This isn't true. It's very hard to predict where you are on the epidemiological curve until you're past the first hump and even then, it's a guessing.
If we're in the beginning states, control measures can be very effective. Proving that it was the control measures that limited the spread is another matter.
Actually, now that I think about it and I do remember reading about the Verizon thing, so I know I'm wrong.
But there's been multiple articles in the recent past from multiple sources that have quoted Verizon execs as saying that Apple never seriously considered a CDMA phone. That's fresh in my mind.
For any epidemic with a new strain, there's ALWAYS something that's fairly unusual and something you have never seen before.
In fact, it's unusual NOT to see something unusual. I get suspicious when there's nothing strange with a straight textbook case. Someone's probably not investigating hard enough.
In case you haven't guessed yet, I am by profession an epidemiologist. There's NOT ENOUGH information available to the public to draw any conclusions. I'm sure the guys on this one are up to their eyeballs with conflicting information and are trying to sort it all out.
There's a potential, but until we know better, keep your fearmongering to yourself.
And you're using the word "vector" wrong. Depending on what you believe, your understanding might not even be wrong.
/sigh. I was hoping to be able to stick with Mac virus jokes but....
No.
At this point in the epidemic cycle, that would be a premature panic reaction. Panic always and inevitably causes more harm than good.
There's a number of factors that influence decision making to limit the spread of any disease. Variables that need to be filled in before far reaching decisions are made include the transmissability and virulence of this particular strain. In other words, things that not yet been established include the number people exposed, the number of people who were exposed who developed symptoms, the number of people who developed symptons that were severe enough to seek medical attention and the number of those who died.
Some of those, you can make a guess at but you won't know with any reasonable degree of certainty for a while. Meanwhile, the public health system is keeping an eye out for new cases. Between the two, you continue to develop your model, which helps you determine just what the potential is.
Now, to grossly oversimplify and at the risk of sounding a little callous here, seriously sick people will show up at the hospital, clinic, etc. There's a number of reasons that they might not, but you can bet that if a young adult gets sick of the flu and dies, someone's going to hear about it. With low awareness, this is the group that you catch, which is not okay because there are transmissive people out there wandering around infecting other people.
The other side of that spectrum is just as bad and in the professional opinion many, can be worse. The moment that the authoritative reaction is severe, such as shutting down transportation systems, the population panics. Suddenly, you have every person with a cough and a runny nose swamping the public health system. Add to the fact that it's now SPRING and the beginning of allergy season in the southern US, and you've just made the difficult job of outbreak investigation and outbreak control much more difficult by several orders of magnitude.
The response has to be measured in a way to balance numerous factors so NO. Cancelling ar flights at this juncture would be an example of a supremely BAD idea.
Now, the moment you KNOW that it's spreading faster than you have the capacity to contain and control, THEN you take the drastic step of public alerts limited quarantine. Before then, it's just irresponsible.
While the latter half of you post may have merit, it is invalidated by the fact that Verizon never had a chance to reject the iPhone because the iPhone never would have worked in the Verizon network. Different technologies. Apple never seriously considered making a CDMA phone.
I'm sick of hearing this excuse from Americans as an excuse to why Korean, Japanese, and Europeans have long since leapfrogged us in technology infrastructures.
Americans just flat out refuse to acknowledge when they aren't number one. I got news. We're not #1. We're not #2. We're not even in the top ten. And we DON'T have an excuse.
There are major urbanized areas in the US with a land area and population density equivalent to all of these other places with high speed broadband. Why don't we have real broadband on the NE coast? Why don't we have real broadband on the California coast?
Face it. TW and companies like it are no longer a part of the solution. They're not even a part of the problem. They ARE the problem.
I spend 9/10 months of the year working for a very well regarded humanitarian aid NGO.
If I am in your country on an assignment, it's likely because it's because there is either a war, massive natural disaster or a public health emergency beyond the capability of the locals to handle.
So yeah, most of the year, I don't have electronics, gadgets, internet, TV, electricity, running water, hot water, trash collection or city water/sewage.
So yes, please tell me again how to appreciate the things I have now.
It's shit like this that makes me want to be alive 100 and 150 years from now. Not because I want to live forever but because think about all the cool shit those guys are gonna have.
I was being generous and giving the benefit of doubt. I also didn't want to sound like I was going on an anti-police polemic, particularly because I don't believe all cops are bad.
On the other hand, there are very few things I hate more than a bad cop. A bad cop is much worse than a common criminal because at least the criminal understands where he stands in relation to the law. A criminal breaks the law. A bad cop uses the law to his own ends, stays above it and destroys trust. His/her betrayal of the public trust and contributions toward the degradation of the public good are insidious and worthy of highest order of contempt.
That said, by painting all cops with the same brush, you're doing the same thing cops do with blacks/Arabs/Mexicans/protesters/etc. That's hypocrisy.
This is the part (the whole paragraph) where I disagree with you. While it contains nuggets of truth (a single mistake doesn't make you a bad cop) it entirely misses the point that a single bad decision made in the full cold light of reason does make you a bad cop if it is permitted to go without correction. The answer might or might not be the same as for any other citizen, but the question does need to be asked. To cover for any transgression is inappropriate. Put simply, if you cannot do your job without following the rules, do something else. As a citizen things are somewhat different, because I am not tasked with enforcing the rules. If I break them it's not inherently hypocritical. And as you say, we need to hold both military and paramilitary to a higher standard than the average citizen. So long as we do otherwise, we simply enshrine bullying.
No, I don't believe that you and I disagree.
I brought this up as an example of incorrect reasoning leading to "backing up" your buddies even when you know he is wrong.
It is my belief that for those branches of the government that require and/or allow armed personnel to use force, justice should be harsh, swift, and goddamn near unforgiving. If you do something wrong and are found guilty of it, you should be nailed to the motherfucking wall as example to others.
I believe a mechanism for catching and correcting cops for street level mistakes does not exist, or if it exists, it is dysfunctional or just plain broken.
We've arrived or are arriving at a point in time where the technology is available not to just be a police state but also a police aware state.
This is to say, the answer to the question, "Who watches the watchers?" should be clear. Us. The citizens.
I wrote that because it would be hypocritical of me to condemn all police, in the same way that an officer who assumes wrong might lead to him making a serious mistake.
I wrote a much longer post, but I skipped it for brevity's sake but the short version is this.
I believe that cops should be held to a higher standard that the average citizen. To accept a position of authority comes with it the responsibility to wield that authority with moral caution. I also don't buy the argument that cops cannot think of these things because they are doing a dangerous job.
I give them the benefit of the doubt, because I do understand why they make the choices that they do, even if they are incorrect. Cops are human, just like everyone else. A single mistake doesn't make you a bad cop. On the other hand, there are cops out there who are just plain bad. Decent cops cover for each other because they don't want one bad decision bringing their buddy down. Then again, you cover too much and you're enabling him to continue bad behavior. This is wrong and exists because it's easy to lose sight that a police officer's first duty and function is to society, not the maintenance of social order within the ranks.
I say this as a former soldier and officer. 11A, if that means anything to you. I see too many police officers who use the rationale of bodily peril to excuse their actions. I've trained with police and sometimes, their mentality and patterns of speech disgust me. If you knew how certain breeds of cops talks behind closed doors, it would frighten you.
It really bothers me when cops start considering certain groups of citizens as the enemy. They then start considering themselves as "brothers-in-arms" and form the blue wall. No, you are not a soldier. Military justice is harsher and swifter than civilian justice for a reason. It is because the repercussions of a soldier's transgressions can be far reaching. I don't see police misdeeds being corrected as immediately or punished as harshly. In fact, I see a lot of police operating above the law. This is wrong and it needs to be fixed. The system will not do it on its own. The best recourse is citizen awareness and not accepting this.
There. A much longer winded post that amounts to the same thing as my original post.
I'm more interested in a mobile phone YouTube to report misdeeds and abuses by police officers.
I say that even though most of my interactions with police officers, even if they haven't been necessarily pleasant due to the circumstances, have been professional. It's just that I've been there and seen enough abuses of authority by bad cops to know that when it does happen, the only thing that's going to help you is video evidence.
I wish those nine out ten good cops wouldn't cover for that one bad cop.
Yeah man. PSP is hurting for games. I bought a bunch of games about a year ago and quite literally, nothing has been released in the past year that appeals to me.
But to answer your question, I'd say give God of War a try. I never got into other action games but Gurumin kept me entertained. Don't let the cuteness throw you off, the game itself is good.
Disgaea is as good as it gets for PSP RPGs but Jeanne D'Arc is close and FFT:War of the Lions is a much better version of the original FFT if you're in for nostalgia.
Wipeout Pulse is okay if you're tired of Pure but if I had to choose between the two, I'd pick Pure.
The Tekken5DR game was good, if you're into fighters.
Absolutely dude. I pay for The Economist. Not because I'm Economist kind of guy, but because they consolidate information in a way that adds value to the actual news.
I'm arguing against subscription based general news that is just as good from one source as another. It's all recycled AP stuff anyway.
I AM willing to pay for subscription journalism as long as the value added is worth my money. I pay a little under $100 a year for my online only subscription to The Economist. Off an on, I've subscribed to ArsTechnica. I would pay for IRIN and ReutersAlertnet.
These people are deluding themselves. They're looking to make you pay for information in a way that's simply not feasible anymore. The old methods of controlling the information flow don't apply. Figure out a new way. If they sold an product or service I want to buy, I will pay for it.
BUT, if there's just one major site out there that gives away what you're selling for free, you're game's up. Local news? TV news channels, for all of their faults, will give that to me for free on their websites. They've already paid for that content through advertising. Its free to me, just like how it's "free" for me to turn on the TV (I don't actually have a TV).
There's a cliche about a barn door... Or burst damns. I don't know which one is more appropriate.
You mean people won't pay for something they can just as easily get for free?
Really, who didn't see this one coming?
What value are they adding to the "news" when, between the TV news websites and Google News for all the other locals who are NOT participating in this doomed venture, people get what they want?
The only way this could work is if EVERY relevant news outlet decided to do this simultaneously. It would only take ONE outlet not participating to ruin the model.
These guys need to realize that they need to give up on a dead and dying model of how information is distributed. The old media moguls who still run the show don't get it. That they can't up with another solution speaks to their actual lack of vision and creativity. Hey, Murdoch, if you're so fucking smart, why can't you and your people come up with a product that people want to buy?
I'm not so concerned about losing my games along with my PSP because I can either just re-rip all of those games and/or I have the game ISOs on my Macbook Pro.
Due to the nature of my job I live nine or ten months out of the year out of a backpack and a duffel bag. For me, space is a premium. I have 40 game UMDs. Another copy of each of those is on my HD or on a memory stick. UMDs and their attendant cases take up a stupid amount of space. I paid for it. I want access, dammit! Lumines is just as good today as it was when it was first released.
Even when I'm in the US/EU/EA, I don't want to have to make a choice in which games I carry. What kind of ridiculous shit is that in 2009?
I have the DS as well, also hacked and with every game on storage and flash. It's incredibly easy to lose these infernal cartidges.
There's a lot of stuff Steam got wrong, but there's stuff it got right, too. I get on any computer and log in with my Steam account, I can play anything in my Steam library. If just copy the game files, I don't have to download it for each machine, either.
Face it, physical media is dead. I don't want that outdated and obsolete shit anymore. Sell me what I want, digital distribution, cloud access and a good sized local cache.
Which "Third World" nations are providing 8x10Mbps at $10 a month?
The quality of life in some of these places American called "3rd world nations" 20 years ago, particularly those in Asia, is better than the US these days.
First, milspec is more a standardized testing methodology to rate tolerances and not really a set of standards to be met.
As it's been mentioned, consumer electronics are commonplace downrange these days. Although back in my day, I had to confiscate Gameboys because issue batteries for our NVDs almost inevitably ended up in everything else.
iPhones are a lot tougher than a lot of people might think. I've carried my first gen iPhone in even more extreme environmental conditions than Iraq and Afghanistan with no real problems.
The only time that I had trouble was a winter in Tajikistan when I left it out in the vehicle. The screen colors were all warped when it eventually started but it got better on its own.
Heat and dust, no biggie. Just don't leave it lying in the sun, which is good practice for anything.
The only time my iPhone goes in a case is when there's a risk I might take an unplanned trip into the water, for which I have an Otterbox.
However I think you are under estimating the importance of why people fight. The answer "unit cohesion" really is an important answer. It is really why people do fight most of the time. There is often no deeper answer than to save your buddy or yourself.
Sorry dude, but as someone who has put in his time, this doesn't ring true with me. You fight because that's what it says on the contract when you signed up. What was in your head is truly only for you to know. I've listened enough to know that could one of a million reasons.
I really hated Jarhead - it's one of the few films I've ever given up on before the end. Just another cliched boot camp film where bugger all actually happened.
Oddly enough, that was actually kind of the point. You go through all of that training. You actually get in theater. You suffer the desert, friendly fire but mostly, you suffer boredom. And then, before you ever get to pull the trigger, war's over. And you think to yourself, WTF was the point of all that?!?
I'm from the military generation that directly preceded 9/11 and I sympathize. Just ONCE, I wanted to squeeze the trigger in anger.
On the other hand, I think the author of Jarhead is a dick. He lifted a lot of popular military urban legends and myths, the retold the stories as his own.
Slashdot Mirror
This isn't true. It's very hard to predict where you are on the epidemiological curve until you're past the first hump and even then, it's a guessing.
If we're in the beginning states, control measures can be very effective. Proving that it was the control measures that limited the spread is another matter.
Okay, if I'm wrong, I stand corrected.
Actually, now that I think about it and I do remember reading about the Verizon thing, so I know I'm wrong.
But there's been multiple articles in the recent past from multiple sources that have quoted Verizon execs as saying that Apple never seriously considered a CDMA phone. That's fresh in my mind.
To me, this is conflicting information.
For any epidemic with a new strain, there's ALWAYS something that's fairly unusual and something you have never seen before.
In fact, it's unusual NOT to see something unusual. I get suspicious when there's nothing strange with a straight textbook case. Someone's probably not investigating hard enough.
In case you haven't guessed yet, I am by profession an epidemiologist. There's NOT ENOUGH information available to the public to draw any conclusions. I'm sure the guys on this one are up to their eyeballs with conflicting information and are trying to sort it all out.
There's a potential, but until we know better, keep your fearmongering to yourself.
And you're using the word "vector" wrong. Depending on what you believe, your understanding might not even be wrong.
I was gonna respond to this but then I realized it was so wrong, that it has to be a clever troll.
/sigh. I was hoping to be able to stick with Mac virus jokes but....
No.
At this point in the epidemic cycle, that would be a premature panic reaction. Panic always and inevitably causes more harm than good.
There's a number of factors that influence decision making to limit the spread of any disease. Variables that need to be filled in before far reaching decisions are made include the transmissability and virulence of this particular strain. In other words, things that not yet been established include the number people exposed, the number of people who were exposed who developed symptoms, the number of people who developed symptons that were severe enough to seek medical attention and the number of those who died.
Some of those, you can make a guess at but you won't know with any reasonable degree of certainty for a while. Meanwhile, the public health system is keeping an eye out for new cases. Between the two, you continue to develop your model, which helps you determine just what the potential is.
Now, to grossly oversimplify and at the risk of sounding a little callous here, seriously sick people will show up at the hospital, clinic, etc. There's a number of reasons that they might not, but you can bet that if a young adult gets sick of the flu and dies, someone's going to hear about it. With low awareness, this is the group that you catch, which is not okay because there are transmissive people out there wandering around infecting other people.
The other side of that spectrum is just as bad and in the professional opinion many, can be worse. The moment that the authoritative reaction is severe, such as shutting down transportation systems, the population panics. Suddenly, you have every person with a cough and a runny nose swamping the public health system. Add to the fact that it's now SPRING and the beginning of allergy season in the southern US, and you've just made the difficult job of outbreak investigation and outbreak control much more difficult by several orders of magnitude.
The response has to be measured in a way to balance numerous factors so NO. Cancelling ar flights at this juncture would be an example of a supremely BAD idea.
Now, the moment you KNOW that it's spreading faster than you have the capacity to contain and control, THEN you take the drastic step of public alerts limited quarantine. Before then, it's just irresponsible.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123991010146926199.html
I have a Macbook Pro. That means I'm immune, right?
While the latter half of you post may have merit, it is invalidated by the fact that Verizon never had a chance to reject the iPhone because the iPhone never would have worked in the Verizon network. Different technologies. Apple never seriously considered making a CDMA phone.
No, it's not.
I'm sick of hearing this excuse from Americans as an excuse to why Korean, Japanese, and Europeans have long since leapfrogged us in technology infrastructures.
Americans just flat out refuse to acknowledge when they aren't number one. I got news. We're not #1. We're not #2. We're not even in the top ten. And we DON'T have an excuse.
There are major urbanized areas in the US with a land area and population density equivalent to all of these other places with high speed broadband. Why don't we have real broadband on the NE coast? Why don't we have real broadband on the California coast?
Face it. TW and companies like it are no longer a part of the solution. They're not even a part of the problem. They ARE the problem.
I spend 9/10 months of the year working for a very well regarded humanitarian aid NGO.
If I am in your country on an assignment, it's likely because it's because there is either a war, massive natural disaster or a public health emergency beyond the capability of the locals to handle.
So yeah, most of the year, I don't have electronics, gadgets, internet, TV, electricity, running water, hot water, trash collection or city water/sewage.
So yes, please tell me again how to appreciate the things I have now.
It's shit like this that makes me want to be alive 100 and 150 years from now. Not because I want to live forever but because think about all the cool shit those guys are gonna have.
I was being generous and giving the benefit of doubt. I also didn't want to sound like I was going on an anti-police polemic, particularly because I don't believe all cops are bad.
On the other hand, there are very few things I hate more than a bad cop. A bad cop is much worse than a common criminal because at least the criminal understands where he stands in relation to the law. A criminal breaks the law. A bad cop uses the law to his own ends, stays above it and destroys trust. His/her betrayal of the public trust and contributions toward the degradation of the public good are insidious and worthy of highest order of contempt.
That said, by painting all cops with the same brush, you're doing the same thing cops do with blacks/Arabs/Mexicans/protesters/etc. That's hypocrisy.
This is the part (the whole paragraph) where I disagree with you. While it contains nuggets of truth (a single mistake doesn't make you a bad cop) it entirely misses the point that a single bad decision made in the full cold light of reason does make you a bad cop if it is permitted to go without correction. The answer might or might not be the same as for any other citizen, but the question does need to be asked. To cover for any transgression is inappropriate. Put simply, if you cannot do your job without following the rules, do something else. As a citizen things are somewhat different, because I am not tasked with enforcing the rules. If I break them it's not inherently hypocritical. And as you say, we need to hold both military and paramilitary to a higher standard than the average citizen. So long as we do otherwise, we simply enshrine bullying.
No, I don't believe that you and I disagree.
I brought this up as an example of incorrect reasoning leading to "backing up" your buddies even when you know he is wrong.
It is my belief that for those branches of the government that require and/or allow armed personnel to use force, justice should be harsh, swift, and goddamn near unforgiving. If you do something wrong and are found guilty of it, you should be nailed to the motherfucking wall as example to others.
I believe a mechanism for catching and correcting cops for street level mistakes does not exist, or if it exists, it is dysfunctional or just plain broken.
We've arrived or are arriving at a point in time where the technology is available not to just be a police state but also a police aware state.
This is to say, the answer to the question, "Who watches the watchers?" should be clear. Us. The citizens.
As it should be.
I wrote that because it would be hypocritical of me to condemn all police, in the same way that an officer who assumes wrong might lead to him making a serious mistake.
I wrote a much longer post, but I skipped it for brevity's sake but the short version is this.
I believe that cops should be held to a higher standard that the average citizen. To accept a position of authority comes with it the responsibility to wield that authority with moral caution. I also don't buy the argument that cops cannot think of these things because they are doing a dangerous job.
I give them the benefit of the doubt, because I do understand why they make the choices that they do, even if they are incorrect. Cops are human, just like everyone else. A single mistake doesn't make you a bad cop. On the other hand, there are cops out there who are just plain bad. Decent cops cover for each other because they don't want one bad decision bringing their buddy down. Then again, you cover too much and you're enabling him to continue bad behavior. This is wrong and exists because it's easy to lose sight that a police officer's first duty and function is to society, not the maintenance of social order within the ranks.
I say this as a former soldier and officer. 11A, if that means anything to you. I see too many police officers who use the rationale of bodily peril to excuse their actions. I've trained with police and sometimes, their mentality and patterns of speech disgust me. If you knew how certain breeds of cops talks behind closed doors, it would frighten you.
It really bothers me when cops start considering certain groups of citizens as the enemy. They then start considering themselves as "brothers-in-arms" and form the blue wall. No, you are not a soldier. Military justice is harsher and swifter than civilian justice for a reason. It is because the repercussions of a soldier's transgressions can be far reaching. I don't see police misdeeds being corrected as immediately or punished as harshly. In fact, I see a lot of police operating above the law. This is wrong and it needs to be fixed. The system will not do it on its own. The best recourse is citizen awareness and not accepting this.
There. A much longer winded post that amounts to the same thing as my original post.
I'm more interested in a mobile phone YouTube to report misdeeds and abuses by police officers.
I say that even though most of my interactions with police officers, even if they haven't been necessarily pleasant due to the circumstances, have been professional. It's just that I've been there and seen enough abuses of authority by bad cops to know that when it does happen, the only thing that's going to help you is video evidence.
I wish those nine out ten good cops wouldn't cover for that one bad cop.
Yeah man. PSP is hurting for games. I bought a bunch of games about a year ago and quite literally, nothing has been released in the past year that appeals to me.
But to answer your question, I'd say give God of War a try. I never got into other action games but Gurumin kept me entertained. Don't let the cuteness throw you off, the game itself is good.
Disgaea is as good as it gets for PSP RPGs but Jeanne D'Arc is close and FFT:War of the Lions is a much better version of the original FFT if you're in for nostalgia.
Wipeout Pulse is okay if you're tired of Pure but if I had to choose between the two, I'd pick Pure.
The Tekken5DR game was good, if you're into fighters.
Absolutely dude. I pay for The Economist. Not because I'm Economist kind of guy, but because they consolidate information in a way that adds value to the actual news.
I'm arguing against subscription based general news that is just as good from one source as another. It's all recycled AP stuff anyway.
I AM willing to pay for subscription journalism as long as the value added is worth my money. I pay a little under $100 a year for my online only subscription to The Economist. Off an on, I've subscribed to ArsTechnica. I would pay for IRIN and ReutersAlertnet.
These people are deluding themselves. They're looking to make you pay for information in a way that's simply not feasible anymore. The old methods of controlling the information flow don't apply. Figure out a new way. If they sold an product or service I want to buy, I will pay for it.
BUT, if there's just one major site out there that gives away what you're selling for free, you're game's up. Local news? TV news channels, for all of their faults, will give that to me for free on their websites. They've already paid for that content through advertising. Its free to me, just like how it's "free" for me to turn on the TV (I don't actually have a TV).
There's a cliche about a barn door... Or burst damns. I don't know which one is more appropriate.
Surprise, surprise.
You mean people won't pay for something they can just as easily get for free?
Really, who didn't see this one coming?
What value are they adding to the "news" when, between the TV news websites and Google News for all the other locals who are NOT participating in this doomed venture, people get what they want?
The only way this could work is if EVERY relevant news outlet decided to do this simultaneously. It would only take ONE outlet not participating to ruin the model.
These guys need to realize that they need to give up on a dead and dying model of how information is distributed. The old media moguls who still run the show don't get it. That they can't up with another solution speaks to their actual lack of vision and creativity. Hey, Murdoch, if you're so fucking smart, why can't you and your people come up with a product that people want to buy?
Let me tell you, you're not alone.
I'm not so concerned about losing my games along with my PSP because I can either just re-rip all of those games and/or I have the game ISOs on my Macbook Pro.
Due to the nature of my job I live nine or ten months out of the year out of a backpack and a duffel bag. For me, space is a premium. I have 40 game UMDs. Another copy of each of those is on my HD or on a memory stick. UMDs and their attendant cases take up a stupid amount of space. I paid for it. I want access, dammit! Lumines is just as good today as it was when it was first released.
Even when I'm in the US/EU/EA, I don't want to have to make a choice in which games I carry. What kind of ridiculous shit is that in 2009?
I have the DS as well, also hacked and with every game on storage and flash. It's incredibly easy to lose these infernal cartidges.
There's a lot of stuff Steam got wrong, but there's stuff it got right, too. I get on any computer and log in with my Steam account, I can play anything in my Steam library. If just copy the game files, I don't have to download it for each machine, either.
Face it, physical media is dead. I don't want that outdated and obsolete shit anymore. Sell me what I want, digital distribution, cloud access and a good sized local cache.
Which "Third World" nations are providing 8x10Mbps at $10 a month?
The quality of life in some of these places American called "3rd world nations" 20 years ago, particularly those in Asia, is better than the US these days.
First, milspec is more a standardized testing methodology to rate tolerances and not really a set of standards to be met.
As it's been mentioned, consumer electronics are commonplace downrange these days. Although back in my day, I had to confiscate Gameboys because issue batteries for our NVDs almost inevitably ended up in everything else.
iPhones are a lot tougher than a lot of people might think. I've carried my first gen iPhone in even more extreme environmental conditions than Iraq and Afghanistan with no real problems.
The only time that I had trouble was a winter in Tajikistan when I left it out in the vehicle. The screen colors were all warped when it eventually started but it got better on its own.
Heat and dust, no biggie. Just don't leave it lying in the sun, which is good practice for anything.
The only time my iPhone goes in a case is when there's a risk I might take an unplanned trip into the water, for which I have an Otterbox.
However I think you are under estimating the importance of why people fight. The answer "unit cohesion" really is an important answer. It is really why people do fight most of the time. There is often no deeper answer than to save your buddy or yourself.
Sorry dude, but as someone who has put in his time, this doesn't ring true with me. You fight because that's what it says on the contract when you signed up. What was in your head is truly only for you to know. I've listened enough to know that could one of a million reasons.
Now, why you STAY is another matter.
I really hated Jarhead - it's one of the few films I've ever given up on before the end. Just another cliched boot camp film where bugger all actually happened.
Oddly enough, that was actually kind of the point. You go through all of that training. You actually get in theater. You suffer the desert, friendly fire but mostly, you suffer boredom. And then, before you ever get to pull the trigger, war's over. And you think to yourself, WTF was the point of all that?!?
I'm from the military generation that directly preceded 9/11 and I sympathize. Just ONCE, I wanted to squeeze the trigger in anger.
On the other hand, I think the author of Jarhead is a dick. He lifted a lot of popular military urban legends and myths, the retold the stories as his own.
Click on full videos, you imbecile. Full videos are NOT AVAILABLE ONLINE.