And if it's damning, there are plenty of dead-man-switch based e-mail services that will happily e-mail your file to several news outlets for a cheap price if you fail to check in.
Chaotic Climate Change is what smart people call global warming once they realize that the earth has actually lost two degrees of average temperature in the last decade or so.
I'm saying that because the atmosphere has been wildly different before, that our greenhouse gasses, while they have some effect, are a small drop in the bucket in comparison to a round of solar flares that melt the tundra, releasing more methane in ONE DAY than a year's worth of greenhouse gas output from all of mankind's activities combined. Or the solar minimum experienced in the last 10 years when it has actually gotten *colder*.
And that, greenhouse gases aren't that bad- they are in fact, if we're smart, an opportunity to plant more food crops, convert more desert land into food-based rain forests, and end world hunger. If we were smart, that is. But never underestimate stupidity and greed for wanting to adapt in the way that costs more instead.
Just this morning I found out that carrier market area has two different, simultaneous, meanings at my current job. It's things like that which keep me up nights.....I think I'm going to need the analyst who is feeding me my requirments to define when "carrier" means "MarketArea=33" vs "MarketArea27" except when it's "ProvisionalMarketArea" when the numbers become 37 and 27 instead.
That's the kind of tech learning I have a problem with. Learning a new framework? Or even a new language, as long as I can fit it into the 7 language groups I've worked on before? Cake in comparison.
Actually, living long enough seems to *deny* chaotic climate change, because there have *always* been changes to the climate- and far larger swings in far shorter time than what we're currently experiencing. Which is why I said what I said.
Which of course leads to the second part of my perfect world- breaking up the world into small countries with fairly homogeneous populations, so that no one local despot has enough resources to invade any other local despot to begin with.
And what, if anything, does that have to do with the US stratagy, especially when you consider the fact that we didn't learn that until later
I'm pointing out that we were facing an army that we *knew* were not using the tactics I described. They didn't have drones, they didn't have adaptive minefields, They had some ancient artillery, and we faked them out by putting up fake radar images and putting a bunch of empty ships offshore so that they didn't know we'd be coming in by land.
They also, as we knew, didn't have a bunch of Kuwaitis hiding out in every building ready to shoot any US soldier who came down the street. Few countries can put forth *millions* of soldiers into an invasion force. Supply lines can be cut- and determined locals have a distinct advantage.
During the liberation of Kuwait, Hussien didn't even FEED HIS TROOPS. All you needed to do to get surrenders was dangle a roast beef sandwich in front of them. A example of what I'm talking about is how Switzerland handles THEIR defense, plus drones and adaptive bluetooth enabled minefields.
I would hope that very few of the most skilled among them want to come- their home countries need their brains far more than we do; and we need to be putting our own citizens to work first.
Yes, the process is a pain, but it lets in far too many people already.
Not if you don't HAVE a flank. If you guard all of your borders equally, by setting up no-go zones in which anything moving gets shot down, and then open only approved ports for trade, and have those heavily armed, you can frustrate most invasions to start with. Add a law that everybody's in the military between 18 and 65, and that every house *must* be armed, and you end up with a country which has no non-combantants at all. And that kind of country is almost impossible to successfully invade.
Pretty near- the picture I saw was of one of our marines, sitting in what looked to be a bunker full of garbage, holding up a box and a can. Translated it said "Sarin Gas, manufactured in Germany, Expiration 1986"
So? If a batshit dictator wants to commit cultural suicide, let him. When he's done with all of his ethnic cleansing, his country will be free for new colonization.
I can understand that reasoning, but I find great problems with it, such as involving more non-combatants, and then again there's always the possibility of a sneak attack on your flank.
When somebody refuses to play by the rules, they face the same situation they'd face invading Switzerland- a gun from every window, wielded by a trained militia member. It's perfectly fine under Augustinian rules to fight in defense of your home within your own borders.
Considering that Russia's missiles have a 66% failure rate, and China needs to spend their money on cities and dams rather than defense, I've got no fear of EITHER of those mounting a credible response.
After 16 years of "contracting" (in that even when I have a so-called permanent position, my continued employment is tied *directly* to what I can do for the company and there is no loyalty)- 99.99% of what I learn on any given job, is industry-specific stuff. I very rarely use the same API or piece of a framework twice, and the steep learning curve is *ALWAYS* the industry-specific data model and acronyms.
I'm to a point where I doubt I'll ever be in a job for 5 years. 2 seems to be my average, and most last less than a year.
Yes, there most certainly is a wide difference- in my experience, most hiring managers expect "Can you use the IDE and help files and ask questions of the rest of the team?" If you can do that, then you've learned the technology sufficient to get the job done.
Raises- I've only seen two in the last 16 years that didn't come from me negotiating a new labor contract. Salary going up comes from changing jobs, not gifts from management who are already under pressure from shareholders to reduce budgets.
Considering the number of H1B's, L1s, and F class visa holders I've seen, I find it hard to believe. But I guess, even a high rate of rejection can't help the fact that 80 million people a year want to come here.
Personally, I thought that we should shut it down entirely, and reboot when we have a system that can reject 95% of the people in 30 minutes or less.
No, I'm saying that 2/3rds of the population of the Earth *right now* is over the age of 55, and if demograpic trends continue (birth rates have been falling worldwide for a century now, the only reason the third world hasn't reached ZPG is because they started with 19 kids per family, but now they're down to 3 or 4) and science doesn't find a cure for the deadly disease of turning 136, we're going to lose between 5-6 billion to OLD AGE between 2040 and 2090, give or take a few decades. And we don't have the kids to replace them. By 2100, the world's population could easily fall to 4 billion, and some demographers are predicting 2.3 billion.
More so as of late though- and according to my friend Barb, who walks the streets of Portland, Oregon twice a day- it's the newcomers, particularly the young, who are the angriest. Makes sense though- you had an ambitious father and mother who provided a fancy home and all the toys you could want, then they get foreclosed on and your entire family ends up on the street, your sense of entitlement is going to hit reality awfully hard and you're going to be a threat to society.
Yes, though one could argue that the Vatican and the African Bishops are trying hard to wean the tribes off of stupid superstitions like having sex with a virgin cures AIDS and polygamy means less work for the wives.
But sometimes I think we should just stop trying to influence other cultures- just let them be and let God/Evolution work it all out in the end. The gay marriage thing is another *obvious* form of cultural suicide.
Slashdot Mirror
And if it's damning, there are plenty of dead-man-switch based e-mail services that will happily e-mail your file to several news outlets for a cheap price if you fail to check in.
Hmm, maybe a solution to two problems at once. What would CNN do if we started copyrighting our voice mail boxen?
Chaotic Climate Change is what smart people call global warming once they realize that the earth has actually lost two degrees of average temperature in the last decade or so.
I'm saying that because the atmosphere has been wildly different before, that our greenhouse gasses, while they have some effect, are a small drop in the bucket in comparison to a round of solar flares that melt the tundra, releasing more methane in ONE DAY than a year's worth of greenhouse gas output from all of mankind's activities combined. Or the solar minimum experienced in the last 10 years when it has actually gotten *colder*.
And that, greenhouse gases aren't that bad- they are in fact, if we're smart, an opportunity to plant more food crops, convert more desert land into food-based rain forests, and end world hunger. If we were smart, that is. But never underestimate stupidity and greed for wanting to adapt in the way that costs more instead.
Just this morning I found out that carrier market area has two different, simultaneous, meanings at my current job. It's things like that which keep me up nights.....I think I'm going to need the analyst who is feeding me my requirments to define when "carrier" means "MarketArea=33" vs "MarketArea27" except when it's "ProvisionalMarketArea" when the numbers become 37 and 27 instead.
That's the kind of tech learning I have a problem with. Learning a new framework? Or even a new language, as long as I can fit it into the 7 language groups I've worked on before? Cake in comparison.
It would if we had one world religion....
Actually, living long enough seems to *deny* chaotic climate change, because there have *always* been changes to the climate- and far larger swings in far shorter time than what we're currently experiencing. Which is why I said what I said.
Which of course leads to the second part of my perfect world- breaking up the world into small countries with fairly homogeneous populations, so that no one local despot has enough resources to invade any other local despot to begin with.
And what, if anything, does that have to do with the US stratagy, especially when you consider the fact that we didn't learn that until later
I'm pointing out that we were facing an army that we *knew* were not using the tactics I described. They didn't have drones, they didn't have adaptive minefields, They had some ancient artillery, and we faked them out by putting up fake radar images and putting a bunch of empty ships offshore so that they didn't know we'd be coming in by land.
They also, as we knew, didn't have a bunch of Kuwaitis hiding out in every building ready to shoot any US soldier who came down the street. Few countries can put forth *millions* of soldiers into an invasion force. Supply lines can be cut- and determined locals have a distinct advantage.
Exactly- and the other big difference is that there is actually evidence for evolution, but only virtual computer models for climate change.
During the liberation of Kuwait, Hussien didn't even FEED HIS TROOPS. All you needed to do to get surrenders was dangle a roast beef sandwich in front of them. A example of what I'm talking about is how Switzerland handles THEIR defense, plus drones and adaptive bluetooth enabled minefields.
I would hope that very few of the most skilled among them want to come- their home countries need their brains far more than we do; and we need to be putting our own citizens to work first.
Yes, the process is a pain, but it lets in far too many people already.
Not if you don't HAVE a flank. If you guard all of your borders equally, by setting up no-go zones in which anything moving gets shot down, and then open only approved ports for trade, and have those heavily armed, you can frustrate most invasions to start with. Add a law that everybody's in the military between 18 and 65, and that every house *must* be armed, and you end up with a country which has no non-combantants at all. And that kind of country is almost impossible to successfully invade.
Pretty near- the picture I saw was of one of our marines, sitting in what looked to be a bunker full of garbage, holding up a box and a can. Translated it said "Sarin Gas, manufactured in Germany, Expiration 1986"
So? If a batshit dictator wants to commit cultural suicide, let him. When he's done with all of his ethnic cleansing, his country will be free for new colonization.
Since when? People who believe in the power of the ballot box, vote instead of protesting.
With modern drone tech, they could be. Especially if we finally achieve the von neuman goal of self-replicating drones, then we have Bezerkers.
I can understand that reasoning, but I find great problems with it, such as involving more non-combatants, and then again there's always the possibility of a sneak attack on your flank.
When somebody refuses to play by the rules, they face the same situation they'd face invading Switzerland- a gun from every window, wielded by a trained militia member. It's perfectly fine under Augustinian rules to fight in defense of your home within your own borders.
Considering that Russia's missiles have a 66% failure rate, and China needs to spend their money on cities and dams rather than defense, I've got no fear of EITHER of those mounting a credible response.
After 16 years of "contracting" (in that even when I have a so-called permanent position, my continued employment is tied *directly* to what I can do for the company and there is no loyalty)- 99.99% of what I learn on any given job, is industry-specific stuff. I very rarely use the same API or piece of a framework twice, and the steep learning curve is *ALWAYS* the industry-specific data model and acronyms.
I'm to a point where I doubt I'll ever be in a job for 5 years. 2 seems to be my average, and most last less than a year.
Yes, there most certainly is a wide difference- in my experience, most hiring managers expect "Can you use the IDE and help files and ask questions of the rest of the team?" If you can do that, then you've learned the technology sufficient to get the job done.
Raises- I've only seen two in the last 16 years that didn't come from me negotiating a new labor contract. Salary going up comes from changing jobs, not gifts from management who are already under pressure from shareholders to reduce budgets.
Considering the number of H1B's, L1s, and F class visa holders I've seen, I find it hard to believe. But I guess, even a high rate of rejection can't help the fact that 80 million people a year want to come here.
Personally, I thought that we should shut it down entirely, and reboot when we have a system that can reject 95% of the people in 30 minutes or less.
No, I'm saying that 2/3rds of the population of the Earth *right now* is over the age of 55, and if demograpic trends continue (birth rates have been falling worldwide for a century now, the only reason the third world hasn't reached ZPG is because they started with 19 kids per family, but now they're down to 3 or 4) and science doesn't find a cure for the deadly disease of turning 136, we're going to lose between 5-6 billion to OLD AGE between 2040 and 2090, give or take a few decades. And we don't have the kids to replace them. By 2100, the world's population could easily fall to 4 billion, and some demographers are predicting 2.3 billion.
19 assholes with boxcutters may be able to kill 3000, but two guys sitting in a silo in Kansas can kill several million.
In a war of attrition with the United States, once we finally had enough war to wear down our morality, ain't nobody gonna survive.
The British Empire couldn't nuke a city from orbit, but WE CAN.
More so as of late though- and according to my friend Barb, who walks the streets of Portland, Oregon twice a day- it's the newcomers, particularly the young, who are the angriest. Makes sense though- you had an ambitious father and mother who provided a fancy home and all the toys you could want, then they get foreclosed on and your entire family ends up on the street, your sense of entitlement is going to hit reality awfully hard and you're going to be a threat to society.
Yes, though one could argue that the Vatican and the African Bishops are trying hard to wean the tribes off of stupid superstitions like having sex with a virgin cures AIDS and polygamy means less work for the wives.
But sometimes I think we should just stop trying to influence other cultures- just let them be and let God/Evolution work it all out in the end. The gay marriage thing is another *obvious* form of cultural suicide.