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Nothing bad actually happened. No one was killed or injured.

So much safer than your gas and steel industies
http://www.al.com/news/birming...
http://blog.al.com/spotnews/20...
http://www.bizjournals.com/pit...
http://blog.al.com/live/2013/0...

Nothing bad actually happened. No one was killed or injured.

So much safer than your gas and steel industies
http://www.al.com/news/birming...
http://blog.al.com/spotnews/20...
http://www.bizjournals.com/pit...
http://blog.al.com/live/2013/0...

Nothing bad actually happened. No one was killed or injured.

So much safer than your gas and steel industies
http://www.al.com/news/birming...
http://blog.al.com/spotnews/20...
http://www.bizjournals.com/pit...
http://blog.al.com/live/2013/0...

This didn't make national news like it should have. Capitalism and dangerous things don't seem to mix too well.

It's the same reason we hear about a white cop shooting a black kid but never about a black cop shooting a white one.

We do hear about it. You just didn't pay attention.

It is amazing to witness how various forms of recognition is attained from an inmate. Everything from phone privileges requiring voice recognition mapping to recurrent DNA swabs become part of the norm. Otherwise, the penalty for disobeying these "rules" is a multi-week stay in the "hole."

It's unfortunate that someone with my education and my level of life experience had to experience federal incarceration, but the rebuilding of one's life also requires a public spread of what is and what is not the reality of the system. See my story: http://tminr.com/bio

IQ of 174 my ass.

Mr. Klatch was indicted in 2011 by the federal government, and he subsequently accepted a guilty plea to four felony counts: Conspiracy to Defraud the United States, Securities Fraud, Wire Fraud, and Money Laundering. Mr. Klatch acknowledges that he engaged in deceptive marketing tactics, which led to some investor losses during the 2008-2010 financial crisis. However, he accepted responsibility for his actions, and successfully served a five-year federal prison sentence.

Sentenced to five years in August 2012 (nice mug shot, BTW...), it's kind of impossible to "successfully serve" a five year sentence in two years and two months.

Fucker can't count to five, and claims he has an IQ of 174?

And what the hell does "successfully served" a FUCKING PRISON SENTENCE even mean, anyway?

Though only finished and released around 1997: http://www.gardenwithinsight.c...

(Unrelated work and also two years of grad school to learn more about ecological modelling plus excessive ambition caused delays in getting it done...)

And MECC's "Lunar Greenhouse" from 1989 ran on the Apple II:
http://www.worldcat.org/title/...

This emulator did not work for me, but seemingly Lunar Greenhouse is online:
http://www.virtualapple.org/me...
http://www.virtualapple.org/J_...

But there are other text-based games like Hamurabi which goes all the way back to 1968 where you "plant" crops and harvest them. I played a variation of tha first around 1980 or so.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H...

It can be played online:
http://www.hammurabigame.com/h...

I've long wanted to build a general purpose gardening (and maintenance) robot like the ones in "Silent Running". For some reason, there has been economic resistance to supporting general purpose agricultural robots. Cheap illegal labor in that sense harmed my career in robotics in the 1980s when I really, really wanted to make such things. :-(

That's one reason I've just done software, which is cheaper to do on your own than robotics. Or it was, now that robotics is getting so much cheaper for various reasons due to cheap powerful embedded computers and cheaper sensors and actuators and 3D printing and web-based design and manufacturing like via 100K garages and such.
http://www.100kgarages.com/

There were a couple times I spoke with academic roboticists about making general purpose agricultural robotics in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Both were interested in industry-fundable specific purpose robots, like for seeding transfer in greenhouses (Rutgers) or for autonomous wheat harvesting with big machines (CMU). Those were no doubt fairly practical ideas, and I may have been well served in a robotics career to have pursued such practical ideas in cooperation with those professors, but they were not the general purpose system I really wanted to work on like the Silent Running-type drones. Still, they might have been stepping stones to better systems -- but it is easy to be too ambitious and impatient when you are young.

Nowadays though, there seems to be a resurgence of interest in agricultural robotics, and I wonder if crackdowns on illegal agricultural labor may even be connected to it?
"Crackdown on illegal immigrants left crops rotting in Georgia fields, ag chief tells US lawmakers
http://blog.al.com/wire/2011/1...

Also, this is a problematical statement from the point of view of a robotics engineer: "A robust agricultural guest worker program, properly designed, will not displace American workers," Black said in remarks prepared for the hearing. "As my testimony shows, in Georgia, even with current high unemployment rates, it is difficult for farmers to fill their labor needs."

That guest worker program displaces robotics engineers... Otherwise there would be a much greater demand for general purpose agricultural robots.

Instead, I worked on virtual gardening software for growing virtual plants. My wife and I also made a simpler version of the garden simulator just for breeding virtual plants (mostly her work):
https://github.com/pdfernhout/...
http://www.kurtz-fernhout.com/...

That said, there is little that is better for mental health for many people than

their crazy plan to give NASA more money than President Obama wants it to have. They just keep doing this over and over - it must be some sort of evil anti-sciency plot thingy. It's a magical Koch Brothers (TM) back-handed super-over-double-think TRICK to somehow destoy the Earth. EVERYBODY who gets Democrat talking points KNOWS to ignore reality and instead claim that Republicans HATE science or are too stupid to understand it, and Democrats like Barack Obama and Al Gore are geniuses who embrace and push to fund things like NASA as much as they can.

Extreme Sarcasm aside, however...

This would be NO PROBLEM if only President Obama would change his policies and get the US Economy working again. This has been the worst economic "recovery" in modern history. After President Obama took office and implemented his first budget (AFTER most job losses of the 2008 recession hit) the food stamp program was $40 Billion dollars per year. Obama has now doubled that to $80 Billion dollars per year (event though unemployment has NOT doubled since his 1st budget). NASA has an annual budget of under $20 Billion dollars. If Obama could simply get the economy to be as healthy as it was when he was sworn in (which was PRETTY BAD) he could reduce food stamps by $40 Billion per year and triple NASA's budget (making moon and Mars colonies quite affordable) without increasing the deficit or raising taxes. If he could actually run the economy BETTER than Bush, he could save even more from the extremely bloated social welfare programs that are eating the economy alive.

It's perfect! Unsinkable? Unthinkable!
No Homer will ever be allowed, and all the regulators will be objective and unbowed!

Plus its SO much easier to deal with disasters at sea and we have such a good track record in doing so.

Recall chic-fil-a who actually saw record revenues from backlash during that incident.

For two months. Then the zombies were led by the nose to the next crisis & forgot about old Dan. Now Mr. Cathy is saying he wishes he kept his bigotry to himself.

http://www.al.com/living/index...

As usual, dollars eventually take precedent over bigotry.

Uh, what about all the test stands at the MSFC and the new stand? What about the former shuttle engine stand at the JSSC? Those couldn't be adapted/re-purposed to work? It's not just the test stand it's also the logistics surrounding it. We all want the new/shiney stuff but sometimes why can't they just re-use what they already have? That seems to be missing from the dialog here.

This morning the police are saying this:

uthorities say 71-year-old Curtis Reeves wanted Chad Oulson, 43, to stop texting in the theater. When the texting continued, authorities say he went outside, returned and shot at him. Oulson died at the hospital. His wife was also injured but her wounds were not life-threatening.

--AL

In general, far as I can tell, galaxies don't really 'pass' each other. Big ones gobble up small ones as the Milky Way has undoubtedly done to many dwarf galaxies in the area. Big ones merge with other big ones, as we shall do with Andromeda in a couple of billion years. Those interactions will definitely send some stars hurtling through intergalactic space, but we won't have a disk galaxy after that. Sadly more of an amorphous blob.

I'm not prepared to argue that point, although I've seen some reference in passing to galaxies passing right through other galaxies.

But I'm not sure it matters, because any interaction between galaxies, might leave remnants of one traveling at odd angles
and speeds within the other. I write code for a living, and therefore, I'm totally guessing here.

Damn regulators.

Well, it could drive up the suspension cables or something

Fire ants do interbreed.

http://www.caes.uga.edu/commodities/fieldcrops/forages/events/FC13/03/ANR-1248%20Fire%20ants%20and%20cattle.pdf
http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2012/07/fire_ants_joes_outdoor_office.html
http://books.google.com/books?id=vxt5BqOKEAIC&pg=PA510&lpg=PA510&dq=fire+ants+interbreed&source=bl&ots=8eWZaSkLp_&sig=uJHTanPl1LV7mhieoReC1eX0plc&hl=en&sa=X&ei=dwiYUdimJ-rI0gHttIGwBQ&ved=0CEwQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=fire%20ants%20interbreed&f=false

Also, they do bite before stinging.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_ants

Different plant "species", such as of pine, do interbreed as well. The distinction of species vs. sub-species is often blurred in the wild.

.

The blunder shows that a highly experienced nuclear operator with a sterling reputation in the industry is not immune from unforeseen miscues that raise questions about judgment and competence.

The sequence of mistakes has put Progress in a state of crisis management for more than two years. Company officials are dealing with persistent questions from Wall Street analysts while they negotiate data requests from the insurer, Nuclear Electric Insurance Limited, known as NEIL.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/energy/crystal-river-nuclear-plant-had-flaw-in-its-safety-procedures-for-more/1276841 also shows that Crystal River had other serious problems, just like so many other plants that consistently skirt safety regulations and prescribed critical safety procedures:

and those are just from a quick cursory review from a web search engine. People who look harder can find more. The common link in all of these are shortcuts taken to save money and to bypass conventional procedures which are required to be followed by the NRC.

Police routinely destroy, delete, edit and/or obfuscate footage when it shows them in an "unflattering" light, why do you expect everyday citizens to turn over evidence against themselves when the police fail to do the same?

http://www.wtop.com/?nid=708&sid=1938732
http://www.newschannel5.com/Global/story.asp?S=12951588
http://www.wtop.com/?nid=428&sid=1116072
http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2009/05/birmingham_police_beating_vide_3.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmXTFr5hoOo
http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2010/03/fort-worth-justice-says-traffic-stop.html
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/hollywood/sfl-hollywood-cops-fake-report-b072809,0,350771.story

Yeah, now Google Kim Stafford and Tea Party and then you know every HR person she ever meets will do the same.

http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2012/10/internet_fail_the_truth_about.html

Is this your uncle?

He did shoot himself in the back of the head! http://blog.al.com/live/2012/08/arkansas_police_video_leads_to.html

So do you think the United States should divest itself of government-operated space launch capability? Should the lessons learned, capabilities gained, infrastructure created, and accomplishments of the last over-30 years be abandoned because the legislative, acquisition, and contracting landscape for government space operations isn't perfect? The "industry giants" in government space operations became "giants" for a reason.

SpaceX has shown that private enterprise has a place alongside government, but SpaceX isn't doesn't operate in a vacuum (pun intended!). Every launch on the SpaceX manifest through 2017 is happening via a US government launch complex, and for good reason. Just because existing space contractors benefit from SLS, it doesn't automatically follow that it's the "wrong way" to do things.

Space exploration is a key asset which serves to invigorate the national spirit, and government and private enterprise both have a significant place in the future of US space operations.

so they're closing down Alabama?

I've often wondered why Space-X doesn't open an office in Huntsville. There's got to be more than a few different-thinking unemployed "rocket scientists" there.

Like this one?

>> These high tech devices will be stolen by the bucket load.

If these "high tech devices" were just parachuted modules, that wouldn't be the issue. This thing, well yeah. Parachuted supplies might be spotted. If technique is used long enough, you might have people watching out for them. Then stealing them before the intended recipient or shaking them down. If THAT became a problem, the people needing it wouldn't want these drops drawing attention them because they don't want to be curb stomped by some thug.

>> Google for copper theft and that even happens in the west.

Alabama =? National Champions ... Roll tide I guess...
http://blog.al.com/wire/2011/08/alabama_leads_the_nation_in_th.html

So bad, they park police next to the utility trucks now.

O rly?

AT&T seeks more phone deregulation in Alabama
AT&T and Deutsche Telekom push for deregulation of wireless markets
Time Warner seeks Manhattan deregulation

It's trivially easy to find other examples.

CR funding funds programs at their current or planned level, whichever is lowest. Since the old program is not in the authorization, it isn't funded. Since the new program has no appropriation, it also isn't funded. Civilians can be temporarily repurposed while waiting for funds, but contractors will have to fund any employees out of their own pockets. We just got word that here in Huntsville, another 150-250 people will get layoff notices tomorrow, and top of the 500 that have already lost their jobs, meaning that about one-third of Huntsville's Constellation workforce has been laid off.

http://blog.al.com/breaking/2010/09/more_huntsville_layoffs_loom_a.html

They are keeping legitimate news organizations away from key locations by pretending that it will interfere with the cleanup. (Just check NPR for reports on this.) They are hiring local off duty cops, IN UNIFORM to keep people from seeing what is going on. When the cop tells someone to leave, you have no idea if they are working as sworn officers of the law or stooges for BP (not that there is much difference). They are paying local fisherman to help in the clean up and exposing them to harmful substances, and keeping them quiet by threatening to kick them off the payroll if they talk to reporters, or tell anyone that they are getting ill from chemical exposure.

Right after the explosion, they make rig workers sign papers saying they had no injuries BEFORE THEY LET THEM GET ON SHORE. They have consistently lied about how much oil was being released, because penalties are based on a per barrel amount. This is still in process, which is why they were trying to silence local scientists who would be able to provide evidence about how bad the spill is.

I can't say that they have killed anyone, but they have bullied, lied and intimidated people to a disgusting degree. If you think this is OK, then I suggest you change places with someone who has their life ruined by corporate greed and then see how you feel. Yeah, a little PhotoShop tweaking is no big deal, but when it is a part of a pattern of law breaking and corruption then it is just one more fact that needs to be brought out to insure that the truth is not ignored.

Is there a threat that the booms won't suck up oil if you get within 64 feet of them?

Actually, yes there is. Not only has there been intentional vandalism, booms have accidentally been damaged by boat propellers. I realize the media is reluctant to report anything that might help BP, but you really should do a little research before spouting off.

Skytruth is a great organization that has been buying Satellite time to survey the area. Turns out that while surveying the oil spill from DWH they found another leak in the Gulf of Mexico. The story was confirmed this morning. Makes you wonder how many leaks have occurred that have been "small enough" that they are simply forgotten about for years.

If they're paid, it becomes easy to use a casino for money laundering.

Or bribery.

Oh what utter baloney. One bird and is not a mass of birds. And 3 meters of coastline is not an environmental catastrophe.

http://blog.al.com/live/2010/05/no_oil_spill_landfall_through.html

They don't even know if the so-called "plumes" are actually oil. Let alone if the oxygen depletion is real.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2010/05/gulf-oil-spill-noaa-skeptical-of-oil-plume-reports.html

And the business you fed me about brown pelican nesting? Again false.

"Nesting for the eastern brown pelican, in the Southeast Region, is generally confined to the Carolinas, Florida, Louisiana, and the Caribbean. "

It is not exclusive to the Gulf like you are trying to portray.

It's not just those companies at fault. It's also, once again, failure on the part of the federal government to even follow their own plans.

I think making them pay the actual total cost of cleanup might be a better solution.

Unfortunately, their liability was limited to $75M under the 1990 Oil Pollution Act. Of course, wanting to close the barn door after the horse has burned it down, the White House now wants to increase that to $10B, a figure slightly more in line with something that would make an oil company slow down and think about how shoddily their operations are being run.

Exactly how is government in the way?

I don't exactly see private industry falling over themselves to get into space. (Not silly "space tourism" schemes, serious economically self-sustaining space travel.) And why should they? We're talking billions of dollars up front with no return for many, many years.

Government can help private ventures by providing incentives. That's how the transcontinental railroad got built.

The choice isn't simply between unchecked government and unchecked business; both are recipes for disaster. True believers on both sides will often tell you otherwise, of course.

This will not go over well in Huntsville. In fact, it already hasn't.

"Republican Senator Richard Shelby launched a preemptive strike on President Barack Obama's blue ribbon space panel ther day before its due to release its final report, calling the committee's findings "worthless." Shelby, a staunch defender of NASA's Marshal Space Flight Center In Huntsville, Alabama, said in a Senate floor speech that the committee failed to consider safety when it ranked various rocket options for the White House to consider. "Without an honest and thorough examination of the safety and reliability aspects of the various designs and options for manned space flight, the findings of this report are worthless," said Shelby."

Senator Shelby, obviously a noted rocket expert, contradicts former Shuttle astronauts Sally Ride and Leroy Chiao. Undoubtedly he astronaut safety at every step of the process with little regard to politics while they as former astronauts were completely unconcerned with it.

Speaking of unconcerned, apparently President Obama is exactly that in regards to NASA. New NASA Administrator Charles Bolden hopes to meet with Obama before end of year on agency future.

On top of all of that, it seems that Altair, the lunar lander from the Constellation project has been defunded.

Our local newspaper - owned by a "mainstream media" conglomeration - has a free ad-supported web site that it is even using to compete with TV news by adding video. So why would they want to kill off ad-supported web sites?

Today the "Rocket City USA" newspaper Huntsville Time posted an article by John Ehinger, former editor of the paper, recalling his experience of the Apollo 11 Saturn V launch.

In Alabama politics, they call that a reimbursement of expense money: http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2009/06/securities_and_exchange_commis_1.html

yes

http://www.al.com/news/press-register/index.ssf?/base/news/1205313362147140.xml&coll=3

Possession laws suck....

there's some talk of doing this in Birmingham, AL.

http://www.al.com/birminghamnews/stories/index.ssf?/base/news/1194945540247570.xml&coll=2

Students will get laptops with plan Tuesday, November 13, 2007 BARNETT WRIGHT News staff writer Every student in grades one through eight in the Birmingham city school system will receive a laptop computer under a tentative agreement Mayor-elect Larry Langford has reached with a foundation that provides computers in developing countries, an adviser to Langford said Monday. "Over 15,000 children will be receiving their own personal laptops," said John Katopodis, a longtime Langford friend who is negotiating with the One Laptop Per Child foundation on Langford's behalf. "We feel that technology, and the ability to use technology effectively, is an important learning tool," Katopodis said. "We believe providing these children with the tools to catch up will give them a head start in life because technology is such an integral part of learning." Katopodis said some details remain to be worked out. A spokeswoman for the Boston-based foundation said talks are being held this week about implementing the program. Under the tentative agreement, the city would buy the laptops at a discount through the foundation and provide them to the city schools. They would not be the students' personal property. ...

Relative seriousness?

I dunno man...

How many billboards do you see discouraging youths from shooting each other?

And there have been plenty of laws in the US against having sex before marriage, after marriage with someone else, or involving organs other than the vagina. Many of those laws have only very recently been repealed. Oh yeah, and then just today I read this little tidbit, which covers having sex with *yourself*.

I swear, if it didn't mean the end of humanity, sex *would* be illegal in at least 23 states. Since basically all non-procreative sex has indeed been illegal in those states.

There is a Forrest Wasson who is listed by Gamestop as manager of the store at 41 Vaughan Ln, Pell City, AL 35125, 205-338-4030. According to this page Forrest Earl Wasson Jr got married in on April 26, 2007 Jefferson County, AL. A Forrest Earl Wasson Jr used to drive as a long-haul trucker for Prime Inc and apparently fathered several illegitimate children across the country and does not appear to have paid any child support. Wasson may be wanted by several child support agencies across the country. Jefferson County and Pell city are within 43 miles of each other. Wasson the trucker may or may not be the Wasson who got married in Jefferson County, and may or may not be the Gamestop manager in Pell City, but if anyone's looking for him, that might be a good place to start.

I am posting this from behind Tor due to a concern for my life. The truth is that I am a member of the Gay Nigger Assocation of America. This is both a religion and a lifestyle for me, and I was working my way up to the top of Wikipedia as a sleeper agent to be used in a time of need.

My role for the GNAA was to rig the structure of Wikipedia like a chain of dominoes, so that when the time was right our leader could push over the first one of sorts, in whichever form it might take, merely by erecting his black member; we would replace every article with an icon, and make national news in the process.

I tell all of you this as my failure has re-inspired my belief in god, and in the idea that one day that white men such as many of us might not all end up as dead, uprooted links in the ultimate evolution of the human race. Thank you and god bless.

I am posting this from behind Tor due to a concern for my life. The truth is that I am a member of the Gay Nigger Assocation of America. This is both a religion and a lifestyle for me, and I was working my way up to the top of Wikipedia as a sleeper agent to be used in a time of need.

My role for the GNAA was to rig the structure of Wikipedia like a chain of dominoes, so that when the time was right our leader could push over the first one of sorts, in whichever form it might take, merely by erecting his black member; we would replace every article with an icon, and make national news in the process.

I tell all of you this as my failure has re-inspired my belief in god, and in the idea that one day that white men such as many of us might not all end up as dead, uprooted links in the ultimate evolution of the human race. Thank you and god bless.

I am posting this from behind Tor due to a concern for my life. The truth is that I am a member of the Gay Nigger Assocation of America. This is both a religion and a lifestyle for me, and I was working my way up to the top of Wikipedia as a sleeper agent to be used in a time of need.

My role for the GNAA was to rig the structure of Wikipedia like a chain of dominoes, so that when the time was right our leader could push over the first one of sorts, in whichever form it might take, merely by erecting his black member; we would replace every article with an icon, and make national news in the process.

I tell all of you this as my failure has re-inspired my belief in god, and in the idea that one day that white men such as many of us might not all end up as dead, uprooted links in the ultimate evolution of the human race. Thank you and god bless.

I am posting this from behind Tor due to a concern for my life. The truth is that I am a member of the Gay Nigger Assocation of America. This is both a religion and a lifestyle for me, and I was working my way up to the top of Wikipedia as a sleeper agent to be used in a time of need.

My role for the GNAA was to rig the structure of Wikipedia like a chain of dominoes, so that when the time was right our leader could push over the first one of sorts, in whichever form it might take, merely by erecting his black member; we would replace every article with an icon, and make national news in the process.

I tell all of you this as my failure has re-inspired my belief in god, and in the idea that one day that white men such as many of us might not all end up as dead, uprooted links in the ultimate evolution of the human race. Thank you and god bless.

I am posting this from behind Tor due to a concern for my life. The truth is that I am a member of the Gay Nigger Assocation of America. This is both a religion and a lifestyle for me, and I was working my way up to the top of Wikipedia as a sleeper agent to be used in a time of need.

My role for the GNAA was to rig the structure of Wikipedia like a chain of dominoes, so that when the time was right our leader could push over the first one of sorts, in whichever form it might take, merely by erecting his black member; we would replace every article with an icon, and make national news in the process.

I tell all of you this as my failure has re-inspired my belief in god, and in the idea that one day that white men such as many of us might not all end up as dead, uprooted links in the ultimate evolution of the human race. Thank you and god bless.

I am posting this from behind Tor due to a concern for my life. The truth is that I am a member of the Gay Nigger Assocation of America. This is both a religion and a lifestyle for me, and I was working my way up to the top of Wikipedia as a sleeper agent to be used in a time of need.

My role for the GNAA was to rig the structure of Wikipedia like a chain of dominoes, so that when the time was right our leader could push over the first one of sorts, in whichever form it might take, merely by erecting his black member; we would replace every article with an icon, and make national news in the process.

I tell all of you this as my failure has re-inspired my belief in god, and in the idea that one day that white men such as many of us might not all end up as dead, uprooted links in the ultimate evolution of the human race. Thank you and god bless.