While I think most (if not all) of this is just idealistic rant, I do respect the political distinction it is attempting to draw. Nancy Pelosi [wikipedia.org] is doing for the Democrats what Gee Dubya did for the Republicans: unifying and separating themselves from their opponents.
The majority of America is red state America and elects conservative candidates. The next democratic candidate is going to have to flip red states to win. I would argue Nancy Pelolsi is not the one to do that, simply because the politics of the place she represents, San Francisco, are so radically different from the rest of the country. Anti-war snipping, second guessing, and stonewalling may play well to the democratic base, but that base is increasingly irrelevant. For similar reasons Howard "The Screamer" Dean is a disaster as democrat party chairman. What were they thinking?
About 10 years ago someone went dumpster diving and got one of my credit card apps. They had a merry old time at Service Merchandise, in my name, until they got shut down. It was a mighty pain for me. And some skank VISA company was out $1000. Wonder why your card rates are so high? Now I shred everything, and throw away the shreds away weekly with dog excrement picked up from around the yard. I am no longer concerned about mail-based credit card fraud.
Last week China responded to US criticism of their human rights record. My guess is the blog incident this is part of a planned strategy of pushing back in the human rights debate. Not very convincing or effective. I expect more from the communist party propaganda machine.
Erchak says. 'Look at what they're not doing and focus on that. That's where the real disruptive technology comes from.'"
I agree with your post. This term 'disruptive' is really tiresome. After the dotcom bust the term seemed to have fallen into disfavor with a lot of other silly expressions, like 'agility', 'service velocity', 'web time'. The only ones who continue to use it seem to be too young know they should be embarrassed. When I hear visionary types prattle on using it I think 'deceptive' instead.
Those inventions were created by people, not by Islam. Islam is merely a religion, and hence useless and incapable of anything at except stroking peoples emotions (for good or bad).
Yet the relative social order and stability brought about by the Baghdad caliphate was sufficient to allow some branches of science advance. That order ended with the Abbasid dynasty in 1200's with the Mongol invasions. Since then much of the middle east has been a backwater. The Sharia no longer serves Muslim civilization well.
The US has had much of the world's surface under continuous large scale infrared observation for 25 years or more with the Air Force DSP program. It can easily detect the smallest asteroid or comet impacts. I don't know if a scientific survey of its data has ever been done.
I used term GNU/Linux with a bit of an ironic twist because Linux might actually because a GNU program if the project forked and making the term GNU/Linux more palatable to those today who are so opposed to it.
Simply put: they are "zealots" for lack of a better term. For them, free software is less about open source and open development and more about a form of political agenda.
Stallman repeatedly states that software freedom is his goal, and not its widespread adoption by "practical minded" corporations. He has nothing against corporations if they do not interfere with his primary goal. That make's him a zealot, I guess. I call it clear thinking. Timeandagain he has been proven correct in the face of criticism.
I wonder if Linus even has the real authority to unilaterly switch to an alternative license. I don't think so. By his own admission he is not a deep thinker about the philosophical (he says polical) part of the job. Many of his colleagues are. Any change would have to be accepted by the core kernel developers. If not a fork is all but inevitable (GNU/Linux anyone?). My guess is he will talk like this from time to time but will be under pressure to maintain the status quo.
The big problem in the States is the government's crazy dollar creation (what we call inflation is directly caused by the Fed's out of control printing of dollars). This inflation creates cost of living increases (including the housing bubble in my opinion). Because of this inflationary cycle, people demand cost of living increases.
I agree that the reasoning behind cost of living increases is somewhat circular. But this tail wagging the dog notion of inflation applied during the 1970's when US government fiscal policy was inflationary. That is no longer the case. We have plenty of other problems instead. The housing bubble was encouraged by persistent, historically low interest rates. It enlarged the number of buyers. It allowed people to buy up in value. Those same people continue to flip properties in the virtuous (I say vicious) cycle. Low interest rates are due to the insatiable appetite of export economies (like China and Japan) for US treasuries and other investments. They make enormous profits, they don't consume, so they have nowhere to put their money. You can't 'invest' in over capacity forever. They also have their own real estate speculation problems. At the moment we in the US are partying on their cheap money. Enjoy it while it lasts.
Having a clear faith, based on the creed of the church is often labeled today as fundamentalism. Whereas relativism, which is letting oneself be tossed and swept along by every wind of teaching, look like the only attitude acceptable to today's standards... An Adult faith does not follow the waves of fashion and the latest novelties. Pope Benedict XVI
Is it the engineers/IT/technical people? To some extent, but the best of them also have other sources of funding to carry them along (it will just get thinned out).
Missions come and go and the jobs with them. It can lead to unemployment and dislocation, just like the real world.
With fewer and fewer missions to support them, their interests, and their future, why should they bust a gut getting a degree with a dismal future? (go be a medical doctor, a lawyer, a plumber, etc.. don't waste your time with science.. it's nothing but a long and expensive road to a very untenable future.
Such decisions are necessary for what ever profession you choose, except maybe for lawyers.
"We are talking about observational science here" to the EOS community (I'm sure I left others out).
My personal opinion is I am unimpressed by the fast and loose data interpretation and the carefully crafted politics that characterise this branch of science.
...At that point, most serious programmers realized that they were taking longer to hack VB to do what they wanted rather than just coding it from scratch in another language.
I am glad I cannot relate to this bottom feeding devolution. I doubt that you are describing anything you have experienced in real life. But if you are it is a sad commentary on the influence marketing forces in programming education. So many brilliant people have worked so hard to make learning programming rewarding and fun, and they are ignored. Alan Kay and Squeak. Abelson and Sussman with Scheme... Instead we get enthusiastic discussions of Bill Gates and Visual Basic.
science for science's sake has often lead to many of the greatest breakthroughs in science history.
We are talking about observational science here. What great breakthroughs have EOS missions ever produced?
...they're cancelling missions that have immediate and obvious benefits: weather monitoring to try and help avoid natural disasters, studying global warming and suchlike.
It doesn't sound like the GOES weather satellites are effected, just some of the more specific Earth Observing System missions. Strange that the scientists quoted in the article don't make the distinction. The EOS boondoggle has survived for almost 20 years and sucked untold billions out of NASA's budget. It is about time it got called to account. How do these rather specialized space missions help to "avoid natural disasters?". We already have realtime imagery of hurricanes and still people don't get out of the way. Satellites can't predict earthquakes, tsunamis, or volcanic eruptions. As for global warming, I am sure the state of the art will progress without a few extra missions. Government scientists have too much invested in the hysteria to let it go.
So Elon Musk flaps his gums about what he's going to do, and its news? He should probably be concerned about the sorry state of Falcon. Then again he founded Paypal. Now there're some space credentials.
If you are looking for an interesting space story try this. I submitted the story but the slashdot priests rejected it. Maybe musk should use his billions and buy this thing.
How arrogant, to think that 'democracy' and 'capitalism' (american style of course) once adopted by those savage backward countries
'American style' is your embellishment, not my words. The need for democracy and capitalism is not so much derived form hubris as practical observation. What else to you suggest? Islamic faciscm? Stalinism? Maoist dictatorship?
Anything that is meant for inserting weapons into orbit should be shelved, IMNSHO. Maybe I'm spewing a bunch of "tree-hugging-hippy-crap", but I think it is best to keep weapons out of space.
If a verifiable international treaty were in place to prevent some types of weapons from being deployed I might agree with you. But unilaterally backing away from the weaponisation of space would be suicide for the US. Also, how do you define a space weapon? GPS can be used to guide a bomb through a terrorist's bedroom window. Military communications satellites direct ground forces to do mayhem. Many nations have these. Aren't these weapons? I think so.
Can we not, as a species, keep at least one place free of war and hostility? I know, that is probably a really tall order, but come on, human-kind! Grow up already!
Think of the struggle between nations as natural selection in progress. Someday, when democracy, capitalism, and free trade have spread to all countries a less violent, more ritualized struggle will be carried out through fair economic competition. Until that day armed conflict will be with us.
I didn't really mean to incite a diatribe like this. You are frothing at the mouth! I only point out that miriads of ninnies on this forum submit condescending posts that make extravagant claims based on nothing more than Wikipedia citations. I suggest such people are intellectually lazy and shouldn't be taken seriously.
As for you, you cite more convincing sources. But like most global warming proponents you cite increased levels of CO2 to global warming and ignore all other climate factors, like the variation of solar lumenosity and obliquity cycle's effect on climate. Like most people who politicise climate variation you are not intellectually lazy, just dishonest.
Thanks for the interesting post. As I said the Dawn mission has merit. I sympathize with its cancellation. But it is involved in a game of budgetary musical chairs. The current budget is not sustainable given the NASA mandate to develop the CEV. As for NASA's poor reputation as an international partner, if Europe is complaining about this after the US spending $100G on the ISS and enumerable other missions then perhaps they would be better off with the Russians. Do you think congress is sympathetic with this view? If you want to blame anything for Dawn's misfortunes blame that useless money pit that is ISS.
I agree. NASA might even consider something like this. The Huygen's descent images were so familiar in a way it is easy to forget what a weird place Titan is.
This is a difficult situation because the mission has a lot of merit. But it was over budget and had technical problems. Something had to go in a climate of budget tightening. Most people on this forum will rail at this decision. They should blame the aimlessness of NASA's manned space program since Apollo, and credit NASA administrator Michael Griffin for doing something about it.
Slashdot Mirror
It's fascinating where the generous and charitable Bill Gates ends, and the ruthless businessman Bill Gates begins.
One serves the other, without a doubt. The malevolent pig fantasizes about slinging Origami and M$ bloatware to the starving in Chad.
While I think most (if not all) of this is just idealistic rant, I do respect the political distinction it is attempting to draw. Nancy Pelosi [wikipedia.org] is doing for the Democrats what Gee Dubya did for the Republicans: unifying and separating themselves from their opponents.
The majority of America is red state America and elects conservative candidates. The next democratic candidate is going to have to flip red states to win. I would argue Nancy Pelolsi is not the one to do that, simply because the politics of the place she represents, San Francisco, are so radically different from the rest of the country. Anti-war snipping, second guessing, and stonewalling may play well to the democratic base, but that base is increasingly irrelevant. For similar reasons Howard "The Screamer" Dean is a disaster as democrat party chairman. What were they thinking?
About 10 years ago someone went dumpster diving and got one of my credit card apps. They had a merry old time at Service Merchandise, in my name, until they got shut down. It was a mighty pain for me. And some skank VISA company was out $1000. Wonder why your card rates are so high? Now I shred everything, and throw away the shreds away weekly with dog excrement picked up from around the yard. I am no longer concerned about mail-based credit card fraud.
This fellow is a fine previous example of an exception to Azimov's first law.
At least to people living on the outside and looking in, they frequently seem inept and/or comical.
Indeed. I like to read North Korea news stories just for the entertainment value. They would be hilarious if they weren't so sad.
Last week China responded to US criticism of their human rights record. My guess is the blog incident this is part of a planned strategy of pushing back in the human rights debate. Not very convincing or effective. I expect more from the communist party propaganda machine.
Erchak says. 'Look at what they're not doing and focus on that. That's where the real disruptive technology comes from.'"
I agree with your post. This term 'disruptive' is really tiresome. After the dotcom bust the term seemed to have fallen into disfavor with a lot of other silly expressions, like 'agility', 'service velocity', 'web time'. The only ones who continue to use it seem to be too young know they should be embarrassed. When I hear visionary types prattle on using it I think 'deceptive' instead.
Those inventions were created by people, not by Islam. Islam is merely a religion, and hence useless and incapable of anything at except stroking peoples emotions (for good or bad).
Yet the relative social order and stability brought about by the Baghdad caliphate was sufficient to allow some branches of science advance. That order ended with the Abbasid dynasty in 1200's with the Mongol invasions. Since then much of the middle east has been a backwater. The Sharia no longer serves Muslim civilization well.
The US has had much of the world's surface under continuous large scale infrared observation for 25 years or more with the Air Force DSP program. It can easily detect the smallest asteroid or comet impacts. I don't know if a scientific survey of its data has ever been done.
I used term GNU/Linux with a bit of an ironic twist because Linux might actually because a GNU program if the project forked and making the term GNU/Linux more palatable to those today who are so opposed to it.
Simply put: they are "zealots" for lack of a better term. For them, free software is less about open source and open development and more about a form of political agenda.
Stallman repeatedly states that software freedom is his goal, and not its widespread adoption by "practical minded" corporations. He has nothing against corporations if they do not interfere with his primary goal. That make's him a zealot, I guess. I call it clear thinking. Time and again he has been proven correct in the face of criticism.
I wonder if Linus even has the real authority to unilaterly switch to an alternative license. I don't think so. By his own admission he is not a deep thinker about the philosophical (he says polical) part of the job. Many of his colleagues are. Any change would have to be accepted by the core kernel developers. If not a fork is all but inevitable (GNU/Linux anyone?). My guess is he will talk like this from time to time but will be under pressure to maintain the status quo.
I won't even touch the gross genealizations about an entire market of computers made in the first paragraph.
I would but I can't because IS is installing another critical Windows patch and my computer will reboot in 15se...
The big problem in the States is the government's crazy dollar creation (what we call inflation is directly caused by the Fed's out of control printing of dollars). This inflation creates cost of living increases (including the housing bubble in my opinion). Because of this inflationary cycle, people demand cost of living increases.
I agree that the reasoning behind cost of living increases is somewhat circular. But this tail wagging the dog notion of inflation applied during the 1970's when US government fiscal policy was inflationary. That is no longer the case. We have plenty of other problems instead. The housing bubble was encouraged by persistent, historically low interest rates. It enlarged the number of buyers. It allowed people to buy up in value. Those same people continue to flip properties in the virtuous (I say vicious) cycle. Low interest rates are due to the insatiable appetite of export economies (like China and Japan) for US treasuries and other investments. They make enormous profits, they don't consume, so they have nowhere to put their money. You can't 'invest' in over capacity forever. They also have their own real estate speculation problems. At the moment we in the US are partying on their cheap money. Enjoy it while it lasts.
Having a clear faith, based on the creed of the church is often labeled today as fundamentalism. Whereas relativism, which is letting oneself be tossed and swept along by every wind of teaching, look like the only attitude acceptable to today's standards... An Adult faith does not follow the waves of fashion and the latest novelties. Pope Benedict XVI
The same notion applies to GPL vs Open Source.
Is it the engineers/IT/technical people? To some extent, but the best of them also have other sources of funding to carry them along (it will just get thinned out).
Missions come and go and the jobs with them. It can lead to unemployment and dislocation, just like the real world.
With fewer and fewer missions to support them, their interests, and their future, why should they bust a gut getting a degree with a dismal future? (go be a medical doctor, a lawyer, a plumber, etc.. don't waste your time with science.. it's nothing but a long and expensive road to a very untenable future.
Such decisions are necessary for what ever profession you choose, except maybe for lawyers.
"We are talking about observational science here" to the EOS community (I'm sure I left others out).
My personal opinion is I am unimpressed by the fast and loose data interpretation and the carefully crafted politics that characterise this branch of science.
I am glad I cannot relate to this bottom feeding devolution. I doubt that you are describing anything you have experienced in real life. But if you are it is a sad commentary on the influence marketing forces in programming education. So many brilliant people have worked so hard to make learning programming rewarding and fun, and they are ignored. Alan Kay and Squeak. Abelson and Sussman with Scheme... Instead we get enthusiastic discussions of Bill Gates and Visual Basic.
science for science's sake has often lead to many of the greatest breakthroughs in science history.
We are talking about observational science here. What great breakthroughs have EOS missions ever produced?
It doesn't sound like the GOES weather satellites are effected, just some of the more specific Earth Observing System missions. Strange that the scientists quoted in the article don't make the distinction. The EOS boondoggle has survived for almost 20 years and sucked untold billions out of NASA's budget. It is about time it got called to account. How do these rather specialized space missions help to "avoid natural disasters?". We already have realtime imagery of hurricanes and still people don't get out of the way. Satellites can't predict earthquakes, tsunamis, or volcanic eruptions. As for global warming, I am sure the state of the art will progress without a few extra missions. Government scientists have too much invested in the hysteria to let it go.
So Elon Musk flaps his gums about what he's going to do, and its news? He should probably be concerned about the sorry state of Falcon. Then again he founded Paypal. Now there're some space credentials.
If you are looking for an interesting space story try this. I submitted the story but the slashdot priests rejected it. Maybe musk should use his billions and buy this thing.
How arrogant, to think that 'democracy' and 'capitalism' (american style of course) once adopted by those savage backward countries
'American style' is your embellishment, not my words. The need for democracy and capitalism is not so much derived form hubris as practical observation. What else to you suggest? Islamic faciscm? Stalinism? Maoist dictatorship?
Anything that is meant for inserting weapons into orbit should be shelved, IMNSHO. Maybe I'm spewing a bunch of "tree-hugging-hippy-crap", but I think it is best to keep weapons out of space.
If a verifiable international treaty were in place to prevent some types of weapons from being deployed I might agree with you. But unilaterally backing away from the weaponisation of space would be suicide for the US. Also, how do you define a space weapon? GPS can be used to guide a bomb through a terrorist's bedroom window. Military communications satellites direct ground forces to do mayhem. Many nations have these. Aren't these weapons? I think so.
Can we not, as a species, keep at least one place free of war and hostility? I know, that is probably a really tall order, but come on, human-kind! Grow up already!
Think of the struggle between nations as natural selection in progress. Someday, when democracy, capitalism, and free trade have spread to all countries a less violent, more ritualized struggle will be carried out through fair economic competition. Until that day armed conflict will be with us.
I didn't really mean to incite a diatribe like this. You are frothing at the mouth! I only point out that miriads of ninnies on this forum submit condescending posts that make extravagant claims based on nothing more than Wikipedia citations. I suggest such people are intellectually lazy and shouldn't be taken seriously.
As for you, you cite more convincing sources. But like most global warming proponents you cite increased levels of CO2 to global warming and ignore all other climate factors, like the variation of solar lumenosity and obliquity cycle's effect on climate. Like most people who politicise climate variation you are not intellectually lazy, just dishonest.
Thanks for the interesting post. As I said the Dawn mission has merit. I sympathize with its cancellation. But it is involved in a game of budgetary musical chairs. The current budget is not sustainable given the NASA mandate to develop the CEV. As for NASA's poor reputation as an international partner, if Europe is complaining about this after the US spending $100G on the ISS and enumerable other missions then perhaps they would be better off with the Russians. Do you think congress is sympathetic with this view? If you want to blame anything for Dawn's misfortunes blame that useless money pit that is ISS.
I agree. NASA might even consider something like this. The Huygen's descent images were so familiar in a way it is easy to forget what a weird place Titan is.
This is a difficult situation because the mission has a lot of merit. But it was over budget and had technical problems. Something had to go in a climate of budget tightening. Most people on this forum will rail at this decision. They should blame the aimlessness of NASA's manned space program since Apollo, and credit NASA administrator Michael Griffin for doing something about it.