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It would take a person the best part of that 10 seconds just to realize what was happening

From TFS:

enabling automatic systems to shut down

They use such systems in Japan to, for instance, protect shinkansen trains in the event of an earthquake. The system is entirely automated so human response times are irrelevant and the consequences of a bullet train running into a destroyed tunnel or bridge at full tilt don't bear thinking about. And it works: there has never been a fatal accident on the shinkansen network (excluding suicides).

The answer to your question was "no" with regard to MH370 and you've done nothing to show otherwise and quoted no sources of your own in response to several of mine.

Quoting "broadcast news stories" isn't much of a source.

If you want news stories, here is a link to one that discusses ELTs in regard to MH370.

You can google more if you'd like. In any event, don't rely on "broadcast news stories" for your information - especially with fast moving news stories where there is very little information.

Fraud is only one issue. Costs are another.

Is there evidence that costs are an issue here? Punch-clocks have been good enough for about a century.

Then why have any time sheets at all?

Because a basic level of record keeping is necessary for hourly workers. The problems come when you ratchet up the requirements without good cause.

By the way, the "gummy bear copy" paper as written eleven years ago. There may have been some advancements that make that study a bit outdated.

Do you have evidence that such attacks have been mitigated? Seems that at least as recently as 2010 it was still a viable method.

Was this your chef?

That's not true for Japan, or the US, or even TEPCO itself. They alone run (or ran, and are expected to run most again) 17 reactors. So even TEPCO alone is in a position to amortize quite a bit.

Your point is a good one about risk management in general, but there isn't just one nuclear reactor to amortize risk over.

In some ways, this has played out pretty well for Fukashima, which is expected to have zero deaths from radiation. TEPCO isn't even bankrupt. On the other hand, there are a lot of lessons learned about avoiding unnecessary trouble relatively cheaply, and we already knew we needed to replace a lot of these ancient reactors but didn't. Likewise in the US.

Getting good teachers is completely different from more then 80% of the teachers failing in their own subjects.

All they have to do is arrest the volunteers for being paedophiles!

I wonder if we may see the end of the religious-driven Great Porn Panic now that the Catholic Church is being hit hard in that area. Catholics are the biggest religious group in Australia, with about 25% market share. The Catholic Church has big problems. Search Google for Catholic priest porn. (I didn't realize, until I did that search, how many cases there were.) Priests have been caught by FBI sting operations. Dozens of priests in different countries have been caught with child porn in the last few years. Last week the Belgian police raided the headquarters of the Catholic Church in Belgium, and they've been interrogating church officials. The Vatican has been in full damage control mode for months.

Now the Vatican is scared because the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that, at least under some circumstances, priests may be considered employees of the Vatican. (A pedophile priest was transferred from Ireland to the US, where he caused further trouble. If a multinational corporation did that for a criminal employee, they'd be liable.) Several archdioceses in the US have already gone bankrupt over molestation suits. Now the bills may be sent to Rome. There's frantic diplomatic maneuvering by the Vatican over their "sovereign immunity", but nobody in politics wants to support the Vatican in this now.

It just keeps getting worse. Just in two days ago: "A Catholic priest stole $1.3 million from his Waterbury, Conn., parish to finance a gay old time in New York, authorities charged yesterday. The Rev. Kevin Gray allegedly blew the money he looted from his financially struggling parish over seven years on male escorts, rooms at hotels, including the Waldorf, designer clothes, trendy restaurants and tuition for several young studs." That's just pathetic.

As for Australia, last week there was "Australian priest jailed for 'sadistic' child sex abuse ". "The indecent assaults involved multiple children, often significant planning, were frequently sadistic and overall persistent, objectively serious, criminal courses of conduct. The offender's actions contributed to a culture of fear and depravity, especially at the school, which allowed these disturbing offences to occur and then remain unpunished for years."

The Catholic Church is no longer in a position to make pronouncements about sexual morality. That may be the one good thing to come of this.

Isn't the Vatican one of the more reasonable major religions when it comes to science and technology? Obviously, you can't expect any religious group to completely dismiss any role for God to play (if they did they wouldn't be a religion), but they've gone on record saying that Evolution is correct.

The Catholic church is largely an European institution and europe has become (thankfully) a very secular society. The folks who happen to reach the Catholic church's higher ranks tend to be born and raised in a very secular society, which is very pro-science, very pro-technology and although they also accept religion they don't take kindly to fundamentalist crackpots. If you have an organization who is led by people who grew up in that environment then those values tend to rub down on your entire organization.

And remember, the Vatican is nonetheless the organization which brought us the inquisition and the crusades, which mean that the organization has been shown to be more than able to not only match the unspeakable atrocities and barbaric acts that other religions commit but also raise them up a notch.

It's the folks that read a few Bible verses and then take them as the 100% literal History Of The World that really oppose all things science (as opposed to being a book that man needs to interpret).

Not really. That aspect of religion doesn't have much to do with orthodoxy and everything to do about control. Science doesn't affect religion in any way, as it's only a method to explain how God's universe works. On the other hand, it pisses off those who rely on God's invocation to gain and preserve authority within a social group. Those idiots believe that science is somehow a bad thing because it tends to provide irrefutable ways to demonstrate that they are full of shit and don't know what they are talking about. I mean, boobs cause earthquakes?. WTF?

Tourism to the US is up 15% for the first quarter of 2008 compared to the year prior, precisely because of the weak dollar.

Nice try though.

Tourism to the US is up 15% for the first quarter of 2008 compared to the year prior, precisely because of the weak dollar.

Nice try though.

A lot of people (yes I know this is Slashdot) seem very unsympathatic to the plight of those well less off. Socialising at college is a luxury, which most of us can have because we are well funded.

This link talks about a 23 year old multimillionaire who owns his own chain of computer shops in Singapore
http://www.asiaone.com/a1news/20060903_story3_1.ht ml

If you were to read the print version which I have done, there are several more comments
- He works 7 days a week
- He takes off 4 days a year at Chinese New Year to visit his family in India
- His mother does ALL his shopping since he has no time
- If had some spare time he would sped time explring outside of Sim Lim Square (Singapore's IT hub and where all his shops are located)

I have met him a few times since I have purchased computers from him - its quite extraordinary to see him juggling two phone calls 3 customers and filling out an invoice concurrently.

Just like David Banh, he has no life and didn't take opportunity to socialise at tertiary institutions, but in the end, if you don't have much money, it is the most important thing in life.

The Sydney Morning Herald is a little light on details. Gan Huai Shi's community service will be performed among the Malay-Muslims, the community he once expressed his racist sentiments. The Straits Times wrote: "His 180 hours of community work should also take place at Malay welfare organisations such as the Jamiyah Home for the Aged, Pertapis Children's Home and Muhammadiyah Health and Day Care Centre for the Aged."

There is also a story behind his anti-Malay/Muslim remarks.

"Mr Pereira told the court the youth's animosity towards Malays stemmed from the traumatic death of his baby brother 10 years ago.

Gan, then seven, was with his mother trying to get a cab to rush his one-month-old brother to hospital. They failed to persuade a Malay couple to give up a taxi which had stopped for them. It took another 20 minutes before they flagged down another taxi. The baby was pronounced dead on arrival."

The Sydney Morning Herald is a little light on details. Gan Huai Shi's community service will be performed among the Malay-Muslims, the community he once expressed his racist sentiments. The Straits Times wrote: "His 180 hours of community work should also take place at Malay welfare organisations such as the Jamiyah Home for the Aged, Pertapis Children's Home and Muhammadiyah Health and Day Care Centre for the Aged."

There is also a story behind his anti-Malay/Muslim remarks.

"Mr Pereira told the court the youth's animosity towards Malays stemmed from the traumatic death of his baby brother 10 years ago.

Gan, then seven, was with his mother trying to get a cab to rush his one-month-old brother to hospital. They failed to persuade a Malay couple to give up a taxi which had stopped for them. It took another 20 minutes before they flagged down another taxi. The baby was pronounced dead on arrival."