We are missing the point arguing about how the government should rate colleges, the point is WHY should they be doing this? Imho it is more government cost for no gain or a lead in to controlling which colleges get money and therefore stay in business. I don't want more government, I've got too much already.

Obama increased the amount of intelligence gathering. He knew exactly what he was doing. He is the "captain" and not only that condoned it. If anyone takes an indictment for this, he should be name number one on the list.

It's time to toss the whole mechanical gyroscope concept as long as we stay with the low bid system we doom most precision work for spacecraft. The answer, imho, is move to a laster ring or fiber ring gyroscope, then find a method of translating their output to a positioning system. Easier said than done. Or fix the procurement systems for items like this but I'm afraid a mechanical system spinning at 4 or 500 rpms is never going to last forever.

I agree don't give them enough technical details to take a copy of it with them, give to another code writer and reproduce. Ideally you would want a secrecy or non compete agreement but they would run it through so many lawyers that the agreement will mean nothing or you will die of old age. Put the words confidential, secret or something on each slide or any handouts then get their names, affiliations, etc. in like a sign in sheet. They know you could use this to prove they stole it if they do something to circumvent your work. At least put a block diagram or something to show them a black box concept. Show them how it can be integrated into the existing hardware, if it will, or how it could be used with the objective of a commercial advantage for the seller. Describe how difficult it would be to recreate. That's certainly part of the value because once someone knows how to do it they can either buy it or develop it themselves. The difference in the cost of these options is part of the value. Good luck.

That doesn't work. In fact when I tell the person that you can eventually get to that he can be fined he laughs. Says either the FTC can't do a thing in India, just the FTC can't do a thing. I get 7 a day, and I can't stop them. The FTC is right we need a technology because no phone company has found a way to block anything but anonymous calls, and that doesn't help.

Totally apples & eggplants. The block is robocalls, people aren't robocalls. Plus you can already block anonymous calls. People may be soylent green but they ain't robots. And if they need a test bed for it I'm in. I get a minimum of 7 robot calls every day. Same firms, different numbers and caller id's, and they won't stop. I tell them I will have them fined by the FTC and they laugh and say they can't be stopped. As punishment for threatening them I get the same call every hour,24/7 for a week or more. That is what needs to be stopped. I hope they hurry.

Totally agree. The Warming advocates have done outstanding work on how to select headlines that will glare like the sun, but never state the basis of the assertion nor adequately reference sources. They are great at this! I just wish they were as good at real science than at writing headlines and fudging data. If you looked at each of the warming headlines recently you woud find them over blown, e.g. the Greenland melting. I could list these for you, but if you are a warming advocate you stopped reading a long time ago, if you are someone interested in checking facts you don't need me to.

Great. You know who the real losers are? The 5 year old kids with autism who have set their pattern as eat breakfast, what NickJr to let my food settle, then go to school, etc. etc. Like one of my grandchildren. People don't understand what a challenge it is to children like this. It takes a lot of effort to manage changes in their lives. So now we have these two wonderfully rich corporations acting worse than the kids and not giving a tinker's about the real world.

And now make the huge leap to putting a manned vehicle on it, build a bunch more lasers, find a President who will spend money on space exploration, and head for Jupiter and points beyond. (Apologies for the optimism.)

I think 2 years means it will all be gone by the time anyone wants to look, so if you really want the data then something like 10 years is needed along with a mandated retention system. Every litigation I've been involved in has lost data even when a company had a 7 year retention policy. Not through any malicious erasures but through hardware or software failures. One even had a printout but it was no longer legible. Do the Management and IT guys go to jail because a hardware device failed after 1 year 11 months? Or 6 years and 11 months? Or because they can't find it and the people who were responsible then are long gone? Don't get me wrong I think it is a mistake to require the retention, but if you are going to require it, then do it right. If Australia really wants the data they better say forever and they better decide on a highly reliable storage system and require that as well IMHO.

i use a trackball and because of carpall tunnel switch hands often. i guess they could ID me from that alone. but really telegraph operatos could tell who was sending in the 1800's. it took us long enough.

Disappointed is right. China launches a new part of a lab now, and maybe possibly in 10 or 12 years we get to launch Humma Kavula's nose rag..... Achoo

It can't be reached by NASA, it can only be reached when we (whoever that is) decide to return to being a super power and not the just good enough to get by power. Or some really big block of fast moving rock makes the point moot.

I can't find much other info on the web, but if this is real it means a country that is full of looney tunes from hell characters is acting up again. These quys don't know when to stop. We can stop them but does our backboneless CIC have the guts. Alll scary questions with even scarier answers.

I learned on Fortran in the early 70's so that must be the right way considering how great I am now..............