We can Win in Afghanistan (and everywhere else in the Middle East) simply by liberating their women! Women in these countries are kept in virtual bondage with Taliban's treatment of women being far and away the most repressive. The female half of the country has a surely long memory and would be happy to finger the various terrorists and Taliban stooges to inquisitive American agents as they try to sneak out of the country into Pakistan. They would also like to wear a dress, get a job, go to school, walk down the street, use a telephone, play a record, travel abroad, go to a doctor, meet a friend in a restaurant or do the hundreds of other things that Western women take for granted.
The US would also gain a great deal of trust by rebuilding roads, hospitals, schools, markets, water treatment and electrical and communication infrastructures; all things we are quite good at.
It doesn't have to be a debacle, give 'em linux and cellular and send 'em on their way....
All New Yorkers can give thanks that the hijackers did not crash their aircraft into the Indian Point nuclear power station just forty or so miles from the City, choosing instead the more spectacularly media-friendly WTC. This station, like all current US 'light water' reactors when operating are exceedingly 'soft' targets. Whereas the core containment would not likely be breached by an airplane crash, the consequent cooling and control system failures would allow the core itself to breach containment in an uncontrolled meltdown.
Only when the control rods are inserted into the core, reducing it's power and the requirement for outside cooling, can a station sustain damage and loss of these outside cooling systems.
Direct caualties and property damage in the event of a meltdown of this reactor would redefine the term catastrophic. Such a disaster would probably bankrupt the country. The wind pattern being the same, using the current calendar period, a breach would place a radioactive plume initially over entire Westchester County, parts of Brooklyn and Queens and western Long Island. Wind shift would have irradiated the rest of Long Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Northern New York State, and shift again to irradiate Manhattan and the Bronx. Population density map shows a potential casualty rate of appx. 40,000 direct deaths from radiation and an 100 year evacuation zone 40 miles south-east-north of the plant. This includes all of New York City! The entire North-east of the US would have to be evacuated under emergency conditions and for an unknown period of time.
Our government agencies do not communicate very well with each other, nor with outside, that is business entities or local authorities. This must be rectified at once! A direct hot-line type communication link between the FAA, the Pentagon, the Justice Department and nuclear power station operators (private companies) must be established. Currently nuclear power management is through the Department of Energy: a 9 to 5 department; little more than a front for the oil and coal companies.
A proper communications link would act to alert station operators about rogue aircraft or other threats in their areas and give them time to safely shut down their reactors.
A risk-graduated system of alerts must likewise be extended to those operators of chemical, biotech, and other industrial plants based on their toxic emission potential.
I hope I don't live long enough to see those neutrons fly.
Peace and love; pray for the heroic firefighters who sacrificed themselves for their neighbors.
Salmon Rushdie suggests hopefully that there are no tyrannies that cannot be successfully resisted....
He cannot have considered a financial rather than a political/military one.
Political/military tyrannies give in exchange little or nothing; the thinnest illusion of security for their license to pillage and enslave.
By the innovation of offering a miserable amount of money outright thievery and slavery is given the imprimatur of laws and contracts. An illusion is created of acceptance by all parties almost disguising the fact that the various forms of slavery cannot be distinguished from each other by the pittance paid.
With indecent dishonesty, the few can obtain with deceit what would likely be unobtainable by force or coercion. This innovation is clearly the most profound of the Twentieth Century, far beyond semiconductors, air travel and automobiles.
Unlike the flesh-and-blood tyrant, the deathless corporation extends itself endlessly into all dimensions.
A new guide-book is in order, to suggest how to resist an organism that masquerades in providing as little as possible of what the slaves think they want. Of course arrogance (and hubris) will likely see a final resolution in the streets....Perhaps Rushdie is right after all.
The foregoing has a great deal of truth to it but only goes so far in that persons cannot be compelled to buy the stuff that the 'manufacturers' are proffering. Many alternatives exist.
First of all it should really be no contest between watching (or listening to) dreary, predictable hack work and doing literally anything else; this is whether the work is emitted at 1080i or not. There simply is insufficient content compelling enough to justify any expenditure in any fire-wired appliance by any consumer.
The past 10-15 years has witnessed an ongoing content crisis. A case could be made that one reason for the collapse of the IT bubble has been the difficulty in finding compelling content equivalent to the increase in carrying capacity for same. Hundreds of billions of dollars have been invested in optics, cables, trenches, routers, servers, 1Ghz processors, etc. etc. etc. so that we all can be subjected to monkeyzapper ads.
Aside from mowing the lawn or cleaning the bathroom; another alternative can be found HERE. Professional video and audio techs can obtain high quality recording and editing equipment without blocking hardware, as this would defeat the creative purpose of such equipment. Even the most cynical Hollywood content provider must (by now) realize that the driving creative force within any industry or field of endeavor proceeds from the bottom up. Individuals with little or no vested interests to protect are the essential driving creative force. The shortage of these individuals rather than any equipment shortcoming is the real problem.
5C controls are not a done deal unless every equiment manufacturer 'signs on'. An 'Outlaw' company would dramatically increase the capital risk to the other manufacturers as consumer acceptance of 5C is not a certainty, in fact is fairly questionable. People like to be led rather than controlled by diktat and the result could be; See trenches and routers above. If customers carefully choose either unrestricted hardware or 'none-of-the-above' the manufacturers will listen.
Slashdot Mirror
I thought they tested it by putting the encoded CD-ROM in a bucket of water overnight....
We can Win in Afghanistan (and everywhere else in the Middle East) simply by liberating their women! Women in these countries are kept in virtual bondage with Taliban's treatment of women being far and away the most repressive. The female half of the country has a surely long memory and would be happy to finger the various terrorists and Taliban stooges to inquisitive American agents as they try to sneak out of the country into Pakistan. They would also like to wear a dress, get a job, go to school, walk down the street, use a telephone, play a record, travel abroad, go to a doctor, meet a friend in a restaurant or do the hundreds of other things that Western women take for granted.
The US would also gain a great deal of trust by rebuilding roads, hospitals, schools, markets, water treatment and electrical and communication infrastructures; all things we are quite good at.
It doesn't have to be a debacle, give 'em linux and cellular and send 'em on their way....
All New Yorkers can give thanks that the hijackers did not crash their aircraft into the Indian Point nuclear power station just forty or so miles from the City, choosing instead the more spectacularly media-friendly WTC. This station, like all current US 'light water' reactors when operating are exceedingly 'soft' targets. Whereas the core containment would not likely be breached by an airplane crash, the consequent cooling and control system failures would allow the core itself to breach containment in an uncontrolled meltdown.
Only when the control rods are inserted into the core, reducing it's power and the requirement for outside cooling, can a station sustain damage and loss of these outside cooling systems.
Direct caualties and property damage in the event of a meltdown of this reactor would redefine the term catastrophic. Such a disaster would probably bankrupt the country. The wind pattern being the same, using the current calendar period, a breach would place a radioactive plume initially over entire Westchester County, parts of Brooklyn and Queens and western Long Island. Wind shift would have irradiated the rest of Long Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Northern New York State, and shift again to irradiate Manhattan and the Bronx. Population density map shows a potential casualty rate of appx. 40,000 direct deaths from radiation and an 100 year evacuation zone 40 miles south-east-north of the plant. This includes all of New York City! The entire North-east of the US would have to be evacuated under emergency conditions and for an unknown period of time.
Our government agencies do not communicate very well with each other, nor with outside, that is business entities or local authorities. This must be rectified at once! A direct hot-line type communication link between the FAA, the Pentagon, the Justice Department and nuclear power station operators (private companies) must be established. Currently nuclear power management is through the Department of Energy: a 9 to 5 department; little more than a front for the oil and coal companies.
A proper communications link would act to alert station operators about rogue aircraft or other threats in their areas and give them time to safely shut down their reactors.
A risk-graduated system of alerts must likewise be extended to those operators of chemical, biotech, and other industrial plants based on their toxic emission potential.
I hope I don't live long enough to see those neutrons fly.
Peace and love; pray for the heroic firefighters who sacrificed themselves for their neighbors.
Salmon Rushdie suggests hopefully that there are no tyrannies that cannot be successfully resisted....
He cannot have considered a financial rather than a political/military one.
Political/military tyrannies give in exchange little or nothing; the thinnest illusion of security for their license to pillage and enslave.
By the innovation of offering a miserable amount of money outright thievery and slavery is given the imprimatur of laws and contracts. An illusion is created of acceptance by all parties almost disguising the fact that the various forms of slavery cannot be distinguished from each other by the pittance paid.
With indecent dishonesty, the few can obtain with deceit what would likely be unobtainable by force or coercion. This innovation is clearly the most profound of the Twentieth Century, far beyond semiconductors, air travel and automobiles.
Unlike the flesh-and-blood tyrant, the deathless corporation extends itself endlessly into all dimensions.
A new guide-book is in order, to suggest how to resist an organism that masquerades in providing as little as possible of what the slaves think they want. Of course arrogance (and hubris) will likely see a final resolution in the streets....Perhaps Rushdie is right after all.
Sue.....
It's what you have to do,
Sue.....
It's painful but it'e true,
Sue.....
give the devil his due,
Sue.....
If you don't they'll walk all over you,
Sue.....
Our land is now for the benefit of the few,
Sue.....
(Throw away the damned TV and read a book! Yeah, that TV!)
The foregoing has a great deal of truth to it but only goes so far in that persons cannot be compelled to buy the stuff that the 'manufacturers' are proffering. Many alternatives exist.
First of all it should really be no contest between watching (or listening to) dreary, predictable hack work and doing literally anything else; this is whether the work is emitted at 1080i or not. There simply is insufficient content compelling enough to justify any expenditure in any fire-wired appliance by any consumer.
The past 10-15 years has witnessed an ongoing content crisis. A case could be made that one reason for the collapse of the IT bubble has been the difficulty in finding compelling content equivalent to the increase in carrying capacity for same. Hundreds of billions of dollars have been invested in optics, cables, trenches, routers, servers, 1Ghz processors, etc. etc. etc. so that we all can be subjected to monkeyzapper ads.
Aside from mowing the lawn or cleaning the bathroom; another alternative can be found HERE. Professional video and audio techs can obtain high quality recording and editing equipment without blocking hardware, as this would defeat the creative purpose of such equipment. Even the most cynical Hollywood content provider must (by now) realize that the driving creative force within any industry or field of endeavor proceeds from the bottom up. Individuals with little or no vested interests to protect are the essential driving creative force. The shortage of these individuals rather than any equipment shortcoming is the real problem.
5C controls are not a done deal unless every equiment manufacturer 'signs on'. An 'Outlaw' company would dramatically increase the capital risk to the other manufacturers as consumer acceptance of 5C is not a certainty, in fact is fairly questionable. People like to be led rather than controlled by diktat and the result could be; See trenches and routers above. If customers carefully choose either unrestricted hardware or 'none-of-the-above' the manufacturers will listen.
I don't sig and I don't give a damn