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Comment Re:Libertarians -- foot in mouth yet? (Score 1) 596

Why should I pay a bunch of people in government to make decisions with my money when I can make those decisions myself and keep a butt-ton of money to boot? The government takes over $120 out of my meager $530 weekly paychecks and gives me nothing in return. Most of that money goes to pay for government health care for the poor and elderly. I will never see a dime of that money. The rest of it goes to a retirement plan which I will never see benefits from.

Essentially a bunch of con-men have conned us into believing that we should pay them to make financial decisions for us, then taken all of our money and used it on projects which never benefit us.

You also forgot that a good portion of that 120 provides the protection services, down to the roads police drive on, that keep people from taking your 530 a week. Pay crooks in state and local government so you can keep the rest of your paycheck, or pick the options you prefer. Slavery - you work for free anyway Anarchy - work all you want, someone with a bigger stick will take it anyway Could go on and on with other options, but you've already got the best one.

Science

Aussie Scientists Find Coconut-Carrying Octopus 205

An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from an AP report: "Australian scientists have discovered an octopus in Indonesia that collects coconut shells for shelter — unusually sophisticated behavior that the researchers believe is the first evidence of tool use in an invertebrate animal. The scientists filmed the veined octopus, Amphioctopus marginatus, selecting halved coconut shells from the sea floor, emptying them out, carrying them under their bodies up to 65 feet (20 meters), and assembling two shells together to make a spherical hiding spot. ... 'I was gobsmacked,' said Finn, a research biologist at the museum who specializes in cephalopods. 'I mean, I've seen a lot of octopuses hiding in shells, but I've never seen one that grabs it up and jogs across the sea floor. I was trying hard not to laugh.'"
Image

The Perfect Way To Slice a Pizza 282

iamapizza writes "New Scientist reports on the quest of two math boffins for the perfect way to slice a pizza. It's an interesting and in-depth article; 'The problem that bothered them was this. Suppose the harried waiter cuts the pizza off-center, but with all the edge-to-edge cuts crossing at a single point, and with the same angle between adjacent cuts. The off-center cuts mean the slices will not all be the same size, so if two people take turns to take neighboring slices, will they get equal shares by the time they have gone right round the pizza — and if not, who will get more?' This is useful, of course, if you're familiar with the concept of 'sharing' a pizza."
Earth

Yellowstone Supervolcano Larger Than First Thought 451

drewtheman writes "New studies of the plumbing that feeds the Yellowstone supervolcano in Wyoming's Yellowstone National Park shows the plume and the magma chamber under the volcano are larger than first thought and contradicts claims that only shallow hot rock exists. University of Utah research professor of geophysics Robert Smith led four separate studies that verify a plume of hot and molten rock at least 410 miles deep that rises at an angle from the northwest."

Comment I've seen worse (Score 1) 451

I had to take the test, and I laughed as I got that question wrong, but no one cares. They hire a contractor to create a test, it's only reviewed by pointed haired managers, accuracy is optional. Just because it's there doesn't mean it's official belief, just that the agency creating the test put opinions down.

Comment Re:overstated or misunderstood wind turbine proble (Score 1) 867

Ironic. Kennedy just gave enough money to the Mass. Maritime Academy (Buzzard's Bay) to get them to rename the training ship to the TS Kennedy (I liked Enterprise better...). Mass Maritime Academy is one of the most green schools I've ever seen, they even have a wind turnbine. To keep from energizing downed power lines, the turbine is shut down whenever the electicity goes out for saftey reasons. When the chief of the ship wants to know if they lost shore power, or if it's a problem with the ship, he looks out the window to see if the turbine is turning or not :)

Comment Re:An interesting question (Score 1) 594

When on my family's 800 acre ranch, driving around, do i have a reasonable expectation of privacy? I'm not even so much as in public view, which everyone keeps mentioning. If i'm going to bury a body in the middle of private woods, they need to have a warrant to track me. Personally i just want to track the cops, and see about handing out speeding tickets to all the guys that pass illegally, speeding, and then just end up pulling into a fast food place to get a meal.

Comment Re:Don't forget the guns! (Score 5, Informative) 124

I work for the maritime administration in the gulf, pirate aren't really a concern here. Too busy of a shipping lane, with too many patrols from the coast gaurd and navy. Most of these would be just outside US internation waters, pirates would have to be based inside the US to hit them in short range craft more commonly used.

Comment Re:Engineers (Score 1) 613

I'm a lefty, and in the 'chicken scratch' category. I have noticed one thing, every left handed person I see that writes with a normal angle / bend of the wrist has messy hand writing. Those that write with the wrist bent and the hand pointed down have neat hand writing. On a side note, I'll know if anyone ever tries to forge my signature, because it's never the same twice :)

Comment Pay cash, or get used to it (Score 1) 526

Know a DBA that wrote the software Target uses to keep track of every single purchase made by people using credit / debit cards. This database does not get emptied, they will always know everything you bought, it can even report your buying habits for toothpaste to try to predict how often you visit the store...

Comment Propane (Score 1) 695

Common thing along the gulf after the last few hurricanes and weeks without power is for people to install propane generators (which you can even order from lowes) if you live within an area that has it piped to you. Most expensive thing is usally the labor to have it installed with cutoffs, etc. I've seen total packages up to 15K that can run an entire house, A/C (we don't even have furnaces down here), washer, dryer, you name it. But I'm sure if you could get a smaller one and only connect it to certain circuits in your house, again labor would be the big cost if you want it professionally done, which I reommend if you want it to automatticaly start vs just dealing with extension cords. I've always had pretty big commercial grade UPSs that I put any computer equipment on, most generators just don't run clean enough for a pc power supply

Comment Re:Are all the news stories sensationalist? (Score 1) 288

I work with Marine Engineers that are trained to fix problems knowing they won't be able to order spare parts out at sea. Reminds me of a quote the Chief Engineer for the TS Kennedy is always saying. "The difficult we do now, the impossible takes a little more time". No doubt space engineers can hold up thier end of the bargain.

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