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Comment Re:And they've already stopped (Score 0) 204

They cancelled this policy [nytimes.com] almost immediately after it was brought to light.

Here's the thing: the data mining apparatus and amount of data entry required to get to this point must be enormous. Finding all of the information required to get to the point of issuing seizures of refunds would require complete integration of all SSI payment history, all tax payment history, family histories, movement pattern tracking, etc.

There might even be a tie in to NSA/"not-TIA" to enable this, since the scope is so large. They probably started putting out bids for the work shortly after the law changed in 2008 and have only recently yielded results.

It's not going to be turned off just like that.

Comment Re:And they've already stopped (Score 1) 632

They cancelled this policy [nytimes.com] almost immediately after it was brought to light.

Here's the thing: the data mining apparatus and amount of data entry required to get to this point must be enormous. Finding all of the information required to get to the point of issuing seizures of refunds would require complete integration of all SSI payment history, all tax payment history, family histories, movement pattern tracking, etc.

There might even be a tie in to NSA/"not-TIA" to enable this, since the scope is so large. They probably started putting out bids for the work shortly after the law changed in 2008 and have only recently yielded results.

It's not going to be turned off just like that.

Comment Re:i know how to cool the planet off (Score 1) 343

set off a few nuclear bombs deep underground at a supervolcano and that should cause it to throw enough debris in to the atmosphere blocking enough sunlight to cool the planet off and possibly cause a mass extinction event

wheres my Nobel Prize? if obama can get one for making stupid comments then so can I

...it was seized in a judgement against you after you got sued by Scientology for copyright infringement, Xenu

Comment Re:there are also a shitload more f2p games that d (Score 1) 245

That did what? Not suck? Can you give us a list of 10 F2P games that did not suck and not include DOTA2?

And how much lower is the bar for F2P and why? Clearly, the teams making these games are trying to make money, and if they believe they can make money, apparently there is some value to having people play these games?

So what exactly is "free" as in "free to play"? Ain't nothing free.

Comment Re:Technically if an NSA backdoor existed (Score 1) 171

The code is being audited in America.

Is there something preventing an audit elsewhere? Is it illegal to send the source code overseas? And how are these audits done? There aren't a lot of details in TFA. Is it like a big Wiki where anybody can look at the code and report what they find, or are the auditors vetted with specific sections assigned them?

I'm asking seriously. I'm not a developer, so I don't know. But I worry about security and snooping.

Comment The fossil fuel "subsidies" are a lie. (Score 3, Informative) 343

First, what tax subsidies are you talking about? There is no way Coal is subsidized, nor is oil and gas..

The fossil fuel "subsidies" they speak of are nothing but specious reasoning. Seriously: all but an irrelevant fraction of the "subsidies" amount to "we don't believe fossil fuels are being taxed punitively enough, therefore the absence of those punitive taxes means they are receiving a subsidy".

It's a basic begging the question fallacy.

Look at this link: Global fossil fuel subsidies amount to $1.9 trillion – IMF

Today, in advanced economies, fossil fuels do not get much the way of direct subsidies – although they do still exist, for example Germany spends 0.07% of its GDP supporting coal and the US spends 0.05% of its GDP on petroleum. But fossil fuels do continue to benefit from subsidies in those economies in the form of mispriced taxation levels.

In advanced economies, “subsidies often take the form of taxes that are too low to capture the true costs to society of energy use, including pollution and road congestion,” the IMF said. “Taxes imposed on energy are not high enough to account for all the adverse effects of excessive energy consumption, including on the environment,” says the David Lipton, First Deputy Managing Director of the IMF."

Even the Iraq war is literally a fossil fuel tax subsidy in their mind. Don't debate these people: either their logic is broken so there's no point in trying to use reason, or they are being deliberately disingenuous so there is no way to engage in an honest debate.

Either way, it's a good idea to know where their talking points are coming from.

Comment (Why is IMEI changeable in the first place?) (Score 1) 109

Because Asurion. Handset insurance almost invariably involves refurbished units. If the baseband of one phone is broken, but the mainboard of another is okay, which IMEI do you use? The answer is to scrap them both and generate a new one on the refurbished unit. Even for the phones that don't support this, it is still technically a "different phone" that has its cracked screen replaced, because if that phone then needs an insurance replacement, retaining the IMEI will garner a "but this phone has already been replaced" situation. If the IMEI changes, it makes it all but impossible for refurbs to be reliably done.

Comment Re:Technically if an NSA backdoor existed (Score 4, Interesting) 171

The problem with the NSA is we have no idea what their capabilities are, technologically or legally. They are clearly violating the constitution already and there seems to be no one willing or capable of stopping them. So if they did come to you with a NSL, no matter how ridiculous or unconstitutional it was, what choice would you have? You could go to the media, but how embedded in the media are they? Do they have standing NSLs with all the media organizations out there? You could go outside the country, but those newspapers are government by their own countries version of the NSA who's working in close relationship with ours. This really is a Global totalitarian secret police state. They haven't started herding people into camps or anything, but really... what's to stop them?

Comment There is no social issue (Score 1) 343

we have to get over the social issue first.

There is no social issue, there is only a propaganda issue. People have been told over and over that nuclear is the ultimate evil thing. They just need some counterbalancing facts about how it can be safe and that in fact it's safer than coal... then start by replacing coal plants with small really well contained nuclear plants, and expand from there.

Comment Re:What if we overcorrect? (Score 1) 343

Fertilizing the ocean with iron will not increase the fish population, it will rather kill it off.

Obvious solution: don't over do it. Some nutrients will increase both plankton and fish. Too much will cause problems. We should run some small scale test projects, and then scale them up as we learn.

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