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Comment Re:I'm conflicted (Score 1) 125

You make a legal requirement that he have insurance, and then give the insurance company complete access to his data, so it can charge him more.

I have a question for you: If the man had left his car in the garage and done nothing with it, or driven in perfect accordance with all laws, would the insurance company issue him a refund since they hadn't actually been exposed to the risk they charged him for?

This seems insane. Can you just send me your bank info, and I'll take whatever money out of it whenever I want, based on your reckless habit of going to the bar once a week?

Comment Re:Enjoy being trampled even harder by china (Score 1) 639

You are incorrect.

Will you have to factor a quadratic? No.

But the big thing that Algebra does is to bring together everything that has come before it. Adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing fractions, decimals and percents. All this stuff you use on a daily basis.

Just like the whole point of Calculus is that it actually drives home everything that you learned up to that point.

But regardless, this "nobody takes Algebra before 9th grade" is just f*cking dumb. Smart kids gonna smart. Dumb kids aren't.

Comment Isis? Really? (Score 1) 97

And this goes to show you that Americans are afraid of crap they see on CNN and Fox News.

You are significantly more likely to get killed going to your mailbox than you are to get killed by any form of terrorism.

If you were really afraid of cyberterrorism, you'd be more cautious about what links you open.

Comment Lotsa luck there. (Score 1) 124

Google has some fucking amazingly talented engineers with a love for software and physics and engineering working on this problem. They have people who consider it theirs life's goal to reduce traffic accidents.

They aren't working to stay ahead of the competition. They are working to build the best self-driving software possible. They are so far ahead of everyone else that it's just silly, and they're still working constantly to get to this goal faster.

Why would you want to invest in that, BMW? Just wait until it's done, and license the software. it'll be VASTLY cheaper and more efficient than what you're planning.

Comment Re: O RLY? (Score 1) 1201

"skill shortage"

Can you design a scenario where there isn't a skill shortage? If there were a million people with the required skill set living in an apartment building across the street from your business, and they were all willing to work for $30,000 a year, you would immediately add more requirements to the skill set, or you would offer them a salary of $29,000 a year, or both. If that didn't reduce the pool of qualified applicants enough, you would drop the salary further and up the requirements further until you had a small pool of qualified applicants. Then you would complain about the lack of qualified applicants.

"good software developers"

I'd be willing to bet that you require proof of this through a successful project or two. You're not hiring people out of college, and you don't have projects that can ramp up their skills to be what you want. So the people that you want have to be currently employed by someone else doing exactly what you want them to do. Tell me again why they want to work for you?

I have a B.S. in math. I have years of programming experience. I've passed a few actuarial exams. I drive a taxi for a living.

Comment And you wonder why there are no good teachers. (Score 1) 1054

In Colorado, the state legislature did away with tenure for elementary-middle-high school teachers. You don't get to argue for more pay, since it's just based on your level of education (B.S or M.S), and # of hours you've taken above your last degree, but you can never have true job security.

Why would anyone do a job where any idiot parent can raise a stink over something stupid, and you get fired for it? Seriously, in Office Space, the main character had 8 bosses, and that was considered ridiculous. For the average teacher, they have 150 bosses, and the bosses change every year. You wonder why all the teachers that stay never do anything for fear of doing something that someone will find offensive.

Comment Re:Banks not to blame for this (Score 1) 917

"Might be the case that the easy credit allowed colleges to push up their tuition knowing students could take out loans"

This is exactly the case. Would you extend a loan to someone for $40,000 to allow them to get a job making $28,000 a year (instead of $24,000?). If you could charge them 7% interest and have it be guaranteed by the government (which means you take NO risk) you sure would.

The housing bubble happened because Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would buy any home loan no matter how bad it was. So, as a bank, even though you know someone will never be able to afford the payments, you make the loan knowing you can sell it off immediately and make a profit with no risk. In fact, you'd be shirking your fiduciary responsibility to NOT make the loan, since it makes money for your bank.

Comment Re:How much lower could speeds go? (Score 1) 122

I've seen what happens when drivers are not selfish. Two lanes approach a stoplight. Most of the traffic wants to turn right, and can do so even if the light is red, but the "not selfish" driver who doesn't pay attention to the fact that there's another lane (with no cars in it) ends up sitting at the front of the overly-full lane, stopping traffic flow.

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