For the first 30 years of NASA, though, computers weren't small and powerful enough. Thus the focus on manned flight.
Now they have to change that mindset, but it's an incredibly deep way of thinking, and government agencies aren't that well known for their ability to change...:(
Almost every federal project is a tiny fraction of the budget, and the same study can be performed on all of them, and since we want clean air, clean water, nice federal parks, more knowledge of the ocean, fewer turtles poached, etc, etc, etc, the results will come out just the same no matter what agency you look at.
We've lost the ability to build Iowa-class battleships (no more monster foundries, anywhere, and experienced super-heavy metalworkers; the torpedo belts in those ships made the hulls *much* thicker than those of Nimitz supercarriers) and small thermonuclear warheads (various components were so top secret that the the final designs weren't written down, or have been lost, and the designers are long retired/dead).
Whether that's good or bad is not the point: we'd have to embark upon many, many years of reinvention.
Why not also China, where manufacturing props up a violent and corrupt dictatorship? What props up equally -- though differently -- corrupt India? The US is pretty violent too, and corrupt, as is Mexico.
The problem is that Snowden didn't just expose rights abuses. He exposed *everything* that the NSA did.
(Unless you live in the fairy land where idealistic heroes defeat Evil Doers, in which case, what Snowden did was a good thing. Too bad we don't live in fairy land.)
My families history however helps me understand that a modern democracy with liberal values can be subverted from within
That's why I don't want the FBI to see what the NSA has, and am upset with the militarization of police forces.
Slightly changing subject, but not actually: Were you in the US on 9/11? Do you remember how the passengers of three planes sat like sheep driven to the slaughter, because that's how the authorities had drilled into people how to act in terrorist situations? Don't fight back. Just do what the terrorists say, and the government make everything ok.
Apparently you didn't read both paragraphs in the post you replied to. Specifically the part where I wrote but can be solved by more Internal Affairs oversight.
The NSA's job is to spy. So they spy. The country's borders are so open; they make a colander seem waterproof. Unfortunately for all and sundry, those who would do harm to the country don't walk around with flashing red lights on their heads. Thus, since it's hard to separate the wheat from the chaff, they collect lots and lots of stuff, even on people living in the US. I AM UNAPOLOGETICALLY GLAD THEY DO SO, since they do not appear to share it with the FBI nor state+local police.
(The problem is that they then have the ability, like local & state police and the FBI, to track wives, ex-girlfriends, etc, etc. That's bad, but can be solved by more Internal Affairs oversight, not by throwing the baby out with the bathwater.)
No matter if they had bank accounts, 401K, houses, they were put on the plane and sent home.
Right. Because somewhere else is their home, and they're here illegally (whether by crossing the southern border or overstaying a visa).
If they really want to be here, there are multiple well-defined sets of rules which hundreds of thousands of people use every year to get here legally,
Maybe we should go back to subsistance farming. That's when all people worked.
Work isn't the "end goal", in my thinking.
Thinking in an evolutionary sense: what's the purpose of society?
To pass civilization on to the next generation.
How does that happen?
Education.
But the vast majority of kids (even the smart ones) don't want to learn all that boring crap.
So, what's the motivation to buckle down and learn it anyway? (More specifically, why do parents make you buckle down...)
But if the government provides all needs and a decent amount of wants, that motivation disappears, and...
civilization soon collapses.
(Someone wrote a science fiction book about the future where a technocratic minority maintains/repairs the machines that keep the fat+dumb+happy+lazy majority in that state, and despair of ever getting them to value anything more. Sadly, my Google-fu is lacking tonight.)
Slashdot Mirror
There's probably a 75% higher probability that someone will die in the process.
Explorers have been dying since man started exploring.
The best work is done unmanned
For the first 30 years of NASA, though, computers weren't small and powerful enough. Thus the focus on manned flight.
Now they have to change that mindset, but it's an incredibly deep way of thinking, and government agencies aren't that well known for their ability to change... :(
Let me introduce you to a little word named "almost".
Almost every federal project is a tiny fraction of the budget, and the same study can be performed on all of them, and since we want clean air, clean water, nice federal parks, more knowledge of the ocean, fewer turtles poached, etc, etc, etc, the results will come out just the same no matter what agency you look at.
The first thing he'd have done was go blab it (anonymously, if necessary) to the newspapers.
(They didn't tell Labor and the Tories because they'd have blabbed at cocktail parties.)
No one is saying that the NSA can create SHA-1 collisions at will, or decrypt AES at will.
You're being so specific, I bet you're an NSA plant.
Those Journalists In The Public Interest at ProPublica sure seem to think that the NSA has their fingers in every pie.
to be beaten with a metal pipe
A $5 wrench, you wannabe.
or waterboarded until he gives up the password.
At Gitmo, natch.
everyone knows the NSA knows all, sees all, decrypts all. Certainly the FBI already has the keys to the bitcoins.
(That's what the Privacy Chicken Littles have been bleating about for the past 5 months, isn't it?)
We've lost the ability to build Iowa-class battleships (no more monster foundries, anywhere, and experienced super-heavy metalworkers; the torpedo belts in those ships made the hulls *much* thicker than those of Nimitz supercarriers) and small thermonuclear warheads (various components were so top secret that the the final designs weren't written down, or have been lost, and the designers are long retired/dead).
Whether that's good or bad is not the point: we'd have to embark upon many, many years of reinvention.
Or a missing letter. "Now more privacy"
Why not also China, where manufacturing props up a violent and corrupt dictatorship? What props up equally -- though differently -- corrupt India? The US is pretty violent too, and corrupt, as is Mexico.
Then you're confusing the NSA with the FBI.
The problem is that Snowden didn't just expose rights abuses. He exposed *everything* that the NSA did.
(Unless you live in the fairy land where idealistic heroes defeat Evil Doers, in which case, what Snowden did was a good thing. Too bad we don't live in fairy land.)
but we haven't heard the FBI screaming very much about this invasion of their turf - that's a scarey sign.
That's an excellent point. :(
My families history however helps me understand that a modern democracy with liberal values can be subverted from within
That's why I don't want the FBI to see what the NSA has, and am upset with the militarization of police forces.
Slightly changing subject, but not actually: Were you in the US on 9/11? Do you remember how the passengers of three planes sat like sheep driven to the slaughter, because that's how the authorities had drilled into people how to act in terrorist situations? Don't fight back. Just do what the terrorists say, and the government make everything ok.
but the watchers should be watched.
Apparently you didn't read both paragraphs in the post you replied to. Specifically the part where I wrote but can be solved by more Internal Affairs oversight.
Snowden's first goal was to expose the NSA.
The NSA's job is to spy. So they spy. The country's borders are so open; they make a colander seem waterproof. Unfortunately for all and sundry, those who would do harm to the country don't walk around with flashing red lights on their heads. Thus, since it's hard to separate the wheat from the chaff, they collect lots and lots of stuff, even on people living in the US. I AM UNAPOLOGETICALLY GLAD THEY DO SO, since they do not appear to share it with the FBI nor state+local police.
(The problem is that they then have the ability, like local & state police and the FBI, to track wives, ex-girlfriends, etc, etc. That's bad, but can be solved by more Internal Affairs oversight, not by throwing the baby out with the bathwater.)
Yes, Snowden chose countries like China and Russia to make his stand from
The same China that forced a blogger to praise internet censorship?
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/13/09/17/2158257/arrested-chinese-blogger-confesses-on-state-tv-praises-censorship
The same China and Russia that have nothing even remotely similar to the ACLU or the EFF?
there is also no WE or US in TEAM, either,
But ME certainly is.
Edward Snowden must feel so proud of his newly adopted homeland.
One word and makes such a difference. No longer racist.
Because.... it's not racist to want some for whom it's not legal to be here to, well, not be here.
No matter if they had bank accounts, 401K, houses, they were put on the plane and sent home.
Right. Because somewhere else is their home, and they're here illegally (whether by crossing the southern border or overstaying a visa).
If they really want to be here, there are multiple well-defined sets of rules which hundreds of thousands of people use every year to get here legally,
Hyperbole, thy name is Forbes.
My kingdom, my kingdom for some mod points!
Maybe we should go back to subsistance farming. That's when all people worked.
Work isn't the "end goal", in my thinking.
Thinking in an evolutionary sense: what's the purpose of society?
(Someone wrote a science fiction book about the future where a technocratic minority maintains/repairs the machines that keep the fat+dumb+happy+lazy majority in that state, and despair of ever getting them to value anything more. Sadly, my Google-fu is lacking tonight.)