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Comment Re:No pity (Score 1) 827

In the state I live in (Massachusetts) $3,333 won't even cover a year at a community college.

This table lists the estimated cost of in-state (i.e. subsidized) tuition and fees for all state supported colleges in Massachusetts for the last 10 years, without room and board.
http://www.mass.edu/campuses/res_total.asp

In 2012-13, a year at community college was in the 4-6k range, state colleges 8-10k, and 11-12k for a UMass campus. Room and board goes for roughly 6-7k at a state college and 10k at UMass. Even if you find a job in college that covers all of your non tuition expenses (good luck), you're entering this job market with between 32k and 50k of debt, add room and board alone and that becomes 60-90k. And if you want to attend a more prestigious university, you're looking at 50-60k per year.

Add years of underemployment after graduation to that and it's easily a lifetime of crippling debt.

Comment Re:The protesters need to refocus their anger. (Score 5, Informative) 1799

Thats strictly a paper loss, the Wilpons profited from their relationship with Madoff. They deposited about $700 million and withdrew about a billion over the course of 5 years, their only losses were the ficticious profits they hadn't yet withdrawn. A recent ruling limited their liability to only what was invested in the last 2 years, and likely only the profit they made of about $83 million.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/29/business/mets-ruling-may-reduce-payout-to-madoff-victims.html
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/madoff-ruling-a-big-win-for-mets-owners-2011-09-28

Comment Re:Democrats loved the Pentagon Papers (Score 3, Insightful) 833

If you can't speak frankly and candidly in your private, secret, and classified communications with the government you represent, how are you supposed to do your job? How do you give your government good information and an accurate assessment of the situation on the ground? If your impression of the President of Afghanistan is that he's corrupt and paranoid, your country needs to know.

Suggesting that we extend political correctness into classified communications is completely absurd. The expectation is that these documents will never see the light of day until they're only relevant in an historical context.

Comment Re:Different psychology (Score 4, Insightful) 483

You follow orders because you don't have the big picture. It may be that the manner in which you accomplish your objective is more important than the outcome, something that you're not aware of could easily depend on how and not if.

The common failure among us geeks is that we tend to think we know more than everyone else. You don't always have all of the information in front of you, and thats an absolute necessity for the military.

Government

China Lauds iPhone App That Spreads Gov't Views 158

angry tapir writes "China's film and TV regulator has praised the growth of an iPhone application from state broadcaster CCTV as the country looks for new ways to project its political views abroad. The free iPhone app, one of a growing number from Chinese state-owned news outlets, has gained 500,000 users in the month or so since it went online and is adding 2,000 new users each day, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television said in a statement on its Web site. The CCTV app has shown 'favorable performance' and proven especially popular during broadcasts of major events, such as a high-flown military parade held in Beijing last month, the statement said."

Comment Re:I have this really novel idea (Score 1) 922

You know, there is a school of thought which says that a stockpile of nuclear weapons big enough to kill every living thing on the planet is big enough, and any extra are probably unnecessary expense. A nuclear deterrent only needs to be large enough to completely and totally annihilate any country that may attack you. The British nuclear arsenal is big enough for that. The US has about an order of magnitude more.

In order to be an effective deterrent, you need a stockpile large enough to survive a nuclear first strike, and penetrate the enemy's defenses.

"Big enough to kill everything on the planet" is quite arbitrary, if your enemy thinks they can take out most or all of your nukes before you can retaliate, then you have no deterrent at all.

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