So, it's my fault other people are arrogant toward me? Shit I can't win.
It's your fault if you did something, of course. Now if you didn't do anything stupid, well of course not. However, those who were arrogant towards you perhaps had less than satisfactory brushes against americans; as you state below that you were of a rather low rank, it is very probable that your superiors were less than nice towards them.
You know, I've been an escort officer a few times too. It was when I was a lieutenant. When officers from other countries came to get a briefing or whatnot, the escort officer chauffeurs them around. I did this for officers from Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Lithuania, Macedonia, and Singapore.
You have to understand that, very often, those countries have been in existance for far longer than the USA did exist, and so can have good reasons to view the US as an upstart. So, it's perfectly normal to feel resentment against an upstart who has the pretention of running everything under the sun.
They all outranked me by a lot so I assure you I was very respectful. Your theory, that they were arrogant only in response to the way I acted, doesn't hold up. I laughed at their jokes and kept my fucking mouth shut. You know what - the Kuwaitis and Saudis were still assholes. The others were nice. The Major from Singapore was quite very friendly. The Lithuania gave me a nice book when he left. The Macedonia was a pervert but still cool.
Maybe that's why the last one he was cool...;);)
As for the saudis, well, they're a bunch of royally fucked-up inbreds; their fucking religion completely numbed their brains (look what it does to Ossama and it's ilk). I've read somewhere that when the US delivered some fighter aircraft to the saudis, the flying manuals had to be written so a 12 year-old could read them...
The bottom line is, I believe my original point is still valid - lots of people are arrogant. If you believe Americans deserve what we got because we are arrogant they I guess you'll deserve it to when it comes your way.
As I said before, I'm lucky enough to be able to travel for cheap in the US, and thus see a lot of ordinary people. They're all nice. It's only when you get to those with money and power that you'll see arrogance and condescention. As it is unfortunately mostly those who go overseas, well, it's no wonder that the americans are viewed as arrogants, as inaccurate as this depiction may be.
I was rather impressed that the design let the towers collapse coherently (almost as tidy as a commercial demolition), rather than keeling over sideways in any which direction and taking out the entire neighbourhood.
Don't forget that Oussama Bin Laden IS an engineer...
And if the planes had hit around the 30th-40 floor, this might have happenned.
My opinion is that anytime a large structure or construct fails, no matter what the reason, it should be seriously studied so that we know what works and what doesn't so that future structures can incorperate the helpful features and remove the extra features so that stucture can be build cheaper, faster, better and quicker.
The obvious answer, in the case of the WTC, is that feeding the sprinkler systems from standpipes located in the thick building skin would have made a hell of a difference, as they would not have been concentrated in the building core.
Let's bet that future design guidelines, if not advocating such a design, will definitely promote a wider distribution of emergency gear throughout the building.
* * *
When one looks at the structural design of the Twin Towers (one could build an argument about them NOT being a skyscraper by the mere fact that the outer walls were load-bearing - a definition of a skyscraper is that the walls are not load-bearing), with it's thick walls and a center core (no intermediate columns), one wonder why the express elevator (that whisked people to the two "sky lobbies") could not have been situated, say, on each corner (or in the middle of the outer-wall, to preserve the sacrosanct "corner offices"), for a panoramic view when going up, à la Hyatt-Regency/Bonaventure hotels.
Such a configuration would definitely have withstood the blaze much better than the central-core-with-all-the-vitals; for it is certain that designers would have ran the standpipes along the exterior elevator shafts, if only because of the blazingly obvious reduntancy it offered.
It would have taken more than one direct aircraft hit to sever all standpipe systems.
Surprise! I lived in Germany for two years, Korea for 1 year, and Saudi Arabia for 6 mo. I've been all over the world. What, you haven't? Well then let me assure you, Europeans and Arabs are far more arrogant than Americans. That's been my experience.
Normal, middle-class americans are real nice people. It's when they get uppity with their money that they display the arrogance that is typically attributed to americans overseas (and there aren't much middle-class americans who go abroad).
And that "arrogance" displayed by europeans (and arabs) is the normal "arrogance" displayed when one comes from a country with virtually no history (at least, when compared to the thousands of years of history one finds in Europe and the middle-east), totally clueless, and begins criticizing everything in sight. I wonder how a Berlin suburbanite whining about everybody carrying guns on a rack in the back-windows of their pickup trucks in (put your favorite hickstate here) would be catalogued ("arrogant" would surely be a choice pick).
The first time I went to Europe, I was totally aghast at the sight of an older woman, in an airport, who was ready to die because there was no coca-cola available at 10 in the morning...
They interviewed the cheif structural engineer and he said that they had designed the structure to withstand an impact from the largest airliner of the day, the 707... flying at low speed and lost in the fog. They didn't anticipate a modern widebody, loaded with enough fuel for a coast-to-coast flight crashing into the buildings at full speed.
And a lost, low-speed aircraft would certainly have undertook evasive measures as soon as it would have sighted the towers ahead, hitting it only with a wing-tip, thus lessening the impact.
This is exactly like the "Black Power" described in Larry Niven's "Flatlander" series. A black substance sprayed onto any surface to provide solar collection.
But is it subject to Pupetteer-engineered supraconductor plague???
I lost count of how many friends I have who are "certified", only to find out they have to "re-certify" repeatedly. Its a vicious circle, because in order to protect the investment one makes in getting certified, they have to keep pouring more and more money down the drain to maintain that certification.
Geee, sounds just like the church of $cientology!
Why don't businesses look to the long run? (I really want to know)
'cause businesses only think in terms of money, and once money (like religion) comes into the picture, you might as well throw logic, common sense and rationality out of the window.
I am a computer professionnal, being active in the field of software development and IT administration since 1979. Although I am not an American citizen, I would like to comment on the CBDPTA being studied by your committee.
This innovative bill, by crippling the ability of the U.S. computer industry to freely introduce innovative technology, will tremenduously favourize the (rest of the) world computer industry. Imposing limits on computer systems that would be illegal in many countries is a sure way to insure that the rest of the world computer industry will finally catch-up and leave in the dust the U.S. computer industry.
The other 95% of the world will be eternally grateful to the (comparatively) minuscule Hollywood movie industry for having the much bigger U.S. computer industry ground to a halt by having to spend a significant portion of their ressources just to comply with the CBDPTA.
Most other industries (those who use computers) will also benefit, as their U.S. counterparts will be hindered by less performing computers that are hobbled both in cost and performance by their expensive content monitoring "features", thus making them less efficient than their unencumbered foreign counterparts.
Another foreign industry that shall benefit will undoubtely the illegal drug industry, as it will be easier to ship illegal drugs to the United States as the U.S. Customs service will undoubtely be very busy searching for illegal computer contraband.
Please do consider the passage of this Act, as the world's computer industry needs a reprieve from the very active U.S. computer industry.
Heyyyy, I've got none other than THE GREAT HEMOS himself!!!! I quote the whole thing, because it's a pity his post got moderated down to zero... (To make sure it's really from HEMOS, just look at the parent post, which had been moderated into oblivion).
If you don't like it here, leave. Your dozens of pageviews per day only cost more money for Slashdot, and the fact that you don't subscribe doesn't help matters.
Au contraire, I loooove it here; that's why I have dozens of pageviews per day. (And he checked the access log before bitching to me).
And sour-puss comments like that by the editors certainly won't make me subscribe!!! (No wonder *ALL* my stories get rejected...)
I guess I could make a crontab job to reload the main page every 5 minutes or so. Naaah, it's not worth the waste of bits.
The idea is to use as a one-time pad a large number generated by equations sent with an initial (proprietary) exchange which takes place when users connect to an equipped server.
God lord jesus fucking christ!!! Can't anyone use their fucking coconuts in the slashdot editorial staff? How the fuck such garbage ever made it to the front page?
No fucking wonder Slashdot's going down, by publishing such garbage pseudo-sience. Why don't you get jobs at The National Inquirer????
This is no fuckingly different than a random number generator, using the seed as the key. And making the "initial exchange" PROPRIETARY (that is, "secret") means that it's nothing more than fucking security by obscurity.
Which time again and again and again has been proven not to work.
Your child is hunreds of times more likely to die while crossing the street than be abducted and killed. So does that mean you're an irresponsible parent because you don't make your child wear luminous clothing and head-to-toe padding whenever they leave the house?
And even then, it is stupid, 'cauz most personnal accidents happen at home...
Slashdot Mirror
As for the saudis, well, they're a bunch of royally fucked-up inbreds; their fucking religion completely numbed their brains (look what it does to Ossama and it's ilk). I've read somewhere that when the US delivered some fighter aircraft to the saudis, the flying manuals had to be written so a 12 year-old could read them...
As I said before, I'm lucky enough to be able to travel for cheap in the US, and thus see a lot of ordinary people. They're all nice. It's only when you get to those with money and power that you'll see arrogance and condescention. As it is unfortunately mostly those who go overseas, well, it's no wonder that the americans are viewed as arrogants, as inaccurate as this depiction may be.And if the planes had hit around the 30th-40 floor, this might have happenned.
Let's bet that future design guidelines, if not advocating such a design, will definitely promote a wider distribution of emergency gear throughout the building.
* * *
When one looks at the structural design of the Twin Towers (one could build an argument about them NOT being a skyscraper by the mere fact that the outer walls were load-bearing - a definition of a skyscraper is that the walls are not load-bearing), with it's thick walls and a center core (no intermediate columns), one wonder why the express elevator (that whisked people to the two "sky lobbies") could not have been situated, say, on each corner (or in the middle of the outer-wall, to preserve the sacrosanct "corner offices"), for a panoramic view when going up, à la Hyatt-Regency/Bonaventure hotels.
Such a configuration would definitely have withstood the blaze much better than the central-core-with-all-the-vitals; for it is certain that designers would have ran the standpipes along the exterior elevator shafts, if only because of the blazingly obvious reduntancy it offered.
It would have taken more than one direct aircraft hit to sever all standpipe systems.
And that "arrogance" displayed by europeans (and arabs) is the normal "arrogance" displayed when one comes from a country with virtually no history (at least, when compared to the thousands of years of history one finds in Europe and the middle-east), totally clueless, and begins criticizing everything in sight. I wonder how a Berlin suburbanite whining about everybody carrying guns on a rack in the back-windows of their pickup trucks in (put your favorite hickstate here) would be catalogued ("arrogant" would surely be a choice pick).
The first time I went to Europe, I was totally aghast at the sight of an older woman, in an airport, who was ready to die because there was no coca-cola available at 10 in the morning...
$bs =~ s/expert/\"expert\"/i;
You obviously never kept garter snakes as pets before...
At least, you can overclock it without any scruples...
Due to the one-of-a-kind nature of the NHP200NC, reproduction is impossible and orders are thus futile.
(To make sure it's really from HEMOS, just look at the parent post, which had been moderated into oblivion). Au contraire, I loooove it here; that's why I have dozens of pageviews per day. (And he checked the access log before bitching to me).
And sour-puss comments like that by the editors certainly won't make me subscribe!!! (No wonder *ALL* my stories get rejected...)
I guess I could make a crontab job to reload the main page every 5 minutes or so. Naaah, it's not worth the waste of bits.
No fucking wonder Slashdot's going down, by publishing such garbage pseudo-sience. Why don't you get jobs at The National Inquirer???? This is no fuckingly different than a random number generator, using the seed as the key. And making the "initial exchange" PROPRIETARY (that is, "secret") means that it's nothing more than fucking security by obscurity.
Which time again and again and again has been proven not to work.
Your child is hunreds of times more likely to die while crossing the street than be abducted and killed. So does that mean you're an irresponsible parent because you don't make your child wear luminous clothing and head-to-toe padding whenever they leave the house? And even then, it is stupid, 'cauz most personnal accidents happen at home...
That oughta give the fuzz some fun, chasing a train...