So far it consists of 60 old freighters that we're pretty well aware of and that the US Navy has "Sink on Sight" orders about. But there's a hell of a lot of old military hardware out there for sale- and given our current lack of homeland security, it wouldn't take very much to say, sink three or four ships entering the New York harbor effectively blocking the entrance to the Hudson River.
Sprint must have really disabled that phone then- I've taken 40-50 minutes of video at a whack (with a Kingston 2GB card) and I've had no problem with blurry photos yet. Of course- I do use a third party product to empty memory first before using the camera- I've noticed for instance that you do get a lot of lag if you're playing MP3s in the background....
I was talking about the full amount of the student loans- nobody pays you to get your Master's degree or for your undergraduate work. Even with the stipend, most PhDs graduate with tens of thousands of dollars of debt by the time they're done.
If the industries want that level of a workforce, they need to step up to the plate while kids are still in high school with full ride grants.
Looks like a PDA, is really a phone and communications device, but contains a 2MP camera that has a pretty good video mode and the sound pickup to go with it. Downside is that it either looks like you're using a camera or the picture gets taken sideways. I'm sure there's a MPEG-4 editor out there that can do the rotation though after the fact.
If other countries are nice enough to educate our workforce for us, why not allow them?
Because they're not educating OUR workforce. They're educating THIER workforce- while ours still believes that the world is only 6000 years old.
Lenin once said, "the capitalists will sell us the rope by which we will hang them." This way we can concentrate our funds on ensuring that the U.S. remains the best place to come for innovation.
But we're not. Instead we're concentrating our funds on the best way to fool investors into thinking that the three month balance sheet is positive. Unless we start educating a better workforce, I foresee the United States sinking in a sea of fraud.
If the rest of the world ever wises up to the deal, THEN we will need to focus on educating home-grown talent. I do think we need to ensure that H1B workers are not treated like slave labor (i.e. allowing a lengthy job search time, easy application for permanent residency/citizenship, etc.).
The whole idea of H-class visas is another issue entirely- and the rest of the world has already "wised up to the deal", which is why IP telephony is going to Chennai.
And what happens when say, China, decides that our engineering is no longer worth it and cuts of our supply lines? Or what happens when the al Qaida Navy discovers all of those surplus Russian subs on the market and decides to blockade our ports? With all of the manufacturing overseas- and NO expertise left to set it up here again- you can say goodbye to any product that has been offshored.
Face facts- offshoring may be more efficient in the short term- but it sets the country up for a MAJOR national security problem that our "cost reduced" military is not even prepared for. Given the fact that they've been beaten by an old man in a cave on a dialysis machine, I would not be betting that they're going to be able to protect our shipping lanes against a major threat.
In the end result, it's always best to keep your manufacturing next door to your retail outlets- shipping is just a weak link in the chain.
Re:We have a bigger problem...
on
Saving U.S. Science
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Tell the truth- graduate studies should NOT be the responsibility of the individual or the government, but the corporation. If having a PHD actually paid enough to pay back the student loans needed to get one, you'd see tons more Americans going for graduate degrees.
Re:Foreign vs. Domestic does not matter
on
Saving U.S. Science
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Does anyone really care where Einstein, Teller, or Fermi (for example) were born? No, what matters is that we figured out nuclear technology first. America is a nation of immigrants and we should try very hard to resist the impulse to close ourselves off to it. If the next bioengineering genius is French I want to make it very attractive and easy for him to immigrate to the U.S. rather than stay in France.
And thus, companies should not have to pay for the talent they use because they can always import more, right? In the end, this is just another cheap-labor argument and a way for the corporations to get an educated workforce without paying for it. I've got news for you- bioengineering and other sciences are about EDUCATION, not TALENT- and unless we start educating our kids, there will be no reason for anybody to immigrate to the US at all- we'll be just yet another third world backwater.
I don't think you understand the slightest thing about Buddhism. Compassion is one of the main virtues.
Is that why Tibet was known as The Forbidden Kingdom for 500 years? All religions go through stages- and just because Compassion is one of the main virtues NOW neither means that it always was or always will be.
You don't get paid according to your 'value to society'. You get paid for your (perceived) value to the entity that pays you.
But since the free market has replaced society, and you're presumably in the best job you can get, the percived value to the entity that pays you IS your value to society.
I had no idea that Oregon was such a poor state....?? That just does not sound right to me...maybe this is isolated to the areas you are in? Are they really rural or something?
Silverton is rural- a town of a mere 6000. But Beaverton is part of the Portland Metro area and recently became the fourth most populous city in the whole state. The difference is standard of living- out here West of the Rockies we're dealing with an entirely different economy than you're used to- one where $36,000/year is a good living wage. We simply don't need the big salaries you'd see in the east.
My experiences for a large part of my statements, is for the time I grew up in Little Rock, AR. That is hardly the upper crust of the east or west coast. I didn't grow up rich, but, most of my friends I knew in school (yes, public school back then)...had parents that were MD's, or lawyers or some kind of investment brokers..etc.
I'm amazed Little Rock had such people- then again, the Clintons are from there. I'm from Silverton, OR- it wasn't until I grew up and moved to Beaverton that I realized 6 figure incomes even really existed- they seemed like a fairy tale. MDs and lawyers in Silverton had a tendency to deal in chickens and fruit rather than money- because that's what their clients could afford.
They all made well into the 6 figure range...and this was in the late 80's and early 90's.
There are still to this day, maybe even more with population increases of this strata of society with this type income.
In this day in age...with inflation...$90K - $100K isn't rich by a long shot...probably just 'skirting' the fringes of the upper middle class category.
Not in Oregon it ain't. Around here- upper middle class might get you $70k-$80k. We're scandalized by CEOs earning $200k. And our state legislators make a mere $1200 a month + $99/day operating expenses that must be spent in their office.
I guess in the south...we don't have that many gated communities...tho, I did see a number of them when I lived in AZ.
Sure, the majority of people do not make that much money...but, don't kid yourself and think that there are not a lot of them either...fairly common.
I guess the real question is- what makes them any more valuable to society than anybody else?
Thanks for those links. Looks to me like they're doing it in the most expensive way possible- milimeter radar guns instead of simple ultrasonic or laser based distance meters. I'm not sure I understand the reasoning behind that- the older tech is well proven and writing software for it is relatively easy once calibrated.
Either you have a serious, chronic illness....or you need to change your insurance plans. I contract, and pay my own health insurance....good coverage can be had for about $3500/yr for an individual like myself.
I used to think that- then I realized that NASE is anti-family (and ended up with a $3500 bill from my doctor for STATE-REQUIRED VACCINATIONS for my son!). Anybody else was $500/month minimum, because they actually follow state laws for minimum health.
Actually, you may need to get out more...travel in different circles.
He can't afford to travel in those circles- in fact it may surprise you to know that there are people in the United States who can't afford both a mortgage on a primary home and a mortgage on a timeshare at the same time.
There are a LOT of people out there that make 6 figures...and many more that make a great deal more than that. Look, if you just consider the 'popular' categories making these kinds of dollars...lawyers and doctors. Think of how many thousands of them there are? I know radiologists that years ago were paying about $300K in taxes alone...how much income does that suggest to you?
And how many radiologists do you think a population of 300 million people can reasonably support? Having said that, you're right even by the website everybody is criticizing: 39,615,049 people in the world make more than $100k/year by this website- given that the population of the first world countries of Europe, Canada, The United States, Japan, and Australia is still less than a billion all put together, we're talking 2-3% of their populations make that kind of dough- 3 out of every 100 making so much is very large.
Think about it...all those BMW's, Lexuses, Porsche's and Vettes aren't just given to people. You have to not only be able to afford to buy them...you have to be able to afford to DRIVE them. Those neighborhoods of big houses all over the place, occupied by families with multiple kids with cars like that...college bills..etc. Take a good guess...they are making well over the $100K mark.
I don't live in a neighborhood like that- and am not allowed into them (most are gated communities in my state- and are peopled with residents from out-of-state). I can't mix in those circles.
Really...there are a LOT of people out there making more than that. If you limit yourself to where you hang out, drink, etc to small poor places...you may not see them, but, look in your social sections of the newspapers....look at all the fine dining places filled nightly...those are the ones you think aren't very prevalent.
I'd say in sheer area, they're not very prevalent- they're limited to within 500 miles of the east and west coasts for the most part in the United States for instance.
My wife makes a mere $20,000 a year- and me a mere $48k. Less than half. But we're better off than most of our illegal immigrant neighbors- who make less than $20k.
Adapative cruise-control is still crazy expensive (even on a $70k car it's a $2500 option.) Sure the tech might have been around since the 1980s but it's still wickedly complex and expensive.
And yet Matel can come out with a speed gun (same hardware, different software) for $30 for kids to use tracking the speed of baseballs and hot wheels cars; and model railroading enthusiasts have a similar "speed tunnel" device for measuring their hobby for under $100. The only reason it's still crazy expensive is because the manufacturers want it to be.
Heads-up display never caught on...I suspect, again, because of cost, and maybe because it really never was all that good in car applications.
I've got a home version I use that is pretty good- I velcro my PDA to the top of the dash upsidedown running GPS software. It's not quite good enough to read in the daylight- but it works well at night and of course the voice instructions also help.
To be fair, I think you'll see collision avoidance systems in cars before you see HUD. No matter how cool HUD is.
Doesn't go to the mountains. I'd still use it for commuting, though - spend some of what I save on an ipod.
Well, in that case, you *wouldn't* want a proximity alarm on purpose- or at least, you'd want to turn it off *before* switching to 4WD and going up that forest service road. Otherwise every boulder would be setting off your proximity sensor.
I care about ads. There's a reason they used to say (and sometimes still do), "and now an ad from our sponsor". The ads are SPONSORING the program! Somebody has to pay the bills. I'm not saying I never skip ads, but I definitely don't feel intruded upon.
Maybe we need to go back to the Burns and Allen method- where they used to work the adverts into the actual story line. Gracie was always using Carnation Canned Milk in her cooking- and was quick to extol it's virtues to any visitor......
So that I can drive *better* and be more aware of my surroundings, of course. I want a split second warning when I'm not looking at my mirror and some drunk comes up behind me.
As for the personal subway car- what's wrong with that? That's the reason why my commute on a normal morning when I'm not going down to HQ 40 miles away is 5 minutes of driving and 45 minutes riding the train.
I don't hate Indians for outsourcing. I hate American CEOs for being so cheap-ass that instead of taking one of the 8 million Americans currently out of work and training them, they'd rather go to another nation and hire 5-10 people for the same salary. This is the same issue in illegal immigration for me, and H* visas, and is NOT LIMITED TO HIGH TECH JOBS which are finally making a comeback.
Slashdot Mirror
So far it consists of 60 old freighters that we're pretty well aware of and that the US Navy has "Sink on Sight" orders about. But there's a hell of a lot of old military hardware out there for sale- and given our current lack of homeland security, it wouldn't take very much to say, sink three or four ships entering the New York harbor effectively blocking the entrance to the Hudson River.
Sprint must have really disabled that phone then- I've taken 40-50 minutes of video at a whack (with a Kingston 2GB card) and I've had no problem with blurry photos yet. Of course- I do use a third party product to empty memory first before using the camera- I've noticed for instance that you do get a lot of lag if you're playing MP3s in the background....
I was talking about the full amount of the student loans- nobody pays you to get your Master's degree or for your undergraduate work. Even with the stipend, most PhDs graduate with tens of thousands of dollars of debt by the time they're done.
If the industries want that level of a workforce, they need to step up to the plate while kids are still in high school with full ride grants.
Looks like a PDA, is really a phone and communications device, but contains a 2MP camera that has a pretty good video mode and the sound pickup to go with it. Downside is that it either looks like you're using a camera or the picture gets taken sideways. I'm sure there's a MPEG-4 editor out there that can do the rotation though after the fact.
If other countries are nice enough to educate our workforce for us, why not allow them?
Because they're not educating OUR workforce. They're educating THIER workforce- while ours still believes that the world is only 6000 years old.
Lenin once said, "the capitalists will sell us the rope by which we will hang them." This way we can concentrate our funds on ensuring that the U.S. remains the best place to come for innovation.
But we're not. Instead we're concentrating our funds on the best way to fool investors into thinking that the three month balance sheet is positive. Unless we start educating a better workforce, I foresee the United States sinking in a sea of fraud.
If the rest of the world ever wises up to the deal, THEN we will need to focus on educating home-grown talent. I do think we need to ensure that H1B workers are not treated like slave labor (i.e. allowing a lengthy job search time, easy application for permanent residency/citizenship, etc.).
The whole idea of H-class visas is another issue entirely- and the rest of the world has already "wised up to the deal", which is why IP telephony is going to Chennai.
And what happens when say, China, decides that our engineering is no longer worth it and cuts of our supply lines? Or what happens when the al Qaida Navy discovers all of those surplus Russian subs on the market and decides to blockade our ports? With all of the manufacturing overseas- and NO expertise left to set it up here again- you can say goodbye to any product that has been offshored.
Face facts- offshoring may be more efficient in the short term- but it sets the country up for a MAJOR national security problem that our "cost reduced" military is not even prepared for. Given the fact that they've been beaten by an old man in a cave on a dialysis machine, I would not be betting that they're going to be able to protect our shipping lanes against a major threat.
In the end result, it's always best to keep your manufacturing next door to your retail outlets- shipping is just a weak link in the chain.
Tell the truth- graduate studies should NOT be the responsibility of the individual or the government, but the corporation. If having a PHD actually paid enough to pay back the student loans needed to get one, you'd see tons more Americans going for graduate degrees.
Does anyone really care where Einstein, Teller, or Fermi (for example) were born? No, what matters is that we figured out nuclear technology first. America is a nation of immigrants and we should try very hard to resist the impulse to close ourselves off to it. If the next bioengineering genius is French I want to make it very attractive and easy for him to immigrate to the U.S. rather than stay in France.
And thus, companies should not have to pay for the talent they use because they can always import more, right? In the end, this is just another cheap-labor argument and a way for the corporations to get an educated workforce without paying for it. I've got news for you- bioengineering and other sciences are about EDUCATION, not TALENT- and unless we start educating our kids, there will be no reason for anybody to immigrate to the US at all- we'll be just yet another third world backwater.
I don't think you understand the slightest thing about Buddhism. Compassion is one of the main virtues.
Is that why Tibet was known as The Forbidden Kingdom for 500 years? All religions go through stages- and just because Compassion is one of the main virtues NOW neither means that it always was or always will be.
You don't get paid according to your 'value to society'. You get paid for your (perceived) value to the entity that pays you.
But since the free market has replaced society, and you're presumably in the best job you can get, the percived value to the entity that pays you IS your value to society.
I had no idea that Oregon was such a poor state....?? That just does not sound right to me...maybe this is isolated to the areas you are in? Are they really rural or something?
Silverton is rural- a town of a mere 6000. But Beaverton is part of the Portland Metro area and recently became the fourth most populous city in the whole state. The difference is standard of living- out here West of the Rockies we're dealing with an entirely different economy than you're used to- one where $36,000/year is a good living wage. We simply don't need the big salaries you'd see in the east.
And the real key to that is in your sig line: Debt is slavery.
In the original article included an axion digital picture frame already on the market- I guess capitalism is faster than physics.
My experiences for a large part of my statements, is for the time I grew up in Little Rock, AR. That is hardly the upper crust of the east or west coast. I didn't grow up rich, but, most of my friends I knew in school (yes, public school back then)...had parents that were MD's, or lawyers or some kind of investment brokers..etc.
I'm amazed Little Rock had such people- then again, the Clintons are from there. I'm from Silverton, OR- it wasn't until I grew up and moved to Beaverton that I realized 6 figure incomes even really existed- they seemed like a fairy tale. MDs and lawyers in Silverton had a tendency to deal in chickens and fruit rather than money- because that's what their clients could afford.
They all made well into the 6 figure range...and this was in the late 80's and early 90's.
There are still to this day, maybe even more with population increases of this strata of society with this type income.
In this day in age...with inflation...$90K - $100K isn't rich by a long shot...probably just 'skirting' the fringes of the upper middle class category.
Not in Oregon it ain't. Around here- upper middle class might get you $70k-$80k. We're scandalized by CEOs earning $200k. And our state legislators make a mere $1200 a month + $99/day operating expenses that must be spent in their office.
I guess in the south...we don't have that many gated communities...tho, I did see a number of them when I lived in AZ.
Sure, the majority of people do not make that much money...but, don't kid yourself and think that there are not a lot of them either...fairly common.
I guess the real question is- what makes them any more valuable to society than anybody else?
Thanks for those links. Looks to me like they're doing it in the most expensive way possible- milimeter radar guns instead of simple ultrasonic or laser based distance meters. I'm not sure I understand the reasoning behind that- the older tech is well proven and writing software for it is relatively easy once calibrated.
Either you have a serious, chronic illness....or you need to change your insurance plans. I contract, and pay my own health insurance....good coverage can be had for about $3500/yr for an individual like myself.
I used to think that- then I realized that NASE is anti-family (and ended up with a $3500 bill from my doctor for STATE-REQUIRED VACCINATIONS for my son!). Anybody else was $500/month minimum, because they actually follow state laws for minimum health.
As opposed to the cost of not dying that most of the people in third world countries are struggling to make...
Drop below $4000 a year in the United States- and you'll be "the cost of not dying" too....
Actually, you may need to get out more...travel in different circles.
He can't afford to travel in those circles- in fact it may surprise you to know that there are people in the United States who can't afford both a mortgage on a primary home and a mortgage on a timeshare at the same time.
There are a LOT of people out there that make 6 figures...and many more that make a great deal more than that. Look, if you just consider the 'popular' categories making these kinds of dollars...lawyers and doctors. Think of how many thousands of them there are? I know radiologists that years ago were paying about $300K in taxes alone...how much income does that suggest to you?
And how many radiologists do you think a population of 300 million people can reasonably support? Having said that, you're right even by the website everybody is criticizing: 39,615,049 people in the world make more than $100k/year by this website- given that the population of the first world countries of Europe, Canada, The United States, Japan, and Australia is still less than a billion all put together, we're talking 2-3% of their populations make that kind of dough- 3 out of every 100 making so much is very large.
Think about it...all those BMW's, Lexuses, Porsche's and Vettes aren't just given to people. You have to not only be able to afford to buy them...you have to be able to afford to DRIVE them. Those neighborhoods of big houses all over the place, occupied by families with multiple kids with cars like that...college bills..etc. Take a good guess...they are making well over the $100K mark.
I don't live in a neighborhood like that- and am not allowed into them (most are gated communities in my state- and are peopled with residents from out-of-state). I can't mix in those circles.
Really...there are a LOT of people out there making more than that. If you limit yourself to where you hang out, drink, etc to small poor places...you may not see them, but, look in your social sections of the newspapers....look at all the fine dining places filled nightly...those are the ones you think aren't very prevalent.
I'd say in sheer area, they're not very prevalent- they're limited to within 500 miles of the east and west coasts for the most part in the United States for instance.
My wife makes a mere $20,000 a year- and me a mere $48k. Less than half. But we're better off than most of our illegal immigrant neighbors- who make less than $20k.
Adapative cruise-control is still crazy expensive (even on a $70k car it's a $2500 option.) Sure the tech might have been around since the 1980s but it's still wickedly complex and expensive.
And yet Matel can come out with a speed gun (same hardware, different software) for $30 for kids to use tracking the speed of baseballs and hot wheels cars; and model railroading enthusiasts have a similar "speed tunnel" device for measuring their hobby for under $100. The only reason it's still crazy expensive is because the manufacturers want it to be.
Heads-up display never caught on...I suspect, again, because of cost, and maybe because it really never was all that good in car applications.
I've got a home version I use that is pretty good- I velcro my PDA to the top of the dash upsidedown running GPS software. It's not quite good enough to read in the daylight- but it works well at night and of course the voice instructions also help.
To be fair, I think you'll see collision avoidance systems in cars before you see HUD. No matter how cool HUD is.
Quite possibly....
Doesn't go to the mountains. I'd still use it for commuting, though - spend some of what I save on an ipod.
Well, in that case, you *wouldn't* want a proximity alarm on purpose- or at least, you'd want to turn it off *before* switching to 4WD and going up that forest service road. Otherwise every boulder would be setting off your proximity sensor.
I care about ads. There's a reason they used to say (and sometimes still do), "and now an ad from our sponsor". The ads are SPONSORING the program! Somebody has to pay the bills. I'm not saying I never skip ads, but I definitely don't feel intruded upon.
Maybe we need to go back to the Burns and Allen method- where they used to work the adverts into the actual story line. Gracie was always using Carnation Canned Milk in her cooking- and was quick to extol it's virtues to any visitor......
Bah, why do you want this stuff anyway?
So that I can drive *better* and be more aware of my surroundings, of course. I want a split second warning when I'm not looking at my mirror and some drunk comes up behind me.
As for the personal subway car- what's wrong with that? That's the reason why my commute on a normal morning when I'm not going down to HQ 40 miles away is 5 minutes of driving and 45 minutes riding the train.
I was unaware that I had infrared distance monitoring eyeballs on my leg. How do I access the information from them?
I don't hate Indians for outsourcing. I hate American CEOs for being so cheap-ass that instead of taking one of the 8 million Americans currently out of work and training them, they'd rather go to another nation and hire 5-10 people for the same salary. This is the same issue in illegal immigration for me, and H* visas, and is NOT LIMITED TO HIGH TECH JOBS which are finally making a comeback.
Thus my original idea- to give the driver sensors in his blind spots (proximity) to make him more aware of his surroundings.