The problem is that the Chinese government isn't doing it - they are simply giving others license to do it, with assurances of government protection and payment.
Sound familiar? It is - it's called privateering. It used to be done with ships on the sea; now it's done with computers on the internet. While China may not be at war with us, their use of privateers is proof that they do NOT mean us well.
So how do we combat it? Article I, Section 8, paragraph 11 of the U.S. Constitution authorizes Congress to "grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water." Imagine if the US Congress granted Google the authority to go after China - can you imagine how much havoc that would wreak if Google employees focused 20% of their time on fucking with China?
They will will pick anything to bash the Obama administration.
They're lazy, too - I mean, it's not like they really need to put in a big effort. The Obama Administrations failings are just laying there, like crabapples in fall. How could they NOT pick one up and whip it at someone?
if it is true, and flying is already safer than road travel, then why do we need all the security?
1) The elite prefer, at this time, to control the masses by fear. Americans are carefully social engineered to be cowards, and the elite like it that way. Otherwise, all the lives ruined by the elites might want to take a few with em on the way out. So, keep them scared.
2) Do you have any idea how much freaking money that "security theater" costs? Lots of campaign contributions later, it turns out we have a need.
I called this over a year ago in the "Air Force One NYC Flyby" incident:
"We are a bunch of fuckin' wussy people."
- 3 planeloads of people let 5 men armed with hand tools take over airplanes - because that's what they've been told to do. As soon as the 4th planeload of people find out how they've been lied to, they take action and save many more lives.
- Hundreds of students cower under desks waiting be rescued from 1 man with 2 handguns, and the only person to do ANYTHING is an octogenarian who gets killed for his efforts to protect the strong, healthy, 18-22 year old "adults" hiding in fear. The most played interview is of a young man who was simply waiting to die. He is called "heroic".
- A man starts shooting in an immigrant center, and police take 45 minutes to enter the building, while people hide like scared rabbits waiting to be rescued. The police state that their response time was irrelevant - the victims would have died anyway.
Oh yes, we have reached the point where helplessness is considered noble, where former soldiers are considered security risks because the government trained them to kill, and the people whose "job" it is to protect us simply shrug their shoulders and pick up the bodies.
A year and a half later, it's only gotten worse. One of the victims at VT is now making his name running "investigations" on how easy it is to get guns at gun shows - even though the guy who shot him bought from gun shops and passed the background checks. Soldiers passing through to Afghanistan are being told they need to check their bayonets - while they KEEP their rifles and sidearms. And once you enter the "secure zone", you must either submit to the scanner or the search or be arrested - you can't simply decide not to fly.
It's not even a question anymore about whether something really bad is going to happen - the question is what are people going to do WHEN it happens.
Re:Hi- I'm the Author
on
Land of Lisp
·
· Score: 1
Functions and variables shouldn't be a problem; they are already into algebra in his math class, and they are something that I understand vis a vis programming, so I can explain it.
Re:Hi- I'm the Author
on
Land of Lisp
·
· Score: 1
Would this book be suitable for a relatively precocious 10 year old? My son wants to learn how to make computer games, but he has the attention span of a gnat on Red Bull. But his math skills are excellent (about 7th grade level) and his reading is above average too, with a scary vocabulary. He'd be attracted to the comic format, but what level of programming knowledge does it assume? I'd be available to help him, except the last time I programmed anything was 20 years ago - in FORTRAN.
Recently your request to have your official email addressed removed from the public directory. I suggest you look up the term "Streisand Effect" on Wikipedia (or rather, have one of your more internet literate staffers do so).
Aren't computer types always accused of working in their mother's basements or the bowels of a data center? Sound like caves to me.
Oh, and read John Ringo's The Council Wars - it's a sort of retelling of the Silmarillion with sex and violence (and violent sex) replacing erudition and pretension. In the books, the rings are represented by cryptographic keys.
"Right now the closest thing you're going to get is creating a whole new profile."
Why is this a problem? People have been maintaining separate internet persona's since it started. And modern browser features make it easier: don't feel like filling out the same info for 3 different profiles? Browser auto-fill will handle that, as well as remember your different logins and passwords.
So you're saying that, when the BEM's come and take over our communication systems, France won't get the message via ham radio and so won't know to fly a Mirage straight up into the death ray, spelling the end of their country and culture?
"It was revealed quite some time ago that Shatner's "dramatic pauses" were due to him trying to remember his lines. "
The story I heard was that, when he was doing the movie "Incubus" in esperanto, the pauses were an artifact of him speaking his lines from rote. At first he was very frustrated with the effect, but the directors actually liked the effect it had, so he kept doing it and it became his style.
You are missing 1 fundamental requirement - do these activities WITH your child. While it's true that "a child's interests can be largely determined by their personality, their school, and their social environment", the biggest and earliest factor is parental behavior and actions. A child's first reaction to seeing a parent doing something is mimicry - they want to do whatever Daddy/Mommy are doing. So if a parent shows interest in computers, or the mechanical world, so will the child (generally speaking).
My son is a good example of this - when he was younger, he ALWAYS wanted to be doing what I was doing. One day I was bleeding the brakes in my truck, and he wanted to "help". So I gave him a screwdriver, and he got under the truck with me (he could almost stand under there) and started poking at things while I messes with bleeder screws. Was he "accomplishing" anything? No. But he was learning that messing with things mechanically wasn't scary, and that it's something Daddy likes to do, and therefore it was good. (He may also have learned some swear words as well - oops). Years later he still shows interest in things mechanical, etc.
Buy the legos; buy the erector set. Then do it WITH him (or her).
Favorite family anecdote: Setting: Traditional Italian Sunday dinner at my grandparent's house.
My grandmother is picking at my grandfather at the table. Bitching about this and that he did or didn't do, with the occasional direct shot at his person. This was pretty much normal - my grandparents had 3 daughters, all of whom thought their mother was a saint, so Grandpop had learned to just shut up and let it pass. He was also pretty non-confrontational in general; a former seminarian, and never raised a hand as far as I know (Grandmom, otoh...).
But this time it was pretty bad. After about 45 minutes, I think he realized that his grandkids were in their late teens and he didn't really need to watch his language so much. So after Grandmom got in a particularly nasty shot, he looks straight at her and says "Hey, Florence - FUCK YOU!" Cue the crickets as Grandmom gapes and sputters like a freshly cought fish, her daughters get red and shoot him nasty looks, and the male grandkids are trying desperately to hide our grins and looking at each other with gleeful solidarity in our expressions. Suffice it to say Grandmom didn't say much for the rest of the meal, and "Hey Florence - Fuck You" became one of our treasured memories (at least for the male cousins).
Another tidbit. Whenever the grandsons started acting up at his house, he'd look straight at us and say "I'm-a gonna take off my belt", and we'd stop whatever we were doing right quick. This worked when we were kids and until we got less mischievous; he never had to actually take off his belt, much less use it, and I hadn't heard him say it since I was about 12.
Fast forward 5 years. My cousin and I both wrestled in HS, but for opposing teams and at different weights. One evening, as Grandpop was in the middle of his evening routine (Lazy-boy, Richie Ashburn calling for the Phillies on TV, and a Schmidt's pony)we started trash talking, and then started to wrestle in the living room. It's a tiny house, so obviously we were distracting Granpop (we were actually right in front of the TV) and he didn't like fighting.
So he tells us to knock it off; we ignore him.
He escalates to "I'm-a gonna take off my belt"; we pause, but since he'd never actually taken it off in the past, we ignored him again.
About 2 minutes later, we both look up to see Grandpop out of his recliner, standing over us (all 5'2" of him) with his 30 year old thin black leather belt halfway off his waist. I don't know when I've ever moved faster in a wrestling match as when we broke off, stood up, and apologized.
But they'll live in Virginia - the state of MD, and specifically Montgomery County, is one of the most expensive places in the US to live. Oh, and your entrepreneurship pays off and you make some money? MD just decided it would tax people making over $1M at a higher rate. Since most of those folks live in Montgomery County, a lot have picked up an moved across the river, taking their local spending with them.
People TALK about social issues - they DECIDE on financial ones. And people have been deciding to move from MD to VA for decades.
Slashdot Mirror
The problem is that the Chinese government isn't doing it - they are simply giving others license to do it, with assurances of government protection and payment.
Sound familiar? It is - it's called privateering. It used to be done with ships on the sea; now it's done with computers on the internet. While China may not be at war with us, their use of privateers is proof that they do NOT mean us well.
So how do we combat it? Article I, Section 8, paragraph 11 of the U.S. Constitution authorizes Congress to "grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water." Imagine if the US Congress granted Google the authority to go after China - can you imagine how much havoc that would wreak if Google employees focused 20% of their time on fucking with China?
They will will pick anything to bash the Obama administration.
They're lazy, too - I mean, it's not like they really need to put in a big effort. The Obama Administrations failings are just laying there, like crabapples in fall. How could they NOT pick one up and whip it at someone?
What do the drones do that is different that police helicopters? Aside from being cheaper?
That's unpossible!
if it is true, and flying is already safer than road travel, then why do we need all the security?
1) The elite prefer, at this time, to control the masses by fear. Americans are carefully social engineered to be cowards, and the elite like it that way. Otherwise, all the lives ruined by the elites might want to take a few with em on the way out. So, keep them scared.
2) Do you have any idea how much freaking money that "security theater" costs? Lots of campaign contributions later, it turns out we have a need.
I called this over a year ago in the "Air Force One NYC Flyby" incident:
"We are a bunch of fuckin' wussy people."
- 3 planeloads of people let 5 men armed with hand tools take over airplanes - because that's what they've been told to do. As soon as the 4th planeload of people find out how they've been lied to, they take action and save many more lives.
- Hundreds of students cower under desks waiting be rescued from 1 man with 2 handguns, and the only person to do ANYTHING is an octogenarian who gets killed for his efforts to protect the strong, healthy, 18-22 year old "adults" hiding in fear. The most played interview is of a young man who was simply waiting to die. He is called "heroic".
- A man starts shooting in an immigrant center, and police take 45 minutes to enter the building, while people hide like scared rabbits waiting to be rescued. The police state that their response time was irrelevant - the victims would have died anyway.
Oh yes, we have reached the point where helplessness is considered noble, where former soldiers are considered security risks because the government trained them to kill, and the people whose "job" it is to protect us simply shrug their shoulders and pick up the bodies.
Wussies doesn't really cover it.
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1213517&threshold=-1&commentsort=0&mode=nested&cid=27736123
A year and a half later, it's only gotten worse. One of the victims at VT is now making his name running "investigations" on how easy it is to get guns at gun shows - even though the guy who shot him bought from gun shops and passed the background checks. Soldiers passing through to Afghanistan are being told they need to check their bayonets - while they KEEP their rifles and sidearms. And once you enter the "secure zone", you must either submit to the scanner or the search or be arrested - you can't simply decide not to fly.
It's not even a question anymore about whether something really bad is going to happen - the question is what are people going to do WHEN it happens.
Functions and variables shouldn't be a problem; they are already into algebra in his math class, and they are something that I understand vis a vis programming, so I can explain it.
Would this book be suitable for a relatively precocious 10 year old? My son wants to learn how to make computer games, but he has the attention span of a gnat on Red Bull. But his math skills are excellent (about 7th grade level) and his reading is above average too, with a scary vocabulary. He'd be attracted to the comic format, but what level of programming knowledge does it assume? I'd be available to help him, except the last time I programmed anything was 20 years ago - in FORTRAN.
"White-Fi"? Really? Do they have the check to Al Sharpton already made out??
This spring my wife wanted to buy $$$ worth of plants for the yard.
My response? "Honey, last year the only thing green in the yard was the pool."
We HAVE a right to privacy - things done in private should stay there.
We THINK we have a right to anonymity - that somehow, things done in a public place or forum will not be connected with our identity.
People ACT with stupidity, when they post private information on a public forum with their identity specifically attached.
Society needs to read some Niven and Pournelle and learn what "Evolution in action means."
Not sure about the gay porn thing, but he definitely writes as though he's never held a REAL gun in his life - and he desperately wants to.
Dear Mr. Raab;
Recently your request to have your official email addressed removed from the public directory. I suggest you look up the term "Streisand Effect" on Wikipedia (or rather, have one of your more internet literate staffers do so).
Sincerely
a_colonist
Aren't computer types always accused of working in their mother's basements or the bowels of a data center? Sound like caves to me.
Oh, and read John Ringo's The Council Wars - it's a sort of retelling of the Silmarillion with sex and violence (and violent sex) replacing erudition and pretension. In the books, the rings are represented by cryptographic keys.
I'm thinking of the millions of Long Duck Dong accounts.
The sig lines alone would be worth it.
Did anyone else first read that as "deployable kittens?" No?
That's ok - it didn't really phase me either.
"Right now the closest thing you're going to get is creating a whole new profile."
Why is this a problem? People have been maintaining separate internet persona's since it started. And modern browser features make it easier: don't feel like filling out the same info for 3 different profiles? Browser auto-fill will handle that, as well as remember your different logins and passwords.
What am I missing here?
Let's just ask the octopus how to invest.
So you're saying that, when the BEM's come and take over our communication systems, France won't get the message via ham radio and so won't know to fly a Mirage straight up into the death ray, spelling the end of their country and culture?
I'm good with that.
"It was revealed quite some time ago that Shatner's "dramatic pauses" were due to him trying to remember his lines. "
The story I heard was that, when he was doing the movie "Incubus" in esperanto, the pauses were an artifact of him speaking his lines from rote. At first he was very frustrated with the effect, but the directors actually liked the effect it had, so he kept doing it and it became his style.
You are missing 1 fundamental requirement - do these activities WITH your child. While it's true that "a child's interests can be largely determined by their personality, their school, and their social environment", the biggest and earliest factor is parental behavior and actions. A child's first reaction to seeing a parent doing something is mimicry - they want to do whatever Daddy/Mommy are doing. So if a parent shows interest in computers, or the mechanical world, so will the child (generally speaking).
My son is a good example of this - when he was younger, he ALWAYS wanted to be doing what I was doing. One day I was bleeding the brakes in my truck, and he wanted to "help". So I gave him a screwdriver, and he got under the truck with me (he could almost stand under there) and started poking at things while I messes with bleeder screws. Was he "accomplishing" anything? No. But he was learning that messing with things mechanically wasn't scary, and that it's something Daddy likes to do, and therefore it was good. (He may also have learned some swear words as well - oops). Years later he still shows interest in things mechanical, etc.
Buy the legos; buy the erector set. Then do it WITH him (or her).
Ah, the irony of Slashdot UID's - it's the only dick measuring contest where the winner is the smallest one...
"That will take a CAD drawing and build me a Lego model from it. :p"
Even better - a Lego Von Neumann machine...
I'm thinking "Mom and the Kids" by Niven and Drake.
Favorite family anecdote:
Setting: Traditional Italian Sunday dinner at my grandparent's house.
My grandmother is picking at my grandfather at the table. Bitching about this and that he did or didn't do, with the occasional direct shot at his person. This was pretty much normal - my grandparents had 3 daughters, all of whom thought their mother was a saint, so Grandpop had learned to just shut up and let it pass. He was also pretty non-confrontational in general; a former seminarian, and never raised a hand as far as I know (Grandmom, otoh...).
But this time it was pretty bad. After about 45 minutes, I think he realized that his grandkids were in their late teens and he didn't really need to watch his language so much. So after Grandmom got in a particularly nasty shot, he looks straight at her and says "Hey, Florence - FUCK YOU!" Cue the crickets as Grandmom gapes and sputters like a freshly cought fish, her daughters get red and shoot him nasty looks, and the male grandkids are trying desperately to hide our grins and looking at each other with gleeful solidarity in our expressions. Suffice it to say Grandmom didn't say much for the rest of the meal, and "Hey Florence - Fuck You" became one of our treasured memories (at least for the male cousins).
Another tidbit. Whenever the grandsons started acting up at his house, he'd look straight at us and say "I'm-a gonna take off my belt", and we'd stop whatever we were doing right quick. This worked when we were kids and until we got less mischievous; he never had to actually take off his belt, much less use it, and I hadn't heard him say it since I was about 12.
Fast forward 5 years. My cousin and I both wrestled in HS, but for opposing teams and at different weights. One evening, as Grandpop was in the middle of his evening routine (Lazy-boy, Richie Ashburn calling for the Phillies on TV, and a Schmidt's pony)we started trash talking, and then started to wrestle in the living room. It's a tiny house, so obviously we were distracting Granpop (we were actually right in front of the TV) and he didn't like fighting.
So he tells us to knock it off; we ignore him.
He escalates to "I'm-a gonna take off my belt"; we pause, but since he'd never actually taken it off in the past, we ignored him again.
About 2 minutes later, we both look up to see Grandpop out of his recliner, standing over us (all 5'2" of him) with his 30 year old thin black leather belt halfway off his waist. I don't know when I've ever moved faster in a wrestling match as when we broke off, stood up, and apologized.
Sure, they'll work in MD - I270 corridor, etc.
But they'll live in Virginia - the state of MD, and specifically Montgomery County, is one of the most expensive places in the US to live. Oh, and your entrepreneurship pays off and you make some money? MD just decided it would tax people making over $1M at a higher rate. Since most of those folks live in Montgomery County, a lot have picked up an moved across the river, taking their local spending with them.
People TALK about social issues - they DECIDE on financial ones. And people have been deciding to move from MD to VA for decades.
"then they can go out to the asteriod belt and hurl an endless supply of ammunition at us that would decimate us "
A quibble - to "decimate" means to kill 1 out of 10. I think an asteroid bombardment would have higher than 10% casualties.