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Comment Re:DOGE for courts (Score 1) 131

The intent was for everyone to have access to military-grade weapons so that they could form militias. Early drafts specified they be the same sort of guns used in the Revolution, but that was removed, apparently for futureproofing.

There was a separate law passed in 1792 that defined what weapons should be available for people in a militia, but I can't find any evidence that the second amendment ever did that. It was based around similar laws in other states and in England, none of which specified such things, so it would be very surprising if they had considered doing so.

So, I wouldn't be surprised if the founders would have included select-fire (what you called automatic) rifles, had they known they would exist, as that's what you'd want your militia trained on.

Even if we assume that the intent was to protect the right to bear all future military-grade weapons, it was still intended for forming militias for the defense of the country, not for storing high-power weapons at every individual's house for their personal use where kids can pick them up and shoot each other.

Weapons of that time would not have been easy for a kid to discharge multiple times. They would not have been easy for someone to discharge a hundred times in anger and mass-murder people. And so on. And that's the point I was trying to make. These weapons are materially different from anything they could have conceived of at the time.

Comment Re:Good! (Score 1) 48

It's not clear that when you include all externalities fission power is the cheapest way to power the grid. But there are places where it probably is the cheapest way to power something. (Or if not cheapest, has other overriding benefits.)

OTOH, including all externalities is tricky. I'm always dubious when I read a claim that it's been done.

Comment Re:It makes sense. (Score 1) 37

Low karma is a good thing if you're a right winger. A badge of honor. Mod system has become just "how far left are you?"

This is the dumbest of all dumb takes on Slashdot. Every time I post about the obvious and well-accepted failures of capitalism I get modded down but somehow this place is a haven for leftist thought? No, you are just a shitty person with shitty ideas.

Comment Re:Cooperation Governments needed (Score 3, Informative) 33

They are a communist totalitarian regime

wank wank flonk flonk

doing ethnic purges not only historically but also RIGHT NOW

We're funding one not only historically but RIGHT NOW

openly preparing to invade their peaceful neighbour Taiwan

Venezuela, bitch.

operating the Great Firewall

Yeah, we don't have a great firewall, we just have unconstitutional citizen spying programs with taps on all backhaul links and points of ingress/egress.

implementing some absurdly Orwellian schemes like their Social Score thing

Wait until you find out about credit scores and employment or renting a home.

not to mention stealing all western IP they can lay their hands on

Yeah, we sent it to them so they could build us stuff, and our nation was very much founded on ignoring patents.

and abusing their trade dominance (rare earths anyone) in any way they can.

You mean the rare earths we stopped producing because we got them cheaper from China, and could be producing again but we don't want to? Oh yeah and tariffs.

My point here is not that any of this shit China is doing is great. My point is that we are doing all the same shit, and if you don't think so, you're a nationalistic dipshit with his head so far up his ass he can see out of his own mouth.

Comment Re: We've done the experiment (Score 1) 152

Maybe the halfway house is that platforms keep their section 230 protections, but must identify any users that post illegal content

So now you want sites to verify ID before people can post, so that they can be ID'd if some content they posted is deemed illegal? Think about that one some more.

Comment Re:Robot vacuum cleaners - meh (Score 1) 74

A real vacuum cleaner just about maxes out a standard residential 120v 15a circuit, as anyone who remembers the incandescent bulb era can attest to. A circuit with a few lamps shared with a vacuum cleaner could easily end with you flipping a breaker or replacing a blown fuse.

When you look at the absolutely tiny lithium ion pack these robo-vacs come with, ...

Sitting on my kitchen table right now is a drone pack. It's 57,5Wh, smaller the batteries of most modern Roombas. It's 50C - thus it can output up to 2,9kW. And there's even higher packs available than that. Lithium ion cells can handle some truly high power outputs. It's *energy*, not *power*, that is their limitation. Run a pack at 50C and it'll be empty in a bit over a minute. That said, on hard floor surfaces there is absolutely no reason why you should be drawing more than 300-400W or so, and you can get by with well less than that. High powers are for like shag carpeting and the like. Also, the head matters more than the power (though of course contribute) - for a hard floor, for example, a fluffy roller head is ideal.

Comment Re:Rejected the AMZN Aquisition? (Score 3, Insightful) 74

Facts. I used to have a Roomba for years, but as I live in Europe, it was getting increasingly hard to deal with modern features (like the self-emptying base which needs 120V power). I reluctantly switched to a Roborock when my power converter died, and just, wow, they're light years ahead of iRobot. I think iRobot has been coasting on its name for a while now.

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