> I build airplanes for one of the greatest living aircraft designers in the world.
You work for Burt Rutan? Cool!
>Are you willing to put a price tag on your life and the lives of your passengers? I'm not.
Everyone puts a price tag on lives - they just don't examine _all_ of their activities as they relate to their lifespan.
Do you commute a long distance to work, because you can't afford to live near your employer? Then you're facing a higher risk of a traffic accident to save money on housing and and living expenses.
It's been said that a politician asks "what do you want?", while an economist asks "what do you want more?" Life is full of trade-offs, and I suspect there are choices you make which aren't the ones conducive to the longest possible life.
So I choose to drive my 14-year-old Honda Civic, which gets the same gas mileage (and has more carrying capacity) as the "Smart Car" (in spite of older technology and an engine which has twice the displacement). Then I can take the money I save on that to spend on other things, some of which have the potential of lengthening my lifespan (like spending more to live in a better area of town, or buying 90% ground beef rather than 73%).
> The safety of Civics and Corollas has never been their selling point.
Like the 2007 Civic, which gets a 5-star rating for frontal impact safety. Since Honda mentions this prominently on their web site, I'm glad to know they don't consider it a selling point.
> I get a far more useful, safe, fun, and long-lasting vehicle than you ever will.
Fun is in the eye of the beholder. I'm pretty sure I get more fun from my nimble Civic than I would from your armor-plated wagon. And I don't know how long your car will last, but I retired my '85 Civic at 350,000 miles, and my '92 at 360,000, so I expect my '93 (currently at 184,000) will be running for quite a few years to come.
Meanwhile, I trust you're not designing and building small airplanes, since they're statistically less safe than my Civic (my life insurance allows me to ride _motorcycles_, but not small airplanes).
> I truly hope they get what they want, it seems like the only thing that could possibly take down Clear Channel
Well, it might take down Clear Channel's music stations. But it shouldn't have much effect on the real reason lefties hate CC - conservative talk show hosts. (example: KOA, Colorado's most powerful (physically speaking) radio station, runs only talk shows).
> Are these currently being sold retail in the U.S.?
I don't know about retail stores, but I bought one (3500+ - 2.2 GHz) from Newegg.com recently.
You can drill down to Processors - AMD, then select "65nm" in the "Manufacturing Tech" dropdown.
One caveat for Linux users: AMD bumped the revision number for the 65nm units (it's now 7), and a stock "powernow-k8" (the Linux implementation of "Cool 'n Quiet") module doesn't recognize it. I've been assured it will show up in the kernel Real Soon Now.
It doesn't amount to a huge difference, though. I compiled a kernel with "powernow-k8" accepting revision 7 CPUs, and saw only an 8 watt drop in system power usage, plus a 5 degree (C) drop in CPU temperature.
BTW, after noticing the post about "get more RAM before upgrading your CPU", I feel compelled to mention that Newegg has some Crucial 1 gig DDR2 DIMMS for $41-$50 each, which is why my "Lima" system has 4 gigs now.
In a few years you'll still be spouting this sort of paranoid crap, with no censorship taking place.
That sort of loony paranoia doesn't boost your side's credibility, any more than my side was helped by predictions that Bill Clinton would use FEMA regs to declare a national emergency and establish a dictatorship, or the right-wing paranoids who referred to the Oklahoma City bombing as "Bill Clinton's Reichstag Fire".
Why don't you focus on REAL government abuses instead? For example, the "if you have lots of cash then you must be a drug dealer" lunacy known as "Civil Asset Forfeiture", or the suppression of free speech in the name of "Campaign Finance Reform"?
Yep, stories almost always get changed while traveling from book to screen - for the same reason that historical events get changed, too:
1) Books generally have far more detail than movies, so bunches of stuff will be cut strictly to meet a runtime requirement 2) The movies' backers demand the story fit into a familiar formula, so audiences will find comfort in that familiarity 3) The screenwriters and/or producers have an axe to grind, and bend the story to fit their politics ("Starship Troopers") 4) The screenwriters' reputation is based, in part, on their creativity. If they add to the story, or change it, their efforts are considered creativity in action.
That last one is not just from studio or peer influence. When the first Harry Potter movie was released, the most common criticism of it in movie reviews was "it's just like the book!" (which, of course, is what devoted fans wanted).
So when a movie stays close to the original story (whether fiction or not), be pleasantly surprised - but DON'T be surprised when it departs from the original plot (or historical events, in the case of "historical" movies).
As a lifelong American (50 years so far), I have to disagree. I think he does a great American accent (it IS a challenge for him to pronounce such things as "coronary artery" properly, but he does it).
> Is there a solution to the woeful lack of qualified mathematics teachers that the Teachers' Union will find acceptable?"
Yes, pay everyone more. That's the standard union answer for most education problems. The fact that studies have shown no correlation between general teacher compensation and student performance is something the union would rather you ignore. They'd also ask that you ignore the fact that real spending per student has increased significantly since the 60s, or that Kansas City schools showed no improvement in performance after a judge mandated huge increases in spending.
And when the pay increase doesn't work, the union's response will be "we're not paid enough!"
For those who claim Federal interference is the big problem (and yes, I'd agree that's one of the big problems), kindly note that the Department of Education was created by Jimmy Carter as a reward to the NEA for its support of Carter's candidacy, and that a large chunk of NCLB was written by Ted Kennedy (as a long-time liberal Democrat, he's pretty much guaranteed to be friendly with the NEA).
Frankly, the only real solution is real competition (i.e., school choice INCLUDING private schools), and the unions will fight that tooth and nail (as they have many times in Colorado). That's only natural, since unions depend on the enforced absence of competition in order to extort wages higher than the market rate.
>They have an AMAZING pension, like all public sector employees.
> If you look at their lifetime earnings, it's NOT bad pay.
This is the dirty little secret that the teachers' unions don't like people to notice - the unions deliberately push for compensation in the form of big benefits (the pension is ONE example), then moan about the salary while not mention the value of the total compensation package.
There are also benefits which don't show up in the "payments" column - like job security which is generally far better than what's available in the typical business. I have a friend who is a retired teacher, and who has told me about the difficulties a principal encountered when trying to fire an incompetent teacher's aide (let alone an actual teacher). Said aide had actually left for private employment, then demanded to be rehired at the school lest she sic the union on the principal.
The White House and Capitol used to be blurred on Google Maps/Earth. They no longer are.
True - they are no longer blurred. They are also no longer current. The current image shows the WWII monument under construction, but it was finished over 2.5 years ago.
> It would be better for Mankind if they turned the resources they spend on mee-too drugs to other diseases such as Cystic Fibrosis or juvenile macular degeneration.
Ah, yes - if only you were king, you'd know just what to force them to do, and make everything better.
Or Google (tm) for "How to rid the world of all known diseases" for a slightly less dictatorial approach.
The "develop just one drug for this disease, then move on to some other problem" approach ignores the fact that the first drug available for disease treatment may not work for one person, or may have unhealthy side effects.
Case in point - my wife has pigmentary glaucoma, which is resistant to most types of treatment. The first type of eye drops we tried lowered her ocular pressures for about a month, and then stopped working. We went through the "try this type of drop" and "try this laser treatment" process 3-4 times before finding a medication which kept working (Trusopt).
With your strategy (which, IIRC, is Canada's approach (that is, approving a limited number of medications - typically the ones with the lowest cost)) she'd be blind by now.
So I'm happy that drug manufacturers compete, and try to find better treatments for the same diseases.
Re:There is no lack of material
on
An Ode To Al
·
· Score: 1
> It has been in my experience, especially in regard to songs,
> that if one resorts to the use of bad language, they usually
> have run out of ideas.
I agree - and not just about song lyrics. When I compare early "Ren & Stimpy" shows to John Kricfalusi's later (uncensored) stuff ("R&S Beach Party", "George Liquor"), I get the impression that Kricfalusi was much more creative when he had to create humorous characters and situations, than when he simply had Ren trying to burrow into a beach babe's bikini.
Re:There is no lack of material
on
An Ode To Al
·
· Score: 1
Any chance you've heard of "A Modest Proposal"?
"Weasel Stomping Day" is satire of the same sort:
"Why we do it, we can't say. But it's such a festive holiday!"
Chicago's education system has a fairly lousy reputation, stemming from a very strong teacher's union (Google "Marva Collins", for example).
I think it's more accurate to say "you can't sit a child in front of a Chicago public school teacher expect him to learn things he needs to succeed in society".
Slashdot Mirror
> I build airplanes for one of the greatest living aircraft designers in the world.
You work for Burt Rutan? Cool!
>Are you willing to put a price tag on your life and the lives of your passengers? I'm not.
Everyone puts a price tag on lives - they just don't examine _all_ of their activities as they relate to their lifespan.
Do you commute a long distance to work, because you can't afford to live near your employer? Then you're facing a higher risk of a traffic accident to save money on housing and and living expenses.
It's been said that a politician asks "what do you want?", while an economist asks "what do you want more?" Life is full of trade-offs, and I suspect there are choices you make which aren't the ones conducive to the longest possible life.
So I choose to drive my 14-year-old Honda Civic, which gets the same gas mileage (and has more carrying capacity) as the "Smart Car" (in spite of older technology and an engine which has twice the displacement). Then I can take the money I save on that to spend on other things, some of which have the potential of lengthening my lifespan (like spending more to live in a better area of town, or buying 90% ground beef rather than 73%).
> The safety of Civics and Corollas has never been their selling point.
Like the 2007 Civic, which gets a 5-star rating for frontal impact safety. Since Honda mentions this prominently on their web site, I'm glad to know they don't consider it a selling point.
> I get a far more useful, safe, fun, and long-lasting vehicle than you ever will.
Fun is in the eye of the beholder. I'm pretty sure I get more fun from my nimble Civic than I would from your armor-plated wagon. And I don't know how long your car will last, but I retired my '85 Civic at 350,000 miles, and my '92 at 360,000, so I expect my '93 (currently at 184,000) will be running for quite a few years to come.
Meanwhile, I trust you're not designing and building small airplanes, since they're statistically less safe than my Civic (my life insurance allows me to ride _motorcycles_, but not small airplanes).
> If an Intel Quadcore overclocked to 4GHz with 4Mb RAM
Well, there's your problem - with only 4Mb of RAM your system is swapped out most of the time.
Your argument might have more force if you do _real_ math.
10 cents per 1/2 hour is $4.80 per day, or $33.60 a week.
> I truly hope they get what they want, it seems like the only thing that could possibly take down Clear Channel
Well, it might take down Clear Channel's music stations. But it shouldn't have much effect on the real reason lefties hate CC - conservative talk show hosts. (example: KOA, Colorado's most powerful (physically speaking) radio station, runs only talk shows).
> Are these currently being sold retail in the U.S.?
I don't know about retail stores, but I bought one (3500+ - 2.2 GHz) from Newegg.com recently.
You can drill down to Processors - AMD, then select "65nm" in the "Manufacturing Tech" dropdown.
One caveat for Linux users: AMD bumped the revision number for the 65nm units (it's now 7), and a stock "powernow-k8" (the Linux implementation of "Cool 'n Quiet") module doesn't recognize it. I've been assured it will show up in the kernel Real Soon Now.
It doesn't amount to a huge difference, though. I compiled a kernel with "powernow-k8" accepting revision 7 CPUs, and saw only an 8 watt drop in system power usage, plus a 5 degree (C) drop in CPU temperature.
BTW, after noticing the post about "get more RAM before upgrading your CPU", I feel compelled to mention that Newegg has some Crucial 1 gig DDR2 DIMMS for $41-$50 each, which is why my "Lima" system has 4 gigs now.
In a few years you'll still be spouting this sort of paranoid crap, with no censorship taking place.
That sort of loony paranoia doesn't boost your side's credibility, any more than my side was helped by predictions that Bill Clinton would use FEMA regs to declare a national emergency and establish a dictatorship, or the right-wing paranoids who referred to the Oklahoma City bombing as "Bill Clinton's Reichstag Fire".
Why don't you focus on REAL government abuses instead? For example, the "if you have lots of cash then you must be a drug dealer" lunacy known as "Civil Asset Forfeiture", or the suppression of free speech in the name of "Campaign Finance Reform"?
Mod this up, someone!
Yep, stories almost always get changed while traveling from book to screen - for the same reason that historical events get changed, too:
1) Books generally have far more detail than movies, so bunches of stuff will be cut strictly to meet a runtime requirement
2) The movies' backers demand the story fit into a familiar formula, so audiences will find comfort in that familiarity
3) The screenwriters and/or producers have an axe to grind, and bend the story to fit their politics ("Starship Troopers")
4) The screenwriters' reputation is based, in part, on their creativity. If they add to the story, or change it, their efforts are considered creativity in action.
That last one is not just from studio or peer influence. When the first Harry Potter movie was released, the most common criticism of it in movie reviews was "it's just like the book!" (which, of course, is what devoted fans wanted).
So when a movie stays close to the original story (whether fiction or not), be pleasantly surprised - but DON'T be surprised when it departs from the original plot (or historical events, in the case of "historical" movies).
As a lifelong American (50 years so far), I have to disagree. I think he does a great American accent (it IS a challenge for him to pronounce such things as "coronary artery" properly, but he does it).
> Do I lose my geek card for posting this?
I don't have a firm opinion on the Doctor, since I never saw a complete episode of the old series.
But yes, if you liked the old Galactica better than the new one, you'd better hand over your card now.
Don't make me call for backup.
Unfortunately for Dr Who fans, Chris is currently playing an invisible mutant on "Heroes".
> Is there a solution to the woeful lack of qualified mathematics teachers that the Teachers' Union will find acceptable?"
Yes, pay everyone more. That's the standard union answer for most education problems. The fact that studies have shown no correlation between general teacher compensation and student performance is something the union would rather you ignore. They'd also ask that you ignore the fact that real spending per student has increased significantly since the 60s, or that Kansas City schools showed no improvement in performance after a judge mandated huge increases in spending.
And when the pay increase doesn't work, the union's response will be "we're not paid enough!"
For those who claim Federal interference is the big problem (and yes, I'd agree that's one of the big problems), kindly note that the Department of Education was created by Jimmy Carter as a reward to the NEA for its support of Carter's candidacy, and that a large chunk of NCLB was written by Ted Kennedy (as a long-time liberal Democrat, he's pretty much guaranteed to be friendly with the NEA).
Frankly, the only real solution is real competition (i.e., school choice INCLUDING private schools), and the unions will fight that tooth and nail (as they have many times in Colorado). That's only natural, since unions depend on the enforced absence of competition in order to extort wages higher than the market rate.
>They have an AMAZING pension, like all public sector employees.
> If you look at their lifetime earnings, it's NOT bad pay.
This is the dirty little secret that the teachers' unions don't like people to notice - the unions deliberately push for compensation in the form of big benefits (the pension is ONE example), then moan about the salary while not mention the value of the total compensation package.
There are also benefits which don't show up in the "payments" column - like job security which is generally far better than what's available in the typical business. I have a friend who is a retired teacher, and who has told me about the difficulties a principal encountered when trying to fire an incompetent teacher's aide (let alone an actual teacher). Said aide had actually left for private employment, then demanded to be rehired at the school lest she sic the union on the principal.
"We've just lost the entire thirteenth century. Still, nothing much there apart from Dante and a few corrupt popes."
The White House and Capitol used to be blurred on Google Maps/Earth. They no longer are.
True - they are no longer blurred. They are also no longer current.
The current image shows the WWII monument under construction, but it was finished over 2.5 years ago.
>""Upgrading" from Fedora 3 to 4, for example, requires you to nuke (read: delete permanetly) anything not on /home"
That's interesting, since I recently upgraded a Core 3 system to Core 6 with little problem.
> It would be better for Mankind if they turned the resources they spend on mee-too drugs to other diseases such as Cystic Fibrosis or juvenile macular degeneration.
Ah, yes - if only you were king, you'd know just what to force them to do, and make everything better.
Or Google (tm) for "How to rid the world of all known diseases" for a slightly less dictatorial approach.
The "develop just one drug for this disease, then move on to some other problem" approach ignores the fact that the first drug available for disease treatment may not work for one person, or may have unhealthy side effects.
Case in point - my wife has pigmentary glaucoma, which is resistant to most types of treatment. The first type of eye drops we tried lowered her ocular pressures for about a month, and then stopped working. We went through the "try this type of drop" and "try this laser treatment" process 3-4 times before finding a medication which kept working (Trusopt).
With your strategy (which, IIRC, is Canada's approach (that is, approving a limited number of medications - typically the ones with the lowest cost)) she'd be blind by now.
So I'm happy that drug manufacturers compete, and try to find better treatments for the same diseases.
>Mark Foley molested underage children and largely got away with it.
No, he didn't. He sent sexually suggestive email and IM to teenage boys (ages 16+, IIRC).
FWIW, if he had limited himself to ACTUALLY having sex with them in DC, no law would have been broken.
Me? Two.
> It has been in my experience, especially in regard to songs,
> that if one resorts to the use of bad language, they usually
> have run out of ideas.
I agree - and not just about song lyrics. When I compare early "Ren & Stimpy" shows to John Kricfalusi's later (uncensored) stuff ("R&S Beach Party", "George Liquor"), I get the impression that Kricfalusi was much more creative when he had to create humorous characters and situations, than when he simply had Ren trying to burrow into a beach babe's bikini.
Any chance you've heard of "A Modest Proposal"?
"Weasel Stomping Day" is satire of the same sort:
"Why we do it, we can't say. But it's such a festive holiday!"
and
"It's tradition - THAT makes it OK"
Chicago's education system has a fairly lousy reputation, stemming from a very strong teacher's union (Google "Marva Collins", for example).
I think it's more accurate to say "you can't sit a child in front of a Chicago public school teacher expect him to learn things he needs to succeed in society".
From the "Angel" episode "The Trial":
Cordelia: You were just soulless, blood-sucking demons. They're lawyers!
Angel: She's right. We were amateurs.
> 5)sue manufacturer/post about faulty power supplies.
You forgot
6) Profit!!
It seems to me that the more important measure for us nerds (we nerds?) is smoots/hogshead.
Google sez it's 187,370,651 sph
Perhaps you'd care to find a better example than that fraud Brockovich? See http://www.fumento.com/erinwsj.html for more info.