US Government Lists Fictional Nation Wakanda as Trade Partner (bbc.com) 65
The US Department of Agriculture listed Wakanda as a free-trade partner -- despite it being a fictional country. From a report: A USDA spokesperson said the Kingdom of Wakanda was added to the list by accident during a staff test. The department's online tariff tracker hosted a detailed list of goods the two nations apparently traded, including ducks, donkeys and dairy cows. In the Marvel universe, Wakanda is the fictional East African home country of superhero Black Panther. The fictional country was removed soon from the list after US media first queried it, prompting jokes that the countries had started a trade war.
A little behind (Score:2)
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That's just what the government wants you to think.
Wakanda is real and the huwite man is keeping it a secret to keep a brotha down.
Never forget what they stole from you.
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Cannons are oppressive tools of the white supremacist patriarchy my brodda.
Illiteracy-through-laziness is a self-enslaving tr (Score:2)
No need for anyone else to oppress you. Your laziness is already doing that just fine.
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Do you know the way?
It always sucks when (Score:5, Funny)
your test database info gets promoted to production by mistake.
And how can we possibly find another trade partner with large reserves of Vibranium?
Re:It always sucks when (Score:5, Informative)
Test stuff going into production happens with great regularity. I have always told people doing testing that they must assume that the client/public will see their test data, and to make it both innocuous and clearly labeled as "test data".
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You don't want to know how bad it gets...
I work for a major web service, and the staging environment uses the production database, directly, because the owner wants to test with "real data".
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Re:It always sucks when (Score:4, Insightful)
Which makes Wakanda not a terrible choice being fictional, since it is fairly easy to notice, and no one is likely to use it to make real life decisions. Using a real country with fake test data would be harder to detect. I might have used "Afaketestcountry", "Bfaketestcountry" etc... but that wouldn't be as fun. I wonder if there is test data for Latveria.
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Yep. Of course, it gets harder and harder to have "complete" test systems for integration testing. (for example good luck, when you test your Webshop integration into marketplaces, to be given a "Completely functional Test-Amazon" or a "completely functional Test-Paypal".
So we usually go the way to have test Customer accounts, test Credit Cards, and test Products, which we can work with in the Live System, with everybody involved knowing they don't really have to send out the Flux Capacitator Fuse when an A
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Don't people put in checks to prevent it happening?
I put in code that looks for non-production firmware during deployment and stops you pushing out to customers.
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How about we seek trade with the nation of Covfefe?
not shocking (Score:4, Informative)
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My experience has it, that we can never have fun with testing data. There is always someone who will see the data and take it seriously. And the press trying to get some dirt on us will often use it as an example of wasting our time and money.
However playing with data is actually a useful process.
1. It allows us to create scenarios that do not have scripts for so we know how to handle them. Eg The Zombie attack this wouldn't happen, but it can be a good training example on how to think on your feet. So whe
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2. Using obviously fictional scenarios prevents biases and assumptions. If we used a real country, then it may seem that we are preparing for a different relationship with the country that we didn't have.
I am practically certain that the Pentagon has conplans for invading and taking over every country on Earth. Will we ever need to invade and take over Canada or Finland? Probably not. And definitely not with their *current* governments, but you never know what might come up, and having a plan drafted and not needing it is FAR preferable to needing a plan that you forgot to draft and now you're missing things because you're rushed.
"Staff" (Score:1)
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Except that one time when it was "James Comey".
So, their production db was created from test db? (Score:2)
Than said, nations come and go. Taken over, collapse, change names. You would think their would be such a thing as an inactive flag. right?
Sanction those suckers! (Score:2)
The Real Story (Score:5, Funny)
Whereas Vibranium is a dual-use material, and is import-export controlled, what they are really concerned with is that Wakanda is fronting for the melange trade, and the U.S. wants to prohibit the import of all "spice" as it heightens awareness. Definitely not something the current occupants of the White House are in favor of.
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Definitely not something the current occupants of the House are in favor of.
Fixed it for you.
Really? You really think the occupant of the White House has a firmer grasp on reality and more interest in truth? Have you ever actually listened to him?
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House Trump is just a repulsor belt and some heart plugs away from being house Harkkonen.
So... news because? (Score:2)
In other news, someone made a funny typo.
sheesh
Trap Streets (Score:3)
There are reasons [wikipedia.org] for including false data in databases. More likely, though, is test data slipping in to production.
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They aren't, they pick the funniest people who agree to be on TV. We're still in trouble, though. Nobody should be as dumb as those people.
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And people know that when Kimmel (or Jay Leno, back in the day) sticks a microphone in their face, if they give a boring, accurate, intelligent answer, they Will Not Get On National TV. Nobody who gives anything approaching a remotely reasonable answer has a chance. If they want to Get On National TV, they are going to make up the most funny, ridiculous crap they can think up on the spot.
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I always laugh (and cry) when I watch the Kimmel segments that go to the streets and ask people unbelievable stuff. If those people are really the average american, we are in serious trouble,
They aren't the average. They're the mouthbreathing bottom 10-20%. Kimmel's production staff have to go through a LOT of interviews to find the truly clueless.
What I'd like to know is the exact ratio. How many do they have to go through before they find that gem of idiocy?
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I always laugh (and cry) when I watch the Kimmel segments that go to the streets and ask people unbelievable stuff. If those people are really the average american, we are in serious trouble,
Like I tell my daughter who is still in school, more than 99% of the facts and methods that one learns in school will never be used ever again in one's lifetime and most of that will even never even be heard or seen again. Kimmel (and other comedians) like to embarrass people, but the truth is that the facts asked in these quizzes are basically trivia. Even seemingly significant facts like the list of rights in the Bill of Rights are not necessary to know. Having and exercising those rights are significa
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How about knowing who the VP is? Your senator, not Alaska's but YOURS. How about Deepthroat as the TRUMP whistleblower? These are not trivia. If you are going to vote, and we live in a democracy so you should, then have a basic set of facts. Democracy is fragile and we could easily find ourselves like Turkey. Hence the reason I cry.
Is knowing the name of the VP important? How about his middle name? How about how to spell his name? How about his stance on a particular issue? How about when he gets to cast a vote in the Senate? What is it about the VP that is important to know? While there are actions that the VP has taken that indirectly affect my life, I can't think of a single fact about the VP that I've considered for any decision in my life, except for considerations on election day every four years. Same thing about the Pre
So why not? (Score:1)
Comment removed (Score:4, Funny)
They're going to follow up... (Score:2)
...with sanctions against Latveria.
Re: They're going to follow up... (Score:2)
3 stooges suggestions for test nations (Score:2)
I knew it was real... (Score:2)
Aren't all countries fictional by definition? (Score:2)
It's not like you can find them just lyinf around in nature. That'd be valleys or rivers or mountains and such.
We made them up. And they only exist by virtue of our belief in them.
I don't see the justification of a country needing a piece of land to exist.
Also, the concepts of one nation, one state, and one peoples being one, and the same entity, is a rather novel and western one too, in the history of humanity.
Also, surely, this is not a binary choice, but a gradient. Liechtenstein is a bit truly a country
P.S.: Assumed it was one of those virtual nations. (Score:2)
Apparently it is more of a joke think.
Oh well, I'm sure /. will understand... /s
(Or read something that long, in the first place... /s)
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Countries become real the same way in which fiat currencies do: enough people act as if they were real.
I know what REALLY happened (Score:2)
Trump wanted Apple's quid pro quo for the US production deal to be a new iPhone 12 Pro Vibranium Edition.
Always remember Hanlon's Razor (Score:2)
When looking at actions by large and generally-competent organizations, people have a strong tendency to assume that anything the organizations do is deliberate and well-planned. This often leads to interpreting apparently weird actions in a very negative way, assuming deep malice planned on a long time horizon.
In point of fact, all organizations are made of people, and all people screw up. If you see something that looks like malice, strongly consider that it might instead be a mistake. If you see som
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These "large and generally-competent organizations" (sic the hyphen) you write about... You do know we're talking about the Trump administration, right?
I'm really loving his newest nickname: #IMPOTUS. Though credit is being given to George Conway, my theory is that his wife put him up to it.
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These "large and generally-competent organizations" (sic the hyphen) you write about... You do know we're talking about the Trump administration, right?
While "IMPOTUS" made me chuckle, and I agree, the sort of USDA staff that manages and publishes these lists almost certain all pre-date the Trump administration and will still be working there when he's gone even if, heaven forbid, it's in five years (assuming he doesn't declare martial law and refuse to leave office no matter what, or manage to completely dismantle all government agencies except those tasked with handing taxpayer dollars to his company and his cronies).
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Haven't you heard about the Trumpists' war on the bureaucracy? They are doing things like moving entire bureaus to distant cities just to get the professionals to resign or retire because they don't want the hassles. However on that particular category of scam I think the big dick Cheney still has the trophy. He and Rumsfeld were THE experts at getting nonpolitical people to resign so they could be replaced with ideologues.
We surrender to ... (Score:2)
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as soon as they conclude their war with Freedonia . . .
Has to be said... (Score:2)
... but wakanda nonsense is this???
What about the countries trading in
* Apples, apes, and antelopes?
* Beavers, bees, and beetroot?
* Cacao, coffee, and chicory?
No shortage of candidates... [wikipedia.org]
Third times a charm (Score:1)
Really, again? Come on Slashdot
Increasingly... (Score:2)
Increasingly, the US is the one turning into a fictional country.
Trumps draws Wakonda on the map (Score:2)
'There...right next to Freedonia."
WH calls for investigation of Biden's Wakanda link (Score:2)