ICD-9 codes. Some have abbreviations and scientific terms that you need a medical dictionary or a graduate degree to comprehend. Some have no information at all. A Seattle resident received a $45,000 hospital bill with the explanation "miscellaneous."

So what's the problem? "Medical bills and explanation of benefits are undecipherable and incomprehensible even for experts to understand, and the law is very forgiving about that," says Mark Hall. "We've not seen a lot of pressure to standardize medical billing, but there's certainly a need." Hospitals and medical clinics say that detailed bills are simply too complicated for patients and that they provide the information required by insurers. But with rising copays and deductibles, patients are shouldering an increasing burden. One recent study found that up to 90 percent of hospital bills contain errors. An audit by Equifax found that hospital bills totaling more than $10,000 contained an average error of $1,300. "There are no industry standards with regards to what information a patient should receive regarding their bill," says Cyndee Weston, executive director of the American Medical Billing Association. "The software industry has pretty much decided what information patients should receive, and to my knowledge, they have not had any stakeholder input. That would certainly be a worthwhile project for our industry."

Comment Re:This seems batshit crazy. (Score 1) 216

As the telephone company has an expectation of privacy for their data, they must either ask the telephone company or get a warrant.

This means the Sting ray should still illegal.

But I am majorly disappointed in the wording of the ruling. Knowledge of technology should have NO bearing on expectation of privacy. My knowledge of what people can do does not make it legal for them to do it.

Comment Re:That escalated quickly (Score 1) 105

You fail to understand the political challenges. Specifically countries like:

Iceland, Greenland, Finland, Russia, and Canada all have MAJOR benefits from higher temperatures, while many smaller island countries will quite literally die at higher temperatures.

There are oil rights, trade routes,and flooding issues that mankind has a long history of straight out old school war over.

Also, it's not between husband and wives that like each other, but between people that don't get along well already.

Try this analogy - you and your neighbor arguing about whether the oil rig he installed is 20 ft over the property line and dripping oil into your bedroom.

Comment Great way to destroy good writers (Score 1) 109

I have no doubt that a good AI can tell the difference between an F and B essay. But there are humans that can't tell the difference between a C and an A+ essay.

Writing is an art form, not a science. If a computer could grade the art of writing, then the computer could DO THE WRITING - or at least 'fix' the problems it detected. In which case it would become the equivalent of teaching humans to use a slide rule.

I am absolutely sure that our best and brightest writers will end up being screwed over by AI programs grading them

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