Gasoline typically burns at a nearly 15:1 air to fuel ratio. Ethanol typically burns at an 8:1 air to fuel ratio. While ethanol has more stored energy per given volume, as well as being naturally oxygenated, I would be surprised if current computerized engine controls could make full use of the additional stored energy without sacrificing either (1) fuel economy, or (2) NO2 emmissions due to much higher compression ratios.
Use of "winter blends" of gasoline in the USA that include ethanol typically reduce emmissions by sacrificing fuel economy.
This does not detract, however, from the ability to achieve a greater level of energy "independence".
This is anecdotal rather than empirical data, but a co-worker claimed to get better than 100 MPG on the highway when driving between Metro DC and Baltimore on I-95. The traffic on this road typically averages 70 MPH, so I could not understand how he could achieve such stellar mileage -- until he told me that he routinely drafts directly behind tractor trailers.
YMMV, especially depending upon your nerve and driving skills. IMHO, that's just too dangerous.
It is my understanding that the VW TDI engine actually has reduced SOx and NOx and particulates when using a more highly refined diesel fuel (or biodiesel blend).
I am (impatiently) waiting for an auto OEM to produce a hybrid (serial) diesel/electric vehicle that can get 50 MPG city and 70 MPG highway (actual, NOT the EPA's bogus numbers). Unfortunately, much of the new focus is on H2-based vehicles instead, which is guaranteed to keep consumers chained to the multinational energy companies instead of the farmer down the road.
but currently in a less direct manner. When filing your state income taxes, there is a section for voluntary declaration of internet or out-of-state mail order purchases, and billed at the standard state sales tax rate of 5-1/2 percent.
As the Feds continue to squeeze the states regarding Federal funding of Federal mandates to the states, especially concerning entitlement programs, all of the states are likely to jump onto this bandwagon, including Virginia.
The SUN StarOffice product is now at v8, and supports MS Windows, x86 Linux, Sparc and x86 Solaris. MSFT's Office product will be at v12, and still only supports MS Windows and Mac OSX.
If SUN really was interested in challenging MSFT everywhere, they would also produce a Mac OSX version (and, for that matter, a PPC and Sparc Linux version, too.) Just how difficult can this be for the OEM, who has the source code?
I must be one confused old geezer, because I remember (eletro)magnetic core memory, and I also remember Intel's (serial access) bubble memory, but I sure don't remember old bubble core magnetic memory.
The (electro)magnetic core memory was used in my (old) college digital computer lab, along with the toggle switch input and lamp (by register) output.
Intel's (serial access) bubble memory was bloody slow and way too expensive for anything other than spacecraft. I may even have Intel's data books on that stuff still.
As far as clock speeds were concerned, neither technology was even as fast a PDP-11 paper tape reader.
(and I walked to classes in the snow uphill both ways in those days, you young whippersnapper you.)
Excuse me please, but no majority of USA voters elected the current regime in power, so don't blame these fascists on us.
The 2000 national election was "fixed" by two brothers Bush, a crooked FL Sec. of State that knocked likely Dem voters off the rolls, a bevy of GOP-run media moguls, and a US Supreme Court largely put into power by father Bush -- and largely funded by a ME country already run by religious fundamentalists.
The 2004 national election was bought and paid for by the neo(Con)artists that funnelled USA taxpayer money from the Iraqi war -- and with the collaboration of Corporate National Socialist allies in the mainstream media and the manufacturers of electronic voting machines.
It isn't just the football games, either. It is all of the "alternate" reality TV shows, all the "cops & robbers & sexual deviants" shows, and all the talk shows that primarily exist to pump/promote the latest crappy movie or record album.
Take all of that away, and the only thing left is PBS. Which is why the neo(Con)artists keep attacking the financing for PBS. TV, as a whole, is a mind-numbing experience that is used to distract the public from the real issues of the day.
The USA has spent far more on wars and the tools of war than we have on "pure" science or space. Which is why the USA now places such emphasis on a return to the Moon, as well as robotics instead of manned space travel. The next war will be fought (also) in space, and the USA will be ready for that time. The shuttle disasters have taken the wind out of America's spirit of manned exploration of space. The result is that we now have a reasonably competent NASA manager who was drawn from USAF Space Command instead of a moron whose only qualification was a degree in "government management".
The focus on robotics and the militarization of space may derive some benefit to humankind in general, but only as an aside. Abandoning the quest for "pure" science in favor of "applied" science for war-fighting is the most wasteful of ambitions. It is not a new bridge, or levee, or hospital that directly benefits society that is being invested in. And the profit margins are plowed into contractors' pockets instead of the public.
Our "war-fighting" president has lost the budget battle, lost the Iraqi "hearts & minds" battle, lost the war against Saddam bin Laden (where is he now?), and helped (with other than benign neglect) to turn the USA Gulf Coast into what appears to have been hit with multiple WMD. Apparently, the regime in power has more to fear from citizens (and voters) than from terrorist infiltrators, since it is American citizens' rights that have been trampled into the dust. But we are on track to put fighting robots into the Iraqi desert, and into (LEO) space. I am just ever so proud to be an American these days...
"It's funny how corporations love economics right up until the point where it involves paying intelligent people higher wages."
Right-O!
Thank goodness that Dubya and all the other neo(Con)artists running the government have made globalization, off-shore outsourcing, L1-A and H1-B visas available for corporations to fill their professional services needs so cheaply. That, and the open borders, amnesty, and "don't ask/don't tell" non-enforcement to help fill the blue collar and other less technical jobs cheaper.
The current regime in power cannot be attributed with having "sufficiently advanced stupidity", rather than malice. The more appropriate characterization would be "sufficiently advanced greed".
The Bush administration is NOT conservative -- certainly NOT fiscally, NOR regarding individual or states' rights, NOR environmentally. What they are are bold-faced liars, rapists, and pillagers who are busy engaged in stripping the US Treasury to enrich their corporate interests.
The biggest winners in the Iraq war has certainly not been the Iraqi people -- not with more than 100,000 civilian deaths due to Coalition military action, no jobs, no electricity, and no clean water. The Coalition forces have been taking it on the chin for the last 2-1/2 years. The real winners have been the contractors working for Uncle Sam.
The Bush regime (including Congress) could not/would not find the funds to properly upgrade the levee system around New Orleans, nor restore the wetlands that would have provided needed additional protection to the coastline. After Katrina, and with much public fanfare, the Bush administration has tried to come across as "compassionate" and "responsible", all while it is yet more government contractors that will be getting the reconstruction funds. Exactly how much of the "pork" that found its' way into the latest Federal Highway appropriation will be shed in favor of levee repairs? Not any, I would suspect.
The same government contractors that are on Uncle Sam's teat in Iraq are also getting involved in the New Orleans/Gulf Coast reconstruction. This is neither accidental, nor is it coincidental.
The neo(Con)artists are (post-Katrina/Rita) sending up public "trial balloons" regarding the sale and commercialization of 15 national parks, proportedly as a means of generating funds to help pay for the hurricane damage. Pretty fsking outrageous, if you ask me.
And while we are talking about new commercial/real estate "opportunities", who out there cannot wrap their heads around the notion that the military base closing and realignment commission findings have far less to do with "national security" and far more to do with new real estate development opportunities (for those "in the know")?
Welcome to the neo(Con)artist "Contract With America", where "1984" meets national socialism and becomes Corporate National Socialism.
It would appear that the PRC is rushing just as quickly toward an "autocratic state capitalism" as the current USA regime is rushing toward an "autocratic state capitalism".
The differentiating lines between "capitalist communism", "national socialism", and "corporate national socialism (?)" appear to be little more than arctangents on a circle -- only a matter of degree.
You are repeating the propaganda of the current regime in power when you refer to them as "neo-cons" (as in "new conservatives"). The actual (and historically well-documented) term is "neo(Con)artists" (as in "new age (1984) con-artists").
Democracy is a prominent "plank" in the neo(Con)artist platform, but only appies to "the appearance of democracy". Tiawan's pro-democracy demonstrations and pronouncements are, by US State Department judgement, "counter-productive" to their dealings with the PRC. Egypt's and Pakistan's "democracies" set the gold standard for governments whose "appearance of democracy" conceals autocracy, while an Iranian governments "democracy" overseen by a theocratic "court" unfriendy to the USA is a sham. Similarly, the Venezuelan governments "democracy that favors the welfare of the majority of its citizens over that of the elite is also a sham. Finally, the 2000 and 2004 national elections in the USA were decided by (1) a "theocratic" court, or (2) corporate (Diebold, et.al.) interests.
Another "plank" in the "neo-con" agenda would appear to be the creation, by direct action or omission, of disasters that will be exploited by their corporate masters, in the form of government (frequently no-bid) contracts.
The shifting of all power, influence, and wealth from the USA's middle class to the wealthy, and the construction of institutional supports to sustain the new "American royalty" (eg. tax cuts & elimination of the death tax) is another plank.
The current regime in power, as self-proclaimed "neo-cons", are no more conservative in the classical sense than Joseph Stalin could be considered a "true humanitarian". The increased consolidation of power from the American people, and from the 50 states, into the hands of the current regime running the Federal government is neither accidental nor unrelated to the fiscal "constraint" they exercise. The "neo-cons" are, figuratively speaking, "draining the swamp" that empowers the "welfare state" that has evolved over the past 80-plus years. The taxes that supported that government "largesse" have already been re-routed to the wealthy elite and corporations, to the detriment of any/all state-based (but often Federally mandated) welfare programs.
The acquisition of DNA from all individuals that come in contact with the regime now in power is yet another example of (1) the new-found power of the (central) state over personal privacy, and (2) may well represent an era of absolutism as seen in "1984". Considering the close ties between the corporation and the state under this regime, it is not outside the realm of possibility that our own DNA "fingerprints" will all be patented by the corporate state. Rather than barcodes or other numerical tattooes that have been predicted as "the sign of the beast", our DNA in a central database may well be that sign.
New "nose-bleed" heights of corruption of politicians and the political process in the USA has only taken 10 years with the "neo-con" control of the US Congress and then the Executive branch. The neo(Con)artists in power today make the 40-plus years of Democratic control of Congress and whatever corruption might have occurred there make the Dems look like amateura and pikers compared to the "rape & pillage" professionals now in power.
All of which argues the point that the correct label for the current regime in power is neo(Con)artist, and not neo-con.
You sound just like a typical PHB (from the school of Microsoft FUD.) But in the reverse role. The study produced a result that you (personally) don't agree with, and so blame the underlying bias and agenda of the source.
Some of the most damning data that I saw was IT employment and H1-B visa data for the state of Connecticut for 2003. 78,000 IT workers in Connecticut were layed off that year. But that very same year, employers in Connecticut requested (and got) 68,000 more H1-B visa slots allotted to them that same year.
It is not a matter of the number of IT (or other high-tech) skilled jobs that somehow cannot be filled by the American workforce -- it IS a matter of how many jobs at a specific price point are available. It is pretty sad when even state agencies involved in administering benefits programs (unemployment, medicare, food stamps, etc.) are being offshore outsourced instead of hiring unemployed skilled workers -- which has happened in more than 28 states.
The very same neo(Con)artist agenda of forcing American wages downward is also being applied to skilled blue collar workers. Which is why, in spite of the increased awareness of risk to terrorists infiltrating the USA, the borders are still so poorly guarded after 9-11-2001, and why enforcement of laws against employers hiring illegal aliens has dramatically dropped since 2000. In the year 2000, the Clinton administration prosecuted 334 employers for knowingly hiring illegal aliens. In 2003, the Dubya administration only prosecuted 13 employers. The number of illegal aliens crossing USA borders has not decreased since 2000, but the government's attitude regarding enforcement has.
You are either extremely mioptic, a moron, or a troll. The PRC has demonstrated time and again, decade after decade that they are a "cautious" imperialist power bent upon (at least) regional hegenomy.
They were directly involved in the Korean War, the assimilation of Tibet, a border conflict with India, an invasion of Vietnam, and now using their proxy North Korea to use nuclear blackmail against South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan.
Twice in five years a Communist Chinese general has stood up in front of their Politburo in widely publicized speeches to threaten to "nuke" the USA (more specifically Los Angeles). The reasons?
In May 2001 the USA withdrew from a deal that would have had a Hong Kong proxy of the PRC government outright purchase the port of Long Beach, CA -- it would have established a PRC equivalent of British-owned Hong Kong on USA territory, but without the 99 year lease.
In August 2005 the US Congress began making public pronouncements against the PRC purchase of Unical, an oil company with extensive oil and natural gas reserve assets heavily relied upon by Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea.
Considering the above, as well as PRC purchase of naval bases at both ends of the Panama Canal, plus many other new military and economic alliances they have made in the past five years, it is becoming less clear whether the PRC would be satisfied with only regional hegenomy, rather than a global challenge to the USA's fragile superpower status.
The new second race to the Moon, and the USA's new zest for the militarization of space can be put in the same light as the initial Cold War race to space between the USSR and the USA.
Yeah, the airsoft version is just good enough to maybe put an eye out. OTOH, a magazine-fed version of a "bean-bag" gun could have been useful recently in New Orleans.
Personally, I would favor a Benelli full-auto 12 gage with a detachable box magazine, since a GE mini-gun has far too high a rate of fire.
The FCC has already granted the "baby Bells" the ability to "discourage" 3rd party DSL providers from access to "their" POTS wiring (paid for by taxpayers raped & pillaged by the AT&T monopoly) at wholesale prices. The various state legislatures have largely caved to the wishes of the telcos by eliminating/strangling 3rd party metro WiFi competition. The "9-11" requirement by the FCC for VoIP providers was more "sand under the wheels" for the telcos' competition. I see the unbundling of DSL service by the FCC only as yet another means for the "baby Bells" to increase their profit margins.
The FCC has proved, time and again, that they are the friends of the telcos, not the consumers or taxpayers. Do not expect any better deal for consumers from the regime currently in power -- you will only be disappointed.
CISC (Complex Instruction Set Chip) processor technology has been replaced with RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Chip) processors, while maintaining backward compatability with the x86 architecture. Manufacturing tolerances have improved quite a bit, with 90nm lithography being replaced with 65nm. NMOS has been Intel's chosen cell technology for more than two decades. It offered lower power per MIPS than ECL technology, which had raw speed matched only by "toaster-level" heat generation.
With smaller die sizes due to improved manufacturing tolerances, and a new focus on really low power designs, perhaps it is time for Intel to drop NMOS technology for the original low power cell design -- 6 transistor CMOS technology.
But when all the other "dirty tricks" are factored in, the electronic voting machine fraud that occurred in many other states besides Ohio, begin to look like a coordinated and concerted effort to effect the outcome of national elections by illegal means. The number of states employing fraudulent lists of felons to be barred from voting increased considerably from the 2000 election fiasco in Florida and Georgia -- the same company's database was employed in a dozen states in the 2004 national election to disenfranchise voters. Upon passage in Arizona of Proposition 200, which (among other things) increased the penalties for illegal aliens registering to vote, the voter registration lists in only one AZ county dropped by nearly 10%. (Check the archived news links at "www.cis.org" for details.)
The Republican controlled US Congress passed a $6 Billion USD piece of legislation to furnish electonic voting machines across the country after the "hanging chad" problem became public in FL in the 2000 election, but without establishing the appropriate standards and guidelines for security or recount capability. Until the US government investigates the increasing number of vote count fraud cases that independent investigators keep uncovering from the 2004 national election, this country would be far better off (small "d" democratically speaking) to revert to individual paper ballots (perhaps validated with the Iraqi equivalent of an indelible ink thumbprint.
The regime currently in power in the USA seems to have a very flexible and pragmatic view of what constitutes a democracy, here or abroad. Bolivia and Venezuela (both oil rich) have "corrupt" democracies that tend to favor the majority (poor) over the wishes of the elite. Taiwan has a democracy that the US Department of State finds "problematic" when they publically express their desire to remain independent of Communist China. The appearance of democratic "principles" in Egypt and Pakistan are far better than the Islamic revolution that would occur in either country with true democracy. But a neighboring country (Iran) that has a more valid claim to democracy is somehow another "corrupt" (but oil rich) oligarcical regime. Anyone else beginning to see the Dubya/neo(Con)artist hypocracy at work?
Something stinks in the USA, and it isn't the dead , bloated bodies of poor people in New Orleans. The $2 Billion USD it would have taken to fix the levee system there was diverted to the Iraqi war. The National Guard troops (and their equipment) were in Iraq instead of being available to aid the people of Louisiana and Mississippi in theri time of need. But the Dubya regime can NOW find the $200 Billion USD to fix the results of the hurricane disaster. It does not make up for the loss of life in any way, shape , or form. And watch the same defense/government contractors scrambling for their piece of this pork pie as have been feeding at the USA's Iraqi $$$ trough.
for the US Marshall Service Witness Protection Program. As this medical procedure becomes more commonplace, it will not be only paper identity, occupation, and location of witnesses in Federal criminal cases that are changed.
In spite of the inherent risks involved in any surgery, as well as the need to take anti-rejection drugs for the remainder of the patient's life, I can see that this will become popular even as elective surgery. I can also see that face transplants will become an abused procedure, for concealing the identity of terrorists, mobsters, mass murderers, embezzlers, and politicians/dictators that have fallen out of favor.
Arguably, the USA's strategy of "guns & butter" in the run-up to the first NASA lunar landings, Reagan's "Star Wars" and helping Al-Queda kick the Russians out of Afghanistan led to the fall of the Soviet Russian empire.
The next "race to the Moon" will be the USA and the Communist Chinese in competition, but the USA's "guns & butter" economy has already largely shifted to India and China already. The current regime in power in the USA is more likely to lose this race and bankrupt the country, unfortunately.
Other than for the "status value", the only thing that the Moon offers is strategic military value. It is the quintessential "high ground" from which there is no 24 hour per day defilade. The Moon is a big pile of dust pounded by millions of years worth of meteorites -- vitually worthless regarding natural resources (unlike Titan).
Of course Bush had help -- Bush is no more than a sock-puppet to his special interest groups.
For years there have been discussions about the use of solar collectors in LEO that generate electricity to beam, via microwave, energy back to Earth. Beam enough directed microwave energy back to Earth, like into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, and the surface water temperature will increase. Increasing water temperature is like pouring gasoline onto a fire when it comes to hurricanes. In the absence of strong winds or steering currents to alter the vector of a tropical storm, the warmer water may act as path of greatest attraction.
The destruction of the City and Port of New Orleans has already created new business "opportunities" for the big defense contractors like Halliburton/K-B-R, besides diverting commercial (oil) port traffic to Houston, TX. Sort of a lose-win-win situation.
The parallels between Katrina and Iraq continue to grow -- civilians suffer, USA taxpayers suffer, an inadequate response (boots on the ground), and huge new business opportunities for the big defense contractors. If Bush didn't single handedly create Katrina, no doubt he is still (privately) claiming responsibility when gathered with his contractor buddies.
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Gasoline typically burns at a nearly 15:1 air to fuel ratio. Ethanol typically burns at an 8:1 air to fuel ratio. While ethanol has more stored energy per given volume, as well as being naturally oxygenated, I would be surprised if current computerized engine controls could make full use of the additional stored energy without sacrificing either (1) fuel economy, or (2) NO2 emmissions due to much higher compression ratios.
Use of "winter blends" of gasoline in the USA that include ethanol typically reduce emmissions by sacrificing fuel economy.
This does not detract, however, from the ability to achieve a greater level of energy "independence".
This is anecdotal rather than empirical data, but a co-worker claimed to get better than 100 MPG on the highway when driving between Metro DC and Baltimore on I-95. The traffic on this road typically averages 70 MPH, so I could not understand how he could achieve such stellar mileage -- until he told me that he routinely drafts directly behind tractor trailers.
YMMV, especially depending upon your nerve and driving skills. IMHO, that's just too dangerous.
It is my understanding that the VW TDI engine actually has reduced SOx and NOx and particulates when using a more highly refined diesel fuel (or biodiesel blend).
I am (impatiently) waiting for an auto OEM to produce a hybrid (serial) diesel/electric vehicle that can get 50 MPG city and 70 MPG highway (actual, NOT the EPA's bogus numbers). Unfortunately, much of the new focus is on H2-based vehicles instead, which is guaranteed to keep consumers chained to the multinational energy companies instead of the farmer down the road.
but currently in a less direct manner. When filing your state income taxes, there is a section for voluntary declaration of internet or out-of-state mail order purchases, and billed at the standard state sales tax rate of 5-1/2 percent.
As the Feds continue to squeeze the states regarding Federal funding of Federal mandates to the states, especially concerning entitlement programs, all of the states are likely to jump onto this bandwagon, including Virginia.
The SUN StarOffice product is now at v8, and supports MS Windows, x86 Linux, Sparc and x86 Solaris. MSFT's Office product will be at v12, and still only supports MS Windows and Mac OSX.
If SUN really was interested in challenging MSFT everywhere, they would also produce a Mac OSX version (and, for that matter, a PPC and Sparc Linux version, too.) Just how difficult can this be for the OEM, who has the source code?
I must be one confused old geezer, because I remember (eletro)magnetic core memory, and I also remember Intel's (serial access) bubble memory, but I sure don't remember old bubble core magnetic memory.
The (electro)magnetic core memory was used in my (old) college digital computer lab, along with the toggle switch input and lamp (by register) output.
Intel's (serial access) bubble memory was bloody slow and way too expensive for anything other than spacecraft. I may even have Intel's data books on that stuff still.
As far as clock speeds were concerned, neither technology was even as fast a PDP-11 paper tape reader.
(and I walked to classes in the snow uphill both ways in those days, you young whippersnapper you.)
Excuse me please, but no majority of USA voters elected the current regime in power, so don't blame these fascists on us.
The 2000 national election was "fixed" by two brothers Bush, a crooked FL Sec. of State that knocked likely Dem voters off the rolls, a bevy of GOP-run media moguls, and a US Supreme Court largely put into power by father Bush -- and largely funded by a ME country already run by religious fundamentalists.
The 2004 national election was bought and paid for by the neo(Con)artists that funnelled USA taxpayer money from the Iraqi war -- and with the collaboration of Corporate National Socialist allies in the mainstream media and the manufacturers of electronic voting machines.
It isn't just the football games, either. It is all of the "alternate" reality TV shows, all the "cops & robbers & sexual deviants" shows, and all the talk shows that primarily exist to pump/promote the latest crappy movie or record album.
Take all of that away, and the only thing left is PBS. Which is why the neo(Con)artists keep attacking the financing for PBS. TV, as a whole, is a mind-numbing experience that is used to distract the public from the real issues of the day.
(Correction Needed!) ... the People's Democratic Republic of the United States of North America.
Of course, that is a very peculiar name for what now exists in the USA, which is Corporate National Socialism.
The USA has spent far more on wars and the tools of war than we have on "pure" science or space. Which is why the USA now places such emphasis on a return to the Moon, as well as robotics instead of manned space travel. The next war will be fought (also) in space, and the USA will be ready for that time. The shuttle disasters have taken the wind out of America's spirit of manned exploration of space. The result is that we now have a reasonably competent NASA manager who was drawn from USAF Space Command instead of a moron whose only qualification was a degree in "government management".
...
The focus on robotics and the militarization of space may derive some benefit to humankind in general, but only as an aside. Abandoning the quest for "pure" science in favor of "applied" science for war-fighting is the most wasteful of ambitions. It is not a new bridge, or levee, or hospital that directly benefits society that is being invested in. And the profit margins are plowed into contractors' pockets instead of the public.
Our "war-fighting" president has lost the budget battle, lost the Iraqi "hearts & minds" battle, lost the war against Saddam bin Laden (where is he now?), and helped (with other than benign neglect) to turn the USA Gulf Coast into what appears to have been hit with multiple WMD. Apparently, the regime in power has more to fear from citizens (and voters) than from terrorist infiltrators, since it is American citizens' rights that have been trampled into the dust. But we are on track to put fighting robots into the Iraqi desert, and into (LEO) space. I am just ever so proud to be an American these days
"It's funny how corporations love economics right up until the point where it involves paying intelligent people higher wages."
Right-O!
Thank goodness that Dubya and all the other neo(Con)artists running the government have made globalization, off-shore outsourcing, L1-A and H1-B visas available for corporations to fill their professional services needs so cheaply. That, and the open borders, amnesty, and "don't ask/don't tell" non-enforcement to help fill the blue collar and other less technical jobs cheaper.
The current regime in power cannot be attributed with having "sufficiently advanced stupidity", rather than malice. The more appropriate characterization would be "sufficiently advanced greed".
The Bush administration is NOT conservative -- certainly NOT fiscally, NOR regarding individual or states' rights, NOR environmentally. What they are are bold-faced liars, rapists, and pillagers who are busy engaged in stripping the US Treasury to enrich their corporate interests.
The biggest winners in the Iraq war has certainly not been the Iraqi people -- not with more than 100,000 civilian deaths due to Coalition military action, no jobs, no electricity, and no clean water. The Coalition forces have been taking it on the chin for the last 2-1/2 years. The real winners have been the contractors working for Uncle Sam.
The Bush regime (including Congress) could not/would not find the funds to properly upgrade the levee system around New Orleans, nor restore the wetlands that would have provided needed additional protection to the coastline. After Katrina, and with much public fanfare, the Bush administration has tried to come across as "compassionate" and "responsible", all while it is yet more government contractors that will be getting the reconstruction funds. Exactly how much of the "pork" that found its' way into the latest Federal Highway appropriation will be shed in favor of levee repairs? Not any, I would suspect.
The same government contractors that are on Uncle Sam's teat in Iraq are also getting involved in the New Orleans/Gulf Coast reconstruction. This is neither accidental, nor is it coincidental.
The neo(Con)artists are (post-Katrina/Rita) sending up public "trial balloons" regarding the sale and commercialization of 15 national parks, proportedly as a means of generating funds to help pay for the hurricane damage. Pretty fsking outrageous, if you ask me.
And while we are talking about new commercial/real estate "opportunities", who out there cannot wrap their heads around the notion that the military base closing and realignment commission findings have far less to do with "national security" and far more to do with new real estate development opportunities (for those "in the know")?
Welcome to the neo(Con)artist "Contract With America", where "1984" meets national socialism and becomes Corporate National Socialism.
Exactly so!
It would appear that the PRC is rushing just as quickly toward an "autocratic state capitalism" as the current USA regime is rushing toward an "autocratic state capitalism".
The differentiating lines between "capitalist communism", "national socialism", and "corporate national socialism (?)" appear to be little more than arctangents on a circle -- only a matter of degree.
You are repeating the propaganda of the current regime in power when you refer to them as "neo-cons" (as in "new conservatives"). The actual (and historically well-documented) term is "neo(Con)artists" (as in "new age (1984) con-artists").
Democracy is a prominent "plank" in the neo(Con)artist platform, but only appies to "the appearance of democracy". Tiawan's pro-democracy demonstrations and pronouncements are, by US State Department judgement, "counter-productive" to their dealings with the PRC. Egypt's and Pakistan's "democracies" set the gold standard for governments whose "appearance of democracy" conceals autocracy, while an Iranian governments "democracy" overseen by a theocratic "court" unfriendy to the USA is a sham. Similarly, the Venezuelan governments "democracy that favors the welfare of the majority of its citizens over that of the elite is also a sham. Finally, the 2000 and 2004 national elections in the USA were decided by (1) a "theocratic" court, or (2) corporate (Diebold, et.al.) interests.
Another "plank" in the "neo-con" agenda would appear to be the creation, by direct action or omission, of disasters that will be exploited by their corporate masters, in the form of government (frequently no-bid) contracts.
The shifting of all power, influence, and wealth from the USA's middle class to the wealthy, and the construction of institutional supports to sustain the new "American royalty" (eg. tax cuts & elimination of the death tax) is another plank.
The current regime in power, as self-proclaimed "neo-cons", are no more conservative in the classical sense than Joseph Stalin could be considered a "true humanitarian". The increased consolidation of power from the American people, and from the 50 states, into the hands of the current regime running the Federal government is neither accidental nor unrelated to the fiscal "constraint" they exercise. The "neo-cons" are, figuratively speaking, "draining the swamp" that empowers the "welfare state" that has evolved over the past 80-plus years. The taxes that supported that government "largesse" have already been re-routed to the wealthy elite and corporations, to the detriment of any/all state-based (but often Federally mandated) welfare programs.
The acquisition of DNA from all individuals that come in contact with the regime now in power is yet another example of (1) the new-found power of the (central) state over personal privacy, and (2) may well represent an era of absolutism as seen in "1984". Considering the close ties between the corporation and the state under this regime, it is not outside the realm of possibility that our own DNA "fingerprints" will all be patented by the corporate state. Rather than barcodes or other numerical tattooes that have been predicted as "the sign of the beast", our DNA in a central database may well be that sign.
New "nose-bleed" heights of corruption of politicians and the political process in the USA has only taken 10 years with the "neo-con" control of the US Congress and then the Executive branch. The neo(Con)artists in power today make the 40-plus years of Democratic control of Congress and whatever corruption might have occurred there make the Dems look like amateura and pikers compared to the "rape & pillage" professionals now in power.
All of which argues the point that the correct label for the current regime in power is neo(Con)artist, and not neo-con.
You sound just like a typical PHB (from the school of Microsoft FUD.) But in the reverse role. The study produced a result that you (personally) don't agree with, and so blame the underlying bias and agenda of the source.
Some of the most damning data that I saw was IT employment and H1-B visa data for the state of Connecticut for 2003. 78,000 IT workers in Connecticut were layed off that year. But that very same year, employers in Connecticut requested (and got) 68,000 more H1-B visa slots allotted to them that same year.
It is not a matter of the number of IT (or other high-tech) skilled jobs that somehow cannot be filled by the American workforce -- it IS a matter of how many jobs at a specific price point are available. It is pretty sad when even state agencies involved in administering benefits programs (unemployment, medicare, food stamps, etc.) are being offshore outsourced instead of hiring unemployed skilled workers -- which has happened in more than 28 states.
The very same neo(Con)artist agenda of forcing American wages downward is also being applied to skilled blue collar workers. Which is why, in spite of the increased awareness of risk to terrorists infiltrating the USA, the borders are still so poorly guarded after 9-11-2001, and why enforcement of laws against employers hiring illegal aliens has dramatically dropped since 2000. In the year 2000, the Clinton administration prosecuted 334 employers for knowingly hiring illegal aliens. In 2003, the Dubya administration only prosecuted 13 employers.
The number of illegal aliens crossing USA borders has not decreased since 2000, but the government's attitude regarding enforcement has.
I believe the word you were looking for is "replicate". Biological entities reproduce, but viruses replicate...
You are either extremely mioptic, a moron, or a troll. The PRC has demonstrated time and again, decade after decade that they are a "cautious" imperialist power bent upon (at least) regional hegenomy.
They were directly involved in the Korean War, the assimilation of Tibet, a border conflict with India, an invasion of Vietnam, and now using their proxy North Korea to use nuclear blackmail against South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan.
Twice in five years a Communist Chinese general has stood up in front of their Politburo in widely publicized speeches to threaten to "nuke" the USA (more specifically Los Angeles). The reasons?
In May 2001 the USA withdrew from a deal that would have had a Hong Kong proxy of the PRC government outright purchase the port of Long Beach, CA -- it would have established a PRC equivalent of British-owned Hong Kong on USA territory, but without the 99 year lease.
In August 2005 the US Congress began making public pronouncements against the PRC purchase of Unical, an oil company with extensive oil and natural gas reserve assets heavily relied upon by Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea.
Considering the above, as well as PRC purchase of naval bases at both ends of the Panama Canal, plus many other new military and economic alliances they have made in the past five years, it is becoming less clear whether the PRC would be satisfied with only regional hegenomy, rather than a global challenge to the USA's fragile superpower status.
The new second race to the Moon, and the USA's new zest for the militarization of space can be put in the same light as the initial Cold War race to space between the USSR and the USA.
Yeah, the airsoft version is just good enough to maybe put an eye out. OTOH, a magazine-fed version of a "bean-bag" gun could have been useful recently in New Orleans.
Personally, I would favor a Benelli full-auto 12 gage with a detachable box magazine, since a GE mini-gun has far too high a rate of fire.
Actually, NO!
The FCC has already granted the "baby Bells" the ability to "discourage" 3rd party DSL providers from access to "their" POTS wiring (paid for by taxpayers raped & pillaged by the AT&T monopoly) at wholesale prices. The various state legislatures have largely caved to the wishes of the telcos by eliminating/strangling 3rd party metro WiFi competition. The "9-11" requirement by the FCC for VoIP providers was more "sand under the wheels" for the telcos' competition. I see the unbundling of DSL service by the FCC only as yet another means for the "baby Bells" to increase their profit margins.
The FCC has proved, time and again, that they are the friends of the telcos, not the consumers or taxpayers. Do not expect any better deal for consumers from the regime currently in power -- you will only be disappointed.
CISC (Complex Instruction Set Chip) processor technology has been replaced with RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Chip) processors, while maintaining backward compatability with the x86 architecture. Manufacturing tolerances have improved quite a bit, with 90nm lithography being replaced with 65nm. NMOS has been Intel's chosen cell technology for more than two decades. It offered lower power per MIPS than ECL technology, which had raw speed matched only by "toaster-level" heat generation.
With smaller die sizes due to improved manufacturing tolerances, and a new focus on really low power designs, perhaps it is time for Intel to drop NMOS technology for the original low power cell design -- 6 transistor CMOS technology.
so much as right on target.
But when all the other "dirty tricks" are factored in, the electronic voting machine fraud that occurred in many other states besides Ohio, begin to look like a coordinated and concerted effort to effect the outcome of national elections by illegal means. The number of states employing fraudulent lists of felons to be barred from voting increased considerably from the 2000 election fiasco in Florida and Georgia -- the same company's database was employed in a dozen states in the 2004 national election to disenfranchise voters. Upon passage in Arizona of Proposition 200, which (among other things) increased the penalties for illegal aliens registering to vote, the voter registration lists in only one AZ county dropped by nearly 10%. (Check the archived news links at "www.cis.org" for details.)
The Republican controlled US Congress passed a $6 Billion USD piece of legislation to furnish electonic voting machines across the country after the "hanging chad" problem became public in FL in the 2000 election, but without establishing the appropriate standards and guidelines for security or recount capability. Until the US government investigates the increasing number of vote count fraud cases that independent investigators keep uncovering from the 2004 national election, this country would be far better off (small "d" democratically speaking) to revert to individual paper ballots (perhaps validated with the Iraqi equivalent of an indelible ink thumbprint.
The regime currently in power in the USA seems to have a very flexible and pragmatic view of what constitutes a democracy, here or abroad. Bolivia and Venezuela (both oil rich) have "corrupt" democracies that tend to favor the majority (poor) over the wishes of the elite. Taiwan has a democracy that the US Department of State finds "problematic" when they publically express their desire to remain independent of Communist China. The appearance of democratic "principles" in Egypt and Pakistan are far better than the Islamic revolution that would occur in either country with true democracy. But a neighboring country (Iran) that has a more valid claim to democracy is somehow another "corrupt" (but oil rich) oligarcical regime. Anyone else beginning to see the Dubya/neo(Con)artist hypocracy at work?
Something stinks in the USA, and it isn't the dead , bloated bodies of poor people in New Orleans. The $2 Billion USD it would have taken to fix the levee system there was diverted to the Iraqi war. The National Guard troops (and their equipment) were in Iraq instead of being available to aid the people of Louisiana and Mississippi in theri time of need. But the Dubya regime can NOW find the $200 Billion USD to fix the results of the hurricane disaster. It does not make up for the loss of life in any way, shape , or form. And watch the same defense/government contractors scrambling for their piece of this pork pie as have been feeding at the USA's Iraqi $$$ trough.
for the US Marshall Service Witness Protection Program. As this medical procedure becomes more commonplace, it will not be only paper identity, occupation, and location of witnesses in Federal criminal cases that are changed.
In spite of the inherent risks involved in any surgery, as well as the need to take anti-rejection drugs for the remainder of the patient's life, I can see that this will become popular even as elective surgery. I can also see that face transplants will become an abused procedure, for concealing the identity of terrorists, mobsters, mass murderers, embezzlers, and politicians/dictators that have fallen out of favor.
what adult would choose a bubblegum-flavored slurpee when a nice adult-oriented pina colada or margarita could be available, alcohol included?
When I hit the lottery, or (re-)marry into money, I want my margaritas on-tap!
Arguably, the USA's strategy of "guns & butter" in the run-up to the first NASA lunar landings, Reagan's "Star Wars" and helping Al-Queda kick the Russians out of Afghanistan led to the fall of the Soviet Russian empire.
The next "race to the Moon" will be the USA and the Communist Chinese in competition, but the USA's "guns & butter" economy has already largely shifted to India and China already. The current regime in power in the USA is more likely to lose this race and bankrupt the country, unfortunately.
Other than for the "status value", the only thing that the Moon offers is strategic military value. It is the quintessential "high ground" from which there is no 24 hour per day defilade. The Moon is a big pile of dust pounded by millions of years worth of meteorites -- vitually worthless regarding natural resources (unlike Titan).
Of course Bush had help -- Bush is no more than a sock-puppet to his special interest groups.
For years there have been discussions about the use of solar collectors in LEO that generate electricity to beam, via microwave, energy back to Earth. Beam enough directed microwave energy back to Earth, like into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, and the surface water temperature will increase. Increasing water temperature is like pouring gasoline onto a fire when it comes to hurricanes. In the absence of strong winds or steering currents to alter the vector of a tropical storm, the warmer water may act as path of greatest attraction.
The destruction of the City and Port of New Orleans has already created new business "opportunities" for the big defense contractors like Halliburton/K-B-R, besides diverting commercial (oil) port traffic to Houston, TX.
Sort of a lose-win-win situation.
The parallels between Katrina and Iraq continue to grow -- civilians suffer, USA taxpayers suffer, an inadequate response (boots on the ground), and huge new business opportunities for the big defense contractors. If Bush didn't single handedly create Katrina, no doubt he is still (privately) claiming responsibility when gathered with his contractor buddies.