I got a surplus, 42U, 4 post Compaq rack for free. Although the rack did include a high-power ventilation setup at the top, it's really only needed if you fill the thing with a bunch of 1U space heaters and/or blade chassis. I was only using it to create a tidier setup for a bunch of equipment that was used occasionally (an Octane, an O2, a SunBlade, etc.) along with low power gear that was always in use (a 16 port switch, the DSL modem, a small NAS).

I was considering out-sourcing some work to the Philippines (from a non-American territory, for an international aid organization) and ISTR the going rate for educated Filipinos was ~ $1300/month. It was more expensive than India (again, going by memory, $1000/month) but the Philippines were closer and they have much better infrastructure and English skills.

Boeing offered the USAF an unsolicited proposal to re-engine the B-52 with RB-211s. There were two finance options -- lease and outright purchase. The USAF declined, as there was no ROI. Frankly, what happens is that these type of projects turn into monkey-f**king-football exercises. "Since we're in there..." is used to justify a shitload of design changes (glass cockpit, FBW, composite airframe, yadda yadda yadda), so I'm not surprised.

Laser guided munitions are too expensive for indiscriminate use which is why the JDAM uses GPS.

The best part of the B-1R is that the unofficial nickname of the B-1 is the "Bone"*. Who wouldn't want to have a "Bone R" in their strategic arsenal?

*The (probably apocryphal) source is a newspaper article where the hapless reporter spelled out B-1 and left out the hyphen.

I'd assume that the parent post was focused on his safety. Bounties have already been offered on Zimmerman, including at least one "dead or alive". Wouldn't take much for someone already facing life to shank Zimmerman if it came down to it.

You're a little confused about the sequence of events.

Zimmerman _was_ arrested. That's where we got that video of him being walked into the police station in handcuffs.

Zimmerman wasn't charged. And frankly, that was down to the state AG who said there needed to be a deeper investigation before charges could be brought.

It probably wouldn't take a very good lawyer to overturn a conviction if it was found that Zimmerman's civil rights were violated during the investigation (*cough* OJ *cough*)

Presumably the investigation has happened and now Zimmerman has been charged.

The only way I can see to level the playing field against China is to revoke their most favored trading partner status that Bush Jr. Gave them.

China has had MFN status since the mid-to-late 90s, largely at the behest of export-driven industries like aerospace. China was granted permanent MFN status in October of 2000. That's a month before the 2000 elections, and 3 months before W. took office. It's nice to see that Bush Derangement Syndrome is still flowering after nearly a full term by his replacement.

Solyndra was betting on higher prices for silicon and lower prices for copper, gallium, and iridium. Regardless of anything the Chinese did, they were going to get hosed big time.

The Russians certainly felt that ABM was technically possible. They deployed, what, 3 generations of ABM systems around Moscow and even went so far as to enshrine their ability to do so into the ABM treaty.

Why not? A publicly traded company's only duty is to make money for its shareholders...

Can we stop already with the incorrect summary of Ford vs. Dodge Brothers?

Most state codes permit, or even require, incorporators to
include a statement in the corporate charter that defines and limits the
purpose for which the corporation is being formed. If the corporation's
founders so desire, they can easily include in the corporate charter a recitation
of the Dodge v. Ford view that the corporation in question "is organized and
carried on primarily for the profit of the stockholders."
  In reality, corporate
charters virtually never contain this sort of language. Instead, the typical
corporate charter defines the corporate purpose as anything "lawful."
What about state corporation codes? Do they perhaps limit the corporate
purpose to shareholder wealth maximization? To employ the common saying,
the answer is "not just 'no,' but 'hell no.'"

http://www.virginialawbusrev.org/VLBR3-1pdfs/Stout.pdf

I fail to see anything innovative about this. The Palo Verde Nuclear power plant uses reclaimed water for cooling as there's no nearby river of the correct size.

From Wikipedia:

Located in the Arizona desert, Palo Verde is the only nuclear generating facility in the world that is not situated adjacent to a large body of above-ground water. The facility evaporates water from the treated sewage of several nearby municipalities to meet its cooling needs

The CIA didn't like that and installed a puppet regime, everything went to hell after that.
It wasn't that the CIA didn't like it. The British didn't like the idea of Mosaddegh nationalizing oil resources out from under BP. They convinced the Americans to help them overthrow the government and install a puppet. Without that particular bit of work, I doubt the American CIA would have ever jumped in.

International law holds that an embassy is essentially the sovereign territory of that country. It may be before your time, but there was a little dust up where some "students" invaded a US embassy and held ~ 50 US citizens hostage for more than a year. You might want to check Wikipedia or something...

As signers of the non-proliferation treaty, Iran is entitled to the assistance of all other signatories in developing the full nuclear cycle, including enrichment and reactors.

You conveniently left out that the NPT also requires them to allow the IAEA unfettered access to their program to confirm that it's civilian in nature. That is not happening and is used as justification for the sanctions.