Comment Re:Western Governor's wgu.edu (Score 1) 433
Also, they charge ~$3k for an all you can study semester. So if you're filling the checkbox you can finish faster.
I got my M.Ed in 3 semester.
Comment Re:WikiLeaks link in the summary? (Score 1) 346
You do realize that anyone who works in the Defense Industry, military, or other US Government contracting positions could lose their job over clicking that, right?
Actually, they probably didn't. This is not a well known fact, and considering all of the US's enemies already have that information, it is not obvious to people who don't have a clearance that looking at it would be a problem.
Comment Re:Prime suspects (Score 1) 346
Seriously, this is Israel, the penultimate security state.
The IDF is staffed with conscripts. Almost everybody is between the ages of 18 and 22. Almost all officers are in their early twenties. It is not the most competently run organization in the world, to say the least.
The Data Crunchers Who Helped Win The Election 208
concealment sends in a story at Time that goes behind the scenes with the team of data crunchers that powered many of the Obama campaign's decisions in the lead-up to the election. From the article:
"For all the praise Obama's team won in 2008 for its high-tech wizardry, its success masked a huge weakness: too many databases. Back then, volunteers making phone calls through the Obama website were working off lists that differed from the lists used by callers in the campaign office. Get-out-the-vote lists were never reconciled with fundraising lists. It was like the FBI and the CIA before 9/11: the two camps never shared data. ... So over the first 18 months, the campaign started over, creating a single massive system that could merge the information collected from pollsters, fundraisers, field workers and consumer databases as well as social-media and mobile contacts with the main Democratic voter files in the swing states. The new megafile didn't just tell the campaign how to find voters and get their attention; it also allowed the number crunchers to run tests predicting which types of people would be persuaded by certain kinds of appeals. Call lists in field offices, for instance, didn't just list names and numbers; they also ranked names in order of their persuadability, with the campaign's most important priorities first. About 75% of the determining factors were basics like age, sex, race, neighborhood and voting record. Consumer data about voters helped round out the picture. 'We could [predict] people who were going to give online. We could model people who were going to give through mail. We could model volunteers,' said one of the senior advisers about the predictive profiles built by the data. 'In the end, modeling became something way bigger for us in '12 than in '08 because it made our time more efficient.'"
Comment Re:Future-hacking (Score 1) 180
Smart criminals would be able to hack this system. However, most serious crimes are committed by people too stupid to find safer ways of making money.
Comment Re:Teachers are the problem. (Score 1) 90
Using google to find information is a lot of what they need to learn.
Comment Can't you create content on a tablet? (Score 2) 90
Tablets can run programming languages, drawing programs, word processing, etc. Why can't they create content on it?
Comment Re:This is one area we've regressed. (Score 1) 252
Not if you belong to an organization that doesn't follow the Geneva Convention itself.
Comment Re:Quite the opposite. (Score 1) 252
Can you give me a case where an interrogation would be required?
Comment Re:This is one area we've regressed. (Score 1) 252
Only if admissible in court. When the interrogation is for a military objective (for example, Osama bin Laden's location), I don't think anybody is overly concerned about eventual trial. It is more important to win the war.
Comment Re:Quite the opposite. (Score 3, Interesting) 252
Torture, by itself, only makes the victims say whatever they think the torturer wants them to say.
However, if the interrogator already has some information, s/he can teach the victim that lying causes pain in a way that saying the truth doesn't. If victims don't know the exact extent of the interrogator's knowledge, they'll be afraid to lie.
Comment Re:This is one area we've regressed. (Score 1) 252
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
I think the fifth amendment applies to criminal cases, not to military intelligence gathering.
Comment Re:WATER BOARDING (Score 1) 252
I think they're looking for nicer ways to achieve the same effect. They aren't trying to cause pain, they're trying to get information.
Comment Re:This is one area we've regressed. (Score 1) 252
Torture is a well known technique, shown to be effective many times in history. They're trying to find other ways to interrogate people.
Comment The FBI needs more money (Score 3, Insightful) 418
Classified research doesn't belong in universities. They aren't equipped to handle information controls. It's that simple.
But the FBI, of course, needs more money to investigate this issue. When the deficit is sky high and government budgets are likely to be cut, it is very important to shout loudly about the importance of your agency.
