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Comment Re:Unless it has support for Bitcoin... (Score 4, Interesting) 156

Unlike the US, banks in other parts of the world aren't in the dark ages. Sending and receiving money via your bank account can be done instantly...

All banks can do this, of course. However, when the money leaves an account, there is an interval when the interest on it can be harvested, legally, until it enters the target account. Given enough bank transfers every day, that adds up to enough profit to give a bank manager an erection (ie. more than $1), and that is why they keep pretending it has to take a whole day or whatever. It used to be the same in Europe, but the evil communists in government forced the banks to give it up.

Comment Re:So basically.. (Score 1) 295

The taxi drivers are arguing that if they can't be the ONLY ones to drive people to their destination, then NOBODY can

I think it may be a little more subtle than that. Taxi companies and their drivers have to be licenced in most countries - certainly in Europe and China, and I suspect it applies in the US too - and it costs a lot more than just the fee for getting a licence from the police station: insurance, driver training, criminal records checks, taxi meters (which are inexplicably expensive for what they are), etc.

Uber, on the other hand, sidestep all of these expenses by pushing it out to the individual drivers, is my guess. In many ways, they are similar to an organisation of rogue hire cars; if you get into one, it is up to chance whether the driver is an honest bloke trying to make a living, a rapist or simply a stupid lowlife without an insurance driving a car that is not road worthy. It is quite possible that taxi fares are too high, but fair competition would imply that Uber should be required to follow the same rules as other, legal hire care companies. Otherwise, what we do is penalising taxi companies for following the law.

Comment Best ever? (Score 1) 299

...rest assured. Harrison Ford apparently thinks the script is "the best thing (he's) ever read."

On the other hand, he also starred in 'The Crystal Skull', one of the most appaling disappointments I've seen, after enjoying the first Indiana Jones movies. Harrison Ford had a wonderful self-irony in the first movies, but in the last one he seems to take himself so serious that it's impossible to enjoy the action.

Comment Re:THERE HAS NEVER BEEN CLIMATE STASIS! (Score 3, Insightful) 401

The left is about central control

So, you're implying that large corporations, like Oracle, IBM, Microsoft (or Redhat for that matter), are basically a bunch of commies? And the different churches, they are of course too? I think, maybe you have a different way of navigating through space from the rest of us.

Out here, in the real world, words like '(political) left', 'communism' and 'socialism', are about the idea that we might all be better off if we shared more of the burdens of life; that in order to protect essential freedoms, such as freedom of speech and self-determination, we need to agree on the rules, and because there are selfish bullies in the world, we also need to be able to enforce the rules. And the words '(political) right', 'capitalism' and 'free market' are about the idea that it is best to allow the individual to seek their own fortune in the way they believe is right.

We have had ample demonstration over the last century or so, that taken to the extreme, both of these ideas produce monsters, which ironically end up looking very alike, as fascism. An insightful person will realize that society, in order to be stable and functional, needs both of those ingredients to some extent.It is also not hard to see that the balance is not right in the US at the moment, which is why you are becoming more and more unstable.

Comment Re:"Could", (Score 1) 401

On the basis of a could, we are supposed to drop everything and choose the most expensive options. No, thanks.

Yes, yes, whatever. I'm not going to go into a futile exercise of trying to convince you or others who argue like this. You see, from the scientific viewpoint, words like 'discussion' and 'arguments' imply that you have reviewed the available data, formed an opinion based on this and whichever logical means you possess, and then you exchange views with an open mind, since you realize that your insight might not be perfect. I see no evidence of an open mind from the side you are on - you have decided, a priori, that you don't like what the science is saying, so now you are just trying to discredit in any way, and to hell with honesty, decency and logic.

I don't know if you have noticed, but the rest of us have left the subject long ago and moved on. The issue is settled, mankind does in fact cause global warming, and we are now considering how we best handle the situation we have brought upon ourselves. You may opt out of the discussion and you may try to disrupt any constructive dialog, but the fact is that you have been sidelined.

Comment Re:How about a straight answer? (Score 1) 329

I don't think you are going to get a simple, straight answer from anybody. One side, the scientists, are scientists and therefore always qualify their statements, for the simple reason that they want to give correct answers to some very complex questions, and the other side is not interested in the truth or correctness of what they say, they just want to make it impossible for the lay person to understand things enough to realise that we need to take action.

Try to step a little bit back from what you read in the papers and hear on TV and look at how the two sides present things.

The scientists present their data, they present their methods, and they tell you why they reached their conclusions. They also tell you which things they are not sure of and they quantify the uncertainty of their results, which is why you never hear simply that humans caused this, but instead hear that it is '95% certain' or something like that. The reason for doing it this way is that it then allows others to check the validity of your data, methods and conclusions - in principle everybody can do this, but of course, most people won't be able to; but as a layperson, you can still observe this process, and you can get an idea about the validity of the science simply from whether there is are other scientists that refute or support it. Another thing that tends to indicate sound science is that scientists don't keep repeating the same old mistakes over and over - they move on, they admit their mistakes, they correct their methods etc - which is why you hear that actually the historical data were wrong in such and such ways, or the models didn't take this or that into account.

The climate-deniers, on the other hand, keep bringing up claims that have already been adequately refuted, as if they either don't understand or simply don't care; after a while, as a scientist, one gets utterly weary of having to address the same falsehoods and simply start ignoring them - after all, reality goes on regardless of what anybody says.

Comment Re:One of the few games with incredible imaginatio (Score 1) 186

Pity it hasn't been updated meaningfully for over a decade - perhaps it just hit perfection?

Well, there is one game that has a lot of that:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C...

It is graphical enough to support your game play, but still has some of the feel of a character based game like Nethack, and perhaps an even more elaborate system of magic, faith and skills - plus an enormous set of maps.

Comment Re:Fuck all these people (Score 2) 127

Look, I don't want to be smug about it, and I do feel your pain, I really do, but this is the kind crap you get when you live under the ideology of the 'free' market and 'small state'. I know, your state is broken and corrupt, but it doesn't really have to be like that - it's broken because it is owned by large corporations that have no interest in real democracy or taking care of the interests of ordinary people. Call it communism if you must, but then bear in mind that what you think you know about communism has been fed to you by those self-same corporations, who are terrified that people might think that more common ownership could be worth trying.

I'm not arguing that the state should own everything and that private ownership should be abolished, but there are things that are best cared for by society as a whole - the state is only one of several possible candidates to represent society's interests. Infrastructure, including telecommunication, is definitely one of those areas that should be owned wholly by society, regulated by legislation and possibly paid for through taxes. As I said, it doesn't have to be through the state, but it should definitely not be owned by large, for-profit corporations like it is now.

Comment Re:you're doing it wrong (Score 1) 368

The real problem is that he doesn't recognize the various purposes of story-telling.

Not sure I agree - it is all very well, making wise about somebody else's opinions, but it doesn't really address his concerns, which are very valid IMO.

It has for a long time annoyed me that so much science fiction is so uninspired - aliens are simply assumed to be a kind of humans with a funny hairdo/skin color/whatever. Stephen Baxter and Iain Banks are two that seem to reach a bit beyond that mindset, but even they seem to stay within the idea of basic, human psychology. What I'd really like to see is science fiction that is highly speculative, but scienfically plausible - for example, describing life evolving in the quark-gluon plasma in the first moments after the big bang would be interesting. On the other hand, confabulating about 'viruses' that are somehow, magically able to take over the body and mind of more or less any creature from whichever biological background and then grow uncontrollably beyond anything allowed by a simple matter/energy consideration, is simply no more than magic; I'd rather read Harry Potter, then.

I don't think it is unreasonable to criticise SF for being too unambitious and unimaginative - or lacking in real, scientific insight.

Comment Re:Neat (Score 1) 59

They may well do so, but they would, as always, be missing the point, which is that somebody, half a million years ago, did this deliberately; the surface of a shell is hard, so it is not likely that it happened by accident, and it does not seem likely that this pattern could have had an obvious utility for the shell's use as a tool. So, somebody deliberately did this for no practical reason - perhaps just for the joy of doing it? It also seems like a very well controlled scratch - I haven't tried myself (yet), but I guess that it requires more skill and effort than what you would expect from something unimportant. Calling it 'art' may be stretching the concept, but it is very reasonable to think that it is the result of abstract thought about something not tied to the specifics of day to day survival.

Comment Re:Yeesh (Score 4, Insightful) 584

This is practically a troll.

Not really - what you say seems thoughtful and balanced to my eye.

But to answer the fellow's question - what makes girls interested in science is the same that makes anybody else interested: the feeling of understanding an exciting subject. One has to keep in mind - and accept - that not everybody will find it interesting, though. That said, the worst thing one can do to anybody's interest is push them; that will almost inevitably lead to feelings of failure and teach them that science is the one thing they hate. It's the same for all subjects, really; I have seen often enough how parents force their children to play the violin or piano, and they end up detesting it.

If you really want your daughter to become interested in science, let her understand that the only thing you want for her is that she chooses what shereally likes, and that you trust her own judgement in this. Most children are naturally interested in learning new things and in asking questions. Also, you have to realise that ALL questions are valid and should be answered to your best ability - and if you don't know the answer, show her how to find it for herself. That may be the most important part - after all, science is not about knowing everything, but about finding out.

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