DISCLAIMER: I am not a network security expert and I'm talking from a layman's position concerning network security.
There are two issues with air-gapping the OPMI database. The first is just data-entry. An SF-86, which is the form to apply for a security clearance, is 122 pages, not including the instructions and the authorization for the government to access your medical records and to run a credit check on you. If you air-gap that system you have to hire someone to either run OCR scans or enter all that data by hand into the database.
The second is data transmission. Investigators have to verify all of the data on that SF86 and conduct in-person character interviews with whomever the applicant lists as character interviews. That's particularly a problem with military personnel as they tend to move from location to location a lot more often than other individuals. Let's say your character witness is Joe Schmuckatelly who lives in California and you live in Nebraska. It's easier and less expensive for the regional office in Nebraska to put the file on the network and request the regional office in California to interview Joe, than it is for the Nebraska office to mail it through USPS to the California office.
I don't think you understand how long it takes to develop and test these food recipes, particularly to determine what the expiration date is. Depending on how significant the change is, some of these companies may have to change their manufacturing plants to adapt, which also takes time. And it's not just one recipe per company, it's dozens. Next time you're in a supermarket check out how many different frozen food meals someone like Swansons or Stoffer makes
You may hate this stuff and think the companies that use them are pure unadulterated EVUL!!11! but there are second and third-order effects the FDA has to consider.
Logistics. There's no magic food fairy that replaces all this stuff overnight. Every company that uses trans-fats has to change their recipes to remove trans-fats. That means they have to source whatever replacement they use for trans-fats and sign contracts with the new suppliers. They have to wind down their existing contracts with trans-fat suppliers. Then they have to start manufacturing the new products and ship those new products to the distribution points (corner stores, markets, etc).
Since this stuff is pretty wide-spread, removing this from stores overnight would leave the shelves of a fair many grocery stores pretty bare. If you live in a food desert where most of your food supply is probably processed packaged food, this could lead to a food shortage until the stores can replace all of that existing stock.
Then there's the economic piece. Banning this stuff overnight is going to take an enormous cut out of a food company's bottom line (all their unsold stock they've already paid to manufacture is useless). That means lay-offs or pay-cuts (we both know most the CEOs and other high-level positions aren't going to take salary cuts to make up the shortfall) and a falling stock price. The same holds true for the grocery stores, since the food they've purchased from food companies is now product they can't sell.
I continue to be impressed with the crazy things these participants can think of, and simultaneously disturbed by the fact that they actually came up with this.
Something of a tangent. I work in security and this sentence pretty much sums up my feelings about my job every day. My colleagues think I'm nuts (probably not unwarranted) but I think there's a kind of noblise oblige when you across someone with a knack for subterfuge and deception. It takes a particular kind of mindset and I very much admire that capability, if not always their intentions.
IANAL but to my understanding a Congressional Declaration of War* can only be made on nation-states. As such, a formal declaration of war on ISIS would mean we recognize them as a legitimate government, something ISIS with its caliphate mentality craves very much.
*An actual war, not rhetorical wars such as "war or drugs"
Is that measured in total dollars or dollars-per-student? Most of the stats I've seen put the US down around 10th in the developed world in terms of dollars-per-student.
Money is fungible, but the word "subsidy" does imply a flow of government to someone. Tax break is the proper term to use unless you are deliberately trying to mislead people. See also "corporate welfare".
I've commented on this before in other threads. There's a (rather disturbing IMHO) school of thought that thinks government is the ultimate economic engine. Thus any money the government doesn't collect is equivalent to subsidy.
Interestingly, the Soviet Union routinely underestimated US military capabilities on the assumption that if the US had the capability, the US would have used it. The US hadn't used it, so obviously they didn't have it.
The banks are sitting on something like three houses for every homeless man, woman, and child in America, refusing to drop their prices to market level.
Can I see a citation for that statistic please? Or at least your calculations to come up with that figure?
Obviously the kid is not a rational actor (most human beings aren't but we're quite good at lying to ourselves in that respect), but I wonder what made this seem like a good idea to him. I'm not excusing his behavior by any means, but what external factors lead him to believe that 1) this was an acceptable action and 2) a failing grade was serious enough to warrant this action.
I've seen you post this comment 3 times. I'm going to extend you the courtesy of assuming you're not a troll.
Let's assume the FBI knew this guy was intending to fly a gryocopter into no-fly space. Let's further assume based on reading this guy's emails,or tapping this guy's phone, or rummaging through his trash, or his refrigerator, or installing secret spy devices in his underpants to measure his potential for Communist sympathies, that they decided he's a legitimate protestor and not a home-grown terrorist. In that case, shooting him out of the sky risks public out-cry. Particularly since the air-defense systems around DC no-fly zones are SURFACE-TO-AIR MISSILES. Weee bit of overkill there. So what's less headache? Shoot the kook down or let the kook have his fifteen minutes of political-stunt-fame and go about your day?
Looking at the GS base-scale, six-figure incomes don't start until GS-14 Step Six. At that point in their career, a GS-14 usually has responsibilities commensurate with a military colonel.
Yes. Comcast says "We'll let you access data at this speed." They then turn around to the source as say "Pay us money so your traffic can go through at this speed." Why does Comcast get to double-tip on this?
It's not Social Justice (TM) that the Sad Puppies are opposing. It's Social Justice (TM) at the expense of a decent or entertaining story. I was on the fence about the whole thing until last year,. What pushed me over the edge was If You Were A Dinosaur My Love winning Best Short Story in the Hugos. Even those who liked it admitted that it probably doesn't qualify as fantasty, science fiction, or speculative fiction.
There was a 2001 Superman comic to this effect, entitled "What's so Funny About Truth Justice and the American Way?" (later adapted into an animated short, "Superman vs the Elite"). Largely a reaction to the anti-hero movement and the "flawed god" stories, it addresses the necessity of dreams and ideals and why seeing everything as bleak and depressing is our ultimate self-inflicted damnation. I highly recommend both the comic and the film version.
In 2014 a lawsuit was brought a couple who rents their private property to host weddings as side income. A lesbian couple tried to rent the property for the day for their wedding.. Prior to the contract being finalized, the property owners discovered their would-be clients were were lesbians (presumably they had only talked with one partner up to that point). The property owners declined to host the wedding on religious grounds but said they were willing to let the couple use the farm for a reception if they so wished since a reception was non-religious in nature. The lesbian couple sued, won, and the property owners were fined 10-grand and forced to pay the couple $3000 ($1500 to each partner).
In 2013 the New Mexico Supreme Court ruled a photographer could not decline to photograph a gay marriage ceremony, as declining the work solely on the basis of the sexual orientation of the couple was a violation of discrimination law.
One the one hand I believe firmly that people should not be forced to give up their religious or moral beliefs just because they happen to own or run a business. On the other hand I believe public business must serve all equally. I see no good resolution to this.
Slashdot Mirror
DISCLAIMER: I am not a network security expert and I'm talking from a layman's position concerning network security.
There are two issues with air-gapping the OPMI database. The first is just data-entry. An SF-86, which is the form to apply for a security clearance, is 122 pages, not including the instructions and the authorization for the government to access your medical records and to run a credit check on you. If you air-gap that system you have to hire someone to either run OCR scans or enter all that data by hand into the database.
The second is data transmission. Investigators have to verify all of the data on that SF86 and conduct in-person character interviews with whomever the applicant lists as character interviews. That's particularly a problem with military personnel as they tend to move from location to location a lot more often than other individuals. Let's say your character witness is Joe Schmuckatelly who lives in California and you live in Nebraska. It's easier and less expensive for the regional office in Nebraska to put the file on the network and request the regional office in California to interview Joe, than it is for the Nebraska office to mail it through USPS to the California office.
Then for my own edification (and I'm dead serious, not sarcastic here), what's the timeline here?
I don't think you understand how long it takes to develop and test these food recipes, particularly to determine what the expiration date is. Depending on how significant the change is, some of these companies may have to change their manufacturing plants to adapt, which also takes time. And it's not just one recipe per company, it's dozens. Next time you're in a supermarket check out how many different frozen food meals someone like Swansons or Stoffer makes
You may hate this stuff and think the companies that use them are pure unadulterated EVUL!!11! but there are second and third-order effects the FDA has to consider.
Logistics. There's no magic food fairy that replaces all this stuff overnight. Every company that uses trans-fats has to change their recipes to remove trans-fats. That means they have to source whatever replacement they use for trans-fats and sign contracts with the new suppliers. They have to wind down their existing contracts with trans-fat suppliers. Then they have to start manufacturing the new products and ship those new products to the distribution points (corner stores, markets, etc).
Since this stuff is pretty wide-spread, removing this from stores overnight would leave the shelves of a fair many grocery stores pretty bare. If you live in a food desert where most of your food supply is probably processed packaged food, this could lead to a food shortage until the stores can replace all of that existing stock.
Then there's the economic piece. Banning this stuff overnight is going to take an enormous cut out of a food company's bottom line (all their unsold stock they've already paid to manufacture is useless). That means lay-offs or pay-cuts (we both know most the CEOs and other high-level positions aren't going to take salary cuts to make up the shortfall) and a falling stock price. The same holds true for the grocery stores, since the food they've purchased from food companies is now product they can't sell.
The Boston Globe ran an article about this last year: https://www.bostonglobe.com/id...
I continue to be impressed with the crazy things these participants can think of, and simultaneously disturbed by the fact that they actually came up with this.
Something of a tangent. I work in security and this sentence pretty much sums up my feelings about my job every day. My colleagues think I'm nuts (probably not unwarranted) but I think there's a kind of noblise oblige when you across someone with a knack for subterfuge and deception. It takes a particular kind of mindset and I very much admire that capability, if not always their intentions.
IANAL but to my understanding a Congressional Declaration of War* can only be made on nation-states. As such, a formal declaration of war on ISIS would mean we recognize them as a legitimate government, something ISIS with its caliphate mentality craves very much.
*An actual war, not rhetorical wars such as "war or drugs"
Is that measured in total dollars or dollars-per-student? Most of the stats I've seen put the US down around 10th in the developed world in terms of dollars-per-student.
Money is fungible, but the word "subsidy" does imply a flow of government to someone. Tax break is the proper term to use unless you are deliberately trying to mislead people. See also "corporate welfare".
I've commented on this before in other threads. There's a (rather disturbing IMHO) school of thought that thinks government is the ultimate economic engine. Thus any money the government doesn't collect is equivalent to subsidy.
Interestingly, the Soviet Union routinely underestimated US military capabilities on the assumption that if the US had the capability, the US would have used it. The US hadn't used it, so obviously they didn't have it.
Source: Operation Solo, John Barron.
drinkypoo linked me to the Amnesty International source. Thank you for the additional information.
You made a claim, I asked for a source, you provided it. No need to get snippy there, sparky.
The banks are sitting on something like three houses for every homeless man, woman, and child in America, refusing to drop their prices to market level.
Can I see a citation for that statistic please? Or at least your calculations to come up with that figure?
I'd be interested in a survey of the Voluntary Human Extinction Project for the numbers of vegans amongst their ranks.
Obviously the kid is not a rational actor (most human beings aren't but we're quite good at lying to ourselves in that respect), but I wonder what made this seem like a good idea to him. I'm not excusing his behavior by any means, but what external factors lead him to believe that 1) this was an acceptable action and 2) a failing grade was serious enough to warrant this action.
I've seen you post this comment 3 times. I'm going to extend you the courtesy of assuming you're not a troll.
Let's assume the FBI knew this guy was intending to fly a gryocopter into no-fly space. Let's further assume based on reading this guy's emails,or tapping this guy's phone, or rummaging through his trash, or his refrigerator, or installing secret spy devices in his underpants to measure his potential for Communist sympathies, that they decided he's a legitimate protestor and not a home-grown terrorist. In that case, shooting him out of the sky risks public out-cry. Particularly since the air-defense systems around DC no-fly zones are SURFACE-TO-AIR MISSILES. Weee bit of overkill there. So what's less headache? Shoot the kook down or let the kook have his fifteen minutes of political-stunt-fame and go about your day?
"Says the white guy" is not actually a valid counter-argument. You do realize that, correct?
Looking at the GS base-scale, six-figure incomes don't start until GS-14 Step Six. At that point in their career, a GS-14 usually has responsibilities commensurate with a military colonel.
Yes. Comcast says "We'll let you access data at this speed." They then turn around to the source as say "Pay us money so your traffic can go through at this speed." Why does Comcast get to double-tip on this?
Scalzi has stopped doing it in recent years, but it was a custom of his at one point. Here's his from 2008: http://whatever.scalzi.com/200...
It's not Social Justice (TM) that the Sad Puppies are opposing. It's Social Justice (TM) at the expense of a decent or entertaining story. I was on the fence about the whole thing until last year,. What pushed me over the edge was If You Were A Dinosaur My Love winning Best Short Story in the Hugos. Even those who liked it admitted that it probably doesn't qualify as fantasty, science fiction, or speculative fiction.
There was a 2001 Superman comic to this effect, entitled "What's so Funny About Truth Justice and the American Way?" (later adapted into an animated short, "Superman vs the Elite"). Largely a reaction to the anti-hero movement and the "flawed god" stories, it addresses the necessity of dreams and ideals and why seeing everything as bleak and depressing is our ultimate self-inflicted damnation. I highly recommend both the comic and the film version.
I was aware of NoScript and run in on my browser. The /etc/hosts bit was new to me. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.
Forthe less code-savvy among us, can you recommend a good tutorial on how to accomplish this?
The conflict is already here.
In 2014 a lawsuit was brought a couple who rents their private property to host weddings as side income. A lesbian couple tried to rent the property for the day for their wedding.. Prior to the contract being finalized, the property owners discovered their would-be clients were were lesbians (presumably they had only talked with one partner up to that point). The property owners declined to host the wedding on religious grounds but said they were willing to let the couple use the farm for a reception if they so wished since a reception was non-religious in nature. The lesbian couple sued, won, and the property owners were fined 10-grand and forced to pay the couple $3000 ($1500 to each partner).
In 2013 the New Mexico Supreme Court ruled a photographer could not decline to photograph a gay marriage ceremony, as declining the work solely on the basis of the sexual orientation of the couple was a violation of discrimination law.
One the one hand I believe firmly that people should not be forced to give up their religious or moral beliefs just because they happen to own or run a business. On the other hand I believe public business must serve all equally. I see no good resolution to this.