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Comment Re:its the cops, not the cameras. (Score 2) 170

You fail to understand the difference between spot detection and permanent detection.

If you sample one out of every 100 cars, all you are really doing is determining if a problem exists, not actually fixing the problem. Not even if you fix the randomly selected problem cars. You still need a separate program to analyze the manufacturing problems causing the defects then fix the problem, if it exists.

But having someone check ALL the cards, allows you to remove the bad ones and fix them before you sell them. You don't actually need a separate program, because your analysis IS the fix.

Similarly, a constant video recording program is the solution to the problem we detected by using random video recordings. Random recordings allow problems to flourish between the recordings. Constant recordings do not have this issue.

The fact that random recording don't fix the problem is no surprise, and constant recordings are qualitatively different so your argument is flawed.

Comment Deblasio has been working hard (Score 5, Interesting) 170

To make sure that NYC is not Ferguson.

He has a couple of "meet the police" fairs, which I never saw before.

He has done everything right that Ferguson did wrong.

Now, the NYC police is not perfect, but at least they are actively attempting to do a better job, rather than attempting to prove how 'tough' they are.

The police have a hard job and the violent nature of their business tends to make certain foolish people think their job is to be as powerful as possible.

Glad to see that NYC is moving in the right direction.

Comment Re:Here's an idea (Score 1) 448

So we should invade countries that like America?

Are you a fool?

Of course we choose to invade our enemies, not our friends.

Iraq was a bad war, but it was bad because there was no real reason to do it. That is why we didn't accomplish anything with the war.

The fact that the people did not like us was not relevant.

Your opinions might be more popular if you scrape off the foolishness you precede it with.

Comment Re:Incredibally stupid argument (Score 1) 322

1) Never trust a civilian that says "these weapons you want are not very effective or what you need". He is not trained or capable to make that argument. It's like a mathematician saying he doesn't believe in global warming, or a priest saying he doesn't believe in evolution. 2) You can boil down his argument to what I originally said -"these weapons are good at killing people"

Comment Incredibally stupid argument (Score 5, Insightful) 322

The argument is at heart "Don't develop these weapons because they will be good at killing people and I personally am not smart enough to come up with a civilan use that doesn't kill people".

It is the kind of idiocy that makes the military industrial complex laugh and call you names.

There are good reasons to ban weapons - but not just because the weapon is good at killing people. To those in the military, effectiveness at killing people is a reason to BUILD the weapon, not ban it.

Chemical are banned not because they kill people, but because they are likely to kill civilians and your own soldiers as much as they kill the enemy. They also people and damage valuable land after you win.

A similar argument applies to biological weapons, land mines and nuclear weapons.

There is NOTHING in this article that would convince a soldier to ban the weapons. Instead, any military person, upon reading it will of course demand that we spend lots of money figuring out how to build hypersonic missiles.

If you dislike war, ban it. But you are probably not naive enough to try that. You would lose the argument because such an attempt has many many flaws. Well guess what - trying to ban weapon research because the weapon is too goo is just as naive.

WORST of all, your naive and foolish attempts make it much harder to ban the weapons we actually CAN ban - land mines, chemical and biological warfare.

Comment Secondary market (Score 1) 116

As badly as the 'originators' try to kill the secondary market by creating false problems, it still makes far more sense to buy timeshares on the secondary market.

All of the 'freebies' they offer never make up for the basic fact that sellers are desperate. The complex stuff they offer is only there to hide the fact that the primary market is a rip off in comparison.

Of course, you do need to accept the fact that you get less 'choice' on the secondary market. Still, it always makes more sense, if you can afford the time and effort to look and find a reputable website

Comment Why?? (Score 1) 27

The basics of dna replication are well known. We know they need to cycle heat.

They should have been using a standard heater, using the CPU's chip seems like a kludge.

It might work, but it seems unlikely to be the better than a purpose built device. At most it saves a bit of cash and energy, at the expense of accuracy and complex programming.

Comment Chip and Pin isn't worth it. (Score 1) 132

The amount of money saved by chip and pin is relatively low. A mere password doesn't cut it. US fraud rate is so low that it is not considered worthwhile.

Give us real security - a Token based system that generates a new single use credit card number for each and every purchase made using the card - both on and off line.

That number should only be reusable if you want to make it a reoccurring, monthly charge.

Comment Re:Property rights (Score 1) 215

Wrong, on just so many levels. This demonstrates a total lack of understanding of property rights.. If you own property, you usually own the air rights. Up until recently, this usually only came into the law's purview when you can build above your property.

If for example, your neighbor on both sides get married, they legally can not build a bridge between their homes, over yours.

Also, you can SELL your air rights. It happens all the time in major cities. Typically, a new building will buy the air rights above an older one. They do this for two reasons.

1), if you have a large building with a good view, you might buy the air rights of the smaller buildings next to it to ensure you keep your view.

2) If the city has rules about how high you can build your building, sometimes they let you average it out over a city block. So if the city says no building may be above 200 ft, they might let you buy the 100 ft air rights of the building next to you, so your building can be 300 ft, and theirs is stuck at a mere 100 ft.

Comment Consdiring their past... (Score 5, Informative) 248

I remember there was this case where a woman in the US on an education visa was put on the list, allowed to fly out of the US, then not allowed to fly back in next september. She had not finished her studies.

She sued, and called her mother as a witness. Her mother was then put on the list and not allowed back in. The US denied doing this, but the airline said that was why she was not allowed to board.

Eventually they discovered that the original reason the daughter was put on the no fly list was that someone interviewing her had checked the wrong box on a form.

She won her law suit, and the US had to remove her from the list. This was after years of having her education interrupted.

Basically, the no fly list is a poorly managed piece of crap that they are ashamed to admit they usually have no idea why anyone is on the list.

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