OMG ! The marijuana industry just got a BIG promotional boost - all for free - from the news that there will be a dispensary coming to your neighborhood soon - - - lol
Amazing. Yet another example of a state totally and thoroughly owned by big business.
My one question is - will Trump drop Florida into the Gulf for allowing Big Business to run roughshod over the population, or promote it to the nation's capitol - for the same reason ?
DUH! Trump ran HIS campaign on "I'M NOT CLINTON" - and WON - so I guess it all boils down to the lesser of the two evils - or, even better, the outsider slam-dunking the ingrained establishment. FINALLY, we got someone to vote for that fit under the category of "NONE OF THE ABOVE" ! ! !
OK, so seriously off-topic - but it answers the issue brought up by lucm ( 889690 )
Besides, I have karma to burn - so get a grip, and learn to live with the facts of life - American people are totally fed up with the 2-party system that puts the same types into power, just labelled differently (conservative vs liberal / republican vs democratic) and who represent ONLY those that HAVE - and be damned to the population they are supposed to represent !
THANK YOU - - - Eric Petit (aka "titer" from his SVN repository username), Laurent Aimar (fenrir), Van Jacobson (van), John Allen (johnallen), Joe Crain (dynaflash), Damiano Galassi (ritsuka), Edward Groenendaal (eddyg), David Foster (davidfstr), Rodney Hester (rhester), Andrew Kimpton (awk), Chris Lee (clee), Chris Long (chrislong), Brian Mario (brianmario)Maurj (maurj), Mirkwood (mirkwood), Nyx (Nyx), Philippe Rigaux (prigaux), Jonathon Rubin (jbrjake), Scott (s55), John Stebbins (j45), Chris Thoman (huevos_rancheros), Mark Krenek (travistex), Kona "Mike" Blend (KonaBlend), David Rickard (RandomEngy), Tim Walker (Rodeo), Bradley Sepos (BradleyS), Maxym Dm (maxim_d33), and all the others that have assisted in this project ! ! ! ! !
HANDBRAKE has been 'my friend' for many years, even as a beta, and has allowed me to view many videos without having to know anything (or very little) about the inner workings of transcoders / video-packages / 'container' details, etc.
Cheers to you and those like you that provide help for the semi-educated masses that need help converting videos from one format to another !
I cannot adequately express the level of admiration and respect I have for those of you that are providing services for the people, free of charge, and solely for your own gratification.
Best and Sincere Regards - - - and Happy Holidays rickyslashdot
Well, golly gee folks, this is just what the doctor ordered - - - EVERYONE gets their cell phones hacked / recorded / tracked. Just imagine what this process would have on the communications within the Washington circle ! ! ! Let's see - delivery of meth, coke, crack, oxy, "escorts", etc - and SUDDENLY all the 'players' in the
political arena get their dirty laundry spread across the front page. I was going to add pot, but that is
apparently legal in DC nowadays.
Where, and when, did the concept of 'sunset' laws disappear from the agenda - wherein all laws had
to be re-approved periodically, or were deleted from the judicial books. Times change, attitudes change, morals change, and yet - we are still burdened with laws on the books that SHOULD make you laugh (gay rights, abortion, vulgar language in public, etc, etc, etc), except that they are STILL ON THE BOOKS, and you can STILL be prosecuted.
Please, oh please, remove the free pass that legislator's get by NOT being liable or prosecutable for their actions under the cover of 'public office exemptions'. Even sitting heads of state have, in recent times, been held responsible for illegal actions - as in war crimes situations - - - so why should our legislative representatives be allowed to get away with 'exempting' themselves from laws that they are passing that make their same actions a CRIME if committed by 'joe blow' - a common soul - merely trying to exercise his/her right to the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness within their own homes in this country - home of the brave and free, and cowed by legislation that intrudes into their own bedrooms?
Hell, it's no wonder that the radicalized factions and population sub-segments are taking it upon themselves to 'act out' in the most horrible and unthinkably bloodthirsty ways - when they have no effective input into the actual day-to-day rights embedded in our constitution.
Sorry, but this issue struck a nerve - seeing as how a high school friend of mine went to federal lockup for TWENTY YEARS for having TWO SEEDS of marijuana in his glove box.
Life in the US has really turned into a '1984' balls-up scenario - - - only thing is, and it really sucks because it still IS the best, is that it beats anywhere else in the world to live (as long as you can hide your minor vices and issues from the jackbooted badges).
OK, so this gets me flagged as a 'no fly' asshole, but big deal. I'm a disabled veteran that can't handle the
hour(s) long delay involved in just getting ON a plane due to the pain from my back and knees
(service-connected disabilities). At least I don't have to be forced to undergo a strip-down, cavity-inspection,
just because I have the balls to speak my mind!
On the other hand, I carry a letter from my VA doctors explaining the need for my pain medications so that, JUST IN CASE I get rousted in the middle of the night and tossed into the clink, I don't have to endure any additional pain and hardship fostered on me by the 'powers that be' because they think I am a threat to national security - - - or should I say, a threat to their justification to be total dick-wads hiding behind a badge - who enjoy lording it over the 'people' of this once great country.
FINALLY - someone is willing to actually LOOK at the evidence, and THEN formulate a theory to explain the energy production.
Same thing goes for the Reactionless Drive - https://duckduckgo.com/?q=reac... NASA is currently scratching their heads (and asses) as to how this thing works, but they are convinced that SOMETHING is going on.
Hell, TRY IT OUT, and IF it produces results, then get your head out of your educated, doctorial (god-like) ass and look at the reality of the real world processes.
Science is NOT founded on theory, it is founded on provable and repeatable processes that get theories developed to explain the realities.
Apologies. A bit of naivety on my part, as I "assumed" that proper vitamin supplements marketed as 'pre-natal' would have to meet relatively rigid medical guidelines, and be doctor prescribed or doctor recommended - by name - in order to be labeled as such. Additionally, I made the assumption that the vitamins would be part of a medically supervised course of pregnancy protocols handled through a physician - ob/gyn or otherwise. Thanks for helping to clarify that issue.
Please note that I said PRE-NATAL VITAMINS - - - implicitly referring to medically prescribed levels of vitamins and supplements.
Agreed, dosing the body with massive supplements is bad, and in many cases is tantamount to self-poisoning, along the same lines of taking arsenic to restore youthful appearance. Without medically approved control of vitamins and supplements, you may as well eat a bullet - - - at least that would be quicker and more painless than the damage you can do to your body by gulping massive doses of ANYTHING.
YAAAAHOOOOO ! Our sales reps and corporate execs just made their annual bonus by participating (willing or not) in delivering 1/10th of the world's population's data info to black / grey market re-sellers. What a wonderful system we live in where this can happen with no individuals anywhere in the corporate hierarchy being held criminally culpable - or even accountable - for this data theft that is only now __THREE_YEARS_AFTER_THE_FACT__ being released to the public.
MY OPINION - but this type of 'data breach' is becoming all too common, and will continue to happen while the 'protectors' of this data (the corporations, their management, and data-protection staff) are allowed to skate without any real penalties.
Hell, the recording industry has managed to 'criminalize', at the felony level, simple civil theft of data-transfer and is actually forcing the service providers and the government to be their policing agencies, but corporate data-loss / data-theft like this that can have real economic impact on millions of peoples lives is still dealt with under simple fines and penalties.
Oh, well, at least I don't have to worry, since I don't play the game with all the IM / FRIENDS / data-sharing programs running at the top of the centennial's 'have to have' internet connections.
Again, another issue - whether proven or not, that indicates that pre-natal vitamins ARE THE BEST THING YOU CAN INVEST IN FOR THE HEALTH AND FUTURE OF YOUR IN-UTERO DEVELOPING CHILD ! ! ! It's a shame that these supplements are not covered as a matter of course for EVERY pregnant woman in the world.
Sorry, but I'm going to open up the floodgates and play the Devil's Advocate for a bit.
Trump was installed as president because he was going to 'drain the swamp' ! ! !
HIS action of posting personnel to head agencies that they 'oppose' is the best way I know of to FINALLY start down-sizing and removing the bureaucratic hegemonies developed over the last half-dozen decades of government involvement in peoples lives. THIS is a really good start on his 'draining the swamp' campaign promise.
Additionally, since the congress is involved in many of the actions taken by these agencies, total and rampant 'destruction' of the agencies is really a 'tempest in a teacup' scare tactic being pushed by the entrenched power holders that feel threatened by the very thought of having their little (chuckle - "little" being multi-billion/trillion dollar expenses) kingdoms downsized, or, basically, brought under control and reigned in. Congress holds the purse strings - and can de-fund anything they feel is too far out of line - and reduce/eliminate the salaries of the 'head' of an agency, and even a part, or all, of the agency's budget.
Finally (for this rant), these appointments will SERIOUSLY be a major break from the "good old boys'" pattern of running our government, and just might - repeat MIGHT - be the best thing that has happened for the last half century. It's been far too long since the elected head of our country was held by somebody that wasn't a part of the established 2 party system, that fundamentally was the same thing on both sides - just worded slightly differently ! ! ! At least Trump, a "republican", but previously a "democrat", has finally broken the mold and will provide a much needed breath of fresh air to the entrenched establishment of our beloved nation - - - as a realistic and refreshing change that borders on the third party platforms of the Green Party, Reform Party, Libertarians, Constitution Party and Natural Law Party. He successfully managed to 'game' the system and garner enough support (granted, support in the form of "disgusted with the status quo", or basically a "NONE OF THE ABOVE" vote) to overcome the entrenched political system.
Check you own versions of history and you will find that ALL of the cost-cutting and economical saving programs that have ever been enacted merely pushed these agencies to 'publicly save' in one area while justifying additional need$ in others - all in order to maintain and INCREA$E their budget allocations.
Besides, now that there is a complete unknown, with his own agenda, running this 'establishment', foreign governments will REALLY be on their toes in trying to deal with his business profit-vs-loss mentality and will have to seriously re-think their dependence on grants/subsidies/aids and must decide if their dealings with US can bear the scrutiny of this type of control. DUH - you want help, then START WORKING on your OWN problems and quit draining the US foreign aid teat.
OK - I'm KARMA flush, and posting under my slashdot name - so do your nastys on me - but mark this post for review in a couple of years.
lol - good one. A few points of interest - these 'fish' nets are metal (not nylon/rayon) and would degrade quickly in the oceans waters even IF they reached the surface these 'fish' nets would, in all probability, disintegrate upon re-entry burnup, and not even reach the surface even without the above, these 'fish' nets would be REALLY few and far between, not like ocean fishing trawlers and, being metal, even without the salt ocean degradation, they would SINK, not float like plastics
And, if you want to discuss the cosmos, they are large, metallic objects with large radar cross-sections, easily visible and avoidable and since they are large metal webs, the geo-magnetic deceleration would take them out of orbit fairly quickly
OK, so it may have been a 'tongue-in-cheek' reply - a couple of seconds of reflection shows that they don't qualify as 'fish' net pollution
This actually seems to be an economically feasible solution to de-orbiting space junk - a light-weight 'fishnet' using the earth's geomagnetic field to degrade the velocity of captured debris - no rockets, no fuel, no guidance - simply a light-weight tethering system that 'captures' or ensnares the debris and slows it enough to degrade quickly (relative speaking - days/weeks vs years/decades) and drops the junk into an atmospheric burnup.
GO JAXA - - - wish NASA had the funding and initiative to do the same caliber of work.
Hell, with enough publicity and embarrassment, maybe the US 'secret' programs can be convinced to re-task or multi-task the mini-shuttle being used for surveillance to carry a few dozen of these fishnets as deploy-able capsules to target the biggest pieces of space junk. This tiny mini-shuttle has proven it's ability to stay up for over a year, and with that capability (and presumably the ability to do orbital changes) it could actually do some real good - besides just being an eye-in-the-sky for our security services.
I believe the fishnet deployment capsule could be reduced to a couple of kilograms or less (plastic shell, very thin wires, a firecracker's worth of spin/deployment energy), and using a tiny bit of fuel to launch/deploy (or even a loaded spring), could really be the beginning of the end for orbital space debris.
Get a grip and RTFA and links - - - as "the satellite was removed from the rocket" and put into the planned orbit about 15 minutes after the liftoff - Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-12-j...
It's NOT attached to the ISS, it's detached and 'doing it's own thing'.
Besides, there is an on-going research project to equip the ISS with proven ion propulsion units to provide 'station keeping' capability with the extremely efficient ion engine technology - - - just a matter of time before the requirement of using the supply launch vehicles' secondary engines to boost the ISS into a clean orbit will be a 'thing of the past'. Granted, the high-impulse delta-V of the secondary engines will still be needed for 'emergency' maneuvers to avoid the occasional wandering debris near-encounters, but the day-to-day orbital maintenance of the station can be relegated to very low cost ion engine technology.
Fidel Castro was supported by the (regime changing) CIA and military establishment - in what turned out to be one of their biggest fiascos - to overturn the anti-US Batista regime. With the furious infighting in Washington between Kennedy and the entrenched military, the Bay of Pigs was the crowning touch in Castro's consolidation of Cuba. Russia, fully aware of the Kennedy attitude towards nuclear weapons, 'blinked', and backed down on the shipment of additional armaments to Cuba. What is NOT widely known is that the launch sites were already operational when the naval blockade was enacted, and it was the Russian government that forced Castro to dismantle and remove the missile sites that could have reached about half of the south-eastern US. Gotta' love the Crazy Idiots Agency and their black-ops for handling the geo-political issues - even before they got their unlimited funding from drug trafficking during the Viet Nam debacle.
Hmmm! Anybody remember the international discussions about using clean hydrogen fusion devices to excavate large areas of terrain (or whatever it is called on Mars)? And how these issues got scuppered by SALT and SALT II, along with the space nuclear bans. Among the last nuclear testing done by the (now defunct) USSR, they produced a device that yielded 95% fusion and only 5% fission from the trigger, with really low levels of radioactive residue - almost all of which comes from the fission component of the device. Hell, the radiation protection needed by Mars personnel wouldn't need to be much more than already required to protect against cosmic and solar radiation. Besides, with the rovers - adaptable as refined water carriers - the colonists wouldn't even need to be in the areas of the fallout. THIS would eliminate the need for high-mass diggers and crushers to gain access to these - admittedly 'contaminated' reserves of water that need additional processing - but with the near vacuum of Mars' atmosphere, vacuum distillation seems like a real no-brainer. A single mission with 30 to 40 tons of cargo could hold several rovers, multiple 'nuclear excavation' devices, and the robotic beginnings of a water reclamation project. The ONLY issue would be getting all the hardware behind sufficient shielding (rock masses, mountains, big hills, or even a big hole in the ground) to protect the remaining operational hardware from the EMP.
I seem to remember a story about a Kzin (in one of Larry Niven's RINGWORLD novels) referring to shorting out a high capacity (Puppeteer) battery to make a high yield destructive IED. Looks like life is catching up to SciFi - - - again -grin- Please note that the batteries were designed by a rigorously safety-paranoid species to NOT be capable of being used in this manner - but a war-faring and destruction-motivated species STILL managed to circumvent the safeties, and managed to make it go "KA-BOOM".
TOTALLY AGREE. As an ex-military NCO with top secret security clearance - requiring quarterly briefings and signed documents attesting to your understanding of the responsibilities and penalties - I am fully aware of the offenses and penalties for abridging the classified document handling procedures. INTENT is NOT a requirement, only that it HAPPENED by the person's personal choice and their own volition. THIS, along with being a well-entrenched part of the 'establishment', is what cost "Hillary - dillary - can't touch me - I'm a politician, a lawyer, and I'm rich" the election, even though the choice was an agonizing one of the 'known devil' vs the 'perceived devil'.
Americans have made their choice, whether through the electoral college or the basic raw vote count - - - being tilted a bit in Hillary's favor, but with the small margin still showing an inherent distrust of the entrenched 2-party system - either side is the same, just a bit different on the talking points - - - basically, the same old shit !
News reports already seem to indicate that president-elect Trump is willing to accept new information and alter his 'campaign promises __LOL__ ' in order to get down to the actual business of running the country.
Case in point - not dementia related - but absolutely on the point of HUMAN INTERACTION. My last visit to the VA for assistance with chronic pain (over 30 years of neurological damage to lower spine) was via teleconference, with a 'treatment agent' that would have been fired from a 3rd grade class for lack of empathy, inability to properly evaluate patient, and total anal retention syndrome with requirements to be the sole and absolute controlling agent. The idiot even had the gall to tell me how to install a battery - put the flat end against the spring - when I was simply trying to read the small print on the battery to see what type of lithium technology was being used in a device I was going to have to wear attached to my belt with electrodes on my lower back and thigh. Hell, the idiot even 'directed' me to NOT touch the controls when I instinctively (for an electronic geek, design engineer, and previous bio-medical engineer) tried to move and familiarize myself with the controls that were going to control the electronic impulses to my body (TENS unit). Final straw was when I was required to attach the unit to my back - even though I was already wearing lidocaine patches and had maxed out my pain meds just to be at the session (that, by the way, the agent was LATE for). ANY additional stimulus to a patient with high levels of pain can, and often does, trigger neuro-muscular spasms that are really, REALLY unpleasant - and cannot be alleviated without direct injections to the pain centr(s). HOPEFULLY, the complaint form I left will help some other poor, pain-ridden veteran to obtain a more compassionate and empathetic physio-neurological pain sufferer to get better treatment. NO, I did not get the TENS unit, even though I have used one for 4 different periods since 1980 - - - Thank You, VA for assistance -NOT- for service-connected disabilities.
Well said - and it doesn't really go far enough in describing the corruption embedded in the Democratic / Republican state of affairs. Trump won this election simply because he presented a platform that just couldn't be 'bribed' (swayed by PAC moneys), because - basically - he has more money than most of the PAC's, and could not really give a sh!t about their special interests.
Slashdot Mirror
OMG ! The marijuana industry just got a BIG promotional boost - all for free - from the news that there will be a dispensary coming to your neighborhood soon - - - lol
Amazing. Yet another example of a state totally and thoroughly owned by big business.
My one question is - will Trump drop Florida into the Gulf for allowing Big Business to run roughshod over the population, or promote it to the nation's capitol - for the same reason ?
DUH! Trump ran HIS campaign on "I'M NOT CLINTON" - and WON - so I guess it all boils down to the lesser of the two evils - or, even better, the outsider slam-dunking the ingrained establishment. FINALLY, we got someone to vote for that fit under the category of "NONE OF THE ABOVE" ! ! !
OK, so seriously off-topic - but it answers the issue brought up by lucm ( 889690 )
Besides, I have karma to burn - so get a grip, and learn to live with the facts of life - American people are totally fed up with the 2-party system that puts the same types into power, just labelled differently (conservative vs liberal / republican vs democratic) and who represent ONLY those that HAVE - and be damned to the population they are supposed to represent !
THANK YOU - - - Eric Petit (aka "titer" from his SVN repository username), Laurent Aimar (fenrir), Van Jacobson (van), John Allen (johnallen), Joe Crain (dynaflash), Damiano Galassi (ritsuka), Edward Groenendaal (eddyg), David Foster (davidfstr), Rodney Hester (rhester), Andrew Kimpton (awk), Chris Lee (clee), Chris Long (chrislong), Brian Mario (brianmario)Maurj (maurj), Mirkwood (mirkwood), Nyx (Nyx), Philippe Rigaux (prigaux), Jonathon Rubin (jbrjake), Scott (s55), John Stebbins (j45), Chris Thoman (huevos_rancheros), Mark Krenek (travistex), Kona "Mike" Blend (KonaBlend), David Rickard (RandomEngy), Tim Walker (Rodeo), Bradley Sepos (BradleyS), Maxym Dm (maxim_d33), and all the others that have assisted in this project ! ! ! ! !
https://github.com/HandBrake/H...
HANDBRAKE has been 'my friend' for many years, even as a beta, and has allowed me to view many videos without having to know anything (or very little) about the inner workings of transcoders / video-packages / 'container' details, etc.
Cheers to you and those like you that provide help for the semi-educated masses that need help converting videos from one format to another !
I cannot adequately express the level of admiration and respect I have for those of you that are providing services for the people, free of charge, and solely for your own gratification.
Best and Sincere Regards - - - and Happy Holidays
rickyslashdot
Well, golly gee folks, this is just what the doctor ordered - - - EVERYONE gets their cell phones hacked
/ recorded / tracked. Just imagine what this process would have on the communications within the
Washington circle ! ! !
Let's see - delivery of meth, coke, crack, oxy, "escorts", etc - and SUDDENLY all the 'players' in the
political arena get their dirty laundry spread across the front page. I was going to add pot, but that is
apparently legal in DC nowadays.
Where, and when, did the concept of 'sunset' laws disappear from the agenda - wherein all laws had
to be re-approved periodically, or were deleted from the judicial books. Times change, attitudes change,
morals change, and yet - we are still burdened with laws on the books that SHOULD make you laugh (gay
rights, abortion, vulgar language in public, etc, etc, etc), except that they are STILL ON THE BOOKS,
and you can STILL be prosecuted.
Please, oh please, remove the free pass that legislator's get by NOT being liable or prosecutable for
their actions under the cover of 'public office exemptions'. Even sitting heads of state have, in recent
times, been held responsible for illegal actions - as in war crimes situations - - - so why should our
legislative representatives be allowed to get away with 'exempting' themselves from laws that they are
passing that make their same actions a CRIME if committed by 'joe blow' - a common soul - merely trying
to exercise his/her right to the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness within their own homes in this
country - home of the brave and free, and cowed by legislation that intrudes into their own bedrooms?
Hell, it's no wonder that the radicalized factions and population sub-segments are taking it upon
themselves to 'act out' in the most horrible and unthinkably bloodthirsty ways - when they have no
effective input into the actual day-to-day rights embedded in our constitution.
Sorry, but this issue struck a nerve - seeing as how a high school friend of mine went to federal lockup
for TWENTY YEARS for having TWO SEEDS of marijuana in his glove box.
Life in the US has really turned into a '1984' balls-up scenario - - - only thing is, and it really
sucks because it still IS the best, is that it beats anywhere else in the world to live (as long as you
can hide your minor vices and issues from the jackbooted badges).
OK, so this gets me flagged as a 'no fly' asshole, but big deal. I'm a disabled veteran that can't handle the
hour(s) long delay involved in just getting ON a plane due to the pain from my back and knees
(service-connected disabilities). At least I don't have to be forced to undergo a strip-down, cavity-inspection,
just because I have the balls to speak my mind!
On the other hand, I carry a letter from my VA doctors explaining the need for my pain medications so that,
JUST IN CASE I get rousted in the middle of the night and tossed into the clink, I don't have to endure any
additional pain and hardship fostered on me by the 'powers that be' because they think I am a threat to
national security - - - or should I say, a threat to their justification to be total dick-wads hiding behind a
badge - who enjoy lording it over the 'people' of this once great country.
FINALLY - someone is willing to actually LOOK at the evidence, and THEN formulate a theory to explain the energy production.
Same thing goes for the Reactionless Drive - https://duckduckgo.com/?q=reac...
NASA is currently scratching their heads (and asses) as to how this thing works, but they are convinced that SOMETHING is going on.
Hell, TRY IT OUT, and IF it produces results, then get your head out of your educated, doctorial (god-like) ass and look at the reality of the real world processes.
Science is NOT founded on theory, it is founded on provable and repeatable processes that get theories developed to explain the realities.
Apologies. A bit of naivety on my part, as I "assumed" that proper vitamin supplements marketed as 'pre-natal' would have to meet relatively rigid medical guidelines, and be doctor prescribed or doctor recommended - by name - in order to be labeled as such. Additionally, I made the assumption that the vitamins would be part of a medically supervised course of pregnancy protocols handled through a physician - ob/gyn or otherwise.
Thanks for helping to clarify that issue.
Please note that I said PRE-NATAL VITAMINS - - - implicitly referring to medically prescribed levels of vitamins and supplements.
Agreed, dosing the body with massive supplements is bad, and in many cases is tantamount to self-poisoning, along the same lines of taking arsenic to restore youthful appearance. Without medically approved control of vitamins and supplements, you may as well eat a bullet - - - at least that would be quicker and more painless than the damage you can do to your body by gulping massive doses of ANYTHING.
cheers . . .
Obligatory Reference - - - Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Intelligent species on earth
1) MICE
2) Dolphins
3) Homo Sap.
YAAAAHOOOOO ! Our sales reps and corporate execs just made their annual bonus by participating (willing or not) in delivering 1/10th of the world's population's data info to black / grey market re-sellers. What a wonderful system we live in where this can happen with no individuals anywhere in the corporate hierarchy being held criminally culpable - or even accountable - for this data theft that is only now __THREE_YEARS_AFTER_THE_FACT__ being released to the public.
MY OPINION - but this type of 'data breach' is becoming all too common, and will continue to happen while the 'protectors' of this data (the corporations, their management, and data-protection staff) are allowed to skate without any real penalties.
Hell, the recording industry has managed to 'criminalize', at the felony level, simple civil theft of data-transfer and is actually forcing the service providers and the government to be their policing agencies, but corporate data-loss / data-theft like this that can have real economic impact on millions of peoples lives is still dealt with under simple fines and penalties.
Oh, well, at least I don't have to worry, since I don't play the game with all the IM / FRIENDS / data-sharing programs running at the top of the centennial's 'have to have' internet connections.
Again, another issue - whether proven or not, that indicates that pre-natal vitamins ARE THE BEST THING YOU CAN INVEST IN FOR THE HEALTH AND FUTURE OF YOUR IN-UTERO DEVELOPING CHILD ! ! !
It's a shame that these supplements are not covered as a matter of course for EVERY pregnant woman in the world.
WOW ! OMG ! FINALLY, here is the undeniable evidence of the evolution of the "2 hump chump" into the human species ! ! !
Sorry, but I'm going to open up the floodgates and play the Devil's Advocate for a bit.
Trump was installed as president because he was going to 'drain the swamp' ! ! !
HIS action of posting personnel to head agencies that they 'oppose' is the best way I know of to FINALLY start down-sizing and removing the bureaucratic hegemonies developed over the last half-dozen decades of government involvement in peoples lives. THIS is a really good start on his 'draining the swamp' campaign promise.
Additionally, since the congress is involved in many of the actions taken by these agencies, total and rampant 'destruction' of the agencies is really a 'tempest in a teacup' scare tactic being pushed by the entrenched power holders that feel threatened by the very thought of having their little (chuckle - "little" being multi-billion/trillion dollar expenses) kingdoms downsized, or, basically, brought under control and reigned in. Congress holds the purse strings - and can de-fund anything they feel is too far out of line - and reduce/eliminate the salaries of the 'head' of an agency, and even a part, or all, of the agency's budget.
Finally (for this rant), these appointments will SERIOUSLY be a major break from the "good old boys'" pattern of running our government, and just might - repeat MIGHT - be the best thing that has happened for the last half century. It's been far too long since the elected head of our country was held by somebody that wasn't a part of the established 2 party system, that fundamentally was the same thing on both sides - just worded slightly differently ! ! ! At least Trump, a "republican", but previously a "democrat", has finally broken the mold and will provide a much needed breath of fresh air to the entrenched establishment of our beloved nation - - - as a realistic and refreshing change that borders on the third party platforms of the Green Party, Reform Party, Libertarians, Constitution Party and Natural Law Party. He successfully managed to 'game' the system and garner enough support (granted, support in the form of "disgusted with the status quo", or basically a "NONE OF THE ABOVE" vote) to overcome the entrenched political system.
Check you own versions of history and you will find that ALL of the cost-cutting and economical saving programs that have ever been enacted merely pushed these agencies to 'publicly save' in one area while justifying additional need$ in others - all in order to maintain and INCREA$E their budget allocations.
Besides, now that there is a complete unknown, with his own agenda, running this 'establishment', foreign governments will REALLY be on their toes in trying to deal with his business profit-vs-loss mentality and will have to seriously re-think their dependence on grants/subsidies/aids and must decide if their dealings with US can bear the scrutiny of this type of control. DUH - you want help, then START WORKING on your OWN problems and quit draining the US foreign aid teat.
OK - I'm KARMA flush, and posting under my slashdot name - so do your nastys on me - but mark this post for review in a couple of years.
lol - good one.
A few points of interest -
these 'fish' nets are metal (not nylon/rayon) and would degrade quickly in the oceans waters even IF they reached the surface
these 'fish' nets would, in all probability, disintegrate upon re-entry burnup, and not even reach the surface
even without the above, these 'fish' nets would be REALLY few and far between, not like ocean fishing trawlers
and, being metal, even without the salt ocean degradation, they would SINK, not float like plastics
And, if you want to discuss the cosmos, they are large, metallic objects with large radar cross-sections, easily visible and avoidable
and since they are large metal webs, the geo-magnetic deceleration would take them out of orbit fairly quickly
OK, so it may have been a 'tongue-in-cheek' reply - a couple of seconds of reflection shows that they don't qualify as 'fish' net pollution
cheers . . .
SAME - - - SERIOUSLY OFF-TOPIC - - - lost my mod points - otherwise a -5 for you
SERIOUSLY OFF-TOPIC - - - lost my mod points - otherwise a -5 for you
This actually seems to be an economically feasible solution to de-orbiting space junk - a light-weight 'fishnet' using the earth's geomagnetic field to degrade the velocity of captured debris - no rockets, no fuel, no guidance - simply a light-weight tethering system that 'captures' or ensnares the debris and slows it enough to degrade quickly (relative speaking - days/weeks vs years/decades) and drops the junk into an atmospheric burnup.
GO JAXA - - - wish NASA had the funding and initiative to do the same caliber of work.
Hell, with enough publicity and embarrassment, maybe the US 'secret' programs can be convinced to re-task or multi-task the mini-shuttle being used for surveillance to carry a few dozen of these fishnets as deploy-able capsules to target the biggest pieces of space junk. This tiny mini-shuttle has proven it's ability to stay up for over a year, and with that capability (and presumably the ability to do orbital changes) it could actually do some real good - besides just being an eye-in-the-sky for our security services.
I believe the fishnet deployment capsule could be reduced to a couple of kilograms or less (plastic shell, very thin wires, a firecracker's worth of spin/deployment energy), and using a tiny bit of fuel to launch/deploy (or even a loaded spring), could really be the beginning of the end for orbital space debris.
Get a grip and RTFA and links - - - as "the satellite was removed from the rocket" and put into the planned orbit about 15 minutes after the liftoff - Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-12-j...
It's NOT attached to the ISS, it's detached and 'doing it's own thing'.
Besides, there is an on-going research project to equip the ISS with proven ion propulsion units to provide 'station keeping' capability with the extremely efficient ion engine technology - - - just a matter of time before the requirement of using the supply launch vehicles' secondary engines to boost the ISS into a clean orbit will be a 'thing of the past'.
Granted, the high-impulse delta-V of the secondary engines will still be needed for 'emergency' maneuvers to avoid the occasional wandering debris near-encounters, but the day-to-day orbital maintenance of the station can be relegated to very low cost ion engine technology.
cheers . . .
Fidel Castro was supported by the (regime changing) CIA and military establishment - in what turned out to be one of their biggest fiascos - to overturn the anti-US Batista regime. With the furious infighting in Washington between Kennedy and the entrenched military, the Bay of Pigs was the crowning touch in Castro's consolidation of Cuba.
Russia, fully aware of the Kennedy attitude towards nuclear weapons, 'blinked', and backed down on the shipment of additional armaments to Cuba. What is NOT widely known is that the launch sites were already operational when the naval blockade was enacted, and it was the Russian government that forced Castro to dismantle and remove the missile sites that could have reached about half of the south-eastern US.
Gotta' love the Crazy Idiots Agency and their black-ops for handling the geo-political issues - even before they got their unlimited funding from drug trafficking during the Viet Nam debacle.
Hmmm! Anybody remember the international discussions about using clean hydrogen fusion devices to excavate large areas of terrain (or whatever it is called on Mars)? And how these issues got scuppered by SALT and SALT II, along with the space nuclear bans.
Among the last nuclear testing done by the (now defunct) USSR, they produced a device that yielded 95% fusion and only 5% fission from the trigger, with really low levels of radioactive residue - almost all of which comes from the fission component of the device. Hell, the radiation protection needed by Mars personnel wouldn't need to be much more than already required to protect against cosmic and solar radiation. Besides, with the rovers - adaptable as refined water carriers - the colonists wouldn't even need to be in the areas of the fallout.
THIS would eliminate the need for high-mass diggers and crushers to gain access to these - admittedly 'contaminated' reserves of water that need additional processing - but with the near vacuum of Mars' atmosphere, vacuum distillation seems like a real no-brainer.
A single mission with 30 to 40 tons of cargo could hold several rovers, multiple 'nuclear excavation' devices, and the robotic beginnings of a water reclamation project. The ONLY issue would be getting all the hardware behind sufficient shielding (rock masses, mountains, big hills, or even a big hole in the ground) to protect the remaining operational hardware from the EMP.
I seem to remember a story about a Kzin (in one of Larry Niven's RINGWORLD novels) referring to shorting out a high capacity (Puppeteer) battery to make a high yield destructive IED. Looks like life is catching up to SciFi - - - again -grin-
Please note that the batteries were designed by a rigorously safety-paranoid species to NOT be capable of being used in this manner - but a war-faring and destruction-motivated species STILL managed to circumvent the safeties, and managed to make it go "KA-BOOM".
TOTALLY AGREE. As an ex-military NCO with top secret security clearance - requiring quarterly briefings and signed documents attesting to your understanding of the responsibilities and penalties - I am fully aware of the offenses and penalties for abridging the classified document handling procedures.
INTENT is NOT a requirement, only that it HAPPENED by the person's personal choice and their own volition.
THIS, along with being a well-entrenched part of the 'establishment', is what cost "Hillary - dillary - can't touch me - I'm a politician, a lawyer, and I'm rich" the election, even though the choice was an agonizing one of the 'known devil' vs the 'perceived devil'.
Take a trip down memory lane with the following: (some pro, many con'vict')
http://rense.com/general80/hop...
http://www.wnd.com/2000/04/447...
http://www.breitbart.com/big-g...
https://peterfrancisgeracilaw....
https://www.truthorfiction.com...
http://www.washingtontimes.com...
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/...
http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/20/...
http://www.politico.com/story/...
http://conservativeamerican.or...
http://www.theatlantic.com/pol...
Americans have made their choice, whether through the electoral college or the basic raw vote count - - - being tilted a bit in Hillary's favor, but with the small margin still showing an inherent distrust of the entrenched 2-party system - either side is the same, just a bit different on the talking points - - - basically, the same old shit !
News reports already seem to indicate that president-elect Trump is willing to accept new information and alter his 'campaign promises __LOL__ ' in order to get down to the actual business of running the country.
Case in point - not dementia related - but absolutely on the point of HUMAN INTERACTION. My last visit to the VA for assistance with chronic pain (over 30 years of neurological damage to lower spine) was via teleconference, with a 'treatment agent' that would have been fired from a 3rd grade class for lack of empathy, inability to properly evaluate patient, and total anal retention syndrome with requirements to be the sole and absolute controlling agent.
The idiot even had the gall to tell me how to install a battery - put the flat end against the spring - when I was simply trying to read the small print on the battery to see what type of lithium technology was being used in a device I was going to have to wear attached to my belt with electrodes on my lower back and thigh.
Hell, the idiot even 'directed' me to NOT touch the controls when I instinctively (for an electronic geek, design engineer, and previous bio-medical engineer) tried to move and familiarize myself with the controls that were going to control the electronic impulses to my body (TENS unit).
Final straw was when I was required to attach the unit to my back - even though I was already wearing lidocaine patches and had maxed out my pain meds just to be at the session (that, by the way, the agent was LATE for). ANY additional stimulus to a patient with high levels of pain can, and often does, trigger neuro-muscular spasms that are really, REALLY unpleasant - and cannot be alleviated without direct injections to the pain centr(s).
HOPEFULLY, the complaint form I left will help some other poor, pain-ridden veteran to obtain a more compassionate and empathetic physio-neurological pain sufferer to get better treatment.
NO, I did not get the TENS unit, even though I have used one for 4 different periods since 1980 - - - Thank You, VA for assistance -NOT- for service-connected disabilities.
Gee folks, can we all say "WELLS FARGO" ? -lol-
Well said - and it doesn't really go far enough in describing the corruption embedded in the Democratic / Republican state of affairs. Trump won this election simply because he presented a platform that just couldn't be 'bribed' (swayed by PAC moneys), because - basically - he has more money than most of the PAC's, and could not really give a sh!t about their special interests.