Because they went bust and quit government-ing, so you had to? ("Went out of business" just sounded wrong.)
Ha ha. Just kidding. That almost never happens.
Well, a few cities in California.
And Ferguson, MO was headed that way, when traffic ticket revenue took a nosedive for entirely non-mysterious reasons. Fortunately for Mayor Knowles and his buddies, the idiot voters recently out-voted the non-idiot voters, and some new taxes were imposed.
It's easy to see the parallels between, say, Iraq and Rwanda and Yugoslavia, if you look at each country as one created by colonial powers without regard to the languages and religions and ethnicities of the people there.
After the colonial powers withdrew, conflicts suppressed by the colonizers or their puppet governments eventually or immediately occurred, and you see the civil wars and/or genocides.
Decades ago in a piece in _Analog_ someone (Ben Bova?) made a case for the lack of contact being a lack of metals.
Metals are necessary for technology (as we know it). And technology (as we know it) is necessary to become space-faring. Planets around older stars are less apt to have metals. There won't be any ancient species with interstellar travel until species around the newer stars develop it.
When an ancient species travels to contact a newer one, we might be the ancient ones. Or we'll contact an even more ancient species that lacks the metals for travel.
Been a few years since then, and it's likely discoveries have invalidated that argument. (Those pesky astronomers keep learning new things. "Science marches on.")
Anyone here been keeping up, and care to post about this notion?
There seem to be two categories of climate change prediction: too soon to matter ("It's not climate, it's weather"), and too late to test ("as early as 2090").
There is another category: "long enough to be about climate rather than weather, and wrong", but we don't hear about those much.
On the issues that matter most to me, the candidates of Democrats and the Republicans are more like each other on the issues than either is like me. I'm in the end zone and they're standing next to each other on the fifty-yard line.
I'm going vote for someone who's in the end-zone near me, or even someone 10 or 20 yards away, before I'd vote for either of those two lunatics.
Just like 4 years ago. And 4 years before that. And 4 years before that. And...
I'm told that it was named "heroin" because it would be a heroic cure for morphine addiction.
I've also heard they have to be careful when handing out methadone to heroin addicts who are trying to end their heroin use, because it has potential for abuse.
Economies are just a collection of processes that convert raw materials and labour into useful goods and services.
Bzzt! Thank you for playing.
They're a lot more than that. For one thing, there are people involved.
People who have things they want, to varying degrees. People who have things they are willing and able to do, to varying degrees.
Economies -- at least, the better ones, allow people who have things they are willing and able to do to get things and things they want done, to whatever degree they choose, if they can find a willing person or group of people, directly or indirectly.
Linear programming is not some brand new thing, unavailable to the technocrats who ran the Soviet Union, and East Germany, or to the ones who run Cuba tidat.
The Internet is a wonderful place, full of information and insights and lessons from the past.
There's no need to reinvent the wheel. And certainly no need to re-invent the square wheel.
Except that mega corporations aren't playing by the rules either. For example, they use offshore tax havens to hide profit that should go to paying US taxes.
And by "rules" you mean "laws", apparently.
If what they are doing is not illegal, merely upsetting, guess what? It's legal, and you're getting upset with the wrong people. Government created this situation where it is legal to do this, and desirable.
Liberals often say that the US should be more like Europe. Not when it comes to corporate tax rates.
What a surprise: people choose to arrange things to minimize their taxes.
When I'm crossing the Mississippi, I sure don't fill my tank on the Illinois side.
And really, what sensible person thinks that "corporations" pay taxes? They pass the cost of those taxes on, usually to their customers, as part of the price.
More or less the same thing as what happens with sales taxes, except with sales taxes it's itemized. You see it on the receipt.
Gas taxes in Missouri and Illinois? Yeah, they're not listed on the receipt, but you can bet the seller doesn't pay them.
tell me again what part of "the left" views nationalism as the solution to anything, and sees the world in terms of "workers in my country" vs "workers in other countries", please.
In my experience, it's labor union Democrats, wanting imported goods blocked or impeded. That part.
Slashdot Mirror
Most advances, period, apparently.
At least, someone found enough instances of this to write a book about it.
_Sex, bombs, and burgers : how war, pornography, and fast food have shaped modern technology_, by Peter Nowak.
Again.
Or some entirely mysterious thing may once again prevent catastrophe.
The same mysterious thing that has been appearing century after century.
Of course, maybe the people who say "This time it's different" will be right this time.
People have been saying that too, century after century.
Good to know, EU.
They're out to give Wickard v. Filburn a run for its money, looks like.
Boo hoo.
And now I work in the private sector again....
Because they went bust and quit government-ing, so you had to? ("Went out of business" just sounded wrong.)
Ha ha. Just kidding. That almost never happens.
Well, a few cities in California.
And Ferguson, MO was headed that way, when traffic ticket revenue took a nosedive for entirely non-mysterious reasons. Fortunately for Mayor Knowles and his buddies, the idiot voters recently out-voted the non-idiot voters, and some new taxes were imposed.
Not even in the 20th century.
It's easy to see the parallels between, say, Iraq and Rwanda and Yugoslavia, if you look at each country as one created by colonial powers without regard to the languages and religions and ethnicities of the people there.
After the colonial powers withdrew, conflicts suppressed by the colonizers or their puppet governments eventually or immediately occurred, and you see the civil wars and/or genocides.
"Nation-building" can be a horrific waste.
This won't cause global cooling, will it? ;-)
As counterproductive and clumsy as US foreign policy is, it rarely includes expansion or annexation.
Well, lately. Might want to discuss the matter with someone knowledgeable about the history of Mexico.
Or Hawaii.
Yikes! Those tools will now be in the wrong hands.
Well, more wrong hands. (The NSA already had them.)
Yeah. Is "steal" even the right verb, here? I don't think so.
Decades ago in a piece in _Analog_ someone (Ben Bova?) made a case for the lack of contact being a lack of metals.
Metals are necessary for technology (as we know it). And technology (as we know it) is necessary to become space-faring. Planets around older stars are less apt to have metals. There won't be any ancient species with interstellar travel until species around the newer stars develop it.
When an ancient species travels to contact a newer one, we might be the ancient ones. Or we'll contact an even more ancient species that lacks the metals for travel.
Been a few years since then, and it's likely discoveries have invalidated that argument. (Those pesky astronomers keep learning new things. "Science marches on.")
Anyone here been keeping up, and care to post about this notion?
It has been quite some time since the USA has been a constitutional republic.
A copy of the Constitution, marked up to remove the parts no longer in effect, would be more Sharpie than text
Good news for Bill of Rights fans: the Third Amendment remains intact.
The Constitution doesn't grant rights. It recognizes rights.
Literacy can be a wonderful thing. But only if you use to, you know, read.
as early as 2090
There seem to be two categories of climate change prediction: too soon to matter ("It's not climate, it's weather"), and too late to test ("as early as 2090").
There is another category: "long enough to be about climate rather than weather, and wrong", but we don't hear about those much.
That's not my experience.
On the issues that matter most to me, the candidates of Democrats and the Republicans are more like each other on the issues than either is like me. I'm in the end zone and they're standing next to each other on the fifty-yard line.
I'm going vote for someone who's in the end-zone near me, or even someone 10 or 20 yards away, before I'd vote for either of those two lunatics.
Just like 4 years ago. And 4 years before that. And 4 years before that. And ...
Snowden is not convicted, He can't be pardoned yet.
Sure about that? Very sure?
http://duckduckgo.com/?q=richard.nixon+gerald.ford+pardon
"Florida Regulators OK Plan To Increase Toxins In Water"
Nope. That's not what happened.
Those Florida regulators did not OK anyone's plan to increase toxins in water.
You don't even have to read the article. Just the summary (or a lick of common sense) is enough.
I'm told that it was named "heroin" because it would be a heroic cure for morphine addiction.
I've also heard they have to be careful when handing out methadone to heroin addicts who are trying to end their heroin use, because it has potential for abuse.
Apparently, it's turtles all the way down.
Economies are just a collection of processes that convert raw materials and labour into useful goods and services.
Bzzt! Thank you for playing.
They're a lot more than that. For one thing, there are people involved.
People who have things they want, to varying degrees. People who have things they are willing and able to do, to varying degrees.
Economies -- at least, the better ones, allow people who have things they are willing and able to do to get things and things they want done, to whatever degree they choose, if they can find a willing person or group of people, directly or indirectly.
Linear programming is not some brand new thing, unavailable to the technocrats who ran the Soviet Union, and East Germany, or to the ones who run Cuba tidat.
The Internet is a wonderful place, full of information and insights and lessons from the past.
There's no need to reinvent the wheel. And certainly no need to re-invent the square wheel.
Except that mega corporations aren't playing by the rules either. For example, they use offshore tax havens to hide profit that should go to paying US taxes.
And by "rules" you mean "laws", apparently.
If what they are doing is not illegal, merely upsetting, guess what? It's legal, and you're getting upset with the wrong people. Government created this situation where it is legal to do this, and desirable.
Liberals often say that the US should be more like Europe. Not when it comes to corporate tax rates.
What a surprise: people choose to arrange things to minimize their taxes.
When I'm crossing the Mississippi, I sure don't fill my tank on the Illinois side.
And really, what sensible person thinks that "corporations" pay taxes? They pass the cost of those taxes on, usually to their customers, as part of the price.
More or less the same thing as what happens with sales taxes, except with sales taxes it's itemized. You see it on the receipt.
Gas taxes in Missouri and Illinois? Yeah, they're not listed on the receipt, but you can bet the seller doesn't pay them.
FWIW, I didn't vote for them.
And some people tell me I "wasted" my vote. Pffft!
Exactly how is it going to generate energy when it is covered by ice?
Because it will melt the ice using electricity!
Or something like that.
tell me again what part of "the left" views nationalism as the solution to anything, and sees the world in terms of "workers in my country" vs "workers in other countries", please.
In my experience, it's labor union Democrats, wanting imported goods blocked or impeded. That part.
Never10 seems to be working fine for me.
Info about it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Because it's incredibly American to be loudly ignorant about these things.
What a charmingly broad and obviously untrue thing to say.
I hope you are an American. I'd rather be embarrassed about nonsense spewed by one of my countrymen.