"If I'm using my coffeemaker/kettle rather than the company-supplied one, in all likelihood I'm using the same amount of electricity anyway, *and* reducing wear and tear on the provided facilities, helping to prolong their useful life."
Ah, so now we are justifying the waste/stealing of electricity.:) Perhaps you should give up the habit and get back to work you lazy SOB.:)
"So, I can sympathise with people who open a window or bring in a fan or heater, as in my experience, if you're too hot or cold, it's generally tough on you."
Well, if you are cold, they make these things called clothes.:) Too warm, yeah, that sucks. As near as I can tell, HVAC systems are designed to work incorrectly.:) If they do work, they will be fixed in short order.....
That was an interesting stat on monitor electricity usage BTW. Thanks.
Ah, yes, the handbook. If it is clear, you have a point, a very good one.
However, how many handbooks are clear? And did they have one? And what did it say?
I have worked for the Ohio DNR as an intern. We went from having no computer policy (or at least no policy provided...) to one that stated no unauthorized installs or use. But we COULD use the computers for personal use on break. Gee, that isn't open to interpretation or anything.
Perhaps he WAS authorized to install software, directly or indirectly. Sure it probably wouldn't allow this case but large (or even small organizations) are funny places.
For instance, I wasn't allowed (well, no one ever said I wasn't, it was "understood") to install unauthorized software BUT I didn't have to ask every time I installed non-standard ("unauthorized"?) software I needed?!?. I was given "unofficial" access to local computers that allowed me to really FUBAR them if I wasn't careful. Was that "permission"?
Basically, I was allowed to do anything that enabled me to get my work done and didn't screw anything up (but as I was given at least tacit approval to install software, some of it on local "servers", I could have installed non-work related software and attempted to justify it...). But they technically could have fired me for some of the things I did (by policy). Even though if I hadn't done them, they would not have met deadlines and work would not have been completed. I suspect this is fairly common...
True, but IF he was a state government employee, he was likely a member of the union. If he was a union member there are certain procedures that have to be followed before termination (essentially a "contract"). I never got the impression that the union was particularly powerful (or useful) however...
I have no clue whether he can get his job back-he probably is union (state) but I don't know the procedures. On the other hand, I suspect he has a very good court case and that might be enough to convince an intelligent person (not the director of course....) to rehire him on a VERY short leash. Of course, knowing this state, they would be happy to spend my tax dollars going to court for many years and losing....
"As for the director being fired over this, don't think so."
That I don't doubt, consider the oh so stellar reputation of the agency.
"...and most things that go out in public realease are cleared through the Gov's office first!"
Somehow, I don't think this was cleared.... It sounds more like an interview rather than a press release. If it was a press release, I expect another job opening soon....
"Gosh, I would have thought that a a department head for a social services agency such as the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services would have hard time getting away with such a nasty and unnecessary comment..."
Simple, it's Ohio.:) On a related note, best and brightest often don't seem to go together with the heads of Ohio government agencies and I don't think the agency has the best of reputations.
"Write a decent emulator and legacy code is taken care of."
No one has written a decent emulator (decent being one that doesn't run legacy code slower than the machine currently on their desktop while costing more....)
and it costs much less
"I think the only thing people like about x86 is the cost."
After all, end users don't give a flying f@ck about the architecture. They want it to do what they need it to do at the cheapest possible price. And they will often sacrifice the former for the latter....:)
X86 may not be pretty but it works good enough. That is a hard thing to replace....
"That said, what do you (and the rest of the "I'm too cool to worry about terrorists" crowd) propose?"
I would propose to do nothing, nada, zilch, zero, etc.
Look, what's the point of "better" technology when people here on EXPIRED visas aren't found and deported? Or when good intelligence that could have prevented the attacks is IGNORED?
What is the point of tightening borders further-if we can't keep drugs out of maximum security prisons, what makes you think we can keep terrorists or other bad guys out of a free country?
Fundamentally there is a management problem-and I think we all know the chance of that being fixed anytime soon...
"What is sad about this comment is that it ignores the fact that the quality of education has fallen off so badly in the US in the last 25 years..."
Okay, I see this stated a lot but I never see any EVIDENCE for this. I don't want anecdotes. I want what you might call "facts", generally in the form of studies that have some methodology to come to the conclusion that education is somehow worse today than 25 years ago. I am really curious.
"...that we have to now require post-secondary education in order to be assured to get the basic language and math skills needed to do jobs that pay even a living wage."
So this has nothing to do with the fact we have lost lots of factory jobs? Jobs that required nothing more than a HS degree, and not even that? Perhaps the job requirements have increased while education levels have not? I don't know for certain but I think it is a valid argument.
"Of course, I'd actually be in agreement with you if the supposed college prep program I was forced into in high school had actually prepared me for college..."
Then it wasn't a college prep program:) I took advanced courses in HS (essentially college prep) and they prepared me for college. Hell, most of them were MORE difficult than college courses.... So, you see, anecdotal information only goes so far...
"When teachers are free to teach and students are free to learn, we get the best results and bang for the buck. When we have to spend tons of money on unfunded federal mandates and bean counting BS to maintain them--and force qualified and hardworking teachers to go to great expense to become certified in all the subjects they teach..."
So, you think teachers shouldn't have to know the subjects that they teach? (If so, does Ohio State have an MS for you...) Teachers are a product of the public school system you think sucks. Therefore, using your logic, it is reasonable to evaluate them to see if they can actually teach or even know their subject areas.
It doesn't cost a lot to become certified but I would agree it is a waste of time (haven't had any teachers tell me education classes were useful-subject matter classes on the other hand...) It is the reason that I won't become a teacher....
Look, there IS too much overhead. But this is the direct result of the perception that public education has "failed". And an attempt (bad though it may be) to correct its failings...
"One of the accomplishments of the Soviets was mostly eradicating illiteracy in less than 30 years. Not that I think that the Soviet system is all that fabulous, but I note that their basic literacy rates were historically higher than ours. Breadth of literacy, though, we always had them hands down."
This statement makes no sense. "Breadth of literacy"-what the hell does that mean? Look, defining literacy rates is rather nebulous. First you have to define a level (generally grade level). Then find a way to measure it. I think literacy is defined as 8th grade education-if this is the case then the US is almost fully literate. But it is also a meaningless number. Like saying SAT scores have increased over X years but neglecting fundamental changes in test scoring and test makeup. And frankly, I would believe exactly 0 numbers coming from the former Soviets...
Ultimately, if a child fails to become educated, it is not the teacher's fault, it is not governments fault. It is the fault of the parents and to a lesser degree the child. If the educational system has broken down it is because the parents of the students don't care and as a result, the students don't care.
And you and your wife's experience is more valid than Consumer Reports why? Your data is called "anecdotal" while Consumer Reports at least had a methodology, however flawed, and was repeatable. It also sounds like you and your wife are good drivers and understand how to handle vehicles-this is extremely important-you could probably outdrive most people in the Trooper when they were driving sedans.
"End result - Can't Trust Them!"
True. The results should be questioned. They were. If you don't agree with the conclusions you can redo the experiment. Of course, we can still argue about the applicability of the experiment to real life. But why are you inherently more trustworthy or unbiased, at least from my point of view?
After all, the Trooper, and other vehicles like it, ARE more likely to be in rollover accidents than sedans. There IS a reason for that. What portion is due to the driver and what is due to the vehicle IS arguable.
"If the engine is shoved hard enough into the firewall, the steering column goes through the driver. The seat belt doesn't do much good at that point. The air bag may help, up to a point."
Two points. If your car is FUBAR'ed that bad, well, you probably are in deep sh@t. But if you are killed by the steering column in anything but a massive collision in a modern car, the engineers designing the car were idiots because they created a bad design.
"It amazes me how many people really do not realize how brakes work."
And you seem to be one of them that has less than an ideal grasp of the subject....
"the only solution to avoid the above is 3 piston calipers and vented, finned and crossdrilled rotors. "
Umm, no. Better solutions would be ceramic/carbon fiber materials for the pads and rotors. Very hard to melt those. I think some racing circuits use these. Your solutions wouldn't change anything, only potentially delay the onset...
Many (most?) cars have vented rotors. Most are "finned" for cooling to some degree (even the cheap ones).
Most aren't cross-drilled and slotted because, well, there ISN'T a need. These so-called "performance" features add cost, reduce brake mass (bad), and increase failure modes (cracking, warping). They really only LOOK good. Hell, many racing teams if given a choice between cross-drilled and solid rotors choose solid for precisely those reasons...
3-piston designs, well, they are expensive and generally not needed.
"Even the most expensive cars do NOT have these performance features. The only car's I have seen them on were as an OPTION on Ferarri and the Corvette ZR1."
Did you ever consider that if they were only an OPTION on some of the fastest and most powerful production cars in the world that maybe there is a reason for that? And cost, in this case, probably isn't one of them. I think the engineers who design those cars know a thing or two about brakes. I suspect you know less than they do. I know I do.
"When the car keeps on spinning, your car effectively will not have any brakes because ABS takes its time to recover, and repressurize."
Hello? Anyone home? Brakes, even those with ABS, work perfectly fine without ABS. ABS prevents brakes from LOCKING the wheels. It doesn't prevent the brakes from working.
ABS is great for most people because most DON'T know or CAN'T brake properly, especially in panic situations. For everyone else, I suggest buying a vehicle that has an on/off switch for the ABS.
If you are stupid enough to pull the ABS fuse and get into an accident, guess who is going to be in a LOT of legal trouble...
"In the US, most on-board diagnostic computers only store emissions-related faults. If the fault isn't emission-related, it won't be there (unless you've got a true black-box car)."
No, that (probably) isn't true. In general, it will store data about ANY sensor that is out of spec (for instance, my 1995 neon). It just so happens that most sensors are for engine management which are directly or indirectly dealing with emissions.
Now if there is no appropriate sensor for this fault or nothing was too far out of wack, then no fault would be stored. It IS possible for the car to run poorly and not throw a code.
"Maybe the Liberty and Mercedes had real problems, but I'd look for a few sources and multiple tests before making that determination..."
Well, if the manufacturer redesigns the vehicle (spends money) it DOES have problems. Maybe not as bad as the media portrays but they don't do these redesigns for fun.
"strap "safety gear" weighing 200 lbs and extending 6-8 feet from each side of the roof to the top of the car"
Hmm, sounds similar to roof cargo carriers.
Anyway, people tend to do things that screw with a vehicle's center of gravity, such as overload it. Most of these "SUV's" don't have cargo capacities much in excess of cars (maybe 1100lbs including passengers). But people seem to believe that if you have room to put it in, it is safe....
"Does nobody have any freakin' common sense left anymore? Is it not obvious that you're not supposed to be making abrupt manuevers in any high center-of-gravity vehicles?"
Well, maybe to people who know how to drive it is obvious... But lots of people drive these vehicles like cars and expect them to handle like cars. Right or wrong, they had better act like cars in emergency manuevers. After all, I don't see the manufacturers advertising the fact that you have to drive SUV's differently or training people (disclaimers don't count)....
And finally, you may NOT have a choice about making an abrupt manuever. It's rare, but does happen.
"nd who would pay for all the marketing of the music?"
The artists? Like they do now, even if they are signed to contracts with members of the RIAA. The music companies don't pay for marketing without expecting it back (it may be advanced and may never get collected because the band tanked....)
And how much marketing does the industry do? I mean I am really curious-I can imagine it is quite a bit for "popular" music. But if you aren't top 40 or better (or expected to be), how much marketing do you REALLY receive? I suspect very little. But I really don't know.
"But don't forget that in return for this tiny government with few services, you get HUGELY less taxes."
Well, frankly, I don't pay a lot of taxes to begin with. I suspect most people have an effective tax rate of 10 - 15% or below (federal)-I am exluding FICA. And I suspect that I would pay MORE in the end for the services I might need than any taxes saved. Or the state would pay for them, negating any savings.
"Everything would cost much much much less:..."
Could you please pass what you are smoking/ingesting/shooting up?:)
"People already give to charity now, even though the gov't in theory takes care of the poor, so if everyone had hugely more real income many people really would give to charity."
No they wouldn't. Some would. Most wouldn't. After all, no tax deduction so why bother. Let's put it this way-one theme in Christianity is taking care of the less fortunate and heck, it can help you achieve eternal salvation. Most people in the US would say they are Christians. Now how many really live up to that ideal.... I thought so....
"And if you think it would never work, the USA in the 1700s and early 1800s was pretty much that way... no income tax yet, no gov't charities yet, few services."
Oh, sure it could work, poorly. But we didn't get a large government in a vacuum. People WANTED it. In the time period you mentioned the roads sucked, public health sucked, the military sucked, etc.
There is also a large problem. The largest outlays in the budget are the military, debt payments, and social security outlays. The first wouldn't change, the second CAN'T, and the third won't/can't (it is an OBLIGATION-I am entitled to the money paid in). Doesn't leave a whole lot to cut, so taxes won't fall.
"If I made 45,000 dollars a year, after taxes I only get a real raise (as in actual spending money) of a few thousand."
If you go from making 25K to 45K and only "get" a few thousand dollar raise, well, I think your math skills are pretty bad. Especially when filling out a tax form. The IRS withholding calculator says your annual tax on 45K is about 6K vs about 2K on 25K earnings. This assumes no deductions besides your personal exemption. You seem to have misplaced about 16 thousand dollars.
Granted, you pay more money to your state (apparently it has an income tax and probably local income taxes). But as the state has a lower tax rate than the federal government you should easily clear more than a few thousand. Unless of course your definition of a few thousand is closer to 10 to 15 thousand....
"Or if this could happen from an ATM --- what recourse/proof would you have if an ATM gave you counterfeit bills? Is there any safeguard for this?"
Well, I have serviced ATM's. If counterfeits are loaded in the cassettes you will probably get them (I have seen them dispense paper spacers the size of bills before-funny if you aren't getting them....) ATM's tend to be "dumb"-they don't have to scan the money to dispense it-if the bank coded the cassette wrong you could have real problems:) Granted my knowledge is now out of date (circa 1995) but I doubt they have changed a whole lot.
I doubt you would have much recourse. Maybe some at a branch ATM if you noticed immediately....
You just better hope the fake currency doesn't get into the machine to begin with.
"The real question here is: why is the press so eager to destroy the reputation of SSO, Rutan, and the idea of private space flight in general? Would they have been happier if SSO had blown up in a spectacular fashion?"
But a catastrophic explosion is much more fun to cover:) Not to mention gets better ratings and lasts longer:) Generating controversy is good for media but bad for actual reporting.
Remember if it bleeds, it leads...
Maybe saying if it is charred, it stars would be more appropriate:)
"Here we are trying to fix a difficult problem with everyone's job on the line and someone want to play Monday morning quarterback by sprouting off comments that does not help,...."
I don't understand how saying that maybe there isn't a (good) solution is playing "Monday morning quartback". I mean if there is such a problem to begin with it is obvious that someone didn't consider some serious issues up front. And it is very likely that person has power and is clueless. And if they remain in the organization without learning from their error the organization will suffer. That said, it shouldn't be the focus of the meeting to solve the problem. But if "everyone's job is one the line" then the original solution has failed, miserably...
I infer from the "stunned silence" that he mentioned that the Emperor really had no clothes and everybody for the first time REALLY thought about it. And apparently didn't have a good reply. Maybe the best solution is to move to a different platform-sure it can't be done immediately-but it ought to be considered as an ultimate solution.
"Mt Rainier would send it's load toward Seattle, where I live."
Possible, but unlikely. Prevailing winds are towards eastern Washington. Seattle actually is relatively safe from Rainier. Now Tacoma could get a few mudflows-of course this could happen WITHOUT an eruption. And frankly, would the loss of Orting REALLY be that bad:) And for that matter, a few mudflows towards Tacoma:)
And you are correct that Olympia wouldn't be touched (excluding any ashfall). I doubt much there would be much effect on the lower Nisqually either.
I don't know if you are clueless, but you ARE ignorant.
"Ring of fire activity is up all around the ring."
Evidence? And media reports don't count.
"From Japan to Mexico to California, there is a lot of seismic and volcanic activity still going on."
Really? And you just now noticed this? I mean it has only been going on for millions of years now. When two geologic plates meet and subduct you tend to get volcanism and seismic activity. It's called the ring of fire because the Pacific Ocean is mostly surrounded by active continental margins.
"6.2 in Mexico, 6.0 in California, 7.2 in Japan, St. Helens burps, small quake activity in Alaska and the cascades is up, and Hawaii is looking at Mauna Loa going very active. All of this within the last month, and all of it unusial."
It isn't unusual. Not at all. Mauna Loa is one of the world's most active volcanoes. The Cascade range is full of active/dormant volcanoes that could reasonably erupt at any time. Quakes in Mexico, California, Japan, and Alaska are about as unusual as the sun rising each day. Worldwide, there are approximately 100 magnitude 6 earthquakes a year and 10 magnitude 7 earthquakes a year. Most occur in the Pacific region. You do the math.
"I am betting something big happens in the next 3 months."
I am betting that a lot of people will wake up tomorrow, do a lot of stuff, then go to bed. An equally useful prediction.
Look, they may not be stupid (in the dictionary sense of the word) but stupid is often used in place of ignorant. But they ARE apathetic. How else do you explain the low voter turnout? If 100% of the population was involved, even minimally, in voting or civics in general, this country would be a different place...
"The average Joe does want to learn."
Uhh, maybe. Some do, but many do not want to expend any effort to do so or learn anything that conflicts with their preconceived notion of how the world is. And if you don't want to expend effort, then you really don't want to learn.
Slashdot Mirror
"If I'm using my coffeemaker/kettle rather than the company-supplied one, in all likelihood I'm using the same amount of electricity anyway, *and* reducing wear and tear on the provided facilities, helping to prolong their useful life."
:) Perhaps you should give up the habit and get back to work you lazy SOB. :)
:) Too warm, yeah, that sucks. As near as I can tell, HVAC systems are designed to work incorrectly. :) If they do work, they will be fixed in short order.....
Ah, so now we are justifying the waste/stealing of electricity.
"So, I can sympathise with people who open a window or bring in a fan or heater, as in my experience, if you're too hot or cold, it's generally tough on you."
Well, if you are cold, they make these things called clothes.
That was an interesting stat on monitor electricity usage BTW. Thanks.
"It was in the handbook."
Ah, yes, the handbook. If it is clear, you have a point, a very good one.
However, how many handbooks are clear? And did they have one? And what did it say?
I have worked for the Ohio DNR as an intern. We went from having no computer policy (or at least no policy provided...) to one that stated no unauthorized installs or use. But we COULD use the computers for personal use on break. Gee, that isn't open to interpretation or anything.
Perhaps he WAS authorized to install software, directly or indirectly. Sure it probably wouldn't allow this case but large (or even small organizations) are funny places.
For instance, I wasn't allowed (well, no one ever said I wasn't, it was "understood") to install unauthorized software BUT I didn't have to ask every time I installed non-standard ("unauthorized"?) software I needed?!?. I was given "unofficial" access to local computers that allowed me to really FUBAR them if I wasn't careful. Was that "permission"?
Basically, I was allowed to do anything that enabled me to get my work done and didn't screw anything up (but as I was given at least tacit approval to install software, some of it on local "servers", I could have installed non-work related software and attempted to justify it...). But they technically could have fired me for some of the things I did (by policy). Even though if I hadn't done them, they would not have met deadlines and work would not have been completed. I suspect this is fairly common...
"Ohio's an at-will employment state."
True, but IF he was a state government employee, he was likely a member of the union. If he was a union member there are certain procedures that have to be followed before termination (essentially a "contract"). I never got the impression that the union was particularly powerful (or useful) however...
I have no clue whether he can get his job back-he probably is union (state) but I don't know the procedures. On the other hand, I suspect he has a very good court case and that might be enough to convince an intelligent person (not the director of course....) to rehire him on a VERY short leash. Of course, knowing this state, they would be happy to spend my tax dollars going to court for many years and losing....
"As for the director being fired over this, don't think so."
That I don't doubt, consider the oh so stellar reputation of the agency.
"...and most things that go out in public realease are cleared through the Gov's office first!"
Somehow, I don't think this was cleared.... It sounds more like an interview rather than a press release. If it was a press release, I expect another job opening soon....
"Gosh, I would have thought that a a department head for a social services agency such as the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services would have hard time getting away with such a nasty and unnecessary comment..."
:) On a related note, best and brightest often don't seem to go together with the heads of Ohio government agencies and I don't think the agency has the best of reputations.
Simple, it's Ohio.
I think you already answered your own questions:
:)
"But really when can we get rid of this turd?!?"
This may happen when a someone does
"Write a decent emulator and legacy code is taken care of."
No one has written a decent emulator (decent being one that doesn't run legacy code slower than the machine currently on their desktop while costing more....)
and it costs much less
"I think the only thing people like about x86 is the cost."
After all, end users don't give a flying f@ck about the architecture. They want it to do what they need it to do at the cheapest possible price. And they will often sacrifice the former for the latter....
X86 may not be pretty but it works good enough. That is a hard thing to replace....
"It would be unfortunate if an action figure, or worse the cat, were to meet an early demise."
:)
Mmmmmmm, cat, the other, other, white meat....
It would also solve the problem of "what's for dinner tonight"....
"That said, what do you (and the rest of the "I'm too cool to worry about terrorists" crowd) propose?"
I would propose to do nothing, nada, zilch, zero, etc.
Look, what's the point of "better" technology when people here on EXPIRED visas aren't found and deported? Or when good intelligence that could have prevented the attacks is IGNORED?
What is the point of tightening borders further-if we can't keep drugs out of maximum security prisons, what makes you think we can keep terrorists or other bad guys out of a free country?
Fundamentally there is a management problem-and I think we all know the chance of that being fixed anytime soon...
"What is sad about this comment is that it ignores the fact that the quality of education has fallen off so badly in the US in the last 25 years..."
:) I took advanced courses in HS (essentially college prep) and they prepared me for college. Hell, most of them were MORE difficult than college courses.... So, you see, anecdotal information only goes so far...
Okay, I see this stated a lot but I never see any EVIDENCE for this. I don't want anecdotes. I want what you might call "facts", generally in the form of studies that have some methodology to come to the conclusion that education is somehow worse today than 25 years ago. I am really curious.
"...that we have to now require post-secondary education in order to be assured to get the basic language and math skills needed to do jobs that pay even a living wage."
So this has nothing to do with the fact we have lost lots of factory jobs? Jobs that required nothing more than a HS degree, and not even that? Perhaps the job requirements have increased while education levels have not? I don't know for certain but I think it is a valid argument.
"Of course, I'd actually be in agreement with you if the supposed college prep program I was forced into in high school had actually prepared me for college..."
Then it wasn't a college prep program
"When teachers are free to teach and students are free to learn, we get the best results and bang for the buck. When we have to spend tons of money on unfunded federal mandates and bean counting BS to maintain them--and force qualified and hardworking teachers to go to great expense to become certified in all the subjects they teach..."
So, you think teachers shouldn't have to know the subjects that they teach? (If so, does Ohio State have an MS for you...) Teachers are a product of the public school system you think sucks. Therefore, using your logic, it is reasonable to evaluate them to see if they can actually teach or even know their subject areas.
It doesn't cost a lot to become certified but I would agree it is a waste of time (haven't had any teachers tell me education classes were useful-subject matter classes on the other hand...) It is the reason that I won't become a teacher....
Look, there IS too much overhead. But this is the direct result of the perception that public education has "failed". And an attempt (bad though it may be) to correct its failings...
"One of the accomplishments of the Soviets was mostly eradicating illiteracy in less than 30 years. Not that I think that the Soviet system is all that fabulous, but I note that their basic literacy rates were historically higher than ours. Breadth of literacy, though, we always had them hands down."
This statement makes no sense. "Breadth of literacy"-what the hell does that mean? Look, defining literacy rates is rather nebulous. First you have to define a level (generally grade level). Then find a way to measure it. I think literacy is defined as 8th grade education-if this is the case then the US is almost fully literate. But it is also a meaningless number. Like saying SAT scores have increased over X years but neglecting fundamental changes in test scoring and test makeup. And frankly, I would believe exactly 0 numbers coming from the former Soviets...
Ultimately, if a child fails to become educated, it is not the teacher's fault, it is not governments fault. It is the fault of the parents and to a lesser degree the child. If the educational system has broken down it is because the parents of the students don't care and as a result, the students don't care.
"And not prone to tip-over."
And you and your wife's experience is more valid than Consumer Reports why? Your data is called "anecdotal" while Consumer Reports at least had a methodology, however flawed, and was repeatable. It also sounds like you and your wife are good drivers and understand how to handle vehicles-this is extremely important-you could probably outdrive most people in the Trooper when they were driving sedans.
"End result - Can't Trust Them!"
True. The results should be questioned. They were. If you don't agree with the conclusions you can redo the experiment. Of course, we can still argue about the applicability of the experiment to real life. But why are you inherently more trustworthy or unbiased, at least from my point of view?
After all, the Trooper, and other vehicles like it, ARE more likely to be in rollover accidents than sedans. There IS a reason for that. What portion is due to the driver and what is due to the vehicle IS arguable.
"If the engine is shoved hard enough into the firewall, the steering column goes through the driver. The seat belt doesn't do much good at that point. The air bag may help, up to a point."
Two points. If your car is FUBAR'ed that bad, well, you probably are in deep sh@t. But if you are killed by the steering column in anything but a massive collision in a modern car, the engineers designing the car were idiots because they created a bad design.
"It amazes me how many people really do not realize how brakes work."
And you seem to be one of them that has less than an ideal grasp of the subject....
"the only solution to avoid the above is 3 piston calipers and vented, finned and crossdrilled rotors. "
Umm, no. Better solutions would be ceramic/carbon fiber materials for the pads and rotors. Very hard to melt those. I think some racing circuits use these. Your solutions wouldn't change anything, only potentially delay the onset...
Many (most?) cars have vented rotors. Most are "finned" for cooling to some degree (even the cheap ones).
Most aren't cross-drilled and slotted because, well, there ISN'T a need. These so-called "performance" features add cost, reduce brake mass (bad), and increase failure modes (cracking, warping). They really only LOOK good. Hell, many racing teams if given a choice between cross-drilled and solid rotors choose solid for precisely those reasons...
3-piston designs, well, they are expensive and generally not needed.
"Even the most expensive cars do NOT have these performance features. The only car's I have seen them on were as an OPTION on Ferarri and the Corvette ZR1."
Did you ever consider that if they were only an OPTION on some of the fastest and most powerful production cars in the world that maybe there is a reason for that? And cost, in this case, probably isn't one of them. I think the engineers who design those cars know a thing or two about brakes. I suspect you know less than they do. I know I do.
"When the car keeps on spinning, your car effectively will not have any brakes because ABS takes its time to recover, and repressurize."
Hello? Anyone home? Brakes, even those with ABS, work perfectly fine without ABS. ABS prevents brakes from LOCKING the wheels. It doesn't prevent the brakes from working.
ABS is great for most people because most DON'T know or CAN'T brake properly, especially in panic situations. For everyone else, I suggest buying a vehicle that has an on/off switch for the ABS.
If you are stupid enough to pull the ABS fuse and get into an accident, guess who is going to be in a LOT of legal trouble...
"In the US, most on-board diagnostic computers only store emissions-related faults. If the fault isn't emission-related, it won't be there (unless you've got a true black-box car)."
No, that (probably) isn't true. In general, it will store data about ANY sensor that is out of spec (for instance, my 1995 neon). It just so happens that most sensors are for engine management which are directly or indirectly dealing with emissions.
Now if there is no appropriate sensor for this fault or nothing was too far out of wack, then no fault would be stored. It IS possible for the car to run poorly and not throw a code.
"Maybe the Liberty and Mercedes had real problems, but I'd look for a few sources and multiple tests before making that determination..."
Well, if the manufacturer redesigns the vehicle (spends money) it DOES have problems. Maybe not as bad as the media portrays but they don't do these redesigns for fun.
"strap "safety gear" weighing 200 lbs and extending 6-8 feet from each side of the roof to the top of the car"
Hmm, sounds similar to roof cargo carriers.
Anyway, people tend to do things that screw with a vehicle's center of gravity, such as overload it. Most of these "SUV's" don't have cargo capacities much in excess of cars (maybe 1100lbs including passengers). But people seem to believe that if you have room to put it in, it is safe....
"Does nobody have any freakin' common sense left anymore? Is it not obvious that you're not supposed to be making abrupt manuevers in any high center-of-gravity vehicles?"
Well, maybe to people who know how to drive it is obvious... But lots of people drive these vehicles like cars and expect them to handle like cars. Right or wrong, they had better act like cars in emergency manuevers. After all, I don't see the manufacturers advertising the fact that you have to drive SUV's differently or training people (disclaimers don't count)....
And finally, you may NOT have a choice about making an abrupt manuever. It's rare, but does happen.
"nd who would pay for all the marketing of the music?"
The artists? Like they do now, even if they are signed to contracts with members of the RIAA. The music companies don't pay for marketing without expecting it back (it may be advanced and may never get collected because the band tanked....)
And how much marketing does the industry do? I mean I am really curious-I can imagine it is quite a bit for "popular" music. But if you aren't top 40 or better (or expected to be), how much marketing do you REALLY receive? I suspect very little. But I really don't know.
"But don't forget that in return for this tiny government with few services, you get HUGELY less taxes."
:)
Well, frankly, I don't pay a lot of taxes to begin with. I suspect most people have an effective tax rate of 10 - 15% or below (federal)-I am exluding FICA. And I suspect that I would pay MORE in the end for the services I might need than any taxes saved. Or the state would pay for them, negating any savings.
"Everything would cost much much much less:..."
Could you please pass what you are smoking/ingesting/shooting up?
"People already give to charity now, even though the gov't in theory takes care of the poor, so if everyone had hugely more real income many people really would give to charity."
No they wouldn't. Some would. Most wouldn't. After all, no tax deduction so why bother. Let's put it this way-one theme in Christianity is taking care of the less fortunate and heck, it can help you achieve eternal salvation. Most people in the US would say they are Christians. Now how many really live up to that ideal.... I thought so....
"And if you think it would never work, the USA in the 1700s and early 1800s was pretty much that way... no income tax yet, no gov't charities yet, few services."
Oh, sure it could work, poorly. But we didn't get a large government in a vacuum. People WANTED it. In the time period you mentioned the roads sucked, public health sucked, the military sucked, etc.
There is also a large problem. The largest outlays in the budget are the military, debt payments, and social security outlays. The first wouldn't change, the second CAN'T, and the third won't/can't (it is an OBLIGATION-I am entitled to the money paid in). Doesn't leave a whole lot to cut, so taxes won't fall.
Okay, time to feed a troll....
"If I made 45,000 dollars a year, after taxes I only get a real raise (as in actual spending money) of a few thousand."
If you go from making 25K to 45K and only "get" a few thousand dollar raise, well, I think your math skills are pretty bad. Especially when filling out a tax form. The IRS withholding calculator says your annual tax on 45K is about 6K vs about 2K on 25K earnings. This assumes no deductions besides your personal exemption. You seem to have misplaced about 16 thousand dollars.
Granted, you pay more money to your state (apparently it has an income tax and probably local income taxes). But as the state has a lower tax rate than the federal government you should easily clear more than a few thousand. Unless of course your definition of a few thousand is closer to 10 to 15 thousand....
"Or if this could happen from an ATM --- what recourse/proof would you have if an ATM gave you counterfeit bills? Is there any safeguard for this?"
:) Granted my knowledge is now out of date (circa 1995) but I doubt they have changed a whole lot.
Well, I have serviced ATM's. If counterfeits are loaded in the cassettes you will probably get them (I have seen them dispense paper spacers the size of bills before-funny if you aren't getting them....) ATM's tend to be "dumb"-they don't have to scan the money to dispense it-if the bank coded the cassette wrong you could have real problems
I doubt you would have much recourse. Maybe some at a branch ATM if you noticed immediately....
You just better hope the fake currency doesn't get into the machine to begin with.
"The real question here is: why is the press so eager to destroy the reputation of SSO, Rutan, and the idea of private space flight in general? Would they have been happier if SSO had blown up in a spectacular fashion?"
:) Not to mention gets better ratings and lasts longer :) Generating controversy is good for media but bad for actual reporting.
:)
But a catastrophic explosion is much more fun to cover
Remember if it bleeds, it leads...
Maybe saying if it is charred, it stars would be more appropriate
"Here we are trying to fix a difficult problem with everyone's job on the line and someone want to play Monday morning quarterback by sprouting off comments that does not help, ...."
I don't understand how saying that maybe there isn't a (good) solution is playing "Monday morning quartback". I mean if there is such a problem to begin with it is obvious that someone didn't consider some serious issues up front. And it is very likely that person has power and is clueless. And if they remain in the organization without learning from their error the organization will suffer. That said, it shouldn't be the focus of the meeting to solve the problem. But if "everyone's job is one the line" then the original solution has failed, miserably...
I infer from the "stunned silence" that he mentioned that the Emperor really had no clothes and everybody for the first time REALLY thought about it. And apparently didn't have a good reply. Maybe the best solution is to move to a different platform-sure it can't be done immediately-but it ought to be considered as an ultimate solution.
"Mt Rainier would send it's load toward Seattle, where I live."
:) And for that matter, a few mudflows towards Tacoma :)
Possible, but unlikely. Prevailing winds are towards eastern Washington. Seattle actually is relatively safe from Rainier. Now Tacoma could get a few mudflows-of course this could happen WITHOUT an eruption. And frankly, would the loss of Orting REALLY be that bad
And you are correct that Olympia wouldn't be touched (excluding any ashfall). I doubt much there would be much effect on the lower Nisqually either.
I don't know if you are clueless, but you ARE ignorant.
"Ring of fire activity is up all around the ring."
Evidence? And media reports don't count.
"From Japan to Mexico to California, there is a lot of seismic and volcanic activity still going on."
Really? And you just now noticed this? I mean it has only been going on for millions of years now. When two geologic plates meet and subduct you tend to get volcanism and seismic activity. It's called the ring of fire because the Pacific Ocean is mostly surrounded by active continental margins.
"6.2 in Mexico, 6.0 in California, 7.2 in Japan, St. Helens burps, small quake activity in Alaska and the cascades is up, and Hawaii is looking at Mauna Loa going very active. All of this within the last month, and all of it unusial."
It isn't unusual. Not at all. Mauna Loa is one of the world's most active volcanoes. The Cascade range is full of active/dormant volcanoes that could reasonably erupt at any time. Quakes in Mexico, California, Japan, and Alaska are about as unusual as the sun rising each day. Worldwide, there are approximately 100 magnitude 6 earthquakes a year and 10 magnitude 7 earthquakes a year. Most occur in the Pacific region. You do the math.
"I am betting something big happens in the next 3 months."
I am betting that a lot of people will wake up tomorrow, do a lot of stuff, then go to bed. An equally useful prediction.
"The average person isn't apathetic or stupid."
Look, they may not be stupid (in the dictionary sense of the word) but stupid is often used in place of ignorant. But they ARE apathetic. How else do you explain the low voter turnout? If 100% of the population was involved, even minimally, in voting or civics in general, this country would be a different place...
"The average Joe does want to learn."
Uhh, maybe. Some do, but many do not want to expend any effort to do so or learn anything that conflicts with their preconceived notion of how the world is. And if you don't want to expend effort, then you really don't want to learn.