Daily Review 13/02/2017

Written By: - Date published: 5:30 pm, February 13th, 2017 - 19 comments
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Daily review is also your post.

This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day.

The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).

Don’t forget to be kind to each other …

19 comments on “Daily Review 13/02/2017 ”

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  1. weka 1
    13 February 2017 at 6:15 pm

    Interesting testing of high tech infrastructure in a CC world. The lake is flooding, and the main spillway on the US’s highest hydro dam has had to be shut down due to erosion. They’re now using the emergency spillway and are not sure if it will hold so are evacuating towns downstream.

    http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-live-updates-oroville-dam-in-oroville-area-water-flows-down-1486956604-htmlstory.html

    http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-oroville-update-20170212-story.html

    Oroville Dam Spillway Sinkhole an Infrastructural Nightmare http://www.newsmax.com/TheWire/oroville-dam-spillway-sinkhole/2017/02/09/id/772697/

    • Graeme 1.1
      13 February 2017 at 7:25 pm

      Unfortunately, under or poorly designed dams are rather common in USA. The very nearly lost Glen Canyon in 1983, which would have had devastating consequences for the lower Colorado.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risks_to_the_Glen_Canyon_Dam

    • Draco T Bastard 1.2
      14 February 2017 at 2:39 am

      Interesting testing of high tech infrastructure in a CC world.

      In what way?

      And I’m pretty sure that you’ll find that the problems that they’re having have more to do with lack of infrastructure spending after cutting taxes:

      An example for the Nation” is how President Lyndon Johnson imagined Washington’s Metro, in a letter that he wrote fifty years ago to an official involved in planning it. And so it was. When the Metro opened, ten years later, in 1976, it was acclaimed as a farsighted fusion of design and utility, a system generations ahead of those in other cities. Today, the Metro is in such a state that fixing it may require shutting whole lines for months at a time. It’s yet again an example for the nation, but now it’s an example of how underinvestment and political dysfunction have left America with infrastructure that’s failing and often downright dangerous.

      It’s just one of the ways that the rich destroy society.

  2. Macro 2
    13 February 2017 at 6:42 pm

    Not content with denigrating people born outside the US who try to return to their new country, the US are now treating US born citizens like shit as well.
    US born NASA Scientist detained at the border until he unlocked his phone

    Bikkannavar says he was detained by US Customs and Border Patrol and pressured to give the CBP agents his phone and access PIN. Since the phone was issued by NASA, it may have contained sensitive material that wasn’t supposed to be shared. Bikkannavar’s phone was returned to him after it was searched by CBP, but he doesn’t know exactly what information officials might have taken from the device.

    Lesson:
    Don’t take any phone, tablet, or laptop if you intend visiting the US. They intend implementing this for foreigners.

    And there’s evidence that that kind of treatment could become commonplace for foreign travelers. In a statement this week, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said that people visiting the United States may be asked to give up passwords to their social media accounts. “We want to get on their social media, with passwords: What do you do, what do you say?” Kelly told the House Homeland Security Committee. “If they don’t want to cooperate then you don’t come in.”

    Well fuck em! I can’t see any point in wanting to go there anyway.

    • weka 2.1
      13 February 2017 at 7:19 pm

      New practice. Back up your phone/device to the cloud before boarding, then reset it to the factory defaults. Restore it once through customs. Not sure how private the cloud is, but at least the NSA have to jump through some hoops rather than some random border/immigration dude riffling through your e-life.

      • Draco T Bastard 2.1.1
        14 February 2017 at 2:43 am

        Not sure how private the cloud is,

        You can use your own cloud.

        Either buy one or rent space.

        I’m with Macro – I don’t see any need to go there.

    • Antoine 2.2
      13 February 2017 at 10:33 pm

      > I can’t see any point in wanting to go there anyway.

      I went to the US recently and it was very pleasant. No one asked for any of my passwords

      A.

      • Macro 2.2.1
        14 February 2017 at 5:25 pm

        don’t worry – they will next time.
        In a statement this week, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said that people visiting the United States may be asked to give up passwords to their social media accounts. “We want to get on their social media, with passwords: What do you do, what do you say?” Kelly told the House Homeland Security Committee. “If they don’t want to cooperate then you don’t come in.”

  3. Anne 3
    13 February 2017 at 7:22 pm

    Well fuck em! I can’t see any point in wanting to go there anyway.

    To be blunt: America is f****d, so no point in going anywhere near the place.

    What countries should do is apply the same rules to them. Especially members of the Trump administration when they visit other countries. Put em through the mill. Demand their phones etc. etc. and threaten to send em back if they don’t comply.

    • mac1 3.1
      13 February 2017 at 7:37 pm

      I know a person who entered the US as a lecturer on wine-growing who was asked for the subject of his talk by Border security.

      Imagine the kerfuffle when he said the topic was “Terroir”.

      Mind you, it’s not new. Groucho Marx told the story of being detained by US authorities when he was returning from a trip to Mexico because when asked on the entry form for his occupation he wrote in the appropriate column- ‘Smuggler”.

  4. Whispering Kate 4
    13 February 2017 at 8:42 pm

    Pause and have kind thoughts for all the families here in NZ who have loved ones who live and work in the US. Its a concern for them here on a daily basis what a hell hole the US has become. Innocent people working and living their lives and not hurting a soul and a paranoid police state going rogue and giving us all the complete jitters on a daily basis. Personally I have never wanted to go over there, just the thought of being finger printed at immigration control by the lunatics over there is enough to put me off. This is not even going into the thought of all the gun toting crazy people over there who terrorize their own people and slaughter them in public places. My thoughts are with our family members including my own, each and every day and pray they will come home safely to us.

    • Anne 4.1
      13 February 2017 at 10:29 pm

      Personally I have never wanted to go over there, just the thought of being finger printed at immigration control by the lunatics over there is enough to put me off.

      Touché.

      I wouldn’t visit the place for a $million – well, I might think about it for that much provided I could catch the next plane back.

  5. Richard McGrath 5
    13 February 2017 at 9:37 pm

    With reference to the photo at the top of this thread: just as guns don’t shoot people, neither do they have rights.

  6. The Chairman 6
    13 February 2017 at 11:02 pm

    The man behind KiwiSaver, former deputy PM Michael Cullen, joins annuity board

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/89338960/former-deputy-prime-minister-michael-cullen-joins-annuity-board

  7. The Fairy Godmother 7
    13 February 2017 at 11:13 pm

    Just been to an exciting meeting of 36 ece teachers in South Auckland. This is a largelyununionsed workforce and people who have been talking on Social media are now having meetings around the country to give ece teachers a voice.

  8. The Chairman 8
    13 February 2017 at 11:35 pm

    Bike park injuries putting further stress on Christchurch’s Emergency Department 
    http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2017/02/concerns-raised-over-injury-rate-at-new-christchurch-bike-park.html

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