You have to show why the adjustments that were made are inappropriate in order to discredit it.
That was made fairly clear from the leaked CRU emails. There is an agenda at work that has nothing to do with climate.
As far as "economy wrecking" goes, most studies I've seen say at most the economy takes a 1-2% hit to respond to climate change.
The cap-and trade bill, as one example, would definitely do much more damage than 1-2%. Obama himself stated that electricity prices under cap-and-trade would "necessarily skyrocket". This means that every business would incur much higher costs at a time when we are already suffering because the prices our businesses and industries must charge has already been inflated due to high labor, regulation compliance, and tax costs to name but a few compared to other nations with whom we compete.
Climate science in most of its aspects is well beyond infancy.
It *is* well beyond infancy, as we are at the "toddler" point where we have gained just enough knowledge to be dangerous to ourselves through only fractional knowledge concerning our planetary climate system. We by no means have sufficient knowledge to be capable of making any significant changes with any certainty of the results, or even if any changes are warranted. Experimenting on the climate of the only planet we inhabit without knowing with great certainty what we're doing is a recipe for disaster.
The amount of CO2 conservation necessary to make any meaningful change is orders of magnitude beyond what has been proposed. Even taking the most drastic CO2 reduction steps that have been proposed have been calculated to only reduce the rate of increase by a tenth of a degree over the next 100 years.
The other problem is that all this requires participation by the other nations with large CO2 footprints, namely India and China who have absolutely *no* intention of crippling their emerging economies.
Altogether, this indicates to me that climate science needs to further mature before any serious economy- and international trade-crippling measures are undertaken.
If you look at the NASA/GISS data which does a better job of accounting for the polar regions the warming during the period in question was statistically significant.
Only problem here is that there's been controversy over NASA's data having been "massaged" as well, so one set of questionable data cannot prove or disprove another.
I'm not against taking some steps to reduce pollution overall, but the whole idea that CO2 is a "pollutant" is just idiotic on it's face, and with the climate science still in it's infancy as far as mankinds' ability to fully understand a planet-wide long term climate system, it simply flies in the face of logic to talk of drastic economy-wrecking, people-killing measures being taken to "correct" a problem that *nobody* can be reasonably sure even exists, or that those corrective measures will have the desired effect.
In the final analysis, it will raise the school taxes (by requiring issue of a new bond) levied on all citizens, in order to pay out to the parents whose children attend. As such, it will be yet ANOTHER transfer of wealth from non-parents to parents.
I don't know how it would work there but here all bonds for the schools have to be voted on. So that would never pass as a way to pay it off.
They'd probably attempt to pay out all they have in their coffers for operations, maintenance, etc and then hold the childrens' further schooling hostage to passing a bond initiative as all the districts' funds to keep the school open & functioning would be exhausted.
Whenever a monetary penalty is assessed against any branch, department, or division of any level of government from townships to the federal level it is ALWAYS taxpayers who pay, as government has no money. All government has is OUR money. Fining the government is fining yourself.
Serious state and federal criminal felony charges against the individuals responsible for the policies and actions is the only realistic option that doesn't force citizens to pay for the governments' financial liabilities in the case of any fine or settlement against the government being assessed or adjudicated.
Passing more laws is redundant as there are already laws making these actions illegal just as with "hate crime" laws, but be prepared as politicians will almost certainly react by introducing yet another set of laws as a cover for government wrongdoing and to provide a campaign-ad "Look, I did something and my opponent doesn't care about the children!" video clip talking-point.
...even then I couldn't play the game, bombing out with a nondescript securom error message. Turned out it considers sysinternals' Process Explorer a "dangerous thing to have running" - like, wtf?
Just wait for V2.0!
SecuRomV2.0 Error: SecuRom has detected your OS is fully-patched and up to date, you have a properly-configured firewall & antivirus, and your OS appears to be free of malware/spyware. You obviously are far too competent at computer administration to be allowed to run this game as you present a high piracy risk. Please downgrade your computer-related knowledge & abilities and re-install.
Not to start a flamewar or anything. But I can imagine that with all the substance abuse Bush jr. did when he was younger, I can imagine it could've had certain effects on the workings of his brain..
For what it's worth, moderate cocaine use hasn't to my knowledge been commonly associated with long-term negative effects upon cognition or memory, but we recently had a president that "didn't inhale" marijuana, which has widely-known long-term negative effects upon memory and cognition, and that president was considered rather "cool" by most people because he had smoked pot.
Probably about 10-20 years of declines in GLOBAL MEAN TEMPERATURE would disprove the global warming/CO2 theory. Unfortunately, for the climate change deniers, not to mention most of the rest of us, there is a vanishingly small probability of that happening, considering that most of the highest GLOBAL MEAN TEMPERATURES have been recorded in the past decade and CO2 production continues to increase each year.
So Phil Jones (former head of the CRU) stating to the BBC that there has been no statistically-significant warming since 1995 was a lie?
"A.J, Strata: "So what have we learned since climategate? We have learned that the current warm period is not only stalled but has been cooling. We have learned that statistically it is no warmer now than a 7o years ago, before the huge increase in human CO2 production. And thanks to Dr Phil Jones finally being honest about the science, we know there is no scientific proof today is any warmer than the two previous warm periods (Medieval and Roman) that have been established science for a couple hundred years now."
Whatever the truth of GW/CC, because of the ideologues (including the climate researchers themselves) involved on both sides we will now likely never know the truth until many decades, possibly centuries, from now as the science, scientists, and the datasets have all been politicized and "massaged" to fit particular political agendas to the point that the original data has been deleted and cannot be re-measured as time travel is not (yet?) possible.
If you want to blame someone for GW/CC "denialism", look no farther than the climate scientists that unquestionably allowed ideology to frame their research and its' results.
Not to pick sides in this democrat vs republican thing you've got going here, but your previous, republican, president wasn't exactly the epitome of intelligence... yet the democrats are supposedly the stupid ones? ok.
Yes, because everyone who matters just automatically knows that nearly all Conservatives are uneducated buffoons "clinging to their guns and religion" and anyone who believes otherwise can simply be dismissed as "unenlightened", right?
GW was many things, a good portion of which I disliked, but unintelligent/stupid is NOT one of them. Even if we were to discount the fact that GW graduated from an Ivy-League school, as it's possible that he somehow bought his degree, there is one thing that absolutely puts the lie to the "stupid bumpkin" label the left has repeatedly tried to attach to GW; he flew a military jet in the '70s and didn't crash & burn.
Whatever claims one may make about GW, he was NOT stupid, slow, or unintelligent. One did not pilot a '70s-era military jet fighter and survive even doing touch-and-goes in peacetime unless one was significantly above-average in intelligence with an above-average ability to make correct, rapid, multiple concurrent decisions in real-time using rapidly-changing data. Quick reflexes alone are not even close to being enough.
Of course it's much easier to label someone you disagree with as a dolt and dismiss them out-of-hand than it is to debate the factual merits of an argument, particularly when the facts don't align with the detractor's point of view. We see the same tactic being played out in the lame-stream media regarding the former Governor of Alaska and the Tea Party participants.
Whenever someone starts in with the "Bush is stupid", "Palin is stupid" or "Tea-Party participants are stupid" memes, I know I can safely dismiss anything further they may say as they're rabidly partisan and won't let facts get in the way of their opinions.
Yes, indeed! Let's dry out any kind of outlet for those freaks! Once they wont be able to get off from something besides the real deal, they are bound to stop and suddenly turn into normal, heterosexual human beings.
Right? Right?!
[sarcasm] See, you just don't understand the government's logic.
Once you've eliminated any other outlet for deviant desires other than damaging and traumatizing children they'll be forced to reveal themselves through said unspeakable acts, then all authorities need to do is just look for large groups of irreparably-damaged children to flag a pedo's existence & location so they may be locked up at taxpayers' expense!
It's a perfect plan other than some collateral damage to innocent children, but then the demand for large numbers of pediatric therapists and prison workers will help keep the unemployment numbers low and the politicians' "unlike my pedo-loving opponent, I thought of the children!!!1one" factor high for the upcoming elections as well as provide a convenient excuse for raising taxes to pay for more police, prisons, and pediatric emotional-trauma treatment centers.
Win-win! [/sarcasm]
I tagged this sarcasm, but I'm afraid that it's frighteningly-close to the truth.
To anyone that seriously believes that it's ok to do extreme economic damage to the US' and other Western nations' economies when many if not most Western economies are near the brink of collapse anyways, not to mention cause untold suffering and death particularly among the poorest people, based on corrupt datasets, questionable models, and ideologically- and economically-driven scientists and politicians that have a stake in promoting "climate change" I say;
If you want to do that, well, we've got a lot of people to hang, because pretty much everything presidents have done since 1947 has been unconstitutional, starting with executive orders founding the national security agencies, to executive orders themselves, to the rampant classification of documents used as a CYA tool.
You have to go farther back than 1947. Start with Lincoln and his actions surrounding the Civil War, then Wilson and all the "New Deal" Progressive stuff including most everything from the "New Society". Pretty much everything the Progressives/Liberals have done, tried to do, or want to do would qualify too.
That's the meaning behind the "Progressive" name, they wish to "progress" PAST the Constitution. They view the Constitution as an obstacle to their agenda and have been the main force behind the incremental movement of our nation away from the Constitution and Constitutional principles since the early 1900's.
I guess this means that Progressives like Obama, Hillary, Pelosi, Reid, and even GW and McCain, must now register in S. Carolina. So would everyone at any of the many Progressive think-tanks and organizations funded by the foreigner George Soros.
I consider Glen Beck obscene. Can I sue him for allowing his filth (aka his ideas) to be distributed to all media outlets?
I would seriously consider giving up porn if I could get Glen Beck taken off the air.;p
[sarcasm] Yes, how dare someone in the media make statements of fact, play back politicians' own words, expose where history has been re-written, and ask questions that haven't been authorized by the White House, Congress, George Soros, the ACLU, and MediaMatters?
Sheeple are too stupid to know what's best for them, especially what information is best for them, and these kinds of radical thoughts those dirty old white men with slaves (the founders) had back then along with unauthorized facts & questions competing with government-approved opinions & viewpoints might cause confusion and even depression among the dimwitted citizens which will need to be treated with anti-depressants.
Which, of course, means talk radio, the Tea Parties, Sarah Palin, and Fox News are all at least partially responsible for the rising cost of health care in the US along with climate change! They also probably club baby seals for fun.
The only reason it is actually gaining traction now is because finally there are people in enough key positions (like the presidency) who don't just care about themselves and their financial backers to actually try and get something that benefits ALL Americans passed into the law - even if it means taking on a very powerful lobbying group (the insurance companies).
If you actually, really, *truly* believe that the President, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, or their supporters/bosses such as the powerful unions, big finance, and George Soros deeply cares about anything other than themselves, their Progressive ideology, and their own pursuit of power & wealth first and foremost, I just don't know what to tell you.
This is one reason why the writers of the Constitution wanted most power centered in the States, putting government and those it governs close, with only a very limited Federal government. That way a bad local politician will be quickly voted out by the locals that see problems up close and have an immediate stake in the outcome, and bad Federal officeholders have limited powers to screw things up for everybody.
Sadly, it seems the US is abandoning the Democratic Republic model in favor of a centralized, top-down, command-and-control national government that holds all real power. This gradual transition has been argued to be, if one had to pick a single cause, the biggest reason the US is not the "shining city on the hill" it once was, and why arrogance & corruption abounds openly in Washington D.C.
IMHO the real, underlying reason that America has, over the last ~5 decades, increasingly been looked at by other nations & peoples with disdain, contempt, and derision is that these changes as a nation have slowly morphed the US from being admired and feared/respected like John Wayne to becoming more like the cowardly, backstabbing, greedy little worm Golem.
It all boils down to who is really in charge; the people or those in government.
If you think people are generally stupid and incapable of making the "right" choices for themselves, then you likely favor a strong central government that operates in a command-and-control manner.
I think people generally get it right most of the time, at least more often than the average political hacks do, so I prefer a much smaller and more limited Federal government. At least that way, if one state's laws, rules, taxes, regulations, etc for some reason becomes intolerable, I can vote with my feet and move to another state that does things differently.
It's not any less fair than me being able to afford a better car or fancier education than someone else.
You make some interesting and thoughtful points. Thanks. The part I quoted above many would regard as something that should be fixed, but not by raising up those below, but by penalizing those who have managed to do well. I think they're calling it "economic justice" these days. We used to call it plain old socialism, just as Marxists became Progressives who then became Liberals (I may have the exact name-change order or number wrong) and who are now switching back to the Progressive tag.
Same failed ideas, just a different label for a different era to avoid being connected in the public's' mind to the past failures of the same ideology.
Snip:...maybe we can't do any better and be prepared to live with compromise.
We absolutely *can* do better, it will just take people actually voting the current incumbents out and if the replacements don't get it, vote them out too until we get some people in office that do get it. I have my doubts that enough people care enough after years of encouraged apathy, class-warfare, and group-think coupled with the dumbing-down of the populace.
Yeah! Our current system is so much better than the crappy health care in Japan, Sweden, Great Britain, Canada and basically the rest of the civilized world! Also because of socialized health care, all those for'n countries have mandatory gym memberships and shoot people for being fat! And because those for'ners allowed gays in their military, they had to reinstate the draft! [scienceblogs.com]
We should keep on doing exactly what we're doing, only more because it's working so well already!
Or, you know, we could learn what works from other countries that have done it already.
Wow, strawman, much? Please point out where I said that what we have now is the only other option.
I've yet to hear *anyone* make a convincing argument as to *why* the *whole system* must be scrapped and rebuilt, or even what in the Constitution gives the federal government the power to do these things.
We are not France, Sweden, Norway, Germany, Canada, etc. We have a different system of government and social framework here that has made America a superpower and given our citizens the most personal liberty along with the highest standard of living on the planet.
If you'd like a different form of government, feel free to support amending the Constitution. Don't try to make end-runs around the core document of our nation, even if you feel that "the people" aren't intelligent or "Progressive" enough to make the "right" choices.
If all these countries' healthcare systems are so good, why do those who want the best care in the world, delivered in a timely manner, come to America if our healthcare is so bad?
Otherwise too many people fail to make provisions for the inevitable, and then fall back on the rest of us.
See, that's where it gets dicey. Once you start down the path to limiting individual choices and freedoms for "the good of society", things just can't end well when you figure in every government's natural tendency to expand in size and scope while removing ever-more individual freedom.
Just how much individual choice/freedom sacrificed for the "greater good" is too much? Since bad health costs more, and diet is so important, will the government mandate government-healthcare-prescribed daily diets? How about exercise? Mandatory exercise/gym membership? Traffic fines for going out in the cold without your scarf?
Some lifestyles, sports, hobbies, etc could have a huge impact on an individuals' healthcare costs, so might they be regulated too?
I just think America can reduce healthcare costs and take care of those without insurance without a 2,000-page purely one-party bill put together in secret backroom deals attempting to completely restructure ~20% of the US economy and having the government intruding even more on individual freedom and choice while likely actually increasing healthcare costs and the national debt with a new entitlement, reducing quality-of-care, still not insuring everybody, and not even addressing tort reform.
Just a question, how many people posting (or reading) here have ever been, as a civilian, in a situation where a gun was necessary?
I'm one. No, I didn't kill anyone as the person that attempted to commit burglary at my residence was not foolish and complied with my commands, and was subsequently arrested & then convicted. The person in question had a crowbar (and also outweighed me by at least 50 pounds) so things might have turned out for the worse if I had not been armed.
There's much to be said for the psychological effect of hearing the sound of a 12ga pump shotgun being racked and then staring down that gigantic-looking muzzle on someone's willingness to peacefully cooperate.:)
Seriously? I don't like people dying. I really don't like people dying of easily preventable causes. I hate people dying in hospitals of easily preventable causes because they aren't millionaires. I couldn't care less about what you want to do with your life, if you're doing ok, but if you use "I'm alright" as an answer to "Why are you letting all these people die?" then you are morally reprehensible. If you are just happy to have people die through lack of money in the richest country in the world when much poorer countries do much better, then that's fine.
Sorry for the demise of your strawman, but there aren't masses of people dying because they don't have money. You can even be an illegal alien with zero money and no identification and still walk into any ER in any US hospital and receive world-class healthcare.
Your country and its citizens dare to lecture China on human rights when you don't recognise the International Criminal Courts
I'm sorry your country is so bad that you need an extra-national court to prosecute your own citizens. The ICC is nothing but a modern version of The Spanish Inquisition. It's purely political.
you hold unnamed suspects with no evidence and no charges against them for unlimited amounts of time with no access to legal representation
European countries do the same to combatants captured on the battlefield, as I don't recall German soldiers captured by European allies in WW1 or WW2 being tried & prosecuted by civilian courts.
The Geneva Convention even specifies the status of non-uniformed combatants; they have no rights and may be executed on the spot. I'd say in light of that, Guantanamo detainees have been treated with far more compassion than they legally deserve. After a thorough no-holds-barred interrogation, when I was certain they were of no more intelligence value, all I'd give them is a blindfold and a cigarette.
You invade sovereign nations in the name of regime change. You defend these invasions with the words freedom and liberty, and yet have no care for the millions dying in far worse regimes throughout Africa and Asia.
Well, even the USA has limits on how much we spread our military at any one time. We'll get around to those others soon enough. We have to prioritize our actions to do the most good for ourselves and our survival first, the other stuff comes second just as it does to every single other nation. We at least do tend to actually leave the countries we invade, and leave them only after spending much of our resources rebuilding them. Unlike the history of Europe where conquest has been the way for centuries.
Our school systems get more and more like yours, even though our schools have always turned out smarter kids. Nationalised public services start being seen as some left-wing ideal, rather than centrist and part-of-the-basic-ideals-of-the-free-market.
This is a problem that faces both the EU and the USA; the Progressive movement. The EU is firmly in the hands of Progressives, and they are currently attempting to co-op the US Democrat party. Notice how so many leaders and politicians these days hold to Progressive ideals, Hillary and Barack stating so proudly and publicly? They aren't Democrats, they are Progressives, an ideology that can be described as "Socialism-Lite" or "Conservative Socialism". This is a bad thing, as it *always* fails and devolves into a Socialist or Communist totalitarian state.
The truth is that the venting you get on the interwebs is actually pretty mild compared with the venting you get at dinner parties, in pubs - basically wherever there aren't Americans, because you bastards are all so fscking nice.
No, you don't vent when Americans are around at dinner parties or pubs because the American(s) in question would punch you in the mouth and you'd have to wait too long for your national health system to give you dentures. And as long as we Americans can keep the radical-left Progressives on a short leash, we will conti
As well as the fact that a.45 makes large holes that let in a lot of air and let out a lot of blood.
Long story involving a friend back in the '70s with a Class 3 FFL, I ended up with a chance to fire a Thompson 1928 (among a number of other weapons that day) at a hanging wild-hog carcass that weighed around 200 lbs. The entry points were just a bit bigger than the bullet (.45 ACP FMJ) however the exit wounds were anywhere from 2-1/2"/3" up to about 6" or a bit more that I attribute to how the bullet happened to tumble.
The bottom line was the thing was a mess after 2 or 3 rounds, and after the 5th and 6th, there just wasn't much left to hit except chunks hanging together even using FMJ ammo. I asked about hollow-point and soft-nose ammo, but I was told the Thompsons (and many other MGs and SMGs, and even some semi-auto pistols) tend to experience jams and feed problems with non-jacketed ammo.
Personally, my home-defense weapon-of-choice is a 12ga pump shotgun like the Mossberg 500. The ability to choose the type of load makes it particularly suited to home-defense.
I keep 2 rounds of birdshot first, followed up with buckshot for the remaining rounds. At ranges of 25 feet or less as within a typical home or apartment, it doesn't much matter if the shell is birdshot or a slug, it will still put a 2"-3" hole in a person. Birdshot is far less likely to over-penetrate and/or penetrate walls/floors/ceilings possibly causing collateral damage to innocent bystanders.
If I've fired 2 rounds of birdshot and going for more, I then figure I must be in a firefight so it's buckshot and all bets are off as I'm fighting for survival.
While definitely cool, don't you need some kind of tactile feedback from the guitar strings to play it better? The same reason why there will always be use for mouse and keyboard too, to provide better control.
But since I'm not a real guitar player, this could be a fun thing to have (and probably easier to play than a real guitar)
I'm a long-time guitar player, and I have played around with "MIDI guitars" like the Rolands before, however they were actual guitars with sensors much like standard electric guitar pickups for sending data. Even those require a significant modification of normal playing technique, so I can imagine this will be even less like playing a standard guitar.
I'm also wondering how well a touch-screen will be able to respond in real time as it relates to speed and accuracy of the "string plucks". The other thing is that a lot of the character of the note depends on how a string is picked/plucked/hammered. I'm not sure how something like a "harmonic pinch" type pick attack could possibly be translated by a touch screen.
Those who find this interesting may also find "synthophones" or "wind controllers" fascinating. They are basically MIDI horns. Yamaha made one, the WX5 Windcontroller. There's also a fellow named Martin Hurni who I believe lives in Norway(?) that builds synthophone Hall-effect sensors and circuitry into saxophones.
Here are a couple links to some synthophone/windcontroller information and some video from Bob Hunt, a good friend and top-notch fellow musician I've played onstage with for the last few years:
... you will suddenly realise that the great majority is a whole heap of actually necessary small things that add up.
It may look that way at first, but most of those "necessary" things weren't even invented until the last century or so, and society managed to work just fine without them. Perhaps they aren't really so necessary after all?
Well said! And after we throw the fat cats out of washington, we can rid the world once and for all of computers, hula hoops, and fax machines!
I'd be in favor of a Federal Department of Hula-Hoops, as long as either or both the Department of Education and/or the Federal Reserve were abolished. The former would do far more actual good than either of the latter, and cost far less.
Snip:...and there were probably some blinking lights too.
ACHTUNG! Alles touristen und non-technischen peepers!
Das machine control is nicht fur gerfinger-poken und
mittengrabben. Oderwise is easy schnappen der springenwerk,
blowen fuse, und poppencorken mit spitzensparken.
Der machine is diggen by experten only. Is nicht fur
geverken by das dummkopfen. Das rubbernecken sightseenen
keepen das cotten picken hands in das pockets,
so relaxen und watchen das blinkenlights.
P.S.: Please do not forward this to the vice-principal as I'm certain that the F.B.I., D.O.J., State Dept., C.I.A., and D.H.S. would be annoyed having to explain to him that it's not a terrorist threat or bomb instructions, especially as the latter group of agencies & departments seem to be displaying an increasingly-shaky grasp on the definitions of such as of late, and we wouldn't want to confuse them further.
humans can not be punched with the EMP punch at present energy levels.
There, weaponized that for you.
Speaking of weapons, the tool sounds like it should appear in the beam-weapons list for a MechWarrior 4/Mercs add-on pack under "lostech weapons". Maybe another hardpoint "can-opener" weapon choice to compliment the short-ranged-but-powerful "Assault Laser" (IIRC).
An EMP device that would cut through metals would not do much to a human. It's mainly a matter of energy absorption. For a human-killer, it loses in two ways. The frequency of the EMP energy needed to resonate in metals efficiently enough to punch a hole is far different than the frequency that would best transfer energy to a human body. Even if one were to find the overall best frequency, the human body is a poor inductor as well as conductor. Not only would the weapon need huge amounts of energy, it would be *extremely* short-ranged.
What it *might* conceivably be useful for is as part of a bunker-buster type weapon to penetrate extremely thick armor after a shaped charge ahead of it clears possible rock & debris. It could prove more useful than conventional shaped-charge, formed-rod penetration system when the target has very thick armor.
The EMP punch system, if used as an armor-piercing system, has the potential to time the length & frequency of the pulse, the shape of the pulse, pulse strength, as well as possibly firing two rapid pulses, enabling it to efficiently penetrate extreme armor thicknesses and be optimized on-the-fly to differing armor types, since pulse frequency, strength, number, and shape are all variables that conceivably be set by a human before launch, or by a targeting computer that uses the weapons' sensors to automatically adjust it up to last-second for best results.
All this fantasy of course assumes having the ability to store sufficient energy onboard to operate it while being small & light enough to be practical. We ain't there, yet.
And next time I go to the bathroom, I will be shitting turds of solid gold. Can you prove I won't?
Smelly strawman, much?
I mean, I'm no statistician, but I'm betting the chance of rare metals being anally excreted by humans is (thankfully, as wearing a Rolex would never be the same) quite tiny as compared to the chances that a law enforcement/investigative/coordination organization will grow in size, scope, and reach.
At least, that's how it is on *this* planet. How is it on yours?
Interpol does not have investigative powers. They do not have investigative staff. They do not do that. They can't do that. They do not have any power over anyone. Member states provide contact information and some meager funding, so that other members know who to call and can request assistance in formulating requests to other member states' police. That's IT.
For fuck's sake, their budget is in the few dozens of millions of dollars, and they have 188 member states! That'd be barely enough to pay for one full-time employee and his office supplies in each member state, not even counting the head office staff!
So, somehow you know this will continue into perpetuity, that this can never change? Would you care to share with us your time-travel technology? If there's one thing that's a certainty, government always seeks to increase it's power and reach.
Slashdot Mirror
You have to show why the adjustments that were made are inappropriate in order to discredit it.
That was made fairly clear from the leaked CRU emails. There is an agenda at work that has nothing to do with climate.
As far as "economy wrecking" goes, most studies I've seen say at most the economy takes a 1-2% hit to respond to climate change.
The cap-and trade bill, as one example, would definitely do much more damage than 1-2%. Obama himself stated that electricity prices under cap-and-trade would "necessarily skyrocket". This means that every business would incur much higher costs at a time when we are already suffering because the prices our businesses and industries must charge has already been inflated due to high labor, regulation compliance, and tax costs to name but a few compared to other nations with whom we compete.
Climate science in most of its aspects is well beyond infancy.
It *is* well beyond infancy, as we are at the "toddler" point where we have gained just enough knowledge to be dangerous to ourselves through only fractional knowledge concerning our planetary climate system. We by no means have sufficient knowledge to be capable of making any significant changes with any certainty of the results, or even if any changes are warranted. Experimenting on the climate of the only planet we inhabit without knowing with great certainty what we're doing is a recipe for disaster.
The amount of CO2 conservation necessary to make any meaningful change is orders of magnitude beyond what has been proposed. Even taking the most drastic CO2 reduction steps that have been proposed have been calculated to only reduce the rate of increase by a tenth of a degree over the next 100 years.
The other problem is that all this requires participation by the other nations with large CO2 footprints, namely India and China who have absolutely *no* intention of crippling their emerging economies.
Altogether, this indicates to me that climate science needs to further mature before any serious economy- and international trade-crippling measures are undertaken.
Strat
If you look at the NASA/GISS data which does a better job of accounting for the polar regions the warming during the period in question was statistically significant.
Only problem here is that there's been controversy over NASA's data having been "massaged" as well, so one set of questionable data cannot prove or disprove another.
I'm not against taking some steps to reduce pollution overall, but the whole idea that CO2 is a "pollutant" is just idiotic on it's face, and with the climate science still in it's infancy as far as mankinds' ability to fully understand a planet-wide long term climate system, it simply flies in the face of logic to talk of drastic economy-wrecking, people-killing measures being taken to "correct" a problem that *nobody* can be reasonably sure even exists, or that those corrective measures will have the desired effect.
Strat
In the final analysis, it will raise the school taxes (by requiring issue of a new bond) levied on all citizens, in order to pay out to the parents whose children attend. As such, it will be yet ANOTHER transfer of wealth from non-parents to parents.
I don't know how it would work there but here all bonds for the schools have to be voted on. So that would never pass as a way to pay it off.
They'd probably attempt to pay out all they have in their coffers for operations, maintenance, etc and then hold the childrens' further schooling hostage to passing a bond initiative as all the districts' funds to keep the school open & functioning would be exhausted.
Whenever a monetary penalty is assessed against any branch, department, or division of any level of government from townships to the federal level it is ALWAYS taxpayers who pay, as government has no money. All government has is OUR money. Fining the government is fining yourself.
Serious state and federal criminal felony charges against the individuals responsible for the policies and actions is the only realistic option that doesn't force citizens to pay for the governments' financial liabilities in the case of any fine or settlement against the government being assessed or adjudicated.
Passing more laws is redundant as there are already laws making these actions illegal just as with "hate crime" laws, but be prepared as politicians will almost certainly react by introducing yet another set of laws as a cover for government wrongdoing and to provide a campaign-ad "Look, I did something and my opponent doesn't care about the children!" video clip talking-point.
Strat
...even then I couldn't play the game, bombing out with a nondescript securom error message. Turned out it considers sysinternals' Process Explorer a "dangerous thing to have running" - like, wtf?
Just wait for V2.0!
SecuRomV2.0 Error: SecuRom has detected your OS is fully-patched and up to date, you have a properly-configured firewall & antivirus, and your OS appears to be free of malware/spyware. You obviously are far too competent at computer administration to be allowed to run this game as you present a high piracy risk. Please downgrade your computer-related knowledge & abilities and re-install.
Strat
Not to start a flamewar or anything. But I can imagine that with all the substance abuse Bush jr. did when he was younger, I can imagine it could've had certain effects on the workings of his brain..
For what it's worth, moderate cocaine use hasn't to my knowledge been commonly associated with long-term negative effects upon cognition or memory, but we recently had a president that "didn't inhale" marijuana, which has widely-known long-term negative effects upon memory and cognition, and that president was considered rather "cool" by most people because he had smoked pot.
Why does one get a "pass" and the other doesn't?
Just sayin'.
Strat
Probably about 10-20 years of declines in GLOBAL MEAN TEMPERATURE would disprove the global warming/CO2 theory. Unfortunately, for the climate change deniers, not to mention most of the rest of us, there is a vanishingly small probability of that happening, considering that most of the highest GLOBAL MEAN TEMPERATURES have been recorded in the past decade and CO2 production continues to increase each year.
So Phil Jones (former head of the CRU) stating to the BBC that there has been no statistically-significant warming since 1995 was a lie?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8511670.stm
http://blogs.dailymail.com/donsurber/archives/9327
"A.J, Strata: "So what have we learned since climategate? We have learned that the current warm period is not only stalled but has been cooling. We have learned that statistically it is no warmer now than a 7o years ago, before the huge increase in human CO2 production. And thanks to Dr Phil Jones finally being honest about the science, we know there is no scientific proof today is any warmer than the two previous warm periods (Medieval and Roman) that have been established science for a couple hundred years now."
Whatever the truth of GW/CC, because of the ideologues (including the climate researchers themselves) involved on both sides we will now likely never know the truth until many decades, possibly centuries, from now as the science, scientists, and the datasets have all been politicized and "massaged" to fit particular political agendas to the point that the original data has been deleted and cannot be re-measured as time travel is not (yet?) possible.
If you want to blame someone for GW/CC "denialism", look no farther than the climate scientists that unquestionably allowed ideology to frame their research and its' results.
Strat
Not to pick sides in this democrat vs republican thing you've got going here, but your previous, republican, president wasn't exactly the epitome of intelligence... yet the democrats are supposedly the stupid ones? ok.
Yes, because everyone who matters just automatically knows that nearly all Conservatives are uneducated buffoons "clinging to their guns and religion" and anyone who believes otherwise can simply be dismissed as "unenlightened", right?
GW was many things, a good portion of which I disliked, but unintelligent/stupid is NOT one of them. Even if we were to discount the fact that GW graduated from an Ivy-League school, as it's possible that he somehow bought his degree, there is one thing that absolutely puts the lie to the "stupid bumpkin" label the left has repeatedly tried to attach to GW; he flew a military jet in the '70s and didn't crash & burn.
Whatever claims one may make about GW, he was NOT stupid, slow, or unintelligent. One did not pilot a '70s-era military jet fighter and survive even doing touch-and-goes in peacetime unless one was significantly above-average in intelligence with an above-average ability to make correct, rapid, multiple concurrent decisions in real-time using rapidly-changing data. Quick reflexes alone are not even close to being enough.
Of course it's much easier to label someone you disagree with as a dolt and dismiss them out-of-hand than it is to debate the factual merits of an argument, particularly when the facts don't align with the detractor's point of view. We see the same tactic being played out in the lame-stream media regarding the former Governor of Alaska and the Tea Party participants.
Whenever someone starts in with the "Bush is stupid", "Palin is stupid" or "Tea-Party participants are stupid" memes, I know I can safely dismiss anything further they may say as they're rabidly partisan and won't let facts get in the way of their opinions.
Strat
Yes, indeed! Let's dry out any kind of outlet for those freaks! Once they wont be able to get off from something besides the real deal, they are bound to stop and suddenly turn into normal, heterosexual human beings.
Right? Right?!
[sarcasm]
See, you just don't understand the government's logic.
Once you've eliminated any other outlet for deviant desires other than damaging and traumatizing children they'll be forced to reveal themselves through said unspeakable acts, then all authorities need to do is just look for large groups of irreparably-damaged children to flag a pedo's existence & location so they may be locked up at taxpayers' expense!
It's a perfect plan other than some collateral damage to innocent children, but then the demand for large numbers of pediatric therapists and prison workers will help keep the unemployment numbers low and the politicians' "unlike my pedo-loving opponent, I thought of the children!!!1one" factor high for the upcoming elections as well as provide a convenient excuse for raising taxes to pay for more police, prisons, and pediatric emotional-trauma treatment centers.
Win-win!
[/sarcasm]
I tagged this sarcasm, but I'm afraid that it's frighteningly-close to the truth.
Strat
What's your sign?
To anyone that seriously believes that it's ok to do extreme economic damage to the US' and other Western nations' economies when many if not most Western economies are near the brink of collapse anyways, not to mention cause untold suffering and death particularly among the poorest people, based on corrupt datasets, questionable models, and ideologically- and economically-driven scientists and politicians that have a stake in promoting "climate change" I say;
"Here's YOUR sign!"
Strat
If you want to do that, well, we've got a lot of people to hang, because pretty much everything presidents have done since 1947 has been unconstitutional, starting with executive orders founding the national security agencies, to executive orders themselves, to the rampant classification of documents used as a CYA tool.
You have to go farther back than 1947. Start with Lincoln and his actions surrounding the Civil War, then Wilson and all the "New Deal" Progressive stuff including most everything from the "New Society". Pretty much everything the Progressives/Liberals have done, tried to do, or want to do would qualify too.
That's the meaning behind the "Progressive" name, they wish to "progress" PAST the Constitution. They view the Constitution as an obstacle to their agenda and have been the main force behind the incremental movement of our nation away from the Constitution and Constitutional principles since the early 1900's.
I guess this means that Progressives like Obama, Hillary, Pelosi, Reid, and even GW and McCain, must now register in S. Carolina. So would everyone at any of the many Progressive think-tanks and organizations funded by the foreigner George Soros.
Hey, this could be fun! :)
Strat
I consider Glen Beck obscene. Can I sue him for allowing his filth (aka his ideas) to be distributed to all media outlets?
I would seriously consider giving up porn if I could get Glen Beck taken off the air. ;p
[sarcasm]
Yes, how dare someone in the media make statements of fact, play back politicians' own words, expose where history has been re-written, and ask questions that haven't been authorized by the White House, Congress, George Soros, the ACLU, and MediaMatters?
Sheeple are too stupid to know what's best for them, especially what information is best for them, and these kinds of radical thoughts those dirty old white men with slaves (the founders) had back then along with unauthorized facts & questions competing with government-approved opinions & viewpoints might cause confusion and even depression among the dimwitted citizens which will need to be treated with anti-depressants.
Which, of course, means talk radio, the Tea Parties, Sarah Palin, and Fox News are all at least partially responsible for the rising cost of health care in the US along with climate change! They also probably club baby seals for fun.
Burn the heretics!
[/sarcasm]
Strat
The only reason it is actually gaining traction now is because finally there are people in enough key positions (like the presidency) who don't just care about themselves and their financial backers to actually try and get something that benefits ALL Americans passed into the law - even if it means taking on a very powerful lobbying group (the insurance companies).
If you actually, really, *truly* believe that the President, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, or their supporters/bosses such as the powerful unions, big finance, and George Soros deeply cares about anything other than themselves, their Progressive ideology, and their own pursuit of power & wealth first and foremost, I just don't know what to tell you.
This is one reason why the writers of the Constitution wanted most power centered in the States, putting government and those it governs close, with only a very limited Federal government. That way a bad local politician will be quickly voted out by the locals that see problems up close and have an immediate stake in the outcome, and bad Federal officeholders have limited powers to screw things up for everybody.
Sadly, it seems the US is abandoning the Democratic Republic model in favor of a centralized, top-down, command-and-control national government that holds all real power. This gradual transition has been argued to be, if one had to pick a single cause, the biggest reason the US is not the "shining city on the hill" it once was, and why arrogance & corruption abounds openly in Washington D.C.
IMHO the real, underlying reason that America has, over the last ~5 decades, increasingly been looked at by other nations & peoples with disdain, contempt, and derision is that these changes as a nation have slowly morphed the US from being admired and feared/respected like John Wayne to becoming more like the cowardly, backstabbing, greedy little worm Golem.
It all boils down to who is really in charge; the people or those in government.
If you think people are generally stupid and incapable of making the "right" choices for themselves, then you likely favor a strong central government that operates in a command-and-control manner.
I think people generally get it right most of the time, at least more often than the average political hacks do, so I prefer a much smaller and more limited Federal government. At least that way, if one state's laws, rules, taxes, regulations, etc for some reason becomes intolerable, I can vote with my feet and move to another state that does things differently.
Strat
It's not any less fair than me being able to afford a better car or fancier education than someone else.
You make some interesting and thoughtful points. Thanks. The part I quoted above many would regard as something that should be fixed, but not by raising up those below, but by penalizing those who have managed to do well. I think they're calling it "economic justice" these days. We used to call it plain old socialism, just as Marxists became Progressives who then became Liberals (I may have the exact name-change order or number wrong) and who are now switching back to the Progressive tag.
Same failed ideas, just a different label for a different era to avoid being connected in the public's' mind to the past failures of the same ideology.
Strat
Snip: ...maybe we can't do any better and be prepared to live with compromise.
We absolutely *can* do better, it will just take people actually voting the current incumbents out and if the replacements don't get it, vote them out too until we get some people in office that do get it. I have my doubts that enough people care enough after years of encouraged apathy, class-warfare, and group-think coupled with the dumbing-down of the populace.
Strat
Yeah! Our current system is so much better than the crappy health care in Japan, Sweden, Great Britain, Canada and basically the rest of the civilized world! Also because of socialized health care, all those for'n countries have mandatory gym memberships and shoot people for being fat! And because those for'ners allowed gays in their military, they had to reinstate the draft! [scienceblogs.com]
We should keep on doing exactly what we're doing, only more because it's working so well already!
Or, you know, we could learn what works from other countries that have done it already.
Wow, strawman, much? Please point out where I said that what we have now is the only other option.
I've yet to hear *anyone* make a convincing argument as to *why* the *whole system* must be scrapped and rebuilt, or even what in the Constitution gives the federal government the power to do these things.
We are not France, Sweden, Norway, Germany, Canada, etc. We have a different system of government and social framework here that has made America a superpower and given our citizens the most personal liberty along with the highest standard of living on the planet.
If you'd like a different form of government, feel free to support amending the Constitution. Don't try to make end-runs around the core document of our nation, even if you feel that "the people" aren't intelligent or "Progressive" enough to make the "right" choices.
If all these countries' healthcare systems are so good, why do those who want the best care in the world, delivered in a timely manner, come to America if our healthcare is so bad?
Strat
Otherwise too many people fail to make provisions for the inevitable, and then fall back on the rest of us.
See, that's where it gets dicey. Once you start down the path to limiting individual choices and freedoms for "the good of society", things just can't end well when you figure in every government's natural tendency to expand in size and scope while removing ever-more individual freedom.
Just how much individual choice/freedom sacrificed for the "greater good" is too much? Since bad health costs more, and diet is so important, will the government mandate government-healthcare-prescribed daily diets? How about exercise? Mandatory exercise/gym membership? Traffic fines for going out in the cold without your scarf?
Some lifestyles, sports, hobbies, etc could have a huge impact on an individuals' healthcare costs, so might they be regulated too?
I just think America can reduce healthcare costs and take care of those without insurance without a 2,000-page purely one-party bill put together in secret backroom deals attempting to completely restructure ~20% of the US economy and having the government intruding even more on individual freedom and choice while likely actually increasing healthcare costs and the national debt with a new entitlement, reducing quality-of-care, still not insuring everybody, and not even addressing tort reform.
Shouldn't reform actually...you know...*reform*?
We can do much, much better.
Strat
Just a question, how many people posting (or reading) here have ever been, as a civilian, in a situation where a gun was necessary?
I'm one. No, I didn't kill anyone as the person that attempted to commit burglary at my residence was not foolish and complied with my commands, and was subsequently arrested & then convicted. The person in question had a crowbar (and also outweighed me by at least 50 pounds) so things might have turned out for the worse if I had not been armed.
There's much to be said for the psychological effect of hearing the sound of a 12ga pump shotgun being racked and then staring down that gigantic-looking muzzle on someone's willingness to peacefully cooperate. :)
Strat
Seriously? I don't like people dying. I really don't like people dying of easily preventable causes. I hate people dying in hospitals of easily preventable causes because they aren't millionaires. I couldn't care less about what you want to do with your life, if you're doing ok, but if you use "I'm alright" as an answer to "Why are you letting all these people die?" then you are morally reprehensible. If you are just happy to have people die through lack of money in the richest country in the world when much poorer countries do much better, then that's fine.
Sorry for the demise of your strawman, but there aren't masses of people dying because they don't have money. You can even be an illegal alien with zero money and no identification and still walk into any ER in any US hospital and receive world-class healthcare.
Your country and its citizens dare to lecture China on human rights when you don't recognise the International Criminal Courts
I'm sorry your country is so bad that you need an extra-national court to prosecute your own citizens. The ICC is nothing but a modern version of The Spanish Inquisition. It's purely political.
you hold unnamed suspects with no evidence and no charges against them for unlimited amounts of time with no access to legal representation
European countries do the same to combatants captured on the battlefield, as I don't recall German soldiers captured by European allies in WW1 or WW2 being tried & prosecuted by civilian courts.
The Geneva Convention even specifies the status of non-uniformed combatants; they have no rights and may be executed on the spot. I'd say in light of that, Guantanamo detainees have been treated with far more compassion than they legally deserve. After a thorough no-holds-barred interrogation, when I was certain they were of no more intelligence value, all I'd give them is a blindfold and a cigarette.
You invade sovereign nations in the name of regime change. You defend these invasions with the words freedom and liberty, and yet have no care for the millions dying in far worse regimes throughout Africa and Asia.
Well, even the USA has limits on how much we spread our military at any one time. We'll get around to those others soon enough. We have to prioritize our actions to do the most good for ourselves and our survival first, the other stuff comes second just as it does to every single other nation. We at least do tend to actually leave the countries we invade, and leave them only after spending much of our resources rebuilding them. Unlike the history of Europe where conquest has been the way for centuries.
Our school systems get more and more like yours, even though our schools have always turned out smarter kids. Nationalised public services start being seen as some left-wing ideal, rather than centrist and part-of-the-basic-ideals-of-the-free-market.
This is a problem that faces both the EU and the USA; the Progressive movement. The EU is firmly in the hands of Progressives, and they are currently attempting to co-op the US Democrat party. Notice how so many leaders and politicians these days hold to Progressive ideals, Hillary and Barack stating so proudly and publicly? They aren't Democrats, they are Progressives, an ideology that can be described as "Socialism-Lite" or "Conservative Socialism". This is a bad thing, as it *always* fails and devolves into a Socialist or Communist totalitarian state.
The truth is that the venting you get on the interwebs is actually pretty mild compared with the venting you get at dinner parties, in pubs - basically wherever there aren't Americans, because you bastards are all so fscking nice.
No, you don't vent when Americans are around at dinner parties or pubs because the American(s) in question would punch you in the mouth and you'd have to wait too long for your national health system to give you dentures. And as long as we Americans can keep the radical-left Progressives on a short leash, we will conti
As well as the fact that a .45 makes large holes that let in a lot of air and let out a lot of blood.
Long story involving a friend back in the '70s with a Class 3 FFL, I ended up with a chance to fire a Thompson 1928 (among a number of other weapons that day) at a hanging wild-hog carcass that weighed around 200 lbs. The entry points were just a bit bigger than the bullet (.45 ACP FMJ) however the exit wounds were anywhere from 2-1/2"/3" up to about 6" or a bit more that I attribute to how the bullet happened to tumble.
The bottom line was the thing was a mess after 2 or 3 rounds, and after the 5th and 6th, there just wasn't much left to hit except chunks hanging together even using FMJ ammo. I asked about hollow-point and soft-nose ammo, but I was told the Thompsons (and many other MGs and SMGs, and even some semi-auto pistols) tend to experience jams and feed problems with non-jacketed ammo.
Personally, my home-defense weapon-of-choice is a 12ga pump shotgun like the Mossberg 500. The ability to choose the type of load makes it particularly suited to home-defense.
I keep 2 rounds of birdshot first, followed up with buckshot for the remaining rounds. At ranges of 25 feet or less as within a typical home or apartment, it doesn't much matter if the shell is birdshot or a slug, it will still put a 2"-3" hole in a person. Birdshot is far less likely to over-penetrate and/or penetrate walls/floors/ceilings possibly causing collateral damage to innocent bystanders.
If I've fired 2 rounds of birdshot and going for more, I then figure I must be in a firefight so it's buckshot and all bets are off as I'm fighting for survival.
Strat
While definitely cool, don't you need some kind of tactile feedback from the guitar strings to play it better? The same reason why there will always be use for mouse and keyboard too, to provide better control.
But since I'm not a real guitar player, this could be a fun thing to have (and probably easier to play than a real guitar)
I'm a long-time guitar player, and I have played around with "MIDI guitars" like the Rolands before, however they were actual guitars with sensors much like standard electric guitar pickups for sending data. Even those require a significant modification of normal playing technique, so I can imagine this will be even less like playing a standard guitar.
I'm also wondering how well a touch-screen will be able to respond in real time as it relates to speed and accuracy of the "string plucks". The other thing is that a lot of the character of the note depends on how a string is picked/plucked/hammered. I'm not sure how something like a "harmonic pinch" type pick attack could possibly be translated by a touch screen.
Those who find this interesting may also find "synthophones" or "wind controllers" fascinating. They are basically MIDI horns. Yamaha made one, the WX5 Windcontroller. There's also a fellow named Martin Hurni who I believe lives in Norway(?) that builds synthophone Hall-effect sensors and circuitry into saxophones.
Here are a couple links to some synthophone/windcontroller information and some video from Bob Hunt, a good friend and top-notch fellow musician I've played onstage with for the last few years:
http://electricmotorsales.net/bobhunt/index.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iM2FWRMrSrQ
Now, if this MIDI touch screen guitar can even come *close* to the performance of a synthophone, I'll be impressed.
Strat
... you will suddenly realise that the great majority is a whole heap of actually necessary small things that add up.
It may look that way at first, but most of those "necessary" things weren't even invented until the last century or so, and society managed to work just fine without them. Perhaps they aren't really so necessary after all?
Well said! And after we throw the fat cats out of washington, we can rid the world once and for all of computers, hula hoops, and fax machines!
I'd be in favor of a Federal Department of Hula-Hoops, as long as either or both the Department of Education and/or the Federal Reserve were abolished. The former would do far more actual good than either of the latter, and cost far less.
Strat
Snip: ...and there were probably some blinking lights too.
ACHTUNG! Alles touristen und non-technischen peepers!
Das machine control is nicht fur gerfinger-poken und
mittengrabben. Oderwise is easy schnappen der springenwerk,
blowen fuse, und poppencorken mit spitzensparken.
Der machine is diggen by experten only. Is nicht fur
geverken by das dummkopfen. Das rubbernecken sightseenen
keepen das cotten picken hands in das pockets,
so relaxen und watchen das blinkenlights.
From http://www.blinkenlights.nl/
P.S.: Please do not forward this to the vice-principal as I'm certain that the F.B.I., D.O.J., State Dept., C.I.A., and D.H.S. would be annoyed having to explain to him that it's not a terrorist threat or bomb instructions, especially as the latter group of agencies & departments seem to be displaying an increasingly-shaky grasp on the definitions of such as of late, and we wouldn't want to confuse them further.
Thanks,
Strat
humans can not be punched with the EMP punch at present energy levels.
There, weaponized that for you.
Speaking of weapons, the tool sounds like it should appear in the beam-weapons list for a MechWarrior 4/Mercs add-on pack under "lostech weapons". Maybe another hardpoint "can-opener" weapon choice to compliment the short-ranged-but-powerful "Assault Laser" (IIRC).
An EMP device that would cut through metals would not do much to a human. It's mainly a matter of energy absorption. For a human-killer, it loses in two ways. The frequency of the EMP energy needed to resonate in metals efficiently enough to punch a hole is far different than the frequency that would best transfer energy to a human body. Even if one were to find the overall best frequency, the human body is a poor inductor as well as conductor. Not only would the weapon need huge amounts of energy, it would be *extremely* short-ranged.
What it *might* conceivably be useful for is as part of a bunker-buster type weapon to penetrate extremely thick armor after a shaped charge ahead of it clears possible rock & debris. It could prove more useful than conventional shaped-charge, formed-rod penetration system when the target has very thick armor.
The EMP punch system, if used as an armor-piercing system, has the potential to time the length & frequency of the pulse, the shape of the pulse, pulse strength, as well as possibly firing two rapid pulses, enabling it to efficiently penetrate extreme armor thicknesses and be optimized on-the-fly to differing armor types, since pulse frequency, strength, number, and shape are all variables that conceivably be set by a human before launch, or by a targeting computer that uses the weapons' sensors to automatically adjust it up to last-second for best results.
All this fantasy of course assumes having the ability to store sufficient energy onboard to operate it while being small & light enough to be practical. We ain't there, yet.
Strat
I mean, it's possible.
Today, though, they don't make food.
And next time I go to the bathroom, I will be shitting turds of solid gold. Can you prove I won't?
Smelly strawman, much?
I mean, I'm no statistician, but I'm betting the chance of rare metals being anally excreted by humans is (thankfully, as wearing a Rolex would never be the same) quite tiny as compared to the chances that a law enforcement/investigative/coordination organization will grow in size, scope, and reach.
At least, that's how it is on *this* planet. How is it on yours?
Strat
Interpol does not have investigative powers. They do not have investigative staff. They do not do that. They can't do that. They do not have any power over anyone. Member states provide contact information and some meager funding, so that other members know who to call and can request assistance in formulating requests to other member states' police. That's IT.
For fuck's sake, their budget is in the few dozens of millions of dollars, and they have 188 member states! That'd be barely enough to pay for one full-time employee and his office supplies in each member state, not even counting the head office staff!
So, somehow you know this will continue into perpetuity, that this can never change? Would you care to share with us your time-travel technology? If there's one thing that's a certainty, government always seeks to increase it's power and reach.
Strat