Being a federal employee, I have a perfect idea of how well compensated public employees are: not well at all.
I make approximately 33% of my private sector counterparts. Total compensation for me includes a slew of health benefits and relatively generous vacation, and retirement matching of up to 5% of my income. My primary real benefit is job security, which is slightly better in government than at your average corporation. It's reasonable to suggest that public employees are comfortable: generally speaking, we are. But to suggest that public employees are getting paid too much? Get fucking real. Corporate-owned America, on the downward slope to third world status, is screwing everyone.
Just because you see yourself getting fucked, doesn't mean you have to drag hard-working public servants into the same shithole you chose. People like you make me sick.
One of the things I'd be curious about is how this is going to affect the way crimes are investigated. Do law enforcement agencies have greater powers of surveillance over RICO suspects? Does this also affect which agencies are allowed to do the investigations?
This could also open avenues to prosecuting, for political reasons, people who haven't actually committed crimes. Julian Assange didn't hack into anything, but if the DoJ can convince a judge that he was part of a "racket" with Manning, perhaps they could get a prosecution to move forward, allowing discovery and surveillance that would previously be closed to them.
It'll be interesting to see how this strategic shift actually gets used. At this point, I'm wary of any of this administration's law enforcement aspirations.
Ok, I'm going to step into this mess.
Yes, actually, I do "not buy food" to avoid advertisements. I used to shop at Wal-Mart because it's the closest grocery store to my house. A few months ago they added little TVs that spew advertisements at you constantly while you wait in line to pay for your goods. Now I shop at Martin's (like a Food Lion/Safeway/Smith's/whatever).
Some of us recognize the toxicity of advertising and will avoid it wherever possible. I also haven't had television service for over a decade now and I believe I'm much better for it.
All of the gaming enthusiasts complaining that this is impractical for heatsink technology because it's too expensive, or that a simply larger passive heatsink could do just as well, are missing the whole point of this kind of research. Engineering is an optimization problem, and keeping the size/weight parameters the same while increasing efficiency is a victory any way you cut it. Sandia does a lot of weapons/aerospace research, so this may have immediate applications for them in computing environments where size/weight constraints are the limiting factor.
You're still creating perpetual-motion machine here.
The resource we are using energy to create with desalination is the fresh water.
The resource we are consuming to create electricity osmotically is the fresh water, not the brine.
Creating brine with evaporation doesn't feed energy into this loop, so it's still a closed cycle.
The real problem is that corn-based products masquerading as food are sold in massive quantities at unrealistically low prices to the poor and middle class in this country. Removing corn subsidies would more than pay for the increased health care required as well as raise the price on artificial slop (eg. fast food, corporate chains like olive garden, soda, hot pockets, tv dinners, etc) to the point where the real cost of food would be apparent to consumers. Add in the benefit that cooking at home is suddenly much more attractive financially and you just might see our shameful obesity trends start to reverse.
This has actually been my biggest beef so far with trying to purchase a cell phone. Despite some modest google searching, I still can't get a straight answer on "what level of access do I have to the device and how hard is it to develop applications using the device components and services?" for any of the major devices. And God save you if you want to get help from ANYONE who works at the mobile stores. I've yet to encounter a single person who can answer even simple questions about the technology that underlies any given device.
I can't tell if this is a troll or not. Maybe it's different in the UK, but I don't think it would be possible for a competent officer of the law to inspect my home, my vehicle, and my computer without coming away with something that could be used to prosecute me for a crime.
Here are the rules you follow to avoid being arrested, *especially* if you are innocent:
1. You don't talk to the police.
2. You DON'T TALK TO THE POLICE.
3. Get a lawyer.
4. Do as your lawyer tells you.
Rules 1 and 2 dictate that I will say absolutely nothing. Can they prove that I formatted that drive with encryption? Maybe one of my geek friends did it. Maybe there was a password at some point, but maybe I don't remember, or never even knew it in the first place. Until you open your mouth they have to prove it from the ground up. The federal government has zero right to what's in your head. Any government that would leverage your freedom against your knowledge in order to incriminate you deserves some civil disobedience.
There are numerous places in the US named Black Mesa, but the Black Mesa on which the half-life location is based exists just outside of Los Alamos, NM and, based on its location (right outside LANL) and the local wind characteristics, it may in fact be a perfect spot for fielding a set of wind turbines.
Holy crap, you're right. If we raised teaching pay more people might be compelled to pursue a teaching career! That would in turn raise competition and then teachers who just love to teach might get beaten for the job by some heartless, over-talented cretin just because they're better qualified.
We cannot afford to turn out more educated students at the expense of teachers who are really good at only because they're paid to be.
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Being a federal employee, I have a perfect idea of how well compensated public employees are: not well at all. I make approximately 33% of my private sector counterparts. Total compensation for me includes a slew of health benefits and relatively generous vacation, and retirement matching of up to 5% of my income. My primary real benefit is job security, which is slightly better in government than at your average corporation. It's reasonable to suggest that public employees are comfortable: generally speaking, we are. But to suggest that public employees are getting paid too much? Get fucking real. Corporate-owned America, on the downward slope to third world status, is screwing everyone. Just because you see yourself getting fucked, doesn't mean you have to drag hard-working public servants into the same shithole you chose. People like you make me sick.
One of the things I'd be curious about is how this is going to affect the way crimes are investigated. Do law enforcement agencies have greater powers of surveillance over RICO suspects? Does this also affect which agencies are allowed to do the investigations? This could also open avenues to prosecuting, for political reasons, people who haven't actually committed crimes. Julian Assange didn't hack into anything, but if the DoJ can convince a judge that he was part of a "racket" with Manning, perhaps they could get a prosecution to move forward, allowing discovery and surveillance that would previously be closed to them. It'll be interesting to see how this strategic shift actually gets used. At this point, I'm wary of any of this administration's law enforcement aspirations.
Ok, I'm going to step into this mess. Yes, actually, I do "not buy food" to avoid advertisements. I used to shop at Wal-Mart because it's the closest grocery store to my house. A few months ago they added little TVs that spew advertisements at you constantly while you wait in line to pay for your goods. Now I shop at Martin's (like a Food Lion/Safeway/Smith's/whatever). Some of us recognize the toxicity of advertising and will avoid it wherever possible. I also haven't had television service for over a decade now and I believe I'm much better for it.
If we go to Ceres before meeting the Chozo, who's gonna use their power armor to defeat Ridley and the Mother Brain?
All of the gaming enthusiasts complaining that this is impractical for heatsink technology because it's too expensive, or that a simply larger passive heatsink could do just as well, are missing the whole point of this kind of research. Engineering is an optimization problem, and keeping the size/weight parameters the same while increasing efficiency is a victory any way you cut it. Sandia does a lot of weapons/aerospace research, so this may have immediate applications for them in computing environments where size/weight constraints are the limiting factor.
You're still creating perpetual-motion machine here. The resource we are using energy to create with desalination is the fresh water. The resource we are consuming to create electricity osmotically is the fresh water, not the brine. Creating brine with evaporation doesn't feed energy into this loop, so it's still a closed cycle.
The real problem is that corn-based products masquerading as food are sold in massive quantities at unrealistically low prices to the poor and middle class in this country. Removing corn subsidies would more than pay for the increased health care required as well as raise the price on artificial slop (eg. fast food, corporate chains like olive garden, soda, hot pockets, tv dinners, etc) to the point where the real cost of food would be apparent to consumers. Add in the benefit that cooking at home is suddenly much more attractive financially and you just might see our shameful obesity trends start to reverse.
This has actually been my biggest beef so far with trying to purchase a cell phone. Despite some modest google searching, I still can't get a straight answer on "what level of access do I have to the device and how hard is it to develop applications using the device components and services?" for any of the major devices. And God save you if you want to get help from ANYONE who works at the mobile stores. I've yet to encounter a single person who can answer even simple questions about the technology that underlies any given device.
I can't tell if this is a troll or not. Maybe it's different in the UK, but I don't think it would be possible for a competent officer of the law to inspect my home, my vehicle, and my computer without coming away with something that could be used to prosecute me for a crime. Here are the rules you follow to avoid being arrested, *especially* if you are innocent: 1. You don't talk to the police. 2. You DON'T TALK TO THE POLICE. 3. Get a lawyer. 4. Do as your lawyer tells you. Rules 1 and 2 dictate that I will say absolutely nothing. Can they prove that I formatted that drive with encryption? Maybe one of my geek friends did it. Maybe there was a password at some point, but maybe I don't remember, or never even knew it in the first place. Until you open your mouth they have to prove it from the ground up. The federal government has zero right to what's in your head. Any government that would leverage your freedom against your knowledge in order to incriminate you deserves some civil disobedience.
There are numerous places in the US named Black Mesa, but the Black Mesa on which the half-life location is based exists just outside of Los Alamos, NM and, based on its location (right outside LANL) and the local wind characteristics, it may in fact be a perfect spot for fielding a set of wind turbines.
Holy crap, you're right. If we raised teaching pay more people might be compelled to pursue a teaching career! That would in turn raise competition and then teachers who just love to teach might get beaten for the job by some heartless, over-talented cretin just because they're better qualified. We cannot afford to turn out more educated students at the expense of teachers who are really good at only because they're paid to be.