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Comment Re:Economic terrorism (Score 1) 170

Republicans equate being pro-market with being pro-big-business-agenda. The assumption is that anything that is good for big business is good for the market and therefore good for consumers.

So in the Republican framing, anti-trust, since is interferes with what big business wants to do, is *necessarily* anti-market and bad for consumers, which if you accept their axioms would have to be true, even though what big business wants to do is use its economic scale and political clout to consolidate, evade competition, and lock in consumers.

That isn't economics. It's religion. And when religious dogmas are challenge, you call the people challenging them the devil -- or in current political lingo, "terrorists". A "terrorist" in that sense doesn't have to commit any actual act of terrorism. He just has to be a heathen.

Comment Re:How about the unbanned? (Score 1) 134

Forget the kids, they don't vote so they can be safely trod upon.

I care about the kids, and I don't think this is treading on them, I think it's pushing them to have IRL relationships, and that's a good thing. I say that as a nerd who had few friends when I was a teen (in the 80s), but even normal, social kids today have far fewer real friendships and many of the geeky kids like I was now have none at all.

We're a social species, we need and crave socialization, but social media is to real relationships like drugs are to the normal joys of life; a false but massively-amped substitute for the real thing, addictive and harmful. It's perfectly possible to get high or drunk from time to time and still enjoy real life, but you have to use the artificial happiness in moderation and control. There are really good reasons why we try to keep kids away from drugs and alcohol, and keep adults away from the really powerful and addictive stuff, and get them into treatment when they get hooked (well, in the US we mostly just put them in prison, but some parts of the world are getting smarter and focusing on treatment).

The same logic applies to social media. We need to figure out how to tame its effects on adults, especially those who are for some reason especially vulnerable and get very warped by it. IMO, it makes perfect sense to just try to keep kids off of it entirely, especially since we don't really understand it yet.

Comment Re:You're addressing a very important detail (Score 2) 112

Nuclear Fission isn't cost effective ... _unless_ you price in the full eco-balance of electricity production. Then the numbers look significantly different and fission could just be a real thing once again. At least until renewables and energy storage have gained significant portions of the energy mix.

No. This is nonsense. Nuclear fuel production has a massive ecological impact. Nuclear only looks good when compared to coal. Stop doing that.

Submission + - The rise of the electrostate (www.cbc.ca)

AmiMoJo writes: China’s massive lead in clean technologies has shifted the global climate fight from one of big pledges and international diplomacy toward a technological revolution in cheaper energy, analysts say.
The accelerated adoption of clean technologies — particularly solar and wind power, as well as electric vehicles — has challenged long-held assumptions about how central fossil fuels are to modern industrial development, as well as which countries would lead the world in the climate fight.
The contrast between countries embracing clean technologies and countries still dependent on producing and burning fossil fuels is also becoming wider. Countries like the U.S., now the world's largest oil producer, could be left behind in the race for the energy sources of the future.

Comment You said "cheap" and "Wifi", but... (Score 5, Insightful) 139

So this isn't at all what you asked for, but I'm going to throw it out there anyway: Ubiquiti. You'll pay more and they're all PoE rather than wireless, but if you spend the money and run the wires (hey, you have to run a wire for power anyway, might as well use it for data, too) you won't regret the results.

Comment But of course! (Score 1) 86

What's the point of having a national military if you can't use it to pump taxpayer dollars into corporate coffers?

*scenario*

"Fox company, we'll airdrop a licensed mechanic and a licensed parts salesman onto your position around 0930, as soon as they finish repairing some stuff the enemy captured last year and make their way back to our side of the lines. Division says hold your position as best you can until then -- and remind the riflemen not to use their weapons as clubs, as that will void their warranty. It would be better for the overall war effort to let you position be overrun."

"No, Davies can't fix the autocannon even if your lives depend on it. Division says to shoot him in the arse if he so much as touches it."

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