Interesting you should mention the space program (and I strongly advise anyone interested in the modern history of science to study the example of NASA) as so much of the technology we enjoy today is both a direct and indirect result of the space program.
From digital electronics and and the PCs we use today, along with polymer chemistry, biomedical engineering, data and telecommunications, etc., etc., ad infinitum, soooo many things derive from the largest (am I wrong about this?) government-funded research project in mankind's history (or at least in America's - don't know for sure about those pyramids...). BUT what will drive the next leap in technology?
About the only thing today that didn't come from it is Velcro - big thanks to the Swiss for that!
You're ignoring the obvious sociopolitical agenda which is to eradicate the middle-class. Without the middle-class there is no democracy as a middle-class is necessary for any democracy to exist.
[What is...is wrong. Veblen] [Until the day they privatize the F.B.I. and sell it to the House of bin Laden. Me]
Good points, all, but please don't forget that the sociopolitical context greatly affects tech progress. Given the extreme variance in philosophical differences today (progressives vs. neofascists and supporters of fascist theocracy) it is highly likely that a breakup of the United States could happen similar to that predicted in Heinlein's fiction (and later mentioned in Margaret Atwood's "A Handmaiden's Tale") should one more national election with Diebold machines go awry or a port city is vaporized, and martial law declared, when the opposing party seems to be winning.
I don't think many posters actually grasp what is transpiring. Offshoring not only continues to grow, but it is growing at an exponential rate. Anyone getting a decent IT job (that is, any citizen of the host country) is very fortunate indeed.
Just follow the money! There is an insane amount of money being invested in all areas in China, especially their IT and Computer Sci areas. Now there have been many advances due to Chinese immigrants and Chinese-Americans, but investing in a dictator-led culture which has yet to bring any original and new technology to the forefront is truly typical of the pathetic corporate management we have in America today!
Only, if they FBI was officially tipped off 54 times (I only counted 42 times, but I don't read all the newspapers EVERY day) and the CIA was officially tipped off 23 times, and the CIA has a lengthy history of using airplane crashes to assassinate people, one wonders whether it really was incompetence....or a well thought out plan.
Anyone who has ever served in the US military and/or worked at NSA back in the '60s and early '70s, would have an entirely different opinion, I'm afraid. Also, that Posner character has his own very specific political agenda affecting all his writing. Back in the old days, the CIA could actually overthrow governments, although today your comment is quite accurate, especially given their recent failure in Venezuela, thank God!
We desperately need more leaders like Hugo Chavez, and considerably less than those super-incompetent bunch in this present administration, i.e., Rummy, Dicky and George of the Bungle!
If one subtracts corporate and personal debt from the GDP (which makes up a signficant portion of the GDP) you will find that this country has actually experienced negative GDP growth for the past few years.
OECD is a subset of the WTO - and citizens should place as much faith in their statistics as they do in the WTO.
The USA's population has had a negative savings rate for over a year now. The last time that occurred was just before The Great Depression of the '30s. Think again, my friend, but this time think more analytically and sagely.
It's not supposed to assassinate US presidents, but that didn't stop them when it came to John F. Kennedy.....(see those State Department memos declassified this past year).
It stands to reason you would support that deserter Bush (last speech: Americans MUST not alienate super rich Arabs - we must reach out to them. second to last speech: Offshoring American jobs is great for the economy. Who's a fool????) and draft-dodger Cheney given that you didn't experience combat - and are comfortable with such chicken hawks sending good men and women to die for absolutely nothing!(See my posts under the Starship Troopers item this past week.)
Had you served in the USAF ARRS and USAF SOS, you could have been dodging loads of incoming, sonny. No further posts required on this subject. Noncombatants are extraneous to serious issues.
Not at all, corruption will always be an issue as long as humans exist. Heinlein described the best thought out merit system, postulated as necessary in time of human survival.
Maybe it wasn't the exposition so much as the small print you found intolerable.....practical thinking does have its place in the scheme of things.
Edison did put forth the most practical idea, having gone bankrupt in the process of inventing AND marketing it. Many don't realize today (thanks to revisionist history) but the electric light was a hard sell for Edison. It wasn't until it was shown in the European Exposition - where it became an almost instant hit - that American backers finally caught on to it!
Hoooooooooo, an actual one week of combat - we old combat veterans are so impressed with that. NOT!!
And you are correct, that Chinese military-owned company which owns/operates at the Long Beach port goes against the national security of this country.
Seriously, though, if you came down with any sickness due to your service in the first Gulf War, I'm sorry. But as far as theater of operations, one week there just simply doesn't compare with one year in Vietnam, three months in the Yom Kippur War and that Mayaguez thing. But if you served in the first gulf war, you should be aware enough to know that Bush and Company are full of it - and how could any combat veteran (even a 1-week vet) possibly defend a deserter and a draft-dodger?????? Simply doesn't make any sense.....
What does China have to do with all Arab nations???? Are you on crack???
You remind me of those present day grunts serving in Bush's imperial army. Which was why the Founding Fathers clearly stated the concept of the citizen-soldier and why this nation should never have a standing army - just call up the citizenry in time of war. The worst thing Nixon ever did (and Bush certainly makes Nixon look like a saint today), was to end the draft. Everyone should do their citizenship duty and serve a tour (unlike both Bush and Cheney) in the US military. Do you some good, you ignorant little punk....
I clearly didn't say anything about all Arab nations being full of Islamic fanatics - do you have even a 2nd grade reading level????
I clearly said Pakistan is a nation of Islamic fanatics. Get with the program, oh uneducated and unsophisticated one. Next you'll be claiming Bush actually served his full tour in the Air National Guard and that Cheney isn't a draft-dodger?????
Son, have you ever been to Pakistan??? It most certainly is a country of Islamic fanatics. How else do you think Osama would still be safe there???? Possibly you may have heard of that American diplomat who was just assassinated in Pakistan prior to Bush's visit? Ever read the news, dude????? And they have a history of assassinating American diplomats; do some reading in the modern (20th century) history of Pakistan. (And should you ever travel to Pakistan, I suggest you have an indepth conversation with anyone of the Zorastrian faith and check out their opinions on their countrymen fanatics.
The UAE does indeed have emirs there who have supported bin Laden (and perhaps still do for all anyone knows..) And please don't give me that holier-than-thou lame stuff about FREE TRADE and Dubai controlling North American ports. Since when do free-trade fanatics love state-owned corporations???
What Rumsfeld was doing is known as inferring, and if you are unsure as to what this word means please feel free to look it up. How could anyone possibly justify Bush's going into Iraq and getting all those American soldiers and Marines killed, along with all those innocent Iraqis?????
Such madness. Of course he should be compared to Hitler and it is a most justifiable comparison. Does any other American president come to mind when the subject of American torturing comes up???
Have you ever read his book as you completely miss the point?! No one buys into anything...
You are speaking of the former British Empire and the modern armies of Egypt and some other middle eastern countries. My advice would be for you to read "Starship Troopers."
I only partially agree with you - at least one of your reasons - the Internet.
The only decent movie I saw this year was "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang" with Robert Downey and Val Kilmer - with excellent dialogue and writing.
Otherwise, the movies have been so bad, it's better to simply view porn over the Internet - far more entertaining than sorry plot, acting and dialogue.
The book isn't so much of a very serious vision of a military future, so much as a future where one has to earn their right to real citizenship, i.e., the right to vote for their political representatives and the right to possibly be elected and serve in political office (by serving in the military or doing similar service).
RAH takes a very serious view of citizenship, which is why this society (Amerika) is so completely corrupt today, with a deserter as prez and a draft-dodger as vice-prez, both of whom are emptying the US treasury as fast as possible.....
Actually, pretty much all of Heinlein's stuff would make great movies. H-wood has already done (as you mentioned) Starship Troopers (could have done it a bit better, if you ask me - but that clown Vanderhoevn, or whatever that Dutchman's name is, didn't understand the gist of the story and proclaimed Heinlein to be fascist!!!! thus proving a number of these directors are complete idiots. No shocker, that!).
Also, they've filmed "Them" (it was called The Truman Story, I believe, starring Jim Carey, but it was a direct - knowingly or unknowingly - ripoff), and they did an excellent, albeit very low budget film of "The Puppet Masters" (with Donald Sutherland doing a superb job, as usual).
Imagine if they did Poul Andersen's "Operation Changeling" - or the novel form - "Operation Chaos" - ultimate coool. Plus Sterling's "Drakon" - which would be really awesome. Plus there are zillions of mysteries and action/suspense, even decent romance novels around they could film. Nobody needs yet another remake of "The Mod Squad", etc., ad nauseum....
One simply can't say that an organization (as mentioned in the 9/11 Commission Report) has no connection to al Qaeda or the terrorists. It took me far too many years to understand the connections between so many people and organizations. Thank god for the internet: Now when I see that one of the bribers of the recently convicted congressman, Duke Cunningham, received an intelligence operation direct from the White House - and that said briber recently set up the "Iranian Democracy Foundation" - and that Condoleezza Rice requested $75 million from Congress to fund Iranian revolutionary groups to overthrow Iran's government - all within the same day - I can figure out that the $75 million will be laundered through that "Iranian Democracy Foundation" and the briber, and Bush Administration people, will have $75 million towards their individual retirement funds - yet one more transfer of wealth from the taxpayers to the thieves.....
The only comparison to Adolph Hitler I've seen lately, was by that neocon, Donald Rumsfeld (that ungodly incompetent secretary of defense) who compared Hugo Chavez, the democratically elected president of Venezuela, to Hitler.
Funny, this from an administration that has proclaimed Pakistan, a country of Islamic fanatics, as the ally of the US, along with Syria (around the time Bush was shipping prisoners to that country to be tortured). 'Nuff said.....
Slashdot Mirror
From digital electronics and and the PCs we use today, along with polymer chemistry, biomedical engineering, data and telecommunications, etc., etc., ad infinitum, soooo many things derive from the largest (am I wrong about this?) government-funded research project in mankind's history (or at least in America's - don't know for sure about those pyramids...). BUT what will drive the next leap in technology?
About the only thing today that didn't come from it is Velcro - big thanks to the Swiss for that!
[What is...is wrong. Veblen] [Until the day they privatize the F.B.I. and sell it to the House of bin Laden. Me]
Stranger things have happened!
Just follow the money! There is an insane amount of money being invested in all areas in China, especially their IT and Computer Sci areas. Now there have been many advances due to Chinese immigrants and Chinese-Americans, but investing in a dictator-led culture which has yet to bring any original and new technology to the forefront is truly typical of the pathetic corporate management we have in America today!
Only, if they FBI was officially tipped off 54 times (I only counted 42 times, but I don't read all the newspapers EVERY day) and the CIA was officially tipped off 23 times, and the CIA has a lengthy history of using airplane crashes to assassinate people, one wonders whether it really was incompetence....or a well thought out plan.
We desperately need more leaders like Hugo Chavez, and considerably less than those super-incompetent bunch in this present administration, i.e., Rummy, Dicky and George of the Bungle!
If one subtracts corporate and personal debt from the GDP (which makes up a signficant portion of the GDP) you will find that this country has actually experienced negative GDP growth for the past few years.
OECD is a subset of the WTO - and citizens should place as much faith in their statistics as they do in the WTO.
The USA's population has had a negative savings rate for over a year now. The last time that occurred was just before The Great Depression of the '30s. Think again, my friend, but this time think more analytically and sagely.
It's not supposed to assassinate US presidents, but that didn't stop them when it came to John F. Kennedy.....(see those State Department memos declassified this past year).
Had you served in the USAF ARRS and USAF SOS, you could have been dodging loads of incoming, sonny. No further posts required on this subject. Noncombatants are extraneous to serious issues.
Maybe it wasn't the exposition so much as the small print you found intolerable.....practical thinking does have its place in the scheme of things.
Edison did put forth the most practical idea, having gone bankrupt in the process of inventing AND marketing it. Many don't realize today (thanks to revisionist history) but the electric light was a hard sell for Edison. It wasn't until it was shown in the European Exposition - where it became an almost instant hit - that American backers finally caught on to it!
And you are correct, that Chinese military-owned company which owns/operates at the Long Beach port goes against the national security of this country.
Seriously, though, if you came down with any sickness due to your service in the first Gulf War, I'm sorry. But as far as theater of operations, one week there just simply doesn't compare with one year in Vietnam, three months in the Yom Kippur War and that Mayaguez thing. But if you served in the first gulf war, you should be aware enough to know that Bush and Company are full of it - and how could any combat veteran (even a 1-week vet) possibly defend a deserter and a draft-dodger?????? Simply doesn't make any sense.....
I believe the proper term is infantile fucktards.
Please, let's keep this discussion on the proper level.....
You remind me of those present day grunts serving in Bush's imperial army. Which was why the Founding Fathers clearly stated the concept of the citizen-soldier and why this nation should never have a standing army - just call up the citizenry in time of war. The worst thing Nixon ever did (and Bush certainly makes Nixon look like a saint today), was to end the draft. Everyone should do their citizenship duty and serve a tour (unlike both Bush and Cheney) in the US military. Do you some good, you ignorant little punk....
I clearly said Pakistan is a nation of Islamic fanatics. Get with the program, oh uneducated and unsophisticated one. Next you'll be claiming Bush actually served his full tour in the Air National Guard and that Cheney isn't a draft-dodger?????
The UAE does indeed have emirs there who have supported bin Laden (and perhaps still do for all anyone knows..) And please don't give me that holier-than-thou lame stuff about FREE TRADE and Dubai controlling North American ports. Since when do free-trade fanatics love state-owned corporations???
What Rumsfeld was doing is known as inferring, and if you are unsure as to what this word means please feel free to look it up. How could anyone possibly justify Bush's going into Iraq and getting all those American soldiers and Marines killed, along with all those innocent Iraqis?????
Such madness. Of course he should be compared to Hitler and it is a most justifiable comparison. Does any other American president come to mind when the subject of American torturing comes up???
You are speaking of the former British Empire and the modern armies of Egypt and some other middle eastern countries. My advice would be for you to read "Starship Troopers."
The only decent movie I saw this year was "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang" with Robert Downey and Val Kilmer - with excellent dialogue and writing.
Otherwise, the movies have been so bad, it's better to simply view porn over the Internet - far more entertaining than sorry plot, acting and dialogue.
RAH takes a very serious view of citizenship, which is why this society (Amerika) is so completely corrupt today, with a deserter as prez and a draft-dodger as vice-prez, both of whom are emptying the US treasury as fast as possible.....
Also, they've filmed "Them" (it was called The Truman Story, I believe, starring Jim Carey, but it was a direct - knowingly or unknowingly - ripoff), and they did an excellent, albeit very low budget film of "The Puppet Masters" (with Donald Sutherland doing a superb job, as usual).
Imagine if they did Poul Andersen's "Operation Changeling" - or the novel form - "Operation Chaos" - ultimate coool. Plus Sterling's "Drakon" - which would be really awesome. Plus there are zillions of mysteries and action/suspense, even decent romance novels around they could film. Nobody needs yet another remake of "The Mod Squad", etc., ad nauseum....One simply can't say that an organization (as mentioned in the 9/11 Commission Report) has no connection to al Qaeda or the terrorists. It took me far too many years to understand the connections between so many people and organizations. Thank god for the internet: Now when I see that one of the bribers of the recently convicted congressman, Duke Cunningham, received an intelligence operation direct from the White House - and that said briber recently set up the "Iranian Democracy Foundation" - and that Condoleezza Rice requested $75 million from Congress to fund Iranian revolutionary groups to overthrow Iran's government - all within the same day - I can figure out that the $75 million will be laundered through that "Iranian Democracy Foundation" and the briber, and Bush Administration people, will have $75 million towards their individual retirement funds - yet one more transfer of wealth from the taxpayers to the thieves.....
It still beats being shackled to those damn oars...I hated those Roman overseers....
Funny, this from an administration that has proclaimed Pakistan, a country of Islamic fanatics, as the ally of the US, along with Syria (around the time Bush was shipping prisoners to that country to be tortured). 'Nuff said.....
Nahh....He probably signs on to those bestiality sites.....
Naah....I don't think that's it....I think Cheney will actually shoot a real, live bird on that day.