"EVERYONE WHO SAYS ANYTHING RACIST IS A REPUBLICAN."

This is not an accurate statement.

It is however accurate to say that individuals that are racist are statistically more likely to vote republican.

I would like to believe that the majority of Republicans are not openly racist. But the fact that the majority of open racists are Republicans isn't really up for debate. I'd link a bunch of research studies that show it, but I'm on the work network ;)

In addition to the racist issue, there is also the privilege issue. And with lower minority participation, the Republican party definitely skews in favor of those with privilege.

-Rick

75 C = 167 F.

"17 degrees" in this case means a 30 degree F jump. And while 138 F is survivable for short durations with a lot of hydration, 167 F would not be anything to attempt to live in.

We're not talking about an air ship where you can take a leisurely stroll on the pool deck admiring the Venetian sunset. We're talking about a space ship that is suspended in a convection stove.

-Rick

"But law enforcement can get that history quite easily whether or not that have my phone" ... With a warrant.

-Rick

"Looking at your phone here it appears that you had a 5 minute call with the deceased on the night of the murder. Also, looking at your GPS log, it appears that you were in the vicinity of their apartment and then drove down some country roads near where we found the body."

Never mind the fact that you are a friend of the deceased, live a mile away from them, and take the country roads to avoid the congestion of the main drag at rush hour. You are now suspect #1.

Your phone's existence in today's digital age is in itself "important" when it comes to criminal investigations.

-Rick

Something has been taken from them in the same way that I have taken your ability to appear intelligent.

The only thing lost is theoretical profits. For which you can take someone to civil court over, prove damages, and get your money back.

I'm not opposed to the existence of IP in general. I am opposed to grossly vague patents, and copyrights that extend for more than 7-20 years. The point of IP is to drive the creation of inventions and art to further society. Not to create model within which people defend an idea from use for decades or prevent media from ever entering the public domain.

-Rick

Funny story, Dick Cheney and the like don't make decisions at this level.

When it comes to actual implementation projects with open bidding, there is a selection committee that handles the decision making. With scoring criteria based on measurable metrics.

Those selection committees contain a variety of stake holders. Typically you have someone from the brass, a couple of middle managers from the primary departments involved, an engineer, a business area expert, and management from IT.

Do you really think Cheney came up with an idea for a secondary email system to allow the Bush administration to get around the open records laws? No, it was a group of middle managers, brown nosers, political hacks, and someone from IT.

Now, there are serious issues when you wind up with no-bid contracts where senior political figures side step process and implement crap without regard for the law. But there is a lot of heat and pressure that comes along with those moves (as my own Governor has discovered).

But in other cases, IT leadership in state governments has a lot of pull on implementations. So yes, I do have the ability to shape the direction of our ATMS selection.

So if you want to do something about it, get off your pessimistic duff and get involved in government. If you don't trust others to do it right, then do it yourself!

-Rick

Negative, the originator still has the right to decide to distribute, or not.

What you have taken from them is a governmentally enforced monopoly of a thought.

-Rick

There is a way to fight back though.

I work for the State. I am involve in our "advanced traffic management system", part of which will include systems to interact with the new SRCR systems the feds are mandating on 2017 model year cars.

There are other people on this project who have proposed all manor of things like, "We should be able to turn off a car that is speeding excessively", and "We should be able to track a vehicles movements and tax them based on miles driven", which basically just hearing makes me feel like I need a shower.

But since I am involved in the process, I can push back on these things, I can point out that we shouldn't be tracking vehicles, that we should be tracking rotating GUIDs that make it virtually impossible to identify an individuals travel patterns should our system be compromised. That we shouldn't be enabling a system that would kill power steering and power breaks on a vehicle traveling 100 mph. That we should be focusing the ATMS efforts on systems that have proven trends to reduce accidents and prevent fatalities.

Believe it or not, your government is nothing more than a collection of citizens. And while politicians are generally the scum of the earth, there are many great state and federal employees who are doing their best to make the country a better place.

-Rick

Also an IT Manager. I try to keep my team capped out at 42 hours per week. Every once and a while we'll have some sort of emergency, but that's where comp time comes in.

As an IT manager, my week starts at 42 hours and grows from there. I'll be pushing 50 on this week by the time I leave for the night.

And my day today included interviews for an additional permanent BA/PM, 6 mainframe developers, and I was told by my boss that we were going to "load balance" from the C#/GSI team onto my Java team, that I would be getting at least 4 more projects, 2 FTEs, and probably half a dozen contractors.

So if there is any change to over time reqs, please let them include us!

-Rick

It's a mixed bag, salaries tend to be a bit lighter, but you get an honest to goodness pension. Depending on what State and what department, there are other goodies as well. Where I am I get 3 weeks of vacation (starting), 3.5 weeks of sick time (unused sick time carries over year to year and can be cashed out at retirement to pay for health insurance), 4.5 days of "personal time" each year, along with all of the state holidays. Makes the work-life balance a little more easily managed ;)

-Rick

To add to this, I work for the State these days. Coming from a private sector shrinkwrap software company where the median age was ~28 and the average tenure was ~2 years, to the State where the average age is probably closer to 35-40, and the average tenure is 10+ years, it was a huge shock.

There is good and bad that comes with it. I've seen more complacency with jobs/technology. People aren't interested in making a jump to newer technologies and patterns because they don't feel like they have to. But on the bright side, you get to skip out on the vast majority of the junior dev shop drama.

But if you're north of 35, look at your local state agencies, no one would blink an eye at a 40-something applying for a job. And certs, while useful for getting you through the resume screening, are dramatically less valuable than networking and having someone in the department that will recommend you for an interview.

-Rick

Canadians ;)

The way they described it was similar to how my German friends described it. After high school you have to do something; college, apprenticeship, peace corps/community service, or military. You can't just graduate and keep flipping burgers.

Every Canadian I know is either former Mounty or Army. There may be some nuance to it that I'm not aware of, or perhaps I am ill informed.

-Rick

To be fair though, both Canada and Switzerland have forced conscription. So all of their native able bodied gun owners have completely weapons handling training at the military level.

-Rick

Here's the thing, there are some forms of nerve damage that we currently don't have a cure for, there are far more that we don't even understand well enough to have an idea for a cure, and there are some that are so poorly understood, even significant swaths of the medical community doubt that they are real and accuse patients of being drug seekers.

For example: Fibromyalgia. It isn't a disease in it's own right, it is a classification of a set of symptoms that have not been able to be attached to a source. There are lots of theories and progress is being made in the field. But when the causes could be genetic, dietary, environmental, psychological, or even sleep related, any step forward could be helpful for some subset of FM sufferers, but leave the rest without aid.

If this approach can be made to work, it would mean that virtually all of the FM sufferers in the world could lead a normal life, while at the same time research continues on the underlying causes of their conditions.

When you wake up every day and have to see your spouse, your child, or your friends in agony because for no meaningful reason their brain decides that they should feel like every joint is coated with sandpaper, that every muscle is strained and torn, that every tendon is inflamed, then any option, even one that profits some greedy ass in a suit, becomes a miracle.

-Rick

"The "we could have a Chernobyl every year" argument is just stupid."

YES! Absolutely! That's what started this whole chain off.

-Rick