AirAsia Flight Still Missing, Obama Expects More Vetoes, Kochs Push Criminal Justice Reform: A.M. Links

UweBKK/Flickr

• Indonesian officials say "we have to be prepared for the worst" when it comes to the AirAsia passenger jet that went missing Sunday.
• In a lengthy interview with NPR, President Obama touted the success of the Affordable Care Act, surmised that he'll soon have to be pulling out his veto pen a lot more often, and said the United States is "the one indispensable nation."
• Charles Koch said criminal justice reform is one of the key issues he and his bro David will be pushing in 2015, along with "freedom of speech, cronyism, and how that relates to opportunities for the disadvantaged."
• A Ferguson police officer has been placed on unpaid leave after calling a Michael Brown memorial "trash".
• In the U.K., posting "revenge porn" could now be considered a form of domestic violence.
• The case for making police pay for their own misconduct and civil rights violations.

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Comments

[Rich]

Fist!

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Hello!

“President Obama touted the success of the Affordable Care Act, surmised that he’ll soon have to be pulling out his veto pen a lot more often…”

Obstructionist!

[Palin's Buttplug]

The AbortoFreaks will be busy.

[Auric Demonocles]

It’s only wrong to oppose what the majority in Congress want when the majority is Democrats!

[Palin's Buttplug]

Sweet Gridlock. Jeb is working on that though.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Indonesian officials say “we have to be prepared for the worst” when it comes to the AirAsia passenger jet that went missing Sunday.

And that means Courtney Love will tweet more answers.

[Swiss Servator, Winter...jetzt]

At least CNN has content for the next few weeks.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Charles Koch said criminal justice reform is one of the key issues he and his bro David will be pushing in 2015, along with “freedom of speech, cronyism, and how that relates to opportunities for the disadvantaged.”

WAR ON WOMEN

[Palin's Buttplug]

WAR ON CHRISTMAS.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Charles Koch just declared WAR ON…EVERYTHING!

[Swiss Servator, Winter...jetzt]

The Kochs are Five for Fighting fans?

http://www.amazon.com/The-Batt…..B00012FNDG

[Ted S.]

I wish we could get a War on Trolls.

[Swiss Servator, Winter...jetzt]

We can…. they shrivel when ignored.

[Andrew S.]

The thing is, I don’t think PB is actually a troll. I think he legitimately believes that every thing he posts is right. Now, that may be a sign of mental illness, or low IQ, but I don’t think it’s trolling.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Being a classic liberal is a sign of mental illness?

[Andrew S.]

There’s an 8% chance of that.

[Steve G]

“Classic”? A 57 Chevy is a classic…

[Adans smith]

you are not what you say you are

[BigT]

PB Classic is circa 2004, not 1800

[tarran]

I think he legitimately believes that every thing he posts is right

You are an iddiot, then!

Shriek (aka Palin’s buttplug) has repeatedly demonstrated that it is not sentient. It lacks the cognitive ability to believe anything.

[Mike M.]

Yes, Weigel is fact is mentally ill. He openly admitted it.

That’s no doubt a big part of why he acts the way he does, but it’s impossible to feel sorry for him because he’s such a loathsome cretin.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Only Team Red allowed here!

[Adans smith]

wrong again

[The Other Kevin]

Those Koch brothers sound like fucking monsters, don’t they?

[R C Dean]

Yeah. And we’d impeach President Koch if his brother wasn’t Vice President, amirite?

[Fist of Etiquette]

A Ferguson police officer has been placed on unpaid leave after calling a Michael Brown memorial “trash”.

What does an offense that isn’t PR related buy you on any police force?

[Swiss Servator, Winter...jetzt]

Paid leave.

[Rich]

Next up: Rotate The Memorial ninety degrees.

[Ted S.]

I rotated it 90 degrees around the x-axis, and got the same thing. What’s your point? 😉

[Rich]

“Very funny, Mr. Snoid!”

[UnCivilServant]

How do you take a left turn into that driveway with that debris in the way?

[Auric Demonocles]

Sup guys. I’m still alive, though this lack of alt-text might change that.

Anything big happen around here in the last couple of weeks?

[Swiss Servator, Winter...jetzt]

Warty got a hold of some bath salts and slew the entire Cleveland Browns organization. Other than that…nichts.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

49ers and Harbaugh ‘mutually’ agree to split.

Good luck trying to find a coach who can match a 44-19 record.

[Ted S.]

Ndamokung Suh is a dirty POS. But we all already knew that.

[AlmightyJB]

Michigan?

[Andrew S.]

Seriously, how stupid is Niners management? They go through a decade of mediocrity, find a coach with the 2nd best record in NFL history over his first 4 seasons, where they make 3 NFC title games, 1 Super Bowl which they came within a hair of winning … and fire him?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Seriously. They probably think they have a good enough team to get it done without him.

[Drake]

Harbaugh seems high-maintenance and very easy to hate. I think he would be perfect in Oakland.

[Steve G]

Yes, very Jerry Jonesian of them.

[Ted S.]

Apparently the guy is a massice prick.

Also, there are coaches who start off hot and then lose the team as they flame out. It doesn’t matter so much in college, where you only have the players for five years, max, but in the pros that’s more of an issue.

[Drake]

Yes – Probably a better college guy. Only the other coaches will have time to work up a real hate for the fucker (like Pete Caroll did when they were both in the Pac-10).

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

The control freak coaches seem to work out a lot better in college than in the the pros.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

What good coach doesn’t seem like a massive prick?

[KDN]

Harbaugh seems to be a very good coach that wears on people. Those guys exist in every sport (think Showalter in MLB or Laviolette in the NHL) and it’s usually best to part with them when things start to get ugly before they blow up entirely. Can’t really fault them, it was time.

I’d like to see Rex Ryan, Sean Payton, and Harbaugh all trade jobs with each other. I think they’re all good coaches that could use a change of scenery.

[Swiss Servator, Winter...jetzt]

Rex Ryan to Bears? God knows they are dysfunctional enough…

[KDN]

The Bears actually wouldn’t be a bad fit. He needs an offense to already be set in order to be successful and should be paired with a strong coordinator since he really doesn’t care about that side of the ball and sucks at developing talent for it.

We all like to laugh at Jay Cutler, but if the Jets had him instead of Sanchez they likely would have gone to a Super Bowl or two in his first few years.

[The DerpRider]

The Derprider rode to victory in the You Didn’t Build That fantasy football league. I added Johnny Football to my championship game roster so a Brown could win something this year.

[Ted S.]

Agile Cyborg posted while high on acid. The results weren’t pretty.

[Elizabeth Nolan Brown]

That may be my favorite thing to happen in the comments recently. That and all the Christmas eve BOOYAHS from … oh, I forget. The one who loves cops.

[Auric Demonocles]

Wait, that really happened? I might have to try and find this thread.

Also, I’m guessing you mean either dunphy or Tulpa.

[Andrew S.]

The Booyahs are Dunphy. Always Dunphy.

hth

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

I saw it. It was rather pathetic, yet entertaining.

[Ted S.]

The thread where the two of them went at each other was incredibly tedious.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Those comments were glorious.

[Zeb]

Either that or the greatest thing ever. It’s hard to decide.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

You’re just jealous.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Agile debating Dunphy.

Now THAT’S something.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

Agile Cyborg posted while high on acid

This seems to happen regularly on the TI thread.

[Irish]

What article was the Agile Cyborg acid meltdown on? I need to see this.

[Auric Demonocles]

+1

[Auric Demonocles]

Was this in rage over how much Johnny “Retarded nickname” Manziel sucked?

[Swiss Servator, Winter...jetzt]

Overall letdownness.

[hamilton]

wait, where’d you go? We needed more alt text bitching.

[Auric Demonocles]

I’ve mostly been around, just really busy with the holidays, that client up by your office, and dating.

[Swiss Servator, Winter...jetzt]

“He’s running through the redheaded women population like wildfire!”

[Auric Demonocles]

I wish. If there’s any trend lately, it’s Jewish women.

[hamilton]

Run.

[Auric Demonocles]

I feel like there is a story there?

[Swiss Servator, Winter...jetzt]

Same to be said for you?

[Fist of Etiquette]

In the U.K., posting “revenge porn” could now be considered a form of domestic violence.

“She just ran into that webcam, your honor. She’s clumsy like that.”

[Zeb]

So, does “violence” just mean not being nice now, or what?

I could see posting sex pics of someone without permission being some sort of a tort or offense, but how is it in any way violent?

[Auric Demonocles]

Wasn’t there something a month or two ago about how a guy could be committing sexual violence by withholding sex?

[Anonymous Coward]

“Domestic violence”/”rape”/”sexism” are all synonymous: Anything that might be adverse to a woman’s stated interests at that particular moment in time.

[Ted S.]

In the U.K., posting “revenge porn” could now be considered a form of domestic violence.

Gotta love basing what constitutes crime and what doesn’t on Teh Feelz.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The case for making police pay for their own misconduct and civil rights violations.

WAR ON POLICE

[Swiss Servator, Winter...jetzt]

Gosh, if only libertarians had been pushing this for…years.

[Fist of Etiquette]

In a lengthy interview with NPR, President Obama touted the success of the Affordable Care Act…

Unchallenged by the interviewer?

[Swiss Servator, Winter...jetzt]

If not a complete lapdog, was probably too stunned to say anything.

[BigT]

It was a blumpkin for Choco Jeebus.

[Ted S.]

Well, it is NPR.

[Auric Demonocles]

How can you challenge something that has given 130% of the population free healthcare, prevented 1.4 trillion deaths, and reduced the deficit all the way to a surplus?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Only 1.4 trillion deaths prevented?

You, sir, lack compassion.

[hamilton]

If even 1 death could be prevented it’s worth it! Especially if it’s a child, you monster.

[Zeb]

When you get to make up your criteria for success on the spot, you can always claim success. It may be perfectly accurate to say that the ACA was a success if you don’t state what constitutes success. If you define success by how much money you spend, for example (like Sir Humphrey does), government is a tremendous success at almost everything.

[Palin's Buttplug]

It did work as planned after a shaky start. Less than 10% of citizens can now shop for subsidized private health insurance on an overpriced public web site.

When you set the bar low it is easy to claim a win.

[Zeb]

Yep. Define success as the exchanges exist and some people use them and you win.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Judge the intent; not the results. And if you do, just move the goal posts around to fit your arguments.

Simple.

Progs are masters at this deformed form of sophistry.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Says the Single Payer Canuck.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

That ad hominen response literally makes no sense.

[tarran]

Something that isn’t sentient babbles something nonsensical?!?

Next you’ll be commenting that water is wet!!!

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Well…is it?

[wareagle]

and success explains why noted red hotbeds like Vermont…Vermont!!..threw their hands up in disgust.

If this thing cannot work in Vermont or Oregon or Hawaii, then it is a failure by any definition.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

When you lose Vermont…

[Palin's Buttplug]

Vermont ditched Canuck style single payer – not the ACA.

[FUQ]

I think you meant to say 8%

[R C Dean]

It did work as planned

By what criteria, announced before it was passed?

Yeah, that’s what I thought.

[R C Dean]

Lemme help you out, shreek:

http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB…..0567917856

[Don Mynack]

It doubled my premiums, but gave me maternity care and drug rehab coverage I don’t want or need. I guess that means it “worked”.

[Adans smith]

why are you here?

[Robert]

If you define success by how much money you spend,

That’s how they tried to convince us the Libertarian Party was a success, i.e. measuring the inputs rather than the outputs.

[sarcasmic]

Victoria’s Secret Angel Lindsay Ellingson unleashes her devilish side in saucy hotel room striptease for LOVE advent calendar

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs…..endar.html
Not for chubby-chasers.

[Swiss Servator, Winter...jetzt]

No matter how many times I ask at the front desk, there is NEVER anything like that in my hotel room!

[creech]

You need to upgrade from Motel 6, Swiss!

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Yeah Swiss. SUPER 8. Sheesh.

[Swiss Servator, Winter...jetzt]

What is wrong Swissotel?!?!

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Not on the AAA/CAA plan?

[Ted S.]

I didn’t realize how long it’s been since Susse Chalet went out of business.

[Swiss Servator, Winter...jetzt]

Francophones, humph!

/German nose in the air

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

The real trick is to earn enough Hilton Points to get the double platinum super secret card.

[Rich]

Advent Calendar treats don’t come much sweeter than Lindsay Ellingson.

Christmas is, um, coming.

[sarcasmic]

Family’s outrage as top cop escapes charges for telling teen ‘he would drop underage drinking charges if she posed for naked photos in station basement’

Janelle Westfall, 19, was propositioned by David Seastran, the former police chief in New London, New Hampshire
Arrested by Seastrand as she walked home from a party – she was charged with giving a false name and for being in possession of a beer can
He allegedly told her if posed for photos, he would drop the charges
But she told her family and a month later he resigned from his role

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new…..ement.html

[Ted S.]

There’s no dobule standard.

[Zeb]

In this case, you could say there isn’t a double standard, just a weak standard. No non-cop would have somethign like that to hold over her head, and she is 19, so anyone else asking her to pose for some photos would be all good.

But I’d think that what he did should be criminal.

[Ted S.]

Selling favors shouldn’t be a crime?

[Zeb]

Not in general. But I did say that what the cop did should be criminal because of the threat of punishment.

“I’ll help you move if I can take nude pictures of you in my basement”, on the other hand, seems like a perfectly legitimate offer.

[Ted S.]

I forgot the SLD that the drinking age shouldn’t be 21, and that perhaps there shouldn’t even be a drinking age at all.

[Elspeth Flashman]

Not entirely related, but: I have a law school pal who passed the bar but failed at C & F because of repeat Minor in Possession. He was 19 and drinking with buds at the beach, and got (I think) 5 violations in the same summer. He’s 38 now, and had no further illegality. But the C &F committee doesn’t get swayed by that.

[Robert]

So what kind of work does he do in the meantime?

[Robert]

In particular, was it a waste of time & money for him to go to law school? Could he have foreseen this problem & skipped it?

[Anonymous Coward]

Did this brave public hero ever receive sufficient training to NOT blackmail women into taking nude/semi-nude photos?

If no, then we have a lack of training/funding problem, not a power problem.

#YesAllCops

[R C Dean]

He allegedly told her if posed for photos, he would drop the charges

Regardless of her age, this is a crime. Blackmail, at least (if that’s a crime separate from extortion in NH. Also, perhaps, something like solicitation of a bribe, and certainly some form of abuse of office.

But, since he’s on TEAM COP with the prosecutor and judges, sure enough, nothing else happened.

[sarcasmic]

He resigned and was banned from law enforcement. So he’ll never be a cop again. Better than nothing.

[R C Dean]

A long way short of the jail term he deserves.

[sarcasmic]

True, but at least he no longer has any power to abuse.

[Pope Jimbo]

She told the newspaper that Seastrand had told her if she told anyone he would deny it.
But the Colby-Sawyer student told a friend, as well as her family members who are police officers.

Hmmm….

I think the chief’s real transgression was to pick on a member of the tribe, not the fact that he used his position to extort nudies.

[FUQ]

Ding! Ding! Ding!

“Now tell him what he’s won”

[Rich]

Maj. Gen. Michael K. Nagata, commander of American Special Operations forces in the Middle East[, on ISIS:] “We do not understand the movement, and until we do, we are not going to defeat it. We have not defeated the idea. We do not even understand the idea.”

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.” — The Late, Great Sun Tzu

[Swiss Servator, Winter...jetzt]

Nice to see a flag officer with some awareness.

[Rich]

“I know *nothing*!”

[Swiss Servator, Winter...jetzt]

+1 SGT Shultz?

[Rich]

“Off with his head!”

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

C’mon Swiss, most of them have awareness, but very few have the testicular fortitude to actually say anything meaningful in a public forum.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

Meaning that MG Nagata will never be LTG Nagata.

But he will be appearing on Fox News for years to come.

[Swiss Servator, Winter...jetzt]

Aye.

[Swiss Servator, Winter...jetzt]

had a bad run of ’em in Afghanistan. In Iraq, I was slightly luckier.

The ballsy ones don’t often see 3 or 4 stars.

[Steve G]

Not required. We just need to bomb them.

/John

[Swiss Servator, Winter...jetzt]

Nah, that is cytotoxic.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Nagata sounds bad ass and smart.

[John]

It is good that he is saying that. It is, however, not so good that he has to say it and that it finds it so hard to understand the movement. ISIS is like every other violent revolutionary movement. Its core motivations and appeal are no different than those of the Khmer Rouge or Fascists or Shinning Path. Movements like that offer people the chance to be a part of a larger movement to change the world and cleanse it of evil and injustice. They offer people moral affirmation and a sense of purpose. They are particularly appealing to narcissistic failures, since joining allows them to blame their failures on all of the evil in the world instead of taking responsibility. Lastly they offer people whose only skill is their ability to deal out violence the only chance they will ever have to excel and be important.

You can’t fight that kind of appeal with the promise of cable and access to a Starbucks. That is what Americans have the hardest time understanding; not everyone wants to live the quiet, peaceful, productive Western consumerist life and trying to appeal to the people who don’t want that is doomed to fail.

[R C Dean]

not so good that he has to say it and that it finds it so hard to understand the movement.

I suspect he’s not talking about a high-level understanding of jihadism. Its probably much more granular – chain of command, strategic goals, ways and means, supporters, etc.

[John]

I suspect he’s not talking about a high-level understanding of jihadism. Its probably much more granular – chain of command, strategic goals, ways and means, supporters, etc.

If that is what he means, he needs to fire his entire intel shop. That is nothing but basic intelligence work. If his intel shop isn’t doing that, they are not doing anything.

I don’t think that is what he meant. That sort of thing is what military intelligence is good at. It is old fashioned military intelligence work that we have always done. He is talking about less tangible things like how it appeals to people and motivates them.

[R C Dean]

he needs to fire his entire intel shop.

I don’t think he can, John. The CIA and other black agencies don’t report to him. I doubt the people under his direct command include more than liaisons with the “real” intel people.

And yes, this is a not-really-veiled-at-all criticism of the entire intel-industrial complex.

[John]

He has his own intel shop. There is another organization called DIA and there is a huge intel shop at SOCOM. I would be very surprised if they are not well aware of the the information you describe. He was talking about deeper things.

[John]

You fight ISIS in several ways. First, you never show weakness and murder the bastards such that it appears to be a loser ideology. No one wants to die for a losing cause. Dying for a winning cause is what appeals to people. Second, you have to offer an appealing alternative to war. You can’t just say fuck you and endure the unendurable. You have to give them a peace that is more appealing than dying in a endless war. Lastly, you have to show the people in the middle exactly how evil these people are and what the stakes for them are. These movements succeed in getting the middle through intimidation and lying. They convince people they are going to win anyway so better to join than lose and that they don’t really mean what they say. It won’t be that bad.

[The Laconic]

The Late, Great Sun Tzu

He’s dead?! I thought that was just a rumor, like Lou Reed.

[sarcasmic]

CCTV appears to show 22-year-old being thrown to the ground for using his cell phone to film police officers making an arrest outside a Christmas Party

Daniel Clements from Virginia was visiting a friend in Baton Rouge, Louisiana when he saw the officers
The former student then took his cell phone out to film the events
An officer notices his him, takes away the phone and appears to grab him
Security camera footage appears to show him then being thrown down
He was then handcuffed and taken to the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison
Clements, who is planning to apply for the Peace Corp, has now filed an official complaint with the police who are investigating

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new…..Party.html

In the official report obtained by the station, officers said they arrived to disperse the crowd. They claimed Clements refused to leave.

It also accuses the former student of jumping onto the backs of officers, which Clements denies.

What are you going to believe, the official report or some unofficial video?

[R C Dean]

Nice to see they went full monty on a lie that can easily be disproved by video.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

It worked for the Kelly Thomas murderers.

[sarcasmic]

Doesn’t matter. Knowing that there will be no consequences for their lies, they’ll double-down and claim the video is lying. And nothing else will happen.

[sarcasmic]

The force is REALLY strong with this one: Darth Vader super-fan spends $270,000 amassing world’s biggest collection of merchandise

Bill McBride fell in love with George Lucas’ sci-fi movie series age five
He’s since amassed more than 60,000 movie items including lightsabers
And now plans to turn a room of his home into a Darth Vadar museum
Mr McBride turned down the offer of a Porsche for his memorabilia

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new…..ndise.html
Super-fan or super-dork?

[Swiss Servator, Winter...jetzt]

Imma say “dork”.

[Zeb]

Why not both? There is considerable overlap.

[straffinrun]

Buying this guy Darth Vader gear for christmas must be a nightmare. I’m sure he can feel its presents.

[Anonymous Coward]

*narrows gaze*

Careful, now.

[Swiss Servator, Winter...jetzt]

*joins in narrowing gaze*

[Florida Man]

*widens gaze to see what they are looking at*

[sarcasmic]

Found, Hitler’s secret nuke plant: Vast underground complex where the Nazis worked on developing nuclear weapons is discovered in Austria

Facility was discovered near the town of St Georgen an der Gusen, Austria
Understood that it could be connected to another Nazi weapons facility
Experts believe that it was used to conduct research into atomic bombs
Supported by heightened radiation readings and witness testimonies

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new…..stria.html

[Swiss Servator, Winter...jetzt]

Fools, it was a HYDRA facility!

[Fist of Etiquette]

And so…

[Andrew S.]

I thought it’s been known for decades that the Nazis were working on nuclear weapons. And they might’ve had them first if they hadn’t scared off so many of their best scientists, some of whom ended up on the Manhattan Project.

[Zeb]

Yeah, it has. There was a heavy water plant somewhere that the Allies destroyed, if I recall correctly, which set them back a lot.

[Ted S.]

I wish TCM would run The Heroes of Telemark again.

[John]

Yes it has. There is a huge debate about whether Heisenberg was really working to build Hitler the bomb or was secretly sabotaging the entire program and helping to ensure he never got the bomb.

[Clich? Bandit]

Is there any uncertainty about this?

[seguin]

Only the question of his principles.

[Bill Dalasio]

Also, if I understand correctly, Hitler played down the effort because he didn’t want to make use of “Jewish physics”.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

“Jewish physics”

The Oy Vey Particle

[Chinny Chin Chin]

A bigger issue for Germany than brain drain was lack of graphite. The nuke program needed graphite for the reactor that would create the weapons-grade material. But Hitler chose to use most of German’s small stockpile of the stuff on the flight-control surfaces of the V-series rockets.

[R C Dean]

Incredible, that it wasn’t discovered for seventy (70) years.

[Swiss Servator, Winter...jetzt]

Well, it was secret facility!

[Robert]

For a second I read that as “Hillary’s” rather than “Hitler’s”.

[Rich]

Young people are ‘lost generation’ who can no longer fix gadgets, warns professor

Ideas include using a magnifying glass and shoe box to turn a mobile phone into a rudimentary projector; how to use tin foil to make too small batteries fit correctly and how to turn a bottle of water into a lamp.

Now, *that’s* “fixing gadgets”!

[Bam!]

Prof George said: “We’ve got a lost generation that has grown up with factory electronics that just work all of the time.”

Things don’t break. Damn you capitalism!

[Zeb]

Things do break. They are just cheap enough that you throw them away and get a new one. If you haven’t already upgraded to the latest and greatest. And with miniaturization of everything and fewer discrete components, stuff is harder to repair.

We are much better at making things now, but a lot of consumer electronics are engineered to be just good enough for it’s expected lifetime. And all of the lead free electronics regulations (RoHS, etc.) don’t help.

[wareagle]

I don’t know if we’re better at making things but it does seem companies are better at baking in planned obsolescence.

[Zeb]

I’d say we (humans in general) are definitely better at making most things. Especially electronics and things like that. We don’t always make things as well as possible (because of planned obsolescence and other reasons), but we can make things pretty much as well as we want to.

[R C Dean]

Anything with a non-replacable battery in it anywhere is only going to last a few years, because physics.

That is why I won’t buy Apple. The functionality is fine, as far as I am concerned. But fuck Apple for designing everything they make to fail.

[Zeb]

I have a 6 year old Mac Book, which is great. But the newer models have been getting steadily more difficult to service (can’t replace batteries or upgrade RAM or HDD without special secrets and tools) and they seem to have a lot of failures. I don’t think I will buy any more Apple products.

[seguin]

This guy has obviously never soldered surface mount stuff. Even when i was doing it that stuff is a complete bitch.

[Zeb]

It’s really not meant to be assembled by humans (especially the really tiny fly-shit stuff). I’m pretty good at it, but don’t tell anyone or they will ask me to do it.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

I still remember when we attempted to surface mount our first 0102 components. Tombstones galore.

[Zeb]

I can’t do those anymore. Maybe after I get new glasses.

[Bam!]

Prof George said: “We’ve got a lost generation that has grown up with factory electronics that just work all of the time.”

Things don’t break. Damn you capitalism!

[Zeb]

Things don’t break.

Except Reason comment section.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Radio Shack will be no more soon.

[Zeb]

Radio Shack hasn’t been what it was for some time now. They seem to mostly focus on selling second rate consumer electronics now.

[Drake]

My daughter is taking Robotics in high school. She comes home excited about learning to weld. Then I remembered they don’t have metal or wood shop any more.

[Zeb]

They don’t? It’s great that they do tech and robotics stuff (especially robotics, as I am in the business of making robots for use in education and research). But wood working and metal working are hardly obsolete skills.

[JEP]

Do you make robots for high school level education, Zeb? I’m loosely connected with a high school trying to fund their own kind of maker space thing, so I’m curious to see what’s out there besides the mindstorms stuff.

I’m also going to start mentoring a group of freshman engineering students at a local university in January, and I’m supposed to help them brainstorm project ideas…

[Drake]

First Robotics is the competitive high school organization.

http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc/

[Zeb]

Our stuff is a little pricey for most high schools, I think, but we do sell some to high schools. More in Europe than the US.
Our products are mostly geared toward people who want to focus more on the programming and less on having to build the base platform for whatever the project is.
If you are interested: http://www.mobilerobots.com/Mobile_Robots.aspx

[JEP]

Cool. Good to know. The high school is a private, college prep school so they have some money to throw around.Robotics is one option, but I’m trying to get them to start a four year introductory computer science curriculum. They have some guy teaching java right now, but they need a legit computer science program that’ll teach basic algorithms. And maybe a class in matlab or python for the people going into the straight sciences. Getting your data onto a graph without having to use Excel can be real handy.

[Zeb]

And it’s almost like I’m working while dicking around on H&R.

[Clich? Bandit]

So Radio Shack sells, Raspberry Pis and Arduinos etc. And you can run linux on a Pi. SO, If I were teaching a robotics/electronics class I would start off with first building you own computer for 35 dollars, then programming your own PCBs with Arduinos, then making the thing move, fly, swim, whatever. I can see total cost of a semester ending with a working autonomous drone for a course fee of about $150. (Cheaper if bought in bulk online)

just sayin.

[JEP]

I’m 26. While staying at my parents’ house for Christmas, I fixed the garage door, replaced a light switch in my parents’ bathroom, and fixed a leaky faucet in the laundry room.

During past holidays, I’ve tiled the kitchen floor, replaced two lighting fixtures in the kitchen, replaced electrical sockets on the porch, installed an oven vent in my sister’s kitchen, etc, etc, etc.

It’s really tiring hearing old people complain about my generation. My generation has just as many idiots and useless people as any other.

[sarcasmic]

I don’t think anything you mentioned qualifies as a “gadget.”

[Auric Demonocles]

If the professor is old enough, indoor lighting might be a gadget. We should ask Pro Lib.

[JEP]

True. But they are things that break that are within the realm of possibility to fix.

To be honest, things that I would call “gadgets” would be consumer electronics which are difficult to fix because they rely so much on software. Even cars are getting harder to fix because they rely so much on computers(having one of those code readers is useful though). Reverse engineering the software just isn’t worth it.

[sarcasmic]

I think some of it comes down to what is meant by the word fix. Old timers would fix things by using whatever was available to make something work. Today it’s all R&R, remove and replace. And if you can’t get the part, it’s not getting fixed. Not nearly as glamorous as it was in the old days.

[Zeb]

A lot of things just aren’t designed to be fixable.

[antisocial-ist]

Cars are also requiring more specialized and expensive tools for repair and even maintenance. My grandad had an old Ford diesel pickup truck. You could take the whole damn thing apart and put it back together with a good socket set, a phillips head screw driver, and a torque wrench. My wife’s 08 jeep, not so much.

[BigT]

The car fix up gap with Cuba is vast.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Are you up for adoption? My son is useless.

[JEP]

As long as you feed me, cloth me, and tuck me in at night.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Sounds reasonable

[Auric Demonocles]

To be fair, I do think there are some trends that are fairly unique to us, but that’s not really a fault of ours. They’re either due to a load of crappy parenting, or growing up mostly post-internet.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

JEP, you, being a fix-it guy, are a much smaller %age of your generation than in previous generations.

[Swiss Servator, Winter...jetzt]

My son is 16… learned to use a soldering iron from gramps (retired pipefitter) and electronics, in part, from other grampa who wrote a book on medical electronics.

I give him electronics to fix…

[R C Dean]

I know how to do lots of stuff around the house.

Its just that when I, for example, lay tile, it looks like tile laid by a lawyer.

[Auric Demonocles]

Is he not counting copying a Youtube walkthrough?

[Steve G]

Yes, damn this generation that came up with 3D printing and apps and such.

Gimme a break, I’ve fixed 2 flatscreen TVs by googling the problem and finding out that somebody already resolved it and chronicled their steps. And I’m not talking quick fixes, but actual soldering work. I think there’s plenty of tinkering going on out there, it just doesn’t look like the inside of the mythbusters’ shop.

[JEP]

This is true. For every “gadget” we can’t fix, there’s a Raspberry Pi, Arduino, Intel’s Edison, etc to replace it.

People are using their blenders to keep their cats off the kitchen counters for crap’s sake.

[John]

The problem with a lot of gadgets is that they are obsolete so quickly. My flat screen’s picture quality is lousy compared to a new one. And a new one costs less than a thousand dollars. If it were just a question of having to replace it when it breaks, it would make sense to fix it. The problem is that it can not only be replaced cheaply, it can be upgraded cheaply and that changes the calculations associated with the cost of repair versus replacement.

[Irish]

“The problem with a lot of gadgets is that they are obsolete so quickly. My flat screen’s picture quality is lousy compared to a new one. And a new one costs less than a thousand dollars.”

This is it exactly. You aren’t getting the same gadget when you buy a new one, you’re getting an upgrade. As a result, if my phone breaks, not only does it make economic sense to buy a new one since it’s not expensive, but the new one is actually going to be appreciably superior to the old.

This guy doesn’t understand the speed at which modern technology moves and imagines that people should be holding onto the same gadget for 7 years like his pappy did with the old timey radio down on the farm.

[JEP]

Google’s playing around with a modular cell phone that’ll let you upgrade one component at a time.

It’s not very stylish right now, but you could keep the same chassis for ages and just swap out the modules. If they can get that working for phones, TVs wouldn’t be impossible – you could upgrade pretty much all the hardware except the actual display fairly easily.

[Robert]

Yeah, but when the new one has 40 functions, of which you want only 3, all of which were in the old one….

[Pope Jimbo]

Yeah, before condemning today’s youth, I’d take a good look at the DIY movement and what they are doing with the IoT (internet of things) world.

I have been working in IoT for the last 10 years or so and it is incredible what people are doing today compared to what it was back when I started.

As 3D printing matures, I’d expect even cooler things to come out of the makerverse. It is amazing to think about how much can be done by one person now that used to take an entire company to produce.

[Steve G]

The last few cars I’ve owned have had active online forums that have saved me countless $$ in repairs/upgrades. This professor is just spewing tired platitudes that don’t reflect reality.

A makeshift projector? Really?? That’s offered as evidence?

[Irish]

Alternately: Professor learns, at a ripe old age, that when something is cheaper to buy than repair, it makes economic sense to buy a new one, rather than wasting your time in costly repairs of an old device.

Shocked by this black voodoo magic libertarians call ‘the market’ he declares the youth of his nation to be defective.

[Florida Man]

All of the +’s

[Steve G]

Shorter version: get off my push-mowed lawn

[Cdr Lytton]

The graveyards of history are full of indispensable nations.

[Rich]

Yep.

“Young people today can’t even perform a rudimentary mud-brick repair!”

[Swiss Servator, Winter...jetzt]

+1 old Afghan man

[Lord Humungus]

I’m taking my annual Hit & Run vacation – enjoy yourselves, you magnificent bastards (and bitches). I’ll be working on a new shitty novel, finding a new job (finally!), and buying a shitlord of records.

Main force Patrol. Were out of the game unable to continue pursuit. You better send a Meat Truck. Charlie’s copped a saucepan in the throat.

[Auric Demonocles]

How long is this coke filled bender?

[Lord Humungus]

until the cash runs out or my septum becomes a gaping hole.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

Isn’t the hockey mask there to cover the already gaping hole?

[Ted S.]

Lord Humungus is leaving! Woo-hoo! :-p

Seriously, enjoy the break.

[Rich]

Enjoy the Interzone, Lord, wherever it may take you!

[John]

Lord,

Have fun with the records. I need to look for new music to buy.

[Lord Humungus]

Sturgill Simpson
Alcest
MONO (Japan)
The Wild Swans
The Emeralds
Suede
The Red Sparowes
Moose
Cody Chesnutt
Destroyer
IAMX
Snake Corps
Sad Lovers and Giants
Shout Out Louds

[John]

Understand Lord, I have really picky tastes in music. It has to have a swing to it (no grunge or death metal), it has to be well played (no punk bands who can’t play their instruments or pop stars who need autotune to sound even acceptable)and it has to have a melody and sense of musicality about it (no esoteric jazz or classical that has to be explained rather than felt and listened to).

I like a lot of different kinds of music, but it all fits that description. But it is hard to find.

[Protagoronus]

John, you use Pandora at all? It can be a great music discovery service if you create a station using lots of favorites and then vote up and down songs that you listen to. Over time, it will learn your tastes and start suggesting things you never would have come up with alone.

[John]

I have and don’t use it enough. I need to get wifi for my car and use it on my car radio. I was driving my inlaws car over Christmas and they have XM radio. I was amazed at how shitty it is. Most of the stations suck and even the ones that don’t often play lousy music. Pandora in contrast tailors the music to your tastes. It makes a hundred times more sense than XM.

[Protagoronus]

True. My other self-driven music discovery method is Shazam. Hear a song, Shazam it, and purchase instantly. I tend to buy more music when drinking, but lots of those decisions end up being good ones.

[John]

I use Shazam all of the time. I will hear a song at a Starbucks or somewhere else in public and Shazam it. That is how I discovered of Monsters and Men. Mountain Sound was playing on the Weather Channel of all places and I Shazamed it and discovered the band and what I think is a very good first record of theirs.

[Aloysious]

Love Pandora. Love it love it love it.

[Johnny Bravo]

So no Sh?nberg or Var?se?

[lap83]

John, you might like a band called The War On Drugs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23GdGEzZPvE
They fit all your criteria and they’re recent. The album this song is from was released earlier this year.

[John]

No I haven’t. That is nice. Thanks. I will check them out.

[BigT]

Nice. Reminds me of Dire Straits.

[Robert]

I recommend Poopy Lungstuffing.

[seguin]

A shitlord of records? You’re buying Bing Crosby?

[The Other Kevin]

So I saw Into the Woods last night. I can really see the libertarian themes in it. For example, just like Atlas Shrugged, the main idea seems ok, but it goes on forever, it’s terrible, and it’s nearly unreadable/unwatchable.

[Steve G]

…and it’s a (part) musical. Ugh

[Palin's Buttplug]

I am looking forward to ‘Wild’ with that MILF Reese Witherspoon.

[Elspeth Flashman]

I kind of want to see it b/c it’s part musical. Maybe I can rope the kiddo into seeing it?

[The Other Kevin]

It’s not part musical, it’s ALL musical. As in, 90% or more of the dialog is sung. And the songs all sound similar. None of the songs are anything you’d ever want to hear on a soundtrack.

That was the worst part. Every time someone faced the camera, I thought, “Oh shit, not another song!” It reminded me of the guy in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

[Steve G]

lol. I just don’t get it. To me, Sound of Music is a musical. Nice clear distinctions from the regular dialogue to the songs. But this broadway-style random singing dialogue is just strange and completely uninteresting to me.

[Irish]

There’s nothing wrong with that kind of style. I like Les Mis when it’s an actual play, although the movie version was terrible.

Russell Crowe’s singing voice sounds like a dying pelican.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Les Miz with Hugh Jackman did not have a word of dialog in it.

[Zeb]

But this broadway-style random singing dialogue is just strange and completely uninteresting to me.

That sort of thing would be more the tradition of light opera, I guess. Dramatic works where all dialogue is sung is hardly a new or strange thing.

[GroundTruth]

“Charles Koch said criminal justice reform is one of the key issues he and his bro David will be pushing in 2015”

Those damned conservative Koch brothers are at it again!

[John]

They are just doing this to hide how racist they really are.

[The Other Kevin]

Somehow they are going to use these issues to rape the environment and increase their profits!

[Sevo]

When the two major parties agree, the people get screwed.

“State’s ballot initiative process remade, and both parties agree”
[…]
“After more than a century in California’s political spotlight, the state’s initiative process will be getting a major revise next year. Even more surprising, both Democrats and Republicans in the famously partisan Legislature are happy to see it happen.”
http://www.sfgate.com/politics…..982538.php

Not sure how this will hurt, yet, but there is no doubt it will. Keep you hand on your wallet.

[R C Dean]

First casualty will be marijuana legalization.

[Sevo]

Hadn’t thought of that, but you’re right. Our lefty legislators know best!

[Tonio]

Can’t have the people thinking they can actually make laws on their own! Why, it could cost us our phoney-baloney jobs. /Cali Legislators

[robc]

No nation is indispensable, just like no bank is too big to fail.

[robc]

If there were an indispensable one, it was the Roman Empire.

[jacqueline]

my friend’s half-sister makes $83 /hr on the internet . She has been out of work for 10 months but last month her paycheck was $14066 just working on the internet for a few hours. go to this site…………
????? http://www.netjob70.com

[The artist known Dunphy]

Excellent Reason and THANK YOU FOR DOING THE CORRECT, ethical, and non-inflammatory thing!!!!!!

Credit where credit is due

Not since the days of ‘The Agitator’ have I seen such bitchen journalism

I salute Elizabeth Nolan Brown for speaking TRUTH

he was placed on paid leave!!!

It is not a suspension. It is not discipline. He is not seperated from his employer, as a person on suspension, the latter free to go where he wants, etc but he is on paid leave and is not this being paid because he is neither seperated (HR likely has a furlough schedule , duty hours where he must be available to respond to supervisor calls, and his due process and property rights are being respected. He very well MAY be punished. He is under investigation

Cheers!!!!!!

I am not a cynic. I am an optimist, and it has its own rewards!!!!!!

Booya responsible journalism!!!

And thank you for reminding me why i love Reason, as well as reason

[FUQ]

You’re an idiot

BOOYA RC and FdA handing you your ass

SMOOCHES

[Auric Demonocles]

You don’t have due process rights to not get fired.

[R C Dean]

One of the many evils of pubsec unions is their conflation of contractual provisions with due process rights.

[The artist known Dunphy]

LAPD officers fired at by guy with rifle

And the article I read just said ‘rifle’ not ‘automatic weapon’ or ‘assault weapon’ or any such nonsense

Cops took him into custody with no injury to anybody (unlike NYPD in a few recent fucked up incidents I might add where innocent bystanders were capped)

Note: no media report of his race of course because it’s irrelevant just like when ‘white officer shot black man who pointed a gun at him police say’ and other such media/Reuters racist double standard

Media on fucking FIRE!!

[cavalier973]

One prominent legislator, Seiko Noda, has worked on the issue since soon after taking office in 1993. In February, Noda proposed that Japan lift the birth rate by simply banning abortion. The proposal may have been facetious, but it was certainly desperate ? and maybe appropriately.

If Japanese people are shunning sexual intercourse, banning abortion might not have much effect.

[[e-mail]]

my roomate’s mother makes $71 /hr on the internet . She has been laid off for 7 months but last month her payment was $12827 just working on the internet for a few hours. this link…..
?????http://www.netjob70.com