Mary-Jane

Reactors on Navy vessels, since at least the 70s, are very safe. They are closed systems and are completely sealed in compartments surrounded by feet of shielding. While some negligible amount of radiation does get through, it's half life is very short. Radioactive isotopes don't escape, nor do they get created by proximity to a radiation source and start floating around the crew compartment. In addition, each crew member carries a dosimeter which tracks their exposure. As others pointed out, walking around outside exposes us to more radiation (from the sun, earth, ceramic tiles...) than spending months next to to one of these reactors.

I have no skin in the game; didn't even read the article. "You're just being contrarian so you're wrong" is a weak and lazy retort. I did appreciate that op provided a counter-perspective though; that's rare.

Science, indeed any intellectual thought, won't progress without contrarian views challenging the/your status quo.

A conservative wanting to limit the power of government? Shocking!

Seriously though, this position is consistent with conservative beliefs; why do you find it hard to believe? Even the infamous Rush Limbaugh opposed letting the government force Apple to decrypt the San Bernardino shooter's iPhone.

> Due to some [reason], an overpopulation calamity hasn’t yet happened and we might coincidentally stabilize at a level that’s somewhat close to what maximizes average utility...

Given the birthrate trends in developed countries, it's more likely the population will peak and then decline as prosperity spreads. The cause isn't hard to discern - child labor laws - they turn children from potential assets into guaranteed liabilities.

A declining population will be a bad thing; our modern way of life is built on systems that depend on growth (from Wall Street to our tax structures to the various Social Security safety nets countries have in place); take that away and we will have real problems.

Given the context, I suspect the parent was referring to the overhead caused by managing incompetents. Given the choice between working with an asshat who knows what they're doing and a moron who doesn't understand the basics _and can't be taught_, which would you take?

I assume in the open source world the latter is easier to ignore, but in business it can take years to get rid of an incompetent, and the longer they're there, the greater the drag on the team and the harder it is to hang on to talented people. By contrast, letting a talented and productive asshat go is much easier; just introduce them to HR!

Thought experiment: how would you feel if YouTube banned all pro-trans content? ...or pro-choice, or anti-Isreal/Jewish material?

It doesn't matter to me if you're against companies censoring any of these things. Be aware that it means you're fine with authoritarianism, so long as it aligns with your politics...

That's right. Cos money is the root of absolutely all all evil, everywhere, for all time!

"Hey Whitey! Check your privilege!"

You're right, there's no insult intended when people say that. Apparently whiteys have thin skin too!

The data suggests western countries _are_ leading the way on plastic waste disposal. It's high time we started helping others, don't you think?

It's usually government types (DoD, FDA) pushing for this stuff, and lots of it. The thinking appears to be, "The more the paperwork, the better the product".

Google FI user. I can confirm it fantastic great for international travel.

I was expecting the same, so I was surprised when it wasn't. Why would you be disappointed?

I'm sure the comments were made in jest...

You can't be serious.

Poppycock!

A. Private companies cannot force you to do a single thing! Governments have entire agencies and departments dedicated to keeping people they deem dangerous in line, using a list of powers up to and including the right to take their citizens lives, if they do choose. No private company has this kind of power! Not even close!

B. People are not empty vessels, free to be molded by wiley corporate villains. People possess values and opinions, and (much to the chagrin of both corporations and politicians) it is very difficult to change people's minds.

Not many neanderthals around these days. Just an observation.

...but perforce getso many other things wrong....

What 'greater good' can possibly be achieved by having to literally write the same app 5 different times?

Negatory. Us shovels more funding per student into its public schools than almost any other country. That funding is spend poorly, mostly on administrative functions that no doubt demonstrate in great detail how great each school is.

https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/cmd

All the FAANGs are American companies, and they've all been pushing the boundaries. What do you feel America has lost in this respect?

FYI, CTOs at startups often directly interview and hire technical candidates...

It would be nice if articles like this appeared in non-conservative media. Unfortunately, theses days, the only way to find articulate conservative perspectives is to visit conservative outlets.

Exactly! We play games against bots all the time to improve our own skills; why wouldn't the same tactic work to improve our own knowledge?

Government is not an effective tool for societal change in democracies because, by definition, they require society to want those changes. For instance, although homosexuality has been a political issue for decades, gay marriage was never legalized until a majority of the population supported it. Private enterprise provided support for "significant others" long before this happened. Private enterprise is on the leading edge of many changes today: How many genders can you identify as on Facebook? ...how about at the DMV?

That's makes no sense... Why do you do it? Are you trying to speed up the revolution?

This is a great post. Not the text of course, but it's implications. See, the people you think are stupid actually agree with you on this point -- and very likely see you as stupid. Statically, both of you rarely engage the other, but when you do it's to belittle, not to engage and learn. ...and who can blame you - you both think the other is a moron!

2020 saw unprecedented partisanship; if we all continue to insult and dismiss each other, what does the future hold? Unless we can learn to look past our biases and see each other as human beings, it won't be pretty.

Given the political bent of this forum, I'm curious how people would react to the fact that the same argument could be applied to the prevalence of guns in America, e.g. gun ownership has been steadily increasing since the 50's, but violent crime peaked in the 90's.

So you're saying if there were multiple causes and one of them was corrected, his numbers wouldn't catch it, right?

You are making very general statements and treating them as if they apply to the entire homeless population. If you have an interest in fixing problems you should appreciate that people's circumstances vary and so will solutions. The parent's solution will work for many people in poverty: most poor people are young, and most young people do not have children, so moving to a cheaper locale is in fact viable for many homeless. Also, you don't necessarily have to up and leave everything you know; living an hour from the city is often sufficient.