>>For more than 50 years, the average american has >>been brainwashed by car and petroleum companies >>into believing that their car-centric "life" is >>the best thing since industrial bakeries have >>invented sliced bread.
>I call bull. > >The United States has an average population >density of 31 people per square km. >Japan averages 337. >England 243. >Italy 193. >Switzerland 181.
Your post implies that this population density is static. It is not. In the post-war years, the US started to de-densify. This was driven in part by the GI-bill which gave assistance to SINGLE FAMILY HOMES. The Interstate Highway system also played a big role. Both of these policies were orchestrated by the building and automobile industries. In fact, the american use of suburbia and single-use zoning is a realization of Le Corbusier's vision of the automobile post-city.
Before the post-war Levit Town suburbian boom, it was not uncommon for people to live in multi-family housing. Neighborhoods used to be designed with a mix of income levels and housing types. It was also frequent that they be designed within walking distance to non-residential areas, such as shops and businesses. The pre-suburbia corner grocer has been displaced and the convience store has been put in it's place.
While your assertion about population density is misleading, your general point is more or less right. The problem is not, however, with population density, but with the distance between population centers. It is much larger in the US than in many other places. This makes rail travel less viable than airplanes for many distances.
That said, trains are still a viable transportation system in many places in theory. If a bus serves it, a train could too. But Greyhound doesn't have to pay for the highways it travels on, while Amtrack has to pay for the rails it uses. In fact, through sneaky legislation, Amtrack assumes liability for the stretches of track that it leases from the major companies. So, if CSX doesn't maintain their track and Amtrack has a wreck on it, it's not CSX's negligence- it's Amtrack's liability. This helps make Amtrack unprofitable.
Busses aren't inherently cheaper than trians-- policy has made them that way. It costs many times as much per mile to maintain a freeway than it does to maintain a rail right-of-way. The carying capacity of the rails are higher.
Welcome to the world of govt employees! You get great bennifits, and don't have to really do shit, understand shit, or care about shit, because you don't really answer to anyone unless your branch gets their budget cut, and that won't happen as long as you spend all your current budget on dumb stuff.
If the security of the content on the drives is that important, they should be encrypted. Encrypting the drive almost eliminates the risk of data disclosure from theft. It's tempting to think that the organization is secure and that nobody could pull an inside job, but it's deluding yourself. Each drive should be encrypted with a DIFFERENT key. When a drive fails/is stolen, it is not a worry.
"...This is a silent epidemic of media desensitisation that teaches kids it's OK to" invade other countries without good cause, moral authority, or a good plan.
Also, titanium is *very* fatigue resistant, and aircraft with titanium structural components have sometimes even been found to be stronger after being flown a few times than when they were built.
The above refers to one aircraft in particular. The SR-71/A-12 was found to have a stronger airframe after flight. This is not really due to titanium itself, but rather the gentle heating and cooling that the aircraft underwent with each flight. It annealed the metal, thereby making it stronger and helping to eliminate the fatigue that is normally problematic in airplane structures.
Actually from what I recall free speech issues on regulation of broadcast media are gotten around because the information is sent into everyones homes without any kind of subscription. It has nothing to do with being a channel of commerce. It's like regulating nudity on billboards, etc.
No, it's because the airwaves are owned by the public. That is why you need the permission of the FCC to transmit in certain bands.
DC power distribution is used in telecomm applications. They use a 48V bus and use DC/DC converters to get the required voltages. The DC/DC converters are expensive, and the AC->48V converter is also expensive.
You could just get auto-adapters for all your crap and then use an AC->12V converter. However, I imagine that this is more work than it's worth.
Why not just do what everybody else does and get more outlet strips?
Just put cable trays in the floors and walls. If the runs are big enough, you can then add not only wiring, but plumbing as well. Want to add a bathroom to this bedroom? No problem!
Go to your hardware store and buy some carpet padding. They may have scraps, which they may give to your for free. Use hot-glue to glue them on exposed parts of the inside of your case. Don't do it such that it obstructs airflow, but liberally plaster everywhere. If you're feeling really adventurous, make a muffler out of cardboard and carpet padding.
US attornies are the least likely to offer a generous plea. A US Attorney has huge resources at their disposal for discovery and prosecution. They are evaluated on their conviction rates; they almost never lose. One can reasonably assume that if one person is given a particularly good deal, somebody will be facing a much more rigorous prosecution because of it. If the Attorney could get two major convictions without a plea, they would.
I've found that poor areas are also lacking in Rolls Royce automobiles. I think that this correlation must be the cause. If we were to increase the number of luxury automobiles in the poorer parts of town, it would stimulate jobs and education.
Use the computers to store speach by native speakers from various places. There is a trememdous variation in English accents and dialects across the world. One avenue could be audible books. Another could be a database of particular words spoken in a sentence by various speakers.
I think the ability to archive, search, and playback are the computer's best qualities for language instruction.
It's called Angel Investment. You can book about 100-500K through Angels. In Austin, they work with groups (Texas Capital Network for one). Frequently, angels can hook you up with business connections. Even though you may not think you need it, they can also hook you up with some Adult Supervision. From talking with VC's first hand, before they were VC's, Adult Supervision is more important and helpful that you probably think. Use your noodle and you can probably find out how to hook up with angels.
As a doctor, perhaps you can answer the question that's been on my mind over this thing. If he's so sick, why doesn't some hospital admit him? As an inpatient, I would think that declines in health would be readily apparant to the attending physician. It would seem that there would be no reluctance to diagnose or treat as in inpatient.
Open CASCADE is an ingredient in a CAD system. From their web site:
Open CASCADE Technology can be best applied in development of numerical simulation software including CAD/CAM/CAE, AEC and GIS, as well as PDM applications.
I would fully expect an OSS system to use Open CASCADE. As far as I know, there is no other geometric engine that is anywhere near as advanced in the OSS space.
Serious CAD software. There are a few projects that do some 2D drafting. That is not sufficient. A serious CAD package can not only serve as an end application, but the backend to many tools.
I have thought on more than on occasion of starting a foundation to get such an effort off the ground. I felt then as I do now that there are many places that would contribute serious money to the effort of an OSS CAD. Organizations spend serious money on CAD. Additionally, there is lots of out of work talent that would be willing to devote serious time to such a project if it were financially possible for them.
The reason this is popular in America is because mobile phone rates are so cheap and frequently include free long distance. That's why Americans don't use SMS. If I wasn't doing lots of calling, I wouldn't be interested in flat-rate VOIP; I'd just use my cell phone.
You got me. I forgot to say lions share of personal income tax. Corporate income tax is a large chunk of change, and I should not have left that out. But I get the feeling, that's not what you meant.
If you are the owner of a sole proprietorship or a part-owner in a partnership, your company's gross revenue shows up on your personal income tax return at the end of the year.
This is true. A subchapter S corporation, some LLC's, LLP's, partnerships, and sole-propierterships are pass-through tax entities. As you say, you inherit the revenue and some expenses of the entity.
But that isn't necessarily personal wealth.
This is where I disagree. The entity generates some net-income that results in increased owner's equity. While it may not be cash, it is personal wealth. It's wealth, since it's worth something and it's personal because it is a pass-through entity.
Don't give me the line about how the wealthy aren't really wealthy and just are small business owners. If the small business owners really are being taxed so much that it would be cheaper to convert to a subchapter C corporation, they would; it offers many other advantages. Incidentally, the personal subchapter S investment holding company is one of the oldest tax dodges there is.
Sales taxes do, in fact, hurt the poor more than the wealthy, because poor people spend a bigger fraction of their income than wealthy people spend....
Flat taxes, of course, are not "rigged against the poor" at all. All citizens pay precisely the same fraction of their income in taxes. The only way you can come to the conclusion that they're rigged is if you start with the assumption that the wealthy should pay a bigger percentage, which is circular reasoning at its finest.
Oddly, the same reason that a sales tax hurts the poor is the same reason that a flat tax does. The other side of poor people spend a larger percentage of their money, is that they have a lower percentage of disposable income. A flat tax takes more of this disposable income and therefore impacts poor people more than rich ones.
Incidentally, the reality is, even after Bush's tax cuts, the wealthy pay the lion's share of US income taxes. The highest earning 20% of the population make 50% of the money. One can conclude that without a drastic cut-back in government spending, that the flat tax rate would be higher for most Americans than the rate they pay now.
Oddly enough, taxes don't usually pull the wealthy down to being not wealthy. It usually has to do with market forces. The "income redistribution" in the US is not a major force. The rich continue to get richer. When you think of it, this makes perfect sense. If you take, on average, a person that has $100 to invest per month and then take another that has $1000 to invest each month, the person with $1000 is going to do better. Why? The person with $1000 has more types of investments to choose from and lower overheads.
Re:low unemployment compared to europe
on
The Jobs Crunch
·
· Score: 1
Cool. I want European style unemployment insurance. I'd like to get 80% of my former salary for three years. I wouldn't feel bad about being out of work at all.
Wind farms produce, generally, 100% real power. A powerplant is required to balance that with reactive power. There are emerging technologies that will make this need considerable less in the future. There are some existing solutions that do not require a powerplant, essentially large power converter and conditioners. I saw the conditioner and prototypes of new turbine generator units at a wind energy trade show in Austin.
It's trolls like this that make the troll moderation -1. However, wouldn't it be nice to have a +1 Troll moderation? You can, of course, change your moderation scoring. However, I would argue that not all trolls are created equal. This one is clearly inferior. Event the GNAA can do better.
Not having worked amoungst a team of students in an effort like this makes it difficult to put in perspective. I have been in a similar group, not making solar cars, but solar houses. The students involved in the project I was involved with, and I imagine this one, gave their all to the project. It was their life. They worked sun up to sun up on the project under grueling conditions while still going to school. They were motivated by the hands on learning experience, the opportunity to educate others, the opportunity to be part of something constructive, but mostly their desire to create a world different from the one they live in today. Nobody on our team got seriously hurt. It seems like a miracle in retrospect. Working on the team was one of the best and most amazing experiences of my life. The team was tight knit; we spent seemingly every waking hour together. I just can't imagine the affect an accident like this has on the rest of the team. It must be utterly heartbreaking. The team has my deepest sympathy.
For those that debate the safety of the car design, the wisdom of highway regulations and current practices, keep in mind that this group isn't a company with vast resources trying to market a solar car. This is not the finished product boing foisted on you to buy. This is an exhibition and competition car. It's an experiment made by students. They do it because they love it.
Slashdot Mirror
>>For more than 50 years, the average american has
>>been brainwashed by car and petroleum companies
>>into believing that their car-centric "life" is
>>the best thing since industrial bakeries have
>>invented sliced bread.
>I call bull.
>
>The United States has an average population >density of 31 people per square km.
>Japan averages 337.
>England 243.
>Italy 193.
>Switzerland 181.
Your post implies that this population density is static. It is not. In the post-war years, the US started to de-densify. This was driven in part by the GI-bill which gave assistance to SINGLE FAMILY HOMES. The Interstate Highway system also played a big role. Both of these policies were orchestrated by the building and automobile industries. In fact, the american use of suburbia and single-use zoning is a realization of Le Corbusier's vision of the automobile post-city.
Before the post-war Levit Town suburbian boom, it was not uncommon for people to live in multi-family housing. Neighborhoods used to be designed with a mix of income levels and housing types. It was also frequent that they be designed within walking distance to non-residential areas, such as shops and businesses. The pre-suburbia corner grocer has been displaced and the convience store has been put in it's place.
While your assertion about population density is misleading, your general point is more or less right. The problem is not, however, with population density, but with the distance between population centers. It is much larger in the US than in many other places. This makes rail travel less viable than airplanes for many distances.
That said, trains are still a viable transportation system in many places in theory. If a bus serves it, a train could too. But Greyhound doesn't have to pay for the highways it travels on, while Amtrack has to pay for the rails it uses. In fact, through sneaky legislation, Amtrack assumes liability for the stretches of track that it leases from the major companies. So, if CSX doesn't maintain their track and Amtrack has a wreck on it, it's not CSX's negligence- it's Amtrack's liability. This helps make Amtrack unprofitable.
Busses aren't inherently cheaper than trians-- policy has made them that way. It costs many times as much per mile to maintain a freeway than it does to maintain a rail right-of-way. The carying capacity of the rails are higher.
Welcome to the world of govt employees! You get great bennifits, and don't have to really do shit, understand shit, or care about shit, because you don't really answer to anyone unless your branch gets their budget cut, and that won't happen as long as you spend all your current budget on dumb stuff.
Where do I sign up?
If the security of the content on the drives is that important, they should be encrypted. Encrypting the drive almost eliminates the risk of data disclosure from theft. It's tempting to think that the organization is secure and that nobody could pull an inside job, but it's deluding yourself. Each drive should be encrypted with a DIFFERENT key. When a drive fails/is stolen, it is not a worry.
"...This is a silent epidemic of media desensitisation that teaches kids it's OK to" invade other countries without good cause, moral authority, or a good plan.
Also, titanium is *very* fatigue resistant, and aircraft with titanium structural components have sometimes even been found to be stronger after being flown a few times than when they were built.
The above refers to one aircraft in particular. The SR-71/A-12 was found to have a stronger airframe after flight. This is not really due to titanium itself, but rather the gentle heating and cooling that the aircraft underwent with each flight. It annealed the metal, thereby making it stronger and helping to eliminate the fatigue that is normally problematic in airplane structures.
Actually from what I recall free speech issues on regulation of broadcast media are gotten around because the information is sent into everyones homes without any kind of subscription. It has nothing to do with being a channel of commerce. It's like regulating nudity on billboards, etc.
No, it's because the airwaves are owned by the public. That is why you need the permission of the FCC to transmit in certain bands.
DC power distribution is used in telecomm applications. They use a 48V bus and use DC/DC converters to get the required voltages. The DC/DC converters are expensive, and the AC->48V converter is also expensive.
You could just get auto-adapters for all your crap and then use an AC->12V converter. However, I imagine that this is more work than it's worth.
Why not just do what everybody else does and get more outlet strips?
Just put cable trays in the floors and walls. If the runs are big enough, you can then add not only wiring, but plumbing as well. Want to add a bathroom to this bedroom? No problem!
Go to your hardware store and buy some carpet padding. They may have scraps, which they may give to your for free. Use hot-glue to glue them on exposed parts of the inside of your case. Don't do it such that it obstructs airflow, but liberally plaster everywhere. If you're feeling really adventurous, make a muffler out of cardboard and carpet padding.
US attornies are the least likely to offer a generous plea. A US Attorney has huge resources at their disposal for discovery and prosecution. They are evaluated on their conviction rates; they almost never lose. One can reasonably assume that if one person is given a particularly good deal, somebody will be facing a much more rigorous prosecution because of it. If the Attorney could get two major convictions without a plea, they would.
I've found that poor areas are also lacking in Rolls Royce automobiles. I think that this correlation must be the cause. If we were to increase the number of luxury automobiles in the poorer parts of town, it would stimulate jobs and education.
Any encryption can be broken - given enough resources ...
This is false. A correct one-time pad can never be broken.
Use the computers to store speach by native speakers from various places. There is a trememdous variation in English accents and dialects across the world. One avenue could be audible books. Another could be a database of particular words spoken in a sentence by various speakers.
I think the ability to archive, search, and playback are the computer's best qualities for language instruction.
It's called Angel Investment. You can book about 100-500K through Angels. In Austin, they work with groups (Texas Capital Network for one). Frequently, angels can hook you up with business connections. Even though you may not think you need it, they can also hook you up with some Adult Supervision. From talking with VC's first hand, before they were VC's, Adult Supervision is more important and helpful that you probably think. Use your noodle and you can probably find out how to hook up with angels.
As a doctor, perhaps you can answer the question that's been on my mind over this thing. If he's so sick, why doesn't some hospital admit him? As an inpatient, I would think that declines in health would be readily apparant to the attending physician. It would seem that there would be no reluctance to diagnose or treat as in inpatient.
Open CASCADE is an ingredient in a CAD system. From their web site: Open CASCADE Technology can be best applied in development of numerical simulation software including CAD/CAM/CAE, AEC and GIS, as well as PDM applications.
I would fully expect an OSS system to use Open CASCADE. As far as I know, there is no other geometric engine that is anywhere near as advanced in the OSS space.
Serious CAD software. There are a few projects that do some 2D drafting. That is not sufficient. A serious CAD package can not only serve as an end application, but the backend to many tools.
I have thought on more than on occasion of starting a foundation to get such an effort off the ground. I felt then as I do now that there are many places that would contribute serious money to the effort of an OSS CAD. Organizations spend serious money on CAD. Additionally, there is lots of out of work talent that would be willing to devote serious time to such a project if it were financially possible for them.
The reason this is popular in America is because mobile phone rates are so cheap and frequently include free long distance. That's why Americans don't use SMS. If I wasn't doing lots of calling, I wouldn't be interested in flat-rate VOIP; I'd just use my cell phone.
That's not an accurate statement
You got me. I forgot to say lions share of personal income tax. Corporate income tax is a large chunk of change, and I should not have left that out. But I get the feeling, that's not what you meant.
If you are the owner of a sole proprietorship or a part-owner in a partnership, your company's gross revenue shows up on your personal income tax return at the end of the year.
This is true. A subchapter S corporation, some LLC's, LLP's, partnerships, and sole-propierterships are pass-through tax entities. As you say, you inherit the revenue and some expenses of the entity.
But that isn't necessarily personal wealth.
This is where I disagree. The entity generates some net-income that results in increased owner's equity. While it may not be cash, it is personal wealth. It's wealth, since it's worth something and it's personal because it is a pass-through entity.
Don't give me the line about how the wealthy aren't really wealthy and just are small business owners. If the small business owners really are being taxed so much that it would be cheaper to convert to a subchapter C corporation, they would; it offers many other advantages. Incidentally, the personal subchapter S investment holding company is one of the oldest tax dodges there is.
Sales taxes do, in fact, hurt the poor more than the wealthy, because poor people spend a bigger fraction of their income than wealthy people spend....
Flat taxes, of course, are not "rigged against the poor" at all. All citizens pay precisely the same fraction of their income in taxes. The only way you can come to the conclusion that they're rigged is if you start with the assumption that the wealthy should pay a bigger percentage, which is circular reasoning at its finest.
Oddly, the same reason that a sales tax hurts the poor is the same reason that a flat tax does. The other side of poor people spend a larger percentage of their money, is that they have a lower percentage of disposable income. A flat tax takes more of this disposable income and therefore impacts poor people more than rich ones.
Incidentally, the reality is, even after Bush's tax cuts, the wealthy pay the lion's share of US income taxes. The highest earning 20% of the population make 50% of the money. One can conclude that without a drastic cut-back in government spending, that the flat tax rate would be higher for most Americans than the rate they pay now.
Oddly enough, taxes don't usually pull the wealthy down to being not wealthy. It usually has to do with market forces. The "income redistribution" in the US is not a major force. The rich continue to get richer. When you think of it, this makes perfect sense. If you take, on average, a person that has $100 to invest per month and then take another that has $1000 to invest each month, the person with $1000 is going to do better. Why? The person with $1000 has more types of investments to choose from and lower overheads.
Cool. I want European style unemployment insurance. I'd like to get 80% of my former salary for three years. I wouldn't feel bad about being out of work at all.
Gosh, it would seem to me that unless you are actively "shipping jobs oversees," under Kerry's plan you get a corporate tax break.
Wind farms produce, generally, 100% real power. A powerplant is required to balance that with reactive power. There are emerging technologies that will make this need considerable less in the future. There are some existing solutions that do not require a powerplant, essentially large power converter and conditioners. I saw the conditioner and prototypes of new turbine generator units at a wind energy trade show in Austin.
It's trolls like this that make the troll moderation -1. However, wouldn't it be nice to have a +1 Troll moderation? You can, of course, change your moderation scoring. However, I would argue that not all trolls are created equal. This one is clearly inferior. Event the GNAA can do better.
Not having worked amoungst a team of students in an effort like this makes it difficult to put in perspective. I have been in a similar group, not making solar cars, but solar houses. The students involved in the project I was involved with, and I imagine this one, gave their all to the project. It was their life. They worked sun up to sun up on the project under grueling conditions while still going to school. They were motivated by the hands on learning experience, the opportunity to educate others, the opportunity to be part of something constructive, but mostly their desire to create a world different from the one they live in today. Nobody on our team got seriously hurt. It seems like a miracle in retrospect. Working on the team was one of the best and most amazing experiences of my life. The team was tight knit; we spent seemingly every waking hour together. I just can't imagine the affect an accident like this has on the rest of the team. It must be utterly heartbreaking. The team has my deepest sympathy.
For those that debate the safety of the car design, the wisdom of highway regulations and current practices, keep in mind that this group isn't a company with vast resources trying to market a solar car. This is not the finished product boing foisted on you to buy. This is an exhibition and competition car. It's an experiment made by students. They do it because they love it.