I think that technology has changed a bit in that time.
Well, sure, you think that. But then again, you post on slashdot. Try to explain the concept of evolution of technology over time to most folk. You can even compare their iPhone to the original iPod to try to underscore your point. It doesn't change the fact that when the word, "nuclear," comes out your mouth, the first thing they feel like shouting about is Chernobyl. How long ago was that one now?
If I recall correctly, currently the US Trade Representative is acting as the United States representative* to the ACTA talks (officially). That said, you can find the office of the US Trade Rep here. Currently, the man serving on that post is Ron Kirk. You can find contact information for the USTR here. A further Google search for, "US ACTA representative," turns up these results, the first of which appears to be a boingboing site requesting public input regarding ACTA (I cannot confirm this as I cannot access boingboing from work).
That should get you started. If you want more information, I suggest using Google and improving your Google-Fu friend. The intrawebz are your friend;)
*: I am making the assumption that you are a United States citizen. This, of course, is based on absolutely no facts, as you have revealed nothing regarding your nationality. If you are not from the US, you can still probably use Google and Wikipedia to do your own search regarding your ACTA representatives. Say what you will that such an assumption is based on hedonism and/or nationalism, but I have nothing better to go off as you have revealed no information regarding the country of your residence/origin.
And while I am being pedantic, let's discuss consistency. Proper grammar, so far as I recall, requests that you use a consistent numerical format when writing. If you want to say 20, say 4 as well. If you want to say four, say twenty as well. "Four to 20," just looks like some kind of bastardized wretch that a high school student coughed up on a rushed writing assignment.
To be clear, while the summary does say that Falcon 9 could launch as early as next month (March 22 to be exact) neither SpaceX, nor NASA have that date reserved as a planned launch date. This Spaceflightnow article summarizes both Elon Musk's and the chief launch supervisor's remarks regarding expectations of an early launch date. They discuss the fact that it is very likely that Falcon 9 will not be prepped for launch until April or May this year. If that indeed does prove to be the case, it would not be a slip or a launch date failure, it would be part of the overall Falcon 9 launch plan. Quite frankly, it takes a LOT of groundwork and very precise timing to launch something the size of the Falcon 9 successfully. That said, SpaceX's launch crews want to get in all the practice they can to get the rhythm and motions of a successful launch op down.
To finalize this primary point with a quote from the spaceflightnow article:
"People should not think that the rocket is going to launch on whatever the first countdown day is," Musk said in an interview last month. "They shouldn't think of any day that we have planned as launch day, but it is simply an aspiration for the first day that we will try to do a countdown."
That said, this is, indeed, a very exciting launch for the space industry. The spaceflightnow article has some good techie info on the connections made between the rocket and the transport vehicle, as well as some info regarding the anchoring mechanisms for the rocket when it is hoisted.
Furthermore, I do feel it necessary to point out that this:
However if something goes wrong, those plans will come crashing to Earth along with Falcon 9.
...is a friggin' sensationalist claim that has no place in science reporting, either on a primary site or on a news aggregation site. Should the first Falcon 9 fail, they will learn from it and launch better designs in the future. Orbital still is working on its Taurus rocket. The EELV program (Atlas and Delta) are still pushing strong in the commercial market. If the first Falcon 9 flight fails, it will not be the end all be all of either Obama's current NASA vision, nor America's role in the space program. So please, keep the hyperbole out of the damned summaries guys.
For SpaceX I would wager that launch #2 is the best one for them to have a catastrophic failure on with the Falcon 9. If they can get this first launch to its target safely and successfully, then everyone will turn towards Orbital to watch their maiden launch in 2011. That will give SpaceX the breathing room it needs to blow something up, collect data, and rehash the design.
Then again, SpaceX really does have a team of badass, top of the line engineers. If any company can pull off a HLV launch record without some sort of catastrophic cluster, its these guys.
For all the dotters that took the time to calculate the ROI of approximately 30 years, reading TFA reveals that the company is at least trying to address this longterm ROI.:
So assuming the maximum cost -- $4M USD -- the investment on a Bloom Box would appear to take 30 years to recoup.
According to the representative of the company itself (so read sales-pitch), current funding and R&D rates are expected to drop the cost of the boxes significantly over the next few years:
Mr. Sridhar hopes the funding that's being virtually thrown at him and his enigmatic box will help drive down costs to below $3,000 for a residential unit within 5 to 10 years.
In fact, if you take time to read the whole article, which is a grand total of a whopping 12 short paragraphs, the entire thing reads like a, 'help the consumer make a decision,' cost analysis. That is to say, the article references the cost of solar panel installations currently (both by ebay and at a residential level).
EBay says the five boxes generate more clean energy than the company's 3,000 solar panels (assuming a bulk cost of $200/panel, and additional expense that system would run around $1M USD, at a minimum).
...
Such costs could certainly make the technology competitive with solar systems which cost anywhere from $20,000-$70,000 USD for home installations.
That said, I won't comment on the joy that we nerds take in performing our own simple math calculations to verify and or, 'discover,' various assertions made by a techie article. Nonetheless (all you must be... jokes aside) the article was a pretty quick and simple read that discusses in a fairly competent manner whether or not the Bloom Box is hype or not. The final conclusion it draws, however, is terribly unhelpful:
So is the "magic" box a stud or a dud? It's hard to tell. About the only thing that's for sure is that Wednesday's announcement should be intriguing.
So really, the apparent intent for the article, is that this is a press release being used to garner attention for an even more important press release to come in two days.
I recall an old episode of Captain Planet where the blonde Russian chick gets addicted to drugs that are fed to her in a burrito. The drugs somewhat resembled Mike and Ikes. I think the problem here is that the school administer watched too much Captain Planet....Transformers was better.
I try not to hate Americans, but when they start demanding that we abandon our laws and customs and adopt theirs I just loose it.
Yeah, because, you know, there are massive protests in American cities right now demanding that other countries adopt our laws and customs. There is a huge, 'write your politician,' campaign where we Americans are demanding that our politicians enforce draconian legislation on the rest of the world. Sheesh!
I understand you're pissed off but at least take the time to be pissed off at the right folk. It's not Americans that are the problem, it's American politicians. This is the same thing that I tried to explain to every local and world traveler that I met during my visit to New Zealand a week ago. The American People have, essentially, lost control of their government. We write our politicians. We attend local protests and meetings (and then get smeared as being extremist nutjobs). We talk to each other and try to explain to people in the streets the dangers of various legislative maneuvers going on in our government and what not. And, despite all that effort by Americans, our politicians continue to run down certain paths and roads that seem completely FUBARed and unfounded. Hell, every congressional candidate that I have talked to feels as if their sole duty is to give stuff to people asking for it (as in, group X wants new shiny object A, so that's the next best goal of that particular esteemed politician), rather than following a particular ideology (like, I don't know, the Constitution) to make decisions.
When it comes down to it, there is quite a lively faction of Americans that are just as pissed off at their government and the bullshit it has been spewing forth for the last umpteen years as you are. Unfortunately, trying to get any change effected in a government that represents millions of extraordinarily different people with extraordinarily different agendas is very near impossible. As such, those who have managed to slip their feet into the slippers of power, currently, are able to run amok and do, pretty much, whatever they damn well please, with the full weight of the American military at their disposal.
So please, I reiterate, if you are pissed off at Americans, then at least be rational enough to be pissed off at the right Americans (the politicians) and do not exclude those of us in this country who are trying to fight the same fight that you are. If it comes down to it, you might find us to be quite valuable allies.
Then come the questions about what compelled them to make a dangerous journey like that in the first place?
The same thing that inspired our fishy ancestors to crawl out of the water and onto land? The same thing that inspired the first neanderthal to journey out of the cave and start a fire? The same thing that drove us to land on the moon....
Yeah, because, you know, depriving a person of access to beautiful creations like music and passionate verbal communication in the name of some misconstrued concept of culture identity is such a righteous cause.
Or, you know, Google employees are big slashdot readers and, as such, have been subject to the endless (and in my opinion justified) cheerleading of nuclear power as an energy source on this website. Thus, at some point, enough of these Google employees made a kerfuffle in the company that Google, as a company, has decided to start cheerleading nuclear energy as well. That seems pretty plausible to me.
Control is the eternal illusion that mankind has been pursuing since its own sentient history. Somewhere along the lines, we convinced ourselves that we had the ability to control something. As such, we have been working harder every day since in an attempt to ensure that we, humans, control everything.
The silliest part of this beautiful illusion is that, day by day, we are baited with just enough routine that we convince ourselves we are really in control, despite the over abundance of evidence that shit happens and life is one big adventure to learn how to deal with that shit.
Control is an illusion.
Power is a lie.
Entropy is God.
Poof - your hard work is gone. It doesn't matter whether 100 people make jet fuel from water or 1 million people do - you can't make anything from your invention, even if it cost you a million dollars to research and develop, because anyone can get the information for free.
So then you man up and do something else worthy of note and value with all that genius you have stored up inside your head. It's nice and dandy to think that we live in a world where, if you play by the rules and do all the hard work you can, then you will eventually get to a point where you can walk through life easily and comfortably. Unfortunately, that's now how the world works. Unfortunately, there will always be leechers, assholes, parasites, and douchebags to suck on the nipple of success provided by others.
That said, if you are smart and capable enough to invent jet fuel out of water, then you are probably smart and capable enough to do something else impressive and of value to society. So, if happenstance occurs that someone hijacks your invention then, yes, you have the right to try to defend that invention. You have the right to go to court and try to show that it was your invention, and the other guy is just a parasite and a wanker. You do not, however, have the right to go rob the social parasite of every damned dime he has ever made, either by your work or some other work. You don't have the right to run his life into the ground. You don't have the right or authority to punish him. If you feel that you do have that right, or that any individual does have that authority, then go buy a shotgun and shoot the next man that tries to steal from you.
As I stated before, this world is a crappy place. It is also an extraordinarily beautiful place full of wonder and discoveries waiting to be had. Those with the potential and capability to make those discoveries will, and should, continue to do so. They should not expect to make one discovery, or write one piece of lovely music, and then get to ride that success out for the rest of their lives. If they are smart and competent, then they can make an invention and should wise up enough to take proper steps to protect said invention, if they feel the need to do so. If, however, one of their inventions gets hijacked or some other travesty, rather than bitch about it eternally, and expect the right to vindicate themselves against those who exploited their hard work, they should, rather, move on with their lives and do something new, something better. And perhaps they will learn enough from the first debacle to not make the same security mistake a second time.
Reality, and all levels of it, is a complicated dance of conflicting forces and competition. If anyone expects to be able to make money and survive in this world, be it in a cave or working in a nice, 'civilized' city, they better be prepared to work hard and stare down constant threats and difficulties at every turn.
Or could you just not resist sticking your tongue out at the slashdot masses?
Don't get me wrong, your point is a good one and well made. And, vindictively so, it seems there was some truth to your prediction. However, posting a, 'neener neener neener I told you so,' post does little more than piss people off and make you feel good. So, in all your foresight and wisdom, rather than tell us how silly or stupid the slashdot posters were X many years ago, why not post a call to action, or some idea on how to fix a royally screwed IP system? Hell, you could at least link to the EFF website and suggest to slashdotters that they write a letter or an e-mail to said company to team up with UVEX to fight the corrupt bastards that make up the IOC.
Or you could just post an indignant message on the internet and make yourself feel better for some wrong committed upon you years ago by anonymous wankers on the internet.
We shouldn't have to hide our information, people should just respect each other enough not to steal their stuff.
I think before people start respecting each other in society again, people need to start respecting themselves first. At least where I live (California), there seems to be a huge lack of self-respect and pride in folk today. It's embarrassing really.
I don't know why this is, but I'm starting to get the impression that a lot of US laws or media have actually confused the terms themselves, saying that ethnic quotas are "equal opportunity". They are not.
It probably stems from the fact that for the last few decades, in the US (and yes, I am a US citizen born and raised) race is shoved in your face from a young age no matter what your background and no matter what the situation. I remember that learning that, "Black people aren't different," was one of the first things I ever learned in kindergarten. Honestly, until that day, I hadn't even considered the option that black people could be different. I found the whole lesson confusing and overcomplicated.
As we grew up (and this is all based on my experiences so take that for what it's worth), every time we had to fill out a standardized test or a medical form or whatever, we had to mark race. Driver's license paper work, mark your race. Bank paper work, mark your race. Insurance paper work, race. and so on and so on. When we started applying for scholarships, there were 1,001 scholarships that had a particular race as a requirement for application. Every school application we filled out, we read a statement that, "This institution is an equal opportunity blah blah blah... something else about race."
By the time my generation came into our young adulthood years, we had been tortured with the question of race. It is so prevalent in our society, and the media makes such a big deal of not being racist that I think most people just got fucking sick of it. In a lot of folks minds in America today, I think, the whole issue of race is just one big stupid waste of time and a joke. Most folk know that history is littered with horrible instances being carried out based on race. Most folk think that sucks. Most folk don't care anymore. In the States, I get the feeling that more and more people are just lumping, "affirmative action, equal opportunity, civil rights, immigration, quotas, etc etc etc." into one big mental group of, "Fuck it, I don't care anymore."
That said, when any of us do decide to discuss the matter, (which we far too often choose to do whether we know anything or not), it's a mental exhaustion to make any kind of distinction between anything that is even remotely in regard to race and instead we just say, "Everything sucks. There, are you happy now?"
consumers have (in the USA) representatives and senators.
We do? I must have missed the news letter. Here in my state (California) our representatives and senators are bought and paid for by either hollywood or the various eco-interest groups. It would be nice to have a representative or senator or something that could and would act on my behalf./sigh Who am I kidding? I mean, this is America. A man can dream though, right? A man can dream....
That's not as easy as you make it sound. To paraphrase a human sexuality teacher I know:
It's a lot easier to control one single egg that comes on a fairly regular and predictable schedule than it is to control millions of sperm that can be produced on demand.
The F-35 is rightfully titled a, 'Joint Strike Fighter' as it is intended for implementation of dozens of types of missions. It was designed to be deployed from multiple types of launch facilities to attack everything from ground based caravans to heavy enemy bomber squadrons and, of course, Bruce Willis.
The F-22 was designed as an interceptor and stands, currently, as the most capable implementation of this mission. It hits fast, it hits hard, it handles like a wet dream. Tom Cruise's character would have shit his pants at the chance to fly an interceptor of the F-22's capability.
That said, the F-35 and F-22 compliment one another in a way that makes America's aerial combat scenarios much more robust. Saying that one should or will replace the other is...misinformed at best.
If you want an analogy, the F-35 is the, "Good at all, master at none, " X-wing type fighter." The F-22 is the, "Master of interception," A-wing type fighter. If you insist on cars, the F-35 is the Subaru WRX, the F-22 is a Bugati Verone.
Slashdot Mirror
I think that technology has changed a bit in that time.
Well, sure, you think that. But then again, you post on slashdot. Try to explain the concept of evolution of technology over time to most folk. You can even compare their iPhone to the original iPod to try to underscore your point. It doesn't change the fact that when the word, "nuclear," comes out your mouth, the first thing they feel like shouting about is Chernobyl. How long ago was that one now?
...
Exactly.
If I recall correctly, currently the US Trade Representative is acting as the United States representative* to the ACTA talks (officially). That said, you can find the office of the US Trade Rep here. Currently, the man serving on that post is Ron Kirk. You can find contact information for the USTR here. A further Google search for, "US ACTA representative," turns up these results, the first of which appears to be a boingboing site requesting public input regarding ACTA (I cannot confirm this as I cannot access boingboing from work).
;)
That should get you started. If you want more information, I suggest using Google and improving your Google-Fu friend. The intrawebz are your friend
*: I am making the assumption that you are a United States citizen. This, of course, is based on absolutely no facts, as you have revealed nothing regarding your nationality. If you are not from the US, you can still probably use Google and Wikipedia to do your own search regarding your ACTA representatives. Say what you will that such an assumption is based on hedonism and/or nationalism, but I have nothing better to go off as you have revealed no information regarding the country of your residence/origin.
current production by a factor of four to 20,
AKA: One to five.
And while I am being pedantic, let's discuss consistency. Proper grammar, so far as I recall, requests that you use a consistent numerical format when writing. If you want to say 20, say 4 as well. If you want to say four, say twenty as well. "Four to 20," just looks like some kind of bastardized wretch that a high school student coughed up on a rushed writing assignment.
To finalize this primary point with a quote from the spaceflightnow article:
"People should not think that the rocket is going to launch on whatever the first countdown day is," Musk said in an interview last month. "They shouldn't think of any day that we have planned as launch day, but it is simply an aspiration for the first day that we will try to do a countdown."
That said, this is, indeed, a very exciting launch for the space industry. The spaceflightnow article has some good techie info on the connections made between the rocket and the transport vehicle, as well as some info regarding the anchoring mechanisms for the rocket when it is hoisted.
Furthermore, I do feel it necessary to point out that this:
However if something goes wrong, those plans will come crashing to Earth along with Falcon 9.
For SpaceX I would wager that launch #2 is the best one for them to have a catastrophic failure on with the Falcon 9. If they can get this first launch to its target safely and successfully, then everyone will turn towards Orbital to watch their maiden launch in 2011. That will give SpaceX the breathing room it needs to blow something up, collect data, and rehash the design.
Then again, SpaceX really does have a team of badass, top of the line engineers. If any company can pull off a HLV launch record without some sort of catastrophic cluster, its these guys.
So assuming the maximum cost -- $4M USD -- the investment on a Bloom Box would appear to take 30 years to recoup.
According to the representative of the company itself (so read sales-pitch), current funding and R&D rates are expected to drop the cost of the boxes significantly over the next few years:
Mr. Sridhar hopes the funding that's being virtually thrown at him and his enigmatic box will help drive down costs to below $3,000 for a residential unit within 5 to 10 years.
In fact, if you take time to read the whole article, which is a grand total of a whopping 12 short paragraphs, the entire thing reads like a, 'help the consumer make a decision,' cost analysis. That is to say, the article references the cost of solar panel installations currently (both by ebay and at a residential level).
EBay says the five boxes generate more clean energy than the company's 3,000 solar panels (assuming a bulk cost of $200/panel, and additional expense that system would run around $1M USD, at a minimum).
...
Such costs could certainly make the technology competitive with solar systems which cost anywhere from $20,000-$70,000 USD for home installations.
That said, I won't comment on the joy that we nerds take in performing our own simple math calculations to verify and or, 'discover,' various assertions made by a techie article. Nonetheless (all you must be ... jokes aside) the article was a pretty quick and simple read that discusses in a fairly competent manner whether or not the Bloom Box is hype or not. The final conclusion it draws, however, is terribly unhelpful:
So is the "magic" box a stud or a dud? It's hard to tell. About the only thing that's for sure is that Wednesday's announcement should be intriguing.
So really, the apparent intent for the article, is that this is a press release being used to garner attention for an even more important press release to come in two days.
Cheers.
I recall an old episode of Captain Planet where the blonde Russian chick gets addicted to drugs that are fed to her in a burrito. The drugs somewhat resembled Mike and Ikes. I think the problem here is that the school administer watched too much Captain Planet....Transformers was better.
I didn't see anything that suggested fabrication would be easy.
What about this part from TFA?
These structures are easy to fabricate even on a miniature scale which leads to the major breakthrough in potential cost reduction
I try not to hate Americans, but when they start demanding that we abandon our laws and customs and adopt theirs I just loose it.
Yeah, because, you know, there are massive protests in American cities right now demanding that other countries adopt our laws and customs. There is a huge, 'write your politician,' campaign where we Americans are demanding that our politicians enforce draconian legislation on the rest of the world. Sheesh!
I understand you're pissed off but at least take the time to be pissed off at the right folk. It's not Americans that are the problem, it's American politicians. This is the same thing that I tried to explain to every local and world traveler that I met during my visit to New Zealand a week ago. The American People have, essentially, lost control of their government. We write our politicians. We attend local protests and meetings (and then get smeared as being extremist nutjobs). We talk to each other and try to explain to people in the streets the dangers of various legislative maneuvers going on in our government and what not. And, despite all that effort by Americans, our politicians continue to run down certain paths and roads that seem completely FUBARed and unfounded. Hell, every congressional candidate that I have talked to feels as if their sole duty is to give stuff to people asking for it (as in, group X wants new shiny object A, so that's the next best goal of that particular esteemed politician), rather than following a particular ideology (like, I don't know, the Constitution) to make decisions.
When it comes down to it, there is quite a lively faction of Americans that are just as pissed off at their government and the bullshit it has been spewing forth for the last umpteen years as you are. Unfortunately, trying to get any change effected in a government that represents millions of extraordinarily different people with extraordinarily different agendas is very near impossible. As such, those who have managed to slip their feet into the slippers of power, currently, are able to run amok and do, pretty much, whatever they damn well please, with the full weight of the American military at their disposal.
So please, I reiterate, if you are pissed off at Americans, then at least be rational enough to be pissed off at the right Americans (the politicians) and do not exclude those of us in this country who are trying to fight the same fight that you are. If it comes down to it, you might find us to be quite valuable allies.
Then come the questions about what compelled them to make a dangerous journey like that in the first place?
The same thing that inspired our fishy ancestors to crawl out of the water and onto land? The same thing that inspired the first neanderthal to journey out of the cave and start a fire? The same thing that drove us to land on the moon....
Yeah, because, you know, depriving a person of access to beautiful creations like music and passionate verbal communication in the name of some misconstrued concept of culture identity is such a righteous cause.
You, sir, are a jealous twat.
Or, you know, Google employees are big slashdot readers and, as such, have been subject to the endless (and in my opinion justified) cheerleading of nuclear power as an energy source on this website. Thus, at some point, enough of these Google employees made a kerfuffle in the company that Google, as a company, has decided to start cheerleading nuclear energy as well. That seems pretty plausible to me.
Control is the eternal illusion that mankind has been pursuing since its own sentient history. Somewhere along the lines, we convinced ourselves that we had the ability to control something. As such, we have been working harder every day since in an attempt to ensure that we, humans, control everything.
The silliest part of this beautiful illusion is that, day by day, we are baited with just enough routine that we convince ourselves we are really in control, despite the over abundance of evidence that shit happens and life is one big adventure to learn how to deal with that shit.
Control is an illusion.
Power is a lie.
Entropy is God.
Now you're trying to use mathematics, the language of logic, in a court of law. What an absurd concept. =P
Poof - your hard work is gone. It doesn't matter whether 100 people make jet fuel from water or 1 million people do - you can't make anything from your invention, even if it cost you a million dollars to research and develop, because anyone can get the information for free.
So then you man up and do something else worthy of note and value with all that genius you have stored up inside your head. It's nice and dandy to think that we live in a world where, if you play by the rules and do all the hard work you can, then you will eventually get to a point where you can walk through life easily and comfortably. Unfortunately, that's now how the world works. Unfortunately, there will always be leechers, assholes, parasites, and douchebags to suck on the nipple of success provided by others.
That said, if you are smart and capable enough to invent jet fuel out of water, then you are probably smart and capable enough to do something else impressive and of value to society. So, if happenstance occurs that someone hijacks your invention then, yes, you have the right to try to defend that invention. You have the right to go to court and try to show that it was your invention, and the other guy is just a parasite and a wanker. You do not, however, have the right to go rob the social parasite of every damned dime he has ever made, either by your work or some other work. You don't have the right to run his life into the ground. You don't have the right or authority to punish him. If you feel that you do have that right, or that any individual does have that authority, then go buy a shotgun and shoot the next man that tries to steal from you.
As I stated before, this world is a crappy place. It is also an extraordinarily beautiful place full of wonder and discoveries waiting to be had. Those with the potential and capability to make those discoveries will, and should, continue to do so. They should not expect to make one discovery, or write one piece of lovely music, and then get to ride that success out for the rest of their lives. If they are smart and competent, then they can make an invention and should wise up enough to take proper steps to protect said invention, if they feel the need to do so. If, however, one of their inventions gets hijacked or some other travesty, rather than bitch about it eternally, and expect the right to vindicate themselves against those who exploited their hard work, they should, rather, move on with their lives and do something new, something better. And perhaps they will learn enough from the first debacle to not make the same security mistake a second time.
Reality, and all levels of it, is a complicated dance of conflicting forces and competition. If anyone expects to be able to make money and survive in this world, be it in a cave or working in a nice, 'civilized' city, they better be prepared to work hard and stare down constant threats and difficulties at every turn.
non-metaphorical shotgun. Or a non-crappy justice system
Why wasn't this modded redundant? I thought those two were the same thing. =P
So what do you want? A gold star?
Or could you just not resist sticking your tongue out at the slashdot masses?
Don't get me wrong, your point is a good one and well made. And, vindictively so, it seems there was some truth to your prediction. However, posting a, 'neener neener neener I told you so,' post does little more than piss people off and make you feel good. So, in all your foresight and wisdom, rather than tell us how silly or stupid the slashdot posters were X many years ago, why not post a call to action, or some idea on how to fix a royally screwed IP system? Hell, you could at least link to the EFF website and suggest to slashdotters that they write a letter or an e-mail to said company to team up with UVEX to fight the corrupt bastards that make up the IOC.
Or you could just post an indignant message on the internet and make yourself feel better for some wrong committed upon you years ago by anonymous wankers on the internet.
Your choice.
Well said. I'm sorry I don't have mod points.
I would assert your statement one step further. That makes them Americans more than most, 'so-called Americans' found in the USA today.
Nothing good comes from China.
Good God Man! Think about what you are saying. Have you never heard of ninjas? Pai Mei? I am shocked!
=P
We shouldn't have to hide our information, people should just respect each other enough not to steal their stuff.
I think before people start respecting each other in society again, people need to start respecting themselves first. At least where I live (California), there seems to be a huge lack of self-respect and pride in folk today. It's embarrassing really.
I don't know why this is, but I'm starting to get the impression that a lot of US laws or media have actually confused the terms themselves, saying that ethnic quotas are "equal opportunity". They are not.
It probably stems from the fact that for the last few decades, in the US (and yes, I am a US citizen born and raised) race is shoved in your face from a young age no matter what your background and no matter what the situation. I remember that learning that, "Black people aren't different," was one of the first things I ever learned in kindergarten. Honestly, until that day, I hadn't even considered the option that black people could be different. I found the whole lesson confusing and overcomplicated.
... something else about race."
As we grew up (and this is all based on my experiences so take that for what it's worth), every time we had to fill out a standardized test or a medical form or whatever, we had to mark race. Driver's license paper work, mark your race. Bank paper work, mark your race. Insurance paper work, race. and so on and so on. When we started applying for scholarships, there were 1,001 scholarships that had a particular race as a requirement for application. Every school application we filled out, we read a statement that, "This institution is an equal opportunity blah blah blah
By the time my generation came into our young adulthood years, we had been tortured with the question of race. It is so prevalent in our society, and the media makes such a big deal of not being racist that I think most people just got fucking sick of it. In a lot of folks minds in America today, I think, the whole issue of race is just one big stupid waste of time and a joke. Most folk know that history is littered with horrible instances being carried out based on race. Most folk think that sucks. Most folk don't care anymore. In the States, I get the feeling that more and more people are just lumping, "affirmative action, equal opportunity, civil rights, immigration, quotas, etc etc etc." into one big mental group of, "Fuck it, I don't care anymore."
That said, when any of us do decide to discuss the matter, (which we far too often choose to do whether we know anything or not), it's a mental exhaustion to make any kind of distinction between anything that is even remotely in regard to race and instead we just say, "Everything sucks. There, are you happy now?"
=)
consumers have (in the USA) representatives and senators.
We do? I must have missed the news letter. Here in my state (California) our representatives and senators are bought and paid for by either hollywood or the various eco-interest groups. It would be nice to have a representative or senator or something that could and would act on my behalf. /sigh Who am I kidding? I mean, this is America. A man can dream though, right? A man can dream....
Come up with a version of "the pill" for men.
That's not as easy as you make it sound. To paraphrase a human sexuality teacher I know:
It's a lot easier to control one single egg that comes on a fairly regular and predictable schedule than it is to control millions of sperm that can be produced on demand.
The F-35 is rightfully titled a, 'Joint Strike Fighter' as it is intended for implementation of dozens of types of missions. It was designed to be deployed from multiple types of launch facilities to attack everything from ground based caravans to heavy enemy bomber squadrons and, of course, Bruce Willis.
The F-22 was designed as an interceptor and stands, currently, as the most capable implementation of this mission. It hits fast, it hits hard, it handles like a wet dream. Tom Cruise's character would have shit his pants at the chance to fly an interceptor of the F-22's capability.
That said, the F-35 and F-22 compliment one another in a way that makes America's aerial combat scenarios much more robust. Saying that one should or will replace the other is...misinformed at best.
If you want an analogy, the F-35 is the, "Good at all, master at none, " X-wing type fighter." The F-22 is the, "Master of interception," A-wing type fighter. If you insist on cars, the F-35 is the Subaru WRX, the F-22 is a Bugati Verone.
and hanging out with shirtless underage guys.
That's a side effect? I thought that was a feature!
/shudder