It is a fact that there are more scientists that are men than women, by a very large margin. Women are simply not interested in being scientists or engineers. While there are a reasonable number of women in the medically related sciences, few study engineering or physics related disciplines.
You clearly have a) not attended a major university and studied a scientific discipline and b) likely received a liberal arts education that focused excessively on perpetuating the myth of egalitarianism.
NO ONE can provide any references. You don't understand. The government will imprison/execute anyone trying to establish legitimate statistics regarding the health care system in Cuba. Not only that, the culture of repression will insure that no doctor will give you the honest truth unless you have a boat ready to take him to the US.
I have known many who have fled that land of oppression, and have known a few doctors. It is from them I receive my information. Absent any transparency of the Cuba government, anecdotal evidence is to me far more reliable than propaganda. If you want to believe the shit shoveled to you by the Castro Monarchy, feel free.
Also, if you honestly believe that 0.3% of the population dies every year because of unnecessary surgery - nothing I could possibly quote would be acceptable for you. That is nearly 1/3 of all deaths every year. Total insanity.
How about this, why don't you find me infant mortality statistics in Cuba that were NOT reported by the repressive, communist government that rules over that land?
Oh, you can't. Why? Because anyone else who tries to survey doctors will be arrested and imprisoned.
The UN does not do any research on the matter, it merely reports what the dictator tells them.
Totally false. They don't count a child as "born" in Cuba until it has lived for a week. Since a significant portion of infants die during that time, it should not be a surprise their statistics indicate a lower infant mortality rate.
I think the general opinion is McCain will have a much harder time against Obama than Hillary. A lot of stuff I have read indicates Republicans are certain McCain can defeat Hillary, but are unsure of Obama.
There is no proof that evolution has occurred. There is proof that selective breeding pressures result in animals of a specific species changing certain superficial attributes, but at no time in history has any scientist observed one species evolving into another
That is the issue here. This is pure, basic, empirical science that the defenders of evolution have yet to present.
I do acknowledge that we cannot falsify the Intelligent Design theory per se, at least until we have the technology to engineer life ourselves. However, I think in the interest of civilized debate, schools should teach students that our understanding of evolution is largely no different than that of a stoneage herdsman. We know that selective breeding works as we have been doing via animal husbandry since the dawn of civilization. Despite that knowledge, we really have no idea how or when one species changes into another.
It is a mystery, and one that should be actively studied. But it is not fact.
Anecdotal evidence means nothing. Every laptop manufacturer has done stupid things at one point or another - particularly with keyboards.
I have a Toshiba laptop from 2001 that still works perfectly, although the battery is quite weak. It's tiny, doesn't have a cdrom drive, and only has a Celeron 600, but still - it does work!
This is absolutely true. I remember the only reason I upgraded from my old NexGen Nx586 (with the FPU thank you very much) was its inability to play MP3 files way back in 1997. Got myself an AMD K6 and I was set.
Re:If you want to see the real Cuba, go now...
on
Fidel Castro Resigns
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· Score: 1
Yes.
I fail to see what the US has that is so necessary for such a large island of 11 million people.
Re:If you want to see the real Cuba, go now...
on
Fidel Castro Resigns
·
· Score: 1
Luckily, at any noteworthy public event in New York, you get both nowadays.
Sorry, I live and work in New York City. The only time I see military type personnel are at train stations and the airport.
No doubt Communism contributes, but that kind of ignores the elephant in the room, a hostile US government that has spent years attempting to economically throttle it.
Are you trying to tell me that there isn't enough rock on that island for their 11 million citizens to rebuild buildings over a 40-year timespan? Cuba doesn't need the US anymore than the US needs Cuba.
Strangely, as a Canadian, this is not too different from my sense of the US nowadays.
You obviously haven't been here, ever. That said, I go to Montreal to get my cheap hookers. Those beautiful french girls from the countryside sell their bodies for dirt cheap. Here in New York City, it's either $2K an hour model type call girls or crack whores.
I suppose some people find the world to be a better place, even with all its misery, when it's not an uptight shopping mall.
I really think most people will agree that a shopping mall, no matter where it is, cannot accurately be called uptight in comparison with a country that executes its citizens for criticizing the government or calling for free elections. There really is no comparison.
As the election of Daniel Ortega demonstrated? Or the massive popularity of Chavez?
Re:If you want to see the real Cuba, go now...
on
Fidel Castro Resigns
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
Personally, I'd rather have the aforementioned fast food restaurants than hordes of military personnel with automatic weapons all over the place.
Cuba is only unique in that the destruction caused by communism is so apparent everywhere. The crumbling buildings. The antiquated automobiles. The authoritarian presence. The warning to tourists to stay in designated tourist zones. The many desperate women offering their daughters as prostitutes.
If you have truly been there, I cannot understand how or why you would think that American chain restaurants are somehow worse than the abject human misery that dominates that island.
Cuba is the final testament to the failure of communism. Freeing the country will do wonders to bring the truth to light, especially with the renewed faith in this system amongst the poor of Latin America.
I'm really not sure what you're talking about. Certainly, when the Romans decided to raze Jersualem to the ground, it had nothing to do with their "sins" as the Romans did not believe in sin. Of course, the civil war that split the Holy Land into Judea and Israel had little to do with any belief by the Israelites that the Jews had committed any sin. Then of course with have Hanukkah, where Jews celebrate their military victory over Hellenic people who did not subscribe to their views. Did those Hellenic people of the Holy Land consider the Jews to be sinners?
For reasons still unknown to me, Jews decided to move into Christian countries rather than non-Christian countries. This is true. But, if they truly came from the east - why move west? Why did they not simply stay on their continent and move to India or China or wherever?
I presume you could be suggesting it is Christians who have persecuted Jews all these years, but that is not supported by the historical record. Even their fellow Israelites hated them.
So, I'll presume that you are a particularly ignorant soul who knows nothing of history, and simply accepts whatever propaganda is shoved down your throat. It's easy to be a follower, I know. So, I'll ask you - do the Greeks, Romans, Babylonians, Persians, Christians, Israelites, Egyptians, Philistines, Muslims share ANYTHING in common that would make them hate Jews so much? What do they do to have successfully pissed off every neighbor they have ever had over the past 3,000 years?
It should be an easy question to answer... Good luck.
The antisemitism was just garden variety self-loathing, obviously ugly as well as bat-shit crazy, but not so incomprehensible.
I'm just curious, how can you possibly make such a statement? Self-loathing? crazy? You've obviously made many subjective defamatory statements against this dead man, but these particular ones I believe deserve some explanation.
We have a particular people who have never lived in peace with their neighbors in the entire history of their existence. Are we to believe that everyone who has hated these people since the days of Cyrus the Great were simply self loathing and crazy?
Tis a bit hard to believe, and shows your lack of thorough analysis of history and the current state of world politics.
It is entirely possible for the people to elect leaders who will amend the constitution out of existence. For that reason along, it is you who are wrong.
In the end however - the effectiveness of law demands the consent of the governed. Many philosophers have dealt with this issue. See Rousseau.
Since when should the perception of the public decide what research is done and which is not?
In the United States, governmental authority and sovereignty rests with the "public". Presumably, their perceptions guide their exercising of their power.
I have always found the issue of sovereignty a bit strange in the United Kingdom. In the end, the law either derives from the people or the monarch. In either case, a panel of scientists is irrelevant as they do not exercise political power, at least not beyond that of any other citizen.
I hate to tell you this, but the remastered edition of Bladerunner looks amazing in Blu Ray. The level of detail really is fabulous.
The special effects and detail of Bladerunner are its defining characteristics. I couldn't imagine watching it in standard definition on my 46" screen.
Lots of great classic movies are available on Blu Ray for cheap. Honestly, $15 for an HD movie doesn't seem that much to me. Check out Amazon. I picked up the remastered edition of Blade Runner for $27 (5 discs). 2001, the Fifth Element, Underworld, and Full Metal Jacket were all purchased for $15 each.
Not a bad deal to me, considering renting them would $5.
Blu-ray supports region encoding. Don't tell me the studios don't love that annoying ability. Blu-ray discs have a thinner protective layer, so that a scratch can more easily result in an unplayable disc and hence a resale of the same disc multiple times, especially since blu-rays are so much harder to backup.
This is 100% false. Blu-ray discs require a protective coating that is almost indestructible. I have personally taken steel wool to a disc and it plays just fine.
I believe this rumor comes from the fact the individual layers are thin and would be easily damaged WITHOUT said protective layer, but that is irrelevant. The layers are thin specifically to allow higher capacity discs. The protective layer obviates this problem and makes them the most resilient discs ever made
And the much greater data density is also of great value from a copy protection and distribution POV. Hard drive storage of ripped movies becomes much more expensive. Internet downloads are even more prohibitive in terms of both bandwidth (not everyone has unlimited high bandwidth connections) and time (not everyone has the patience to wait 3-6 weeks to download a movie they want to see).
This is the most preposterous reason I have ever read. By your account, larger capacity storage mediums are inherently undesirable. Period.
Personally, I think blu ray movies look much better than most HD content on cable. Only the Discovery Channel really shines, while I'd say the majority of the bluray movies I've rented or purchased are top quality.
Also, no cable company offers 1080p content, although that isn't a huge deal. It's a nice thought though that perhaps in a few years when 72" screens are cheap, my bluray discs will still look great.
Umm, what Sony product are we talking about here? This is a panasonic drive that uses media developed and supported by an industry consortium, of which Sony is one of a dozen companies.
Best prices on NewEgg: Blu-ray is $10 per 25G = 40 cents per gib. Hard drive is $100 per 500G = 20 cents per gib. I'd love a BDR, but as long as hard drives are cheaper, it's just stupid.
Has it ever occurred to you that perhaps people would like to share hi-def media with one another? As well, given how until very recently BD-R drives were very expensive, economies of scale have not yet resulted in a lower price for media. That will obviously change over time.
On top of that, BD disks have the recordable goo on the bottom side, which makes them less durable than both CDs (goo on top) and DVDs (goo in the middle).
I have to say, I think Super Audio CDs really do sound as good as vinyl. They never supported the format enough however - even Sony dropped the ball - and now it's dying.
I'm 100% willing to buy a CD when it is a high definition content. Their model easily could have been "give away MP3s for free, and sell SACDs to people who want them". It would have been no different than the days where people recorded radio broadcasts, but bout LPs they really liked.
I think the FPS is a dying breed of game personally. I haven't played a single one since Battlefield 1942 that came out 5 yeas ago that I thought was truly revolutionary. Many have even regressed, in terms of having a truly sandbox like experience (CoD 4 I'm looking at you).
It's been years since GTA III came out - I want open worlds with lots of vehicles and toys dammit.
Slashdot Mirror
It is a fact that there are more scientists that are men than women, by a very large margin. Women are simply not interested in being scientists or engineers. While there are a reasonable number of women in the medically related sciences, few study engineering or physics related disciplines.
You clearly have a) not attended a major university and studied a scientific discipline and b) likely received a liberal arts education that focused excessively on perpetuating the myth of egalitarianism.
NO ONE can provide any references. You don't understand. The government will imprison/execute anyone trying to establish legitimate statistics regarding the health care system in Cuba. Not only that, the culture of repression will insure that no doctor will give you the honest truth unless you have a boat ready to take him to the US.
I have known many who have fled that land of oppression, and have known a few doctors. It is from them I receive my information. Absent any transparency of the Cuba government, anecdotal evidence is to me far more reliable than propaganda. If you want to believe the shit shoveled to you by the Castro Monarchy, feel free.
Also, if you honestly believe that 0.3% of the population dies every year because of unnecessary surgery - nothing I could possibly quote would be acceptable for you. That is nearly 1/3 of all deaths every year. Total insanity.
No, the CIA factbook uses UN statistics. Sorry.
How about this, why don't you find me infant mortality statistics in Cuba that were NOT reported by the repressive, communist government that rules over that land?
Oh, you can't. Why? Because anyone else who tries to survey doctors will be arrested and imprisoned.
The UN does not do any research on the matter, it merely reports what the dictator tells them.
Totally false. They don't count a child as "born" in Cuba until it has lived for a week. Since a significant portion of infants die during that time, it should not be a surprise their statistics indicate a lower infant mortality rate.
I think the general opinion is McCain will have a much harder time against Obama than Hillary. A lot of stuff I have read indicates Republicans are certain McCain can defeat Hillary, but are unsure of Obama.
There is no proof that evolution has occurred. There is proof that selective breeding pressures result in animals of a specific species changing certain superficial attributes, but at no time in history has any scientist observed one species evolving into another
That is the issue here. This is pure, basic, empirical science that the defenders of evolution have yet to present.
I do acknowledge that we cannot falsify the Intelligent Design theory per se, at least until we have the technology to engineer life ourselves. However, I think in the interest of civilized debate, schools should teach students that our understanding of evolution is largely no different than that of a stoneage herdsman. We know that selective breeding works as we have been doing via animal husbandry since the dawn of civilization. Despite that knowledge, we really have no idea how or when one species changes into another.
It is a mystery, and one that should be actively studied. But it is not fact.
Anecdotal evidence means nothing. Every laptop manufacturer has done stupid things at one point or another - particularly with keyboards.
I have a Toshiba laptop from 2001 that still works perfectly, although the battery is quite weak. It's tiny, doesn't have a cdrom drive, and only has a Celeron 600, but still - it does work!
1) What is SWG? What is the fraud?
2) Blu Ray is not a Sony format. The royalties go the Blu Ray consortium, of which Sony is one member out of dozens.
3) I'm very happy with Sony products, particularly the PS3 which has to be the best home entertainment device I've ever owned.
This is absolutely true. I remember the only reason I upgraded from my old NexGen Nx586 (with the FPU thank you very much) was its inability to play MP3 files way back in 1997. Got myself an AMD K6 and I was set.
Yes.
I fail to see what the US has that is so necessary for such a large island of 11 million people.
Luckily, at any noteworthy public event in New York, you get both nowadays.
Sorry, I live and work in New York City. The only time I see military type personnel are at train stations and the airport.
No doubt Communism contributes, but that kind of ignores the elephant in the room, a hostile US government that has spent years attempting to economically throttle it.
Are you trying to tell me that there isn't enough rock on that island for their 11 million citizens to rebuild buildings over a 40-year timespan? Cuba doesn't need the US anymore than the US needs Cuba.
Strangely, as a Canadian, this is not too different from my sense of the US nowadays.
You obviously haven't been here, ever. That said, I go to Montreal to get my cheap hookers. Those beautiful french girls from the countryside sell their bodies for dirt cheap. Here in New York City, it's either $2K an hour model type call girls or crack whores.
I suppose some people find the world to be a better place, even with all its misery, when it's not an uptight shopping mall.
I really think most people will agree that a shopping mall, no matter where it is, cannot accurately be called uptight in comparison with a country that executes its citizens for criticizing the government or calling for free elections. There really is no comparison.
As the election of Daniel Ortega demonstrated? Or the massive popularity of Chavez?
Chavez is only popular in the minds of liberal intellectual types. Those who live under his thumb don't completely agree with you.
Personally, I'd rather have the aforementioned fast food restaurants than hordes of military personnel with automatic weapons all over the place.
Cuba is only unique in that the destruction caused by communism is so apparent everywhere. The crumbling buildings. The antiquated automobiles. The authoritarian presence. The warning to tourists to stay in designated tourist zones. The many desperate women offering their daughters as prostitutes.
If you have truly been there, I cannot understand how or why you would think that American chain restaurants are somehow worse than the abject human misery that dominates that island.
Cuba is the final testament to the failure of communism. Freeing the country will do wonders to bring the truth to light, especially with the renewed faith in this system amongst the poor of Latin America.
I'm really not sure what you're talking about. Certainly, when the Romans decided to raze Jersualem to the ground, it had nothing to do with their "sins" as the Romans did not believe in sin. Of course, the civil war that split the Holy Land into Judea and Israel had little to do with any belief by the Israelites that the Jews had committed any sin. Then of course with have Hanukkah, where Jews celebrate their military victory over Hellenic people who did not subscribe to their views. Did those Hellenic people of the Holy Land consider the Jews to be sinners?
For reasons still unknown to me, Jews decided to move into Christian countries rather than non-Christian countries. This is true. But, if they truly came from the east - why move west? Why did they not simply stay on their continent and move to India or China or wherever?
I presume you could be suggesting it is Christians who have persecuted Jews all these years, but that is not supported by the historical record. Even their fellow Israelites hated them.
So, I'll presume that you are a particularly ignorant soul who knows nothing of history, and simply accepts whatever propaganda is shoved down your throat. It's easy to be a follower, I know. So, I'll ask you - do the Greeks, Romans, Babylonians, Persians, Christians, Israelites, Egyptians, Philistines, Muslims share ANYTHING in common that would make them hate Jews so much? What do they do to have successfully pissed off every neighbor they have ever had over the past 3,000 years?
It should be an easy question to answer... Good luck.
The antisemitism was just garden variety self-loathing, obviously ugly as well as bat-shit crazy, but not so incomprehensible.
I'm just curious, how can you possibly make such a statement? Self-loathing? crazy? You've obviously made many subjective defamatory statements against this dead man, but these particular ones I believe deserve some explanation.
We have a particular people who have never lived in peace with their neighbors in the entire history of their existence. Are we to believe that everyone who has hated these people since the days of Cyrus the Great were simply self loathing and crazy?
Tis a bit hard to believe, and shows your lack of thorough analysis of history and the current state of world politics.
Apparently you have not read the constitution.
It is entirely possible for the people to elect leaders who will amend the constitution out of existence. For that reason along, it is you who are wrong.
In the end however - the effectiveness of law demands the consent of the governed. Many philosophers have dealt with this issue. See Rousseau.
Since when should the perception of the public decide what research is done and which is not?
In the United States, governmental authority and sovereignty rests with the "public". Presumably, their perceptions guide their exercising of their power.
I have always found the issue of sovereignty a bit strange in the United Kingdom. In the end, the law either derives from the people or the monarch. In either case, a panel of scientists is irrelevant as they do not exercise political power, at least not beyond that of any other citizen.
I hate to tell you this, but the remastered edition of Bladerunner looks amazing in Blu Ray. The level of detail really is fabulous.
The special effects and detail of Bladerunner are its defining characteristics. I couldn't imagine watching it in standard definition on my 46" screen.
Lots of great classic movies are available on Blu Ray for cheap. Honestly, $15 for an HD movie doesn't seem that much to me. Check out Amazon. I picked up the remastered edition of Blade Runner for $27 (5 discs). 2001, the Fifth Element, Underworld, and Full Metal Jacket were all purchased for $15 each.
Not a bad deal to me, considering renting them would $5.
Blu-ray supports region encoding. Don't tell me the studios don't love that annoying ability. Blu-ray discs have a thinner protective layer, so that a scratch can more easily result in an unplayable disc and hence a resale of the same disc multiple times, especially since blu-rays are so much harder to backup.
This is 100% false. Blu-ray discs require a protective coating that is almost indestructible. I have personally taken steel wool to a disc and it plays just fine.
I believe this rumor comes from the fact the individual layers are thin and would be easily damaged WITHOUT said protective layer, but that is irrelevant. The layers are thin specifically to allow higher capacity discs. The protective layer obviates this problem and makes them the most resilient discs ever made
And the much greater data density is also of great value from a copy protection and distribution POV. Hard drive storage of ripped movies becomes much more expensive. Internet downloads are even more prohibitive in terms of both bandwidth (not everyone has unlimited high bandwidth connections) and time (not everyone has the patience to wait 3-6 weeks to download a movie they want to see).
This is the most preposterous reason I have ever read. By your account, larger capacity storage mediums are inherently undesirable. Period.
Total, utter craziness.
Personally, I think blu ray movies look much better than most HD content on cable. Only the Discovery Channel really shines, while I'd say the majority of the bluray movies I've rented or purchased are top quality.
Also, no cable company offers 1080p content, although that isn't a huge deal. It's a nice thought though that perhaps in a few years when 72" screens are cheap, my bluray discs will still look great.
Umm, what Sony product are we talking about here? This is a panasonic drive that uses media developed and supported by an industry consortium, of which Sony is one of a dozen companies.
Best prices on NewEgg: Blu-ray is $10 per 25G = 40 cents per gib. Hard drive is $100 per 500G = 20 cents per gib. I'd love a BDR, but as long as hard drives are cheaper, it's just stupid.
Has it ever occurred to you that perhaps people would like to share hi-def media with one another? As well, given how until very recently BD-R drives were very expensive, economies of scale have not yet resulted in a lower price for media. That will obviously change over time.
On top of that, BD disks have the recordable goo on the bottom side, which makes them less durable than both CDs (goo on top) and DVDs (goo in the middle).
Wtf are you talking about?
I have to say, I think Super Audio CDs really do sound as good as vinyl. They never supported the format enough however - even Sony dropped the ball - and now it's dying.
I'm 100% willing to buy a CD when it is a high definition content. Their model easily could have been "give away MP3s for free, and sell SACDs to people who want them". It would have been no different than the days where people recorded radio broadcasts, but bout LPs they really liked.
I think the FPS is a dying breed of game personally. I haven't played a single one since Battlefield 1942 that came out 5 yeas ago that I thought was truly revolutionary. Many have even regressed, in terms of having a truly sandbox like experience (CoD 4 I'm looking at you).
It's been years since GTA III came out - I want open worlds with lots of vehicles and toys dammit.