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Comment Re:But I have to have auto insurance... (Score 1) 1505

the government can force me to have auto insurance, but not health insurance?

Driving a car is a privilege, not a right.

Health care is something everybody is going to need from birth to death.

Call me a socialist if you must, but a for profit health care system is flawed. The judge was right to rule that mandatory participation in a for profit enterprise is unconstitutional. My insurer gladly takes the premium out of my pay check, but is forbids me the operation I need. That procedure would cut into their bottom line.

It's unfortunate that many will take this the wrong way and I'm sure mainstream media won't help to clear the air. It's unfortunate this ruling will be seen by the tea party as affirmation that "ObamaCare" is wrong instead of the correct interpretation that "ObamaCare" didn't go far enough (public option).

Before you complain about your taxes being used to pay for someone else's health care, please understand you're paying for it anyway. Emergency rooms will treat those who need urgent care. The uninsured wait until their condition develops into an emergency instead of getting the stitches or meds or whatever two weeks prior as a routine thing for a routine cost.

Don't want to buy auto insurance? Take the bus.
Don't want heath care? Don't be born in the first place.

Comment Re:predictable comment theme (Score 1) 415

it is healthy to fear a tiger - but the response to fear doesn't always have to be to run away. Translate into a list of perceived hazards; provide explanation of how resultant risks are managed.

I think you're right.

Hazard: Tiger has sharp teeth.
Risk: My throat becomes chew toy
How Managed: run away.

Hazard: Tiger has sharp claws.
Risk: Disembowelment.
How Managed: run away.

Hazard: Tiger is powerful carnivorous predator.
Risk: Overpowered
How Managed: run away.

Hazard: Tiger is fast.
Risk: Overtaken.
How Managed: run away? No. Buy a rock from Lisa Simpson!

Comment Re:Am I the only... (Score 1) 602

I watched that game just to see what all the fuss was about. B.O.R.I.N.G. Recap of the WHOLE GAME.

1. Ball gets kicked around, goes out of bounds. Ball is put back in play.
2. Some guy falls down and grabs his leg in agony.
3. Same guy gets up 30 seconds later and is running at full speed again.
Repeat steps 1, 2, 3 for 90 minutes.

A scoreless tie is a pointless waste of time. Physically demanding perhaps, but it's not sport. It's a kabuki dance.

While some would say a pitching duel in baseball is boring, you can be sure of one thing. SOMEONE will win the game. It will not end in a scoreless tie. Therefore, not a waste of time. Why bother if the game can end in a tie, especially a scoreless tie?

I will never understand how you could claim that game was interesting or a worthwhile endeavor for anyone, player or spectator.

To each his own I suppose. Enjoy the tournament and, good luck to your team.

Comment Re:We are the game! (Score 1) 496

And also this The Inner Light Theory
It's not impossible.
Could be an explanation for the limits of physics as we know them. Physics hasn't got the essence of reality pinned down. There is plenty we don't know. Perhaps we can't know.
Ex: the measurement problem in quantum mechanics, mathematical singularity of a black hole and the big bang.

Sure, we humans have made great progress, and I expect CERN will soon peel things back even more.
I find this idea fascinating, compelling even.

Comment Re:Anti-intellectualism (Score 2, Insightful) 899

Invented, just like chess.

No, no no. Getting OT here, but I disagree.

There are many aspects of mathematics that, for years, were purely intellectual pursuits. In many cases it was often much later when their relationships with nature was revealed.
Hyperbolic geometry, and the Mandelbrot set, for example, were always there in the math, long before their discovery.
The realm of math exists. It exists whether we choose to explore it or not.

Discovered, just like the "new world" and exo-planets.

Comment Re:Wrong field (Score 3, Insightful) 321

I could be wrong, but I think the point of the experiment is to learn where and how quantum aspects interface with macro-objects. A virus is much larger than a photon, for example. If they can reproduce "delayed choice" and "quantum eraser" type effects on a virus, then that would really be something.

It's not a test to see whether something is alive or dead. It's a test to understand if and/or how "which-path" observations collapse the wavefunction for macro-objects,

IANAP, so please enlighten me if I missed the point.

Comment Re:Maybe they can't be detected (Score 1) 553

I just posted something similar in this thread. Your "pet" theory seems like common sense to me.
I don't understand how they expect to detect a gravity wave. It's a distortion of space itself.
Only an "outside" observer would notice the ripple.

I bounced this idea off a few physicists...but they don't seem to like it

I wonder if your idea was disliked due to something you've obviously misunderstood, or if it was disliked because it was threatening to them?

Comment Re:Clear up a bit of confusion here: (Score 1) 553

Wouldn't the gravitational wave distort space itself and everything in it?
Perhaps I'm not thinking correctly, and I'm sure the folks working on this are far smarter than I. I would expect you can only observe this from the perspective of a higher dimension. The fact that space is warped by a gravity wave is not "known" to the light beam.

Imagine a perfect 3-D Euclidian space, now put an observer in that space with a laser or a full blown LIGO. Observer fires the laser and the light travels perfectly straight and covers a specific distance in a specific amount of time.
Both you and the observer agree on this.
Now bend, twist, or scrunch up that perfect 3-D Euclidian space, making it more like hyperbolic geometry. This is the effect we expect from a gravity wave, yes? When the observer fires his laser this time, he sees the light travel perfectly straight and covers the same "distance" as before.
But you would disagree. From your "outside" perspective, you would say the light did not travel "straight" this time, and that the light traveled a shorter distance, if "space" was scrunched up, or a longer distance if "space" was stretched.

How then, can we possibly detect a distortion of space when it is the same space we occupy? We are the "observer" above and LIGO will always tell us the light in each arm is traveling the same distance, even if one arm is distorted by a gravity wave.

What am I missing (besides a degree in physics)?
First Person Shooters (Games)

Open Source FPS Game Alien Arena 2009 Released 142

Alienkillerrace writes "The open sourced, freeware FPS game Alien Arena 2009 has been released (Windows and Linux). The improvements to the game engine are very significant, and have surely raised the bar for free games of this genre. All surfaces in the game are now rendered using GLSL, not only improving the visual quality, but the performance as well. Interesting new effects like post-process distortions using GLSL have been implemented, as well as light volumes, better per-pixel lighting (reminiscent of UT3), and shaded water. Equally notable is that the sound system has been completely rewritten using OpenAL, allowing for effects such as Doppler, and adding Ogg Vorbis support. The game is free to play and available for download on its official website. It has a stats system and a built-in IRC client in its front-end game browser."

Comment Re:Maybe it's to stop malicious code (Score 1) 394

Counterpoint:
I am fairly certain there will be many unwanted yet auto-started services running out of the box. There will be unwanted components installed by default and very hard or downright impossible to remove completely.

Where is the version that lets me run without any DRM hooks? Where is the version that lets me boot to a command prompt? Not talking about "core", I want to boot without any presentation layer/GUI at all. Just a command prompt please.

I see where you're going, but I don't think it is in the name of "security". Profit is a much more likely reason/goal.

Comment Looks like USA won. (Score 1) 73

9 games with a score of 8.0

This is very interesting. Being a baseball fan, and thinking back to strat-o-matic as a kid, I can't help but think how I would code such a thing in that game/sport. Football too.

One could be issued a limited number of "skill points" in different disciplines of the game, allocate among his/her team. Situational strategies could be coded so that when certain in-game criteria were met, specific functions could be called.
Play Ball!

Comment Keyboard shortcuts and CLI (Score 5, Insightful) 431

My biggest complaint about browser/web apps is the inconsistent or non-existent ability to navigate the app with the keyboard.
While fat client apps can have messed up tab stops, they're generally better than their web-based counterparts. A CLI is even better allowing for things to be done in bulk/batch.

I've got over 100 buttons right at my finger tips. I shouldn't need 2 more that roll around (FPS mouselook not withstanding). Let me ALT+whatever and TAB my way around.

YMMV.
Government

Obama To Launch Website For Tracking Tax Expenditures 358

internationalflights tips news that Barack Obama, in his first weekly address as President, has mentioned plans to set up a website for tracking "how and where we spend taxpayer dollars." Details about the website, Recovery.gov, are available within the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (PDF). The website "shall provide data on relevant economic, financial, grant, and contract information in user-friendly visual presentations to enhance public awareness of the use funds made available in this Act," and will also "provide a means for the public to give feedback on the performance of contracts awarded for purposes of carrying out this Act." The site itself currently contains a placeholder until the passage of the Act.

Comment Re:Reactionary. (Score 1) 717

Bush has not levied War against the United States, nor has he made common cause with our enemies.

I don't go as far as the 9/11 "Truth" conspiracy nuts, but I do believe it is at least plausible that Bush and Cheney had some degree of foreknowledge of the attacks. If that is false, then even still, using the attacks as leverage to invade Iraq is enough to warrant a charge or Treason, for it has created many more enemies (terrorists) than it has killed/captured/converted. Right there is your "common cause", helping the enemy with their recruitment efforts.

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