Domain: findarticles.com
Stories and comments across the archive that link to findarticles.com.
Comments · 1,095
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Re:Heretics?
Oh? Really? Well, here are some responses then.
From New analysis counters claims that solar activity is linked to global warming:
The data shows that even though the sun's activity has been decreasing since 1985, global temperatures have continued to rise at an accelerating rate.
The solar hypothesis was championed publicly in March by the controversial Channel 4 documentary The Great Global Warming Swindle. [...] "The temperature record is simply not consistent with any of the solar forcings that people are talking about," said lead author Mike Lockwood at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire.
"They changed direction in 1985, the climate did not
... [the temperature] increase should be slowing down but in fact it is speeding up." [...] Nir Shaviv, an astrophysicist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a proponent of the solar hypothesis, has tried to rescue the idea by invoking a time lag between changes in the sun and its effect on the Earth's climate. But Prof Lockwood dismissed this as "disingenuous"."Nobody has invoked that kind of lag before. It's only been invoked now as a way out," he said. Even if the lag were 50 years then he believes we would begin to see the rise in global temperatures slowing down.
When asked to comment on this later finding, the show's producer, Martin Durkin, refused.
A statement from the British Antarctic Survey says:
Much of the programme was based around a diagram, shown several times, that purported to be world temperature for the last 120 years. This showed a curve, labelled "NASA", extending to the year 2003. The curve was produced by NASA nearly twenty years ago. Although it showed data only until 1987, it had been stretched and relabelled to suggest it showed the temperature record to 2003. The resulting distortion excludes the significant warming that has occurred since 1987. Other figures similarly misrepresented the current state of knowledge, especially as regards the influence of the Sun on climate, and the strength of the recent climate warming
Further evidence is presented here that the show intentionally mislabelled and distorted data. In addition to the "NASA" distortion above (which the producer admitted was "a fluff") there are others:
Other graphs used in the film contained known errors, notably the graph of sunspot activity. Mr Durkin used data on solar cycle lengths which were first published in 1991 despite a corrected version being available - but again the corrected version would not have supported his argument. Mr Durkin also used a schematic graph of temperatures over the past 1,000 years that was at least 16 years old, which gave the impression that today's temperatures are cooler than during the medieval warm period. If he had used a more recent, and widely available, composite graph it would have shown average temperatures far exceed the past 1,000 years.
The 1991 data comes from Friis-Christensen who has tried, several times, to prove the solar theory, but each time the theories have been debunked. For example, the journal Eos noted that Friis-Christensen's 1991 theories were based on "incorrect handling of the physical data". Later work seems to suffer from the same problems. Regardless, Friis-Christensen released a statement noting his concerns with usage of data, stating:
We have concerns regarding the use of a graph featured in the documentary titled 'Temp & Solar Activity 400 Years'. Firstly, we ha
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Re:oh, great...purposely misspelled words
Come on! This is rediculous.
Come on now. Besides, mnemonic devices like refliprocal are used all the time in classrooms. I've never seen that one though. While I applaud her good intentions, I have to wonder why such a thing was not necessary for girls like her to be interested in math? I am all for making learning fun, and math books are about as dull and boring as it gets, but I see no reason why it has to be dumbed down and made gender specific.
My 9 year old girl is great at math, without this.
Math books aren't just boring and dull, they're mostly useless to students except as problem banks. I've taught mathematics grades 6-12. In those 10 years of teaching, maybe 2 books were written in a way for students to understand if they didn't already. Math books seem to be written for people who already understand (me) to help others who are independently inclined to want to know. This, in my experience, is not the typical student.
Lets make a similar math book for all the boys who aren't interested in math. It should feature GI Joe's using math to kill each other, aliens, and anything gross or violent. For the older boys lets throw in some soft core porn to get their eyes on the page (males are after all more visual, right?).
I think you're missing the point. This isn't about getting girls to like math purely as a subject. Girls, starting around middle school, experience negative perception of their math efficacy, or sometimes this is called math self-concept (link). It's not like that in elementary school. Certainly some of this has to do with their experience in schools (most elementary ed majors I knew didn't like math, and it has to come out when you're teaching it.) The rest of it comes from somewhere else i.e. parents, peers, media, whatever else. By the time I see them in high school where I am now, a lot of them have given up on their ability to do math. This translates very easily into "I hate math." Ask adults they'll tell you the same thing. -
Re:Robot? That Ain't a Robot- THIS is a Robot.And what was done in Germany and Japan after WWII? That turned out fairly well in the long term.
In 1945, following the defeat of Nazi Germany, the United States, the Soviet Union, Great Britain and France assumed control over the territory of a defeated enemy. With the inability of the wartime allies to devise a plan to govern Germany at the conclusion of the war, the three western powers embarked upon a separate policy that resulted in the transformation of their zones of occupation into the Federal Republic of Germany. This was a great moment in the annals of American foreign policy. Because the occupation led to the creation of a successful democratic state, military victory produced substantial long-term political gains. Not only was a great scourge defeated, but the coordinated actions of the western powers gave birth to a new and powerful ally.http://www.ccc.nps.navy.mil/si/may03/middleE
a st6.asp
Prewar Japan was an oppressive place, strongly nationalistic and militaristic. The press was censored, and ruthless secret police snuffed out dissent. A few business groups controlled most jobs. Women were subservient to their husbands and their sons as well. In 1946, using the U.S. Constitution as a blueprint, MacArthur and his aides wrote a new constitution for Japan. It outlawed war, abolished the secret police, liberalized education, and gave women the right to vote. Japan's voters approved the constitution in 1947 (and it is still in use today). Hirohito renounced his divinity and encouraged democracy, but was allowed to keep his throne. "With him as figurehead," MacArthur said, our job is so much more easy." http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0BUE/is_11
_ 135/ai_n18615415
One important difference would seem to be that we could not keep Saddam as a figurehead. Saddam Hussien with his iron fisted control of Iraq was likely the only force preventing the now emerging civil war. If the Iraqis had been a united people when we invaded, then we would not be having such problems there now. Without a singular national identity, there is no single enemy to overcome. -
Re:Barbie disagrees
I'm still amazed at how people still push to help girls succeed. It makes me think it has become a larger political issue about advancing women's views, and not because they are actually struggling. All the recent evidence points to girls succeeding beyond boys, and yet, where are the pro-boy programs? You will always be able to point out a specific area of work that men outnumber women, or vice versa, but that doesn't mean we should rectify that "problem". There's a much larger issue where boys are being left behind.
Women have outnumbered men at colleges for ~25 years now. Women outnumber men 58% to 42%.
75 percent of girls aim for college degrees vs. 66 percent of boys
The study found that not only are girls in the nation's 100 largest school districts graduating at a ">72 percent rate versus 65 percent for their male counterparts, but that the gender gap is even wider among minority students.
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Re:DIVXI don't rember ever seeing DIVX ever being cracked.
According to one source, the average PC hard drive at the end of 1998 was 5.6GB. Low-MHz Pentium IIs had just been introduced. Few people had the storage capacity or processing power to crack a format that only lasted for about 6 months anyway.
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Sick of examples from sub-Saharan Africa? What?
As for sub-Saharan, I'm so sick of textbooks giving examples of sub-Saharan cultures that do this or that.
Yes, because God forbid that the most culturally and genetically diverse subsection of humanity be used in an examination of what is and isn't culturally universal. Dominant majorities only, please!
The reason these cultures get referred to a lot is that they're some of the few cultures left on the planet not significantly changed by contact with the major Abrahamic religions, Confuscianism, or the Indic traditions that have dominated world culture. They give us a window into traditions far more ancient than our own which have survived through isolation.
A woman transported several centuries would change from being desirable to undesirable because of the dynamics of food supply dynamics of the society? Then would a famine ridden society see a 400lb woman as the most beautiful woman they have ever seen?
Actually, there are places today where you could transport such a woman and find them desirable. Mauritania is one such place where wealthy people send their daughters to be fattened to make them more marriage-worthy. After all, they're a desert culture and food resources have been scarce until modern times. (The article does note that tastes are changing, though.)
In addition, a lot of sub-Saharan African cultures are continuing the preference for overweight men and women because of AIDS. AIDS generally causes severe weight loss, and being fat is a sign of probable health. This actually leads some people to seek to gain weight to avoid the stigma.
Now, 400 lbs might be a bit much. But you could certainly drop a 250-300 lbs woman into medieval Europe or earlier and have people assume that she was someone of great wealth. The Greeks and Romans seem not to have prized being overweight, but fertility statues from Stone Age cultures world wide show a preference for larger women.
Essentially, humans will instinctively look for signs of health in breeding. In times of starvation, we look for those who are well-fed. In times of abundance, we look for those that are "fit," but in both cases we are looking for mates who will live long and produce better children. It's just that the easily spotted criteria changes. -
A few more data points
Responding to some of the (typically) under-informed criticisms...
(Why bother to understand a topic when you can quickly post an opinion?)
This isnt intended to replace all traffic management, for instance at airports, just to lessen the overhead of overseeing the more predictable long stretches in-between.
Aircraft spacing would be lessened under the proposed system but still be considerable. Therefore even if GPS accuracy were degraded by the US Military it wouldnt have much practical effect. Besides accuracy to a few hundred feet is already problematic when youre traveling that far every second.
The new systems arent any more susceptible to interference from solar flares or other natural phenomena then current systems; indeed theyre predicted to be more robust.
Finally, 40 billion dollars US does seem like a lot of money. But considering the FAAs historic phenomenal mind-bogglingly beyond-grossly-incompetent record at managing system deployments its probably a low-ball on a cost-plus contract...
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Re:Proving once again...Had they truly been geniuses in the sense you suggest, they'd have specified the algorithm for determination of the copyright period, instead of just the value.
Since they were geniuses, they decided the algorithm was rather obvious. The only people who would whine about the value or want to see the algorithm were morons.
The delegates to the United States Constitutional Convention were able to under-gird their arguments with allusions to historical situations and to the ideas of philosophers, essayists, and dramatists. Names such as Thucydides, Aristotle, Herodotus, Plutarch, or Seneca were commonly cited to support their positions. They alluded to fictional characters from Aristophanes, Marlowe, or Shakespeare to lend color to the exploration of ideas. If they referred to Bacon's opinion of Aristotle, they didn't have to cite particulars; they assumed such details were common knowledge. Their allusions were not the product of intellectual ostentation or ornamentation but the natural condiments of discourse, bringing out the full flavor of the cultivated intelligence. Cousins, The Poet And The Computer, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3651/is_19 9610/ai_n8740317 I've often wished that the founders of the states had been smart enough to describe an apolitical algorithm for determination of the boundaries for congressional districts as well. Or had been smart enough to realize that plurality voting systems (instead of ranked or condorcet methods) would ultimately result in the creation of an entrenched two-party duopoly from which there appears to be no escape.Don't you think you are a little presumptuously egotistical to conclude that people nowadays, specifically yourself, are smarter than those from 200 years ago? It is easy to think the people in the past were simple minded. (A living person usually has more intelligence than a corpse.) There is no way to conclusively verify comparative IQ, but few people today show the intelligence of the the Founding Fathers - literate, wise, far thinking, objective thought, original thought. (Most modern people's thoughts merely reflect that of their college professor and/or media and pop culture.)
It's easy to criticize their system, but since you are so smart, perhaps you can think of a better system that avoids to problems you mention. (Then, maybe you can start your own country and see how long it avoids the same problems.)
The Founding Fathers intended the U.S. Constitution to be only a framework, not a comprehensive system. (e.g. The U.S. Constitution gives Congress power to create laws, but doesn't specify them.)
They implemented the separation of powers with checks and balances between the three branches. I think it follows that they intended the sub-branches and bureaus to implemented with the same kinds of checks and balances.
Curiously, Jefferson was both a Founding Father and the first to be elected by scheming political organizing.
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Re:What else are they tracking, you ask?
I know you're kidding, but prior to 9/11 the Justice Dept. did seem to be transforming itself into a federal vice squad, wiretapping a brothel in New Orleans and cracking down on medical marijuana clubs in California--clubs that state voters and local law enforcement approved. Their emphasis on "moral" crimes was unprecedented. I have no doubt medical marijuana clubs were a higher priority for the senior leadership than counterterrorism. In their minds, those dirty marijuana-toking, pornography-loving hippies *are* "the terrorists."
There is very little that you could say about this administration that I would find too insane to be plausible.
More on Ashcroft's Justice Dept. here.
And from recent testimony re: the NSA wiretapping it appears that Ashcroft was actually *less* disrespectful of the Constitution and rule of law than Gonzalez. -
Re:What matters is enforceability
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Re:That's a great idea!
Looks like both contexts are an urban legend but the budget request context does have some basis in fact with a different quote and an earlier patent commissioner. The Wikipedia entry for Charles Duell points to this article:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2843/is_3_2 7/ai_100755224/pg_1
Which has a pretty good debunking of the "everything that can be invented has been invented" urban legend.
Ralph -
Re:From an outside perspective
US health care system is similar to their economical system - it is easy to find dramatic and glaring cases of failure but overall it provides better care than for example EU or UK.
For a "broken system" these are pretty darn good statistics.
To summarize them, if you suffer from a serious illness , you are better off in USA than practically anywhere in the world, REGARDLESS of your income.
I am not going to comment on sicko because it brings nothing new to the table - it is simply a clever compilation of cherry picked examples of failures in US vs idealized "theoretical" status quo in EU.
As someone who emigrated from EU to USA I will tell you that in my case, the reality looks much more different than presented in Sicko.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/ne ws/2007/05/10/ncancer10.xml
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_3 07614.html
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/abstrac t/106592618/ABSTRACT
http://www.startoncology.net/capitoli/interno_capi toli/default.jsp?menu=professional&ID=67&language= eng
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4155/is_20 030914/ai_n12516915
http://cmbi.bjmu.edu.cn/news/0503/151.htm
http://gut.bmj.com/cgi/content/abstract/54/2/268?c k=nck -
Re:Next up: Lava Ducks
It's actually the best way to get rid of unwanted radioactive waste.
I am not sure that the people and animals living around the Golden Gate area for the next few thousand years would agree.
http://www.sfweekly.com/2001-05-09/news/fallout/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farallon_Islands
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3720/is_20 0207/ai_n9128555/pg_2
http://ludb.clui.org/ex/i/CA3160/
http://walrus.wr.usgs.gov/farallon/radwaste.html
As a slap in the face to environmentalists, Bush designated the nuclear waste dump as a marine sanctuary, ensuring that there was highly restrictive blanket of laws http://farallones.noaa.gov/manage/regulations.html regarding access to and use of the waters in and around the nuclear waste in order to prevent people from researching how badly all the radioactive materials are leaking and contaminating the water, sea bed and sea life in the area while at the same time pretending to do something pro-environment - the joke is on us. http://farallones.noaa.gov/manage/sac.html -
Re:Huh?
What we were looking for specifically being nuclear WMDs weren't there, but there were still chemical (sarin) WMDs that he should not have had.
Keep in mind that we helped him get the chemical weapons in the first place and then provided intelligence to him when he tested his chemical weapons on the Kurds. Also keep in mind that these weapons have a short shelf life. The stuff we finally found had already degraded into useless bombs.
Every president before him tried diplomacy, and every president before him was summarily ignored. While it's not our job to be the world police I think it would be far more regrettable in the long run to stand by and do nothing. I think the war could have been better executed, but to some extent we have been hindered by the lack of support from the international community.
This isn't entirely true. We helped keep Saddam in power. The Reagan administration helped Saddam with WMD and intelligence. Not only that but we lied about our intelligence in the lead up to war. It's interesting that the very reasons Bush Sr. gave for not marching into Baghdad have come to pass.
This war was never about getting rid of a Tyrant. He was our guy until he over reached and the Saudis, our allies who supply oil and terrorists, freaked out over the invasion of Kuwait and insisted we do something about him.
Hell, we even gave Saddam the green light to invade Kuwait. So why should the international community help us clean up a mess of our own making? -
Re:so what did Libby do again?
I don't know who is a covert agent and who isn't. I'm gonna have to concede to the CIA on this one, when they sent a criminal referral ( scroll down a little on that article ) asking the Justice department to investigate the blowing of her cover.
Presumably the CIA would really know whether or not she was a covert agent. -
Re:Let me guess...
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Re:It *does* reflect thinking of the candidates
Link to article discussing the "soft-money" donations, and how the GOP is wiping the floor with the Dems.
Your OpenSecrets link is misleading and inaccurate, because politicians are not required to report the number of sub $200 donations. When you look at the $5 and $10 donations, etc, and do the math correctly, the GOP comes out way ahead of the Democrats right now.
Campaign Finance Reform helped the GOP, too. From that article: The Supreme Court's ruling on campaign finance gives the Republicans, who raise far more in small donations, a big advantage in next year's elections for the White House and Congress.
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not having chlidren
You can't forbid people to have kids, but there's a much simpler way to ensure they never have any (no, not neuter them).
Sure you can, the US governemnt did this in a way to Native American Indians. In a system that only ended in the 1970s doctors working for the IHS, Indian Health Service, sterlized female Indians. Sometimes it was done without the knowledge or consent of them and other tymes they were led to believe they had to have it done. Forced sterilization is ethnic cleansing of Indians.
You see, population grows, and all of that growth is coming from poor countries, and poor ghettos in richer countries. Truth is, in a modern society, the more educated you are, the better off you are, the more better off you want your kids to be, have access to birth control measures, and eventually have less kids, sometimes even have no kids.
That's right, the better people's educational and economic situation and the greater the opportunities women have, the lower the birthrate is for the population. That's why the two nations that had the highest birth rates, China and India, have seen their birthrates drop. Meanwhile in developed nations, parts of the EU, Japan, and the USA the birthrate has dropped below the replacement rate needed to keep the same population. If it wasn't for immigrants their populations would colapse. A few years ago the mayor of one town in Italy instituded a tax on singles because their population was falling and he wanted singles to get married and have children. Which is the absolute worse thing he could of done, instead of having singles get married this would drive them away which would make it worse. The worst place for population growth now is Africa which doesn't have nearly enough opportunity for the population as most other places.
Falcon -
Re:Less Laws, More Justice?
The reason there are fewer traffic accidents in Jamaica is because there are fewer cars.
If fewer signs and regulations mean fewer deaths, then why do poorly regulated countries have a higher death rate (fatalities per 100,000) as compared with highly regulated countries?
Southeast Asia had the highest number of traffic deaths in 2000, with 435,000. Africa and the Middle East had the highest rates per 100,000 people.
Source: Associated Press
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Re:Yes
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Re:Routers, Phones, Now What?
Am I the only one that read that subject, initially, as "Embedded Linux Printer"?
Me too, although I wouldn't be suprised if there isn't some Postscript, network printer out there that runs embedded Linux...
Well here it is, a quick Scroogle search finds: Red Hat's Open Source Embedded OS to Power Post-PC Printer Device From Brother.
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Re:What would be coolYou could make a phone cover that is swappable, so if you want a camera, you could just jpgrade the cover.
Not that anyone wouldn't want a camera. There are plenty of locations where mobile phones are permitted but cameras are not. This is why you see some consumers get very excited when camera-less models of their favorite phone are released (e.g. the camera-less Treos). Even more extreme, I found the following article which discusses the demand for "kosher" cell phones: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4155/is_20 060331/ai_n16200963. -
Re:Keep sucking up your Democratic Propaganda Fanb
Nice deflection from my original request.
I don't think your post matches the challenge of "putting up or shutting up" that I set. I'll grant that absolute contests like that are no fun, but I couldn't let your counterfactual statement stand.
Like so many manufactured scandals, the "trashing" of the White House by Clinton staffers never actually happened - it was ginned up by a Republican machine ready to deliver locker-room dick sizes to a press breathless for scandal - and a year after the story "broke", the truth came out, thanks to the non-partisan GAO.
Hell, read it. I'm tired of trying to make Republicans believe that white is, in fact, white.
From the article:
The White House made 78 staffers available for interviews with the GAO, and clearly spent an enormous amount of energy just to try to stick another scandal to the Clintons. (Gonzales' time alone, billed by the hour, might cost more than the $9,000-plus the GAO blamed on the Clintons.)
Some conservatives. They've been doing the same trick for six years now and spending a shitload of money just to keep the lights on while 68% of people don't even want to get in the front door. -
Re:Answer: yes
That's just bullshit. 7 years ago, Europe didn't even have GPRS deployed, let alone UMTS, HSDPA, or any other 3G technology. 5 years ago, there were precisely zero operational UMTS networks in Europe. Most of the country has CDMA2000 1x EV-DO Rev A deployed. It's similar in performance to the HSDPA networks deployed today. HSDPA was deployed in Europe in 2005 and 2006. So much for being "5 years behind".
UMTS: The first UMTS network in Europe was launched by Manx Telecom on the Isle of Man (a large island in the Irish sea) in 2001. Manx Telecom is part of the O2 group, which is now a subsidiary of Telefonica. O2 used the island as a testbed for 3G technology.The 3 service was launched in the UK and Italy in March 2003. To meet this early date, this was a soft-launch with limited coverage of the UK initially available.
In December 2003, Mobitel has launched UMTS in Slovenia. T-Mobile launched UMTS in Austria, and began trials in the UK and Germany. Also, in November 2005 the T-Mobile UMTS network in the Netherlands went live (however, this was not a commercial launch, but meant to meet regulatory requirements imposed upon the spectrum auction).
and so on...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umts#Europe
GPRS:
GPRS subscribers in Western Europe could top 40 million by the end of 2003 if operators learn WAP lessons, says Analysys. (Market Intelligence)
May, 2002
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_go1596/is_2
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Re:Yes, and never forget Gartner predicted...Gartner Group predicts IBM losing control - research firm questions IBM's marketing strategy for OS/2 ****GARTNER GROUP PREDICTS IBM LOSING CONTROL 04/18/91 STAMFORD, CONNECTICUT, U.S.A., 1991 APR 18 (NB) -- Gartner Group predicts that IBM will not be successful in its efforts to encourage a majority of users to migrate to OS/2. The information technology industry research, analysis and consulting firm says that by 1995, OS/2's market share will only be half that of Windows. The prediction is based on a recent personal computing conference held by the Gartner Group.
Off topic, I just found out that even if you preview a post with HTML tags as "Plain Old Text" it still renders the HTML tags properly. On the other hand, regular text still works fine in "Plain Old Text" mode so why isn't this mode used as default?
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Re:In 5.. 4.. 3.. 2..
According to a Carl Sagan interview, the Dalai Lama says Buddism wouldn't contradict established science: "And the Dalai Lama said to me, "If science can disprove reincarnation, Tibetan Buddhism would abandon reincarnation." And then he said, "But it's going to be mighty hard to disprove reincarnation.""
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Re:Impression
IBM has teams of developers improving it because they don't make their money on software.
Actually, IBM makes billions of dollars a year on software, and has done for years. It even makes money from open source and free software.
(Opinions mine, not IBM's.)
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Re:Stupid commercials
In certain situations/locations, triangulation from Cell bases can be more effective than GPS in determining your location. Hell, people are doing it with wifi. Maybe the iPhone will have an accelerometer, so you set the phone from a known location and it keeps track of itself after that (I doubt this, but it's an interesting idea).
GPS is not the only geo location technology out there. -
Re:Idea!!!
In all fairness, we are talking about the middle east here. A part of the world which has been at war on and off for longer than many of the countries there have existed.
Various governments both within the middle east and outside it have been trying to calm the situation down there and so far they've had a 0% success rate. Were it not for the violence spilling into the US in the 9/11 attacks.
One suggestion that's been expounded is to introduce Marmite to the middle east. Myself, I think it smacks slightly of desperation, but hey.... -
Re:What an Innovation!
ADSL modem + private network + set-top box.
Must have taken them months to independantly discover this combination.
No, they discovered this back in 95, but instead of moving forward with it, they killed it after the trial run. I was part of that trial run and I have to say, it was pretty nice. -
Dell sold thru Wally before and failed
I worked in tech support for Dell in 1994. At that time they were digging themselves out of the hole that they dug by selling PCs through Wal-Mart. The strategy, AFAIK, was a complete failure. It deluged their technical support organization with the most basic computer questions. Everybody that I spoke with at the company proclaimed it an unmitigated disaster. Dell couldn't get out of the arrangment fast enough. Not sure why this is new or news. Perhaps their Indian tech support will be better equipped to handle the calls this go-round, but I doubt it.
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640 megabytesWhat Gates didn't predict: One quote frequently attributed to the Microsoft chairman is that "640K of memory should be enough for anybody."
Gates may never have said it, but somebody did.
I'm old. And these are my recollections: I first had a TRS-80 Model One and later a Model III. The majority of computers of the day were 64K. I worked for Lobo Systems (http://oldcomputers.net/lobomax80.html) which managed 128K. Then all of a sudden the PC came out and it could handle 640K.
If he didn't say it, then perhaps Don Estridge, The Father of the IBM PC, did. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3649/is_2
0 0412/ai_n9466612Or perhaps I did. I certainly remember thinking something like Wow, five times the capacity.
;) -
Re:Joking aside...
I did find this article:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4200/is_20 070212/ai_n17222418
but I still would like to find another source to confirm this. -
Re:Sure its not exclusiveI saw Bush's motorcade when he was in Minneapolis a while back, judging by the number of antennas pointing in all directions from the large black SUV that drove in front of him I suspect they were jamming more than just cell phones. The other SUV with armed SWAT-looking guys hanging out the windows probably could have taken care of the rest. I seem to recall there were several identical limos too... perhaps there was more than one VIP or perhaps one was a decoy.
By the way, Pervez Musharraf was saved by US-provided cell-phone jammers a while back: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m5072/is_17
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Since 1897
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Re:Is Norway accepting immigrants ?
Only if you hijack a plane. or a convicted terrorist who threatens the host country with terrorism
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Re:Well, I need the explanation I guess
Contrast this with the legal situation in the US where you could probably sue me for libel (Libel is Letters, Slander is Speech) whether you pour hot grits down your pants or not.
Actually we in th UK have some of the most over the top libel laws in the world. Not only could that comment get you sued for libel but you would also have the following problems:
1) No legal aid - you would have to pay for your entire defence out of your own pocket. Lawyers are expensive and this alone would prbably force you to appologise.
2) They could also sue anyone who published your statement. In order to "publish" something you merely have to know you are distributing it, so either slashdot (or their) ISP would receive a standard take down notice and would have to either comply, or dive head on into a horrific (ie - expensive) legal quagmire.
I had a bit of a dig about and here are some links I found:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,8 24902,00.html
http://digital-lifestyles.info/2006/03/23/john-bun t-and-flame-groups-legal-pitfalls-with-postings/
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1295/is_2_6 3/ai_53706056
The last is one is particularly relevant as it pertains to a printer being scared of a libel trial so shredding all the issues of something they were printing. -
Re:And the next dayFast forward to 2012...
"And in breaking news, it appears that Uruguay is now the #1 place to outsource technology jobs." 2012?? It's the place to outsource to right now! You won't believe this, but the Indians are outsourcing to _us_ (that means our IT professionals are dirt cheap at the moment).
According to renowned journalist Thomas Friedman, Uruguay is India's India:
http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article? AID=/20060924/OPINION/609240312
See also this Latin Trade article http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0BEK/is_1_1 2/ai_112408721 -
Coins have a history in spy games...
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0QUY/is_20
0 4_April/ai_n6137787 In the 50's the Russians were apparently using hollowed coins to pass messages. While the "nanotech" comment reeks of paranoia (as does the idea of Canadians spying on the US... What do we think they want? California?) it's not unheard of for coins and other day-to-day objects to be used for spying. -
Re:No, I buy nice ones.
You would think but you would be wrong.
You see a landfill gets many things dumped into them that should not be. The major problem with this is that many of these chemicals end up reacting with mercury which causes more problems then most people realize, please see some of the URL's below as to why you are mistaken in assuming that mercury is a noble gas. On top of this you also have the problem that it appears bacteria found in landfills are able to convert mercury into the much deadlier form of methylated mercury which is again bad.
http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20010707/fob1. asp
http://pubs.acs.org/subscribe/journals/esthag-w/20 01/jul/science/kc_landfill.html
http://www.esd.ornl.gov/people/lindberg/lindberg3. html
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb4814/is_20 0507/ai_n17457809 -
Re:Interesting. References?
Well, at the time my mother was sick with cancer so researching this stuff was her hobby. It's what kept her going. We lived in Houston at the time and the majority of of it was published in the Houston Chronical. My mother said she had some medical journal articles covering what little was published, which she then used to write her representatives about the horrible abuse of government power (FDA, AMA, and lobbiest) which was rising at the time. I quickly tried some Googling but didn't find anything specific to which I referenced. To my surprise though, I did find a lot of vitamin-cancer treatment information is being published against by MD Anderson. I imagine if you contact them directly, you might be able to shake some information loose.
Needless to say, most sane American's that didn't have their hands in medical related pockets were happy to see Kesslier go. You may even remember the commericals which briefly appeared on TV which simulated vitamin raids into people's homes. Most people thought those were silly because they didn't realize the FDA had already raided several stores and home businesses and held the customers hostage for many, many hours (up to 8 hours IIRC). The logical conclusion is house holds were next because they were actively lobbying to outlaw vitamins. A judge later ruled they did not have the power to do such things and agreed that it amounted to illegal detainment. If you hunt, you can probably find references to these.
To be absoluetely clear here, I am by no means saying that mega-doses of vitimins are an end-all, cure-all for cancer! I can not stress this enough! What I said was, MD Anderson published some early research which indicates for specific types of cancer, mega-doses of vitamin were a viable alternative with results within spitting distance from conventional treatments of the time. Something else to consider is that traditional treatments have advanced significantly since then; thanks to computer aimed radiation guns, etc. Having said that, considering the research was in its infancy, it certainly showed great promise. The fact that they seemingly have continued vitamin cancer research seems to confirm they believe it still shows promise.
Just in case you're looking for raid informaiton, a quick Google found: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_n22 _v46/ai_15999889. I'm 100% sure if you want to keep looking into that one, you'll find lots and lots more articles on the subject. The article places it in 1990, so that means the search was probably somewhere between 1988 - 1994 (hey, I've slept since then). If you replied expecting to call my bluff, I believe you failed. If on the other hand, you are sincerely interested, you should have enough information to either find stuff online or to directly contact MD Anderson. I'm assuming we can both agree MD Anderson qualifies as a reputable medical research facility? I'm also assuming it's the research you are wanting to chase and not the FDA raids.
Do a Google on "MD Anderson vitimin cancer". I show, "765,000" hits.
A little back story for you:
At the time, my mother had already received her maximum lifetime dose of radiation which left her skin burned where her breast once was. When her cancer came back, knowing radiation was not an option, she began looking at alternative treatments. Convensional treatment expected her to die within 6-months to a year; two on the outside, if she was very, very lucky. The alternative treatment was a radical change in diet and massive vitamin doses plus a non-FDA approved solution which was injected into the tumors. The injections proved to be somewhat effective but the FDA later came down hard, early 1990's, on the MD that was providing it to her. At which time, she was left strictly with dietary and vitamin treatments. She was in state with cancer from 1986 until she died on Christmas of 2001. That statement is unrivaled with -
Re:Great job, PC Mag.
No? Someone care to elaborate?
-
Re:I think you can pretty clearly define hate spee
>And to those who think that the hate speech would evolve into squashing all free speech are offering up a red herring.
So very untrue. You bring up Canada as an example. Well then...
You should read up on how Canada's hate speech and obscenity (both of them, since the court cases based on either are very intertwined) laws came to be and the people they have affected. You would be very surprised as to the impetus for the such laws (Feminism) and that the law has effectively banned portions of the bible from public display. But it gets much better than that, Canada's courts so very well exemplify the slippery slope of hate speech laws:
R. v. Keegstra, regarding a teacher in a public school teaching hate to students.
Leads to R. v. Butler, regarding obscene item sales,
Which becomes R. v. Krymowski, a case where a small group of neo-nazis protesting Gypsies are put on trial for it.
Within only two decades we go from only prosecuting truly terrible crimes (Trying to teach students to hate) to prosecuting someone for selling bootlicking videos, to prosecuting protesters.
But wait, it gets even crazier here:
Scott Brockie, a printer, chose to refuse business from a pro-homosexual group as it would violate his religion to print their publication. He was subsequently prosecuted for this.
Wait -- banning the bible, banning the right to refuse service, banning porn toys isn't enough insanity for you?
Did you know that Canada's version of Al-Jazeera (which was banned for YEARS in this country, as by the request of the B'nai Brith due to "hate speech") requires censors sit on a hot button all day to delete anything offensive? Seriously. This was only done to prevent another protest to laws that effectively ban paying viewers from the viewing of foreign for-profit TV stations in Canada that won't register with the CRTC (and, therefore, be liable under hate speech and obscenity laws).
Our hate speech laws ban more than just Ernst Zundel, you know.
Boards of Canada summed it up pretty well:
"Now that the show is over, and we have jointly exercised our constitutional rights, we would like to leave you with one very important thought: Some time in the future, you may have the opportunity to serve as a juror in a so-called obscenity case. It would be wise to remember that the same people who would stop you from viewing an adult film may be back next year to complain about a book, or even a TV programme. If you can be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you can be told what to say or think. Defend your constitutionally-protected rights. No one else will do it for you. Thank you."
Freedom of speech is an essential liberty. Stop trading it for peace of mind!
If the US had hate crime laws, the CBC would be illegal there by now. Sometimes I the US did have the same laws--it would create the equivalent of a Berlin Wall for media trade between us, since that would also require you to refuse to play more than 65% foreign content on your radio stations. (A bit off topic, but any limit on speech is just a nice way of saying "censorship").
Where will Canada be in 20 more years with laws lik -
Re:I think you can pretty clearly define hate spee
>And to those who think that the hate speech would evolve into squashing all free speech are offering up a red herring.
So very untrue. You bring up Canada as an example. Well then...
You should read up on how Canada's hate speech and obscenity (both of them, since the court cases based on either are very intertwined) laws came to be and the people they have affected. You would be very surprised as to the impetus for the such laws (Feminism) and that the law has effectively banned portions of the bible from public display. But it gets much better than that, Canada's courts so very well exemplify the slippery slope of hate speech laws:
R. v. Keegstra, regarding a teacher in a public school teaching hate to students.
Leads to R. v. Butler, regarding obscene item sales,
Which becomes R. v. Krymowski, a case where a small group of neo-nazis protesting Gypsies are put on trial for it.
Within only two decades we go from only prosecuting truly terrible crimes (Trying to teach students to hate) to prosecuting someone for selling bootlicking videos, to prosecuting protesters.
But wait, it gets even crazier here:
Scott Brockie, a printer, chose to refuse business from a pro-homosexual group as it would violate his religion to print their publication. He was subsequently prosecuted for this.
Wait -- banning the bible, banning the right to refuse service, banning porn toys isn't enough insanity for you?
Did you know that Canada's version of Al-Jazeera (which was banned for YEARS in this country, as by the request of the B'nai Brith due to "hate speech") requires censors sit on a hot button all day to delete anything offensive? Seriously. This was only done to prevent another protest to laws that effectively ban paying viewers from the viewing of foreign for-profit TV stations in Canada that won't register with the CRTC (and, therefore, be liable under hate speech and obscenity laws).
Our hate speech laws ban more than just Ernst Zundel, you know.
Boards of Canada summed it up pretty well:
"Now that the show is over, and we have jointly exercised our constitutional rights, we would like to leave you with one very important thought: Some time in the future, you may have the opportunity to serve as a juror in a so-called obscenity case. It would be wise to remember that the same people who would stop you from viewing an adult film may be back next year to complain about a book, or even a TV programme. If you can be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you can be told what to say or think. Defend your constitutionally-protected rights. No one else will do it for you. Thank you."
Freedom of speech is an essential liberty. Stop trading it for peace of mind!
If the US had hate crime laws, the CBC would be illegal there by now. Sometimes I the US did have the same laws--it would create the equivalent of a Berlin Wall for media trade between us, since that would also require you to refuse to play more than 65% foreign content on your radio stations. (A bit off topic, but any limit on speech is just a nice way of saying "censorship").
Where will Canada be in 20 more years with laws lik -
Re:I can see microsoft doing what apple did
Microsoft knows unix. In the 90's they partnered weith a small company called proginet based on Long Island . They partnered to help windows machines talk to mainframes. I dont know if they still ahve this partner ship or not. Trust me though Microsoft knows unix even though they dont publically state it. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3649/is_1
9 9507/ai_n8710090 -
Re:Rehab?
"Cold Turkey" is one of the least effective methods for quitting smoking with one of the higest recidivism rates. Your father is a statistical anomaly.
"In an American Lung Association survey this September, seven smokers in 10 said they hoped to quit and had tried repeatedly to give up tobacco. But the high recidivism rate has to do with the tactics employed, according to Alfred Munzer, an ALA physician. "Most people quit through the least effective way," he says: They go "cold turkey," a method that yields a mere 5 percent success rate."
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0903/is_11_ 16/ai_53272502
It is also a killer song by John Lennon. -
what's really at stake ..
The commision ruled in 2004 that Microsoft broke European competition laws and directed them to release complete interoperability documentation on the protocols, MS pretended to not understand what the Commision was on about and released some source code. The Commision also said that MS acted to stifle innovation by tying Media Player to Windows.
The real question is whether a single company should get a lock in on PROTOCOLS, never mind what they should charge for them. Is this an example of the polluted protocols MS talked about in that Valloppillil email.
"By extending these protocols and developing new protocols, we can DENY OSS projects ENTRY into the MARKET."
'At what point has/will the EU overstepped its bounds'
At what point will MS realise it isn't dealing with the DOJ? -
Re:In related news, Sony fired game developersGood to see Nintendo is still stealing decade-old ideas from Sega though
:)Yeah, it's like Sega had the ability to look into the past...
-
Re:In related news, Sony fired game developers
I'll just be having fun downloading the final version of Opera for free to use on my Wii
If you're idea of fun is downloading a web browser, then you're standards can't be very high.
Good to see Nintendo is still stealing decade-old ideas from Sega though :) -
Re:Nerd factor?
Nobody cares how many men are becoming
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3689/is_2 ... nurses.0 0307/ai_n9256865
http://aamn.org/ - The american assembly for men in nursing.
http://nursing.about.com/od/nursingshortage/a/meni nnursing.htm
http://www.nsna.org/pubs/imprint/novdec05/imp_nov0 5%20breakthough.pdf
http://www.cbc.ca/news/story/2000/01/24/nurses0001 24.html
While your point was otherwise pretty valid. Be careful when you throw around "never"s and "nobody"s.