Given its position earth will never clear its orbit, but then I guess Jupiter shouldn't be considered one either as it also has an asteroid trapped in one of its Lagrange points.
That is why I like my radio controls on my steering wheel the cruse control buttons there as well on my daily driver. I can operate them all without taking my hands off the wheel and they are in the correct spot so I can push them with my thumbs. Better yet each one has a different pattern when you touch it since the symbols are recessed so you know by touch what button you are on. On my junk truck none of that works so it doesn't matter where the controls are and my project car doesn't have any electronic gadgets other than wipers and lights.
This sounds like it is just more expensive crap that will break, especially for the early adopters. Cars are really bad places for electronics in general so I wonder how this will hold up to the extremes of -10F and 100F as these values aren't out of the normal operating range cars are expected to perform in. Add to that the vibration from being opened and closed along with the standard road vibration and it seems like these things won't last long.
There is this thing called reinsurance that insurance companies can purchase that lets them hedge the risk from their own policies. This call to be able to dump the Sony claim might be coming from the reinsurance company or companies. To put things in perspective reinsurance companies make your standard insurance companies look like paupers.
They might write a policy for you but it would be put into the high risk pool. I do wonder if the company did any assessments of Sony's security since if they did and signed off on it then the insurance company is going to have a hard up hill battle. When I got my private life insurance they had a physical exam to verify that what I provided on their form so for an even larger policy I would assume that they would do auditing to at least verify that Sony was in the correct risk category when policy renewal time came.
As much as I hate insurance companies I don't think that Zurich American Insurance Co. is as bad as some and is probably reasonable in trying to avoid paying in this case. From my understanding Sony didn't do due diligence in securing their network or even follow what would have been reasonable precautions that a rational actor would take. It is interesting that the insurance company is going to court which probably means they feel they have a strong case since usually they will just deny the claim.
There is no way they are as bad as my parents insurance company who told them their house didn't have hail damage even though my untrained eye could see broken shingles and dented siding. Their insurance company claimed that even though every house for about 2 miles in every direction had substantial hail damage theirs didn't because "hail is funny like that". Unfortunately my parents didn't take the to court because it really was an open and shut case. This is the same company that I fought and won when my car was totaled because they didn't want to pay the fair market value.
Or to put it a different way it is a hedge against potential losses. This is the prudent thing to do as you pointed out it give you a fixed cost all be it at probably a higher total cost. Airlines have been know to do similar things when they purchase futures contracts for fuel, some times it works in their favor some times it doesn't but in either case they know their cost going forward.
So it sounds like I found one of your sacred cows in that list so tell us which one is it. It isn't that these aren't simple fixes (they are) it is that there has to be a political will to cut these things. How many of the items I listed above aren't lobbied hard for even if the general populous doesn't want them. I hate to break it to you but any cut to a special interest is going to piss them off and they will raise all kinds of hay and they probably have more money to convince your congress critters than you do.
Also I probably am more active in government than you even though I have never been elected. Have you ever written, called, faxed your rep? Have you gone down to their office and tried to talk to them or their staffers? I bet you didn't even know your house member had a local office in their home district and that senators usually have multiple offices in their state?
See I can do the personal attack thing too, but wait I didn't resort to name calling
Most of our agriculture subsidies currently are going to the production of corn, cotton, soy beans, and tobacco but farm states (Iowa) seem to hold too much sway at the federal level. There are a fair amount of subsidies that put a floor on the price but with the current high prices of farm commodities this isn't being tapped at the moment (I can't find the article). Add to that those who are getting farm subsidies because they own a hobby farm and you can find lots of savings without affecting the nations food supply. There are also various subsides (CRP land at the federal level or CREP land here in Minnesota) where farmers are paid to not grow on some of their land.
There are approximately $2.6 trillion dollars in the Social Security Trust Fund; those assets can be used to pay benefits
Um no they can't. The Social security trust fund isn't some giant vault with stacks of $100 bills but is filled with a bunch of I.O.U.s that are government bonds, so nothing to tap here
Treasury could sell some of its assets in order to pay the bills.
What assets? Oh you must mean the gold and other precious metals the the treasury holds which sounds like a really stupid idea. Maybe you meant other assets the government owns, like the strategic petroleum reverser or other strategic asset reserves that are meant to be used in time of war in case there is an embargo. Do you mean some of the BLM land that the gov owns, in that case you might have a good idea but I doubt that is what you were thinking as there doesn't appear to have been much of that going on.
The Treasury Department could also make cash available from the trust fund by “disinvesting” some of the money used to buy government bonds
Apparently you don't really understand the difference between the fed and the department of the treasury. The federal reserve is the one that has been buying up gov bonds with such programs like QE1 and QE2. The treasury is the one that has been issuing the bonds. It doesn't really work if I am both the issuer and buyer of bonds as that doesn't bring in any money as all I really have is a promissory note that I paid my self for saying that I will pay myself back in the future more than was initially paid. Please tell me how this increases available funds within the government because you are obviously smarter than every economist that has ever walked the earth.
You are correct that the treasury could prioritize payments but who should get paid? I have some suggestions of those who shouldn't get paid first, government contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan, the people building the F-35 JFS, subsidy checks for agriculture, Pakistan are some that we probably shouldn't be paying for to begin with. I don't hear you coming up with solutions that aren't completely half baked.
We have over $2T in revenues. All that means is that the federal government will have to prioritize.
How about we start means-testing Social Security and Medicare. If Grandma has a pension, fat 401k or private assets she gets no Social Security.
So what if she "paid into the system her whole life." I have no kids and pay thousands of dollars in property taxes, mainly to support local schools. Do you see me whining, bitching and moaning about the injustice of paying for something from which I derive no personal benefit?
I have a better idea. How about we do the following programs:
1. Stop Agriculture subsidies
2. Stop Ethanol subsidies
3. Raise the tariffs on goods entering this country from countries like China so our tarrif restricts their exports to us like they restrict our exports to them.
4. Impose a tariff on any US companies' goods that are manufactured over seas so it becomes cheaper for them to be made here.
5. Stop bombing brown people
6. Quit Being Team America world Police and bring all our troops home from Europe, Asia, Africa, South America, Canada, Mexico. I think that covers everything
7. Quit buying military equipment the military doesn't want or need (I'm looking at you F-35 JSF and all your friends)
8. Closing tax loopholes, you know ones like the carried interest deduction for hedge fund managers or the ones the allow Exxon to get a check from the government.
9. Close down the some federal departments
10. Shit can the TSA airport screener and their scanners
11. Adjust congressional pay to so that it matches the median or average pay (I don't know which is lower) of the private sector employees in the country (this won't save much but is more symbolic)
12. Quit pissing money away on stupid stimulus spending like bailing out banks, car companies, or any other private entity.
Those seem like they would be a good start and would probably do more than stupid crap like suggesting means testing Social security or Medicare. Granted changes do need to be made to both of those programs, but don't hold them up as being the elephant in the room at the moment. In case you haven't noticed social security is considered an insurance program as is medicare, as such any changes made should only affect those no already on it or about to go on it. I would love to be able to say to social security you can keep all the money that my employers and I have already paid in in for me but give me the 12.4% (6.2% I pay and the 6.2% my employer pays) of my income that is paid in each year for me back so I can just add it to my Roth IRA (I already paid taxes on this income I have the pay stub show that) in return I won't ever be able to collect social security.
I frequently do gate check my carry on for this reason the problem is that people have carry-ons that in no way are even close to allowable size. These include the people with the military size duffel bags, golf club bag, ski bag, backpacking bag, and other gigantic bags. Every one of these people should be charged the checked bag fee since they know that those in no way meet the requirement and waste everyone's time trying to stuff them in the bin. These are the people who end up with the I am going to make my carry on fit. Its not like my carry on is eve that large and you could probably easily fit 4 or 5 in the space that is taken up by 3 of the standard size carry-on bags.
I only do this with those people who have the oversize luggage that should have been checked to begin with. These are the bags that take up the entire overhead bin and are the size of a military duffel bag or backpacking bag.
I have often wondered if I could fill my carry on with some really dense material, enough so that I can lift it but would exceed their weight limit for carry on and still have all the stuff I need for my trip as they never seem to check that. I think the whole checked luggage thing is more of a way for them to artificially lower their prices, it seems reasonable to have 1 free checked bag per person, but the we'll charge you for any checked bags is a scam, just include it in the price. Nothing is worse than the idiot who is trying to stuff their oversize duffel bag in the overhead compartment and not break things. Since my carry on has hard sides I put mine in the same compartment as theirs and make it fit, usually I don't stop until I hear something break.
Well it is a start. Those ads always bothered me especially since there are planes that run on things other than fossil fuels, alcohol probably being the next most common. That and the fact the ads were always by oil companies.
They scientists discovered a unique property of certain x-rays that will cause metals like gold and platinum to emit electrons that can kill cancer but the electrons aren't powerful enough to damage neighboring cells. This discovery was made by astrophysicists who were doing computer simulation of emission spectrum of all the different elements so they could get a better understanding of the composition of stars. Now if you actually read the article you would have known this, it isn't very long and is a fairly easy read even for someone who isn't in the field.
The article didn't mention, but I get the impression that cancer cells will accumulate them where as normal cells don't. In reading the article it sounds like platinum would be the preferred metal.
No they would be the first company to reach a trillion dollar valuation. That title goes to PetroChina which did it in 2007. When doing a Google search it it looks like lots of people think apple may reach a trillion dollar valuation, but how much of that would be speculation (like it was for PetroChina) and how much would be blind faith (the apple fanboi).
Frankly it doesn't' matter as either way we get screwed. I just didn't want people to get going off half cocked about a grand conspiracy that involves the Illuminati, Masons, Tri-Lateral Commission, and Bigfoot. If it is just incompetence then hang them out to dry and punish the corporation and individuals involved in design, if it was malice then line everyone involved up against a wall.
This is an old idea, I have heard of power plants that ship off their "cool" steam streams off to near by industry and business to provide heat so now instead of power plant waste heat it is now server waste heat. What I want to know is hosting one of these mini clouds going to generate more revenue for me than the power it costs to run it. If it can't then what is the point since natural gas heating is cheaper than electrical heating, better still would be geothermal heat pump. Come to think of it the upfront costs would probably be similar to a geothermal heat pump but the heat pump you can also use in the summer so you would come out even farther ahead.
Slashdot Mirror
Given its position earth will never clear its orbit, but then I guess Jupiter shouldn't be considered one either as it also has an asteroid trapped in one of its Lagrange points.
I like the proposed names of Coeus or Crius, the sons of Gaia for those who didn't RTFA, that that author suggests.
That is why I like my radio controls on my steering wheel the cruse control buttons there as well on my daily driver. I can operate them all without taking my hands off the wheel and they are in the correct spot so I can push them with my thumbs. Better yet each one has a different pattern when you touch it since the symbols are recessed so you know by touch what button you are on. On my junk truck none of that works so it doesn't matter where the controls are and my project car doesn't have any electronic gadgets other than wipers and lights.
This sounds like it is just more expensive crap that will break, especially for the early adopters. Cars are really bad places for electronics in general so I wonder how this will hold up to the extremes of -10F and 100F as these values aren't out of the normal operating range cars are expected to perform in. Add to that the vibration from being opened and closed along with the standard road vibration and it seems like these things won't last long.
There is this thing called reinsurance that insurance companies can purchase that lets them hedge the risk from their own policies. This call to be able to dump the Sony claim might be coming from the reinsurance company or companies. To put things in perspective reinsurance companies make your standard insurance companies look like paupers.
They might write a policy for you but it would be put into the high risk pool. I do wonder if the company did any assessments of Sony's security since if they did and signed off on it then the insurance company is going to have a hard up hill battle. When I got my private life insurance they had a physical exam to verify that what I provided on their form so for an even larger policy I would assume that they would do auditing to at least verify that Sony was in the correct risk category when policy renewal time came.
As much as I hate insurance companies I don't think that Zurich American Insurance Co. is as bad as some and is probably reasonable in trying to avoid paying in this case. From my understanding Sony didn't do due diligence in securing their network or even follow what would have been reasonable precautions that a rational actor would take. It is interesting that the insurance company is going to court which probably means they feel they have a strong case since usually they will just deny the claim.
There is no way they are as bad as my parents insurance company who told them their house didn't have hail damage even though my untrained eye could see broken shingles and dented siding. Their insurance company claimed that even though every house for about 2 miles in every direction had substantial hail damage theirs didn't because "hail is funny like that". Unfortunately my parents didn't take the to court because it really was an open and shut case. This is the same company that I fought and won when my car was totaled because they didn't want to pay the fair market value.
Or to put it a different way it is a hedge against potential losses. This is the prudent thing to do as you pointed out it give you a fixed cost all be it at probably a higher total cost. Airlines have been know to do similar things when they purchase futures contracts for fuel, some times it works in their favor some times it doesn't but in either case they know their cost going forward.
So it sounds like I found one of your sacred cows in that list so tell us which one is it. It isn't that these aren't simple fixes (they are) it is that there has to be a political will to cut these things. How many of the items I listed above aren't lobbied hard for even if the general populous doesn't want them. I hate to break it to you but any cut to a special interest is going to piss them off and they will raise all kinds of hay and they probably have more money to convince your congress critters than you do.
Also I probably am more active in government than you even though I have never been elected. Have you ever written, called, faxed your rep? Have you gone down to their office and tried to talk to them or their staffers? I bet you didn't even know your house member had a local office in their home district and that senators usually have multiple offices in their state?
See I can do the personal attack thing too, but wait I didn't resort to name calling
Most of our agriculture subsidies currently are going to the production of corn, cotton, soy beans, and tobacco but farm states (Iowa) seem to hold too much sway at the federal level. There are a fair amount of subsidies that put a floor on the price but with the current high prices of farm commodities this isn't being tapped at the moment (I can't find the article). Add to that those who are getting farm subsidies because they own a hobby farm and you can find lots of savings without affecting the nations food supply. There are also various subsides (CRP land at the federal level or CREP land here in Minnesota) where farmers are paid to not grow on some of their land.
There are approximately $2.6 trillion dollars in the Social Security Trust Fund; those assets can be used to pay benefits
Um no they can't. The Social security trust fund isn't some giant vault with stacks of $100 bills but is filled with a bunch of I.O.U.s that are government bonds, so nothing to tap here
Treasury could sell some of its assets in order to pay the bills.
What assets? Oh you must mean the gold and other precious metals the the treasury holds which sounds like a really stupid idea. Maybe you meant other assets the government owns, like the strategic petroleum reverser or other strategic asset reserves that are meant to be used in time of war in case there is an embargo. Do you mean some of the BLM land that the gov owns, in that case you might have a good idea but I doubt that is what you were thinking as there doesn't appear to have been much of that going on.
The Treasury Department could also make cash available from the trust fund by “disinvesting” some of the money used to buy government bonds
Apparently you don't really understand the difference between the fed and the department of the treasury. The federal reserve is the one that has been buying up gov bonds with such programs like QE1 and QE2. The treasury is the one that has been issuing the bonds. It doesn't really work if I am both the issuer and buyer of bonds as that doesn't bring in any money as all I really have is a promissory note that I paid my self for saying that I will pay myself back in the future more than was initially paid. Please tell me how this increases available funds within the government because you are obviously smarter than every economist that has ever walked the earth.
You are correct that the treasury could prioritize payments but who should get paid? I have some suggestions of those who shouldn't get paid first, government contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan, the people building the F-35 JFS, subsidy checks for agriculture, Pakistan are some that we probably shouldn't be paying for to begin with. I don't hear you coming up with solutions that aren't completely half baked.
We have over $2T in revenues. All that means is that the federal government will have to prioritize.
How about we start means-testing Social Security and Medicare. If Grandma has a pension, fat 401k or private assets she gets no Social Security.
So what if she "paid into the system her whole life." I have no kids and pay thousands of dollars in property taxes, mainly to support local schools. Do you see me whining, bitching and moaning about the injustice of paying for something from which I derive no personal benefit?
I have a better idea. How about we do the following programs:
1. Stop Agriculture subsidies
2. Stop Ethanol subsidies
3. Raise the tariffs on goods entering this country from countries like China so our tarrif restricts their exports to us like they restrict our exports to them.
4. Impose a tariff on any US companies' goods that are manufactured over seas so it becomes cheaper for them to be made here.
5. Stop bombing brown people
6. Quit Being Team America world Police and bring all our troops home from Europe, Asia, Africa, South America, Canada, Mexico. I think that covers everything
7. Quit buying military equipment the military doesn't want or need (I'm looking at you F-35 JSF and all your friends)
8. Closing tax loopholes, you know ones like the carried interest deduction for hedge fund managers or the ones the allow Exxon to get a check from the government.
9. Close down the some federal departments
10. Shit can the TSA airport screener and their scanners
11. Adjust congressional pay to so that it matches the median or average pay (I don't know which is lower) of the private sector employees in the country (this won't save much but is more symbolic)
12. Quit pissing money away on stupid stimulus spending like bailing out banks, car companies, or any other private entity.
Those seem like they would be a good start and would probably do more than stupid crap like suggesting means testing Social security or Medicare. Granted changes do need to be made to both of those programs, but don't hold them up as being the elephant in the room at the moment. In case you haven't noticed social security is considered an insurance program as is medicare, as such any changes made should only affect those no already on it or about to go on it. I would love to be able to say to social security you can keep all the money that my employers and I have already paid in in for me but give me the 12.4% (6.2% I pay and the 6.2% my employer pays) of my income that is paid in each year for me back so I can just add it to my Roth IRA (I already paid taxes on this income I have the pay stub show that) in return I won't ever be able to collect social security.
I frequently do gate check my carry on for this reason the problem is that people have carry-ons that in no way are even close to allowable size. These include the people with the military size duffel bags, golf club bag, ski bag, backpacking bag, and other gigantic bags. Every one of these people should be charged the checked bag fee since they know that those in no way meet the requirement and waste everyone's time trying to stuff them in the bin. These are the people who end up with the I am going to make my carry on fit. Its not like my carry on is eve that large and you could probably easily fit 4 or 5 in the space that is taken up by 3 of the standard size carry-on bags.
I only do this with those people who have the oversize luggage that should have been checked to begin with. These are the bags that take up the entire overhead bin and are the size of a military duffel bag or backpacking bag.
I have often wondered if I could fill my carry on with some really dense material, enough so that I can lift it but would exceed their weight limit for carry on and still have all the stuff I need for my trip as they never seem to check that. I think the whole checked luggage thing is more of a way for them to artificially lower their prices, it seems reasonable to have 1 free checked bag per person, but the we'll charge you for any checked bags is a scam, just include it in the price. Nothing is worse than the idiot who is trying to stuff their oversize duffel bag in the overhead compartment and not break things. Since my carry on has hard sides I put mine in the same compartment as theirs and make it fit, usually I don't stop until I hear something break.
Well it is a start. Those ads always bothered me especially since there are planes that run on things other than fossil fuels, alcohol probably being the next most common. That and the fact the ads were always by oil companies.
This is probably the best first post I have seen in a while
So does this mean I can stop seeing those ads and comments stating that we don't have anything to run our planes on other than oil based products.
I don't want to see that skin.
They scientists discovered a unique property of certain x-rays that will cause metals like gold and platinum to emit electrons that can kill cancer but the electrons aren't powerful enough to damage neighboring cells. This discovery was made by astrophysicists who were doing computer simulation of emission spectrum of all the different elements so they could get a better understanding of the composition of stars. Now if you actually read the article you would have known this, it isn't very long and is a fairly easy read even for someone who isn't in the field.
The article didn't mention, but I get the impression that cancer cells will accumulate them where as normal cells don't. In reading the article it sounds like platinum would be the preferred metal.
This sounds like a neat cure. I wonder how different this is from other targeted focused energy treatment.
No they would be the first company to reach a trillion dollar valuation. That title goes to PetroChina which did it in 2007. When doing a Google search it it looks like lots of people think apple may reach a trillion dollar valuation, but how much of that would be speculation (like it was for PetroChina) and how much would be blind faith (the apple fanboi).
Frankly it doesn't' matter as either way we get screwed. I just didn't want people to get going off half cocked about a grand conspiracy that involves the Illuminati, Masons, Tri-Lateral Commission, and Bigfoot. If it is just incompetence then hang them out to dry and punish the corporation and individuals involved in design, if it was malice then line everyone involved up against a wall.
This is an old idea, I have heard of power plants that ship off their "cool" steam streams off to near by industry and business to provide heat so now instead of power plant waste heat it is now server waste heat. What I want to know is hosting one of these mini clouds going to generate more revenue for me than the power it costs to run it. If it can't then what is the point since natural gas heating is cheaper than electrical heating, better still would be geothermal heat pump. Come to think of it the upfront costs would probably be similar to a geothermal heat pump but the heat pump you can also use in the summer so you would come out even farther ahead.