No, actually there were multiple reasons for the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, there were various military reasons like...
Strategic bombing advocates of terror bombing wanted to see what it'd do to a civilian target. Strategic bombing advocates of industrial and supply chain bombing wanted to see what it'd do to a rail and road net. Tactical and strategic ground commanders wanted to see what it would do to military targets. Politicians wanted to know what it'd do nationally to Japan's will to fight and internationally as to relations with the Soviet Union.
And finally, the planners of Operation Olympic were getting very worried about the November 1 invasion of the southern Japanese Home Islands and wanted the atomic bombs used tactically before the invasion on military nodes.
I did a ton of research on this at the end of my undergrad time, mostly focusing on the intelligence gaps in Allied understanding of Imperial Japan's military buildup on the Japanese Home Islands and Japan's ability to inflict more casualties on Allied forces.
The Final Months of the War With Japan: Signals Intelligence, U.S. Invasion Planning, and the A-Bomb Decision is an incredibly rich and neutral resource on Allied planning and Japanese troop movements in late '44 and '45.
USSS doesn't do these kinds of crimes, if the US was waiting to question him in a Swedish courthouse or jail it'd be CIA, FBI, U.S. Diplomatic Security Service and/or most likely United States Marshals Service.
Gitmo doesn't have internet, nor does Florence Super Max, Marion, Leavenworth Federal or United States Disciplinary Barracks, and you won't get a signal when the CIA throws you on a Gulfstream for some Extraordinary Rendition to Jordan.
If he ends up with a couple bullets in his head like Gerald Bull did, he won't be a martyr, he will be a footnote that there will be investigative documentaries about.
"Julian Assange...oh yea, that dude that pissed off the wrong people and ended up dead in London...I think he had a website."
However, on 18 November, Stockholm District Court approved a request to detain Assange for questioning on suspicion of rape, sexual molestation, and unlawful coercion. Director of Public Prosecutions Marianne Ny, who had reopened the investigation in September, said she had requested the warrant because, "so far, we have not been able to meet with him to accomplish the interrogation."
If he really was innocent why wouldn't he talk to the authorities? His lawyer claims he'd talk to the authorities via skype, the Swedish Embassy in London or Scotland Yard, well in the world I've you really don't get to dictate the terms of your questioning with the police. If I was charged with rape and told the police I'd Skype with them they'd hunt me down and handcuff my ass.
Yes some countries in Europe have higher GDP than the US, but you compared the European Union to the US - "AFAIK, as of 2009, the socialist EU has a higher GDP per capita than we do,"
The EU does not have a higher GDP than the United States by any measure.
As to American Exceptionalism, it is the idea that the United States is unique and different, not that everything we do is better and we as a nation are always right.
For example, in 1974 when political rivals and the courts finally drove Nixon out of office, something that in many nations would have lead to outright revolution how many guns were in sight? Just those on the traffic cops.
The only people I've ever seen claim that American Exceptionalism is "we are better" are Howard Zinn and Chomsky, and sorry but Zinn and Chomsky don't get to decide what is and what isn't.
The US has the highest GPD coupled with high rates of religiosity. 65% of Americans polled are religious yet the US has a high GDP, the chart there shows a classic example of American Exceptionalism.
If one is looking at Operation Downfall in the long term, and you can't assume that Little Boy or Fatman will cause the Japanese to surrender, then yes, destroying 2nd General Army Headquarters ahead of the planned invasion on 1 November 1945 is both a viable military target and aimed at getting them to surrender before you lose hundreds of thousands of men and kill millions of civilians invading.
The lasting effects of Hiroshima were not that devastating, within a decade the city was rebuilt and was an industrial city, hell Mazda's Hiroshima plant survived the attack and was back to truck production by December 1945.
So Little Boy destroyed alot of in home light industry, the 2nd General Army Headquarters, Fifth Division, but wasn't able to destroy all of the city's heavy industry.
I recall in Richard Rhodes's Arsenals of Folly: The Making of the Nuclear Arms Race, that Hiroshima was calculated as needing 4-5 150 kt devices by US SIOP calculations.
By that point in the war the Japanese government had outsourced most of the small arms, ammunition, explosive and tool production to homes.
Hiroshima was headquarters of the Fifth Division and the 2nd General Army Headquarters which was the command of all of southern Japan, in addition to being a communications center, storage depot and troop assembly area for 2nd General Army Headquarters.
So how exactly was it not a legitimate military target?
Name one major body of water in the US that has been shrunken to 10% of it's original size and is an unmitigated economic and environmental disaster of that scale. Tulare Lake in the western US would be the closest thing, but the scope and destruction of the Aral Sea dwarfs it
A strong Russia is good for the world in the long run?
A strong Russia has never been good for anyone or anything other than killing a lot of Nazis.
Oh sure its always good for the noble class in Russia, the Party leadership in the USSR and the oligarchs in the Russian Federation, but for the Poles, Georgians, or Chechens, a strong Russia isn't a good thing.
And how is a stronger China good for anyone other than the People's Republic of China? A strong China is what is keeping the North Korean leadership in power and millions of people in prison camps.
Russia and China have been terrible to the environment, far worse than anything capitalistic industry in the US or Europe ever did.
A resugent Russia with massive industry and natural resources whose population is falling being next to a even stronger China with a booming population is not going to be better for anyone in the long run, eventually they will clash, as they did in 1929, 1934, 1937 and 1969.
"By default, whenever you connect your iPhone to your computer it does a backup/sync. Blackberry does not."
It does not backup/sync everything, it is set to open iTunes and gives you the option to sync/backup but the default setting is not a complete backup/sync.
If you have photos it will also open iPhoto or Aperture and give you the option to backup, but it doesn't do the backup automatically.
Yea, the fatality rate in the US, western EU, Japan and Australia is dropping quickly.
Places like Israel where you'd think they would know how to drive with the insane licensing program are dangerous as hell still.
The US has alot of people who don't know how to drive coupled with alot of drunk and drugged driving and we still have lot of secondary and tertiary roads that get alot of miles, which can be death traps.
I'm in Alaska and what highways we have are very narrow with 65 mph speed limits.
The problem isn't erroneous information, its that the fuel runs low so they can't be retasked or have orbits boosted (in the case of LEO satellites) as often, power levels drop as the solar panels get older and they enter safe modes more often than they were designed for.
The follow on satellite designs and programs were delayed and costs overran, thats why they are being used longer and longer.
And the rate of accidents per kilometer driven for the US is along the same rate as EU countries, higher than some, lower than others according to data from 2003.
Humans got lucky with the right addons, brain, hands with good fingers and a thumb, and long life spans.
Other animals are out there with the potental and the brains, whales, porpoises, octopus and corvids. But they either lack the ability to make tools easily because of their limb shape (marine mammals, corvids) or because of short life spans (octopus) or a combination (corvids).
With the intelligence and problem solving skills of octopi, if they lived to be 30-40 like early humans did, they very well might have developed technologies. If corvids could fashion tools with anything other than a beak, they too could have developed farther.
I don't see humans evolving "stupider", but I don't see humans lasting more than 50-100,000 more years either.
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No, actually there were multiple reasons for the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, there were various military reasons like...
Strategic bombing advocates of terror bombing wanted to see what it'd do to a civilian target.
Strategic bombing advocates of industrial and supply chain bombing wanted to see what it'd do to a rail and road net.
Tactical and strategic ground commanders wanted to see what it would do to military targets.
Politicians wanted to know what it'd do nationally to Japan's will to fight and internationally as to relations with the Soviet Union.
And finally, the planners of Operation Olympic were getting very worried about the November 1 invasion of the southern Japanese Home Islands and wanted the atomic bombs used tactically before the invasion on military nodes.
I did a ton of research on this at the end of my undergrad time, mostly focusing on the intelligence gaps in Allied understanding of Imperial Japan's military buildup on the Japanese Home Islands and Japan's ability to inflict more casualties on Allied forces.
The Final Months of the War With Japan: Signals Intelligence, U.S. Invasion Planning, and the A-Bomb Decision is an incredibly rich and neutral resource on Allied planning and Japanese troop movements in late '44 and '45.
The one women in question also said she said to stop when a condom broke. If a woman (or guy) says stop and you don't, thats where it becomes rape.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/sep/01/sweden-julian-assange-rape-investigation
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1307137/Supporters-dismissed-rape-accusations-WikiLeaks-founder-Julian-Assange--women-involved-tell-different-story.html
Let him go to Ecuador, shorter flight for the CIA when they go to kidnap or kill him.
USSS doesn't do these kinds of crimes, if the US was waiting to question him in a Swedish courthouse or jail it'd be CIA, FBI, U.S. Diplomatic Security Service and/or most likely United States Marshals Service.
Gitmo doesn't have internet, nor does Florence Super Max, Marion, Leavenworth Federal or United States Disciplinary Barracks, and you won't get a signal when the CIA throws you on a Gulfstream for some Extraordinary Rendition to Jordan.
If he ends up with a couple bullets in his head like Gerald Bull did, he won't be a martyr, he will be a footnote that there will be investigative documentaries about.
"Julian Assange...oh yea, that dude that pissed off the wrong people and ended up dead in London...I think he had a website."
However, on 18 November, Stockholm District Court approved a request to detain Assange for questioning on suspicion of rape, sexual molestation, and unlawful coercion. Director of Public Prosecutions Marianne Ny, who had reopened the investigation in September, said she had requested the warrant because, "so far, we have not been able to meet with him to accomplish the interrogation."
If he really was innocent why wouldn't he talk to the authorities? His lawyer claims he'd talk to the authorities via skype, the Swedish Embassy in London or Scotland Yard, well in the world I've you really don't get to dictate the terms of your questioning with the police. If I was charged with rape and told the police I'd Skype with them they'd hunt me down and handcuff my ass.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11831519
The EU isn't on there, however my prior links (wikipedia and New York Times) clearly show the US as having a higher GDP.
EU - US $33,052 (nominal)
US - $46,442 (nominal)
46,000 remains higher than 33,000
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_GDP
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_the_European_Union
Yes some countries in Europe have higher GDP than the US, but you compared the European Union to the US - "AFAIK, as of 2009, the socialist EU has a higher GDP per capita than we do,"
The EU does not have a higher GDP than the United States by any measure.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_the_European_Union
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_GDP
GDP of the EU is $33,052
GDP of the US is $46,442
Or is 33,000 higher than 46,000 now?
As to American Exceptionalism, it is the idea that the United States is unique and different, not that everything we do is better and we as a nation are always right.
For example, in 1974 when political rivals and the courts finally drove Nixon out of office, something that in many nations would have lead to outright revolution how many guns were in sight? Just those on the traffic cops.
The only people I've ever seen claim that American Exceptionalism is "we are better" are Howard Zinn and Chomsky, and sorry but Zinn and Chomsky don't get to decide what is and what isn't.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/books/chap1/americanexceptionalism.htm
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2010/11/why-american-exceptionalism-rules/67118/
American Exceptionalism isn't that "America, by its very nature, can do no wrong."
Its the idea that the United States is different than any other nation and in some ways it is true, for example
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/04/opinion/04blow.html
The US has the highest GPD coupled with high rates of religiosity. 65% of Americans polled are religious yet the US has a high GDP, the chart there shows a classic example of American Exceptionalism.
And they were responsible for Germany's defeat in the First World War! They stabbed Germany in the back!
Whatever, take the "Jews exploited good Germans" back to 1935.
A German Jew owning property was simply a German owning property.
If one is looking at Operation Downfall in the long term, and you can't assume that Little Boy or Fatman will cause the Japanese to surrender, then yes, destroying 2nd General Army Headquarters ahead of the planned invasion on 1 November 1945 is both a viable military target and aimed at getting them to surrender before you lose hundreds of thousands of men and kill millions of civilians invading.
The lasting effects of Hiroshima were not that devastating, within a decade the city was rebuilt and was an industrial city, hell Mazda's Hiroshima plant survived the attack and was back to truck production by December 1945.
So Little Boy destroyed alot of in home light industry, the 2nd General Army Headquarters, Fifth Division, but wasn't able to destroy all of the city's heavy industry.
I recall in Richard Rhodes's Arsenals of Folly: The Making of the Nuclear Arms Race, that Hiroshima was calculated as needing 4-5 150 kt devices by US SIOP calculations.
By that point in the war the Japanese government had outsourced most of the small arms, ammunition, explosive and tool production to homes.
Hiroshima was headquarters of the Fifth Division and the 2nd General Army Headquarters which was the command of all of southern Japan, in addition to being a communications center, storage depot and troop assembly area for 2nd General Army Headquarters.
So how exactly was it not a legitimate military target?
The Aral Sea would like to argue the point.
Name one major body of water in the US that has been shrunken to 10% of it's original size and is an unmitigated economic and environmental disaster of that scale. Tulare Lake in the western US would be the closest thing, but the scope and destruction of the Aral Sea dwarfs it
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aral_Sea
Or the Soviet Union's 239 Nuclear Explosions for the National Economy.
Or hell, compare Chernobyl to American nuclear "disasters" like Three Mile Island.
The hell it was. Gamecube and Wii used different media formats, different input device busses, different CPU, different GPU.
Gamecube GPU - ATI "Flipper", 162 MHz
Wii GPU - ATI "Hollywood", 243 MHz
Gamecube CPU - IBM PowerPC "Gekko", 486 MHz
Wii CPU - IBM PowerPC-based "Broadway, 729 MHz
And the Kinect is just a new controller for the 360.
A strong Russia is good for the world in the long run?
A strong Russia has never been good for anyone or anything other than killing a lot of Nazis.
Oh sure its always good for the noble class in Russia, the Party leadership in the USSR and the oligarchs in the Russian Federation, but for the Poles, Georgians, or Chechens, a strong Russia isn't a good thing.
And how is a stronger China good for anyone other than the People's Republic of China? A strong China is what is keeping the North Korean leadership in power and millions of people in prison camps.
Russia and China have been terrible to the environment, far worse than anything capitalistic industry in the US or Europe ever did.
A resugent Russia with massive industry and natural resources whose population is falling being next to a even stronger China with a booming population is not going to be better for anyone in the long run, eventually they will clash, as they did in 1929, 1934, 1937 and 1969.
But it has a filtering system that most large cargo ships don't have.
Really though, cargo ships should be mandated to use gas turbines like many military and most newer cruise ships use.
"By default, whenever you connect your iPhone to your computer it does a backup/sync. Blackberry does not."
It does not backup/sync everything, it is set to open iTunes and gives you the option to sync/backup but the default setting is not a complete backup/sync.
If you have photos it will also open iPhoto or Aperture and give you the option to backup, but it doesn't do the backup automatically.
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1386
And one clipper ship at the peak of the sail and wooden hull technology could carry 5-8 TEU at 16 mph.
The MV Emma Mærsk can carry 15,000 TEUs at 20 mph and it a clean burner.
Yea, the fatality rate in the US, western EU, Japan and Australia is dropping quickly.
Places like Israel where you'd think they would know how to drive with the insane licensing program are dangerous as hell still.
The US has alot of people who don't know how to drive coupled with alot of drunk and drugged driving and we still have lot of secondary and tertiary roads that get alot of miles, which can be death traps.
I'm in Alaska and what highways we have are very narrow with 65 mph speed limits.
They get holes, radiation over time degrades them.
They have the same issues on ISS and had them on Mir with older panels.
The problem isn't erroneous information, its that the fuel runs low so they can't be retasked or have orbits boosted (in the case of LEO satellites) as often, power levels drop as the solar panels get older and they enter safe modes more often than they were designed for.
The follow on satellite designs and programs were delayed and costs overran, thats why they are being used longer and longer.
The US has about 33,000-34,000 deaths a year from auto accidents, down from 40,000 at the begining of the decade.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-related_death_rate
And the rate of accidents per kilometer driven for the US is along the same rate as EU countries, higher than some, lower than others according to data from 2003.
http://www.driveandstayalive.com/info%20section/statistics/stats-multicountry-percapita-2004.htm
Humans got lucky with the right addons, brain, hands with good fingers and a thumb, and long life spans.
Other animals are out there with the potental and the brains, whales, porpoises, octopus and corvids. But they either lack the ability to make tools easily because of their limb shape (marine mammals, corvids) or because of short life spans (octopus) or a combination (corvids).
With the intelligence and problem solving skills of octopi, if they lived to be 30-40 like early humans did, they very well might have developed technologies. If corvids could fashion tools with anything other than a beak, they too could have developed farther.
I don't see humans evolving "stupider", but I don't see humans lasting more than 50-100,000 more years either.
I don't support racists.
Ron Paul has written numerous public statements which are anti-semitic, racist, anti-homosexul and sexist.
He i against separation of church and state, anti-environment and pro corporate rights.
He accepts donations from white supremacists and anti-semetic groups as well as being anti-abortion and anti-birth control.
So yea, in Ron Paul's world you can smoke weed, but can't have an abortion or be an atheist or Jew. Nor vote if you are black.