Back when I worked the polls in the '80s and '90s, California was using the punched cards. Not only did we have to keep and return all of the stubs, we had to destroy or deface all unused ballots as part of closing down the station. If there was a low turnout, this could be the longest part of the job as we used pencils or pens to write a big X across the face of each ballot to render it unusable.
I think you replied to the wrong post, but thank you anyway. FWIW, I too have worked the polls, back when we still used the punched cards. I won't say that it would have been impossible to stuff the ballot box back then, but I will say that the procedures required to run the precinct and close it up properly would have made it very hard, especially as members of the public were always allowed to watch it being done. My feeling is that as long as there's a verifiable paper trail that can be re-checked, the exact method isn't that important. I'd only be worried if voting were by touch-screen or something similar, with no other record kept.
Federal sentencing guidelines almost never ask for "fully stacked" sentences.
The term you're looking for is "consecutively." Most of the time, all sentences are served "concurrently," or at the same time. On rare occasions, as you write, a judge will specify that the sentences be served consecutively, to keep an exceptionally bad felon behind bars for as long as possible. Of course, the prosecutor can always threaten to ask for consecutive sentences to bulldoze the defendant into accepting a plea.
...pleading innocence also doesn't prove said innocence...
No defendant ever pleads innocence, and I don't think that such a plea is even allowed. The plea is "not guilty," and for good reason: in order to avoid conviction with a plea of innocent, you'd have to prove that you didn't commit the crime, and it's exceptionally hard in most cases to prove a negative. "Not guilty" is used instead because you only have to persuade the jury that there's a reasonable chance that you are not, in fact, guilty. And, as far as the value of a confession, IANAL, but my understanding is that once you confess under oath, the law presumes that you did, in fact, commit the crime and that fact can be used against you in any later civil case. That's why some plea bargain agreements allow the defendant to plead "no contest:" they accept the punishment but don't officially confess to the crime, giving them a better chance in later court actions because they haven't either been proven guilty nor confessed to having done the crime.
The idea is that your backups should be far enough apart that they won't be caught in the same natural disaster. As an example, I live in Southern California, just north of Los Angeles. If I had data that I really needed to protect, I'd have two off-site backups. One would be far enough away from home that a flood, tsunami (My home is about 170 feet above sea level and within a few miles of the coast.) or wildfire wouldn't get both of them. The other one would be far enough away that I'd not have to worry about it after the next big quake, possibly in the mid-west. Simple common prudence, no need for paranoia.
You're probably not old enough, but there used to be something called the 80 column mind. This was something that affected programmers who had learned how to use computers back in the days when the punched card was king, and were still writing programs that expected all input and output to fit into that medium's 80 character restrictions. I worked for JPL for a few years in the mid-80's, and even then many of their newer programs used what were called "cardimages:" computer records that were designed to mimic a punched card either because they received input from a program that was a legacy from the old punched card days or who's output would be fed to one. And, of course, sometimes both were that way. I'm sure that they've moved past that by now, for the most part, but I know that their main space probe navigation system was written with cardimages in mind and I doubt that they've ever gone to the expense of having something that works so well re-written.
Yes, there has been rapid heating over the last 150 years, as the Earth recovered from the effects of The Little Ice Age. Nothing particularly unusual or exiting about it, because the one thing that's known for sure about the Earth's climate is that it's always changing.
My understanding is that what's stockpiled is raw cocoa beans, still in the shell. As long as you keep it dry and away from insects, it's about as perishable as wheat, which is to say, not very. You can keep it for several years before you have to worry about it deteriorating, so that when there's a good year, you can stock up the excess to sell later. Now, the demand is up and production is down, so we're using it up faster than we're replacing it.
Back when I was in the Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club in '72, our ship carried a 5"/54 gun, which was aimed using a mechanical analog computer. I know that the Iowa Class Battleships all used mechanical fire control both because it was more than accurate enough for the job and because it was specifically designed to ignore the shocks caused by firing the main battery, as well as the bigger shocks caused by incoming shells, bombs and torpedoes.
Just out of curiosity, what would Mossad have to gain from something like this? I could see them trying to give Al Queda or ISIL some bad press, but what would they have to gain from making Ukraine look bad?
I get my medical care from the VA and am very happy with it. My current Primary Caregiver got his medical education at a university in Egypt, and I'm perfectly satisfied with his abilities. Among other things, I like the fact that when he didn't like the way my Type II diabetes was reacting to my current medications, he referred me to Endocrinology because he knew his limits and didn't find anything wrong with asking for help when he needed it. I'd much rather put my health in his hands than in somebody who went to a more "western" medical school who wasn't willing to admit that he didn't know everything.
Exams generally try to determine how you have memorized some subject, not how you can adapt what you've learned.
Really? Let's say that you're taking the final exam for a course in Trig that consists in nothing but solving problems (and showing your work) that aren't in the text book. If all you've done is memorize the material but haven't learned how to use it, how are you going to pass the test?
Excuse me? I served in Tonkin Gulf back in '72, and there wasn't any trouble finding the horizon during the night, as long as we weren't steaming back and forth through a fog bank. Of course, part of it was obscured because we were in sight of land, but there was generally enough to see that celestial navigation wasn't a problem.
And, before you ask, I wasn't involved in navigation, but one of my best friends at the time was.
I got that impression because the way you posted implied that you weren't familiar with Celestial Navigation and didn't realize that you can get a fairly accurate fix with two objects and a very accurate one with three.
Taking elevations at noon only tells you your latitude, unless you have a very accurate clock, and the sun can only be used in that manner at noon (AFAIK).
As it happens, the Sun and the Moon are only two of the many objects that can be used for Celestial Navigation. And, as far as having a very accurate clock, what do you think a Marine chronometer is for and why all ships are required to have at least one?
...the problem is that the concept of similtaneity is fundamentally flawed.
I don't think so. When it comes to physics, I'm an informed layman at best, but I don't think that the concept itself is flawed. The flaw comes in when people try to apply it in a situation where it just doesn't apply. As an example, it certainly doesn't apply at astronomical distances; we can't know exactly where Alpha Centauri is and what's happening there right this minute; we can only know what was going on 4.366 years ago. The idea of simultaneity simply doesn't apply, and most people understand that. The problem here is that most people don't understand relativity deeply enough to understand that when it comes to clocks this accurate the same thing is true: simultaneity just isn't relevant.
That's one way to work, and usually the most popular because much of the theoretical work is done by grad students hoping to get a PhD out of what they find. The other way is to collect as much data about the situation as you can so that you can narrow down the possible explanations. Of course, that way rarely leads to a PhD, so it's not used very often. Quite understandable.
This would be a wonderful deal for Comcast if they could get it. They give up a few million subscribers in one city and get a nation-wide monopoly on cable TV and broadband over cable. What's not to like from their POV?
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Back when I worked the polls in the '80s and '90s, California was using the punched cards. Not only did we have to keep and return all of the stubs, we had to destroy or deface all unused ballots as part of closing down the station. If there was a low turnout, this could be the longest part of the job as we used pencils or pens to write a big X across the face of each ballot to render it unusable.
I think you replied to the wrong post, but thank you anyway. FWIW, I too have worked the polls, back when we still used the punched cards. I won't say that it would have been impossible to stuff the ballot box back then, but I will say that the procedures required to run the precinct and close it up properly would have made it very hard, especially as members of the public were always allowed to watch it being done. My feeling is that as long as there's a verifiable paper trail that can be re-checked, the exact method isn't that important. I'd only be worried if voting were by touch-screen or something similar, with no other record kept.
They do the same thing here in Ventura County as well. I'm not sure, but it might be state-wide by now.
Federal sentencing guidelines almost never ask for "fully stacked" sentences.
The term you're looking for is "consecutively." Most of the time, all sentences are served "concurrently," or at the same time. On rare occasions, as you write, a judge will specify that the sentences be served consecutively, to keep an exceptionally bad felon behind bars for as long as possible. Of course, the prosecutor can always threaten to ask for consecutive sentences to bulldoze the defendant into accepting a plea.
...pleading innocence also doesn't prove said innocence...
No defendant ever pleads innocence, and I don't think that such a plea is even allowed. The plea is "not guilty," and for good reason: in order to avoid conviction with a plea of innocent, you'd have to prove that you didn't commit the crime, and it's exceptionally hard in most cases to prove a negative. "Not guilty" is used instead because you only have to persuade the jury that there's a reasonable chance that you are not, in fact, guilty. And, as far as the value of a confession, IANAL, but my understanding is that once you confess under oath, the law presumes that you did, in fact, commit the crime and that fact can be used against you in any later civil case. That's why some plea bargain agreements allow the defendant to plead "no contest:" they accept the punishment but don't officially confess to the crime, giving them a better chance in later court actions because they haven't either been proven guilty nor confessed to having done the crime.
The idea is that your backups should be far enough apart that they won't be caught in the same natural disaster. As an example, I live in Southern California, just north of Los Angeles. If I had data that I really needed to protect, I'd have two off-site backups. One would be far enough away from home that a flood, tsunami (My home is about 170 feet above sea level and within a few miles of the coast.) or wildfire wouldn't get both of them. The other one would be far enough away that I'd not have to worry about it after the next big quake, possibly in the mid-west. Simple common prudence, no need for paranoia.
Kind of makes me wonder what happened to that "land of the free" part of the national charactor.
Well, at least we can still claim to be the "home of the brave." Of course, that just leaves us on a par with Freedonia.
You're probably not old enough, but there used to be something called the 80 column mind. This was something that affected programmers who had learned how to use computers back in the days when the punched card was king, and were still writing programs that expected all input and output to fit into that medium's 80 character restrictions. I worked for JPL for a few years in the mid-80's, and even then many of their newer programs used what were called "cardimages:" computer records that were designed to mimic a punched card either because they received input from a program that was a legacy from the old punched card days or who's output would be fed to one. And, of course, sometimes both were that way. I'm sure that they've moved past that by now, for the most part, but I know that their main space probe navigation system was written with cardimages in mind and I doubt that they've ever gone to the expense of having something that works so well re-written.
Yes, there has been rapid heating over the last 150 years, as the Earth recovered from the effects of The Little Ice Age. Nothing particularly unusual or exiting about it, because the one thing that's known for sure about the Earth's climate is that it's always changing.
And because President Kennedy died in 1963 (before he could completely back away from the commitment)...
Do you have any evidence that he intended to do that, or are you just looking for an excuse to blame everything on LBJ and Nixon?
Rob Ford? Wasn't he the dirty little coward who shot Mr. Howard and laid poor Jesse in his grave?
So what you're saying is, NYC is deep in the heart of taxes.
Of course no female mates want to marry me (still never had a date and a virgin).
Maybe if you got outside once in a while and learned how to interact with the rest of society this problem would take care of itself.
My understanding is that what's stockpiled is raw cocoa beans, still in the shell. As long as you keep it dry and away from insects, it's about as perishable as wheat, which is to say, not very. You can keep it for several years before you have to worry about it deteriorating, so that when there's a good year, you can stock up the excess to sell later. Now, the demand is up and production is down, so we're using it up faster than we're replacing it.
Back when I was in the Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club in '72, our ship carried a 5"/54 gun, which was aimed using a mechanical analog computer. I know that the Iowa Class Battleships all used mechanical fire control both because it was more than accurate enough for the job and because it was specifically designed to ignore the shocks caused by firing the main battery, as well as the bigger shocks caused by incoming shells, bombs and torpedoes.
My guess is CIA/Mossad.
Just out of curiosity, what would Mossad have to gain from something like this? I could see them trying to give Al Queda or ISIL some bad press, but what would they have to gain from making Ukraine look bad?
And if that's not enough, there's always OADS for when you really want to be sure, but don't want to worry about fallout.
I get my medical care from the VA and am very happy with it. My current Primary Caregiver got his medical education at a university in Egypt, and I'm perfectly satisfied with his abilities. Among other things, I like the fact that when he didn't like the way my Type II diabetes was reacting to my current medications, he referred me to Endocrinology because he knew his limits and didn't find anything wrong with asking for help when he needed it. I'd much rather put my health in his hands than in somebody who went to a more "western" medical school who wasn't willing to admit that he didn't know everything.
Exams generally try to determine how you have memorized some subject, not how you can adapt what you've learned.
Really? Let's say that you're taking the final exam for a course in Trig that consists in nothing but solving problems (and showing your work) that aren't in the text book. If all you've done is memorize the material but haven't learned how to use it, how are you going to pass the test?
Excuse me? I served in Tonkin Gulf back in '72, and there wasn't any trouble finding the horizon during the night, as long as we weren't steaming back and forth through a fog bank. Of course, part of it was obscured because we were in sight of land, but there was generally enough to see that celestial navigation wasn't a problem.
And, before you ask, I wasn't involved in navigation, but one of my best friends at the time was.
I got that impression because the way you posted implied that you weren't familiar with Celestial Navigation and didn't realize that you can get a fairly accurate fix with two objects and a very accurate one with three.
Taking elevations at noon only tells you your latitude, unless you have a very accurate clock, and the sun can only be used in that manner at noon (AFAIK).
As it happens, the Sun and the Moon are only two of the many objects that can be used for Celestial Navigation. And, as far as having a very accurate clock, what do you think a Marine chronometer is for and why all ships are required to have at least one?
...the problem is that the concept of similtaneity is fundamentally flawed.
I don't think so. When it comes to physics, I'm an informed layman at best, but I don't think that the concept itself is flawed. The flaw comes in when people try to apply it in a situation where it just doesn't apply. As an example, it certainly doesn't apply at astronomical distances; we can't know exactly where Alpha Centauri is and what's happening there right this minute; we can only know what was going on 4.366 years ago. The idea of simultaneity simply doesn't apply, and most people understand that. The problem here is that most people don't understand relativity deeply enough to understand that when it comes to clocks this accurate the same thing is true: simultaneity just isn't relevant.
That's one way to work, and usually the most popular because much of the theoretical work is done by grad students hoping to get a PhD out of what they find. The other way is to collect as much data about the situation as you can so that you can narrow down the possible explanations. Of course, that way rarely leads to a PhD, so it's not used very often. Quite understandable.
This would be a wonderful deal for Comcast if they could get it. They give up a few million subscribers in one city and get a nation-wide monopoly on cable TV and broadband over cable. What's not to like from their POV?