So you can detect all my subs with your fancy sensors and "Big Data". So how are you enjoying the cyber attack/EMP burst/barrage of cruise missiles targeting your power grid?
Can you hear me now? Didn't think so.
Turning on the bathroom light at 1AM with a dimmer let's have just enough light to hit the toilet, but not so much that you are blinded and woken up. The porch light has one too. I have the option of lighting up the walkway like a runway when needed, but most of the time it is just bright enough to make it up the stairs without tripping and doesn't annoy the neighbors with lots of glare, nor spoil the nighttime view. The ability to adjust the lighting to the task and mood makes the house feel more responsive to our needs.
The electronic cypher door lock. I can't sing the praises of these loud enough. I carry 1 key, my truck key and that's it. My family all have their own code to get in, set to a number they can easily remember. (I live in Florida, they tend to visit a lot when it's cold.). Visitors and roommates get a code when they need it, and when they leave I delete theirs while leaving all the rest intact. We use mechanical cyphers at work and I have electronic ones at home. They both have their issues (price and batteries) but they both work fine.
My experience with all the other forms of home automation, were items installed by my brother in law. My sister, their kids, and anyone who was visiting had no clue how any of it worked, only he did. After 5 years most of it was breaking down, and the new stuff wasn't compatible with the old, so we spend this last Christmas break tearing it all out and going back to more robust proven tech. (aka standard dimmers/switches)
The only thing I see a problem with most of it is backwards compatibility and cross manufacturer compatibility. You pretty much have to commit to one set of tech from one company, and then either have to gut the whole thing 5-10 years later or live with a patch work system.
I work in the aircraft maintenance field. 90% of our system failures come from bent pins in connectors. If the connector was just a pair of LEDs and sensors that don't actually touch that would be amazing. You also wouldn't have to worry about wireless connections being hackable or RF getting into places where it causes problems. Same would be nice for your smart phone. Just line it up at the data point on the other device you are connecting to and you'd have a fast direct connection between devices.
I can see this being very useful in situations that can bring Wi-Fi and cell service to it's knees. Large public venues, airports, etc. I've on many occasions wanted to weep trying to use Wi-Fi points that were melting under the number of people trying to connect to them with smart phones. Having a hot spot under every overhead light would be a Godsend.
Using this instead of a cabling run would be handy when you need to route your network across an area but don't what wires all over the place and Wi-Fi wouldn't be practical.
Huh, wait, you're telling me that people are fat and their cholesterol is high because they are fat and lazy and not because they eat lot's of it.......
We actually caused damage to people's health and made the fat epidemic worse by getting people to pursue diets that were more in line with farm subsidies than things that are healthy............
Well fuck, now how are we supposed to be able to tell people what to do and how to live??!!
Refined sugar is bad! Bad bad bad bad BAD!!!!!!
If the individual cannot survive then the population will not be made up of that individual. With enough pressure from variation and natural selection two populations will drift apart genetically, eventually become incompatible and separate.
My rant pointed out that while Progressives/Liberals tend to push for evolution in the public education arena, yet they are conversely are horrified by the idea that people should be subjugated to the whims of said evolution, which natural selection is very much a part of, which is why they push for so many laws that restrict behaviors that might be "dangerous".
Producers never "pay" taxes. Corporations never "pay" taxes. Even when they do, they still don't actually pay anything. The tax is just itemized in the cost of doing business and passed on down the production chain....to the consumer who now has to work 3 times as hard to buy his gallon of gas.
You are less than intelligent if you think that we would all be living in grass huts and caves without taxes. The gov't didn't build my car, my health care, my house, etc, etc private individuals did that. I also get sick and tired of all the hand wringing over the environmental damage our modern lifestyle causes. You do realize each advancement was made to address a problem in the past that was less healthy than before. The demonized automobile solved the problem (sanitation/disease) caused by horses in large cities. Major population centers had to deal with thousands of tons of manure and hundreds of dead animals daily before the automobile came along.
Speaking of the environment, if you don't like corporations avoiding their environmental responsibilities for the damage they do then quit supporting gov't environmental laws that protect them. Most of the regulations out there restrict corporations from a certain level of pollution but at the same time protect them from being sued. See for example the off shore oil industry. They can't pollute, but at the same time the US Federal gov't limits that damages and fines that can be levied against them. If those regulations didn't exist we the people would be able to bleed them out in the courts for damages, but geniuses that think that the gov't is the way to go create opportunities for these horrible regulations that allow them to keep on polluting.
But back to the fuel tax. If gas was $.50 a gallon. I think the average consumer could afford to kick in a buck or two per gallon to help pay for the roads they drive on (they're called toll roads and they are everywhere) and in the process avoid the giant leaches that are the various forms of gov't looking for a host to feed off of.
Who gets to pick what that "standard" is? The censors get to pick. What if they are the worst perpetrators of discrimination?
The better solution is not have censorship in the first place, and have the ability to respond to people behaving poorly.
Regardless facts and the truth trump the need to protect the fainting goats of the human species from their tendency to swoon.
Sure the actual Fed fuel tax is only $.18 a gallon, but you are forgetting State fuel tax along with the sales tax, corporate taxes at the local, state and federal level on the gas station, distributer, refiner, tankers, and the people that pull it out of the ground, along with royalties and other fees demanded by the Federal overlords.
They have plenty of money for infrastructure they are just pissing it away on other things.
My next door neighbor can run a small business and have chickens on his property because his is zoned single family farm lot. Mine can have dual family housing, aka townhouses or split, but sadly no businesses or chickens because it is zoned multi-family.
Oh and the smallest lot any house can be on is 1/2 acre, so no tiny housing or trailer parks, or appartments, or anything without the planning commission getting it's bribe.....err consultation fee.
California for example was only spending about 25% of what they collected on the roads when I lived there 8 years ago.
Liberal scream Evolution, Evolution, Evolution, which is nothing more than the effects of natural selection over the long term, but at the same time they scream for protection, aka gov't regulations and laws, from said natural selection from taking it's "natural" course. I guess that is merely to prevent liberalism from being removed from the gene pool.
So after 35 hours of instruction, somewhere around $7000 is costs, able to pass an annual physical and mental evaluation, and speak clearly in English, . You'd be allowed to drive a 50hp, two passenger car up to 45mph, during the day, non-highway roads only, and only when the weather is clear and sunny. This would apply regardless of which country you live in btw.
If you were ever convicted of reckless behavior or a DUI you'd lose your license forever.
As far as gun owners needing to be astronauts, that's over-kill. Idiots with guns tends to be a self correcting problem. I thought all liberals preached natural selection. Why do they fight so hard against it?
Kleeneness is next to Godelness.
