There were no witnesses to the start of the confrontation. There were witnesses during, whose attention was drawn by the sound of fighting, but none were present when Zimmerman and Trayvon met. If there were then the investigation would have been a lot easier. While the physical evidence shows there was certainly a fight, there is no way to tell who started the violence.
Remember that fashion many years ago for electronics with transparent or near-transparent casing? Some people like the workings to be visible.
It was a bit of a sloppy job - no proper mounting for one of the circuit boards - but he was only 14 at the time, so I wouldn't expect him to have a lot of experience.
It wasn't made to look like a bomb. At most, it was made to look like an idiot's conception of a bomb: A circuit board with scary glowing red clock display. Anyone who actually gave it three seconds of thought would realise that it's missing any form of explosive. Even the school officials knew it wasn't a bomb, because if they had thought it was a bomb they would have immediately confiscated the device, physically kept him away from it, evacuated the building and called in the bomb disposal experts. This is not what they did: A teacher confiscated the device, he was sent before the principle, and local law enforcement were summoned to question him. They then arrested him for instigating a bomb scare. At no point in the process did any individual actually believe the device to be a bomb. Everyone involved was just concerned that someone else might think it could be a bomb.
He was only 14 at the time. He has the interest, he just hadn't had time to refine the skills. If this whole incident hadn't gotten out of hand he'd probably be playing with arduinos by now and building little gadgets around the house like most hobbyists.
Movies use visual language. The movie word for bomb is 'big red clock display.' It might also be 'lots of exposed wires.' Everyone recognises that in movies, this is what a bomb looks like, because if movies depicted a bomb realistically it might take the audience too long to realise what is going on. Action movies move fast, if the audience is lost for ten seconds it'll take them another thirty to figure out what just happened.
Unfortunately people are often stupid and panicky, and when scared (either of the bomb, or of being accused of endangering students by not overreacting to the bomb) they can forget that movie bombs are not realistic.
Even if your claim is true and he did plan the whole thing as a publicity stunt, it only worked because he knew that if the school saw a brownish Muslim student with some electronics they'd go into full bomb-scare-panic, while a white Christian student with exactly the same device would have been ignored.
Judicial Watch is... well, you could accurately call them a conservative website, but they reflect only the worst aspects of what conservative means. They also outright lie. A lot. They are responsible for starting and occasionally perpetuating a rumor that ISIS has a training camp in northern Mexico and the Obama administration is covering it up - according to unnamed 'sources,' of course. ( http://www.judicialwatch.org/b... )
He did blow the whistle internally - his concerns were completely ignored, and he was instructed to do his job and stay out of things not his concern. That's why he went public.
The problem with colonisation, moon or mars, is that there's no money in it. In the long run it must be done, because eventually the big space rock is coming. But right now, a colonisation venture would be by far the single most expensive project in all of history. The cost of it would be incalculable. And for what? Prestige? You're never going to get a return on your investment. The sheer cost of it would dwarf the international space station, which itsself requires international cooperation to fund. No national leader in their right mind would commit to a prestige project that would bankrupt not only their own national economy, but half the world with it, and all you get at the end of your century-long mega-project is a colony living in a land so resource-starved that you have to scrape your boots clean when you leave a farm to make sure you don't steal their precious soil.
It was also brought up in the much-mocked 'Perversion for Profit' video, which you should have no trouble finding. Those are both rather old examples, but the same thing is still said occasionally by current organisations. Usually tied to a list of goals said to be from a 1958 book, 'The Naked Communist. The document is actually a well-known hoax - the book cites no source that can be checked, many of the goals are in direct conflict with the policies of communist states at the time, and a few of them are exact copies of a previous hoax document. Even so, the list circulates from blog to blog to this day. Occasionally mutating, so that the list as often read today doesn't even match what was originally published.
Short version: People will believe even the most dubious of sources if the source supports their existing beliefs.
Take a population. Let's fill it with smart people: A rocket scientist, a climatologist, a neurobiologist, a mathematician, and a quantum physicist.
Now, it's election time and there's a big issue to debate: Climate chance, is it real or a hoax? Well, you've got five well-educated experts - but only one of them knows that field. The others are barely any more qualified than a random person of the street.
There's the problem: A democratic system of government, including representative democracy, depends on most of the people being at least reasonably well educated on all of the issues. But that just can't happen. It takes many years of study to become an expert in a field, which means that for any specified topic almost the entire population are ignorant of it, and this will be true even if you send the entire population to get a university-level education.
Let them claim they'll build the base. Maybe it'll kick the rest of the world into finally starting some serious investment laying the grounds for colonisation. We don't have the tech or the money right now, but we can develop it and take the first steps. Future generations can finish the journey.
You're kidding, but I've actually seen some people claim, in all seriousness, that the establishment of the pornography industry in the US was a communist plot to weaken the morals of the country.
None of which stopped the Soviet Union. They got most of the space firsts. First object in orbit, first animal in orbit, first man in orbit, first lunar impactor, first lunar rover.
There's a reason America loves to celebrate that they got the first man on the moon: It's the only milestone that the Soviets didn't beat them to.
That depends what you mean by 'plant.' The landing is one of the hardest parts. They can make orbit already, and the delta-V requirements go down a lot of you don't need to actually match lunar orbital velocity and land cleanly. Sure, you'll be planting your flag at a little over a kilometer per second - but if you can orientate it right then, for a fraction of a second, your flagpole will indeed stand in the surface of the moon. An instant later what remains of the flagpole and flag will be standing some distance below the surface of the moon in a rapidly expanding crater.
The Soviets pulled that stunt off in 1959, and North Korea doesn't need to invent new technology - the general principles are well-understood, and they can probably get some ancient schematics from Russia. All they need to do is actually build the thing. Sixty-year-old tech should be within their capabilities.
I picked that example because it was in Pennsylvania, not because it was just a Republican thing - but you'd have to be very out-of-touch with American political culture not to see that when it comes to overt displays of government religion, both parties support them but the Republicans more so.
It's more interesting to note that, while the constitution explicitly says that the government may not respect any establishment of religion, this did not stop every single non-absent member of the Pennsylvania legislature from supporting a government proclamation that the Bible is the word of God.
I find it rather strange that the US has a foundational and legally-binding document mandating a secular government, but in practice religion and politics are inseparable, while here in the UK we have an established state Christian church and still have bishops holding some (very limited) legislative power, but in practice religion is almost entirely absent from our political culture and any politician who tried to make a big deal of his devoutness would be laughed out of office.
Specific taxes are easier to get through politically because fewer people would be affected by each tax.
Tax streaming? The 20% or so who stream might object. Tax vaping? Well, the vapers object, but there aren't many of those around. Tax books? Most of the population don't buy many books, only students would really be affected.
Add a few more, and everyone finds that they are subject to one or two of the new taxes, even though no single tax affects a majority in any significant way.
I get the impression that the conservative attitude towards such things is that if you can afford luxuries like alcohol and tobacco then you are not poor enough to deserve sympathy, and you certainly should not be entitled to benefits if you have so much as one cent left over after paying rent and buying enough calories to survive.
You are correct, the summary is misleading. However, there is a very good reason that so many people here believed the claim so readily: It is very typical of the sort of thing the Republican party pulls off on a regular basis. For example, sticking to Pennsylvania, in 2012 they passed house resolution 535 - which declared that year to be the 'Year of the Bible' and endorsed the book as 'The Word of God.' It passed by unanimous vote.
The claim is believed so readily because it is believable: It is consistent with earlier observations of the government, and especially of Republican legislators. Sometimes the worldview is justified, if not in all instances, then as a general rule.
We see corruption issues all the time at my workplace. It's a school - at the end of the lesson everyone wants to be out the room fast, so they hit logout, and when the logout process hasn't finished after five seconds they hold the power button down. Every now and again someone catches it at the right moment to mess up the filesystem.
Slashdot Mirror
There were no witnesses to the start of the confrontation. There were witnesses during, whose attention was drawn by the sound of fighting, but none were present when Zimmerman and Trayvon met. If there were then the investigation would have been a lot easier. While the physical evidence shows there was certainly a fight, there is no way to tell who started the violence.
Remember that fashion many years ago for electronics with transparent or near-transparent casing? Some people like the workings to be visible.
It was a bit of a sloppy job - no proper mounting for one of the circuit boards - but he was only 14 at the time, so I wouldn't expect him to have a lot of experience.
Embrace the anger. The anger lets you survive.
It wasn't made to look like a bomb. At most, it was made to look like an idiot's conception of a bomb: A circuit board with scary glowing red clock display. Anyone who actually gave it three seconds of thought would realise that it's missing any form of explosive. Even the school officials knew it wasn't a bomb, because if they had thought it was a bomb they would have immediately confiscated the device, physically kept him away from it, evacuated the building and called in the bomb disposal experts. This is not what they did: A teacher confiscated the device, he was sent before the principle, and local law enforcement were summoned to question him. They then arrested him for instigating a bomb scare. At no point in the process did any individual actually believe the device to be a bomb. Everyone involved was just concerned that someone else might think it could be a bomb.
He was only 14 at the time. He has the interest, he just hadn't had time to refine the skills. If this whole incident hadn't gotten out of hand he'd probably be playing with arduinos by now and building little gadgets around the house like most hobbyists.
Movies use visual language. The movie word for bomb is 'big red clock display.' It might also be 'lots of exposed wires.' Everyone recognises that in movies, this is what a bomb looks like, because if movies depicted a bomb realistically it might take the audience too long to realise what is going on. Action movies move fast, if the audience is lost for ten seconds it'll take them another thirty to figure out what just happened.
Unfortunately people are often stupid and panicky, and when scared (either of the bomb, or of being accused of endangering students by not overreacting to the bomb) they can forget that movie bombs are not realistic.
Even if your claim is true and he did plan the whole thing as a publicity stunt, it only worked because he knew that if the school saw a brownish Muslim student with some electronics they'd go into full bomb-scare-panic, while a white Christian student with exactly the same device would have been ignored.
Judicial Watch is... well, you could accurately call them a conservative website, but they reflect only the worst aspects of what conservative means. They also outright lie. A lot. They are responsible for starting and occasionally perpetuating a rumor that ISIS has a training camp in northern Mexico and the Obama administration is covering it up - according to unnamed 'sources,' of course. ( http://www.judicialwatch.org/b... )
He did blow the whistle internally - his concerns were completely ignored, and he was instructed to do his job and stay out of things not his concern. That's why he went public.
The current government, the last government, the one before that... right back to the first time some tribal strong-man proclaimed himself king.
The problem with colonisation, moon or mars, is that there's no money in it. In the long run it must be done, because eventually the big space rock is coming. But right now, a colonisation venture would be by far the single most expensive project in all of history. The cost of it would be incalculable. And for what? Prestige? You're never going to get a return on your investment. The sheer cost of it would dwarf the international space station, which itsself requires international cooperation to fund. No national leader in their right mind would commit to a prestige project that would bankrupt not only their own national economy, but half the world with it, and all you get at the end of your century-long mega-project is a colony living in a land so resource-starved that you have to scrape your boots clean when you leave a farm to make sure you don't steal their precious soil.
It was also brought up in the much-mocked 'Perversion for Profit' video, which you should have no trouble finding. Those are both rather old examples, but the same thing is still said occasionally by current organisations. Usually tied to a list of goals said to be from a 1958 book, 'The Naked Communist. The document is actually a well-known hoax - the book cites no source that can be checked, many of the goals are in direct conflict with the policies of communist states at the time, and a few of them are exact copies of a previous hoax document. Even so, the list circulates from blog to blog to this day. Occasionally mutating, so that the list as often read today doesn't even match what was originally published.
Short version: People will believe even the most dubious of sources if the source supports their existing beliefs.
I have a model that can explain a lot.
Take a population. Let's fill it with smart people: A rocket scientist, a climatologist, a neurobiologist, a mathematician, and a quantum physicist.
Now, it's election time and there's a big issue to debate: Climate chance, is it real or a hoax? Well, you've got five well-educated experts - but only one of them knows that field. The others are barely any more qualified than a random person of the street.
There's the problem: A democratic system of government, including representative democracy, depends on most of the people being at least reasonably well educated on all of the issues. But that just can't happen. It takes many years of study to become an expert in a field, which means that for any specified topic almost the entire population are ignorant of it, and this will be true even if you send the entire population to get a university-level education.
Let them claim they'll build the base. Maybe it'll kick the rest of the world into finally starting some serious investment laying the grounds for colonisation. We don't have the tech or the money right now, but we can develop it and take the first steps. Future generations can finish the journey.
You're kidding, but I've actually seen some people claim, in all seriousness, that the establishment of the pornography industry in the US was a communist plot to weaken the morals of the country.
None of which stopped the Soviet Union. They got most of the space firsts. First object in orbit, first animal in orbit, first man in orbit, first lunar impactor, first lunar rover.
There's a reason America loves to celebrate that they got the first man on the moon: It's the only milestone that the Soviets didn't beat them to.
That depends what you mean by 'plant.' The landing is one of the hardest parts. They can make orbit already, and the delta-V requirements go down a lot of you don't need to actually match lunar orbital velocity and land cleanly. Sure, you'll be planting your flag at a little over a kilometer per second - but if you can orientate it right then, for a fraction of a second, your flagpole will indeed stand in the surface of the moon. An instant later what remains of the flagpole and flag will be standing some distance below the surface of the moon in a rapidly expanding crater.
The Soviets pulled that stunt off in 1959, and North Korea doesn't need to invent new technology - the general principles are well-understood, and they can probably get some ancient schematics from Russia. All they need to do is actually build the thing. Sixty-year-old tech should be within their capabilities.
People are dumb.
A person can be smart. But people, in bulk? Dumb.
I picked that example because it was in Pennsylvania, not because it was just a Republican thing - but you'd have to be very out-of-touch with American political culture not to see that when it comes to overt displays of government religion, both parties support them but the Republicans more so.
It's more interesting to note that, while the constitution explicitly says that the government may not respect any establishment of religion, this did not stop every single non-absent member of the Pennsylvania legislature from supporting a government proclamation that the Bible is the word of God.
I find it rather strange that the US has a foundational and legally-binding document mandating a secular government, but in practice religion and politics are inseparable, while here in the UK we have an established state Christian church and still have bishops holding some (very limited) legislative power, but in practice religion is almost entirely absent from our political culture and any politician who tried to make a big deal of his devoutness would be laughed out of office.
Specific taxes are easier to get through politically because fewer people would be affected by each tax.
Tax streaming? The 20% or so who stream might object.
Tax vaping? Well, the vapers object, but there aren't many of those around.
Tax books? Most of the population don't buy many books, only students would really be affected.
Add a few more, and everyone finds that they are subject to one or two of the new taxes, even though no single tax affects a majority in any significant way.
I get the impression that the conservative attitude towards such things is that if you can afford luxuries like alcohol and tobacco then you are not poor enough to deserve sympathy, and you certainly should not be entitled to benefits if you have so much as one cent left over after paying rent and buying enough calories to survive.
You are correct, the summary is misleading. However, there is a very good reason that so many people here believed the claim so readily: It is very typical of the sort of thing the Republican party pulls off on a regular basis. For example, sticking to Pennsylvania, in 2012 they passed house resolution 535 - which declared that year to be the 'Year of the Bible' and endorsed the book as 'The Word of God.' It passed by unanimous vote.
The claim is believed so readily because it is believable: It is consistent with earlier observations of the government, and especially of Republican legislators. Sometimes the worldview is justified, if not in all instances, then as a general rule.
We see corruption issues all the time at my workplace. It's a school - at the end of the lesson everyone wants to be out the room fast, so they hit logout, and when the logout process hasn't finished after five seconds they hold the power button down. Every now and again someone catches it at the right moment to mess up the filesystem.
Then I just do the net-boot and re-image thing.
When was the last time you saw a jumper in a PC?
"A massive binary that handles the job of many small programs and full of undiscovered security problems."
svchost.exe