Slashdot Mirror

http://blog.laborlawtalk.com/2006/11/09/hawaii-age-of-consent-laws/

one example
"The age of consent is the age at which an individual may legally consent to sexual acts, of either a heterosexual or a homosexual nature. The age of consent for heterosexual sex in Hawaii is 16 for both men and women. Someone who is 14 may consent to sex in Hawaii with an individual who is no more than 19. There is no age of consent for sex between two women or two men, since the U.S. Supreme court has overturned the Hawaiian law."

http://www.laborlawtalk.com/showthread.php?t=11281 8

Ah, a spelling Nazi
.
Let's see how many sources cite my spelling:
Here's the first few
http://www.wordreference.com/definition/apposable/
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/apposable/
http://www.wordwebonline.com/en/APPOSABLE/
http://dictionary.laborlawtalk.com/apposable/
http://www.alphadictionary.com/wordnet/a/apposable .html/
http://www.webster-dictionary.net/definition/Appos able/
What did we learn in class today ?
There is more than one 'correct' way to spell many words

Well, you can choose to make up your own definitions for batteries and explosives, but don't expect the technical folks here to accept them. Also you might want to check the definition for detonation before using it again - it's also a very specific term. http://dictionary.laborlawtalk.com/Detonation

Im not sure what your definition is, but here are a few definitions to keep you occipied.

FWIW this man is a journalist and by the most technical means ANYONE holding a camera recording footage to be reported to the general public is a journalist. Not just someone who gets a paycheck from a major news media company.

This is what is sad about our country these days, people assume that to do things, even simple things you must be registered and have some form of permission from some higher power. This is supposed to be a free country not free so long as its ok with mommy Administrative branch and daddy Judicial branch. Sadly thats what we are coming to.

Interestingly enough, we can also click to get a definition of molar volume. You note that the standard molar volume of "most any gas" is 22.4L/mol. I think you here defined "most any gas" as one that behaves ideally: an ideal gas. From the data I see here, the conlcusion that I would come to is simply that oxygen does not behave ideally (at least under these circumstances). Although like I said, I'm no chemist, so I might just be talking out of my ass without knowing it. Either way, even 20L of oxygen created over a period of "a few hours" is far from enough to breathe.

Interestingly enough, we can also click to get a definition of molar volume. You note that the standard molar volume of "most any gas" is 22.4L/mol. I think you here defined "most any gas" as one that behaves ideally: an ideal gas. From the data I see here, the conlcusion that I would come to is simply that oxygen does not behave ideally (at least under these circumstances). Although like I said, I'm no chemist, so I might just be talking out of my ass without knowing it. Either way, even 20L of oxygen created over a period of "a few hours" is far from enough to breathe.

>Their Doctor Who section is absolutely awesome ..

Doctor Who is pretend. He doesn't really travel the universe in a Time And Relative Dimensions In Space machine.

TARDIS

wrong

The anonymous post above already mentioned that p is for momentum and the equation is framed in a way that accounts for quantum mechanics, not just classical (Newtonian) physics. I found a good explanation here:

Scroll about halfway down to the section header "Relativistic relation among mass, energy and momentum".

Then I realized it was because your girlfriend spends all your money and therefore you can't afford a gameboy. (Or if you are lucky enough to have a girlfriend who believes in saving money, she has veto power over all your purchases. "You bought what! Well, I hope you kept the receipt because you are marching right back to Best Buy and returning it!")

So, the parent is actually a warning... beware! Look into becoming a punter... you'll thank me in the long run.

Almost, the correct statement is 1/2 the people you meet are at or below the median IQ.

Doesn't have quite the same ring, eh?

"In probability theory and statistics, the median is a number that separates the highest half of a sample, a population, or a probability distribution from the lowest half. More precisely 1/2 of the population will have values less than or equal to the median and 1/2 of the population will have values equal to or greater than the median.

To find the median of a finite list of numbers, arrange all the observations from lowest value to highest value and pick the middle one. If there are an even number of observations, one often takes the mean of the two middle values. "

http://encyclopedia.laborlawtalk.com/Median
Example 1: median is the second three
1,2,3,3,3,4,5

Example 2: median is between the second and third three
1,2,3,3,3,3,4,5

Depending on what your are running statistics on Example 2 may or may not be a valid method of doing this. If it is not then Example 3 is commonly used.

Example 3: median is the second and third three
1,2,3,3,3,3,4,5,

" They have a pretty weird definition of science fiction"

The media industry, in deciding what genre a show is, can't slice the pie too fine, or the definitions become useless. They are more likely to define the genres according to audience, since that's what advertisers want to see. So, no Horror-fantasy, Horror, High Fantasy, or Historical Fantasy genre labels for us.

Given that the media industry has so much influence on public perception of things, is it surprising that people slowly change how they label things to fit the media labels?

From http://encyclopedia.laborlawtalk.com/Science_ficti on_on_television:

"There is some ambiguity as to what exactly "science fiction" covers in terms of television. In recent years, the term has come to cover any programme that deals in the fantastical or even merely the horrific, such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Charmed or Angel. More accurately these programmes are not science fiction as they don't involve any real scientific element, and are perhaps more comfortably covered under the generic term "telefantasy"."

Perhaps they could use biodegradable oil?

There's an old sailors' tale that pouring a teaspoonful of oil on troubled waters soothed them. Turns out that 1 teaspoonful of oil would cover 100 square metres. And for really troubled waters, they would use a whole barrel or more.

And there's actually a scientific reasoning behind this. The oil helps increase the surface tension of the water preventing the wave crests from disintegrating and throwing spray all over the place. And this spray acts as a fluid layer between the atmosphere and the ocean, reducing air friction and allowing winds to gain speed.

This happens around 5 on the Beaufort scale

New Scientist had an article on this subject, with a followup:

The 1937 US Naval Academy textbook Modern Seamanship by Austin M. Knight gives specific instructions on the use of oil, with illustrations. It notes that the practice was so valuable that "all United States Registered machinery propelled ships of over two hundred tons must carry from 30 to 100 gallons (amount dependent on tonnage) of oil..."

But all of this would only work for the local vicinity of a single ship. You would need a considerable lot more to cover an entire ocean.

" The comet doesn't have much gravity, but it has enough."

It would make for an easy explaination, but unfortunately it has issues with a couple of principles. I am not going to spell out all of the theories of Gravity to you, but here is a link that is a good summary of where we have been, are and are going with the theory of gravity. It is still a theory and we haven't got one yet the unifies itself with the rest of the physical world. That is truely the Holy Grail of Physics right now. Anyway, there is a problem with the size (volume and mass) of the comet, it's velocity and the inherent difference between the gravitational interaction of protons and the electromagnetic repulsion of the same. The 'size' of the body isn't thought to be large enough to overcome the electromagnetic repulsive force of the matter that makes up the body.

The other problem is that comets were widely thought to be 'ejected' matter from a collision or a plantery body. The loose natural of the surface matter would condemn that theory. So how did it come to be? We have as many questions now as when we started, if not more. The more we learn, the more we realize we really don't know.

I think that is such an oversimplification as to be wrong. Remember that even "atomic time" is defined in relation to an arbitrary physical world. In this case, some arbitrary number of oscillations in the radiation emitted by an atom undergoing a particular transition (definition here). I don't see this as a digital vs. analog thing at all.

http://encyclopedia.laborlawtalk.com/IQ_and_the_We alth_of_Nations

Don't feel bad, all of my girl friends have told me that "bigger isn't aways better" ;) (Just Kidding!)

That's a rather misleading quote. The meaning of corporatism at the time was far different than the current usage.

Since I was curious I googled and apparently a voiced velar fricative is exactly
like this, sound sample and all..

http://encyclopedia.laborlawtalk.com/Voiced_velar_ fricative

Amazing, this internet.

That link did not work for me. Here is what I found with a quick search.

Theft: is, in general, the wrongful taking of someone else's property without that person's willful consent

Property: Within the law, property is a general legal category for rights of ownership in land, money, tangible objects, intangible objects, etc. Property is defined as the right to use, enjoy or possess a determinant thing, and the right to exclude others from doing the same

I think the important parts are that property can be intangible and that property rights allow the owners to exclude others from using the property. In this case the property is the intangible property of music, movies, etc, the "theft" occurs when someone violates the owners right to exclude those who have not paid for the right to use.

I recognize that I am really pushing the definitions here, but I think this is reasonable.

That link did not work for me. Here is what I found with a quick search.

Theft: is, in general, the wrongful taking of someone else's property without that person's willful consent

Property: Within the law, property is a general legal category for rights of ownership in land, money, tangible objects, intangible objects, etc. Property is defined as the right to use, enjoy or possess a determinant thing, and the right to exclude others from doing the same

I think the important parts are that property can be intangible and that property rights allow the owners to exclude others from using the property. In this case the property is the intangible property of music, movies, etc, the "theft" occurs when someone violates the owners right to exclude those who have not paid for the right to use.

I recognize that I am really pushing the definitions here, but I think this is reasonable.

Umm - not exactly. What you are describing is commonly known as a TEC, or "Thermoelectric Cooler" (and also known as a Peltier cooler). They are not composed of a single Peltier junction, but rather a large multitude of such junctions in what is basically a semiconductor package. A TEC is basically a semiconductor-based heat pump, which uses electricity to move heat from one side of the TEC to the other. In the process, the TEC also generates a fair amount of heat (no such thing as a "free lunch") from the hot side, while also consuming a fair amount of energy (which most of it is converted to heat, the rest moving heat from the cold side to the hot side). Finally, remember that you can't generate cold - coldness is the absence of heat.

Now, as I have noted, TECs work via the use of multiple Peltier junctions. Peltier junctions are fairly simple devices, consisting of a junction made between two dissimilar conductors. TECs are made in this manner, but in the same way as ICs are made (more or less). On a larger scale, though, a Peltier junction is easy to make - get a piece of alluminum wire, and a piece of copper wire, and twist them together: congratulations, you have just made a simple (though very inefficient) Peltier junction (however, this is not what can cause house fires in older homes with alluminum wiring - this problem is caused by a combination of alluminum and copper wire junctions heating up because of the resistance of the junction, thus starting a fire).

Peltier junctions work by using something known as the Peltier Effect, which was observed in 1834 by Jean Peltier 13 years after the Seebeck effect was first discovered. The Seeback effect is basically the inverse of the Peltier effect - in that two disimilar conductors, in the presence of a heat source, generate an electrical current. This effect has been used in industry to detect and measure extremely high temperatures, such as what is generated in various industrial furnaces. It has also been experimented with as a method to use the sun to generate electricity (ie, use a solar furnace to focus the sun on a bundle of the junctions) - there is actually an old Popular Mechanics article from the 1950's or 1960's showing how to build such a device.

As to whether you can use a TEC to exploit the Seebeck effect in a practical manner - probably not, as they aren't designed to work in this manner, and you might destroy the device. However, these devices are cheap enough, and if you supplied an appropriate cooling system for the device you might get a bit of electricity out of it - just don't expect much. It would make an interesting science fair project for the kids, though (grab a TEC, a fresnel lens, and a very large heat sink with a fan, bolt it all together and hook it up to a cheap voltmeter, then set it in the sun).

BTW - where did all the real geeks on this site go to, anyhow?

Sorry folks. I screwed up a couple of the links:

H.G. Wells' The First Men in the Moon ; also used in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

Sorry folks. I screwed up a couple of the links:

H.G. Wells' The First Men in the Moon ; also used in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

Cavorite is impervious to gravity and can shield other materials from its effects. It is used to shield a craft from Earth's pull, allowing easy flight. It was named after its discoverer, Mr. Cavor, who used its levitational properties to travel to the Moon. - H.G. Wells' The First Men in the Moon ; also used in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

In Akeley Mn
or here in Del Norte Cty, CA.

We do select based on genetic traits.

Another example was the strong chin in males. Stronger chins have a correlation with weaker immune systems, so the logic is that a specimen that can support the chin and be healthy has a stronger "baseline" immune system than a specimen w/o the strong jaw.

Here's an article outlining some of my points.

Not only would neanderthal have little to say s/he would have little by way to say anything. The larynx of neanderthal didn't descend as low as ours and permitted pronunciation only of consonants and likely didn't allowed pronunciation of vowels. It's possible our lower larynx allowed us to develop speech and may have been what gave us the evolutionary edge and had much to do with the extinction of neanderthal.

It's only "largely the same result" if you ignore that in one case the original holder or owner is being deprived of the item in question, and in the other case he is not.

Regarding the "you have no need and therefore no right to it" you have advocated in this thread:

While I see where you are coming from, it's IMO not that easy.
You must have a right to understand the, and therefore a need to partake in, the culture of your country, popular and not. Even if you can't agree to the terms, esp. if they are as obviously disputable.

A "right to partake" could be derived from many poverty definitions that are used in Europe, because there the poverty threshold is often defined as being excluded from "taking part in activities which are an accepted part of daily life in that society". The US does not seem to recognize such a right as their poverty definition is "lacking the resources to meet the basic needs for healthy living; having insufficient income to provide the food, shelter and clothing needed to preserve health.".

Ironically, the media industry, along with the other parts of the ruling system, would benefit most from such a right. This is because they want and need their culture to be total.
As far as I am concerned, the media industry could be relegated to niche products for people who can afford to spend a few hundred dollars per month on DRM'ed media if they want to stay current on developments in even only one art. The art produced in these niches sucks anyway, and the people can get back to making their own thing, out of necessity and free from interference.

The students have to take out loans now - most end up with debts of 10K pounds or more. Top-up fees of 3K per year are also being introduced. Although there were plans to scrap that and have a "pot" where everyone would be given a grant, and require to pay the money back once they found a job.

The student population of Liverpool is estimated to be 50,000 Manchester also has a student population of 65,000. So you can guess that the student population brings in millions of pounds to the area.

Changing the subject, minimum wage of £5/hr sounds pretty goood!

But you have to include the cost of living. I could rent a flat in Ontario for 750 Canadian dollars (property tax, electricity and water included).

In the UK, the monthly rent for a good two bedroom flat in Edinburgh is around 450 pounds, Liverpool is 650 pounds, and Brighton 850 pounds. Council tax is 1000 pounds/year, Electricity is 1000 pounds/year, and food is 40 pounds/week. And landlords typically require two months rent in advance. And a car will cost another 3000 pounds/year.

To rent your own place in the South, you would need at least 20K/year. If you were to share a flat with another person, you could just about break even. A minimum wage job, would only bring in 10K/year at 40 hours/week (most of which are part-time anyway).

There are many stories of people taking jobs in the London area, and leaving again once they find that they are actually loosing money by staying there.

There is a term for what you are describing:
"Separation of Layers"

False. The term she was describing is the Rule of Modularity. "Separation of Layers" is a special case, which requires that the modules are ordered in a hierarchial pattern. Designs which cannot be described in an acyclical graph may still be modular.

Furthermore, a google search on "separation of layers" produces nothing similar to what she was describing.

From answers.com:

Legal tender in the United States

As laid down in the United States Coinage Act of 1965, all coins and currencies of the United States, regardless of when coined or issued, shall be legal-tender for all debts, public and private, public charges, taxes, duties and dues. This excuses the several States from the prohibition laid on them in the United States Constitution (Article I Section 10) against making anything other than gold or silver coin a legal tender.

However, US federal law does not restrict private businesses, persons or organisations in what methods of payment they choose to accept or refuse. Businesses are therefore free to insist on payment by credit card, for example, or to refuse larger denomination banknotes. Even further though, legal tender laws do not preclude businesses from choosing to reject U.S. dollars for payment altogether. In this regard legal tender laws do not pertain to voluntary transactions.The occasional practice of offering large quantities of small denomination coins to pay resented debts is restricted by regulations limiting the use of "subsidiary" and "minor" coins (those with denominations of less than one dollar) similar to the Canadian ones listed below.

Similar articles on Wikipedia and elsewhere.

I don't buy everything this guy says, in particular for payment-after-purchase transactions like restaurants and post-pay gas stations. My gut feeling is if you eat a dinner and offer to pay with legal tender, they have to accept it, despite any signs to the contrary. After all, maybe I'm illiterate. But then again IANAL.

A related article which includes the above is at LaborLawTalk, it says among other things that:
- "legal tender can be refused until a person is in debt" which is why pre-pay grocery stores can refuse $100 bills, but post-pay restaurants can't.

I've heard there are limits on what's legal tender with respect to minor coins, for example, if you owe someone $100, you can't pay it all in pennies, but I can't seem to find those limits online. If you can, please reply.

I am not a lawyer.

From the research that I have done, it seems like Best Buy was obligated to accept the payment because they had already provided the service and he was paying a debt.

Here is an excerpt from an interesting article I found on
http://encyclopedia.laborlawtalk.com/Legal_tender# Legal_tender_in_the_United_States
Legal tender in the United States

As laid down in the United States Coinage Act of 1965, all coins and currencies of the United States, regardless of when coined or issued, shall be legal-tender for all debts, public and private, public charges, taxes, duties and dues.

However, US federal law does not restrict private businesses, persons or organisations in what methods of payment they choose to accept or refuse. Businesses are therefore free to insist on payment by credit card, for example, or to refuse larger denomination banknotes. Even further though, legal tender laws do not preclude businesses from choosing to reject U.S. dollars for payment altogether. In this regard legal tender laws do not pertain to voluntary transactions.

However, when the transactions are non voluntary such as in the payment of a debt, any legal tender must be accepted.

Another excerpt from the previous webpage

As legal tender can be refused until a person is in debt, vending machines and transport staff do not have to accept the largest denomination of banknote for a single bus fare or bar of chocolate, and even shopkeepers can reject large banknotes. However, restaurants that do not collect money until after a meal is served would have to accept any legal tender, though they would not be obliged to provide change - the restaurant is not in debt, it has been given a gift.

Related Court Cases:
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?c ourt=us&vol=110&invol=421

How long until some students get hold of this program and tweak their essay until it's puifect? It's similar to spammers using spam filters to test their emails first.

Imagine the day a professor is embarassed into early retirement when a student uses Markoff Chains and genetic algorithms to automatically generate an "A" essay that is otherwise pure gibberish to humans.

IIRC, I once read where a hand-built spoof using buzzwords in English literature once received accolades before being exposed because a professor was trying to make a point that the discipline had grown too sloppy and faddish.

A 20" multisync monitor used to be able to jam BBC Radio 4 (around 198 Kilohertz / long wave for a radius of 10 metres around the monitor.

First off, IANAL. However, the person involved does probably have legal recourse. It's not libel, as some have suggested; the University is not publicly defaming the student, and it'll be hard to prove malice. However, it might be breach of contract.

For example, in Guckenberger, et. al. V. Trustees of Boston University, et. al, they found the University liable for breach of contract simply by putting out promotional brochures claiming that the university was more accessible to the disabled than it was. In the words of the judge, they "form the basis of an enforceable contractual agreement." This is called "promissory estoppel". Basically, if someone promises something that makes you take actions to your detriment in order to gain that promise (i.e., paying to attend a university under the expectation of having full network services) and then fails to deliver, they're liable to you and you can sue for damages.

If it's the case of a vague threat of RIAA/MPAA lawsuits that haven't materialized, faced with a very real threat of a student lawsuit, I think they might reconsider. If the student is concerned about this more than just a willingness to post an "ask slashdot", they should start a collection among similarly concerned students and retain a lawyer. Just a letter from a lawyer to the University threatening legal action for their stance would probably be enough, since they don't have any direct threats from the RIAA or MPAA to counterbalance it.

I saw Scrabble for sale at a games store not too long ago. Those bastards.

Really, I agree that I don't find anything particularly suprising or outrageous about this. But you are totally allowed to just copy other people's things and sell 'em. Witness the history of the modern desktop computer. In fact, the so-called American way is pretty much based on that fact. Otherwise every new product would be a monopoly and the system would break down pretty fast.

Standard German is also decided from on high, but not necessarily as efficiently as in France.

As can be read here some languages actually do use $ as prefix for hexadecimal.

Then there are languages who use single = for comparison too. So if you are friendly enough it might make sense. :)