...that it's still cheaper to fly jets like buses for the same kinds of routes a bullet train would cover.

Americans get all excited about this stuff without ever actually experiencing it firsthand. They never see the high prices or how it might be simpler just to rent your own car.

Bullet trains more of a glamour tech item like a Battleship or an Aircraft Carrier. They look good but they aren't nearly as practical as they seem.

If the US wants to act like it's in love with trains again, it would be far better to beef up CARGO capacity. However that's not sexy. No one gets exited about efficient cargo service.

> A democracy is all fun and games, until you get shot in the head,

+ ...by a cop.

...except we did actually enact "strict but sane gun laws".

The mass shootings didn't stop.

Banning scary ugly weapons didn't really help. That law came and went and nothing really changed.

In both cases, the "strict but sane gun laws" probably had ZERO influence on both outcomes.

Gun control is a childish fantasy for people that have graduated from the tooth fairy.

> In what way is a semi automatic rifle with no serial number consistent with a well regulated militia?

"well regulated" doesn't mean what you think it does.

Neither does "militia".

For the original spirit of the 2nd Amendment, it really doesn't matter if your rifle can be used to uniquely identify you or to spy on you after the fact. It only needs to be functionally correct.

Distorting technology in order to make the job of law enforcement easier really isn't in scope here.

> Do you somehow find yourself aggrieved by not being able to carry a sword with you? Is it ruining your cyberpunk look or something?

Some parts of suburbia contain enough vibrant vegetation that carrying around a short sword is not such a bad idea really.

You gotta wonder sometimes if all of these nanny state types have never been anywhere and don't pay enough attention to the news to have some remote clue about how things are elsewhere.

You might want to get something resembling a clue before trying to make public policy for the rest of us.

If I want something I can pay for it. If my life is on the line, I don't have to worry about how much it costs. I already know two people who have benefited from very expensive life saving procedures. I am sure that when I need something like that, it will at least be there.

I'm not so sure of near-communist countries where beaurocrats are in charge of these things.

This guy from Liberia is already getting the best care available anywhere. He might even pull through because of our "inferior" system.

> This isn't the 1800s where the army and the individual have the same weapons.

Clearly you've never been to Texas. Individuals are better armed, have better equipment, and are better at using it.

A lot of work is so old by now that it should be in the public domain. Copyright was never meant to be a new form of property or a means to extract tolls from end users until the end of time.

The point of both copyright and patents is to encourage the creation of ideas/inventions that EVERYONE can use.

"copying the work" is the intended ultimate result.

No. He just doesn't take Lemming trolls at face value.

Most people whining about GIMP and putting Photoshop on a pedestal are amateurs and consumers that would never actually pay for a copy of Photoshop ever.

Photoshop is a lot of cost for questionable marginal benefit.

> "fraudulent" is quite an accusation. If you try to outlaw market crashes/corrections, you will kill the market, and then what of your retirement savings?

If you allow market crashes caused by rampant fraud, you won't have to worry about retirement savings. You probably won't live that long.

This stuff is nothing new. People just like to ignore history.

Of course. They are a bunch of sociopaths that can't wait to screw over everyone else. So are their end users.

Of course sociopaths want to stay well away from the GPL3. It closed a loophole that could be used to subvert the intent of the authors.

The BSD layer is pretty IRRELEVANT to the average user.

To the typical person wandering around the Apple Store, it is the OpenStep layer that is the OS. Those people will never be aware of or interact with the BSD layer EVER. For them, the GUI is the OS.

That is perhaps the most important aspect of this situation for normal Mac users. They don't have to worry about bash because it's invisible and irrelevant.

> If there was no video then how did Spock watch Kirk fight the Gorn?

That was provided by the advanced alien race that created that situation to begin with.

Treat it methodically and there really isn't any difference. Snape is probably just as much of a scientist as any chemist. He just practices in a different domain. The same is probably true of Gandalf.

Make him a member of Psi-corps and suddenly it's all good and obviously sci-fi again.