For those not realizing it, there is no law outside the US on such stuff. Not that the locals, don't have their own laws, it is just across the border and our laws don't apply. This is the real danger as we "Outsource" everything. Yes it is cheaper, but sorry no laws apply either.
As to HIPPA, it exists to protect the institutions, not the individual. Sorry for those who believe otherwise.
Make things clear here: As States process critical Identity Data on persons such as Unemployment, Drivers Licenses etc this way, there is absolutely no protection of the individual against IDENTITY THEFT. While you might not think this is critical, remember that 100% of all documents needed to breach US Security are already being processed in areas where persons who want something more than higher wages are handling them. Al Qaeda works openly in many of these areas. This allows them unlimited, travel, funds and identities to cause terror. This completely dismantles any US Homeland Security. With this going on, "Homeland Security" is an Oxymoron.
Generally Invoicing or billing for servies which cannot be validated constitutes under Federal Law:
Wire Fraud or
Mail Fraud
Both of which tend to get the sender a long vacation at Club Fed. These are enforced pretty strongly too!
W. Hubble (Clinton Admin.) got to take one of those vacations all expenses paid courtesy of the Taxpayers of the United States of America for just this! Maybe the SCO people didn't want to make the issue move into the Criminal Courts?
The EU VAT Rebate is not to Individuals, it is on export companies who export EU Made goods to the outside of the EU. Naturally an individual would not see this feature. This only involves the EXPORT of goods. This is particularly important for Americans to understand
Essentially the problem is solved in the EU because if you "Play" in the EU, you "Pay" in the EU. This is fair and decent however; the taxes may not be proper in their level, this being another issue
The problem for US Citizens is that they don't have this feature in their tax system. If they Export their goods are fully laden with the Domestic US Taxes and as such the US primarily exports farm products and Arms. Almost every other thing has been destroyed in the market place of the world because the taxes are too high on US Products. Naturally the Foreigners don't see these taxes only the total price.
Correspondingly the Domestic US Market is being crushed by the fact that US Workers and businesses must load their costs with these taxes yet their market is tariff free open to the NAFTA and GATT signatories. As such many people around the world having no taxes naturally have much lower prices in the US Market than Domestic Products.
I am well aware that domestically the EU Taxes are way too high. This is not the point of the problem being discussed. The Issue of US Taxes being too high is also not the issue. The problem is when a tax ratio disparity develops like this one it hurts everyone.
The Current low interest rates have developed out of this problem. While it might be cheap to borrow the problem is that when investors earn so little they quit investing in jobs. This causes a deflationary spiral and is serious trouble. If we allow this inequality to continue we will see a further rise in warfare world wide. I saw the damage this was causing in 1996 in the Philippines and at that time I started telling people that we were going into a world war. If one is to understand this quite simply, the issue is that each nation should take care of its own territory and quit trying to take advantage of the others. Prosperity arises from peace, security and trust. While momentary gains may be seen from this type of mess, the end is alway a destruction of prosperity.
The EU comparisons of wages to US Wages are not wise. I have known and worked with many persons from EU and other areas. These persons were shocked to see that their paycheck was higher but their cost of living was correspondingly much higher.
Right now at my company I could take a job in Maryland near DC. I will not! The reason is that my wages would have to rise by nearly 3 times to have the same standard of living as I have in North Alabama. The same is true for money comparisons in many areas. They are not linear. Currency does not tell all! Indians I know who earned $5000 a year lived higher in India at that rate than they do in North Alabama at $55,000 a year.
I would take note of your 42% tax rate and almost laugh. Here is a short but not complete breakdown locally. Remember our structure unlike yours multiplies so that our rates are dramatically higher in reality than stated.
Social Security Tax 7.625% Employee and matched 7.625% Employer
Federal Income Tax (Rate varies with income) Generally about 28%
Sales Tax Combined City and State 8.5% of gross purchaces.
Birmingham Alabama and Jefferson County Occupational Tax 5.5% of Gross....
Alabama alone has 39 taxes for Schools and a total of 42 taxes. The Federal Government has Excise Taxes and even the Aternative Minimum Tax. If you want to get really bored the US and various State Codes and local Tax codes should take you about 10,000 years to read by which time they will have written enough to have you 20,000 years behind!
The point here is to quit the surface cursory looking and start looking carefully. It is not wise and the EU does not permit under the Draft Constitution its member states to have a situation like is happening in the USA with locals getting crushed by tax exempt persons or goods from outside.
It might seem wise in the short run. If you only think for the next 90 days or next year it makes sense. GE is a company that is the Largest US Defense Contractor. They are slitting their throat politically on this one. In the end, they risk national Security, and the national economy against the good will of US Taxpayers who may just sent them to JAIL for their disloyalty in the future. There are violations of US Security Laws here!
GE doesn't stand to make much money if the US National Security gets compromised too much! This is the wisdom of the man who sells the boards and pipes out of his house and calls them a "Profit".
On the other hand, I can hardly argue that given the same arrogant ignorant congress critters and situation that they have not taken the path of least resistance.
While I might agree in some cases with your statement, it is clear that you simply do not know what is going on with the US Economy and US Taxes. I don't hold this against anyone as it is so easy to be ignorant of what the realities are.
A Simple set of calculations shows that the amount of tax taken from a EU citizen by the VAT is like 65%. However; when his products are exported whatever they are, the VAT is rebated so he competes Head to Head in the world market. Most Other countries have very little if any Income Tax. The Philippines for example have a 5% income tax.
While inside the USA it varies from Sate to State and with the level of Income a general statement is that about 65% of Income is taken. (Please don't try for the breakdown because I can give it to you but really would just like to discuss generalities here.) However; the US Tax System is Multi-Layered unlike the EU VAT and it is MULTIPLICATIVE. This means it multiplies on itself. I disclosed the first layer only. By going just 4 layers into it the rate is about 92%. The proper measure is about 6 layers and that calculates at something close to 97% of income.
This might seem strange to those outside the USA but it is the Reality. (I have worked for a State Tax Authority and I know how it works.) Most US Citizens are confused by this and I could hardly be surprised if some are confused by what I am saying. The long and the short of it is that Americans are awfully over taxed and their wages must be very high in order to have something left to live on. As such they appear Over Priced in an open world market which pays no such taxes. The reality is that the over priced thing is their government, not their wages. The customer only sees the whole price, not the breakdown.
As to the Correction of Salaries etc, let me assure you I have never been one of the "Over Paid" ones. But this is not a correction. A correction would reach a parity value. Under the circumstances of this tax disparity, there is never any parity. No matter how low the American goes, if he earns money, he faces competition which will be cheaper. If he fails to earn, the foreigners who depended on the US Consumer Market to sell their goods in, find a recession killing their wages and driving them lower. Thus, this never quits! It is a Weapon of Mass Economic Destruction.
The Concept of Correction here also fails by evidence because the proper way to measure wages is not in money/hour but in money/unit of production. In Software this is particularly hard to measure for managment. (The orginal point of my post being that management is dumb in all too many cases) They try to measure the old "Factory" way and the world is littered with the bankrupt companies who got a "Cheaper" rate in software. Also most of the rest of the world is not aware of the issues regards lower wages. Let me assure you that they are not in the long run better for a nation. If low wages and hard working conditions were a benefit to a nation, India, China and others would be the richest in the world. Low wages and poor working conditions are a curse to a nation. Seeking to "Benefit" from them is always a failed bargain. You see businesses find that they really like doing business with "Rich" Customers. You don't make much money from poor people.
Regards the Non-US workers, this is as dangerous to you as to us. What is more, the situation is calculated to drive you down as well. This is all the product of the USA Opening its market without taxation (Tariffs) to foreign competition. It has nothing to do with any foreign persons goodness or efficiency or whatever. It has everything to do with the US Congress leaving US Citizens holding the bag so to speak.
To clarify: Imagine an Olympic Race. Many Runners from many nations appear. Just before the gun goes off, the US Runner sees Uncle Sam coming onto the field with 3 other persons. He demands that the US Runner Strap on his Mother, an Iraqi and a US Government Worker. The Gun goes off and natural
I suppose if you are looking from some other point of view but American you could have some difficulty understanding this. In the USA the government (all complaints not withstanding) exists for the most part because Americans actually support it.
What happened here was the government nearly ran out of its consent with the populace. This is a real threat to social and economic order because as the government becomes debased by such actions, it causes the development of outside classes of people who feel no reason to apply government rules in their life. Many other rules get weak as well.
The US Government became in the eyes of all to many US Citizens an enemy under that horrid 55 mph speed limit. The continuation of it threatened the government itself. This actually is a serious problem in much of the world as governments there are all too often imposed rather than concent based. As a result nobody sees any reason to comply with the "Law" and without the "Rule of Law" one has anarchy and much poverty results.
This is not an endorsement of strong government. Rather it is an argument for a people to form a government that supports good things.
Actually most governments are so debased that their is some question if they are much more than something to be resisted.
Maybe we need to advise President Bush of this service. He clearly thinks that the reason US Computer Programmers suffer unemployment is that they have not keep their skills up to date. That is why he supports H-1B and L-1 Visa programs to import "Qualified Workers." (Speech about 45 days ago) Maybe he will open up H-1B and L-1 Visa programs to replace these clearly obsolete and moronic obviously unqualified CEO's etc. But if he does, he may have to realize that their claims of "No Qualified Americans," only apply to Management and definitely not the the Software Engineers they lay off to raise their wages.
For the Ignorant H-1B and L-1 are US BICS(US Bureau of Immigration and Citizenship Services part of the Department of Homeland Security) [An onxymoron] Visa programs designed to allow companies to bring in massive quantities of Aliens and pay them substandard wages while avoiding US Payroll Taxes either all or part such that they can complain bitterly that there are no "Qualified Americans" while they bask in the wads of cash they save on taxes. It is as simple as understanding that Americans must markup their wages 150% or more to pay the taxes and the companies and their employees (Aliens) don't have to pay these taxes or the markup via these programs. Read Corporate Welfare!
Bush thinks that Americans should have to compete against Tax Exempt foreign Labor and that it is only their lack of "Qualifications" that makes them unemployed. Bluntly ask yourself, if you have the choice to buy a product from one person who charges $1000 and another who charges $2500 for the same product which would you buy? The answer is obvious. American Labor is not more expensive, it is our Government that is more expensive.
To illustrate: If GE which is Outsourcing to China $5 Billion this year and saving $1 Billion buys in the USA it cost $6 Billion. The States and the USA take $3 or more Billion of that money. The Labor only got $3 Billion. In China the Untaxed Labor cost $5 Billion. Thus the US Labor was $2 Billion Cheaper than in China. It is not US Labor that is the problem. It is the IGNORANT MANAGEMENT who is like these guys getting private tutors to even know how to use the machines of modern work while laying off Americans who are well qualified that is the problem. These are the same men who are killing Education Benefits for working people. They are the same ones who testify in front of Congress that there are "No Qualified Americans" to fill their jobs.
Does anyone remember that horrid double nickle speed limit a few years back that was supposed to be saving gas and lives? Well it did neither, but it did nearly debase the government. Legitimacy had left town and civil order was going with it.
The US government went up in a party on 911. The bureaucracy got all the money it wanted and it got authority to treat the citizens like they were terrorists. It is a MAFIA Style Sake Down Racket. They use the ghosty threat of Al Qaeda to chase the terrorized populace right into the net. There they willingly give up their money.
Just a few facts on the terrorism front should make things clear. At full tilt Al Qaeda took (without any US Government opposition and deliberate US Government ignorance of them) from 1993 to 2001 just to be able to hit us again. The reason we have not been hit since 911 has nothing to do with the US Government Actions and everything to do with the fact that Al Qaeda couldn't do it even if we did nothing. They have a shortage of lunatics willing to die for Allah.
We on the other hand have no shortage of chickens being willing to give everything up to get into the bureaucrats net. This is by the way a tactic I use to catch chickens which I raise. Scare them and the will go wherever you drive them to. Of course the best strategy in catching such birds is to await nightfall and they go home where you can just reach in and pick them up. Americans are doing just the same way. Let us settle down for rest and we simply head into roost making a great target.
I am no fan of drugs, but the Ashcroft team is making a better terrorist gang than the drug runners.
I am of the opinion that if Americans don't quit the roost they will find the door borded up on their freedom shortly. And just like with my chickens, the man who feeds them will also be the man who carries them to the killing cone. We need to start facing the reality of Government. In the period from 1900 to 2000 about 2 million people were murdered by criminals of various varieties. In the same period rogue governments killed over 200 million people. Government is a much greater danger.
George Washington said, "Government is like fire, it is a wonderful servent and a terrible master."
I have a link for this Ignorant Guy and please note that he denied that the Bush Administration was messed up on Immigration and that they refused to defend the country. http://www.washtimes.com/national/20031001-113722- 8560r.htm I just backed it up on "Bush opposes dealing with ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION."
The story is very important and shows just how deep the antipathy the Bushies have is towards enforcing the law and defending the country. It is "Hot off the Presses"
On September 6/7 of 2001 President Bush Welcomed V.Fox of Mexico to the White House and Mr. Fox spoke to Congress. In the month of August the Bush Administration undertook a propaganda campaign which tried to convince Americans that Border Enforcement was Impossible. Subsequent to that he on Sept 1, 2001 Ordered the US Border Patrol and US INS to cease Enforcement of the Border! On Sept 9 Mohammad Atta was arrested in Shelby County Alabama and based upon existing outstanding warrants he should have been deported by this event. Because the President's orders to honor Mr Fox, Mr. Atta went on his way!
The Bush Administration currently is releasing Illegals arrested. They are not even processing them! The BICS (Old INS) is not enforcing any efforts in this matter! I personally know of dozens of Illegal Immigrants and have reported them. Nothing is or has or will be done about them. The Bush Administration WANTS TO END BORDER ENFORCEMENT!
I am married to an Immigrant and Immigration is an issue I know a lot about because of it. I was also laid off from working on a US Government Warship so that they could import H-1B Labor from India on OCT 5, 2001! I could go on and on regards immigration but bluntly Bush is not on the team and you don't know what is going on if you think he is!
Regards to Tariffing wages, you obviously don't pay income taxes or you don't understand that income taxes are a tariff of sorts on wages. Bluntly I as an American Citizen must markup my wages more than 150% in order to pay taxes on my income and live. My foreign competition if domestically located is either whole or part exempted from these taxes. If their goods or services are imported under GATT and the FTA's (Trade Promotion Authority DEMANDED BY BUSH) they are entirely US Tax Exempt. It is a foregone conclusion of that competition. But to clarify: Imagine a Super US Runner in a Race against other good runners from the world. Just before the race Uncle Sam comes by and straps on to him an Iraqi (War costs here) His Grandma, (Social Security costs here) and a few other things. The gun goes off and of course the American Runner falls flat on his face. (And so do your ignorant arguments)
Regards the DEA vs FBI on Drugs, the only thing the DEA is doing is enforcing against Grandmas etc who are ordering their medicine from Canada so that they can eat! Canadian Options etc are being sued by Ashcrofts boys here over this.
I could go on but I will not. Bluntly the Bush team is "Making the world safe for Democrats" with their sabotage of American Economy and National Security.
Shawn Hannity nearly went postal yesterday fussing about why didn't Americans close ranks over the war on terror etc... He just couldn't understand why somebody would not support Bush. This Guy is not crazy to not like the President.
Well being an American and a Reagan Republican I do understand why. It is pretty simple to explain. Simply sit down and figure out the logical reasonable solutions that should be done to ensure our national security and our economy. Then compare your list to the Bush Actions. He is going to come up short. Look closely the Border is WIDE OPEN and Bush opposes dealing with ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION. The Secy. of Defense testified before congress that he could not run a military and buy 50% American Made. The Defense Budget is up by $300 Billion and Defense Contractors are laying off. In Iraq and Afghanistan the best description of the management is that Cpt. Klutz is in charge. These guys cannot get their act together for stupid behavior. It goes on and on.
Domestically the Bush team thinks that Free Trade means dismantling our domestic laws and causing Americans to have to tarriff their wages 150% while competing with foreign persons and goods which pay no such taxes. They refuse to defend the rights of Investors to get access to the massive earnings of companies which are being diverted into criminal management's pockets. (It ain't capitalism when you don't get paid for your investment. It is FRAUD)
The Bush Team is prosecuting Grandma for buy Medicine out of the Country but has withdrawn the FBI From Drug enforcement. I know! I had a case to call the FBI because Drug terrorists were destroying my neighborhood! The FBI doesn't even answer their answering machine on Drug related cases!
John Ashcroft thinks he needs to take away more of our civil liberties while he still hasn't successfully prosecuted even one Terrorist from Al Qaeda. The Bureaucracy is Bloated to the limit and growing at 5.9% per year the highest rate in history (Per real Growth numbers).
I as a Reagan Republican am for Smaller Government, Less Intrusion into my life, Growing Economy and strong National defense. The National Defense Budget is up but the critical defense items are not there. They have even withdrawn the on call CAP flights to "Save Money." The Government is growing fasterr than ever and the intrusion is growing too.
There might just be a real reason to hate Bush without being unreasonable. Reality might just open one's eyes and it might just be the right thing to do. He refuses to corral corruption, defend the country and is draining our economy dry into foreign hands. Sounds like pretty good reasons to me.
Probably the best reason to hate Bush is that he and is associates are destroying the "Reagan Revolution" as fast as they can and hijacking the term Conserviative Republican giving it a bad name.
To be specific, Microsoft and Intel have a relationship like a married couple. Microsoft keeps the planned obsolesence coming in OS stuff so that we demand more and more memory and more and more faster chips which actually do nothing for us. This was disclosed in the Anti-Trust discussions recently.
Nothing terrifies Intel more than having to rely on the quality and speed of their chips to do their own selling. A little secret they don't want to tell you about is that for some time, the Software linking in Microsoft OS made clock speeds over 900 mHz essentially of no additional value. The only thing selling the faster chips was the forced obsolescence. Without MS you could buy a CPU for a $1 check and it would work great. Without MS you could buy 128 Meg in memory and be thrilled with performance. MS made you have to go up just to function with their OS. It really gave no additional value.
The Intel people are terrified of the $20 PC that could be built and serve the world if we can MS. One should note the abbreviation MS here could be used interchangably for the Medical Term Multiple Sclarosis. In both cases the term is analogous. The MS OS is doing to computers exactly what MS does to human physiology.
The cure for this disease is Linux which allows us to use the machine for what it was built for. Linux allows us to adapt and grow without the OS killing us.
We should also note that the best definition of the MS OS is that it is an Anti-Security System designed to place our machines under the control of others who want to extort money from us. Every day now we are seeing news stories where whole Government Offices are being crushed by the Virii and Worms that infest MS OS.
What we are not seeing is the absolutely larger story about our personal information being heisted by MS OS design and used to steal our identity and to commit crimes. Al Qaeda uses credit card fraud to finance itself a great deal. The numbers are given to it via access to accounts being processed in Pakistan and India. You no longer have to lift my wallet to steal my credit card and social Security numbers. All you have to do is work for TATA and others in Pakistan and India. There you need fear no FBI or State Police. There you can do this wholesale and with the blessing and funding of our American Government agencies.
At least with Linux you have some security and may use older machines to good effect
The production here has many potentials not all of which involve computing. This technology will allow the dicrete pumping of any atom to any excitation state desired using simple controls and simple electrical processes. This means for those out there who don't understand this more technical description that NUCLEAR REACTIONS will shortly become as easily done and as common place as are CHEMICAL REACTIONS now. All sorts of matter/energy fun can now start.
WARNING: devices only amplify the intentions and wisdom of their Users! The higher the amplification the more the Morals and Ethics and Wisdom of the user of the device becomes. This is a VERY HIGH amplification technology. It is orders of magnitude above any such amplification we have seen before.
The potential here is for extraordinary Good or Bad.
This guy makes reading equations and calculations a rational exercise and easy! He is the kind of guy we need in Physics, not those who have died and been reincarnated as god!
I work in Huntsville, Alabama. Downtown is a monument noting that in late October of 1813 Andrew Jackson (US $20 Bill) camped there on his way to the battle at Horseshoe Bend In Dadeville Alabama at the nothern edge of the little town is a monument to General Coffee and the 50,000 Cherokee Indians he brought with him to help in the battle at Horseshoe Bend.
This all might not seem important until you realize that the war noted in these monuments was exactly like the current one. Religious Extremists (Manito) with assistance of a major Colonial Foreign Power (England) attempted to reign a terror campaign with warfare against Amercans. There were entire Counties in Tennesse and Kentucky completely devoid of human life after these terrorists stuck. So Tennesse struck back. In the north Tyler had struck at Fallen Timbers and Prophet's Town Indianna in 1810/1811 for the same reasons. In Alabama it was the Lower Creek Indians. They believed in killing anyone who used the modern technology. Even and Indian could be killed if he used a steel plow! Just like the Islamic Extremists the problem was that their culture was so unable to provide for their people that it was collapsing.
The battle was won by the Army of the State of Tennessee and their Northern Alliance of Cherokee Indians. Unfortunately the defeat did not stop the terrorism. What stopped the terrorism was the development of "Citizenship." They in the words of a song from the times "...said their prayers with their shotguns cocked." Armed and very dangerous Citizens stopped the terrorism.
The lesson for today is unmistakable. We are in the same mess and the solution will be the same. We have to defend our country. Unfortunately this runs cross purposes to the "Patiot Act" and Ashcroft. It also shows exactly what happened on 9/11/2001. Bluntly we saw the rise of government suppression of Citizenship to the point that Mohammad Atta and his gang were repeatedly able to assault the US Citizens and the Citizens were restrained from doing anything about them and the US government refused to do anything about them. We will only see the danger grow in size and certainty until the day comes when Americans return to their Citizenship duty and kick these government looters of our rights out of the way.
On September 11, 2001 we were not attacked because of our Civil Rights or Freedom. We were attacked because our government had dismantled our defenses which are native to us. Like a person with AIDS we had no immunity and the pathogen showed up and took the opportunity. I am not discounting the need for Military or other Action. I am saying that Citizenship is essential to success.
This lesson is just as essential to Iraqi as American. If any people on earth would live free and safe the first obligation is to Citizenship. Allowing the luxury of a Professional Police Force to handle this does not diminish this. Allowing the Professionals to displace this is fatal. The USA had plenty and good laws to handle terrorist and gangsters before 9/11. We have too many now! We might have needed to "Tweek" here and there but generally we are forgetting that the constitution and the Bill of Rights are not the problem. We are forgetting that we as America arose in a bath of terrorism. Our own Declaration of Independence references the terrorism supported by the English King. America developed because of our respect of rights and probably the most important of these was the rights and duties of Citizenship.
The Bush Administration people are "Counter Revolutionaries" against the American Revolution when they push the Idea that relieving us of our rights is the solution.
Just for the record, the sky being blue is not refraction nor is it diffaction. The gas Nitrogen at high altitute is florescent and it glows in a blue/green color we see close to blue. Oxygen also glows blue/green. Curiously most of the radiation from the sun reaching earth is not visable rather it is x-rays and UV stuff with some gamma and much IR. The sun transmissions are changed in color by this process. This is precisely the color mix that plants absorb making them appear grean.
Regards the orginal post on cloud weight, there is a real issue here that readers who read the "anti-gravity" posts recently might take note of. If the cloud begins to fall without some mechanism to dissipate the energy in it, the cloud evaporates at lower altitude. It is kept up there by an energy field. This field is capacitantly stored. If the capacitance breaks down, we get lightning. This also explains the effect of cosmic high energy particles on rain
I am not intending to discuss this in full detail here and doubtless someone will try to pick apart the simplified notes here.
The Florescence is a directional radiation not a thing which would entirely be seen from space. This relates highly to the process by which lasers work.
I am from the good old USA. We don't have a patient on good or bad. We seem to do business with both quite freely.
Your observation about the Catholic Church is right on target. My wife is from the Philippines... Same Problem. No country dominated by catholics goes anywhere fast. But that might be why there is an attack on the Protestant Belief in a few places too.
Brazil and many other places have immigrants who come to the USA hearing the talk about freedom. I learned some time ago that the Indians and the Filipino people generally laugh or cry at the claim that the USA is a "Free Country" because they see so much that isn't free here. I personally think that all the nations of the world could use to learn from each other. The USA could use to learn a lot and quit being so arrogant regards freedom. Brazil I am sure has things to learn as well.
Glad you do! I am sorry also if I somehow made a wrong feeling get out. The company I work for had the DARPA contract on Prediction Markets. Let me assure you we never even got the truth to be told before idiots were out making things up to be what they were not.
I do understand a lot of people holding goverment in suspicion. The CIA for example has proved once again that it is an Oxymoron. It is neither Central, or Intelligent nor an agency. It clearly is a disorganized mess. It clearly is moronic unable to even get the most basic things like when the Indian Prime Minister ran for election saying he would build nuclear weapons and they were dumbfounded when he did it! Anyone who believes that the CIA is an Agency of the US Government does not know how it has been acting. It is a Rogue. DARPA on the other hand seems to always pull the rabbits out of the hat like a good magician. Not likely at too many other agencies
I hoped you noted what I said on the issue of the Grand Challange. We face a most serious reality that in our world we will either build a world for the machines where people work for them or a world where the machines work for people. The choice should not be made by ignorance or by avoiding a decision. This is a critical reality. We face a threat to freedom that Al Qaeda could never be based on this.
I see great promice in what can be, and great danger in what will be if we do not manage it wisely. Ignorance assures the disaster.
Al Gore's claim was a lie, DARPA did invent the internet. Contrary to the "Public" lies about its origin being somewhere else, the internet was a DARPA invention! I was around when they did it and knew the people involved. Anything else is pure fantacy.
I appreciate the ingrained mistrust of government but sometimes they get things right. DARPA has had 2 projects going that I posted to Slashdot and they refused them because the guys thought that they didn't merit the news. One got top billing for days on the evening news (Prediction Markets) [Slashdot are you listening? I don't submit trash] and the other which is probably the most profound thing yet is still hiding under the Slashdot radar. (DARPA's GRAND CHALLENGE) http://www.darpa.mil/grandchallenge/index.htm
This is a autonomous vehicle race from Los Angeles Ca to Los Vagas Nv. The race will have no drivers and will have no remote control. This is a true race. The profound reality is how this technology will change our world. It since the invention of fire is probably the greatest leap in tech. There are many entrants to the race.
This promices to change EVERYTHING. No more truck drivers. No more car drivers. No more traffic cops! No more taxi drivers. Yes you will go where you want but you won't drive. Probably most people will quit owning cars! Those who own cars will probably rent them out when they are not using them. Gasoline savings will be about 4:1 to current use. Safety through the roof. Most Hospitals closed for lack of business! The economic, social and political shakeup this is going to make will be profound!
Maybe Slashdot should open their eyes a bit! This is coming down the pike and it is going to take out everything in its way. There are issues of personal freedom and society safety all over this technology. There are issues of economic prosperity and security all over it too. I think that maybe we should parlay on the matter a bit ahead of time before we go off half cocked and wind up with our affairs out of hand.
This is the "Killer App" that everyone has been talking about. It will invade every corner of the world. All competing tech will be washed out of the way. Kids will no longer learn to drive. Governments will get their tax revenues messed up. People's jobs will in many cases cease to exist and we will have to face the fact that many people with money will simply determine that large groups of people are not needed any more. This is the KILLER of the ECONOMY as we know it. We could either be blessed greatly or damned to hell by it. The adaptation methods and rules by which we adapt to this new tech will be the determining factor of human safety and happiness. We have to deal with this up front. If we leave a Bill Gates in charge of this stuff we will lose all freedom forever.
Personally I am excited about the great and wonderful prospects on this one, but the dangers are as great as the prospects. If we simply allow this to come up without planning ahead and knowing what is coming we will only see the damage. There is no stopping the tech, it will happen. The issue is how do we use it and who do we let control it and how will it be managed.
Of course you are going to get rich with a PhD in something. What you will be rich in is a matter of events to find out.
To be a bit serious here, I have no doubt that so long as American Taxpayers have money and are stupid enough to keep reelecting the same ignorant fools to public office, somebody with a PhD will have a job teaching Microsoft crap at the local College. (Even after there is no market for the skill) However; as pressure builds to cut costs the person will probably be an H-1B or L-1 or W something visa holder. Right now the most secure what to get a job in Computer Science in the USA is to have one of these. (Citizenship anybody) Even the local Colleges and Universities are lining up for these people. Don't you bother to get in line, American Citizens need not apply.
You might just check out the facts as www.zazona.com or http://www.outsourcecongress.org:81 or you can clunk around at http://www.immigration.gov/graphics/index.htm
http://www.immigration.gov/graphics/howdoi/h1b.htm
Or you can just get Circular E from the IRS and do a keyword search on Indian Student.
I wonder if they would Let US Students be exempt from Tax Withholding? Hmmmmm...
The issue is as simple as this
So long I as an American Citizen must mark up my wages over 150% in order to pay the State and Federal Taxes and at the same time the United States Congress opens the door to Aliens who do not pay these taxes on their wages, goods or services, the prospects for me as an American are pretty bleak.
The essential problem with wind and solar power is that they come when they come, not when we want them to come. The usefullness of electricity is because it comes when we want it to come.
Now as to the issue with power grid stability recently exposed with the North East Blackout, we find that all other issues pale into insignificance to IMMIGRATION. I am aware that people don't seem to think it is linked but people demand power. More people means more power demand. The essential problem is that the USA has a population of 300 million and a power grid designed and built when we had 200 million or less. We have no reserve!
Historically the grid we had was over built due to Nuclear Weapons production and we stopped that some years ago. The Gassious Diffusion Plants as Oak Ridge and Paducah drank nearly 1/3 of our national power supply at the time. This when we quit building left a lot of reserve for us to work with. It is now used up.
The USA is by current Immigration Policy of the Bush Administration going to have a population in 2035 of 600 million. That means take whatever you have for current requirements and double it plus maintanence on what you have! Don't try to trick this one, it will not fix. If you bring twice as many people to lunch, you need twice as many lunches. Same with Power Grid issues. I know that the Census bureau will publish lower numbers. They were already lying in 2000. They estimated population in 2000 before the actual count at about 272 Million. It was 284 Million! Current Immigration is running at a rate they say is about 2 million a year. It is actually running by all available real data at about 5.5 million a year. with Negative Domestic Population Growth of about 1.5 Million a year the USA is growing at greater than 4 Million a year. We are over the 300 Million now. The rate is increasing due to FTA's
The people of the USA have a collosal problem on their hands. They must build twice as many of everything and at a rate something in the order of 5 times faster than we have ever built before if we are to handle this adequately. We must do so at the same time when a lot of our infrastructure has aged to the point where we must replace it. We are at the limits of our ability just to repair what we have.
OR.... We can stop the Bush Administration Policy on Immigration and start dealing with illegal immigration as well. The general acceptance of the "Inability" to control the borders is the acceptance of the government refusing to do its duly constituted duty.
On my country street in an unicorporated area in Alabama, there are 3 phone companies with 3 different lines. Imagine that?!? If anyone thinks that they are in competition, just price the services. (NOT!)
Excellent Post. Probably the most realistic regards the reasons people actually do things. However; There are several problems regards the issue of computers in the classroom that have been kind of skipped over.
I ran a cabinet shop for 18 years. Every time we upgraded computers, we had to rewrite the software that handled our data. This made the machine the least expensive part of the process. We were running Apple Machines. Apple suffered from wanting to have its proprietary friends (Claris etc) have all the access to any decent programming tools. This made reworks really hard.
At the same time we tried to have feedback on technological changes in the industry to the trade schools in our area. Honestly we found the schools allergic to any updating.
The "Rational" choice of a computer platform for use in training students would include among other criteria the ability to upgrade while not causing obsolecence of the software and the hardware. Microsoft does not do this! The "Rational" decision would pick Linux but just as our attempts to cause technical education to change to modern realities met with failure, education authorities are reluctant to change in the area of computers too.
This problem of avoiding change had the tech schools teaching old technology in cabinetry while the need was in the new technology. It is clear from employment data that Microsoft Systems are rapidly coming to the end of their market as skills someone can earn a living at. (California alone has 3.8 Million unemployed with this skill set) Even in India and China they are going to Linux. These people are replacing Americans in the market. This is where the future is going. But just like Apple still domininating school markets even though they are essentially out of the Job market, I expect us to have very well educated Microsoft Operators and Programmers long after Microsofts market dominance is history. Schools are usually the last to adapt to new tech.
The best solution would be for schools to teach the on coming tech. Don't expect this any time soon.
There is another problem in schools. Computers are best illustrated by my father's rule for teaching kids how to use slide rules. He said, "When the answer is more important than how you got the answer, I will teach you to use the slide rule." I learned slide rules just about the time the first calculators came out. It was astounding to me how students would get really exact numbers and have no idea what in the world they ment or if the answer was even related to the problem when they used calculators. This is the problem with Computers. We have kids turning in papers of astounding detail on facts etc that frankly they have not a clue what it all means.
My Father's rule when I used a calculator allowed me to have a fair idea if I had keyed an error or not. It remains good sense. Kids who use computers before they understand how the information is gotten and what it really means turn in fabulous papers, they get good grades and they are absolutely hopelessly worthless in the work place. This is the principal reason other than tax incentives for the "Outsourcing" and H-1B and L-1 Type events that are crushing the careers of IT People in the USA.
Those of us in IT should try to force out of schools except as assistance tools to the teacher any computers until the students break into the 10th grade or so.
If you are tempted to doubt what I am saying here, note: The top computer skill that is in demand in the USA is Inventory Management associated with Retail Sales. While it does not have much glamour, it represents at least for a time 80% or more of the employment of High School graduates. Does anyone anywhere know of a school system teaching this skill to most if not all of their HS Students. It usually involves the base of the HS Grads work for about 5 years or more. It is pretty Important!
Inventory Management stuff is the scanner operations and inventory processes associated with Retail Sales. Frankly
I didn't say where China or India got their coal. I am aware that China for example is mining more and more coal. Honestly I had no particular data on where India got its coal but it surely would have surprized me if it wasn't local in source.
However: there is a serious problem in many deposits around the world with quality. The Eastern US Deposits are generally Bituminus with some Anthacite. These often have too much sulfur and ash for US EPA limits. The Alabama Coal mines often have to export their coal for this reason. I don't suppose that it makes any less pollution whereever it is burned.
Most Asian deposits (I have not got data on India) are generally pretty low quality regards Environmental issues. China has a real problem here.
Alabama as with most of the Eastern US Power Plant use, burns coal from places like Wyoming and Colorado because it burns cleaner. The Energy value of the western coal is generally lower though.
The real reason I pointed out that the "Hate America First" Crowd was out in force on this one is because the Kyoto Treaty which was rejected by the US Senate 99-0 expects the USA to cut its CO2 emissions about 30% in while giving India, China, and most of the lesser developed nations a pass on unlimited output. China under Kyoto was expected to increase its CO2 emissions to a level about 6 times that of the USA at the peak of its output. There wasn't even a proposal for any limits at any level of China or India output.
Just to be really curious here, I would like to point out that the principal "Greenhouse Gas" in our environment is WATER Vapor! But I am sure some ignorant person will want to argue that one too!
Also one of the arguments about CO2 Emissions is over CO2 Sinks. These are environmental Uptakes of CO2 reducing net output. The USA has massive forrests which actually uptake more CO2 than we put out in industrial use. The USA is sitting much better on the environment than the foolish Eco Nuts like to say. The general progress in the USA regards our environment is pretty profound. Unlike most of the rest of the world our rivers and air are getting better on most accounts. Frankly no other country has even close to our good record on this. (No insults intended but we are doing a lot better than the competition on this)
I am not representing us to have no problems. But the Unbalanced view of either national relations, air/water pollution or even the reason land is above the ocean is why we get these funny arguments that somehow doomsday is right around the corner.
The data on why land is above the ocean level is absolutely determined by sattelite data to be matching Archemedes principal. Mountains follow this too! I will admit that this might seem incongruent with the fact that rocks in a mountian or land are denser than water. However the net data on orbital motion shows that the net mass density is lower. So either we have some undiscovered phyical principal causing this or a bunch of our GEOLOGY it messed up!
The land mass of Australia is for example depressed by a gravitational anomoly up to 300 feet below what would be average sea level (net to elevation). Yet the coastal Sea level is not 300 feet higher on Australia. These effects are quite profound and really tell why the ocean is where it is and not where it isn't. This isn't just filling a bowl stuff like some might think.
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For those not realizing it, there is no law outside the US on such stuff. Not that the locals, don't have their own laws, it is just across the border and our laws don't apply. This is the real danger as we "Outsource" everything. Yes it is cheaper, but sorry no laws apply either.
As to HIPPA, it exists to protect the institutions, not the individual. Sorry for those who believe otherwise.
Make things clear here: As States process critical Identity Data on persons such as Unemployment, Drivers Licenses etc this way, there is absolutely no protection of the individual against IDENTITY THEFT. While you might not think this is critical, remember that 100% of all documents needed to breach US Security are already being processed in areas where persons who want something more than higher wages are handling them. Al Qaeda works openly in many of these areas. This allows them unlimited, travel, funds and identities to cause terror. This completely dismantles any US Homeland Security. With this going on, "Homeland Security" is an Oxymoron.
Generally Invoicing or billing for servies which cannot be validated constitutes under Federal Law:
Wire Fraud or
Mail Fraud
Both of which tend to get the sender a long vacation at Club Fed. These are enforced pretty strongly too!
W. Hubble (Clinton Admin.) got to take one of those vacations all expenses paid courtesy of the Taxpayers of the United States of America for just this! Maybe the SCO people didn't want to make the issue move into the Criminal Courts?
The EU VAT Rebate is not to Individuals, it is on export companies who export EU Made goods to the outside of the EU. Naturally an individual would not see this feature. This only involves the EXPORT of goods. This is particularly important for Americans to understand
Essentially the problem is solved in the EU because if you "Play" in the EU, you "Pay" in the EU. This is fair and decent however; the taxes may not be proper in their level, this being another issue
The problem for US Citizens is that they don't have this feature in their tax system. If they Export their goods are fully laden with the Domestic US Taxes and as such the US primarily exports farm products and Arms. Almost every other thing has been destroyed in the market place of the world because the taxes are too high on US Products. Naturally the Foreigners don't see these taxes only the total price.
Correspondingly the Domestic US Market is being crushed by the fact that US Workers and businesses must load their costs with these taxes yet their market is tariff free open to the NAFTA and GATT signatories. As such many people around the world having no taxes naturally have much lower prices in the US Market than Domestic Products.
I am well aware that domestically the EU Taxes are way too high. This is not the point of the problem being discussed. The Issue of US Taxes being too high is also not the issue. The problem is when a tax ratio disparity develops like this one it hurts everyone.
The Current low interest rates have developed out of this problem. While it might be cheap to borrow the problem is that when investors earn so little they quit investing in jobs. This causes a deflationary spiral and is serious trouble. If we allow this inequality to continue we will see a further rise in warfare world wide. I saw the damage this was causing in 1996 in the Philippines and at that time I started telling people that we were going into a world war. If one is to understand this quite simply, the issue is that each nation should take care of its own territory and quit trying to take advantage of the others. Prosperity arises from peace, security and trust. While momentary gains may be seen from this type of mess, the end is alway a destruction of prosperity.
The EU comparisons of wages to US Wages are not wise. I have known and worked with many persons from EU and other areas. These persons were shocked to see that their paycheck was higher but their cost of living was correspondingly much higher.
Right now at my company I could take a job in Maryland near DC. I will not! The reason is that my wages would have to rise by nearly 3 times to have the same standard of living as I have in North Alabama. The same is true for money comparisons in many areas. They are not linear. Currency does not tell all! Indians I know who earned $5000 a year lived higher in India at that rate than they do in North Alabama at $55,000 a year.
I would take note of your 42% tax rate and almost laugh. Here is a short but not complete breakdown locally. Remember our structure unlike yours multiplies so that our rates are dramatically higher in reality than stated.
Social Security Tax 7.625% Employee and matched 7.625% Employer
Federal Income Tax (Rate varies with income) Generally about 28%
State of Alabama Income Tax 5.5%
Unemployment Compensation Employer paid tax 3.8% +/- varies
Sales Tax Combined City and State 8.5% of gross purchaces.
Birmingham Alabama and Jefferson County Occupational Tax 5.5% of Gross. ...
Alabama alone has 39 taxes for Schools and a total of 42 taxes. The Federal Government has Excise Taxes and even the Aternative Minimum Tax. If you want to get really bored the US and various State Codes and local Tax codes should take you about 10,000 years to read by which time they will have written enough to have you 20,000 years behind!
The point here is to quit the surface cursory looking and start looking carefully. It is not wise and the EU does not permit under the Draft Constitution its member states to have a situation like is happening in the USA with locals getting crushed by tax exempt persons or goods from outside.
It might seem wise in the short run. If you only think for the next 90 days or next year it makes sense. GE is a company that is the Largest US Defense Contractor. They are slitting their throat politically on this one. In the end, they risk national Security, and the national economy against the good will of US Taxpayers who may just sent them to JAIL for their disloyalty in the future. There are violations of US Security Laws here!
GE doesn't stand to make much money if the US National Security gets compromised too much! This is the wisdom of the man who sells the boards and pipes out of his house and calls them a "Profit".
On the other hand, I can hardly argue that given the same arrogant ignorant congress critters and situation that they have not taken the path of least resistance.
While I might agree in some cases with your statement, it is clear that you simply do not know what is going on with the US Economy and US Taxes. I don't hold this against anyone as it is so easy to be ignorant of what the realities are.
A Simple set of calculations shows that the amount of tax taken from a EU citizen by the VAT is like 65%. However; when his products are exported whatever they are, the VAT is rebated so he competes Head to Head in the world market. Most Other countries have very little if any Income Tax. The Philippines for example have a 5% income tax.
While inside the USA it varies from Sate to State and with the level of Income a general statement is that about 65% of Income is taken. (Please don't try for the breakdown because I can give it to you but really would just like to discuss generalities here.) However; the US Tax System is Multi-Layered unlike the EU VAT and it is MULTIPLICATIVE. This means it multiplies on itself. I disclosed the first layer only. By going just 4 layers into it the rate is about 92%. The proper measure is about 6 layers and that calculates at something close to 97% of income.
This might seem strange to those outside the USA but it is the Reality. (I have worked for a State Tax Authority and I know how it works.) Most US Citizens are confused by this and I could hardly be surprised if some are confused by what I am saying. The long and the short of it is that Americans are awfully over taxed and their wages must be very high in order to have something left to live on. As such they appear Over Priced in an open world market which pays no such taxes. The reality is that the over priced thing is their government, not their wages. The customer only sees the whole price, not the breakdown.
As to the Correction of Salaries etc, let me assure you I have never been one of the "Over Paid" ones. But this is not a correction. A correction would reach a parity value. Under the circumstances of this tax disparity, there is never any parity. No matter how low the American goes, if he earns money, he faces competition which will be cheaper. If he fails to earn, the foreigners who depended on the US Consumer Market to sell their goods in, find a recession killing their wages and driving them lower. Thus, this never quits! It is a Weapon of Mass Economic Destruction.
The Concept of Correction here also fails by evidence because the proper way to measure wages is not in money/hour but in money/unit of production. In Software this is particularly hard to measure for managment. (The orginal point of my post being that management is dumb in all too many cases) They try to measure the old "Factory" way and the world is littered with the bankrupt companies who got a "Cheaper" rate in software. Also most of the rest of the world is not aware of the issues regards lower wages. Let me assure you that they are not in the long run better for a nation. If low wages and hard working conditions were a benefit to a nation, India, China and others would be the richest in the world. Low wages and poor working conditions are a curse to a nation. Seeking to "Benefit" from them is always a failed bargain. You see businesses find that they really like doing business with "Rich" Customers. You don't make much money from poor people.
Regards the Non-US workers, this is as dangerous to you as to us. What is more, the situation is calculated to drive you down as well. This is all the product of the USA Opening its market without taxation (Tariffs) to foreign competition. It has nothing to do with any foreign persons goodness or efficiency or whatever. It has everything to do with the US Congress leaving US Citizens holding the bag so to speak.
To clarify: Imagine an Olympic Race. Many Runners from many nations appear. Just before the gun goes off, the US Runner sees Uncle Sam coming onto the field with 3 other persons. He demands that the US Runner Strap on his Mother, an Iraqi and a US Government Worker. The Gun goes off and natural
I suppose if you are looking from some other point of view but American you could have some difficulty understanding this. In the USA the government (all complaints not withstanding) exists for the most part because Americans actually support it.
What happened here was the government nearly ran out of its consent with the populace. This is a real threat to social and economic order because as the government becomes debased by such actions, it causes the development of outside classes of people who feel no reason to apply government rules in their life. Many other rules get weak as well.
The US Government became in the eyes of all to many US Citizens an enemy under that horrid 55 mph speed limit. The continuation of it threatened the government itself. This actually is a serious problem in much of the world as governments there are all too often imposed rather than concent based. As a result nobody sees any reason to comply with the "Law" and without the "Rule of Law" one has anarchy and much poverty results.
This is not an endorsement of strong government. Rather it is an argument for a people to form a government that supports good things.
Actually most governments are so debased that their is some question if they are much more than something to be resisted.
Maybe we need to advise President Bush of this service. He clearly thinks that the reason US Computer Programmers suffer unemployment is that they have not keep their skills up to date. That is why he supports H-1B and L-1 Visa programs to import "Qualified Workers." (Speech about 45 days ago) Maybe he will open up H-1B and L-1 Visa programs to replace these clearly obsolete and moronic obviously unqualified CEO's etc. But if he does, he may have to realize that their claims of "No Qualified Americans," only apply to Management and definitely not the the Software Engineers they lay off to raise their wages.
For the Ignorant H-1B and L-1 are US BICS(US Bureau of Immigration and Citizenship Services part of the Department of Homeland Security) [An onxymoron] Visa programs designed to allow companies to bring in massive quantities of Aliens and pay them substandard wages while avoiding US Payroll Taxes either all or part such that they can complain bitterly that there are no "Qualified Americans" while they bask in the wads of cash they save on taxes. It is as simple as understanding that Americans must markup their wages 150% or more to pay the taxes and the companies and their employees (Aliens) don't have to pay these taxes or the markup via these programs. Read Corporate Welfare!
Bush thinks that Americans should have to compete against Tax Exempt foreign Labor and that it is only their lack of "Qualifications" that makes them unemployed. Bluntly ask yourself, if you have the choice to buy a product from one person who charges $1000 and another who charges $2500 for the same product which would you buy? The answer is obvious. American Labor is not more expensive, it is our Government that is more expensive.
To illustrate: If GE which is Outsourcing to China $5 Billion this year and saving $1 Billion buys in the USA it cost $6 Billion. The States and the USA take $3 or more Billion of that money. The Labor only got $3 Billion. In China the Untaxed Labor cost $5 Billion. Thus the US Labor was $2 Billion Cheaper than in China. It is not US Labor that is the problem. It is the IGNORANT MANAGEMENT who is like these guys getting private tutors to even know how to use the machines of modern work while laying off Americans who are well qualified that is the problem. These are the same men who are killing Education Benefits for working people. They are the same ones who testify in front of Congress that there are "No Qualified Americans" to fill their jobs.
Does anyone remember that horrid double nickle speed limit a few years back that was supposed to be saving gas and lives? Well it did neither, but it did nearly debase the government. Legitimacy had left town and civil order was going with it.
The US government went up in a party on 911. The bureaucracy got all the money it wanted and it got authority to treat the citizens like they were terrorists. It is a MAFIA Style Sake Down Racket. They use the ghosty threat of Al Qaeda to chase the terrorized populace right into the net. There they willingly give up their money.
Just a few facts on the terrorism front should make things clear. At full tilt Al Qaeda took (without any US Government opposition and deliberate US Government ignorance of them) from 1993 to 2001 just to be able to hit us again. The reason we have not been hit since 911 has nothing to do with the US Government Actions and everything to do with the fact that Al Qaeda couldn't do it even if we did nothing. They have a shortage of lunatics willing to die for Allah.
We on the other hand have no shortage of chickens being willing to give everything up to get into the bureaucrats net. This is by the way a tactic I use to catch chickens which I raise. Scare them and the will go wherever you drive them to. Of course the best strategy in catching such birds is to await nightfall and they go home where you can just reach in and pick them up. Americans are doing just the same way. Let us settle down for rest and we simply head into roost making a great target.
I am no fan of drugs, but the Ashcroft team is making a better terrorist gang than the drug runners.
I am of the opinion that if Americans don't quit the roost they will find the door borded up on their freedom shortly. And just like with my chickens, the man who feeds them will also be the man who carries them to the killing cone. We need to start facing the reality of Government. In the period from 1900 to 2000 about 2 million people were murdered by criminals of various varieties. In the same period rogue governments killed over 200 million people. Government is a much greater danger.
George Washington said, "Government is like fire, it is a wonderful servent and a terrible master."
I have a link for this Ignorant Guy and please note that he denied that the Bush Administration was messed up on Immigration and that they refused to defend the country. http://www.washtimes.com/national/20031001-113722- 8560r.htm I just backed it up on "Bush opposes dealing with ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION."
The story is very important and shows just how deep the antipathy the Bushies have is towards enforcing the law and defending the country. It is "Hot off the Presses"
On September 6/7 of 2001 President Bush Welcomed V.Fox of Mexico to the White House and Mr. Fox spoke to Congress. In the month of August the Bush Administration undertook a propaganda campaign which tried to convince Americans that Border Enforcement was Impossible. Subsequent to that he on Sept 1, 2001 Ordered the US Border Patrol and US INS to cease Enforcement of the Border! On Sept 9 Mohammad Atta was arrested in Shelby County Alabama and based upon existing outstanding warrants he should have been deported by this event. Because the President's orders to honor Mr Fox, Mr. Atta went on his way!
The Bush Administration currently is releasing Illegals arrested. They are not even processing them! The BICS (Old INS) is not enforcing any efforts in this matter! I personally know of dozens of Illegal Immigrants and have reported them. Nothing is or has or will be done about them. The Bush Administration WANTS TO END BORDER ENFORCEMENT!
I am married to an Immigrant and Immigration is an issue I know a lot about because of it. I was also laid off from working on a US Government Warship so that they could import H-1B Labor from India on OCT 5, 2001! I could go on and on regards immigration but bluntly Bush is not on the team and you don't know what is going on if you think he is!
Regards to Tariffing wages, you obviously don't pay income taxes or you don't understand that income taxes are a tariff of sorts on wages. Bluntly I as an American Citizen must markup my wages more than 150% in order to pay taxes on my income and live. My foreign competition if domestically located is either whole or part exempted from these taxes. If their goods or services are imported under GATT and the FTA's (Trade Promotion Authority DEMANDED BY BUSH) they are entirely US Tax Exempt. It is a foregone conclusion of that competition. But to clarify: Imagine a Super US Runner in a Race against other good runners from the world. Just before the race Uncle Sam comes by and straps on to him an Iraqi (War costs here) His Grandma, (Social Security costs here) and a few other things. The gun goes off and of course the American Runner falls flat on his face. (And so do your ignorant arguments)
Regards the DEA vs FBI on Drugs, the only thing the DEA is doing is enforcing against Grandmas etc who are ordering their medicine from Canada so that they can eat! Canadian Options etc are being sued by Ashcrofts boys here over this.
I could go on but I will not. Bluntly the Bush team is "Making the world safe for Democrats" with their sabotage of American Economy and National Security.
Well being an American and a Reagan Republican I do understand why. It is pretty simple to explain. Simply sit down and figure out the logical reasonable solutions that should be done to ensure our national security and our economy. Then compare your list to the Bush Actions. He is going to come up short. Look closely the Border is WIDE OPEN and Bush opposes dealing with ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION. The Secy. of Defense testified before congress that he could not run a military and buy 50% American Made. The Defense Budget is up by $300 Billion and Defense Contractors are laying off. In Iraq and Afghanistan the best description of the management is that Cpt. Klutz is in charge. These guys cannot get their act together for stupid behavior. It goes on and on.
Domestically the Bush team thinks that Free Trade means dismantling our domestic laws and causing Americans to have to tarriff their wages 150% while competing with foreign persons and goods which pay no such taxes. They refuse to defend the rights of Investors to get access to the massive earnings of companies which are being diverted into criminal management's pockets. (It ain't capitalism when you don't get paid for your investment. It is FRAUD)
The Bush Team is prosecuting Grandma for buy Medicine out of the Country but has withdrawn the FBI From Drug enforcement. I know! I had a case to call the FBI because Drug terrorists were destroying my neighborhood! The FBI doesn't even answer their answering machine on Drug related cases!
John Ashcroft thinks he needs to take away more of our civil liberties while he still hasn't successfully prosecuted even one Terrorist from Al Qaeda. The Bureaucracy is Bloated to the limit and growing at 5.9% per year the highest rate in history (Per real Growth numbers).
I as a Reagan Republican am for Smaller Government, Less Intrusion into my life, Growing Economy and strong National defense. The National Defense Budget is up but the critical defense items are not there. They have even withdrawn the on call CAP flights to "Save Money." The Government is growing fasterr than ever and the intrusion is growing too.
There might just be a real reason to hate Bush without being unreasonable. Reality might just open one's eyes and it might just be the right thing to do. He refuses to corral corruption, defend the country and is draining our economy dry into foreign hands. Sounds like pretty good reasons to me.
Probably the best reason to hate Bush is that he and is associates are destroying the "Reagan Revolution" as fast as they can and hijacking the term Conserviative Republican giving it a bad name.
To be specific, Microsoft and Intel have a relationship like a married couple. Microsoft keeps the planned obsolesence coming in OS stuff so that we demand more and more memory and more and more faster chips which actually do nothing for us. This was disclosed in the Anti-Trust discussions recently.
Nothing terrifies Intel more than having to rely on the quality and speed of their chips to do their own selling. A little secret they don't want to tell you about is that for some time, the Software linking in Microsoft OS made clock speeds over 900 mHz essentially of no additional value. The only thing selling the faster chips was the forced obsolescence. Without MS you could buy a CPU for a $1 check and it would work great. Without MS you could buy 128 Meg in memory and be thrilled with performance. MS made you have to go up just to function with their OS. It really gave no additional value.
The Intel people are terrified of the $20 PC that could be built and serve the world if we can MS. One should note the abbreviation MS here could be used interchangably for the Medical Term Multiple Sclarosis. In both cases the term is analogous. The MS OS is doing to computers exactly what MS does to human physiology.
The cure for this disease is Linux which allows us to use the machine for what it was built for. Linux allows us to adapt and grow without the OS killing us.
We should also note that the best definition of the MS OS is that it is an Anti-Security System designed to place our machines under the control of others who want to extort money from us. Every day now we are seeing news stories where whole Government Offices are being crushed by the Virii and Worms that infest MS OS.
What we are not seeing is the absolutely larger story about our personal information being heisted by MS OS design and used to steal our identity and to commit crimes. Al Qaeda uses credit card fraud to finance itself a great deal. The numbers are given to it via access to accounts being processed in Pakistan and India. You no longer have to lift my wallet to steal my credit card and social Security numbers. All you have to do is work for TATA and others in Pakistan and India. There you need fear no FBI or State Police. There you can do this wholesale and with the blessing and funding of our American Government agencies.
At least with Linux you have some security and may use older machines to good effect
The production here has many potentials not all of which involve computing. This technology will allow the dicrete pumping of any atom to any excitation state desired using simple controls and simple electrical processes. This means for those out there who don't understand this more technical description that NUCLEAR REACTIONS will shortly become as easily done and as common place as are CHEMICAL REACTIONS now. All sorts of matter/energy fun can now start.
WARNING: devices only amplify the intentions and wisdom of their Users! The higher the amplification the more the Morals and Ethics and Wisdom of the user of the device becomes. This is a VERY HIGH amplification technology. It is orders of magnitude above any such amplification we have seen before.
The potential here is for extraordinary Good or Bad.
This guy makes reading equations and calculations a rational exercise and easy! He is the kind of guy we need in Physics, not those who have died and been reincarnated as god!
I work in Huntsville, Alabama. Downtown is a monument noting that in late October of 1813 Andrew Jackson (US $20 Bill) camped there on his way to the battle at Horseshoe Bend In Dadeville Alabama at the nothern edge of the little town is a monument to General Coffee and the 50,000 Cherokee Indians he brought with him to help in the battle at Horseshoe Bend.
This all might not seem important until you realize that the war noted in these monuments was exactly like the current one. Religious Extremists (Manito) with assistance of a major Colonial Foreign Power (England) attempted to reign a terror campaign with warfare against Amercans. There were entire Counties in Tennesse and Kentucky completely devoid of human life after these terrorists stuck. So Tennesse struck back. In the north Tyler had struck at Fallen Timbers and Prophet's Town Indianna in 1810/1811 for the same reasons. In Alabama it was the Lower Creek Indians. They believed in killing anyone who used the modern technology. Even and Indian could be killed if he used a steel plow! Just like the Islamic Extremists the problem was that their culture was so unable to provide for their people that it was collapsing.
The battle was won by the Army of the State of Tennessee and their Northern Alliance of Cherokee Indians. Unfortunately the defeat did not stop the terrorism. What stopped the terrorism was the development of "Citizenship." They in the words of a song from the times "...said their prayers with their shotguns cocked." Armed and very dangerous Citizens stopped the terrorism.
The lesson for today is unmistakable. We are in the same mess and the solution will be the same. We have to defend our country. Unfortunately this runs cross purposes to the "Patiot Act" and Ashcroft. It also shows exactly what happened on 9/11/2001. Bluntly we saw the rise of government suppression of Citizenship to the point that Mohammad Atta and his gang were repeatedly able to assault the US Citizens and the Citizens were restrained from doing anything about them and the US government refused to do anything about them. We will only see the danger grow in size and certainty until the day comes when Americans return to their Citizenship duty and kick these government looters of our rights out of the way.
On September 11, 2001 we were not attacked because of our Civil Rights or Freedom. We were attacked because our government had dismantled our defenses which are native to us. Like a person with AIDS we had no immunity and the pathogen showed up and took the opportunity. I am not discounting the need for Military or other Action. I am saying that Citizenship is essential to success.
This lesson is just as essential to Iraqi as American. If any people on earth would live free and safe the first obligation is to Citizenship. Allowing the luxury of a Professional Police Force to handle this does not diminish this. Allowing the Professionals to displace this is fatal. The USA had plenty and good laws to handle terrorist and gangsters before 9/11. We have too many now! We might have needed to "Tweek" here and there but generally we are forgetting that the constitution and the Bill of Rights are not the problem. We are forgetting that we as America arose in a bath of terrorism. Our own Declaration of Independence references the terrorism supported by the English King. America developed because of our respect of rights and probably the most important of these was the rights and duties of Citizenship.
The Bush Administration people are "Counter Revolutionaries" against the American Revolution when they push the Idea that relieving us of our rights is the solution.
Just for the record, the sky being blue is not refraction nor is it diffaction. The gas Nitrogen at high altitute is florescent and it glows in a blue/green color we see close to blue. Oxygen also glows blue/green. Curiously most of the radiation from the sun reaching earth is not visable rather it is x-rays and UV stuff with some gamma and much IR. The sun transmissions are changed in color by this process. This is precisely the color mix that plants absorb making them appear grean.
Regards the orginal post on cloud weight, there is a real issue here that readers who read the "anti-gravity" posts recently might take note of. If the cloud begins to fall without some mechanism to dissipate the energy in it, the cloud evaporates at lower altitude. It is kept up there by an energy field. This field is capacitantly stored. If the capacitance breaks down, we get lightning. This also explains the effect of cosmic high energy particles on rain
I am not intending to discuss this in full detail here and doubtless someone will try to pick apart the simplified notes here.
The Florescence is a directional radiation not a thing which would entirely be seen from space. This relates highly to the process by which lasers work.
I am from the good old USA. We don't have a patient on good or bad. We seem to do business with both quite freely.
Your observation about the Catholic Church is right on target. My wife is from the Philippines... Same Problem. No country dominated by catholics goes anywhere fast. But that might be why there is an attack on the Protestant Belief in a few places too.
Brazil and many other places have immigrants who come to the USA hearing the talk about freedom. I learned some time ago that the Indians and the Filipino people generally laugh or cry at the claim that the USA is a "Free Country" because they see so much that isn't free here. I personally think that all the nations of the world could use to learn from each other. The USA could use to learn a lot and quit being so arrogant regards freedom. Brazil I am sure has things to learn as well.
Glad you do! I am sorry also if I somehow made a wrong feeling get out. The company I work for had the DARPA contract on Prediction Markets. Let me assure you we never even got the truth to be told before idiots were out making things up to be what they were not.
I do understand a lot of people holding goverment in suspicion. The CIA for example has proved once again that it is an Oxymoron. It is neither Central, or Intelligent nor an agency. It clearly is a disorganized mess. It clearly is moronic unable to even get the most basic things like when the Indian Prime Minister ran for election saying he would build nuclear weapons and they were dumbfounded when he did it! Anyone who believes that the CIA is an Agency of the US Government does not know how it has been acting. It is a Rogue. DARPA on the other hand seems to always pull the rabbits out of the hat like a good magician. Not likely at too many other agencies
I hoped you noted what I said on the issue of the Grand Challange. We face a most serious reality that in our world we will either build a world for the machines where people work for them or a world where the machines work for people. The choice should not be made by ignorance or by avoiding a decision. This is a critical reality. We face a threat to freedom that Al Qaeda could never be based on this.
I see great promice in what can be, and great danger in what will be if we do not manage it wisely. Ignorance assures the disaster.
Personally I am waiting for the next version: a Robot Whore. Don't worry it will be out in Beta before the 5yr old.
Al Gore's claim was a lie, DARPA did invent the internet. Contrary to the "Public" lies about its origin being somewhere else, the internet was a DARPA invention! I was around when they did it and knew the people involved. Anything else is pure fantacy.
I appreciate the ingrained mistrust of government but sometimes they get things right. DARPA has had 2 projects going that I posted to Slashdot and they refused them because the guys thought that they didn't merit the news. One got top billing for days on the evening news (Prediction Markets) [Slashdot are you listening? I don't submit trash] and the other which is probably the most profound thing yet is still hiding under the Slashdot radar. (DARPA's GRAND CHALLENGE) http://www.darpa.mil/grandchallenge/index.htm
This is a autonomous vehicle race from Los Angeles Ca to Los Vagas Nv. The race will have no drivers and will have no remote control. This is a true race. The profound reality is how this technology will change our world. It since the invention of fire is probably the greatest leap in tech. There are many entrants to the race.
This promices to change EVERYTHING. No more truck drivers. No more car drivers. No more traffic cops! No more taxi drivers. Yes you will go where you want but you won't drive. Probably most people will quit owning cars! Those who own cars will probably rent them out when they are not using them. Gasoline savings will be about 4:1 to current use. Safety through the roof. Most Hospitals closed for lack of business! The economic, social and political shakeup this is going to make will be profound!
Maybe Slashdot should open their eyes a bit! This is coming down the pike and it is going to take out everything in its way. There are issues of personal freedom and society safety all over this technology. There are issues of economic prosperity and security all over it too. I think that maybe we should parlay on the matter a bit ahead of time before we go off half cocked and wind up with our affairs out of hand.
This is the "Killer App" that everyone has been talking about. It will invade every corner of the world. All competing tech will be washed out of the way. Kids will no longer learn to drive. Governments will get their tax revenues messed up. People's jobs will in many cases cease to exist and we will have to face the fact that many people with money will simply determine that large groups of people are not needed any more. This is the KILLER of the ECONOMY as we know it. We could either be blessed greatly or damned to hell by it. The adaptation methods and rules by which we adapt to this new tech will be the determining factor of human safety and happiness. We have to deal with this up front. If we leave a Bill Gates in charge of this stuff we will lose all freedom forever.
Personally I am excited about the great and wonderful prospects on this one, but the dangers are as great as the prospects. If we simply allow this to come up without planning ahead and knowing what is coming we will only see the damage. There is no stopping the tech, it will happen. The issue is how do we use it and who do we let control it and how will it be managed.
Degrees we don't need on Stinking Degrees
Of course you are going to get rich with a PhD in something. What you will be rich in is a matter of events to find out.
To be a bit serious here, I have no doubt that so long as American Taxpayers have money and are stupid enough to keep reelecting the same ignorant fools to public office, somebody with a PhD will have a job teaching Microsoft crap at the local College. (Even after there is no market for the skill) However; as pressure builds to cut costs the person will probably be an H-1B or L-1 or W something visa holder. Right now the most secure what to get a job in Computer Science in the USA is to have one of these. (Citizenship anybody) Even the local Colleges and Universities are lining up for these people. Don't you bother to get in line, American Citizens need not apply.
You might just check out the facts as www.zazona.com or http://www.outsourcecongress.org:81 or you can clunk around at http://www.immigration.gov/graphics/index.htm http://www.immigration.gov/graphics/howdoi/h1b.htm
Or you can just get Circular E from the IRS and do a keyword search on Indian Student.
I wonder if they would Let US Students be exempt from Tax Withholding? Hmmmmm...
The issue is as simple as this
So long I as an American Citizen must mark up my wages over 150% in order to pay the State and Federal Taxes and at the same time the United States Congress opens the door to Aliens who do not pay these taxes on their wages, goods or services, the prospects for me as an American are pretty bleak.
The essential problem with wind and solar power is that they come when they come, not when we want them to come. The usefullness of electricity is because it comes when we want it to come.
Now as to the issue with power grid stability recently exposed with the North East Blackout, we find that all other issues pale into insignificance to IMMIGRATION. I am aware that people don't seem to think it is linked but people demand power. More people means more power demand. The essential problem is that the USA has a population of 300 million and a power grid designed and built when we had 200 million or less. We have no reserve!
Historically the grid we had was over built due to Nuclear Weapons production and we stopped that some years ago. The Gassious Diffusion Plants as Oak Ridge and Paducah drank nearly 1/3 of our national power supply at the time. This when we quit building left a lot of reserve for us to work with. It is now used up.
The USA is by current Immigration Policy of the Bush Administration going to have a population in 2035 of 600 million. That means take whatever you have for current requirements and double it plus maintanence on what you have! Don't try to trick this one, it will not fix. If you bring twice as many people to lunch, you need twice as many lunches. Same with Power Grid issues. I know that the Census bureau will publish lower numbers. They were already lying in 2000. They estimated population in 2000 before the actual count at about 272 Million. It was 284 Million! Current Immigration is running at a rate they say is about 2 million a year. It is actually running by all available real data at about 5.5 million a year. with Negative Domestic Population Growth of about 1.5 Million a year the USA is growing at greater than 4 Million a year. We are over the 300 Million now. The rate is increasing due to FTA's
The people of the USA have a collosal problem on their hands. They must build twice as many of everything and at a rate something in the order of 5 times faster than we have ever built before if we are to handle this adequately. We must do so at the same time when a lot of our infrastructure has aged to the point where we must replace it. We are at the limits of our ability just to repair what we have.
OR.... We can stop the Bush Administration Policy on Immigration and start dealing with illegal immigration as well. The general acceptance of the "Inability" to control the borders is the acceptance of the government refusing to do its duly constituted duty.
On my country street in an unicorporated area in Alabama, there are 3 phone companies with 3 different lines. Imagine that?!? If anyone thinks that they are in competition, just price the services. (NOT!)
Excellent Post. Probably the most realistic regards the reasons people actually do things. However; There are several problems regards the issue of computers in the classroom that have been kind of skipped over.
I ran a cabinet shop for 18 years. Every time we upgraded computers, we had to rewrite the software that handled our data. This made the machine the least expensive part of the process. We were running Apple Machines. Apple suffered from wanting to have its proprietary friends (Claris etc) have all the access to any decent programming tools. This made reworks really hard.
At the same time we tried to have feedback on technological changes in the industry to the trade schools in our area. Honestly we found the schools allergic to any updating.
The "Rational" choice of a computer platform for use in training students would include among other criteria the ability to upgrade while not causing obsolecence of the software and the hardware. Microsoft does not do this! The "Rational" decision would pick Linux but just as our attempts to cause technical education to change to modern realities met with failure, education authorities are reluctant to change in the area of computers too.
This problem of avoiding change had the tech schools teaching old technology in cabinetry while the need was in the new technology. It is clear from employment data that Microsoft Systems are rapidly coming to the end of their market as skills someone can earn a living at. (California alone has 3.8 Million unemployed with this skill set) Even in India and China they are going to Linux. These people are replacing Americans in the market. This is where the future is going. But just like Apple still domininating school markets even though they are essentially out of the Job market, I expect us to have very well educated Microsoft Operators and Programmers long after Microsofts market dominance is history. Schools are usually the last to adapt to new tech.
The best solution would be for schools to teach the on coming tech. Don't expect this any time soon.
There is another problem in schools. Computers are best illustrated by my father's rule for teaching kids how to use slide rules. He said, "When the answer is more important than how you got the answer, I will teach you to use the slide rule." I learned slide rules just about the time the first calculators came out. It was astounding to me how students would get really exact numbers and have no idea what in the world they ment or if the answer was even related to the problem when they used calculators. This is the problem with Computers. We have kids turning in papers of astounding detail on facts etc that frankly they have not a clue what it all means.
My Father's rule when I used a calculator allowed me to have a fair idea if I had keyed an error or not. It remains good sense. Kids who use computers before they understand how the information is gotten and what it really means turn in fabulous papers, they get good grades and they are absolutely hopelessly worthless in the work place. This is the principal reason other than tax incentives for the "Outsourcing" and H-1B and L-1 Type events that are crushing the careers of IT People in the USA.
Those of us in IT should try to force out of schools except as assistance tools to the teacher any computers until the students break into the 10th grade or so.
If you are tempted to doubt what I am saying here, note: The top computer skill that is in demand in the USA is Inventory Management associated with Retail Sales. While it does not have much glamour, it represents at least for a time 80% or more of the employment of High School graduates. Does anyone anywhere know of a school system teaching this skill to most if not all of their HS Students. It usually involves the base of the HS Grads work for about 5 years or more. It is pretty Important!
Inventory Management stuff is the scanner operations and inventory processes associated with Retail Sales. Frankly
I didn't say where China or India got their coal. I am aware that China for example is mining more and more coal. Honestly I had no particular data on where India got its coal but it surely would have surprized me if it wasn't local in source.
However: there is a serious problem in many deposits around the world with quality. The Eastern US Deposits are generally Bituminus with some Anthacite. These often have too much sulfur and ash for US EPA limits. The Alabama Coal mines often have to export their coal for this reason. I don't suppose that it makes any less pollution whereever it is burned.
Most Asian deposits (I have not got data on India) are generally pretty low quality regards Environmental issues. China has a real problem here.
Alabama as with most of the Eastern US Power Plant use, burns coal from places like Wyoming and Colorado because it burns cleaner. The Energy value of the western coal is generally lower though.
The real reason I pointed out that the "Hate America First" Crowd was out in force on this one is because the Kyoto Treaty which was rejected by the US Senate 99-0 expects the USA to cut its CO2 emissions about 30% in while giving India, China, and most of the lesser developed nations a pass on unlimited output. China under Kyoto was expected to increase its CO2 emissions to a level about 6 times that of the USA at the peak of its output. There wasn't even a proposal for any limits at any level of China or India output.
Just to be really curious here, I would like to point out that the principal "Greenhouse Gas" in our environment is WATER Vapor! But I am sure some ignorant person will want to argue that one too!
Also one of the arguments about CO2 Emissions is over CO2 Sinks. These are environmental Uptakes of CO2 reducing net output. The USA has massive forrests which actually uptake more CO2 than we put out in industrial use. The USA is sitting much better on the environment than the foolish Eco Nuts like to say. The general progress in the USA regards our environment is pretty profound. Unlike most of the rest of the world our rivers and air are getting better on most accounts. Frankly no other country has even close to our good record on this. (No insults intended but we are doing a lot better than the competition on this)
I am not representing us to have no problems. But the Unbalanced view of either national relations, air/water pollution or even the reason land is above the ocean is why we get these funny arguments that somehow doomsday is right around the corner.
The data on why land is above the ocean level is absolutely determined by sattelite data to be matching Archemedes principal. Mountains follow this too! I will admit that this might seem incongruent with the fact that rocks in a mountian or land are denser than water. However the net data on orbital motion shows that the net mass density is lower. So either we have some undiscovered phyical principal causing this or a bunch of our GEOLOGY it messed up!
The land mass of Australia is for example depressed by a gravitational anomoly up to 300 feet below what would be average sea level (net to elevation). Yet the coastal Sea level is not 300 feet higher on Australia. These effects are quite profound and really tell why the ocean is where it is and not where it isn't. This isn't just filling a bowl stuff like some might think.