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Comment What race do you want to be today? (Score 1) 250

Given that gender identity is now apparently whatever the individual says it is when it comes to bath- and locker-room assignments, should we all be asked to pick the race we feel most simpatico with and be that for reporting purposes?

The last few mortgages I refinanced, I took note that the paperwork said that if I didn't disclose my race the broker would do it for me and put that on the form in my stead. So now any time I have to put down my race, I pick one at random. Since I have no idea what's back there in my ancestry, all possibilities are in play and one choice is as good as another.

Comment Re:That's one way to look at it (Score 1) 462

another way is to say that automakers are shifting their costs. Dirty air and smog lead to lung disease and cancer, ergo higher medical costs. The health problems also lower worker productivity. Why should I have to pay for the damage done by cheap cars? -- Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-...

Browser plug-in software makes people spend more time at their computers becoming sedentary and isolated, leading to health problems , ergo higher medical costs. The health problems also lower worker productivity. Why should I have to pay for the damage done by browser plug-ins?

Comment Re:I've had it with these motherfucking breaches! (Score 1) 193

I'm getting so tired of these. It seems like every few months now I'm getting affected by one. Last year my bank replaced my debit card three times (Adobe breach, Target breach, and who knows what the third one was)! Consequently, I'm no longer using my debit card as a debit card, but only at ATMs. I use my credit card for any card-based purchases now. But it doesn't stop. You name it: zappos breach, dropbox breach, a breach at an old community college I attended years ago, and probably others that I've forgotten about in the last year or two. Fuck me running.

By the way, the stories about this breach claim that no financial data was compromised. That's fine, except that the data that was compromised may be used for identity theft: your name, date of birth, and street address. I'm pretty much getting ready to use the option that the credit reporting agencies offer to lock down my credit so that no one can obtain credit in my name without me unlocking it. It's a pain, but I don't think it's a choice anymore at the rate these breaches are going.

One thing I've done for a while now is use Citicards' Virtual Account Number service for any online credit card purchases. It generates a unique number that can be used one time (sorta - if the purchase has multiple stages like Amazon does for example, the retailer can place several charges) by one retailer. It's a bit of trouble, but I don't have to concern myself that a compromise at one business will cause me to have to replace the card. Plus, if a compromise ever happens, it'll be immediately apparent which retailer is to blame.

Comment Great, now I need credit monitoring (Score 1) 193

It's nice that "no financial information" got compromised, but with my name, address, and date of birth, the crackers won't have any trouble accessing credit in my name. Sigh. Looks like I'm going to have to activate credit monitoring. If eBay has any sense, it'll offer that service for free for everyone whose data was vulnerable.

Comment That's rich (Score 1) 330

FTFA: The Daily Mail, much loved for its objective reporting on climate change (and other stuff)
And just prior to that: Rupert Murdoch apparently trying (and failing) to look as harmless as possible.
And: Absurd anti-science faux journalism flares up again - as usual, it's Big Oil that's set to benefit, not the public

Self-introspection isn't the Guardian's strong suit, is it?

Comment Re:Unworkable (Score 1) 153

I like the idea of being able to make someone like facebook delete all your personal information but that's not how this tool is going to be used. It's going to be used by a politician to force Google to delete links to all stories about an affair they had. It will be used to censor the news not to maintain privacy as claimed. Frankly it's a politicians wet dream.

It would be fun if Google took the position that in order to keep something from accidentally slipping through, it has to nuke all mention of them anywhere, Just To Be Sure. How many politicians would take the bargain that erasing their misdeeds means they'll never appear again in search results, period?

Comment Re:A failure... (Score 1) 251

...of our corporate-controlled government.

I'm sure the insurance companies have it set up so they make out like bandits no matter what happens.

Well ... yeah. What better system could you ask for than a federal law that mandates that people buy your product, or else, especially when that "or else" includes fines and the IRS on your neck? And by the way, insurance companies can't pass laws, politicians have to do it for them. Thank you oh so much, Democrats.

Comment Re:-1 Copied from Republican Talking Points (Score 1) 251

That MUST be why the Obama administration has yet to release the number of people who've actually PAID for the Obamacare plans they got.

I'm sure it has absolutely nothing at all to do with the fact that the last wave have until April 30th to pay...

And there's no possible way to know how many have paid SO FAR until the deadline has passed? That doesn't seem to stop them when it comes to announcing how many have "enrolled" (whatever their definition of that is).

Comment My memories of Digital Research (Score 1) 99

A Navy laboratory project I was on wanted to buy the source code to MSDOS for a project where we needed to make some custom mods. Digital Research said they were interested, but their lawyers made it living hell. Somehow the Navy lawyers and DR's lawyers finally hammered out an agreement (I remember one of the provisions was that we would never, ever, EVER tell anyone that they had sold the code to us), but it took so many months that we had by then written most of what we needed from scratch, so we decided it was better to just finish that rather than spend whatever ungodly sum they had finally agreed to and still end up having to write the custom code for that.

Comment Animal torture (Score 1) 160

What disturbs me most about this story is that the "stressful situations" must essentially be mouse torture. Having to do things like that are why I'd never be able to do lab work involving live animals. I'd probably end up releasing them or smuggling them out and turning them into pets.

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