Seems to me a terrorist attack in a tunnel would be more crippling than one one a plane. It's probably not as big of a target though because 1) only the people on that train are in danger and 2) choking important infrastructure doesn't have nearly the "shock and awe" affect that terrorist go for,like crashing planes into things.
The theory is that you get what you pay for. A $150,000 salary might attract someone who can save $5 mil. A $600,000 salary might attract someone better who can save $10 mil. In the end, taxpayers might be better off with a higher paid person if they can bring in the benefits. Professors at research universities operate on a similar principal... they might get paid $250,000 because they bring in $10 million in grants.
As someone in upstate NY, I hate NYC. Mostly because their politics are pushy. However, they do pay for all of the stuff the rest of the state does use (well, Buffalo, Rochester and Albany contribute, but NYC and the surrounding metro area is more than half the population), so I'm not looking to get rid of them just yet.
The government retains a crack team of acronymists. They spend days laboring over each acronym making it perfect. Some examples
MANPADS (Man-portable air defense system) DILDO (Direct Input Limited Duty Officer) ASSBAG (Airframe Structure Support Boeing Advisory Group)
**I didn't make these up, there are sources for them but that would take more effort than Slashdot is accustomed to. Plus I accidentally closed those tabs already.
The problem with mountainous terrain is that wireless doesn't go very far before other mountains stop it. Even if you put it on the highest mountain around, the other mountains create massive shadows in the signal. Also, how do you connect these towers to power and other towers? Once you have to run power lines or install a generator at each one and give it a satellite hookup, it seems like it's getting much more expensive than running lines to the end users.
1. It's part of the national infrastructure, just like roads and electricity and the USPS (although that one is becoming a bit outdated). The more widespread communication is, the better the country as a whole becomes. 2. This is the same argument used against... everything. The country works because the masses subsidizes the niches. I'm sure you use plenty of things that are subsidized by people that don't use them. Got kids in a public school? Landowners subsidize that even if they don't have kids. Drive on a public road? People who don't own cars subsidize that. The list goes on. 3. People can't make money in rural areas? Apparently you have no concept of telecommuting, farming, logging, etc. As for the rest of 3, refer to 1. 4. Why don't you move? You're likely not living in the most efficient place possible either. Also, moving can be damned expensive. Personally, I live where I do because I enjoy the area 5. If you actually read the summary, you'd realize they're talking about rich people in the country being subsidized by poor people in the city. Maybe you should move to somewhere with better literacy rates, it might rub off on you. But hey, it explains your signature.
You're thinking of income tax. There are lots of other taxes. Sales tax, gas tax, taxes on almost everything processed or imported. In the end, even if they get back 110% of what they paid in income taxes, they still paid some sort of tax.
Middle class does tend to get hit a little harder because we don't get that income tax back, but it's damn near impossible to pay zero taxes overall.
If they need to run the same cable for multiple services, they'll usually give you some kind of deal like that. Time Warner does it for cable - I only subscribe to cable Internet, but they throw in basic cable TV for no additional fee.
I grew up in a fairly rural area. It's sort of like an onion.
At the very center of the cities are poor people, there's middle class urban dwellers surrounding them with a few high-wealth neighborhoods. Around them are poor people that live on the edge of the city. Around them are the middle-class suburbs. Further out are some higher wealth suburbs. Once you get past the suburbs, more poor people. Get out to the small villages and there's some middle and lower-middle class. Rural areas near these small villages have a healthy mix of wealthy and middle class. But you get way out there in bumfuck and it's all dirt poor people. Of course, there's exceptions at every level. There's going to be eccentric millionaires who want to live way out in the boonies, but they're largely outnumbered by the people living in shacks (and yes, America still has plenty of people living in shacks in the woods).
Also, if they're including manpower to actually run the cable. I know people who have the only house within 10 miles, and it's rugged terrain to boot. It's to the point where they had to sink telephone poles in the roadway itself (near the edge of the road) because there was no other way to run the lines through that area. I can easily see why it would take a lot of money to run cables in areas with mountainous or heavily forested terrain.
For a lot of these people, it might be a hobby. If it weren't for bug hunting for a bounty, they might be working on open source software instead with no payout at all. For those people, the payout is infinitely greater even if it amounts to $2.50/hr. Most people are just happy to have a hobby that breaks even, nevermind nets a profit.
Saying everyone in the Republican party believes you can't get pregnant from rape is like saying every Slashdot poster spams about hosts files and goatse.
Especially considering the largest maps (IE: 81 x 81 iirc) are still massive compared to almost every other RTS made since then, although 40x40 was the largest that came with the game. Supreme Commander is the only one I can think of that you can have maps on that scale. TA was also years ahead in terms of integrated fan-made content from the ground up. Download a new unit? Just drop it in the totala folder to use. Same for maps. No installing, no editing, and there were some great fan-made tools to resolve conflicts between two units (usually taking up the same build menu)
I always enjoyed games that had a good core and then released expansion packs later that actually expanded on the game. It was almost like getting two great games. Total Annihilation was good, Core Contingency made it better. Diablo II was good. Lord of Destruction made it better (although in this case, the expansion was essential to actually finishing the storyline). StarCraft was good, Brood War made it better. It seems expansions that really expanded the game died out around ten years ago. Since then, expansions are more like content packs - they tend to just add more of the same.
Similar questions: People still use automobiles outside of Detroit? People still eat food outside of McDonalds? People still have sex outside of brothels? People still say stupid shit outside of anonymous Slashdot comments?
I'd be more interested in knowing how many of them engineer their slides to improve the odds of a bikini coming off mid-slide. And where I can find the works of said engineers. To observe. For science.
Space is full of dust on an astronomic scale. On a scale relative to humans, it's a void. When projecting a narrow beam of light through space, the odds of it hitting enough dust to give a visible reflection to an observer is pretty small. The average density of space* is around one atom per cubic centimer. That means you would have to project a laser with a 1cm diameter about three million kilometers before it interacted with enough atoms to constitute a single single spec of dust. That's nearly eight times the distance of the Earth to the moon.
Of course, it might hit high density dust pockets, but those are fairly far about and would just be seen as a few glimmers of light between the projector and the target, certainly not enough to make any sort of line as projected in Science Fiction.
If an aircraft is on auto-pilot, there's negligible risk. If an aircraft is currently under human control while cruising, there's a slight risk. If an aircraft is under human control while taking off, landing or performing any sort of maneuver, there's a reasonably significant risk.
Have you ever had someone shine a bright flashlight in your face? It's a lot like that. It causes you to jerk away, confuses you, and partially blinds you for anywhere from a few seconds to several minutes. Any of those can be deadly given that the person with the laser probably doesn't know if the aircraft is on autopilot or is preparing to land.
It's one of those laws where, sure, 98% of the time nothing bad will happen if you do it. But that last little bit of a time, something *really* bad could happen. So it's a felony.
I was in the dorms at college when Obama was elected for the first time. His supporters rioted and caused a bunch of property damage and ruffed up people. There's also been cases of sports fans rioting when their team has won.
People do crazy shit to celebrate that just seems counterproductive to an outside observer.
Slashdot Mirror
Seems to me a terrorist attack in a tunnel would be more crippling than one one a plane. It's probably not as big of a target though because 1) only the people on that train are in danger and 2) choking important infrastructure doesn't have nearly the "shock and awe" affect that terrorist go for,like crashing planes into things.
The theory is that you get what you pay for. A $150,000 salary might attract someone who can save $5 mil. A $600,000 salary might attract someone better who can save $10 mil. In the end, taxpayers might be better off with a higher paid person if they can bring in the benefits. Professors at research universities operate on a similar principal... they might get paid $250,000 because they bring in $10 million in grants.
Of course, that's the theory.
As someone in upstate NY, I hate NYC. Mostly because their politics are pushy. However, they do pay for all of the stuff the rest of the state does use (well, Buffalo, Rochester and Albany contribute, but NYC and the surrounding metro area is more than half the population), so I'm not looking to get rid of them just yet.
The government retains a crack team of acronymists. They spend days laboring over each acronym making it perfect. Some examples
MANPADS (Man-portable air defense system)
DILDO (Direct Input Limited Duty Officer)
ASSBAG (Airframe Structure Support Boeing Advisory Group)
**I didn't make these up, there are sources for them but that would take more effort than Slashdot is accustomed to. Plus I accidentally closed those tabs already.
People will keep looking until they find something. Give them what they wanted to find and they'll stop looking.
The problem with mountainous terrain is that wireless doesn't go very far before other mountains stop it. Even if you put it on the highest mountain around, the other mountains create massive shadows in the signal. Also, how do you connect these towers to power and other towers? Once you have to run power lines or install a generator at each one and give it a satellite hookup, it seems like it's getting much more expensive than running lines to the end users.
1. It's part of the national infrastructure, just like roads and electricity and the USPS (although that one is becoming a bit outdated). The more widespread communication is, the better the country as a whole becomes.
2. This is the same argument used against... everything. The country works because the masses subsidizes the niches. I'm sure you use plenty of things that are subsidized by people that don't use them. Got kids in a public school? Landowners subsidize that even if they don't have kids. Drive on a public road? People who don't own cars subsidize that. The list goes on.
3. People can't make money in rural areas? Apparently you have no concept of telecommuting, farming, logging, etc. As for the rest of 3, refer to 1.
4. Why don't you move? You're likely not living in the most efficient place possible either. Also, moving can be damned expensive. Personally, I live where I do because I enjoy the area
5. If you actually read the summary, you'd realize they're talking about rich people in the country being subsidized by poor people in the city. Maybe you should move to somewhere with better literacy rates, it might rub off on you. But hey, it explains your signature.
You're thinking of income tax. There are lots of other taxes. Sales tax, gas tax, taxes on almost everything processed or imported. In the end, even if they get back 110% of what they paid in income taxes, they still paid some sort of tax.
Middle class does tend to get hit a little harder because we don't get that income tax back, but it's damn near impossible to pay zero taxes overall.
If they need to run the same cable for multiple services, they'll usually give you some kind of deal like that. Time Warner does it for cable - I only subscribe to cable Internet, but they throw in basic cable TV for no additional fee.
I grew up in a fairly rural area. It's sort of like an onion.
At the very center of the cities are poor people, there's middle class urban dwellers surrounding them with a few high-wealth neighborhoods. Around them are poor people that live on the edge of the city. Around them are the middle-class suburbs. Further out are some higher wealth suburbs. Once you get past the suburbs, more poor people. Get out to the small villages and there's some middle and lower-middle class. Rural areas near these small villages have a healthy mix of wealthy and middle class. But you get way out there in bumfuck and it's all dirt poor people. Of course, there's exceptions at every level. There's going to be eccentric millionaires who want to live way out in the boonies, but they're largely outnumbered by the people living in shacks (and yes, America still has plenty of people living in shacks in the woods).
Also, if they're including manpower to actually run the cable. I know people who have the only house within 10 miles, and it's rugged terrain to boot. It's to the point where they had to sink telephone poles in the roadway itself (near the edge of the road) because there was no other way to run the lines through that area. I can easily see why it would take a lot of money to run cables in areas with mountainous or heavily forested terrain.
For a lot of these people, it might be a hobby. If it weren't for bug hunting for a bounty, they might be working on open source software instead with no payout at all. For those people, the payout is infinitely greater even if it amounts to $2.50/hr. Most people are just happy to have a hobby that breaks even, nevermind nets a profit.
Saying everyone in the Republican party believes you can't get pregnant from rape is like saying every Slashdot poster spams about hosts files and goatse.
Are we talking about the programmers or the government? Both seem to be the "lowest bidders" here...
Or add new abilities to a game. Your character can fly now, or gets a nifty whip, or a pet
Especially considering the largest maps (IE: 81 x 81 iirc) are still massive compared to almost every other RTS made since then, although 40x40 was the largest that came with the game. Supreme Commander is the only one I can think of that you can have maps on that scale. TA was also years ahead in terms of integrated fan-made content from the ground up. Download a new unit? Just drop it in the totala folder to use. Same for maps. No installing, no editing, and there were some great fan-made tools to resolve conflicts between two units (usually taking up the same build menu)
I always enjoyed games that had a good core and then released expansion packs later that actually expanded on the game. It was almost like getting two great games. Total Annihilation was good, Core Contingency made it better. Diablo II was good. Lord of Destruction made it better (although in this case, the expansion was essential to actually finishing the storyline). StarCraft was good, Brood War made it better. It seems expansions that really expanded the game died out around ten years ago. Since then, expansions are more like content packs - they tend to just add more of the same.
Similar questions:
People still use automobiles outside of Detroit?
People still eat food outside of McDonalds?
People still have sex outside of brothels?
People still say stupid shit outside of anonymous Slashdot comments?
Engineering is just applied physics, with some wiggle room for tolerances and a fair bit of guessing.
I'd be more interested in knowing how many of them engineer their slides to improve the odds of a bikini coming off mid-slide. And where I can find the works of said engineers. To observe. For science.
Why not? Have the Romney-Paul Corporation. Corporations are people too, so they should be able to run for office.
I wasn't an English major. It's why I have a job now.
Space is full of dust on an astronomic scale. On a scale relative to humans, it's a void. When projecting a narrow beam of light through space, the odds of it hitting enough dust to give a visible reflection to an observer is pretty small. The average density of space* is around one atom per cubic centimer. That means you would have to project a laser with a 1cm diameter about three million kilometers before it interacted with enough atoms to constitute a single single spec of dust. That's nearly eight times the distance of the Earth to the moon.
Of course, it might hit high density dust pockets, but those are fairly far about and would just be seen as a few glimmers of light between the projector and the target, certainly not enough to make any sort of line as projected in Science Fiction.
* http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2000/DaWeiCai.shtml
If an aircraft is on auto-pilot, there's negligible risk.
If an aircraft is currently under human control while cruising, there's a slight risk.
If an aircraft is under human control while taking off, landing or performing any sort of maneuver, there's a reasonably significant risk.
Have you ever had someone shine a bright flashlight in your face? It's a lot like that. It causes you to jerk away, confuses you, and partially blinds you for anywhere from a few seconds to several minutes. Any of those can be deadly given that the person with the laser probably doesn't know if the aircraft is on autopilot or is preparing to land.
It's one of those laws where, sure, 98% of the time nothing bad will happen if you do it. But that last little bit of a time, something *really* bad could happen. So it's a felony.
I was in the dorms at college when Obama was elected for the first time. His supporters rioted and caused a bunch of property damage and ruffed up people.
There's also been cases of sports fans rioting when their team has won.
People do crazy shit to celebrate that just seems counterproductive to an outside observer.