Digital storage has always been an issue. This isn't something that just popped it's head up. Think about it. What if we had a nuclear war? What if everyone went back to the stone age? Other than books, how would you relearn civilization?

The first problem I seem to remember historians complaining about was the constant change of formats over the years. After a decade or so at the fast pace of the spread of new formats, it was hard to open/store/save the old stuff.

With tape formats, use caused the high frequency to drop out. Worse the over lap of each layer on a tape reel, passed small amounts of magnetism to the adjacent layers and over time this caused the high end stuff to start dropping out. Then over time, the material that is used to store the recording on, starts separating from the plastic backing that provides the strength to the tape. Then you wind up with no data whatever on tape but that takes a while.

With CD storage, it came down to quality assembly of the CD. CD/DVDs are a sandwich. Two layers of plastic, with a foil inside. The foil can't be exposed to the atmospheric air, if it does get exposed, it starts corroding. So the glue that held it all together becomes really important. The poorer quality CDs start to fail at about 10 years. Archive level quality does much better.

Today, were we to have this back to the stone age event, all electronics would be pretty much be gone. That means any and all digital storage would be just so much trash, what remained accessible. Things like stuff stored in the cloud, would just vanish to most people, as if it never was.

War is not pretty. I don't care which side you happen to be on, people die, people get wounded. Those that survive their wounds will carry the reminder of what happened to them through the rest of their lives. The shock of war is even worse when you have the conditions supposedly reported through MSM when the commanders are using the troops as cannon fodder. No one wants to be cannon fodder, it goes without saying. Those that see the deaths as a result of such conflicts are marked throughout the rest of their lives no less a causality than the wounded themselves, only their wounds are of a different nature. They too will carry that through the rest of their lives.

Throwing political demands that no one talk about this or that does not remove what the soldier sees on the battlefield with his own eyes. What happens instead is they become more and more disheartened with their commanders and with the war itself, resulting in morale collapse. Soldiers with low morale, don't do very good at effective fighting. They'd rather be anywhere other than where they are. Eventually word goes home about the conditions and morale, no matter what the commanders wish or demand.

The reason most see the economy as terrible, is because of inequity. Used to be the man of the house was able to make a living, working one job, and being able to pay for a new car, a home, and a family. Now it takes two working or one working two or more jobs just to make ends meet. There is no more time for a lot of leisure as most have to scramble to just pay rent. According to surveys there is no place in the US where one person working a full time, minimum wage job, can pay for the rent by themselves on a two bedroom apartment. Then there are the other necessities of life such as food, utilities, and clothing. All aspects of life, from health care to education, have gone through the roof in costs. In no way considering what the average person makes when it comes to affordability.

This is why Americans feel the economy sucks.

You think of McDs, you think mainly of hamburgers. That's not McDs main income maker. McDs went franchise with very few actually corporation owned stores now. McDs found a different money maker, more steady one. You see, now they are the real estate owner and they collect steady rent off the properties they own with a McDs store on it.

Why was Trump's BS all over the MSM news when he was in office? Mainly because he was outrageous in his public appearances, full of lies that could be easily found out, and that in turn made articles that got attention and sold. It wasn't about if it was good material or not, it was about readership/viewership.

Trump is well known to walk when things aren't going his way in an interview. He'll just get up and walk away rather than face awkward questions when pinned to them. Obviously Univision wanted readership/viewership and the only way to get it was with an interview where Trump stayed to answer them.

Ramos has it right, when he says question and fact check. He increased employment figures by requiring unbiased news to have a fact checker department.

Trump is notorious for one way loyalty. Rudy is unlikely to get what he expects as a pardon. Not so long ago, Rudy tried to get Trump to help him with his financial troubles, as you can see, he got turned down. Rudy is between a rock and a hard place and his only hope here is bankruptcy.

You put someone in charge that has had 7 bankruptcies, including a casino (which is nearly primed to print money it's so lucrative), and you think financially anyone will be safe? Someone has been drinking too much happy juice.

The trouble with that is most of the effects won't be felt till he's out of office, provided he gets elected and the voters will blame the next POTUS for the problem.

I'm not happy with either potential candidate elect, age is a major issue for both.

Of course she refuses to accept the election results. Trump paved the way to act like a spoiled child over an election loss and now it's the play book the GOP goes by.

Without most of the citizenry noticing we've become near as bad as China for invasion of privacy while in public or while on the net. License plate readers, used by both LEO as well as third parties wanting to sell the data, often cruise parking lots where events are happening, such as concerts, ball games, and the like. Getting your license tag numbers while you are attending the event. They are also often mounted in patrol cars, (if I remember rightly) able to read 500 tags a second. (that's a lot of capacity). Some towns where the main route takes you through it, also have set up such readers, capturing the flow of the traffic.

Internet places offering services such as Ancestry and others, often co-operate with the law without a warrant, on request to see if some family member of the same DNA tree might be in their data base when trying to identify who might be a person of interest or a suspect at large, yet unknown.

Companies offering free VPN service get to see your browsing habits and that data is for sale. You want better security you have to pay for it and not all of them honor their billing. All those apps you load on your phone, if they are asking for access to data on your phone that is not required for their service, they are gathering data for sale so be especially leery of freebees, how you pay for the service, isn't money up front.

You go shopping with your cell phone on you, there are now stores that record you paused and what you likely looked at, that data for sale to advertisers. If you get to noticing it, often what you buy on line, you get an ad within a day or two on a similar item. It's not by chance.

One of the things that ad companies set up to be careful about is something called Uncanny Valley. Uncanny Valley is when ads strike really close to home and it dawns on you, makes you uncomfortable or worse, see the link.

There have always been limits on free speech, enshrined in law. It's called slander or libel. Libel is for the written word, slander is for vocal speech. So saying there is no limits on free speech is a proven falsehood to begin with.

My answer to the $5 a gallon gasoline prices was to buy a motorcycle. For hopping around town for a quick item or two, it's far cheaper than a vehicle. Going to the post office, is a quick task. Having to go to city hall to pay the water bill, is also an easy chore. Far easier than having a vehicle, there is always a parking space for a motorcycle.

Oh, you can also look up geo-fencing. You don't have to be involved in a crime to be part of an investigation. You don't have to have accessed or given any info to be included. All you have to have done, is be in the area the crime was committed in at the given time span. Often when law enforcement has no leads or clues, they will go to Google to find out what cell phones were in that area at a given time. Law enforcement will set boundaries around the area they are interested in and then find out from Google.

This has been known for years, just not talked about a lot. Here was the first one that came out over the NSA's spying room.

Trump's lawyers know he's lost, they've been trying over and over to tee off the judge so he'll make a mistake they can use in the appeal that will come.

Biden got in office but simply being 'not Trump'. During the pandemic, he did a lot of his campaigning from his basement office. Seems to me a lot of voters may have forgotten that. Now both candidates are equally unappealing. Biden for his age, Trump for his past and age. Neither are really suitable as the next POTUS, in my opinion.

What better deterrent to shoplifting than to have the public see the results of LEO, as they arrest someone in front of their eyes? In turn it reassures the pubic that the police are doing their jobs.

Corporate is more concerned with their public image, willing to put the cost of lost goods on the customer. At what point do they realize that shoplifting won't taper off until it is addressed as it happens, informing other potential shoplifters, there is a price to pay when they are caught red handed? In today's market with inflation raising prices, it's a sure way to hold the line on prices.

Yup, I agree, it's spam.

Legit or not, I can tell you this is a solution being done offshore on oil platforms. I've been in bunkhouses/offices made from shipping containers. Often for space savings, one welded above the other, separating the living/sleeping space, from the office/galley. We have businesses here in the states that do this.

"Why can't we do that here in the States?"

#14 | Posted by LampLighter
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I've never been to The Netherlands, I have been to Germany. Were the national directive set on that we could.

One of the main problems is Wall Street and it's demand of "what have you done for us today". Short term profits over long term benefits. Among other things, one of the drivers for the EV demand that has been made but not announced to the public (negative PR). Should they ever become the replacement in total for the IC engine, the auto industry would reap another major profit goal. Replacing the majority of vehicles now on the road.

Going against that, the oil industry who would stand to lose a major portion of their profit with a slope of less demand, increasing as the years go by.

As it is, the nation's infrastructure has been put on the back burner for decades as we fight these forever wars with no end, going from one place to the next. This nation built an interstate system and going back in the past a railroad, spanning coast to coast. There is no doubt in my mind, should the national directive go towards mass transit through out, it could be done over decades of time, as it would take that. Fighting battles in court over the land to do this, using imminent domain to buy those out who would not sell, takes a lot of time before construction could even begin.

So, where will we be for transportation 50 years from now?

#3 | Posted by LampLighter
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Ideally, we would be where Germany is today. With rail service or bus service to near every small hamlet and village across it's national boundaries. Meaning to travel anywhere doesn't mean you have to own a car. Admittedly, we have much more ground to cover than Germany when it comes to getting to everyone. Those outside the walking distance, still need a method of conveyance to get to a central hub of a small village.

Our problem to me is these continual never ending wars. That's where a lot of our money (and hence inflation) is going in a non-returnable fashion. It's not being invested in infrastructure, which would be what was needed and the years it would take to actually see it done. I suspect the current generation of boomers would not readily accept mass transit but the younger generations would see it as a big benefit or boon. It just takes less money to do mass transit than it does for everyone to have a vehicle.

Sounds to me like the judge knew no matter which way s/he ruled it would go to the supreme court. So s/he's set it up with that knowledge to have a heavy influence when it arrives to be considered. Judges are often smarter than the average layman gives them credit for.

I've always been able to find a job. May not have been my dream job but I always worked to pay my bills. I've never been scared of overtime either.

This clause is one that would have me walk, no questions asked. What it seems is missing here, is consideration for the worker and likely with this attitude of employment pay and the employee treated well. It's a recipe for disaster when it comes to employment.

There are three kinds of men: The ones that learns by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves. ~ Will Rogers

To realize just how spongy the ground is around the swampland of Louisiana, you really have to be down there. Semis going by on the highway, you can feel the ground move up and down. I had to turn down the sensitivity of my car alarm on vibrations, because of ground flex from passing semis. The highways themselves need patching far more often, because the ground isn't a solid as you would think. It surprises me none at all, that the ties are rotting. Even though they are chemically treated to prevent it, over time that breaks down.

There are rare times when 100 mph might be appropriate, such as a road rage idiot with gun, intent on you being the target. That's not often that happens. Young adults tend to think they are bullet proof, they want know how fast the vehicle will go without considerations. Drunks are a problem as well when it comes to driving, not to mention cell phones.

Mostly I am grateful for cruise control. I can get on the interstate, set it, and forget about my speed and just concentrate on driving. There will always be those who want to go faster. In ways on the interstate I love to see that. It means the next cop stop won't be me. I don't need to run along behind them to watch the action, I'm quite content to arrive on the scene long after the stop has occurred.

Still we have the high speed hazard here. It comes from the coyotes (the name given those smuggling in illegals) and they often get in high speed chases locally. The last one that was close to me occurred a couple of months ago. The highway patrol put out the tire spikes downtown. The coyote drove another few blocks and they all bailed not two blocks from my home. That's not to say how many others have passed on by and not be close to me. That happens near every week or so. Some wind up wrapped around trees, some wind up going in people's houses, vehicle and all before they bail. The last one that happened last week, involved a high speed chase, on a two lane, where the coyote lost control of his SUV and headoned another. 8 people died in a fiery crash.

Mostly vehicles today are speed limited. If you just got to race, it requires you buying a special chip that allows the motor to rev higher. Honestly, I'm happy to see that. While it won't prevent you from breaking the speed limit, it will prevent you from doing a flat foot on the throttle speed run at higher speeds. Still there is no substitute for driver experience and caution on the road.