So I have seen a lot of stories about heavy snow or fog causing accidents because of visibility problems.

I thought of a solution, what you could do is develop a type of windshield with build in LED or other illuminating dots, or some sort of one way reflective material that is otherwise clear, and a radar detection system in the front of the car.

When turned on it could scan ahead of the car for objects at a given distance (say 300 ft or 100 m) then once it detects something it could print out an outline of the object on the windshield, and then adjust the image as you get closer (make it grow or shrink accordingly).

Viola, problem solved.

I believe we already have the technology available to do this, just the logistics of implementation would need to be worked out...

So I have been thinking offhand the last few weeks and have come up with 2 solutions to problems facing america.

First the energy crisis. We could subsidize solar panels for all americans. Wait wait, hear me out :)

I saw a documentary the other day about ultra hippies who lived off the grid raising their own crops, dairy, use biofuel for their cards and got all of their electricity from Solar panels and battery arrays, the solar setup cost about $20,000 per household. I worked out the math and in ten years time we could subsidize this setup for pretty much all americans.

Where to get the money you say? Well all we would do is divert the current Oil company subsidies we currently provide to this project instead. No tax increases and a huge reduction in foreign Oil dependence.

I also thought of a water powered generator hooked up to the main water line of each house, since water pressure is constant, and water can't be compressed, this would generate a small amount of electricty whenever using water, good for night hours of use (dishwashing, baths, flushing toilets) and esp good for big buildings where water use is pretty much constant.

The other solution I just thought of today, Universal health care.

How to get the money, well this is the controversial part, end the war on drugs and divert that money to health care.

Anyone familiar with the WOD knows it is a losing battle, and anytime a person is involved in the criminal system, that person HAS to be punished, which is shown to have a negligable effect on curbing drug use.

What we could do instead is use the money we currently use on enforcing drug laws and use it for rehab facilities instead of prisions.

I am talking about decriminalizing drugs, not making them legal persay.. much in the way other countries do (germany, canada, etc).

Of course any laws violated in relation to drug use (theft, assault, murder, etc) would be prosecuted but also mandated rehab which would already be paid for...

It's not that there are no answers to these problems, just that i doubt we could ever stop the powers that be from continuing the status Quo which keep some people VERY rich, and others poor or VERY poor or incarcerated.

At about the same rate I used to , see below posts for more info..

So now it's been close to 9 months with not a mod point in sight, my karma is excellent, I meta mod 1-2 times a day but yet no mod points...

Something else I think I have discovered... when you create a new account, you will be higher on the mod point ladder than others who have been in the system and have had mod points or karma associated (especially in regards to medamoderation which I think dings you big time if you get metamodded down), basically to get the new account a chance to join in on moderation.. so asshats can use these to wrongly mod topics, and metamod daily, which moves "good" people down so they don't have a chance to moderate...

I think there should be a mandatory 6 months no mod points on new accounts... this is just silly.

SO to re-cap, when i first joined slashdot (made an account) I had the basic karma level and was getting mod points about once a week... soon after they started the meta mod program I dropped off the face of moderation and haven't had a mod point since....

*UPDATE* As of 1-25-06 I have started to get mod points again, so it makes me wonder if the meta-modding effect has subsided, or (more disconcerting) was I exempted from modding posts for some reason?!?

You know how you always here the saying "(this or that) is the Opium of the masses"?

Well this saying is usually to explain why something exists, like religon in marxism, or TV in American culture...

My question is why not just use Opium? Why waste all that time using something else to keep the people down when Opium is so easy to cultivate and distribute?

It's like the whole "Try this food, it tastes just like chicken!!"

If I wanted to eat something that tasted like chicken, I WOULD EAT CHICKEN!!!

So I think I have figured out something about metamoderation...

If you moderate a topic and then it is metamoderated as bad (you know, bad neutral or good) then your chances of being a moderator in the future gets dinged...

This has to be why I haven't had a single mod point in about 6 months now... I moderate every day, if not 2x a day, but nothing, nada, zip.

I think some asstards have been metamoderating bad for all metamods, just to be jerks (and we know they are out there, intent on ruining the /. experience for anyone else)... I think the metamoderation idea is good, I just think it is way to easily abused...

I have now meta moderated about 20-25 times without a single mod point, sometimes i get to metamoderate like 2 times a day.

I'm convinced that someone likes my method of actually checking context and making informed decisions in my metamods, either that or they are trying to get in my pants... i dunno...

If you get subpoenaed just submit to the judge that yes you did download but you own a license for every song you downloaded so you didn't break the law.

Then find out what songs they list in their brief against you and go buy it in legit form, like singles, cd, etc...

That way when you have to prove that you have the license for the copyright you will have it and save yourself about $735 per song (since the minimum is a $750 fine per song copyright violation).

Seems a lot beter than giving the bloodsucking RIAA lawyers your money plus tying up their time in court making it futile to continue on suing people en-mass because of the cost of litigation (if everyone who was subpoenaed did this).

Let me know what you think...

this is getting old and i'm ready to start shooting people.

"... oh yah, this is Slashdot."

The ... is anything said before this saying that sets up the joke.

This saying isn't funny anymore, it might have been for like 3 days total like 4 years ago.. now it isn't.

Please stop saying it.