Right now, most of all the western electronics come from China. As such, it makes it trivial for the CHinese gov. to do whatever they like.
It is long past time for these western companies to bring back production.
At the same time, they need to OSS the firmware so that others will feel comfortable with buying these, knowing that they can get true secured systems.

And for the Chinese gov. who almost certainly knew about it.

And yet, this is made in China, by chinese ownership, without other companies knowing about it.
Are you really claiming that Chinese gov. is helping NSA spy?
Not bloody likely.

We really do not have that option.
The problem in America is that we USED to have 3rd parties that at least put pressures on the pubs/dems to keep them moderates.
However, when Poppa Bush lost due to Perot, the GOP announced that they would no longer allow 3rd parties to debate, and they would no longer use the league of women voters. Sadly, the fucking dems went along with the fascists.
So, now America has either idiots with the dems, or fascists with the gop.

LOL. under dem presidents, deficits always drop, since Johnson. OTOH, every GOP (republicans and neo-cons alike) president starting with nixon, has caused massive deficits that increase every year.

Apparently, you neo-cons/tea* are not capable of math or facts.

Actually, we are getting ready to buy a tesla, and we have solar solar city. We will use the SC to run the house and charge the car. When the net drops, not an issue. It makes for a wonderful back-up generator.

Actually, that was the CA solution. And then the texans, found out how to do texas-style accounting, and manipulation of the markets.

Look, these MBA's always chase the sure short-term dollar for a tactical idea, that leaves them with plenty of money, while disregarding long-term strategies.
AE is a utilities best friend. Instead, utilities should be pushing to have a clean separation of power vs. grid. In addition, they themselves should focus on storing the energy and selling it back.
Finally, if these utilities Executives had HALF a brain, they would realize that electric cars are about to come and they can make a killing on these since the majority will charge at night. As such, they can drop the expensive on-demand systems, and focus on lowering their costs to generation.

I know the water is fine, but if I lived in Portland and they hadn't emptied the reservoir I would have been looking at the tap water a little more suspiciously, and if I was someone who sometimes bought bottled water I probably would have been a little more likely to buy some. I have no doubt many of you are the same.

Someone peeing in the tap water is icky, it doesn't matter if it's irrational, we are irrational, and as costs of irrationality goes emptying a single reservoir is pretty damn cheap. There's times to stand on scientific principal, this isn't one of them. There's no point in grossing out an entire city, reducing confidence in the municipal water supply, and impacting human health and the environment by pushing people towards bottled drinks, just because it's irrational. Sometimes the most rational thing you can do is accommodate your irrationality.

Hmmm. Just found the answer. it is landing 200 KM east, and 500 KM south, which would make it the blake plateau. I do have to say that while the blake is relatively shallow (500 M), I do not think that we have old rigs there. The rigs that are off the florida shore were done in the 60-80 and I believe remained on the shelf, which stops at around 100 KM.

And you are correct. If they have to reverse the direction, then it might be better to come back to land.

OTOH, once texas is a launch site, it might make a lot of sense to use the old rigs in the gulf. Plenty of them.

Normally, I scream about the neo-cons/tea*. BUT, to be fair, it is the house republican party that is causing the issues. Interestingly, the tea* speaks for private space, but they continue to support the SLS and taking money from private space.

And Dana, Like Dr. Griffin, has done wonders for private space. He would be a strong supporter of it even if it was not in his district.

And Giffords, along with the dem from Maryland that pushes the NGT, Have been the only 2 dems that have been hostile towards private space. In general, dems have supported BOTH SLS and Private space. Now, to be honest, I view the neo-cons/tea* as being the worst approach for trying to kill off private space, BUT, the dems are just wasting money and are gutless wonders. Make no mistake. Just because I speak out against neo-cons/tea*, does not mean that I support the idiot dems.

And sald, private spaceflight is our best way to not only drop the price of cost to space, but also to turn space into a money maker. That is why I continue to push for federal support of Bigelow Aerospace. They can build a space station in LEO with say 6-8 ppl on-board (ideally, NASA will have 2 ppl on it), and then land a base on the moon by 2020. I have NO DOUBT that if we have a base on the moon in which just about any nation will be allowed there, then private space will make a tonne of money. Just about every nation will want to spend the 50-100 million to put one of their own on the moon for say 2-4 months.

I had not thought about it, but you are right. Dragon is really at the same place that the first flight of the shuttle was. Yeah, some changes have to be made, but nothing major. Great point. Glad somebody modded you up
Now, if the house pubs would quit spending billions on the Russians and would instead support American businesses, SpaceX could be not just ready in under 6 months, but the safest craft to have ever launched.

why be sarcastic when the gnat was spot on? No reason to be.

The orbiters around sat, cassini, was launched in late 90's. The mission to pluto was launched in 2006. Curiosity it about the size of a VW bug, not an SUV.

BUT, these have costs BILLIONS. In order to sustain our exploration, we must lower the costs of this. SpaceX is about to do that. For example, red dragon will make it possible to put the largest lander on the planet, loaded with instruments.

Well, SPaceX's F9 currently has the world's best record of 100% success (though one 2nd ary payload failed, but that was due to NASA not allowing a longer burn time). As such, I know that I would be happy to ride F9 up.
Heck, by the time that dragon rider launches next year with humans, F9 will have gone up more than 20 x. I think that it more then enough.