The next meeting will be at Chanpen Thai, an affordable Thai restaurant a few blocks from Times square. http://www.chanpentha...
This is a long but fascinating article about the fact that social conservatives are experiencing a higher rate of teen pregnancy, divorce, and STD's than liberals: http://www.newyorker....
The next two topics are related, and revolve around the subject of "Reform":
I remember reading a survey that touchscreen voting was opposed by 80% of computer professionals because it is far too easily tampered with. The move to touchscreen voting was motivated by the bitterness of the Democrats over the 2000 Florida election, and a misunderstanding of what the problem actually was. It is turning out to be an expensive boondoggle, and many states are abandoning their electronic voting machines. http://arstechnica.co... and another report shows that electronic voting machines are alleged to be easily hacked: http://blogs.spectrum... The old, cheap punched-card systems would have been adequate, had Florida state law been more specific about EXACTLY how votes were to be counted, rather than vaguely specifying that ballots should be interpreted according to "voter intent", all but guaranteeing a court battle if an election were close. It will be interesting on November 4th, to see if we have dramatic differences between exit polls and official vote tallies in hotly-contested states that use electronic voting.
We're experiencing a catastrophic collapse of our financial system. Hardly anyone understands what the hell happened, let alone what to do about it. Politicians, especially Democrats, blame it on "excessive deregulation during the Bush administration" which sounds good, but they never mention a specific regulation that has been relaxed since the Clinton administration that would have prevented the subprime debacle. Furthermore, in the wake of the Enron and Worldcom scandals, we've actually experienced a lot of new business regulation during the Bush administration. Wall Street Journal: http://online.wsj.com... We are headed for a recession, people are mad as hell and demanding "change". Are we going to get new, draconian financial regulations that are as wrongheaded and counterproductive as the Sequoia Voting Machines?
“ Another great success. Bill puts together an interesting group of people and manages to select a restaurant that is affordable and agrees to separate checks. Good job Bill! See you at your next Meetup. ”
“ Hard to get in the conversation when you are at the end of the table. ”
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