Slashdot Mirror

This AC is unambiguously WRONG about DoD policy regarding affirmative action and equal opportunity.

I normally ignore these racist rants from ACs but since it has been modded up as informative by unsuspecting mods, I will respond in brief.

ALL branches of the military have policy and guidelines in place for recruiting, retainment and training of disadvantaged minorities. This is unequivocal FACT.

These policies and guidelines are open and fully available to the general public:

Army: http://www.aschq.army.mil/supportingdocs/p600_26.pdf
Navy: http://neds.nebt.daps.mil/Directives/5354d3.pdf
Air Force: http://www.e-publishing.af.mil/pubfiles/af/36/afpd36-D2/afpd36-D2.pdf
Marine Corps: http://www.29palms.usmc.mil/base/safety/eo/pdf/EO%20Terms%20and%20Definitions.pdf

Some of these are not the official policy/plans but are official documents that do refer to them. I'm not going to burn up the rest of my Saturday night looking wasting time responding to this AC but hope this is enough for those who might believe there is even a shred of truth to this AC's post.

The fact that so many who have served are not aware of the existence of these policies is a testament to the policies' effectiveness. This is one of the few policy level implementations that the military has done right. By the time promotion boards roll around, it is either transparent or nearly transparent to the board members.

I will remind those that care that the "Military" amicus brief filed by military leaders in 2003 during the Grutter vs. Bollinger (University of Michigan) was cited by the Supreme Court as being one of the strongest arguments in favor of affirmative action in higher education.

The Mind Has No Firewall by Timothy L. Thomas at the Army War Collage.

If you want to take this subject seriously, and I really recommend that you do, then you need a copy of this book:

Controlling the Human Mind : The Technologies of Political Control or Tools for Peak Performance by Dr. Nick Begich; ISBN 1-890693-54-5.

It is a well researched book on what is going on in the field, based on publicly available documents.

For full disclosure Dr. Begich sent me a free review copy of the book when it was released. I have supplied Dr. B. with background material over the years.

Links to the following papers here:

• Mind Control: The Ultimate Brave New World by Dr. Nick Begich
• US Electromagnetic Weapons and Human Rights - by Peter Phillips, Lew Brown and Bridget Thornton
• Advanced Neural Implants and Control - DARPA.
• Soviet and Czechoslovakian Parapsychology Research - Defense Intelligence Agency
• Paraphysics R & D Warsaw Pact - Defense Intelligence Agency
• Controlled Offensive Behavior - USSR Defense Intelligence Agency
• Science & Technology for New DoD Capabilities
• Interactive Neuronal and Nanoelectronic/photonic Circuits
• Darpatech 2002 Symposium - Transforming Fantasy
• Synthetic Telepathy and the Early Mind Wars by Richard Alan Miller
• USSR Hypnosis at a Distance Defense Intelligence Agency
• DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY ~ OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY SECNAVINST 3900.39D HUMAN RESEARCH PROTECTION PROGRAM

I'll add The Battle for Your Mind to the list.

I also worry about the amount of rainfall that would be lost if Bill Gates plan actually works. Believe it or not there are some useful aspects to a hurricane and more importantly tropical storms.

Here is the chart of the water levels of Lake Lanier, which is Atlanta's only major water supply. The record low elevations line that you see was set last year, which was the second year of a drought (you might recall our governor's response to the drought, which was to pray for rain, aside from suing all of the neighboring states to try to take their water). The big bump that you see in the minimum recorded lake elevations just before September was hurricane Gustav, which essentially saved us from a situation where the lake would have been within 10 feet of a standing pool, and Atlanta gets its water on the outlet of the power generators. In fact, most of Atlanta's problems were because the El Niño shut down the hurricanes into the gulf for a couple of years after katrina. Now that they're back, and the wet weather in general, our water supply is fine for the moment.

We read above: . . . a separate power substation will have to be built at Camp Williams. "They were looking at secure sites [...]" says Col. Scott Olson....

To whom (in Tora Bora and elsewhere) it may concern: Here is the Camp Williams FAQ, which imparts such nuggets of High Security as:

Q. Where do I call to make arrangements to pick up key's [sic] for buildings and class rooms.

A. Call the billeting office 878-5410. All buildings on post are controlled by the Billeting office.. Call ahead to make sure they are open. Their hours are not the same every day.

Disclaimer: I am a public affairs specialist with the U.S. Army Research, Development & Engineering Command as well as a long-time Slashdot reader & member.

The Army does accomplish a lot of the work through universities and businesses, but we also employ somewhere around 9,000 civilian scientists and engineers in RDECOM, many of whom are working on what we call wearable power. I invite all of you to check out our web site at http://www.army.mil/info/organization/unitsandcommands/commandstructure/rdecom/index.html. You'll see a couple of partnership stories about what we're doing with Microsoft and a NASCAR team, but we have thousands of partnerships and more than 300 international agreements. We also do a lot of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) educational outreach. Check out eCybermission https://ecybermission.apgea.army.mil/, though that's not our only effort.

We are the headquarters and have subordinate commands that do the actual research and development. So check out our subordinate elements page, http://www.rdecom.army.mil/pages/rdecom_elements.html, to see more about what they do. Basically, we do everything from basic research through places like the Army Research Laboratory and the Edgewood Chemical and Biological Center, right through to prototyping and even some production at our Product Integration Facilities. Probably the most well-known of our subordinates is the Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center, which does things like MREs, uniforms, helmets, tentage, etc.

I'll apologize up front about our web page. The front page has been transitioned to the new Army.mil look and feel, but we're just beginning to convert our other pages. We're also making baby steps into social media, so we're on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Flickr. The YouTube channel includes a handful of videos from our scientists and engineers talking about what they do. Links are on our home page.

And I guess I should mention that the other services have similar commands. I'm sure Google will be glad to help you find them.

Disclaimer: I am a public affairs specialist with the U.S. Army Research, Development & Engineering Command as well as a long-time Slashdot reader & member.

The Army does accomplish a lot of the work through universities and businesses, but we also employ somewhere around 9,000 civilian scientists and engineers in RDECOM, many of whom are working on what we call wearable power. I invite all of you to check out our web site at http://www.army.mil/info/organization/unitsandcommands/commandstructure/rdecom/index.html. You'll see a couple of partnership stories about what we're doing with Microsoft and a NASCAR team, but we have thousands of partnerships and more than 300 international agreements. We also do a lot of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) educational outreach. Check out eCybermission https://ecybermission.apgea.army.mil/, though that's not our only effort.

We are the headquarters and have subordinate commands that do the actual research and development. So check out our subordinate elements page, http://www.rdecom.army.mil/pages/rdecom_elements.html, to see more about what they do. Basically, we do everything from basic research through places like the Army Research Laboratory and the Edgewood Chemical and Biological Center, right through to prototyping and even some production at our Product Integration Facilities. Probably the most well-known of our subordinates is the Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center, which does things like MREs, uniforms, helmets, tentage, etc.

I'll apologize up front about our web page. The front page has been transitioned to the new Army.mil look and feel, but we're just beginning to convert our other pages. We're also making baby steps into social media, so we're on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Flickr. The YouTube channel includes a handful of videos from our scientists and engineers talking about what they do. Links are on our home page.

And I guess I should mention that the other services have similar commands. I'm sure Google will be glad to help you find them.

Disclaimer: I am a public affairs specialist with the U.S. Army Research, Development & Engineering Command as well as a long-time Slashdot reader & member.

The Army does accomplish a lot of the work through universities and businesses, but we also employ somewhere around 9,000 civilian scientists and engineers in RDECOM, many of whom are working on what we call wearable power. I invite all of you to check out our web site at http://www.army.mil/info/organization/unitsandcommands/commandstructure/rdecom/index.html. You'll see a couple of partnership stories about what we're doing with Microsoft and a NASCAR team, but we have thousands of partnerships and more than 300 international agreements. We also do a lot of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) educational outreach. Check out eCybermission https://ecybermission.apgea.army.mil/, though that's not our only effort.

We are the headquarters and have subordinate commands that do the actual research and development. So check out our subordinate elements page, http://www.rdecom.army.mil/pages/rdecom_elements.html, to see more about what they do. Basically, we do everything from basic research through places like the Army Research Laboratory and the Edgewood Chemical and Biological Center, right through to prototyping and even some production at our Product Integration Facilities. Probably the most well-known of our subordinates is the Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center, which does things like MREs, uniforms, helmets, tentage, etc.

I'll apologize up front about our web page. The front page has been transitioned to the new Army.mil look and feel, but we're just beginning to convert our other pages. We're also making baby steps into social media, so we're on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Flickr. The YouTube channel includes a handful of videos from our scientists and engineers talking about what they do. Links are on our home page.

And I guess I should mention that the other services have similar commands. I'm sure Google will be glad to help you find them.

No one has talked about the purpose of these interviews.

It's unlikely any of the disclosed information could be usable for blackmail in any way.

The purpose of a government agency obtaining all possible blackmail information about you is to prevent you from being blackmailed with the information under threat of disclosure of said information to your employer (the government agency). The safest answer (for the agency) to such an external threat is the target of the blackmail being able to say "they already know".

Most likely, the information disclosed will not in fact be usable for blackmail, as the article suggests, if the information was considered to have been mitigated sufficiently for the clearance to have been granted. If the information was not mitigated, then there would not have been a clearance issues; in that case, it might be a problem for the officer in question, but it won't impact their ability to do the job for which they were cleared to do.

For example, if an officer engaged in an extramarital affair, but had disclosed that information to his wife, then the information could not be used as blackmail fodder in an attempt to coerce the officer to not perform their assigned duty. If the information was not disclosed to his wife, then the officer would probably have been denied a clearance, and could face restrictions on their military duty, up to and including discharge from the military, to prevent that information being used to cause the officer to act as the attacker/enemy wanted during a conflict situation.

It might be a problem unrelated to any national security concerns for the officer who disclosed unmitigated information, but it's actually unlikely that the information would not be disclosed unless it was apriori mitigated (unless the officer was "plain stupid").

The US criteria for denial and mitigation for reasons of denial is:

        http://www.smdc.army.mil/adr/adjguid/adjguidF.htm

and I can't believe that the RAF criteria would be very different.

-- Terry

The US used to have a 45MW shipboard nuclear power plant on the USS Sturgis, a converted Liberty ship. It was used to power the Panama Canal locks during a period of low water at Gatun Dam, the usual power source. The U.S. Army had a whole range of small reactors running in remote locations from 1952 to the early 1970s. The main problem was that they never built enough of them to justify the support and training infrastructure required.

who actually served in iraq
Do we get to use Willy Pete and MK77 too?
http://www.tradoc.army.mil/pao/ProfWriting/2-2AARlow.pdf
get across the harsh realities of war
Your inner Oliver Stone?
a crappy killbinladen
Discern food rations from unexploded cluster bomb shells!

In a recent blog article, Cyber Command - Why stop there?, I referenced these same two articles. In my post I postulated creating a new service, combining the redundant Space and Cyber (IT) components that exist currently across all the services. I completely agree with the arguments presented by Lieutenant Colonel Greg Conti and Colonel Buck Surdu in "Is it Time for a Cyberwarfare Branch of Military?"

"but I imagine the mil hasn't given up on that stuff entirely."

It hasn't, and it's worth noting that amateur radio offers communication when more complex systems are disrupted such as during natural disasters.

"The combined three service MARS programs (Army, Air Force, and Navy-Marine Corps) volunteer force of over 5,000 dedicated and skilled amateur radio operators is the backbone of the MARS program."

http://www.netcom.army.mil/mars/

"About the National Guard The National Guard, the oldest component of the Armed Forces of the United States and one of the nation's longest-enduring institutions, celebrated its 370th birthday on December 13, 2006." http://www.ngb.army.mil/About/default.aspx

Nice. It even points the user to ANOTHER non-.mil site to download a PKI certificate. That settles it for me. This is NOT the military.

The homepage of the site they are pointing to https://www.dodpke.com/ Says the site has moved to: another url

Which refers you to: this document

Which states the following:

Alternate method of retrieving DoD Root Certificate

If you have trouble accessing the page listed above you can also visit the following page to download the DoD Root Certificates: https://www.dodpke.com/InstallRoot.

The dodpke.com site is also linked by http://www.nsa.naples.navy.mil/bno/PKI/index.htm.

I cannot conclude that this is a scam, it appears to be probably legitimate, or at least the cert information is legitimate.

What they don't mention though is it's probably more secure to use a workstation that already has the certificate installed, download the file to a medium, then use the medium to install the certs on the 'fresh' workstation (No risk of man-in-the-middle while connecting with SSL to a site without a trusted cert).

dodpke.com has a registration date in 2002

Nice. It even points the user to ANOTHER non-.mil site to download a PKI certificate. That settles it for me. This is NOT the military.

The homepage of the site they are pointing to https://www.dodpke.com/ Says the site has moved to: another url

Which refers you to: this document

Which states the following:

Alternate method of retrieving DoD Root Certificate

If you have trouble accessing the page listed above you can also visit the following page to download the DoD Root Certificates: https://www.dodpke.com/InstallRoot.

The dodpke.com site is also linked by http://www.nsa.naples.navy.mil/bno/PKI/index.htm.

I cannot conclude that this is a scam, it appears to be probably legitimate, or at least the cert information is legitimate.

What they don't mention though is it's probably more secure to use a workstation that already has the certificate installed, download the file to a medium, then use the medium to install the certs on the 'fresh' workstation (No risk of man-in-the-middle while connecting with SSL to a site without a trusted cert).

dodpke.com has a registration date in 2002

The courts had ordered the Pentagon to release additional prison torture pics and vids, stuff Congress had viewed in private and turned a lot of stomachs. Currently the Pentagon is illegally sitting on these pics. Can we get all the ugly in the open so we can start to earn our respect back?

You can find the DoD's FOIA request information here. I'm not entirely sure which sub department that would fall under but you could try with the military first.

They should help you:

Please note that this office is not a repository for documents maintained or released by the Department of the Army. Requests received in this office will be forwarded to the activity that has the responsibility for the subject matter requested. For a more timely response, please refer to the POC listing to ensure your request is submitted to the proper office.

After reviewing the POC listing, if you are still unsure which agency to contact, you may submit a request to the Department of the Army Freedom of Information Office, 7701 Telegraph Road, Suite 144, Alexandria, VA 22315-3905 and we will attempt to assist you. Requests to this office can also be sent electronically by emailing: DAFOIA@conus.army.mil, or Facsimile (703) 428-6522.

Address: Department of the Army Freedom of Information Act Office 7701 Telegraph Road, Suite 144 Alexandria, VA 22315-3905

E-mail: DAFOIA@conus.army.mil Telephone: COMM (703) 428-6504 or DSN 328-6504 Facsimile: COMM (703) 428-6522 or DSN 328-6522

FOIA requesters who have any questions concerning the processing of their requests at the US Army Freedom of Information Act Office, should contact this center at (703) 428-6504. If you are not satisfied with the response from the center, you may contact the FOIA Public Liaisons, Mr. Robert Dickerson or Mr. Steven A. Raho, at (703)428-6504, Army_FOIA_Liaison@conus.army.mil.

There's a handbook online if you have questions. If you want something from the State department or FCC, they have pretty easy request forms online. I'm thinking you'll just get a big fat rejection but who knows?

The 15% number bandied about appears to be based on Marshall, and if you Google around there is plenty of debate besides "one nut on snopes". An example is New Evidence Regarding Fire Ratios.

https://www.jagcnet.army.mil/

They have to draw the line somewhere. The best, easiest, whatever place is at "no modifications at all". The military does, of course, have a proper photo of her: http://www.army.mil/-images/2008/06/30/25522/ -- she is a general, after all. They should have used that. And chances are, next time, they will.

This is a mountain in the eye of most journalists. Photojournalism is no different that journalism...you shouldn't be allowed to screw around with the facts, as mal-composed and uninteresting as they may be. I see little ethical difference between the adding a flag to an image and adding an extra missile. Post-processing to improve the clarity and visibility of the subject (exposure adjustments, dodge and burning, sharpening, cropping) is not the same as adding and subtracting visual facts.

If the DoD wanted to provide a photo of the general in front of a flag, then they should have submitted a photo of her taken in front of a flag.

The hybrid drive train FCS family of tracked vehicles would have the ability to power and haul such gear, and this has been envisioned for many years.

https://www.fcs.army.mil/

HMMWVs are merely light utility trucks.

Actually I took ROTC in high school. They covered illegal orders and UCMJ. They would go as far as to give you simple "illegal" order like calling at ease from a parade rest. The correct response was not to do it without question but to respond with "As you where sir!"

Okay, this is drill and ceremony so it's supposed to be highly formalized, and we don't do this stuff on a day to day basis. You're wrong on several counts. First of all, it's perfectly valid to go from parade rest to at ease. You go from looking straight ahead to following the speaker. Second, when you're at parade rest, you really not supposed to speak. Third, it's were, not where.

To understand "as you were" you have to know that in D&C a command is made up of the preparatory command and command of execution. (It actually has to do with rhythm, believe it or not.) If you issue an incorrect preparatory command, you can "cancel" it with "as you were." If you issue an incorrect command of execution, you have to issue another command entirely.

For example, since the person controlling a formation is facing the formation, it's quite common to get your left and right mixed up. So you'll often hear "Left... as you were... right, face!"

If you ever want to go into the military, I strongly recommend that you do not do JROTC. It's a load of crap. I'd even avoid ROTC... sign up for three years and you can do ROTC if the military is right for you. Officers with no enlisted experience tend to suck a lot.

Yes, you can't get in trouble for refusing to obey an order that is not technically correct. However, at least from a combat arms perspective, what I teach my soldiers is that often the needs of the mission and common sense override technicalities. So long as they communicate with their leadership, they'll be fine.

And if you think about it, the big problem with robots is usually not following orders to the letter, but not doing anything when not told. Not surprisingly, the NCO Creed expressly states: "I will exercise initiative by taking appropriate action in the absence of orders." I think it's rather badly written, but there are many good points in it all the same.

And then there's that whole idea that the Constitution is just a basis guideline, and not meant to encompass every law that would ever be created. The idea of Amendments, even, was not meant to fully encompass every law. That's why they created a legislature(bicameral, even!), so that laws, not just amendments, could be drafted, voted upon, and put into effect. It seems that every time something about the government comes up, there is someone who says that the government can only do explicitly what the Constitution says. Never is the mention that the Constitution is considered a living Constitution, meaning that it is apt to change. How about we make a Constitutional Amendment, saying that everthing in the parent's post was now guaranteed by the government. I'm betting that there would be alot of people yelling and screaming that 'That's not what the founding fathers had in mind' blah blah blah.

Let's take, for instance, the idea of the 2nd Amendment. If you look at history, every man was a member of the militia. So therefore, every man was entitled to the right to bear arms. This is true. However, let's follow that idea into the present. Saying that every man now deserves to bear arms means that every man should be in the National Guard, since they should have to protect others with it. Nowhere does it say that you can use your rifle or shotgun to hunt with. Therefore, you don't have the right. You can only use it to be part of a well regulated militia. You can sign up here.

My link above got obliterated for some reason. Here it is.

Neither of us have current data on average thickness

Correct.

all we know is that the multi-year trend has been downward and all indication is that the trend has continued

You have no such "indication". That is the concept of having "no data" to support your point.

I'm amused by the fact that you seem to believe that I'm the only one who claims arctic ice has increased this year compared to last - when so far you're the only one I've seen to claim otherwise :) (And I've already sourced the statements that support me)

Anyway. You claim precipitation to be the only way arctic ice can increase. Why? It's not true :)

http://www.crrel.usace.army.mil/sid/IMB/icethick.htm

(It's quote obvious when you read climate related threads on Slashdot that AGW has become a religion in the US btw)

Well, you'll certainly reduce the human population on the Internet with threats like this:

http://www.sed.monmouth.army.mil/comm/cms/RAPTer.htm wants to load an applet.
GNU Classpath's security implementation is not complete.
HOSTILE APPLETS WILL STEAL AND/OR DESTROY YOUR DATA!

...you're going to reduce the human population by cloning the U.S. military's Reporting and Planning Terminal?

(RFID in the keys? A second key? A dongle?)

One or more very well trained groups of men with guns, watching the place 24 hours a day?

Zinc is old-tech for an anode.

The Army Corps of Engineers (at a lab I used to work at) invented a Ceramic Anode.
A 20oz Ceramic anode does the job of a 50lb Metalic one, huge-huge improvement.

Read all about it.

http://www.erdc.usace.army.mil/pls/erdcpub/docs/erdc/images/ERDCFactSheet_Product_CeramicAnodes.pdf

Well, I know that in order to verify most U.S. DoD SSL certificates you must install the U.S. DoD root certificates locally. Example.

A marching soldier needs 4 gallons of water per day?

If marching soldiers needed 4 gallons a day each, they'd all be dead pretty quick.

The field manual is simply a textbook:

Complete Digital Reference of US Army Field Manuals

600 books on DVD for $25.

You'll need an AKO [Army Knowledge Online] log-in to read the classified texts.

The tactical briefing is rough-cut because it isn't finalized or distributed until the last possible moment - for all the obvious reasons.

In the late 1980s, I had the pleasure of observing some Red Team training activities at Fort Irwin in California. This is the US Army's premiere force-on-force training environment. They have a remarkably competent Opposing Force unit, and they're quite skilled at using non-US equipment and tactics against the visiting Blue Team battalions. Yes, this is big stuff - training at the battalion and brigade level.

"Red Team Wins," and they generally do.

Funny, I always thought WSMR was in New Mexico.
I would be really freaked out if I found a site
that said it was in Nevada, sort a like how Kirk
felt when Spock had a beard.

Umm, America's Army is produced by the US Army, not the USAF. Hell, the US Army logo is everywhere in that game. Two very separate branches of the US armed forces.

Some better examples:

• The Great Brass Brain, an analog tide predictor. It was built in 1910, and used until 1966, for regular tide predictions.
• The Bay Model, a working 1.5 acre model of water flow in San Francisco Bay. Built in 1956, in use until 2000. (You can still visit, but it's not used as a research tool any more.)
• SCEPTRON, a mechanical filter bank of quartz fibres which could record and play spectra onto photographic film. This was trainable as a speech recognition system. Early 1960s.
• The Iconarama., the USAF's Etch-A-Sketch. This was one of the first large screen displays, basically a plotter/slide projector combo. It could write, but not erase selectively, so units were used in pairs, allowing a redraw by the unit not projecting, then a lamp switch. 1950s.

http://www.army.mil/-news/2008/04/02/8265-phishing-e-mail-to-mwr-patrons-turns-out-to-be-army-exercise/ 10,000 mails sent, 3,000 visitors to the site (enough to gather IP addies, browser agents, etc.).

Dear Mister Pentagon,
Please ship me a Peacekeeper missile. They're really pretty.
Sincerely,
Hyppy

Some parts of White Sands are tightly controlled, others not so much (per wikipedia, it's 3200 square miles.) The Trinity Site is only open to the public 2 days a year (the first Saturdays of April and October). And they frown on people taking home souvenirs.

BTW - Leave the sand in the jar. It's almost certainly safe, just don't accidentally ingest any.

think of the long term strategic advantage gained by targeting a particular area there. One school perhaps, that covers a particular asian or middle eastern language. You can hamper intelligence collection significantly by one well placed attack.

And we're making it harder by disclosing more risks than ever to more people than ever. Not only does all of this disclosure make us feel helpless, but it also gives us ever more of those images and experiences that trigger the intuitive response without analytical rigor to override the fear.

...from no place other than their own bloody website.

This is more than mere censorship; its also a display of utter stupidity and ignorance on such a grand scale only the US army could portrait in my not too humble opinion.

Orbital Science is the manufacture of the Orion CEV Launch Abort System

Nice to see NASA try to give the Astronauts a way out of a potentially deadly situation. Please give them credit for that much.

This is also good for the people in Southern New Mexico that live and work near White Sands Test Facility and White Sands Missile Range . As well as Tuscon Arizona, where Orbital is located, as it helps the economies of both regions.

There is no place similar to relocate these people (...)

I should've done a quick Google before my prior reply to this. It turns out, relocating is exactly what Kivalina wants to do, and has been trying to do for over a decade:

"Due to severe erosion, the City intends to relocate to a new site 7.5 miles away. Funds have been provided by various federal and state agencies since the early 1990s to assess relocation options and to design and engineer the new site."

This lawsuit is likely a ploy to help secure awareness and funding for the relcation.

Kivalina Relocation Master Plan Final Report '06.

"To this end, village residents have pursued relocation for the last twenty years."

http://www.poa.usace.army.mil/en/cw/Kivalina/Executive%20Summary.pdf

This town was going to disappear weather there was global warming or not. Global warming is now their excuse to get someone else to pay for it.

read the rules and stick to them (link to sources!).

Having an opinion that differs from Slashdot's leftist dogma is not against any rule that I'm aware of.

I might have been unclear. The rules mention clearly linking to sources as being an essential part of the /. "dogma".

This is the old "since the US military is not perfect, they're all savage murderers" argument.

What does that have to do with you not reading linked sources?

Like I already told you, it's an absurd claim.

Prove it.

soldiers deployed to Iraq are equipped with water pistols.

This is an absurd claim, it appears that M16A2 Qualification and Bayonet are part of the basic training... But I found no mention of any courses about Human rights nor Geneva convention anywhere in any of the US army courses. Once again, I might be wrong... but as I did read and hear such testimonies (no such human rights training being given) I believe I am right, and you are uninformed or lying.

Hah hah. A site run by former Muslims is Islamophobic and racist. That's a good one.

A typical reaction from people who can't fit in a new or foreign environment is to start denigrating, criticizing and even harming their former community. I have witnessed that behavior too often... It's really sad. I am not telling the people from jihadwatch and islamwatch are in that position... but they are neither journalists neither historians. They write their partisan ideas, they introduce unrelated historical facts and try to make them fit in their views...
The posts on their sites are not news... these are views.

By the way, why exactly shouldn't I use French riots as an example of... French riots?

Because you try to use these riots to prove islam is the "root cause of the fall of humanity" (I exaggerated this claim for a humorous purpose). You have no knowledge of the situation and (Left wing) media frenzy (against N. Sarkozy) which led to those riots... Neither have you any idea of the proportion of muslims, catholics, atheists, nihilists or any other trouble makers in these riots. Therefore your claims are unproven and void. Seeing your reticence to link to any news or any solid source it's doubtful you have anything valid to say about this subject.

Similiar riots [...] occur in many others places in Europe

Could you give links to 3 or 4 examples?

Immigrants from Islamic societies are the common link between all of them.

Do you have any statistics or news to support our claim? Or (to quote you) "is there no source for your claims because it was obviously made up as another example?"

I'm sorry if I don't buy the standard explanation that The Man is oppressing them. When everything, absolutely everything, is always The Man's fault, the explanation starts to become as credible as the Zionist Conspiracy.

I don't either... but you are quick at generalizing. You forget the social and humanitarian context in Africa and the middle East. Islam is used as a pretext and a tool. It's the only knowledge and morale framework most people have in countries like Nigeria. They have no clue about civil laws nor any national or international education. Nigeria is a country where a coup is the best way to get to power, where the average person saw 3 civil wars and lost members of his familly in conflicts, When law is enforced by militias with no federal oversight (and no knowledge of federal laws either) you can't expect much discernment from the average citizen. Most Nigerian don't see their identity represented by the Nation but by the tribe they come from. In a similar fashion most of Middle East has no significant national identity, n

The army has battalions of guys that do nothing else. In my quite narrow experience with the military, they generally buy the top of the line of whatever's available, even if it means the guy running the point-of-sale in the mess gets an Intellistation or a Mac Pro.

" Without the USA's support, Britain would have been invaded by the Nazis.

Yes, without all those American pilots and American planes helping us in 1940, we'd definitely have lost the Battle of Britain.

Oh wait, the US didn't enter the war until 1941..."

Pray tell, exactly *how* would Britain have kept their planes flying and the industry to support and build and repair them going without the US's support? Try Googling "WW2 Prewar Aid". Critical arms, aircraft, and supplies were being shipped to Britain well before 1941.

Also, for those who think that if the US didn't participate that Russia would simply have been the one to have liberated France and would have defeated Germany and been the only one to enter Berlin, then they have another think coming. Try Googling "WW2 Lend Lease". Without arms , aircraft, and supplies from the US, neither Russia nor Britain would have been able to maintain their war-making capabilities. If you'd like details on US prewar plans and foreign aid, try here:

http://www.history.army.mil/books/wwii/csppp/ch10.htm

Which is excerpted from the main document here:

http://www.history.army.mil/books/wwii/csppp/index.htm

Goodness, what are they teaching in the history classes over there? I would have expected better than the poor job the US does with public education.

Cheers!

Strat

" Without the USA's support, Britain would have been invaded by the Nazis.

Yes, without all those American pilots and American planes helping us in 1940, we'd definitely have lost the Battle of Britain.

Oh wait, the US didn't enter the war until 1941..."

Pray tell, exactly *how* would Britain have kept their planes flying and the industry to support and build and repair them going without the US's support? Try Googling "WW2 Prewar Aid". Critical arms, aircraft, and supplies were being shipped to Britain well before 1941.

Also, for those who think that if the US didn't participate that Russia would simply have been the one to have liberated France and would have defeated Germany and been the only one to enter Berlin, then they have another think coming. Try Googling "WW2 Lend Lease". Without arms , aircraft, and supplies from the US, neither Russia nor Britain would have been able to maintain their war-making capabilities. If you'd like details on US prewar plans and foreign aid, try here:

http://www.history.army.mil/books/wwii/csppp/ch10.htm

Which is excerpted from the main document here:

http://www.history.army.mil/books/wwii/csppp/index.htm

Goodness, what are they teaching in the history classes over there? I would have expected better than the poor job the US does with public education.

Cheers!

Strat

I think most supersonic fighters already have that capability, since the missiles they fire tend to travel much faster than the jets they are chasing down (even the old AIM-9 sidewinder hit mach2.5+), and when launched, are already under power and moving forward in the supersonic flow relative to the aircraft and can thus navigate themselves clear. See Here, scroll to SRAM, and that was 1969.

The challenge with dropping bombs at supersonic speed is to get them to clear the bomb bay or wing pylon without the shock of the surrounding air flow blasting it back into the aircraft or otherwise tossing it about or ripping it apart. Not to mention designing a bomb bay and aircraft that can withstand the supersonic shock when the doors are opened.

Tm