The epidemic of cancer is certainly proof that something that we are doing to the planet it making it and us very ill, let alone the undeniable evidence, built up over the last fifty years, that wherever industrial developments are, vibrant ecosystems are not.
I don't think the basis of your argument deserves the kind of consideration that your point itself does.
The industrial junk we've been pumping out can't be good; I don't think you'll find many people that are pro-pollution... The problem with your argument is studies show cancer has been decreasing for decades -- not just mortality, but also the diagnosis and development of. Considering detection has certainly improved and pollution has certainly NOT improved, it should be on the rise in a big way. Why the discrepancy? It did increase during the 70s and 80s, but was that because of better detection rates? It is easy to write it off as such, but who knows... I don't -- and neither do you.
Unfortunately, that's the problem. We don't have much reliable data to follow because the data itself has been a work in progress for decades. For example, whether or not you believe they have an agenda, the National Cancer Institute shows this downward trend, and it continues. I'm sure if you went back to 1930 or something, cancer rates per capita were far, far lower though; however, you cannot get accurate numbers because many people would have not been treated or improperly diagnosed. It's pretty easy to fudge the numbers and statistics to indeed lie.
As I'm sure you know though, the problem with 'the evidence' is it is difficult to concretely prove... either way. There are just too many variables to take in account with living organisms to do meaningful, empirical tests that prove something without a shadow of a doubt. Sadly, not many people will listen until such links can be made unequivocally.
In short, I wouldn't use cancer as your 'undeniable evidence', but your point/intentions are good and I personally agree with you, although probably to a lesser degree.
Okay, with some more seriousness though (because I know it will come up), there are some pretty sound rebuttals to the U.S moon landing conspiracy. Here's some more info on the theories and some possible reasoning
One of my personal favorites is the claim that it could have never happened because the astronauts could have never survived the Van Allen belt. James Allen himself said this was silly. I remember hearing that the astronauts would had to have spend a month in the belt to reach a reasonably harmful exposure.
Since I don't believe in the conspiracy, I guess that makes me a coincidence theorist?
It's going to be awesome for my kids, watching 3D movies in our fusion-powered, flying family sedan running a light-weight, modular version of Windows.
And once I get home, I'll fire up my commercially viable Linux desktop and look at watch Netflix streaming Netflix movies, eating some Taco Bell (It will be the only "restaurant" left after the earthquake)
Here's a quick list of some psuedocides. Obviously, it is not very complete though, since Andy Kaufman isn't listed... But I guess this kind of crap really happens. Perhaps, bored with living the life of a millionaire, Mr. Fossett decided to do something exciting, like "die".;)
People *are not* tied to a single provider. I can go with Comcast, Verizon, Road Runner, SprintPCS, and others. When people say 'you only have one option' they generally mean for a cable modem and ignore other methods of access.
On my street in Los Angeles, I can only have Time Warner for cable and AT&T for phone.
If I lived several blocks away, I could have Verizon and TW, but then I wouldn't be able to get AT&T.
When I lived 5 miles away, I could get Charter (but not Time Warner) and Verizon (but not AT&T).
In Portland, OR, I could only have Comcast for cable and AT&T for phone.
In Santa Cruz CA, I could only get AT&T and Comcast.
In Danville KY, I could only get Adelphia and Bell South... and I could go on.
I don't think your experiences are representative of the U.S.
And the rate at which change is happening is unprecedented.
I'm not really arguing with you, but 'unprecedented' is relative what slice of time you look at and who's graph you pay attention to.
If you look at temperature records provided by proxy sources (ice cores, tree rings etc...) over hundreds of thousands of years - on many of the graphs you'll find - it's pretty clear that the last millennium has been nothing unusual.
If you look short term though, (past few hundred years) it looks pretty damning.
The school has every right to refuse access to anyone, on any grounds
Well, that's not entirely true. I'm sure school districts vary, but here, the Principal *must* follow the district's ethical guidelines for 'severe' punishment, which include specific reason codes.
This is a civil matter, not a legal one, and the Principal's superiors (District Super/Deputy Intendents, various boards etc...) should deal with the Principal accordingly if the punishment doesn't fit the crime. There is very little reason this should have ever appeared in court, although maybe the Principal's superiors agreed with him, which really is ridiculous (to me).
The penalty was a suspension.
Actually, the penalty may have (indirectly) been automatic failure for the year. From my experiences, you are only allowed to miss so many days of school before you can no longer pass. In the HS I went to, eight days of unexcused absences = you fail. Suspension days were considered unexcused.
An eighth-grade student who was suspended for 10 days
I'm not sure which part of the world you live in where you are ok with throwing away $100 USD per month for internet on your phone
Firstly, this includes a USB modem which obviously is geared toward computers... not just phones. So, I'd like everyone to think less narrowly and imagine the applications of PAYG-Internet outside of mobile phones.
Secondly, why is everyone complaining that one day of access at ~$3.60 is ~$100/mo? They aren't charging you $100/mo... They are charging you $3.66 USD PER DAY. If you choose to use it 30 times a month and get billed $100, then congratulations - you got what you paid for. If you plan on using this daily, you really need to get yourself A REAL DATA PLAN, which costs $50 in the U.S.
In Asia I pay a little over $30 USD per month for unlimited data on my phone
Also, you pay $30 USD for your data plan, but the exchange rate in China is almost 7 to 1, Korea is about 3:1, Hong Kong dollars and Thai Baht are about 8:1 etc... The most reasonable exchange rate I'm aware of is in Singapore dollar, which is worth about 0.7 USD. Unless you're living in Singapore, $30 USD sounds like a bad deal for anyone living in Asia. If you DO live in Singapore, then the price sounds just about right.
I disagree with you on the basis that the elderly are no more responsible for wrecks than teens and young adults.
U.S drivers under the age of 25 are about twice as likely to be involved in a fatal wreck and often 3-5 times more likely to be in a wreck per 1000 drivers.
I've seen some statistics from Canada as well which echo similar results.
Remember, old people don't drive well because they are impaired... Young people don't drive well because they make reckless and/or inexperienced decisions. If you want to restrict licenses, then you should probably start with not issuing licenses until the mid twenties for males and late teens to early 20s for women... It seems teen/young adult wrecks coincide pretty well with frontal lobe development... which in itself, could be labeled an impairment.
Yes, but not all roadside information is relevant to your safety... If you do any driving in unfamiliar, cluttered city areas (especially at night), looking for road signs and addresses can be extremely distracting.
Granted, people have routines; Most seniors will probably travel in familiar territory most of the time... but for those times when older people (hell, anyone) are looking for a street with a tiny sign in the opposing lane or looking for a friend's house in the dark for the first time, cues from a GPS can be a huge increase to safety by keeping your eyes on the things you should be looking for... like vehicles and pedestrians.
In the end, estimates are all we have to work with here. Estimates of oil production, estimates of gasoline savings. For our purposes in evaluating Obama's claim, all the available evidence shows that he's on solid ground in saying that better car and tire maintenance would save as much gasoline as drilling would generate. We appreciate McCain's campaign pointing out a GAO source we'd missed in our original research, but it's not at odds with our original ruling, True.
One in important point is Nuclear is more expensive than coal in areas like the U.S where coal is abundant. In the capitalist-ish societies that many of us live in, low cost tends to garner more favor.
It takes no stretch of imagination to guess that nuclear power scares people. I don't think things like carbon sequestering have the same 'certain doom' stigma attached to it in the minds of people who don't understand nuclear power (which is most people). Although, carbon sequestering itself could be very dangerous after a long period of time.
Anyway, nuclear power continues to be a "dirty word" even after the great lengths engineers have gone to in order to make reactors as safe as possible... People will continue to be scared until there is a 100% safe way to remove spent fuel from the planet. If given a choice between sequestering greenhouse gasses and nuclear fuel, I'd probably pick the gas too. The reason is - even though I understand it is absurdly improbable - if something huge happens like an impact or unexpected volcanic activity, I'll take my chances with the gas.
Using their extensive studies of the Yucca Mountain region, experts estimate the chance of a volcanic event disrupting the proposed repository to be about one in 63 million per year. This equals about 0.0000016 percent chance per year that a volcano will disrupt the repository. Put another way, it means there is about a 99.9999984 percent chance per year that a volcanic event will not disrupt the repository. http://www.ocrwm.doe.gov/factsheets/doeymp0341.shtml
As the parent pointed out, Chinese, Russians etc.. have their OWN words for "astronaut"... kosmonavt, taikong ren etc... ****naut isn't what they call their own astronauts.
A 'taikonaut' is actually what "English people" (mostly media, I imagine) call a Chinese taikong ren. I would assume translators and english-speaking media do so because languages based on a different alphabet systems are difficult to pronounce and spell phonetically... And while astronaut would be just fine with me, I guess there is some need to supplement 'naut' (which seems to imply 'explorer') with a version of their native word for space.
Personally, I'd like to see the word 'astronaut' used instead of flavor_of_the_month_onaut, because that's what they are in English.. an astronaut. Shame on the translator for making arbitrary, cultural concessions.
Turned out it didn't fully support DMA...??? Like they didn't complete all the traces properly...
This problem is rampant in many flash card models and brands - even ones that claim to support DMA or UDMA. Search around on the interweb using your Napster machine and you'll see many others with the same issues.
After trying a Transcend 4GB 133x that would only work in PIO mode, I got my hands on a Ridata 4GB 266x that *does* work in DMA. So if anyone is considering that card, maybe that's a good sign.:)
Mechanical challenges turned out to be not the only ones waiting for me when I worked on connecting the CF cards to the camera. These cards were hanging when the CPU tried to read them using DMA mode (and the card identified itself as supporting DMA mode). I tried to find the problem, and used all the tools I had. I added a bunch of printk's to the driver source, tried different speed settings for the DMA, and finally used an oscilloscope to spy on the signals between the CF card and the CPU. What I found was that the card did actually send the data using DMA mode, but always only for two "sectors" (1024 bytes total), regardless of the number of blocks to transfer written to the corresponding register. Then it silently hung, without activating an IRQ line, even if it was asked to transfer just a single block. And the CPU was relying on that interrupt to continue with the processing of the data read from the CF card. Careful examination of the data on the IDE bus did not reveal any problems (I was expecting something specific to the ETRAX). The same CF card with the DMA mode disabled in the driver worked fine (but slower, of course), as did the IDE hard drive (or SATA through the bridge) with DMA enabled. Googling the issue showed that I'm not the first to have problems with CF cards and DMA. The driver itself had a blacklist for some of the devices that caused problems. -- http://linuxdevices.com/articles/AT5102023409.html
Slashdot Mirror
Dimensions: 16.2" x 12.0" x 1.7-2.5"
Weight: Starting at 9.04 lbs.
Additional specs
The epidemic of cancer is certainly proof that something that we are doing to the planet it making it and us very ill, let alone the undeniable evidence, built up over the last fifty years, that wherever industrial developments are, vibrant ecosystems are not.
I don't think the basis of your argument deserves the kind of consideration that your point itself does.
The industrial junk we've been pumping out can't be good; I don't think you'll find many people that are pro-pollution... The problem with your argument is studies show cancer has been decreasing for decades -- not just mortality, but also the diagnosis and development of. Considering detection has certainly improved and pollution has certainly NOT improved, it should be on the rise in a big way. Why the discrepancy? It did increase during the 70s and 80s, but was that because of better detection rates? It is easy to write it off as such, but who knows... I don't -- and neither do you.
Unfortunately, that's the problem. We don't have much reliable data to follow because the data itself has been a work in progress for decades. For example, whether or not you believe they have an agenda, the National Cancer Institute shows this downward trend, and it continues. I'm sure if you went back to 1930 or something, cancer rates per capita were far, far lower though; however, you cannot get accurate numbers because many people would have not been treated or improperly diagnosed. It's pretty easy to fudge the numbers and statistics to indeed lie.
As I'm sure you know though, the problem with 'the evidence' is it is difficult to concretely prove... either way. There are just too many variables to take in account with living organisms to do meaningful, empirical tests that prove something without a shadow of a doubt. Sadly, not many people will listen until such links can be made unequivocally.
In short, I wouldn't use cancer as your 'undeniable evidence', but your point/intentions are good and I personally agree with you, although probably to a lesser degree.
They are in the concrete...
Everyone might want to stay away from the paper shredder with these - It will either destroy the blades or make some pretty nasty, toxic dust.
:)
Might do both.
For every Windows user who's willing and able to switch, there are hundreds of others who can't, because it's impractical for them.
For many 'professional' users, the lack of an Outlook-ish program is probably a huge deterrent. :(
Arizona? Hey, wasn't that where the original mission took place?
Okay, with some more seriousness though (because I know it will come up), there are some pretty sound rebuttals to the U.S moon landing conspiracy. Here's some more info on the theories and some possible reasoning
One of my personal favorites is the claim that it could have never happened because the astronauts could have never survived the Van Allen belt. James Allen himself said this was silly. I remember hearing that the astronauts would had to have spend a month in the belt to reach a reasonably harmful exposure.
Since I don't believe in the conspiracy, I guess that makes me a coincidence theorist?
The Turtles and Splinter all lived in the dark, light forbidden labyrinth of the sewer... Coincidence?
It all makes sense now.
It's going to be awesome for my kids, watching 3D movies in our fusion-powered, flying family sedan running a light-weight, modular version of Windows.
And once I get home, I'll fire up my commercially viable Linux desktop and look at watch Netflix streaming Netflix movies, eating some Taco Bell (It will be the only "restaurant" left after the earthquake)
Thank you for that correction.
Kaufman was a very bad example then. There have certainly been others though, so the original premise of my reply still holds true, I guess.
He wouldn't be the first person to fake his own death.
;)
Andy Kaufman is a recent one I can think of.
Here's a quick list of some psuedocides. Obviously, it is not very complete though, since Andy Kaufman isn't listed... But I guess this kind of crap really happens. Perhaps, bored with living the life of a millionaire, Mr. Fossett decided to do something exciting, like "die".
People *are not* tied to a single provider. I can go with Comcast, Verizon, Road Runner, SprintPCS, and others. When people say 'you only have one option' they generally mean for a cable modem and ignore other methods of access.
On my street in Los Angeles, I can only have Time Warner for cable and AT&T for phone.
If I lived several blocks away, I could have Verizon and TW, but then I wouldn't be able to get AT&T.
When I lived 5 miles away, I could get Charter (but not Time Warner) and Verizon (but not AT&T).
In Portland, OR, I could only have Comcast for cable and AT&T for phone.
In Santa Cruz CA, I could only get AT&T and Comcast.
In Danville KY, I could only get Adelphia and Bell South... and I could go on.
I don't think your experiences are representative of the U.S.
And the rate at which change is happening is unprecedented.
I'm not really arguing with you, but 'unprecedented' is relative what slice of time you look at and who's graph you pay attention to.
If you look at temperature records provided by proxy sources (ice cores, tree rings etc...) over hundreds of thousands of years - on many of the graphs you'll find - it's pretty clear that the last millennium has been nothing unusual.
If you look short term though, (past few hundred years) it looks pretty damning.
I believe that's the state of Mississippi that has banned those.
Alabama has gotten all the press, but there's an embarrassing number of states which prohibit specific sex toys, like vibrators...
"Alabama, Colorado, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas and Virginia."
-- http://www.vibratingtouch.com/?page=faq
See, you replaced a word, while google would've changed the definition :-)
That was very funny, but a rimshot simply isn't suitable.
Delete cookies?!
Read: "Thought Crime"
The school has every right to refuse access to anyone, on any grounds
Well, that's not entirely true. I'm sure school districts vary, but here, the Principal *must* follow the district's ethical guidelines for 'severe' punishment, which include specific reason codes.
This is a civil matter, not a legal one, and the Principal's superiors (District Super/Deputy Intendents, various boards etc...) should deal with the Principal accordingly if the punishment doesn't fit the crime. There is very little reason this should have ever appeared in court, although maybe the Principal's superiors agreed with him, which really is ridiculous (to me).
The penalty was a suspension.
Actually, the penalty may have (indirectly) been automatic failure for the year. From my experiences, you are only allowed to miss so many days of school before you can no longer pass. In the HS I went to, eight days of unexcused absences = you fail. Suspension days were considered unexcused.
An eighth-grade student who was suspended for 10 days
and stored his resume (presumeably, conspiracy theorists may disagree) as well as a few ÃharmlessÃ(TM) keygens and serials on it as well
... So, are you implying that you're a coincidence theorist???
I'm not sure which part of the world you live in where you are ok with throwing away $100 USD per month for internet on your phone
Firstly, this includes a USB modem which obviously is geared toward computers... not just phones. So, I'd like everyone to think less narrowly and imagine the applications of PAYG-Internet outside of mobile phones. Secondly, why is everyone complaining that one day of access at ~$3.60 is ~$100/mo? They aren't charging you $100/mo... They are charging you $3.66 USD PER DAY. If you choose to use it 30 times a month and get billed $100, then congratulations - you got what you paid for. If you plan on using this daily, you really need to get yourself A REAL DATA PLAN, which costs $50 in the U.S.
In Asia I pay a little over $30 USD per month for unlimited data on my phone
Also, you pay $30 USD for your data plan, but the exchange rate in China is almost 7 to 1, Korea is about 3:1, Hong Kong dollars and Thai Baht are about 8:1 etc... The most reasonable exchange rate I'm aware of is in Singapore dollar, which is worth about 0.7 USD. Unless you're living in Singapore, $30 USD sounds like a bad deal for anyone living in Asia. If you DO live in Singapore, then the price sounds just about right.
I disagree with you on the basis that the elderly are no more responsible for wrecks than teens and young adults.
U.S drivers under the age of 25 are about twice as likely to be involved in a fatal wreck and often 3-5 times more likely to be in a wreck per 1000 drivers.
I've seen some statistics from Canada as well which echo similar results.
Remember, old people don't drive well because they are impaired... Young people don't drive well because they make reckless and/or inexperienced decisions. If you want to restrict licenses, then you should probably start with not issuing licenses until the mid twenties for males and late teens to early 20s for women... It seems teen/young adult wrecks coincide pretty well with frontal lobe development... which in itself, could be labeled an impairment.
Scouring the road side is part of safe driving
Yes, but not all roadside information is relevant to your safety... If you do any driving in unfamiliar, cluttered city areas (especially at night), looking for road signs and addresses can be extremely distracting.
Granted, people have routines; Most seniors will probably travel in familiar territory most of the time... but for those times when older people (hell, anyone) are looking for a street with a tiny sign in the opposing lane or looking for a friend's house in the dark for the first time, cues from a GPS can be a huge increase to safety by keeping your eyes on the things you should be looking for... like vehicles and pedestrians.
In the end, estimates are all we have to work with here. Estimates of oil production, estimates of gasoline savings. For our purposes in evaluating Obama's claim, all the available evidence shows that he's on solid ground in saying that better car and tire maintenance would save as much gasoline as drilling would generate. We appreciate McCain's campaign pointing out a GAO source we'd missed in our original research, but it's not at odds with our original ruling, True.
Anyway, nuclear power continues to be a "dirty word" even after the great lengths engineers have gone to in order to make reactors as safe as possible... People will continue to be scared until there is a 100% safe way to remove spent fuel from the planet. If given a choice between sequestering greenhouse gasses and nuclear fuel, I'd probably pick the gas too. The reason is - even though I understand it is absurdly improbable - if something huge happens like an impact or unexpected volcanic activity, I'll take my chances with the gas.
Using their extensive studies of the Yucca Mountain region, experts estimate the chance of a volcanic event disrupting the proposed repository to be about one in 63 million per year. This equals about 0.0000016 percent chance per year that a volcano will disrupt the repository. Put another way, it means there is about a 99.9999984 percent chance per year that a volcanic event will not disrupt the repository. http://www.ocrwm.doe.gov/factsheets/doeymp0341.shtml
Nuclear / Fossil fuel prices:
http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf02.html
As the parent pointed out, Chinese, Russians etc.. have their OWN words for "astronaut"... kosmonavt, taikong ren etc... ****naut isn't what they call their own astronauts.
A 'taikonaut' is actually what "English people" (mostly media, I imagine) call a Chinese taikong ren. I would assume translators and english-speaking media do so because languages based on a different alphabet systems are difficult to pronounce and spell phonetically... And while astronaut would be just fine with me, I guess there is some need to supplement 'naut' (which seems to imply 'explorer') with a version of their native word for space.
Personally, I'd like to see the word 'astronaut' used instead of flavor_of_the_month_onaut, because that's what they are in English.. an astronaut. Shame on the translator for making arbitrary, cultural concessions.
Turned out it didn't fully support DMA...??? Like they didn't complete all the traces properly...
This problem is rampant in many flash card models and brands - even ones that claim to support DMA or UDMA. Search around on the interweb using your Napster machine and you'll see many others with the same issues.
:)
After trying a Transcend 4GB 133x that would only work in PIO mode, I got my hands on a Ridata 4GB 266x that *does* work in DMA. So if anyone is considering that card, maybe that's a good sign.
Mechanical challenges turned out to be not the only ones waiting for me when I worked on connecting the CF cards to the camera. These cards were hanging when the CPU tried to read them using DMA mode (and the card identified itself as supporting DMA mode). I tried to find the problem, and used all the tools I had. I added a bunch of printk's to the driver source, tried different speed settings for the DMA, and finally used an oscilloscope to spy on the signals between the CF card and the CPU. What I found was that the card did actually send the data using DMA mode, but always only for two "sectors" (1024 bytes total), regardless of the number of blocks to transfer written to the corresponding register. Then it silently hung, without activating an IRQ line, even if it was asked to transfer just a single block. And the CPU was relying on that interrupt to continue with the processing of the data read from the CF card. Careful examination of the data on the IDE bus did not reveal any problems (I was expecting something specific to the ETRAX). The same CF card with the DMA mode disabled in the driver worked fine (but slower, of course), as did the IDE hard drive (or SATA through the bridge) with DMA enabled. Googling the issue showed that I'm not the first to have problems with CF cards and DMA. The driver itself had a blacklist for some of the devices that caused problems. -- http://linuxdevices.com/articles/AT5102023409.html