Eric P

"I've taken to wearing a fitbit more or less 24/7. I think data collection and health monitoring is a strong use case. I'm less enamored by the idea of getting notifications on my wrist (ugh) or using voice commands, but a more refined version of Google Now could be compelling (but it really needs to be able to figure out when I'd prefer to walk vs take the train vs drive). And there's a good security use case where a wearable can act as a second form of authentication for your smartphone. Notifications on the other hand get a big ugh from me. Passive is the key I think. The more things it can do without me having to think about it, the more compelling it becomes." - Eric P

"The point you're missing is that robots are going to making the A/C work. And other robots will be servicing the robots. In the not distant future we'll have robots that are simply faster, stronger, less error-prone than humans when it comes to doing *any* kind of physical task. We'll also have software that's simply faster, smarter, better, less error prone, and more capable than humans when it comes to doing *any* sort of cognitive or knowledge based task. In such a world, exactly what jobs will be left for humans to do? Not driving trucks or taxi's. Not mining. Not flying. Not medicine. Not restaurant service. Not manufacturing goods. Not farming. Not administrative tasks. Not accounting. Not janitorial work. Not wiring or plumbing or HVAC or construction. Not when there's robots that can do all that and more, better for nothing. There's just not going to be enough work to go around. Certainly not enough work with enough value that everyone can put in 40 hours and get out a living..." - Eric P

"The idea as it's usually proposed wouldn't incentivize people not to work, because unlike most welfare programs today the benefits wouldn't go away because you took a job. It's best thought of as "Universal Social Security", because it would work just like that except it would benefit everyone, not just senior citizens. Seniors get checks regardless of their lifestyle or wealth; this just expands it to everyone. Further it would probably replace a lot of existing welfare programs. Rather than the complicated set of agencies offering tax credits, housing vouchers, food stamps, etc, you get one check to spend as you wish, whether you work or not. If you want to improve your lifestyle, do and buy nice things, you'll work. But your subsistence will no longer be tied to having a job and willingness of others to pay for it. It would probably incentivize against people taking particularly shitty jobs for especially low wages. But that's probably not a bad thing. It's true that some people..." - Eric P

"Foxworthy and such aren't particularly political though. Their audience is surely conservative, but I haven't ever heard him touch on political topics. Mostly it's standard observational humor oriented around the culture of southern white males." - Eric P

"South Park is more libertarian than conservative, but it does demonstrate that you can make good comedy with a conservative bent. Al Gore going "I'm serial guys" while warning people of man-bear-pig is hilarious, even though I think the underlying message of that joke to be frighteningly wrong. But I think that probably proves your point, as it's written first to be funny and not to communicate any particular worldview." - Eric P

"The left wants single payer healthcare. At the end of the day they all support Obamacare. The left supported civil unions before full marriage equality was politically viable. The left supports a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants but would probably get behind an immigration reform bill that didn't include that. Meanwhile I can't think of any comparable examples on the right, at least not since the very early days of the Bush Administration. So yeah... the left does seem way more willing to accept compromise positions than the right, at least in recent history." - Eric P

"I think this is a lies, damn lies and statistics thing. If Michael Jordan and 37 other couples get married, the average cost of their weddings is going to be around $27k no matter what everyone who's not Michael Jordan spent. Meaning that the average cost is being dragged up by the top 1% using ever more extravagant weddings as a show of their wealth. But I'd wager that the median cost of a wedding comes in a fair bit lower than $27k. (I recently priced out a very nice traditional wedding at roughly $10k. My guess is that's probably more in line with what people are typically spending. Still ridiculously expensive for my tastes though, which is why we went a decidedly non-traditional route)." - Eric P

"NBC's Heroes was basically "What if X-Men was a TV show but we didn't call it X-Men and Wolverine was a hot blond cheerleader?" And it worked, at least that first season." - Eric P

"I can't imagine the show skipping over Woodstock; my best is the next episode takes place concurrently with it. It's just too easily symbolic of any number of themes that the show plays with for the writers to pass up using it. I also can't imagine the last episode taking place after Dec 31, 1969. I'm pretty pissed off I have to wait a damn year to find out though." - Eric P

"That assumes she holds onto it for the next three decades. Also do the others on the show rent or own their places?" - Eric P

"The publishers have a really easy fix to the eBook situation. They can start selling their books *without* DRM. Till that happens I don't have much sympathy for them." - Eric P