they've gotta be getting to the point where even China isn't going to take their crap for much longer. They WERE trying to destabilize the region. NOW they're trying to destabilize the entire world.
I just hope that china is even a fifth as annoyed with him as the rest of the world is.
I think they would be delighted if US had to pull forces out of South Korea to de-escalate the situation - which, despite reported threats against the US mainland, is actually the key thing the North Korean keep saying - "get of out Korea - none of your business"
I don't know why you'd assume China would be an ally in this battle - the US doesn't actually have many of those left after testing the limits in Iraq/Afghanistan and most of the world seeing that China is clearly the #1 superpower within the next 10-20 years.
None of their recent threats have been at South Korea, they have all been directed at the US and most specifically mention the mainland and Pacific bases. The analogy in this case is apt.
On the contrary, basically every threat has been at South Korea.
The western media is picking up on and only reporting the little bits at the end that say "Guam, Pacific an mainland US bases"... Much like every other pre-war the media is clearly trying to sensationalise and polarise.
In reality, the North Koreans are saying get US forces out of South Korea and stop military exercises because it is none of your business. The secondary message is that is US uses exercises (and further UN sanctions) to invade or destabilse North Korea further that they will attack US forces anywhere - primarily South Korea but also the mainland US if needed.
North Kores may not be the most stable regime in the world but cut through the propaganda and you can see their point - if China started military exercises in Mexico (or Cuba) and flying stealth aircraft there, what do you think the response would be? Probably exactly the same the North Koreans now !!!
Huh? That is exactly what I said along with 4 other factors that all point in the same direction.
N Korea has rocketry and air or ground deploy able nukes
Not exactly sure what you think you are disagreeing with... you can not attack a nuclear armed opposition like USSR (or N Korea) but instead have to erode their capability - economically in both cases of USSR and N Korea.
- Iraq has oil - Bush & co had a lingering revenge motive from the Kuwait days - US did not have allies within real striking range of Iraq - US had a trigger with the war on terror and WMD - Iraq has low-tech weaponns
- N Korea has no oil - There is no personal grudges to be settled - Seoul is only 20 miles from N Korea - N Korea is all talk and have not triggered a real reason for invasion & no-one believes WMD arguments anymore - N Korea has rocketry and air or ground deploy able nukes
The risk-reward trade off is quite different... more akin to the cold war with USSR where you need to slowly erode capability not just attack.
If they wont at least freeze the funds, then they are supporting North Korea and all they stand for.
That great mantra "absence of evidence is not evidence of absence" applies quite well here.
No evidence of being anti-Korean is not evidence that they are pro-Korean as American propaganda would have you believe... in fact, evidence seems to suggest that China is remaining quite neutral in this process and maintaining relationships with both side - this evidently is quite a shock to Americans who expect every country to unconditionally support them
There is a new superpower in the world... welcome to the new post-cold war geopolitical world !
We have a decent number of Prius taxis in my part of the world... with heavy city driving and hence a lot of battery cycling, the battery seem to last between about 200,000 and 350,000 miles - I'd say 300,000 miles is a fair estimate of average life... very much in line with a typical gasoline engine anyway
Replacement costs seems to be even less than $4k... often under $3k
Overall running costs (fuel and maintenance) is said to be roughly half of the typical large sedans used
However, I am genuinely curious from the original poster's rant about subsidies - who is subsidising the Prius? Is it a rant at US motor companies and their subsidies, or US hybrids (Tesla & Volt), or hybrids in general which is the why it was phrased??
The 60 kilogram battery pack in the cabin floor is charged during braking and also when the gas engine is producing more torque than needed to move the car, in which case that torque is converted to energy and stored.
It is not just KERS and it is electrical not mechanical... IMHO, a hybrid but barely so... although i understand other peoples definitions given it cant run electric only
Styx - a river in Greek mythology that formed the boundary between Earth and the Underworld Kerberos - a multi-headed hound which guards the gates of the Underworld, to prevent those who have crossed the river Styx from ever escaping
These form a nice pair and are themed on the transition from Earth to another world (the underworld)...
Pluto is very much a transition from our planetary system to interstellar space (or at least the Oort cloud)
Astronomers do see still the romance in the skys and are quite apt to draw these parallels.
We will take into consideration the results of the voting, but they are not binding. The discovery team, in consultation with the Nomenclature Working Groups of the International Astronomical Union, reserves the right to propose the names. Note that the International Astronomical Union has final authority over the naming of Pluto's moons.
IAU has the final say and would be likely to reject this name I would think for scientific consistency with their previous naming conventions.
And the discovers are not even saying they will propose this name to IAU - just that they will consider the voting.
Actually, with a bit more analysis... All our Microsoft expert is really doing is taking the betting markets and adjusting for historical biases: - favourites are more likely to win than markets imply - long-shots are less likely than implied
Perfectly normal in betting markets where people back sentimental long-shots and chase the odds
So having a guess from our Microsoft Research expert's blog: 1. Grabs the odds from Intrade, Betfair and HSX 2. Sources data from 'user generated data' ie social networks 3. Does a little a maths 4. Claims to be a forecasting guru
And with no real detail on #3 beyond being heavily weighted towards the betting/prediction markets and effectively just picking the favourites in every market, this is kind of useless.
The only interesting aspect is that the certainty for high likelihood winners is higher than any individual predictor...
For example, Spielberg for Best Director with Lincoln: Intrade: 75% HSX: 51% Betfair: 76% User-data: 81% Forecast: 88%
That suggests either: - historically these prediction markets have under-estimated the numbers for popular favourites, which is consistent with inefficient betting markets where people will back long-shots more than they should due to the perception of good odds - his model concludes that if 4 data points to a win, then the likelihood is even stronger
NK does not screw with foreigner because they need the cash, and in fact is becoming more accommodating for that very reason. You are not going to get locked up for saying the wrong thing and would need to provoke a response but deliberating seeking out things that to embarrass them as a number of aid workers have.
And in all likelihood you are not going to be spied upon 24/7 and have your electronics copied/monitored because most tourists are just not that interesting !!!
But foreigners are given a very sanitised version of the country with limited scope to venture outside the major cities - so do not see a lot of what really happens.
But I concede, there is also some NK tourist propaganda out there too - may or may not be what you saw.
Long story short - stay out of NK politics and it is safe for westerners to visit
The tendency is to demonise North Korea with little or no knowledge of the country - just because it is ego-boosting to feel superior - while glorifying the USA. You highlighted communism, so the reverse comparison to capitalism was begging to be made.
For many people, the USA appears just as broken North Korea - albeit in different ways...
Since prison camps seem to keep coming up, lets try some prison stats from Wikipedia: - The United States has the highest documented incarceration rate in the world. At year-end 2009, it was 743 adults incarcerated per 100,000 population - In total, 7,225,800 adults were under correctional supervision (probation, parole, jail, or prison) in 2009 – about 3.1% of adults in the U.S. resident population
As for this comment:
God forbid that they might have access to modern technology and be able to communicate with each other, then they might figure out how deeply broken their country is
How ignorant is that...
Firstly, why do you think people need modern technology to communicate given people managed to communicate without for millennia
Secondly, why do you think there is no modern technology at all? - roughly 10% of population have fixed line telephony and that low numbers is due to poverty not technology limits... - in fact, around 5% of the population also 3G cellular services (obviously not the interent!) - about 10-15% of the population has access to computers predominantly for education and work
Yes - they are politically repressive and very poor.. and i would not to live there... but then I also find the fanatical religious, war-mongering, 'me first - screw you' attitude of the USA unbearable as well;-)
Then again, except for this publicity stunt (?) from Schmidt, I have no idea why most people would have any interest in going to North Korea.
Personally I'd travel to North Korea before I ever travelled to the US again. Batshit Crazy comes in many forms !
Try flying into any major US city as a foreigner (even as a white westerner) and you might be ready to re-board the plane before even getting out of the airport.
LAX holds a special place in my heart as being about as welcoming as any third-world dictatorship !
North Korea has 3G networks covering more than 90% of the population.
However, given the general poverty and rural lifestyle, market penetration is only around 5% and that is predominantly limited to the educated/employed population in major cities. External internet is not available but 3G telephony certainly is.
and all the time I thought a data warehouse was a warehouse for data and could be used for more than just data mining... damn those marketers for fooling me !
Even worse... that $195B is based on potential cost to get the equivalent water and minerals into space
There is currently no demand for it for water for fuel or mineral for in-space construction... so it has a theoretical $195B avoided supply cost and actual $0B demand value...
Distribution is mostly digital and where it isn't the cost at worst is a couple of dollars to ship it to a store.
Most of the software with big differences is commercial stuff sold through distributors, resellers or local sales/marketing staff - it costs money to have that network. And both Microsoft & Apple certainly do have local operations, particularly in the corporate space.
Now for someone like EA selling games I could understand your argument - but they are not the type of companies in question
Tyres at $900 each are obviously at the very premium/niche end of the market - either high-performance or unusual size (or both!).. I have the same experience... In fact, that is about as niche as you can get without trying to get Pirellis P-Zeros for your Gallardo (or equiv sports car scenario)
Sad reality is they just don't sell enough to be economical but instead of not offering them at all, they make them reflective of the actual costs.
Your typical Commodore/Falcon or small hatchback tyres are basically the same price as the US and recall that we pay substantially higher wages all the way through the supply chain and have higher overheads like property costs for warehouse, transporting tyres, etc
There are still support, distribution costs and compliance costs associated with having a local operation - only a fully online model alleviates that and even then time zone issues imply potential for increased costs
To some extent, digital distribution and limited local support brings these costs down - the perfect example is Apple whose products are now more or lineball with US markets thanks to digital distribution of software, useless tech support and enough volume to compare to US stores for sales and basic support overheads.
High cost, low volume products will always have a premium (or at least an argument to made that this is the case with enough spin even it's not the case in reality)...
There is NOTHING this committee can do to prove otherwise !!!
Slashdot Mirror
Vulcan was never going to be chosen and these 2 have a good association to each other.
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3497407&cid=43020767
No problem there - you need to count like a journalist.
He started in 2003 (the 2000s) and stopped in 2013 (the 2010s) ... that 2 decades which more than a decade - easy !
In senior IT roles, yes !
Age may not determine ability in technical roles ie code monkeys but experience sure as hell matters in senior roles.
they've gotta be getting to the point where even China isn't going to take their crap for much longer. They WERE trying to destabilize the region. NOW they're trying to destabilize the entire world.
I just hope that china is even a fifth as annoyed with him as the rest of the world is.
I think you'll find China is much more annoyed with US forces being in SE Asia and are currently working to exert their own influence in that region - particularly the South China Sea. For example: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/03/27/china-military-south-china-sea/2023947/
I think they would be delighted if US had to pull forces out of South Korea to de-escalate the situation - which, despite reported threats against the US mainland, is actually the key thing the North Korean keep saying - "get of out Korea - none of your business"
I don't know why you'd assume China would be an ally in this battle - the US doesn't actually have many of those left after testing the limits in Iraq/Afghanistan and most of the world seeing that China is clearly the #1 superpower within the next 10-20 years.
None of their recent threats have been at South Korea, they have all been directed at the US and most specifically mention the mainland and Pacific bases. The analogy in this case is apt.
On the contrary, basically every threat has been at South Korea.
The western media is picking up on and only reporting the little bits at the end that say "Guam, Pacific an mainland US bases" ... Much like every other pre-war the media is clearly trying to sensationalise and polarise.
In reality, the North Koreans are saying get US forces out of South Korea and stop military exercises because it is none of your business. The secondary message is that is US uses exercises (and further UN sanctions) to invade or destabilse North Korea further that they will attack US forces anywhere - primarily South Korea but also the mainland US if needed.
North Kores may not be the most stable regime in the world but cut through the propaganda and you can see their point - if China started military exercises in Mexico (or Cuba) and flying stealth aircraft there, what do you think the response would be? Probably exactly the same the North Koreans now !!!
Huh? That is exactly what I said along with 4 other factors that all point in the same direction.
N Korea has rocketry and air or ground deploy able nukes
Not exactly sure what you think you are disagreeing with ... you can not attack a nuclear armed opposition like USSR (or N Korea) but instead have to erode their capability - economically in both cases of USSR and N Korea.
- Iraq has oil
- Bush & co had a lingering revenge motive from the Kuwait days
- US did not have allies within real striking range of Iraq
- US had a trigger with the war on terror and WMD
- Iraq has low-tech weaponns
- N Korea has no oil
- There is no personal grudges to be settled
- Seoul is only 20 miles from N Korea
- N Korea is all talk and have not triggered a real reason for invasion & no-one believes WMD arguments anymore
- N Korea has rocketry and air or ground deploy able nukes
The risk-reward trade off is quite different ... more akin to the cold war with USSR where you need to slowly erode capability not just attack.
If they wont at least freeze the funds, then they are supporting North Korea and all they stand for.
That great mantra "absence of evidence is not evidence of absence" applies quite well here.
No evidence of being anti-Korean is not evidence that they are pro-Korean as American propaganda would have you believe ... in fact, evidence seems to suggest that China is remaining quite neutral in this process and maintaining relationships with both side - this evidently is quite a shock to Americans who expect every country to unconditionally support them
There is a new superpower in the world ... welcome to the new post-cold war geopolitical world !
I'd concur with most of that ...
We have a decent number of Prius taxis in my part of the world ... with heavy city driving and hence a lot of battery cycling, the battery seem to last between about 200,000 and 350,000 miles - I'd say 300,000 miles is a fair estimate of average life ... very much in line with a typical gasoline engine anyway
Replacement costs seems to be even less than $4k ... often under $3k
Overall running costs (fuel and maintenance) is said to be roughly half of the typical large sedans used
However, I am genuinely curious from the original poster's rant about subsidies - who is subsidising the Prius? Is it a rant at US motor companies and their subsidies, or US hybrids (Tesla & Volt), or hybrids in general which is the why it was phrased??
Its a grey area, but I'd call it a hybrid due to:
The 60 kilogram battery pack in the cabin floor is charged during braking and also when the gas engine is producing more torque than needed to move the car, in which case that torque is converted to energy and stored.
It is not just KERS and it is electrical not mechanical ... IMHO, a hybrid but barely so ... although i understand other peoples definitions given it cant run electric only
My money is on 2nd and 3rd choices:
Styx - a river in Greek mythology that formed the boundary between Earth and the Underworld
Kerberos - a multi-headed hound which guards the gates of the Underworld, to prevent those who have crossed the river Styx from ever escaping
These form a nice pair and are themed on the transition from Earth to another world (the underworld) ...
Pluto is very much a transition from our planetary system to interstellar space (or at least the Oort cloud)
Astronomers do see still the romance in the skys and are quite apt to draw these parallels.
We will take into consideration the results of the voting, but they are not binding. The discovery team, in consultation with the Nomenclature Working Groups of the International Astronomical Union, reserves the right to propose the names. Note that the International Astronomical Union has final authority over the naming of Pluto's moons.
IAU has the final say and would be likely to reject this name I would think for scientific consistency with their previous naming conventions.
And the discovers are not even saying they will propose this name to IAU - just that they will consider the voting.
So dont hold your breath !
Actually, with a bit more analysis ... All our Microsoft expert is really doing is taking the betting markets and adjusting for historical biases:
- favourites are more likely to win than markets imply
- long-shots are less likely than implied
Perfectly normal in betting markets where people back sentimental long-shots and chase the odds
So having a guess from our Microsoft Research expert's blog:
1. Grabs the odds from Intrade, Betfair and HSX
2. Sources data from 'user generated data' ie social networks
3. Does a little a maths
4. Claims to be a forecasting guru
And with no real detail on #3 beyond being heavily weighted towards the betting/prediction markets and effectively just picking the favourites in every market, this is kind of useless.
The only interesting aspect is that the certainty for high likelihood winners is higher than any individual predictor ...
For example, Spielberg for Best Director with Lincoln:
Intrade: 75%
HSX: 51%
Betfair: 76%
User-data: 81%
Forecast: 88%
That suggests either:
- historically these prediction markets have under-estimated the numbers for popular favourites, which is consistent with inefficient betting markets where people will back long-shots more than they should due to the perception of good odds
- his model concludes that if 4 data points to a win, then the likelihood is even stronger
Nah - its all easy to reconcile
NK does not screw with foreigner because they need the cash, and in fact is becoming more accommodating for that very reason. You are not going to get locked up for saying the wrong thing and would need to provoke a response but deliberating seeking out things that to embarrass them as a number of aid workers have.
And in all likelihood you are not going to be spied upon 24/7 and have your electronics copied/monitored because most tourists are just not that interesting !!!
But foreigners are given a very sanitised version of the country with limited scope to venture outside the major cities - so do not see a lot of what really happens.
But I concede, there is also some NK tourist propaganda out there too - may or may not be what you saw.
Long story short - stay out of NK politics and it is safe for westerners to visit
And that should be no surprise.
The tendency is to demonise North Korea with little or no knowledge of the country - just because it is ego-boosting to feel superior - while glorifying the USA. You highlighted communism, so the reverse comparison to capitalism was begging to be made.
For many people, the USA appears just as broken North Korea - albeit in different ways ...
Since prison camps seem to keep coming up, lets try some prison stats from Wikipedia:
- The United States has the highest documented incarceration rate in the world. At year-end 2009, it was 743 adults incarcerated per 100,000 population
- In total, 7,225,800 adults were under correctional supervision (probation, parole, jail, or prison) in 2009 – about 3.1% of adults in the U.S. resident population
As for this comment:
God forbid that they might have access to modern technology and be able to communicate with each other, then they might figure out how deeply broken their country is
How ignorant is that ...
Firstly, why do you think people need modern technology to communicate given people managed to communicate without for millennia
Secondly, why do you think there is no modern technology at all? ...
- roughly 10% of population have fixed line telephony and that low numbers is due to poverty not technology limits
- in fact, around 5% of the population also 3G cellular services (obviously not the interent!)
- about 10-15% of the population has access to computers predominantly for education and work
Yes - they are politically repressive and very poor .. and i would not to live there ... but then I also find the fanatical religious, war-mongering, 'me first - screw you' attitude of the USA unbearable as well ;-)
Way to play up the stereotypes - little too much cold war propaganda me thinks !
Yes - in North Korean that would be culturally offensive but the exaggeration is a bit over the top.
Then again, except for this publicity stunt (?) from Schmidt, I have no idea why most people would have any interest in going to North Korea.
Personally I'd travel to North Korea before I ever travelled to the US again. Batshit Crazy comes in many forms !
Try flying into any major US city as a foreigner (even as a white westerner) and you might be ready to re-board the plane before even getting out of the airport.
LAX holds a special place in my heart as being about as welcoming as any third-world dictatorship !
More complete ignorance ...
North Korea has 3G networks covering more than 90% of the population.
However, given the general poverty and rural lifestyle, market penetration is only around 5% and that is predominantly limited to the educated/employed population in major cities. External internet is not available but 3G telephony certainly is.
and all the time I thought a data warehouse was a warehouse for data and could be used for more than just data mining ... damn those marketers for fooling me !
Even worse ... that $195B is based on potential cost to get the equivalent water and minerals into space
There is currently no demand for it for water for fuel or mineral for in-space construction ... so it has a theoretical $195B avoided supply cost and actual $0B demand value ...
Current value on that basis = $0 !
Distribution is mostly digital and where it isn't the cost at worst is a couple of dollars to ship it to a store.
Most of the software with big differences is commercial stuff sold through distributors, resellers or local sales/marketing staff - it costs money to have that network. And both Microsoft & Apple certainly do have local operations, particularly in the corporate space.
Now for someone like EA selling games I could understand your argument - but they are not the type of companies in question
Tyres at $900 each are obviously at the very premium/niche end of the market - either high-performance or unusual size (or both!) .. I have the same experience ... In fact, that is about as niche as you can get without trying to get Pirellis P-Zeros for your Gallardo (or equiv sports car scenario)
Sad reality is they just don't sell enough to be economical but instead of not offering them at all, they make them reflective of the actual costs.
Your typical Commodore/Falcon or small hatchback tyres are basically the same price as the US and recall that we pay substantially higher wages all the way through the supply chain and have higher overheads like property costs for warehouse, transporting tyres, etc
Depends which "they" you are referring to ???
Apple and Microsoft certainly have large operations in Australia but would still wouldn't push through many copies of niche products.
I don't know about Adobe however - they certainly have corporate offices here.
Smaller market = higher overheads
There are still support, distribution costs and compliance costs associated with having a local operation - only a fully online model alleviates that and even then time zone issues imply potential for increased costs
To some extent, digital distribution and limited local support brings these costs down - the perfect example is Apple whose products are now more or lineball with US markets thanks to digital distribution of software, useless tech support and enough volume to compare to US stores for sales and basic support overheads.
High cost, low volume products will always have a premium (or at least an argument to made that this is the case with enough spin even it's not the case in reality) ...
There is NOTHING this committee can do to prove otherwise !!!