Possible methods to resolve question:
(a) send robot submersible with video camera down the methane plume to see what is happening on the ocean floor (i.e. seeing is believing). Is it cold & dark or warm and glowing red?
(b) audit regional distribution of frozen methane on arctic ocean floor, plotting location/concentration relative to undersea arctic ocean volcanoes and hot-water vents
(c) place sensors on ocean floor to measure temperature & pressure
Many people would look foolish if it later turned out the frozen methane was melting due to localized heating of the seabed caused by magma (lava) flows and/or geysers spewing hot water as happens along various undersea ridges
Partial FICTION - "We acted in concord with NATO, the UN, and our allies, and we got the job done without alienated every other country in the world."
There are no UN Resolutions explicitly authorizing either US or NATO military action in the former Yugoslovia as there were with the recent Iraq War (key phrase "serious consequences" - diplo-doubletalk for WAR)
23 Sept. 1998: UN Security Council Resolution 1199 does not authorize military action... the Iraq War phrase "serious consequences" is missing
24 Mar. 1999: The Kosovo air war begins.
Three-months elapse
10 Jun. 1999: After NATO's unilateral not authorized by the UN attack of Serbia, the UN kinda gets around to authorizing what has already happened as things are winding down dead UN link... alternate link
TRUTH - "We have had no combat fatalities in Kosovo. We are done and the war is over. Service people have died, but not because of enemy combatants and insurgents"
Having never deployed any ground troops to the combat zone there were no US combat deaths.
partial FICTION - "Clinton never lied to the American people, and never relied on cooked up intelligence to sell the war. We went in to stop genocide and get rid of the bad guy. We did just that."
If "Bush Lied" on Iraq then so did these characters, Clinton included. Rather funny to see what Clinton & Co said about Iraq & Saddam. Reads identical to what Bush2 was saying.
I will not dwell upon the domestic aspects of Clinton lying or otherwise although "[Clinton] admitted that he had made false statements under oath [lying] about his relationship with the former White House intern [in the context of a sexual harassment lawsuit] and surrendered his law license for five years" CBS News
I am an engineering washout. I left a chemical engineering major in shame and disgust to pursue the softer pleasures of a liberal arts education. No, do not pity me, gentle reader; do not assuage your horror and dismay at my degradation by flinging a filthy quarter into my shiny tin cup. Instead, hear my story, and learn why the United States lacks engineers....[continued]
My generalization is that most Professors/Instructors/TAs neither want to teach nor want to learn how to teach even though their primary occupation is teaching. Consequently the USA will continue to have issues churning out science & engineering graduates.
Recommendations based on memories twenty-years ago:
+ Professors/Instructors/TAs should watch a video tapes of themselves giving lectures or providing assistance during office hours
+ Professors/Instructors/TAs office-hours should occur at reasonable science & engineering times (e.g. immediately after class & late in the evening)
+ Professors/Instructors/TAs should verify that the curriculum at 'SmartyPantsU' is self-consistent. For example, does 2nd year calc really assist with 3rd year electro-dynamics and why the one year gap between learning the subject matter (vector calc) and applying the subject matter (E&M vector calc)?
+ Professors/Instructors/TAs should be engaged in small-lab research that can actively utilize the services of undergrads
+ Continued employment of Professors/Instructors/TAs to include metrics (1) post graduation surveys of alumni at one-year, five-year, ten-year points (2) subject matter GRE scores of graduates (3) end-of-course critiques (4) ???
FWIW, the Michael Yon Blog has many dispatches from Iraq describing his embedded life with the US Army 1-24th infantry regiment in Mosul. Suprisingly, the picture in Iraq appears much more positive and brighter out amongst the grunts fighting & dying than it does amongst the MSM 'journalists' cowering in the bar of the Baghdad InterContinental Hotel
How do you "hack" the terrorist mind? The 1-24th infantry regiment created 'social engineering' traps (honeypots?) for terrorists and terrorist snipers. For example a fake IED explosion with fake US casualties and a scrap US Army vehicle created a lure for both the terrorists and the media stringers...
The Deuce Four soldiers left quickly with the "casualties," "abandoning" the burning truck in the traffic circle. The enemy took the bait. Terrorists came out and started with the AK-rifle-monkey-pump, shooting into the truck, their own video crews capturing the moment of glory. That's when the American snipers opened fire and killed everybody with a weapon. Until now, only insiders knew about the AK-monkey-pumpers smack-down.
For more insight into the technologies being used by the military today, read the following frontline blogs to provide the perspective of why the DOD is funding a bunch of different technologies:
but not even the most strident liberal has accused Bush of directly causing Katrina.
Not exactly... technical professionals may be familiar with the phrase "data talks and bullshit walks." Here is some data contradicting your claim that "not even the most strident liberal has accused Bush of directly causing Katrina"
Some social perspective on New Orleans over at City Journal... perhaps America's "Almost Third World" City got whacked and we are watching Somila occur???
The truth is that even on a normal day, New Orleans is a sad city. Sure, tourists think New Orleans is fun: you can drink and hop from strip club to strip club all night on Bourbon Street, and gamble all your money away at Harrah's.
But the city's decline over the past three decades has left it impoverished and lacking the resources to build its economy from within. New Orleans can't take care of itself even when it is not 80 percent underwater; what is it going to do now, as waters continue to cripple it, and thousands of looters systematically destroy what Katrina left unscathed?
A city blessed with robust, professional police and fire forces, with capable government leaders, an informed citizenry, and a relatively resilient economy can overcome catastrophe, but it doesn't emerge stronger: look at New York after 9/11. The richest big city in the country in more ways than one mustered every ounce of energy to clean up after 9/11 and to rebuild its economy and its downtown--but even so, competing special interests overcame citizens' and officials' best intentions. Ground Zero remains a hole, and New York, for all its resources, finds itself diminished, physically and economically, four years on.
In New Orleans, the recovery will be much, much harder. The city's government has long suffered from incompetence and corruption. Just weeks before Katrina, federal officials indicted associates of the former mayor, Marc Morial, for alleged kickbacks and contract fraud. Morial did nothing to attract diversified private investment to his impoverished city during the greatest economic boom of the modern era.
Perhaps the SlashDot staff will board the ClueTrain. They are about to get left in the waste effluent of the blogosphere
You and I are not the first to have "submitted" (mother may I please have my story posted) a story to the SlashDot community only to have it rejected then posted several days/weeks later
Better to go elsewhere for technology/society blogging & discussion. SlashDot is becoming "like totally nineties"
An obscure blog describes the hurricane's impact on YOU in Anywhere USA before the hurrican ever made landfall:
Most people have never heard of Port Fourchon, but it
is the nation's premiere oil and gas support services
facility--and right now it lies within 12 miles of
Hurricane Katrina's CAT-3 or CAT-4 bullseye. Over 600
platforms and 75% of the Gulf's deepwater projects lie
within a 40-mile radius of Port Fourchon.
Unfortunately, Port Fourchon is a Louisiana island. An
island that is connected to the mainland by a single
two lane bridge...an old, single two lane bridge. This
bridge is the only means of getting cargo and supplies
to the Port. More than 1,000 cargo trucks go across
this bridge each day, delivering materials to the Port
for Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) drilling rigs. If
there's no bridge, there're no drilling parts and
supplies.
Perhaps this all means we can look forward to the next MikeMoore film proving that the "Bush Hitler Haliburton Rove Puppet Yale C Student Same As John Kerry" caused the hurricane.
Are you refering to the Brazilian Electrician who news reports indicated had
1) an expired student visa
2) a fake permanent visa stamp in his passport
3) ran from plain clothes police onto a train in a city where trains had recently been bombed instead of say into a nearby shop, pub or other establishment
If so then I nominate him for a Darwin Award
"U.S. intelligence agencies have identified at least 22 Islamic terrorists who are believed to be operating in the so-called tri-border area of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay." From the Inside the Ring Column published on August 23, 2002 (three-years ago)
OK, I've been giving some thought, and I think I've got a handle on The Root Causes of Terrorism. Just why do people turn to terrorism to achieve their goals?
1) It's simple. It has an ease and ready accessibility that essentially any group, of any size, can pull off a "terrorist" attack with very limited resources.
2) It's flashy. Terrorism is "the new coolness." It gets a lot of attention, very quickly.
3) It's empowering. The one element that all terrorist groups have, at the start, is far more passion than power. They care a great deal about their cause, but they simply can't get anything done through more legitimate means. So they start getting violent, to increase their profile and extend their power.
4) It's deniable. If a government wants something done, but doesn't want to risk the backlash of doing it openly themselves, they can try to get some "terrorists" to do it for them. This way, they can stand back and say "tsk, tsk" when something bad happens that benefits them.
5) It's cheap. Modern weapons and training cost far, far more than an average individual or group can afford. But bomb belts probably cost less than a couple of hundred dollars to make. Tim McVeigh and Terry Nichols put together the Oklahoma City truck bomb on their average salaries.
6) It's tough to fight. A long time ago, a bunch of countries laid out a set of rules for warfare. These rules were designed to, among other things, minimize the number of civilians killed in war. In exchange for some serious restrictions on what combatants could do, large groups of people, institutions, and buildings were declared "off limits." The terrorists systematically look at those restrictions and use them as guidelines for how to best attack our forces.
Many people look at the terrorist attacks [in the civilized world] and wonder why it's happening. I look at the above and wonder why there haven't been more.
told me things I did not know (e.g. Kerry did NOT release all his Naval records, recalling the Form SF-180 issue)
provided supporting documentation to back up what they were saying (e.g. Kerry's own statements to the Senate while he was a Senator, recalling the "Christmas in Cambodia" issue)
demonstrated the power of the internet to short-circuit the Main Stream Media "memory-hole" (e.g. kinda hard to shutdown a message that is available via C-SPAN archives, particularly the Kerry vs O'Neill Debate on the Dick Cavett Show)
Hope my explaination helps.
BTW, when you fall asleep tonight or tomorrow, remember that
"We sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm"
- George Orwell (attributed)
You glorify chickenhawks like Bush, Cheney, et al., mock the heroism of your opponents like Kerry (and even turn on your own, like McCain, when they challenge the Master Plan),
Mocking the Heroism of Kerry (Part 2)... view all five Swift Vet mini-documentaries
Turning on your own, like McCain, when they challenge the Master Plan... read these two letters addressed to Senator McCain one and two written by veterans turning on McCain because McCain deserved and deserves it
"Nothing in the official record, or in the recollections of those on Kerry's boat, supported their version of the story,"
WRONG
First, IANAL but I link to a lawyer's blog below.
Second I am a Navy Veteran (FTN & PAPERCLIP awards) whose skin crawled when Kerry gave his lifer "reporting for duty salute"... something is not right with this dude... thank you SwiftVets and POWS for Truth for confirming my gut feelings as a Navy Veteran about Kerry
BULLET POINTS: Kerry Lies -vs- SwiftVets Factual Data
why no Kerry libel/slander suit? Because Kerry has no grounds to sue - everything SwiftVets has said/published about Kerry is TRUE. Kerry is terrified of the discovery process that would occur during such a trial... Kerry's full and complete military service record (except medical records) would be released to the general public.
Swift Vets & POW For Truth have ALL their Tar Babyducks in a row... they were and are ready to go to court.
There is a book Unfit For Command referencing:
(1) Kerry's own authorized biography
(2) limited official Navy Records
(3) the Congressional Record
(4) sworn affidavits signed by people who served with Kerry in Vietnam ... documenting Kerry's exaggerations, distortions, and lies regarding his Vietnam-era SwiftBoat naval service and his postwar activities with the enemy
There are now five (5) mini-documentaries, explaining the minutia of the various Kerry combat engagements. Animations, maps and eye-witness voice overs are utilized. These are very useful for explaining to non-Navy types the ins&outs of what was going on during various SwiftBoat naval engagements. Basically Kerry was/is a serial exagerater who "lied while good men died"
please note John Kerry NOT released his naval records to the general public via a signed SF-180. What was published on the Kerry website was a subset of his official records.
CONFIRMED BY WASHINGTON POST
Although Kerry campaign officials insist that they have published Kerry's full military records on their Web site (with the exception of medical records shown briefly to reporters earlier this year), they have not permitted independent access to his original Navy records. A Freedom of Information Act request by The Post for Kerry's records produced six pages of information. A spokesman for the Navy Personnel Command, Mike McClellan, said he was not authorized to release the full file, which consists of at least a hundred pages.From the Washington Post article Swift Boat Accounts Incomplete: Critics Fail to Disprove Kerry's Version of Vietnam War Episode by By Michael Dobbs, Washington Post Staff Writer, Sunday, August 22, 2004; Page A01
There is a photograph showing Kerry with 19 of his fellow Swift boat OICs (Officers In Charge) in Coastal Division 11. Only three of Kerry's 23 fellow OICs from Coastal Division 11 support Kerry... why so few support Kerry... maybe Kerry has a problem? Perhaps we should pay some attention to these OICs who do not support Kerry? Maybe they kno
Right under the nose of the Slashdot Editors the really BIG story broke on the blogosphere back in August (SwiftVets) and many (e.g. Slashdot readers and the few $ub$criber$) were completely detached from the discussion of the long-term implications.
The more stereotypical SlashDot discussions at the time were about "BusHitler", raTHer (grin) than an informed discussion about the long-term impact of the internet on society.
From the Belmont Club blog...
The undercard in the Kerry vs Swiftvets bout is Mainstream Media vs Kid Internet, two distinctly different fights, but both over information. The first is really the struggle over the way Vietnam will be remembered by posterity;....
But the undercard holds a fascination of its own. The reigning champion, the Mainstream Media, has been forced against all odds to accept the challenge of an upstart over the coverage of the Swiftvets controversy. Joe Strupp at Editor and Publisher writes:
"There are too many places for people to get information," O'Shea said. "
I don't think newspapers can be the gatekeepers anymore -- to say this is wrong and we will ignore it. Now we have to say this is wrong, and here is why."
The article is a candid and unconscious description of the actual
nature of news. It is not just raw information or pixels pushed onto a
screen, but a system of semantic entities: an series of information
objects, containing properties and methods containing embedded logic,
set loose on society. The
power of the Mainstream Media lay in the fact that they controlled the
generation of news objects; how they arose, what they did, how they ran
their course. They were the news object foundry; able to make them
"type safe"; define what they could do, and what they could not. And
that power was enormous
Yet for good or ill, the genie is out of the bottle. Before the
Gutenberg printing press men knew the contents of the Bible solely
through the prism of the professional clergy, who could alone afford
the expensively hand copied books and who exclusively interpreted it.
But when technology made books widely available, men could read the
sacred texts for themselves and form their own opinions. And the world
was never the same again.
There is also the iFilm website with several political homebrew short films
Fellowship 9/11 (Runtime: 14:49)
Michael Moore's searing examination of the Aragorn administration's actions in the wake of the tragic events at Helms Deep.
With his characteristic humor and dogged commitment to uncovering - or if necessary fabricating - the facts, Moore considers the reign of the son of Arathorn and where it has led us.
He looks at how - and why - Aragorn and his inner circle avoided pursuing the Saruman connection to Helms Deep, despite the fact that 9 out of every 10 Orcs that attacked the castle were actually Uruk-hai who were spawned in and financed by Isengard.
If only Milosovich (still on trial for "war crimes" - year 5 or so;-) had been bribing Chirac's friends then the Yugoslavian genocide could have continued.
Dramatic new details of France's secret dealings with Saddam Hussein's regime have emerged as part of a fresh corruption investigation into alleged illicit oil deals.
[snip][snip][snip]
The disclosure will embarrass President Jacques Chirac as it follows on from claims last week by the Iraq Survey Group that Saddam indirectly paid French politicians and individuals to gain support for lifting UN sanctions and influencing French policy. The ISG's claims were dismissed by Chirac as politically motivated.
[snip][snip][snip]
Patrick Maugein, whom the Iraqis considered a conduit to Chirac, is also accused of receiving oil through a Dutch-registered company. The report claims a 1992 Iraqi intelligence service report said Iraq had paid the French Socialist party $1m in 1988.
From a recent MSNBC column [Cliff Notes review - prior to reading the source document]:
The weapons of mass destruction case is a bit more, um, nuanced than a lot of the press treatment makes it sound, of course. No weapons have been found, but the Iraq Survey Group's
report makes clear that Saddam wanted to outwait sanctions and then start making the [WMD] weapons again:
The ISG, who confirmed last autumn that they had found no WMD, last night presented detailed findings from interviews with Iraqi officials and documents laying out his plans to bribe foreign businessmen and politicians.
Although they found no evidence that Saddam had made any WMD since 1992, they found documents which showed the "guiding theme" of his regime was to be able to start making [WMD] again with as short a lead time as possible."
But hey, Kerry voted for the war, so his arguments on that topic boil down to either:
Bush lied, and I'm [Kerry is] gullible
Bush and I both got fooled [Kerry got fooled just like Bush], but I'll do better next time.
Neither is [a] very compelling [argument by Kerry].
Sure glad people like ourselves are well informed, taking the time to read the original source documents
Last month, John Kerry lauded "Lambert Field" during a visit to Wisconsin. He has yet to acknowledge Lambeau Field, the historic home of the Green Bay Packers.
John Kerry also praised the Ohio State Buckeyes football team--during a visit to Michigan.
In the first debate, John Kerry promised the American people he'd keep his eye on the ball. In the first presidential debate, John Kerry said, "As president, I'll never take my eye off that ball. " Football Fans for Truth has collected reams of evidence casting doubt on his ability to do so.
QUESTION: Is there an equivalent "spoof" website for Bush? Perhaps a speech impediment website?
You don't lead a country to preemptive war on that thin a premise,
On one "thin premise"... NO... one would not lead "a coalition of the willing" into war on one "thin premise"... not with standing Saddam having actually used WMD twice before against the Iranians and Kurds... BTW, please do not cheapen their painful WMD deaths by calling those two Saddam WMD use events "thin evidence" of Saddam's capacity both to construct and to use WMDs
However, combining a "thick premise" (i.e. actual use of WMD twice before) with twenty-two (22) additional "thick premises" one could and should lead "an international coalition of the willing" into war... in other words, twenty-three "thick premises" for why we went to war with an "international coalition of the willing"
"Incidentally, Iran actually HAS a nuclear program. Why did we not invade them?"
We have not yet invaded Iran because
Iran has not yet violated twelve (12) "UN Security Council Resolutions (i.e. Resolutions 660, 661, 662, 664, 665, 666, 667, 669, 670, 674, and 677)" over the course of twelve (12) years.
Hopefully you will agree that a nation (e.g. Saddam's Iraq) that repeatably violates twelve UN Security Council Resolutions over the course of twelve-years is engaging in "Darwin Award" behavior
Furthermore, we have not yet invaded Iran because democratic forces (e.g. students) are actively working inside Iran to change the theocratic political system in Iran... you are informed of current events? You do chat up the international students and immigrants from the region?
Why invade when covert CIA support to the Iranian Opposition might change things?... see also Azar Nafisi's "Reading Lolita in Tehran"
If John Kerry does not rush us into war (grin) with Iran then things might turn out alright in Iran
Unfortunately, Saddam's Iraq was too much of a police state for such opposition forces to exist inside Iraq. Some examples of how Saddam's Iraq controlled dissent... video clip illustrate the difference between Saddam's Iraq and Iran
Oh, but apparently I'm wrong: according to you, everybody and his brother read the thing.
You are onto something if you step further back from the issue 'de jour' (sic)... basically the MainStreamMedia (
MSM) does a very poor job keeping the public informed... hence the explosion of blogs by subject matter experts.
Read the about the Mainstream Media vs Kid Internet "battle in the clouds" happening in the background of the current political campaign... this is an Alvin Toffler event.
"... but that document isn't how the war was sold to the American people and you know it."
Wrong... I would link to additional documents but you would just poo-poo those too
The war was sold on the grounds that the smoking gun for Iraq's WMD could "come in the form of a mushroom cloud"
Hopefully you will not disagree that Saddam had a history (smoking guns... qty 2) of using WMD (i.e. chemical weapons) against the Kurds (#1) & Iranians (#2)... see quantity 2. Thus it might (just might) be logical to conclude that he might be doing some nuclear stuff... of course Mao said "
The atomic bomb is a paper tiger"... I doubt Saddam reads Mao. Do you?
you'd have a point, but he didn't and you don't
I have many points... everyone has a point or two... the real point you might be making (if I may be so bold as to put words on your monitor) is that "you disagree with my points"
the resolution doesn't count, Joe Citizen doesn't read those (and neither to most of our esteemed congressional representatives, I'd wager).
Wrong again... if you watch C-SPAN more frequently then you might self-discover this also... it is very interesting watching and occaisionally screaming at the Congressional hearings on CSPAN. Likewise listening to the viewer call-ins & shout-outs. BTW, why would C-SPAN provide links to the documents if "Joe Citizen" does not read them
Sad that you can lead a horse (script kiddie?) to water but can't even ask them to drink (read?)
This link will take you to the twenty-three (23) "reasons [paragraphs] for the Iraq war"... not that the truth would ever get in the way of a good SlashDot "script kiddie swarm";-);-);-)
Here's one of the twenty-three (23) reasons we went to war:
true aim at the outset had been to help the Iraqi people???
Whereas in December 1991,Congress expressed its sense that it ''supports the use of all necessary means to achieve the goals of United Nations Security Council Resolution 687 as being consistent with the Authorization of Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution Public Law 102 -1),''that Iraq 's [Saddam's] repression of its civilian population violates United Nations Security Council Resolution 688 and "constitutes a continuing threat to the peace,security,and stability of the Persian Gulf region," and that Congress, "supports the use of all necessary means [war???] to achieve the goals of United Nations Security Council Resolution 688";
If you have time then you might also read yet another one of the twenty-three (23) reasons we went to war:
Enforcing UN Security Council Resolutions???
Whereas Congress in the Authorization of Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution (Public Law 102-1) has authorized the President "to use United States Armed Forces [war???] pursuant to United Nations Security Council Resolution 678 (1990) in order to achieve implementation of Security Council Resolutions 660, 661, 662, 664, 665, 666, 667, 669, 670, 674, and 677";
Slashdot Mirror
Sampling of such articles here:
(1) "Fire Under Arctic Ice: Volcanoes Have Been Blowing Their Tops In The Deep Ocean" http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080625140649.htm
(2) "Arctic ocean volcano blew its top â" even under pressure" http://environment.newscientist.com/article/mg19826625.800
(3) "Arctic Volcanoes Found Active at Unprecedented Depths" http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/06/080626-arctic-volcano.html
Possible methods to resolve question:
(a) send robot submersible with video camera down the methane plume to see what is happening on the ocean floor (i.e. seeing is believing). Is it cold & dark or warm and glowing red?
(b) audit regional distribution of frozen methane on arctic ocean floor, plotting location/concentration relative to undersea arctic ocean volcanoes and hot-water vents
(c) place sensors on ocean floor to measure temperature & pressure
Many people would look foolish if it later turned out the frozen methane was melting due to localized heating of the seabed caused by magma (lava) flows and/or geysers spewing hot water as happens along various undersea ridges
There are no UN Resolutions explicitly authorizing either US or NATO military action in the former Yugoslovia as there were with the recent Iraq War (key phrase "serious consequences" - diplo-doubletalk for WAR)
23 Sept. 1998: UN Security Council Resolution 1199 does not authorize military action ... the Iraq War phrase "serious consequences" is missing
24 Mar. 1999: The Kosovo air war begins.
Three-months elapse
10 Jun. 1999: After NATO's unilateral not authorized by the UN attack of Serbia, the UN kinda gets around to authorizing what has already happened as things are winding down dead UN link ... alternate link
20 Jun. 1999: The Kosovo air war ends
FICTION - "We are *done* in Kosovo." Visit the US Army Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo *today* as in like *not* done
TRUTH - "We have had no combat fatalities in Kosovo. We are done and the war is over. Service people have died, but not because of enemy combatants and insurgents"
Having never deployed any ground troops to the combat zone there were no US combat deaths.
partial FICTION - "Clinton never lied to the American people, and never relied on cooked up intelligence to sell the war. We went in to stop genocide and get rid of the bad guy. We did just that."
If "Bush Lied" on Iraq then so did these characters, Clinton included. Rather funny to see what Clinton & Co said about Iraq & Saddam. Reads identical to what Bush2 was saying.
I will not dwell upon the domestic aspects of Clinton lying or otherwise although "[Clinton] admitted that he had made false statements under oath [lying] about his relationship with the former White House intern [in the context of a sexual harassment lawsuit] and surrendered his law license for five years" CBS News
"Confessions of an Engineering Washout" by Douglas Kern
My generalization is that most Professors/Instructors/TAs neither want to teach nor want to learn how to teach even though their primary occupation is teaching. Consequently the USA will continue to have issues churning out science & engineering graduates.Recommendations based on memories twenty-years ago:
+ Professors/Instructors/TAs should watch a video tapes of themselves giving lectures or providing assistance during office hours
+ Professors/Instructors/TAs office-hours should occur at reasonable science & engineering times (e.g. immediately after class & late in the evening)
+ Professors/Instructors/TAs should verify that the curriculum at 'SmartyPantsU' is self-consistent. For example, does 2nd year calc really assist with 3rd year electro-dynamics and why the one year gap between learning the subject matter (vector calc) and applying the subject matter (E&M vector calc)?
+ Professors/Instructors/TAs should be engaged in small-lab research that can actively utilize the services of undergrads
+ Continued employment of Professors/Instructors/TAs to include metrics (1) post graduation surveys of alumni at one-year, five-year, ten-year points (2) subject matter GRE scores of graduates (3) end-of-course critiques (4) ???
+ Eliminate Tenure???
Anyway, there are several dispatches about snipers, UAVs, counter battery radar, ....
How do you "hack" the terrorist mind? The 1-24th infantry regiment created 'social engineering' traps (honeypots?) for terrorists and terrorist snipers. For example a fake IED explosion with fake US casualties and a scrap US Army vehicle created a lure for both the terrorists and the media stringers ...
For more insight into the technologies being used by the military today, read the following frontline blogs to provide the perspective of why the DOD is funding a bunch of different technologies:Mike Yon's "Ground Truth" dispatches
MilBloggers
Belmont Club's - a 30,000-foot view of what is going on
Armor Geddon - a John's Hopkins neuroscience grad (?) who gave it all up to drive tanks and blow stuff up - cool video also
Blackfive - a freak who enjoys jumping out of planes
countless others; although Hugh Hewitt gives a decent review of such here
Not exactly ... technical professionals may be familiar with the phrase "data talks and bullshit walks." Here is some data contradicting your claim that "not even the most strident liberal has accused Bush of directly causing Katrina"
Hurricane exploitation - the quotes
Katrina and Disgusting Exploitation
Threads galore over at the "KosKiddie" website
BTW, here's a neat book about the last USA Regional Disaster Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and how it changed America
You and I are not the first to have "submitted" (mother may I please have my story posted) a story to the SlashDot community only to have it rejected then posted several days/weeks later
Better to go elsewhere for technology/society blogging & discussion. SlashDot is becoming "like totally nineties"
Some historical background - "everyone" knew the hurricane with New Orleans written on it was coming:
October 2004 National Geographic Article about New Orleans getting whacked ... btw this site has been Drudged as opposed to Slashdot'd
October 2001 Scientific American article about New Orleans getting whacked
Informed discussion over at Belmont Club Blog
An obscure blog describes the hurricane's impact on YOU in Anywhere USA before the hurrican ever made landfall:
Perhaps this all means we can look forward to the next MikeMoore film proving that the "Bush Hitler Haliburton Rove Puppet Yale C Student Same As John Kerry" caused the hurricane.--
"We sleep soundly in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm."
- George Orwell (?)
"The Anarchist Cookbook" book reviews seem to contradict your review
1) an expired student visa
2) a fake permanent visa stamp in his passport
3) ran from plain clothes police onto a train in a city where trains had recently been bombed instead of say into a nearby shop, pub or other establishment
If so then I nominate him for a Darwin Award
"U.S. intelligence agencies have identified at least 22 Islamic terrorists who are believed to be operating in the so-called tri-border area of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay." From the Inside the Ring Column published on August 23, 2002 (three-years ago)
How many more coincidences will turn up?
The root causes of terrorism
OK, I've been giving some thought, and I think I've got a handle on The Root Causes of Terrorism. Just why do people turn to terrorism to achieve their goals?
1) It's simple. It has an ease and ready accessibility that essentially any group, of any size, can pull off a "terrorist" attack with very limited resources.
2) It's flashy. Terrorism is "the new coolness." It gets a lot of attention, very quickly.
3) It's empowering. The one element that all terrorist groups have, at the start, is far more passion than power. They care a great deal about their cause, but they simply can't get anything done through more legitimate means. So they start getting violent, to increase their profile and extend their power.
4) It's deniable. If a government wants something done, but doesn't want to risk the backlash of doing it openly themselves, they can try to get some "terrorists" to do it for them. This way, they can stand back and say "tsk, tsk" when something bad happens that benefits them.
5) It's cheap. Modern weapons and training cost far, far more than an average individual or group can afford. But bomb belts probably cost less than a couple of hundred dollars to make. Tim McVeigh and Terry Nichols put together the Oklahoma City truck bomb on their average salaries.
6) It's tough to fight. A long time ago, a bunch of countries laid out a set of rules for warfare. These rules were designed to, among other things, minimize the number of civilians killed in war. In exchange for some serious restrictions on what combatants could do, large groups of people, institutions, and buildings were declared "off limits." The terrorists systematically look at those restrictions and use them as guidelines for how to best attack our forces.
Many people look at the terrorist attacks [in the civilized world] and wonder why it's happening. I look at the above and wonder why there haven't been more.
Not sure how you are arriving at that conclusion.
The reality is that instead of the Swift Vets and POWs for Truth telling me what I wanted to hear they actually:
told me things I did not know (e.g. Kerry did NOT release all his Naval records, recalling the Form SF-180 issue)
provided supporting documentation to back up what they were saying (e.g. Kerry's own statements to the Senate while he was a Senator, recalling the "Christmas in Cambodia" issue)
demonstrated the power of the internet to short-circuit the Main Stream Media "memory-hole" (e.g. kinda hard to shutdown a message that is available via C-SPAN archives, particularly the Kerry vs O'Neill Debate on the Dick Cavett Show)
Hope my explaination helps.
BTW, when you fall asleep tonight or tomorrow, remember that
At about time stamp 0:50 of the video from CNN's Wolf Blitzer March 9, 1999 Late Edition/PrimeTime interview with Al Gore you will watch Al Gore claim that he "took the initiative in creating the Internet"
"We sleep soundly in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm."
- George Orwell (?)
Bush as ChickenHawk ... visit the Wingmen For Bush Website
Mocking the Heroism of Kerry (Part 1) ... read the Kerry vs Benedict Arnold essay
Mocking the Heroism of Kerry (Part 2) ... view all five Swift Vet mini-documentaries
Turning on your own, like McCain, when they challenge the Master Plan ... read these two letters addressed to Senator McCain one and two written by veterans turning on McCain because McCain deserved and deserves it
WRONG
First, IANAL but I link to a lawyer's blog below.
Second I am a Navy Veteran (FTN & PAPERCLIP awards) whose skin crawled when Kerry gave his lifer "reporting for duty salute" ... something is not right with this dude ... thank you SwiftVets and POWS for Truth for confirming my gut feelings as a Navy Veteran about Kerry
BULLET POINTS: Kerry Lies -vs- SwiftVets Factual Data
why no Kerry libel/slander suit? Because Kerry has no grounds to sue - everything SwiftVets has said/published about Kerry is TRUE. Kerry is terrified of the discovery process that would occur during such a trial ... Kerry's full and complete military service record (except medical records) would be released to the general public.
Swift Vets & POW For Truth have ALL their Tar Baby ducks in a row ... they were and are ready to go to court.
There is a book Unfit For Command referencing:
... documenting Kerry's exaggerations, distortions, and lies regarding his Vietnam-era SwiftBoat naval service and his postwar activities with the enemy
(1) Kerry's own authorized biography
(2) limited official Navy Records
(3) the Congressional Record
(4) sworn affidavits signed by people who served with Kerry in Vietnam
There are now five (5) mini-documentaries, explaining the minutia of the various Kerry combat engagements. Animations, maps and eye-witness voice overs are utilized. These are very useful for explaining to non-Navy types the ins&outs of what was going on during various SwiftBoat naval engagements. Basically Kerry was/is a serial exagerater who "lied while good men died"
please note John Kerry NOT released his naval records to the general public via a signed SF-180. What was published on the Kerry website was a subset of his official records.
There is a photograph showing Kerry with 19 of his fellow Swift boat OICs (Officers In Charge) in Coastal Division 11. Only three of Kerry's 23 fellow OICs from Coastal Division 11 support Kerry ... why so few support Kerry ... maybe Kerry has a problem? Perhaps we should pay some attention to these OICs who do not support Kerry? Maybe they kno
The PowerLineBlog was chosen by Time Magazine as "Blog of the Year" perhaps in no small part due to PowerLine being a clearing house for Dan RaTHer's education about MS Word vs Typewriters
Perhaps like other less-frequent Slashdot readers, I am puzzled why anyone would want to $ub$cribe to $la$dot ;-);-);-) given that Slashdot continues to miss "BIG" news for nerds, stuff that matters stories like ... Mainstream Media vs Kid Internet and RaTHerGate
Right under the nose of the Slashdot Editors the really BIG story broke on the blogosphere back in August (SwiftVets) and many (e.g. Slashdot readers and the few $ub$criber$) were completely detached from the discussion of the long-term implications.
The more stereotypical SlashDot discussions at the time were about "BusHitler", raTHer (grin) than an informed discussion about the long-term impact of the internet on society.
From the Belmont Club blog ...
The undercard in the Kerry vs Swiftvets bout is Mainstream Media vs Kid Internet, two distinctly different fights, but both over information. The first is really the struggle over the way Vietnam will be remembered by posterity; ....
But the undercard holds a fascination of its own. The reigning champion, the Mainstream Media, has been forced against all odds to accept the challenge of an upstart over the coverage of the Swiftvets controversy. Joe Strupp at Editor and Publisher writes:
The article is a candid and unconscious description of the actual nature of news. It is not just raw information or pixels pushed onto a screen, but a system of semantic entities: an series of information objects, containing properties and methods containing embedded logic, set loose on society. The power of the Mainstream Media lay in the fact that they controlled the generation of news objects; how they arose, what they did, how they ran their course. They were the news object foundry; able to make them "type safe"; define what they could do, and what they could not. And that power was enormousYet for good or ill, the genie is out of the bottle. Before the Gutenberg printing press men knew the contents of the Bible solely through the prism of the professional clergy, who could alone afford the expensively hand copied books and who exclusively interpreted it. But when technology made books widely available, men could read the sacred texts for themselves and form their own opinions. And the world was never the same again.
Fellowship 9/11 (Runtime: 14:49)
The official site is fellowship911.comMore reading ;-);-);-) from the London Observer:
France's Saddam deals revealed by Antony Barnett and Martin Bright on Sunday October 10, 2004
Dramatic new details of France's secret dealings with Saddam Hussein's regime have emerged as part of a fresh corruption investigation into alleged illicit oil deals.
[snip][snip][snip]
The disclosure will embarrass President Jacques Chirac as it follows on from claims last week by the Iraq Survey Group that Saddam indirectly paid French politicians and individuals to gain support for lifting UN sanctions and influencing French policy. The ISG's claims were dismissed by Chirac as politically motivated.
[snip][snip][snip]
Patrick Maugein, whom the Iraqis considered a conduit to Chirac, is also accused of receiving oil through a Dutch-registered company. The report claims a 1992 Iraqi intelligence service report said Iraq had paid the French Socialist party $1m in 1988.
[snip][snip][snip]
From a recent MSNBC column [Cliff Notes review - prior to reading the source document]:
Sure glad people like ourselves are well informed, taking the time to read the original source documentsThe evidence is compelling:
Last month, John Kerry lauded "Lambert Field" during a visit to Wisconsin. He has yet to acknowledge Lambeau Field, the historic home of the Green Bay Packers.
John Kerry also praised the Ohio State Buckeyes football team--during a visit to Michigan.
John Kerry throws a football like a girl.
In the first debate, John Kerry promised the American people he'd keep his eye on the ball. In the first presidential debate, John Kerry said, "As president, I'll never take my eye off that ball. " Football Fans for Truth has collected reams of evidence casting doubt on his ability to do so.
QUESTION: Is there an equivalent "spoof" website for Bush? Perhaps a speech impediment website?
Oh, but apparently I'm wrong: according to you, everybody and his brother read the thing.
Here's one of the twenty-three (23) reasons we went to war:
If you have time then you might also read yet another one of the twenty-three (23) reasons we went to war:
Again if you have timerecall "a coalition of the willing" (grin) made up of NATO Members authorized by NATO (NATO != UN and UN != NATO) went into the former Yugoslovia
sounds like "jury shopping" to me:
international group UN does not authorize this ... try another group
international group XYZ does not authorize this ... try another group
international group PDQ does not authorize this ... try another group
international group ABC does not authorize this ... try another group
international group NAMBLA (grin) has authorized this ... hurray the world is saved
if looks like "jury shopping", smells like "jurry shopping", quacks like "jury shoppping" then it must be "jury shopping"