Part of the reason that they're dangerous when they get out is that prisons in large measure devolve into clan-based behaviors, though gangs are what form. A huge portion of them, maybe the majority, are racist, and a lot of people in for the first or second time join them just for safety. This isn't an easily-handled problem, either; while inmates have strongly-restricted rights, the guards are generally fine with letting them talk with whomever they please as long as they're not causing problems, because getting in between can itself cause problems. Supermax facilities don't have this issue to as great an extent, but they're hugely expensive to build and operate, and there are concerns over what it does to the inmates psychologically. For those in for life, that doesn't matter as much, but for those with lesser sentences, it may warp them at least as much as belonging to a gang.
The FAA has prohibited overland supersonic flight except for explicitly-approved military flights for decades now. Even the military has to get permission when outside of established supersonic corridors, most of which are controlled by the FAA. (Many people are often amazed at how much authority the FAA has over military flights within US borders.)
NASA has conducted a great deal of research into quieting sonic booms, either by deflecting them upward or by canceling them out. I imagine those will be or have been factored into MIT's proposals.
They've got a little bit of leeway there. Technically, Heller applied only to the District of Columbia and other purely-federal locales. There's a case, McDonald v. Chicago, that was heard by the Supreme Court earlier this year to determine whether it applies to the states as well. The actual decision is pending, and should be arriving soon.
There's definitely something to the phone's firmware. The Pre had this issue for a while, that a weakened signal would drop quickly, whereas my previous phone would just go quiet for a second or two. I referred to the Pre's dropped calls as "missing a photon," something my friends picked up when the call unexpectedly ended, as that's about all it seemed to take to drop a call. Since the 1.4 update, it's gotten much better, and even in spotty areas, it at least tries to stay connected for a few seconds before giving up.
I suppose it has something to do with when the standard was set. Perhaps the 200IU/day number was set when people spent a lot more time outside in general. As I mentioned, I do network security, and while I do get out at lunch, even living in California, there's a limit to what I can do while there's a decent amount of sunlight, especially in winter.
I'm also generally averse to taking pills. The last time I tried taking general supplements, I managed to jack my phosphorus levels over the ideal amounts and towards danger territory. I'm happy enough taking just the Vitamin D supplements, and if that's where it stays, so be it. The rest of my numbers were all good, except for my low hematocrit, which the doctor said was likely due to having donated blood a month before. That also will be rechecked soon (and I'm happy to do so -- it bothers me canceling blood donation appointments.)
The US RDA is for 200 units per day at my age, and while it's hard to get hypervitaminosis D, there's no real need for 35,000 units per week unless you're seriously deficient. Even 5000 per week is almost four times the recommended dose.
A friend works in a urology clinic. Based on her descriptions of how priapism is handled, Woodbegone could be a significant seller. (Hint: treatment for aggressive priapism involves the erection and one or two needles. It's done under local anesthetic, but still...)
That depends very much on your doctor. I was recently found to be very deficient in Vitamin D. The traditional course of therapy is 50,000IU per week for a month. He could have written out a prescription, but instead wrote out a lab request and attached a Post-It with the words "50K units Vit D/wk." I asked if there was anything special I should look for, and he said, "Just make sure it says 'Vitamin D' on the front of the label." For $8, I got two months' regimen. I need to go back in for testing to make sure that it's recovered, and will be taking 5000 units per week until I can find a better way to get direct sunlight on a regular basis, but that's really it.
One of his colleagues on call a couple of months earlier when I got severe overnight upper-abdominal pains suggested that I could either go to the ER (in case it was appendicitis) or he could write out a prescription for something to tend to the symptoms (in case it was just a really bad gastrointestinal virus or food poisoning). I chose the latter, since the pains were upper abdominal and there was no firmness anywhere in my abdominal area. I had to have someone else get the prescription, as I couldn't drive to the pharmacy, but $60 got 100 tablets of each of the two generic medicines. It took a couple of days to pass, and I lost a good deal of weight, but I didn't have to shell out for the ER plus whatever other charges might have come along with a day or two in the hospital.
Interview your doctors, people. Ask them how they feel about pharmaceutical marketing, and their preferred approaches. Find one that makes you comfortable. Mine is old-school, and would rather his patients tend to themselves than rely on pills, and that's how I prefer to approach it as well.
Cult theocracy doesn't begin to explain that place. The entire country defies all logic. Jim Jones or David Koresh made more sense than the North Korean leadership. There was a documentary series that I saw a couple of years ago where some journalists got into the country posing as tourists, and the things they brought back were so downright bizarre and lacking in sense that I gave up all hope of them coming around through any means other than force in this century, and even then, mass suicides will follow as they realize that Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il (and whomever follows him) were not unbeatable. I've seen reports (separate from that documentary) that during air raid drills, people outside when it starts will rush into their homes to get every picture of Kim Il Sung they have and carry them into the bomb shelter with them. They will then tend to their children. Whether they do this through fear or devotion, that's just hard to wrap my mind around.
Their enemy also had Mussolini as an ally. The guy fancied himself the next Roman emperor and a military genius, and Germany routinely had to divert resources to bail him out. When Italian forces invaded Greece in 1941 it was rapidly pushed out, even losing territory it controlled prior to the attack; the German Twelfth Army had to be sent down to rescue it, depriving Germany of more than 150,000 men that could have made a difference in Operation Barbarossa.
Of course, the fact that Mussolini's senior officers were also incompetent (based on the perceptions of Erwin Rommel, among others) didn't help. Hitler wasn't the military genius he thought himself to be, either, but he had good officers that knew how to work around him until they were relieved of their commands.
He's got a point there. I remember to some degree the hostage-taking that was happening to Westerners in the Middle East in the 1980s. Even as a kid, I grew used to hearing it on the news, and eventually it stopped in part because it grew to be useless in dealing with the governments.
Terrorist groups have to do something big or something new to catch the attention of Western audiences. They don't have the manpower to undertake large-scale campaigns, and no real sympathy in the populace to let them conduct underground activities unfettered. The biggest options include taking out a US president, but that's damned hard because of the giant force that's arrayed to keep him safe. Even a former president couldn't be taken out in a semi-hostile area with the resources of a government behind the attempt. Other options involve hitting a stadium during a sporting event, but for the kind of display that they want, it would require getting access to a sizable aircraft -- something not really an option these days.
But even with those, where do you go then, after you've made a nation livid? There's no sleeping bear to wake up right now. The bear is awake, and irritating it further isn't going to do much more than put 100,000 more troops into the Afghanistan/Pakistan border area, with Pakistan's approval. Considering how well the Pakistani army is doing when forcing the militants into a straight-up fight, and that's with largely 1980s-level gear. The average US soldier is probably about as well-equipped as the average Pakistani special forces soldier. I can't imagine what kind of lopsided battles would take place.
Sarcasm aside, here's Title 18 Sec 2257(a), explaining where the section applies:
(a) Whoever produces any book, magazine, periodical, film, videotape, digital image, digitally- or computer-manipulated image of an actual human being, picture, or other matter which—
- (1) contains one or more visual depictions made after November 1, 1990 of actual sexually explicit conduct; and
- (2) is produced in whole or in part with materials which have been mailed or shipped in interstate or foreign commerce, or is shipped or transported or is intended for shipment or transportation in interstate or foreign commerce; shall create and maintain individually identifiable records pertaining to every performer portrayed in such a visual depiction.
If it's not an image of "sexually explicit conduct," Sec 2257 doesn't apply. "Sexually explicit conduct" is defined by Sec 2256(2)(A) as actual or simulated: (i) sexual intercourse, including genital-genital, oral-genital, anal-genital, or oral-anal, whether between persons of the same or opposite sex; (ii) bestiality; (iii) masturbation; (iv) sadistic or masochistic abuse; or (v) lascivious exhibition of the genitals or pubic area of any person;
Mere presence of nudity or otherwise unmasked genitalia does not itself require these records be kept. Unless you're doing something that will get you arrested for indecent exposure anyway, none of this applies to people going through the scanner.
Most badge readers aren't two-factor. They rely on something you have, and that's it. Some combine it with something you know (a keypad) and/or something you are (handprint), but in my experience, those are the exception.
They frequently do have such consultants, and the consultants cringe regularly (at least until they get completely jaded). They're told various things by the writers, directors, or other production staff ranging from legal issues (don't want to make owners of real IP addresses look bad) to artistic license (advances in technology) to STFU (be happy you have a paycheck). What they don't realize is that people can be just as fascinated by the real workings as they can by the fake workings, at least judging by what has happened when I've shown people how attacks work.
I am a Californian myself, and I wholeheartedly agree with you. However, just because something is done now doesn't mean that it's automatically bad, especially if it's been done for many decades and in other states as well.
State AGs do this on a regular basis. If they see something that they believe could become contentious, whether it be a law or a court ruling, they'll often issue a legal opinion to provide guidance on how to implement the matter before being formally asked to do so in order to minimize any delay. California's AGs, both Democrat and Republican, have been doing it for as long as I can remember and I've heard of numerous other states' AGs that have done similar things.
I only need to have my drivers licence on me if i am driving a car, if my friend is driving I don't need it, I don't need it at the beech or while bar crawling.
That depends on the state. Several states require that government-issued photo ID be on your person at all times. (If you're at the beach, "on your person" may be reasonably extrapolated to "locked in my car out of sight," as long as you can get to it.)
You and I are in the same category. I've been called for jury duty perhaps a half-dozen times, and called to the court for selection four times. In all cases, I was dismissed peremptorily. I guess my basic flaw was in being honest about things, and perhaps appearing too intelligent. I said that I could stand up for my opinion if I were alone in the group; meanwhile, to my knowledge, the woman who said that she didn't like conflict and just went with whatever the group said was allowed to stay. Kind of irritated me when she said it, and even more when she survived every challenge cycle in which I was involved.
Appeals courts will generally only address errors in application of the law, or in very rare cases, new exculpatory evidence that was not available during the trial for whatever reason. They will not overturn a verdict if the facts were deemed to be interpreted in line with the law.
Every system that I admin has more than one account on it, and at least two other people know those passwords. I have on occasion refused to undertake a certain task that I believed to be unethical or contrary to promises that I made that were in line with policy, but if someone else wants to perform the task and has the appropriate access, it can be run. Whether or not I trust someone else to handle the system correctly, I make sure that someone else does have access to it.
Bush's re-election had to do more with Kerry being the Democrat nominee than the people approving of Bush. I suspect Edwards would have been able to pull off a win, as he was energetic, better-respected (or at least less disrespected) by independents and Republicans, and had more charm. Of course, he might have generated more controversy with his womanizing, but he probably would have beaten Bush.
I never said that a diagnosis should only be made by appearance. But an individual may be treated based on the likelihood of certain diseases and conditions based on their ethnicity (which is a more accurate term than race here, since I think technically Arabs are of the Caucasian race, as an example). A significant proportion of blacks with ancestors in sub-Saharan Africa, for example, carry the genes for sickle-cell, while it's very rare in those of European descent.
You bring up obesity. If a visibly overweight person comes in complaining of chest pains, the staff treating him can make some guesses as to what may be happening and how to direct treatment. Clogged arteries may be more likely than, say, a faulty valve. When time is of the essence, you take into account every factor, including educated guesses based on appearances which have certain trends underlying them.
Pretending an attribute isn't there won't make it go away. You can't get rid of the concept of race for several reasons already listed, as well as the fact that medical specialists rely on race for quick-reference diagnostic factors. Certain conditions have sometimes vastly different rates of occurrence in different races, and a complete medical history may not be available when time is short.
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Part of the reason that they're dangerous when they get out is that prisons in large measure devolve into clan-based behaviors, though gangs are what form. A huge portion of them, maybe the majority, are racist, and a lot of people in for the first or second time join them just for safety. This isn't an easily-handled problem, either; while inmates have strongly-restricted rights, the guards are generally fine with letting them talk with whomever they please as long as they're not causing problems, because getting in between can itself cause problems. Supermax facilities don't have this issue to as great an extent, but they're hugely expensive to build and operate, and there are concerns over what it does to the inmates psychologically. For those in for life, that doesn't matter as much, but for those with lesser sentences, it may warp them at least as much as belonging to a gang.
The FAA has prohibited overland supersonic flight except for explicitly-approved military flights for decades now. Even the military has to get permission when outside of established supersonic corridors, most of which are controlled by the FAA. (Many people are often amazed at how much authority the FAA has over military flights within US borders.)
NASA has conducted a great deal of research into quieting sonic booms, either by deflecting them upward or by canceling them out. I imagine those will be or have been factored into MIT's proposals.
They've got a little bit of leeway there. Technically, Heller applied only to the District of Columbia and other purely-federal locales. There's a case, McDonald v. Chicago, that was heard by the Supreme Court earlier this year to determine whether it applies to the states as well. The actual decision is pending, and should be arriving soon.
There's definitely something to the phone's firmware. The Pre had this issue for a while, that a weakened signal would drop quickly, whereas my previous phone would just go quiet for a second or two. I referred to the Pre's dropped calls as "missing a photon," something my friends picked up when the call unexpectedly ended, as that's about all it seemed to take to drop a call. Since the 1.4 update, it's gotten much better, and even in spotty areas, it at least tries to stay connected for a few seconds before giving up.
I suppose it has something to do with when the standard was set. Perhaps the 200IU/day number was set when people spent a lot more time outside in general. As I mentioned, I do network security, and while I do get out at lunch, even living in California, there's a limit to what I can do while there's a decent amount of sunlight, especially in winter.
I'm also generally averse to taking pills. The last time I tried taking general supplements, I managed to jack my phosphorus levels over the ideal amounts and towards danger territory. I'm happy enough taking just the Vitamin D supplements, and if that's where it stays, so be it. The rest of my numbers were all good, except for my low hematocrit, which the doctor said was likely due to having donated blood a month before. That also will be rechecked soon (and I'm happy to do so -- it bothers me canceling blood donation appointments.)
I stand partially corrected. I poked around a bit to verify, and some similar numbers are recommended by a few other places. Thank you for that.
The US RDA is for 200 units per day at my age, and while it's hard to get hypervitaminosis D, there's no real need for 35,000 units per week unless you're seriously deficient. Even 5000 per week is almost four times the recommended dose.
A friend works in a urology clinic. Based on her descriptions of how priapism is handled, Woodbegone could be a significant seller. (Hint: treatment for aggressive priapism involves the erection and one or two needles. It's done under local anesthetic, but still...)
That depends very much on your doctor. I was recently found to be very deficient in Vitamin D. The traditional course of therapy is 50,000IU per week for a month. He could have written out a prescription, but instead wrote out a lab request and attached a Post-It with the words "50K units Vit D/wk." I asked if there was anything special I should look for, and he said, "Just make sure it says 'Vitamin D' on the front of the label." For $8, I got two months' regimen. I need to go back in for testing to make sure that it's recovered, and will be taking 5000 units per week until I can find a better way to get direct sunlight on a regular basis, but that's really it.
One of his colleagues on call a couple of months earlier when I got severe overnight upper-abdominal pains suggested that I could either go to the ER (in case it was appendicitis) or he could write out a prescription for something to tend to the symptoms (in case it was just a really bad gastrointestinal virus or food poisoning). I chose the latter, since the pains were upper abdominal and there was no firmness anywhere in my abdominal area. I had to have someone else get the prescription, as I couldn't drive to the pharmacy, but $60 got 100 tablets of each of the two generic medicines. It took a couple of days to pass, and I lost a good deal of weight, but I didn't have to shell out for the ER plus whatever other charges might have come along with a day or two in the hospital.
Interview your doctors, people. Ask them how they feel about pharmaceutical marketing, and their preferred approaches. Find one that makes you comfortable. Mine is old-school, and would rather his patients tend to themselves than rely on pills, and that's how I prefer to approach it as well.
Cult theocracy doesn't begin to explain that place. The entire country defies all logic. Jim Jones or David Koresh made more sense than the North Korean leadership. There was a documentary series that I saw a couple of years ago where some journalists got into the country posing as tourists, and the things they brought back were so downright bizarre and lacking in sense that I gave up all hope of them coming around through any means other than force in this century, and even then, mass suicides will follow as they realize that Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il (and whomever follows him) were not unbeatable. I've seen reports (separate from that documentary) that during air raid drills, people outside when it starts will rush into their homes to get every picture of Kim Il Sung they have and carry them into the bomb shelter with them. They will then tend to their children. Whether they do this through fear or devotion, that's just hard to wrap my mind around.
Does it count if his lawyer was in the room?
Their enemy also had Mussolini as an ally. The guy fancied himself the next Roman emperor and a military genius, and Germany routinely had to divert resources to bail him out. When Italian forces invaded Greece in 1941 it was rapidly pushed out, even losing territory it controlled prior to the attack; the German Twelfth Army had to be sent down to rescue it, depriving Germany of more than 150,000 men that could have made a difference in Operation Barbarossa.
Of course, the fact that Mussolini's senior officers were also incompetent (based on the perceptions of Erwin Rommel, among others) didn't help. Hitler wasn't the military genius he thought himself to be, either, but he had good officers that knew how to work around him until they were relieved of their commands.
He's got a point there. I remember to some degree the hostage-taking that was happening to Westerners in the Middle East in the 1980s. Even as a kid, I grew used to hearing it on the news, and eventually it stopped in part because it grew to be useless in dealing with the governments.
Terrorist groups have to do something big or something new to catch the attention of Western audiences. They don't have the manpower to undertake large-scale campaigns, and no real sympathy in the populace to let them conduct underground activities unfettered. The biggest options include taking out a US president, but that's damned hard because of the giant force that's arrayed to keep him safe. Even a former president couldn't be taken out in a semi-hostile area with the resources of a government behind the attempt. Other options involve hitting a stadium during a sporting event, but for the kind of display that they want, it would require getting access to a sizable aircraft -- something not really an option these days.
But even with those, where do you go then, after you've made a nation livid? There's no sleeping bear to wake up right now. The bear is awake, and irritating it further isn't going to do much more than put 100,000 more troops into the Afghanistan/Pakistan border area, with Pakistan's approval. Considering how well the Pakistani army is doing when forcing the militants into a straight-up fight, and that's with largely 1980s-level gear. The average US soldier is probably about as well-equipped as the average Pakistani special forces soldier. I can't imagine what kind of lopsided battles would take place.
Sarcasm aside, here's Title 18 Sec 2257(a), explaining where the section applies:
(a) Whoever produces any book, magazine, periodical, film, videotape, digital image, digitally- or computer-manipulated image of an actual human being, picture, or other matter which—
- (1) contains one or more visual depictions made after November 1, 1990 of actual sexually explicit conduct; and
- (2) is produced in whole or in part with materials which have been mailed or shipped in interstate or foreign commerce, or is shipped or transported or is intended for shipment or transportation in interstate or foreign commerce;
shall create and maintain individually identifiable records pertaining to every performer portrayed in such a visual depiction.
If it's not an image of "sexually explicit conduct," Sec 2257 doesn't apply. "Sexually explicit conduct" is defined by Sec 2256(2)(A) as actual or simulated:
(i) sexual intercourse, including genital-genital, oral-genital, anal-genital, or oral-anal, whether between persons of the same or opposite sex;
(ii) bestiality;
(iii) masturbation;
(iv) sadistic or masochistic abuse; or
(v) lascivious exhibition of the genitals or pubic area of any person;
Mere presence of nudity or otherwise unmasked genitalia does not itself require these records be kept. Unless you're doing something that will get you arrested for indecent exposure anyway, none of this applies to people going through the scanner.
Most badge readers aren't two-factor. They rely on something you have, and that's it. Some combine it with something you know (a keypad) and/or something you are (handprint), but in my experience, those are the exception.
That was my first thought when I saw this. I immediately started trying to figure out how to configure our firewalls and web filters to block this.
They frequently do have such consultants, and the consultants cringe regularly (at least until they get completely jaded). They're told various things by the writers, directors, or other production staff ranging from legal issues (don't want to make owners of real IP addresses look bad) to artistic license (advances in technology) to STFU (be happy you have a paycheck). What they don't realize is that people can be just as fascinated by the real workings as they can by the fake workings, at least judging by what has happened when I've shown people how attacks work.
I am a Californian myself, and I wholeheartedly agree with you. However, just because something is done now doesn't mean that it's automatically bad, especially if it's been done for many decades and in other states as well.
State AGs do this on a regular basis. If they see something that they believe could become contentious, whether it be a law or a court ruling, they'll often issue a legal opinion to provide guidance on how to implement the matter before being formally asked to do so in order to minimize any delay. California's AGs, both Democrat and Republican, have been doing it for as long as I can remember and I've heard of numerous other states' AGs that have done similar things.
I only need to have my drivers licence on me if i am driving a car, if my friend is driving I don't need it, I don't need it at the beech or while bar crawling.
That depends on the state. Several states require that government-issued photo ID be on your person at all times. (If you're at the beach, "on your person" may be reasonably extrapolated to "locked in my car out of sight," as long as you can get to it.)
You and I are in the same category. I've been called for jury duty perhaps a half-dozen times, and called to the court for selection four times. In all cases, I was dismissed peremptorily. I guess my basic flaw was in being honest about things, and perhaps appearing too intelligent. I said that I could stand up for my opinion if I were alone in the group; meanwhile, to my knowledge, the woman who said that she didn't like conflict and just went with whatever the group said was allowed to stay. Kind of irritated me when she said it, and even more when she survived every challenge cycle in which I was involved.
Appeals courts will generally only address errors in application of the law, or in very rare cases, new exculpatory evidence that was not available during the trial for whatever reason. They will not overturn a verdict if the facts were deemed to be interpreted in line with the law.
Every system that I admin has more than one account on it, and at least two other people know those passwords. I have on occasion refused to undertake a certain task that I believed to be unethical or contrary to promises that I made that were in line with policy, but if someone else wants to perform the task and has the appropriate access, it can be run. Whether or not I trust someone else to handle the system correctly, I make sure that someone else does have access to it.
Bush's re-election had to do more with Kerry being the Democrat nominee than the people approving of Bush. I suspect Edwards would have been able to pull off a win, as he was energetic, better-respected (or at least less disrespected) by independents and Republicans, and had more charm. Of course, he might have generated more controversy with his womanizing, but he probably would have beaten Bush.
I never said that a diagnosis should only be made by appearance. But an individual may be treated based on the likelihood of certain diseases and conditions based on their ethnicity (which is a more accurate term than race here, since I think technically Arabs are of the Caucasian race, as an example). A significant proportion of blacks with ancestors in sub-Saharan Africa, for example, carry the genes for sickle-cell, while it's very rare in those of European descent.
You bring up obesity. If a visibly overweight person comes in complaining of chest pains, the staff treating him can make some guesses as to what may be happening and how to direct treatment. Clogged arteries may be more likely than, say, a faulty valve. When time is of the essence, you take into account every factor, including educated guesses based on appearances which have certain trends underlying them.
Pretending an attribute isn't there won't make it go away. You can't get rid of the concept of race for several reasons already listed, as well as the fact that medical specialists rely on race for quick-reference diagnostic factors. Certain conditions have sometimes vastly different rates of occurrence in different races, and a complete medical history may not be available when time is short.