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Comment: So what happens when there are no more jobs? (Score 4, Insightful) 870

by nebaz (#46580021) Attached to: Job Automation and the Minimum Wage Debate

Historically, some have speculated that with automation comes more and more leisure time, people not having to work because all of their needs have been fulfilled. What ends up happening in reality however (as we see now) is that productivity gains do end up with fewer people working but instead of more people working fewer hours, there are fewer people working more hours. What happens when there are not enough jobs to go around at all?

People won't have enough money to pay for goods. Will labor be parcelled out so more people work less? Will there be a perceived "non-need" for so many unemployed people? What happens then? I can't imagine it will be a pretty sight.

Comment: One size does not fit all... (Score 5, Interesting) 268

Great, so someone laments the fact that some people may end up more educated than others. Wouldn't it be better if we taught everyone to their potential instead of holding back the more gifted students so everyone is equal? Lowest common denominator is "lowest" for a reason.

Comment: Please... (Score 0) 195

by nebaz (#36817438) Attached to: Gov't Funded Electric Car Company Goes Out of Business

Investing in any company has risk. Cities should obviously weigh the pros and cons of where to invest their moneys and such but to single out an entire industry because one company failed smacks of fear-mongering. You wouldn't have seen such alarmist claptrap if a city had invested in General Motors as "it is a bad idea for the government to invest in an American Car Company".

Comment: A different idea... (Score 2) 152

by nebaz (#36471034) Attached to: Chinese Legislature Conducts Large Online Vote

Direct democracy has it's drawbacks as people here have already stated (California). But what if we went back to the original representation ratio of people in congress as prescribed in the Constitution to "The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand", that would require something like 10,000 representatives. That would be enough people to keep most individuals out of the limelight, so maybe they would actually try to do work rather than pander to their constituents.


Tunnel Boring Machine Completes Hole Under Niagara Falls 193

Posted by Soulskill
from the also-known-as-geohacking dept.
abhatt writes with news that "Big Becky," a 4,000-ton tunnel boring machine, has finished chewing through over 10 kilometers of rock underneath Niagara Falls, Ontario, a project that's been underway since 2006. "The 10.2 kilometer tunnel is 14.4 meters in diameter. Big Becky ate through 1.6 million cubic meters of rock to reach her goal. That’s enough rock, officials said, to fill the Rogers Centre in Toronto. And the cement used to line the tunnel would build a sidewalk stretching from Windsor to Quebec City. ... The project took longer and cost more because Becky ran into unexpected conditions. She’s designed to go through solid rock, but encountered a stretch of loose, crumbling material that was unsuitable for tunneling. That forced a long and expensive detour."
