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Comment Skills Mismatch (Score 2, Interesting) 450

So, let's do some logic here.

U.S.A. citizens get their training at U.S.A. universities.
Countries around the world send their citizens to U.S.A. universities.

Skill mismatch? Where do the foreign folks get their unique skills? Should the U.S.A. be sending folks abroad to universities?

Is the unique skill "low cost"? Are businesses finding it totally unacceptable to train their employees?

Does this mean employees are throwaway after five years since "the next big thing" has come out and it did not exist when they went to school?

Comment Re:Stupid, really (Score 1) 283

Because NASA has be largely encouraged to "get stuff from industry" for so long--shrink its workforce and farm out all of the details as much as possible, most everything paid for by the taxpayers is proprietary to the companies to which NASA contracts. Nobody else can use it and we get 30 years of stagnation of space travel. Will we get more of the same with the new proposal?

Comment Re:I've lost faith in government contractors. (Score 1) 319

NASA shouldnt be using commercial spaceflight, they should be making commercial spaceflight companies put in bids for contracts.

This is exactly what NASA already does. They figure out what the requirements for the next big thing and then contract out the details. NASA is on the hook to make sure that the right product is built and that the product is built right. More and more...and more of NASA's work has been outsourced but it has not resulted in the fabulous innovations and cost savings people want. Commercial companies keep all of the intellectual property and have little incentive not to overrun costs because there are only a few with the ability to meet NASA's needs, so new work will have to flow back to them.

Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Orbital Sciences, and a few others are spending most of the money and working the politicians to keep it flowing.

Comment Evolved? (Score 1) 162

Not only are we throwing the word vegetarian around but also the word evolve. The blog and the article it references do not give any basis for evolution. The following concepts are related but far from being the same.

From dictionary.com: evolution: Biology. change in the gene pool of a population from generation to generation by such processes as mutation, natural selection, and genetic drift.

From dictionary.com: adaptation: Biology. a. any alteration in the structure or function of an organism or any of its parts that results from natural selection and by which the organism becomes better fitted to survive and multiply in its environment.

The spider continues to need protein as its primary diet but found a different source. Other posters recognized similar situations. For example, if a type of dog lives in an area with lots of rabbits it will probably eat rabbits and still be the same type of dog. In the same way, it could be squirrels... or even peanuts!

Comment Geekdom fini (Score 1) 623

The more you mix business and government with IT the less fun it will be. Perhaps technology being more widespread gives a similar effect. IT Geeks once were like modern day wizards wielding their craft across the land. We were unique, somewhat scary, and to most, unnecessary. Now IT is everywhere and IT Geeks are probably more like pharmacists. Everybody needs them but they are far from impressive and it is easy enough to find one who will do an adequate job.

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