No, we're not at 70% in some brackets. The highest tax bracket hasn't been at 70% since 1980. It's been in the low 30s ever since Bush Jr was in office, and that's only on income that is taxable, which for wealthy people is only a fraction of their true income. In addition, capitol gains tax is even lower than that, at about 15%.
If by out of inclination, you mean getting to an orbit where you have to change the orbit's inclination after initial launch you're absolutely correct (ie, launching from Florida to get to an orbit with zero degrees inclination).
However, if you're launching into an orbit that passes over your launch site and it's at least reasonably pro-grade (going in the direction of the rotation of the earth) there's no additional cost. You still get the velocity boost from your launch location either way, with a slightly higher velocity boost at the equator than one at Cape Canaveral (a difference of about 0.06 km/s, not a big deal considering you need a speed of about 7 km/s to get to orbit).
Wikipedia is correct. That's exactly what I learned in orbital dynamics back in college.
I don't know what issue the grandparent poster has with ISS' orbit. It's at this inclination to accommodate launches from Cape Canaveral and Russia. From Cape Canaveral, there's a very limited range of inclinations that are compatible with what the space shuttle can get to. This is because the shuttle wasn't allowed to fly over land after launch, rather it must head out to sea. It would also cost extra of the orbital plane doesn't cross over the launch site (ie, if it was an orbit with an inclination less than roughly the latitude of Cape Canaveral then it would take more fuel to get there, lowering the amount of payload the shuttle could carry or even making it impossible for it to reach it).
What the heck are you talking about? A prominent scientist wrote a significant paper, published in the most widely respected science journal in the world and was not allowed to talk about it to the media. You don't see a problem with this because scientists aren't 'truth councils' and/or she shouldn't 'run her mouth off' about her own work? I was under the impression that government employees work for the public, not for the current ruling party. Am I wrong? Other than politicians, are only 'truth councils' allowed to talk freely to the press?
Very cool. Tends to work well for words, but not numerical sets (unless the numbers are model numbers, like 777, 747, etc).
Also got an interesting result when trying to do a search for small towns such as Llano and Burnet (in Texas). One of the results was "associated press", likely because there was an AP article recently about the drought in Llano.
Were you on a commercial jet? That's only a 3-hour flight (1300 miles, jets travel at about 500 mph). You can fly from Miami to Seattle in under 6 hours (or from Boston to London in about that time).
I'm not trying to nitpick. If you're on a 6-hour flight, you will get more than just a few peanuts since it isn't reasonable to expect people to go without food that long. But three hours? So long as you eat something before the flight you'll be fine, unless you are diabetic.
The previous leaks didn't delete the source information after distributing it. These guys recorded the phone messages then deleted them, potentially interfering with a police investigation and causing the family to believe their daughter had deleted the messages so must have still been alive. See the difference?
Keep in mind you're likely responding to a European. The views of Democrats aren't extreme to them, although would seem somewhat to rather conservative from their point of view. Heck, you'd be hard-pressed to find any major differences between Democrats of today versus Republicans of 1990 with the sole exception of abortion rights.
So there should be a heck of a lot of innovation in China, right? They don't enforce copyright or patents over there. Interesting how most patents by Chinese people are registered in other countries.
Try getting some venture capital with a business plan of releasing all of your intellectual property immediately with no mechanism to earn royalties/fees.
A short-term, finite monopoly to a new invention is a good thing as that gives inventors a chance to capitalize on their work and gives them an incentive to make new inventions. A never-ending monopoly on an idea is another story (see Disney).
Misleading, but to continue the analogy the source for reporting the prison guard rape would have been another guard who was arrested and sent to prison for reporting the crime. That's not a heck of a lot better.
I have a hard time believing that, especially the mention that they never encounter blocked content. My Chinese girlfriend frequents renren.com (the Chinese version of Facebook), and encounters a blocked video almost every week or two, always on things that aren't the slightest bit controversial.
She was unaware of the censorship on Baidu vs. Google though. Heck, she didn't even realize Google could be used for Chinese language searches.
I think the main cost would be the large power transformers between the power stations, substations and neighborhoods. You'd also need to replace half the power plants in Japan so that they generate power at a different frequency (or add a converter at each power plant which would also cost a significant amount of money). On top of that, you'd need to figure out some way to transition from one power network to the other, probably by building duplicate transformers and substations in an area, connecting it to the other grid then switching to it neighborhood by neighborhood. Doesn't seem feasible to me, especially when they need to spend at least $100 billion to recover from the disaster. Remember, the area that was destroyed uses the same grid as Tokyo and there is absolutely no way in the world you're going to get Tokyo to switch power systems at this point.
Similar experience for me. NASA had made an extra effort to get kids to be excited about space and the shuttle mission, so schools around the country tuned in to watch the launch live, especially first and second graders. It was the first time I had ever seen a shuttle launch live, although I had seen recorded launches on the news before.
I was in first grade and remember when the shuttle blew up, we (the kids) weren't sure what happened. We asked our teacher, but she teared up and turned the TV off. I can't remember what she said, but it was the only time I ever saw a teacher cry (a really nice, old country lady) and that stands out to me at least as much as seeing the shuttle explode.
I don't know what picture you're looking at, but I can clearly see the serial number on a couple of them. It is 151 1961-010641. The certificate has been personally verified by the person in charge of those records in Hawaii. I get the feeling you aren't even looking at the links provided to you.
What would be the list of facts that the non-Fox watchers are being mislead on?
All of the accusations I ever hear against mainstream media are along the lines of not covering certain stories, not outright misleading people on others (at least not on factual issues).
They're not really good arguments. It seems like anything less than letting everyone in the country get a chance to personally examine the birth certificate won't be satisfactory. Did you ever see Reagan's birth certificate in person or McCain's or anyone else other than your own or someone in your family? Where the heck is this even coming from? They even announced his birth in one of the local Honolulu papers at the time of his birth for crying out loud. I've yet to hear the conspiracy theory to explain that one away.
It still has to parse the question, search its enormous database to find the most probable answer then give it if it is certain enough to get it correct before pressing the button, not a trivial task for a computer.
And is the journalist who took the cellphone video (the father) now in any danger of arrest, or worse, from the government? Of course not.
You can, and are encouraged to, face the reality that in some respects some things simply are better in the US than in some other countries. Sure, in other ways it's worse and it might not be the best at any one thing. But to simply point at the occasional bad thing here and then say, "There, see it isn't so great here either" every single time some horrible thing happens elsewhere washes out reality to a certain extent by making equivalent any bad thing going on in a foreign country to the US.
In the US you have the absolute freedom to criticize the government as much as you want virtually any way you want so long as you don't threaten government buildings or employees with physical harm (or try to organize a riot for a similar purpose). You can organize non-violent protests, say how much you hate anything about the government or any political party, etc and not face any legal consequences. You could not possibly do either in a country like China, Russia or North Korea.
If a person escapes from an utterly awful country like North Korea he/she will not be sent back if discovered by US authorities, unlike China who certainly would send them back.
Should your fixed ICBM launch sites be taken out by a preemptive attack you would still have the ability to counterattack from your subs which are virtually impervious to a preemptive attack.
Nobody is forced to use Medicare and it certainly isn't an insurance monopoly. People use it because it has low deductibles and is 'free' (or already paid for depending on your point of view). If it was run more like the health insurance for veterans a lot of people over 65 would probably opt for private insurance instead. However, it has a very high rate of satisfaction among people in the program so they don't have any reason to opt for a private insurance program.
I would compare it to Google. While Google isn't a monopoly, it has nearly all of the market for online searching in the western hemisphere. It isn't due to them using illegal business practices like Microsoft but by staying ahead of the curve and providing a superior product. If Microsoft had been more open and earned their market share through fair competition I don't think nearly as many people would have complained.
People in countries with universal healthcare provided by their government are almost always very happy with their programs because their monopolies are more like Google (ie, good quality) vs. Microsoft (bad quality). Typically, even in those countries it isn't a monopoly (such as in France and Germany where non-profit health insurance companies compete with each other).
It's already rationed whether you like it or not. No country has an infinite amount of resources to fund unlimited medical treatment. The question is how to use our limited medical resources to treat people. It's hard to imagine how the US uses our resources more efficiently than other first-world countries (based on cost per person, life expectancy, etc).
Medicare is 'rationed' but is also more popular than any other private insurance program in the US and is one of the most popular government programs.
He was the first non-white man elected president in the US. There were some strong, emotional reactions to that.
When a woman is first elected president I bet there will be a very similar reaction.
Heck, I bet there was a similar reaction when Reagan was elected, but it would take some research to determine this. He had a rather remarkable comeback to win his first presidential election and had the strong support of evangelicals.
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No, we're not at 70% in some brackets. The highest tax bracket hasn't been at 70% since 1980. It's been in the low 30s ever since Bush Jr was in office, and that's only on income that is taxable, which for wealthy people is only a fraction of their true income. In addition, capitol gains tax is even lower than that, at about 15%.
If by out of inclination, you mean getting to an orbit where you have to change the orbit's inclination after initial launch you're absolutely correct (ie, launching from Florida to get to an orbit with zero degrees inclination).
However, if you're launching into an orbit that passes over your launch site and it's at least reasonably pro-grade (going in the direction of the rotation of the earth) there's no additional cost. You still get the velocity boost from your launch location either way, with a slightly higher velocity boost at the equator than one at Cape Canaveral (a difference of about 0.06 km/s, not a big deal considering you need a speed of about 7 km/s to get to orbit).
Wikipedia is correct. That's exactly what I learned in orbital dynamics back in college.
I don't know what issue the grandparent poster has with ISS' orbit. It's at this inclination to accommodate launches from Cape Canaveral and Russia. From Cape Canaveral, there's a very limited range of inclinations that are compatible with what the space shuttle can get to. This is because the shuttle wasn't allowed to fly over land after launch, rather it must head out to sea. It would also cost extra of the orbital plane doesn't cross over the launch site (ie, if it was an orbit with an inclination less than roughly the latitude of Cape Canaveral then it would take more fuel to get there, lowering the amount of payload the shuttle could carry or even making it impossible for it to reach it).
What the heck are you talking about? A prominent scientist wrote a significant paper, published in the most widely respected science journal in the world and was not allowed to talk about it to the media. You don't see a problem with this because scientists aren't 'truth councils' and/or she shouldn't 'run her mouth off' about her own work? I was under the impression that government employees work for the public, not for the current ruling party. Am I wrong? Other than politicians, are only 'truth councils' allowed to talk freely to the press?
Very cool. Tends to work well for words, but not numerical sets (unless the numbers are model numbers, like 777, 747, etc).
Also got an interesting result when trying to do a search for small towns such as Llano and Burnet (in Texas). One of the results was "associated press", likely because there was an AP article recently about the drought in Llano.
Were you on a commercial jet? That's only a 3-hour flight (1300 miles, jets travel at about 500 mph). You can fly from Miami to Seattle in under 6 hours (or from Boston to London in about that time).
I'm not trying to nitpick. If you're on a 6-hour flight, you will get more than just a few peanuts since it isn't reasonable to expect people to go without food that long. But three hours? So long as you eat something before the flight you'll be fine, unless you are diabetic.
Try clicking the link. It includes video directly from Fox News. They did not make this up.
The previous leaks didn't delete the source information after distributing it. These guys recorded the phone messages then deleted them, potentially interfering with a police investigation and causing the family to believe their daughter had deleted the messages so must have still been alive. See the difference?
Keep in mind you're likely responding to a European. The views of Democrats aren't extreme to them, although would seem somewhat to rather conservative from their point of view. Heck, you'd be hard-pressed to find any major differences between Democrats of today versus Republicans of 1990 with the sole exception of abortion rights.
No, they're simply business-first, everything else second (including rape...).
So there should be a heck of a lot of innovation in China, right? They don't enforce copyright or patents over there. Interesting how most patents by Chinese people are registered in other countries.
Try getting some venture capital with a business plan of releasing all of your intellectual property immediately with no mechanism to earn royalties/fees.
A short-term, finite monopoly to a new invention is a good thing as that gives inventors a chance to capitalize on their work and gives them an incentive to make new inventions. A never-ending monopoly on an idea is another story (see Disney).
Misleading, but to continue the analogy the source for reporting the prison guard rape would have been another guard who was arrested and sent to prison for reporting the crime. That's not a heck of a lot better.
I have a hard time believing that, especially the mention that they never encounter blocked content. My Chinese girlfriend frequents renren.com (the Chinese version of Facebook), and encounters a blocked video almost every week or two, always on things that aren't the slightest bit controversial.
She was unaware of the censorship on Baidu vs. Google though. Heck, she didn't even realize Google could be used for Chinese language searches.
I think the main cost would be the large power transformers between the power stations, substations and neighborhoods. You'd also need to replace half the power plants in Japan so that they generate power at a different frequency (or add a converter at each power plant which would also cost a significant amount of money). On top of that, you'd need to figure out some way to transition from one power network to the other, probably by building duplicate transformers and substations in an area, connecting it to the other grid then switching to it neighborhood by neighborhood. Doesn't seem feasible to me, especially when they need to spend at least $100 billion to recover from the disaster. Remember, the area that was destroyed uses the same grid as Tokyo and there is absolutely no way in the world you're going to get Tokyo to switch power systems at this point.
Similar experience for me. NASA had made an extra effort to get kids to be excited about space and the shuttle mission, so schools around the country tuned in to watch the launch live, especially first and second graders. It was the first time I had ever seen a shuttle launch live, although I had seen recorded launches on the news before.
I was in first grade and remember when the shuttle blew up, we (the kids) weren't sure what happened. We asked our teacher, but she teared up and turned the TV off. I can't remember what she said, but it was the only time I ever saw a teacher cry (a really nice, old country lady) and that stands out to me at least as much as seeing the shuttle explode.
I don't know what picture you're looking at, but I can clearly see the serial number on a couple of them. It is 151 1961-010641. The certificate has been personally verified by the person in charge of those records in Hawaii. I get the feeling you aren't even looking at the links provided to you.
What would be the list of facts that the non-Fox watchers are being mislead on?
All of the accusations I ever hear against mainstream media are along the lines of not covering certain stories, not outright misleading people on others (at least not on factual issues).
They're not really good arguments. It seems like anything less than letting everyone in the country get a chance to personally examine the birth certificate won't be satisfactory. Did you ever see Reagan's birth certificate in person or McCain's or anyone else other than your own or someone in your family? Where the heck is this even coming from? They even announced his birth in one of the local Honolulu papers at the time of his birth for crying out loud. I've yet to hear the conspiracy theory to explain that one away.
FYI, here's the account of a group that has personally examined his birth certificate: http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/born_in_the_usa.html
It still has to parse the question, search its enormous database to find the most probable answer then give it if it is certain enough to get it correct before pressing the button, not a trivial task for a computer.
And is the journalist who took the cellphone video (the father) now in any danger of arrest, or worse, from the government? Of course not.
You can, and are encouraged to, face the reality that in some respects some things simply are better in the US than in some other countries. Sure, in other ways it's worse and it might not be the best at any one thing. But to simply point at the occasional bad thing here and then say, "There, see it isn't so great here either" every single time some horrible thing happens elsewhere washes out reality to a certain extent by making equivalent any bad thing going on in a foreign country to the US.
In the US you have the absolute freedom to criticize the government as much as you want virtually any way you want so long as you don't threaten government buildings or employees with physical harm (or try to organize a riot for a similar purpose). You can organize non-violent protests, say how much you hate anything about the government or any political party, etc and not face any legal consequences. You could not possibly do either in a country like China, Russia or North Korea.
If a person escapes from an utterly awful country like North Korea he/she will not be sent back if discovered by US authorities, unlike China who certainly would send them back.
Should your fixed ICBM launch sites be taken out by a preemptive attack you would still have the ability to counterattack from your subs which are virtually impervious to a preemptive attack.
People are not walking away AND are happy with it. Yes, that's a positive endorsement.
Military veterans don't pay for their health care yet I've heard many of them complain about it.
Nobody is forced to use Medicare and it certainly isn't an insurance monopoly. People use it because it has low deductibles and is 'free' (or already paid for depending on your point of view). If it was run more like the health insurance for veterans a lot of people over 65 would probably opt for private insurance instead. However, it has a very high rate of satisfaction among people in the program so they don't have any reason to opt for a private insurance program.
I would compare it to Google. While Google isn't a monopoly, it has nearly all of the market for online searching in the western hemisphere. It isn't due to them using illegal business practices like Microsoft but by staying ahead of the curve and providing a superior product. If Microsoft had been more open and earned their market share through fair competition I don't think nearly as many people would have complained.
People in countries with universal healthcare provided by their government are almost always very happy with their programs because their monopolies are more like Google (ie, good quality) vs. Microsoft (bad quality). Typically, even in those countries it isn't a monopoly (such as in France and Germany where non-profit health insurance companies compete with each other).
It's already rationed whether you like it or not. No country has an infinite amount of resources to fund unlimited medical treatment. The question is how to use our limited medical resources to treat people. It's hard to imagine how the US uses our resources more efficiently than other first-world countries (based on cost per person, life expectancy, etc).
Medicare is 'rationed' but is also more popular than any other private insurance program in the US and is one of the most popular government programs.
He was the first non-white man elected president in the US. There were some strong, emotional reactions to that.
When a woman is first elected president I bet there will be a very similar reaction.
Heck, I bet there was a similar reaction when Reagan was elected, but it would take some research to determine this. He had a rather remarkable comeback to win his first presidential election and had the strong support of evangelicals.