There is a subset of the prisoner population which either doesn't want to return to their coutry of orgin because they believe they will be tortured or that we do not want to send to their country of orgin because those governments will not guarantee they will not be tortured.
If no other country will take these people, then what do you do with them?
...and, unfortunately, I have no useful advice to offer.
I worked tech support at a (then) Fortune 100 pc "assembler" and seller, including as a member of their corporate tech support group. After I took a job on the company's web team, I was laid off, went back to school full time and got a master's in comp sci.
I tried to find a job developing embedded systems, preferably in defense industry. I had / have a security clearance, decent grades, significant work experience... and finally after 18 months, one offer from a small company which I quickly took. Nine months later, they laid off 40% of their engineering department...
I never had anybody figuratively "turn up their nose" at my tech support experience. I think they just looked at it as non-specific work experience, i.e. "could hold a job for extended period of time without getting fired."
Since then, I've found very well paying work that is still in the IT industry, but really isn't what I had hoped to find.
Now I am in my early 40s and prospects of finding the kind of work I was interested in (and still am) are quickly fading.
I am trying to find satisfaction for my itch in personal projects.
I don't know what it is, but there must be something that I have been lacking or failed to show / demonstrate in interviews.
For what it is worth, I wish you well in your search.
I've gone behind my 2006 diesel Jeep Liberty many times when it is running.
There is no visible exhaust.
As far as smell, I try to use B10 whenever possible. The smell is minimal and even then I only notice if it is in an partially enclosed space, like an open garage.
Converting corn to bio-deisel will cause inflation of value.
Corn is not used for the creation of biodiesl. Soybeans is the current primary crop for creation of biodiesel, although other crops can be used. Maybe those other crops are used. I'm not sure and will not claim.
It takes somthing like 600 pounds of corn to create 25 gallons of ethanol, which feeds a fatass American for over 15 months.
What does that have to do with current coversation concerning diesel engines and diesel / biodiesel fuel?
You seem to fail to grasp that ethanol is not the same as biodiesel.
Yeah, real fun and exciting. You do know that we have a shortage of troops, and the fact is "the draft" is a phrase that shall not be spoken. As a result, joining the National Guard today almost guarantees you will do one or more rotations in Iraq/Afghanistan. As a National Guardsman, I would agree that you can expect to be sent overseas. However, before you can be mobilized, you must be fully trained in your job (MOS), which means completing the associated required schooling. I would guess that by the time that is completed, things will be winding down. This assumes another hot spot doesn't appear, of course.
Yeah, supposedly they're not involved in combat patrols (mostly guard duty), but that doesn't mean the violence can't find them.
I'm not sure what you mean here. Do you mean: a) national guard units are not involved with combat patrols (not true) b) a signal officer doing guard duty - typically does not happpen, but could under rare circumstances. I (as a field grade officer) have pulled security shifts during night patrol base halts in Afghanistan, but that was primarly due to manning of my team.
Your end point is absolutely valid. The violence can find you anywhere.
Yeah, real fun and exciting.
I've been doing this for over 21 years, have been mobilized twice, including once to Afghanistan (returned this past spring). There have been many moments of fun and excitement, to include the good kind from successfully accomplishing a challenging task to the non-so fun kind from stuff that happens in a combat zone. I've been a pallbearer for a very good friend and have been at several send-offs of colleagues onto a C-130 for the last flight home. On two ocassions, I (very) briefly wondered if I was going to see the end of that particular mission.
I've found it to be very rewarding at times and very frustrating at other times. I also expect that I will be going somewhere again within 2-3 years.
Having said all of this, I haven't kept up with the details with current age limits, so he may be too old. However, there may be others who are thinking about it.
One small correction to your otherwise excellent post.
They banned speech, music, and every other freedom you can imagine but hey at least there were no drug problems right..
Actually, the Taliban on "reduced" opium production for the purpose of reducing the supply so as to increase the market price. They didn't destroy any "product" that was harvested and stored. Once prices increased, they released it to the world market....
Citation: me. I returned this May after spending a year over there.
This story and most of the current comments are flat-out riduclous. If VW and any other manufacturers want to conduct research for future vehicles, then great. Go forward and do great things. Perhaps it will yield benefits in the future. That is the purpose of research.
However, there are vehicles currently available which get outstanding mileage, are simple to construct and maintain, and do not require change to existing infrastructure.
I am not talking about hybrids or hydrogen. I am talking about current small diesels. Example: A VW diesel Jetta will get better than 50 mpg highway.
Making more small diesels available combined with an increase in biodiesel production would (in addition with other measures) significantly lower US dependence on foreign oil within a few years.
This would include cargo trucks and semi tractor-trailers.
Also, what about mass transit vehicles, such as coach buses, city buses, and school buses?
In your utopian world, will you remove all of these as well?
My point is while your position may seem at first look to be an easy solution, upon closer examination it is completely without merit. Not all large vehicles are "senseless."
It is important to understand that any weapon data is going to be classified, probably at the Top Secret level.
Data that is publicly released is going to altered by making less precise, i.e. if a weapon has a accuracy of x meters, the publicly release information will be 5x or 10x or... etc.
I spent a year of my life mobilized for active duty to guard some of that stuff while contractors (like you) were building a de-mil facility to destroy some of these materials.
I can tell you it doesn't take much of this stuff to take out large portions. That is very true, especially under the right conditions. I also want to point out that tactical employment of chemical and biological munitions is not as easy as it might seem. The effects of weather and terrain are very important considerations and can make it very difficult to get the desired results, unless you have an awful lot of it and have a delivery method to put it there.
I have had a couple of friends who each had a diesel VW and they spoke very highly of them.
Last January, I bought a 2006 diesel Jeep Liberty. It is pretty good on fuel economy (20-21 city, 25-26 highway at less than 70 mph). I live in central Iowa and cold weather was not a problem last year. Then again, it was a fairly mild winter...
It's also zippy as heck. The motor produces a ton of torque at really low RPMs so it feels a lot faster than it really is, but the feeling makes it a ton of fun to drive. My Jeep is the same. At stop lights, I can leave everybody behind me with very little effort. 295 ft-lbs of torque at 1800 rpm will do that... It sounds cool when its idling. I also love the smell of biodiesel (10%) in the morning....
Now it has 60k miles on it So, you are saying that it is almost broken in, right?
For people who keep their vehicles for more than a few years, diesels are a good value.
Not sure where you get your information from, but...
They are not as stealthy as the current F-117 You are going to have to provide some references to support that one. Besides, the F-117 has a number of limitations, including very limited weapons capacity and no ability to defend itself. Stealth makes you harder to see via electronic methods. It does not make you invisible, especially during daylight hours.
Close air support is no longer granted unless the target is in a location which can absolutely guarantee no collateral damage. Not true. Not all targets are in locations that are in close proximity to protected sites. It is also very possible for a 'protected site' to lose its status if the enemy uses it as a facility that is incompatible with the reason for its protected status.
This means that CAS is no longer granted. Again... not sure where you are getting your information, but I happen to know that CAS is used in both of the current theaters when the conditions require its use.
I'm among the first to bash the services for huge projects that grow seemingly out of control, especially aircraft and ships, while less glamorous things such as individual soldier equipment gets short shrift. However, these systems are not designed, tested, produced and fielded overnight. Just because we have air supremacy in both of the current combat theaters does -not- mean that we will in future conflicts.
Can anyone imagine the reaction if in a future conflict, US ground soldiers get killed en masse because close air support is unavailable because we cannot maintain at least air parity? The outcry would be an order of magnitude above the body armor / armored HMMWV debate of a couple of years ago.
I live in Iowa and I bought a 2006 Jeep Liberty CRD (i.e. a 2.8L turbocharged diesel) last January. For comparison, my previous vehicles (olderst to newest) were a 1978 Chevy Camaro, 1987 Nissan Pathfinder, and a 1997 Chevy Tahoe (2 door).
The Liberty CRD is a fantastic city vehicle and a very good highway vehicle. I've crossed over 10k miles and now get about 25 highway at 65 mph. It is rated by Jeep at 25 highway. Above 70 mph, it will start to drop significantly, probably because of its not-so-aerodynamic shape.
While it does get cold here, I never had any problems with starting it. I do have a gargage, so that helps.
Now that the US is changing the sulfur content of diesel fuel, we'll be able to get small, diesel powered Euro cars again, and it will be a good thing. A great thing. A friend of mine has a (roughly) 5 year old VW Jetta, and he gets 49 mpg at 70 mph. Better than a hybred, without the hassle of throwing away a bunch of batteries in a handful of years. I've known two people who have had similar experiences with the VW diesels.
I wasn't trying to say that Zorg was right (I believe he is very wrong), and to be fair, you were not claiming that I was. As I initially read the parent to my post, I immediately thought of that scene from the movie and just how f***ed up the whole thing has gotten.
The only good thing about the SCO debacle will be when it ends. (a'la Zorg choking on his cherry)I violently agree.
I can't but help but be reminded of a scene from "The Fifth Element" between Priest Vito Cornelius and Zorg.
Priest Vito Cornelius: I try to serve life. But you only... seem to want to destroy it. Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg: Oh, Father, you're so wrong. Let me explain. [closes office door, places an empty glass on desk] Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg: Life, which you so nobly serve, comes from destruction, disorder and chaos. Take this empty glass. Here it is, peaceful, serene and boring. But if it is... [pushes glass off table] Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg: destroyed... Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg: [robot cleaners move to clean broken glass] Look at all these little things. So busy now. Notice how each one is useful. What a lovely ballet ensues so full of form and color. Now, think about all those people that created them. Technicians, engineers, hundreds of people who'll be able to feed their children tonight so those children can grow up big and strong and have little teeny weeny children of their own, and so on and so forth. Thus, adding to the great chain... of life. Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg: [Desk prepares a glass of water and a bowl of fruit] You see, Father, by creating a little destruction, I'm actually encouraging life. In reality, you and I are in the same business. Cheers. [drinks water with cherry, only to choke on cherry stuck in throat. Zorg frantically presses all buttons on his desk in an attempt to get something to clear his throat]
"The state legislature obviously would have included instant messages in the statute if they'd thought about it at the time, especially if they thought that someone would later try to use that as a loophole to escape conviction."
You cannot make that assumption. Maybe they would have included IM and then again maybe they would not have. The point is that the same faulty reasoning could be applied to any other law and then the next thing you know, judges are writing law rather than the legislature. Oh, wait....
A judge's job is to interpret what IS present in the law, not to interpret what is NOT present.
"But it's hard to argue with the fact that the law as written was limited to e-mail, and did not cover the instant messages that Simmons sent."
It's not hard. It is impossible. If the legistature intended the statue to include IM, then they need to go back and amend it.
I think that you are slightly mistaken. An event like a plane blowing up is going to hit the headlines of -every- major media in the world.
The devil (pardon the pun) is in the details. History has shown that it is possible take seemingly disparate and disjointed pieces of information for many sources and put them together to form a surprisingly accurate picture of something (group, event, etc.).
The German Enigma machine and the fight against German U-boats in WWII is one such example.
>I imagine that this AI is simply an attempt to cut delays down from hours to minutes. True, AI does allow for this. Automation also allows for more raw data to be processed and, if done right, allows for more suble links to be established between different pieces of information.
The fact that this is going to be done (at least the first cut) via an AI tool vs. an actual trained intelligence analyst changes nothing.
Consider this. Suppose that there are indications published in various foreign news media, that collectively, indicate a possible upcoming terrorist event. US Intelligence services fail to identify or predict the event. Subsequently, an actual terrorist event as described in those open source media sources happens in the US. How would the US public react when they find out that their government failed to predict and prevent the event?
To say they would not be happy is only the beginning.
That's just swell. If you are willing to walk around and be a target for the enemy, then by all means, do so. However, what if -I- am not willing to take that same risk? What if I expect the government, police (domestic locations), US military (foreign locations) to do the job for which I pay them via my taxes and protect me?
Perhaps, you should put a scarlet 'V' (Victim) on your forehead so that the rest of know that we should stay away from you.
Otherwise, allow me to carry a weapon with me at all times and places so that I can protect myself.
Slashdot Mirror
There is a subset of the prisoner population which either doesn't want to return to their coutry of orgin because they believe they will be tortured or that we do not want to send to their country of orgin because those governments will not guarantee they will not be tortured.
If no other country will take these people, then what do you do with them?
...and, unfortunately, I have no useful advice to offer.
I worked tech support at a (then) Fortune 100 pc "assembler" and seller, including as a member of their corporate tech support group. After I took a job on the company's web team, I was laid off, went back to school full time and got a master's in comp sci.
I tried to find a job developing embedded systems, preferably in defense industry. I had / have a security clearance, decent grades, significant work experience... and finally after 18 months, one offer from a small company which I quickly took. Nine months later, they laid off 40% of their engineering department...
I never had anybody figuratively "turn up their nose" at my tech support experience. I think they just looked at it as non-specific work experience, i.e. "could hold a job for extended period of time without getting fired."
Since then, I've found very well paying work that is still in the IT industry, but really isn't what I had hoped to find.
Now I am in my early 40s and prospects of finding the kind of work I was interested in (and still am) are quickly fading.
I am trying to find satisfaction for my itch in personal projects.
I don't know what it is, but there must be something that I have been lacking or failed to show / demonstrate in interviews.
For what it is worth, I wish you well in your search.
I've gone behind my 2006 diesel Jeep Liberty many times when it is running.
There is no visible exhaust.
As far as smell, I try to use B10 whenever possible. The smell is minimal and even then I only notice if it is in an partially enclosed space, like an open garage.
You see to be the one talking out of your ass...
Converting corn to bio-deisel will cause inflation of value.
Corn is not used for the creation of biodiesl. Soybeans is the current primary crop for creation of biodiesel, although other crops can be used. Maybe those other crops are used. I'm not sure and will not claim.
It takes somthing like 600 pounds of corn to create 25 gallons of ethanol, which feeds a fatass American for over 15 months.
What does that have to do with current coversation concerning diesel engines and diesel / biodiesel fuel?
You seem to fail to grasp that ethanol is not the same as biodiesel.
Yeah, real fun and exciting. You do know that we have a shortage of troops, and the fact is "the draft" is a phrase that shall not be spoken. As a result, joining the National Guard today almost guarantees you will do one or more rotations in Iraq/Afghanistan .
As a National Guardsman, I would agree that you can expect to be sent overseas. However, before you can be mobilized, you must be fully trained in your job (MOS), which means completing the associated required schooling. I would guess that by the time that is completed, things will be winding down. This assumes another hot spot doesn't appear, of course.
Yeah, supposedly they're not involved in combat patrols (mostly guard duty), but that doesn't mean the violence can't find them.
I'm not sure what you mean here. Do you mean:
a) national guard units are not involved with combat patrols (not true)
b) a signal officer doing guard duty - typically does not happpen, but could under rare circumstances. I (as a field grade officer) have pulled security shifts during night patrol base halts in Afghanistan, but that was primarly due to manning of my team.
Your end point is absolutely valid. The violence can find you anywhere.
Yeah, real fun and exciting.
I've been doing this for over 21 years, have been mobilized twice, including once to Afghanistan (returned this past spring). There have been many moments of fun and excitement, to include the good kind from successfully accomplishing a challenging task to the non-so fun kind from stuff that happens in a combat zone. I've been a pallbearer for a very good friend and have been at several send-offs of colleagues onto a C-130 for the last flight home. On two ocassions, I (very) briefly wondered if I was going to see the end of that particular mission.
I've found it to be very rewarding at times and very frustrating at other times. I also expect that I will be going somewhere again within 2-3 years.
Having said all of this, I haven't kept up with the details with current age limits, so he may be too old. However, there may be others who are thinking about it.
By the way, if you havent noticed, the most important head did not came back on a stick and has not been severed.
...as far as you and the rest of the world knows.
Q: What would happen it he had been killed && the information was released to the world?
A: Martyr
One small correction to your otherwise excellent post.
They banned speech, music, and every other freedom you can imagine but hey at least there were no drug problems right..
Actually, the Taliban on "reduced" opium production for the purpose of reducing the supply so as to increase the market price. They didn't destroy any "product" that was harvested and stored. Once prices increased, they released it to the world market....
Citation: me. I returned this May after spending a year over there.
> buy me beer/scotch if you want more/better ones.
I would buy you beer/scotch regardless... assuming you are will tolerate the company of an Army artilleryman....
I even promise to bore you with only 1 of my Afghanistan stories for 2 of your Iraq ones...
You didn't say how long you have been back, however... Welcome home.
This story and most of the current comments are flat-out riduclous. If VW and any other manufacturers want to conduct research for future vehicles, then great. Go forward and do great things. Perhaps it will yield benefits in the future. That is the purpose of research.
However, there are vehicles currently available which get outstanding mileage, are simple to construct and maintain, and do not require change to existing infrastructure.
I am not talking about hybrids or hydrogen.
I am talking about current small diesels. Example: A VW diesel Jetta will get better than 50 mpg highway.
Making more small diesels available combined with an increase in biodiesel production would (in addition with other measures) significantly lower US dependence on foreign oil within a few years.
This would include cargo trucks and semi tractor-trailers.
Also, what about mass transit vehicles, such as coach buses, city buses, and school buses?
In your utopian world, will you remove all of these as well?
My point is while your position may seem at first look to be an easy solution, upon closer examination it is completely without merit. Not all large vehicles are "senseless."
It is important to understand that any weapon data is going to be classified, probably at the Top Secret level.
Data that is publicly released is going to altered by making less precise, i.e. if a weapon has a accuracy of x meters, the publicly release information will be 5x or 10x or... etc.
Does that make them stupid or are you a coward?
...encryption.
TrueCrypt or PGPDisk or....
I spent a year of my life mobilized for active duty to guard some of that stuff while contractors (like you) were building a de-mil facility to destroy some of these materials. I can tell you it doesn't take much of this stuff to take out large portions. That is very true, especially under the right conditions. I also want to point out that tactical employment of chemical and biological munitions is not as easy as it might seem. The effects of weather and terrain are very important considerations and can make it very difficult to get the desired results, unless you have an awful lot of it and have a delivery method to put it there.
Last January, I bought a 2006 diesel Jeep Liberty. It is pretty good on fuel economy (20-21 city, 25-26 highway at less than 70 mph). I live in central Iowa and cold weather was not a problem last year. Then again, it was a fairly mild winter... It's also zippy as heck. The motor produces a ton of torque at really low RPMs so it feels a lot faster than it really is, but the feeling makes it a ton of fun to drive. My Jeep is the same. At stop lights, I can leave everybody behind me with very little effort. 295 ft-lbs of torque at 1800 rpm will do that... It sounds cool when its idling. I also love the smell of biodiesel (10%) in the morning.... Now it has 60k miles on it So, you are saying that it is almost broken in, right?
For people who keep their vehicles for more than a few years, diesels are a good value.
I'm among the first to bash the services for huge projects that grow seemingly out of control, especially aircraft and ships, while less glamorous things such as individual soldier equipment gets short shrift. However, these systems are not designed, tested, produced and fielded overnight. Just because we have air supremacy in both of the current combat theaters does -not- mean that we will in future conflicts.
Can anyone imagine the reaction if in a future conflict, US ground soldiers get killed en masse because close air support is unavailable because we cannot maintain at least air parity? The outcry would be an order of magnitude above the body armor / armored HMMWV debate of a couple of years ago.
I live in Iowa and I bought a 2006 Jeep Liberty CRD (i.e. a 2.8L turbocharged diesel) last January.
For comparison, my previous vehicles (olderst to newest) were a 1978 Chevy Camaro, 1987 Nissan Pathfinder, and a 1997 Chevy Tahoe (2 door).
The Liberty CRD is a fantastic city vehicle and a very good highway vehicle. I've crossed over 10k miles and now get about 25 highway at 65 mph. It is rated by Jeep at 25 highway. Above 70 mph, it will start to drop significantly, probably because of its not-so-aerodynamic shape.
While it does get cold here, I never had any problems with starting it. I do have a gargage, so that helps. Now that the US is changing the sulfur content of diesel fuel, we'll be able to get small, diesel powered Euro cars again, and it will be a good thing. A great thing. A friend of mine has a (roughly) 5 year old VW Jetta, and he gets 49 mpg at 70 mph. Better than a hybred, without the hassle of throwing away a bunch of batteries in a handful of years. I've known two people who have had similar experiences with the VW diesels.
I wasn't trying to say that Zorg was right (I believe he is very wrong), and to be fair, you were not claiming that I was. As I initially read the parent to my post, I immediately thought of that scene from the movie and just how f***ed up the whole thing has gotten.
The only good thing about the SCO debacle will be when it ends. (a'la Zorg choking on his cherry)I violently agree.
Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg: Oh, Father, you're so wrong. Let me explain.
[closes office door, places an empty glass on desk]
Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg: Life, which you so nobly serve, comes from destruction, disorder and chaos. Take this empty glass. Here it is, peaceful, serene and boring. But if it is...
[pushes glass off table]
Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg: destroyed...
Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg: [robot cleaners move to clean broken glass] Look at all these little things. So busy now. Notice how each one is useful. What a lovely ballet ensues so full of form and color. Now, think about all those people that created them. Technicians, engineers, hundreds of people who'll be able to feed their children tonight so those children can grow up big and strong and have little teeny weeny children of their own, and so on and so forth. Thus, adding to the great chain... of life.
Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg: [Desk prepares a glass of water and a bowl of fruit] You see, Father, by creating a little destruction, I'm actually encouraging life. In reality, you and I are in the same business. Cheers.
[drinks water with cherry, only to choke on cherry stuck in throat. Zorg frantically presses all buttons on his desk in an attempt to get something to clear his throat]
"The state legislature obviously would have included instant messages in the statute if they'd thought about it at the time, especially if they thought that someone would later try to use that as a loophole to escape conviction."
You cannot make that assumption. Maybe they would have included IM and then again maybe they would not have. The point is that the same faulty reasoning could be applied to any other law and then the next thing you know, judges are writing law rather than the legislature. Oh, wait....
A judge's job is to interpret what IS present in the law, not to interpret what is NOT present.
"But it's hard to argue with the fact that the law as written was limited to e-mail, and did not cover the instant messages that Simmons sent."
It's not hard. It is impossible. If the legistature intended the statue to include IM, then they need to go back and amend it.
Very well stated. Mod parent up.
You claim to be a genius, right?
Then figure it out...
I think that you are slightly mistaken. An event like a plane blowing up is going to hit the headlines of -every- major media in the world.
The devil (pardon the pun) is in the details. History has shown that it is possible take seemingly disparate and disjointed pieces of information for many sources and put them together to form a surprisingly accurate picture of something (group, event, etc.).
The German Enigma machine and the fight against German U-boats in WWII is one such example.
>I imagine that this AI is simply an attempt to cut delays down from hours to minutes.
True, AI does allow for this. Automation also allows for more raw data to be processed and, if done right, allows for more suble links to be established between different pieces of information.
Very well stated.
The fact that this is going to be done (at least the first cut) via an AI tool vs. an actual trained intelligence analyst changes nothing.
Consider this. Suppose that there are indications published in various foreign news media, that collectively, indicate a possible upcoming terrorist event. US Intelligence services fail to identify or predict the event. Subsequently, an actual terrorist event as described in those open source media sources happens in the US. How would the US public react when they find out that their government failed to predict and prevent the event?
To say they would not be happy is only the beginning.
That's just swell. If you are willing to walk around and be a target for the enemy, then by all means, do so.
However, what if -I- am not willing to take that same risk? What if I expect the government, police (domestic locations), US military (foreign locations) to do the job for which I pay them via my taxes and protect me?
Perhaps, you should put a scarlet 'V' (Victim) on your forehead so that the rest of know that we should stay away from you.
Otherwise, allow me to carry a weapon with me at all times and places so that I can protect myself.