You'd never have the folly committed last month, when a bomber was accidentally loaded up with nuclear weapons and flew across the country with them...
Let's hope to God it was accidental. No way to be sure -- if it was deliberate, surely they wouldn't admit it.
Not to get all paranoid, but weapons do get diverted into private hands. I can't find a link, but back in, oh, the late eighties, I remember reading about weapons diversions from Fort Bragg -- automatic rifles going over the wall and into the hands of white supremacists, something like that.
History has always been extremely biased (the winner writes the books) and tended to show ancient people as stupid compared to us, especially the ancient non-European people (here in the US at least, I'd guess that other countries have similar slants).
"We tend to scoff at the beliefs of the ancients. But we can't scoff at them personally, to their faces, and this is what annoys me." - Jack Handey
I used to do tech support at a major US university. I'd show up at the user's desk, flip the keyboard upside down... there's the password, taped to the underside of the keyboard. Hell, sometimes it was taped to the monitor. Not every time, of course -- a minority of users, really -- but often enough to make it a Bad Habit.
The solution is to have pasty white Counting Monks raised from birth in dark cellars, trained in Numbers and names, no english, groomed only for counting votes without bias; to count the votes properly.
This is fine until the Counting Monks rise up against us, carving bar codes into our living flesh with their razor-sharp talons, until blood and chads run in the street.
The "control" the US has is just keeping a copy of the DNS list. You can actually go up into your browser settings and use someone else's list if you really want to. If the rest of the world wants to use a new system, absolutely nothing is stopping them other than that if they get out of sync with the US, they might have pissed off users. The US doesn't have to 'give up' anything. The rest of the world just needs to point their browsers in a different direction.
Good point.
In this sense, the DNS system is like hard currency -- "a currency in which investors have confidence."
She added that there are about 6,000 public airports in the U.S., and most people are, on average, within 20 miles of one. The idea, she said, is to take advantage of this under-utilized infrastructure.
The major airport in my area (Minneapolis-Saint Paul) is not under-utilized. Quite the opposite. Air traffic has been rising for years, causing increasing strain on capacity.
And it's not just the runway capacity -- getting cars to and from the airport is a bigger hassle than ever.
At this rate, we're going to need a second major regional airport within twenty years, and the roadways to support it.
I'm no expert, but I believe (read this somewhere, don't have the reference at hand) that other metropolitan areas are facing the same problem. Maybe a lot of smaller airports are under-utilized, but not the big-city airports.
For several centuries, Islamic civilization hosted Jews and Christians without incident, allowing them to participate in the highest levels of society, while Christendom was engaged in Inquisitions. Extremist Islam is a recent interpretation of Islam: Wahhabism was reactionary response to what was widely seen as cultural as well as political colonialism and imperialism, and is very much connect to the history of European intervention particularly in the post 140 years or so.
FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III sure knows how to slay 'em on the college circuit:
I recently watched a video on YouTube about the impact of the Internet. And before we go any further, I will answer the question of everyone under the age of 25. Yes, those of us over a certain age are allowed to access YouTube.
And he's not alone in his youthful wisecracking -- it looks like the FBI, as an institution, has a wicked sense of humor:
In June of this year, we initiated Operation Bot Roast.
He gets paid to make ridiculous, outrageous and often times completely asinine claims based on speculation for the purpose of attracting viewers so ads can be sold.
In other words, he's somewhere between Fox News and World Wrestling Entertainment.
Things get more complicated when you have big companies and lawyers, but when you pay a company to do something it is still a bribe, perhaps not always legally but morally.
I agree about the moral aspect. But courts are supposed to operate on the basis of legal precedent, irrespective of morality.
Personally, I think it's a bribe. But the article doesn't use the words "dirty" or "bribe". All I'm asking for is clarification from someone who has the facts.
I wonder if the Feds are also interested in identifying stores which might be providing terrorist support services? Safe houses, money laundering, companionship in a lonely foreign land.
I can imagine the Feds saying "Okay, we data-mined one or two suspicious guys who shop at Sayyid's Market -- better keep Sayyid under surveillance. Wait a minute -- better flag all of Sayyid's customers as potential terrorists."
Nigeria's government has stepped in to stop the dirty deal.
I am not a lawyer, in Nigeria or anywhere else, but is this deal really "dirty"?
The article tells us little:
"After public statements from Mandriva officials implied the marketing deal is legally questionable, Microsoft said last week that it complies with international law and the law of the countries in which it operates."
Mandriva can "imply" that the deal is "legally questionable", but this tells us nearly nothing about the actual legal situation.
Setting aside reflexive Microsoft-bashing, this may be a case of business as usual, legitimately within the scope of the law.
Until someone clarifies the matter by citing actual law, "dirty" seems like an overstatement to me.
You just can't replicate the experience of a real live casino with the experience of an online browser. American Casinos, even Native American casinos, are more than just about gambling. They're an experience that is difficult to replicate.
Very true.
"Wine, Women and Song" -- a good casino offers these pleasures and more.
Slashdot Mirror
You'd never have the folly committed last month, when a bomber was accidentally loaded up with nuclear weapons and flew across the country with them ...
Let's hope to God it was accidental. No way to be sure -- if it was deliberate, surely they wouldn't admit it.
Not to get all paranoid, but weapons do get diverted into private hands. I can't find a link, but back in, oh, the late eighties, I remember reading about weapons diversions from Fort Bragg -- automatic rifles going over the wall and into the hands of white supremacists, something like that.
- kgj
You are aware that the vast majority of normal people who use the Internet actually enjoy the advertisements right? They click on the monkey.
Is this true? I remain unconvinced.
Shock the monkey, yes. Spank the monkey, absolutely. But click on the monkey? I dunno.
-kgj
History has always been extremely biased (the winner writes the books) and tended to show ancient people as stupid compared to us, especially the ancient non-European people (here in the US at least, I'd guess that other countries have similar slants).
"We tend to scoff at the beliefs of the ancients. But we can't scoff at them personally, to their faces, and this is what annoys me." - Jack Handey
-kgj
So the moral of the lesson is that ancient men weren't idiots.
"We tend to scoff at the beliefs of the ancients. But we can't scoff at them personally, to their faces, and this is what annoys me." - Jack Handey
-kgj
"It's a very small vocal group bothered by this issue."
- Vint Cerf
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."
- Margaret Mead
-kgj
Not hard at all -- ! Goes like this: [Okay, I was wrong. It wasn't easy, and he won the debate.]
-kgj
Also consider the human factors angle.
... there's the password, taped to the underside of the keyboard. Hell, sometimes it was taped to the monitor. Not every time, of course -- a minority of users, really -- but often enough to make it a Bad Habit.
I used to do tech support at a major US university. I'd show up at the user's desk, flip the keyboard upside down
-kgj
The solution is to have pasty white Counting Monks raised from birth in dark cellars, trained in Numbers and names, no english, groomed only for counting votes without bias; to count the votes properly.
This is fine until the Counting Monks rise up against us, carving bar codes into our living flesh with their razor-sharp talons, until blood and chads run in the street.
Then you'll wish you'd opted for SkyNet instead.
-kgj
But the US has *more* (*cough*better*cough*) nukes and subs. And land mass to absorb the UK's nukes.
The U.S. won't nuke Canada -- not the Athabasca Oil Sands, anyway.
-kgj
The "control" the US has is just keeping a copy of the DNS list. You can actually go up into your browser settings and use someone else's list if you really want to. If the rest of the world wants to use a new system, absolutely nothing is stopping them other than that if they get out of sync with the US, they might have pissed off users. The US doesn't have to 'give up' anything. The rest of the world just needs to point their browsers in a different direction.
Good point.
In this sense, the DNS system is like hard currency -- "a currency in which investors have confidence."
-kgj
She added that there are about 6,000 public airports in the U.S., and most people are, on average, within 20 miles of one. The idea, she said, is to take advantage of this under-utilized infrastructure.
The major airport in my area (Minneapolis-Saint Paul) is not under-utilized. Quite the opposite. Air traffic has been rising for years, causing increasing strain on capacity.
And it's not just the runway capacity -- getting cars to and from the airport is a bigger hassle than ever.
At this rate, we're going to need a second major regional airport within twenty years, and the roadways to support it.
I'm no expert, but I believe (read this somewhere, don't have the reference at hand) that other metropolitan areas are facing the same problem. Maybe a lot of smaller airports are under-utilized, but not the big-city airports.
-kgj
Does it make sense (from government's point of view) to treat corporations as above the law?
Maybe -- if, from a future perspective, it turns out that corporations are the successors to nation-states.
-kgj
For several centuries, Islamic civilization hosted Jews and Christians without incident, allowing them to participate in the highest levels of society, while Christendom was engaged in Inquisitions. Extremist Islam is a recent interpretation of Islam: Wahhabism was reactionary response to what was widely seen as cultural as well as political colonialism and imperialism, and is very much connect to the history of European intervention particularly in the post 140 years or so.
Hear hear! Well said, my friend.
-kgj
-kgj
He gets paid to make ridiculous, outrageous and often times completely asinine claims based on speculation for the purpose of attracting viewers so ads can be sold.
In other words, he's somewhere between Fox News and World Wrestling Entertainment.
-kgj
This is very rational and clear minded. It also goes against the inflammatory summary. We don't take kindly to your type around here.
... but how ya gonna keep 'em down on the farm, after they've seen SlashDot?
Yeah, I noticed. Guess I never should've left the Vulcan Academy
-kgj
Things get more complicated when you have big companies and lawyers, but when you pay a company to do something it is still a bribe, perhaps not always legally but morally.
I agree about the moral aspect. But courts are supposed to operate on the basis of legal precedent, irrespective of morality.
Personally, I think it's a bribe. But the article doesn't use the words "dirty" or "bribe". All I'm asking for is clarification from someone who has the facts.
-kgj
I wonder if the Feds are also interested in identifying stores which might be providing terrorist support services? Safe houses, money laundering, companionship in a lonely foreign land.
I can imagine the Feds saying "Okay, we data-mined one or two suspicious guys who shop at Sayyid's Market -- better keep Sayyid under surveillance. Wait a minute -- better flag all of Sayyid's customers as potential terrorists."
-kgj
Nigeria's government has stepped in to stop the dirty deal.
I am not a lawyer, in Nigeria or anywhere else, but is this deal really "dirty"?
The article tells us little:
"After public statements from Mandriva officials implied the marketing deal is legally questionable, Microsoft said last week that it complies with international law and the law of the countries in which it operates."
Mandriva can "imply" that the deal is "legally questionable", but this tells us nearly nothing about the actual legal situation.
Setting aside reflexive Microsoft-bashing, this may be a case of business as usual, legitimately within the scope of the law.
Until someone clarifies the matter by citing actual law, "dirty" seems like an overstatement to me.
-kgj
I predict that for at least the duration of life on Earth, we will not hear of any surveillance program being shut down by order of the President.
I predict that we will hear about surveillance programs being shut down -- and that what we hear will be untrue.
-kgj
"They're making a list, and checking it twice ... "
Gonna find out who's naughty or nice
TSA is coming to town
Oops, my mistake -- they're not actually checking the list twice.
-kj
Neal Stephenson, in Snow Crash, asserts that the Israelites were monolatrists, not monotheists.
Monolatrism requires believers to worship one true god, but acknowledges the existence of multiple gods.
-kgj
Perhaps it's a limited hangout -- reveal some skeletons, bury other skeletons deeper.
-kgj
"... a mechanic's car is always the last to get fixed."
Perhaps it's more a case of practitioners spreading the disease?
Concentrate a lot of geeks (and computers) in a confined space, ripe conditions for viral mutation.
-kgj
You just can't replicate the experience of a real live casino with the experience of an online browser. American Casinos, even Native American casinos, are more than just about gambling. They're an experience that is difficult to replicate.
Very true.
"Wine, Women and Song" -- a good casino offers these pleasures and more.
-kgj