Re: I'm quite happy to sleep on Ecuador's sofa

Julian Assange is the ultimate couch barnacle.

Re: Old School "Chemics"

Yon flame burns not as a flame doth burn on Earth when tis held aloft in the firmament by yon machinations of the philosophers of countless nations.

Re: the US has done it's work

Here's the thing. Assange doesn't care about anything that isn't Assange. He's screwed all his friends and supporters, isn't man enough to stand up to allegations besmirching his honor and his 'glorious mission' had no goal other than attention. He would blab his own mothers deepest secrets if it could get him an interview with anyone. He is a man without honor. No global conspiracy or grudge by other nations is required to make this person undesirable in every way imaginable.

Re: Flip-flop

There are plenty (read lots) of people who are very opposed to the ridiculous DoD budget. Only madmen and those poor souls who are in fear of [bad guy] approve of our perpetual war footing. The amount of FUD surrounding defense spending is phenomenal though and that's the problem.

The big radio station here in DC, WTOP, runs crazy adverts every year during Congressional budget time. There are f'ing ads for advanced missile systems, armored troop transports, aircraft, the list just keep going. The ads are accompanied by serious voice overs telling the public how "our troops and our safety depend on the latest advances in war fighting technology developed by [global_corp]". "Contact your Congressman today and tell them to support the [explodey_thing] contract. Your safety depends on it."

Our own government and its defense contractors are terrorizing the population with stuff like this. When the machine has become so powerful it scares even those who are supposed to be managing it things have gone terribly pear shaped. Until these fears can be overcome I don't believe DoD spending will be reduced.

On that note, I think it is hilarious, in a sad way, that it's illegal to advertise tobacco or alcohol on the radio but if you want to sell a goddamn tank or missile system it's all Hell Yeah.

Re: Flip-flop @John Smith 19

"NASA does not control what centres it is allowed to open or close."

Yeah, I know. It sucks. Congress sucks. I feel sorry for the NASA guys honestly. They're just wanting to explore but they've got to play kiss ass to Congress to do anything.

Re: Why not

Absolutely not! We must have several fleets, each capable of destroying entire countries, ready to go at all times. We must be able to deliver democracy at any time to any place. If we wait too long we might pass the sell by date on all the democracy we have loaded up.

Re: Flip-flop @John Smith 19

I'm well aware of the role Texas plays in the space program. One of our biggest aerospace clients works almost exclusively on projects for the space center and we make some equipment for them. I have to go to Texas seven or eight times a year, which is why I rag on Texas so much, can't stand it.

You're dead on about Houston not caring about the program. They're still working on some projects from the 80's that will never be completed, technology advances have made them obsolete, but their Congressmen make sure those projects get funding. I'm not sure if you've ever seen the space flight training facilities (tour the center sometime if you're out that way, it's still a neat place) but a Kickstarter campaign could get them a new swimming pool and cover the costs of moving their rock collection.

The guys at MSFC on the other hand, seem genuinely interested in the program. They are excited every time I have to visit Alabama and they don't treat their work as a piggybank, unlike the johnsons at Johnson. They also do some human training so lets give them a new pool.

I realize the difficulties it would pose to move NASA out of Texas but it just bothers me that the state that is famous for an almost anti-science stance on anything that doesn't burn or go moo has such control in our exploration of space. As far as I'm concerned the politics and protectionist practices coming out of Houston are the biggest stumbling blocks to advancing our space program.

Re: Flip-flop

What we ought to do is replace the lot of them. I'd be happier with people randomly selected from the populace than these clowns.

I'm also going to propose a bill that will prevent any Republican from Texas from belonging to any committee that involves science or history.

Re: own goal ..

Yeah, I saw disruptive but I'm not feeling any synergy. Ultimately their success will depend on how they segment the market and maintain a laser like focus on low hanging but high growth verticals while still providing partnership opportunities for non traditional horizontally integrated vendors. Someone is going to have to reach out and find someone who has that killer instinct to step up to the plate and run with the ball the full distance. This will be a marathon, not a sprint.

Re: Congratulations to the New Astronauts @izntmac

It is spacecraft, not spacecrafts. The ESA guy said spacecrafts a few weeks ago and afterward we all learned that if it is referring to a vehicle for space travel, singular or plural, it is a spacecraft. Whereas knitting or scrapbooking in space are spacecrafts.

Re: What a depressingly dumbass set of 'joke' comments

A subset of women have a terrible sense of humor. It's that subset that ruins it for the other women, the bulk of who are normal people who won't run crying to start a lawsuit or file complaints everytime someone makes a dongle joke.

It's perfectly 'OK' for a woman to comment on how she can't get 'her man'' to do anything while the match is on but say something about a sandwich and spite estrogen fills the air.

Re: Google mounts legal challenge ... now that it may affect their bottom line

Google actually does a good job of publishing information requests from law enforcement. What they want to publish now is the information the law prohibits them from sharing. It isn't Google's fault they aren't allowed to disclose the info.

Re: how many were arrested?

That information is not buried and is easily obtainable through FOI request. See below for an example:

Officers REDACTED which REDACTED to a query REDACTED REDACTED system where REDACTED REDACTED. REDACTED did find REDACTED the officer REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED and was subsequently REDACTED REDACTED REACTED REDACTED REDACTED until the date REDACTED with REDACTED by order of REDACTED.

To protect the privacy of those named in this request some information has been REDACTED. Additionally some information has been REDACTED to ensure internal policies and procedures are not subjected to public scrutiny which could negatively affect performance of the involved agencies. REDACTED information cannot be made available through this agency or any other agency.

Re: Careers 'Advisor'

Well, going home meant going to New Jersey so they knew how it was. No point in bullshitting :)

Re: Careers 'Advisor'

Right! My advisor never mentioned the f'ing International Space University for my post grad studies. I got Stevens Institute of Technology which I was happy with until just now.

That could have changed my whole young adult life. You know, hanging out at the pub in France and a girl asks where you're going to school; could've said "International Space University baby [cheesy pickup line here]". Instead I'm hanging out in a NYC pub, girl asks the same question; I have to say "Hoboken, f'ing Hoboken, wanna come back to my place and count insane hobos?" That rarely went any where.

Re: Walloons

And cocaine comes from Bolivia (at least the European stuff), neither are 'supposed' to be there :)

Re: They're all at

Report the cop to the cops? After the statements by Captain Justice up there about 'feel like it' detentions who in their right mind would want to interact with the police. Who wants a permenant record of getting a policeman in trouble?

Re: What are we getting excited about?

So you are justifying detaining someone against their will, even if they have done nothing to be arrested for. That's fangoddamntastic. I hope you are in a place where you aren't issued a gun, taser or spray. People like you are dangerous. You can alter someone's future because your mistake got them a record. Jesus. How thick do you have to be to not see the problem?

In fairness to Anon Johnny Law up there, it is probably he who is being misled. Patrol officers and detectives both are taught that once a criminal, of any type, they are statistically likely to be guilty of more crime in the future.

There is a terrible slippery slope (mis)application of social and behavioral studies built right into their training. Because you commit a crime you are a valid target for the rest of your life for more intense scrutiny and hassle. They're gagging for a chance to 'prove' that all criminals are bad, some more so, but that there is something fundamentally flawed with that person. My uni roommate was in the police academy and was a detective while we lived together for a while after graduation. It was scary how he changed as he was assimilated into the collective.

If police were paid more the barriers to entry could be raised and the easily influenced could see for themselves how they are being misled into enforcing a system that is broken at its core: Lower the number of bullied turned bully and intellectually handicapped on the street.

"And you're sure he did actually make checks, he wasn't just claiming he would to see if it might put you off.?"

THAT ^^^ is exactly what is wrong with a system like this and the chimps that have access to it. Even if they don't actually do the checks they can abuse their position to intimidate people. The fact you posited that he may have done just that is evidence of the fact shit is fucked up.

Re: This is a massive percentage of police

I know it is fiction, but police and agents abuse people databases all the time in crime/murder shows. They'll look up their partners new boyfriend to make sure he's 'OK' or even look up exes to see what they're into. When they get caught by their supervisor they get the 'you know you aren't supposed to do that' speech, accompanied by a knowing smirk. I'd wager that's pretty much how it is in real life too. It's only bad if you're unpopular at the station already...

Re: Pretty much the definition of over-reach.

Check out this gem:

"Feinstein said the only new piece of information her committee received over the weekend was notification from the administration that the database of millions of phone numbers was queried 300 times in all of 2012.

“That’s all. That’s not content. That’s querying it" ...Feinstein said.

What is that supposed to mean? They ran 300 queries that returned nulls? Maybe I'm being too technical, but any time I run a query I expect it to return some type of content.

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/06/nsa-senate-hearing-92942.html

Re: Big deal

That's the thing, this stuff doesn't work for its intended purpose. If this kind of information was ever erroneously applied it would work wonderfully well though, and that really concerns me. It should concern everyone. One wonky algorithm or a misapplication of some sociologists 'latest findings' and someone is screwed and/or disappeared. No one except the bad guys are safe from mass surveillance.