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Comment my worry is politics (Score 1) 678

A lot of wars began when the water supply dried up. Fortunately northern and southern California are not separate countries otherwise we'd be in a shooting war. But as water crises continues, we will also see a lot political nonsense. I'm sure there are cooler and more intelligent heads working this situation, but a licensed engineer is no match against The Shatner on the talk shows.

Comment Re:Balance is the key (Score 1) 397

Obviously you got a 5 Score. Let me add that I'm old enough to recall ever since I've graduated from college in 1980s I have always heard "shortage of engineers!" cry (STEM is now the battle cry these days). What I noticed then and still notice is the ones calling for more STEM are the same types that screamed shortage of engineers. They are all non-engineers (sales, business, journalists, etc.). I don't push STEM as many claim "The Nobelist Of All Professions," but a career choice. And also let them know one can do many great things and also have to deal with hardships (demands of of ever-changing technologies, pulling all-nighters, getting tanked by marketing dept after much hard work developing a product).

Comment Re:How propaganda decides wars (Score 1) 269

Where is the "question authority" sentiment now

it's there but when you speak out, you will get flamed for it as unpatriotic terrist commie pinko. or you get ignored. Getting back to media, nobody knows what is going on in Iraq or Afghanistan. Information is out there but difficult find. i.e. nobody in US knows the difference between a Sunni and a Shia. Or how did ISIS become so strong so quick. Information is out there but many articles either veer toward putting blame on someone (i.e. Obama's or Bush's fault). Or article is very long and very esoteric, will take many years to fully understand. Or what about all that money spent but infrastructure is still very third world country?

Comment Re:trashing a dream job (Score 1) 385

150 lives lost is a huge tragedy and no doubt this is a case of mass murder that has effected many others beside those on board. I was highlighting there are many other pilots that could have been hired and this situation would never have occurred. But then humans are unpredictable, as itzly pointed out when someone no longer thinks rationally then normal rules don't apply. It appears next step is the 2-person rule like in other critical positions so if one person goes nutzoid, the other can prevent an irrational action.

Comment trashing a dream job (Score 1) 385

There are thousands (and many more) pilots of outstanding skill, character, values, etc. that dream of being an airline pilot. No shortage of pilots, and yet here we have someone that has done something horrible and thrown that opportunity away. Ok so we all have problems, even pilots dealing with many airlines skimping on pay and benefits (that's another story). It reminds me of the unabomber who had top career choice of a math professor at Berkeley but threw away that job to move into the backcountry to build mail bombs.

Comment Re:How propaganda decides wars (Score 3, Insightful) 269

I think for Korean War it was 1950s and less than 10 years since WWII, there was no counterculture/question authority types during that decade. Also wartime coverage was limited but skyrocketed during Vietnam War. Though video was 16mm film, it quickly be developed and broadcasted on TV (there was less TV sets in homes in early 50s than in 1960s). Also during Vietnam War, media had much free access to battle zones. If there's room in the Huey, a reporter or camera guy can hop on board. Military only denied them on special ops missions. Of course all that had major impact on opinion. Civilians can see what battles are really like (chaos, nobody knows WTF is going on,etc.) and not like choreographed battles in the movies. After Vietnam, military forces realized they need tight control of media. We witnessed that during Falklands campaign which news was sporadic with much unsaid, first Gulf War where CNN kept showing the same footage of a cruise missile impacting a rooftop door but not much on the biggest tank battle since WWII.

Comment Re:do you really want the uninformed voting (Score 1) 1089

So do you really want the uninformed/non interested making a vote. Then it really could become a popularity contest instead of more on the facts.

There was an article, "Guns, God, and gays" where it talked about wedge issues that are hot button items for some people but really doesn't effect most people like low job prospects and environmental issues.

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