Comment Re: Business as usual (Score 1) 139
"Screw this! We'll take our modules and start our OWN space station! With blackjack! And hookers!"
Then they'll find other customers besides NASA.
Comment Re:People (Score 1) 481
To a person with no money, stealing food may not be immoral. To the person with money, someone stealing their food is immoral.
Morality is about what choices you should make. Being a victim of a crime is not "immoral" since it wasn't your choice.
I think the GP was stating that the victim of the theft would consider the theft of his property to be an immoral act on the part of the thief, while in the thief would not consider the same act to be immoral if his survival depended on it. In traditional Christian ethics, such an action is not immoral as long as the thief has the intent to repay. In practice, you don't expect people acting out of desperation to keep a register of such debts.
Comment Re: People (Score 1) 481
Comment Re:Not sure about this. (Score 1) 195
Landmines? I'm really struggling to imagine a legal use of those. Probably some poisons, too, athough I suppose you could posit a researcher needing for legitimate research purposes.
Comment Re:Not sure about this. (Score 1) 195
Let's not forget that the NSA has been doing all of this and more, with no consent of _either_ party.
Ha, that gives me an idea. Just start all phone conversations with "this call may be monitored by law enforcement for unknown purposes." That'll probably really cut down on my phone time.
Comment Re:But... the children!? (Score 1) 195
Does anyone want to be one of "those parents?"
I want to be one of those "helicopter" parents. I see the other parents, nose stuck to a cellphone, or chatting with their friends, while their kids dumpster dive out back of the medical facility. I want to be involved. I want to know what my kids are doing. Who they're with. Where they are going.
That's not "helicopter" parenting, that's basic paying-attention parenting. A "helicopter" parent is one who tries to micromanage their children's lives; using your examples, organize everything your kids do, choose their friends, accompany them everywhere, supervise constantly, yell at teacher for giving them a C grade, remove all potential adversity and risk of injury, etc. The use of "helicopter" is supposed to invoke the image of hovering constantly overhead.
It's actually a quite harmful way to raise children, as they don't learn the critical skills to deal with life - how to deal with failure, overcoming obstacles on their own, the freedom to develop their own interests; in general self-reliance and resilience.
Comment Re:Uhhh (Score 1) 907
...but in no way is failure to pay a debt actually illegal.
I understand your point and was mainly reacting to the poster's dickish opinion. But I do believe there are laws on the books requiring the payment of debt. You may not be arrested or go to jail, but there are legal consequences for not paying a debt.
If you enter into a "legally binding contract" and don't fulfill your obligations under the terms of the contract, you're liable for civil action (but not criminal). The legal system will enforce private contracts, and all auto loans (the ones you get from a dealer that involve signing paper anyway) are accompanied by such a contract; so yes, there are legal consequences for not paying a debt, but indirectly and not because of some law that requires payment of debts.
Notably, there are ways out of the contract that may not require paying the debt: for instance, if you don't pay your car loan and the bank repossesses the car, you haven't broken a law even though you didn't pay the debt - the bank exercised its rights under the contract to take the car back if you don't pay. Normally, the bank won't sue you, unless you make repossession impossible.
(IANAL or creditor or loan-writer so I could be completely wrong)
Comment Re:To Kill a Mockingbird (Score 1) 410
This is still banned? It was required reading in my public junior high school...
"Banned Books Week" is about books that are or were banned by someone somewhere, or that people sought to have banned; so they're not necessarily STILL banned. Some are great works of literature that were just controversial at a particular place & time.
Microsoft On US Immigration: It's Our Way Or the Canadian Highway 365
theodp writes Even as it cuts about 14% of its workforce, Microsoft is complaining that the company might be denied some of the "roughly" 1,000 H-1B visas for foreign workers it intends to seek, and made it clear that the company could shift some work to Canada or overseas if it can't get talent on its terms. "If I need to move 400 people to Canada or Northern Ireland or Hyderabad or Shanghai, we can do that," said William Kamela, a senior federal policy lead at Microsoft, who later explained that about 60% of Microsoft's workforce is in the U.S., yet it makes 68% of its profits overseas (where it also stashes its cash out of IRS reach). Kamela made the statements on a panel at a two-day conference on high-skilled immigration policy, where he sat next to Felicia Escobar, special assistant to President Barack Obama on immigration. The day before the conference, Mark Zuckerberg's FWD.us PAC — which counts Bill Gates as a Founder and Steve Ballmer and Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith as Major Contributors — posted its "MythBusters" video on H-1B visas.
Comment Re:I'll just let my sig do the talking (Score 1) 478
There are also requirements that every so often they roads remain straight long enough to be used emergency runways.
Your other points are valid, but this is a common misconception.
Comment Re:In lost the will to live ... (Score 1) 795
36 “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” 37 He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the greatest and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
If everyone could understand and internalize those two simple rules, then "all the law and the prophets" would be unnecessary. After all, Jesus just basically said that they are redundant anyway. But people don't understand that, hence we have the rest of the Bible trying to extrapolate those rules to all manner of practical situations, filtered through each author's social and cultural knowledge that actually had nothing to do with God.
The Bible in a nutshell: "'Don't be a dick' throughout the ages."
Submission + - Apple's 'Warrant Canary' Has Died
HughPickens.com writes: When Apple published its first Transparency Report on government activity in late 2013, the document contained an important footnote that stated: “Apple has never received an order under Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act. We would expect to challenge such an order if served on us.” Now Jeff John Roberts writes at Gigaom that Apple’s warrant canary has disappeared. A review of the company’s last two Transparency Reports, covering the second half of 2013 and the first six months of 2014, shows that the “canary” language is no longer there suggesting that Apple is now part of FISA or PRISM proceedings.
Warrant canaries are a tool used by companies and publishers to signify to their users that, so far, they have not been subject to a given type of law enforcement request such as a secret subpoena. If the canary disappears, then it is likely the situation has changed — and the company has been subject to such request. This may also give some insight into Apple's recent decision to rework its latest encryption in a way that makes it almost impossible for the company to turn over data from most iPhones or iPads to police.
Warrant canaries are a tool used by companies and publishers to signify to their users that, so far, they have not been subject to a given type of law enforcement request such as a secret subpoena. If the canary disappears, then it is likely the situation has changed — and the company has been subject to such request. This may also give some insight into Apple's recent decision to rework its latest encryption in a way that makes it almost impossible for the company to turn over data from most iPhones or iPads to police.
Comment Re:No (Score 1) 393
You must be some paid shill, because that wasn't even REMOTELY the point of the GP post. The point is that the existing cost of the Tesla Model S already hits Anderman's price range, so the Model 3, being smaller and another three years out from now to improve battery manufacturing costs, should easily sell for a lower price point. But you wouldn't understand because you need it explained in one-syllable words, written in crayon.
The new car: it's not as big, has less range, and its charge pack is made in bulk. How could it NOT cost less? (provide your own crayon)
Comment Re:finally (Score 1) 77
UPDATE: It works now on my Galaxy Tab 4 8". Here's what I did:
-Uninstall the Amazon app I got from the Google Play app store.
-Install the Amazon app store by downloading the apk from Amazon.com using a web browser.
-Using the Amazon app store, install the Amazon app listed there and the Amazon Instant Video app.
Now, from the Amazon app, I can peruse the Prime Video selections, and watch free items.
A word of caution: after doing this, it enabled 1-click purchasing (it was previously disabled for my Amazon account), which I disabled, but forced on 1-click purchasing for digital items with no way to disable. Be careful what you click.
Comment Re:finally (Score 1) 77
Here's the Play Store link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.amazon.avod&hl=en. That page says it's not compatible with my Galaxy Tab 4 8".
