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Comment: Re:So... (Score 1) 234

If Lloyd Blankfein and others who attested to the veracity of their financial reports even after they were repeatedly warned their mark-to-market was completely unrealistic, which in turn led to the largest financial disaster in over 70 years, are not being prosecuted for false reporting, I don't see why the police should be.

Especially as in this case no one was harmed. Can't say the same thing about the millions who lost their money or homes, can you?

Comment: Re:Cosmic Baking (Score 1) 77

by smooth wombat (#47423867) Attached to: Study: Why the Moon's Far Side Looks So Different
But later, Earth got into drugs and became like Lindsey Lohan.

But drugs are cool. I'm always told how great it is to do drugs. Just look at Elvis, Janis Joplin, Keith Moon, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Cory Monteith, Dee Dee Ramone, Jim Morrison and whole host of others who extolled the virtues of drugs.

P.S. If Lohan would drink water instead of alcohol, she'd look (and feel) a lot better than she does.

Comment: Re:Lawn Dart Alert! (Score 1) 336

by smooth wombat (#47423511) Attached to: The Pentagon's $399 Billion Plane To Nowhere

You need to qualify your statement about large quantities overcoming a qualitative difference with the following: had Hitler not ordered a full stop of the Panzers before they reached Moscow and given Russia six weeks to rearm, reorganize and regroup, Russia would not have been able to deliver the large quantities of tanks it eventually did.

Go read "Hitler's Panzers East" by Stolfi for a fantastic discussion of why Germany beat Russia in World War II except for the fact Hitler meddled in operational control.

Here's a brief synopsis: the German military laid out the plans necessary to defeat Russia before the winter set in. Without exception, they met every single objective in the time allotted and in some cases ahead of schedule.

Before the halt ordered by Hitler, there was only one remaining pocket of strong resistance in the South. Russia, at that point in time, had no other forces available to offer any significant resistance to the German armies anywhere in the country. Had he wanted to, Guderian could have literally driven his 2nd Panzer Army into the streets of Moscow in late August.

Comment: Re:What's the point (Score 1) 347

by smooth wombat (#47409105) Attached to: Here Comes the Panopticon: Insurance Companies
Really, the best thing we can do now is to make sure everyone is healthy and educated and happy.

If the idea is to make people healthy so premiums go down, Obamneycare is a complete failure in that aspect since the smokers, obese, alcoholics and drug users don't have to change. They can continue doing what they're doing, secure in the knowledge that someone perfectly healthy, such as myself, is forced to cough up their money to pay for the bad choices these people make with their lives.

So, what other excuse are you going to use to try and justify having the government reach into my bank account if I don't pay for someone else's medical insurance?

Comment: Very bad car analogy (Score 3, Insightful) 255

by smooth wombat (#47378077) Attached to: Austrian Tor Exit Node Operator Found Guilty As an Accomplice

The car analogy is so flawed it really should be removed from the story for this significant reason: cars are designed to move people and stuff. They can be used to commit crimes, but that is not their intended use.

Tor on the other hand, is explicitly designed to allow people to remain anonymous, to prevent detection. While honest people most certainly use Tor, so do criminals and it is because of Tor's intended purpose that the police are justifying their actions.

Before anyone flames me, I am not justifying what is taking place. I am only giving a much better explanation than that ridiculous car analogy for why this is taking place.

Comment: Simple solution (Score 3, Insightful) 577

by smooth wombat (#47367513) Attached to: Unintended Consequences For Traffic Safety Feature

Put a small shield along the side of the timer so the drivers can't see the timer.

I know, I know, the solution doesn't involve some convoluted, drawn out, highly technical, over-engineered process so it will never be implemented.

Instead, we'll go out of our way to find the most convoluted, drawn out, highly technical, over-engineered, and expensive, solution and claim we're making progress.

Comment: Re:Cities looking for bench obstacles (Score -1, Flamebait) 119

by smooth wombat (#47351037) Attached to: Boston Trying Out Solar-Powered "Smart Benches" In Parks

Except rather than expend the time and energy to get a job, these folks spend the time and energy to find ways to thwart these devices.

Someone who lived out there told me in Seattle they have/had benches with seat dividers of different heights so the homeless can't just slap a board on top and go to sleep. These folks who don't want to exert too much effort at a job found the time, energy and resources to fashion blocks which will make the benches level.

Apparently leeching off others is preferable to using the same energy to find work.

Comment: Re:waste of time (Score 3, Funny) 380

by smooth wombat (#47327467) Attached to: New Chemical Process Could Make Ammonia a Practical Car Fuel
How about reducing weight that we all have to drag around with us

So you're suggesting a large portion of the American population get off their fat asses and lose weight so they can increase their vehicles fuel economy?

You might as well ask a starving lion to put down that leg of zebra it's gnawing on.

Comment: Re:Ocean garbage patches? (Score 2) 139

The OP was talking about specific areas of the ocean where plastic accumulates due to currents, not the entire ocean itself.

Further, you start with the big stuff and all those critters would fall through the mesh. You could still have a person or two check what comes up and toss the wiggling stuff back into the water, but the amount of life that would be impacted is essentially zero compared to the amount of life which is currently being affected by these islands of plastic or ingestion of all those micro beads from facial scrubs (I use a type which has natural* scrubbers mixed in for this very reason).

* This is probably the only time you will ever hear me say I deliberately use something which has "natural" ingredients.

Comment: Re:Easier (Score 1) 106

by smooth wombat (#47280941) Attached to: Researchers Find "Achilles Heel" of Drug Resistant Bacteria
After you go to the bathroom you should wash your hands and if you get a cut you should clean it and seal it.

Meh. I just lick my hands/cut. Since it's my own body, how much can it hurt me?*

* Joking (partially). I generally don't cover small scrapes and scratches and yes, I do lick my wounds, but yes, I do wash my hands.**

** Stated for those who don't grasp sarcasm/kidding.

Comment: Re:Fox News? (Score 1) 682

by smooth wombat (#47271619) Attached to: IRS Recycled Lerner Hard Drive
Obama could get IMPEACHED over this. This is turning into a Watergate level scandal.

How? Did the President order the IRS to destroy emails? Did the President order the IRS to investigate both conservative and liberal groups? Did the President have anything to do with what happened at the IRS?

Considering the previous administration explicitly told its staffers to use non-governmental email sources, in direct violation of several different laws, that it deleted emails after it was told to retain them for the investigation into the firing of 8 attorneys and a host of other related issues, including using the excuse that if an email had not been opened it wasn't considered read and therefore wasn't subject to retention and also fell under executive privilege, I fail to see how something not involving the President could lead to his impeachment when incidents directly involving a previous President didn't lead to impeachment.
