Are you sure he's a recluse? You can be out of the public eye and not be a recluse.

Eh, I've been both an IT guy and a lawyer, and honestly the bar exam isn't particularly hard or connected to what lawyers actually do. From what I've heard the higher-end certifications in IT do a decent job.

http://www.londoninternational...

Someone raised it on the questions thread, so if he's actually sane on climate change then great. I was really focusing on making fun of the "cool in battlefield situations" boasting.

He said he preferred the AR-15 because he was part of that culture; if he personally didn't think he possessed those attributes, he wouldn't have "leaned" towards it. Does anyone seriously doubt that he considers himself "cool under combat pressure"? He's been posturing like this online since the 1990's.

The commonly-accepted usage of words is determined by the majority. Whatever "hacker" used to mean, it now means someone who bypasses computer security systems to commit crimes.

I thought the funniest thing about this story was how they didn't ask any of the modded-up questions about his racism, climate denial, paranoid conspiracy theories, etc. Then I got to this:

"ESR: "Better battle rifle" depends on who you're equipping, and for what. I lean towards the AR-15 because I'm from a culture that readily produces people with good marksmanship, fire discipline, and steadiness onder combat pressure. The AR-15 is the better weapon to match those traits - it rewards skill in the shooter and you can actually use it at distance."

This is just beyond hilarious; ESR is the ultimate internet tough guy. What exactly in your middle-class suburban "culture" made you steady under "combat pressure"? Do you think this posturing impresses anybody, or makes any of us believe that you wouldn't immediately fold if you faced any danger whatsoever? You know how you can tell if you have "fire discipline" or "steadininess [u]nder pressure"? Actually be in a situation that requires it. Until then you just look ridiculous.

I personally know many NIH-funded researchers who work on things big pharma doesn't care about. Like malaria vectors.

"Physicians are human and are subject to the same bias and irrational thinking as the rest of us. Nothing can replace a well designed study where the results can be reproduced."

Yep. Most physicians also suffer from the serious flaw that they are terrified of appearing not to know something. When was the last time you heard a physician say "these symptoms are unusual in this combination; let me do a little research and get back to you"?

Right, I'm saying that as a taxpayer I'm not going to get angry over that mistake because in the end NASA got a good deal.

Eh, I was ready to be outraged but after glancing through the OIG report it doesn't look that bad. Apparently the Google dudes paid a market rate for the hangar space, and let NASA use one of their planes for free (that would otherwise cost thousands of dollars per flight hour). I would suspect that even taking into account the discounted fuel NASA came out ahead.

Exactly; homeopathy is quackery, but there are plenty of supplements in their aisles that have been shown to be effective.

Try reporting the theft of one of your MMORPG characters' best sword and see how much attention the police pay you.

"While nothing is 100% certain, I know I would feel a hell of a lot more secure with $100,000 in cash in a fireproof safe, or even at a bank, than I would with the same amount in BitCoins sitting in an exchange or even in "cold storage" that's based on untested (and obviously flawed) protocols and trust in a completely unregulated private company in another country (or even our own)."

The vast majority of bitcoin conspiracy theorists feel the same, they just won't admit it.

I have never heard of any residential mortgage agreement having an acceleration clause tied to a change in debt/equity ratio. Do you have any citations for this? By the way, even if such a clause existed, it was something you contracted for, so it's not like it was completely out of the blue.