Yeah, too bad Obama publicly (snip) stated that he wants a federal police force that answers only to him.
Okay, so I may be reading this wrong, but...
The FBI is a police force, tasked with upholding the laws of the Federal government. They have badges, guns, the whole thing. They are a part of the Department of Justice (or were, anyway), and are now part of the DHS. This is a Federal agency that takes its power from the Executive branch. That is to say, the Office of the President. They don't report directly to him on a day to day basis...but their director does report to the director of DHS, who does report directly to the POTUS.
You know him, the AUTHOR of the DECELERATION OF INDEPENDENCE.
I know our liberties aren't what they used to be, and I thought that they were eroding faster than ever, but I'm definitely going to start calling them the deceleration of Independence.
I disagree. In the original Rainbow 6 games (even leading up to the most recent ones in Vegas) the characters in your squad could take at most a glancing shot and be harmed. Their effectiveness dropped remarkably. If they got hit again, or were unlucky enough to be hit critically, they were dead. Not revived-at-the-end-of-the-mission knocked out, but dead. Your explosives expert takes a sniper shot the the head in the first mission? You better learn how to dismantle bombs, because he's gone. The characters that only got scratched during the mission took a few "weeks" to heal,meaning they were ineffective in the following missions. It made for a more tactics-based game, instead of "I'm gonna run into that room and spray bullets at anything the moves" type game.
"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
Okay, so Defense is explicitly named. And I'm not taking sides or anything here but it could be argued that "the general Welfare" could be understood to mean that the health of the Nation's citizens is of some importance to the Federal government.
As to education, I don't know about you but I would count that as one of the blessings of liberty as well as a means to provide for domestic tranquility. It's hard to claim that you have liberty if you are unaware of said liberty or of what having that liberty means. And a reasoned, rational discourse will always be a more tranquil solution to any problem. It's impossible to have a rational argument with someone who is totally ignorant, as they cannot hold two conflicting ideas in their minds. So an education is the way to go to get there.
Just my two cents. Perhaps before calling someone a dimwit and insisting on them referencing some source material it would be wise to be familiar with that same material.
Okay, so I don't usually do this, but I had to jump in here. I work in an eye doctor's office, and we do a lot of contact lens work. "Station keeping" over the pupil is handled by the shape of the lens. Everyone's eyes are a little differently shaped, so the lenses are tailor-made to fit properly. No special tech needed.
Orientation maintenance is something already handled in toric contact lenses for astigmatism, as well as bifocal contact lenses. Yes, they exist. No, they don't look like bifocals lenses in glasses, that wouldn't work. They're pretty common, actually, and have been for a while now.
As far as crud on the lenses, you can use one of the two mechanisms currently in use for keeping eyes and contacts clean. You can clean the contacts every night like you're supposed to, or you could...blink. That usually works for the rest of us.:)
Not to pick nits, but the problem with 24/7 uptime in your example is that it's a geostationary satellite. It can only beam power down to the station when it's above the station, and it would be easier to do that with the satellite constantly over its target. That means that when it's night time, that satellite is blocked from the sun by the earth, just as any solar collector on the ground would be. True, the earth's shadow is smaller as you get farther from it, but it's still not total 24/7 uptime.
Anyone want to run the numbers and prove me wrong, go ahead. This is just my 2c from a quick google.
Hey, I read your story. Pretty scary stuff, but I could see something like that happening in real life. Without being too paranoid, what prevents that? Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Anyway, just wanted to say thanks for the interesting read
True story: My brother worked at a Best Buy while putting himself through culinary school. He spent days in the kitchen, and worked nights during the holiday season trying to sell stereos to desperate holiday shoppers. Being a fairly young and tech-savvy guy, he actually does his research and knows a fair bit about the stereos he's selling. Other salespeople in his area end up sending customers to him with questions when they don't have answers.
So one night, a woman comes in looking to buy something for her son. She singles out my brother and starts asking him all sorts of questions about the various floor models on display. My brothe fields all of her questions, and unfortunately goes a little over her head with some of his explanations. In a good natured sort of tone, the woman replies, "Well, you may know a lot about these things, but I bet you wouldn't know anything about cooking a roast."
My brother smiled, and said, "Well, if you want it medium rare, it should cook to about 140 degrees..."
The woman just stared at him, and then thanked him for his help and took the completed order form. My point is, not all the underpaid Best Buy drones are completely useless. Some of them are just there because it's the job they can have while waiting to do something else.
Slashdot Mirror
Oh my God, I'm going to die alone, and STUPID.
Yeah, too bad Obama publicly (snip) stated that he wants a federal police force that answers only to him.
Okay, so I may be reading this wrong, but...
The FBI is a police force, tasked with upholding the laws of the Federal government. They have badges, guns, the whole thing. They are a part of the Department of Justice (or were, anyway), and are now part of the DHS. This is a Federal agency that takes its power from the Executive branch. That is to say, the Office of the President. They don't report directly to him on a day to day basis...but their director does report to the director of DHS, who does report directly to the POTUS.
You know him, the AUTHOR of the DECELERATION OF INDEPENDENCE.
I know our liberties aren't what they used to be, and I thought that they were eroding faster than ever, but I'm definitely going to start calling them the deceleration of Independence.
I disagree. In the original Rainbow 6 games (even leading up to the most recent ones in Vegas) the characters in your squad could take at most a glancing shot and be harmed. Their effectiveness dropped remarkably. If they got hit again, or were unlucky enough to be hit critically, they were dead. Not revived-at-the-end-of-the-mission knocked out, but dead. Your explosives expert takes a sniper shot the the head in the first mission? You better learn how to dismantle bombs, because he's gone. The characters that only got scratched during the mission took a few "weeks" to heal ,meaning they were ineffective in the following missions. It made for a more tactics-based game, instead of "I'm gonna run into that room and spray bullets at anything the moves" type game.
"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
Okay, so Defense is explicitly named. And I'm not taking sides or anything here but it could be argued that "the general Welfare" could be understood to mean that the health of the Nation's citizens is of some importance to the Federal government.
As to education, I don't know about you but I would count that as one of the blessings of liberty as well as a means to provide for domestic tranquility. It's hard to claim that you have liberty if you are unaware of said liberty or of what having that liberty means. And a reasoned, rational discourse will always be a more tranquil solution to any problem. It's impossible to have a rational argument with someone who is totally ignorant, as they cannot hold two conflicting ideas in their minds. So an education is the way to go to get there.
Just my two cents. Perhaps before calling someone a dimwit and insisting on them referencing some source material it would be wise to be familiar with that same material.
Okay, so I don't usually do this, but I had to jump in here. I work in an eye doctor's office, and we do a lot of contact lens work. "Station keeping" over the pupil is handled by the shape of the lens. Everyone's eyes are a little differently shaped, so the lenses are tailor-made to fit properly. No special tech needed.
:)
Orientation maintenance is something already handled in toric contact lenses for astigmatism, as well as bifocal contact lenses. Yes, they exist. No, they don't look like bifocals lenses in glasses, that wouldn't work. They're pretty common, actually, and have been for a while now.
As far as crud on the lenses, you can use one of the two mechanisms currently in use for keeping eyes and contacts clean. You can clean the contacts every night like you're supposed to, or you could...blink. That usually works for the rest of us.
Not to pick nits, but the problem with 24/7 uptime in your example is that it's a geostationary satellite. It can only beam power down to the station when it's above the station, and it would be easier to do that with the satellite constantly over its target. That means that when it's night time, that satellite is blocked from the sun by the earth, just as any solar collector on the ground would be. True, the earth's shadow is smaller as you get farther from it, but it's still not total 24/7 uptime. Anyone want to run the numbers and prove me wrong, go ahead. This is just my 2c from a quick google.
Damn, wrong mod option. Oh for the days of having to click "Moderate" at the bottom of the page to avoid these sort of mistakes
Hey, I read your story. Pretty scary stuff, but I could see something like that happening in real life. Without being too paranoid, what prevents that? Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Anyway, just wanted to say thanks for the interesting read
This is relevant to my interests...
True story: My brother worked at a Best Buy while putting himself through culinary school. He spent days in the kitchen, and worked nights during the holiday season trying to sell stereos to desperate holiday shoppers. Being a fairly young and tech-savvy guy, he actually does his research and knows a fair bit about the stereos he's selling. Other salespeople in his area end up sending customers to him with questions when they don't have answers.
So one night, a woman comes in looking to buy something for her son. She singles out my brother and starts asking him all sorts of questions about the various floor models on display. My brothe fields all of her questions, and unfortunately goes a little over her head with some of his explanations. In a good natured sort of tone, the woman replies, "Well, you may know a lot about these things, but I bet you wouldn't know anything about cooking a roast."
My brother smiled, and said, "Well, if you want it medium rare, it should cook to about 140 degrees..."
The woman just stared at him, and then thanked him for his help and took the completed order form. My point is, not all the underpaid Best Buy drones are completely useless. Some of them are just there because it's the job they can have while waiting to do something else.