asciilifeform: one reason, yes.

asciilifeform: so why collect it back as tax? answer: give the 'patient' an opportunity to underpay, collect penalty.

asciilifeform: now in most cases, it's usg's money (sometimes one or two steps removed) in the first place.

asciilifeform: decimation: donkey still moving, back not broken yet? put on more, more.

asciilifeform: decimation: manually computing the tax, alone, is almost a job.

asciilifeform: decimation: yes.

asciilifeform: RagnarDanneskjol: consulting

asciilifeform changed day jobs today. it was time-consuming.

asciilifeform was actually surprised there wasn't a minefield

asciilifeform: ^ mega-lol

asciilifeform: https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/10/03/killing-americans-white-house-lawn-wrong

asciilifeform can always tell who did a tour of duty as a sysop in this, among other, ways.

asciilifeform: decimation: yes.

asciilifeform throws away finger. it stays attached.

asciilifeform measured own finger, correct to 1% !

asciilifeform: phun phact. old russian unit of measure, 'вершок' (vershok) ~= 'lengthling' - approximately was equal to length of upper half of index finger. and it lives today! in every server room. last imperial вершок is precisely 1U of cabinet.

asciilifeform: (look at rear wheel & the pulley scheme)

asciilifeform: for quick getaway. to normal bike.

asciilifeform: the real neato is that: that bike converts.

asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: we had these.

asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: the chap on the bike had grinding wheel ?

asciilifeform: !?

asciilifeform: student exercise; tile the plane with...

asciilifeform: 'a tiling of tits'

asciilifeform not pro

asciilifeform: 'a clutter of cunts' ?

asciilifeform: where and how might one expect to meet 'draught o' butlers' !? what's next, 'a slurp of supernovae' ?

asciilifeform: endless supply << it's the same hero, with at least 5 names

asciilifeform: (re: stick to the human)

asciilifeform: it is beyond us to produce a dual system of astronomy? The stars can be near or distant, according as we need them. Do you suppose our mathematicians are unequal to that? Have you forgotten doublethink?' ' ☟︎

asciilifeform: 'Winston made another convulsive movement. This time he did not say anything. O'Brien continued as though answering a spoken objection: 'For certain purposes, of course, that is not true. When we navigate the ocean, or when we predict an eclipse, we often find it convenient to assume that the earth goes round the sun and that the stars are millions upon millions of kilometres away. But what of it? Do you suppose ☟︎

asciilifeform: insolvency is the new solvent << hunger is the new delicacy. and then let's all make backyard steel.

asciilifeform: http://www.royalmint.com/discover/uk-coins/history-of-the-trial-of-the-pyx

asciilifeform: (beautifully portrayed in n. stephenson's 'baroque cycle' epic.)

asciilifeform: the pyx!

asciilifeform: pu yi?

asciilifeform: if i understand.

asciilifeform: not necessarily mega-empire

asciilifeform: 'independent' here just means you're funded via something other than science-as-day-job

asciilifeform is reminded to buy current gas mask canisters

asciilifeform: poor countries are much alike.

asciilifeform: paper houses. just like present-day usa.

asciilifeform: Dimsler: nope. in japan, far greater obsession even.

asciilifeform: (if you must, old japan vs. current)

asciilifeform: pre-concrete

asciilifeform: firemen get (and deserve) no credit for the relative incombustibility of modern dwellings compared to those of the past.

asciilifeform: consider, elsewhere:

asciilifeform: decimation: not necessarily. just monitor for out-of-place masses, would go a long way.

asciilifeform: similar to sanitation example.

asciilifeform: doctors? nope

asciilifeform: say +10 lifespan, whatever. who gets credit?

asciilifeform: then everyone with some money can scan himself when he wakes up, right after toilet, for malignant growths.

asciilifeform: example. say room-temperature supercons appear.

asciilifeform: 'doctor' is - cleanup crew.

asciilifeform: problem of definitions.

asciilifeform: lol

asciilifeform would probably enjoy this story

asciilifeform: parachute didn't open ?

asciilifeform: lol

asciilifeform: how dead ?

asciilifeform: just observing that a mathematically-inclined boy is of course going to try to prove flt.

asciilifeform: that was precisely the kind of thing meant.

asciilifeform: damn

asciilifeform: !s lunar bank

asciilifeform: hm

asciilifeform: !s martian bank

asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: attempt at solving basic problem of the 'martian bank' ☟︎

asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: mr mold fessed up to having had something in that vein. and at one point i did. (neither very interesting)

asciilifeform: and in very dire cases - now

asciilifeform: then.

asciilifeform: *experimenter

asciilifeform has yet to meet a p2p derpatronics experimented from '95-'05 era who -didn't- have own secret pseudo-bitcoin at the time

asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: surprised nobody's yet acting as if they invented hitler << americans used to. huey p. long was supposed to be 'original hitler'

asciilifeform: Dimsler: to even own car in No, you have to be genuinely and truly loaded.

asciilifeform: Oðin.

asciilifeform blows dust off 'intro to norse'

asciilifeform: (or were they ðorns?)

asciilifeform: BingoBoingo: plenty of Þorns!

asciilifeform: negative.

asciilifeform: ( http://www.bytecellar.com/2011/08/07/an-apparent-keyboard-geek-finally-learns-to-type )

asciilifeform: 'In the world of gourmet keyboards, the Topre key switch is widely considered to be the Holy Grail. Some have even made love to their Topre’s… '

asciilifeform: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d2/OmniKey_ULTRA.JPG

asciilifeform: and has kosher f-keys.

asciilifeform: i've one in this room

asciilifeform: good compromise - 'northgate' kbd.

asciilifeform: 'model m', secondhand, perhaps 20. (usually they need a day worth of cleaning through)

asciilifeform: can break other objects.

asciilifeform: also great to rage with. steel bottom.

asciilifeform: or perhaps axe.

asciilifeform: 'model m' can only really be destroyed with power tools.

asciilifeform: defunct.

asciilifeform: the real lulz - idiot lifts ancient material from ru forums, passes it off as fresh turd!

asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: fetish for usb is because contagion. 'everybody' carries the usb drives. or something like that.

asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: hard drives << all extant drives have trivially flashable fw, and very spiffy cpu and ram kit - sometimes multiple 'cores' and 64M+ ! usually some variant of 'arm'.

asciilifeform: the 'condom' people collected 10k+ usd to build... 4 to 2-wire usb jack. for 10k a man could build an airplane!

asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: i choked from lol when heard of this idiocy, having performed the precisely same experiment, with same chip, long ago, and thought it was entirely boring

asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: fw reflashable via usb is reflashable - news at 11.

asciilifeform: Oct 02 16:43:29 <strp>oh-ho-ho - look who turned out to be completely right. http://www.wired.com/2014/10/code-published-for-unfixable-usb-attack/ and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8400796 << http://log.bitcoin-assets.com/?date=02-10-2014#855577 ☝︎

asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: not proper 'plant', as in factory, but a place related to one of my day jobs.

asciilifeform: obligatory: http://www.loper-os.org/pub/ninjashogun.txt