Dictatorships that control their subjects' access to information like to have all Internet connections in their country pass through a single choke point so that they can maintain control. I once visited Saudi Arabia and met the guy responsible for all Internet traffic in and out of the country -- through a single link with a single backup.

This is good if you want to give your people only the access you want them to have, and to block everything else. At the same time, it means your whole country can be knocked offline by a single attack, which seems to be the problem N. Korea is experiencing. Imagine trying to knock the entire U.S. offline! It couldn't be done.

Cuba, OTOH.... well, that one may change soon. But N. Korea? Probably not, although I wish it would. A far more miserable place than Cuba has ever been.

Oh look, here come the same "social engineers" that brought us soaring male suicide rates and burgeoning single motherhood with it's associated social outcomes,

The only problem with this statement, is while these theories on raising children are a relatively new thing (last 100 years or so) - it can not be demonstrated that any kids are ACTUALLY being raised this way. Maybe a few, here and there, but by and large, most parents still raise their kids using traditional violence-based methods.

So to blame these new science-backed techniques for the "decline of modern civilization" is just a bunch of bullshit; to justify frustrated parents whose first tool in their parenting toolbox is the paddle.

"Does your mother know what you do for a living? Do you think she would be proud?"

Thanks for the nostalgia! I remember when people tried to claim that with a straight face back in the 80s, but no one believed it even then. Can you imagine that someone actually said that ridiculous crap in seriousness once? I'm glad we've moved past those ludicrously mind-bending contortions and can laugh about them now, knowing full well that no one actually thinks that way anymore.

Bzzt. I can share hugs, music, friendship, laughter, pain, and joy with others, but I wouldn't call any of those "possessions".

That presumes scarcity. If I share your post on Twitter, you are not deprived of it. Neither would I be.

Whatever the environment, there are jobs that require someone just to be there waiting for something unusual to happen. Even in the nuclear missile bunkers, I bet they spend about 95% of their time sitting around waiting for an alarm they hope never comes. You can only clean so much before it's time to lean. So what if OP works in a clean room? I bet there are plenty of "I'm paid to sit here" jobs in there, too.

Lol, in Gary, you're at much higher risk from industrial pollution than you are from random hooligan violence on the street. That shit gets into your body every day, all day long. You can't shoot it back. And it's completely legal.

Exactly.

And if NK wanted to REALLY threaten Sony; they'd just assassinate Seth Rogan. Seems like the easiest and most sensible thing to do. Seriously. The rest of this just makes no fucking sense at all.

Based on mentions that they will tow it into place, that's a billion dollars for something that would be used for a few weeks and then left to sit for the next 25 years. Better to spend a few million dollars towing it into place. Less cost, and less machinery to go wrong over time.

You would think with that volume of gas you would be up there with a nuclear sized detonation.

It has a capacity of some 430 million liters of LNG. At an average density of 0.463 kg/L at -160C, that's 199 million kilos of liquefied methane. At 22.2 MJ/L, that's 4.42 billion MJ, or a shade over a megaton of TNT if it were to all go off at once.

Though I doubt that's possible. The storage facilities will have separation, so at best there would be a chain that would dampen the impact somewhat.

I work for an aerospace cabin integrator and we're always looking for good TechPubs people. My company offers fully paid classes within our field. The great thing is that the TechPubs folks work hand in hand with the engineers. You can talk with them and figure what type of engineering work you want to do, stress, electrical, structures, flam, systems, furniture... and we just touch the inside of an airliner.

Email me if you live in the Puget Sound area.

he idea of moving the population to local cities where they can use public transportation especially in less dense areas like the United States, just won't happen. If you tell the population that they need to move from their houses which they have put a lot of money in, and live in an area the matches how they want to live and go to a crowed loud crime ridden city, will cause a lot of people to put a gun to your face, whether or not it is legal to have guns.

bah. Worked out well for Stalin, didn't it?