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Comment: Re:Waste (Score 1) 170

by SydShamino (#48676379) Attached to: Minecraft Creator Notch's $70 Million Mansion Recreated In Minecraft

I stated facts, which you ignore. You also ignore the fact that the majority of humans have something called empathy, a natural instinct that keeps the species from destroying itself. While instinctual empathy tends to be limited to those around us, it does extend for some to those more distant that are suffering. That will keep those people fed and, yes, breeding. The only logical way to reduce that population growth, given the existence of empathy, is thus to bring those people out of poverty, and plenty of studies show population growth slows and levels off when communities develop a strong middle class and women's rights aren't withheld.

Your options, as someone who lacks empathy, are to either try to kill off everyone who does, or I guess just bitch about it on the internet. So I guess you have that part down.

Comment: Re:I don't get it (Score 2) 170

by SydShamino (#48655777) Attached to: Minecraft Creator Notch's $70 Million Mansion Recreated In Minecraft

Let's assume he earns 3% interest on his money. That's in the ballpark of realistic. Let's also assume (for the sake of argument) that he took out a 30 year mortgage on that $70M mansion, like those people you have a nickname for. That means he'll pay maybe $150M total for it over 30 years, or $417k per month.

He earns $6.25M per month on interest alone, so his house payment would be less than 7% of his income. (Let's say less than 15% taking into account electricity, cleaning, taxes, etc.) That doesn't make him anywhere close to the 50% rate you cite for "poor people living in a big house". And that makes him pretty smart - not and idiot.

Comment: Re:Waste (Score 1) 170

by SydShamino (#48655713) Attached to: Minecraft Creator Notch's $70 Million Mansion Recreated In Minecraft

Your logic is... flawed. Well fed, educated children have fewer children than those that live in poverty. And the mentally ill account for a full third of the homeless. Add in those genuinely down on their luck and in need of a better safety net, and we'd be over half the homeless through no fault of their own.

Comment: Re:Waste (Score 1) 170

by SydShamino (#48655689) Attached to: Minecraft Creator Notch's $70 Million Mansion Recreated In Minecraft

At a measly 1% rate of return, he'll make 25 million a year for life on the interest from that one-time paycheck. If he'd gotten $100M for Minecraft and just spent $70M of it on the mansion, I'd agree with you. But he got $2.5 billion. If he doesn't want to maintain the mansion, he can just give it away and buy another one every other year for the rest of his life and he'll be okay.*

I'm ignoring taxes and stuff. I have a headache.

Comment: Re:Nothing can go Wrong Here (Score 1) 439

by SydShamino (#48654583) Attached to: How Venture Capitalist Peter Thiel Plans To Live 120 Years


...and then his plans to live to 120 are spoiled when he's mugged by a starving beggar with an assault rifle, or is attacked by pirates or the warships of a rogue nation, or maybe just when his house falls down on his head.

Comment: Re:And how many were terrorists? Oh, right, zero. (Score 4, Informative) 276

by SydShamino (#48653657) Attached to: TSA Has Record-Breaking Haul In 2014: Guns, Cannons, and Swords


While it was a few years ago and the laws may have changed, I read somewhere that you should travel with a starter pistol. The TSA considers them guns, which means you are allowed (required) to securely lock your checked baggage, but (most) states don't consider them weapons, so you can travel with them to different states without multiple concealed carry permits.

* this is with a real lock, not a TSA lock

Comment: Re:This looks like pre-paid corruption. (Score 1) 141

by SydShamino (#48649841) Attached to: Who's To Blame For Rules That Block Tesla Sales In Most US States?

I'm likely not that much younger than you are. We're both six digit UIDs. And you're term limit yabber has been around just as long and is just as hopeless as campaign finance reform. Ultimately we're all screwed either way, but your proposal to fix things would make stuff worse; I note that you have no actual rebuttal to the quality of my position, just that it's unlikely to happen.

Comment: Re:Dish Customer Here (Score 2) 270

by SydShamino (#48646811) Attached to: Dish Pulls Fox News, Fox Business Network As Talks Break Down

...and I didn't miss CNN at all. At work they moved the cafeteria TVs to CNBC. At home if I watched the news at all I switched to Al Jazeera America to check them out. When CNN came back work switched em back.

All of these news channels are replaceable. If Dishes loses they'll pass the rate increase on to me, and I'd rather lose one or two of them. Losing Fox is just a bonus.

Comment: Re:Why Steam? Why? (Score 1) 159

by SydShamino (#48627557) Attached to: To Fight Currency Mismatches, Steam Adding Region Locking to PC Games

If I want to convert my dollars to rubels and take a chance on how volatile the currency is, why can't I?

You can. Money markets are available for you to invest in.

What's fair about letting which side of an imaginary line you live on dictate the price?

Maybe the law in Russia that says you can't sell things in US Dollars? Otherwise Steam could just set a US Dollar price and let the exchanges sort it out.
