I don't understand why you're writing that in a pseudo-Ebonics dialect? Many of the dialectic features you've toss out there are really primary features of AAVE, not so much SVE (though there is of course overlap).
I've got to say, if your goal is to make Southerns--even those of us whose families are transplants, who don't fly the confederate flag, and who don't have an accent--want to stand up for southern culture--mission accomplished! And no, being a fan of southern culture does not mean you love slavery or hate black people.
The corruption and abuse in the prison system, and the collusion between the prison industry, the unions, and the police, to keep it going, does not need to be "exposed" because it is done openly, and generally with the support of the public. Any attempt to fix the prisons needs to start with a massive reduction in the number of people incarcerated. Per capita, America imprisons far more than other countries, and far more than even authoritarian countries such as China and Russia.
If you add the number of forced "stays" at mental health hospitals in other countries, the numbers are substantially equalized. This is, of course, damning on its own, as the US has defaulted to using prisons and jails to incarcerate the mentally ill. This is not ideal from a humane or a fiscal point of view.
Another counter argument is that crime rates have dramatically and universally fallen across the US during the same time period that rates of incarceration have risen.
Before election day, you will see ads, and receive mailers, from politicians promising to "get tough on crime", along with endorsements by the police chief, and the police union. Please vote for someone else.
I'm not sure what point you're trying to make. Pretty much every organization, and certainly every union out there from the Piano Tuners 421 to the police, are going to endorse somebody. Having lived in Chicago--well-known as a union town--for several years in the 00's, and around the country, I don't recall anything like the level of organization you are claiming. I've certainly never received a mailer from a police union, nor do I think I've ever seen an ad run by the union.
True, but this has some potentially dangerous side effects.
1) You have to disable kernel extension signing (potential security risk). 2) If you lose PRAM, or if other hardware changes occur, your system might be in an unbootable state until you remove the TRIM kext. 3) On my MacPro 1,1 that is running Yosemite with a non-original graphics card, I can't risk the TRIM. If, for any reason, my system were to go non-bootable, I wouldn't be able to restore, as my current graphics cards is non-Mac EFI compatible. I don't get output until the desktop loads. There are only a tiny number of people in this situation, but it effects me!
End result, I run trim on my MBP and no trim on my MP.
Not really trivial as of Yosemite. You have to disable kernel extension signing. Luckily, there appears to be a command line tool for force enabling TRIM in 10.11.
It's shocking to me how people can buy--hook, line, and sinker--any rotten story that politicians tell, particularly if the story is "blame someone else!"
"Just weeks before the regulations were dropped there had been a barrage of lobbying from big European firms such as Dupont, Bayer and BASF over EDCs. The chemical industry association Cefic warned that the endocrines issue 'could become an issue that impairs the forthcoming EU-US trade negotiations.'"
Thanks for the reply, that makes total sense to me, and I think we're in agreement. The issue is definitely not the vulnerability of individual systems or an increasing "hackability" of software, rather, as you say, the greater accessibility that makes things more risky.
Yes, aggressive lobbying form 'Merican companies like Bayer AG (oddly headquartered in Leverkusen, Germany) and the largest chemical producer in the world, BASF (again, oddly headquartered in Ludwigshafen, Germany).
It's really nice that the political class of the EU can rely on the old "blame the US" trick to convince Europeans to ignore their own indebtedness to European corporate interests. Always shocking to me to see propaganda work so well and so easily.
Well, now it looks like US corporations are flexing their muscles in Europe, reducing democracy there after all but buying legislators here in the US.
I would quip that you should RTFA, but the relevant part is even quoted in the summary!
Just weeks before the regulations were dropped there had been a barrage of lobbying from big European firms such as Dupont, Bayer and BASF over EDCs. The chemical industry association Cefic warned that the endocrines issue “could become an issue that impairs the forthcoming EU-US trade negotiations”.
Dupont -- American Bayer AG -- German BASF -- German
Yes, American corporations pressured American politicians to pressure EU politicians. EU corporations were also pressuring EU politicians directly. EU politicians wussed out. This story is sensationalist because, of course, the EU politicians want to blame the US for their lack of spine and total subservience to corporations. Pot, meet kettle.
It's also patently stupid to suggest that anything is "more vulnerable" now than it used to be. Things may be more interconnected, and are more likely to be attacked in the past, but they are not getting "more vulnerable" unless your management is A) not willing to spend the reasonable cost for appropriate security controls, or B) doesn't listen to their IT security staff when those systems start raising warning flags, or C) fails to hire competent security personnel in the first place.
I disagree strongly with this. Let's think about the case of industrial or governmental espionage. 50 years ago, saboteurs had to physically remove documents (or whatever they wanted) from the target. There were quite genius inventions--small (for the time) cameras, hidden canisters of films, briefcases with hidden compartments, etc., but ultimately there was a very physical component. Today it's possible to remotely infiltrate an organization and exfiltrate more "documents" than could previously have been removed in a lifetime, all with perfect fidelity.
A slightly more immediate example might be identity theft or credit card theft (as in your Target example). 30 years ago, did any company of any size have to worry about losing 50 million credit card numbers (or any similarly sized data set, for that matter!) in a data breach? 20 years ago? This is a new concern.
I've actually had good experiences with Google Apps (paid) technical support. I've only interacted with them perhaps two times over three years, but they were fast and good both times. Our local DMV is actually not terrible either (ever since they implemented appointments). God help you if you need to call them on the phone, though.
True story about my last visit from the permitting office (we were doing a series of renovations on our office building, so I visited quite a few times). I dropped by the the permits office to just sign my name to a sheet of paper. I arrived around 12:50am on a Wednesday.
The front desk person was sitting there reading a newspaper. I walk up through the cordoned off waiting area (I was the only person in line), and say "Hello,...". The reception lady points to a sign that says "Out to lunch" and doesn't even look up from her paper. Ok, fine, I go and sit down for 10 minutes, expecting lunch to end at 1pm. At 1pm the lady removed the "Out to lunch" sign and walked away from the desk. She's mysteriously gone for another 10 minutes. Ok...
So, I'm still standing waiting in line and still the only person there when she comes back. She looks around the room and says "Next." I walk up, say hello, and tell her about what I'm picking up. She reaches down into her files and has my form right there. She explains that I need to sign the form. I pick up one of the bank-style chained down pens and start to sign my name on the only signature line on the form. She immediately says "SIR. The front desk is for interacting with customers only. We need to keep the area clear for other customers. Please go and sign this form and return to the permits office when you are done." Again, I am the ONLY other person in the room. I had to leave the office, go bum a pen off someone, and come back.
I literally could have been in and out in about 30 seconds if that person cared one iota about her job or other people. That was an annoying experience, but not really that out of line with my other local government interactions. To be fair, I did meet a few very helpful inspectors, but sheesh... I met my fair share of similar personality types when I worked for the federal government in DC. Governments, more so than corporations, seem to offer people like that tenured positions.
Sorry, but that doesn't sound like a disaster at all to me. It sounds a lot like the way business actually works. It also sounds like a valuable asset in the making. If you add in the positive effects of having the best internet connectivity in the country in terms of ability to attract businesses, it's not a bad deal at all.
Maybe. The next 20-30 years, over which the debt is scheduled to be repaid (with interest of course), will be the proof in the pudding. You are far more confident than I am.
Best internet in the country? Better than some of the surrounding areas--for now--for sure. Beyond that...? AT&T "Gigapower" is supposed to be the same speed as Google. Having neither, I can't say for sure.
Note that Davidson went in on this with Mooresville, population 32,000 so claiming the debt is held by just 10,000 people is way off the mark. It's not chump change, but it's not exactly a horror. There are many government and private ventures in a lot more debt with a lot less to show for it and unlike the broadband play, little hope to break even one day.
I didn't claim that Davidson was stuck with the entire debt. I said "A small municipality like Davidson, NC (population 10,000) being saddled with even a portion of 100 million debt, is a big deal." I don't know how those portions were...apportioned...but the point remains. 100 million for small tax bases is a big deal.
Cities have certain mandates that nobody else can fulfill. Roads. Public schools. Other transportation and municipal service mandates.
Given the speed of their network, they will beat the pants off of AT&T and will likely be on-par with Google. Now let's talk customer service. We have AT&(your call is important to us, please hold forever)T and Google(Talk to the hand).
That's certainly a valid question. Who would you rather go to for customer support--Amazon or the DMV? The permitting office (you ever been there? it made me want to stab my eyes out) or Apple? From the article about the Davidson fiber it seems they swung the pendulum from awful customer support to good. I don't think there are any guarantees here.
It's also worth considering, if not for the threat of efforts like these, do you really think any of the telcos would actually be trying to up their game?
LUS Fiber (Lafayette), S&P upgraded their bonds from A to A+ based on strong performance this year. They went cash positive in 2012.
Bond ratings don't necessarily tell you anything about the performance of an entity. They tell you about the ability of the parent entity (corporation, municipality, whatever) to make interest payments.
Here's a different take, opinion site (I tried to stink to links from news sites, rather than opinion sites in my original post.):
Your second link indicates that MI-Connection is likewise cash positive and beginning to pay down debt.
Not quiet. From the link I cited (which I viewed, overall, as positive): "The towns borrowed $92.5 million to create the company and, while MI-Connection is now in the black operationally, it doesn’t yet generate enough revenue to also cover the towns’ payment on the debt." The chairman of the company estimated that within 3–5 years, MI-Connection would be able to stop receiving further subsidies.
That's a lot of debt. We're not talking millions of potential customers in this area either, the cities are relatively small.
But here's the biggest problem for Davidson and Mooresville. AT&T fiber is coming to the Triad and Google is coming to Charlotte. AT&T and Google cost the cities nothing (or very little), and in fact they probably make money from permitting and taxes. What will happen to these municipal networks when there's competition? Will municipal fiber be competitive with Google or AT&T?
After having read about a lot of these municipal setups, 100 million debt is not uncommon. This is expected to be paid back over decades. I guess we'll see how often they become--or remain--truly profitable over that time period.
So what your links really say is that (SURPRISE), big projects sometimes take longer to pay off than expected and may not pay off if they are sabotaged by people who would rather see their city take a financial bath than have their sacred cow slaughtered.
That's exactly the point. Governments (and corporations, to be fair! any suitably behemoth organization) are terrible at planning for this kind of project and event. It's really hard to predict the future (no shit, huh). A small municipality like Davidson, NC (population 10,000) being saddled with even a portion of 100 million debt, is a big deal. It doesn't take more than a few bad assumptions to seriously and very negatively affect the entire population of the area. Maybe they will be lucky and succeed, maybe not. It's a risk, and in my view, frequently one that is not worth taking when corporate fiber is in the process of exploding across the country.
I'm getting the fastest internet service in the country [timescall.com] for $59 a month.
With an initial install cost of 40 million funded by the denizens of Longmont, I hope a lot of you subscribe at $59/mon!
I'm looking forward to getting fiber as well. Funny how back in the day those who played network games from a university were LPB (low ping bastards). 80ms pings?! So unfair to those of us on dialup...
Too bad about all these state legislators who seem to feel the need to protect their constituents from super-fast internet speeds at affordable rates that the private companies never seem to feel the need to deliver. I guess luckily for them, most people have no idea what they're missing, or a lot of those guys would be getting kicked out of office right now.
Actually, North Carolina is one of the most active states in the country in terms of upcoming fiber installs. All of the main populations centers--Charlotte metro area, the Triangle (Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill), and the Triad (Greensboro/Highpoint/Winston-Salem) are currently scheduled to receive AT&T fiber, Google Fiber, or both(!) within the next year or two.
Disclaimer, I live in NC and generally support municipal broadband projects when communities are underserved. I'm a big fan of the Wilson fiber service.
First, there is no concept of a citizen of a city or municipality. People are citizens of a state. Cities, counties, municipalities are all creatures of a state, and thus are under the control of state government, not local or federal government. There's no hypocrisy because the general argument in favor of states rights is not about ultimately devolving power to the smallest possible unit of control, but about maintaining state legal authority from being assumed by the federal government.
The main argument against municipal broadband projects is that they frequently fail and leave the municipality saddled with debt. This becomes the responsibility of the state government. Thus, state governments have the power to regulate what projects municipalities embark on, because the state government is the ultimate guarantor.
The secondary argument against municipal broadband is that municipal projects are typically able to entirely bypass permitting and other planning approval stages (costly stages and costly permits; let's not forget the requisite greasing of the political wheels). They are frequently given rights of way and access that private companies do not have authorization to use. There is a good chance that a municipal broadband network would discourage other companies from making a significant investment facing this kind of unbalanced competition. If the project then goes on to be a significant money loser, the municipality is even worse off than when it began.
Examples of municipal projects that have failed or otherwise had explosive debt:
- Slashdot user BarbaraHudson posts at least an order of magnitude more troll posts than NatasRevol. [implication: it's not worth being annoyed at NatasRevol shitposting]
I posted most of this elsewhere. I don't mean to be disrespectful to you or your parent's experiences (I'm just a "newbee" myself), but a good bit of what you write isn't quite correct.
In summer, a typical worker bee lives for about 6 weeks. 8 weeks, maybe 10, if she has one of the rare posts of guardians at the bee colony's entry, or is one of the even fewer bees that feed the queen.
1-2 days old: Cleaning duty 3-5 days old: Feeding older larva (nurse) 6-11 days old: Feeding younger larva (nurse) 12-17 days: comb maintenance and production (wax) 18-21 days: guard bee duty 22+ days: field bee (foraging)
It's relatively rare for a bee to have only one duty over its entire lifespan, though this can happen. Sometimes phases are skipped in the spring if a colony really needs foragers, for instance.
Bees literally work themselves to death. The replenishment rate is, during summer, 100%; this is taken care of by the queen.
More than 100%! Colonies expand rapidly in the spring and into summer.
A typical bee colony has between 10,000 and 40,000 bees in high summer, then goes into winter with about 1,000 bees, clumped around the queen to keep her warm, and comes out of winter with 400 to 600 bees.
40,000 is on the low ends of most estimates I read for summer population. Some estimates are up to 100,000 bees!
When you buy "package bees" to install in a hive, the typical size is 3 lbs of bees. This is over 10,000 bees, and is a small "starter" colony. So, I think your estimate of 10,000 to 40,000 bees for full, established summer population is very low.
Finally, FAR more than 300-400 bees survive the winter. I do not think a colony that overwintered with only 400 bees would be viable.
We are talking about apis mellifera carnica here, the so-called Italian bee, which is the variety most commonly used by beekeepers.
A. Mellifera Carnica is the "Carniolan" bee. It's another somewhat common breed of honey bee, but nowhere near as common as the Italian bee--Apis Mellifera Ligustica.
An entire colony dying in spring or early summer is, normally, an extremely rare event, and indicates either an epidemy, or severe poisoning.
Colonies death in spring is not at all uncommon. Colonies are actually at very great risk in the spring. When the queen starts breeding again and the hive starts growing, resources that have been stored since the previous summer are used up very rapidly. The bees leave the cluster and start moving around. A few bouts of bad spring weather that disrupts the early nectar flow or an unexpected hard freeze can destroy a colony that survived all winter long. If a spring colony has depleted all reserves and there's a nectar death and cold weather, things go bad fast!
Colony death in summer is more unusual.
Varroa mites are a known cause, but are a largely contained phenomenon now, at least in professional bee-keeping circles.
Somewhat. Effective treatments have become available only in the last several year. Near constant monitoring is still required.
Feral bees have come close to being wiped out nationwide. This is by no means a problem that is linked to just the much vilified commercial beekepers.
What remains, is... poisoning. Neonicotinoids or something else.
Speculation and hyperbole. There are thousands of reasons hives can die. I do not believe the neonic connection has yet been proven, though with Europe banning, we should have some good data coming in over the next few years.
I keep bees as well, though I am not hugely experienced. I don't mean to disrespect the other post, but it's riddled with errors.
So you don't have to actually read all of my post--do you have ANY citation for hives that normally and naturally survive decades or centuries? I am not familiar with this claim and would like to read more.
In summer, a typical worker bee lives for about 6 weeks. 8 weeks, maybe 10, if she has one of the rare posts of guardians at the bee colony's entry, or is one of the even fewer bees that feed the queen.
1-2 days old: Cleaning duty 3-5 days old: Feeding older larva 6-11 days old: Feeding younger larva 12-17 days: comb maintenance and production (wax) 18-21 days: guard bee duty 22+ days: field bee (foraging)
It's relatively rare for a bee to have only one duty over its entire lifespan, though this can happen. Sometimes phases are skipped in the spring if a colony really needs foragers, for instance.
Bees literally work themselves to death. The replenishment rate is, during summer, 100%; this is taken care of by the queen.
More than 100%! Colonies expand rapidly in the spring and into summer.
A typical bee colony has between 10,000 and 40,000 bees in high summer, then goes into winter with about 1,000 bees, clumped around the queen to keep her warm, and comes out of winter with 400 to 600 bees.
40,000 is on the low ends of most estimates I read for summer population. Some estimates are up to 100,000 bees!
When you buy "package bees" to install in a hive, the typical size is 3 lbs of bees. This is over 10,000 bees, and is a small "starter" colony. So, I think your estimate of 10,000 to 40,000 bees for summer population is very low.
Finally, FAR more than 300-400 bees survive the winter. I do not think a colony that overwintered with only 400 bees would be viable.
We are talking about apis mellifera carnica here, the so-called Italian bee, which is the variety most commonly used by beekeepers.
A. Mellifera Carnica is the "Carniolan" bee. It's another decently common breed of honey bee, but nowhere near as common as the Italian bee--Apis Mellifera Ligustica.
An entire colony dying in spring or early summer is, normally, an extremely rare event, and indicates either an epidemy, or severe poisoning.
Colonies death in spring is not at all uncommon. Colonies are actually at very great risk in the spring. When the queen starts breeding and the hive starts growing, resources that have been stored since the previous summer are used up very rapidly. A few bouts of bad spring weather that disrupts the early nectar flow or an unexpected hard freeze can destroy a colony that survived all winter long.
Death in summer is more unusual.
Varroa mites are a known cause, but are a largely contained phenomenon now, at least in professional bee-keeping circles.
Somewhat. Effective treatments have become available only in the last several year. Near constant monitoring is still required.
What remains, is... poisoning. Neonicotinoids or something else.
Speculation and hyperbole. There are thousands of reasons hives can die. I do not believe the neonic connection has yet been proven, though with Europe banning, we should have some good data coming in over the next few years.
Citation needed? I would be interested to read your sources about this, as I have never encountered this claim before.
The term "lifespan of a bee colony" is also somewhat interesting. Are you talking about one continuous genetic line of bees with successive daughter queens existing in the same location for decades or centuries?
Bee swarms do, very frequently, take over unused, abandoned, or dead hives, though there's no reliable genetic relationship there.
I'm skeptical about the idea that those who bike to work eat substantially more (or even statistically more) than those who drive. Do you have any actual evidence or studies that back this up?
Also, planes can't compete when there's a good high-speed rail, because of their logistical complications. Airports are usually far from town and require their own train to get to. Nobody takes a plane instead of Eurostar. While Southwest will survive on its many other routes, their SFO to LAX route is doomed.
I thought that was the point of airlines like RyanAir and EasyJet (and for that matter, many other short-haul airliner routes in Europe)?
Hell, I was in the National Gallery a while back and it had a famous exhibit of a sculpted goat being penetrated by a man. Just there, in the museum. There was a warning sign that that gallery contains such works, but that was about it. Kids were roaming freely through it and past it and looking at it. No parent did anything more than "Yes, it's very funny, keep moving" and a sly smile between them all.
I'm mostly surprised that goats were roaming freely through the exhibit.
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I don't understand why you're writing that in a pseudo-Ebonics dialect? Many of the dialectic features you've toss out there are really primary features of AAVE, not so much SVE (though there is of course overlap).
I've got to say, if your goal is to make Southerns--even those of us whose families are transplants, who don't fly the confederate flag, and who don't have an accent--want to stand up for southern culture--mission accomplished! And no, being a fan of southern culture does not mean you love slavery or hate black people.
The corruption and abuse in the prison system, and the collusion between the prison industry, the unions, and the police, to keep it going, does not need to be "exposed" because it is done openly, and generally with the support of the public. Any attempt to fix the prisons needs to start with a massive reduction in the number of people incarcerated. Per capita, America imprisons far more than other countries, and far more than even authoritarian countries such as China and Russia.
If you add the number of forced "stays" at mental health hospitals in other countries, the numbers are substantially equalized. This is, of course, damning on its own, as the US has defaulted to using prisons and jails to incarcerate the mentally ill. This is not ideal from a humane or a fiscal point of view.
Another counter argument is that crime rates have dramatically and universally fallen across the US during the same time period that rates of incarceration have risen.
Before election day, you will see ads, and receive mailers, from politicians promising to "get tough on crime", along with endorsements by the police chief, and the police union. Please vote for someone else.
I'm not sure what point you're trying to make. Pretty much every organization, and certainly every union out there from the Piano Tuners 421 to the police, are going to endorse somebody. Having lived in Chicago--well-known as a union town--for several years in the 00's, and around the country, I don't recall anything like the level of organization you are claiming. I've certainly never received a mailer from a police union, nor do I think I've ever seen an ad run by the union.
True, but this has some potentially dangerous side effects.
1) You have to disable kernel extension signing (potential security risk).
2) If you lose PRAM, or if other hardware changes occur, your system might be in an unbootable state until you remove the TRIM kext.
3) On my MacPro 1,1 that is running Yosemite with a non-original graphics card, I can't risk the TRIM. If, for any reason, my system were to go non-bootable, I wouldn't be able to restore, as my current graphics cards is non-Mac EFI compatible. I don't get output until the desktop loads. There are only a tiny number of people in this situation, but it effects me!
End result, I run trim on my MBP and no trim on my MP.
Ditto. This is an awful change.
Not really trivial as of Yosemite. You have to disable kernel extension signing. Luckily, there appears to be a command line tool for force enabling TRIM in 10.11.
Let's see...the two articles are Ars Technica (US-owned, UK edition) and The Guardian (UK-owned, US edition). I think that's a fair span of opinions!
Exactly, and well said, AC.
It's shocking to me how people can buy--hook, line, and sinker--any rotten story that politicians tell, particularly if the story is "blame someone else!"
Did you even read the _summary_?
"Just weeks before the regulations were dropped there had been a barrage of lobbying from big European firms such as Dupont, Bayer and BASF over EDCs. The chemical industry association Cefic warned that the endocrines issue 'could become an issue that impairs the forthcoming EU-US trade negotiations.'"
Thanks for the reply, that makes total sense to me, and I think we're in agreement. The issue is definitely not the vulnerability of individual systems or an increasing "hackability" of software, rather, as you say, the greater accessibility that makes things more risky.
Yes, aggressive lobbying form 'Merican companies like Bayer AG (oddly headquartered in Leverkusen, Germany) and the largest chemical producer in the world, BASF (again, oddly headquartered in Ludwigshafen, Germany).
It's really nice that the political class of the EU can rely on the old "blame the US" trick to convince Europeans to ignore their own indebtedness to European corporate interests. Always shocking to me to see propaganda work so well and so easily.
Well, now it looks like US corporations are flexing their muscles in Europe, reducing democracy there after all but buying legislators here in the US.
I would quip that you should RTFA, but the relevant part is even quoted in the summary!
Just weeks before the regulations were dropped there had been a barrage of lobbying from big European firms such as Dupont, Bayer and BASF over EDCs. The chemical industry association Cefic warned that the endocrines issue “could become an issue that impairs the forthcoming EU-US trade negotiations”.
Dupont -- American
Bayer AG -- German
BASF -- German
Yes, American corporations pressured American politicians to pressure EU politicians. EU corporations were also pressuring EU politicians directly. EU politicians wussed out. This story is sensationalist because, of course, the EU politicians want to blame the US for their lack of spine and total subservience to corporations. Pot, meet kettle.
It's also patently stupid to suggest that anything is "more vulnerable" now than it used to be. Things may be more interconnected, and are more likely to be attacked in the past, but they are not getting "more vulnerable" unless your management is A) not willing to spend the reasonable cost for appropriate security controls, or B) doesn't listen to their IT security staff when those systems start raising warning flags, or C) fails to hire competent security personnel in the first place.
I disagree strongly with this. Let's think about the case of industrial or governmental espionage. 50 years ago, saboteurs had to physically remove documents (or whatever they wanted) from the target. There were quite genius inventions--small (for the time) cameras, hidden canisters of films, briefcases with hidden compartments, etc., but ultimately there was a very physical component. Today it's possible to remotely infiltrate an organization and exfiltrate more "documents" than could previously have been removed in a lifetime, all with perfect fidelity.
A slightly more immediate example might be identity theft or credit card theft (as in your Target example). 30 years ago, did any company of any size have to worry about losing 50 million credit card numbers (or any similarly sized data set, for that matter!) in a data breach? 20 years ago? This is a new concern.
I've actually had good experiences with Google Apps (paid) technical support. I've only interacted with them perhaps two times over three years, but they were fast and good both times. Our local DMV is actually not terrible either (ever since they implemented appointments). God help you if you need to call them on the phone, though.
True story about my last visit from the permitting office (we were doing a series of renovations on our office building, so I visited quite a few times). I dropped by the the permits office to just sign my name to a sheet of paper. I arrived around 12:50am on a Wednesday.
The front desk person was sitting there reading a newspaper. I walk up through the cordoned off waiting area (I was the only person in line), and say "Hello, ...". The reception lady points to a sign that says "Out to lunch" and doesn't even look up from her paper. Ok, fine, I go and sit down for 10 minutes, expecting lunch to end at 1pm. At 1pm the lady removed the "Out to lunch" sign and walked away from the desk. She's mysteriously gone for another 10 minutes. Ok...
So, I'm still standing waiting in line and still the only person there when she comes back. She looks around the room and says "Next." I walk up, say hello, and tell her about what I'm picking up. She reaches down into her files and has my form right there. She explains that I need to sign the form. I pick up one of the bank-style chained down pens and start to sign my name on the only signature line on the form. She immediately says "SIR. The front desk is for interacting with customers only. We need to keep the area clear for other customers. Please go and sign this form and return to the permits office when you are done." Again, I am the ONLY other person in the room. I had to leave the office, go bum a pen off someone, and come back.
I literally could have been in and out in about 30 seconds if that person cared one iota about her job or other people. That was an annoying experience, but not really that out of line with my other local government interactions. To be fair, I did meet a few very helpful inspectors, but sheesh... I met my fair share of similar personality types when I worked for the federal government in DC. Governments, more so than corporations, seem to offer people like that tenured positions.
Sorry, but that doesn't sound like a disaster at all to me. It sounds a lot like the way business actually works. It also sounds like a valuable asset in the making. If you add in the positive effects of having the best internet connectivity in the country in terms of ability to attract businesses, it's not a bad deal at all.
Maybe. The next 20-30 years, over which the debt is scheduled to be repaid (with interest of course), will be the proof in the pudding. You are far more confident than I am.
Best internet in the country? Better than some of the surrounding areas--for now--for sure. Beyond that...? AT&T "Gigapower" is supposed to be the same speed as Google. Having neither, I can't say for sure.
Note that Davidson went in on this with Mooresville, population 32,000 so claiming the debt is held by just 10,000 people is way off the mark. It's not chump change, but it's not exactly a horror. There are many government and private ventures in a lot more debt with a lot less to show for it and unlike the broadband play, little hope to break even one day.
I didn't claim that Davidson was stuck with the entire debt. I said "A small municipality like Davidson, NC (population 10,000) being saddled with even a portion of 100 million debt, is a big deal." I don't know how those portions were...apportioned...but the point remains. 100 million for small tax bases is a big deal.
Cities have certain mandates that nobody else can fulfill. Roads. Public schools. Other transportation and municipal service mandates.
Given the speed of their network, they will beat the pants off of AT&T and will likely be on-par with Google. Now let's talk customer service. We have AT&(your call is important to us, please hold forever)T and Google(Talk to the hand).
That's certainly a valid question. Who would you rather go to for customer support--Amazon or the DMV? The permitting office (you ever been there? it made me want to stab my eyes out) or Apple? From the article about the Davidson fiber it seems they swung the pendulum from awful customer support to good. I don't think there are any guarantees here.
It's also worth considering, if not for the threat of efforts like these, do you really think any of the telcos would actually be trying to up their game?
Yes.
LUS Fiber (Lafayette), S&P upgraded their bonds from A to A+ based on strong performance this year. They went cash positive in 2012.
Bond ratings don't necessarily tell you anything about the performance of an entity. They tell you about the ability of the parent entity (corporation, municipality, whatever) to make interest payments.
Here's a different take, opinion site (I tried to stink to links from news sites, rather than opinion sites in my original post.):
http://freestatefoundation.blogspot.com/2014/06/the-gift-that-keeps-on-taking-municipal.html
Your second link indicates that MI-Connection is likewise cash positive and beginning to pay down debt.
Not quiet. From the link I cited (which I viewed, overall, as positive): "The towns borrowed $92.5 million to create the company and, while MI-Connection is now in the black operationally, it doesn’t yet generate enough revenue to also cover the towns’ payment on the debt." The chairman of the company estimated that within 3–5 years, MI-Connection would be able to stop receiving further subsidies.
That's a lot of debt. We're not talking millions of potential customers in this area either, the cities are relatively small.
But here's the biggest problem for Davidson and Mooresville. AT&T fiber is coming to the Triad and Google is coming to Charlotte. AT&T and Google cost the cities nothing (or very little), and in fact they probably make money from permitting and taxes. What will happen to these municipal networks when there's competition? Will municipal fiber be competitive with Google or AT&T?
After having read about a lot of these municipal setups, 100 million debt is not uncommon. This is expected to be paid back over decades. I guess we'll see how often they become--or remain--truly profitable over that time period.
So what your links really say is that (SURPRISE), big projects sometimes take longer to pay off than expected and may not pay off if they are sabotaged by people who would rather see their city take a financial bath than have their sacred cow slaughtered.
That's exactly the point. Governments (and corporations, to be fair! any suitably behemoth organization) are terrible at planning for this kind of project and event. It's really hard to predict the future (no shit, huh). A small municipality like Davidson, NC (population 10,000) being saddled with even a portion of 100 million debt, is a big deal. It doesn't take more than a few bad assumptions to seriously and very negatively affect the entire population of the area. Maybe they will be lucky and succeed, maybe not. It's a risk, and in my view, frequently one that is not worth taking when corporate fiber is in the process of exploding across the country.
I'm getting the fastest internet service in the country [timescall.com] for $59 a month.
With an initial install cost of 40 million funded by the denizens of Longmont, I hope a lot of you subscribe at $59/mon!
I'm looking forward to getting fiber as well. Funny how back in the day those who played network games from a university were LPB (low ping bastards). 80ms pings?! So unfair to those of us on dialup...
Too bad about all these state legislators who seem to feel the need to protect their constituents from super-fast internet speeds at affordable rates that the private companies never seem to feel the need to deliver. I guess luckily for them, most people have no idea what they're missing, or a lot of those guys would be getting kicked out of office right now.
Actually, North Carolina is one of the most active states in the country in terms of upcoming fiber installs. All of the main populations centers--Charlotte metro area, the Triangle (Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill), and the Triad (Greensboro/Highpoint/Winston-Salem) are currently scheduled to receive AT&T fiber, Google Fiber, or both(!) within the next year or two.
Disclaimer, I live in NC and generally support municipal broadband projects when communities are underserved. I'm a big fan of the Wilson fiber service.
First, there is no concept of a citizen of a city or municipality. People are citizens of a state. Cities, counties, municipalities are all creatures of a state, and thus are under the control of state government, not local or federal government. There's no hypocrisy because the general argument in favor of states rights is not about ultimately devolving power to the smallest possible unit of control, but about maintaining state legal authority from being assumed by the federal government.
The main argument against municipal broadband projects is that they frequently fail and leave the municipality saddled with debt. This becomes the responsibility of the state government. Thus, state governments have the power to regulate what projects municipalities embark on, because the state government is the ultimate guarantor.
The secondary argument against municipal broadband is that municipal projects are typically able to entirely bypass permitting and other planning approval stages (costly stages and costly permits; let's not forget the requisite greasing of the political wheels). They are frequently given rights of way and access that private companies do not have authorization to use. There is a good chance that a municipal broadband network would discourage other companies from making a significant investment facing this kind of unbalanced competition. If the project then goes on to be a significant money loser, the municipality is even worse off than when it began.
Examples of municipal projects that have failed or otherwise had explosive debt:
Provo, UT (saved by Google)
Lafayette, LA http://www.rstreet.org/2014/05/30/muni-broadband-the-gift-that-keeps-on-taking/
Davidson, NC and Mooresville, NC http://www.lakenormancitizen.com/news/news/item/6426-reinventing-mi-connection-an-inside-look.html
Utah UTOPIA alliance http://www.wsj.com/articles/municipal-broadband-is-no-utopia-1403220660
- Slashdot user BarbaraHudson posts at least an order of magnitude more troll posts than NatasRevol. [implication: it's not worth being annoyed at NatasRevol shitposting]
That got a lol.
I posted most of this elsewhere. I don't mean to be disrespectful to you or your parent's experiences (I'm just a "newbee" myself), but a good bit of what you write isn't quite correct.
In summer, a typical worker bee lives for about 6 weeks. 8 weeks, maybe 10, if she has one of the rare posts of guardians at the bee colony's entry, or is one of the even fewer bees that feed the queen.
No. Most worker bees go through a predictable lifecycle. See, e.g., http://www.clemson.edu/extension/county/oconee/programs/beekeeping/Honey_Bee_Life_Cycle_in_Pictures.pdf
1-2 days old: Cleaning duty
3-5 days old: Feeding older larva (nurse)
6-11 days old: Feeding younger larva (nurse)
12-17 days: comb maintenance and production (wax)
18-21 days: guard bee duty
22+ days: field bee (foraging)
It's relatively rare for a bee to have only one duty over its entire lifespan, though this can happen. Sometimes phases are skipped in the spring if a colony really needs foragers, for instance.
Bees literally work themselves to death. The replenishment rate is, during summer, 100%; this is taken care of by the queen.
More than 100%! Colonies expand rapidly in the spring and into summer.
A typical bee colony has between 10,000 and 40,000 bees in high summer, then goes into winter with about 1,000 bees, clumped around the queen to keep her warm, and comes out of winter with 400 to 600 bees.
40,000 is on the low ends of most estimates I read for summer population. Some estimates are up to 100,000 bees!
When you buy "package bees" to install in a hive, the typical size is 3 lbs of bees. This is over 10,000 bees, and is a small "starter" colony. So, I think your estimate of 10,000 to 40,000 bees for full, established summer population is very low.
Finally, FAR more than 300-400 bees survive the winter. I do not think a colony that overwintered with only 400 bees would be viable.
We are talking about apis mellifera carnica here, the so-called Italian bee, which is the variety most commonly used by beekeepers.
A. Mellifera Carnica is the "Carniolan" bee. It's another somewhat common breed of honey bee, but nowhere near as common as the Italian bee--Apis Mellifera Ligustica.
An entire colony dying in spring or early summer is, normally, an extremely rare event, and indicates either an epidemy, or severe poisoning.
Colonies death in spring is not at all uncommon. Colonies are actually at very great risk in the spring. When the queen starts breeding again and the hive starts growing, resources that have been stored since the previous summer are used up very rapidly. The bees leave the cluster and start moving around. A few bouts of bad spring weather that disrupts the early nectar flow or an unexpected hard freeze can destroy a colony that survived all winter long. If a spring colony has depleted all reserves and there's a nectar death and cold weather, things go bad fast!
Colony death in summer is more unusual.
Varroa mites are a known cause, but are a largely contained phenomenon now, at least in professional bee-keeping circles.
Somewhat. Effective treatments have become available only in the last several year. Near constant monitoring is still required.
Feral bees have come close to being wiped out nationwide. This is by no means a problem that is linked to just the much vilified commercial beekepers.
What remains, is ... poisoning. Neonicotinoids or something else.
Speculation and hyperbole. There are thousands of reasons hives can die. I do not believe the neonic connection has yet been proven, though with Europe banning, we should have some good data coming in over the next few years.
I keep bees as well, though I am not hugely experienced. I don't mean to disrespect the other post, but it's riddled with errors.
So you don't have to actually read all of my post--do you have ANY citation for hives that normally and naturally survive decades or centuries? I am not familiar with this claim and would like to read more.
In summer, a typical worker bee lives for about 6 weeks. 8 weeks, maybe 10, if she has one of the rare posts of guardians at the bee colony's entry, or is one of the even fewer bees that feed the queen.
No. Most worker bees go through a predictable lifecycle. See, e.g., http://www.clemson.edu/extension/county/oconee/programs/beekeeping/Honey_Bee_Life_Cycle_in_Pictures.pdf
1-2 days old: Cleaning duty
3-5 days old: Feeding older larva
6-11 days old: Feeding younger larva
12-17 days: comb maintenance and production (wax)
18-21 days: guard bee duty
22+ days: field bee (foraging)
It's relatively rare for a bee to have only one duty over its entire lifespan, though this can happen. Sometimes phases are skipped in the spring if a colony really needs foragers, for instance.
Bees literally work themselves to death. The replenishment rate is, during summer, 100%; this is taken care of by the queen.
More than 100%! Colonies expand rapidly in the spring and into summer.
A typical bee colony has between 10,000 and 40,000 bees in high summer, then goes into winter with about 1,000 bees, clumped around the queen to keep her warm, and comes out of winter with 400 to 600 bees.
40,000 is on the low ends of most estimates I read for summer population. Some estimates are up to 100,000 bees!
When you buy "package bees" to install in a hive, the typical size is 3 lbs of bees. This is over 10,000 bees, and is a small "starter" colony. So, I think your estimate of 10,000 to 40,000 bees for summer population is very low.
Finally, FAR more than 300-400 bees survive the winter. I do not think a colony that overwintered with only 400 bees would be viable.
We are talking about apis mellifera carnica here, the so-called Italian bee, which is the variety most commonly used by beekeepers.
A. Mellifera Carnica is the "Carniolan" bee. It's another decently common breed of honey bee, but nowhere near as common as the Italian bee--Apis Mellifera Ligustica.
An entire colony dying in spring or early summer is, normally, an extremely rare event, and indicates either an epidemy, or severe poisoning.
Colonies death in spring is not at all uncommon. Colonies are actually at very great risk in the spring. When the queen starts breeding and the hive starts growing, resources that have been stored since the previous summer are used up very rapidly. A few bouts of bad spring weather that disrupts the early nectar flow or an unexpected hard freeze can destroy a colony that survived all winter long.
Death in summer is more unusual.
Varroa mites are a known cause, but are a largely contained phenomenon now, at least in professional bee-keeping circles.
Somewhat. Effective treatments have become available only in the last several year. Near constant monitoring is still required.
What remains, is ... poisoning. Neonicotinoids or something else.
Speculation and hyperbole. There are thousands of reasons hives can die. I do not believe the neonic connection has yet been proven, though with Europe banning, we should have some good data coming in over the next few years.
Citation needed? I would be interested to read your sources about this, as I have never encountered this claim before.
The term "lifespan of a bee colony" is also somewhat interesting. Are you talking about one continuous genetic line of bees with successive daughter queens existing in the same location for decades or centuries?
Bee swarms do, very frequently, take over unused, abandoned, or dead hives, though there's no reliable genetic relationship there.
I'm skeptical about the idea that those who bike to work eat substantially more (or even statistically more) than those who drive. Do you have any actual evidence or studies that back this up?
Also, planes can't compete when there's a good high-speed rail, because of their logistical complications. Airports are usually far from town and require their own train to get to. Nobody takes a plane instead of Eurostar. While Southwest will survive on its many other routes, their SFO to LAX route is doomed.
I thought that was the point of airlines like RyanAir and EasyJet (and for that matter, many other short-haul airliner routes in Europe)?
While I can't dispute the smug factor, is it your hypothesis that bicyclists eat more meat than car drivers?
Hell, I was in the National Gallery a while back and it had a famous exhibit of a sculpted goat being penetrated by a man. Just there, in the museum. There was a warning sign that that gallery contains such works, but that was about it. Kids were roaming freely through it and past it and looking at it. No parent did anything more than "Yes, it's very funny, keep moving" and a sly smile between them all.
I'm mostly surprised that goats were roaming freely through the exhibit.