The measure is intended to curb violent crime in Venezuela....
I call Red Herring: The true reason to confiscate the people's weaponry is to make it less likely for there to be a successful uprising against Hugo Chavez's increasingly despotic rule.
It isn't the amount, it's the sheer amateurishness of the operation and the subsequent loss of trust.
Banks, exchanges, and other monetary systems, including currencies themselves, can only function when there exists an implied trust that the system will continue to function, and do so reliably. A loss of that trust is what causes bank runs, hyperinflation, and economic collapses.
You just try to tell your typical PHB that there's something out there besides Office, or that the workstation and the Operating System are two separate things, and watch their eyes instantly glaze over.
....Try reading the corporate SOP.
Step Two: When in doubt, ask.
Step Three: If the SOP isn't something you can abide by, find another job. Dishonesty WILL ruin your career.
Throughout history, the most accurate depiction of human civilization is that of a man running for his life, with a pack of ravening wolves snapping at his heels.
So; what else is new?
"In terms of federal research, in 1980 the federal government provided about 70% of all dollars spent on basic research, but since then the government's share of basic research funding given to all entities has fallen to 57%."
You mean to tell me that this is part of the beef? That Great God Government (beat head three times on the floor in the direction of Washington) now has less control over what people can research?
Can someone explain to me why this is a bad thing?
It's amazing how little a grasp of basic engineering, or even common sense, your typical journalist has, or any other people who actually believe this bunk.
1) How does one "jam" a tight-beam satellite uplink? Electronic Warfare has been around for just as long as there has been radios on the battlefield, and people actually think that the possibility of jamming didn't occur to the craft's designers?
2) Jamming GPS, however, *can* be done; you just have to be louder than the broadcast signal. HOWEVER, see the first item. The possibility never occurred to the designers?
3) In order to "spoof" a GPS to such a precise degree as to make the aircraft land would require the Iranians to know the precise location (within a meter or two) of the craft in relationship to the terrain below it. A stealthed aircraft that even American systems have difficulty detecting, mind you. Otherwise, drone goes SPLAT.
4) Even assuming a miracle happens and 3) is actually accomplished, the aircraft is now scooting along the ground at several hundred miles per hour. How do you tell the craft to shut down its engine? Better yet, how do you get it to drop its landing gear?
So; after all this, let's play a bit of Occam's Razor: The drone suffered a major malfunction and splattered itself across the face of a mountain somewhere. The Iranians, in the hopes of deterring the Americans from sending more drones, cook up this cock-and-bull story of being able to bring the drones down intact. Their "proof" is a fiberglass model put together from released photos and media footage (Oh, look! The landing gear just *happens* to be concealed! Possibly because the Iranians don't know what it's supposed to look like?).
Now; doesn't this sound just a little bit more plausible?
I have a different theory than the author's "death march" one: Public school is a hidebound, bureaucratic, union-strangled monstrosity that does little to nothing to prepare people for the real world. As a result, when these same students hit college and the "hard" sciences, the result is the same as a tomato hitting a brick wall at speed.
I used to be an engineering instructor, and I saw it all the time. It's one of the primary reasons that many colleges require freshman "remedial" courses upon entry, to get the students caught-up on subjects the students should have learned in public school.
I have an even better idea: Abolish the "visa" system that allows businesses to import foreigners willing to work for starvation wages. While you're at it, overhaul the tax code so corporations aren't effectively rewarded for exporting those same jobs to a clump of mud hits on the lee side of the Hindu Kush.
"The changes announced this week are designed to ease the pressure on struggling graduates."
Guess I screwed-up. Instead of choosing a major with a good chance of generating fiscal success and paying as I went, I should have gone for some glitzy, relatively-useless piece of parchment and run up the bar tab while I was at it.
That way, it would me who was being bribed by a two-faced politician using my own money.
Fine.
YOU go into a failed country, and YOU kill him, up-close and personal.
Typical little hypocrite: When the crap comes down they're the first ones to scream "DO SOMETHING!" Then they immediately turn-around and start tut-tutting when someone (not THEM, guaranteed) actually does DO something.
Slashdot Mirror
The measure is intended to curb violent crime in Venezuela....
I call Red Herring: The true reason to confiscate the people's weaponry is to make it less likely for there to be a successful uprising against Hugo Chavez's increasingly despotic rule.
Then here it is:
"We've always done it this way."
Honest, I swear.
It isn't the amount, it's the sheer amateurishness of the operation and the subsequent loss of trust.
Banks, exchanges, and other monetary systems, including currencies themselves, can only function when there exists an implied trust that the system will continue to function, and do so reliably. A loss of that trust is what causes bank runs, hyperinflation, and economic collapses.
Bitcoin has destroyed that trust. They're toast.
"....can they pull it off again?"
Sure; and I can tell you why in three words:
Pointy. Haired. Bosses.
You just try to tell your typical PHB that there's something out there besides Office, or that the workstation and the Operating System are two separate things, and watch their eyes instantly glaze over.
Hell, we still use Centrex in this dump!
....Professional-level OPSEC from amateurs?
XD
....Try reading the corporate SOP.
Step Two: When in doubt, ask.
Step Three: If the SOP isn't something you can abide by, find another job. Dishonesty WILL ruin your career.
Just because governments change doesn't mean cultures have to.
Ridiculously easy: Check-out what's sitting outside the equipment hut of pretty-much every cellular tower in North America.
....Still on Centrex, and paying AT&T boo-koo bucks every month for the privilege. :(
When you screw-up, blame "nefarious outside forces."
Works every time.
I had a pilot once who demanded to know EXACTLY what was wrong with his aircraft.
So, I told him.
After that, whenever something went wrong, he'd stay in the pilot lounge until I told him it was safe to come out.
Throughout history, the most accurate depiction of human civilization is that of a man running for his life, with a pack of ravening wolves snapping at his heels. So; what else is new?
"In terms of federal research, in 1980 the federal government provided about 70% of all dollars spent on basic research, but since then the government's share of basic research funding given to all entities has fallen to 57%."
You mean to tell me that this is part of the beef? That Great God Government (beat head three times on the floor in the direction of Washington) now has less control over what people can research?
Can someone explain to me why this is a bad thing?
....Or any web content the particular pack of yahoos currently in power just happens to not agree with?
It's called "Facebook," and twits are lining-up to dump their entire lives into it.
It's amazing how little a grasp of basic engineering, or even common sense, your typical journalist has, or any other people who actually believe this bunk.
1) How does one "jam" a tight-beam satellite uplink? Electronic Warfare has been around for just as long as there has been radios on the battlefield, and people actually think that the possibility of jamming didn't occur to the craft's designers?
2) Jamming GPS, however, *can* be done; you just have to be louder than the broadcast signal. HOWEVER, see the first item. The possibility never occurred to the designers?
3) In order to "spoof" a GPS to such a precise degree as to make the aircraft land would require the Iranians to know the precise location (within a meter or two) of the craft in relationship to the terrain below it. A stealthed aircraft that even American systems have difficulty detecting, mind you. Otherwise, drone goes SPLAT.
4) Even assuming a miracle happens and 3) is actually accomplished, the aircraft is now scooting along the ground at several hundred miles per hour. How do you tell the craft to shut down its engine? Better yet, how do you get it to drop its landing gear?
So; after all this, let's play a bit of Occam's Razor: The drone suffered a major malfunction and splattered itself across the face of a mountain somewhere. The Iranians, in the hopes of deterring the Americans from sending more drones, cook up this cock-and-bull story of being able to bring the drones down intact. Their "proof" is a fiberglass model put together from released photos and media footage (Oh, look! The landing gear just *happens* to be concealed! Possibly because the Iranians don't know what it's supposed to look like?).
Now; doesn't this sound just a little bit more plausible?
Seems no matter where you go and no matter how ludicrous the subject, "IT'S FOR THE CHIIIILLLLDREN!" always wins. :\
....If you tell them "Add a newsletter subscription form", they will add the form, sure, a form that does nothing when you click Submit....
Wow; sounds just like your typical Union guy.
Ford does in-house software development with help from Microsoft.
Oh. My. God.
~Higgins
I have a different theory than the author's "death march" one: Public school is a hidebound, bureaucratic, union-strangled monstrosity that does little to nothing to prepare people for the real world. As a result, when these same students hit college and the "hard" sciences, the result is the same as a tomato hitting a brick wall at speed.
I used to be an engineering instructor, and I saw it all the time. It's one of the primary reasons that many colleges require freshman "remedial" courses upon entry, to get the students caught-up on subjects the students should have learned in public school.
Yo! B.O.!
I have an even better idea: Abolish the "visa" system that allows businesses to import foreigners willing to work for starvation wages. While you're at it, overhaul the tax code so corporations aren't effectively rewarded for exporting those same jobs to a clump of mud hits on the lee side of the Hindu Kush.
"The changes announced this week are designed to ease the pressure on struggling graduates."
Guess I screwed-up. Instead of choosing a major with a good chance of generating fiscal success and paying as I went, I should have gone for some glitzy, relatively-useless piece of parchment and run up the bar tab while I was at it.
That way, it would me who was being bribed by a two-faced politician using my own money.
"TSA has always intended to expand beyond the confines of airport terminals."
But of course: A bureaucracy's first priority is to survive. The second is to EXPAND.
'Nuff said.
Fine.
YOU go into a failed country, and YOU kill him, up-close and personal.
Typical little hypocrite: When the crap comes down they're the first ones to scream "DO SOMETHING!" Then they immediately turn-around and start tut-tutting when someone (not THEM, guaranteed) actually does DO something.
. . . is taking a belt-fed to the boardroom.