Military pilots are... reasonably comfortable when the realization hits that they're strapped to a giant rocket whose goal is to explode fast enough to hurl them into orbit, but slow enough to not kill them.
While the engineers who designed that not-quite-bomb sit a mile away behind several feet of reinforced concrete. The obvious inference is that pilots are not too bright.
How much did that CTO pay for his spot? He was really that much better than 6,000 other people?
Hopefully he paid a lot. In the 21st century astronauts are just characters to play Buck Rogers. Sell the seats to the highest bidders and use the money to do some useful space science instead.
humans in control have much larger history of saving the day or mitigating/reducing the tragedy than they do of causing the tragedy
Which results only in them saving their own asses. It's pretty silly to send someone someplace were the justification is so that they can save themselves. Why not save a bunch of money and leave them on the ground? Almost all useful scientific and practical work has been done by unmanned missions, for a small fraction of the price. If some of those unmanned missions crash and burn for lack of the heroic human touch, it's just part of the price of doing business, and still a lot cheaper than manned missions.
Where did I say that market makers served no purpose? My point was that the settlement assurance was provided not by market makers, but by a clearing house.
There is certainly an argument as to whether market makers are really required but, in practice, if they're not there, then I can't see how there can be any more trust in the stock markets than there is trading in ebay.
It's essential that when I buy I know that the stocks will be delivered and when I sell I know that I'll be paid.
That has nothing to do with market makers. The safeguard is the clearing house.
The share tax in France and Italy doesn't affect us investors much. But if you're in to make a 30% return, you don't care about the 0.03%+0.03% buy and sell taxes anyway. It's only the traders, and they add nothing to the investment market, they're just skimming off some of the margin between buyer and seller.
Thank you! I was going to to mention that the British tax doesn't seem to have killed the London Stock Exchange, but I wasn't aware that the tax also existed in France and Italy. As often happens in economic discussions (e.g. about health care) some people endlessly pontificate about what should happen according to their simplistic pet theory, and ignore the empirical evidence.
That's another problem, but it makes it even worse if they can, at any LEO's "discretion", match it to a photo database w/ names. In fact I'm surprised the issue you mention about those endless cameras in public hasn't been mentioned in this discussion. It's not just random stops of "suspicious" people. They don't even have to stop you!
Actually the English spoken in the US is much closer to the "original", meaning the common dialect spoken on both sides of the Atlantic in the Colonial Era. I used to think American English was a slightly bastardized version of English, but it's just the opposite. It's really fun to tell that to anyone who is English.
P.S. In terms of accents Southern accents are generally closer to the original. We Yankees have deviated a bit.
in areas where everyone pretty much speaks a single language (such as... Canada)
You'll shortly be receiving a visit from the Canadian Language Police. They be polite but very very firm. You may also be required to pay a fine of $10 American.
Unlike the bad old days of 150 or more years ago, immigrating is no longer essentially permanent.
During the so-called great ago of immigration, about 1/3 of the immigrants permanently returned to their native countries.
In the bad old days there was almost no option but to acculturate and and do so quickly
Before WWI there were entire towns in this country where the only language spoken was German. In some cases even the local public schools were taught in German.
Why not require a warrant to search the databases? I'm skeptical that this tool is going to be all that useful, but of course LE will always trot out success stories, like in the article. Maybe they'll solve an extra 10 crimes per year, out of how many? It's probably insignificant, but people will still call for its use because it solved one murder last year. So fine, allow the databases to searched if a judge issues a warrant. If they're going to use this on something serious like a major felony, then getting a warrant should be no big deal. At least it would stop the sort of harassment described in the article where a LEO, using his infinitely wise discretion, decides that someone "looks suspicious", and "asks" to take his picture.
I don't understand the problem. So they run a picture through their software, for example from a CCTV camera. It brings up your face as a false positive. Now before the police come and arrest you (and any one else who was flagged, despite only one of them committing the crime) Someone will look at the pictures and say: 'Oh that's not the same guy. Lets look again.'
Assuming you don't have a doppelganger. Out of the 308M people in this country, you don't think that there are at least one or two who look very, very similar to you? Maybe it wouldn't fool your own mother, but I doubt that's who'd come to arrest you.
Slashdot Mirror
take $5 out of the NSA budget and put it into a one shot trip to Mars
If we can get to Mars for $5 I'm all for it.
If they don't make it, we'll send another crew.
Better yet, send pre-killed astronauts. It'll save a fortune on life support and radiation shielding. Probably about as useful as the live ones too.
Military pilots are ... reasonably comfortable when the realization hits that they're strapped to a giant rocket whose goal is to explode fast enough to hurl them into orbit, but slow enough to not kill them.
While the engineers who designed that not-quite-bomb sit a mile away behind several feet of reinforced concrete. The obvious inference is that pilots are not too bright.
One thing Clarke and Kubrick correctly predicted is what a pain in the ass computers are.
How much did that CTO pay for his spot? He was really that much better than 6,000 other people?
Hopefully he paid a lot. In the 21st century astronauts are just characters to play Buck Rogers. Sell the seats to the highest bidders and use the money to do some useful space science instead.
because its harder to get into the AFA
But a much better place to harass women.
humans in control have much larger history of saving the day or mitigating/reducing the tragedy than they do of causing the tragedy
Which results only in them saving their own asses. It's pretty silly to send someone someplace were the justification is so that they can save themselves. Why not save a bunch of money and leave them on the ground? Almost all useful scientific and practical work has been done by unmanned missions, for a small fraction of the price. If some of those unmanned missions crash and burn for lack of the heroic human touch, it's just part of the price of doing business, and still a lot cheaper than manned missions.
Shut up HAL, you were deactivated 12 years ago.
Did you fly your own jet to work today?
No, but when I got there I sat in front of a computer. That's how space exploration should be done.
Eliminate one word and the problem is solved.
You make good arguments for why a military pilot is a good choice for a pointless position. Never send a human to do a computers job.
Don't laugh. I had a friend who was working on doing parts of HFT in FPGA's because the software wasn't fast enough.
Where did I say that market makers served no purpose? My point was that the settlement assurance was provided not by market makers, but by a clearing house.
If someone's system or institution isn't causing harm, then don't mess with them
The same wisdom that said that CDO's, CDS's and other three letter scams shouldn't be regulated. How did that work out?
There is certainly an argument as to whether market makers are really required but, in practice, if they're not there, then I can't see how there can be any more trust in the stock markets than there is trading in ebay. It's essential that when I buy I know that the stocks will be delivered and when I sell I know that I'll be paid.
That has nothing to do with market makers. The safeguard is the clearing house.
The share tax in France and Italy doesn't affect us investors much. But if you're in to make a 30% return, you don't care about the 0.03%+0.03% buy and sell taxes anyway. It's only the traders, and they add nothing to the investment market, they're just skimming off some of the margin between buyer and seller.
Thank you! I was going to to mention that the British tax doesn't seem to have killed the London Stock Exchange, but I wasn't aware that the tax also existed in France and Italy. As often happens in economic discussions (e.g. about health care) some people endlessly pontificate about what should happen according to their simplistic pet theory, and ignore the empirical evidence.
That's another problem, but it makes it even worse if they can, at any LEO's "discretion", match it to a photo database w/ names. In fact I'm surprised the issue you mention about those endless cameras in public hasn't been mentioned in this discussion. It's not just random stops of "suspicious" people. They don't even have to stop you!
So it's like English in the USA....
Actually the English spoken in the US is much closer to the "original", meaning the common dialect spoken on both sides of the Atlantic in the Colonial Era. I used to think American English was a slightly bastardized version of English, but it's just the opposite. It's really fun to tell that to anyone who is English.
P.S. In terms of accents Southern accents are generally closer to the original. We Yankees have deviated a bit.
in areas where everyone pretty much speaks a single language (such as ... Canada)
You'll shortly be receiving a visit from the Canadian Language Police. They be polite but very very firm. You may also be required to pay a fine of $10 American.
Q: what do you call someone who speaks three languages?
A: trilingual
Q: what do you call someone who speaks two languages?
A: bilingual
Q: what do you call someone who speaks one language?
A: American
P.S. before anybody gets their panties in a twist, I am a monolingual American.
Unlike the bad old days of 150 or more years ago, immigrating is no longer essentially permanent.
During the so-called great ago of immigration, about 1/3 of the immigrants permanently returned to their native countries.
In the bad old days there was almost no option but to acculturate and and do so quickly
Before WWI there were entire towns in this country where the only language spoken was German. In some cases even the local public schools were taught in German.
IANALBIAAFPO
Why not require a warrant to search the databases? I'm skeptical that this tool is going to be all that useful, but of course LE will always trot out success stories, like in the article. Maybe they'll solve an extra 10 crimes per year, out of how many? It's probably insignificant, but people will still call for its use because it solved one murder last year. So fine, allow the databases to searched if a judge issues a warrant. If they're going to use this on something serious like a major felony, then getting a warrant should be no big deal. At least it would stop the sort of harassment described in the article where a LEO, using his infinitely wise discretion, decides that someone "looks suspicious", and "asks" to take his picture.
I don't understand the problem. So they run a picture through their software, for example from a CCTV camera. It brings up your face as a false positive. Now before the police come and arrest you (and any one else who was flagged, despite only one of them committing the crime) Someone will look at the pictures and say: 'Oh that's not the same guy. Lets look again.'
Assuming you don't have a doppelganger. Out of the 308M people in this country, you don't think that there are at least one or two who look very, very similar to you? Maybe it wouldn't fool your own mother, but I doubt that's who'd come to arrest you.
I suspect I would have more privacy if there were one standard and limit agencies to monitor
Like the NSA?
Excellent idea. That absurd practice of asking children their names was being scammed by every kid looking for a free bus ride to nowhere.