US turkey are messed up birds that don't live a few years past their slaughter date (making pardons silly.) Drugs, bad food, and run away breeding and now genetic engineering make me not want to touch a US produced bird. 13 lbs for a turkey was not odd 100 years ago; now the USA mutants are near 30 lbs!
As for shipping them to china and back for the labor, that likely isn't too good for them either (aside from side issues.)
I wonder if there is a sub-grade for Turkey for McDonalds? They get their own grade beef so they can literally feed you more shit than the FDA grades allow. Its ok, they cook it to spec-- eating a little shit won't hurt you...
If you recall or can look up the old war time propaganda from WW2... It was actually true - it was a responsible citizen's DUTY to buy war bonds and pay their taxes! It was how the war was won.
Naturally there are limits on both sides; unfortunately, we have both extremes today - a selfish public who wants everything for nothing AND a corrupt government (which is not held accountable by the public or the 'system'.)
#1 source of spam is the USA They didn't do enough plus they must have had loopholes.
I managed a few email servers with a few hundred users back when the law was passed. When it went into effect (not when it passed) I saw within a few days a jump in spam of about 50-75% (trying to recall) it jumped up to about 2-3 times during the rest the year; it didn't rise that quickly in previous years. I don't think it has risen as quickly since then but I don't know.
Connection? I don't know. That is what I observed.
Since the USA is the source for most spam, other measure should be taken besides kicking down the door of some old lady who's windows PC was hijacked by a dozen spammers.
At least that spam king was taken care of since the passing of the law. The law didn't do it; it just sent him over the edge and he took care of himself with a bullet and removed his genes from the genepool... (BTW, he lived in the USA)
It shouldn't take much to realize it takes a lot to get coal from the ground to the steam turbine's furnace.
Unlike nuke power, wind power costs are known and could be estimated. Furthermore, wind power prices will go down and they have not been subsidized by government like COAL is. Sanity dictates that conventional power either should lose its welfare or green power should be able to get the same level of welfare.
Welfare aside (which is a big concession,) wind power has been slowly growing for decades despite the opposition and extreme difficulty in getting financing. THIS HAS BEEN AN UPHILL BATTLE (avoiding a wind metaphor.) I think its fair to say that once you remove the major hurdles to wind power it can compete with coal.
Wind is free. Coal is not. Coal plants require a lot of upkeep and are more complex. Wind is simple and distributed and it likely has lower upkeep.
The most common ERROR people make is the difference between startup and operating costs. Solar and wind have high upfront costs; equal or lower upkeep and ZERO fuel costs. The margin of victory is determined by how long it runs and the upkeep costs (which should be competitive.)
Operating and construction costs are not that high compared with the revenue; possibly this is why governments don't care about funding the building of conventional power plants.
The real BIG problem downtime. These problems are solved in a few ways TODAY and a few others are near ready (if not already in use somewhere) these new systems are closer to reality than clean coal or new versions of nuke power/waste. If added to the cost, then I think coal would win before carbon taxes start.
Pump water uphill: ready now. Flow Batteries: in use now. Flywheels: DoE worked on it; should be ready but likely to be costly. Heat storage: in use.
These all promote a NEW market of grid storage which could be part of the existing grid power money games.
Smart Grid - next gen: decades long and expensive but NEEDED because the USA grid is worn out and primitive. HF DC is the way to go! well, for distances over 300km anyhow (again, I think the savings likely over the lifespan of the gear make it better for shorter distances. less wires, smaller towers, lighter wires, easier to go underground... the reason AC was used was because of the electronics of the day. Today DC wins.)
ATnT was the biggest contributor to the party conventions (well to the DFL; don't remember if they were #1 for GOP.)
Fix the money and then politicians who will not compromise their ethics can get somewhere. When they compromise in order to win it makes you wonder just how far they will let their ethics lapse and if they will get worse with prolonged exposure to corporatism.
Its not the danger of the waste that continues to be a problem despite all these claims there are solutions "5 years away" etc. The MAJOR problem with nuclear power is the COST end to end makes it too expensive unless you provide it a large corporate welfare program.
I haven't seen anybody address let alone prove that a cost effective nuclear power solution that has been done.
My 2nd biggest problem is that it is centralized power that is overly complex.
Coffee is one of the top traded commodities in the world, I've even heard it listed as #2 just behind oil. So does this mean Coffee will get the #1 spot that much sooner?
So... will the USA have to force the world to buy coffee in US Dollars in order to prop up its dead currency? (FYI: why do you think it's kept going this long-- its the oil.)
Colleges are supposed to TEACH understanding so one can discover and solve their own problems and essentially train themselves on the grunt level stuff (not that training may still save time.)
TRADE schools are supposed to TRAIN workers to get the job done. Understanding is not required beyond what is mandatory to the trade. (I know I'm oversimplifying the difference.)
CS is NOT supposed to train you for industry! Colleges are being undermined for their focus theory because people are mistaking a college for a TRADE SCHOOL.
Theory applies indirectly to industry. Its up to industry to understand that a CS major has to learn trade type stuff on the job; some are realizing the CS degree is less important than real experience.
The big question is should CS be an offshoot of math and go back to its theoretical roots?? Should a TRADE like path be used instead where you have apprentices and masters - because becoming a master programmer is actually akin to a TRADE like carpentry?
Why should 1 model of career development dominate each offshoot specialization? (other than the bias for academic institutions to expand and remain relevant even when they are not best suited.)
Would development of computer worker unions help address the problem? For example, local unions for plumbing, pipefitting, painting, etc. have an apprenticeship model for career development - the academic model doesn't work their careers.
Conspiracy is what politicians do for a living and anybody thinking otherwise is a sucker (and a typical American. --hint to mods-- that is how a troll posting is written.)
You criticize my conspiracy 'theory' while presenting your own conspiracy theory. Any form of blockade (especially an Oil one) against a nation at war is an act of war. Supply chain is the KEY to winning wars you know.
FDR and his staff collaborated on many schemes to get the USA into WW2 and their intention to do so is not in dispute. Japan took the bait before Germany; I don't care what FDR said to either nation, his actions to both nations were hostile and they obviously knew it (while the American public did not.)
If this is a negative collaboration then FDR's actions are by definition conspiracy.
The only politically accepted socialism in America is corporate socialism (and I'm not just talking about the recent bailout; it has been the largest 'welfare' expense of them all - for over a generation too.)
FDR was forward thinking but had some of the biggest problems to solve - making all else seem relatively insignificant. Avoiding WW2 was popular opinion! Provoking Japan to get the USA in WW2 early WAS actually long term thinking on FDR's part (and sneaky.) The Nazi's would have eventually attacked an unprepared USA and likely won (if they waited a few decades.)
NASA wastes tons of money. Bush redirected NASA; which should ring alarm bells... Didn't anybody notice that during the rise of earth science in politics Bush undermined NASA's role and aimed them towards a costly fast track to mars? Don't get suckered by Mars! Complain and get them to dump Mars and support better launch technology and earth science.
The Department of War (aka DoD since they got P.R.) can't have its budget cut due to corruption. See "Why We Fight" for an introduction on this topic.
USA Dollar is only alive because it is Oil backed. Green energy fundamentally undermines this.
How about no more bailouts? They are ready to do another one (they actually did 2 already;) however, the last one was larger the Marshall Plan, the Louisiana Purchase, the moon shot, the 80s S&L (Bush's brother,) the Korean War, the New Deal, the 1st Iraq war, the Vietnam War, and NASA budget (all years) cost less (adjusted for inflation.)
Nobody explored the impact in the past what makes you think people would do so now? (and for those that do, did anybody listen to them?)
Exchange one problem for another future one. That's human politics.
(birds are a non issue; bats are a problem that some research grants can work on solving while we fight like hell to get daft city officials to allow 'unsightly' wind towers.)
Not that anybody likes CS theory; Computer Science is actually well suited for dealing with voting issues!
This including recommending the BAN of computers on security grounds.
Human vote counting systems can be developed (and even simulated and tested.) CS work on distributed systems could be useful (or at least prove impossibility of finding ideal solutions.)
Math nuts have been working on voting systems that beat the silly 2 party mess. Voters understand reality show/web ratings as well as Olympic ratings they can vote by ranking.
Me, I think a simple hand count of subsets (randomly defined) TWICE and then a repeat on sets that do not match would work reasonably well.
While we are at it, new problems could be proposed, such as limitations on redistricting instead of developing algs to maximize a party's influence at the expense of sensible district boundaries. Could be something as simple as limiting districts to 5 sided polygons or equal area (doesn't have to be easy to solve; you know parties will spend money on maximization software, the key is to make that less useful to them.)
Other issues such as digitally signing ballots (which would be a good idea as a method for validation of money; naturally, not 'fool' proof but better than the easy to duplicate stuff that exists now... They can clean $5 and reprint $100 bills from it and fool most places.)
Going a little off topic; I'd like to see a representation study showing what ratios are most effective for communicating with your rep. The foolish USA capped the rep count long ago - its not like the reps would be any less effective if there were more of them (at least it would cost more to bribe and lobby them.)
General rules or guidelines as well, like saying that power should be proportional to how diffuse the representation is, etc.
There is a HUGE portion of the population that has character disorders where they shift blame away from themselves not just by default but as a life long coping mechanism. These people will most likely always remain this way and most will not even become that aware. Some say the emotion of shame is worse than fear; this could be why this coping mechanism is so common.?
Most of these people will strongly oppose the truth and when they can no longer defend their position (which requires going beyond reasonable) they will rationalize themselves an excuse. Many reasons as to why, but I simply think that these self lies are just the path of least resistance as opposed to facing a life long state of character.
Society ills such as global warming or over population are difficult for a person to dodge responsibility which makes defense more difficult and so I think promotes a strong offensive to remove the whole criticism.
This stuff is more visible during elections; and will give John "Maverick" more votes than he deserves today.
Clearly one can not get in into deep and fuzzy topics such as this without leaving out details or satisfying hard science types in a comment post.
The US military thought there was something to it or they wouldn't have tried it long ago and continue to find ways to use it. If it works, then they will continue to use it for recruiting, training, desensitization, etc. Good luck if you will get all the details behind their work on this stuff but its quite likely the biggest place for data on this stuff; at least in terms of sample size.
The whole thing is silly on 1 front and has a basis in reality on another so we keep wondering in the dark without an abstract model to help discriminate in this clearly fuzzy area of understanding.
Well, I was doing a wish list off the top of my head; although, given the poor designs on many products I tend to think they don't put much more time into it.
Its a binary switch. When on, the phone is silent and the answer button does not work (but it still vibrates.) In order to ANSWER or USE the phone, you must slide the switch.
Simple: When active, there is no point in placing the phone in silent / hold mode; therefore, the silent/hold switch is useless and can serve a secondary function as a speaker toggle switch. After completing the call, the user will have to double slide the switch if they were in speaker and wish to return to silent/hold mode.
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There are water resistant speakers; I have seen them, but I don't need to see one to believe its cheaply possible (its just a diaphragm.) The sound quality is not as good. Now the existing micro electronic techniques may not work; however, a thin plastic coating should suffice without totally messing up the sound... the mic would be more difficult I think.. You figure it out; don't see how with that attitude any innovation would occur.
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I don't even regularly call 20 people outside work. You are not very creative are you?
A few quick answers:
1) use voice menus to enter into different modes: the voice can tell you to what the temporary function of the switch and button are (naturally it wouldn't make you wait until its done talking.) the 1-2 line display screen could work in conjunction with this or just plain voice could be used (thinking of blind people.) Yes, calls would not be answered during this phase unless you said ANSWER or EXIT or something like that.
So yes, I could/would dictate them all in. I don't change the stuff that often. I've suffered with voicemail menus for ages and that takes MORE time. Conflicts are not that difficult to handle, just think about it.
2) Provider feature. They do voice mail already, some have web access etc as well. Nothing says this wouldn't make provider services more useful and encourage them to come up with stuff (skipping the fact in the USA they totally screw people on everything.) It can go to the point where the server does all the voice recognition processing and the phone is dumb (again, this is like star trek.)
Naturally detailed settings could be done outside the phone (computer, net;) although, I'd make it possible to voice menu everything.
3) auto complete. no, not crazy. the display shows the number while you speak it; you just say dial early when you see it completed the most frequent phone number (that is not speed dialed)
4) motion sensor. lots of things possible when combining 2 buttons, a simple VOICE conversation, and a screen. (again, a small 1 or 2-line screen which I suppose wouldn't cost anything more to do as a matrix instead of classic LCD)
oh, I'm thinking largely recorded voices too; since storage isn't an issue.
Sorry, but technology doesn't always make life easier; don't need fluff I won't use.
"jPhone" or iPhone shuffle??
1 button phone: answer/hangup; hold for power
1 slide switch: silent mode; during conversation it turns on speaker mode
Voice recognition: RECITE numbers to dial them
Speaking interface: like voice mail menus- I never want to mess with options so its no big deal to wait for a talking interface whenever I want to setup speed dial or see the last call's number (it does have a tiny screen.)
simple ring sound; if custom just have it record your own with it's mic
Water resistant: sound quality often sucks anyhow
Simple small B&W display; wrist watch like; callerID
2 AAA NiMH batteries: new batteries shouldn't cost more than the phone! (I don't care if I have to swap batteries it doesn't have to charge them; I'm not that lazy...)/. is the wrong place to talk simple but I'm shocked nobody has made a phone that doesn't go in this direction.
At least this is more Star Trek: push button, speak name of person to speak to - and it calls them; perhaps using other people's tracking info you can ask it where somebody is and have it speak an answer as well? It could speak their name when they call (known people only.)
The economics people predicting this mess BEFORE it happened (not retroactively) should be the ones that should gain credibility now; however, we will continue to listen to and employ the ones who completely messed this one up because they will give us plenty of hindsight 'perspective.'
Just like Katrina, Bush's government never thought this was going to happen... despite experts and the slow moving nature of it... They did nothing at BEST; they contributed to the bad environment so when it happened we were not well prepared (like Katrina as well.) If anything, they did their part to further the problem along; their party and the new democrats all played a part.
FYI: there are BIG PROBLEMS besides just this housing crisis and those are being unnoticed in the SAME pattern as the previous disasters.
There is a long long list of cheating methods that have been used around the world since the beginning of voting.
Good security means being a bit paranoid and having an imagination; one doesn't have to go too far, but this is just voting and a TON can be reasonably done. An ignorant person might think I'm crazy when I say hand count everything and announce initial results by exit poll-- except OTHER COUNTRIES ALREADY DO and have a better system than the USA.
Back to my plastic BRICK comment. I have an apple laptop only because I wanted to pay extra for a good laptop and not a plastic BRICK. A comparable PC wasn't cheaper or as nice. I would have run ubuntu on the PC anyhow; I run mac os X because its better for my needs but ubuntu would have been fine for what I use it for.
Voting is NOT an IQ test! If it were, it would be more effective to remove people with poor judgment than people with poor bureaucratic procedure skills. (Like filtering out those who voted for bush twice; which clearly is more stupid than messing up on a computer; well its more ignorant anyhow.)
Butterfly ballots: A split Popsicle stick slid down into the slot where the ballot is placed causes all votes to be 1 off. This can be done by hand without much effort or anybody noticing; and its as old as the type of ballot. Most people don't notice it, because its not unusual for the ballots to be misaligned quite a bit. There were indications that his happened in 2000 in some areas.
Pencil: 2000: Some voted GORE and also WROTE IN GORE; by law, their intent was clear. Oh, and some butterfly ballots had this as well. These were illegally rejected as double votes. Legally, one could write in GORE in blood on the ballot and it would be a legal vote.
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How people can muck up something so simple is beyond me. I'm not talking about the voting system; I'm talking about purposely cheating with them (and playing dumb) - the question still remains-- just how bad does the GOP have to get to ever convince enough people? Bush STILL has 30% support?! Do they have to get caught with gay prostitutes? This innocent until guilty BS also is misunderstood. They are government, they are supposed to be assumed guilty and kicked out of office - the assumption of corruption is why checks and balances exist. I'm no DFL fan, but the GOP should be completely booted (except ron paul) and the spineless DFL will be more respectful or at least more fearful of the voters.
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ACORN = smoke screen. Mickey mouse can't go to the polls; and in most(all?) states mickey can't even vote by mail. I know many ways to pull this stuff off- but they involve sizable conspiracies to become a significant impact (except with computers...) Oh, BTW, the "good" systems largely use county adding machines that consist of a microsoft based solution on an office PC which likely has or previously was on the internet. 1 county worker could change everything - have you investigated your county? (I have.)
Class warfare HAS been going on already and when you complain or point out that the emperor has no clothes you get accused of having no clothes yourself!
Big Oil TOOK our money from us by force and one way to get that back is to have government do something about it. During a CRISIS they exploited us being the scum that they are and I don't see why we can't use OUR public institutions to get some justice. Its not like other markets, oil is a necessity.
Exon had ALL TIME RECORD PROFITS-- for the whole history of the stock market (as I heard multiple times.)
The biggest welfare is CORPORATE welfare and that was before the blackmail bailout. You have to be pretty ignorant to think they don't burden the system; its probably quite proportional-- they benefit and use the system the most they should pay for what they use and benefit from. Corporate socialism with increasing corporatism has been the direction of the USA for generations now.
% tax means it hurts as much for everybody; its relative to the individual
TODAY your dollar is being fundamentally screwed over and at a GREATER rate than the interest rates your bank gives you. Republicans talk about taxes while undermining the dollar and shifting shortfalls to others (including bridges collapsing.) New Democrats are not much different; it reflects the populace's irresponsibility. (Which is what leads to despotism, ask Ben Franklin.)
Much of the infrastructure in the USA was build during the new deal while going into debt jump starting the economy. People refuse to deal with the reality that it cost tax dollars to maintain their expectations. Politicians have to play childish games because they are dammed if they fund stuff and dammed when stuff doesn't work. FYI: highways cost MORE the faster the driving speed is for them (and for the weight loads put on them!)
Furthermore, much of the tax hike is to undo Bush's voodoo economic tax cut that helped contribute to the mess.
BTW, parent is using a slippery slope fallacy on the last sentence.
I don't have to IMPORT a mac. No extra fees for me.
When I bought the two I gave as an example they were cheaper than the alternatives. I didn't say right at this moment Apple is cheaper. Its often close to HP or Dell on same-spec systems; with custom built nearly always winning out. I'd never buy an apple server or for a linux machine unless they were cheaper. Custom built or cheap generics ALMOST always beat out the name brands.
What bugs me still is how people think apples cost more just like they said decades ago without any thought.
Macs cost about the same price; everybody who seriously thinks about it can see it (excluding custom built.)
On laptops the shell and keyboard are important features often ignored in comparisons. A plastic brick costs nothing to make and -- its a BRICK.
Sometimes Apple undercuts everybody. My Apple 30" monitor and Apple Quad Xeon tower blew away all alternatives when I bought them (the tower was close to custom build price if I cut out stuff-- like a 3mm thick metal case with fans I never hear.)
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US turkey are messed up birds that don't live a few years past their slaughter date (making pardons silly.) Drugs, bad food, and run away breeding and now genetic engineering make me not want to touch a US produced bird. 13 lbs for a turkey was not odd 100 years ago; now the USA mutants are near 30 lbs!
As for shipping them to china and back for the labor, that likely isn't too good for them either (aside from side issues.)
I wonder if there is a sub-grade for Turkey for McDonalds? They get their own grade beef so they can literally feed you more shit than the FDA grades allow. Its ok, they cook it to spec-- eating a little shit won't hurt you...
If you recall or can look up the old war time propaganda from WW2... It was actually true - it was a responsible citizen's DUTY to buy war bonds and pay their taxes! It was how the war was won.
Naturally there are limits on both sides; unfortunately, we have both extremes today - a selfish public who wants everything for nothing AND a corrupt government (which is not held accountable by the public or the 'system'.)
#1 source of spam is the USA
They didn't do enough plus they must have had loopholes.
I managed a few email servers with a few hundred users back when the law was passed. When it went into effect (not when it passed) I saw within a few days a jump in spam of about 50-75% (trying to recall) it jumped up to about 2-3 times during the rest the year; it didn't rise that quickly in previous years. I don't think it has risen as quickly since then but I don't know.
Connection? I don't know. That is what I observed.
Since the USA is the source for most spam, other measure should be taken besides kicking down the door of some old lady who's windows PC was hijacked by a dozen spammers.
At least that spam king was taken care of since the passing of the law. The law didn't do it; it just sent him over the edge and he took care of himself with a bullet and removed his genes from the genepool... (BTW, he lived in the USA)
It shouldn't take much to realize it takes a lot to get coal from the ground to the steam turbine's furnace.
Unlike nuke power, wind power costs are known and could be estimated. Furthermore, wind power prices will go down and they have not been subsidized by government like COAL is. Sanity dictates that conventional power either should lose its welfare or green power should be able to get the same level of welfare.
Welfare aside (which is a big concession,) wind power has been slowly growing for decades despite the opposition and extreme difficulty in getting financing. THIS HAS BEEN AN UPHILL BATTLE (avoiding a wind metaphor.) I think its fair to say that once you remove the major hurdles to wind power it can compete with coal.
Wind is free. Coal is not. Coal plants require a lot of upkeep and are more complex. Wind is simple and distributed and it likely has lower upkeep.
The most common ERROR people make is the difference between startup and operating costs. Solar and wind have high upfront costs; equal or lower upkeep and ZERO fuel costs. The margin of victory is determined by how long it runs and the upkeep costs (which should be competitive.)
Operating and construction costs are not that high compared with the revenue; possibly this is why governments don't care about funding the building of conventional power plants.
The real BIG problem downtime. These problems are solved in a few ways TODAY and a few others are near ready (if not already in use somewhere) these new systems are closer to reality than clean coal or new versions of nuke power/waste. If added to the cost, then I think coal would win before carbon taxes start.
Pump water uphill: ready now.
Flow Batteries: in use now.
Flywheels: DoE worked on it; should be ready but likely to be costly.
Heat storage: in use.
These all promote a NEW market of grid storage which could be part of the existing grid power money games.
Smart Grid - next gen: decades long and expensive but NEEDED because the USA grid is worn out and primitive. HF DC is the way to go! well, for distances over 300km anyhow (again, I think the savings likely over the lifespan of the gear make it better for shorter distances. less wires, smaller towers, lighter wires, easier to go underground... the reason AC was used was because of the electronics of the day. Today DC wins.)
ATnT was the biggest contributor to the party conventions (well to the DFL; don't remember if they were #1 for GOP.)
Fix the money and then politicians who will not compromise their ethics can get somewhere. When they compromise in order to win it makes you wonder just how far they will let their ethics lapse and if they will get worse with prolonged exposure to corporatism.
Its not the danger of the waste that continues to be a problem despite all these claims there are solutions "5 years away" etc. The MAJOR problem with nuclear power is the COST end to end makes it too expensive unless you provide it a large corporate welfare program.
I haven't seen anybody address let alone prove that a cost effective nuclear power solution that has been done.
My 2nd biggest problem is that it is centralized power that is overly complex.
No single thing will replace oil.
Coffee is one of the top traded commodities in the world, I've even heard it listed as #2 just behind oil. So does this mean Coffee will get the #1 spot that much sooner?
So... will the USA have to force the world to buy coffee in US Dollars in order to prop up its dead currency? (FYI: why do you think it's kept going this long-- its the oil.)
Colleges are supposed to TEACH understanding so one can discover and solve their own problems and essentially train themselves on the grunt level stuff (not that training may still save time.)
TRADE schools are supposed to TRAIN workers to get the job done. Understanding is not required beyond what is mandatory to the trade. (I know I'm oversimplifying the difference.)
CS is NOT supposed to train you for industry! Colleges are being undermined for their focus theory because people are mistaking a college for a TRADE SCHOOL.
Theory applies indirectly to industry. Its up to industry to understand that a CS major has to learn trade type stuff on the job; some are realizing the CS degree is less important than real experience.
The big question is should CS be an offshoot of math and go back to its theoretical roots?? Should a TRADE like path be used instead where you have apprentices and masters - because becoming a master programmer is actually akin to a TRADE like carpentry?
Why should 1 model of career development dominate each offshoot specialization? (other than the bias for academic institutions to expand and remain relevant even when they are not best suited.)
Would development of computer worker unions help address the problem? For example, local unions for plumbing, pipefitting, painting, etc. have an apprenticeship model for career development - the academic model doesn't work their careers.
nope.
4th Amendment Nazis??
Give up our liberty for security from a misunderstood minority group by allowing officials to be above the law??
Huge contradiction! (laying aside how the Nazis did not support anything like the 4th.)
Conspiracy is what politicians do for a living and anybody thinking otherwise is a sucker (and a typical American. --hint to mods-- that is how a troll posting is written.)
You criticize my conspiracy 'theory' while presenting your own conspiracy theory. Any form of blockade (especially an Oil one) against a nation at war is an act of war. Supply chain is the KEY to winning wars you know.
FDR and his staff collaborated on many schemes to get the USA into WW2 and their intention to do so is not in dispute. Japan took the bait before Germany; I don't care what FDR said to either nation, his actions to both nations were hostile and they obviously knew it (while the American public did not.)
If this is a negative collaboration then FDR's actions are by definition conspiracy.
The only politically accepted socialism in America is corporate socialism (and I'm not just talking about the recent bailout; it has been the largest 'welfare' expense of them all - for over a generation too.)
FDR was forward thinking but had some of the biggest problems to solve - making all else seem relatively insignificant. Avoiding WW2 was popular opinion! Provoking Japan to get the USA in WW2 early WAS actually long term thinking on FDR's part (and sneaky.) The Nazi's would have eventually attacked an unprepared USA and likely won (if they waited a few decades.)
NASA wastes tons of money. Bush redirected NASA; which should ring alarm bells... Didn't anybody notice that during the rise of earth science in politics Bush undermined NASA's role and aimed them towards a costly fast track to mars? Don't get suckered by Mars! Complain and get them to dump Mars and support better launch technology and earth science.
The Department of War (aka DoD since they got P.R.) can't have its budget cut due to corruption. See "Why We Fight" for an introduction on this topic.
USA Dollar is only alive because it is Oil backed. Green energy fundamentally undermines this.
How about no more bailouts? They are ready to do another one (they actually did 2 already;) however, the last one was larger the Marshall Plan, the Louisiana Purchase, the moon shot, the 80s S&L (Bush's brother,) the Korean War, the New Deal, the 1st Iraq war, the Vietnam War, and NASA budget (all years) cost less (adjusted for inflation.)
Nobody explored the impact in the past what makes you think people would do so now? (and for those that do, did anybody listen to them?)
Exchange one problem for another future one. That's human politics.
(birds are a non issue; bats are a problem that some research grants can work on solving while we fight like hell to get daft city officials to allow 'unsightly' wind towers.)
Not that anybody likes CS theory; Computer Science is actually well suited for dealing with voting issues!
This including recommending the BAN of computers on security grounds.
Human vote counting systems can be developed (and even simulated and tested.) CS work on distributed systems could be useful (or at least prove impossibility of finding ideal solutions.)
Math nuts have been working on voting systems that beat the silly 2 party mess. Voters understand reality show/web ratings as well as Olympic ratings they can vote by ranking.
Me, I think a simple hand count of subsets (randomly defined) TWICE and then a repeat on sets that do not match would work reasonably well.
While we are at it, new problems could be proposed, such as limitations on redistricting instead of developing algs to maximize a party's influence at the expense of sensible district boundaries. Could be something as simple as limiting districts to 5 sided polygons or equal area (doesn't have to be easy to solve; you know parties will spend money on maximization software, the key is to make that less useful to them.)
Other issues such as digitally signing ballots (which would be a good idea as a method for validation of money; naturally, not 'fool' proof but better than the easy to duplicate stuff that exists now... They can clean $5 and reprint $100 bills from it and fool most places.)
Going a little off topic; I'd like to see a representation study showing what ratios are most effective for communicating with your rep. The foolish USA capped the rep count long ago - its not like the reps would be any less effective if there were more of them (at least it would cost more to bribe and lobby them.)
General rules or guidelines as well, like saying that power should be proportional to how diffuse the representation is, etc.
There is a HUGE portion of the population that has character disorders where they shift blame away from themselves not just by default but as a life long coping mechanism. These people will most likely always remain this way and most will not even become that aware. Some say the emotion of shame is worse than fear; this could be why this coping mechanism is so common.?
Most of these people will strongly oppose the truth and when they can no longer defend their position (which requires going beyond reasonable) they will rationalize themselves an excuse. Many reasons as to why, but I simply think that these self lies are just the path of least resistance as opposed to facing a life long state of character.
Society ills such as global warming or over population are difficult for a person to dodge responsibility which makes defense more difficult and so I think promotes a strong offensive to remove the whole criticism.
This stuff is more visible during elections; and will give John "Maverick" more votes than he deserves today.
Clearly one can not get in into deep and fuzzy topics such as this without leaving out details or satisfying hard science types in a comment post.
The US military thought there was something to it or they wouldn't have tried it long ago and continue to find ways to use it. If it works, then they will continue to use it for recruiting, training, desensitization, etc. Good luck if you will get all the details behind their work on this stuff but its quite likely the biggest place for data on this stuff; at least in terms of sample size.
The whole thing is silly on 1 front and has a basis in reality on another so we keep wondering in the dark without an abstract model to help discriminate in this clearly fuzzy area of understanding.
Well, I was doing a wish list off the top of my head; although, given the poor designs on many products I tend to think they don't put much more time into it.
Its a binary switch. When on, the phone is silent and the answer button does not work (but it still vibrates.) In order to ANSWER or USE the phone, you must slide the switch.
Simple:
When active, there is no point in placing the phone in silent / hold mode; therefore, the silent/hold switch is useless and can serve a secondary function as a speaker toggle switch. After completing the call, the user will have to double slide the switch if they were in speaker and wish to return to silent/hold mode.
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There are water resistant speakers; I have seen them, but I don't need to see one to believe its cheaply possible (its just a diaphragm.) The sound quality is not as good. Now the existing micro electronic techniques may not work; however, a thin plastic coating should suffice without totally messing up the sound... the mic would be more difficult I think.. You figure it out; don't see how with that attitude any innovation would occur.
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I don't even regularly call 20 people outside work. You are not very creative are you?
A few quick answers:
1) use voice menus to enter into different modes: the voice can tell you to what the temporary function of the switch and button are (naturally it wouldn't make you wait until its done talking.) the 1-2 line display screen could work in conjunction with this or just plain voice could be used (thinking of blind people.)
Yes, calls would not be answered during this phase unless you said ANSWER or EXIT or something like that.
So yes, I could/would dictate them all in. I don't change the stuff that often. I've suffered with voicemail menus for ages and that takes MORE time. Conflicts are not that difficult to handle, just think about it.
2) Provider feature. They do voice mail already, some have web access etc as well. Nothing says this wouldn't make provider services more useful and encourage them to come up with stuff (skipping the fact in the USA they totally screw people on everything.) It can go to the point where the server does all the voice recognition processing and the phone is dumb (again, this is like star trek.)
Naturally detailed settings could be done outside the phone (computer, net;) although, I'd make it possible to voice menu everything.
3) auto complete. no, not crazy. the display shows the number while you speak it; you just say dial early when you see it completed the most frequent phone number (that is not speed dialed)
4) motion sensor. lots of things possible when combining 2 buttons, a simple VOICE conversation, and a screen. (again, a small 1 or 2-line screen which I suppose wouldn't cost anything more to do as a matrix instead of classic LCD)
oh, I'm thinking largely recorded voices too; since storage isn't an issue.
Sorry, but technology doesn't always make life easier; don't need fluff I won't use.
"jPhone" or iPhone shuffle??
1 button phone: answer/hangup; hold for power
1 slide switch: silent mode; during conversation it turns on speaker mode
Voice recognition: RECITE numbers to dial them
Speaking interface: like voice mail menus- I never want to mess with options so its no big deal to wait for a talking interface whenever I want to setup speed dial or see the last call's number (it does have a tiny screen.)
simple ring sound; if custom just have it record your own with it's mic
Water resistant: sound quality often sucks anyhow
Simple small B&W display; wrist watch like; callerID
2 AAA NiMH batteries: new batteries shouldn't cost more than the phone! (I don't care if I have to swap batteries it doesn't have to charge them; I'm not that lazy...) /. is the wrong place to talk simple but I'm shocked nobody has made a phone that doesn't go in this direction.
At least this is more Star Trek: push button, speak name of person to speak to - and it calls them; perhaps using other people's tracking info you can ask it where somebody is and have it speak an answer as well? It could speak their name when they call (known people only.)
The economics people predicting this mess BEFORE it happened (not retroactively) should be the ones that should gain credibility now; however, we will continue to listen to and employ the ones who completely messed this one up because they will give us plenty of hindsight 'perspective.'
Just like Katrina, Bush's government never thought this was going to happen... despite experts and the slow moving nature of it... They did nothing at BEST; they contributed to the bad environment so when it happened we were not well prepared (like Katrina as well.) If anything, they did their part to further the problem along; their party and the new democrats all played a part.
FYI: there are BIG PROBLEMS besides just this housing crisis and those are being unnoticed in the SAME pattern as the previous disasters.
There is way too much information to cover.
There is a long long list of cheating methods that have been used around the world since the beginning of voting.
Good security means being a bit paranoid and having an imagination; one doesn't have to go too far, but this is just voting and a TON can be reasonably done. An ignorant person might think I'm crazy when I say hand count everything and announce initial results by exit poll-- except OTHER COUNTRIES ALREADY DO and have a better system than the USA.
Back to my plastic BRICK comment. I have an apple laptop only because I wanted to pay extra for a good laptop and not a plastic BRICK. A comparable PC wasn't cheaper or as nice. I would have run ubuntu on the PC anyhow; I run mac os X because its better for my needs but ubuntu would have been fine for what I use it for.
Voting is NOT an IQ test! If it were, it would be more effective to remove people with poor judgment than people with poor bureaucratic procedure skills. (Like filtering out those who voted for bush twice; which clearly is more stupid than messing up on a computer; well its more ignorant anyhow.)
Butterfly ballots:
A split Popsicle stick slid down into the slot where the ballot is placed causes all votes to be 1 off. This can be done by hand without much effort or anybody noticing; and its as old as the type of ballot. Most people don't notice it, because its not unusual for the ballots to be misaligned quite a bit. There were indications that his happened in 2000 in some areas.
Pencil:
2000: Some voted GORE and also WROTE IN GORE; by law, their intent was clear. Oh, and some butterfly ballots had this as well. These were illegally rejected as double votes. Legally, one could write in GORE in blood on the ballot and it would be a legal vote.
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How people can muck up something so simple is beyond me. I'm not talking about the voting system; I'm talking about purposely cheating with them (and playing dumb) - the question still remains-- just how bad does the GOP have to get to ever convince enough people? Bush STILL has 30% support?! Do they have to get caught with gay prostitutes? This innocent until guilty BS also is misunderstood. They are government, they are supposed to be assumed guilty and kicked out of office - the assumption of corruption is why checks and balances exist. I'm no DFL fan, but the GOP should be completely booted (except ron paul) and the spineless DFL will be more respectful or at least more fearful of the voters.
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ACORN = smoke screen. Mickey mouse can't go to the polls; and in most(all?) states mickey can't even vote by mail. I know many ways to pull this stuff off- but they involve sizable conspiracies to become a significant impact (except with computers...) Oh, BTW, the "good" systems largely use county adding machines that consist of a microsoft based solution on an office PC which likely has or previously was on the internet. 1 county worker could change everything - have you investigated your county? (I have.)
Class warfare HAS been going on already and when you complain or point out that the emperor has no clothes you get accused of having no clothes yourself!
Big Oil TOOK our money from us by force and one way to get that back is to have government do something about it. During a CRISIS they exploited us being the scum that they are and I don't see why we can't use OUR public institutions to get some justice. Its not like other markets, oil is a necessity.
Exon had ALL TIME RECORD PROFITS-- for the whole history of the stock market (as I heard multiple times.)
The biggest welfare is CORPORATE welfare and that was before the blackmail bailout. You have to be pretty ignorant to think they don't burden the system; its probably quite proportional-- they benefit and use the system the most they should pay for what they use and benefit from. Corporate socialism with increasing corporatism has been the direction of the USA for generations now.
% tax means it hurts as much for everybody; its relative to the individual
TODAY your dollar is being fundamentally screwed over and at a GREATER rate than the interest rates your bank gives you. Republicans talk about taxes while undermining the dollar and shifting shortfalls to others (including bridges collapsing.) New Democrats are not much different; it reflects the populace's irresponsibility. (Which is what leads to despotism, ask Ben Franklin.)
Much of the infrastructure in the USA was build during the new deal while going into debt jump starting the economy. People refuse to deal with the reality that it cost tax dollars to maintain their expectations. Politicians have to play childish games because they are dammed if they fund stuff and dammed when stuff doesn't work. FYI: highways cost MORE the faster the driving speed is for them (and for the weight loads put on them!)
Furthermore, much of the tax hike is to undo Bush's voodoo economic tax cut that helped contribute to the mess.
BTW, parent is using a slippery slope fallacy on the last sentence.
I don't have to IMPORT a mac. No extra fees for me.
When I bought the two I gave as an example they were cheaper than the alternatives. I didn't say right at this moment Apple is cheaper. Its often close to HP or Dell on same-spec systems; with custom built nearly always winning out. I'd never buy an apple server or for a linux machine unless they were cheaper. Custom built or cheap generics ALMOST always beat out the name brands.
What bugs me still is how people think apples cost more just like they said decades ago without any thought.
Macs cost about the same price; everybody who seriously thinks about it can see it (excluding custom built.)
On laptops the shell and keyboard are important features often ignored in comparisons. A plastic brick costs nothing to make and -- its a BRICK.
Sometimes Apple undercuts everybody. My Apple 30" monitor and Apple Quad Xeon tower blew away all alternatives when I bought them (the tower was close to custom build price if I cut out stuff-- like a 3mm thick metal case with fans I never hear.)