It is becoming increasingly obvious we have the best government money can buy.
For example look at the healthcare bill. In that case the lobbyists got a bill passed which was not written by any legislator, and was so lengthy that nobody had time to read it all before passing it.
Heck, nearly a year after the fact most of the legislators who voted on it couldn't tell you everything in it.
Add onto this is the added fact that corporations can make any contributions that they like. You see complicity in this by the company shareholders because there is a return on investment. More clearly put is that the dollars they invest in buying a Senator or Congressman translates into real-world gains for the company.
What we will see coming is a perfectly legal financially driven swatting. Instead of a lone hacker sending a swat-team to someones house, you will instead see a lone company buying the political influence to outlaw any behaviour they find undesireable (IE contrary to their business model) and the swat team will then show itself the way where they want it to go.
The best part is, for the companies involved it is far cheaper than hiring their own private thugs to do their dirty work and all perfectly legal under todays laws.
I find it surprising given all the "experts" supposedly on the whole terrorism issue, that we don't once hear official complaints of going too far.
One of the things I remember from my college class studying terrorist groups is that many terrorist groups have a goal of making the government crack down so hard that it alienates all the citizens and radicalizes otherwise normal citizens who are victimized from the increased government control.
Makes me question how much these "experts" have actually studied what they profess to be experts on.
Problem with letting private companies decide what is fair is that many municipalities have laws acting as barriers to competition. These were put into place a long time ago to act as an incentive for cable/phone companies to run lines. Now these same laws are preventing other competitors from coming in.
Hence you have many people around the country stuck with a choice between a cable company and a phone company and each of which offer little in terms of bandwidth or reliability for any price because they know the only other isn't upgrading either. Since both benefit from the status-quo this is not likely to change any time soon. This is a classic problem with markets with few sources of supply and steep barriers to entry.
Then you add on top of this that the only two providers can cap or flow-control bandwidth which they do not approve of. So when someone tries to get smart and uses NetFlix (they have great choices out there to view over the network) instead of paying exhorbitant cable TV rates or tries to use a VOIP solution instead of paying for long-distance, the company who provides them their internet connection can cut the quality of their service or worse cut them off entirely for attempting to use a competitor.
A choice between the lesser of two evils isn't really much of a choice.
Yeah, but unlike the folks at the CIA they get hefty bonuses. Makes me cry to think that they have to deal with some of the same types of rules that police, teachers, and doctors already have to deal with regarding their actions outside of the office. If they don't like the responsibilities of the job they are always free to quit. These jobs typically pay a lot more than other jobs which fall under similar levels of scrutiny.
Well from a purely scientific standpoint I'd say there's merit in preserving and studying life forms that have evolved in complete isolation from anything on Earth.
Its been a few years since my last math class, so please excuse any mistakes, but below is what I recall as being right.
Any non-zero number divided by zero = infinity
IE: 100/0=infinity same as.00001/0=infinity
Any zero divided by a non-zero number = zero
IE: 0/100=0 same as 0/.00001=0
Any number divided by itself=1
IE: 100/100=1 same as.00001/.00001=1
It seems not totally unreasonable to me for the two first rules above (100/0=infinity and 0/100=0) to cancel each other out in the case of 0/0.
However, a simple progression the third rule I listed above does seem to remain true as both numbers approach zero at the same rate (ie remain equal).
IE: 10000/10000=1 same as.00001/.00001=1 same as (1x10^-1000)/(1x10^-1000)=1
Am I oversimplifying things? Because to my mind, 0/0 should equal 1.
Anyone who has either worked for or contracted to the government will be able to tell you that the government writes a lot of its contracts and hiring standards based off years of experience and years of degree/school combined. In plain english, this means if you ignore veterans preference that someone with only 1 year experience and a bogus Masters degree can be hired in preference over someone with no degree but 5 years experience. I know it sounds insane, but keep in mind this is the government and it actually does happen like that.
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Doesn't entering the said letter into court records (making it a matter of public record and public interest) count?
It is becoming increasingly obvious we have the best government money can buy.
For example look at the healthcare bill. In that case the lobbyists got a bill passed which was not written by any legislator, and was so lengthy that nobody had time to read it all before passing it.
Heck, nearly a year after the fact most of the legislators who voted on it couldn't tell you everything in it.
Add onto this is the added fact that corporations can make any contributions that they like. You see complicity in this by the company shareholders because there is a return on investment. More clearly put is that the dollars they invest in buying a Senator or Congressman translates into real-world gains for the company.
What we will see coming is a perfectly legal financially driven swatting. Instead of a lone hacker sending a swat-team to someones house, you will instead see a lone company buying the political influence to outlaw any behaviour they find undesireable (IE contrary to their business model) and the swat team will then show itself the way where they want it to go.
The best part is, for the companies involved it is far cheaper than hiring their own private thugs to do their dirty work and all perfectly legal under todays laws.
I find it surprising given all the "experts" supposedly on the whole terrorism issue, that we don't once hear official complaints of going too far.
One of the things I remember from my college class studying terrorist groups is that many terrorist groups have a goal of making the government crack down so hard that it alienates all the citizens and radicalizes otherwise normal citizens who are victimized from the increased government control.
Makes me question how much these "experts" have actually studied what they profess to be experts on.
After some of the student essays I've seen, I'm surprised they waited this long.
They should have done a Wikipedia search on the definition of irony.
Problem with letting private companies decide what is fair is that many municipalities have laws acting as barriers to competition. These were put into place a long time ago to act as an incentive for cable/phone companies to run lines. Now these same laws are preventing other competitors from coming in.
Hence you have many people around the country stuck with a choice between a cable company and a phone company and each of which offer little in terms of bandwidth or reliability for any price because they know the only other isn't upgrading either. Since both benefit from the status-quo this is not likely to change any time soon. This is a classic problem with markets with few sources of supply and steep barriers to entry.
Then you add on top of this that the only two providers can cap or flow-control bandwidth which they do not approve of. So when someone tries to get smart and uses NetFlix (they have great choices out there to view over the network) instead of paying exhorbitant cable TV rates or tries to use a VOIP solution instead of paying for long-distance, the company who provides them their internet connection can cut the quality of their service or worse cut them off entirely for attempting to use a competitor.
A choice between the lesser of two evils isn't really much of a choice.
Yeah, but unlike the folks at the CIA they get hefty bonuses. Makes me cry to think that they have to deal with some of the same types of rules that police, teachers, and doctors already have to deal with regarding their actions outside of the office. If they don't like the responsibilities of the job they are always free to quit. These jobs typically pay a lot more than other jobs which fall under similar levels of scrutiny.
So, in other words it will be intelligent life?
...they are too big to fail?
Any non-zero number divided by zero = infinity .00001/0=infinity
IE: 100/0=infinity same as
Any zero divided by a non-zero number = zero
IE: 0/100=0 same as 0/.00001=0
Any number divided by itself=1 .00001/.00001=1
IE: 100/100=1 same as
It seems not totally unreasonable to me for the two first rules above (100/0=infinity and 0/100=0) to cancel each other out in the case of 0/0.
However, a simple progression the third rule I listed above does seem to remain true as both numbers approach zero at the same rate (ie remain equal). .00001/.00001=1 same as (1x10^-1000)/(1x10^-1000)=1
IE: 10000/10000=1 same as
Am I oversimplifying things? Because to my mind, 0/0 should equal 1.
Anyone who has either worked for or contracted to the government will be able to tell you that the government writes a lot of its contracts and hiring standards based off years of experience and years of degree/school combined.
In plain english, this means if you ignore veterans preference that someone with only 1 year experience and a bogus Masters degree can be hired in preference over someone with no degree but 5 years experience.
I know it sounds insane, but keep in mind this is the government and it actually does happen like that.