I did a right turn at a major intersection but stopped before I turned. When I proceeded, there was several strobe flashes. Scared the crap out of me, muzzle flashes? Heard no gun shots. Lightning? uh clear skies. Am I gonna get socked with a big fine and huge increase of insurance because camera made a mistake? So far it's been months and nothing in the mail (unless there is an outstanding FTA waiting for 10-29), but I don't have that car anymore (bought another recently). Will such strobe lights freak someone out and cause them to t-bone me? I don't travel though that intersection much but when I do there is not much of a choice.

I wonder how such cities keep running i.e. water, power, sewage, traffic (though slow), electricity, food, etc. etc. and not collapse into some kind of Somalia environment with corruption gone rampant?

I was thinking first having kids learn about finances so they learn at early age the basics instead of becoming like many adults burden with debt from misuse of credit cards and borrowing plans. But that's another topic.

Getting back to this topic, I haven't seen the movie or read the book but I looked up Enders' Game to see what reference was. It seems creepy the parallels. Perhaps my Gripe of the Month is so much value is placed on warfare but I guess that's were progress is made. i.e. computers, internet, DARPA are all war department driven. While our economy tanks because most never got basic financial education, now there's war brewing in Ukraine and Middle East I guess emphasis is raising children to deal with it.

kind of like those who sit in ATC rooms and make sure the airliners don't collide?

Perhaps by design they make the application difficult. It's tough, it's demanding, it's the hardest thing you will ever do. But if you have the perseverance, the skill to do it, then maybe you are worthy to join.

I have to cry foul on this one. $79K is lot more than minimum wage but not high considering responsibility they have (future adults are children) especially this is Silicon Valley (one million dollars is not a lot of money). Yes, they get benefits as compared to other jobs that used to have benefits like pension plans but there is a jihad to eliminate those. Others not in the profession from billionaires to working stiffs don't believe teachers should have these.

You don't know teachers. Many have to use their earnings to buy supplies because politicos are too cheap to provide much of basic stuff they used to provide. Many teachers spend a lot of time after class and at home preparing lesson plans, etc. They don't have teachers aides like back in the days.

I don't want to hear this about there's not enough money, we find plenty to spend on countries, prisons, spying on citizens, etc.

I think I've heard this before. If empire puts the squeeze on trade routes, then its own subjects are too scared to expand and explore. Someone mentioned this analogy in another forum of what's preventing space exploration (oh, I don't have time to get the details and properly word stuff). Getting back to this canal, China has money to burn so may as well put it into this canal to provide options (it is one they can control where Panama they cannot). There is also amount of ships that can pass through Panama, even if it were wider (which it will be shortly) I heard there is a "traffic jam" of ships waiting in ocean for their turn.

I can't think of any but what a reputation this country has: Hackers, Russian dash cam car crashes, a leader with Tsar ambitions. And yet they have best competition ballroom dancers (and many moved here to US).

My impression is Chinese are thinking big plans for future. Way back in late 1800s early 1900s US was thinking same thing: Panama Canal was a huge project with lots of opportunity for failure. But reaped benefits for decades after. Also Chinese have lots of cash and putting it into big projects (ok some will fail but whatever they will secure strategic advantage). Meanwhile US put lots of resources into backwards countries with not much to show for it.

I first used Justin but then later all I would get is a freeze frame with a cartoon of a dinosaur on top of image, "our monkeys are working as hard as they can to get it fixed" or something like that. So I then went to Ustream which seems to work fine except I never could get audio along with video, though I'm using the free version (maybe they don't send sound?). Livestream looks pretty good but for people to see it you have to get paid version. ParadigmDVD has nice Livestream streaming videos from dance competitions, nothing special on their end (I forget if they use PC or Mac) simply connect and use software from Livestream. They feed SDI from the cameras.

Not sure how to get into this conversation (and I haven't RTFA), it reminds me of Smart Grids presentation. Speaker showed a diagram of how things were back in the days. One big power plant sending only power out, goes through transmission lines and distribution systems (only one way), and then to the users (only "feedback" is the electric meter with its disk going round and round, ticking the little numbers for the meter reader to note how much to bill you). Then he showed a diagram where the distribution system has all kinds of switches, loads measurement, and fault detection. And now you have users squirting power back into the system. On top of that there is digital information of system status in those lines. Actually quite fascinating, most of us don't even think about those light green boxes here and there occupying a small space along the highway. I've not studied it much but it's interesting. http://www.sandc.com/blogs/ind...

I do remember back in the days when PG&E did everything (north Calif). Generate the power, owned and serviced the transmission lines and distribution system, did the billing, etc. It also seemed there were more service trucks back then (I used to ask the PG&E guys if they had anything to spare, I got few hardware items that fun to have). PG&E does the billing and servicing of local lines but someone else owns the power plants and the big transmission lines.

good reminder of difficulties scheduling launch from FL. The old joke goes what's the different between 20% chance of showers and 80% chance of showers in Florida? Answer is none. I always wondered when claims of several launches per week we've heard through out the years of various launch vehicles (beginning with Shuttle planning in early 1970s of hundreds of flights per year). Then there is limited windows, i.e. if you don't get your Delta launched by such-and-such a date, it will have to be scrubbed until next month because USAF needs to launch an Atlas because Range Safety can only deal with limited number of launches.

Then there is Baikonur Cosmodrome. They can set a launch date for a Soyuz about two years in advance and will be able to launch on that date with exception of technical problems because there is no "weather" (either really hot or really cold but no rain, no clouds, nothing). But there is issues of high inclination and dealing with a certain leader with Tsar ambitions.

I remember that broadcast, I missed the "joke" and was thinking it didn't make sense because about same time in other media one mentioned a different set of names, another mentioned names of crew withheld pending investigation. At the time I was looking into how will it effect my flight into SJC (about 40 miles south) and also what caused such a simple landing to go wrong (maybe it is not that simple). But later I cringed thinking about the KTVU falling for bad information. Supposably, they called FAA to confirm but got someone who was taking messages for a FAA official who asked another person, etc. I guess pressure to be the first to get the news before someone else (I think it is better to be second or third place and be right instead of first place and be wrong).

Yes and no. There is the "Dilbert Principle" which the ineffective engineer is promoted so they don't screw things up in engineering (at least what I've heard, it seems to me managers come in all types of skills and effectiveness). Supposably the successful technical person at least knows subject matter even if they are poor managers as compared to the PHB of Dilbert fame.

yep, imagine that. building your own analog computer (need some good machine shop tools), a MAC decades before Steve Jobs. Really, Mechanical Analogue Computer https://www.youtube.com/watch?...