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Comment: How Much You Wanna Bet... (Score 4, Interesting) 211

by IonOtter (#43876507) Attached to: New York City Wants To Revive Old Voting Machines

How much you wanna bet, there was some union worker who's been in the job for 20 years, and saw this coming? They saw it coming and said, "Rather than send them to the scrap yard, we're just gonna squirrel these babies away in this warehouse here," and rolled all those giant hunks of metal into storage in counties all over NY. I bet they got wrapped up, too.

Gonna be a lot of nostalgic voters this election.

Comment: Trap Streets (Score 3, Interesting) 45

by IonOtter (#43597227) Attached to: OpenStreetMap Adds Easier Reporting of Map Problems

I wonder how many "errors" in maps, map software and apps are "trap streets"?

A trap street is a fictitious entry in the form of a misrepresented street on a map, often outside the area the map nominally covers, for the purpose of "trapping" potential copyright violators of the map who, if caught, would be unable to explain the inclusion of the "trap street" on their map as innocent.

Comment: Re:I'm not even a fan, but (Score 4, Interesting) 1174

The problem with your argument is that people are *not* asking the government to create or mandate a "marriage law" as you put it. Nobody who is actually working in the courts and legislative system is asking for any particular right. Nobody is asking for that, in any appreciable numbers, or with any appreciable influence.

What IS happening, is that people are asking the government to clarify that there is no right to marriage at all.

The so-called "right" to marry who you want is what is known as an "unenumerated right," meaning it's a "right" that you have by default, with no pre-existing restrictions, conditions or provisions. It's like the air around your head: it's yours to use however you see fit, so long as it doesn't impinge upon someone else's free use.

What has happened is that individual states have illegally declared marriage to be an enumerated right that is the exclusive domain of a particular majority of society: i.e. heterosexuals.

That, along with the Defense of Marriage Act, is in direct contradiction to the Constitution.

So what the lawyers, activists and people with their hands in the issue are *really* asking for, is for the federal government to step in and say, "Marriage is not an enumerated right. Constitution wins, you lose, obey the law of the land. Allow consenting adults to marry whatever other consenting adults they wish."

(With the appropriate, already established and legitimate conditions regarding age, consent, genetics and being an actual human.)

News

+ - Iran Centrifuge Magnet Story Technically Questionable->

Submitted by Lasrick
Lasrick writes "Yousaf Butt, who deconstructed the AP's unsourced graph that alleged nuclear activity in Iran, has a story just posted that takes down the recently reported issue of Iran's alleged attempts to buy 100,000 magnets for its centrifuges (reported in the Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/iranian-buying-spree-raises-concerns-about-major-expansion-of-nuclear-capacity/2013/02/13/2090805c-7537-11e2-8f84-3e4b513b1a13_story.html)."
Link to Original Source
Power

+ - Scientists develop a way to extract energy from coal without burning it ->

Submitted by Time_Ngler
Time_Ngler writes "Scientists have developed a new method to utilize the power from coal, by having it chemically react with iron-oxide pellets. Working over a span of 10 years with a budget of $15 million, barring any unforeseen problems, the new process should be ready to go into commercial production within the next 5 years. The reaction does not produce carbon dioxide and leaves water and coal ash as its byproducts. Furthermore, the iron used in the reaction can be recycled."
Link to Original Source

Comment: Does Microsoft or Apple Understand Basic Biology? (Score 2) 284

by IonOtter (#42950155) Attached to: Monsanto's 'Terminator' Seeds Set To Make a Comeback

If you drop a CD into the soil, it won't do anything except break down over a few million years. If you drop a CD into a computer, it still won't do anything without user intervention. It might start an auto-run routine, but it won't fully install. (Unless it's a virus or trojan, but that's another kettle of fish.)

However, if you drop a seed...well...pretty much anywhere that doesn't immediately kill it, and it gets wet? It's going to self-replicate. It will complete it's life-cycle and produce more seeds, no human intervention required.

So from a software company, this case has already been decided?

Nature has prior art. The BSA's arguments are invalid.

It is clear that the individual who persecutes a man, his brother, because he is not of the same opinion, is a monster. - Voltaire

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