Hard Light Productions Forums
Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: Kosh on December 14, 2006, 07:29:49 pm
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a currency redesign that would help blind people. :doubt:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16185142/
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Yes, because the Administration currently has the money to pay for the redesign of vending machines to accept bills with entirely new textures and make the necessary changes for this.
Sorry, it's all going to Iraq right now. Check back in another few years.
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If they've lived with it for 300 years they can live with it for another few. I don't see why billions should be spent to accomodate a tiny demographic who has been getting along fine without the changes.
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I thought we already did this, with that plain-jane number on the back of the bills, a big 5, a big 10, 20, 50, in the bottom right hand corner on the back.... or am I blind too?
I guess men will have to get a new wallet too, due to the different sizes of bills we'd have to futz around with now. Yay.
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I thought we already did this, with that plain-jane number on the back of the bills, a big 5, a big 10, 20, 50, in the bottom right hand corner on the back.... or am I blind too?
That's a really good point, because if you were blind, you wouldn't be able to see the big numbers.
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I think he meant we've redesigned our money recentl;y for very little good reason and the vending machines and whatnot have gotten along fine.
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His argument involving vending machines lacks basis seeing as they do not currently accept such denominations as pennies, 1 dollar coins, 50 cent coins, and two dollar bills (those being the most relevant, but they also rarely take 5's, 10's, etc). They do however often accept bills upside down and in orientations different to that pictured above the slot.
In addition, typical brail is less than 1/8th of an inch in height off of a page, placement on edges or corners would only have an effect on folding and compacting of bills. The paper bills are made of now could easily support a pressed mark in them decently.
It's a few bumps, not a new shape.
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I can feel the emboss, and don't blind people keep telling me that other senses get heightened when you don't depend on sight?
why yes they do
even a number of blind people think this fol de rol is idiotic
edit: also, brail would be difficult to maintain on bills that are handled so much, they would have to be recirculated at a MUCH faster rate
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If Daredevil can swing around the city, fight crime and take on The Kingpin, why can't these people use normal money? They should look up to Matt Murdoch's good example and get their ass in gear. No more exuses, blind people.
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I've heard Stevie Wonder can smell a $5 bill from two city blocks away and use the power of his ears to summon it through the air to his presence.
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I understand blind people normally get someone to fold their money in specific ways.
It might not seem like it, but paper money takes alot of abuse as its being used. Even after they've found way to make the brail stick up after its been run through hundreds of money counting machines and ATM's, and built the machinery to create these bills in large numbers, they'll have to methodically replace every note in the nation (again, cuz we just had a big change of several bills) to conform with this new system. Then comes the changes to all money counting machines and training cashiers. Its not so simple as a brail stamp.
...Or maybe it is. Just have the bank teller use a paper punch on cash they know is going to a blind person.
I'm sure theres a cheap workaround for the mean time, but not if your going the road of altering every bill in the nation ahead of schedule.
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I understand blind people normally get someone to fold their money in specific ways.
It might not seem like it, but paper money takes alot of abuse as its being used. Even after they've found way to make the brail stick up after its been run through hundreds of money counting machines and ATM's, and built the machinery to create these bills in large numbers, they'll have to methodically replace every note in the nation (again, cuz we just had a big change of several bills) to conform with this new system. Then comes the changes to all money counting machines and training cashiers. Its not so simple as a brail stamp.
...Or maybe it is. Just have the bank teller use a paper punch on cash they know is going to a blind person.
I'm sure theres a cheap workaround for the mean time, but not if your going the road of altering every bill in the nation ahead of schedule.
Isn't there some bizarre law (re: punching it) that makes 'defacing' a dollar bill treason or similar?
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I thought it was just the UK that had that due to the Queen's face?
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Isn't there some bizarre law (re: punching it) that makes 'defacing' a dollar bill treason or similar?
No, otherwise those "Where's George" people would be in big trouble.
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defacing any denomination greater than three cents is a crime, but it doesn't get enforced
salutory neglect ftw
edit: although if you started melting down pennies\nickels en masse the secret servie <part of treasury> might start hunting you down,m nickels and pennies materials are worth more than their face value, so people have been melting them down and selling the scrap, do it enough and folk will start enforcing
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Thank god, or there'd no more mythbusters! :( One episode they used a quarter as a shooting target of some sort...
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One episode they used a quarter as a shooting target of some sort...
Ho ho, its federal soap on a rope for the lot of them.
DISPATCH THE PARTY VANS!
...In light of the situation they'd most likely bend that rule if you had a realistic solution that would be fair to the blind AND keep us from having to pay millions for a full money redesign right away.
This is alot of good intention gone bad. The mints barely keep supply up with demand as it is, and there are many factors in making reliable paper money that would have to be tested for the new bills.
Its not a case of just snapping your fingers to make this change happen. Not without spending an unreasonable sum to do it.
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As nice as this would be to have, this is totally the wrong time to do it, and it's honestly not that big a deal. The blind have managed so far with the current bills, I'm sure they can wait two or three more years until the country stabilizes and stops hemorrhaging money.
On top of that, have you seen some dollar bills? They've been so worn out they're almost like printer paper. Imagine trying to keep small bumps on them while they're in constant circulation. I'm for the idea of the blind-enabled bills, but I'm afraid the execution will prove to be too difficult.
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anyone want to make the well educated fiat currency rant that needs to be made?
I've used all my fiat currency rants this week on my family from the educated ones to the raving lunatic ones <which are surprisingly fun>, so I disqualify myself...
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FLAT CURRENCY FTW!
Yep, that's my rant.
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Blind people are counter Reagan revolutionary.
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FLAT CURRENCY FTW!
Yep, that's my rant.
f i a t
like the car
think nixon
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Oh, great scot, can't the blind use debit cards like everybody else? Cash is soooo 1980's drug dealer.
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As nice as this would be to have, this is totally the wrong time to do it, and it's honestly not that big a deal. The blind have managed so far with the current bills, I'm sure they can wait two or three more years until the country stabilizes and stops hemorrhaging money.
There is never a "right time", the country has been hemorrhaging money for a long time, with no signs of stopping. When it comes to hurting people (like invading other countries), Bush will throw all the money in the world at it; but when it comes to helping people, suddenly he turns into a penny pincher.
On top of that, have you seen some dollar bills? They've been so worn out they're almost like printer paper. Imagine trying to keep small bumps on them while they're in constant circulation. I'm for the idea of the blind-enabled bills, but I'm afraid the execution will prove to be too difficult.
If it is so difficult, then why have so many countries done it successfully?
I guess we shouldn't be thinking about blind people and instead be thinking about helping the poor, disadvantaged vending machines. Who knew that they were more important......
EDIT: And yeah I do have some strong feelings about this. My ex-girlfriend is blind, and has done many things to help blind people in China. I guess this sort of rubbed off on me.
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As nice as this would be to have, this is totally the wrong time to do it, and it's honestly not that big a deal. The blind have managed so far with the current bills, I'm sure they can wait two or three more years until the country stabilizes and stops hemorrhaging money.
There is never a "right time", the country has been hemorrhaging money for a long time, with no signs of stopping. When it comes to hurting people (like invading other countries), Bush will throw all the money in the world at it; but when it comes to helping people, suddenly he turns into a penny pincher.
Do you think we're made of money Kosh? It's not that the American people don't give a crap, it's just that we simply have bigger matters on our hands at the moment, like reforming Social Security for the much larger group of seniors, marriage rights for homosexuals, and a costly war.
Hell, I admire that you're keeping a watch out on these issues, but there's simply very little we can do about it at the moment. Give us a little more time, four to six years at the most, and we'll hopefully have Iraq resolved to the point where we can focus more on domestic issues.
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I've got a fever, and the only cure is more Photoshop.
(http://img292.imageshack.us/img292/8743/daredevilmoneyvn2.gif)
(ps Daredevil is gay)
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less so than aquaman
and, really, with inflation it's a miracle the blind aren't just asking for euro's anyhow
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less so than aquaman
and, really, with inflation it's a miracle the blind aren't just asking for euro's anyhow
Besides, Euro's are blind friendly.
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As nice as this would be to have, this is totally the wrong time to do it, and it's honestly not that big a deal. The blind have managed so far with the current bills, I'm sure they can wait two or three more years until the country stabilizes and stops hemorrhaging money.
There is never a "right time", the country has been hemorrhaging money for a long time, with no signs of stopping. When it comes to hurting people (like invading other countries), Bush will throw all the money in the world at it; but when it comes to helping people, suddenly he turns into a penny pincher.
Do you think we're made of money Kosh? It's not that the American people don't give a crap, it's just that we simply have bigger matters on our hands at the moment, like reforming Social Security for the much larger group of seniors, marriage rights for homosexuals, and a costly war.
Hell, I admire that you're keeping a watch out on these issues, but there's simply very little we can do about it at the moment. Give us a little more time, four to six years at the most, and we'll hopefully have Iraq resolved to the point where we can focus more on domestic issues.
QFT
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less so than aquaman
and, really, with inflation it's a miracle the blind aren't just asking for euro's anyhow
Besides, Euro's are blind friendly.
.....I'll pretend to be blind if I can start getting paid in euros..... :D
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Do you think we're made of money Kosh? It's not that the American people don't give a crap, it's just that we simply have bigger matters on our hands at the moment, like reforming Social Security for the much larger group of seniors, marriage rights for homosexuals, and a costly war.
The US government has been running in the red (with a brief exception during a point in the clinton years) for 30 years. If it really wanted to it could do these things. It had enough money for star wars and some other far-fetched projects, it has enough money for a few bridges to nowhere alaska, so why doesn't it have enough now for the people who actually need it? My point is that if it can support the pet projects of congress (both parties), then why not something that would benefit people nationwide?
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Because for the amount of money spent, there are not enough beneficiaries. And Kosh, honestly, we have bigger concerns right now. Read nuclear_1's post for what I mean. We're more concerned about civil liberties, America's image, the poor (at least the dems), health care reform, etc etc etc, than to spend boat loads of money on something like this.
Like I said before; I'm for the project, against the execution. Wait a few years when we don't have twenty other things on the country's plate, then ask for something like this.
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We're more concerned about civil liberties, America's image, the poor (at least the dems), health care reform, etc etc etc, than to spend boat loads of money on something like this.
How do you think rerfusing to do this is going to make America look in the eyes of the other western countries? It is just going to hurt America's "image" even more.
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Since when in the past few years has the American government cared how it looked to international countries? That may change now that the Dems are in power, but still. On top of that, you can't run a government based on what "makes you look good" to other countries. On top of that, judging by the amount of media coverage that this has gotten at home and abroad, I really don't think any other countries care.
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Since when in the past few years has the American government cared how it looked to international countries? That may change now that the Dems are in power, but still. On top of that, you can't run a government based on what "makes you look good" to other countries. On top of that, judging by the amount of media coverage that this has gotten at home and abroad, I really don't think any other countries care.
You just said in your previous post that we should care about America's image.
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I don't see why our government should care about what anyone but its own citizens think.
It is just going to hurt America's "image" even more.
Theres plenty of injustice in this world that the US will get the blame for regardless of what we do.
People from other nations will find many bigger things to nitpick on than our currency, rest assured.
I don't think anyones saying that should not be done, eventually. It was poor oversight that we haven't done this before but theres also no need to jump the gun on a fix.
I'd say they take this into advisement and work it in with other upgrades. That way we don't make yet another new set of bills and have a judge say "ho ho, you forgot {insert random thing} too!"...
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We're more concerned about civil liberties, America's image, the poor (at least the dems), health care reform, etc etc etc, than to spend boat loads of money on something like this.
How do you think rerfusing to do this is going to make America look in the eyes of the other western countries? It is just going to hurt America's "image" even more.
What do you think is going to hurt America's image more: not changing our currency, or denying an entire minority the basic right to marriage guaranteed by the UDHR, a document recognized by dozens of nations?
The US government has been running in the red (with a brief exception during a point in the clinton years) for 30 years. If it really wanted to it could do these things. It had enough money for star wars and some other far-fetched projects, it has enough money for a few bridges to nowhere alaska, so why doesn't it have enough now for the people who actually need it? My point is that if it can support the pet projects of congress (both parties), then why not something that would benefit people nationwide?
Yes, I know about the national deficit. However, the deficit has been worse than ever recently, meaning that we have to really worry about what we spend it on. Don't think we can solve all of America's problems at our current point in time. Frankly, the priorities have to lie with Social Security and the war on terror.
I'll say it again, since you don't seem to be getting my message: we know it's a problem, and we're concerned about it. We're not cold-hearted bastards who want the blind to suffer or apathetic, stupid Americans who don't know better; we care, but we simply have to prioritize.
Since when in the past few years has the American government cared how it looked to international countries? That may change now that the Dems are in power, but still. On top of that, you can't run a government based on what "makes you look good" to other countries. On top of that, judging by the amount of media coverage that this has gotten at home and abroad, I really don't think any other countries care.
You just said in your previous post that we should care about America's image.
To some extent, we should care, because if other nations do see us as belligerent, wild cowboys, then we may have a problem in terms of fostering international cooperation. However, I agree with Maxwell and UT in that a government should only have to appeal to its own citizenry, not the governments of other nations. France, the UK, and China don't decide America's policy or government; the American people do.