What really puts it over the top for me is that the surveys were prelabeled with each students name. I remember when I took a similiar survey in middle school that the forms were anonymous. We could write in our names if we wanted but there was no pressure to do so and there were no visible unique identifiers on the forms.
Not that it mattered a whole lot to me, I was one of those kids that never did anything fun enough to make it onto those surveys. I just remember thinking that if I had answered yes to any of those questions there was no way in hell I'd be putting my name to it.
That's not a very good comparison because they don't share a lot outside of the body and chasis. There is about a 700 pound weight difference which of course means they handle differently, but the Roadster is still under 3000 pounds. I drove a Porsche 944 for years that was heavier than that and was renowned for it's handling characteristics. For handling weight distribution is far more important than absolute weight. One of the reasons the Model S apparently handles so well is that the battery pack is under the floor boards which gives it a very low and well balenced center of gravity. Anyways in real races cars aren't classed by their appearance but instead by their performance.
I had a friend that put nearly as much oil in his truck as gas some days. The engines seals were all bad but he couldn't afford to stop driving it every day for long enough to rebuild or replace it. He probably spent 4 months driving it like that.
I was pretty sure I had read about implantable RFID chips that worked like one of those authenticator token keyfob things. Since the chip is using the power radiated to it by the scanner to send the return signal I wouldn't think it would take much to do that simple bit of processing and return a different string each time. I googled but all I could find was the bit about clubs in Barcelona experimenting with the technology.
Agreed, Alt+F4 has always worked for me. What does tick me off though is that there doesn't seem to be any way to accomplish the same thing with the mouse. Occasionally I use my computer while holding my infant son, or heck eating a sandwich. Being forced to rely on keyboard shortcuts for functionality that has been available via the mouse for the last decade and a half is frustrating to say the least.
I could be wrong on this but it is my understand that you can't appeal an ongoing contempt of court confinement. You haven't technically been convicted of that and so can't appeal it to another court.
There is some guy in New England I think who is believed to have hidden large sums of money overseas in order to keep his ex-wife from getting any of it. During the divorce procedings she made this accusation and the judge decided that there was enough substance to the accusation to compel him to reveal these assets. Last I heard that man had been in jail for years on end because he refuses to give up the assets, whether or not they actually exist. I hope the money exists and that he's just being spiteful, if it doesn't exist the dude is in a seriously screwed up situation.
Baloney, the risk on a Mortgage is the same for the bank whether or not you pay the loan off over the course of decades or weeks. Well that's not true, the risk is lower if you pay it all off quickly. The longer the terms the higher the risk because there is a better chance that you'll have some catastrophic life event and not be able to pay that happens to correspond with a downturn in the value of the collateral. Regardless the interest rates are relatively low first because the Property you are purchasing with the loan is also usually the collateral, so risk is very low compared to an unsecured loan of any type. Secondly the Federal Banks, especially in the US, have been loaning money to banks for very low rates for decades now and that savings has been passed on to consumers in the form of lower interest rates. Besides all of that though mortgages typically have rather hefty upfront fees associated with them which makes them a poor option for short term financing needs where the value of the needed loan is far lower than your property value.
The bank will gouge you on shorter term loans because they can and you don't have reasonable alternatives. Although in the banks defense usually short term loans like that are relatively or completely unsecured, so their risk is higher and so warrant a higher interest payment to cover the extra defaults that will happen. The banks don't actually care what the purpose of your loan is so long as the collateral more than covers it. It's only once you start talking unsecured loans that they'll get concerned over the purpose, and mortgages by definition are not unsecured loans.
Banks object to you paying off loans ahead of schedule for one reason and one reason only, idle capital. For example, say the bank had allocated $100K to a mortgage and were earning a safe 5% or whatever on it each year. Then you show up and pay off the remaining principle. Now they have all of their $100K back, but now it's actually losing them money because inflation is a constant thing. So instead of getting their bit of principle plus interest back this year they lose some percentage of it until they can find another place to invest that capital.
So I can't blame them for wanting such a clause but I'll never sign or co-sign such an agreement if I can possibly help it.
I'd love to see a nationwide push to bury power and phone lines. That would save a lot of money in the long run from storm damage and while we were at it we could lay municipal owned fiber optic lines.
Apparently that has been the preffered method in Breat Britian. The tire burns hot enough to completely destroy the inards while leaving the armored steel case just scorched. The red light cameras I've seen in my area aren't as prone to this sort of attack though as the cases are shaped differently enough that getting the tire to stay put would be a major problem. Although I guess you could just use some steel cabling to attach the tire.
Subscription and or paying for the usage are perfectly viable methods so long as they aren't priced outrageously. I would consider paying for a Cable service again sometime if I could actually choose the channels I wanted and not have to waste my time fast forwarding through commercials.
The supposed free services are not free if you are obstucting the content with ads like Youtube does, it is costing me more of my time and attention than it would cost me otherwise. If businesses decide to implement that as their sole option for using their service then they can drop the indignation when the users take easy and obvious steps to avoid the things that annoy us.
I'm a slightly stingy bastard. I don't think I've ever purchased something through or because of an advertisment. I understand that ads aren't always supposed to work that way, brand recognition is a valid sneaky strategy. But I can't think of anything that I've bought were in retrospect I can point to a commercial or advertisment that could have been an influence.
Again as others have said, as a user I've never seen that TOS displayed. Expecting that I have read it magically somehow when it's never been presented to me is not going to hold up in court.
The very idea that each user should seek out and read the TOS for any site they happen to visit is comical enough that it won't hold water.
A. Do not ever admit guilt unless they can already prove it beyond any doubt.
B. Don't ever try and explain where or how a virus/exploit came from unless it can be proven to have come from your legal oposition and so might prove wrong doing on their part.
C. Establish a pattern of periodically wiping your machine and starting from a clean image. That's a reasonably healthy thing to do anyway.
I once served hot chocolate with a boiled fly to my wife. I had prep'd a couple mugs with the hot chocolate powder and then went to do some chore while the water boiled. I came back in a few minutes and filled the mugs up without inspecting their insides. My wife was soon wondering why something with a little chew was in her sip. Apparently a fly had decided to taste test the hot chocolate and got a boiling bath. No, I still haven't lived that one down.
I think at least for those things it's easier to eat them because they are meatier. For instance you can break open a crab leg and get a big hunk of muscle to eat. My Father enjoys sardines which always seemed disgusting to me because I remember him telling me if they gutted them their wouldn't be anything to eat. Personally I'm not real big on eating internal organs. When I think about eating most insects it would seem to be a sardines kind of deal.
All that said I think if they started making Buggy Burgers or something using bugs that were thoroughly processed enough that I wasn't crunching on carapace bits and was produced under sanitary conditions I'd be cool with trying them out.
I've had it happen with brown rice. We found out that you can just freeze it for at least 24 hours and that kills the larva and eggs. So now pretty much any rice we buy goes in the freezer when it gets home for a day or two. If you go to a walmart and walk down the aisle with the brown rice you'll likely notice a few meal moths fluttering around.
I quit before some of those features were implemented and certainly before they were very popular. What always suprised me was how horrible the LFG tools were. In EQ we had a simple gui that showed you who was LFG and they could put in a little comment that was usually used to specify if you had a preference for what you wanted to do. When putting together a group it was good because people weren't autojoined, both the group and the individual could pick and choose who they grouped up with. In WoW you had to queue up for specific instances, that you met the lvl reqs for, and then the server would make the decisions for you. I don't think I ever sucessfully used a meeting stone to form a group, we only ever used them to summon a person already in the group to save them and us the time of travel.
EQ at least for the first 5 years or so managed progression much better in my opinion though it still had issues.
I would like to see MMO's adding more sideways expansion rather than just adding to the top. In EQ most of the early expansions released with a full level range of zones as well as adding new raid content. But even though they were adding new raiding content the old stuff rarely got completely obsoleted. I remember doing Avatar of War raids and it still being a challenge after Planes of Power had been around for at least 6 months.
Well the concern is that they don't necessarily have to bring any of the illegally obtained evidence up in court, but it could still help build a case that wouldn't otherwise exist.
The point is that they should not be operating in an illegal manner whether or not it would jeopardize a criminal case. What if the DoJ next decides that torture is acceptable. Do you really think that just because it can't be used in court that there wouldn't be any negative outcomes from that stance?
Comparing Iraq and Afghanistan to a theorized citizen insurrection within the US is foolish all around. For starters there are probably more hunters with scoped rifles in the US than there are military members in total. The military does not posses and can not quickly procure enough body armor capable of stopping rifle rounds to protect probably even 10% of it's forces. Military members by and large do not reside on military installations but are instead living among the population, which would be a security nightmare. Military bases are very weakly protected within our borders. Vital equipment for things like base defense are stocked at laughable levels for most installations. Weapons and materials for manufacturing IEDs and more weapons are much more widely available within the US than they were in either of the countries we invaded. Those are all just some of the physical problems with the idea of suppressing a popular rebellion, not to mention that our goverment doesn't have a ready supply of Hussars to use so it doesn't have soldiers with large mental conflicts.
Without guns the KKK would have still pulled the same crap. They acted in gangs and in an environment where they had enough popular support or at least everyone turned a blind eye. Armed slave owners never convinced the Feds to allow slavery, slavery was present in the US nearly from it's inception and was kept after the revolution because enough of our founding fathers were still assholes in that regard. Even when slavery ended with the civil war it continued in spirit because a large enough part of the population continued to be assholes. Over time things have changed and we are a more enlightened society today than we were then, not that we're perfect yet. None of it though had anything to do with evil gun owners. Things have ever only really improved when the population at large decides to change it.
I don't think any credible person would advocate violence as the first, second or even third option in correcting our government. Removing the option as a possibility is foolish and disarming the populace has historically proven to be on the checklists for many a tyrannical government.
I don't think it would be illegal. The only reason that this is an issue is because they either can't or won't break the encryption themselves. Instead they are trying to compel the suspect to divulge information that could be inciminating. If they had other evidence proving that there was evidence on the encrypted device then they could legally compell the suspect to do so.
So far as breaking the encyption there are a couple possibilities in play. The government might have access to the computing power or theniques necessary but it is doubtful that some generic police department or prosecutor would have access to even the knowledge that such a resource was available. The government wouldn't want to tip their hand in that kind of way when they can continue to let our enemies think their communications are secure.
Personally I think it's unlikely that any government possesses a computer capable of breaking the best current encryption protocols. But if they did we'd never know about it until long after it was useful information.
I think the disconnect here is rooted in two things:
1. How quickly we as individuals think the society and economy can or will react to major changes in the cost of labor. Lower labor costs as roman_mir has said mean that everything can be a lot cheaper and hence available in large quantity, variety and qualities. Products can also improve in important ways while staying at the same relative price or even becoming cheaper. Personal electronics are an excellent example of this trend. However not everything that scales in the same way. So while you can buy a lot more computing power for your buck today than you could 30 years ago despite inflation the same is not true for other things like automobiles and housing.
I can understand disagreeing with Warren on political rhetoric but she has done some very interesting research. One of the things she has shown is that since the 70's the costs for many things have gone down relative to our spending power, while others have gotten worse. And the things that have gotten worse are typically longer term choices that you can't just cut back on in a financial crisis. Food has gotten cheaper, which is good, but that is also one of the areas that people, especially fat people like me, can rapidly cut back on in a crisis. You can't cut it all the way buy half it or more should be pretty easy. Meanwhile the cost of transportation has gone up, in a financial crisis you likely can't just tell the bank you'll be paying half your car note until things improve, the same is true for housing, health insurance, and other large outstanding loans. So basically the things that are easier for consumers to control spending on have gotten cheaper, but the big things that they can't control on a short term basis have gotten more expensive.
Of course just because that's what happened over the last thirty years or so doesn't mean that the trend will continue. And a lot of that is likely tied up in consumer expectations. For instance we own more cars today and many families don't plan to ever have only one wage earner.
2. Because of the way our economy and taxes are structured wealth continues to be accumulated at the very tippity top of the social structure faster than it is created. This doesn't make anyone evil. This happens because wealthy people tend to make rational decisions about what to do with their resources. There is some discussion of asshatery when small subsets of that group lobby for more preferential tax treatment but that's not anything that others wouldn't do if their resources allowed them to.
Extreme wealth accumulation is a problem because it inevitably leads to social unrest. The masses at the bottom eventually get to a point where their situation becomes intolerable enough that they revolt in one way or another. Such a revolution is why at least some of my ancestors came to the US, they were associated with french aristocracy. And while no one likes targeted taxes much I think most of us can say we'd rather that than face a reign of terror or similiar upheaval.
Not to mention that we already do have large segments of the population doing alternative things to get what they want. Unfortunately a lot of that activity is illegal. The danger to society is how rapidly these changes take place and whether or not the populations most directly affected have time to adapt. In the end disenfranchising large groups of your populace is a dangerous move for everyone involved.
The worst that could happen is that a large group of people are put in jeodardy of starvation and instead of doing so quietly they revolt. Such a revolt would inevitably cause more suffering.
Not that I disagree but this could be a much more difficult case to figure out because ricin is a much easier substance to get ahold of than an anthrax culture.
In my office actually the first thing we started discussing was what new regulations and loss of rights we'd face. Sure it sucks that some people died and that hundreds of others were injured, but we don't know those people, we probably don't even know anyone that knows those people. However we have all had our lives affected by the lose of rights following 9/11. Of course we are going to talk about what will have a real impact on our lives. Besides I'd rather talk about things that can still be influenced.
What good is there in endlessly crying about the victims that we have no connection to? I would never fault someone who is actually connected to those people for having an emotional reaction but I can honestly say I didn't miss a blink of sleep over their pain and suffering lastnight. In fact since the regularly scheduled broadcasts were all screwed up by the media whoring I just watched some streamed episodes and played some pc games.
1. There are usually no points associated with the offense. So if you can pay the fine you are able to carry on indefinitely with the law breaking without worrying about being stopped and actually called on your bad behaviour.
2. As an added benefit of being just a civil fine instead of a criminal violation the standard of proof is much lower meaning it's harder to defend and makes it that much more likely you'll just pay the fee.
3. It has been reported more times than I can count that speed limits and light timing have been adjusted to increase the chances of people triggering the automated system. Sometimes this has even been written into the lease contracts for the systems.
4. I want to say this happened in Chicago but can't remember for sure. A few years ago during the first heavy snowfalls after installing red light enforcement cameras there was a bit in the news about the cameras sending out many times their normal number of fines. It turned out they were giving out fines for turning right from straight only lanes during red lights. People were turning from the straight only lane because the turning lane was buried under several feet of packed snowbank. The city when confronted by a news outlet admitted that the fines were improper but refused to just dismiss and stop issuing them, instead each person needed to show up at the scheduled court dates for each fine to contest it. All that even though their city ordinances required an actual police officer to review each photo fine before sending it out.
Slashdot Mirror
What really puts it over the top for me is that the surveys were prelabeled with each students name. I remember when I took a similiar survey in middle school that the forms were anonymous. We could write in our names if we wanted but there was no pressure to do so and there were no visible unique identifiers on the forms.
Not that it mattered a whole lot to me, I was one of those kids that never did anything fun enough to make it onto those surveys. I just remember thinking that if I had answered yes to any of those questions there was no way in hell I'd be putting my name to it.
That's not a very good comparison because they don't share a lot outside of the body and chasis. There is about a 700 pound weight difference which of course means they handle differently, but the Roadster is still under 3000 pounds. I drove a Porsche 944 for years that was heavier than that and was renowned for it's handling characteristics. For handling weight distribution is far more important than absolute weight. One of the reasons the Model S apparently handles so well is that the battery pack is under the floor boards which gives it a very low and well balenced center of gravity. Anyways in real races cars aren't classed by their appearance but instead by their performance.
I had a friend that put nearly as much oil in his truck as gas some days. The engines seals were all bad but he couldn't afford to stop driving it every day for long enough to rebuild or replace it. He probably spent 4 months driving it like that.
I was pretty sure I had read about implantable RFID chips that worked like one of those authenticator token keyfob things. Since the chip is using the power radiated to it by the scanner to send the return signal I wouldn't think it would take much to do that simple bit of processing and return a different string each time. I googled but all I could find was the bit about clubs in Barcelona experimenting with the technology.
Agreed, Alt+F4 has always worked for me. What does tick me off though is that there doesn't seem to be any way to accomplish the same thing with the mouse. Occasionally I use my computer while holding my infant son, or heck eating a sandwich. Being forced to rely on keyboard shortcuts for functionality that has been available via the mouse for the last decade and a half is frustrating to say the least.
I could be wrong on this but it is my understand that you can't appeal an ongoing contempt of court confinement. You haven't technically been convicted of that and so can't appeal it to another court.
There is some guy in New England I think who is believed to have hidden large sums of money overseas in order to keep his ex-wife from getting any of it. During the divorce procedings she made this accusation and the judge decided that there was enough substance to the accusation to compel him to reveal these assets. Last I heard that man had been in jail for years on end because he refuses to give up the assets, whether or not they actually exist. I hope the money exists and that he's just being spiteful, if it doesn't exist the dude is in a seriously screwed up situation.
Baloney, the risk on a Mortgage is the same for the bank whether or not you pay the loan off over the course of decades or weeks. Well that's not true, the risk is lower if you pay it all off quickly. The longer the terms the higher the risk because there is a better chance that you'll have some catastrophic life event and not be able to pay that happens to correspond with a downturn in the value of the collateral. Regardless the interest rates are relatively low first because the Property you are purchasing with the loan is also usually the collateral, so risk is very low compared to an unsecured loan of any type. Secondly the Federal Banks, especially in the US, have been loaning money to banks for very low rates for decades now and that savings has been passed on to consumers in the form of lower interest rates. Besides all of that though mortgages typically have rather hefty upfront fees associated with them which makes them a poor option for short term financing needs where the value of the needed loan is far lower than your property value.
The bank will gouge you on shorter term loans because they can and you don't have reasonable alternatives. Although in the banks defense usually short term loans like that are relatively or completely unsecured, so their risk is higher and so warrant a higher interest payment to cover the extra defaults that will happen. The banks don't actually care what the purpose of your loan is so long as the collateral more than covers it. It's only once you start talking unsecured loans that they'll get concerned over the purpose, and mortgages by definition are not unsecured loans.
Banks object to you paying off loans ahead of schedule for one reason and one reason only, idle capital. For example, say the bank had allocated $100K to a mortgage and were earning a safe 5% or whatever on it each year. Then you show up and pay off the remaining principle. Now they have all of their $100K back, but now it's actually losing them money because inflation is a constant thing. So instead of getting their bit of principle plus interest back this year they lose some percentage of it until they can find another place to invest that capital.
So I can't blame them for wanting such a clause but I'll never sign or co-sign such an agreement if I can possibly help it.
I'd love to see a nationwide push to bury power and phone lines. That would save a lot of money in the long run from storm damage and while we were at it we could lay municipal owned fiber optic lines.
Apparently that has been the preffered method in Breat Britian. The tire burns hot enough to completely destroy the inards while leaving the armored steel case just scorched. The red light cameras I've seen in my area aren't as prone to this sort of attack though as the cases are shaped differently enough that getting the tire to stay put would be a major problem. Although I guess you could just use some steel cabling to attach the tire.
Subscription and or paying for the usage are perfectly viable methods so long as they aren't priced outrageously. I would consider paying for a Cable service again sometime if I could actually choose the channels I wanted and not have to waste my time fast forwarding through commercials.
The supposed free services are not free if you are obstucting the content with ads like Youtube does, it is costing me more of my time and attention than it would cost me otherwise. If businesses decide to implement that as their sole option for using their service then they can drop the indignation when the users take easy and obvious steps to avoid the things that annoy us.
I'm a slightly stingy bastard. I don't think I've ever purchased something through or because of an advertisment. I understand that ads aren't always supposed to work that way, brand recognition is a valid sneaky strategy. But I can't think of anything that I've bought were in retrospect I can point to a commercial or advertisment that could have been an influence.
Again as others have said, as a user I've never seen that TOS displayed. Expecting that I have read it magically somehow when it's never been presented to me is not going to hold up in court.
The very idea that each user should seek out and read the TOS for any site they happen to visit is comical enough that it won't hold water.
I am not a lawyer, this is not legal advice.
A. Do not ever admit guilt unless they can already prove it beyond any doubt.
B. Don't ever try and explain where or how a virus/exploit came from unless it can be proven to have come from your legal oposition and so might prove wrong doing on their part.
C. Establish a pattern of periodically wiping your machine and starting from a clean image. That's a reasonably healthy thing to do anyway.
I once served hot chocolate with a boiled fly to my wife. I had prep'd a couple mugs with the hot chocolate powder and then went to do some chore while the water boiled. I came back in a few minutes and filled the mugs up without inspecting their insides. My wife was soon wondering why something with a little chew was in her sip. Apparently a fly had decided to taste test the hot chocolate and got a boiling bath. No, I still haven't lived that one down.
I think at least for those things it's easier to eat them because they are meatier. For instance you can break open a crab leg and get a big hunk of muscle to eat. My Father enjoys sardines which always seemed disgusting to me because I remember him telling me if they gutted them their wouldn't be anything to eat. Personally I'm not real big on eating internal organs. When I think about eating most insects it would seem to be a sardines kind of deal.
All that said I think if they started making Buggy Burgers or something using bugs that were thoroughly processed enough that I wasn't crunching on carapace bits and was produced under sanitary conditions I'd be cool with trying them out.
I've had it happen with brown rice. We found out that you can just freeze it for at least 24 hours and that kills the larva and eggs. So now pretty much any rice we buy goes in the freezer when it gets home for a day or two. If you go to a walmart and walk down the aisle with the brown rice you'll likely notice a few meal moths fluttering around.
I quit before some of those features were implemented and certainly before they were very popular. What always suprised me was how horrible the LFG tools were. In EQ we had a simple gui that showed you who was LFG and they could put in a little comment that was usually used to specify if you had a preference for what you wanted to do. When putting together a group it was good because people weren't autojoined, both the group and the individual could pick and choose who they grouped up with. In WoW you had to queue up for specific instances, that you met the lvl reqs for, and then the server would make the decisions for you. I don't think I ever sucessfully used a meeting stone to form a group, we only ever used them to summon a person already in the group to save them and us the time of travel.
EQ at least for the first 5 years or so managed progression much better in my opinion though it still had issues.
I would like to see MMO's adding more sideways expansion rather than just adding to the top. In EQ most of the early expansions released with a full level range of zones as well as adding new raid content. But even though they were adding new raiding content the old stuff rarely got completely obsoleted. I remember doing Avatar of War raids and it still being a challenge after Planes of Power had been around for at least 6 months.
Well the concern is that they don't necessarily have to bring any of the illegally obtained evidence up in court, but it could still help build a case that wouldn't otherwise exist.
The point is that they should not be operating in an illegal manner whether or not it would jeopardize a criminal case. What if the DoJ next decides that torture is acceptable. Do you really think that just because it can't be used in court that there wouldn't be any negative outcomes from that stance?
Comparing Iraq and Afghanistan to a theorized citizen insurrection within the US is foolish all around. For starters there are probably more hunters with scoped rifles in the US than there are military members in total. The military does not posses and can not quickly procure enough body armor capable of stopping rifle rounds to protect probably even 10% of it's forces. Military members by and large do not reside on military installations but are instead living among the population, which would be a security nightmare. Military bases are very weakly protected within our borders. Vital equipment for things like base defense are stocked at laughable levels for most installations. Weapons and materials for manufacturing IEDs and more weapons are much more widely available within the US than they were in either of the countries we invaded. Those are all just some of the physical problems with the idea of suppressing a popular rebellion, not to mention that our goverment doesn't have a ready supply of Hussars to use so it doesn't have soldiers with large mental conflicts.
Without guns the KKK would have still pulled the same crap. They acted in gangs and in an environment where they had enough popular support or at least everyone turned a blind eye. Armed slave owners never convinced the Feds to allow slavery, slavery was present in the US nearly from it's inception and was kept after the revolution because enough of our founding fathers were still assholes in that regard. Even when slavery ended with the civil war it continued in spirit because a large enough part of the population continued to be assholes. Over time things have changed and we are a more enlightened society today than we were then, not that we're perfect yet. None of it though had anything to do with evil gun owners. Things have ever only really improved when the population at large decides to change it.
I don't think any credible person would advocate violence as the first, second or even third option in correcting our government. Removing the option as a possibility is foolish and disarming the populace has historically proven to be on the checklists for many a tyrannical government.
I don't think it would be illegal. The only reason that this is an issue is because they either can't or won't break the encryption themselves. Instead they are trying to compel the suspect to divulge information that could be inciminating. If they had other evidence proving that there was evidence on the encrypted device then they could legally compell the suspect to do so.
So far as breaking the encyption there are a couple possibilities in play. The government might have access to the computing power or theniques necessary but it is doubtful that some generic police department or prosecutor would have access to even the knowledge that such a resource was available. The government wouldn't want to tip their hand in that kind of way when they can continue to let our enemies think their communications are secure.
Personally I think it's unlikely that any government possesses a computer capable of breaking the best current encryption protocols. But if they did we'd never know about it until long after it was useful information.
I think the disconnect here is rooted in two things:
1. How quickly we as individuals think the society and economy can or will react to major changes in the cost of labor. Lower labor costs as roman_mir has said mean that everything can be a lot cheaper and hence available in large quantity, variety and qualities. Products can also improve in important ways while staying at the same relative price or even becoming cheaper. Personal electronics are an excellent example of this trend. However not everything that scales in the same way. So while you can buy a lot more computing power for your buck today than you could 30 years ago despite inflation the same is not true for other things like automobiles and housing.
I can understand disagreeing with Warren on political rhetoric but she has done some very interesting research. One of the things she has shown is that since the 70's the costs for many things have gone down relative to our spending power, while others have gotten worse. And the things that have gotten worse are typically longer term choices that you can't just cut back on in a financial crisis. Food has gotten cheaper, which is good, but that is also one of the areas that people, especially fat people like me, can rapidly cut back on in a crisis. You can't cut it all the way buy half it or more should be pretty easy. Meanwhile the cost of transportation has gone up, in a financial crisis you likely can't just tell the bank you'll be paying half your car note until things improve, the same is true for housing, health insurance, and other large outstanding loans. So basically the things that are easier for consumers to control spending on have gotten cheaper, but the big things that they can't control on a short term basis have gotten more expensive.
Of course just because that's what happened over the last thirty years or so doesn't mean that the trend will continue. And a lot of that is likely tied up in consumer expectations. For instance we own more cars today and many families don't plan to ever have only one wage earner.
2. Because of the way our economy and taxes are structured wealth continues to be accumulated at the very tippity top of the social structure faster than it is created. This doesn't make anyone evil. This happens because wealthy people tend to make rational decisions about what to do with their resources. There is some discussion of asshatery when small subsets of that group lobby for more preferential tax treatment but that's not anything that others wouldn't do if their resources allowed them to.
Extreme wealth accumulation is a problem because it inevitably leads to social unrest. The masses at the bottom eventually get to a point where their situation becomes intolerable enough that they revolt in one way or another. Such a revolution is why at least some of my ancestors came to the US, they were associated with french aristocracy. And while no one likes targeted taxes much I think most of us can say we'd rather that than face a reign of terror or similiar upheaval.
Not to mention that we already do have large segments of the population doing alternative things to get what they want. Unfortunately a lot of that activity is illegal. The danger to society is how rapidly these changes take place and whether or not the populations most directly affected have time to adapt. In the end disenfranchising large groups of your populace is a dangerous move for everyone involved.
The worst that could happen is that a large group of people are put in jeodardy of starvation and instead of doing so quietly they revolt. Such a revolt would inevitably cause more suffering.
Not that I disagree but this could be a much more difficult case to figure out because ricin is a much easier substance to get ahold of than an anthrax culture.
In my office actually the first thing we started discussing was what new regulations and loss of rights we'd face. Sure it sucks that some people died and that hundreds of others were injured, but we don't know those people, we probably don't even know anyone that knows those people. However we have all had our lives affected by the lose of rights following 9/11. Of course we are going to talk about what will have a real impact on our lives. Besides I'd rather talk about things that can still be influenced.
What good is there in endlessly crying about the victims that we have no connection to? I would never fault someone who is actually connected to those people for having an emotional reaction but I can honestly say I didn't miss a blink of sleep over their pain and suffering lastnight. In fact since the regularly scheduled broadcasts were all screwed up by the media whoring I just watched some streamed episodes and played some pc games.
It's revenue raising for several reasons:
1. There are usually no points associated with the offense. So if you can pay the fine you are able to carry on indefinitely with the law breaking without worrying about being stopped and actually called on your bad behaviour.
2. As an added benefit of being just a civil fine instead of a criminal violation the standard of proof is much lower meaning it's harder to defend and makes it that much more likely you'll just pay the fee.
3. It has been reported more times than I can count that speed limits and light timing have been adjusted to increase the chances of people triggering the automated system. Sometimes this has even been written into the lease contracts for the systems.
4. I want to say this happened in Chicago but can't remember for sure. A few years ago during the first heavy snowfalls after installing red light enforcement cameras there was a bit in the news about the cameras sending out many times their normal number of fines. It turned out they were giving out fines for turning right from straight only lanes during red lights. People were turning from the straight only lane because the turning lane was buried under several feet of packed snowbank. The city when confronted by a news outlet admitted that the fines were improper but refused to just dismiss and stop issuing them, instead each person needed to show up at the scheduled court dates for each fine to contest it. All that even though their city ordinances required an actual police officer to review each photo fine before sending it out.