Some of the things that spun off were part of the medical field and some were part of "life support" equipment. While unmanned will spin off some technology, manned will spin off much much more.
The spin off technologies will go back into high gear, as they did in the race to the moon. For every dollar spent in this process, 100$ of innovation will pump back into the American economy. Jobs will be created, and secondary jobs will spring up to support those.
The nays sayers have been around forever, and they are always proven wrong and shortsighted.
I for one would love to divert a large portion of my taxes (say the whole part that supports welfare for example) to the space program. At least then I would get some good for my money.
There are some state laws that prohibit using it for identification. Vermont springs to mind.
Also, the law you mention is not the one I was talking about. Private companies are not allowed to use it either. Having worked in payroll systems for several large corporations, where we have employees in many states, this stuff is all covered.
The flip side is that many people ignore the law anyway. And there does not seem to be much enforcement.
And it isn't a very good deal in some respects. For one thing, they post your credit report online for 1 month of every three for you to look at. What part of "there is no such thing as a secure website" do they not understand?
So, if you sign up for this severice, you pay them to make you more vulnerable in some respects.
Oh, and as for SSN being a universal identifier. It is against Federal Law to require the SSN in anything expect payroll transactions and banking transactions. When people ask for it, inform them that it is against the law to ask for it and make them give you another option.
http://www.theultimates.com/ has the 6 largest of these systems. There are others, and all of them run off the phone book eventually.
Why do we even need such systems? So far, I have found them to be nothing but trouble. Fortunately, when I moved I figured out in time that an unlisted number means you won't be in any of them. I have more or less dropped out of all of them.
Of the 6 major reverse phone number / online phone books, about 4 of them are co-operative about removing info. The other 2 take weeks / months / years to remove an entry, if they bother to do it at all.
For example, I tried to correct a bad entry for my mother-in-law for all 6 of the biggest ones starting 2 months ago. She moved, and went to an unlisted number in another state. I sent multiple e-mails to the ones who have YET to delete this bogus entry, based upon her husband's name (He died 30 years ago).
The biggest and worst offender? Yahoo. I also had trouble with correcting bogus information from the one of the credit services they own part of. They had "tagged" my home address as a business address. Apparently, I got some trade journels at home during that period and that meant that it was a business address. Therefore, I finally had to take it to a federal complaint to get them to change that "tagged" entry so that I could get report, so I could work on the other problems.
What started it? My Dad spent 5 months living with us while building his new house. They changed the entry for my home to my Dad and my wife's name.
So, the moral? None of the information tracked by so-called organizations working for us is worth anything, and in fact may come back to hurt you.
I also used to get calls for someone else with my name, but for the wrong area code. I guess he was a deadbeat and lived 30-40 miles away. When they split the area code, all his banks would look him up on the internet to find him and call me. Another reason I went to an unlisted number.
>I was hoping that the article would bring up the obvious answer, but it didn't quite reach it. The essence of fiction is that it is not real, and "science fiction" is supposed to take the idea a step further -- beyond real, if you like. To the unreachable, beyond what we consider possible.
Actually, today's author doesn't want to bother to research what science already understands as background for the story. By going with fantasy (swords and sorcery) they avoid all that work, and still get paid the same.
And you get to write the same plot over and over again. "Rescue the Prince(ss) from the GREAT EVIL".
Many people have genetic pre-disposition to diabetis. I'm one. Exercise will and does help, but the big problem is the trauma to my system (cancer) has caused some of my system to start to slow down. Net effect is diabetis.
My brother had part of his pancreas burned out, thus causing diabetis. This was much better than periodic temporary paralysis.
So, before you spout off on "diet and exercise", you might check into the facts.
Oh, and my mother was a type I diabetic, from age 10 onwards. Her diabetis was brought on by German Measles, as best as current medical science can tell. The immune system was thrown out of wack by the GM and attacked her pancreas. This is one method that can cause diabetis.
This sounds like a neat power source for nano-technology. Power the nanobots off the sugar in the bloodstream.
And some get entered just to remove sugar from the bloodstreams of diabetics. Where do I sign up for that? (I'm a type II diabetic already, this could stave off more drastic treatment for years.)
The same money could buy more desktop units, and could be used to teach the kids how to actually program.
I was taught that one needed to know the math before one could use the appropriate functions on the calculators or computers. This is a prime reason there are so many garbage "scientific" studies out there. Nobody recognizes the stats for the baloney they are.
>Let the man rest in peace. Did he approve of the editor? Did he have any input in to it since 1930?
What editor? If you read the top, it was published with only minor spelling corrections. This is similar to the tack that was taken with 2 other works after his death. They were re-published the way HE wrote them, not the way they were first published.
Spider Robinson was a friend of his, and if he has some say in the matter (he did one of the forwards for this book), then it ought to maintain some integrity.
Mark me down as optimistic until I get a chance to review it. Most of his "so-called" hack work is better then 90% of today's writers anyway.
I survived Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma myself. Doctors do not yet know what causes this disease. They only have a list of 7 possible causes, only one of which is hazardous chemicals.
And in my case, that was one cause that was totally eliminated, due to lack of exposure.
One the other causes listed was STRESS!
Ages younger than the US average - try 36 for me. But how about sitting next to a kid in the waiting room, who at 17 was one his second go round for cancer?
This sounds more like lawyers trolling for dollars again.
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Some of the things that spun off were part of the medical field and some were part of "life support" equipment. While unmanned will spin off some technology, manned will spin off much much more.
The spin off technologies will go back into high gear, as they did in the race to the moon. For every dollar spent in this process, 100$ of innovation will pump back into the American economy. Jobs will be created, and secondary jobs will spring up to support those.
The nays sayers have been around forever, and they are always proven wrong and shortsighted.
I for one would love to divert a large portion of my taxes (say the whole part that supports welfare for example) to the space program. At least then I would get some good for my money.
There are some state laws that prohibit using it for identification. Vermont springs to mind.
Also, the law you mention is not the one I was talking about. Private companies are not allowed to use it either. Having worked in payroll systems for several large corporations, where we have employees in many states, this stuff is all covered.
The flip side is that many people ignore the law anyway. And there does not seem to be much enforcement.
And it isn't a very good deal in some respects. For one thing, they post your credit report online for 1 month of every three for you to look at. What part of "there is no such thing as a secure website" do they not understand?
So, if you sign up for this severice, you pay them to make you more vulnerable in some respects.
Oh, and as for SSN being a universal identifier. It is against Federal Law to require the SSN in anything expect payroll transactions and banking transactions. When people ask for it, inform them that it is against the law to ask for it and make them give you another option.
http://www.theultimates.com/ has the 6 largest of these systems. There are others, and all of them run off the phone book eventually.
Why do we even need such systems? So far, I have found them to be nothing but trouble. Fortunately, when I moved I figured out in time that an unlisted number means you won't be in any of them. I have more or less dropped out of all of them.
Of the 6 major reverse phone number / online phone books, about 4 of them are co-operative about removing info. The other 2 take weeks / months / years to remove an entry, if they bother to do it at all.
For example, I tried to correct a bad entry for my mother-in-law for all 6 of the biggest ones starting 2 months ago. She moved, and went to an unlisted number in another state. I sent multiple e-mails to the ones who have YET to delete this bogus entry, based upon her husband's name (He died 30 years ago).
The biggest and worst offender? Yahoo. I also had trouble with correcting bogus information from the one of the credit services they own part of. They had "tagged" my home address as a business address. Apparently, I got some trade journels at home during that period and that meant that it was a business address. Therefore, I finally had to take it to a federal complaint to get them to change that "tagged" entry so that I could get report, so I could work on the other problems.
What started it? My Dad spent 5 months living with us while building his new house. They changed the entry for my home to my Dad and my wife's name.
So, the moral? None of the information tracked by so-called organizations working for us is worth anything, and in fact may come back to hurt you.
I also used to get calls for someone else with my name, but for the wrong area code. I guess he was a deadbeat and lived 30-40 miles away. When they split the area code, all his banks would look him up on the internet to find him and call me. Another reason I went to an unlisted number.
>I was hoping that the article would bring up the obvious answer, but it didn't quite reach it. The essence of fiction is that it is not real, and "science fiction" is supposed to take the idea a step further -- beyond real, if you like. To the unreachable, beyond what we consider possible.
Actually, today's author doesn't want to bother to research what science already understands as background for the story. By going with fantasy (swords and sorcery) they avoid all that work, and still get paid the same.
And you get to write the same plot over and over again. "Rescue the Prince(ss) from the GREAT EVIL".
Many people have genetic pre-disposition to diabetis. I'm one. Exercise will and does help, but the big problem is the trauma to my system (cancer) has caused some of my system to start to slow down. Net effect is diabetis.
My brother had part of his pancreas burned out, thus causing diabetis. This was much better than periodic temporary paralysis.
So, before you spout off on "diet and exercise", you might check into the facts.
Oh, and my mother was a type I diabetic, from age 10 onwards. Her diabetis was brought on by German Measles, as best as current medical science can tell. The immune system was thrown out of wack by the GM and attacked her pancreas. This is one method that can cause diabetis.
This sounds like a neat power source for nano-technology. Power the nanobots off the sugar in the bloodstream.
And some get entered just to remove sugar from the bloodstreams of diabetics. Where do I sign up for that? (I'm a type II diabetic already, this could stave off more drastic treatment for years.)
The same money could buy more desktop units, and could be used to teach the kids how to actually program.
I was taught that one needed to know the math before one could use the appropriate functions on the calculators or computers. This is a prime reason there are so many garbage "scientific" studies out there. Nobody recognizes the stats for the baloney they are.
>Let the man rest in peace. Did he approve of the editor? Did he have any input in to it since 1930?
What editor? If you read the top, it was published with only minor spelling corrections. This is similar to the tack that was taken with 2 other works after his death. They were re-published the way HE wrote them, not the way they were first published.
Spider Robinson was a friend of his, and if he has some say in the matter (he did one of the forwards for this book), then it ought to maintain some integrity.
Mark me down as optimistic until I get a chance to review it. Most of his "so-called" hack work is better then 90% of today's writers anyway.
I survived Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma myself. Doctors do not yet know what causes this disease. They only have a list of 7 possible causes, only one of which is hazardous chemicals.
And in my case, that was one cause that was totally eliminated, due to lack of exposure.
One the other causes listed was STRESS!
Ages younger than the US average - try 36 for me. But how about sitting next to a kid in the waiting room, who at 17 was one his second go round for cancer?
This sounds more like lawyers trolling for dollars again.
You miss the point of the article. This was a small scale test where only about 140? individuals data was entered.
If you ramp this up to a full system then the following happens:
1. The biometric data of MILLIONS of people has to be stored. This exceeds current capacities of available computers.
2. Response time will SUCK worse than current x-ray machine lines.
3. The false positive and false negative rates will soar with the addition of the other data to compare to.
Lets face it, this test failed MISERABLY. It is time to take our tax dollars elsewhere.