You're right on all but one point: If a law abiding citizen with CCW gets caught in a private venue with a no-guns policy, they'll be asked to leave, at the worst. If they refuse to leave, the cops will come, and they'll be arrested for trespassing--it's not really any different than violating a store's "no shirt, no shoes no service" policy. That's actually pretty universal across the US--excepting a few states which completely ban carry inside of bars and liquor stores even if you're not partaking in the alcohol, in which case simply being on premises can be enough for arrest.
You need to read more than corporate media accounts before you decide to get so close to branding them a violent group of people. Every big demonstration attracts people who want to be violent who may or may not have anything to do with group itself. It sounds like you are taking the corporate media story of the events for granted.
And thanks to the FBI et al. every big demonstration is also has a few agents provocateurs who will spur on and encourage the group to do something stupid. If OWS or any such group had any brains whatsoever, they'd proactively surround and throw a blanket party for anyone doing something illegal, violent or stupid, much as the immune system isolates and destroys infections. "We didn't see nothin', he must've tripped!"
Why do any of those men stay with the horribly screeching wives? And why do those women stay with horribly insensitive, and often abusive, men?
A) There's usually an attractiveness disparity between the couple. The men are generally morons, and they are even more stupid looking. The TV wives are often disproportionately attractive relative to their TV spouse.
No, I mean a megathrust earthquake the likes of which may produce tsunamis capable of crippling any number of large cities & countries, simultaneously, virtually anywhere on that side of the Pacific Ocean (and Indian Ocean), you know, seeing how those areas account for the vast majority of oceanic fractures, subduction zones, trenches, etc. on planet Earth.
Yeah. Things might not be so bad when your close neighbors can come and help, but when their day is also ruined, things can start to suck, big time.
In other news, the world's leading myrmecologists were on scene and they translated the pheromone trail of the common black garden ant turned ant-amputee: "It's just a flesh wound!"
They say NZ's nuclear-free law extends only to their territorial waters--12 nautical miles from shore--not even out to the the 200 nautical mile "exclusive economic zone"; 12 NM hardly qualifies as a "long way" around NZ, particularly for a nuclear powered warship, which would typically not come that close to shore unless the ship was already going to port.
So, like most blahblah-free zones, it's basically just a feel-good measure. It's almost certianly more of an negative economic cost to business in NZ than anything else, since even diesel-powered US warships won't be able to visit NZ ports for provisions or other economic purposes, as the US Navy will refuse to confirm or deny that they have nuclear weapons on board any particular ship. Also, in the event of a natural disaster, the people of NZ might be in for even more hurt. The US Navy, more than any other force on the globe, is a massive resource for quickly sending out a great deal of logistical support for disaster relief. I wonder if they would suspend that policy in the event of a disaster, even though I hope that need never arises.
Autocrats will often seek to retain their power once they have it. The Roman Dictator position was supposed to be held only for 6 months at a maximum, and while some dictators gave up the position when business was done, it didn't always work, did it? How many modern dictators were elected by the people, or supported by the people during a coup where they promise a new democracy, only to shit on these promises shortly thereafter? Enough that the people of Venezuela, and the people of the world have every justification to be concerned!
Also, I'm not from NZ but even I know that NZ laws are a very far cry from a complete ban like ol' Hugo recently passed (basically by edict, that's what makes one a dictator), and excepting the U.S. NZ is one of the world's most liberalized states when it comes to guns--especially shotguns and bolt action rifles. Firearms are registered, one must take a safety class and pass a test, and if I remember right you also have to have endorsements from two people to certify you're not a lunatic; semiautomatic center-fire rifles of 10 rounds and less are also legal under the default license unless they have evil features such as a telescoping buttstock (so scary). You also have no regulation of sound suppressors whatsoever, which is relatively unique in the world.
The funny thing is that Venezuela new gun law won't do a thing to stop the criminals who are murdering people anonymously, and with impunity... Murder was already illegal after all. However, the government knows exactly where every law abiding shop owner and sportsman lives due to registration; they won't hesitate to make an example of a few of them! Yeah, that's not so funny for the good people of Venezuela after all. There's sure to be a lesson coming down the pipeline in all of this, but I'm sure plenty of people like you will be there to backup the jackbooted thugs and justify the things they'll do.
If you're going to call on "Nature's God" as used in the Declaration of Independence, you aught to realize that it's a Deistic term, representative of a creator who instigates a sort of grand universal clockwork, with a policy of non-intervention in said universe. Jefferson as well as many of the founders, subscribed the Age of Enlightenment philosophies, Deism was a big thing amongst the people behind the scene.
Deists hold that reason and scientific inspection of the natural world allow them to determine that a creator god is behind the whole thing, while simultaneously they reject any religious text that claims it is the work of god, they reject all dogma, claims of miracles, prophecies, and they also reject organized religion on the principal that it only serves to distract man from using his own reason to find evidence of god.
The god of the Jews and Christians and Nature's God of the Deists have about as much in common as a life raft and the aircraft carrier which bears it; they both float.
A similar situation: When I first got into mastering my own music to audio CD (around 1994-95) the CD-R drive alone was around $1500, disks were about $10 a pop, coastering of disks was way too common, burning a disk took half an hour (2X man, that was fast!), all of the software involved was proprietary and likewise expensive; worst of all, the dollar was worth significantly more!
I jumped in feet first and didn't complain, but look at where we're at today, a DVD-R drive costs about $20, media costs about a quarter when you buy in bulk, and it writes over 6 times the data in 1/5th of the time. We're spoiled by extremely inexpensive, highly capable electronics relative to just a few years ago. If this kind of device finds a niche, the prices will come down, quality and versatility will increase, the market will diversify, and maybe eventually every engineering, architectural and art student wouldn't want to be without their 3D printer.
Big 'ol stationary radars like this are very expensive, slow to deploy, easy to detect, and a prime target for something like the HARM, so much that even smaller AA placements will power their radar off if they believe such a missile is deployed. The newer models even have better ways to deal with that.
Unless the enemy has a foolproof way to defeat these kinds of threats, the expensive stealth aircraft still win, because they will either not want to lose the radar, or it will be quickly destroyed as a consequence of being used. In either eventuality, they'll fall back to their older, less powerful, less precise, and more abundant models.
Science education? Very useful for creating the zombie apocalypse. Also very tasty BRAAAINS!
Rational thinking? You're trying to bring this into story about which president would best deal with an alien invasion, and into a thread about Romney, Mormons and the zombie apocalypse, and Mormons being zombies, and Mitt Romney being in collusion with the zombie hive mind, what with the passing of laws which would enable the zombie invasion of Massachusetts. How stupid of you. You probably also debunk your friend's jokes because they violate special relativity, which is what makes them funny, and that makes you an unlikable loner without any friends.
Mitt also supported and or passed laws in Massachusetts which banned (or made harder and more expensive to own) the most useful weapons to be used in the coming zombie apocalypse.
He'll gladly let you have your single shot.22 and break-action shotgun, however we all know from the various documentary films that a even a zombified kindergartner will easily shrug off a.22, and the trap gun is only useful if you catch a zombie on the rise, otherwise you'll shoot right over the zombie's heads, and besides, they're absolutely way too long for use in tight spaces, and to slow to deal with zombie mobs effectively. Coincidence? I think not!
Militarization of the police is a big thing going on, and to me it's a really disturbing trend. Where you'd send a cop or two twenty years ago to safely arrest someone on the street, they now send in assault team dressed in black to bust the door down, with guns drawn, who shoot the dogs and anything or anyone else that looks remotely threatening. The worst part of it is I don't think we've even begin to see the beginning of it.
Government agencies not typically associated with the policing of -anything- are developing paramilitary squads. Example: recently the IRS put together a SWAT style team team. The DoE (education, not energy), Customs, the Department of Agriculture and EPA also have their own dedicated jackbooted goon squads, whereas in the past they'd bring in the FBI SWAT team if it were thought to be really necessary. Hell, the California Dept of Food & Agriculture sends in their own police squad to arrest...hippies dealing in raw foods. So, why the redundancy; are existing teams so occupied that it's necessary? Or is it because they're trying to get under the DHS umbrella, and have money bleeding out of their asses?
Some features of one of my jobs place me adjacent to local police, SWAT teams in particular. These teams draw in a lot of veterans retiring from the military, and many of the younger guys are newly-former special operators. They're naturals at every demand the job can throw at them, they've been there and done that, know how to operate as a team, and once they go though the police schools they naturally gravitate there. To say they're not becoming 'military' is wishful thinking. I don't have the data to back it up, but I'm sure it's a national trend.
Despite having a policey-looking uniform and a shiny badge, there is no such thing as an TSA agent carrying a gun, on a plane or anywhere else (undercover or otherwise), as part of their official duties. Maybe you're talking about Federal Air Marshals?
To be absolutely specific, plain cloths FAMs (Federal Air Marshals, that is) carry either a Sig Sauer P229 or more recently, a SIG P250 in 357 SIG, using Gold Dot jacketed hollow point ammo, very much the same as many police departments and civilians around the country use.
Quite the contrary, the Speer Gold Dot is a bullet constructed such that the jacket is bonded to the lead core, making it tougher and less prone to fragmenting, retaining its weight for better penetration, as it goes through things like sheet metal and automobile glass; it so happens the 125gr Gold Dot / 357 SIG combo is widely considered one of the better handgun bullets for shooting through the sorts of materials which constitute an aircraft's cabin...and still be effective against a human!
It does not say you get to carry an AR-15 to school...For future reference, if you get to the "Dick Act" you know you're talking to a serious gun whacko. It's best to just turn and walk away. I replied out of respect for a fellow Slashdot user.
Oh myyyyy... Pay no attention to what he says because he's a crazy gun loon; you know, what with the digging up of facts that are inconvenient to the cause I'm trying to promote! Just hyperbolize his argument until it's a parody of itself, and if you run out of ammunition trying to shoot down ideas, shoot down the man which holds them, in a final coup de grace! We're obviously dealing with a badass word wrangler here, unloading the whole nine yards of argumentative fallacies.
Oh and the Dick Act also says "able bodied men 18-45". So, are you ready to turn in your weapon at age 46?
It might work something like Switzerland. Each adult male who is conscripted is issued a *full auto* SIG assault rifle which is kept in the home, along with issued ammunition, and he goes off to train much as our organized militiamen. When his service period has ended (which might last up to 50 years of age), he's given the option of returning it, or he may retain it, in which case it's sent back to an armorer to be converted into semi-auto.
In a country the size and population of the United States, however, it would be an unreasonable financial burden to the government to issue weapons and ammunition in such quantity, no less endure the training of every adult male. It's more effective if individuals so inclined purchase such weapon, ammunition an gear conducive to militia service on their own, and privately train with them (until called fourth to train as an organized militia), as George Washington instructed in his own militia act. The ability of the lay person to train with weapons on their own time has been used to great effect in many of the wars we've been in, as our conscripted men have been more familiar with their arms and better trained as marksmen than the conscripts of other countries which did not enjoy this benefit.
Also, you might want to take a look at what the Supreme Court in US v Miller says about the Dick Act.
The Supreme court weighed in on the applicability of short barreled shotguns to military service, and nothing more. US v Miller was not fully fully vetted, as Miller was killed before the case reached the Court, so the court reverted to a decision by a lower court because the government also dropped the case, leaving nobody to argue one way or the other. The supreme court in coming to the decision to reverse to the lower court's decision also ignored the input of two of its justices, who actually had relevant input regarding military application of short barreled shotguns during WWI, as they served in WWI. They also ignored that the USG ordered and issued some 40,000 short barreled and sawed off shotguns to troops in the trenches in Europe, clearly making them applicable to military service. During the course of the war the Germans called foul, saying the 00 buckshot used in these weapons was overkill and inhumane, the shotguns were obviously utilized in close quarters trench combat.
The supreme court affirmed the concept of assize of arms in that case, but from their understanding of the time, short barreled shotguns were not protected by the second amendment, because the lower court said such shotguns could not contribute to the common defense. But I'll humor you: Is there a particular part of the opinion you'd like to direct my attention to?
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the militia shall consist of every able-bodied male citizen of the respective States, Territories, and the District of Columbia, and every able-bodied male of foreign birth who has declared his intention to become a citizen, who is more than eighteen and less than forty-five years of age, and shall be divided into two classes -- the organized militia, to be known as the National Guard of the State, Territory, or District of Columbia, or by such other designations as may be given them by the laws of the respective States or Territories, and the remainder to be known as the Reserve Militia.
--Preamble to the The Dick Act of 1903.
Given the sentiment of pre-WWI USA, if we extend the rational used in this legislation to today, the bill would pretty much include every citizen... Yes, it would even cover women and those of African decent, who we now have no problems sending to war, whereas in 1903 it would have been basically unthinkable for a white man to fight alongside a black man or a woman. Nonetheless, as the situation exists even today (by law) every able bodied male age 18 to 45 is part of the reserve militia, which is by definition a body of citizen soldiers--what good is a militia if does not enjoy the benefit of armaments?
Oh, and by the way--this legislation is the basis for Selective Service style conscription, via the "reserve militia" one liner. Congress has used it a few times since this act passed (those little things we call WWI, WWII, Korea, and Vietnam), so you know, they're actually astutely aware of it. Why, I'm much younger than you claim to be, but even now I'm registered with the Selective Service System. For someone so versed in worldly knowledge, I'd think you'd know about its origins; every adult male US citizen alive today aught to acquaint himself with it.
Since we've established that both congress and President Theodore Roosevelt (at the very least) believed in the year of 1903, they should basically affirm the militia section of the second amendment, create a new type of organized militia, and that the unorganized militia (which existed previously, and still exists after this bill went into effect) was pretty much anyone and everyone under the sun who was both a US citizen, and who was also physically capable of serving in the organized militia... It's also assumed that a militia without access to contemporary military style weapons is worth...absolutely squat.
Now that we know your gun ownership predates this legislation, I have to ask, for a humble man of at least one hundred and nine years old, what kind of immortal are you, precisely?
Probably because they realise that when push comes to shove - they aren't John Wayne
Huh. I think it might have something to do with these mass murders overwhelmingly happening in so-called "gun free zones"; places where any normal citizen is a criminal if they carry their weapon, but madmen are free to violate the rule with a degree of impunity, you know, considering they usually intend to die therefore don't care much about losing their freedoms, or dragging their family into bankruptcy whilst defending themselves in a court of law.
On the other hand, most citizens who avail themselves of a concealed carry license really don't want to mess with the biggest gang of all, the police; and so they study the laws, where they can and cannot carry, and they generally make a good, if not paranoid effort to abide by those rules. Colleges, for instance, are a favorite target of crazed gunmen, rapists, robbers and other breeds of never-do-wells, but there are currently only two states in the which licensed concealed carry is positively preemptively legal on college campuses. One of those states flipped due to a state supreme court ruling only 16 weeks ago.
Your hero figure would have to be in exactly the right place and time, not be disarmed due gun free zone laws, or alternatively choose to disobey them, and he must also have the opportunity and testicular fortitude to fight the tactical advantage and self preservation guaranteed by fleeing, go contrary to any "duty to retreat" laws which might be in effect, and instead counter a rampaging lunatic...only to open this would-be hero to confusion with the evil-doer by arriving first responders and SWAT teams who have learned how colossally stupid it is to hang back and wait for reinforcements.
And you wonder why you're not aware of any such person?
You basically just described the Village's People's music video for In the Navy. The ad campaign was apparently canceled sometime after the completion of filming but before the project went live. I'd guess the out of touch higher-ups were informed the Village People had a very strong gay following despite their mainstream popularity of the time. The Navy plotted another course.
And that's all the more stupid. Playing with the idea, for a potential drug smuggler, there's dozens of ways around this. The least of which is taking dissimilar routes; or how about just swapping out stolen license plates / numbers off of cars which haven't been moved for a while. The plates might even be returned before anyone was the wiser. That would be a real challenge, right?
They're basically counting on criminals to be stupid. Maybe that's enough for things to look good on the books, but it's going to be kinda useless at catching the real dangerous criminals: the smart ones. Unless that is, this camera system is to tied to the DMV database, with instant updating and real-time cross referencing, and perhaps a heuristics system capable of determining vehicle model--Person of Interest style. Would they tell us about that part? I find that thought infinitely more troubling than silly data storage concerns.
I think an awful lot of these people were saying something when Bush was in office, but there wasn't the singularity of voice. There were grumblings about the wars, the patriot act, the movement towards a police state, government debt, etc. But there was little solidarity. There was distinct momentum building that direction in early 2007 with Ron Paul supporters for his bid in the 2008 election held a Tea Party event. You bet, many of these individuals were firmly against the bank bailouts when Bush's administration started down that road. The way I see it, the Tea Party largely rose as a response towards disappointment in the Republican party's leadership.
However, by the time the movement really started to gel, Obama was already in the White House. That's about the same time mainline GOP neocons saw how popular the movement was becoming, and that's about when it was infiltrated and its former purpose usurped. They took advantage of the movement's loose affiliation, grabbed the reins and made the biggest noise as TV talking heads.
Instead of being the voice of pro-small-government, pro-liberty, and pro-state's rights, it was now distilled into an anti-Obama, pro-GOP rhetoric machine. Make no mistake, many of the Tea Party's original supporters are disillusioned from what it has become, which is essentially a re-branding of typical republican neoconservativism, with 10% more populism.
You wanna see a real Tea Party affiliate? Look around the net, they're there. They're about as unsure of what evils Mitt Romney, (being a gun controlling, healthcare-passing, big government loving, Massachusetts RINO) might bring to the presidency, as they are uneasy of 4 more years of Obama, and what he might do as a lame duck president. I see so much dislike for Mitt and the other candidates (excluding Ron Paul of course) and dislike of the infighting during the primaries, so much that folks just might vote Obama or third party to spite the GOP.
Most marketing guys would take exception to this. Giving away your product is very dangerous, as free and worthless are concepts that the brain tends to lump together.
Maybe that's why marketing guys extort companies for millions, and more often than not, they fail to get results for their customers?
When Oprah had giveaways, they were consistently the most popular show. The new 2012 VW beetle scored ass-loads of publicity by having its silhouette reveled on her show. Everyone talked about it. News shows on competing networks, the internet, all over the place.
If GM would have spent that $40 million and gave away a chance to win a brand new car that averaged $20,000 *RETAIL* price (that's upwards of 2000 cars depending on the models, they could give away 30+ cars a week over the course of a year) in exchange for a like on their facebook page, they'd instantly have a direct connection to a big chunk of the US facebook population. It would be all over the net, the news....exposure and good will you couldn't buy for ten times the amount. They'd probably melt FB's database.
From there, they could give these free things VALUE by having interviews with the recipients telling everyone on the goddamn net what their new car means to them, relating GM cars to real Americans, who love their new car, instead of to disposable marketoid mercenaries. All of it delivered right to the homepage of millions of new fans. There's bound to be a few good stories, and the reality is, it would be cost neutral to a corp like GM.
Look at GoPro. They make a couple models of camera, and largely as a result of giving away everything they make to one person a day, and they have over 2 million likes. Every post they make goes to 2 million people. Orders magnitudes more people actually own a GM car or truck, and their flagship brand only has about a million likes. Huh.
Hell, if you put out a powerful enough broadcast, you could induce a signal right into the radio's amplifier, directly. I've had that happen with a truckers' way-overpowered CB radio bleeding over on my TV, telephone, stereo etc. It was kind of bizarre, even unpowered devices made audible sound.
Inverse square law considered, you'd need a massive transmitter to effect a significant number of these 'radios'.
Funny, I seem to remember from the pictures that the vast majority of the London looters, arsonists, muggers, etc. were disproportionately in the young white male category. The 'feral' description fails to apply people who act thus how, exactly?
To play the Socratic Devil's Advocate: Let's say they were mostly black and Muslim; when you make the conscious decision to not apply an adjective to a group of people on the sole basis that it might be taken as a racist remark, even when that adjective fits their behavior perfectly, who is the bigot then?
Slashdot Mirror
You're right on all but one point: If a law abiding citizen with CCW gets caught in a private venue with a no-guns policy, they'll be asked to leave, at the worst. If they refuse to leave, the cops will come, and they'll be arrested for trespassing--it's not really any different than violating a store's "no shirt, no shoes no service" policy. That's actually pretty universal across the US--excepting a few states which completely ban carry inside of bars and liquor stores even if you're not partaking in the alcohol, in which case simply being on premises can be enough for arrest.
You need to read more than corporate media accounts before you decide to get so close to branding them a violent group of people. Every big demonstration attracts people who want to be violent who may or may not have anything to do with group itself. It sounds like you are taking the corporate media story of the events for granted.
And thanks to the FBI et al. every big demonstration is also has a few agents provocateurs who will spur on and encourage the group to do something stupid. If OWS or any such group had any brains whatsoever, they'd proactively surround and throw a blanket party for anyone doing something illegal, violent or stupid, much as the immune system isolates and destroys infections. "We didn't see nothin', he must've tripped!"
Why do any of those men stay with the horribly screeching wives?
And why do those women stay with horribly insensitive, and often abusive, men?
A) There's usually an attractiveness disparity between the couple. The men are generally morons, and they are even more stupid looking. The TV wives are often disproportionately attractive relative to their TV spouse.
B) The male in the sitcom is often a big earner.
No, I mean a megathrust earthquake the likes of which may produce tsunamis capable of crippling any number of large cities & countries, simultaneously, virtually anywhere on that side of the Pacific Ocean (and Indian Ocean), you know, seeing how those areas account for the vast majority of oceanic fractures, subduction zones, trenches, etc. on planet Earth.
Yeah. Things might not be so bad when your close neighbors can come and help, but when their day is also ruined, things can start to suck, big time.
In other news, the world's leading myrmecologists were on scene and they translated the pheromone trail of the common black garden ant turned ant-amputee: "It's just a flesh wound!"
They say NZ's nuclear-free law extends only to their territorial waters--12 nautical miles from shore--not even out to the the 200 nautical mile "exclusive economic zone"; 12 NM hardly qualifies as a "long way" around NZ, particularly for a nuclear powered warship, which would typically not come that close to shore unless the ship was already going to port.
So, like most blahblah-free zones, it's basically just a feel-good measure. It's almost certianly more of an negative economic cost to business in NZ than anything else, since even diesel-powered US warships won't be able to visit NZ ports for provisions or other economic purposes, as the US Navy will refuse to confirm or deny that they have nuclear weapons on board any particular ship. Also, in the event of a natural disaster, the people of NZ might be in for even more hurt. The US Navy, more than any other force on the globe, is a massive resource for quickly sending out a great deal of logistical support for disaster relief. I wonder if they would suspend that policy in the event of a disaster, even though I hope that need never arises.
Autocrats will often seek to retain their power once they have it. The Roman Dictator position was supposed to be held only for 6 months at a maximum, and while some dictators gave up the position when business was done, it didn't always work, did it? How many modern dictators were elected by the people, or supported by the people during a coup where they promise a new democracy, only to shit on these promises shortly thereafter? Enough that the people of Venezuela, and the people of the world have every justification to be concerned!
Also, I'm not from NZ but even I know that NZ laws are a very far cry from a complete ban like ol' Hugo recently passed (basically by edict, that's what makes one a dictator), and excepting the U.S. NZ is one of the world's most liberalized states when it comes to guns--especially shotguns and bolt action rifles. Firearms are registered, one must take a safety class and pass a test, and if I remember right you also have to have endorsements from two people to certify you're not a lunatic; semiautomatic center-fire rifles of 10 rounds and less are also legal under the default license unless they have evil features such as a telescoping buttstock (so scary). You also have no regulation of sound suppressors whatsoever, which is relatively unique in the world.
The funny thing is that Venezuela new gun law won't do a thing to stop the criminals who are murdering people anonymously, and with impunity... Murder was already illegal after all. However, the government knows exactly where every law abiding shop owner and sportsman lives due to registration; they won't hesitate to make an example of a few of them! Yeah, that's not so funny for the good people of Venezuela after all. There's sure to be a lesson coming down the pipeline in all of this, but I'm sure plenty of people like you will be there to backup the jackbooted thugs and justify the things they'll do.
If you're going to call on "Nature's God" as used in the Declaration of Independence, you aught to realize that it's a Deistic term, representative of a creator who instigates a sort of grand universal clockwork, with a policy of non-intervention in said universe. Jefferson as well as many of the founders, subscribed the Age of Enlightenment philosophies, Deism was a big thing amongst the people behind the scene.
Deists hold that reason and scientific inspection of the natural world allow them to determine that a creator god is behind the whole thing, while simultaneously they reject any religious text that claims it is the work of god, they reject all dogma, claims of miracles, prophecies, and they also reject organized religion on the principal that it only serves to distract man from using his own reason to find evidence of god.
The god of the Jews and Christians and Nature's God of the Deists have about as much in common as a life raft and the aircraft carrier which bears it; they both float.
A similar situation: When I first got into mastering my own music to audio CD (around 1994-95) the CD-R drive alone was around $1500, disks were about $10 a pop, coastering of disks was way too common, burning a disk took half an hour (2X man, that was fast!), all of the software involved was proprietary and likewise expensive; worst of all, the dollar was worth significantly more!
I jumped in feet first and didn't complain, but look at where we're at today, a DVD-R drive costs about $20, media costs about a quarter when you buy in bulk, and it writes over 6 times the data in 1/5th of the time. We're spoiled by extremely inexpensive, highly capable electronics relative to just a few years ago. If this kind of device finds a niche, the prices will come down, quality and versatility will increase, the market will diversify, and maybe eventually every engineering, architectural and art student wouldn't want to be without their 3D printer.
Big 'ol stationary radars like this are very expensive, slow to deploy, easy to detect, and a prime target for something like the HARM, so much that even smaller AA placements will power their radar off if they believe such a missile is deployed. The newer models even have better ways to deal with that.
Unless the enemy has a foolproof way to defeat these kinds of threats, the expensive stealth aircraft still win, because they will either not want to lose the radar, or it will be quickly destroyed as a consequence of being used. In either eventuality, they'll fall back to their older, less powerful, less precise, and more abundant models.
Science education? Very useful for creating the zombie apocalypse. Also very tasty BRAAAINS!
Rational thinking? You're trying to bring this into story about which president would best deal with an alien invasion, and into a thread about Romney, Mormons and the zombie apocalypse, and Mormons being zombies, and Mitt Romney being in collusion with the zombie hive mind, what with the passing of laws which would enable the zombie invasion of Massachusetts. How stupid of you. You probably also debunk your friend's jokes because they violate special relativity, which is what makes them funny, and that makes you an unlikable loner without any friends.
Mitt also supported and or passed laws in Massachusetts which banned (or made harder and more expensive to own) the most useful weapons to be used in the coming zombie apocalypse.
He'll gladly let you have your single shot .22 and break-action shotgun, however we all know from the various documentary films that a even a zombified kindergartner will easily shrug off a .22, and the trap gun is only useful if you catch a zombie on the rise, otherwise you'll shoot right over the zombie's heads, and besides, they're absolutely way too long for use in tight spaces, and to slow to deal with zombie mobs effectively. Coincidence? I think not!
Militarization of the police is a big thing going on, and to me it's a really disturbing trend. Where you'd send a cop or two twenty years ago to safely arrest someone on the street, they now send in assault team dressed in black to bust the door down, with guns drawn, who shoot the dogs and anything or anyone else that looks remotely threatening. The worst part of it is I don't think we've even begin to see the beginning of it.
Government agencies not typically associated with the policing of -anything- are developing paramilitary squads. Example: recently the IRS put together a SWAT style team team. The DoE (education, not energy), Customs, the Department of Agriculture and EPA also have their own dedicated jackbooted goon squads, whereas in the past they'd bring in the FBI SWAT team if it were thought to be really necessary. Hell, the California Dept of Food & Agriculture sends in their own police squad to arrest...hippies dealing in raw foods. So, why the redundancy; are existing teams so occupied that it's necessary? Or is it because they're trying to get under the DHS umbrella, and have money bleeding out of their asses?
Some features of one of my jobs place me adjacent to local police, SWAT teams in particular. These teams draw in a lot of veterans retiring from the military, and many of the younger guys are newly-former special operators. They're naturals at every demand the job can throw at them, they've been there and done that, know how to operate as a team, and once they go though the police schools they naturally gravitate there. To say they're not becoming 'military' is wishful thinking. I don't have the data to back it up, but I'm sure it's a national trend.
Despite having a policey-looking uniform and a shiny badge, there is no such thing as an TSA agent carrying a gun, on a plane or anywhere else (undercover or otherwise), as part of their official duties. Maybe you're talking about Federal Air Marshals?
To be absolutely specific, plain cloths FAMs (Federal Air Marshals, that is) carry either a Sig Sauer P229 or more recently, a SIG P250 in 357 SIG, using Gold Dot jacketed hollow point ammo, very much the same as many police departments and civilians around the country use.
Quite the contrary, the Speer Gold Dot is a bullet constructed such that the jacket is bonded to the lead core, making it tougher and less prone to fragmenting, retaining its weight for better penetration, as it goes through things like sheet metal and automobile glass; it so happens the 125gr Gold Dot / 357 SIG combo is widely considered one of the better handgun bullets for shooting through the sorts of materials which constitute an aircraft's cabin...and still be effective against a human!
It does not say you get to carry an AR-15 to school...For future reference, if you get to the "Dick Act" you know you're talking to a serious gun whacko. It's best to just turn and walk away. I replied out of respect for a fellow Slashdot user.
Oh myyyyy... Pay no attention to what he says because he's a crazy gun loon; you know, what with the digging up of facts that are inconvenient to the cause I'm trying to promote! Just hyperbolize his argument until it's a parody of itself, and if you run out of ammunition trying to shoot down ideas, shoot down the man which holds them, in a final coup de grace! We're obviously dealing with a badass word wrangler here, unloading the whole nine yards of argumentative fallacies.
Oh and the Dick Act also says "able bodied men 18-45". So, are you ready to turn in your weapon at age 46?
It might work something like Switzerland. Each adult male who is conscripted is issued a *full auto* SIG assault rifle which is kept in the home, along with issued ammunition, and he goes off to train much as our organized militiamen. When his service period has ended (which might last up to 50 years of age), he's given the option of returning it, or he may retain it, in which case it's sent back to an armorer to be converted into semi-auto.
In a country the size and population of the United States, however, it would be an unreasonable financial burden to the government to issue weapons and ammunition in such quantity, no less endure the training of every adult male. It's more effective if individuals so inclined purchase such weapon, ammunition an gear conducive to militia service on their own, and privately train with them (until called fourth to train as an organized militia), as George Washington instructed in his own militia act. The ability of the lay person to train with weapons on their own time has been used to great effect in many of the wars we've been in, as our conscripted men have been more familiar with their arms and better trained as marksmen than the conscripts of other countries which did not enjoy this benefit.
Also, you might want to take a look at what the Supreme Court in US v Miller says about the Dick Act.
The Supreme court weighed in on the applicability of short barreled shotguns to military service, and nothing more. US v Miller was not fully fully vetted, as Miller was killed before the case reached the Court, so the court reverted to a decision by a lower court because the government also dropped the case, leaving nobody to argue one way or the other. The supreme court in coming to the decision to reverse to the lower court's decision also ignored the input of two of its justices, who actually had relevant input regarding military application of short barreled shotguns during WWI, as they served in WWI. They also ignored that the USG ordered and issued some 40,000 short barreled and sawed off shotguns to troops in the trenches in Europe, clearly making them applicable to military service. During the course of the war the Germans called foul, saying the 00 buckshot used in these weapons was overkill and inhumane, the shotguns were obviously utilized in close quarters trench combat.
The supreme court affirmed the concept of assize of arms in that case, but from their understanding of the time, short barreled shotguns were not protected by the second amendment, because the lower court said such shotguns could not contribute to the common defense. But I'll humor you: Is there a particular part of the opinion you'd like to direct my attention to?
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the militia shall consist of every able-bodied male citizen of the respective States, Territories, and the District of Columbia, and every able-bodied male of foreign birth who has declared his intention to become a citizen, who is more than eighteen and less than forty-five years of age, and shall be divided into two classes -- the organized militia, to be known as the National Guard of the State, Territory, or District of Columbia, or by such other designations as may be given them by the laws of the respective States or Territories, and the remainder to be known as the Reserve Militia.
--Preamble to the The Dick Act of 1903.
Given the sentiment of pre-WWI USA, if we extend the rational used in this legislation to today, the bill would pretty much include every citizen... Yes, it would even cover women and those of African decent, who we now have no problems sending to war, whereas in 1903 it would have been basically unthinkable for a white man to fight alongside a black man or a woman. Nonetheless, as the situation exists even today (by law) every able bodied male age 18 to 45 is part of the reserve militia, which is by definition a body of citizen soldiers--what good is a militia if does not enjoy the benefit of armaments?
Oh, and by the way--this legislation is the basis for Selective Service style conscription, via the "reserve militia" one liner. Congress has used it a few times since this act passed (those little things we call WWI, WWII, Korea, and Vietnam), so you know, they're actually astutely aware of it. Why, I'm much younger than you claim to be, but even now I'm registered with the Selective Service System. For someone so versed in worldly knowledge, I'd think you'd know about its origins; every adult male US citizen alive today aught to acquaint himself with it.
Since we've established that both congress and President Theodore Roosevelt (at the very least) believed in the year of 1903, they should basically affirm the militia section of the second amendment, create a new type of organized militia, and that the unorganized militia (which existed previously, and still exists after this bill went into effect) was pretty much anyone and everyone under the sun who was both a US citizen, and who was also physically capable of serving in the organized militia... It's also assumed that a militia without access to contemporary military style weapons is worth...absolutely squat.
Now that we know your gun ownership predates this legislation, I have to ask, for a humble man of at least one hundred and nine years old, what kind of immortal are you, precisely?
Probably because they realise that when push comes to shove - they aren't John Wayne
Huh. I think it might have something to do with these mass murders overwhelmingly happening in so-called "gun free zones"; places where any normal citizen is a criminal if they carry their weapon, but madmen are free to violate the rule with a degree of impunity, you know, considering they usually intend to die therefore don't care much about losing their freedoms, or dragging their family into bankruptcy whilst defending themselves in a court of law.
On the other hand, most citizens who avail themselves of a concealed carry license really don't want to mess with the biggest gang of all, the police; and so they study the laws, where they can and cannot carry, and they generally make a good, if not paranoid effort to abide by those rules. Colleges, for instance, are a favorite target of crazed gunmen, rapists, robbers and other breeds of never-do-wells, but there are currently only two states in the which licensed concealed carry is positively preemptively legal on college campuses. One of those states flipped due to a state supreme court ruling only 16 weeks ago.
Your hero figure would have to be in exactly the right place and time, not be disarmed due gun free zone laws, or alternatively choose to disobey them, and he must also have the opportunity and testicular fortitude to fight the tactical advantage and self preservation guaranteed by fleeing, go contrary to any "duty to retreat" laws which might be in effect, and instead counter a rampaging lunatic...only to open this would-be hero to confusion with the evil-doer by arriving first responders and SWAT teams who have learned how colossally stupid it is to hang back and wait for reinforcements.
And you wonder why you're not aware of any such person?
Bah. Some good old fashioned asphyxiation just adds to the euphoria.
That deserves an internet high five.
You basically just described the Village's People's music video for In the Navy. The ad campaign was apparently canceled sometime after the completion of filming but before the project went live. I'd guess the out of touch higher-ups were informed the Village People had a very strong gay following despite their mainstream popularity of the time. The Navy plotted another course.
And that's all the more stupid. Playing with the idea, for a potential drug smuggler, there's dozens of ways around this. The least of which is taking dissimilar routes; or how about just swapping out stolen license plates / numbers off of cars which haven't been moved for a while. The plates might even be returned before anyone was the wiser. That would be a real challenge, right?
They're basically counting on criminals to be stupid. Maybe that's enough for things to look good on the books, but it's going to be kinda useless at catching the real dangerous criminals: the smart ones. Unless that is, this camera system is to tied to the DMV database, with instant updating and real-time cross referencing, and perhaps a heuristics system capable of determining vehicle model--Person of Interest style. Would they tell us about that part? I find that thought infinitely more troubling than silly data storage concerns.
I think an awful lot of these people were saying something when Bush was in office, but there wasn't the singularity of voice. There were grumblings about the wars, the patriot act, the movement towards a police state, government debt, etc. But there was little solidarity. There was distinct momentum building that direction in early 2007 with Ron Paul supporters for his bid in the 2008 election held a Tea Party event. You bet, many of these individuals were firmly against the bank bailouts when Bush's administration started down that road. The way I see it, the Tea Party largely rose as a response towards disappointment in the Republican party's leadership.
However, by the time the movement really started to gel, Obama was already in the White House. That's about the same time mainline GOP neocons saw how popular the movement was becoming, and that's about when it was infiltrated and its former purpose usurped. They took advantage of the movement's loose affiliation, grabbed the reins and made the biggest noise as TV talking heads.
Instead of being the voice of pro-small-government, pro-liberty, and pro-state's rights, it was now distilled into an anti-Obama, pro-GOP rhetoric machine. Make no mistake, many of the Tea Party's original supporters are disillusioned from what it has become, which is essentially a re-branding of typical republican neoconservativism, with 10% more populism.
You wanna see a real Tea Party affiliate? Look around the net, they're there. They're about as unsure of what evils Mitt Romney, (being a gun controlling, healthcare-passing, big government loving, Massachusetts RINO) might bring to the presidency, as they are uneasy of 4 more years of Obama, and what he might do as a lame duck president. I see so much dislike for Mitt and the other candidates (excluding Ron Paul of course) and dislike of the infighting during the primaries, so much that folks just might vote Obama or third party to spite the GOP.
Most marketing guys would take exception to this. Giving away your product is very dangerous, as free and worthless are concepts that the brain tends to lump together.
Maybe that's why marketing guys extort companies for millions, and more often than not, they fail to get results for their customers?
When Oprah had giveaways, they were consistently the most popular show. The new 2012 VW beetle scored ass-loads of publicity by having its silhouette reveled on her show. Everyone talked about it. News shows on competing networks, the internet, all over the place.
If GM would have spent that $40 million and gave away a chance to win a brand new car that averaged $20,000 *RETAIL* price (that's upwards of 2000 cars depending on the models, they could give away 30+ cars a week over the course of a year) in exchange for a like on their facebook page, they'd instantly have a direct connection to a big chunk of the US facebook population. It would be all over the net, the news....exposure and good will you couldn't buy for ten times the amount. They'd probably melt FB's database.
From there, they could give these free things VALUE by having interviews with the recipients telling everyone on the goddamn net what their new car means to them, relating GM cars to real Americans, who love their new car, instead of to disposable marketoid mercenaries. All of it delivered right to the homepage of millions of new fans. There's bound to be a few good stories, and the reality is, it would be cost neutral to a corp like GM.
Look at GoPro. They make a couple models of camera, and largely as a result of giving away everything they make to one person a day, and they have over 2 million likes. Every post they make goes to 2 million people. Orders magnitudes more people actually own a GM car or truck, and their flagship brand only has about a million likes. Huh.
There's nothing that's completely unjammable.
Hell, if you put out a powerful enough broadcast, you could induce a signal right into the radio's amplifier, directly. I've had that happen with a truckers' way-overpowered CB radio bleeding over on my TV, telephone, stereo etc. It was kind of bizarre, even unpowered devices made audible sound.
Inverse square law considered, you'd need a massive transmitter to effect a significant number of these 'radios'.
Funny, I seem to remember from the pictures that the vast majority of the London looters, arsonists, muggers, etc. were disproportionately in the young white male category. The 'feral' description fails to apply people who act thus how, exactly?
To play the Socratic Devil's Advocate: Let's say they were mostly black and Muslim; when you make the conscious decision to not apply an adjective to a group of people on the sole basis that it might be taken as a racist remark, even when that adjective fits their behavior perfectly, who is the bigot then?