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Comment Re:Progressive Fix 101 (Score 1) 622

Comfort and Convenience are huge psychological issues that are an equally huge blind spot to environmentalists. Doing more with less increases stress - that's something that most people avoid. If you want to reduce resources used then the change has to improve comfort and convenience... or reduce the number of people. Simple math.

Comment Re:Varies, I suppose (Score 3, Interesting) 533

The grid can't handle micro-generation. So... who is going to pay for upgrading the grid? And guarantee electricity during peak need but lowest production?

A far more economical solution is a more intelligent home that uses all of it's produced electricity. Run the AC more when the sun shines, charge the electric car, etc. Eventually the grid gets rebuilt to handle 2 way with far more local rebalancing, but that's a decade or three away.

Comment Re:no... just no (Score 4, Insightful) 254

Everyone loses it once in a while. Most viral type posts lack the context that make the situation understandable - so people jump to conclusions that they prefer.

Polite is not the same as Nice. Polite is a lie. Nice is results. Polite is a smile while twisting a knife in someone's back. Nice is taking that knife so that someone else doesn't have to. People often confuse the two because they don't take the effort to think.

Comment Re:And it's not even an election year (Score 4, Informative) 407

Nope.

3/4 of STEM workers flee the field due to substandard pay and working conditions compared to other jobs they can get.

Petroleum engineers were scarce at one time, but a 20% pay raise brought a 200% productivity rate from local talent. Problem solved and everyone wins.

Comment Re:Systemic and widespread? (Score -1) 489

It's just as easy to lie with a video as it is verbally. Remember that video of the police officer pepper spraying a protester in their car? It had purposely been cut so that it didn't show the preceding altercation that justified the officer's actions.

A couple years ago I sat in on a trial of an officer who was tried and convicted despite all evidence to the contrary, simply because of people blaming police for everything. That anger and frustration is completely misplaced - if people want change then they need to research politicians and make better voting choices.

Comment Re: Security theater (Score 3, Insightful) 224

There is no silver bullet, but calling psychology a delusion only shows ignorance of the science.

"Soft Sciences" are really just those with many variables. Training and experience deal with those rather than hard formulas that can be computed through software.

Is that person nervous or relaxed? That comprises hundreds of variables. Are they defensive to questions? What about their return trip (while they are thinking they won't return)? etc etc etc

Security is also layered. First is basic software profiling based on information about the person and flight. Second is physical screening. Third is behavioral screening. The list goes on.

I'm a frequent traveler and see the TSA has 90% theatre. That won't change because the voters only want a warm fuzzy feeling, the politicians only care about votes and kickbacks, any sensible TSA executive gets fired, airlines are constantly trying to eliminate security for cost savings, and screeners are minimum wage employees (untrained, inexperienced). There's simply no driver to improve the situation.

Comment Re: Security theater (Score 4, Insightful) 224

The problem here isn't the science, it's the pork.

Behavioral science is half of a police officer's job. Problem is (besides pork barrel mismanagement) is that minimum wage TSA don't have the training, experience, or often the intelligence to use it effectively. Many airports that do this effectively will simply hire a good local police department to accomplish it.

As for bashing the TSA, every time they try to do something reasonable (like ok nail clippers) they get fired by the politicians. So track the problem down to the source - dishonest politicians and the apathetic and ignorant public that votes them in.

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