Slashdot runs off from stories submitted by readers. If you don't like what you see, submit one. I notice you have a low six digit ID but appear to have never submitted a story. That makes at least 10-12 years.
Maybe you haven't heard but the US did fight a war there to keep North Korea out of South Korea. The US still has tens of thousands of troops there. That kind of shoots a hole in the whole "blood for oil" thing, huh?
That is a change of subject. But in addressing that subject, there are many reasons for intelligence operations. If you will note above in this thread where I replied to the first post you will see that there were at least five nations trying to monitor Merkel's phone. At least two of them were European. If you can't think of any reasons for that interest you aren't trying.
Suggesting that there isn't genuine interest in preventing terrorist attacks isn't true. And neither is suggesting that the only reason for intelligence operations is preventing terrorism.
It is the insights by many here on the matter that are thin, and often unserious.
It would have been hard for measures taken after 9/11 to have prevented 9/11, wouldn't it? I take it that didn't register when you were writing that nonsense?
There are no guarantees. The work of law enforcement and intelligence agencies only make it less likely that a successful attack will occur. But people still keep trying, and get arrested. In fact there have been hundreds of arrests and convictions on both sides of the Atlantic. If you want to ignore facts, that is up to you, but don't expect me to ignore them as well.
I don't think anyone should be fearful, but rather informed, and take sensible precautions against enemies that announce their intent to kill when they can manage to do so in the US and Europe much like they already to in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.
The bullshit is entirely coming from you, including the claim that I work for the government. Apparently the distance between your ears isn't sufficiently wide to accommodate the idea that of the millions of people that have accounts on Slashdot that at least one of them could have views similar to my own. Those views are shared by no small number of people in the West.
Desktops and servers won't be going away anytime soon. The power and utility differential is too great. Handheld devices are gaining, but they are a long way from being a universal replacement for desktops let alone servers.
....only read their content for some nasty purpose like denying entry as a tourist for a twitter post they didn't like (US authorities already did that).
The "nasty purpose" is to prevent people from being killed, including Europeans - both in Europe and the US. If you think that similar things don't happen in Europe, you are misinformed.
... holidaymakers need to learn to be ultra-cautious when it comes to talking about forthcoming trips, particularly after 9/11.
"Posting statements in a public forum which could be construed as threatening - in this case saying they are going to "destroy" somewhere - will not be viewed sympathetically by US authorities," it told the BBC.
"In the past we have seen holidaymakers stopped at airport security for 'joking' that they have a bomb in their bag, thoroughly questioned and ending up missing their flights, demonstrating that airport security staff do not have a sense of humour when it comes to potential risk."
Not really terribly different than what happened in Germany.
You should also understand that the US, Canada, EU, Australia, New Zealand, and various other countries all trade intelligence information to varying degrees to try to keep their citizenry safe. The US has helped foil plots in various European countries on many occasions.
The US has good reason to look towards Europe since there have been many terrorists there plotting against the US. One of the 9/11 attack teams came out of Germany. And European laws in the past have often render various countries almost toothless in dealing with extremism.
The EU is a coalition of nations that makes for convenient travel and trade, but national sovereignty remains. If you are French, Poland is pretty much as foreign as the US is.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel's cellphone was tapped by at least five foreign intelligence agencies, not just by the United States, a German magazine said.
Besides the U.S. National Security Agency, Merkel's phone was monitored by the British, Russian, Chinese and North Korean surveillance agencies, weekly news magazine Focus reported, citing an unnamed German security official.
The difficulty is seldom in starting something, but in keeping it going at a high level. Eventually controversies of various sorts will emerge there as well.
The picture was pretty complex as it turns out - there was a lot going on. But I wouldn't be surprised that the flu outbreak could have had a major impact. The economy was horse driven at the time. Imagine if cars could catch the flu and you couldn't drive them, or they even "died." That could be very disruptive to many sectors of the economy.
The period following the Civil War in the United States from 1865-1873 is generally considered one of economic prosperity. Northern owners of industry and bankers had become wealthy in the war, while cotton exports in the south within the U.S. and abroad met the growing demands of foreign manufacturing for raw materials. In addition to a developing of manufacturing at home and abroad, technological innovations led to improvements in mining, agriculture, and infrastructure.
The first and most important point is that the Civil War was expensive. In 1860 the U.S. national debt was $65 million. To put that in perspective, the national debt in 1789, the year George Washington took office, was $77 million. In other words, from 1789 to 1860, the United States spanned the continent, fought two major wars, and began its industrial growth—all the while reducing its national debt.
We had limited government, few federal expenses, and low taxes. In 1860, on the eve of war, almost all federal revenue derived from the tariff. We had no income tax, no estate tax, and no excise taxes. Even the hated whiskey tax was gone. We had seemingly fulfilled Thomas Jefferson’s vision: “What farmer, what mechanic, what laborer ever sees a tax-gatherer of the United States?”
Four years of civil war changed all that forever. In 1865 the national debt stood at $2.7 billion. Just the annual interest on that debt was more than twice our entire national budget in 1860. In fact, that Civil War debt is almost twice what the federal government spent before 1860.
What’s worse, Jefferson’s vision had become a nightmare. The United States had a progressive income tax, an estate tax, and excise taxes as well. The revenue department had greatly expanded, and tax-gatherers were a big part of the federal bureaucracy.
Furthermore, our currency was tainted. The Union government had issued more than $430 million in paper money (greenbacks) and demanded it be legal tender for all debts. No gold backed the notes.
It's not true if it doesn't exist in any cowboy movies.
That's a fair point. I don't recall ever hearing of any cowboy movies featuring plagues or epidemics as part of the movie even if individuals became sick. Of course there were a number of them in history, such a small pox, etc. The flu epidemic is one I don't recall hearing about before though. It should make for some interesting follow up reading.
China isn't bankrupt, but it is appears to be heading for economic trouble. It has been building for some time, and there are multiple areas of concern.
Warrant Officers fly attack helicopters. Officers lead infantry, armor, field artillery, aviation, engineers, and other combat and combat support units.
Both officers and warrant officers are indeed warriors.
The US military academies are engineering schools (though they offer other majors as well) and ROTC cadets are also often science or engineering majors. I don't think that achieving a reasonable level of effectiveness over four years is that big of a hurdle, especially if there is follow-on training either over the summers or after graduation.
I'd like a technical post mortem and a list of contributions that Red Flag Linux has made to the community.
That is a very interesting question. I wonder if they hesitated to contribute out of security concerns, or the language barrier, or maybe they considered their distribution as a key hub that other people should have been looking to.
I wonder if they had publicly accessible sources? I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't - security through state secrets and all.
Slashdot Mirror
A government granting basing rights is a bit different than being invaded.
Easy there, Tonto. I'm sure Sergeant Preston will be along shortly.
Slashdot runs off from stories submitted by readers. If you don't like what you see, submit one. I notice you have a low six digit ID but appear to have never submitted a story. That makes at least 10-12 years.
Only in a way that doesn't matter. They're not shooting at each other or maneuvering to shoot at each other. They're not at war.
Actually they still do shoot at each other in various ways. This happened only a few years ago.
'North Korean torpedo' sank South's navy ship - report
This is just a sample, there are other incidents that happen in the DMZ or other places that aren't covered here.
Timeline: North Korean attacks
Maybe you haven't heard but the US did fight a war there to keep North Korea out of South Korea. The US still has tens of thousands of troops there. That kind of shoots a hole in the whole "blood for oil" thing, huh?
That is a change of subject. But in addressing that subject, there are many reasons for intelligence operations. If you will note above in this thread where I replied to the first post you will see that there were at least five nations trying to monitor Merkel's phone. At least two of them were European. If you can't think of any reasons for that interest you aren't trying.
Suggesting that there isn't genuine interest in preventing terrorist attacks isn't true. And neither is suggesting that the only reason for intelligence operations is preventing terrorism.
It is the insights by many here on the matter that are thin, and often unserious.
It would have been hard for measures taken after 9/11 to have prevented 9/11, wouldn't it? I take it that didn't register when you were writing that nonsense?
There are no guarantees. The work of law enforcement and intelligence agencies only make it less likely that a successful attack will occur. But people still keep trying, and get arrested. In fact there have been hundreds of arrests and convictions on both sides of the Atlantic. If you want to ignore facts, that is up to you, but don't expect me to ignore them as well.
I don't think anyone should be fearful, but rather informed, and take sensible precautions against enemies that announce their intent to kill when they can manage to do so in the US and Europe much like they already to in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.
The bullshit is entirely coming from you, including the claim that I work for the government. Apparently the distance between your ears isn't sufficiently wide to accommodate the idea that of the millions of people that have accounts on Slashdot that at least one of them could have views similar to my own. Those views are shared by no small number of people in the West.
That's a pity. The Chinese have enough local talent to do far more than that.
Desktops and servers won't be going away anytime soon. The power and utility differential is too great. Handheld devices are gaining, but they are a long way from being a universal replacement for desktops let alone servers.
....only read their content for some nasty purpose like denying entry as a tourist for a twitter post they didn't like (US authorities already did that).
The "nasty purpose" is to prevent people from being killed, including Europeans - both in Europe and the US. If you think that similar things don't happen in Europe, you are misinformed.
This happened at Stuttgart: German held at airport after bomb-in-briefs joke
As to the incident you mention:
Caution on Twitter urged as tourists barred from US
... holidaymakers need to learn to be ultra-cautious when it comes to talking about forthcoming trips, particularly after 9/11.
"Posting statements in a public forum which could be construed as threatening - in this case saying they are going to "destroy" somewhere - will not be viewed sympathetically by US authorities," it told the BBC.
"In the past we have seen holidaymakers stopped at airport security for 'joking' that they have a bomb in their bag, thoroughly questioned and ending up missing their flights, demonstrating that airport security staff do not have a sense of humour when it comes to potential risk."
Not really terribly different than what happened in Germany.
You should also understand that the US, Canada, EU, Australia, New Zealand, and various other countries all trade intelligence information to varying degrees to try to keep their citizenry safe. The US has helped foil plots in various European countries on many occasions.
NSA helped foil terror plot in Belgium, documents, officials say
The US has good reason to look towards Europe since there have been many terrorists there plotting against the US. One of the 9/11 attack teams came out of Germany. And European laws in the past have often render various countries almost toothless in dealing with extremism.
The EU is a coalition of nations that makes for convenient travel and trade, but national sovereignty remains. If you are French, Poland is pretty much as foreign as the US is.
And while we're on the subject of Merkel | Germany | spying:
Merkel's cellphone said targeted by 5 countries' spy agencies
German Chancellor Angela Merkel's cellphone was tapped by at least five foreign intelligence agencies, not just by the United States, a German magazine said.
Besides the U.S. National Security Agency, Merkel's phone was monitored by the British, Russian, Chinese and North Korean surveillance agencies, weekly news magazine Focus reported, citing an unnamed German security official.
The difficulty is seldom in starting something, but in keeping it going at a high level. Eventually controversies of various sorts will emerge there as well.
... at which point does this man have immunity from law's scrutiny?
Up until he does something illegal himself, or fails a field sobriety test later confirmed by lab data.
The web has an underbelly? No kidding? To-date it seems to have only been reported to be a series of interconnected tubes.
Where do you think the tubes are? In the belly .... just like yours.
The German Prism: Berlin Wants to Spy Too
French officials can monitor internet users in real time under new law
And some of the reports of "NSA spying" were in fact NSA being given phone data from European agencies.
That's for mobile devices. I'm not sure that would be suitable for all uses.
The picture was pretty complex as it turns out - there was a lot going on. But I wouldn't be surprised that the flu outbreak could have had a major impact. The economy was horse driven at the time. Imagine if cars could catch the flu and you couldn't drive them, or they even "died." That could be very disruptive to many sectors of the economy.
The Long Depression (1873-1878)
The period following the Civil War in the United States from 1865-1873 is generally considered one of economic prosperity. Northern owners of industry and bankers had become wealthy in the war, while cotton exports in the south within the U.S. and abroad met the growing demands of foreign manufacturing for raw materials. In addition to a developing of manufacturing at home and abroad, technological innovations led to improvements in mining, agriculture, and infrastructure.
The Economic Costs of the Civil War
The first and most important point is that the Civil War was expensive. In 1860 the U.S. national debt was $65 million. To put that in perspective, the national debt in 1789, the year George Washington took office, was $77 million. In other words, from 1789 to 1860, the United States spanned the continent, fought two major wars, and began its industrial growth—all the while reducing its national debt.
We had limited government, few federal expenses, and low taxes. In 1860, on the eve of war, almost all federal revenue derived from the tariff. We had no income tax, no estate tax, and no excise taxes. Even the hated whiskey tax was gone. We had seemingly fulfilled Thomas Jefferson’s vision: “What farmer, what mechanic, what laborer ever sees a tax-gatherer of the United States?”
Four years of civil war changed all that forever. In 1865 the national debt stood at $2.7 billion. Just the annual interest on that debt was more than twice our entire national budget in 1860. In fact, that Civil War debt is almost twice what the federal government spent before 1860.
What’s worse, Jefferson’s vision had become a nightmare. The United States had a progressive income tax, an estate tax, and excise taxes as well. The revenue department had greatly expanded, and tax-gatherers were a big part of the federal bureaucracy.
Furthermore, our currency was tainted. The Union government had issued more than $430 million in paper money (greenbacks) and demanded it be legal tender for all debts. No gold backed the notes.
They love XP so much the Chinese have been trying to persuade Microsoft to continue supporting it.
Thanks for the link. Very interesting.
It's not true if it doesn't exist in any cowboy movies.
That's a fair point. I don't recall ever hearing of any cowboy movies featuring plagues or epidemics as part of the movie even if individuals became sick. Of course there were a number of them in history, such a small pox, etc. The flu epidemic is one I don't recall hearing about before though. It should make for some interesting follow up reading.
Not necessarily China bankruptcy.
China isn't bankrupt, but it is appears to be heading for economic trouble. It has been building for some time, and there are multiple areas of concern.
Warrant Officers fly attack helicopters.
Officers lead infantry, armor, field artillery, aviation, engineers, and other combat and combat support units.
Both officers and warrant officers are indeed warriors.
Cyber goes back further than the 80s. You might look into Control Data Corp.
The US military academies are engineering schools (though they offer other majors as well) and ROTC cadets are also often science or engineering majors. I don't think that achieving a reasonable level of effectiveness over four years is that big of a hurdle, especially if there is follow-on training either over the summers or after graduation.
I'd like a technical post mortem and a list of contributions that Red Flag Linux has made to the community.
That is a very interesting question. I wonder if they hesitated to contribute out of security concerns, or the language barrier, or maybe they considered their distribution as a key hub that other people should have been looking to.
I wonder if they had publicly accessible sources? I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't - security through state secrets and all.