rasmack

People are entitled to whatever society decides they are entitled to. Where I come from that implies that I don't have to worry about health care. OTOH the taxes are quite a bit steeper. Where I live now, things are different. I consequently have additional insurance. So, to answer your question: If society decides to foot the bill then yes, people are entitled to health care. HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227 “I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.” - Not quite Oscar Wilde...

Interesting. I might pick it up. Sagan's "Contact" was well written but the religious themes could have been treated with more grace given how prominent they were in the book. HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227 “I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.” - Not quite Oscar Wilde...

If you asked if people believed in Lorentz invariance or gauge symmetries as a basis for quantum field theories I'm willing to wager a beer or two that the numbers would be significantly worse. The only thing those numbers show is that people don't believe what they don't understand. HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227 “I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.” - Not quite Oscar Wilde...

Indeed, and you had better not look like an easy mark with money to the prospective burglar. Pretty girls should probably also think twice about driving... HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227 “I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.” - Not quite Oscar Wilde...

Yep, but here it is the state (Swiss: canton) providing the "service". The only reason I heard of it was a story on the radio that a court had upheld the legality of the system in the face of a privacy/security based challenge. All this is fine by me. A register has to be in some way accessible to make sense. I would just like to see the bar raised a little higher than simply sending a text message. I tried texting them my own license plate and within 20 seconds I got a message back with my name and address. Kind of creepy... HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227 “I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.” - Not quite Oscar Wilde...

... or am I being paranoid? I am presently living in Geneva (Switzerland, not Illinois), and I just found out that the authorities here maintain an sms service I have not seen anywhere else. You just text a license plate number of a car to 939 and then they send you the name and address of the owner. I fully appreciate that the police should have access to information like that, otherwise there would be no point in license plates at all. I do, however, feel that there should be a certain threshold of work required for people to identify me in the street. Also, I see potential security issues for women or elderly people in expensive cars. Anyway, back to the original question: Am I being paranoid? HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227 “I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.” - Not quite Oscar Wilde...

Well, we have all heard horrible stories about carpenters/masons/mechanics/whatevers screwing the not-so-savvy over. It might simply be that they want to make sure that everything is by the book. I know people who have lost tens of thousands of dollars because of shoddy construction work that had to be fixed by somebody else. How are they going to make sure it doesn't happen again? By being exactly that annoying customer you are referring to. From your posts you are probably a stand-up guy but your customers don't know that. In fact the aforementioned apartment disaster was perpetrated by a guy who came highly recommended. HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227 “I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.” - Not quite Oscar Wilde...

It is a matter of finesse. You need to hit the sweet spot where she's drunk enough... but not too drunk. That can be harder to nail with hard liquor. HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227 “I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.” - Not quite Oscar Wilde...

So, because you as a tax-paying citizen believe (in spite of evidence to the contrary) that these abstinence only programs work, it is a democratic problem that this belief is not reflected in financial support from the government? HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227 “I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.” - Not quite Oscar Wilde...

You're turning this into a moral issue. I was looking at it as a medical issue. I have not been able to find any studies showing that abstinence programs work (i.e. delay first sex or prevent STDs/pregnancies). Consequently I would not support funding them. Here is the British Medical Journal for you. I don't know enough of American politics to dig up an organization you might consider impartial. From the abstract: So, based on empirical evidence I cannot see any medical reasons for abstinence only programs. Does that make me an immoral bigot? HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227 “I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.” - Not quite Oscar Wilde...

I'm sorry, but I have to call BS on that one. You cannot seriously mean that the government has to fund programs that don't work just to "not take sides". That's misuse of your money as a tax payer. HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227 “I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.” - Not quite Oscar Wilde...

So, because abstinence programs don't work, people shouldn't talk about condoms? I'm not sure I follow your logic. From the link: HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227 “I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.” - Not quite Oscar Wilde...

Cool, so if I accidentally delete an email. Who do I ask to resend it to me? HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227 “I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.” - Not quite Oscar Wilde...

I'm just wondering who the hell has the time to spend all those hours every day educating their children... HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227 “I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.” - Not quite Oscar Wilde...

Sorry, guess that is my fault for calling him on a bad example. (Note to self. Do not try to teach people the working of science on the internet...) HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227 “I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.” - Not quite Oscar Wilde...

Ehm... gravitational signatures do not arise without gravity. Space does not distort itself. Mass does. If you do not buy the argument about the galaxy rotation curves you may also look at gravitational lensing. Of course if you are fine with abandoning everything we know about gravitation you are free to dream up alternative explanations but as a scientist I'd say that the existence of dark matter is a very settled question. The nature of it is another matter (heh.. get it? matter...). HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227 “I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.” - Not quite Oscar Wilde...

Unless you operate in a semantic realm where "detected" means "visible to the naked eye and manipulable by hand" you are wrong. If this is your understanding of the word I direct you attention to the fact that by that definition the Earth is flat and atoms do not exist. You may be confusing the discussion with the nature of cold dark matter which I admit readily is highly model dependent. There is, however, no doubt about the presence of it. HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227 “I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.” - Not quite Oscar Wilde...

Ehm...you're going to have to find a better example. Dark matter is easily detectable. The galaxies would rotate at different angular velocities had it not been there. The hard part is finding out what it is... Fair 'nuff. Guess we can agree that religion should stay out of the business of the structure of the Universe and science should not try to provide an answer as to why it is there. HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227 “I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.” - Not quite Oscar Wilde...

Hey, thanks. I always wanted that one in a proper resolution.

I will have you know, my good man, that I was close to responding in kind. HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227 “I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.” - Not quite Oscar Wilde...

Wow... That's some quick and cool thinking right there. HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227 “I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.” - Not quite Oscar Wilde...

They got the tape on condition of not releasing it. Nuff said. HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227 “I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.” - Not quite Oscar Wilde...

Pst... your fly is open. HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227 “I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.” - Not quite Oscar Wilde...

Who You Callin’ a Maverick? HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227 “I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.” - Not quite Oscar Wilde...

Of course. People are always free to be bastards. However, as John says, they rarely really are. I also fail to see which motivation should compel them. The dynamics of science are not (as seem to be a general misunderstanding) geared towards suppressing competing theories. I like to think that everyone in the game are driven by genuine curiosity. If his papers have been accepted to peer-reviewed journals that would be demonstration enough. If you're asking whether his reviewers did their job properly the answer is that we cannot really know that. Peer review is not a perfect process. It is just the least bad one. HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227 “I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.” - Not quite Oscar Wilde...