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Comment Silly Indonesians (Score 2, Insightful) 120

Don't they know you are supposed to start with Pedophiles and TERRORISTS, not AIDS patients. AIDS may be scary, but you are never going to get a color coded threat system out of it.

Only after you stop the terrorists and save the children do you require it for AIDS patients, and senior citizens, and prisoners, and high school students. Then, you require it for "discounts" at the grocery store. That's where the irony starts, I suppose, when you need the chip to get a discount on a box of condoms, because you don't don't trust the chip on the patients.

I'd complain about a slippery slope, but it's much too late. That started when all you people had your dogs and cats chipped. Now it's just a matter of time. Shame on you for bringing about the end times. I hope Fluffy was worth it.

To prove that, when the antichrist shows up, I bet he gets a microchipped pet for his kids. Unless they are alergic, I suppose.

Comment Re:I think you and I disagree on ethics... (Score 1) 120

Well, technically, the 5-shot revolvers are more common -- much easier to conceal.

More importantly, handgun shootings have about a 20% mortality rate statistically. That includes multiple shots, but I'll call it even, since your aim is likely to be better on average if you restrict yourself to AIDS-transmission distances.

We'll also assume (incorectly) that each cylinder has an equal chance of firing. In real life, the heavier cylinder with the bullet in it tends to wind up at the bottom, and the barrel tends to be at the top of the gun. I've confirmed this with my own testing on three different revolvers.

This leaves us with 3% chance of death from nationality-neutral-roulette in the six shot shot case, and 4% in the five shot case.

Still worse than AIDS, but I say since it's now same order of magnitude, the analogy stands.

Besides, we've got to give it bonus points. At least he didn't use a car analogy.
 

Comment Re:The organisation of life (Score 2, Insightful) 113

Recipe for accurate prophecy:

1) Get a list of 128 email addresses.
2) Pick a volatile stock.
3) Send half the list a "tip" that the stock will climb.
4) Send the other half a "tip" that it will fall.
5) Discard whatever half you gave bad advice to.
6) Repeat steps 2-5, five times
7) Send the remaining guy an email pointing out that you just picked six stock movements in a row, offer to give another tip in exchange for immortal soul and 10% of earthly income.
8) PROPHET!!

It's called survivor bias. When you decide which books are the holy ones and which are the heretical ones 1000 years after they get written, it's pretty easy to pick out the ones that were right.

Comment It's due in part to user stupidity (Score 2, Insightful) 631

Most computer users are stupid. They'd try to run OS X on a typical PC, it'd suck and then they'd do the typical stupid computer user thing which is to say "this software fucking sucks." Never mind that the software was targetted at a specific hardware platform, that's too much mental heavy lifting for the average, at least American, computer user. Apple has to prevent piracy of its OS if for no other reason than to protect the brand from the idiots out there who aren't smart enough to realize that OSX is DESIGNED to work primarily with one specific hardware set, but would have nothing stopping them from running OSX into the ground with everyone they know.

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