"but i thought insurance is already affordable in the United States of America? my cousin in USA has health has Blue Cross and Blue Shield for $75.00 USD a month. what's the problem? "
$75 a month doesn't get you insurance that's worth anything or almost nobody is eligible.
More like $750 for a single person for coverage even partially comparable to single payer.
"There was a tradition in the early days that the head of Los Alamos must have a Nobel Prize. That ended in the 1980s when Ronald Reagan put a lawyer in charge."
Well, it ended after zero, none of them won a Nobel Prize, but all of them have been PhD's in science. Oppenheimer won the Fermi award.
One of the more recent problems was the transition from light management by the University of California to a commerical contractor (With minority UC involvement) at 10x the price, but an emphasis on compliance and nothing about scientific productivity.
NNSA Weapons programs 57%: 1.263B NNSA Nonproliferation (also about nuclear weapons): 9% 210M NNSA Safeguards & Security (also about nuclear weaopns) 7% 152M DOE Environmental Management (cleanup junk) 8% 187 M DOE Energy and other Programs, 4% 84M (unclear, nuclear reactors perhaps?) DOE Office of Science, 4% 94M Work For Others, 4%, 98M Work For Others (National Security), 7% 154M
So by far most of LANL's budget involves nuclear weapons, and cleaning up from producing and testing nuclear weapons. Then after that unspecified work for "National Security", which is probably scientific services to the Intelligence Community.
Then, there's the 4% which is basic science like "particle physics, it works on biofuels, and proteins, and medicine" and there may be some science in the 4% of "DOE Energy and Other Programs".
I too was pretty surprised how small the basic science budget is, and I'm a physicist.
Calling LANL a "Nuclear Weapons Laboratory" is about as correct as calling Microsoft a "software company", even though they do make keyboards and mice and a tablet.
"Excess precision is not much use in military applications anyway. It seems nifty to put a rocket through the right window in someones hq. But a milimeter-precision gps won't help you with that. Sure, the weapon might know to the milimeter where it is."
What matters is getting high quality fixes and velocity updates simulataneously and continuously while the receiver is moving very rapidly compared to ground and very high.
The properties which allow that also allow precise fixes for stationary ground stations which can integrate over a long interval.
When you're a ICBM re-entry vehicle going 10+ km/s, tiny errors in space make for big misses. Remember, a ICBM warhead goes from the stratosphere to target in about 3-4 seconds. A missile attack looks like "Hey what's that fast white dot do<BANG>"
"Not taking sides either way, I'm just pointing that out. The fact is, also under the law, even if you have assets, as long as you pay the hospital what you can afford (even if it's only $5 a week), they can't do anything to you. If they take you to court, you can tell the judge: I was out of work for a year, I can afford to pay them $25 a month and that's it. The judge will almost always agree."
And what happens when you make more money? You still have to pay the enormous medical debts. Being in a situation where you can pay $25 a month for a debt? And we're supposed to be comforted by this? "Oh don't worry you can amortize your $500,000 bill over your entire life, and pass it to your children thanks to our forbearance!"
Good for startup employment? Heck no.
The underlying crux of the problem is that not just costs, but outright prices are outrageously high. And there are many powerful people whose Brobdingnagian paychecks depend on this.
That is what national Republicans want you to believe, that they're no worse than the other guys. Sometimes the lesser of two evils results in less net evil.
"The reason we pay so much for health care is because the recipient doesn't know and/or doesn't care how much it costs, namely because they don't pay for it. Likewise, they don't shop around."
Oh, when was that? 1981?
In actual fact, in the USA, average people are FAR more exposed personally to the extreme costs of medical care and yet the total spending and, of course, PRICES, are much higher in the USA than any other nation. As is the compensation of the managers of medical care institutions.
Why is that?
Why is the solution, as always, AMP UP THE PAIN! (and some how let the market fix it despite not fixing anything for 40 years). And why does this always seem to apply to the poorest?
"Russia "valued space exploration". They beat you to the first satellite, the first animal in space, the first man in space, the first woman in space, various LEO firsts like docking and staying a long time, they sent a sample return mission to the Moon and a Venus lander. Did that make them rich and prosperous for all that?"
Actually yes. For the people in that sector. The rest of the economy which was far from world-leading was the disaster.
It's actually different hedge fund bozos. In the boom and crash, it was banks and originators who perpetrated most of the fraud, quite different animals than hedge funds and with much more political power.
"some reason, people openly disclose their findings at conferences before submitting the relevant publications. "
Because if they don't they can't justify the trip to the conference, and presenting the results is expected in order to get prestige and being well known in the community. If you're not well known and respected you don't get grant money.
"I mean, if the science is accurate, then who gives a shit who submitted it?"
The guy who probably got the money for the project and thought of the experiment and whose continued employment and promotions depends on this research being published in his name in a top journal.
| The answer could be outgoing Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, who late last year released a memo suggesting that Microsoft was evolving into a 'devices and services' company.
This is today's innovation: reorganizing the company around its core incompetencies.
Has anybody there asked why Microsoft wants to do this? I have a different suggestion for Microsoft's board and next CEO: how about "business software?" They make tons of money from Office and are pretty good at writing desktop software and OK at web-interfaced server software.
Now that I work in a medium-sized conventional business I see a substantial pile of really execrable junk which makes Office and Windows seem like they were architected by Michelangelo. Why haven't they massively expanded their scope of business software beyond Office, and make this the primary focus of their company? They a few things, but why not a dozen?
Why did Ballmer have such Apple envy? Why didn't they do something Apple could never be successful at?
Why fight in the trenches vs Apple and Google and Sony? How about picking on some easier targets in profitable markets. Oracle (outside its database) has mediocre products selling at a very high price to disgruntled customers. Many other similar examples.
" I can't imagine what it would be like trying to bolt together a dozen or more different utility libraries each using their own favorite blend of parallel processing API's."
In Fortran you don't. Fortran has the mathematically expected parallel constructions built into the language, and the compiler directives commonly used before things are entirely in the language were reasonably standard.
I think Fortran is very good for quantitative programming and I regret that in my commercial enterprise it is essentially forbidden as alien.
The NIF is 95% a weapons project, and likely this is as well.
The complex parts of high-technology nuclear weapons are not nuclear physics, that part is firmly established. The complexity is in the radiative transfer, fluid mechanics and equations of state in extreme conditions.
These kinds of fusion projects (NIF) simulate the multi-stage (indirect drive) radiation driven compression of nuclear fuel. The goal is to get clean calibration data for the simulation software used to make weapons without full nuclear testing, which is banned by treaty.
There isn't much energy generation possibility in these.
Air traffic control and soon thereafter FAA knew four commercial airliners were off course the moment their legitimate pilots reported a hijacking. They weren't sure they were suicide weapons (after the 2nd tower was hit, the 1st people thought was an accident) instead of the usual hijacking m.o. until much later, and the fourth aircraft still in the air responded appropriately.
In other words, at current market conditions, there is no shortage even though you are an admittedly exceptionally picky employer. You didn't need to raise your salaries substantially. You didn't need to put special effort to go out and find people. You didn't need to make efforts to visit universities or sponsor training courses.
You had an opening and had an enormous glut of resumes, so much that finding your best was your problem.
Athletes who show up and do the work assigned to them have discipline and are considered successful.
Can we calibrate with some more technical examples?
What is an example of a "most basic design problem" or 'fundamentals of the language" which you estimate 90% of the 10-20 year experienced people fail at? An occasional confabulatory candidate isn't it, it has to be most.
So, in other words, there isn't a shortage but an enormous glut, and so you can have super high standards. It's very likely many of those you rejected would have been fine but you couldn't tell in the tiny amount of time and probing you were willing to do.
It's a great car, but Iteration 2 is more like $80,000, and iteration 3 (SUV) will be comparable to a comparable Model S in price according to the web site. A $50k car is possible, but $30k is unlikely for quite a while.
Slashdot Mirror
"but i thought insurance is already affordable in the United States of America? my cousin in USA has health has Blue Cross and Blue Shield for $75.00 USD a month. what's the problem? "
$75 a month doesn't get you insurance that's worth anything or almost nobody is eligible.
More like $750 for a single person for coverage even partially comparable to single payer.
"There was a tradition in the early days that the head of Los Alamos must have a Nobel Prize. That ended in the 1980s when Ronald Reagan put a lawyer in charge."
Well, it ended after zero, none of them won a Nobel Prize, but all of them have been PhD's in science. Oppenheimer won the Fermi award.
One of the more recent problems was the transition from light management by the University of California to a commerical contractor (With minority UC involvement) at 10x the price, but an emphasis on compliance and nothing about scientific productivity.
http://www.lanl.gov/about/facts-figures/budget.php#.UlhzcVCshcY
NNSA Weapons programs 57%: 1.263B
NNSA Nonproliferation (also about nuclear weapons): 9% 210M
NNSA Safeguards & Security (also about nuclear weaopns) 7% 152M
DOE Environmental Management (cleanup junk) 8% 187 M
DOE Energy and other Programs, 4% 84M (unclear, nuclear reactors perhaps?)
DOE Office of Science, 4% 94M
Work For Others, 4%, 98M
Work For Others (National Security), 7% 154M
So by far most of LANL's budget involves nuclear weapons, and cleaning up from producing and testing nuclear weapons. Then after that unspecified work for "National Security", which is probably scientific services to the Intelligence Community.
Then, there's the 4% which is basic science like "particle physics, it works on biofuels, and proteins, and medicine" and there may be some science in the 4% of "DOE Energy and Other Programs".
I too was pretty surprised how small the basic science budget is, and I'm a physicist.
Calling LANL a "Nuclear Weapons Laboratory" is about as correct as calling Microsoft a "software company", even though they do make keyboards and mice and a tablet.
"Excess precision is not much use in military applications anyway. It seems nifty to put a rocket through the right window in someones hq. But a milimeter-precision gps won't help you with that. Sure, the weapon might know to the milimeter where it is."
What matters is getting high quality fixes and velocity updates simulataneously and continuously while the receiver is moving very rapidly compared to ground and very high.
The properties which allow that also allow precise fixes for stationary ground stations which can integrate over a long interval.
When you're a ICBM re-entry vehicle going 10+ km/s, tiny errors in space make for big misses. Remember, a ICBM warhead goes from the stratosphere to target in about 3-4 seconds. A missile attack looks like "Hey what's that fast white dot do<BANG>"
"Not taking sides either way, I'm just pointing that out. The fact is, also under the law, even if you have assets, as long as you pay the hospital what you can afford (even if it's only $5 a week), they can't do anything to you. If they take you to court, you can tell the judge: I was out of work for a year, I can afford to pay them $25 a month and that's it. The judge will almost always agree."
And what happens when you make more money? You still have to pay the enormous medical debts. Being in a situation where you can pay $25 a month for a debt? And we're supposed to be comforted by this? "Oh don't worry you can amortize your $500,000 bill over your entire life, and pass it to your children thanks to our forbearance!"
Good for startup employment? Heck no.
The underlying crux of the problem is that not just costs, but outright prices are outrageously high. And there are many powerful people whose Brobdingnagian paychecks depend on this.
That is what national Republicans want you to believe, that they're no worse than the other guys. Sometimes the lesser of two evils results in less net evil.
Go ahead, repeal actual, Federalized socialized medicine (Medicare) first.
"The reason we pay so much for health care is because the recipient doesn't know and/or doesn't care how much it costs, namely because they don't pay for it. Likewise, they don't shop around."
Oh, when was that? 1981?
In actual fact, in the USA, average people are FAR more exposed personally to the extreme costs of medical care and yet the total spending and, of course, PRICES, are much higher in the USA than any other nation. As is the compensation of the managers of medical care institutions.
Why is that?
Why is the solution, as always, AMP UP THE PAIN! (and some how let the market fix it despite not fixing anything for 40 years). And why does this always seem to apply to the poorest?
"Russia "valued space exploration". They beat you to the first satellite, the first animal in space, the first man in space, the first woman in space, various LEO firsts like docking and staying a long time, they sent a sample return mission to the Moon and a Venus lander. Did that make them rich and prosperous for all that?"
Actually yes. For the people in that sector. The rest of the economy which was far from world-leading was the disaster.
"nearly all exchange transactions are executed by HFT, because they offer a better deal to both the buyer and the seller."
Uh, then how are they making money? They aren't giving these good deals for charity.
It's actually different hedge fund bozos. In the boom and crash, it was banks and originators who perpetrated most of the fraud, quite different animals than hedge funds and with much more political power.
Exchanges like HFT because they get paid more.
"some reason, people openly disclose their findings at conferences before submitting the relevant publications. "
Because if they don't they can't justify the trip to the conference, and presenting the results is expected in order to get prestige and being well known in the community. If you're not well known and respected you don't get grant money.
"I mean, if the science is accurate, then who gives a shit who submitted it?"
The guy who probably got the money for the project and thought of the experiment and whose continued employment and promotions depends on this research being published in his name in a top journal.
And his boss.
| The answer could be outgoing Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, who late last year released a memo suggesting that Microsoft was evolving into a 'devices and services' company.
This is today's innovation: reorganizing the company around its core incompetencies.
Has anybody there asked why Microsoft wants to do this? I have a different suggestion for Microsoft's board and next CEO: how about "business software?" They make tons of money from Office and are pretty good at writing desktop software and OK at web-interfaced server software.
Now that I work in a medium-sized conventional business I see a substantial pile of really execrable junk which makes Office and Windows seem like they were architected by Michelangelo. Why haven't they massively expanded their scope of business software beyond Office, and make this the primary focus of their company? They a few things, but why not a dozen?
Why did Ballmer have such Apple envy? Why didn't they do something Apple could never be successful at?
Why fight in the trenches vs Apple and Google and Sony? How about picking on some easier targets in profitable markets. Oracle (outside its database) has mediocre products selling at a very high price to disgruntled customers. Many other similar examples.
" I can't imagine what it would be like trying to bolt together a dozen or more different utility libraries each using their own favorite blend of parallel processing API's."
In Fortran you don't. Fortran has the mathematically expected parallel constructions built into the language, and the compiler directives commonly used before things are entirely in the language were reasonably standard.
I think Fortran is very good for quantitative programming and I regret that in my commercial enterprise it is essentially forbidden as alien.
Accomplishing mathematical tasks, which is what is tested, requires correctly memorizing patterns and understanding.
The NIF is 95% a weapons project, and likely this is as well.
The complex parts of high-technology nuclear weapons are not nuclear physics, that part is firmly established. The complexity is in the radiative transfer, fluid mechanics and equations of state in extreme conditions.
These kinds of fusion projects (NIF) simulate the multi-stage (indirect drive) radiation driven compression of nuclear fuel. The goal is to get clean calibration data for the simulation software used to make weapons without full nuclear testing, which is banned by treaty.
There isn't much energy generation possibility in these.
"In short, it's not guaranteed that at any price the monopolist sets the market demand will be sufficient for it to make a profit."
True there still a demand curve with a monopoly, but the profitability (and pain to the buyers) is susbstantially above a competitive market .
Air traffic control and soon thereafter FAA knew four commercial airliners were off course the moment their legitimate pilots reported a hijacking. They weren't sure they were suicide weapons (after the 2nd tower was hit, the 1st people thought was an accident) instead of the usual hijacking m.o. until much later, and the fourth aircraft still in the air responded appropriately.
He does know how authorities work, however.
In other words, at current market conditions, there is no shortage even though you are an admittedly exceptionally picky employer. You didn't need to raise your salaries substantially. You didn't need to put special effort to go out and find people. You didn't need to make efforts to visit universities or sponsor training courses.
You had an opening and had an enormous glut of resumes, so much that finding your best was your problem.
The only shortage is a magic fairy godmother.
Athletes who show up and do the work assigned to them have discipline and are considered successful.
Can we calibrate with some more technical examples?
What is an example of a "most basic design problem" or 'fundamentals of the language" which you estimate 90% of the 10-20 year experienced people fail at? An occasional confabulatory candidate isn't it, it has to be most.
So, in other words, there isn't a shortage but an enormous glut, and so you can have super high standards. It's very likely many of those you rejected would have been fine but you couldn't tell in the tiny amount of time and probing you were willing to do.
The 60Kwh battery with no extra options is $63,570 after $7500 tax credit. This is cloth seats, no supercharger.
It's a great car, but Iteration 2 is more like $80,000, and iteration 3 (SUV) will be comparable to a comparable Model S in price according to the web site. A $50k car is possible, but $30k is unlikely for quite a while.