bmelton

60 ms·

721.
by bmelton 9y ago
I know that hand-held was an intentional choice, as was 16mm, but even for what it is, it still seems sloppy in spots. There are a number of sloppy pans back and forth during conversations, and because they eschewed camera trucks / sl
722.
by bmelton 9y ago
So, it's a decade earlier, which means that the cinematography is a decade behind. The camera work is often sloppy, and the soundtrack is, at times, atrocious. That said, the stories are just as compelling, and just as well told. If
723.
by bmelton 9y ago
Enamored with David Simon's work, I picked up the DVD box set of "Homicide: Life on the Street", which I'd heard of before, but didn't have an attachment to. After seeing The Wire, then Treme (which took me a long
724.
by bmelton 9y ago
But if you lend to high-risk creditors, you have to have non-repayment built into the rate. As of the last time I saw an article on it, the rate of default for payday loans was something like 50%. High interest rates are there to absorb t
725.
by bmelton 9y ago
Right. If your definition of "delivered" is "showed a message to the user", then exactly once is a fairly trivial goal to attain. If it's defined "data over the wire", then it's nearly impossible to
726.
by bmelton 9y ago
Do you want to reduce the cost , or do you want to increase accessibility? There are a finite number of colleges, so reducing cost does not necessarily increase accessibility. An incentive to build more colleges may increase accessibilit
727.
by bmelton 9y ago
I'm honestly convinced that, post-Sable, the FCC is poised to lose should anyone challenge their obscenity provisions, Miller test notwithstanding. Since then though, the FCC has been more prudent with what they go after, and the fines
728.
by bmelton 9y ago
Per Sable v. FCC[1], any restriction that is subject to examination of the content is subject to strict scrutiny. Strict scrutiny, where applied appropriately, would mean that the government is very unlikely to devise a restriction on co
729.
by bmelton 9y ago
Well, as this decision effectively strikes down the provision that the PTO was using to deny the Redskins trademark protection, they effectively just won the right regardless.
730.
by bmelton 9y ago
Very few "members of the public", maybe, but that doesn't really matter for much when the Patent & Trademark Office is attempting to strip them of their patent protection because they consider it a slur. https:/&#x2
731.
by bmelton 9y ago
Damages don't need to be ongoing to have standing, and damages in the past are still damages. The case isn't mooted by rectifying the situation that was causing harm unless it ameliorates the financial harms caused.
732.
by bmelton 9y ago
If that were the standard, we'd never have gotten the news of NSA surveillance, Watergate, and who knows what else, as the sources were understandably shrouded in secrecy.
733.
by bmelton 9y ago
I personally don't see it as anti-gun, but I do see it as anti-civil liberties. It is for the same reasons I oppose voter ID, or any other hoops at discouraging the opportunity to exercise the right to vote that I oppose universal bac
734.
by bmelton 9y ago
> Why compare sex and firearms? I feel like you've abstracted one level too far. We're not comparing sex and firearms in a concrete sense; we're comparing one type of education as an appropriate way to mitigate the potent
735.
by bmelton 9y ago
I've been around a lot of suppressed arms, and aside from one competition rifle that was specifically designed to be silent (and cost many thousands of dollars to get that way), can't recall a single one in which ear protection wo
736.
by bmelton 9y ago
> do high schools in the US teach this kind of stuff It was pretty common in the 50s, and up to the civil rights era in the 60s, but after that, the answer is very much no. Currently, possession of a firearm on school grounds is a felon
737.
by bmelton 9y ago
I think your analogy oversteps -- it's really more akin to teaching people how to use a fire extinguisher, even though they're unlikely to ever encounter a fire. According to the ATF[1], there are more firearms in America than peo
738.
by bmelton 9y ago
> but at least with the machete they are going to have to physically work quite a bit to kill each person they want to kill. Without meaning to be glib, this is exactly the reason I would not recommend a machete to my grandmother for per
739.
by bmelton 9y ago
I made a similar point upstream from this, but I believe you said it better, so I've linked to your comment from mine.
740.
by bmelton 9y ago
I don't necessarily disagree with the premise, but I take pause at the notion that the American state does not have its own agenda. We've seen the state infiltrate encryption standards to deliberately weaken them. We've seen
741.
by bmelton 9y ago
I don't know about other countries, but in America, being a monopoly is not at all outlawed. The criminality associable to monopoly here is when a monopoly abuses their monopoly power. If I am the only company in America that produc
742.
by bmelton 9y ago
I don't even know if that works. If late-night comedy has taught me anything, it's that if you take an un(der)informed Obama or Trump supporter[1], attribute the [policy|activity|event] to the contra, and ask if they support it,
743.
by bmelton 9y ago
I'm not the parent, but I've always lived in the suburbs. The suburbs I live in now are far less rural than the ones I grew up in, mind you, and I've never lived within 1,000 miles of California, or the Valley, but through t
744.
by bmelton 9y ago
I don't claim any knowledge on the matter above that of a layperson, so please don't take this as picking sides, as I'm far too uninformed to do so intelligently... that said, would it not be considered appropriate for the bo
745.
by bmelton 9y ago
I wasn't meaning to imply that political instability isn't a cause for concern, but I wasn't referring to the introduction in my conclusion, just the listed points. Also, for what it's worth, I didn't intend to refe
746.
by bmelton 9y ago
The real takeaway for me as a parent here is that the more and more we prevent our kids from being actual kids, the more subtleties we might be depriving them of. Dating myself a little, but growing up as a kid in Virginia, 'outside&#x
747.
by bmelton 9y ago
Maybe the rhetoric has shifted now that the administration was changed, but the last time I checked, the labor participation rate was largely attributable to: * Retiring baby boomers * Married women not needing to work * Young, work-eligibl
748.
by bmelton 9y ago
Between the Marvel shows, House of Cards, Longmire, Orange is the New Black, Bloodline, Sense8, Narcos, The Get Down, Stranger Things, A Series of Unfortunate Events, 13 Reasons Why, Master of None, Grace & Frankie, Love, Dear White Peo
749.
by bmelton 9y ago
Agreed. Watch "The Founder". The amount of workplace efficiency brought by the McDonald brothers would have been, and almost certainly was considered inconceivable by other restaurateurs of the era. "The system" was so
750.
by bmelton 9y ago
And yet another effect is consolidation -- e.g., small business competitors are priced out due to the increase, only to be replaced with franchisees or larger businesses filling their void. Overall employment might go up, but you might inc

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