You've heard of course that the NIH is considering recommending using lawyers rather than laboratory rats as subjects in future medical/behavioral testing. There are three reasons for this:
1 - There are now more surplus lawyers in the USA than lab rats
2 - Some of the lab personnel were becoming too emotionally attached to the rats, and
3 - There are some things a rat just won't do.
"some new gadget interfered with the plane on takeoff, the most dangerous part of any flight"
Fair enough. I don't have any problem at all with the pilot announcing, "We are now #3 for takeoff. At this time, all PED's need to be switched off."
But is there a need for them to be off during the 40 minutes it took to get from #27 to #3??
"I also want you to tell me that my family doesn't deserve to eat."
It sounds to me as if -you- are earning your family's keep - your family deserves to eat.
However, the battalions of lawyers that get involved in the process (on your side, and on the government side) are doing nothing but adding cost to the system. They provide not one iota of patient care. Their families don't deserve to eat the fruits of this parasitism.
And I would hazard a guess that the CEO and board of your employer are more than willing to go along with all the FDA bullshit because it provides a very high barrier against the entry of competitors into the field. This is called "rent seeking" - look it up. Their families don't deserve to eat either.
All that lovely vinyl with its great warmth was in fact listened to, by most people, on $79 fold-down "stereos" from Sears with $2 ceramic styli. Or on car radios with a single 4-inch speaker in the dash.
I find it totally plausible that "the kids" today are hearing better sound, even at 192 kbps and after the loudness wars, than my big sister was when she listened to her copy of "Meet The Beatles" for the eightieth time on her tabletop "Hi-Fi".
I'd ride a spacecraft with a 20% chance of catastrophic failure if I could get an in-person view of Valles Marineris. No doubt about it. But to fly into low earth orbit so that I can press a button which starts an automated experiment....it better be close to 747-level reliability.
The "ignorant and self-absorbed" don't bother me quite as much as the posters who've completely lost touch with the concept that (1) if there isn't enough electricity to meet people's needs, the best idea is to (2) make more electricity.
It takes me about sixty seconds to flip through the monthly flyer from the laughably named "Science Fiction Book Club" and I don't think I've bought ten books from them in the last three years.
By the time I've crossed out all the sword and sorcery crap, all the vampire and zombie crap, all the TV and movie spinoffs, all the $30 comic books, oops, "graphic novels", and all the reprints of SF from decades ago, there are usually less than five new SF books a month to choose from.
I see exactly the same thing in my library and in bookstores. For the love of Pete, can't we separate out all the fantasy/gothic stuff so SF readers can more easily find what we want to find?
"Given that, I can't imagine why you would bother to cart it all the way there just to cart it back."
There was a discussion about this in one of the space-related usenet groups a couple of years ago.
As I recall it, the problem is that it takes a lot of fuel and engine power to brake a big spacecraft into Earth orbit on the return from Mars (or anywhere else outside the Earth-Moon system for that matter). And there is no particular reason why the returning crew and their Martian samples -have- to do that.
So at this point NASA expects the return from Mars to be a straight in ballistic return to Earth's atmosphere without a stop in Earth orbit. Hence the Orion CM with its heatshield has to be carried to Mars and back.
... with a lawyer can tie up any major energy development in this country for a decade, and in many cases permanently.
This applies just as much to wind, hydro (what big dams are being built these days?) and solar, as it does to those eeeevil coal and nuke plants.
And with the Obama adminstration counting on trial lawyers, NIMBY "activists" and the save-the endangered-mosquito crowd as mainstays of its coalition, I look for no hope and little change.
So, when a customer bought a printer from you at your sticker price, did you throw in a free cable, or did you charge him the same $14.95 as the guy who was price shopping?
Personally, I find nothing captures the authenticity of perfomance, the essential "you are there" je ne sais quoi-ness of musical experience, quite as well as the Edison Wax Cylinder.
Slashdot Mirror
1 - There are now more surplus lawyers in the USA than lab rats
2 - Some of the lab personnel were becoming too emotionally attached to the rats, and
3 - There are some things a rat just won't do.
"some new gadget interfered with the plane on takeoff, the most dangerous part of any flight" Fair enough. I don't have any problem at all with the pilot announcing, "We are now #3 for takeoff. At this time, all PED's need to be switched off." But is there a need for them to be off during the 40 minutes it took to get from #27 to #3??
Along with a couple of posters at the linked site, I thought of him first before starting to read the article....
when it was realized that "Igpay Atinlay" might be incompatible with the Muslim prohibition of pork.
n/t
Your friend,
Clippy
It sounds to me as if -you- are earning your family's keep - your family deserves to eat.
However, the battalions of lawyers that get involved in the process (on your side, and on the government side) are doing nothing but adding cost to the system. They provide not one iota of patient care. Their families don't deserve to eat the fruits of this parasitism.
And I would hazard a guess that the CEO and board of your employer are more than willing to go along with all the FDA bullshit because it provides a very high barrier against the entry of competitors into the field. This is called "rent seeking" - look it up. Their families don't deserve to eat either.
Two words: CmdrTaco. Ipod.
Take a look at the Apollo 8 patch if you want to see a good design.
Most electronica, techno, and similar genres actually sound better to me at 0 kbps than at higher bitrates.
......than it was, say, in the '60s or '70s.
All that lovely vinyl with its great warmth was in fact listened to, by most people, on $79 fold-down "stereos" from Sears with $2 ceramic styli. Or on car radios with a single 4-inch speaker in the dash.
I find it totally plausible that "the kids" today are hearing better sound, even at 192 kbps and after the loudness wars, than my big sister was when she listened to her copy of "Meet The Beatles" for the eightieth time on her tabletop "Hi-Fi".
I'd ride a spacecraft with a 20% chance of catastrophic failure if I could get an in-person view of Valles Marineris. No doubt about it. But to fly into low earth orbit so that I can press a button which starts an automated experiment....it better be close to 747-level reliability.
It's the Greek word for "Eleven".....
Naaah, their three weapons are Enya, drisheen, road bowling and Michael Flatley.
The "ignorant and self-absorbed" don't bother me quite as much as the posters who've completely lost touch with the concept that (1) if there isn't enough electricity to meet people's needs, the best idea is to (2) make more electricity.
"SI conversion with stimulus $$ is one of the better ideas I've heard. It creates jobs"
Gnick, there's a chap by the name of Bastiat at the door. He has a glazier who'd like to meet you.
It takes me about sixty seconds to flip through the monthly flyer from the laughably named "Science Fiction Book Club" and I don't think I've bought ten books from them in the last three years.
By the time I've crossed out all the sword and sorcery crap, all the vampire and zombie crap, all the TV and movie spinoffs, all the $30 comic books, oops, "graphic novels", and all the reprints of SF from decades ago, there are usually less than five new SF books a month to choose from.
I see exactly the same thing in my library and in bookstores. For the love of Pete, can't we separate out all the fantasy/gothic stuff so SF readers can more easily find what we want to find?
....they have a ready made response any time they are asked about turning off XP's activation requirement.
...without pro gaming leagues, scrapbooking stores, and feng shui consultants.
But when the last cell-phone-cover kiosk closes down, ladies and gentlemen, the new Dark Age truly will be upon us.
"Given that, I can't imagine why you would bother to cart it all the way there just to cart it back."
There was a discussion about this in one of the space-related usenet groups a couple of years ago.
As I recall it, the problem is that it takes a lot of fuel and engine power to brake a big spacecraft into Earth orbit on the return from Mars (or anywhere else outside the Earth-Moon system for that matter). And there is no particular reason why the returning crew and their Martian samples -have- to do that.
So at this point NASA expects the return from Mars to be a straight in ballistic return to Earth's atmosphere without a stop in Earth orbit. Hence the Orion CM with its heatshield has to be carried to Mars and back.
... with a lawyer can tie up any major energy development in this country for a decade, and in many cases permanently.
This applies just as much to wind, hydro (what big dams are being built these days?) and solar, as it does to those eeeevil coal and nuke plants.
And with the Obama adminstration counting on trial lawyers, NIMBY "activists" and the save-the endangered-mosquito crowd as mainstays of its coalition, I look for no hope and little change.
"...and massively bolstered our economy with a whole new class of green businesses."
There's a gentleman by the name of Bastiat at the door. He has a glazier he wants you to meet.
So, when a customer bought a printer from you at your sticker price, did you throw in a free cable, or did you charge him the same $14.95 as the guy who was price shopping?
Personally, I find nothing captures the authenticity of perfomance, the essential "you are there" je ne sais quoi-ness of musical experience, quite as well as the Edison Wax Cylinder.
"You think unfettered consumerism is a human right?"
No, I think people should buy only those things which they can afford.