A major point of the article is that many of the key (and repeatedly published) 'facts' about the bomb are quite wrong.
And that, as it happens, is a very good (and probably entirely deliberate) state of affairs. A desire for historical accuracy is one thing, but what he's doing here isn't beneficial to all of us who really don't like mushroom clouds. Some things are best left a little gray.
Of course, if he could do it, anyone could do it, but one military basic is "never let the enemy get something for free." Make him pay, with time if nothing else.
my townhome complex signed an exclusive deal with Comcast a couple years ago, ostensibly to get better rates. Of course that didn't happen: I ended up paying more for my service than people only a half mile away who were not in the complex. Something smelled there, let me tell you.
Your bargaining skills? *ducks*
Ha... like I had anything to do with it. I just got a letter in the mail proclaiming how wonderful the condo association was for working out this great deal.
Hahaha, as a European I find it amusing how your half-baked, badly implemented safety nets are taken as evidence that there shouldn't be any at all. And we always get flak for being wasteful socialist commies.
I had to visit a welfare office, too, at one stage. It was embarrasing but helped me get through that bad period. It's not like our system is perfect but I'm grateful and now happily pay my taxes to help others in the same position. It also helps to know that only the absolute minimum is spent on non-productive stuff like defence.
But what we really need is a version tracking and autentication system for federal legislation to complement it.
Yes, and in addition to that, the BVS (Bill Versioning System, colloquially known as the Bullshit Versioning System) would be keyed to compact devices that would be permanently attached to all Congresspeople and their staff while said Congressperson is in office. Each time an American citizen visits the site, notices a line item that he doesn't like that pertains to a bill submitted by a particular Congresscritter, he can click a "Bullshit!" button. As the number of clicks mount, an increasingly greater voltage would be applied to that Critter's person and his staff via the aforementioned devices. At a certain point, the pain would force the line item to be removed.
Now, to be fair about this, the system would have to categorize all line items as "related to purpose of bill" or "unrelated to purpose of bill". Only items that are "unrelated" would be shock-inducing.
This might or might not improve the quality of governance, but at least it would allow us to make them suffer as much as they make us suffer.
I fail to see how transparancy in spending solves the fundamental problem.
It doesn't. But some would see this as a necessary first step. We can't fix what we don't know about, and if nothing else, this might make a few Congressrats think twice. Then again, it might not, but it probably can't hurt.
I agree. People often tend to confuse "safety net" with "lifestyle", and it is not my obligation to provide a living for someone who does not want to work..
It also helps to know that only the absolute minimum is spent on non-productive stuff like defence.
Sadly true . . . why would you waste money on defense if you knew that the USA, Europe's favorite whipping boy, would bail you out of any real military mess that came along?
And that is a very real form of foreign aid: funds we spent on a military buildup they could invest in peacetime pursuits. I don't really have a problem with that: we didn't have to take the course we did, but then again, we didn't want another World War. So far, that hasn't happened, and it's not because European nations have learned any lessons. It's just that they've known, since 1945, that the U.S. would put paid to any nation or nations wishing to follow in Hitler's footsteps. As I pointed out elsewhere in this thread, that condition won't last much longer. At some point, the European Union (if it can maintain cohesiveness) will have to look towards its own mutual defense. Always assuming that one of their own doesn't start something again... Europe has a rather bloody history.
The world is still not a friendly place, no matter how much we try to sugarcoat the truth.
Here we go again: Europeans with mod points and a chip on their shoulder. Somebody needs to read the moderator guidelines. There's no "-1 Disagree" mod because that's not what moderation is about. Dipsticks.
Will we see the day when Britannica can be edited almost instantly while editing Wikipedia requires fighting bureaucracy, patience and the right contacts?
Sure, I'd say it's probably inevitable at this point. It is human nature to overcomplicate things to an insane degree, because we have a penchant for fiddling: we just can't leave a good thing alone. It's one of the things we do best. And when that happens to Wikipedia, when it has become too topheavy and hidebound to be useful, someone will start a new project that will attempt to learn from the lessons of the old, and go from there.
Nothing really new to see here, when you get right down to it.
So, okay, we got soaked for some two hundred billion in tax writeoffs. If the Feds really want to make good on that, just allow for actual competition in the national broadband market. No incumbents holding onto their last mile monopoly by hook-or-crook, make it clear that if you enter a region you must serve everyone in that region (outlaw cherry-picking) and see what these guys can do when forced to go head-to-head. Right now, for example, I'm in an area that was previously served only by Comcastoff. In fact, my townhome complex signed an exclusive deal with Comcast a couple years ago, ostensibly to get better rates. Of course that didn't happen: I ended up paying more for my service than people only a half mile away who were not in the complex. Something smelled there, let me tell you.
So, now AT&T U-Verse is in the area (I'm switching: I'm about fifty feet from the local VRAD box and I'm shooting for the 18 Mbit/sec tier... wish me luck.) Last Monday in the mail I received a postcard from U-Verse confirming my installation date, which was cool. Hilariously, there was also a postcard from Comcast boldly proclaiming that they had doubled my download speed FOR FREE! Really!!! Nevermind that I'm getting more speed for about half the price from U-Verse, for now.
Don't let the FCC fool you... competition is good for consumers and ultimately good for providers.
In the UK Thatcher had the foresight to see that heavy manufacturing was a dead-end for the UK.
No, she may have foreseen the inevitable, but that does not mean that giving up industry was the correct move.
The US needs to have the same balls to pull the plug and move on.
Um... and go where? How do you feed, clothe and house three hundred million-odd people if you don't manufacture goods and trade with other countries. Do you know what you're talking about, at all?
I'm guessing that you're not American, and would have no problem if the United States' economy collapsed completely and its citizens lived in hovels. I mean, looking around at other peoples and places, it's easy to see how having no heavy industry (or throwing away that which you built) improves the standard of living for a country. Sure. "Move on" he says. Move on to what? The so-called "service economy?" What does that mean? It means one thing: that you continue to borrow money to maintain some semblance of your previous lifestyle without actually having the means to sustain it.
Eventually the markers come due, and if you can't pay them... you're fucked. "Moving on" is not an option, I'm afraid. There's nowhere else to go.
To paraphrase a certain Sith Lord: This will be a day long remembered... it has seen the end of Shrubbery, and will soon see the end of his Administration.
Would you believe that I make errors to avoid offending the Gods with my perfection?
Yes, Max, I would. That does not, of course, mean that you're actually perfect, or that you haven't offended the Gods anyway. They're pretty easy to piss off, particularly that Zeus character. Have you heard any rumblings like distant lightning lately?
Hahaha, as an American, I find it amusing that Europeans aren't scared absolutely shitless when they realize that the United States will eventually be unable to provide for their defense. There are a lot of would-be Hitlers in the world who are just waiting until that day comes, and frankly I don't see you taking any steps to deal with that inevitability.
You're one smug bastard. You do realize, don't you, that the trillions of U.S. dollars that have gone into Europe's economy, paid for Europe's defense, etc. etc. etc. are an example of the "safety net" that the United States has provided since the end of World War II? Honestly, if we'd just let you guys stew in your own juices, hadn't gone toe-to-toe with the old Soviet Union, and had used some of those resources to help shape our own future we'd be a lot better off right now. We didn't, and it's cost us.
So grow up, smell the coffee, and realize that every nation has different priorities, has both good and bad aspects to their political and economic systems, and that at the end of the day... you aren't as superior as you think you are.
He said that along time ago before the economic crisis. get your facts straight. As far as H1-B's they should stop the program entirely.
Yes, and if it turns out that our tech companies actually can't get enough qualified workers, they'll just have to wait until our schools turn enough of them out. In the meantime, salaries will rise as companies compete for the available talent. Then, if the schools turn out too many, which often happens, salaries will drop until the market finds some way to absorb the extra workers. That was how the cycle has worked for a long, long time, until a few large, sleazy companies thought they found a way around it, and lobbied Congress to implement their "solution." That solution is costing us, though. It's costing them, too, in many ways, but most are so focused on the immediate bottom line that they can't look far enough ahead to see the inevitable consequence of their greed.
It's the age old "America does what is best for America" mantra.
Which is different from the old "India does what is best for India" mantra or the old "China does what is best for China" mantra. Get over yourself: why do you feel that America should somehow behave in an indescribably selfless manner, with all other nations exempt from this ridiculous pseudo-morality?
There are few Americans who have any illusions or ideals about a "free market". Most of us see it for what it's always been: a way to increase wealth disparity in this country and eliminate the middle class. That's always been the case, and it's only a couple of errant Presidents and a mindless, bloodsucking Congress that has brought us to this point. So don't hold up some fictional concept of our "ideals", and say that we're hypocritical for not living up to them. That hypocrisy is a mental fabrication on your part. Period. How can you lump an entire nation together and say "we're not living up to our free market ideals"? I mean... what?
Furthermore, let me explain another bit of reality to you: our Federal Government is not obligated, in any way, shape, or form, to be "fair" to people of other countries. The fact that you believe it so is just incredible: I guarantee that you do not expect (or want!) your government to be "fair" to outsiders. Unless you're an idiot, you want it to put your needs first because, like us, that's what you pay it for!
Go back to watching Fox News. It's obviously where you get your knowledge of America from.
How come when everything is going alright the free market reigns supreme, but the second peopel are getting laid off the American workers get priority.
Um... because our Federal Government is paid by us, the American citizens, to operate in our best interests, not in the interests of foreign nationals? Does that answer your question? America is not some candy store, even though everyone here who is not American seems to feel entitled to a share in it. It's our country, whether you like that or not, and just like every other nation on Earth, we get to decide under what terms those from other countries get to come here and work, or if they do at all. If you don't like that, go somewhere else.
Jesus H. Christ do you have a sense of entitlement.
Slashdot Mirror
A major point of the article is that many of the key (and repeatedly published) 'facts' about the bomb are quite wrong.
And that, as it happens, is a very good (and probably entirely deliberate) state of affairs. A desire for historical accuracy is one thing, but what he's doing here isn't beneficial to all of us who really don't like mushroom clouds. Some things are best left a little gray.
Of course, if he could do it, anyone could do it, but one military basic is "never let the enemy get something for free." Make him pay, with time if nothing else.
How quaint the 20th Century already seems.
I'm not sure when your from, but this is the 21st century
Right, which is why the old 20th Century seems quaint.
Weapons grade uranium/plutonium doesn't exactly grow on trees
Unless you live near 3 Mile Island!
That's actually a really bad example, even for a joke.
Should have been called the CAT (Cant Always Tell).
Yeah ... I bet it runs Linux with a Maxwell Daemon to process the data in the background.
my townhome complex signed an exclusive deal with Comcast a couple years ago, ostensibly to get better rates. Of course that didn't happen: I ended up paying more for my service than people only a half mile away who were not in the complex. Something smelled there, let me tell you.
Your bargaining skills? *ducks*
Ha ... like I had anything to do with it. I just got a letter in the mail proclaiming how wonderful the condo association was for working out this great deal.
Hahaha, as a European I find it amusing how your half-baked, badly implemented safety nets are taken as evidence that there shouldn't be any at all. And we always get flak for being wasteful socialist commies.
I had to visit a welfare office, too, at one stage. It was embarrasing but helped me get through that bad period. It's not like our system is perfect but I'm grateful and now happily pay my taxes to help others in the same position. It also helps to know that only the absolute minimum is spent on non-productive stuff like defence.
Interesting? This is pure flamebait.
But what we really need is a version tracking and autentication system for federal legislation to complement it.
Yes, and in addition to that, the BVS (Bill Versioning System, colloquially known as the Bullshit Versioning System) would be keyed to compact devices that would be permanently attached to all Congresspeople and their staff while said Congressperson is in office. Each time an American citizen visits the site, notices a line item that he doesn't like that pertains to a bill submitted by a particular Congresscritter, he can click a "Bullshit!" button. As the number of clicks mount, an increasingly greater voltage would be applied to that Critter's person and his staff via the aforementioned devices. At a certain point, the pain would force the line item to be removed.
Now, to be fair about this, the system would have to categorize all line items as "related to purpose of bill" or "unrelated to purpose of bill". Only items that are "unrelated" would be shock-inducing.
This might or might not improve the quality of governance, but at least it would allow us to make them suffer as much as they make us suffer.
I fail to see how transparancy in spending solves the fundamental problem.
It doesn't. But some would see this as a necessary first step. We can't fix what we don't know about, and if nothing else, this might make a few Congressrats think twice. Then again, it might not, but it probably can't hurt.
I agree. People often tend to confuse "safety net" with "lifestyle", and it is not my obligation to provide a living for someone who does not want to work..
It also helps to know that only the absolute minimum is spent on non-productive stuff like defence.
Sadly true . . . why would you waste money on defense if you knew that the USA, Europe's favorite whipping boy, would bail you out of any real military mess that came along?
And that is a very real form of foreign aid: funds we spent on a military buildup they could invest in peacetime pursuits. I don't really have a problem with that: we didn't have to take the course we did, but then again, we didn't want another World War. So far, that hasn't happened, and it's not because European nations have learned any lessons. It's just that they've known, since 1945, that the U.S. would put paid to any nation or nations wishing to follow in Hitler's footsteps. As I pointed out elsewhere in this thread, that condition won't last much longer. At some point, the European Union (if it can maintain cohesiveness) will have to look towards its own mutual defense. Always assuming that one of their own doesn't start something again ... Europe has a rather bloody history.
The world is still not a friendly place, no matter how much we try to sugarcoat the truth.
Here we go again: Europeans with mod points and a chip on their shoulder. Somebody needs to read the moderator guidelines. There's no "-1 Disagree" mod because that's not what moderation is about. Dipsticks.
Will we see the day when Britannica can be edited almost instantly while editing Wikipedia requires fighting bureaucracy, patience and the right contacts?
Sure, I'd say it's probably inevitable at this point. It is human nature to overcomplicate things to an insane degree, because we have a penchant for fiddling: we just can't leave a good thing alone. It's one of the things we do best. And when that happens to Wikipedia, when it has become too topheavy and hidebound to be useful, someone will start a new project that will attempt to learn from the lessons of the old, and go from there.
Nothing really new to see here, when you get right down to it.
So, okay, we got soaked for some two hundred billion in tax writeoffs. If the Feds really want to make good on that, just allow for actual competition in the national broadband market. No incumbents holding onto their last mile monopoly by hook-or-crook, make it clear that if you enter a region you must serve everyone in that region (outlaw cherry-picking) and see what these guys can do when forced to go head-to-head. Right now, for example, I'm in an area that was previously served only by Comcastoff. In fact, my townhome complex signed an exclusive deal with Comcast a couple years ago, ostensibly to get better rates. Of course that didn't happen: I ended up paying more for my service than people only a half mile away who were not in the complex. Something smelled there, let me tell you.
... wish me luck.) Last Monday in the mail I received a postcard from U-Verse confirming my installation date, which was cool. Hilariously, there was also a postcard from Comcast boldly proclaiming that they had doubled my download speed FOR FREE! Really!!! Nevermind that I'm getting more speed for about half the price from U-Verse, for now.
... competition is good for consumers and ultimately good for providers.
So, now AT&T U-Verse is in the area (I'm switching: I'm about fifty feet from the local VRAD box and I'm shooting for the 18 Mbit/sec tier
Don't let the FCC fool you
Not to worry, our flag lapel pin factories have all been moved to China. Freedom is safe for another day!
Yes, but we've only moved the Red Flag lapel pin factories to China. The White Flag factories are still here, getting ready for the occupation.
In the UK Thatcher had the foresight to see that heavy manufacturing was a dead-end for the UK.
No, she may have foreseen the inevitable, but that does not mean that giving up industry was the correct move.
The US needs to have the same balls to pull the plug and move on.
Um ... and go where? How do you feed, clothe and house three hundred million-odd people if you don't manufacture goods and trade with other countries. Do you know what you're talking about, at all?
... you're fucked. "Moving on" is not an option, I'm afraid. There's nowhere else to go.
I'm guessing that you're not American, and would have no problem if the United States' economy collapsed completely and its citizens lived in hovels. I mean, looking around at other peoples and places, it's easy to see how having no heavy industry (or throwing away that which you built) improves the standard of living for a country. Sure. "Move on" he says. Move on to what? The so-called "service economy?" What does that mean? It means one thing: that you continue to borrow money to maintain some semblance of your previous lifestyle without actually having the means to sustain it.
Eventually the markers come due, and if you can't pay them
To paraphrase a certain Sith Lord: This will be a day long remembered ... it has seen the end of Shrubbery, and will soon see the end of his Administration.
Would you believe that I make errors to avoid offending the Gods with my perfection?
Yes, Max, I would. That does not, of course, mean that you're actually perfect, or that you haven't offended the Gods anyway. They're pretty easy to piss off, particularly that Zeus character. Have you heard any rumblings like distant lightning lately?
Hahaha, as a European I find it amusing
Hahaha, as an American, I find it amusing that Europeans aren't scared absolutely shitless when they realize that the United States will eventually be unable to provide for their defense. There are a lot of would-be Hitlers in the world who are just waiting until that day comes, and frankly I don't see you taking any steps to deal with that inevitability.
... you aren't as superior as you think you are.
You're one smug bastard. You do realize, don't you, that the trillions of U.S. dollars that have gone into Europe's economy, paid for Europe's defense, etc. etc. etc. are an example of the "safety net" that the United States has provided since the end of World War II? Honestly, if we'd just let you guys stew in your own juices, hadn't gone toe-to-toe with the old Soviet Union, and had used some of those resources to help shape our own future we'd be a lot better off right now. We didn't, and it's cost us.
So grow up, smell the coffee, and realize that every nation has different priorities, has both good and bad aspects to their political and economic systems, and that at the end of the day
That useless, senile cow Diane Feinstein
Couldn't have put it better m'self.
They are threatening to file criminal charges. Someone in the IT department even lightly suggested that a large sum of cash would "fix" the situation.
Get that on tape, and dollars-to-doughnuts this nonsense will disappear overnight. That's extortion on the part of a public figure.
Or if you're one of the smart ones to buy a laptop with an MXM slot you could just open the laptop up and toss in a new card.
HP carries a few.
Yeah, I know ... but out of the millions of people who buy laptops every year, how many would even know what that is?
Flamebait? Idiot ... it was a joke, son. Christ, grow a sense of humor.
He said that along time ago before the economic crisis. get your facts straight. As far as H1-B's they should stop the program entirely.
Yes, and if it turns out that our tech companies actually can't get enough qualified workers, they'll just have to wait until our schools turn enough of them out. In the meantime, salaries will rise as companies compete for the available talent. Then, if the schools turn out too many, which often happens, salaries will drop until the market finds some way to absorb the extra workers. That was how the cycle has worked for a long, long time, until a few large, sleazy companies thought they found a way around it, and lobbied Congress to implement their "solution." That solution is costing us, though. It's costing them, too, in many ways, but most are so focused on the immediate bottom line that they can't look far enough ahead to see the inevitable consequence of their greed.
It's the age old "America does what is best for America" mantra.
Which is different from the old "India does what is best for India" mantra or the old "China does what is best for China" mantra. Get over yourself: why do you feel that America should somehow behave in an indescribably selfless manner, with all other nations exempt from this ridiculous pseudo-morality?
... what?
There are few Americans who have any illusions or ideals about a "free market". Most of us see it for what it's always been: a way to increase wealth disparity in this country and eliminate the middle class. That's always been the case, and it's only a couple of errant Presidents and a mindless, bloodsucking Congress that has brought us to this point. So don't hold up some fictional concept of our "ideals", and say that we're hypocritical for not living up to them. That hypocrisy is a mental fabrication on your part. Period. How can you lump an entire nation together and say "we're not living up to our free market ideals"? I mean
Furthermore, let me explain another bit of reality to you: our Federal Government is not obligated, in any way, shape, or form, to be "fair" to people of other countries. The fact that you believe it so is just incredible: I guarantee that you do not expect (or want!) your government to be "fair" to outsiders. Unless you're an idiot, you want it to put your needs first because, like us, that's what you pay it for!
Go back to watching Fox News. It's obviously where you get your knowledge of America from.
How come when everything is going alright the free market reigns supreme, but the second peopel are getting laid off the American workers get priority.
Um ... because our Federal Government is paid by us, the American citizens, to operate in our best interests, not in the interests of foreign nationals? Does that answer your question? America is not some candy store, even though everyone here who is not American seems to feel entitled to a share in it. It's our country, whether you like that or not, and just like every other nation on Earth, we get to decide under what terms those from other countries get to come here and work, or if they do at all. If you don't like that, go somewhere else.
Jesus H. Christ do you have a sense of entitlement.