Old people are more likely to lose their sense of smell.
Old people are more likely to die within 5 years.
Didn't you RTFS?
. Despite taking issues such as age, nutrition, smoking habits, poverty and overall health into account,
You're trotting out Disraeli's line. That's normally a sign of someone who doesn't actually know how to read and analyse statistics. That's your failure, not a failure of statistics.
Whatever happened to walking (or cycling) to school? In the 13 (14?) years that I was in primary and secondary education, I think I got a lift to school on maybe three or four occasions - when Dad had some business to do in town rather than in the factory. And when I was at university, it was either walking or cycling to the department and once per week out on field work.
Shielding of 4.41 tons/m^2 [nasa.gov] is sufficient.
Hmmmm, My fist estimate on this sort of this is to look at the Earth's atmosphere. Living at the bottom of the atmosphere is good enough for a lifetime's shielding from interplanetary radiation. One atmosphere is equivalent to 10m of water depth (consult your diving manuals). That's 10 tonnes per square metre of protected area. Half of that amount - sounds reasonably credible.
What material to use? Well, air is evidently sufficient (see "lifetime" above). Water is convenient - you'll need a considerable quantity any way. Some metals for taking out the slowed down and secondary radiations. But you'll need be needing metals anyway. I'd probably let the outer parts of it freeze to ice, for a degree of micrometeorite protection, and for the same reason you'll want several layers of it.
While I'm not exactly a fan of Big Pharma, I can't for one second believe that they'd be so mind-bogglingly stupid as to actually do something like this deliberately.
An essential step in profiting from this sort of scare would be in letting the general public know about it, to generate an increase in voluntary (re-)vaccination rates. This story is the first I've heard about it, and there's no sign of the story on the BBC news site. So, no publicity means no increase in booster sales.
Anyway, I had my booster several years ago - due to travel in nasty parts of the world. Not concerned here, despite travelling to the Low Countries on a regular basis.
Part of the point about only being able to renew a few weeks before the end of the year was to prevent people from driving around for extended period without having an MoT. Insurance too. you had to produce a valid insurance cover note and MOT along with the log book when you renewed at the post office.
I'm not sure how the online thing works - you'd probably have to plug in the MoT test certificate number and your insurance policy number. But it's been that long since I did that, I don't actually know.
Road tax is down to £20 now. Hardly worth collecting.
But on the technological horizon, there's altered graphene based desalinization. It may be possible to efficiently generate drinking/farming water from the oceans, which will end this problem.
Which ocean are you going to take your water for desalinisation into the Aral Sea area from? The Indian, Arctic, or Pacific? (I wouldn't waste time trying to take it from the Caspian, Black or Mediterranean seas - the Caspian is already isolated and you'd just move the problem ; and the others are at the far end of literal bottlenecks at Gibraltar and Istanbul. Same argument for Persian Gulf and Hormuz)
2) pilots waste an insane amount of time with "um", "uh", explaining things verbosely, not planning what they are going to say ahead of time, etc.
Most people waste an inordinate amount of time on "um" and "errr" ; planned public speakers excepted, which is why they charge a significant fee. That's also why the ability to make a presentation in front of a meeting/ classroom, whatever is worth a significant chunk of your salary, if you can do it.
Radio interviewers doing vox pops typically do a process they call "de-umming" where they trim out the umms and errrrs of recorded speech, and typically reduce the length of the segment by 20-30%.
Revise your SF. Look, for example, at Niven and Pournelle's "Mote in God's Eye". If you've got significant laser assist from your launch planet, then you'll need to turn over well before mid-point to compensate for the absence of laser deceleration at the target planet.
contrasting levels of religous belief between scientists in the UK and India. It's almost as if atheism is irrelevent to pursuing a career in science
I note from the figures cited up-thread that religionism amongst Indian scientists was given as 32% (compared to 12% in the UK). Given that general levels of religionism in Indian society are higher than in the UK, that suggests, quite strongly, that being a scientist strongly correlates with a lower than normal (for the society) degree of religionism. Or that going into science strongly selects the less-religious people in a society.
Right away you are ignoring the definition of deity completely. Notice also that you neglected the definition of a soul,
Why do you keep bringing a soul into a discussion of atheism? The two are separate things.
Consider a universe ; it has no life forms, just dead chemistry Nuclear fusion, silicates, ices. That's it. Nothing else. No life. Nothing conscious or even self aware. An atheist position on such a universe is that there is no supernatural deity in that universe. Whether there are any souls in that universe is completely immaterial to that question.
A soul, and judgement system for a soul, does not meet atheist criteria of a deity-less universe.
Speaking as an atheist, and also a non-believer in souls, re-incarnation and an afterlife, I don't think you're right.
Without recourse to science fiction, I can envisage, within a century or so, the transfer of minds into computing systems. If that works then you've moved a non-corporeal entity (your consciousness, your memories, your personality) from one body to another. If that's not, functionally, a soul, an afterlife and re-incarnation, then I don't know what is. But that wouldn't stop me remaining an atheist.
The bible also refers to dogs and cattle. They're non-human intelligent life forms. Not very intelligent, but definitely more intelligent than a tree.
The specific question is about extra-terrestrial life forms - and not necessarily intelligent ones. Simply detecting the atmospheric chemistry signatures of some life forms keeping the atmosphere in disequilibrium would count as an extraterrestrial life form. And that would be a huge leap forward in our understanding of the universe.
whether in casual conversation or a more serious theological discussion like you'd get in Sunday school.
Strange - when I tried having serious theological discussion in Sunday School (like, "do you have any evidence to support that claim?"), I got thrown out. I was about 5 at the time.
Britain also has bat-shit insane Christian fundamentalists to match the most lunatic of the American examples. They don't seem to be as common as the septic ones, but they're definitely present.
Please define "doing right" in a universe that does not have a god.
How about defining "doing right" in a universe where there is a god, and she's a vicious sadistic psychopath - which judging from what is written in the Judeo-Christian-Muslim Bible is the universe that we live in.
The book in question is more about the existence of extraterrestrials anywhere in the universe, being detected by astronomical observations. Whether or not the ETs actually come here to visit us (and we're not going to visit them for centuries at least) doesn't seem to be an issue that the summaries address, or even consider important.
As a scientist (geologist), I know I have no data on the presence of life (or even intelligent life) on other planets, yet. But we do know that interstellar transport is not an easy problem, so the probability of intelligent life AND interstellar transport is going to be considerably lower than just the probability of intelligent life on it's own.
but simply building a peaceful house, there is no fighting...
That's invasion or illegal landing of an illegal immigrant. If someone tried dropping (say) a Mexican on an island off the coast of America, you'd count that as an illegal immigrant being landed, which would result in the arrest of the landed person and the seizure of the vessel assisting the illegal immigrant.
Your thought experiment isn't well thought out. Try running it again in the Great Salt Lake, as I said up-thread. The Kara Sea is surrounded by Russian-occupied islands. Everything in it is as Russian as any islands in the Great Salt Lake are American.
I work in exploration of the continental slopes (there's a damned good reason for my vessel to have holds capable of carrying 3km of riser pressure-rated to 20kpsi). It's on-going. Unfortunately the costs are much higher than for exploring, developing and producing in shallow water, which is why only the highest-quality prospects are worth developing.
Unless you believe Tom Gold (which would get you laughed out of any board room with a geologist in it), you need sediment in considerable quantities to generate significant quantities of hydrocarbons (note below). After which, looking at your hypsographic curve you'll see that the 5km water depth contour (OK, "isobath") encompasses something slightly less than 5% of the Earth's surface while the average depth of the oceans is 3800m.
And now you know why the commercial vessel I work on (one of 4 sister ships, built to the same basic design) has space for 3km of marine riser, and the largest vessels on the slipways of China only carry 5km of riser.
Some early explorations were discouraging, but MOST exploration is discouraging.
In intensely planned remote area deep water offshore exploration, the discovery rate is about one well in three.
I was discussing a previous well with another vessel's weather forecaster (that'll tell you which region we were in) who informed me that core was brought to the surface on three occasions which was oozing with oil; my geological sources refused to comment (quite correctly) several years later when I quizzed them about it, which I take as confirmation. A discovery! Yes. The prospect and regional license was abandoned. The discovery wasn't big enough to have a chance of repaying the billion dollars poured into finding it.
I've lived in a place where I don't need a car for longer than Slashdot has existed - by a factor of over three.
You'll note that it doesn't stop me from having access to the internet. You might also note that I don't live in New York, another place where a car is more of a hindrance than a help. (Same for pretty much any city founded before 1900, and most cities founded afterwards.)
Slashdot Mirror
Didn't you RTFS?
You're trotting out Disraeli's line. That's normally a sign of someone who doesn't actually know how to read and analyse statistics. That's your failure, not a failure of statistics.
Whatever happened to walking (or cycling) to school? In the 13 (14?) years that I was in primary and secondary education, I think I got a lift to school on maybe three or four occasions - when Dad had some business to do in town rather than in the factory. And when I was at university, it was either walking or cycling to the department and once per week out on field work.
Hmmmm, My fist estimate on this sort of this is to look at the Earth's atmosphere. Living at the bottom of the atmosphere is good enough for a lifetime's shielding from interplanetary radiation. One atmosphere is equivalent to 10m of water depth (consult your diving manuals). That's 10 tonnes per square metre of protected area. Half of that amount - sounds reasonably credible. What material to use? Well, air is evidently sufficient (see "lifetime" above). Water is convenient - you'll need a considerable quantity any way. Some metals for taking out the slowed down and secondary radiations. But you'll need be needing metals anyway. I'd probably let the outer parts of it freeze to ice, for a degree of micrometeorite protection, and for the same reason you'll want several layers of it.
and which genes do you target for that, and what will the side effects be?
Rotational pseudo-gravity is long-term the only technique we've got. Unless you know of something better.
An essential step in profiting from this sort of scare would be in letting the general public know about it, to generate an increase in voluntary (re-)vaccination rates. This story is the first I've heard about it, and there's no sign of the story on the BBC news site. So, no publicity means no increase in booster sales.
Anyway, I had my booster several years ago - due to travel in nasty parts of the world. Not concerned here, despite travelling to the Low Countries on a regular basis.
I'm not sure how the online thing works - you'd probably have to plug in the MoT test certificate number and your insurance policy number. But it's been that long since I did that, I don't actually know.
Road tax is down to £20 now. Hardly worth collecting.
Which ocean are you going to take your water for desalinisation into the Aral Sea area from? The Indian, Arctic, or Pacific? (I wouldn't waste time trying to take it from the Caspian, Black or Mediterranean seas - the Caspian is already isolated and you'd just move the problem ; and the others are at the far end of literal bottlenecks at Gibraltar and Istanbul. Same argument for Persian Gulf and Hormuz)
A bit later than that - it was around 1962 or 63 and decimalisation was in 1970 or 71.
Most people waste an inordinate amount of time on "um" and "errr" ; planned public speakers excepted, which is why they charge a significant fee. That's also why the ability to make a presentation in front of a meeting/ classroom, whatever is worth a significant chunk of your salary, if you can do it.
Radio interviewers doing vox pops typically do a process they call "de-umming" where they trim out the umms and errrrs of recorded speech, and typically reduce the length of the segment by 20-30%.
Revise your SF. Look, for example, at Niven and Pournelle's "Mote in God's Eye". If you've got significant laser assist from your launch planet, then you'll need to turn over well before mid-point to compensate for the absence of laser deceleration at the target planet.
I note from the figures cited up-thread that religionism amongst Indian scientists was given as 32% (compared to 12% in the UK). Given that general levels of religionism in Indian society are higher than in the UK, that suggests, quite strongly, that being a scientist strongly correlates with a lower than normal (for the society) degree of religionism. Or that going into science strongly selects the less-religious people in a society.
Why do you keep bringing a soul into a discussion of atheism? The two are separate things.
Consider a universe ; it has no life forms, just dead chemistry Nuclear fusion, silicates, ices. That's it. Nothing else. No life. Nothing conscious or even self aware. An atheist position on such a universe is that there is no supernatural deity in that universe. Whether there are any souls in that universe is completely immaterial to that question.
Speaking as an atheist, and also a non-believer in souls, re-incarnation and an afterlife, I don't think you're right.
Without recourse to science fiction, I can envisage, within a century or so, the transfer of minds into computing systems. If that works then you've moved a non-corporeal entity (your consciousness, your memories, your personality) from one body to another. If that's not, functionally, a soul, an afterlife and re-incarnation, then I don't know what is. But that wouldn't stop me remaining an atheist.
There's still no need for a god of any sort.
The specific question is about extra-terrestrial life forms - and not necessarily intelligent ones. Simply detecting the atmospheric chemistry signatures of some life forms keeping the atmosphere in disequilibrium would count as an extraterrestrial life form. And that would be a huge leap forward in our understanding of the universe.
Strange - when I tried having serious theological discussion in Sunday School (like, "do you have any evidence to support that claim?"), I got thrown out. I was about 5 at the time.
Britain also has bat-shit insane Christian fundamentalists to match the most lunatic of the American examples. They don't seem to be as common as the septic ones, but they're definitely present.
How about defining "doing right" in a universe where there is a god, and she's a vicious sadistic psychopath - which judging from what is written in the Judeo-Christian-Muslim Bible is the universe that we live in.
As a scientist (geologist), I know I have no data on the presence of life (or even intelligent life) on other planets, yet. But we do know that interstellar transport is not an easy problem, so the probability of intelligent life AND interstellar transport is going to be considerably lower than just the probability of intelligent life on it's own.
I thought it was Goodwin?
Bad example - religious affiliations in Europe didn't change significantly across the "Dark Ages".
That's invasion or illegal landing of an illegal immigrant. If someone tried dropping (say) a Mexican on an island off the coast of America, you'd count that as an illegal immigrant being landed, which would result in the arrest of the landed person and the seizure of the vessel assisting the illegal immigrant.
Your thought experiment isn't well thought out. Try running it again in the Great Salt Lake, as I said up-thread. The Kara Sea is surrounded by Russian-occupied islands. Everything in it is as Russian as any islands in the Great Salt Lake are American.
Unless you believe Tom Gold (which would get you laughed out of any board room with a geologist in it), you need sediment in considerable quantities to generate significant quantities of hydrocarbons (note below). After which, looking at your hypsographic curve you'll see that the 5km water depth contour (OK, "isobath") encompasses something slightly less than 5% of the Earth's surface while the average depth of the oceans is 3800m.
And now you know why the commercial vessel I work on (one of 4 sister ships, built to the same basic design) has space for 3km of marine riser, and the largest vessels on the slipways of China only carry 5km of riser.
In intensely planned remote area deep water offshore exploration, the discovery rate is about one well in three.
I was discussing a previous well with another vessel's weather forecaster (that'll tell you which region we were in) who informed me that core was brought to the surface on three occasions which was oozing with oil; my geological sources refused to comment (quite correctly) several years later when I quizzed them about it, which I take as confirmation. A discovery! Yes. The prospect and regional license was abandoned. The discovery wasn't big enough to have a chance of repaying the billion dollars poured into finding it.
Welcome to offshore exploration.
You'll note that it doesn't stop me from having access to the internet. You might also note that I don't live in New York, another place where a car is more of a hindrance than a help. (Same for pretty much any city founded before 1900, and most cities founded afterwards.)
The "rockall" argument. And that has succeeded, has it?
What a nasty little racist shit you are. American, I assume?