...and I for one know what C++ is. I agree with you position on unions, but come on, Biology majors != dumb. I would love to see you try and recite the stages of RNA transcription and all the fucking enzymes that are involved! Just because they didn't go into CS doesn't mean they are stupid. Liberal Arts majors however are a different story...
I wasn't planning to post, but so many stupid people have, I might as well give an Alaskan's opinion.
1. The region under the Bering Sea is not an earthquake zone. The nearest earthquake zone is nearly 500 miles to the south (Idaho, the most earthquake proof state is less than that from the Juan de Fuca plate boundary). Remember Alaska is huge, and the scale is nothing like the rest of the nation. Hell, we have glaciers larger than some states.
2. The underlying water averages 50 feet in depth, it is continenal sedimentary rock with an age of roughly one billion years, very stable and similar to the English channel. Remember during the last ice age this was dry land (again like the English channel).
3. The distance between the far western Alaska and Siberia is approximately 50 miles.
4. In seismically active regions, under sea tunnels have been built. A tunnel connection Hokkaido Japan to the rest of the country was just recently built.
5. Rail roads in cold climates have been built. A little thing called the "trans-Siberian rail road" has been operational since czarist times. Here in Alaska, freight of coal, oil, timber and manufactured goods travel between the interior of the state and the ports quite easily. If this wasn't so my town would starve. (Fairbanks Alaska).
6. Alaska and Siberia only make cold air. This is for the most part true. But this thinking is flawed, goods from the region the tunnels is located in would not be the sole cargo of the railroad. By this rationale the Suez canal is not important because the only thing there is sand, or the Panama canal is not important because the only thing there is jungle.
7. Building on permafrost is very possible. The trick is to take note that it is there. The famous "sunken houses" are caused when people do not take precautions and end up destroying the frost. We have roads, building and, oh yeah a huge ass pipeline built on the stuff. A railroad would be a piece of cake.
However there are a few problems. Mainly there is no rail connections. The trans-Siberian railroad terminates several hundred miles to the south of the crossing point. Similarly, the Alaskan Rail system is isolated from the rest of the North American system by about 500 miles. From the northern terminus (my home town of Fairbanks) of this system it is almost 700 miles to the proposed crossing site, these 700 miles are filled with mountains glaciers and rivers of gargantuan size. Building a railroad from the Canadian border to the Bering sea would be almost as difficult as the trans-continental railroad, plus the construction of the railroad in Siberia.
Finally there is a little tiny law that would need to be overcome. A law from the 1860's known as "The Jones Act" prevents foreign cargo from entering Alaska, it must pass through another state to be legal. This law was enacted on the behest of eastern coal intrests to prevent the US Navy from using coal from the vast deposits in Alaska. It has also allowed other states to exploit Alaska in a fashion similarto the British exploitation of the 13 colonies. For cargo to pass from Siberia to Alaska, this law would have to be repealed.
After the initial investment, the freight throughput would be enormous. I doubt passenger service would take off. A train from London or Tokyo to Los Angelas or Seattle would take weeks. Considering a rail ticket from Washington DC to Chicago costs as much as a plane ticket, I doubt people would want to pay, I mean how many people in the United States ride across the continent by rail? Five, now how many people want to ride across two continents by rail, anybody, I though so. But this project would be profitable after the initial investment, there is so much money in cargo from the Pacific rim (Seattle was not built solely by Microsoft) that this thing if ever built would be profitable (and not in the pets.com sense of the word). But alas, this idea has surfaced and tanked many times, engineers love our little straight, it is the last major divide not bridged, it drives them nuts, much like our little Yukon river gives hydroelectric companies wet dreams.
I hope this helps all you people in the small states.
MF
Fairbanks Canada ooops I mean Alaska.
Biologically the transfer of traits between species via interbreeding is a driving force behind the resiliency of a species. The English language (Why de we continue to call it that, there is not much Englishness about it) takes up words from other languages and donates words in return, both languages remain distinct, yet share traits that give both streingth. If you were to limit the cultural sources a language can use to obtain new words you would doom it in much the same way you would doom a bilogically isolated population, without the option to make additions both would die from an inability to adapt to change.
GATC!
binary can kiss my ass.
I am sick and tired of being told Japanese is hard! I am a WMCPM (White Middle class protestant male) and have had great sucess learning Japanese. People have the misconception that Japanese is hard because it is different, I takes a little work and some abstract thinking and suddenly you are picking up words left and right.
Guess what, I am a typical geek... I enjoy my computer and video games... C++ is my second language. But guess what... I also played varsity football in high school. My friends complain about being judged, but we do it too. Granted however, my SAT scores were about 500pts higher than the rest of the team, football is actually quite fun, you get to beat the crap out of a total stranger. Not like it was wasy or anything, I got shit from the team about being a geek, and I got shit from the geeks about playing ball. You think you have it bad, try having it from both sides!
This study means nothing, video games have become ever more realistic in recent years and violence has gone down.(Dead or Alive 2, is so realistic I should run out and beat up people like those HOT! women in the game.) Also, the Japanese dominate the console video game market, and "violent" games have a much greater penetration into youth culture in that country. However, Japan is one of the safest, most peacful nations in the world. Gee... I wish I could make money by writing reports that state useless facts.
Slashdot Mirror
...and I for one know what C++ is. I agree with you position on unions, but come on, Biology majors != dumb. I would love to see you try and recite the stages of RNA transcription and all the fucking enzymes that are involved! Just because they didn't go into CS doesn't mean they are stupid. Liberal Arts majors however are a different story...
I wasn't planning to post, but so many stupid people have, I might as well give an Alaskan's opinion. 1. The region under the Bering Sea is not an earthquake zone. The nearest earthquake zone is nearly 500 miles to the south (Idaho, the most earthquake proof state is less than that from the Juan de Fuca plate boundary). Remember Alaska is huge, and the scale is nothing like the rest of the nation. Hell, we have glaciers larger than some states. 2. The underlying water averages 50 feet in depth, it is continenal sedimentary rock with an age of roughly one billion years, very stable and similar to the English channel. Remember during the last ice age this was dry land (again like the English channel). 3. The distance between the far western Alaska and Siberia is approximately 50 miles. 4. In seismically active regions, under sea tunnels have been built. A tunnel connection Hokkaido Japan to the rest of the country was just recently built. 5. Rail roads in cold climates have been built. A little thing called the "trans-Siberian rail road" has been operational since czarist times. Here in Alaska, freight of coal, oil, timber and manufactured goods travel between the interior of the state and the ports quite easily. If this wasn't so my town would starve. (Fairbanks Alaska). 6. Alaska and Siberia only make cold air. This is for the most part true. But this thinking is flawed, goods from the region the tunnels is located in would not be the sole cargo of the railroad. By this rationale the Suez canal is not important because the only thing there is sand, or the Panama canal is not important because the only thing there is jungle. 7. Building on permafrost is very possible. The trick is to take note that it is there. The famous "sunken houses" are caused when people do not take precautions and end up destroying the frost. We have roads, building and, oh yeah a huge ass pipeline built on the stuff. A railroad would be a piece of cake. However there are a few problems. Mainly there is no rail connections. The trans-Siberian railroad terminates several hundred miles to the south of the crossing point. Similarly, the Alaskan Rail system is isolated from the rest of the North American system by about 500 miles. From the northern terminus (my home town of Fairbanks) of this system it is almost 700 miles to the proposed crossing site, these 700 miles are filled with mountains glaciers and rivers of gargantuan size. Building a railroad from the Canadian border to the Bering sea would be almost as difficult as the trans-continental railroad, plus the construction of the railroad in Siberia. Finally there is a little tiny law that would need to be overcome. A law from the 1860's known as "The Jones Act" prevents foreign cargo from entering Alaska, it must pass through another state to be legal. This law was enacted on the behest of eastern coal intrests to prevent the US Navy from using coal from the vast deposits in Alaska. It has also allowed other states to exploit Alaska in a fashion similarto the British exploitation of the 13 colonies. For cargo to pass from Siberia to Alaska, this law would have to be repealed. After the initial investment, the freight throughput would be enormous. I doubt passenger service would take off. A train from London or Tokyo to Los Angelas or Seattle would take weeks. Considering a rail ticket from Washington DC to Chicago costs as much as a plane ticket, I doubt people would want to pay, I mean how many people in the United States ride across the continent by rail? Five, now how many people want to ride across two continents by rail, anybody, I though so. But this project would be profitable after the initial investment, there is so much money in cargo from the Pacific rim (Seattle was not built solely by Microsoft) that this thing if ever built would be profitable (and not in the pets.com sense of the word). But alas, this idea has surfaced and tanked many times, engineers love our little straight, it is the last major divide not bridged, it drives them nuts, much like our little Yukon river gives hydroelectric companies wet dreams. I hope this helps all you people in the small states. MF Fairbanks Canada ooops I mean Alaska.
Biologically the transfer of traits between species via interbreeding is a driving force behind the resiliency of a species. The English language (Why de we continue to call it that, there is not much Englishness about it) takes up words from other languages and donates words in return, both languages remain distinct, yet share traits that give both streingth. If you were to limit the cultural sources a language can use to obtain new words you would doom it in much the same way you would doom a bilogically isolated population, without the option to make additions both would die from an inability to adapt to change. GATC! binary can kiss my ass.
I am sick and tired of being told Japanese is hard! I am a WMCPM (White Middle class protestant male) and have had great sucess learning Japanese. People have the misconception that Japanese is hard because it is different, I takes a little work and some abstract thinking and suddenly you are picking up words left and right.
Guess what, I am a typical geek... I enjoy my computer and video games... C++ is my second language. But guess what... I also played varsity football in high school. My friends complain about being judged, but we do it too. Granted however, my SAT scores were about 500pts higher than the rest of the team, football is actually quite fun, you get to beat the crap out of a total stranger. Not like it was wasy or anything, I got shit from the team about being a geek, and I got shit from the geeks about playing ball. You think you have it bad, try having it from both sides!
This study means nothing, video games have become ever more realistic in recent years and violence has gone down.(Dead or Alive 2, is so realistic I should run out and beat up people like those HOT! women in the game.) Also, the Japanese dominate the console video game market, and "violent" games have a much greater penetration into youth culture in that country. However, Japan is one of the safest, most peacful nations in the world. Gee... I wish I could make money by writing reports that state useless facts.