Look at this [opensecrets.org]. Summarized here for your pleasure: Total donations, 1990-2004 for Enron: 29% to Democrats, 71% to Republicans. Enron heavily favored Republicans in their political contributions, both on the state and national level. Enron obviously favored the Republican party.
And yet when push came to shove, and Enron came begging the Bush Admin for a bailout, they shut the door in their faces. Contrast with the Clinton Admin, which pulled big strings to win a lopsided deal for Enron in India. Which dollar was the better spent for Enron?
It is false that dollars spent=influence gained. The dollars get the donor a hearing (sometimes), but the convincing is not merely in the talking.
All three makers of the voting machines are Bush donors. And if they were Dean donors, this what matter... how exactly? Gore is once again shown to be a mere blathering idiot. Most corporations make political contributions to one or BOTH parties. It is irrelevant.
Sure, CO2 is naturally occuring, but the excessive amounts that we've been producing are certainly *not* natural.
What's more, you understand that the carbon locked in fossil fuels were fixed by plants and animals, if our theory of the origin of fossil fuels are correct. Where was this carbon fixed from? From the atmosphere. That's right, the carbon we're releasing into the atmosphere was free atmospheric CO2 at some time in the distant past. Atmospheric CO2 levels are, in geologic time, at rock bottom levels. Measuring CO2 levels in the thousands of years is meaningless for determining natural variability.
It isn't that they don't predict everything perfectly, it is that they don't predict anything accurately at all.
If Newton's Laws explained a physics of nature, but couldn't predict anything with any degree of accuracy, Newton's Laws would have been rightly worthless. Models and theories don't exist for their own sake. The test of the worth of a scientific model isn't a scientists' willingness to admit its' shortcomings, it's in the models predictiveness. Period.
Europe experienced a heat wave this summer because a North African warm front jumped north. In other words - local natural climate variation. Just because it is the "hottest" in "recorded history" does not mean it is not "natural." It just means that you've hit the probability bump in the road.
That's false even by the scientists' own admission. The models are not predictive. Part of the obvious falsity of the claims made by the IPC is that the computer models project warming at the surface, and in the upper atmosphere. The upper atmosphere has actually cooled. If the model is not predictive - it is worthless. The models can not even manage predictiveness for known past climate events.
Right of First Sale or no, this is the Achilles Heel of paid downloadable music. You don't eliminate the hemorrhage of illegally distributed digital copies.
Joe Music Lover pays 99 cents for his song. Great! Then Joe Music Lover puts it up on his favorite peer network. Back to square one.
As long as someone wants something for nothing, all this is moot.
Most computer science people are conservatives by nature , and I look for this one issue to drive a large percentage to vote against the Republican party in the next election.
US warmongering neo-conservative bureaucrat assholes got yet another reason to cut funding to space exploration and related technologies.
Ah. Of course you know that the US civil service is comprised of liberal career government workers for the most part, and that the neo-conservative warmongering assholes in this administration have boosted funding for next generation space exploration technology, like nuclear electric rocketry. And Americans are supposed to be ignorant. You can't even get your digs correct.
It's called revising a hypothesis to accomodate new data. Nothing too shocking.
Derek
Re:The speculations just keep getting wilder...
on
Iceman Otzi was a Fighter
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
Well, the article seems to suggest that the scientists concluded that Otzi had attempted to remove the arrow from his back, but only succeeded in removing the shaft, leaving the point in his shoulder.
He was found clutching his knife, with indications from cuts on his hands that he was in a knife fight. With bruises to his torso that indicate he may have been beaten.
Seems to me the evidence does seem to point to the scenario: he was shot, pulled the shaft from his body, and was in a running fight that ended with a nasty close-up knife fight, which resulted in his demise.
Sorry to burst your bubble but French central "authority" is not really one. Quebec has its own authority which the French one won't include.
And this changes my argument.... how? That's called the "true but irrelevant" fallacy.
Derek
Re:You definitely don't know the military/intellig
on
Building a Better Bomb
·
· Score: 1
This particular poster falls into the category of "waste of breath." If he/she is determined to believe that the "other side" is in a vast conspiracy to conceal the truth, and only "our side" acts in good faith, then there is no use in anyone trying to disabuse them of the notion. Doing so only reinforces their belief that they are one of the elite who "really understand what's going on, man." Sorry state of politics, reduced to paranoia.
It's not a case of "which was around earlier", it's a case of "what do the British use? Let's not use that". They could do no worse than the old English that the English themselves had discarded.
At the same time, what's the point of saying "what do the British use? Let's USE that." Just because the language started there, doesn't mean the Brits have some manner of objective authority on the matter. There is no central English authority, like French. Do the Americans understand the British spellings, and vice versa? Then who really gives a rat's arse one way or another? It's all very silly.
Over 90% of the missed targets in Afghanistan were the result of human error - target finders on the ground making a mistake in entering GPS coordinates for the most part.
Listen, I don't really give a rat's ass whether you believe "the Man" is lying to you or not. Doesn't affect me one way or another. But obviously unlike you, I know many great men and women who serve in the US Armed Forces, some who are retired career soldiers. You can believe whoever you want. I'll take it from the horse's mouth, from people who've been there.
True. One lost first world job generally results in 5 or more Indian or Filipino jobs, plus more profit for the compamy.
And lower priced goods and an increase in overall wealth. Those 5 or more Indian or Filipino jobs invariably pay more than any other local job, increasing the affluence of Indians and Filipinos and allowing them to live better, healthier lives. And with more money they can BUY MORE AMERICAN GOODS AND SERVICES.
Slashdot Mirror
But OV costs an arm and a leg. And paying people with experience in OV costs and arm and a leg.
Even WorldCom (formerly UUNET) doesn't use OV for its hosting datacenters. Too expensive. They use open source tools on linux.
Look at this [opensecrets.org]. Summarized here for your pleasure: Total donations, 1990-2004 for Enron: 29% to Democrats, 71% to Republicans. Enron heavily favored Republicans in their political contributions, both on the state and national level. Enron obviously favored the Republican party.
And yet when push came to shove, and Enron came begging the Bush Admin for a bailout, they shut the door in their faces. Contrast with the Clinton Admin, which pulled big strings to win a lopsided deal for Enron in India. Which dollar was the better spent for Enron?
It is false that dollars spent=influence gained. The dollars get the donor a hearing (sometimes), but the convincing is not merely in the talking.
All three makers of the voting machines are Bush donors. And if they were Dean donors, this what matter... how exactly? Gore is once again shown to be a mere blathering idiot. Most corporations make political contributions to one or BOTH parties. It is irrelevant.
Sure, CO2 is naturally occuring, but the excessive amounts that we've been
producing are certainly *not* natural.
What's more, you understand that the carbon locked in fossil fuels were fixed by plants and animals, if our theory of the origin of fossil fuels are correct. Where was this carbon fixed from? From the atmosphere. That's right, the carbon we're releasing into the atmosphere was free atmospheric CO2 at some time in the distant past. Atmospheric CO2 levels are, in geologic time, at rock bottom levels. Measuring CO2 levels in the thousands of years is meaningless for determining natural variability.
Humans breath out CO2 by the ton. Are we pollution machines?
Really, the inanity of the redefining "air pollution" to moralize CO2 emissions for an agenda is reprehensible. And dishonest in the extreme.
Derek
Ahhh yes, the ad hominem.
Get it all out of your system. You obviously can't argue rationally or reasonably, so have to make baseless little man put-downs.
I'm a Mensan, by the way. So really, keep your angry man rhetoric to yourself.
It isn't that they don't predict everything perfectly, it is that they don't predict anything accurately at all.
If Newton's Laws explained a physics of nature, but couldn't predict anything with any degree of accuracy, Newton's Laws would have been rightly worthless. Models and theories don't exist for their own sake. The test of the worth of a scientific model isn't a scientists' willingness to admit its' shortcomings, it's in the models predictiveness. Period.
Yes. We should all sit on our asses and do nothing until we are 100% sure.
Seems to be Slashdotters preferred strategy in foreign affairs...
Derek
Europe experienced a heat wave this summer because a North African warm front jumped north. In other words - local natural climate variation. Just because it is the "hottest" in "recorded history" does not mean it is not "natural." It just means that you've hit the probability bump in the road.
And by the way - CO2 isn't "air pollution."
That's false even by the scientists' own admission. The models are not predictive. Part of the obvious falsity of the claims made by the IPC is that the computer models project warming at the surface, and in the upper atmosphere. The upper atmosphere has actually cooled. If the model is not predictive - it is worthless. The models can not even manage predictiveness for known past climate events.
Right of First Sale or no, this is the Achilles Heel of paid downloadable music. You don't eliminate the hemorrhage of illegally distributed digital copies.
Joe Music Lover pays 99 cents for his song. Great! Then Joe Music Lover puts it up on his favorite peer network. Back to square one.
As long as someone wants something for nothing, all this is moot.
Derek
Most computer science people are conservatives by nature , and I look for this one issue to drive a large percentage to vote against the Republican party in the next election.
This is so funny it scares me.
Derek
Really ducks the whole point. Which part of International Space Station means "United States has to bear the brunt of the cost."
The United States has contributed an inordinate amount of time and treasure for that White Elephant, as is the usual case with anything International.
Derek
US warmongering neo-conservative bureaucrat assholes got yet another reason to cut funding to space exploration and related technologies.
Ah. Of course you know that the US civil service is comprised of liberal career government workers for the most part, and that the neo-conservative warmongering assholes in this administration have boosted funding for next generation space exploration technology, like nuclear electric rocketry. And Americans are supposed to be ignorant. You can't even get your digs correct.
Derek
That's funny, because I don't know any American that thinks Europe is a "country." But I know plenty of Europeans that seem to think so.
Derek
The fact is that software engineering cannot be compared to nuts-and-bolts engbineering because of its complexity. Your example is thus void.
Huh?? A piece of software is more complex than a modern machine, like a car or 747? Get the fuck out of town...
Derek
Hey! It's Maureen Dowd! Maybe even Krugman! Sure that wasn't the NY Times?
Derek
It's called revising a hypothesis to accomodate new data. Nothing too shocking.
Derek
Well, the article seems to suggest that the scientists concluded that Otzi had attempted to remove the arrow from his back, but only succeeded in removing the shaft, leaving the point in his shoulder.
He was found clutching his knife, with indications from cuts on his hands that he was in a knife fight. With bruises to his torso that indicate he may have been beaten.
Seems to me the evidence does seem to point to the scenario: he was shot, pulled the shaft from his body, and was in a running fight that ended with a nasty close-up knife fight, which resulted in his demise.
Derek
Sorry to burst your bubble but French central "authority" is not really one. Quebec has its own authority which the French one won't include.
And this changes my argument.... how? That's called the "true but irrelevant" fallacy.
Derek
This particular poster falls into the category of "waste of breath." If he/she is determined to believe that the "other side" is in a vast conspiracy to conceal the truth, and only "our side" acts in good faith, then there is no use in anyone trying to disabuse them of the notion. Doing so only reinforces their belief that they are one of the elite who "really understand what's going on, man." Sorry state of politics, reduced to paranoia.
Derek
It's not a case of "which was around earlier", it's a case of "what do the British use? Let's not use that". They could do no worse than the old English that the English themselves had discarded.
At the same time, what's the point of saying "what do the British use? Let's USE that." Just because the language started there, doesn't mean the Brits have some manner of objective authority on the matter. There is no central English authority, like French. Do the Americans understand the British spellings, and vice versa? Then who really gives a rat's arse one way or another? It's all very silly.
Derek
Over 90% of the missed targets in Afghanistan were the result of human error - target finders on the ground making a mistake in entering GPS coordinates for the most part.
Listen, I don't really give a rat's ass whether you believe "the Man" is lying to you or not. Doesn't affect me one way or another. But obviously unlike you, I know many great men and women who serve in the US Armed Forces, some who are retired career soldiers. You can believe whoever you want. I'll take it from the horse's mouth, from people who've been there.
Derek
True. One lost first world job generally results in 5 or more Indian or Filipino jobs, plus more profit for the compamy.
And lower priced goods and an increase in overall wealth. Those 5 or more Indian or Filipino jobs invariably pay more than any other local job, increasing the affluence of Indians and Filipinos and allowing them to live better, healthier lives. And with more money they can BUY MORE AMERICAN GOODS AND SERVICES.
Derek
That's funny, it's not a "conservative wank" idea at all. It's KEYNESIAN ECONOMICS, stupid.
Derek