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Comment Re:Boron? (Score 4, Funny) 39

Step 1: Build buckyball model out of wooden skewers and string.

Step 2: Wrap skewers in raw bacon.

Step 3: Microwave.

Step 4: Post to YouTube.

Step 5: Profit!

(Note to whoever actually tries this: Depending on the scale of your model, some of the bacon loops may resonantly couple with the field in your microwave oven. Don't be surprised at arcs and flames. Please don't skip Step 4.)

Comment Re:Useless coins (Score 2) 753

No, "issued for circulation" means the Mint sends them to the Fed for distribution -- so they can be spent, given out as change, and so forth. The last few years of dollar coins haven't been issued for circulation. Yes, they're still legal tender, but since you have to pay more than face value to get them, it's kind of dumb to spend them.

Kennedy halves haven't been issued for circulation in years, either, but you'll still find recent-date ones in rolls occasionally. People inherit or steal them, don't care about collectable value, and just spend the coins or turn them in at the bank.

State quarters (and now America The Beautiful national park quarters) are issued for circulation -- at least, the ones minted in Philadelphia and Denver.

Comment Re:Useless coins (Score 1) 753

Yeah, I think it's time for a full reset on our cash denominations. Knock out the cent and nickel (each one costs more than its face value to produce). Make dimes and half-dollars of the same general size and shape as today's cent and nickel. Make dollar coins like today's dime, and bring back the "eagles" -- quarter-eagle ($2.50), half-eagle ($5), eagle ($10), and double eagle ($20). Heck, you could even reinstate the half-union and union ($50 and $100), which never made it into circulation during the original 1850's gold rush.

But this will never happen. There's too much inertia around our current system, and by the time inflation trivializes all current denominations, the "cashless society" folks will most likely have won. Maybe the black and grey markets will go over to true hard currency, the silver and gold that's currently the domain of collectors and doomsayers.

Comment Re:Why? (Score 1) 753

The thug prowling around in the woods can take and spend my $20s, and I've got no recourse unless he's caught. If he steals my credit cards, they're only good for him until I phone in the theft, and I'm out zero money in the end. Plus all that terrible OMG-Big-Brother-Ate-My-Privacy tracking can tell the police a good bit about where he's been and what he's been doing.

The Powers That Be have never frozen any of my accounts, but thugs have burglarized my house more than once. I have no desire to see cash go away, but it's disingenuous to claim that it's less risky than e-money.

Comment I've been calling for this for 20+ years... (Score 4, Funny) 159

Actually, I've been calling for someone to graft the THC-production complex into kudzu. That way, either we get government help to wipe it out, or the government finally gives up; either way, kudzu becomes useful for something.

Of course, I don't have much deep knowledge about GM or plant biology, so coming up with this idea was about on a par with saying "somebody ought to build a flying car". Here's hoping that the task these folks are tackling turns out more tractable than that one.

Comment Re:Hi speed chase, hum? (Score 5, Insightful) 443

Having had the experience of having my own performance car stolen temporarily, and damaging it to the extent of needing a new engine and reupholstering, at the time I felt capital punishment is not enough.

You may think this is a little severe, but people who are into cars feel they have had part of their soul ripped out of them if it is stolen and trashed, especially if it is their personal hobby and they are doing it at the limits of their budget.

I understand that many people attach a lot of their self-image to their vehicles, and devote disproportionate time, attention, and money to them. That doesn't mean that their priorities should be encoded into law.

Your hobby is not more important to society in general than human life. Yes, it may be more important to you than some other person's life. Laws exist partly to mediate between people's conflicting self-interest.

Comment Re:How many questions can YOU beg in one definitio (Score 1) 285

What's a "program" ("anything")?

A deterministic sequence of instructions that could be converted to work on a universal Turing machine. I don;t htink this is really a valid criticism.

That's a reasonable definition, although I'm sure there are those who would quibble over non-deterministic operations and such. But "The new program—it could be an idea, a novel, a piece of music, anything—" seems to imply something very different. The paper talks a lot about writing stories, designing letterforms and so forth. Stories are not "programs" in the sense you (and perhaps I) think.

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