I dont know what I saw? It may have familiar props and actors in it. But it wasnt star wars.
Please define "Star Wars" in your mind. And be specific about the elements missing from Ep7.
The fact even Finn could defeat a dark Lord of the sith shows how much of a joke it is.
Spoiler Warning....
Did we watch the same movie? I never saw Finn defeat a Sith Lord. I saw Finn LOSE to a partially-trained Jedi apprentice who fell to the Dark Side. And said apprentice defeated Finn even after getting shot with Chewie's bowcaster and running hundreds of meters outside to confront the heroes in the forest.
it's the phrase "ethnically homogenous" that is troubling; japan alone has more than 300 differening ethnic groups
Citation needed. The Japanese government doesn't even track internal ethnic stats: Wiki You'll be hard-pressed to find a Japanese person who identifies as anything other than "Japanese", except maybe Okinawans. I dated a girl in Sapporo who clearly had Ainu ancestry, judging by her facial features. "You're my ainu snow bunny." "I'm not Ainu, I'm Japanese."
Although you didn't list mainland china it's also worth pointing out the not-insignificant minority ethnic groups within its borders.
Mainland China is 91% Han Chinese. Japan is probably closer to 98% Japanese. So what is the statistical cutoff for "homogeneity" for practical discussion purposes? I'd say 90%. If you consistently walk into a room with 9 other people and you are the only one who is different....you're some place homogeneous.
The difference is, when asked to turn over their guns Australians replied "Meh....ok". Why? I dunno. But if your population had responded "No. Just try to take them!".....Australia's size/demographics would absolutely present the same enforcement problems that the US has. A majority of Americans oppose "assault weapon" bans: ZeroHedge
And $10,000 for a handgun? Geez, what an arbitrage opportunity. Someone could run a mobile machine shop out of a cargo container, produce and sell guns for $3,000 and still make a killing (pun intended).
Also, there aren't even that many firearms in Australia, comparatively. ~3 million for a 2000 population of 20million ~= 15%. The US has 7x as many weapons *per capita*.
You make some valid points but it's a shame you spoilt it with "ethnically-homogeneous...Confucian culture". You really should go and do some travelling or at the very least some reading.... your characterisation is profoundly ignorant.
While working on my undergrad I studied Mandarin for two years and picked up a Chinese Studies certificate. I'm an American who has been living in Japan for four years. I've also spent a year in Korea, and just returned from a month in Hanoi. Two weeks in Slovenia (a friend is a Slovenian Army officer) and two weeks in Siberia (way back when I had a Russian girlfriend) for some European exposure too.
So yes....Taiwan/Korea/Japan/Singapore largely conform to East Asian value/social systems, which stem from Confucianism. Go read some Mencius and get back to me. Filial piety runs deep out here.
The overall UK homicide rate is roughly the same now as it was prior to the ban: graph
So a decrease in firearms cannot be conclusively correlated with a decrease in fatalities (firearms fatalities yes, overall fatalities no). Likewise, in the case of the US, we have seen a large increase in the quantity of firearms in America yet overall fatalities and violent crime have been on a consistent decline. graph So firearms and deaths are again not positively correlated.
I'm not informed enough to comment on what social factors enable effective policing by unarmed police in the UK. I know it works here in Japan....which is part of the reason why I live here.
No requirements for storage, no requirements for training, no requirements for mental health, etc..
Storage requirements somewhat negate the utility of the weapon as a last-ditch means of home defense. Of course, if we built better houses in the first place, maybe home invasions wouldn't be so easy and whipping out your shotgun in the dead of the night wouldn't even be necessary. I don't think breaking into my apartment is particularly easy....but I live in a building that is proof against Category 5 hurricanes (we get a Cat5 typhoon about once a year here), which of course affects how the doors and windows are reinforced.
Training and mental health screening are things that I would agree with. I think most "pro-gun" people see training requirements as an infringement of their rights...maybe an alternative is to instead offer MASSIVE tax breaks (like the Earned Income Tax Credit) for those who complete training. So you could still legally own weapons with no training, but you have very little incentive to do so. With the exception of my parents, every firearms owner I know is ex-military or law enforcement, so we are already at least somewhat proficient in basic weapons handling and marksmanship.
GPU drivers. Like OpenGL, but.....modern. An open-source alternative to AMD/NVIDIA/Intel's closed-source proprietary drivers, but should work better than existing open-source solutions.
At least, that's my basic understanding of it. I could be wrong.
None of the countries you list are viable examples of what we can implement for the United States. They are all small, highly-urbanized, ethnically-homogeneous, never had a large civilian proliferation of firearms to begin with, and are based on Confucian culture (with an emphasis on conformity and sacrifice for public order).
The United States is the size of a continent, possesses vast tracks of low-population-density wilderness (very difficult to efficiently patrol/police), ethnically-diverse (which, honestly, is the cause of some of internal divisions/conflicts/paranoia/crime), and with a culture of staunch individuality. We also possess ~300 million firearms, which is, IIRC, more than the rest of the entire PLANET combined.
Do you have any idea how many law enforcement personnel, how many total man-hours it would take, to have even the slightest chance of enforcing a firearms ban? Take a look at the German experience against partisans in the Eastern Theater of WW2. Too much territory to cover with too few people.
1. There have not been "dozens" of attacks at military bases. There's been 1 at an Army base in Texas, and 1 at a recruiting center (where a Navy officer returned fire against the attacker with his personal firearm).
2. While all military personnel receive basic training with firearms, very few have easy access to them. The bulk of the weapons are stored in high-security armories. Even in training environments where you carry weapons 24/7, you don't have access to ammunition. Of course, there's nothing stopping you from buying a bunch of 5.56mm rounds at the local Cabella's....
^This. I read the title and thought "RPi2 + peripherals. This question was answered long ago."
I just don't see the use case for a POS bargin basement full-size *LINUX* desktop. If you were someone playing 10-year old Windows games....maybe.
If you're an asshole, people know it and will remember it. So you make SURE you don't act like an asshole.
Things that nosy small town people consider assholish:
1. Inter-racial relationships. "Ohhh, didn't you know your daughter is dating a gaijin? And a black man at that? You must be so ashamed."
2. Material wealth. "Mr. X is driving a Lexus now. He must think he's better than us. What did he do to get that money anyway, living and working out here? Probably something illegal."
3. Niche music/TV/fashion tastes. "Did you hear that noise Mr. X was playing? He called it 'death metal'. That's the path to the Devil. Keep your kids away from him."
I've lived in small towns and large, both in the US and in Japan. The problem with small towns is they are almost always subject to groupthink of the lowest common denominator. If you are a vanilla human being, sitting close to the 50% percentile of every possible normal distribution, it probably sounds like heaven....But if you are a statistical outlier, a minority in any way (ethnicity/religion/hobbies/sexual preference/whatever), you are at the mercy of the idiots around you. At least in cities you have access to a large enough variety of people that you can form social connections with like-minded individuals. And since they are exposed to different people, the population in general is more willing to mind their own business "Hey, if that's your thing, do what works for you."
I too was attracted by the allure of "approachable" radio communication system design....
I've been working on my Masters thesis involving GNU Radio. I have an RTL-SDR (a Terratec Elonics E4000) and more importantly 2 bladeRF x40 SDRs. Observing/listening/decoding certain transmissions with pre-existing standards is fairly easy. Building a complete digital data transmitter and receiver in GNURadio Companion has a bit of a learning curve. And by "learning curve" I mean "like free climbing the Dawn Wall".
I'm pro-nuclear (generally speaking). I live in Japan.
I don't think turning on a bunch of outdated reactors that sit on one of the most earthquake and tsunami-prone areas of the world is a good idea.
How about replacing the existing reactors with a smaller number of very modern Westinghouse AP1000s? A far better way to spend billions of dollars than the stupid 2020 Tokyo Olympics. I think this is an acceptable medium-range solution until someone demonstrates a commercial 1GW thorium plant.
I primarily use my desktop PC (running Lubuntu) to *ahem* "acquire" media content via torrents or blogs(which link to file storage sites), over my fiber optic connection (Japan, used to Speedtest at 100up/100down, now more like 80/80 on a good day). It's then copied to my USB3 3TB external hard drive (either directly, or over my network if I have the drive plugged into my RPi2). I really need to shuffle my storage around so videos and music are on my 2x4TB drives instead of the 1x3TB.
The RPi2 runs OpenElec/Kodi and pumps HDMI to a 42" AVOL plasma TV with a basic sub + 2 speakers sound system.. I hate this TV, really energy-inefficient but I bought it used, so...whatever...
Books are either read the old-school way or, if electronic, on an iPad Mini. I have a Kindle but it's often loaned out to friends.
LOL, no. Been here 4 years now. Island fever + wanderlust + a general disdain for the indolent "island culture" lifestyle = extreme desire to relocate....preferably to Osaka. A place where you can use public transit if you desire, but can still somewhat-affordably own a performance car. Not to mention more easily mingle with open-minded entrepreneurs, tech types, business people, and other outgoing individuals with actual ambitions.
Your comments mirror my own thoughts. I suspect the bulk of the respondents are in areas with highly effective public transport systems. I live in an area of Japan with both an almost-non-existent public transportation system and a significantly-below-average GDP/capita. You'll meet a surprising number of people who drive kei cars but own flip phones.
Right now I'm visiting Hanoi, where practically the whole city owns and rides scooters. The traffic and road manners here are maddening but I'd still rather have a car than not. At the very least it's an escape from the road noise, humidity, air pollution, weather, etc....
I'm not even that old (32) and also vastly prefer a PC to a smartphone, but I've been using desktops since I was about 7. My 23 year old Japanese girl seems totally comfortable scrolling through blogs on her iPhone, even though I've repeatedly offered my 10" Android tablet for use. "Isn't that uncomfortable? Doesn't it hurt your eyes?" "Daijioubu (it's ok)". Boggles my mind.
If you have a better, and equally cost-effective source of dopamine/serotonin/endorphins and good emotions that doesn't involve addictive narcotics/psychotropic drugs/alcohol/etc.....I'd LOVE to hear it.
Until then, I think I'll stick with piping down females as often as possible. Oh....and eating chocolate.
Driving is not only wasting time, but squandering money.
*Commuting* is a waste of time....driving, for many people, is a passionate hobby.
When I get tired of surfing the 'Net late at night, I go driving. The roads are fairly open since there's no dull worker-drones commuting, allowing you to go for a relaxing cruise, hit some twisties on the hills, or shred your tires drifting (although the noise from the latter tends to attract police attention).
I suspect the bulk of the respondents simply have no idea and no experience with how to actually enjoy an automobile.
I have some connections with amplifying information. I sent a photographer friend to Afghanistan, and he networked with some Afghani grad students I met here in Japan, especially one friend who's family is from Kunduz. Some childhood friends of my Afghani associate were doctors killed in the strike. Word is that Afghani and US Spec Ops troops are retaking Kunduz. EVERYONE knew the hospital was a hospital, it was treating a mix of Afghani security forces, Taliban, and civilians.
As someone who used to work in close air support, I just can't wrap my mind around how such a target could get approved. Places like hospitals are the main reason we have Fire Support Control Measures such as Restrictive Fire Areas and No Fire Areas. Intel pushes sensitive areas to the aviation planners and they get included in the Airspace Control Order or SPINS (Special Instructions). Then they get plotted on all the maps so the air controllers know where to deny requests for Air Support (no you can't drop a bomb there, that's inside grid xxxx). What a cluster-F.....
features some contrived anti-air defense that is somehow not good enough to defeat the F-35s rudimentary stealth but is good enough to be a credible thread to the A-10
Pretty much any late-Cold War SARH (Semi-Active Radar Homing) SAM fits this category. A prolific example would be the 2K12/ SA-6 'Kub'. If the experience bombing Yugoslavia is any indication, some of them will survive SEAD missions. Not a contrived scenario at all. Also applies to any Third-Generation or even early Fourth-Generation fighters doing CAP missions. Sometimes there are Leakers (enemy aircraft that get past friendly air defenses/CAP).
doesn't require the aircraft providing CAS to loiter, expend large amounts of ordinance, use the main gun extensively, fly low/slow or do anything the F-35 sucks at
Loiter time: If you have a permissive air environment with almost-no air threat, which is the sort of scenario where you'll want to use the A-10, then the CAS platforms with the best loiter times are an MQ-9 Reaper and an AC-130 anyway. If you really want a fast jet with loiter time....the F-15E beats both the A-10 and the F-35...and is a better dogfighter too.
Expending large amounts of ordinance: the F-35A and C both have 18,000lbs max payload. The A-10 is 16,000lbs. The F-35B is 15,000lbs. So even if trucking a full bombload was required, this is a wash.
Use the main gun extensively: Of course the A-10's best feature is strafing tank columns with gun rounds, so not much argument there, but that itself is a somewhat contrived scenario. Here's two really good posts on F-16.net about A-10 CAS employment and modernization trends:
http://www.f-16.net/forum/view... http://www.f-16.net/forum/view...
requires the CAS aircraft to sprint around at higher speeds than the A-10 is capable of
Sometimes time-sensitive immediate air support requests (say, for engaging High Value Targets on the move) are required. Blasting the target with a HIMARs fire mission would be even faster, but not a good guarantee of target destruction, especially for something mobile and armored...
reconstitutes the CAS mission to consist of dropping a small amount of ordinance from high altitude with no loiter
This is not a "reconstitution" of the CAS mission. CAS is not restricted to low altitude bombing/strafing runs. It has more to do with battlespace/command & control relationships. While flight behavior of the aircraft can be a limitation, that's very much dependent on aviation platform, the ordnance, and the tactical situation and is not specific to the CAS mission itself. Reference MCWP 3-23 Offensive Air Support Page 2-2: "CAS is air action by fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft against hostile targets that are in close proximity to friendly forces and which require detailed integration of each air mission with the fire and movement of those forces"
As TFS states, all that stuff should be readily available in Linux/Ubuntu. If users complain about the lack of a text editor in all likelihood the training program for transitioning Windows users is mediocre (and the users themselves are stuck in their ways and won't adapt easily). If the systems are being issued to users with no day-to-day office functionality, that's a problem with their IT department dropping the ball setup-wise. That's not a failure of the operating system itself.
I was in Bravo Company in 2008, the largest OCS summer (up to that time). We were in the container barracks out past the PT field, not in the permanent buildings where Charlie company was. The containers had off-white floors. Two platoons to a building, with the squad bays running parallel to each other.
Newsflash: the Army and Marine Corps in particular rarely place people in career fields that match their educational backgrounds/civilian skillsets.
Newly-commissioned Junior Officer: "I have a CS degree! You should put me in a research lab!"
Monitor: "Whatever. I have a quota to meet for Logistics Officers. Go drive convoys in Afghanistan."
^That's closer to the reality of it.
I'm former Army enlisted --> Marine Corps officer, so I've seen this first-hand.
In the past few years I've largely use Eclipse. I tend to write small programs in C, C++, or CUDA C. I like Eclipse because it's free, has easy support for all these languages and others that I expect to use (Python, Java), runs on Debian/Ubuntu/etc., and there's tons of support online.
This get's me thinking........what about having high-altitude turbines, suspended under giant balloons that are anchored to the surface? Instead of harnessing wind power on the ground, harness it at 30,000 ft and run a giant power cable down to a base station. Just make sure you pick an area away from civilian airline routes.
Any major cost/feasibility issues I'm overlooking?
Didn't read TFA but I can assume he neglected one key point:
Most authors pick their class names because they sound cool, not because they feel it accurately describes the tactical/operational role of the ship design in question. Which they probably wouldn't get correct anyway. It's not like these authors commonly employ professional military consultants to harden up the details of their in-universe militaries. And in most cases scrutinizing how a ship should be employed would also lead to scrutinizing the weapons complement/layout/fire arcs/etc.....leading to most "sexy" space warships needing a complete redesign to make any sense. And the creative types don't want fictional space engineering (naval architecture?) intruding on their storytelling.
Slashdot Mirror
I dont know what I saw? It may have familiar props and actors in it. But it wasnt star wars.
Please define "Star Wars" in your mind. And be specific about the elements missing from Ep7.
The fact even Finn could defeat a dark Lord of the sith shows how much of a joke it is.
Spoiler Warning....
Did we watch the same movie? I never saw Finn defeat a Sith Lord. I saw Finn LOSE to a partially-trained Jedi apprentice who fell to the Dark Side. And said apprentice defeated Finn even after getting shot with Chewie's bowcaster and running hundreds of meters outside to confront the heroes in the forest.
it's the phrase "ethnically homogenous" that is troubling; japan alone has more than 300 differening ethnic groups
Citation needed. The Japanese government doesn't even track internal ethnic stats: Wiki You'll be hard-pressed to find a Japanese person who identifies as anything other than "Japanese", except maybe Okinawans. I dated a girl in Sapporo who clearly had Ainu ancestry, judging by her facial features. "You're my ainu snow bunny." "I'm not Ainu, I'm Japanese."
Although you didn't list mainland china it's also worth pointing out the not-insignificant minority ethnic groups within its borders.
Mainland China is 91% Han Chinese. Japan is probably closer to 98% Japanese. So what is the statistical cutoff for "homogeneity" for practical discussion purposes? I'd say 90%. If you consistently walk into a room with 9 other people and you are the only one who is different....you're some place homogeneous.
The difference is, when asked to turn over their guns Australians replied "Meh....ok". Why? I dunno. But if your population had responded "No. Just try to take them!".....Australia's size/demographics would absolutely present the same enforcement problems that the US has. A majority of Americans oppose "assault weapon" bans: ZeroHedge
And $10,000 for a handgun? Geez, what an arbitrage opportunity. Someone could run a mobile machine shop out of a cargo container, produce and sell guns for $3,000 and still make a killing (pun intended).
Also, there aren't even that many firearms in Australia, comparatively. ~3 million for a 2000 population of 20million ~= 15%. The US has 7x as many weapons *per capita*.
You make some valid points but it's a shame you spoilt it with "ethnically-homogeneous...Confucian culture". You really should go and do some travelling or at the very least some reading.... your characterisation is profoundly ignorant.
While working on my undergrad I studied Mandarin for two years and picked up a Chinese Studies certificate. I'm an American who has been living in Japan for four years. I've also spent a year in Korea, and just returned from a month in Hanoi. Two weeks in Slovenia (a friend is a Slovenian Army officer) and two weeks in Siberia (way back when I had a Russian girlfriend) for some European exposure too.
So yes....Taiwan/Korea/Japan/Singapore largely conform to East Asian value/social systems, which stem from Confucianism. Go read some Mencius and get back to me. Filial piety runs deep out here.
Ok. How about the UK then.
The overall UK homicide rate is roughly the same now as it was prior to the ban: graph
So a decrease in firearms cannot be conclusively correlated with a decrease in fatalities (firearms fatalities yes, overall fatalities no). Likewise, in the case of the US, we have seen a large increase in the quantity of firearms in America yet overall fatalities and violent crime have been on a consistent decline. graph So firearms and deaths are again not positively correlated.
I'm not informed enough to comment on what social factors enable effective policing by unarmed police in the UK. I know it works here in Japan....which is part of the reason why I live here.
No requirements for storage, no requirements for training, no requirements for mental health, etc..
Storage requirements somewhat negate the utility of the weapon as a last-ditch means of home defense. Of course, if we built better houses in the first place, maybe home invasions wouldn't be so easy and whipping out your shotgun in the dead of the night wouldn't even be necessary. I don't think breaking into my apartment is particularly easy....but I live in a building that is proof against Category 5 hurricanes (we get a Cat5 typhoon about once a year here), which of course affects how the doors and windows are reinforced.
Training and mental health screening are things that I would agree with. I think most "pro-gun" people see training requirements as an infringement of their rights...maybe an alternative is to instead offer MASSIVE tax breaks (like the Earned Income Tax Credit) for those who complete training. So you could still legally own weapons with no training, but you have very little incentive to do so. With the exception of my parents, every firearms owner I know is ex-military or law enforcement, so we are already at least somewhat proficient in basic weapons handling and marksmanship.
GPU drivers. Like OpenGL, but.....modern. An open-source alternative to AMD/NVIDIA/Intel's closed-source proprietary drivers, but should work better than existing open-source solutions.
At least, that's my basic understanding of it. I could be wrong.
None of the countries you list are viable examples of what we can implement for the United States. They are all small, highly-urbanized, ethnically-homogeneous, never had a large civilian proliferation of firearms to begin with, and are based on Confucian culture (with an emphasis on conformity and sacrifice for public order).
The United States is the size of a continent, possesses vast tracks of low-population-density wilderness (very difficult to efficiently patrol/police), ethnically-diverse (which, honestly, is the cause of some of internal divisions/conflicts/paranoia/crime), and with a culture of staunch individuality. We also possess ~300 million firearms, which is, IIRC, more than the rest of the entire PLANET combined.
Do you have any idea how many law enforcement personnel, how many total man-hours it would take, to have even the slightest chance of enforcing a firearms ban? Take a look at the German experience against partisans in the Eastern Theater of WW2. Too much territory to cover with too few people.
1. There have not been "dozens" of attacks at military bases. There's been 1 at an Army base in Texas, and 1 at a recruiting center (where a Navy officer returned fire against the attacker with his personal firearm).
2. While all military personnel receive basic training with firearms, very few have easy access to them. The bulk of the weapons are stored in high-security armories. Even in training environments where you carry weapons 24/7, you don't have access to ammunition. Of course, there's nothing stopping you from buying a bunch of 5.56mm rounds at the local Cabella's....
^This. I read the title and thought "RPi2 + peripherals. This question was answered long ago."
I just don't see the use case for a POS bargin basement full-size *LINUX* desktop. If you were someone playing 10-year old Windows games....maybe.
If you're an asshole, people know it and will remember it. So you make SURE you don't act like an asshole.
Things that nosy small town people consider assholish:
1. Inter-racial relationships. "Ohhh, didn't you know your daughter is dating a gaijin? And a black man at that? You must be so ashamed."
2. Material wealth. "Mr. X is driving a Lexus now. He must think he's better than us. What did he do to get that money anyway, living and working out here? Probably something illegal."
3. Niche music/TV/fashion tastes. "Did you hear that noise Mr. X was playing? He called it 'death metal'. That's the path to the Devil. Keep your kids away from him."
I've lived in small towns and large, both in the US and in Japan. The problem with small towns is they are almost always subject to groupthink of the lowest common denominator. If you are a vanilla human being, sitting close to the 50% percentile of every possible normal distribution, it probably sounds like heaven....But if you are a statistical outlier, a minority in any way (ethnicity/religion/hobbies/sexual preference/whatever), you are at the mercy of the idiots around you. At least in cities you have access to a large enough variety of people that you can form social connections with like-minded individuals. And since they are exposed to different people, the population in general is more willing to mind their own business "Hey, if that's your thing, do what works for you."
I too was attracted by the allure of "approachable" radio communication system design....
I've been working on my Masters thesis involving GNU Radio. I have an RTL-SDR (a Terratec Elonics E4000) and more importantly 2 bladeRF x40 SDRs. Observing/listening/decoding certain transmissions with pre-existing standards is fairly easy. Building a complete digital data transmitter and receiver in GNURadio Companion has a bit of a learning curve. And by "learning curve" I mean "like free climbing the Dawn Wall".
I'm pro-nuclear (generally speaking). I live in Japan.
I don't think turning on a bunch of outdated reactors that sit on one of the most earthquake and tsunami-prone areas of the world is a good idea.
How about replacing the existing reactors with a smaller number of very modern Westinghouse AP1000s? A far better way to spend billions of dollars than the stupid 2020 Tokyo Olympics. I think this is an acceptable medium-range solution until someone demonstrates a commercial 1GW thorium plant.
I primarily use my desktop PC (running Lubuntu) to *ahem* "acquire" media content via torrents or blogs(which link to file storage sites), over my fiber optic connection (Japan, used to Speedtest at 100up/100down, now more like 80/80 on a good day). It's then copied to my USB3 3TB external hard drive (either directly, or over my network if I have the drive plugged into my RPi2). I really need to shuffle my storage around so videos and music are on my 2x4TB drives instead of the 1x3TB.
The RPi2 runs OpenElec/Kodi and pumps HDMI to a 42" AVOL plasma TV with a basic sub + 2 speakers sound system.. I hate this TV, really energy-inefficient but I bought it used, so...whatever...
Books are either read the old-school way or, if electronic, on an iPad Mini. I have a Kindle but it's often loaned out to friends.
LOL, no. Been here 4 years now. Island fever + wanderlust + a general disdain for the indolent "island culture" lifestyle = extreme desire to relocate....preferably to Osaka. A place where you can use public transit if you desire, but can still somewhat-affordably own a performance car. Not to mention more easily mingle with open-minded entrepreneurs, tech types, business people, and other outgoing individuals with actual ambitions.
Your comments mirror my own thoughts. I suspect the bulk of the respondents are in areas with highly effective public transport systems. I live in an area of Japan with both an almost-non-existent public transportation system and a significantly-below-average GDP/capita. You'll meet a surprising number of people who drive kei cars but own flip phones.
Right now I'm visiting Hanoi, where practically the whole city owns and rides scooters. The traffic and road manners here are maddening but I'd still rather have a car than not. At the very least it's an escape from the road noise, humidity, air pollution, weather, etc....
I'm not even that old (32) and also vastly prefer a PC to a smartphone, but I've been using desktops since I was about 7. My 23 year old Japanese girl seems totally comfortable scrolling through blogs on her iPhone, even though I've repeatedly offered my 10" Android tablet for use. "Isn't that uncomfortable? Doesn't it hurt your eyes?" "Daijioubu (it's ok)". Boggles my mind.
but sex isn't everything y'know...
If you have a better, and equally cost-effective source of dopamine/serotonin/endorphins and good emotions that doesn't involve addictive narcotics/psychotropic drugs/alcohol/etc.....I'd LOVE to hear it.
Until then, I think I'll stick with piping down females as often as possible. Oh....and eating chocolate.
Driving is not only wasting time, but squandering money.
*Commuting* is a waste of time....driving, for many people, is a passionate hobby.
When I get tired of surfing the 'Net late at night, I go driving. The roads are fairly open since there's no dull worker-drones commuting, allowing you to go for a relaxing cruise, hit some twisties on the hills, or shred your tires drifting (although the noise from the latter tends to attract police attention).
I suspect the bulk of the respondents simply have no idea and no experience with how to actually enjoy an automobile.
I have some connections with amplifying information. I sent a photographer friend to Afghanistan, and he networked with some Afghani grad students I met here in Japan, especially one friend who's family is from Kunduz. Some childhood friends of my Afghani associate were doctors killed in the strike. Word is that Afghani and US Spec Ops troops are retaking Kunduz. EVERYONE knew the hospital was a hospital, it was treating a mix of Afghani security forces, Taliban, and civilians.
As someone who used to work in close air support, I just can't wrap my mind around how such a target could get approved. Places like hospitals are the main reason we have Fire Support Control Measures such as Restrictive Fire Areas and No Fire Areas. Intel pushes sensitive areas to the aviation planners and they get included in the Airspace Control Order or SPINS (Special Instructions). Then they get plotted on all the maps so the air controllers know where to deny requests for Air Support (no you can't drop a bomb there, that's inside grid xxxx). What a cluster-F.....
features some contrived anti-air defense that is somehow not good enough to defeat the F-35s rudimentary stealth but is good enough to be a credible thread to the A-10
Pretty much any late-Cold War SARH (Semi-Active Radar Homing) SAM fits this category. A prolific example would be the 2K12/ SA-6 'Kub'. If the experience bombing Yugoslavia is any indication, some of them will survive SEAD missions. Not a contrived scenario at all. Also applies to any Third-Generation or even early Fourth-Generation fighters doing CAP missions. Sometimes there are Leakers (enemy aircraft that get past friendly air defenses/CAP).
doesn't require the aircraft providing CAS to loiter, expend large amounts of ordinance, use the main gun extensively, fly low/slow or do anything the F-35 sucks at
Loiter time: If you have a permissive air environment with almost-no air threat, which is the sort of scenario where you'll want to use the A-10, then the CAS platforms with the best loiter times are an MQ-9 Reaper and an AC-130 anyway. If you really want a fast jet with loiter time....the F-15E beats both the A-10 and the F-35...and is a better dogfighter too.
Expending large amounts of ordinance: the F-35A and C both have 18,000lbs max payload. The A-10 is 16,000lbs. The F-35B is 15,000lbs. So even if trucking a full bombload was required, this is a wash.
Use the main gun extensively: Of course the A-10's best feature is strafing tank columns with gun rounds, so not much argument there, but that itself is a somewhat contrived scenario. Here's two really good posts on F-16.net about A-10 CAS employment and modernization trends: http://www.f-16.net/forum/view...
http://www.f-16.net/forum/view...
requires the CAS aircraft to sprint around at higher speeds than the A-10 is capable of
Sometimes time-sensitive immediate air support requests (say, for engaging High Value Targets on the move) are required. Blasting the target with a HIMARs fire mission would be even faster, but not a good guarantee of target destruction, especially for something mobile and armored...
reconstitutes the CAS mission to consist of dropping a small amount of ordinance from high altitude with no loiter
This is not a "reconstitution" of the CAS mission. CAS is not restricted to low altitude bombing/strafing runs. It has more to do with battlespace/command & control relationships. While flight behavior of the aircraft can be a limitation, that's very much dependent on aviation platform, the ordnance, and the tactical situation and is not specific to the CAS mission itself. Reference MCWP 3-23 Offensive Air Support Page 2-2: "CAS is air action by fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft against hostile targets that are in close proximity to friendly forces and which require detailed integration of each air mission with the fire and movement of those forces"
As TFS states, all that stuff should be readily available in Linux/Ubuntu. If users complain about the lack of a text editor in all likelihood the training program for transitioning Windows users is mediocre (and the users themselves are stuck in their ways and won't adapt easily). If the systems are being issued to users with no day-to-day office functionality, that's a problem with their IT department dropping the ball setup-wise. That's not a failure of the operating system itself.
I was in Bravo Company in 2008, the largest OCS summer (up to that time). We were in the container barracks out past the PT field, not in the permanent buildings where Charlie company was. The containers had off-white floors. Two platoons to a building, with the squad bays running parallel to each other.
Newsflash: the Army and Marine Corps in particular rarely place people in career fields that match their educational backgrounds/civilian skillsets.
Newly-commissioned Junior Officer: "I have a CS degree! You should put me in a research lab!"
Monitor: "Whatever. I have a quota to meet for Logistics Officers. Go drive convoys in Afghanistan."
^That's closer to the reality of it.
I'm former Army enlisted --> Marine Corps officer, so I've seen this first-hand.
In the past few years I've largely use Eclipse. I tend to write small programs in C, C++, or CUDA C. I like Eclipse because it's free, has easy support for all these languages and others that I expect to use (Python, Java), runs on Debian/Ubuntu/etc., and there's tons of support online.
This get's me thinking........what about having high-altitude turbines, suspended under giant balloons that are anchored to the surface? Instead of harnessing wind power on the ground, harness it at 30,000 ft and run a giant power cable down to a base station. Just make sure you pick an area away from civilian airline routes.
Any major cost/feasibility issues I'm overlooking?
Didn't read TFA but I can assume he neglected one key point:
Most authors pick their class names because they sound cool, not because they feel it accurately describes the tactical/operational role of the ship design in question. Which they probably wouldn't get correct anyway. It's not like these authors commonly employ professional military consultants to harden up the details of their in-universe militaries. And in most cases scrutinizing how a ship should be employed would also lead to scrutinizing the weapons complement/layout/fire arcs/etc.....leading to most "sexy" space warships needing a complete redesign to make any sense. And the creative types don't want fictional space engineering (naval architecture?) intruding on their storytelling.