Hacker News Reader

ithoughton Vanishing Point: How to disappear in America without a trace (2012)

How is that an ad hominem attack?

Most cops aren't properly trained to shoot a gun. Some have 1 training session per year and they have to hit 70% on a target 3 yards away. Most don't seem to know how to react in a confrontation or high-stress situation.

The system is flawed but people have personal responsibility too. You can't absolve someone of criminal acts by saying oh it's someone else's fault.

ithoughton Vatican Library Puts 4,000 Ancient Manuscripts Available Online for Free

The bank has about $6.3 billion in assets and in 2012 had a net profit of $117.4 million. They finally made their financial records public in 2013.

http://news.yahoo.com/whats-vatican-banks-balance-sheet-1458...

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/02/business/international/vat...

Catholic Charities is definitely the biggest source of charitable work in the US and the majority of their budget comes from the US Government. 62% in 2010. There's also CRS (international), hospitals, Society of Saint Vincent de Paul (international) etc. all of which are much smaller.

ithoughton Vatican Library Puts 4,000 Ancient Manuscripts Available Online for Free

Not true. It was founded and is headquartered at CUA.

While this is about Catholic Charities of Baltimore, their national office is Catholic Charities USA-

>Catholic Charities began with the establishment of the Catholic Church in America. John Carroll, the first Bishop of Baltimore, declared in 1792 that one-third of all parish revenues should go to “the relief of the poor.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Associated_Catholic_Charities#H...

ithoughton Vatican Library Puts 4,000 Ancient Manuscripts Available Online for Free

I think the Vatican was crowdfunded in the same way the British Royal Family was. Theft, war, deception, destruction; then some analogous leaseback deal to legitimize everything.

I'm not sure the Vatican's revenue but I suppose a lot comes from the Vatican Bank and returns on their massive assets. Most of their charitable work comes from $2+ billion from the US Govt.

If you've seen Vatileaks on PBS, you know how frighteningly corrupt it is. The Pope's personal butler was a whistleblower, went to the media and then was arrested for possession of "classified" material. Sentenced to 18 months in prison but he instead served it in the Vatican. Then the Pope pardoned him.

ithoughton Vatican Library Puts 4,000 Ancient Manuscripts Available Online for Free

In 2010, Catholic Charities received $2.9 billion from the US Government. This represents about 62% of their revenue. Only 3% ($140 million) came from passing the hat around inside of churches. The rest was from in-kind contributions, investments, program fees and community donations.

Source- http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/29/us/for-bishops-a-battle-ov...?

They at least get $2 billion every year from the Office of Faith Based Initiatives.

I personally find a lot wrong with this.

ithoughton NSA reviewing deal between official, ex-spy agency head

Something can be both necessary and the wrong implementation. Is it necessary for NSA to do everything it is doing?

Also, IronNet intends to charge clients $1 million per month according to another article.

My position is that, if someone is in charge of defending America, then their first impulse shouldn't be to start a private company to charge clients millions of dollars to protect them from hackers. If Alexander has truly invented something so revolutionary and also completely unrelated to his work at NSA, then why doesn't he give to NSA or some other agency to help protect us all?

Why? Because this is the same old story of government->corporation=get rich.

ithoughton Alfred Anaya Put Secret Compartments in Cars. The DEA Put Him in Prison (2013)

His punishment is either punitive or hysterically motivated.

In my experience, people who have been threatened by either federal agents or prosecutors feel like they are being punished for personal reasons outside of the crime. Asserting your rights or just merely not accepting a plea deal can be enough. Let alone engaging in a legal technical trade that subverts law enforcement's ability, thus thumbing your nose at them, which is similar to speaking out against them publicly.

ithoughton 'You Have the Right to Remain Silent.' or Do You?

Of course, the Constitution doesn't grant rights. Do you have a natural right to be left alone if you so choose? Do you have a natural right to not be a witness against yourself? It seems a society based on popular sovereignty should define these rights as inherent and innate to being a person.

ithoughton 'You Have the Right to Remain Silent.' or Do You?

And if you do assert your Constitutional rights, it's an easy way to escalate a situation where you soon learn the meaning to "you can beat the rap, but you can't beat the ride."

ithoughton “Giganews is an FBI Operation”

But it reads like a satirical manifesto. He certainly appears to be trying to be funny and wrote it as the Co-CEO. Ending with:

>Now that you know what we're about, start a free 14-day trial at Giganews.com and join the King of Thieves in the unholy war against God. We can only win with your help, and we need your soul to fuel Hells flames. Our servers are alwayson, always available, and run by a company you can trust. Giganews: Newsgroups Nonstop.

ithoughton I Went from Grad School to Prison

I'll agree not to charge you with a felony and potentially lock in you in cage if you agree not to have a third party examine the facts of this case, and instead plead to a misdemeanor and pay a fine.

Is there any possible reform for the disaster that is the plea system? I realize it's necessarily in some situations but the result is you are never not guilty of some crime. The prosecution virtually never loses. Truth and justice are nowhere to be found.

ithoughton Hard Science About Diet

Thanks. Can you recommend a book?

So the claim that on a ketogenic diet your brain only needs 5% of energy from protein (to make glucose) and the rest from fats and ketones is wrong?

ithoughton Hard Science About Diet

I do not believe that is true. I can eat greasy hamburgers minus the bun and feel completely fine. I thought the body would use fat and ketones to convert to energy and only convert a very small percentage of protein to glucose.

From the Harvard Medical School Family Health Guide:

"Don't be so refined. The bolus of blood sugar that accompanies a meal or snack of highly refined carbohydrates (white bread, white rice, French fries, sugar-laden soda, etc.) increases levels of inflammatory messengers called cytokines. Eating whole-grain bread, brown rice, and other whole grains smooths out the after-meal rise in blood sugar and insulin, and dampens cytokine production."

http://www.health.harvard.edu/fhg/updates/What-you-eat-can-f...

ithoughton Hard Science About Diet

What about inflammation? What happens to my body when I eat 800 calories of pancakes, syrup and hash browns, and start to sweat, feel sick and get tired?

ithoughton The Strange and Curious Tale of the Last True Hermit

I marvel out how perfect this story is in various ways. No real resolution to it, no motive, no discernible point. The unfolding of it all and the brutally abrupt ending; "We are not friends", seemed predictable shocking and sad at the same time.

Interestingly, the journalist has an upcoming movie where he's played by Jonah Hill. A fugitive murderer had used his name as an alias and through that, he'd developed a relationship with him and interviewed him after the person was convicted.

ithoughton NY Times releases military surplus gear data on GitHub

As another point, the book Burning Money from the Chairman of Reagan's Committee on Cost Control, J. Peter Grace:

"The Federal government is Burning Money and it is your money. An actual case. One day the US Navy decided to buy a hammer, the kind you buy for $7 at the corner hardware store. To the $7 cost of the hammer, add: $41 to order the hammer and figure out how to use it. $93 to make sure the hammer worked. $102 for "manufacturing overhead. " $37 to make sure there were spare parts for the hammer. $3 for packing the hammer for shipment. $90 for the contractor's general administrative costs. $56 for the finder's fee. $7 for the capital cost of money. The U.S. Navy ended up buying a $7 hammer for $436, and who paid for it? You."

http://www.paperbackswap.com/Burning-Money-Waste-J-Peter-Gra...

ithoughton Steven Colbert On Vessyl Digital Cup [video]

All due respect to them, I'd like to know how many carbs are my wine. If this device can do that, it's the only possible reason I'd buy it.

ithoughton Steven Colbert On Vessyl Digital Cup [video]

Wine.

ithoughton Inside Genius’s $40M Fundraise

Their first domain was RapExegesis.com which has to be one of the worst all time domain names.

ithoughton Soylent 1.0 arrives at Ars: We mix it up and slurp it down

Interesting comment. I like the idea of Soylent but would never use it because of the malodextrin and sucralose. If it had some other (better) complex carbohydrate and stevia, then I might consider it.

ithoughton Apple set to get Beats in $3.2B deal

You're right and my comment was off-base. I was just annoyed by the video release of Dre bragging about being a billionaire. Also it's somewhat interesting that he sued Napster and intended to sue college students and universities then becomes immensely successful via the digital music market.

Regardless, I let my personal bias influence an asinine comment. I'm aware that sampling music is artistic endeavor and takes talent and hard work.

ithoughton Apple set to get Beats in $3.2B deal

It's interesting that Dre didn't create his music (*sampled), didn't write his lyrics and didn't come up with the idea for the headphones yet is celebrated as a genius. It was Monster's idea and then Jimmy Iovine propelled it to where it went.

Dre is a quiet, private person, who rarely tours or produces new music. The idea that he is a billionaire now from putting his name on exorbitantly expensive headphones and marketing them to people who can't really afford them, seems wrong.

ithoughton NASA, CNES Warn SpaceX of Challenges in Flying Reusable Falcon 9 Rocket

The cost of the F22 would go down if we just crashed every one on its first flight.

ithoughton A Student-Data Collector Drops Out

There's at least some evidence to suggest that non-profits in the early to mid 20th century negatively influenced education via the American Historical Association (historians.org)- http://www.realityzone.com/hiddenagenda2.html

I don't think anyone has contradicted the claims of Norman Dodd, the Reece Committee or the Cox Committee. And there was Professor Bloom's book, The Closing of the American Mind, in the late 1980s. It sees to have confirmed the shift in education and promotion of relative truth.

ithoughton How Imgur Became a Photo Sharing Hit

When I log into my Flickr account, it says my account has been recycled after too much inactivity. My URL username is different than my account name and I'm unsure if it's actually linked to another Yahoo account. But that account is either my real name Yahoo ID or my real name @ymail.com. Yahoo just referred to one username as "96b2a95890acd0cb201aaeb385f6482e". I can't log in, can't reset the accounts, and am confused by what is what.

Of course, ultimately it is my fault but my photos are stuck. They are still online in low resolution.

ithoughton Excerpt from ‘Flash Boys’ about Serge Aleynikov and Goldman Sachs

His federal conviction was overturned then they later recharged him for the same incident in state court. Also Congressman Lamar Smith, who sponsored SOPA, amended the Economic Espionage Act of 1996 with the Theft of Trade Secrets Clarification Act of 2012 specifically related to this case.

Sergey's Legal Defense Fund - http://www.aleynikov.org/

ithoughton Statement on Bloomberg News story that NSA knew about the “Heartbleed bug”

If they did know, they would not admit it.

Maybe they didn't know. But we certainly do not have the right to know if they did know or not. This means something.

ithoughton Statement on Bloomberg News story that NSA knew about the “Heartbleed bug”

Perhaps they're using the etymological root of aware, which is "wary", and they mean they were unconcerned with its existence as they were unwary/unaware of any possible dangers with it since it was unknown to hostile forces.

ithoughton A congressman who justifies every vote on Facebook

Sometimes the hardest thing to do in politics is nothing.

ithoughton Did You Hear We Got Osama?

Like everything, it's all about moderation. It's very useful to have something to say in social and work situations.

Spending 10-minutes a week reading pop culture or sports news, or keeping up on what concerts, events etc are coming to your area payoff huge in meeting new friends, dating, building relationships at work and so forth.

Nothing is frivolous except excess.