And one of the best effectiveness metrics I have encountered for this sort of scenario is "dollars per life saved" for a given set of actual or hypothetical responses.
Civil engineers have a "rule of thumb" for this. My (out of date) recollection was that anything that saved a life for less than $1 million was a good idea. Anything that cost much more than that should be scrutinized more carefully, since every dollar you spend on Bear Patrol is a dollar unavailable for doctor visits, drug research, bridge safety and even Aircraft anti-hijacking initiatives. That million-dollar figure is about 17 years old, so it should probably be adjusted for inflation of dollars.
You appear to have missed the gist of the GP's argument, which was that the effort and resources being spent on fighting terrorism (often in ways which, as you point out, are likely to be ineffective) significantly outweigh those being spent on societal problems such as heart disease that actually have a greater impact in terms of number of people directly affected.
That's true enough. If you consider terrorism and disease both as causes of suffering and premature death in the population, then our response in the US to 9/11 is disproportionate. With just heart disease and cancer, the US suffers a 9/11 every day of the year.
* Of course, this doesn't take into account the way anti-terrorist schemes cause problems for large numbers of people who simply want to fly somewhere (for example). But if you're going to argue that that is part of the terrorists' objectives, then the government is complicit, surely?
I think "symbiotic" better describes that relationship.
Yes, it's true that very cheap (thin) wire can degrade a signal somewhat.
Oh, but thin is the new thick. A friend of mine got some new thin speaker cable to "reduce multipath". Obviously some marketroid got hold of some info on fiber optics and figured that it sounded like good copy for a speaker wire promotion. Sometimes I wish I had lax enough ethics to take advantage of people like that . . .
RTFA: they are not detecting heat signatures, they are shooting IR at the car's passenger locations and judging the returned rays given previously known "reflective properties" of human skin. It may be harder, but less costly (energy wise) to spoof, especially if thin transparent coating for the head-rests with just the right "properties" can be made. No need to heat anything.
Finally a reason to upholster my car with human skin!
But now, the slashdot conservative free market horde is going to scream that I'm a commie pinko, etc etc.
I'm sure they will. It's always amusing to see so people many arguing against their own interests. I guess that's the genius of the conservative movement: to convince people that it'll all "trickle down" eventually, they've just gotta make sure the companies get a good deal, and they'll take care of them.
I think in the intense weekend of training that it takes to become a cop, they teach you that you can recognize bombs by the batteries and LEDs (blinky-things) on them.
maybe, gee, i dunno, i'm going to go way out on a limb here: HE COULD HAVE JUST SHOWED THE RECIPT AND HAD A NICE DAY
If the guy feels that it's a fight that's worth having, then it is. Sure it would be easier to show his receipt and have no hassle. But sometimes people decide that this time it's worth it to put forth the effort and not do the easiest thing.
Here's an example: There's a guy on Slashdot who thinks that the whole Circuit City thing was excessively escalated by some guy just basically being a jerk. So he takes the time to post that opinion. Others disagree, so he responds, reiterating his opinion, when it would have been just as easy --easier, really -- to leave it at that. But he continues the argument anyway. Why doesn't he just forget about it and let them have the last word? It would be easier, sure, but I think that this is an issue that this Slashdot guy feels strongly enough about that he's willing to put up a fight over it, even knowing that no one will "win" that argument.
I concede that MS is not the laughingstock that it once was, but they are a ways from the respect that some of their competitors of similar scale . . .
I've had this thing as a triple sell, and I am upgrading it, right here, right now! I think this thing could even go as high as a "Don't Buy."
It did seem that he really had something interesting going at the beginning of The Number of the Beast,
I started reading Heinlein with the first paperback printing of Number of the Beast, about a year or 2 after the hardback was released. I chose poorly. I wasn't quite ready for the non-linearity and multiple narrative stuff. I'm glad I gave him another chance, going back to the much more accessible early juvenile works until my reading ability matured a little. And I think it was good when he pushed the envelope, even when the results were disappointing.
Heinlein was one of a handful of writers that created the genre of Adult Science Fiction. You can see the transition in his own works, like from the Juvenile literature of Starship Troopers to the Adult Stranger in a Strange Land. If it weren't for Heinlein, Asimov, Bradbury, et al, Sci Fi might still be "pulp" fiction and "boys books". BTW, I'm using "juvenile" in the library sense, not pejorative.
It comes full circle. According to the Memory Alpha episode summary you cited, the episode bore a very close resemblance to actual events in Brazil in 1987 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goi%C3%A2nia_accident.
Any sane libertarian would . . . say 'The producers bought the rights, they can do anything they please with it. They're consenting adults, it's none of my business."
The people who produce the political compass website http://www.politicalcompass.org/ suggest that there are multiple dimensions. Social libertarians are leaning more toward anarchy than authoritarianism. Economic libertarians, are more like Milton Friedman vs. Karl Marx at the opposite extreme of that dimension.
Anyway, it's worth a look to see some of the ways "libertarian" is used.
Contrary to what you may believe, religious organizations that participate in political advocacy are indeed taxed.
They can pretty much do anything short of explicitly advocating a particular candidate without getting the IRS on their case. E.G., an "unholy union" of Mormons, Baptists and Catholics in Missouri campaigned massively against that state's stem cell amendment last November. Citizens complained to the IRS and were told that only if the churches were telling people who to vote or not vote for was enough to revoke their tax exemption. Taking stands on issues was okely-dokely.
However, my question is: how did they find the IP of a target store?
In the olden days of modem-connected monitoring equipment, we called it "war dialing". What do the kids call it now, "war surfing"? Start at 0.0.0.0 and increment through FF.FF.FF.FF, excluding local nets if you like, and see if anything responds like a "Brand X" security camera.
But if they did that, how would they have determined the actual store location to get a phone number? Perhaps instead of an inside job, it was a bluff, and they didn't have camera access at all.
Why are the security cameras on anything other than a closed circuit? It makes no sense for their cameras to be connected to the internet.
I don't know that they actually are interwebbed, but if they were, it would be to save money over having a dedicated line for every store. The Dillons stores are owned by Kroger now, so home office is hundreds of miles away.
But if it became popular to install an ad filter on the cable line before it reached your television, it would undermine television's business model.
Oh crap, is that in the PATRIOT (sic) Act?
It's pretty obvious that ad-blocking web sites IS akin to resource theft . ..If you don't like a site's ads, don't visit the site.
Yes, if we were playing "Let-those-you-disagree-with-present-your-only-opt ions", then I would have to pick "don't visit". But since we're not, I'll pick "use ad-blocking". Now, you can either agree with me or send me $5.
The real trouble with tivo and the cable co DVR is storage. a 160g drive? I didn't think they still made them that small. What on earth could I possible do with a 20 hour recording capacity? Thats maybe a week of HD shows before it starts deleting things. If I had time to watch them that fast, I wouldn't need a DVR.
I thought that that would be a problem with TiVo. I've got a series 1, and it holds just over 20 hours of NTSC. 20 hours didn't seem like much, but I soon discovered that if I didn't have time this week to watch this week's programs, I wouldn't have time next week to watch last week's shows either, so it would just keep piling up. At first this depressed me, since the oldest stuff would get deleted unseen. Then I realized that even if I had infinite recording capacity, I would still never catch up due to my available time, not capacity of my DVR.
The real solution was provided by the TV networks, who canceled most of my favorite shows, solving storage problems.
I just checked on a Debian Lenny box that didn't have w32codecs already installed, and no, it does not. No muss, no fuss, no scary language. Didn't even need to cross my fingers or invoke executive privilege.
Slashdot Mirror
Civil engineers have a "rule of thumb" for this. My (out of date) recollection was that anything that saved a life for less than $1 million was a good idea. Anything that cost much more than that should be scrutinized more carefully, since every dollar you spend on Bear Patrol is a dollar unavailable for doctor visits, drug research, bridge safety and even Aircraft anti-hijacking initiatives. That million-dollar figure is about 17 years old, so it should probably be adjusted for inflation of dollars.
That's true enough. If you consider terrorism and disease both as causes of suffering and premature death in the population, then our response in the US to 9/11 is disproportionate. With just heart disease and cancer, the US suffers a 9/11 every day of the year.
I think "symbiotic" better describes that relationship.
So if he got someone else to make the phony call to send SWAT to the wrong house, it would be "assault with an assault weapon by proxy by proxy"?
Ya, I'm gonna have to go ahead and disagree with you there . . . As Mel Brooks said:
Oh, but thin is the new thick. A friend of mine got some new thin speaker cable to "reduce multipath". Obviously some marketroid got hold of some info on fiber optics and figured that it sounded like good copy for a speaker wire promotion. Sometimes I wish I had lax enough ethics to take advantage of people like that . . .
Finally a reason to upholster my car with human skin!
I'm sure they will. It's always amusing to see so people many arguing against their own interests. I guess that's the genius of the conservative movement: to convince people that it'll all "trickle down" eventually, they've just gotta make sure the companies get a good deal, and they'll take care of them.
I think in the intense weekend of training that it takes to become a cop, they teach you that you can recognize bombs by the batteries and LEDs (blinky-things) on them.
If the guy feels that it's a fight that's worth having, then it is. Sure it would be easier to show his receipt and have no hassle. But sometimes people decide that this time it's worth it to put forth the effort and not do the easiest thing.
Here's an example: There's a guy on Slashdot who thinks that the whole Circuit City thing was excessively escalated by some guy just basically being a jerk. So he takes the time to post that opinion. Others disagree, so he responds, reiterating his opinion, when it would have been just as easy --easier, really -- to leave it at that. But he continues the argument anyway. Why doesn't he just forget about it and let them have the last word? It would be easier, sure, but I think that this is an issue that this Slashdot guy feels strongly enough about that he's willing to put up a fight over it, even knowing that no one will "win" that argument.
Saying: "He must have a lot of time on his hands". Translation: "I don't approve of how you spend your time."
Saying: "You've gotta pick your battles". Translation: "I've gotta pick your battles."
Talk about "snobbish".
I've had this thing as a triple sell, and I am upgrading it, right here, right now! I think this thing could even go as high as a "Don't Buy."
Yes, yes, YES!
I started reading Heinlein with the first paperback printing of Number of the Beast, about a year or 2 after the hardback was released. I chose poorly. I wasn't quite ready for the non-linearity and multiple narrative stuff. I'm glad I gave him another chance, going back to the much more accessible early juvenile works until my reading ability matured a little. And I think it was good when he pushed the envelope, even when the results were disappointing.
Heinlein was one of a handful of writers that created the genre of Adult Science Fiction. You can see the transition in his own works, like from the Juvenile literature of Starship Troopers to the Adult Stranger in a Strange Land. If it weren't for Heinlein, Asimov, Bradbury, et al, Sci Fi might still be "pulp" fiction and "boys books". BTW, I'm using "juvenile" in the library sense, not pejorative.
Genes can even emigrate and immigrate without their donors . . .
It comes full circle. According to the Memory Alpha episode summary you cited, the episode bore a very close resemblance to actual events in Brazil in 1987 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goi%C3%A2nia_accident.
The people who produce the political compass website http://www.politicalcompass.org/ suggest that there are multiple dimensions. Social libertarians are leaning more toward anarchy than authoritarianism. Economic libertarians, are more like Milton Friedman vs. Karl Marx at the opposite extreme of that dimension.
Anyway, it's worth a look to see some of the ways "libertarian" is used.
They can pretty much do anything short of explicitly advocating a particular candidate without getting the IRS on their case. E.G., an "unholy union" of Mormons, Baptists and Catholics in Missouri campaigned massively against that state's stem cell amendment last November. Citizens complained to the IRS and were told that only if the churches were telling people who to vote or not vote for was enough to revoke their tax exemption. Taking stands on issues was okely-dokely.
The got a big writeup in the September issue of IEEE Spectrum: http://spectrum.ieee.org/sep07/5490
In the olden days of modem-connected monitoring equipment, we called it "war dialing". What do the kids call it now, "war surfing"? Start at 0.0.0.0 and increment through FF.FF.FF.FF, excluding local nets if you like, and see if anything responds like a "Brand X" security camera.
But if they did that, how would they have determined the actual store location to get a phone number? Perhaps instead of an inside job, it was a bluff, and they didn't have camera access at all.
And even if they change it, there's still the "Joshua" back door.
I don't know that they actually are interwebbed, but if they were, it would be to save money over having a dedicated line for every store. The Dillons stores are owned by Kroger now, so home office is hundreds of miles away.
Oh crap, is that in the PATRIOT (sic) Act?
Yes, if we were playing "Let-those-you-disagree-with-present-your-only-opt ions", then I would have to pick "don't visit". But since we're not, I'll pick "use ad-blocking". Now, you can either agree with me or send me $5.
I thought that that would be a problem with TiVo. I've got a series 1, and it holds just over 20 hours of NTSC. 20 hours didn't seem like much, but I soon discovered that if I didn't have time this week to watch this week's programs, I wouldn't have time next week to watch last week's shows either, so it would just keep piling up. At first this depressed me, since the oldest stuff would get deleted unseen. Then I realized that even if I had infinite recording capacity, I would still never catch up due to my available time, not capacity of my DVR.
The real solution was provided by the TV networks, who canceled most of my favorite shows, solving storage problems.
I just checked on a Debian Lenny box that didn't have w32codecs already installed, and no, it does not. No muss, no fuss, no scary language. Didn't even need to cross my fingers or invoke executive privilege.