Anybody remember this Slashdot thread about the $1 billion per year subsidy to ULA?. It was only two days ago.

Was ULA making any investment in propulsion technology? Well they started using the Russian RD-180 in 2000 and didn't start looking for a replacement until 2014. This was after SpaceX starting to compete with them for heavy launch contracts and everyone realized that Russia could stop deliveries because of political considerations.

Meanwhile, Space has been continuously investing in new rocket technology, primarily with their own money. They haven't made any profit yet, it's ongoing reinvestment.

As this article shows, they are even working on extending the state of the art by extending CFD technology so that rocket engine design can benefit from advanced computation capabilities.

So how much new technology did ULA produce? What did the taxpayers get for the $1 billion per year above and beyond paying for actual launches? Sound of crickets...

Welcome to our post capitalism system. Entrenched special interests get guaranteed profit and government subsidies, obscene tax breaks and use government regulation to keep out any competition. SpaceX just got hit by the regulation trap: US Air Force Overstepped in SpaceX Certification. The report came out about two weeks ago well after the damage was already done. Business as usual. No one will be held to account.

This obvious sabotage resulted because the USAF/Lockheed/Boeing are for all practical purposes a unified conglomerate. They are all insiders, The military and government employees know that as soon as they leave the US payroll they will go to the (not really) civilian side and make even more money. When they retire from their civilian jobs they get two retirement packages: double dipping.

Yes, that's why they built their vast data center in the middle-of-nowhere Utah. Because they were shutting down the program.

It would be nice if Intel had some competition to keep them honest.

AMD used to fill that slot, but they don't count for much any more. So far Arm is not much of a player outside of tablets/smartphones.

I want meaningful choices.

After these are delivered, how long will it take for the first person to die from one?

Anybody want to buy a date? Drum up enough interest in the pool and you could make a killing.

Once you've burned the car, how easy is it to reload?

Can you carry a car into an area surrounded by walls?

Stupid much?

First, they are applying security through obscurity. Since it's pre-broken, only those who can think out of the box will be able to apply.

Second, it's a great way to screen applicants. Only those who are truly adept and motivated will get through this barrier to entry.

I think this is the wave of the future. Employers can put up broken application sites and only look at the candidates that can figure it out. They don't even have to spend much to make it bad in the first place. Just outsource it to the lowest bidder, preferably in a country with a different language. Heck, have them do it in their native language and then apply some cheap ass internationalization package.

All this needs is a catchy name that sounds cool like "scrum" or "cloud scale" and it will become the next big thing. There will be certificate programs in whatever it's called and "Whatever it's called for Dummies". Wired and the Wall Street Journal will write articles. Hop on that bandwagon now and make those big bucks!

Stop lying.

The 2015 personal income maximum California tax rate is 13.30% for an individual making more then $1,000,000 or a couple making more then $1,039,374.

The 2015 California corporate tax rate is a flat 8.84%.

So are you a degenerate liar or just dumber then a box of rocks? The truth took a mindless Google search and about 20 seconds. Are you incapable of that level effort or do you expect that everyone one else is as uninformed as you are and will believe whatever drivel you post?

So go back to where you live in your mother's basement and look for the radioactive CIA mind control scorpions and leave the rest of us surface dwellers alone.

You don't understand our new post-captialist economy. In post-capitalism, entrenched special interest have a right to make money and the basic purpose of government is to enact laws that insure profit. That is the law of the land manifest in the DCMA. So, for example, Kurig is using DRM to eliminate competition on refills for their machines.

Post-capitalism also conveniently eliminates pesky constitutional guarantees enforcing the rule of law. Contractual language can now eliminate search warrants and right of privacy when Stingray cellphone technology is used for mass surveillance. Both government and private enterprise benefit in post-capitalism.

Broadband providers have just as much right as any other business to run an entrenched monopolistic enterprise and make vast amounts of money. I fully expect that the current court system will correct the loopholes that threaten their guaranteed profitability, and give them the same protection under the law that other corrupt special interests enjoy in our post-capitalist system.

Why is this so hard to understand? It's obviously the American Way.

Once it's gone, it's gone.

Just wondering.

This is similar to what happened in geology when plate tectonics became accepted. There were a cadre of crusty (pun intended) old professors who just flat out rejected the idea that the surface of the earth could move like that. They stuck to their guns, and some of them spent their final years in academia trying to refute tectonic theory. I heard about this when I was a rockhound as a kid and went to amateur geology events.

I don't know if at that time anyone accused those adopting the new theory as being personally corrupt, but doubt it. Those were different times. However, when this guy starts calling the APS corrupt he's clearly gone into the weeds.

In reality there is corruption in the climate change debate, and it's all on the side of the fossil fuel advocates. They have a lot of money at stake, and they spend a relatively large amount defending their wealth. The poster boys for this are the Koch brothers, although they are not alone.

There's a position in the economics department of Kansas University funded by the Kochs. It's filled by a person who's previous job was as a lobbyist for the Koch organization. Among other things he lobbied against wind power subsidies, which is really blatant give the vast tax write-offs that fossil fuel companies get.

Additionally, another Koch funded economist at George Mason University has come out in favor of less democracy. Dr. Garett Jones published a paper titled “10% Less Democracy: How Less Voting Could Mean Better Governance" This is a step beyond the Republican program to keep the "wrong" kind of people from voting. It's starting to look like the Kochs are getting tired of the peasants grumbling, and are considering reducing their right to petition grievances before the king.

Where's your proof that "meta-analyses are shit.". Do we just take your word for it? Nice scientific method there.

First of all Wikipedia isn't "public information". Glad to clarify that for you. That nit must have been really bothering you.

So what line item in the NYPD budget covers lying to the public? When the description of an unarmed suspect is changed to armed that is not exactly a minor detail. In this universe it's called lying.

It's a crime to lie to the police. Do it and you could go to jail. Do you think that the NYPD is leading by example when someone at headquarters propagates lies on the internet?

If someone has the time to falsify a Wikipedia entry while they are at work does that mean that they are not busy enough? Why didn't they do it from home? Any possibility that they were trying to conceal their identity? Is that the kind of behavior we want from police personal? What kind of transparency is that, exactly?

So if I set up a Wikipedia entry about you and said that you were caught cheating at college and were expelled and furthermore you were fired from work for theft, it would be no big deal because "That's the way Wikipedia is supposed to work." According to you lying is "not criminal", so it must be acceptable. If slander against a dead person shot by the NYDP is no big deal, then lying about you is inconsequential. You're still around to fix the problem, so no harm. It's not like you're dead or anything.

I am very dubious about how the FAA is dealing with this, but your suggestion is beyond stupid. You are advocating shutting down the mechanisms that make aviation possible. Do you think that shutting down national/international air traffic control is a good idea? Do you think that suspending oversight on aircraft maintenance will keep planes flying safely?

How stupid are you? Grow up. Your opinion is senseless. Do yourself, and everyone else here a favor and think before you post again. That is, if you can think.