Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[iam416]

I personally would view autonomous and green as two separate things.

I think everyone would. Heh. But they're both in the bucket of inevitable automotive technological advances. Related -- Pittsburgh and Columbus are "Smart Cities" meaning they're going to be pilots. Can't wait to get stuck behind some autonomous bullshit going the speed limit!

[THE_WIZARD_]

...sounds like a few lawsuit opportunities for piranha like you...

[hack]

Better than an actual person going fucking ten below the speed limit and blocking intersections because they don't give a fuck about anyone else. DC is an astonishing mix of people who are both oblivious and not in a rush. Give me oblivious and in a rush every time over this. Worst driving city ever. And I've driven in some third-world shitholes.

[Wild Hoss]

Can't wait to get stuck behind some autonomous bullshit going the speed limit!

Yeah...that's not going to fly around here.

[iam416]

Jon:

The gerrymandering question is an interesting one. The issue is fairly straight-forward: is the solution worse than the problem. All parties agree that gerrymandering is less than ideal, but all also agree that drawing district lines is inherently political and that some "gerrymandering" is fine. The question is how much is too much and that answer set forth by the folks arguing against it is to use a social science methodology conceived in 2014 and force Courts to decide how much is too much.

IMO, all you're doing is shifting the political question to the Courts and that's generally frowned upon (in fact, there's actually a political question doctrine). Personally, I think that's a horrible "solution" process-wise. Further, the methodology does a bad job discriminating between gerrymandered districts and neutrally-drawn districts. There's also a great comparison of Wisconsin, which is basically all normal looking districts and Chicago -- which is gerrymandered to all hell. But, Wisconsin flunks the test and Chicago, which was clearly drawn to get Ds seats, passes. So, the test itself seems really suspect in terms of precision.

Breyer set forth his own idea where he tried to put a bunch of hurdles in place to prevent the inevitable onslaught of litigation and Courts deciding what is or isn't too gerrymandered. One of things he suggests was a "non-partisan" commission -- if the lines were drawn such a thing -- whatever that is -- then they couldn't be challenged. That, of course, is more or less saying you have to use non-partisan commissions.

All in all, an interesting case. I'm not sure which way Kennedy goes. Personally, I side with the 4 who will vote to keep Courts out of it.

[THE_WIZARD_]

Who is this "Gerry" guy anyway...Gerry Faust?

[iam416]

The autonomous technology is fairly stunning -- I mean in terms of AI. When you think of all the information a driver processes on a routine drive, it's remarkable that they now have cars that can do full drives autonomously.

Safety wise, one of the biggest advocates for the technology is those tee-totaling asshats at MADD and associated _ADDs. It also eliminates texting/driving issues.

I really can't see the technology becoming fairly widespread over the next 30-50 years.

Relatedly -- one of my favorite local companies is developing technology that "harvests" RF waves and converts them to DC. Wireless power. Some real proper shit.

[hack]

Wave of the future, dude.

[iam416]

"The" Wizard:

Elbridge Gerry. He co-signed the Magna Carta, proofread the Declaration of Independence, circumnavigated the globe on a driftwood raft, designed all the Apollo rockets, created the wishbone offense, invented ribeye steaks and fresh air, translated for the Dali Lama and, yes, had modest success as ND's head ball coach.

Recognize, bitch.

[THE_WIZARD_]

Can he coach?

[iam416]

He runs the WCO these days.

[hack]

I don't think he actually really co-signed the Magna Carta. He just wrote ^THIS at the bottom of it.

[THE_WIZARD_]

If by "modest" success you mean John Cooper type success...I agree...

[Da Geezer]

Finding a solution is always a lot harder than spotting a problem, but if I were to do one thing, it's to knock out most of the financial sector. Make banks be banks again -- lending against the spread, 3-6-3 model, nothing else. Investing can be left to investment funds. Eliminate all exotic securities, so that our MIT PhD brainiacs will be incentivized to join the real economy and not investment banks on proprietary accounts. I recognize that some derivatives play a positive role. Companies should be able to hedge on currency risks because that meets a legitimate real-economy need. Short sellers can be the conscience of the market by knocking out charlatans. If there's a way to strike the right balance, do it, but, failing that, getting rid of securities activity other than trading commodities, currency, bonds and equity would be a net positive.

All good points. What would have happened if the government had not engaged in massive intervention in the financial sector during 2008-9? A failure of the "too big to fail" banks. Who would have survived? The "real" banks that performed banking services and kept the mortgages they wrote.

Then, including the Community Redevelopment Act, Fanny, and Freddie, I can make a case that federal intervention in the capital markets caused the financial crisis. But we can never know for sure what would have happened.

[iam416]

Hack is correct, though Elbridge Gerry need only nod approval to move the world. That he endorsed the Magna Carta in any written way was gratuitous.

He also helped George Clinton figure out the Vice Presidency and parliamentary funk.