"So we should imprison people for falling victim to basic human flaws?"
Get real. Just about every crime in the book is a variant of some basic human flaw. Greed, anger, jealousy, neglect, and even plain laziness are all outlawed in one form or another. Everything form killing someone in anger, to being too lazy to put on a seat belt, are all outlawed. Those are all social issues too, should we decriminalize them as well?
Look at it a different way. Some drugs are outlawed for very good reason, such as crystal meth. It's a horrible drug that destroys people, and should absolutely be kept out of the hands of anyone naive enough to try it. Meth heads don't just hurt themselves, they generally become a threat to everyone around them as well. Becoming a danger to oneself and others to that degree is already grounds under various mental health acts for incarceration and forced treatment. I think it would be great to forcibly lock up anyone even addicted to crystal meth and not let them out until they are no longer a threat to themselves or others. If the system were to ever be serious about this kind of treatment, we wouldn't need all those prisons and crime would be down as well. It should be illegal to even be a junkie.
This just goes for the hard drugs. Relatively harmless drugs such as marijuana should be legalized and regulated much like alcohol and tobacco are now. Though anyone with serious abuse problems, especially regarding alcohol, should still be tested with the "significant danger to self and others" rule, and possibly forced into rehab. We lock up people with schizophrenia all the time, and nobody thinks it's a bad idea, yet very often much more harmful alcoholics run free and terrorize their families and neighbourhoods. I think as a society we have gone beyond the need to wait for severely messed up people to commit a crime before we can lock them up and treat them for the betterment of everyone involved.
Historically war and famine have been much cheaper alternatives to overpopulation. For a more humane way, the Chinese seem to be doing fairly well.
I can't imagine any launch and colonization effort would come within several orders of magnitude for any form of affordability. There are plenty of very good reasons to colonize in space, but I can't imagine solving overpopulation as being one of them. Not with the current level of technology, or anything remotely feasible on the drawing board.
Agreed, when possible, I make walls nice, round, divisible numbers. It really helps the process. As you point out, in real life many measurements are pre determined in one way or another. In that case, there are usually several ways to fudge things. In my career, I have used them all.
All things being equal, Imperial measurements require far less fudging than metric, for the reasons posted above. Things go together quicker and easier, with less mess. Imperial is a labour saver, at least in the design aspect of the construction industry. This is the opinion of someone with 10 years experience in the industry, working in a country where Metric is the official measurement system. I'm sure it's a strong reason why the USA hasn't switched over.
That being said, I don't think that it's enough to save the Imperial system. If I heard that the USA abolished the Imperial system, I would still celebrate, and I wouldn't miss it one bit. Though as a scientist I do think it is curious that a base 12 number system adds efficiency when used in practice.
Just as an add on thought... working with both number systems made me wonder how well a base-12 number system would work. Seeing how some things are much easier with a base 12 system, it would be very interesting to see. Much like our angular measurement system isn't metric, because it's very important to be able to divide 90 degrees by three, which would be messy with a metric system. Any comments?
Speaking from experience, as someone forced to use both measurement systems for length and area in the construction and design industry, I prefer imperial for some work. And I don't live in the USA. Why?
The fractional measurement system with a base-12 number system is the reason. For design purposes. Specifically division, which is common. It's frustrating to divide things and get lengths with fractional or repeating decimals. It clutters up the design space with unnecessarily large numbers, sometimes for small measurements. Often space is precious on blue prints on documents, and this actually makes a big difference.
For example, suppose I have a wall, that I need to break up to place things like doors, windows, or interior partitions. With the metric system, I can only divide by either 2, 5, or 10 and reasonably expect to get nice round numbers for my measurements. With the imperial system, with being able to revert to feet and inches, it's possible to divide by 2, 3, 4, 6, or 12, and reasonably expect a simple number in return. I'm especially fond of being able to divide by 3 and 4, which the metric system doesn't do very easily compared to the imperial.
Despite these benefits which I enjoy, I would still sacrifice the imperial system for the metric. In the big picture, it still makes more sense and is better overall. Personally I do believe it's the strong construction industry in big part that clings to the imperial system for their own legitimate reasons.
My local newspaper (www.edmontonsun.com) had replaced their commenting system with an exclusive Facebook system. It has stayed regardless of complaints by the public and that comments have decreased tenfold. It has ostensibly been touted as a "security" feature, though the hard core trolls quickly made fake FB accounts. I wonder what kind of backroom deal was tempting enough to get this large company to ruin their public image that badly?
I calculate that $300 invested over 10 years at 15% is $1,213.67, which is close to the $1,200 that the grandparent poster said he would have had to pay. Where do you get your 40%?
Oh I totally agree, I just thought it was nice to post a link to the article they were reporting on, seeing that neither they nor the submitter bothered to do so.
Holes in the sun! Sun losing gas to space! "Probably time is finally taking a toll on the benevolent star, which has been toiling hard for millennia!"
I wouldn't exactly call this science journalism. No explanation why, what will happen, etc... The only link on the article is labeled "NASA", but points to the main page of this crappy website. To their credit they have a photo of the sun, but is from another solar space mission unrelated to the article.
Hey editors, how on earth did this awful link get onto the main page?
Are you sure about your Wind plan? I have the $45 plan as well, and picture messaging is NOT unlimited... Which plan do you have and where can I get yours?
O hell no. I think it's high time the carriers in Canada need to be taught a lesson.
I have a Wind Mobile phone at the moment. I LOVE the service. I've shopped around, and no other company can even come remotely close to touching my plan. Last time I shopped around, other carriers either wouldn't even carry that kind of quality service, or the price was 2 to 3 times as much. If letting foreign companies own telecoms in Canada means Canadians stop getting charged absurdly high prices for phone service that would cost half as much anywhere else in the world, then I'm all for it.
I've been with the other major carriers here. They keep saying there's competition for cell service in Canada, but all the companies keep treating their customers as if there's a monopoly, so up till now even if we switch carriers things never get better. Wind is a great start, but when it comes to phone and internet service in Canada, the market is sick with protectionist corruption.
The Canadian who called for the execution of Assange is named Tom Flanagan. He was a top aide to Canada's prime minister Steven Harper many years ago, long before Harper became the prime minister. Currently he works as a political science professor at the University of Calgary. He often gives interviews to news agencies about his opinion, because he usually speaks his mind very freely without needing to think about who he upsets, because he hasn't had any political masters for quite some time. It's like calling a retired former aide to Obama while he was governor a "high ranking USA bureaucrat". No sane politician or bureaucrat in Canada would ever make such statements and still keep their job.
As a side note, the police now investigating Tom Flanagan for uttering death threats.
The internet is built by geeks... yet geeks hate what this internet is becoming. I think it's high time tech workers built a world wide union and got themselves some professional standards.
Where are these documents about other countries? I went to wikileaks.org, and I can't find them? There used to be lots of things about China, I can't find any of those things anymore.
Idiocy. A mob money launderer is making a profit. TPB was doing it as an ideology and an expression of free speech, regardless of the immoral laws curtailing such.
Slashdot Mirror
"So we should imprison people for falling victim to basic human flaws?"
Get real. Just about every crime in the book is a variant of some basic human flaw. Greed, anger, jealousy, neglect, and even plain laziness are all outlawed in one form or another. Everything form killing someone in anger, to being too lazy to put on a seat belt, are all outlawed. Those are all social issues too, should we decriminalize them as well?
Look at it a different way. Some drugs are outlawed for very good reason, such as crystal meth. It's a horrible drug that destroys people, and should absolutely be kept out of the hands of anyone naive enough to try it. Meth heads don't just hurt themselves, they generally become a threat to everyone around them as well. Becoming a danger to oneself and others to that degree is already grounds under various mental health acts for incarceration and forced treatment. I think it would be great to forcibly lock up anyone even addicted to crystal meth and not let them out until they are no longer a threat to themselves or others. If the system were to ever be serious about this kind of treatment, we wouldn't need all those prisons and crime would be down as well. It should be illegal to even be a junkie.
This just goes for the hard drugs. Relatively harmless drugs such as marijuana should be legalized and regulated much like alcohol and tobacco are now. Though anyone with serious abuse problems, especially regarding alcohol, should still be tested with the "significant danger to self and others" rule, and possibly forced into rehab. We lock up people with schizophrenia all the time, and nobody thinks it's a bad idea, yet very often much more harmful alcoholics run free and terrorize their families and neighbourhoods. I think as a society we have gone beyond the need to wait for severely messed up people to commit a crime before we can lock them up and treat them for the betterment of everyone involved.
Historically war and famine have been much cheaper alternatives to overpopulation. For a more humane way, the Chinese seem to be doing fairly well.
I can't imagine any launch and colonization effort would come within several orders of magnitude for any form of affordability. There are plenty of very good reasons to colonize in space, but I can't imagine solving overpopulation as being one of them. Not with the current level of technology, or anything remotely feasible on the drawing board.
Agreed, when possible, I make walls nice, round, divisible numbers. It really helps the process. As you point out, in real life many measurements are pre determined in one way or another. In that case, there are usually several ways to fudge things. In my career, I have used them all.
All things being equal, Imperial measurements require far less fudging than metric, for the reasons posted above. Things go together quicker and easier, with less mess. Imperial is a labour saver, at least in the design aspect of the construction industry. This is the opinion of someone with 10 years experience in the industry, working in a country where Metric is the official measurement system. I'm sure it's a strong reason why the USA hasn't switched over.
That being said, I don't think that it's enough to save the Imperial system. If I heard that the USA abolished the Imperial system, I would still celebrate, and I wouldn't miss it one bit. Though as a scientist I do think it is curious that a base 12 number system adds efficiency when used in practice.
Just as an add on thought... working with both number systems made me wonder how well a base-12 number system would work. Seeing how some things are much easier with a base 12 system, it would be very interesting to see. Much like our angular measurement system isn't metric, because it's very important to be able to divide 90 degrees by three, which would be messy with a metric system. Any comments?
Speaking from experience, as someone forced to use both measurement systems for length and area in the construction and design industry, I prefer imperial for some work. And I don't live in the USA. Why?
The fractional measurement system with a base-12 number system is the reason. For design purposes. Specifically division, which is common. It's frustrating to divide things and get lengths with fractional or repeating decimals. It clutters up the design space with unnecessarily large numbers, sometimes for small measurements. Often space is precious on blue prints on documents, and this actually makes a big difference.
For example, suppose I have a wall, that I need to break up to place things like doors, windows, or interior partitions. With the metric system, I can only divide by either 2, 5, or 10 and reasonably expect to get nice round numbers for my measurements. With the imperial system, with being able to revert to feet and inches, it's possible to divide by 2, 3, 4, 6, or 12, and reasonably expect a simple number in return. I'm especially fond of being able to divide by 3 and 4, which the metric system doesn't do very easily compared to the imperial.
Despite these benefits which I enjoy, I would still sacrifice the imperial system for the metric. In the big picture, it still makes more sense and is better overall. Personally I do believe it's the strong construction industry in big part that clings to the imperial system for their own legitimate reasons.
My local newspaper (www.edmontonsun.com) had replaced their commenting system with an exclusive Facebook system. It has stayed regardless of complaints by the public and that comments have decreased tenfold. It has ostensibly been touted as a "security" feature, though the hard core trolls quickly made fake FB accounts. I wonder what kind of backroom deal was tempting enough to get this large company to ruin their public image that badly?
You're going to a restrictive country with little human rights, and you think that encryption will keep you safe?
I think that XKCD put it best... http://xkcd.com/538/ I'm surprised nobody's posted this yet.
What kind of math is that?
I calculate that $300 invested over 10 years at 15% is $1,213.67, which is close to the $1,200 that the grandparent poster said he would have had to pay. Where do you get your 40%?
Oh I totally agree, I just thought it was nice to post a link to the article they were reporting on, seeing that neither they nor the submitter bothered to do so.
In a nutshell, coronal holes are a large source of Solar Wind https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Solar_wind
Just an after thought... The article DID mention that this was reported on space.com, but they didn't provide a link. Here it is:
http://www.space.com/10825-sun-holes-space-photo-hinode.html
I had a look, it's way better. Maybe this should have been the link provided in the submission.
Holes in the sun! Sun losing gas to space! "Probably time is finally taking a toll on the benevolent star, which has been toiling hard for millennia!"
I wouldn't exactly call this science journalism. No explanation why, what will happen, etc... The only link on the article is labeled "NASA", but points to the main page of this crappy website. To their credit they have a photo of the sun, but is from another solar space mission unrelated to the article.
Hey editors, how on earth did this awful link get onto the main page?
Are you sure about your Wind plan? I have the $45 plan as well, and picture messaging is NOT unlimited... Which plan do you have and where can I get yours?
O hell no. I think it's high time the carriers in Canada need to be taught a lesson.
I have a Wind Mobile phone at the moment. I LOVE the service. I've shopped around, and no other company can even come remotely close to touching my plan. Last time I shopped around, other carriers either wouldn't even carry that kind of quality service, or the price was 2 to 3 times as much. If letting foreign companies own telecoms in Canada means Canadians stop getting charged absurdly high prices for phone service that would cost half as much anywhere else in the world, then I'm all for it.
I've been with the other major carriers here. They keep saying there's competition for cell service in Canada, but all the companies keep treating their customers as if there's a monopoly, so up till now even if we switch carriers things never get better. Wind is a great start, but when it comes to phone and internet service in Canada, the market is sick with protectionist corruption.
Past performance is not a guarantee of future results. There's nothing stopping a downturn from going all the way to the bottom.
Sounds like you stopped eating 2 very calorie rich foods, and lost weight. Kudos to you, but I think that has nothing to do with HFCS.
What does a story about a failed architect have anything to do with wind turbines?
One factual correction:
The Canadian who called for the execution of Assange is named Tom Flanagan. He was a top aide to Canada's prime minister Steven Harper many years ago, long before Harper became the prime minister. Currently he works as a political science professor at the University of Calgary. He often gives interviews to news agencies about his opinion, because he usually speaks his mind very freely without needing to think about who he upsets, because he hasn't had any political masters for quite some time. It's like calling a retired former aide to Obama while he was governor a "high ranking USA bureaucrat". No sane politician or bureaucrat in Canada would ever make such statements and still keep their job.
As a side note, the police now investigating Tom Flanagan for uttering death threats.
The internet is built by geeks... yet geeks hate what this internet is becoming. I think it's high time tech workers built a world wide union and got themselves some professional standards.
Unless they agree before hand that no means yes.
Where are these documents about other countries? I went to wikileaks.org, and I can't find them? There used to be lots of things about China, I can't find any of those things anymore.
Idiocy. A mob money launderer is making a profit. TPB was doing it as an ideology and an expression of free speech, regardless of the immoral laws curtailing such.
How does the law of reciprocity work with victim-less crimes? To legalize smoking marijuana would mean to legalize marijuana smoking me?
Where freedom is a crime.
The real reason is media control. Now the police just have to aim for the guys holding the DSLR's.
If this was New York or Washington, I would say that it would be much more entertaining to attach it to a vehicle with diplomatic plates.