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Comment Re:Well done! (Score 1) 540

This is very much like the argument that gay marriage bans do not discriminate because they apply equally to straight people, personally I prefer to apply the smell test rather than theoretical arguments. Statistically while blacks have disproportionately higher levels of targeting by the police they also make up a disproportionately higher percentage of the underprivileged population. As for the broken windows I do not advocate selective law enforcement, as I mention in my original post the Politicians and Police work in conjunction on anti-poor legislation and tactics. There is simply no other explanation other than deliberate targeting, why the penalties the law imposes for minor infractions mostly committed by the poor are so tough.

Comment Re:Well done! (Score 4, Insightful) 540

That's a nice idea, but the reality is usually that the rich people just move away when the poor people come in (especially the ones with families). No way are rich daddy and trophy wife letting their little girl go to school with that rabble!

They do not move away instead they have the Politicians and Police departments enact laws and policies that turn the Poor areas into virtual prison colonies. This is what happens in NYC with policies like "Stop and Frisk" which lets cops effectivly harrass poor people that step outside of their zones and "Broken Windows" which allows them to haoul them in for minor infractions. For schooling the solution is of course private schools and voucher programs.

Comment Re:Oh, *BRILLIANT* (Score 4, Interesting) 317

I'm sorry, this whole thing sounds BS to me. While it makes sense to have the Authorities to look at and interview the victim^Hsoftware tester, putting a 72 hour mental health hold on someone is hard. You have to convince more than one person that you are serious. Most places don't want to hold people - it's a lot of paperwork, hassle and expense and there are enough genuine fruitcakes so as to leave few extra rooms at the inn. Even if he got tossed in on a hold, it would be reviewed after 24 hours.

Either San Mateo does really weird things or this was made up.

You are assuming that he was not complicit and wanted to be held for as long as possible. To me this whole thing sounds like a ploy for 15 minutes of infamy.

Comment Free rides for everyone (Score 5, Interesting) 366

Ubers plan for for entering a new markets has always been to start the service under the radar without asking permission. Once the have reached a certain number of users, a critical mass of sorts, they start advertising the service heavily relying on the user base to make a big stink if the regulatory agencies or courts try to stop them. In South Korea they went as far as offering free rides to everyone in order to keep in line with regulations but mostly to influence public opinion. The powers that be were clearly not amused.

Comment Re:meanwhile (Score 0) 342

A consumption tax is inherently regressive. Those with smaller incomes must use a larger proportion of it on consumption. The wealthy will spend a comparatively tiny fraction of their income on tax and continue to amass vast piles of money.

Doesn't this assume the rich and poor are buying the same items and services at the same prices? Which is hardly the case.

A whole wheat or gluten free loaf of bread costs a lot more than your basic white loaf (Sorry actual celiacs).

A free-range natural chicken costs a lot more than the factory raised ones.

Organic produce costs more than your industrial farming equivalent.

File-minion costs several times per pound than ground chuck.

A luxury class car costs a lot more than a compact or full size car.

A sports car costs a lot of money and is hardly usable for most as the sole vehicle.

A haircut at a saloon costs several times what it would cost at the local barber.

If you want you can also tack on a luxury tax to higher end items and services as many states already do.

Comment Arctic front (Score 1) 356

The lingering arctic front brought below freezing temperatures and constant snow storms across much of the U.S this winter. Even if you solve the "sun is not shinning at night" problem with temporary storage, exactly what is it that you do when much of the countries solar panels are under frozen snow for days if not weeks at a time?

Comment Re:This ex-Swatch guy doesn't have a clue (Score 1) 389

Tablets has been approved for use in cockpit during all phases of Flight. Many small plane pilots have switched to tablets for flight planning and real time navigation. As tablets become more widely used in every aspect of the flight, app makers will surely find some clever uses for smart-watches and perhaps in time a Breitling Navitimer will become something that identifies the old-timers.

Comment Re:The moan of sour grapes (Score 1) 450

In ten years and in 100 years, Apple Watch will still tell time, exactly like the Rolex, except with much greater accuracy.

Assuming it's battery lasts that long.

Apple is likely going to recommend regular service during which the battery will be replaced. Even mechanical watches have to be regularly serviced if you want them to last a long time. Rolex recommends every 5 years for most of their watches .

Comment Re:Lots of weird crap coming out of Congress latel (Score 4, Interesting) 517

In this article from 2009 our-secrets-live-online-in-databases-of-ruin, researchers were able to identify %87 of Americans with just 3 piece of information: zip code, birthdate and sex. With the mountains of personal data both publicly accessible and in private databases and with what are essentially clearing-houses especially designed to aggregate this data, identifying people in anonymized data is almost trivial unless that data is so heavily sanitized as to be useless to research and in effect fail the "reproducible" requirement of the law.

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