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Colorado (howdy neighbor!) just passed a law that allows people not pulling over in those situations to be ticketed. Shame that it only applies to 55-65MPH roads though. The Interstates are still fair game for idiots/assholes.

Speaking of which, I do think that there's a MAJOR difference between an opportunistic driver and an asshole driver. I don't mind people passing on the right. I do mind them slowing down when they get just past your front bumper when they pass you, or they just speed up to match your speed as you pass them.

At least there would be obvious job opportunities.

No problem. I replaced my profile photo and all my other photos with:
http://timesonline.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/04/29/fritzl.jpg

Good luck selling any products now biatches!

( Well... unless they're selling discreet basement construction...)

Neither GM nor Chrysler will "get it". Why should they? They have governed by finance pros instead of by engineers.

I'm an engineer, and the marketing department at my company will always get over double the budget of my design dept. This is normal, and simply a question of marketing. It has nothing to do with any mismanagement of GM at all, actually. Seth Godin's blog, although usually vague and general, gives a bit of insight into this matter. Moral of the story: People don't buy what's best, people buy what they want. GM is just providing an option to cater to something people would want, and making good money doing it. It's not like they were sacrificing any performance for the add-on. If anything, they're managing their resources even better by doing this.

90% of engineering is trial and error.

90% of PC repair is trial and error.

Don't go bringing that mentality into other engineering fields. You don't do bridge building by trial and error.

Like hell we don't!

Actually, Adam Smith warned against unregulated capitalism and the effects of wealth on political influence.

This case is about 35 U.S.C. Section 101, patentable subject matter. It is not about inventive step, obviousness, written description. etc. http://thepriorart.typepad.com/files/order.prometheus.pdf (the opinion of the trial court) "After careful consideration of the pleadings and relevant exhibits presented by the parties, the oral argument presented at the hearing, and for the reasons set forth below, this Court GRANTS Defendantsâ(TM) motion for summary judgment of patent invalidity thereby invalidating the patents-in-suit as violative of 35 U.S.C. Â 101." So, 35 U.S.C. Section 101 reads: "Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefore, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title." This has usually been interpreted as you can't patent gravity, but you can patent a pile driver. Please note, even a trivial expression of gravity is patentable subject matter. You still have to overcome novelty and obviousness. But you get in the door. The key is whether the patented thing is made by man or not. You can patent a living organism if you made it. That is Diamond v Chakrabarty. However, if you engage in some trivial activity, such as cross-breeding plants but not changing the DNA, then that is obvious. In re Pod-ners (http://www.cafc.uscourts.gov/opinions/08-1492.pdf)

>> The same NASA that said we've seen foam strikes on the shuttle for years without any problems, so don't worry about it.

An interesting, but not updated, graphic about shuttle tile strikes:
http://bigpicture.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/15000_shuttle_hits.jpg

Has anyone seen anything more complete?

not just like "Soviet Russia". (It's just Russia now, FYI)

Yes, but "just Russia" turned to a capitalist market after the USSR crumbled. Thus GPP was correct to say "Soviet Russia", since it was the Soviet Union that was socialist.

When a 12 trillion dollar economy cannot provide basic health care to all...there's a...problem.

Agreed, although I am not convinced that bigger government is the answer to the health care problem.

Regardless, revamping the health care system isn't the only thing that has people like GPP and myself concerned. How about dumping $13-17 BILLION into failing auto companies, then wanting to pour more money down the black hole when that didn't fix things as expected? How about trying to dictate how these companies do business? Or perhaps $13-17 billion isn't enough to raise any red flags, so how about another $700 billion to bail out America's banks? Does that seem Socialist to you? 'Cause it sure does to me.

As we've recently seen, unchecked capitalism is not a good thing since the markets aren't rational after all.

Yeah, sometimes the markets have to adjust themselves, and yes, it's frequently painful when that happens. FWIW, I do believe that government needs to intervene by setting laws on what companies can and cannot do -- thus we get things like the E.P.A., like child-labor laws, like minimum-wage laws, and I suppose even like SOX and SEC. But quite frankly, I don't like the direction that Obama seems to be taking the country (not that I was too thrilled with W's leadership, either...)

Here's a link with more details...

Times Online - Weird Cases: deal or no deal?

It seems that Cheney Mason (the mouthy lawyer) claimed it wasn't possible for his client to kill people in Atlanta at 5:20 pm and then appear on closed circuit TV at a hotel in Atlanta at 10 PM.

FTA:

Mason also declared it was impossible for anyone to disembark from an aircraft in Atlanta airport and get to the hotel five miles away in less than 28 minutes. He then said "I challenge anybody to show me, I'll pay them a million dollars if they can do it."

Apparently the earnest young law student managed to do just that. He flew from Orlando to Atlanta, and then (in under 28 minutes) made the final leg of the trip from the airplane at the gate to the hotel.

I'd love to see the court make Mister Mouthy Lawyer put his money where his mouth is.

My youngest cat is not de-clawed as it is a experiment.

Are you implying that you did declaw all your other cats? Are you aware of how much amputating your cat can hurt them?

I think you have the wrong idea about what being the "absolute worst kind of cat owner" constitutes.

No, slander is illegal. "Insulting" was a bad word to use, "criticizing" would have been more correct. Currently you have to be very careful about objecting to anything done by a foreigner. Just look at this article (Finnish). Apparently police targeting pickpockets is now racist if most of the pickpockets happen to be foreigners.

Female circumcision is an extreme example that no sane person tolerates. The problem is that anything less in your face is tolerated, in the name of multiculturalism. That leaves plenty of room to oppress women.

You're wrong about the hotels. Two of them are in central Helsinki. One is in Kallio, which is probably the least popular central area, but still popular compared to locations further away. The totally insane one is in Punavuori (Finnish), one of the most sought after locations for apartments.

Nice strawman calling anti-immigrants skinheads. Most of us are against skinheads too. We're not willing to tolerate people who themselves don't tolerate anything. This includes both refugees from backwards cultures and skinheads of our own. Unfortunately the skinheads are already here, but the refugees can be stopped at the border without harming our democracy. I would also point out that most modern skinheads are more talk than action, and they should have free speech too.

You're being hopelessly naive believing that officials have any success "encouraging women to have more equal status" (", mmmkay"). In Stockholm, TEN percent (article in Swedish) of 15-year old girls are having trouble with honor culture. This is in one of the most accepting countries on the planet. Even worse, when the percentage of immigrants in one area becomes large enough, attacks against the local culture reach out of control status (Swedish). If you don't speak Swedish, part of the article points out that firemen had to stop responding to fires that weren't spreading because they were too afraid of violence.

The talk about integrating refugees is all talk and no action. In practice, the refugees are trying to bring their own oppressive culture with them - the one they claim to be fleeing from. Sure, some of them actually believe in freedom, but there is no effort at all to weed out those who actually deserve our protection. The same will happen in Finland unless it's stopped now.

The multiculturalist fanatics are also trying to destroy our democracy. A Dutch member of parliament was banned from entering the UK to address the House of Lords, because their government thought it would cause trouble.

The Finnish prime minister is a coward and a traitor to the constitution. When the muslim world was in uproar about the Danish political cartoons, he apologized on behalf of Finland that they were published here too. Apparently he thinks they should have been hidden from view so us subjects couldn't decide for ourselves whether there was anything wrong with them. The message is clear: anything that muslims find offensive shouldn't be free speech, and boy are there a lot of those things.

But I won't lie to you, if you have the sniffles and go to an emergency room, you're gonna wait a long time. You should go to a clinic(free also) for these minor conditions.

Canadians sometimes have to come to the US for life saving treatments. Without some sort of price mechanism health care costs will eat too much of the economy and or lead to rationing.

The paintings may be in the public domain, but the photographs are copyright to the photographer.

So good luck to the dipshit user who uploaded them.

Doesn't that depend on whether or not the photos were made "work for hire"? Does the concept of "work for hire" exist in UK copyright law?

http://nylawline.typepad.com/photolawyer/work_for_hire/

0.99999[repeating] don't have a last digit by virtue of being infinitely long

It's last digit is 1 (as is it's first and only digit).

I was wrong about the correlation being negative, but I was not wrong about the correlation. But one thing pointed out in your video, that solar activity has not corresponded to temperature in just the last few years, is totally meaningless. Long-term trends are the only ones that matter. And as for long-term predictions, nothing comes close to beating the analysis of sunspots. The science is good. Very good.

I'll see your YouTube video, and raise you one:

video
video

And a whole bunch of articles:

article
article
article
article
article
article

By coincidence, this morning I ran into this while checking some feeds I subscribed:

--- quote ---
We're always going to need writers, but the business model of their platform is going to change.

People will pay for content if it is so unique they can't get it anywhere else, so fast they benefit from getting it before anyone else, or so related to their tribe that paying for it brings them closer to other people. [...]

Like all dying industries, the old perfect businesses will whine, criticize, demonize and most of all, lobby for relief. It won't work.

[ Seth's Blog: Malcolm is wrong (6 July 2009) http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/06/malcolm-is-wrong.html ]
--- end quote ---

The post was about newspapers and magazines, but I believe it might be relevant here as well.

True - the NASA budget is about 1/20th what our total military expenditures are if you leave out the ongoing operational costs that are not in the primary budget. http://throb.typepad.com/special/2004%20US%20Budget.jpg

Most Americans also believe we should increase spending on NASA.
http://www.spacepolitics.com/2007/01/10/bad-and-good-news-about-public-support-for-space/

If we spent as much on space exploration as we did on the military or on bank bailouts for just one year we would have an endowment capable of funding permanent bases on the moon and robotic development of Mars.

The problem is, lawmakers and the public are trying to make photoshops into a crime equivalent to actual child pornography. Yes, that is thought crime, and yes, it is here.

1 Recruit a child for a photo session.

2 Photoshop the head of the child on a similar child-like body of an adult.

3 Distribute the composite photo as a pornographic photo of a child.

The child.

For the illusion to be convincing you will of course have had to pose the boy or girl very carefully.

You will have taken equal care in the selection and positioning of your adult model.

It's a process that stinks of fraud and sexual abuse from start to finish.

4 Profit

These are actions not thoughts.

These actions have the potential to do enormous harm to the child. You wouldn't stand a chance defending yourself against a charge of criminal libel, of criminal misconduct involving a minor. A new article on criminal libel

The geek bends Orwell's words to his own purpose without the slightest hint of irony.

You don't see Toyota, Honda, Mercedes, etc. building factories in the Bay Area

Toyota builds, or may build, the Prius in California. Honda has a factory in CA as well.

Falcon

The greater depth of field of the GH1 is by no means a disadvantage. The idea that a camera like the GH1 is somehow crippled because it's DOF is wider is just an internets camera measurebator myth. The lenses needed for a sensor of the size of the GH1's are large enough to produce perfectly fine background blur, and you'll get more of your subject in focus thanks to the greater DOF. The larger sensor cameras shallower depth of field is in nearly every case a disadvantage, though one that they make up for thanks to having much larger sensors (and thus allowing you stop down the aperture and crank up the ISO).

These two posts at The Online Photographer make for instructive reading:

1. The PS of What's a 'Fast Lens'? (though the rest of the post is also worth reading)
2. Depth-of-Field Hell

The greater depth of field of the GH1 is by no means a disadvantage. The idea that a camera like the GH1 is somehow crippled because it's DOF is wider is just an internets camera measurebator myth. The lenses needed for a sensor of the size of the GH1's are large enough to produce perfectly fine background blur, and you'll get more of your subject in focus thanks to the greater DOF. The larger sensor cameras shallower depth of field is in nearly every case a disadvantage, though one that they make up for thanks to having much larger sensors (and thus allowing you stop down the aperture and crank up the ISO).

These two posts at The Online Photographer make for instructive reading:

1. The PS of What's a 'Fast Lens'? (though the rest of the post is also worth reading)
2. Depth-of-Field Hell

The greater depth of field of the GH1 is by no means a disadvantage. The idea that a camera like the GH1 is somehow crippled because it's DOF is wider is just an internets camera measurebator myth. The lenses needed for a sensor of the size of the GH1's are large enough to produce perfectly fine background blur, and you'll get more of your subject in focus thanks to the greater DOF. The larger sensor cameras shallower depth of field is in nearly every case a disadvantage, though one that they make up for thanks to having much larger sensors (and thus allowing you stop down the aperture and crank up the ISO).

These two posts at The Online Photographer make for instructive reading:

1. The PS of What's a 'Fast Lens'? (though the rest of the post is also worth reading)
2. Depth-of-Field Hell

As I understand it, the US mainstream media is almost entirely owned by a small handful of companies.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentration_of_media_ownership

They often have a vested interest in the stories they choose to report on or avoid.

e.g.

> Reporters Steve Wilson and Jane Akre were first asked by FOX News and later bribed,
> to downplay a story they had on a cancer-causing growth hormone called Posilac
> which is growth hormone for dairy cows which is absorbed by humans through milk.
> The reporters decided to blow the whistle on FOX News and filed a law suit.
> After the ordeal was over, it was discovered in the appeals court that it's
> actually not against the law to falsify the "News."

http://behavioralhealth.typepad.com/markhams_behavioral_healt/food_and_drink/

That and lack of a decent micropayment solution.

Oh come on. Seriously - I thought we'd all agreed years ago that micropayments were doomed to failure?

The lack of a decent micropayment is the lack of micropayments as a decent solution.

Maximize Window? Why would you want a Maximized Window?

From a user point of view, I have noticed many people can't seem to handle too much information on the screen. They get confused and click the wrong thing, frustrated as they try to focus on what is most important but can't seem to locate it with all the information all over the screen. Users generally are not very good at multitasking.

Now, you can argue how the zoom feature is superior, however, you can't say it works for all applications well - Finder (this problem existed from 10.0 to 10.4 not sure if the problem exists in 10.5) had insane issues with it's 'zoom' feature with a folder that had a good amount of files. You would tell it to zoom, and it would end up expanding the window so far, that the was so tall, it couldn't fit on your screen in height, the resize tool being out of reach as it's got past the window region and this is superior to maximization? No.

Playing with the window border tool to make it fill the screen is annoying, even Apple agrees with quite a few of their core products, see - iMovie, iPhoto, iCal, QuickTime and GarageBand.

No one should be above the law, ESPECIALLY not the government. If it's a crime for ME to have drugs in my possession and offer to sell them to someone, it should be a crime for the POLICE to do so.

Take it a step further and replace drugs w/ promise of weapons from an al Qaeda "informant" and next thing you know you've got some 2-bit street thugs convicted(3rd time's a charm) of international terrorism.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_City_7

If that doesn't Shock & Awe the people, what will? Civillian checkpoints inside the borders?
http://arizona.typepad.com/blog/2007/11/why-interior-bo.html

How about strip-searching at the airport?
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/24/us/24scan.html

Great blog post:
I think I'll remember last week as the moment when I finally knew, with a certainty approaching fatigue, that the newspaper industry - the business and passion that both shaped and warped me over the past 20 years - had chosen ritual suicide. The choice appears grimly reached and irrevocable.
http://xark.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/06/the-newspaper-suicide-pact.html

How is it, then, that women find themselves the victim of "social gender roles?" Men, I think, in a very real sense, do not make society. Women do. Women raise kids and instill values in them men's behavior is almost entirely based on doing things that will score and keep women.

Have you considered the possibility that children actually don't acquire their values exclusively from their mothers? But rather, acquire them from their interaction with the culture at large? Have you considered the possibility that, just for example, schools are sites of sustainable transmission of values between the children themselves? So that kids end up learning a very large chunk of their values from peers and kids slightly above their grade.

And what about the constant portrayal of gender roles in the media? Are you also absolutely convinced that that has no part to play? Or, also, what about the fact that until relatively recently in our culture, licit sexual access to women was negotiated between the suitor and the woman's father? Are you absolutely sure that our culture contains no residues of that? Like, for example, are you sure that men's behavior toward women is always truly aimed at gaining the women's favor as an end in itself, and never as, say, a means towards winning an imagined competition between men?

You've considered all of this and more, and correctly discarded all of it, right?

Here is how Google kowtowed to their Communist masters. Peace and love to the Chinese, the truth about the massacre to everyone else.

"Don't be evil"? Fuck you, Google.

As the name "horseless carriage" suggests, technological evolution is as much - or more - about subtracting things from society as about adding them. The Popular Science view of a jetpack in every garage and a submarine in every bathtub also neglects the layers of infrastructure needed to make a new paradigm work.

Combine these two and you must face dark economic wizards like Malthus, and evil powers like the Tragedy of the Commons. James Bond (or rather, Q) can employ a single jetpack. But a Robert Moses is needed to bring us all to the promised land of some new visionary technology (casually crushing the South Bronx along the way, of course).

with his most recent book, which was published as an unencumbered PDF. Sales of the PDF were very strong, and actually drove UP sales of the dead tree versions of all his books.

Personally, I want to see the Cheney tracker app. See where he's been, where he currently is, and where he's going later tonight, and in the future.

Personally, I want to see the Cheney tracker app. See where he's been, where he currently is, and where he's going later tonight, and in the future.

Why does this only effect Debian?

Damnit, it's affect.

Not if the openSSH flaw were causing Debian to exist. Then it would be effecting Debian.
http://crofsblogs.typepad.com/english/2005/08/effect_as_a_ver.html

I've read elsewhere on the Net (in another Slashdot post?) that in some 'third world' countries, people will share what litte food they have with others -- even when it is only three mouthfuls of food for the whole day.

Sharing happens in the US too. Last year I shared what I grew in my garden with the family of 4 next door even though I am on disability and don't work. What I don't like is theft. Now yesterday I spent a few hours working in my garden planting a number of veggies after I spend other days working on it as well. When I went out to work on it today of the 20 pepper, tomato, and tomatillo plants I had planted in one spot all but 2 were gone. One pepper that was mostly buried with mulch and a tomatillo with a broken stalk were all that was left. The rest were taken from the ground with some of the tomato cages I had over the tomato and tomatillo plants ripped out as well. Now I don't feel like sharing at all this year. And I was willing and expressed interest in helping others start their own gardens. I could have made and canned enough Chile Relleno and other stuff peppers, sauces, and soups to last me several weeks if not a few months.

Falcon

I'm wondering when he'll give away something that actually matters.

You don't need to worry until they start putting Road Signs pointing out your state secrets.

Well, according to this declassified exhibit in United States vs. Libby, Valerie Plame was an undercover agent.

Therefore by your own logic Novak is a liar.

Or perhaps a third category - good at outsourcing geeks. :-)

You just quoted him twice and said the same thing as he did, twice... all while saying he was wrong. I guess you just misunderstood what he wrote.

No, I just understand the difference between a "spiral" and an "ellipse". Trust me on this, nothing in free flight "spirals" anywhere.

Orbits do NOT (in spite of what you may have seen in the movies or read in bad science fiction) "spiral".

What orbits do is follow elliptical paths. An ellipse, in case you're wondering, goes down a bit, then back up to the same point that it started from. Or up a bit, and back down to the same point in started from.

Absent perturbing forces, of course.

http://smartpei.typepad.com/robert_patersons_weblog/images/moontrajectoryjpg_1.jpg -- This picture shows the spiral he was talking about. Nobody said anything about "spiral orbits". Reread his comment, and you'll see he was talking about the launch--which does, indeed, "spiral" away from the earth until the orbit is made circular. The "spiral" portion is from the launch at the surface of the earth until the line hits the red circular orbit. You are wrong and after reading another your reply, I think your reading comprehension is a little low.

If you need another example, check out http://www.satcom.co.uk/images/Presentations/rpcstl3s7a.gif -- Although the entire orbit shows up as a spiral, it's just coincidental to how the burns are shown one after the other. The actual spiral that we are all discussing in this thread is from Launch (at "Boost Phase" point) until the "Perigee Burn" point. In any common, everyday terms, this is a spiral shape. Go back and reread your original parent's post with a more open mind.

and get me coppers! http://cuesskybox.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/11/28/enabled_atm.jpg

Methinks Tesla was 100+ years ahead of his peers, much like Pons and Fleishman were 20 years ahead of theirs. (Cold Fusion became legitimate again last month. Nuclear reactions at room temperature, oh my!)

The Orion Project mentioned Tesla in one of their mailings this spring. People like to scoff, but the ones who scoff the loudest eventually have to hide the crow feet hanging out the side of their mouth.

The battle for credibility and redemption for the field [Cold Fusion]has been long and hard-fought. German physicist Max Planck predicted the nature of such scientific revolutions.

"A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light," Planck wrote, "but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it."

Almost poetically, John Maddox, the editor of Nature magazine and prominent opinion leader in the academic battle to dismiss "cold fusion" outright, died Sunday. He was widely quoted for his comment, "Broadly speaking, it is dead, and it'll remain dead for a long, long time," referring to "cold fusion."

-Cold Fusion - real science, real hope and, quite possibly, a real source of energy. (emphasis added)

I'm certain that Tesla's vision of free wireless power will come to pass - probably even in the next few years. This would be a black swan that would prevent the economic collapse from developing into a new dark ages.

Name ten more.

1. Paul Krugman
2. Greg Mankiw
3. David Beckworth
4. Brad DeLong
5. Mark Thoma
6. Bruce Bartlett

Sorry for only finding six; these are mostly economists with more prominent blogs. I'm sure someone who studies economics could find many more.

Note that there is a little debate here about the very top of the Reagan tax cuts, but I would consider that to be "some time ago".

Name ten more.

1. Paul Krugman
2. Greg Mankiw
3. David Beckworth
4. Brad DeLong
5. Mark Thoma
6. Bruce Bartlett

Sorry for only finding six; these are mostly economists with more prominent blogs. I'm sure someone who studies economics could find many more.

Note that there is a little debate here about the very top of the Reagan tax cuts, but I would consider that to be "some time ago".

That's not nearly as funny as these:

http://growabrain.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/11/10/kissing_pig.jpg

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/203/510322764_a1aebca876_o.jpg

http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o262/the_wynster/PoohsThoughtsonSwineFlu.jpg

http://www.phun.org/newspics/funny_friday/3585.jpg

They use MySQL for storing adwords data and Google Analytics for web site metrics (which itself stores data in Bigtable).

Bigtable holds a mind-bogglingly huge amount of information. The amount of stuff in their MySQL clusters is merely "absurdly large" by comparison.

-B

Please STOP spreading this racist, unfounded meme. While Mexico is a developing nation with a "poor" health care system, hospitals in Mexico City and elsewhere are modern, with up-to-date equipment and well-trained personnel. While pollution is a problem, not necessarily more so than in parts of New York City or LA, especially in the downtown zones under the new environmental rules. Significant advances in air quality have been made in the past 10 years, under AMLO and Ebrard.

There is no clear, obvious reason for a higher morality rate across Mexico, including and especially in the downtown Mexico City hospitals, than in the US.

Really? I'd think that having minimal running water for days at a time could be a problem. Also, how about a population density that's over seven times that of New York City?

...and trust me, I don't normally use those two words that close together.

I second snowwrestler's comment. It was Seth Godin who pointed out that anyone seriously involved in marketing (as opposed to someone bulk-emailing thousands of people trying to sucker a precious two or three) would absolutely hate hate hate to alienate individuals by annoying them with unwanted messages. Even if they've never bought the product in question before, pissing them off with spam will only drive them away and generate poor word of mouth. Better to back off and preserve what chance you have rather than push harder and poison the well, to coin a mixed metaphor.

bring greater parity between a user's movements and the animations

You keep using that word... I do not think it means what you think it means.

It comes from the french word pareil, which means "same".

The whole idea of a parity bit is to make sure the data is the same.

Obligatory.