failure to tax is not a subsidy. Again, as I stated, wealth redistribution has a definition. Perhaps you'd like to keep farm subsidies where over 90% goes to large corporations like archer daniels midland and much of the rest goes to hobby places owned by the likes of ted turner and sam donaldson who suppliment the costs for their vacation places with gov. grants referred to as farm subsidies. Having legitimate farm subsidies to keep the cost of food down for all the population can be argued that it is not wealth redistribution. Quite obviously, if the prices are kept below the cost of production, there will be no food production(and the prices will skyrocket).
Including faith based funding is stupid. It's private charity and should be kept that way. As for the alphabet soup, the stuff needs to be replaced before the crisis of their failures affect too many. About the only income taxes paid by about 50% of the populace is related to medicare and social security - it's up to 15% of income and it's climbing. The damage done by illegals coming into this country for the freebies will have far greater effects in the near future than at present. You can't tax people at a rate of over 100%.
Your examples of program after program after program illustrate the points. There are far too many programs, overlapping in scope, each sucking up administrative costs that far exceed the actual cost of benefits delivered, well over 60% in all cases, and over 90% in some.
Ultimately, it comes down to what gov. does well and what it does not. So far, the only thing gov. does well is wage war - which is the most destructive, expensive and costly activity which man engages in - other than failing to wage war when necessary for survival.
As for american charity - one doesn't need to look at gov. to find private help in food, shelter and medical. All are available for those in need. Not even in the great depression before the gov. abc socialism was enacted (which deepened and extended the depression) was there any serious problems in the US with starvation and people dying in the streets - other than a few initial wall streeters departing their former jobs via the 10th story windows.
You're confusing society with government. WHile gov. is pretty much a worthless sinkhole whose main claim to fame is as the god of an essentially secular religion, it does have some minimal but necessary uses. Where ever it breaks out beyond this, things get mucked up far worse than had it not even existed.
Can man go against nature? The answer should be obviously no. Can man bend the effects of nature to overcome transient pertubations - like saving food a year of famine? The answer is quite obviously yes. As such, it's possible that gov. can be used to bridge minor gaps in the natural pertubations of things. However, the waste and BS associated with such disasters as katrina where FEMA waltzes in throwing money at the victims - that is resources which won't be available in the future. Taking that money from california might work for a short time - but when the big one hits there - it's pot luck as to whether NOLA will be rebuilt and prosperous enough to be taxed to death to help los angeles or san francisco.
If you can remember past yesterday, you'll realize that bush ran as a compassionate conservative, a rather redundant statement acknowledging that he was really not a conservative but held a small handful of conservative viewpoints on a few items. And no, I'm not a jewish republican which is what your codeword 'neocon' refers to.
I was not aware one needed a passport yet to cross the border - but then I haven't been to mexico in several months. I believe that if you want passport examples - check out europe, don't they still require passports to go from EU member to EU member and doesn't one have to still surrender them at any hotel they stay at?
Canada is not the 51st state and Canada doesn't have the same border and immigration policies that the US has - at their ports of entry. Seems like we've caught some terrorists trying to sneak it from canada - unfortunately, by sheer accident and some customs employee who was awake enough to become suspicious of one.
As for the big fence down here, it's been turned into a typical gov. boondoggle to reward campaign donors. It's a hightech tv monitoring system and fence that costs thousands of dollars per foot. They'll be able to hire someone in boston to watch illegals and drug runners cross the border day and night. Besides, they'll only do a small amount of it. It seems that certain people in this country want to have illegals for cheap labor, spewing myths and paltitudes - people like george bush, john mccain and teddy the killer kennedy are all on the same page.
There is no country without a secure border. Crime from mexico has invaded this area to the extent that who needs terrorists. In laredo, they've found automatic weapons and improvised explosive devices. Just across the border in neuvo laredo, someone that runs for public office with genuine law and order intentions has a life span after the election that is measured in minutes, not days.
While I can see a lot of you cannucks wanting to escape your frozen paradise, the problem up there - except for the occaisional terrorist, is miniscule compared to down here.
Once, when you encountered wetbacks around here, they were looking for work, they were mostly from mexico and had the drive and ambition to risk their life crossing some seriously bad terrain to seek a better life. Most, had their families at home so they sent money back and finally left to go home.
Now, most cross over with guides, coyotes, who charge around $1000-$2000 per person - figure out where those poor people got that money on typically $25/week mexican wages. Between 1/3 and 2/3 are transporting drugs and contraband. Most if not all of those transporting drugs are armed. Sometimes, units of the mexican army (evidently working a little side job on the weekend)cross over to provide protection for the drug runners and have been known to fire on law enforcement and border patrol agents.
Even in this area, most hospital emergency rooms have been closed due to the proclivities of illegals to go there for free (but very expensive) medical care rather than thru the normal methods. The school system has been cratering as well since the children of illegals are being educated and the illegals do not provide any tax revenues to pay for that education. It has led to a dramatic increase in taxes on people and has resulted in the decline of educational standards.
Essentially, those, like bush, pushing for that cheap labor force are doing most people no good. It distorts the natural economics of job worth, puts many people here out of work. It shifts their true cost of employement over to the state and to the taxpayers. It opens the door for selective enforcement of the law to discourage some companies from hiring illegals (like for now Swift meat packing appears discouraged) while opening the door for some other 'protected' companies to gain competitive advantage in labor costs.
As for whacked out fringe, I guess the founding fathers like george washington and thomas jefferson were
Bush perhaps should be impeached over failing to defend the border of the US. Perhaps too because he failed to inflict far more draconian methods used by his predecessors during serious times of emergency. Lincoln and FDR are two that come to mind.
However, this hit piece - yet another in the long line of inflammatory hit pieces that could have just as easily been written by the al queda propaganda staff - fails entirely to even give mention to the most dire genuine assault on American's civil liberties - that of the supreme court's ruling on public takings for the purpose of raising taxes. That's a direct assault on the rights of people to own property. People who do not have the right to own property are in fact the property of someone else - ie - slaves.
Most of the items mentioned are veritable non issues, composed of 99% misleading hype, spin and flat out lies. If bush were a leftist democrat - none of these allegations would ever have seen the light of day in the media - just like those allegations which existed during the clinton
administration didn't get a mention nor are they currently mentioned as having existed back then.
Wealth redistribution has a specific meaning and it's not what you imply. It's where the money and property belonging to one person is taken away by force of government and given to another to whom it does not belong. Note that in this context, the word 'given' is literal and refers to a gift rather than to a business transaction of something for something else.
Most things in society are too important to allow government incompetence and inefficiency to muck them up.
It sounds like a massive increase in ambient EM noise just so a few lazy SOBs don't have to plug a power cable into a plug - not to mention another point of power loss (and waste) on the energy scene.
Clone Schmone. Certain types of twins (or triplets) are clones. The only potential for negative outcomes so far has been a small cultural predelection for doublemint chewing gum. So far, none of those doublemint twins, some potentially are (natural)clones, have shown any overt symptoms or problems, such as chewing with their mouth open or drooling uncontrollably. In fact, I doubt one could determine which of them were the clone and which the original.
As for feeding cattle sheepbrains and perverse stuff like that, it definitely ain't natural. It's understandable that the presence of something infectious (prions?) could and probably would spread. Seems like they'd best be used as filler for haggas, veggie burgers and such. Fortunately, there's only been a couple of cases in cattle of mad cow disease and most of the hype and import bans of american are politically based rather than based on legitimate health concerns.
Feeding cattle is a bit of a problem. It takes about 4 pounds of feed to add 1 pound of cow. While primo rib-eye might go for $15 / pound at the grocery, a cow on the hoof goes for more like $1 - $1.30 for the typical hamburger and roast variety. That's why they are mostly fed grass or perhaps hay.
Linux is merely an evolutionary step up the unix ladder. Unix is the work product of a lost generation of physics students trying to learn how to program. That's why it's so weird. The fact that it competes with windows is far more about the (lack of) quality of windows programming and design and far less about the ineptitude present in the creation of unix.
Perhaps I'm not giving credit enough to mickiesoft for their expertise in injecting bugs and doing such a half-assed job that it needs to undergo an immediate redo. That's probably why mickiesoft has been so successful selling and reselling the same old garbage (except for minor enhancements and the substitution of one set of bugs for another). It's also kept the competition from windows simulators down, making it far more difficult to simulate with all those bugs.
I guess eventually, they may try to steal a version of linux to peddle as their own rather than make yet another buggy rendition of the same old Winders.
Well, as usual sounds like there may be some gross exagerations as well as innaccuracies in the article - such as that 1.7 million figure in britain.
As for the methane from cows, it's nothing new - There have been low tech solutions to harnessing the bovine methane in third world countries for decades. As for filling 400 liter bottles, the author is obviously a reporter and should be assumed to not understand anything and for knowing nothing outside of pop culture bs. After all STP is a gas additive, it can't mean standard temperature and pressure.
I am waiting for the ultimate discovery to be 'discovered' in the realm of methane production. That is just how much is created by termites. Metabolisms of small creatures are much much higher than large creatures and the biomass of termites is far more substantial compared to that of cows and people.
Of course, it remains to be seen just how many of those 100 new things we 'didn't know' will ultimately become things we thought we knew until we found out we didn't because they are incorrect. Consider erroneous things to be negative knowledge and it becomes possible for one to know less than nuthin'.
Actually, polution is referred to in economics as a negative externality (as opposed to a positive externality). A negative externality is not a concept that negates free market ideas nor is there a guarantee that gov. is a solution to the problem of the shifting of costs from a company who is shuffling those costs onto others.
Negative externalities associated with pollution are often used as excuses for gov. meddling in the private sector but as with most things associated with gov., it's not something gov. handles competently. Lawsuits by individuals against companies who try to compete by shifting the true cost of their production to others who are not their customers can be very effective also. Unfortunately, such things as the superfund garbage tends to be welfare for rich shyster lawyers who as a group aren't that discerning over their targets. Gov. entities are also known to occaisionally fine companies for illegally dumping chemicals which they neither use nor produce - because they had 'deep pockets'.
Negative externalities can be created by gov. itself. For instance, the current disaster with illegals invading our country, ostensibly to work, has caused negative externalities more like the equivalent of a hundred chernobyls than like the exxon valdez. Besides taking jobs that americans would do, the damage done to the education system and healthcare system has been massive and expensive - so much so that the costs cannot be correctly estimated. Many areas along the border virtually have no emergency room service due to the illegals - who go there because they don't have to pay for healthcare there like they would going to a for pay clinic, even though emergency room treatment is far more expensive than the clinic. Other negative externalities of the open border will become more evident with time, now that some have finally started notifying the world that the emperor has no clothes and the myths propagated its proponents are starting to show even the blind that they are fabrications.
As for global warming being dealt with by the private sector, they are in business to provide what their customers are willing to pay for. Unfortunately, mankind isn't quite in the exhaulted position as to be able to cause or cure global warming. It does make for a good method of getting people to surrender more wealth and power to gov. and so will be promoted even in the light of irrefutable evidence to the contrary. Of course those leading proponents of global warming started about 30 years ago preaching coming ice age and wanted to take massive actions, supposedly things like covering the ice areas with lampblack (talking about following ignorance to create an ecological disaster - not that they could have effected significant warming or even significantly delay a real cooling). However, they found out it suited socialist gov. desires to promote global warming instead, hence the change from cooling to warming. Of course back then they wanted us to act immediately because if we waited to be sure, it would be too late to do anything about the coming ice age. Fortunately, nothing was done and no additional damage was done. And, we didn't enter in to a new ice age. The latest hype is that global warming will cause an ice age - which was important to promote since global warming could actually have more positive benefits than negative and an ice age would be far worse. Regardless of whether we have some global warming in the near future first, we will have an ice age which will be rather unpleasant. It's nature and it happens periodically - regardless of the presence of human life on earth. And evidently, it can happen very fast. Our choice is adapt or die and wasting money and scarce resources tilting at windmills as if they were dragons makes adapting much more difficult.
water is supposed to come from that glacer flow way down south. The one that has been speeding up because of the melting goin on about 10,000 feet down. Like magic, manmade global warming is heating up and melting the ice about 10,000 ft down - without waming any of the top 10000 ft. Of course, in reality - theres volcanic activity heating up a bit and melting the ice down there- causing to slip out into the ocean.
Whether there is actually enough landlocked ice to raise the oceans by any consequential amounts is a question and the assumption that all of it can get to the ocean. Of course ice floating at the north pole will not affect the ocean levels were it to melt because since it is floating already - it is already displacing its own weight so the ocean levels will be the same whether it's all melted or just as solid as it is now.
Nuthin like wasting scarce resources on things that are most likely not even a problem that can be addressed, if it indeed is a problem.
First off, the suggested liklihood was more probable to be a domestic political party rather than a foreign one as you attempted to present. Second, it's obvious that there is some - consider the valarie plame incident where a democrat political operative was sent on a sensitive mission and then used the supposed conclusions for political ammunition. This happened. It's not supposition.
As for the bush administration chosing to censor this for face saving purposes - that's a rather dumb ascertion. You'd think they'd try to save face on something that was actually worthwhile. There's been a particular absence of such efforts on the part of the bush administration - at least on anything worth trying to save face on. Heck, if you believe the official story, sandy burglar went in and stole secret documents from the national archives (ones with margin notes added)and then put them in a deaddrop - like an experienced spy - although evidently he did later retrieve them himself. Why was this supposedly done? It supposedly was done for the clinton administration to save face on some lack of involvement in pre 9/11 antiterrorist efforts. THAT is actual face saving by illegal activity (or most likely - somewhat worse). The absence of any context in these argument is the only reason they continue
You're certainly correct on the amount of arrogance and self centeredness of the ignorant and their presumptions that man is important, especially in a negative way.
That article was pure propaganda for man caused global warming and does not deserve any title or reference without the words 'political propaganda' in it. Of course it is typical of the global warming crowd.
One simple fact which was not mentioned would have totally negated the article. What is the change of the mean sea level. As I recall from elsewhere, fairly recent changes in mean sea level are in the 1-2 millimeter range and not all of these changes are increases. That fact alone proves the article to be totally in error, unresearched, unbalanced and nothing at all but another attempt by some nitwitt to promote his beloved religion of socialism to protect mistress earth from the mythical manmade global warming monster.
It's obvious that river deltas are very unstable. However, it doesn't take a river delta location to sink beneath the ocean. Of course over there in that region of the earth, there was a huge tsunomi and earthquake just two years ago which killed many tens of thousands and shook the entire earth to its core and evidently even affected the tilt of the axis. Such events do affect the height of areas since shifts can be in feet.
Even that isn't necessary for shifts in altitude. There is subsidence on the upper texas coast which has been going on for many years. Around Kemah texas, there are roads and houses slowly sinking into Galveston Bay. High tides bring salt water into the drainage ditches along some of the streets there. A coastal highway around Beaumont Texas is evidently partly under water during high tide now. Even well over two hundred miles from there, my town's railway station has a 'benchmark' plaque indicating that in 1917, it was 75 feet above sea level. Modern measurements over the last thirty years indicate it is really about 68 feet, suggesting that either that the original measurements were way off or that the area has also been sinking
As for Mars getting warmer - that is just one of the planets undergoing global warming right now. It's been detected that several are. Of course Mars is the exception - it's obviously manmade global warming. Being smaller than the earth, it appears those two sawed-off robotic electric go-carts must be causing the global warming there. Well, so much for electric vehicles being a good 'clean' alternative. We don't know the martian global parameters concerning its global temperatures, nor do we know much else about it but we do know there's two rovers there polluting the planet in some unknown fashion. And, as our ultra intellegent elitist rulers (congress critter sheila jackson lee from houston) have previously asked "Can you command the mars rover to go over and take a picture of the flag that the astronauts planted on the apollo mission?" She's the one that will be fixing man's global warming problems - by force of government arms. Be afraid, be very afraid because fear is part of the survival instinct.
does it matter? A double agent is going to be acting on behalf of their real alliegence rather than for the CIA. Statistically speaking, a domestic political party would almost certainly be the democrat one since it is the only substantial opposition party and since this is the only party which was in power prior to the bush administration. One simply has to look at the valarie plame/ joe wilson fiasco to see what damage an embedded political operative can do to sabotage real efforts at intellegence.
As for the communists, back at the origins of the cia (OSS) they were accepted into the effort because many were familar with clandestine activities. Supposedly, most of them were dumped by the end of wwii. However, it is now evident that our intellegence service was more compromised over the last 30 years than the soviets ever were.
During wwii, republicans supported the war effort and politics ended at the water's edge. Consequently, there was no reason for an enemy foreign power to become involved in our domestic politics. In recent times, this has not been the case. Democrats, or at least a significant number of them have been involved in sabotaging the US war efforts and as a consequence, making it worthwhile for foreign enemies to get involved in US domestic politics. It's not new with bush because the red chinese army was fully involved in covert funding of the clinton campaign. Remember charlie tree or those budhist nuns? It happened, it's not debatable. In fact, even back during the nixon era, liddy's breakin of the watergate was done using cubans because it was believed by liddy and others that the dems were receiving illegal contributions from the soviets via castro. While that may well have not been the case, (there is little to no evidence that ever came out either way), it was believable enough to liddy to go out and commit felonies and for others to join him in doing so.
As for the CPUSA and its agents, they weren't a problem in wwii because joe stalin was made an ally and he needed the help of the US to keep from being done in by the germans. Had stalin remained an ally of hitler, I doubt that the US could have turned the tide in the war in europe. The publicity (or propaganda) war would have been lost, much like what happened with vietnam and much like what is going on at present. Then again, the soviets (or remnants of the soviets who seem to be regaining their power again at present) and the red chinese would like nothing better to see the US be taken down or otherwise be incapacitated so far as military actions are concerned while we severely weaken the radical islamic threat.
As for whether or not the cia censor is acting under a personal agenda, I have no particular opinion but I've made the observation that some things are getting out which probably shouldn't. Considering that the cia and the state department seem to occaisionally act on their own agenda rather than that of the duly elected government, it's apparent that something isn't right down at foggy bottom.
actually, the reference was to show something about the hypocracy of the complainer and has nothing to do with any attempt at justification of any actions presumably taken by the bush administration. Besides, with the virtually total absence of historical context now rampant in the country, I doubt the average poster around here even knows who lincoln was, much less the lengths he went to to preserve the union that directly and blatantly violated the constitution or the extreme lengths that FDR went to in wwii in violating the rights of american citizens.
Anything bush has been accused of so far pales in comparison to any of his predecessors. Perhaps bush's faults are more associated with a failure to act decisively and to treat world war iii as the threat that it really is. wwii was not a guaranteed win for the US and neither is this war.
Sorta makes you wonder whether the person clearing stuff at the CIA is a loyal employee of that organization or a double agent working for some opposition political party or perhaps even a foreign entity.
In WWII, FDR would have closed down the NYT for their activities in this war, a war which has placed us at far more risk than that one.
WOw impressive and persuasive arguments. Where were you when the clinton regime was discovered with hundreds of FBI files on their opponents? Why weren't you yelling your head off about their ties to the Chinese army and illegal campaign contributions?
Since it's obvious you know very little and remember much less, and are oblivious to anything even remotely resembling facts. I'll simply ask some questions which you might even know the answers to.
1. Has the NYT published articles about ben laden and the NSA's use of sigint to track him via his satphone?
2. When this became public knowledge did ben laden stop using his satphone (or perhaps ben laden is a total retard - far dumber than even you)?
3. Without this primary means of tracking ben laden, have they managed to find him and capture or kill him?
4. Can you think rationally enough to combine your answers to the above 3 questions and comprehend the ramifications of this?
Solar cycle 24 is starting now, it will peak a little around 2010 or 2012.
It's more likely time to sell stock in suntan oil companies. The ozone hole is likely to decrease substantially (somewhat depending on mt aribus' outgassing activities). It's possible the hole might decrease to the lowest amount it's been measured at due to the expectations of this cycle's strength. Unfortunately, it very possible that the envirowhackos will have a field day on global warming as this cycle strengthens due to interactions between the increased magnetic activies, the cosmic ray backgrounds and the formation of cloud cover - permitting the slight rise of temperatures due to the decrease in cloud formation we will probably get due to the decrease in cosmic ray impacts due to the increase in magnetic field activities. Also, we can expect more areas to have drought conditions although at present we are still getting lots of rain due in part to the fact that we are flat out at the minimum between cycles 23 and 24.
Don't expect the whackos to know or admit the above because it doesn't promote their political agenda based on the supposed man created global warming.
Security concerns of this nature don't stop with employment. Confidentiality is not limited only to current employees. It does seem though that it is the censoring of a former employee rather than the censoring of the NYTimes.
Unfortunately, the Times has not been prosecuted for printing leaked classified intellegence in the recent past which has significantly damaged our efforts in the war on terror. If anyone wonders why we haven't captured or killed ben laden, just remember it was the NYT that leaked the information about our primary methods of tracking him. One can only wonder whether if the NYT had his phone number would they call and ask him for his views on the possible success of the pending secret assault force waiting just outside of his cave.
Spin should refer to interpretation of the facts in the best light for one's position. It should not refer to anything the dems have said over the last 8 years which is nothing but bald faced lies and a political immitation of worthless sports trash talk.
The patent system may be broken - but only in the arena of expense and difficulty in obtaining patents. It's premise is quite sound. In fact, the problems are in the enforcement of patents and in the cost of obtaining them. The alternative to patents is trade secrets which provide protection but never offer a benefit to society by going into the public domain. Occaisionally, trade secret disappear and never resurface. Famous examples appear to include Stradivarius violins, damascus steel, that astronomy clock found in the 2000+ year old shipwreck and Babylonian batteries from over 2 millenia ago.
The real reasons for lack of competition in the pharmeceuticals industry and for pills costing so much are substantially the very people pushing this crap about patents. Between the trial lawyers and the FDA, it's no wonder the cost of medicine is sky high. Also, due to the hundreds of millions of dollars in costs and the years of research and testing required by the FDA guarantees that many drugs cannot be created because the market is insufficient to cover the expenses. The risks of billion dollar lawsuits from greedy corrupt shyster lawyers like john edwards means that the risk of extreme expenses in coming up with a new product only begins when it is released. Note that this lawsuit threat raises the cost of everything associated with medical practice to be far more expensive than it would otherwise.
Who does this help? Follow the money! Big pharmeceuticals get to charge outrageous amounts of money for their mediocre offerings and get to enjoy a lack of competition, especially new competitors where real innovation tends to occur. It's too expensive for them to enter the market or do much. It benefits these socialist dems who want more power and control for themselves. Besides, at least some of them think they world will be far better off when you're dead because you're polluting the planet and taking up space on their freeways. Insurance companies are another pet industry of this cabal because they get to make some nominal profit on the payments they receive and the more expensive medical treatment is - the higher the rate they get to charge and as an added bonus, there are far more people who have to have medical insurance rather than paying for coverage out of their pocket. Hospitals get to be sloppy and inept and charge outrageous rates on which they can make a percentage profit.
The libertarians have air'ed a clever ad over the years of some FDA announcement of a new cure for some deadly disease that was 10 years in the making. And then, they ask the question about how many people died awaiting the cure that took so long to get thru the bureaucratic tape. Unfortunately, while that can be comprehended so easily by anyone who views it, the real damage done is far more serious than that yet it is not nearly as easy to comprehend. It's not only the delays, it's the treatments and cures that never were created which makes our society and world so much worse off than it needed to be.
Until the root problem is successfully dealt with, the problems with costs and availability of drugs and medical care in general will continue to get worse. What's more, the cure offered by these socialist dems will only appear to fix the problem until they get total control over it. At that point, they can decide who lives and dies, who is treated and who is left to suffer. That's the holy grail of their dreams - and it's the beginning of the real nightmare for the rest of us because according to some of them - there's over 5 billion too many of us out here and in the name of clean dirt, they've gotta save the planet.
Noting the wavelengths that it was good for indicates that the results are currently very narrow band. The question arises whether or not the phenomena can only be dealt with in a very narrow band or whether additional work can be used to expand the bandwidth substantially.
If the phenomenon can only be dealt with in narrow band, the 'invisibility' aspects are strictly BS. Other facets from the 'magic' of this could produce some significant benefits. Possibly higher powered microscopes, perhaps a method of semiconductor fabrication capable of small detail without having to use hard UV or x-rays or nonoptical stamping.
It does make for some interesting physics and perhaps opens up a bit more insight into nature. And, who knows, maybe you too can have a cloak of invisibility so that anyone wearing 10nm filters of the appropriate wavelength won't be able to see you.
Business Plan??? NASA isn't a business - it's a full fledged gov. bureaucracy! They corrected most of their bureaucratic deficiencies after they went to the moon the first time and when they did that design by committee shuttle abomination using mostly off the shelf parts.
As for the moonbase, it's a lot further off than most points one would use for a space based operation, except possibly for some lagrangian points. The cost of getting materials up into orbit though is a whole lot more than getting materials from the moon.
It seems that some of the earliest concepts of the L5 society were to mine the moon (and later other bodies) for the materials needed to make these giant space based facilities - good for manufacturing in 0 g etc. Unfortunately, the search for water on the moon has been rather dissappointing and that is a rather heavy crucial medium.
Another problem is that earth's protection from solar and cosmic radiation requires serious amounts of materials. The ISS only has one area with substantial shielding and it is still inside some of earth's magnetic protection. Note that the shuttle has been delayed a day on its return due substantially to a coronal mass ejection from an x3 level flare from one of the first significant sunspots of the new solar cycle. That's the one that earlier put out an x9 flare while on the limb where the CME went substantially away from earth. Without the heavy shielding such nasty critters as CMEs could injure or cook astronauts.
One benefit of the moon is that there's plenty of material for shielding available and also, the cost for putting that material into space is much less - due to much lower gravity and due to the absence of a dense atmosphere.
One final note on the moon. Space and the moon, like the deep ocean, belongs to no country. There's already talk of other countries like Japan and China putting bases on the moon. A device that can launch materials into space from the moon, sometimes called a mass driver or perhaps rail gun, can also be used as a weapon of mass destruction, sending that material into the earth's gravitational well. A few tons of well placed rock coming in at very high speed could be as damaging as a nuclear bomb. What's worse, without the ability to get men and equipment to the moon, there's no serious defense from such a weapon. Perhaps in the past, fear of intimidating cold war opponents may have helped squash such projects (even those with no malicious intent).
As a final thought for those of the mindless envirowhacko mentality, It's the beginning of a new solar sunspot cycle. That means that big ozone hole which has been growing for a while now is going to shrink for the next 5 to 6 years, before it starts to expand again. So now you can stop worrying about the pink eye epidemics in far south america and all the leaking freon and concentrate on some other useless prattle.
The universe really isn't a 13.7b lightyear wide black hole. It's too weird and full of bugs to be real. It's got to be a computer simulation. The question is whether or not the program was written by mickie-soft in the year 2525 and if so, will it function beyond the year 2006 or will it require a complete reboot on dec 31 or will it get stuck in a loop recycling dec 28th until it's deja vue all over again.
obviously someone has been watching some really cruddy grade F sci-fi movies. I don't recall the name of it - but it's already been done by holy-wood. Hopefully, this unimaginative soul is some druggie poster who cannot comprehend the difference between reality and the cinema rather than some worthless derailed career officer who will forever be stuck as a major. Hopefully, neither saw that epitome of wasted film - Pirhana II with the flying, walking fish. Geez, the scifi channel sucks so much of the time.
There's lots of reasons I don't like mickiesoft. Every so often, they repackage their products with a few minor enhancements, mostly to accomodate new hardware, and a different set of bugs and offer it as a new product with everyone expected to shell out again for the same functionality. And, like as not, attempt to force everyone to upgrade due to the abandonment of compatibility with older systems.
Many of their products are major unstable and it causes significant headaches when it decides to crater. Years after it's know that computer viruses (etc) are a major problem, they still cannot provide products which do not have serious bugs susceptible to attack.
Windows in all its overabundant variations is amazing. Were it not for the plethora of bugs and needed workarounds, linux and unix would have obliterated with simulators, like Wine. To compare windows to unix is to compare what should be by now, a totally done from scratch by experienced professional programmers with a hodge podge of screwball stuff invented by a bunch of physics students trying to learn how to program - all be it professionally redone by now. The fact that they're even on the same playing field is a testament to the incompetence of mickiesoft.
But then, without that gross technical incompetence being so prevelent, mickiesoft would not be making nearly as much money as they resell the same software to the same people/companies over and over and over again. So, perhaps it is intentional incompetence.
Who did better is not an easily understood concept as better does not really refer to an overall better product and in fact, may only refer to a better marketing job for an inferior product when it comes to dominating the market. An example is beta versus vhs - beta was far better at recording video and sound compared to vhs. Yet, beta lost the race, evidently due to the more advanced multiple timer capabilities and longer recording time achieved by a yet even more inferior recording mode inserted into the vhs. They were better at ascertaining the uses of the recorder than were the beta folks.
Throw in horrible documentation, overpriced, inept help desks to help you get past the gaps in documentation and their myriad of bugs and you start to have ample reasons why mickiesoft is not very popular, even if the opportunity to start up a head to head competing company doesn't appear to be there.
It seems you fail to comprehend that governments are the ultimate in moneyed power interests.
With all the media hype, man created global warming is the ultimate coup in power being pursued by socialists around the world.
It should be as obvious as what's in the tale of The Emperors New Clothes that something is way off with the whole idea since at best man is a tertiary participant in a complex system whose primary causes are poorly understood, some still unknown and whose secondary factors are probably only partially known, much less understood.
One merely has to read ayn rand's The Fountainhead to gain an understanding of how a group can take over and subvert an existing organization, whether it's a scientific organization or a modern art group.
Also, true science is seldom intertwined in politics. That which is, ceases to be science because it becomes so corrupted. There is, in some cases, the desire for certain outcomes which can lead to total distortions and even falsificaitons of raw data as irregularities in interpretation. In other cases, it's more benign, where data is left intact but where occam's razor is left to rust as new and more contorted ideas are presented as radical new ideas - in order to get more funding, or fame and fortune as the researcher has a vested interest in the outcome.
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failure to tax is not a subsidy. Again, as I stated, wealth redistribution has a definition. Perhaps you'd like to keep farm subsidies where over 90% goes to large corporations like archer daniels midland and much of the rest goes to hobby places owned by the likes of ted turner and sam donaldson who suppliment the costs for their vacation places with gov. grants referred to as farm subsidies. Having legitimate farm subsidies to keep the cost of food down for all the population can be argued that it is not wealth redistribution. Quite obviously, if the prices are kept below the cost of production, there will be no food production(and the prices will skyrocket).
Including faith based funding is stupid. It's private charity and should be kept that way. As for the alphabet soup, the stuff needs to be replaced before the crisis of their failures affect too many. About the only income taxes paid by about 50% of the populace is related to medicare and social security - it's up to 15% of income and it's climbing. The damage done by illegals coming into this country for the freebies will have far greater effects in the near future than at present. You can't tax people at a rate of over 100%.
Your examples of program after program after program illustrate the points. There are far too many programs, overlapping in scope, each sucking up administrative costs that far exceed the actual cost of benefits delivered, well over 60% in all cases, and over 90% in some.
Ultimately, it comes down to what gov. does well and what it does not. So far, the only thing gov. does well is wage war - which is the most destructive, expensive and costly activity which man engages in - other than failing to wage war when necessary for survival.
As for american charity - one doesn't need to look at gov. to find private help in food, shelter and medical. All are available for those in need. Not even in the great depression before the gov. abc socialism was enacted (which deepened and extended the depression) was there any serious problems in the US with starvation and people dying in the streets - other than a few initial wall streeters departing their former jobs via the 10th story windows.
You're confusing society with government. WHile gov. is pretty much a worthless sinkhole whose main claim to fame is as the god of an essentially secular religion, it does have some minimal but necessary uses. Where ever it breaks out beyond this, things get mucked up far worse than had it not even existed.
Can man go against nature? The answer should be obviously no. Can man bend the effects of nature to overcome transient pertubations - like saving food a year of famine? The answer is quite obviously yes. As such, it's possible that gov. can be used to bridge minor gaps in the natural pertubations of things. However, the waste and BS associated with such disasters as katrina where FEMA waltzes in throwing money at the victims - that is resources which won't be available in the future. Taking that money from california might work for a short time - but when the big one hits there - it's pot luck as to whether NOLA will be rebuilt and prosperous enough to be taxed to death to help los angeles or san francisco.
If you can remember past yesterday, you'll realize that bush ran as a compassionate conservative, a rather redundant statement acknowledging that he was really not a conservative but held a small handful of conservative viewpoints on a few items. And no, I'm not a jewish republican which is what your codeword 'neocon' refers to.
I was not aware one needed a passport yet to cross the border - but then I haven't been to mexico in several months. I believe that if you want passport examples - check out europe, don't they still require passports to go from EU member to EU member and doesn't one have to still surrender them at any hotel they stay at?
Canada is not the 51st state and Canada doesn't have the same border and immigration policies that the US has - at their ports of entry. Seems like we've caught some terrorists trying to sneak it from canada - unfortunately, by sheer accident and some customs employee who was awake enough to become suspicious of one.
As for the big fence down here, it's been turned into a typical gov. boondoggle to reward campaign donors. It's a hightech tv monitoring system and fence that costs thousands of dollars per foot. They'll be able to hire someone in boston to watch illegals and drug runners cross the border day and night. Besides, they'll only do a small amount of it. It seems that certain people in this country want to have illegals for cheap labor, spewing myths and paltitudes - people like george bush, john mccain and teddy the killer kennedy are all on the same page.
There is no country without a secure border. Crime from mexico has invaded this area to the extent that who needs terrorists. In laredo, they've found automatic weapons and improvised explosive devices. Just across the border in neuvo laredo, someone that runs for public office with genuine law and order intentions has a life span after the election that is measured in minutes, not days.
While I can see a lot of you cannucks wanting to escape your frozen paradise, the problem up there - except for the occaisional terrorist, is miniscule compared to down here.
Once, when you encountered wetbacks around here, they were looking for work, they were mostly from mexico and had the drive and ambition to risk their life crossing some seriously bad terrain to seek a better life. Most, had their families at home so they sent money back and finally left to go home.
Now, most cross over with guides, coyotes, who charge around $1000-$2000 per person - figure out where those poor people got that money on typically $25/week mexican wages. Between 1/3 and 2/3 are transporting drugs and contraband. Most if not all of those transporting drugs are armed. Sometimes, units of the mexican army (evidently working a little side job on the weekend)cross over to provide protection for the drug runners and have been known to fire on law enforcement and border patrol agents.
Even in this area, most hospital emergency rooms have been closed due to the proclivities of illegals to go there for free (but very expensive) medical care rather than thru the normal methods. The school system has been cratering as well since the children of illegals are being educated and the illegals do not provide any tax revenues to pay for that education. It has led to a dramatic increase in taxes on people and has resulted in the decline of educational standards.
Essentially, those, like bush, pushing for that cheap labor force are doing most people no good. It distorts the natural economics of job worth, puts many people here out of work. It shifts their true cost of employement over to the state and to the taxpayers. It opens the door for selective enforcement of the law to discourage some companies from hiring illegals (like for now Swift meat packing appears discouraged) while opening the door for some other 'protected' companies to gain competitive advantage in labor costs.
As for whacked out fringe, I guess the founding fathers like george washington and thomas jefferson were
Bush perhaps should be impeached over failing to defend the border of the US. Perhaps too because he failed to inflict far more draconian methods used by his predecessors during serious times of emergency. Lincoln and FDR are two that come to mind.
However, this hit piece - yet another in the long line of inflammatory hit pieces that could have just as easily been written by the al queda propaganda staff - fails entirely to even give mention to the most dire genuine assault on American's civil liberties - that of the supreme court's ruling on public takings for the purpose of raising taxes. That's a direct assault on the rights of people to own property. People who do not have the right to own property are in fact the property of someone else - ie - slaves.
Most of the items mentioned are veritable non issues, composed of 99% misleading hype, spin and flat out lies. If bush were a leftist democrat - none of these allegations would ever have seen the light of day in the media - just like those allegations which existed during the clinton
administration didn't get a mention nor are they currently mentioned as having existed back then.
Wealth redistribution has a specific meaning and it's not what you imply. It's where the money and property belonging to one person is taken away by force of government and given to another to whom it does not belong. Note that in this context, the word 'given' is literal and refers to a gift rather than to a business transaction of something for something else.
Most things in society are too important to allow government incompetence and inefficiency to muck them up.
Improvement?
It sounds like a massive increase in ambient EM noise just so a few lazy SOBs don't have to plug a power cable into a plug - not to mention another point of power loss (and waste) on the energy scene.
Clone Schmone. Certain types of twins (or triplets) are clones. The only potential for negative outcomes so far has been a small cultural predelection for doublemint chewing gum. So far, none of those doublemint twins, some potentially are (natural)clones, have shown any overt symptoms or problems, such as chewing with their mouth open or drooling uncontrollably. In fact, I doubt one could determine which of them were the clone and which the original.
As for feeding cattle sheepbrains and perverse stuff like that, it definitely ain't natural. It's understandable that the presence of something infectious (prions?) could and probably would spread. Seems like they'd best be used as filler for haggas, veggie burgers and such. Fortunately, there's only been a couple of cases in cattle of mad cow disease and most of the hype and import bans of american are politically based rather than based on legitimate health concerns.
Feeding cattle is a bit of a problem. It takes about 4 pounds of feed to add 1 pound of cow. While primo rib-eye might go for $15 / pound at the grocery, a cow on the hoof goes for more like $1 - $1.30 for the typical hamburger and roast variety. That's why they are mostly fed grass or perhaps hay.
Linux is merely an evolutionary step up the unix ladder. Unix is the work product of a lost generation of physics students trying to learn how to program. That's why it's so weird. The fact that it competes with windows is far more about the (lack of) quality of windows programming and design and far less about the ineptitude present in the creation of unix.
Perhaps I'm not giving credit enough to mickiesoft for their expertise in injecting bugs and doing such a half-assed job that it needs to undergo an immediate redo. That's probably why mickiesoft has been so successful selling and reselling the same old garbage (except for minor enhancements and the substitution of one set of bugs for another). It's also kept the competition from windows simulators down, making it far more difficult to simulate with all those bugs.
I guess eventually, they may try to steal a version of linux to peddle as their own rather than make yet another buggy rendition of the same old Winders.
Well, as usual sounds like there may be some gross exagerations as well as innaccuracies in the article - such as that 1.7 million figure in britain.
As for the methane from cows, it's nothing new - There have been low tech solutions to harnessing the bovine methane in third world countries for decades. As for filling 400 liter bottles, the author is obviously a reporter and should be assumed to not understand anything and for knowing nothing outside of pop culture bs. After all STP is a gas additive, it can't mean standard temperature and pressure.
I am waiting for the ultimate discovery to be 'discovered' in the realm of methane production. That is just how much is created by termites. Metabolisms of small creatures are much much higher than large creatures and the biomass of termites is far more substantial compared to that of cows and people.
Of course, it remains to be seen just how many of those 100 new things we 'didn't know' will ultimately become things we thought we knew until we found out we didn't because they are incorrect. Consider erroneous things to be negative knowledge and it becomes possible for one to know less than nuthin'.
Actually, polution is referred to in economics as a negative externality (as opposed to a positive externality). A negative externality is not a concept that negates free market ideas nor is there a guarantee that gov. is a solution to the problem of the shifting of costs from a company who is shuffling those costs onto others.
Negative externalities associated with pollution are often used as excuses for gov. meddling in the private sector but as with most things associated with gov., it's not something gov. handles competently. Lawsuits by individuals against companies who try to compete by shifting the true cost of their production to others who are not their customers can be very effective also. Unfortunately, such things as the superfund garbage tends to be welfare for rich shyster lawyers who as a group aren't that discerning over their targets. Gov. entities are also known to occaisionally fine companies for illegally dumping chemicals which they neither use nor produce - because they had 'deep pockets'.
Negative externalities can be created by gov. itself. For instance, the current disaster with illegals invading our country, ostensibly to work, has caused negative externalities more like the equivalent of a hundred chernobyls than like the exxon valdez. Besides taking jobs that americans would do, the damage done to the education system and healthcare system has been massive and expensive - so much so that the costs cannot be correctly estimated. Many areas along the border virtually have no emergency room service due to the illegals - who go there because they don't have to pay for healthcare there like they would going to a for pay clinic, even though emergency room treatment is far more expensive than the clinic. Other negative externalities of the open border will become more evident with time, now that some have finally started notifying the world that the emperor has no clothes and the myths propagated its proponents are starting to show even the blind that they are fabrications.
As for global warming being dealt with by the private sector, they are in business to provide what their customers are willing to pay for. Unfortunately, mankind isn't quite in the exhaulted position as to be able to cause or cure global warming. It does make for a good method of getting people to surrender more wealth and power to gov. and so will be promoted even in the light of irrefutable evidence to the contrary. Of course those leading proponents of global warming started about 30 years ago preaching coming ice age and wanted to take massive actions, supposedly things like covering the ice areas with lampblack (talking about following ignorance to create an ecological disaster - not that they could have effected significant warming or even significantly delay a real cooling). However, they found out it suited socialist gov. desires to promote global warming instead, hence the change from cooling to warming. Of course back then they wanted us to act immediately because if we waited to be sure, it would be too late to do anything about the coming ice age. Fortunately, nothing was done and no additional damage was done. And, we didn't enter in to a new ice age. The latest hype is that global warming will cause an ice age - which was important to promote since global warming could actually have more positive benefits than negative and an ice age would be far worse. Regardless of whether we have some global warming in the near future first, we will have an ice age which will be rather unpleasant. It's nature and it happens periodically - regardless of the presence of human life on earth. And evidently, it can happen very fast. Our choice is adapt or die and wasting money and scarce resources tilting at windmills as if they were dragons makes adapting much more difficult.
water is supposed to come from that glacer flow way down south. The one that has been speeding up because of the melting goin on about 10,000 feet down. Like magic, manmade global warming is heating up and melting the ice about 10,000 ft down - without waming any of the top 10000 ft. Of course, in reality - theres volcanic activity heating up a bit and melting the ice down there- causing to slip out into the ocean.
Whether there is actually enough landlocked ice to raise the oceans by any consequential amounts is a question and the assumption that all of it can get to the ocean. Of course ice floating at the north pole will not affect the ocean levels were it to melt because since it is floating already - it is already displacing its own weight so the ocean levels will be the same whether it's all melted or just as solid as it is now.
Nuthin like wasting scarce resources on things that are most likely not even a problem that can be addressed, if it indeed is a problem.
First off, the suggested liklihood was more probable to be a domestic political party rather than a foreign one as you attempted to present. Second, it's obvious that there is some - consider the valarie plame incident where a democrat political operative was sent on a sensitive mission and then used the supposed conclusions for political ammunition. This happened. It's not supposition.
As for the bush administration chosing to censor this for face saving purposes - that's a rather dumb ascertion. You'd think they'd try to save face on something that was actually worthwhile. There's been a particular absence of such efforts on the part of the bush administration - at least on anything worth trying to save face on. Heck, if you believe the official story, sandy burglar went in and stole secret documents from the national archives (ones with margin notes added)and then put them in a deaddrop - like an experienced spy - although evidently he did later retrieve them himself. Why was this supposedly done? It supposedly was done for the clinton administration to save face on some lack of involvement in pre 9/11 antiterrorist efforts. THAT is actual face saving by illegal activity (or most likely - somewhat worse). The absence of any context in these argument is the only reason they continue
You're certainly correct on the amount of arrogance and self centeredness of the ignorant and their presumptions that man is important, especially in a negative way.
That article was pure propaganda for man caused global warming and does not deserve any title or reference without the words 'political propaganda' in it. Of course it is typical of the global warming crowd.
One simple fact which was not mentioned would have totally negated the article. What is the change of the mean sea level. As I recall from elsewhere, fairly recent changes in mean sea level are in the 1-2 millimeter range and not all of these changes are increases. That fact alone proves the article to be totally in error, unresearched, unbalanced and nothing at all but another attempt by some nitwitt to promote his beloved religion of socialism to protect mistress earth from the mythical manmade global warming monster.
It's obvious that river deltas are very unstable. However, it doesn't take a river delta location to sink beneath the ocean. Of course over there in that region of the earth, there was a huge tsunomi and earthquake just two years ago which killed many tens of thousands and shook the entire earth to its core and evidently even affected the tilt of the axis. Such events do affect the height of areas since shifts can be in feet.
Even that isn't necessary for shifts in altitude. There is subsidence on the upper texas coast which has been going on for many years. Around Kemah texas, there are roads and houses slowly sinking into Galveston Bay. High tides bring salt water into the drainage ditches along some of the streets there. A coastal highway around Beaumont Texas is evidently partly under water during high tide now. Even well over two hundred miles from there, my town's railway station has a 'benchmark' plaque indicating that in 1917, it was 75 feet above sea level. Modern measurements over the last thirty years indicate it is really about 68 feet, suggesting that either that the original measurements were way off or that the area has also been sinking
As for Mars getting warmer - that is just one of the planets undergoing global warming right now. It's been detected that several are. Of course Mars is the exception - it's obviously manmade global warming. Being smaller than the earth, it appears those two sawed-off robotic electric go-carts must be causing the global warming there. Well, so much for electric vehicles being a good 'clean' alternative. We don't know the martian global parameters concerning its global temperatures, nor do we know much else about it but we do know there's two rovers there polluting the planet in some unknown fashion. And, as our ultra intellegent elitist rulers (congress critter sheila jackson lee from houston) have previously asked "Can you command the mars rover to go over and take a picture of the flag that the astronauts planted on the apollo mission?" She's the one that will be fixing man's global warming problems - by force of government arms. Be afraid, be very afraid because fear is part of the survival instinct.
does it matter? A double agent is going to be acting on behalf of their real alliegence rather than for the CIA. Statistically speaking, a domestic political party would almost certainly be the democrat one since it is the only substantial opposition party and since this is the only party which was in power prior to the bush administration. One simply has to look at the valarie plame/ joe wilson fiasco to see what damage an embedded political operative can do to sabotage real efforts at intellegence.
As for the communists, back at the origins of the cia (OSS) they were accepted into the effort because many were familar with clandestine activities. Supposedly, most of them were dumped by the end of wwii. However, it is now evident that our intellegence service was more compromised over the last 30 years than the soviets ever were.
During wwii, republicans supported the war effort and politics ended at the water's edge. Consequently, there was no reason for an enemy foreign power to become involved in our domestic politics. In recent times, this has not been the case. Democrats, or at least a significant number of them have been involved in sabotaging the US war efforts and as a consequence, making it worthwhile for foreign enemies to get involved in US domestic politics. It's not new with bush because the red chinese army was fully involved in covert funding of the clinton campaign. Remember charlie tree or those budhist nuns? It happened, it's not debatable. In fact, even back during the nixon era, liddy's breakin of the watergate was done using cubans because it was believed by liddy and others that the dems were receiving illegal contributions from the soviets via castro. While that may well have not been the case, (there is little to no evidence that ever came out either way), it was believable enough to liddy to go out and commit felonies and for others to join him in doing so.
As for the CPUSA and its agents, they weren't a problem in wwii because joe stalin was made an ally and he needed the help of the US to keep from being done in by the germans. Had stalin remained an ally of hitler, I doubt that the US could have turned the tide in the war in europe. The publicity (or propaganda) war would have been lost, much like what happened with vietnam and much like what is going on at present. Then again, the soviets (or remnants of the soviets who seem to be regaining their power again at present) and the red chinese would like nothing better to see the US be taken down or otherwise be incapacitated so far as military actions are concerned while we severely weaken the radical islamic threat.
As for whether or not the cia censor is acting under a personal agenda, I have no particular opinion but I've made the observation that some things are getting out which probably shouldn't. Considering that the cia and the state department seem to occaisionally act on their own agenda rather than that of the duly elected government, it's apparent that something isn't right down at foggy bottom.
actually, the reference was to show something about the hypocracy of the complainer and has nothing to do with any attempt at justification of any actions presumably taken by the bush administration. Besides, with the virtually total absence of historical context now rampant in the country, I doubt the average poster around here even knows who lincoln was, much less the lengths he went to to preserve the union that directly and blatantly violated the constitution or the extreme lengths that FDR went to in wwii in violating the rights of american citizens.
Anything bush has been accused of so far pales in comparison to any of his predecessors. Perhaps bush's faults are more associated with a failure to act decisively and to treat world war iii as the threat that it really is. wwii was not a guaranteed win for the US and neither is this war.
Sorta makes you wonder whether the person clearing stuff at the CIA is a loyal employee of that organization or a double agent working for some opposition political party or perhaps even a foreign entity.
In WWII, FDR would have closed down the NYT for their activities in this war, a war which has placed us at far more risk than that one.
WOw impressive and persuasive arguments. Where were you when the clinton regime was discovered with hundreds of FBI files on their opponents? Why weren't you yelling your head off about their ties to the Chinese army and illegal campaign contributions?
Since it's obvious you know very little and remember much less, and are oblivious to anything even remotely resembling facts. I'll simply ask some questions which you might even know the answers to.
1. Has the NYT published articles about ben laden and the NSA's use of sigint to track him via his satphone?
2. When this became public knowledge did ben laden stop using his satphone (or perhaps ben laden is a total retard - far dumber than even you)?
3. Without this primary means of tracking ben laden, have they managed to find him and capture or kill him?
4. Can you think rationally enough to combine your answers to the above 3 questions and comprehend the ramifications of this?
checkmate
Wrongo
Solar cycle 24 is starting now, it will peak a little around 2010 or 2012.
It's more likely time to sell stock in suntan oil companies. The ozone hole is likely to decrease substantially (somewhat depending on mt aribus' outgassing activities). It's possible the hole might decrease to the lowest amount it's been measured at due to the expectations of this cycle's strength. Unfortunately, it very possible that the envirowhackos will have a field day on global warming as this cycle strengthens due to interactions between the increased magnetic activies, the cosmic ray backgrounds and the formation of cloud cover - permitting the slight rise of temperatures due to the decrease in cloud formation we will probably get due to the decrease in cosmic ray impacts due to the increase in magnetic field activities. Also, we can expect more areas to have drought conditions although at present we are still getting lots of rain due in part to the fact that we are flat out at the minimum between cycles 23 and 24.
Don't expect the whackos to know or admit the above because it doesn't promote their political agenda based on the supposed man created global warming.
Security concerns of this nature don't stop with employment. Confidentiality is not limited only to current employees. It does seem though that it is the censoring of a former employee rather than the censoring of the NYTimes. Unfortunately, the Times has not been prosecuted for printing leaked classified intellegence in the recent past which has significantly damaged our efforts in the war on terror. If anyone wonders why we haven't captured or killed ben laden, just remember it was the NYT that leaked the information about our primary methods of tracking him. One can only wonder whether if the NYT had his phone number would they call and ask him for his views on the possible success of the pending secret assault force waiting just outside of his cave.
Spin should refer to interpretation of the facts in the best light for one's position. It should not refer to anything the dems have said over the last 8 years which is nothing but bald faced lies and a political immitation of worthless sports trash talk.
The patent system may be broken - but only in the arena of expense and difficulty in obtaining patents. It's premise is quite sound. In fact, the problems are in the enforcement of patents and in the cost of obtaining them. The alternative to patents is trade secrets which provide protection but never offer a benefit to society by going into the public domain. Occaisionally, trade secret disappear and never resurface. Famous examples appear to include Stradivarius violins, damascus steel, that astronomy clock found in the 2000+ year old shipwreck and Babylonian batteries from over 2 millenia ago.
The real reasons for lack of competition in the pharmeceuticals industry and for pills costing so much are substantially the very people pushing this crap about patents. Between the trial lawyers and the FDA, it's no wonder the cost of medicine is sky high. Also, due to the hundreds of millions of dollars in costs and the years of research and testing required by the FDA guarantees that many drugs cannot be created because the market is insufficient to cover the expenses. The risks of billion dollar lawsuits from greedy corrupt shyster lawyers like john edwards means that the risk of extreme expenses in coming up with a new product only begins when it is released. Note that this lawsuit threat raises the cost of everything associated with medical practice to be far more expensive than it would otherwise.
Who does this help? Follow the money! Big pharmeceuticals get to charge outrageous amounts of money for their mediocre offerings and get to enjoy a lack of competition, especially new competitors where real innovation tends to occur. It's too expensive for them to enter the market or do much. It benefits these socialist dems who want more power and control for themselves. Besides, at least some of them think they world will be far better off when you're dead because you're polluting the planet and taking up space on their freeways. Insurance companies are another pet industry of this cabal because they get to make some nominal profit on the payments they receive and the more expensive medical treatment is - the higher the rate they get to charge and as an added bonus, there are far more people who have to have medical insurance rather than paying for coverage out of their pocket. Hospitals get to be sloppy and inept and charge outrageous rates on which they can make a percentage profit.
The libertarians have air'ed a clever ad over the years of some FDA announcement of a new cure for some deadly disease that was 10 years in the making. And then, they ask the question about how many people died awaiting the cure that took so long to get thru the bureaucratic tape. Unfortunately, while that can be comprehended so easily by anyone who views it, the real damage done is far more serious than that yet it is not nearly as easy to comprehend. It's not only the delays, it's the treatments and cures that never were created which makes our society and world so much worse off than it needed to be.
Until the root problem is successfully dealt with, the problems with costs and availability of drugs and medical care in general will continue to get worse. What's more, the cure offered by these socialist dems will only appear to fix the problem until they get total control over it. At that point, they can decide who lives and dies, who is treated and who is left to suffer. That's the holy grail of their dreams - and it's the beginning of the real nightmare for the rest of us because according to some of them - there's over 5 billion too many of us out here and in the name of clean dirt, they've gotta save the planet.
Noting the wavelengths that it was good for indicates that the results are currently very narrow band. The question arises whether or not the phenomena can only be dealt with in a very narrow band or whether additional work can be used to expand the bandwidth substantially.
If the phenomenon can only be dealt with in narrow band, the 'invisibility' aspects are strictly BS. Other facets from the 'magic' of this could produce some significant benefits. Possibly higher powered microscopes, perhaps a method of semiconductor fabrication capable of small detail without having to use hard UV or x-rays or nonoptical stamping.
It does make for some interesting physics and perhaps opens up a bit more insight into nature. And, who knows, maybe you too can have a cloak of invisibility so that anyone wearing 10nm filters of the appropriate wavelength won't be able to see you.
Business Plan??? NASA isn't a business - it's a full fledged gov. bureaucracy! They corrected most of their bureaucratic deficiencies after they went to the moon the first time and when they did that design by committee shuttle abomination using mostly off the shelf parts.
As for the moonbase, it's a lot further off than most points one would use for a space based operation, except possibly for some lagrangian points. The cost of getting materials up into orbit though is a whole lot more than getting materials from the moon.
It seems that some of the earliest concepts of the L5 society were to mine the moon (and later other bodies) for the materials needed to make these giant space based facilities - good for manufacturing in 0 g etc. Unfortunately, the search for water on the moon has been rather dissappointing and that is a rather heavy crucial medium.
Another problem is that earth's protection from solar and cosmic radiation requires serious amounts of materials. The ISS only has one area with substantial shielding and it is still inside some of earth's magnetic protection. Note that the shuttle has been delayed a day on its return due substantially to a coronal mass ejection from an x3 level flare from one of the first significant sunspots of the new solar cycle. That's the one that earlier put out an x9 flare while on the limb where the CME went substantially away from earth. Without the heavy shielding such nasty critters as CMEs could injure or cook astronauts.
One benefit of the moon is that there's plenty of material for shielding available and also, the cost for putting that material into space is much less - due to much lower gravity and due to the absence of a dense atmosphere.
One final note on the moon. Space and the moon, like the deep ocean, belongs to no country. There's already talk of other countries like Japan and China putting bases on the moon. A device that can launch materials into space from the moon, sometimes called a mass driver or perhaps rail gun, can also be used as a weapon of mass destruction, sending that material into the earth's gravitational well. A few tons of well placed rock coming in at very high speed could be as damaging as a nuclear bomb. What's worse, without the ability to get men and equipment to the moon, there's no serious defense from such a weapon. Perhaps in the past, fear of intimidating cold war opponents may have helped squash such projects (even those with no malicious intent).
As a final thought for those of the mindless envirowhacko mentality, It's the beginning of a new solar sunspot cycle. That means that big ozone hole which has been growing for a while now is going to shrink for the next 5 to 6 years, before it starts to expand again. So now you can stop worrying about the pink eye epidemics in far south america and all the leaking freon and concentrate on some other useless prattle.
The universe really isn't a 13.7b lightyear wide black hole. It's too weird and full of bugs to be real. It's got to be a computer simulation. The question is whether or not the program was written by mickie-soft in the year 2525 and if so, will it function beyond the year 2006 or will it require a complete reboot on dec 31 or will it get stuck in a loop recycling dec 28th until it's deja vue all over again.
obviously someone has been watching some really cruddy grade F sci-fi movies. I don't recall the name of it - but it's already been done by holy-wood. Hopefully, this unimaginative soul is some druggie poster who cannot comprehend the difference between reality and the cinema rather than some worthless derailed career officer who will forever be stuck as a major. Hopefully, neither saw that epitome of wasted film - Pirhana II with the flying, walking fish. Geez, the scifi channel sucks so much of the time.
There's lots of reasons I don't like mickiesoft. Every so often, they repackage their products with a few minor enhancements, mostly to accomodate new hardware, and a different set of bugs and offer it as a new product with everyone expected to shell out again for the same functionality. And, like as not, attempt to force everyone to upgrade due to the abandonment of compatibility with older systems.
Many of their products are major unstable and it causes significant headaches when it decides to crater. Years after it's know that computer viruses (etc) are a major problem, they still cannot provide products which do not have serious bugs susceptible to attack.
Windows in all its overabundant variations is amazing. Were it not for the plethora of bugs and needed workarounds, linux and unix would have obliterated with simulators, like Wine. To compare windows to unix is to compare what should be by now, a totally done from scratch by experienced professional programmers with a hodge podge of screwball stuff invented by a bunch of physics students trying to learn how to program - all be it professionally redone by now. The fact that they're even on the same playing field is a testament to the incompetence of mickiesoft.
But then, without that gross technical incompetence being so prevelent, mickiesoft would not be making nearly as much money as they resell the same software to the same people/companies over and over and over again. So, perhaps it is intentional incompetence.
Who did better is not an easily understood concept as better does not really refer to an overall better product and in fact, may only refer to a better marketing job for an inferior product when it comes to dominating the market. An example is beta versus vhs - beta was far better at recording video and sound compared to vhs. Yet, beta lost the race, evidently due to the more advanced multiple timer capabilities and longer recording time achieved by a yet even more inferior recording mode inserted into the vhs. They were better at ascertaining the uses of the recorder than were the beta folks.
Throw in horrible documentation, overpriced, inept help desks to help you get past the gaps in documentation and their myriad of bugs and you start to have ample reasons why mickiesoft is not very popular, even if the opportunity to start up a head to head competing company doesn't appear to be there.
It seems you fail to comprehend that governments are the ultimate in moneyed power interests.
With all the media hype, man created global warming is the ultimate coup in power being pursued by socialists around the world.
It should be as obvious as what's in the tale of The Emperors New Clothes that something is way off with the whole idea since at best man is a tertiary participant in a complex system whose primary causes are poorly understood, some still unknown and whose secondary factors are probably only partially known, much less understood.
One merely has to read ayn rand's The Fountainhead to gain an understanding of how a group can take over and subvert an existing organization, whether it's a scientific organization or a modern art group.
Also, true science is seldom intertwined in politics. That which is, ceases to be science because it becomes so corrupted. There is, in some cases, the desire for certain outcomes which can lead to total distortions and even falsificaitons of raw data as irregularities in interpretation. In other cases, it's more benign, where data is left intact but where occam's razor is left to rust as new and more contorted ideas are presented as radical new ideas - in order to get more funding, or fame and fortune as the researcher has a vested interest in the outcome.