Also it is currently in the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee so if one of the following is your senator you might want to contact them to have it killed:
Tom Harkin (D-IA)
Barbara A. Mikulski (D-MD)
Jeff Bingaman (D-NM)
Patty Murray (D-WA)
Bernard Sanders (I) (I-VT)
Robert P. Casey, Jr. (D-PA)
Kay R. Hagan (D-NC)
Jeff Merkley (D-OR)
Al Franken (D-MN)
Michael F. Bennet (D-CO)
Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)
Richard Blumenthal (D-CT)
Michael B. Enzi (R-WY)
Lamar Alexander (R-TN)
Richard Burr (R-NC)
Johnny Isakson (R-GA)
Rand Paul (R-KY)
Orrin G. Hatch (R-UT)
John McCain (R-AZ)
Pat Roberts (R-KS)
Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)
Mark Kirk (R-IL)
Technically it means that they are no longer required to pay overtime, but realistically how many employers in a down economy where there is a surplus of workers will do more than they are required to.
I was wondering the same thing. It might just be lobbyists going after someone who they know won't be voted out of office to introduce the bill since if here most significant donors are awyers, women, and retirees then she should be safe.
The bill is short so below is the full text from thomas.loc.gov. For a congressional bill it is surprisingly readable.
To amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to modify provisions relating to the exemption for computer systems analysts, computer programmers, software engineers, or other similarly skilled workers.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the `Computer Professionals Update Act' or the `CPU Act'.
SEC. 2. AMENDMENT TO THE FAIR LABOR STANDARDS ACT OF 1938.
Section 13(a)(17) of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 213(a)(17)) is amended to read as follows:
`(17) any employee working in a computer or information technology occupation (including, but not limited to, work related to computers, information systems, components, networks, software, hardware, databases, security, internet, intranet, or websites) as an analyst, programmer, engineer, designer, developer, administrator, or other similarly skilled worker, whose primary duty is--
`(A) the application of systems, network or database analysis techniques and procedures, including consulting with users, to determine or modify hardware, software, network, database, or system functional specifications;
`(B) the design, development, documentation, analysis, creation, testing, securing, configuration, integration, debugging, modification of computer or information technology, or enabling continuity of systems and applications;
`(C) directing the work of individuals performing duties described in subparagraph (A) or (B), including training such individuals or leading teams performing such duties; or
`(D) a combination of duties described in subparagraphs (A), (B), and (C), the performance of which requires the same level of skill;
who is compensated at an hourly rate of not less than $27.63 an hour or who is paid on a salary basis at a salary level as set forth by the Department of Labor in part 541 of title 29, Code of Federal Regulations. An employee described in this paragraph shall be considered an employee in a professional capacity pursuant to paragraph (1).'.
It could make highway speed by the end of the merge lane but it would take some effort. Also I would never drive it in regular traffic it would only get driven in bad weather (slow traffic), when going hunting or camping (no traffic), and in the evenings or weekends (light traffic) when I would need to haul or move something. As far as being able to reach highway speeds just on the on ramp then 18 wheelers shouldn't be allowed on the highways as they have an even harder time reaching highway speed than my old Bronco II did. The old Bronco II could do highway speeds it just took it a while to get up to speed if it was over 55 mph.
Also don't forget that depending on the type of radar gun there is a few mph error in it (laser is much better) so typically you can get away with going a real +5 over but beyond that then you will get a ticket.
As a side note I have been pulled over for going both 1 (46 in a 45) over the speed limit and 5 (50 in a 45 on the practice freeway in St. Paul) over the speed limit. I never got a ticket but it was basically a fishing expedition by the cop as the car I drove at the time was a real pile of crap as I was in college. It looked like the type of car that would net them a nice drug bust (85 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme with lots of rust) or a host of other violations.
Usually it is around my house. It is even a little more forgiving than that at most lights in that if it turns yellow when you are where the turn lanes start (about 2 car lengths before the solid white) you will make the light. It isn't like you are blowing through either my care at the speed limit will have fully exited the intersection before the light turns red.
In newer areas they have this they put some sensors in the road that detect when a car passes over them and if the light ahead is red it will switch to green long before the person gets there. There are lights near my house like this and even a few of the older lights got this upgrade the last time they did some road work.
Maybe they shouldn't drive like retards, or as you put it just go by.
A perfect example of this was one time with my previous junk truck (88 Ford Bronco II with about 250,000 miles on it) where I was going down a freeway on ramp. This truck was slow and it didn't help that the engine was worn out but the person behind me didn't feel I was accelerating as fast as I should even though. I had it floored and was running it to the red in each gear (I was making a best effort to reach the 70mph of the freeway by the end of the ramp) yet they were honking and flashing their lights. Once on the freeway the individual zooms past me and cuts over and gets on the brakes hard so now I have to slow down. I drive in the right hand lane unless passing, but yet people still feel the need to tailgate, most tailgaters just drive like retards.
Personally I don't care if people tail gate me. If I am in my nice car I have full coverage, and if I am in the junk truck that I don't care because it is the junk truck. People tend to avoid tailgating vehicles that look like parts are going to fall off of them. I have never lost a part on the road but you wouldn't know that from looking at the junk trucks I have owned.
I would suggest the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden CO as well. They have a lot to see including cog railway engines, tons of narrow gauge stuff, they also have one really huge steam engine that I think is a Burlington 4-8-4 these are really impressive, along with a a bunch of standard stuff.
There are a number of things in Minnesota to see:
As mentioned previously the big ball of twine.
The Kensington runestone museum in Alexandria, MN. Not really science, but interesting from a history buff perspective
The Soudan underground mine state park which is part of the MINOS experiment. Near Tower MN
The Hull Rust Mine which is the worlds largest Iron ore mine. Worth seeing if you like big machines. It is just outside of Hibbing, MN
If you want to see some historical technology things the I would suggest the Nowthen Threshing show which has lots early tractors (steam, diesel, kerosene, gasoline), and stationary engines. The start up of the old Fairbanks engine is impressive: 2 stroke, 5 cylinders, 13,000+ cubic inches, 250HP, and shakes the whole building and ground. They also have an operational sawmill, blacksmithing, and threshing demo. Also you can see some impressive fully functional home built miniatures of the large equipment. It is in Nowthen, MN
I second this. It is also worth paying for the full admission that gets you into the other gallery that hosts special exhibits. When I was there the special exhibit was cold war Russian propaganda. When I was there they offered tours of the Nevada Atomic Testing site but you had do get a background check 6 weeks in advance so I didn't get to go and do that (we decided about a week before to go to Vegas) but it looks like they aren't doing this any more from my cursory check. They have lots of really neat things, my favorites were the nuclear howitzer round (I believe it was the standard 155mm round) and the what I can best describe as a nuclear RPG, both of which were to last ditch no hope weapons as the users would be in the fallout area. As side benefits it is one of the few quiet places in Vegas that isn't packed with people and isn't very far off the strip (head east on East Flamingo a couple of blocks).
That I don't know. Like I said that was about 10 years ago and I don't know how much of that 6T was non traditional sources. what was on the horizon. One of the things that he did mention was that we were a long way from running out of oil.
Well, for some values of "evenutally," maybe. But we still have something like two-thirds of all discovered fossil fuels left to burn, and we've not begun to investigate the arctic circle, the antarctic basin, some deeper reservoirs, methane clathrates on the ocean floors, permafrost hydrocarbons, limestone catalysis, and some other things I forget.
I was curious about this a while back and one of my wife's uncles worked in the oil industry for years as a geologist so I asked him shortly after he retired, about 10 year ago. At that time I got the following numbers as the best estimates of the total oil that the world held:
6 trillion barrels as the estimated total oil the world ever held
4 trillion barrels as the maximum recoverable amount of oil at any cost
3 trillion barrels as the actual recoverable amount of oil at a profit
1 trillion barrels as the total so far consumed of the initial 6 trillion, thus 2 trillion are still recoverable at a profit
These number may vary but seem to be reasonable based off of things I have read in other sources
If we really wanted to get serious about renewable fuels in the US we would quit wasting our time with corn to ethanol and setup some biomass to liquid hydrocarbon plants.
This isn't entirely correct. It is possible to go either direction on the hydrocarbon sizes but the question is is it profitable to do so. There are various processes like those used in the cracker that breakdown heavier hydrocarbons into lighter ones, but there are also processes to go from lighter ones to heavier ones like what is done for creating synthetic oil. But again the big question is it profitable to do so.
Despite Brazil having ethanol (from sugar cane) available they do not run exclusively on it. Having worked with and met a number of Brazilians at my current job it sounds like it isn't the panacea that they were promised either. They have flex fuel vehicles there that run on either one just as we do but like many flex fuel vehicle owners here in the US they have discovered that they get substantially fewer miles per gallon and that the cost per mile ends up being higher when running on alcohol fuel. Brazil does have alcohol only vehicles which are better optimized for alcohol than the flex fuel ones that have do deal with blends of alcohol and gasoline. It would also appear that Brazil has been importing the US made corn ethanol.
I actually did see "Mr. Smith goes to Washington" in high school in my US government class. I will agree with you on the corniness of it. Same problem here with how I view the politicians. I am becoming more displeased with most of my representatives as most of the correspondence I get back from them are canned form letters that don't address a single point I brought up or requests of campaign contributions. The most meaningful interaction I had was with my previous state rep when he was going door to door in my neighborhood trying to be re-elected. I was very forthright with what I thought and let him know my stance on issues and my displeasure with his communication and we talked for about 30 minutes or so but it became clear that he wasn't going to get my vote even though he had gotten it the previous time. Interestingly enough my current state rep is my former high school US government teacher who also taught economics. Maybe in a few years I might give it a go when I get some time when my kids are older.
So now is the time to vote them out. I feel the default position should always to be to vote against the incumbent and only on exception to vote for them.
Anyways, they can cut now, or they can have the universe cut for them. There's a limit to how much you can just keep spending pretend money.
Yes and no. Theoretically yes they can just keep printing more money and eventually we have a currency that looks like those inflationary currencies previous to WWII or Zimbabwe of a couple of years ago. In reality when we hit that point the populous would probably start lining leaders up against a wall.
Slashdot Mirror
Also it is currently in the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee so if one of the following is your senator you might want to contact them to have it killed:
Tom Harkin (D-IA)
Barbara A. Mikulski (D-MD)
Jeff Bingaman (D-NM)
Patty Murray (D-WA)
Bernard Sanders (I) (I-VT)
Robert P. Casey, Jr. (D-PA)
Kay R. Hagan (D-NC)
Jeff Merkley (D-OR)
Al Franken (D-MN)
Michael F. Bennet (D-CO)
Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)
Richard Blumenthal (D-CT)
Michael B. Enzi (R-WY)
Lamar Alexander (R-TN)
Richard Burr (R-NC)
Johnny Isakson (R-GA)
Rand Paul (R-KY)
Orrin G. Hatch (R-UT)
John McCain (R-AZ)
Pat Roberts (R-KS)
Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)
Mark Kirk (R-IL)
Technically it means that they are no longer required to pay overtime, but realistically how many employers in a down economy where there is a surplus of workers will do more than they are required to.
I was wondering the same thing. It might just be lobbyists going after someone who they know won't be voted out of office to introduce the bill since if here most significant donors are awyers, women, and retirees then she should be safe.
The bill is short so below is the full text from thomas.loc.gov. For a congressional bill it is surprisingly readable.
To amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to modify provisions relating to the exemption for computer systems analysts, computer programmers, software engineers, or other similarly skilled workers.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the `Computer Professionals Update Act' or the `CPU Act'.
SEC. 2. AMENDMENT TO THE FAIR LABOR STANDARDS ACT OF 1938.
Section 13(a)(17) of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 213(a)(17)) is amended to read as follows:
`(17) any employee working in a computer or information technology occupation (including, but not limited to, work related to computers, information systems, components, networks, software, hardware, databases, security, internet, intranet, or websites) as an analyst, programmer, engineer, designer, developer, administrator, or other similarly skilled worker, whose primary duty is--
`(A) the application of systems, network or database analysis techniques and procedures, including consulting with users, to determine or modify hardware, software, network, database, or system functional specifications;
`(B) the design, development, documentation, analysis, creation, testing, securing, configuration, integration, debugging, modification of computer or information technology, or enabling continuity of systems and applications;
`(C) directing the work of individuals performing duties described in subparagraph (A) or (B), including training such individuals or leading teams performing such duties; or
`(D) a combination of duties described in subparagraphs (A), (B), and (C), the performance of which requires the same level of skill;
who is compensated at an hourly rate of not less than $27.63 an hour or who is paid on a salary basis at a salary level as set forth by the Department of Labor in part 541 of title 29, Code of Federal Regulations. An employee described in this paragraph shall be considered an employee in a professional capacity pursuant to paragraph (1).'.
... if it got rid of congressional pay and prevented IT workers from having to work more than 40 hours.
It could make highway speed by the end of the merge lane but it would take some effort. Also I would never drive it in regular traffic it would only get driven in bad weather (slow traffic), when going hunting or camping (no traffic), and in the evenings or weekends (light traffic) when I would need to haul or move something. As far as being able to reach highway speeds just on the on ramp then 18 wheelers shouldn't be allowed on the highways as they have an even harder time reaching highway speed than my old Bronco II did. The old Bronco II could do highway speeds it just took it a while to get up to speed if it was over 55 mph.
Also don't forget that depending on the type of radar gun there is a few mph error in it (laser is much better) so typically you can get away with going a real +5 over but beyond that then you will get a ticket.
As a side note I have been pulled over for going both 1 (46 in a 45) over the speed limit and 5 (50 in a 45 on the practice freeway in St. Paul) over the speed limit. I never got a ticket but it was basically a fishing expedition by the cop as the car I drove at the time was a real pile of crap as I was in college. It looked like the type of car that would net them a nice drug bust (85 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme with lots of rust) or a host of other violations.
Usually it is around my house. It is even a little more forgiving than that at most lights in that if it turns yellow when you are where the turn lanes start (about 2 car lengths before the solid white) you will make the light. It isn't like you are blowing through either my care at the speed limit will have fully exited the intersection before the light turns red.
In newer areas they have this they put some sensors in the road that detect when a car passes over them and if the light ahead is red it will switch to green long before the person gets there. There are lights near my house like this and even a few of the older lights got this upgrade the last time they did some road work.
Maybe they shouldn't drive like retards, or as you put it just go by.
A perfect example of this was one time with my previous junk truck (88 Ford Bronco II with about 250,000 miles on it) where I was going down a freeway on ramp. This truck was slow and it didn't help that the engine was worn out but the person behind me didn't feel I was accelerating as fast as I should even though. I had it floored and was running it to the red in each gear (I was making a best effort to reach the 70mph of the freeway by the end of the ramp) yet they were honking and flashing their lights. Once on the freeway the individual zooms past me and cuts over and gets on the brakes hard so now I have to slow down. I drive in the right hand lane unless passing, but yet people still feel the need to tailgate, most tailgaters just drive like retards.
Personally I don't care if people tail gate me. If I am in my nice car I have full coverage, and if I am in the junk truck that I don't care because it is the junk truck. People tend to avoid tailgating vehicles that look like parts are going to fall off of them. I have never lost a part on the road but you wouldn't know that from looking at the junk trucks I have owned.
I would suggest the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden CO as well. They have a lot to see including cog railway engines, tons of narrow gauge stuff, they also have one really huge steam engine that I think is a Burlington 4-8-4 these are really impressive, along with a a bunch of standard stuff.
There are a number of things in Minnesota to see: As mentioned previously the big ball of twine.
The Kensington runestone museum in Alexandria, MN. Not really science, but interesting from a history buff perspective
The Soudan underground mine state park which is part of the MINOS experiment. Near Tower MN
The Hull Rust Mine which is the worlds largest Iron ore mine. Worth seeing if you like big machines. It is just outside of Hibbing, MN
If you want to see some historical technology things the I would suggest the Nowthen Threshing show which has lots early tractors (steam, diesel, kerosene, gasoline), and stationary engines. The start up of the old Fairbanks engine is impressive: 2 stroke, 5 cylinders, 13,000+ cubic inches, 250HP, and shakes the whole building and ground. They also have an operational sawmill, blacksmithing, and threshing demo. Also you can see some impressive fully functional home built miniatures of the large equipment. It is in Nowthen, MN
I second this. It is also worth paying for the full admission that gets you into the other gallery that hosts special exhibits. When I was there the special exhibit was cold war Russian propaganda. When I was there they offered tours of the Nevada Atomic Testing site but you had do get a background check 6 weeks in advance so I didn't get to go and do that (we decided about a week before to go to Vegas) but it looks like they aren't doing this any more from my cursory check. They have lots of really neat things, my favorites were the nuclear howitzer round (I believe it was the standard 155mm round) and the what I can best describe as a nuclear RPG, both of which were to last ditch no hope weapons as the users would be in the fallout area. As side benefits it is one of the few quiet places in Vegas that isn't packed with people and isn't very far off the strip (head east on East Flamingo a couple of blocks).
That I don't know. Like I said that was about 10 years ago and I don't know how much of that 6T was non traditional sources. what was on the horizon. One of the things that he did mention was that we were a long way from running out of oil.
posting to undo bad mod
Well, for some values of "evenutally," maybe. But we still have something like two-thirds of all discovered fossil fuels left to burn, and we've not begun to investigate the arctic circle, the antarctic basin, some deeper reservoirs, methane clathrates on the ocean floors, permafrost hydrocarbons, limestone catalysis, and some other things I forget.
I was curious about this a while back and one of my wife's uncles worked in the oil industry for years as a geologist so I asked him shortly after he retired, about 10 year ago. At that time I got the following numbers as the best estimates of the total oil that the world held:
6 trillion barrels as the estimated total oil the world ever held
4 trillion barrels as the maximum recoverable amount of oil at any cost
3 trillion barrels as the actual recoverable amount of oil at a profit
1 trillion barrels as the total so far consumed of the initial 6 trillion, thus 2 trillion are still recoverable at a profit
These number may vary but seem to be reasonable based off of things I have read in other sources
To add to the parent there are several processes that will turn carbon based items into various hydrocarbons that have been used. The main ones I am aware of are:
Fischer-Tropsch process
Thermal depolymerization
Staged reforming
Gas to liquids
Biomass to liquid
Coal liquefaction
If we really wanted to get serious about renewable fuels in the US we would quit wasting our time with corn to ethanol and setup some biomass to liquid hydrocarbon plants.
This isn't entirely correct. It is possible to go either direction on the hydrocarbon sizes but the question is is it profitable to do so. There are various processes like those used in the cracker that breakdown heavier hydrocarbons into lighter ones, but there are also processes to go from lighter ones to heavier ones like what is done for creating synthetic oil. But again the big question is it profitable to do so.
Despite Brazil having ethanol (from sugar cane) available they do not run exclusively on it. Having worked with and met a number of Brazilians at my current job it sounds like it isn't the panacea that they were promised either. They have flex fuel vehicles there that run on either one just as we do but like many flex fuel vehicle owners here in the US they have discovered that they get substantially fewer miles per gallon and that the cost per mile ends up being higher when running on alcohol fuel. Brazil does have alcohol only vehicles which are better optimized for alcohol than the flex fuel ones that have do deal with blends of alcohol and gasoline. It would also appear that Brazil has been importing the US made corn ethanol.
I actually did see "Mr. Smith goes to Washington" in high school in my US government class. I will agree with you on the corniness of it. Same problem here with how I view the politicians. I am becoming more displeased with most of my representatives as most of the correspondence I get back from them are canned form letters that don't address a single point I brought up or requests of campaign contributions. The most meaningful interaction I had was with my previous state rep when he was going door to door in my neighborhood trying to be re-elected. I was very forthright with what I thought and let him know my stance on issues and my displeasure with his communication and we talked for about 30 minutes or so but it became clear that he wasn't going to get my vote even though he had gotten it the previous time. Interestingly enough my current state rep is my former high school US government teacher who also taught economics. Maybe in a few years I might give it a go when I get some time when my kids are older.
And me without my mod points.
I do but they never win.
So now is the time to vote them out. I feel the default position should always to be to vote against the incumbent and only on exception to vote for them.
Anyways, they can cut now, or they can have the universe cut for them. There's a limit to how much you can just keep spending pretend money.
Yes and no. Theoretically yes they can just keep printing more money and eventually we have a currency that looks like those inflationary currencies previous to WWII or Zimbabwe of a couple of years ago. In reality when we hit that point the populous would probably start lining leaders up against a wall.