Sure, no problem. Glad to help, I have done American to British translation in the past for the UK military. I promise not to mess with you by going "Oh, you're one of THOSE. G'day mate!" The cringes are awesome.
Where do you draw the line between what is and isn't a firearm?
I do not. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives interprets US law and court decisions (case law) to express their opinion. In this case, the law is the following: Gun Control Act of 1968, 18 U.S.C. Section 921(a)(3), to include (A) any weapon (including a starter gun), which will, or is designed to or may readily be converted to expel a projectile by the action of an explosive; (B) the frame or receiver of any such weapon"
Does the 2nd Amendment allow (in your mind at least) a citizen to have a rocket launcher or a laser gun?
This is covered under the National Firearms Act of 1934. Rocket launchers are subject to a $200 tax, and are considered "Destructive Devices". See 26 U.S.C. 5845(f) for the specific definition. Short story long: Yep, rocket launchers are legal but any "fun" munition is also a separate DD and requires paperwork at $200 per. Chalk, flare, smoke or solid shot are not DD.
Laser or energy state weapons are not firearms unless powdered by explosives or propellant. So, laser guns are legal except you're not allowed to use them against aircraft.
What are you going to do when the technology of simple side arms develops to the point where you an take out a room full of people by pressing a trigger and letting you gun do all the aiming etc..?
It's called a "pipe bomb" or "grenade" (claymores, shotguns, punt guns, etc), and we've been dealing with them for a while. You may think I am being sarcastic or disingenuous, which is not the case. We already have the capacity of doing so. This is more high tech and more expensive. Tossing a frag grenade into a room kills a room just as dead as aimbotting a 5.56 round individually into every person's skull. It's just evolving tech, but not revolutionary.
Half of my former employers asked me about contracting. Some said no way when I told them my rates, others I told "no" due to various reasons. I still do consulting at one place, years later. Down to a couple hours, the new guy they hired is pretty decent. They toss me some hours when he's out of town or on vacation.
Out of curiosity, did you do a similar study for age?
Say, 0.08 BAC is equivilent to the average reaction times of a person X years old? 0.05 equals Y? etc etc. I'd be deeply curious to the results.
Ahh... Wow. I'm surprisingly at a lack of words for describing the wrongness in your comments. When I was in the Balkans, I had to deal with folks that committed rapes against civilians of opposite ethnic groups for psychological warfare purposes. Mind you, these people (on multiple sides) were pro genocide, and they knew what they were doing was wrong and psychologically traumatizing.
You are entitled to your opinion. But please do realize that the existence of your opinion completely explains why self-defense is a human right. If it needed justification, which it doesn't, that'd provide it. And that in practical terms, folks should have the opinion of owning and carrying firearms. Ideally with training and whatnot.
In theory, you are wrong. The USA is technically a constitutional republic. The notion is that a majority cannot vote away the rights of the majority, with a constitutional amendment. First there is a two-thirds majority vote in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, then three-fourths of the States (38 of 50 States) must approve it. Short of this, Constitutional rights (such a free speech, firearms, habeas corpus, etc) cannot be overruled. Theoretically, tiniest minority that could overrule the majority would be the thirteen least populous states, which make up 4.98% of the total population. So, you're close. Worst (or best) case, you'd need at least a maximum of 95.02% of the population to remove a constitutional right if folks wanted to really make a hash of things.
Reality is, they can and do infringe on pretty much all rights to various degrees. For instance, felons are deprived of many fundamental rights.
US military fatalities are pretty low. The reality of military life is a lot different than left or right wing fantasies, and generally pretty boring to the average person 99% of the time. 1% of the time, it does get pretty exciting. This will sound dorky, but it has a lot of truth in it. If you're smart, motivated, etc you can learn a lot on or off the books. You get out of it what you want to, if you're willing to put in the work. Pretty much like college.
There's not much cannon fodder left in the US military. Even infantry is pretty geared up these days, and not interested in unnecessary fatalities. Too much so at times. Too many commanders are too risk adverse, and it is hindering getting things accomplished.
Think a car enthusiast would cry if a beautifully restored muscle car was slagged to buy a Ford Focus during that whole "Cash for Clunkers" thing? That a craftsman would cry if he heard of a spouse selling tens of thousands of dollars worth of tools for a pittance?
Some enterprising folks DO set up shop outside those gun buyback programs and rescue the good weapons. Gun buy-backs are just good ways of disposing of junk or evidence.
You assume designers are handy with code. Most are not.
That said, I'd want a designer to make my stuff look pretty. My natural inclination is more towards the functional and sturdy. Er, hence the disconnect
How could storing energy in batteries be anything like a "smart grid"? Storing energy in batteries is expensive and inefficient, and likely will always be barring some changes in current knowledge of materials science. We do it, because we want something to be off-grid and are willing to pay the price for it. Cell phones are a fairly good example.
A true "smart grid" is merely a power grid where folks controlling it have a good picture of where power is being generated, where it is ending up and how it gets there. Information and control, not the medium. I'd be happier with the regional reliability entities were autonomous, and split into Western and Eastern Interconnection. Tres Amigas will help this along.
I'm the "company admin" guy, and I want my own walled off corporate section.
We went BYOD, which has made everyone happier. Users never like whatever we choose (except for the blessed "I don't care" folks). Blackberries are the best, easiest to manage and most secure. And no one, including I, wants them. They were the only phones designed for security and enterprise environments. Android and iOS have corporate stuff bolted on afterwards, and it shows.
Yay for the environment. Lot more CO2 production and more radiation, but it's not as scary to folks without an engineering background! And that's what matters! I would have said "scientists", but I've met too many scientists (that did actual science, instead of fuzzy 'soft' sciences!) that were hugely ideological. Engineers tend to have a better grasp on reality. But uh, a special grasp. But they also tend to fossilize with age... Ah, crap, never mind.
Energy storage drives up the cost significantly. It drives up the complexity and "stuff that will break" even more. Batteries do not last forever, and they don't replace themselves. Battery packs have always existed, because most early solar usage was off-grid.
As for the other part, I'd ask India about that. I still think we'd be better off subsidizing thorium research than "green" research, grants, etc. More likely to pay off on the long haul (of centuries, not decades) and do more for the environment.
Zero Tolerance means zero intelligence. Circumstances are always different. Thanks to our wonderful school and legal systems, there's less discretion. The bad and good part of discretion is bias. A straight-A good kid will be given the benefit of a doubt over a kid that has a reputation for being a troublemaker. On one hand, it's possibly a good rule of thumb... but it can lead to folks getting railroaded unfairly.
The "solution" then is to treat EVERYONE badly. I'm not that old, and my school had a policy of "both kids in a fight get punished." Didn't matter if you got jumped for being a geek with pacifist philosophy. OTOH, it was a learning experience about bureaucracy, government and pacifism. I dumped the pacifism, and the next kid that jumped me, I earned every ounce of my administrative punishment because I had no incentive NOT to do so. Zero tolerance and "everyone involved is equally guilty" is bunk, and a bad idea.
They are not immune from regular consumer law suits.
They are immune from being sued for usage of their products. If you get shot, it is the responsibility of the person using it. Ford isn't responsible for every DUI involving one of their products.
Bet you a dollar that only a fraction of police officers would want one. Even if it was statistically safer with a 1% failure rate.
And the 25% sounds incorrect. Thus far for 2013, Detective Eric Smith (Jackson Police Department, Mississippi) is the only officer killed by gunfire with his own weapon.
I've fired hundreds of thousands of rounds through various belt fed MGs, when I was doing instructing duties with NATO militaries. It's not unrealistic as an edge case. Barrels are a consumable part with a well designed automatic weapon. If they're not, it's a bad design or not intended for serious usage. Will the average firearm see hundreds of thousands? Na.
Will some poor firearm be the range beater? Ayep. Also, you have to take life shortening factors into account. Firearms should be built to tolerate environmental concerns (heat, water, etc), abrasion, etc.
I don't trust many electronics to handle that. I've seen plenty of vehicle electronics fail under those circumstances, despite being generally covered or theoretically sealed. Make police carry it for two decades, and I'll start to consider testing it. That's not unusual. M16 is near 50 years old. M1911 is over a century and very popular.
Folks tend to starve because a) someone is stopping the food from getting to them or b) no one wants to go to where the folks are starving. Lack of food is rarely the issue.
Most agriculture, by tonnage, is done by machine. The simple combine harvester being the main machine. You don't have folks threshing by hand anymore.
But yes, some areas of agriculture are heavily dependent on illegal labor. Which makes one wonder why it's so hard to crack down on illegal immigration. There are obvious industries to investigate.
Now that is really not bright. If I was in a financial company, I'd want my IT folks nearby. If for no other reason than being able to call the police if they did anything illegal. A company I did contract work for found out their PCI compliance consultant wasn't answering his phone because he was in jail for fraud.
They were not amused when I mentioned that such things should be in the DR plan and project management.
As someone will point out, early automation (think looms) displaced workers. Things shifted around, and they did find jobs. "Things will work out" is a nice long term solution, but not something folks want to hear in the short term. I hear a lot of folks (here in the US, but also in Europe) say "We're shipping our industrial base to Asia!" While true to an extent, I remind folks that a LOT of things are manufactured here in America.
Thanks to automation, more and more is being created by fewer and fewer folks. This will cause social upheaval. I have enough faith in humanity that we'll work through it. We always do. But it will be a bumpy ride, with no perfect answers.
Not really. Defense is 17.7% of FY 13 Federal budget. We borrow roughly half of the money we spend. So, if you cut every single defense program (including things like GPS), you'd still have a shortfall of 32.3%. Give or take.
Not saying we couldn't trim the DoD. Just saying it's not a wonder cure.
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I live near Gettysburg. Lot of folks around here do privately own cannon.
Sure, no problem. Glad to help, I have done American to British translation in the past for the UK military. I promise not to mess with you by going "Oh, you're one of THOSE. G'day mate!" The cringes are awesome.
Where do you draw the line between what is and isn't a firearm? I do not. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives interprets US law and court decisions (case law) to express their opinion. In this case, the law is the following: Gun Control Act of 1968, 18 U.S.C. Section 921(a)(3), to include (A) any weapon (including a starter gun), which will, or is designed to or may readily be converted to expel a projectile by the action of an explosive; (B) the frame or receiver of any such weapon"
Does the 2nd Amendment allow (in your mind at least) a citizen to have a rocket launcher or a laser gun? This is covered under the National Firearms Act of 1934. Rocket launchers are subject to a $200 tax, and are considered "Destructive Devices". See 26 U.S.C. 5845(f) for the specific definition. Short story long: Yep, rocket launchers are legal but any "fun" munition is also a separate DD and requires paperwork at $200 per. Chalk, flare, smoke or solid shot are not DD.
Laser or energy state weapons are not firearms unless powdered by explosives or propellant. So, laser guns are legal except you're not allowed to use them against aircraft.
What are you going to do when the technology of simple side arms develops to the point where you an take out a room full of people by pressing a trigger and letting you gun do all the aiming etc..? It's called a "pipe bomb" or "grenade" (claymores, shotguns, punt guns, etc), and we've been dealing with them for a while. You may think I am being sarcastic or disingenuous, which is not the case. We already have the capacity of doing so. This is more high tech and more expensive. Tossing a frag grenade into a room kills a room just as dead as aimbotting a 5.56 round individually into every person's skull. It's just evolving tech, but not revolutionary.
Anything else?
*raises hand*
Half of my former employers asked me about contracting. Some said no way when I told them my rates, others I told "no" due to various reasons. I still do consulting at one place, years later. Down to a couple hours, the new guy they hired is pretty decent. They toss me some hours when he's out of town or on vacation.
Out of curiosity, did you do a similar study for age? Say, 0.08 BAC is equivilent to the average reaction times of a person X years old? 0.05 equals Y? etc etc. I'd be deeply curious to the results.
Ahh... Wow. I'm surprisingly at a lack of words for describing the wrongness in your comments. When I was in the Balkans, I had to deal with folks that committed rapes against civilians of opposite ethnic groups for psychological warfare purposes. Mind you, these people (on multiple sides) were pro genocide, and they knew what they were doing was wrong and psychologically traumatizing.
You are entitled to your opinion. But please do realize that the existence of your opinion completely explains why self-defense is a human right. If it needed justification, which it doesn't, that'd provide it. And that in practical terms, folks should have the opinion of owning and carrying firearms. Ideally with training and whatnot.
Also, rape does not happen solely to women.
In theory, you are wrong. The USA is technically a constitutional republic. The notion is that a majority cannot vote away the rights of the majority, with a constitutional amendment. First there is a two-thirds majority vote in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, then three-fourths of the States (38 of 50 States) must approve it. Short of this, Constitutional rights (such a free speech, firearms, habeas corpus, etc) cannot be overruled. Theoretically, tiniest minority that could overrule the majority would be the thirteen least populous states, which make up 4.98% of the total population. So, you're close. Worst (or best) case, you'd need at least a maximum of 95.02% of the population to remove a constitutional right if folks wanted to really make a hash of things.
Reality is, they can and do infringe on pretty much all rights to various degrees. For instance, felons are deprived of many fundamental rights.
US military fatalities are pretty low. The reality of military life is a lot different than left or right wing fantasies, and generally pretty boring to the average person 99% of the time. 1% of the time, it does get pretty exciting. This will sound dorky, but it has a lot of truth in it. If you're smart, motivated, etc you can learn a lot on or off the books. You get out of it what you want to, if you're willing to put in the work. Pretty much like college.
There's not much cannon fodder left in the US military. Even infantry is pretty geared up these days, and not interested in unnecessary fatalities. Too much so at times. Too many commanders are too risk adverse, and it is hindering getting things accomplished.
Think a car enthusiast would cry if a beautifully restored muscle car was slagged to buy a Ford Focus during that whole "Cash for Clunkers" thing? That a craftsman would cry if he heard of a spouse selling tens of thousands of dollars worth of tools for a pittance?
Some enterprising folks DO set up shop outside those gun buyback programs and rescue the good weapons. Gun buy-backs are just good ways of disposing of junk or evidence.
You assume designers are handy with code. Most are not.
That said, I'd want a designer to make my stuff look pretty. My natural inclination is more towards the functional and sturdy. Er, hence the disconnect
How could storing energy in batteries be anything like a "smart grid"? Storing energy in batteries is expensive and inefficient, and likely will always be barring some changes in current knowledge of materials science. We do it, because we want something to be off-grid and are willing to pay the price for it. Cell phones are a fairly good example.
A true "smart grid" is merely a power grid where folks controlling it have a good picture of where power is being generated, where it is ending up and how it gets there. Information and control, not the medium. I'd be happier with the regional reliability entities were autonomous, and split into Western and Eastern Interconnection. Tres Amigas will help this along.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NERC-map-en.svg
Eh, pretty much, but they're popular. Overall, I'm not overly impressed with SANs in general for their price.
I'm the "company admin" guy, and I want my own walled off corporate section.
We went BYOD, which has made everyone happier. Users never like whatever we choose (except for the blessed "I don't care" folks). Blackberries are the best, easiest to manage and most secure. And no one, including I, wants them. They were the only phones designed for security and enterprise environments. Android and iOS have corporate stuff bolted on afterwards, and it shows.
Yay for the environment. Lot more CO2 production and more radiation, but it's not as scary to folks without an engineering background! And that's what matters! I would have said "scientists", but I've met too many scientists (that did actual science, instead of fuzzy 'soft' sciences!) that were hugely ideological. Engineers tend to have a better grasp on reality. But uh, a special grasp. But they also tend to fossilize with age... Ah, crap, never mind.
Energy storage drives up the cost significantly. It drives up the complexity and "stuff that will break" even more. Batteries do not last forever, and they don't replace themselves. Battery packs have always existed, because most early solar usage was off-grid.
As for the other part, I'd ask India about that. I still think we'd be better off subsidizing thorium research than "green" research, grants, etc. More likely to pay off on the long haul (of centuries, not decades) and do more for the environment.
I always liked PHP, but I'm an infrastructure guy who only uses PHP for relatively minor stuff. Something doesn't need to be perfect to be useful.
Please don't burn me, I don't weigh the same as a duck...
Zero Tolerance means zero intelligence. Circumstances are always different. Thanks to our wonderful school and legal systems, there's less discretion. The bad and good part of discretion is bias. A straight-A good kid will be given the benefit of a doubt over a kid that has a reputation for being a troublemaker. On one hand, it's possibly a good rule of thumb... but it can lead to folks getting railroaded unfairly.
The "solution" then is to treat EVERYONE badly. I'm not that old, and my school had a policy of "both kids in a fight get punished." Didn't matter if you got jumped for being a geek with pacifist philosophy. OTOH, it was a learning experience about bureaucracy, government and pacifism. I dumped the pacifism, and the next kid that jumped me, I earned every ounce of my administrative punishment because I had no incentive NOT to do so. Zero tolerance and "everyone involved is equally guilty" is bunk, and a bad idea.
They are not immune from regular consumer law suits.
They are immune from being sued for usage of their products. If you get shot, it is the responsibility of the person using it. Ford isn't responsible for every DUI involving one of their products.
Sir, you are at least honest. My hats off to you.
Bet you a dollar that only a fraction of police officers would want one. Even if it was statistically safer with a 1% failure rate.
And the 25% sounds incorrect. Thus far for 2013, Detective Eric Smith (Jackson Police Department, Mississippi) is the only officer killed by gunfire with his own weapon.
http://www.odmp.org/search?cause=Gunfire&from=2013&to=2013
I've fired hundreds of thousands of rounds through various belt fed MGs, when I was doing instructing duties with NATO militaries. It's not unrealistic as an edge case. Barrels are a consumable part with a well designed automatic weapon. If they're not, it's a bad design or not intended for serious usage. Will the average firearm see hundreds of thousands? Na.
Will some poor firearm be the range beater? Ayep. Also, you have to take life shortening factors into account. Firearms should be built to tolerate environmental concerns (heat, water, etc), abrasion, etc.
I don't trust many electronics to handle that. I've seen plenty of vehicle electronics fail under those circumstances, despite being generally covered or theoretically sealed. Make police carry it for two decades, and I'll start to consider testing it. That's not unusual. M16 is near 50 years old. M1911 is over a century and very popular.
Folks tend to starve because a) someone is stopping the food from getting to them or b) no one wants to go to where the folks are starving. Lack of food is rarely the issue.
Most agriculture, by tonnage, is done by machine. The simple combine harvester being the main machine. You don't have folks threshing by hand anymore.
But yes, some areas of agriculture are heavily dependent on illegal labor. Which makes one wonder why it's so hard to crack down on illegal immigration. There are obvious industries to investigate.
Now that is really not bright. If I was in a financial company, I'd want my IT folks nearby. If for no other reason than being able to call the police if they did anything illegal. A company I did contract work for found out their PCI compliance consultant wasn't answering his phone because he was in jail for fraud.
They were not amused when I mentioned that such things should be in the DR plan and project management.
As someone will point out, early automation (think looms) displaced workers. Things shifted around, and they did find jobs. "Things will work out" is a nice long term solution, but not something folks want to hear in the short term. I hear a lot of folks (here in the US, but also in Europe) say "We're shipping our industrial base to Asia!" While true to an extent, I remind folks that a LOT of things are manufactured here in America.
Thanks to automation, more and more is being created by fewer and fewer folks. This will cause social upheaval. I have enough faith in humanity that we'll work through it. We always do. But it will be a bumpy ride, with no perfect answers.
Not really. Defense is 17.7% of FY 13 Federal budget. We borrow roughly half of the money we spend. So, if you cut every single defense program (including things like GPS), you'd still have a shortfall of 32.3%. Give or take.
Not saying we couldn't trim the DoD. Just saying it's not a wonder cure.