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An Ohio Valley 100k-watt FM signal is severed in broad daylight

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Re: An Ohio Valley 100k-watt FM signal is severed in broad daylight

#71

Post by fc417fc802 »

sidewndr46 wrote: post #46
AndrewKemendo wrote: post #3

That’s wild. Radio transmission power is no joke. I replaced the 100W FM transmitter on our college radio tower and got in front of the emitter beam for like 10 seconds and my head rung for a week. The amps and power aren’t to be messed with. I can’t even imagine messing with 100K line that’s a solid block of copper

You think exposure to 100 watts at ~100 MHz is going to cause your head to ring?

Are you saying it won't? What sort of RF power density in the FM range can the human body tolerate without noticeable effect?

Re: An Ohio Valley 100k-watt FM signal is severed in broad daylight

#72

Post by gacgacgac »

xp84 wrote: post #33
gacgacgac wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Furthermore, going after scrap metal sites makes an important business harder and fails to be inquisitive enough about the reasons why the thefts happen at all. Maybe we should try to understand why people are stealing copper. (Presumably poverty, drug addiction, lack of opportunity)

If you believe we can just fix poverty and drug addiction with some government program, I have a bridge to sell you. So far, no one has, anywhere in the world. Many people (and once they get themselves addicted to something bad, that rises to "most") are just terrible and care only about their own short-term gain. They'd do any amount of destruction to others for some small temporary profit or fix.

If you think most people "are just terrible", I think you've let cynicism corrupt your thinking, and I don't think we're going to get very far by talking.

I believe the opposite -- people fundamentally want to help each other, and we've structurally set up our society to force people out of that mode and into a competitive mode. Read "A Paradise Built in Hell", when push comes to shove, communities care for each other.

If we covered everyone's basic food, housing, education, and medical needs, I guarantee you'd see crime and addiction plummet.

Re: An Ohio Valley 100k-watt FM signal is severed in broad daylight

#73

Post by jcgrillo »

johanvts wrote: post #61
aeonik wrote: post #15

Working backwards from clues in the article, thief maybe stole 200-400 ft of wire. Assuming between 3-1/8″ - 6-1/8″ diameter. Somewhere between $1,360 - $6,400 of scrap value. $70k-$100k to repair... Absurd.

Why hasn’t the economist of the world figured out a solution to this problem. There has to be a better way when both sides would be better off by just paying the theif double. Some kind of proof of work system to show that you really are crazy enough to do the crime maybe.

Or pay a guard a fair wage and comp them the $0.20 or whatever for each bullet..

EDIT: to be clear I'm not saying it should be that way, but there was a time not long ago when this was the normal way to handle the situation. I'd argue the present arrangement is more civilized.

Re: An Ohio Valley 100k-watt FM signal is severed in broad daylight

#74

Post by tshaddox »

johanvts wrote: post #61
aeonik wrote: post #15

Working backwards from clues in the article, thief maybe stole 200-400 ft of wire. Assuming between 3-1/8″ - 6-1/8″ diameter. Somewhere between $1,360 - $6,400 of scrap value. $70k-$100k to repair... Absurd.

Why hasn’t the economist of the world figured out a solution to this problem. There has to be a better way when both sides would be better off by just paying the theif double. Some kind of proof of work system to show that you really are crazy enough to do the crime maybe.

Isn’t the most obvious response from economics that the crime needs to be made more expensive? In other words, the likelihood of being harmed while attempting the crime needs to be much higher.

If a quarter of the people who tried a comparable theft got thrown in jail for 2 years and another quarter got shot by a security guard, I suspect attempts would be rare.

The financial damage done by the thief is presumably irrelevant to the thief, beyond the fact that sentencing is probably stricter for bigger thefts.

Re: An Ohio Valley 100k-watt FM signal is severed in broad daylight

#75

Post by DetroitThrow »

trympet wrote: post #60
cevn wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

10 dollars? Who's your meth guy?

GP is talking out of his ass - he’s probably not up to speed on meth economics like you and me.

HN constantly undervalues meth and this has been called out since at least 2009. Horrible.

Re: An Ohio Valley 100k-watt FM signal is severed in broad daylight

#76

Post by laughing_man »

TurdF3rguson wrote: post #54
laughing_man wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The villains are those of us who tolerate this kind of behavior in the name of compassion.

You shouldn't tolerate the behavior, but announcing disgust for people who are struggling is just not helpful.

Lots of people who are struggling don't become thieves.

Re: An Ohio Valley 100k-watt FM signal is severed in broad daylight

#77

Post by jmward01 »

tshaddox wrote: post #74
johanvts wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why hasn’t the economist of the world figured out a solution to this problem. There has to be a better way when both sides would be better off by just paying the theif double. Some kind of proof of work system to show that you really are crazy enough to do the crime maybe.

Isn’t the most obvious response from economics that the crime needs to be made more expensive? In other words, the likelihood of being harmed while attempting the crime needs to be much higher. If a quarter of the people who tried a comparable theft got thrown in jail for 2 years and another quarter got shot by a security guard, I suspect attempts would be rare. The financial damage done by the thief is presumably ir…

I highly doubt the people doing this look at crime and punishment stats before they do this. More punishment often just ends up costing society because courts and incarceration aren't cheap and no real rehabilitation so it often just makes the person do more bad things when they get out. I'm not saying 'no jail', but we do need evidence based criminal justice.

Re: An Ohio Valley 100k-watt FM signal is severed in broad daylight

#78

Post by hiddencost »

tshaddox wrote: post #74
johanvts wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why hasn’t the economist of the world figured out a solution to this problem. There has to be a better way when both sides would be better off by just paying the theif double. Some kind of proof of work system to show that you really are crazy enough to do the crime maybe.

Isn’t the most obvious response from economics that the crime needs to be made more expensive? In other words, the likelihood of being harmed while attempting the crime needs to be much higher. If a quarter of the people who tried a comparable theft got thrown in jail for 2 years and another quarter got shot by a security guard, I suspect attempts would be rare. The financial damage done by the thief is presumably ir…

There's another theory which says that if people have health care, food, shelter, education, and liberty, they won't commit crimes like this. Just a thought.

Re: An Ohio Valley 100k-watt FM signal is severed in broad daylight

#79

Post by georgemcbay »

esikich wrote: post #69
TurdF3rguson wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is what nobody wants to admit, whether it's nature or nurture doesn't matter because you're not in control of either of them. You were born into so and so of a family, and they brought you up with such and such care and values. The idea that you've been "force of willing" it through your whole life since infancy and are therefore solely accountable for your outcome is absurd. We know that at some level and yet s…

This site is so fuckin out of touch with the average American I can help but get pissed off after a few beers on the weekend. The tech stuff is good, but the social/political stuff here drives me nuts.

> This site is so fuckin out of touch with the average American I can help but get pissed off after a few beers on the weekend. The tech stuff is good, but the social/political stuff here drives me nuts.

A lot of people on this site have no concept of what it is like to grow up unprivileged (they think they do, but to them that means growing up merely upper middle class as opposed to ridiculously wealthy) but as bad as it can be sometimes it has actually gotten a bit better in recent years.

There used to be an even higher concentration of ultra-libertarian "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" posters who clearly never had to do that themselves to anywhere near the extent they believed they had.

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