School is NOT about learning, it's about fitting in a given society.
"I will have to call BS on this one. I and others absolutely did not fit into the mold in college. The crowd we ran with was decidedly counter culture and the kids with the funny hair (us) certainly did not fit into the rest of the class in terms of looks, political perspective or social acceptance. However, we all took something away from the experience and kept our punk ethos of DIY into our careers in science, medicine, engineering and business and music and we all are much happier because of it."
"The data provided is interesting, but not useful in the context provided. Sure, on those roads (with what traffic density?), a small drop in the fatality rate occured. What other events or changes happened at the same time (weather, cars being used,...)?"
The "safety" movement has been using incomplete analysis for decades. Passing laws to make us safer , but when we are not made safer using excuses to cover their tracks. When you experiment on populations of people with laws and such it is very hard to isolate variables. What you are left with is a high degree of speculation and "common sense" which is quite often wrong. That is why we vote on such things instead of leaving them up to self appointed experts. Analysing populations of people and making useful conclusions is far more an art than a science.
"but the failure to act in a timely manner and not having a system in place to save lives is something the governments local to the indian ocean have proved shameful about, not the usa"
Not sure who I am agreeing or disagreeing with here, but I'd like to point out that the US doesn't even have an Atlantic tsunami warning system in place. The Pacific is the only system in place. Though, we have probably many more sensor capabilities in place than in the Indian Ocean, there is no plan or system in place on the American Eastern coast for this sort of thing either. That might change after this disaster, but up until now only the Pacific Ocean has been considered the major threat area.
"I disagree. Here in the UK there has been rather a lot of coverage"
If you listen to the BBC in the US then the coverage is obviously the same as in the UK. I believe many of the major US radio markets carry BBC, so, the unfortunate reality might be that those who care about the rest of the world will listen to the BBC, plus CNN and CNN Headline News have had pretty continuous coverage of this disaster also. The rest can watch or listening to local interest stories, sports and weather and occassionaly the latest skirmish in Iraq and only getting the latest tally of dead from the local stations. But really these "news" organizations have very little resources to report on worldwide news, so I think it is understandable that they can only report the aggregate of what other more capable news gathering organizations can.
And with articles that point out that "The central tier of states will experience climate conditions much like those that now occur in the southern tier, and the northern tier will feel like the central tier, the report warns."
"warns" ?? This sounds pretty good to me. Sounds like my house will be a few feet closer to the beach and there will be more warm days to enjoy it.
Though given that I will be 125 years old, not sure I'd be going to the beach too much.
This is a good point. The chances of civilization being detroyed, are far greater than the species as a whole. We have multiple examples on earth of civilizations falling because of natural disasters and climactic changes. During that time civilization usually remained in pockets, but if suddenly international or interregional commerce failed then we would cease being able to maintain the technologies that we now rely upon.
Obviously, oil is the biggest one of these, but also the transportation of other raw materials and food are vital to the existance of our civilization. Just think how far your lunch today has travelled to be in your stomach.
Individuals though would likely get along, as a few people need only a some number of acres of arable land with some supplies to eek out an existance.
"*= Yes I'm aware, Russia and canada are also producing gem quality diamonds, but those mines can't exactly afford to flood the market so far that diamonds plummet in value, because thier mines have less diamonds than the debeer's mines."
not to mention that they are very happy to be selling their products at artificially inflated prices. Besides DeBeers could easily undercut their prices if they ever tried a price war, but that would be mutually destructive. If anything the Canadian diamonds have been marketed as a more exclusive item.
analysing a book is like divining entrails. You can read whatever meaning you like into it, but once you start picking it apart you will lose its original purpose.
"Government regulation is un-American and inefficient. Let the market decide. Those companies whose flights don't end in smoking craters will get more business."
That is crazy talk!! In your world everyone would be flying Quantas. And heck if they ever make me fly upside down!
"Slashdot: Where geeks discussing legal issues with absolutely no knowledge of the subject get modded up."
Slashdot: where people who have anything to add to the conversation get modded up. Meta bitching (did I just coin a phrase?) doesn't add to the conversation, thus I do not expect to get moddded up with this comment.
Even if you are wrong on some detail, or wrong altogether, those can be useful points of the conversation because they usually elicit a correction. But at least they add to the conversation and will likley eventually be modded back down as "overrrated" if they are wrong and someone else corrects them.
"enjoy the catscans, MRIs, velcro, and slashdot, all of which wouldn't be possible without the US space program."
US military more rightly.
And maybe maybe not, we will never know. An argument like that is like saying 'thank god that the sun comes up in the east', well what of it, if the sun came up in the west then what would that really matter.
If the US space program wasn't around maybe it would have been someone else. Or maybe the same people would have come up with the same ideas, but have gotten there resources elsewhere. Who knows.
I have great hopes for fusion, but hope is not a plan. If the technology had been figured out, then there would be prototype reactors that actually produced more energy than they required.
Of course, good can come from wasteful and unwise spending. Just as some people do win the lottery. But if the US government tries to win and the prize is a million dollars then the US government would spend 2 million to win it and another 10 million to study it.
The problem is that economics do matter, money is just an abstraction of the value of people's labor , which is finite. When we in debt future generations we might be making it impossible for them to make the wise investment in fusion, when the technology actually works.
"Thats 3 trillion allocated to be spent, its going to get spent, and if you saw some of the other government programs fleecing the american tax dollar, you get my point. Developing a moon base, or space elevator, or some other conceived but not yet developed idea will get a return on our tax dollars with priceless knowledge."
priceless... like your mother's hug, or a child's smile. Priceless doesn't cost a Billion dollars. A Billion Dollars is very very priceful.
A billion dollars are about the taxes on 170,000 people making 40k a year. That is taking 2 months of nearly two hundred thousand peoples lives, against their will, for your little wet dream of space ships, moon bases and jack and the beanpoles to nowhere. Double or triple that billion dollars in interest when you consider that the money is borrowed from powerful institutions which will be paid back with interest.
That the money would be wasted anyway, is not a good argument for spending money on something that will have no benefit to those who it is being taken from. I don't know about you, but an extra $6000 would have a profound effect on my life right now and I am offended that you would choose your fantasy over my life.
Now I'd be willing to bet that there are 200,000 people willing and able to give six thousand dollars apiece in order to establish a moon base or whatever it is if they are presented with a meaningful plan. Or to pledge the money for a prize to effect a plan.
Whatever bullshit you want to spread about taxes being spent according to the will of the people, paying interest on debt to buy that for which a use cannot even be fully conceived is not likely what our unborn children have in mind.
When we have a compelling plan for a public purpose and the money to pay for it, then it will be made available. Until then, don't tread on me and don't condemn future generations to a life of mediocrity enslaved to a past that they could not choose.
As for a prize that is only spent upon success of a goal, sure it is better than actually spending the money and failing, but the goals should serve a clearly definable public purpose or should be privately financed.
And for God sake, you have to know that even a measly Billion dollars here and there adds up.
"I always find it odd that so many "Nerds", people who spend their time programming in languages that demand incredibly exact syntax, can't get basic "natural language" syntax right."
Most computer geeks seem to consider natural language as a form of psuedo code. It doesn't need to work, just as long as it approximates some idea of functionality.
"Oops. You're in "Baastan". Since you live in an apartment I think it safe to assume you are not part of the Eastern Aristocrasy. Sorry, no guns for you peon."
... took 45 minutes to respond when two drugged out guys were trying to break down my apartment door threatening to kill me us because we threatened to call the cops when they tried to beat up a guy for telling them not to write on the walls.
Luckily the door held.
When the Boston PD finally showed up 45 minutes later, all I could say was thanks for coming and there was no more problem. It was a Saturday night, so I 'm sure the police were busy.
It comes down to sometimes the cops will be there and sometimes they won't, you have to be ready to help yourself and your neighbors with compassion, restraint and a can of whoop ass if needed.
"Yeah, I'm horrible at figuring out my own taxes. The problem is that so is just about everyone else. And while I misspoke by characterizing the 40% as the self-employment tax, it's no exaggeration to say that if you're a simple IC, you really have to put about 40% aside to cover the quarterly payments to the IRS and to make sure you don't risk penalties later."
True, income taxes might work out to about 30-35% of your income regardless of whether you are an IC. It is just that as an IC you have to do it yourself, so the "paycheck" is not the same type as when you are a W2 employee where taxes are already withheld from you. I think your perspective is about the psycological effects of having to write a cehck to the IRS every quarter versus never seeing the money in your pocket in the first place. Psycologically speaking I think it is a lot smarter to pay your own taxes so that you know how much you are paying versus having them witheld from your paycheck which makes it easier but less aparent. My guess would be that on average that people that never see their taxes taken out of their pocket are a lot more likely not to consider taxes the burden that they really are. The politicians knew this when the devised the current tax system.
I believe he was seeking a doctor or someone with some direct experience who recognized the symptoms, not someone who doesn't know what the problem is to go tell him to go see yet another doctor.
For those of you who refuse to care enough to read the account, he HAS been to several doctors who have been unable to diagnose the problem and treat it successfully.
So, if there is someone out there that is a doctor or knows a doctor or someone who has been sick recently, had these symptoms and was diagnosed and successfully treated, then that might actually be useful if you could take a look at this and spend a few minutes to think about it. Or recommend a good doctor in his area.
Slashdot Mirror
School is NOT about learning, it's about fitting in a given society.
"I will have to call BS on this one. I and others absolutely did not fit into the mold in college. The crowd we ran with was decidedly counter culture and the kids with the funny hair (us) certainly did not fit into the rest of the class in terms of looks, political perspective or social acceptance. However, we all took something away from the experience and kept our punk ethos of DIY into our careers in science, medicine, engineering and business and music and we all are much happier because of it."
You sure do use the word "we" alot in there.
That is the worst argument that I have ever heard. It's not even worth attacking.
So, why do you?
"The data provided is interesting, but not useful in the context provided. Sure, on those roads (with what traffic density?), a small drop in the fatality rate occured. What other events or changes happened at the same time (weather, cars being used, ...)?"
The "safety" movement has been using incomplete analysis for decades. Passing laws to make us safer , but when we are not made safer using excuses to cover their tracks. When you experiment on populations of people with laws and such it is very hard to isolate variables. What you are left with is a high degree of speculation and "common sense" which is quite often wrong. That is why we vote on such things instead of leaving them up to self appointed experts. Analysing populations of people and making useful conclusions is far more an art than a science.
"Not much tectonic activity in the Atlantic; at least not enough to justify such a system."
m is.html/ GntWavesH itAtlantic.html
yea, just like the Indian Ocean... before now.
Another source in the atlantic is land slides not just tectonic activity.
quick google search:
http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/GG/ASK/tsuna
http://www.huttoncommentaries.com/ECNews
"but the failure to act in a timely manner and not having a system in place to save lives is something the governments local to the indian ocean have proved shameful about, not the usa"
Not sure who I am agreeing or disagreeing with here, but I'd like to point out that the US doesn't even have an Atlantic tsunami warning system in place. The Pacific is the only system in place. Though, we have probably many more sensor capabilities in place than in the Indian Ocean, there is no plan or system in place on the American Eastern coast for this sort of thing either. That might change after this disaster, but up until now only the Pacific Ocean has been considered the major threat area.
"I disagree. Here in the UK there has been rather a lot of coverage"
If you listen to the BBC in the US then the coverage is obviously the same as in the UK. I believe many of the major US radio markets carry BBC, so, the unfortunate reality might be that those who care about the rest of the world will listen to the BBC, plus CNN and CNN Headline News have had pretty continuous coverage of this disaster also. The rest can watch or listening to local interest stories, sports and weather and occassionaly the latest skirmish in Iraq and only getting the latest tally of dead from the local stations. But really these "news" organizations have very little resources to report on worldwide news, so I think it is understandable that they can only report the aggregate of what other more capable news gathering organizations can.
And with articles that point out that "The central tier of states will experience climate conditions much like those that now occur in the southern tier, and the northern tier will feel like the central tier, the report warns."
"warns" ?? This sounds pretty good to me. Sounds like my house will be a few feet closer to the beach and there will be more warm days to enjoy it.
Though given that I will be 125 years old, not sure I'd be going to the beach too much.
This is a good point. The chances of civilization being detroyed, are far greater than the species as a whole. We have multiple examples on earth of civilizations falling because of natural disasters and climactic changes. During that time civilization usually remained in pockets, but if suddenly international or interregional commerce failed then we would cease being able to maintain the technologies that we now rely upon.
Obviously, oil is the biggest one of these, but also the transportation of other raw materials and food are vital to the existance of our civilization. Just think how far your lunch today has travelled to be in your stomach.
Individuals though would likely get along, as a few people need only a some number of acres of arable land with some supplies to eek out an existance.
" Yeah, but I heard that like 89% of all statistics like that are made up anyway."
completely wrong, it is more like 92%.
"*= Yes I'm aware, Russia and canada are also producing gem quality diamonds, but those mines can't exactly afford to flood the market so far that diamonds plummet in value, because thier mines have less diamonds than the debeer's mines."
not to mention that they are very happy to be selling their products at artificially inflated prices. Besides DeBeers could easily undercut their prices if they ever tried a price war, but that would be mutually destructive. If anything the Canadian diamonds have been marketed as a more exclusive item.
analysing a book is like divining entrails. You can read whatever meaning you like into it, but once you start picking it apart you will lose its original purpose.
"Your co-workers would think you were a nutjob if they saw half of what you posted as AC to Slashdot. ;P"
Your coworkers probably already consider you a nutjob.
"Government regulation is un-American and inefficient. Let the market decide. Those companies whose flights don't end in smoking craters will get more business."
That is crazy talk!! In your world everyone would be flying Quantas. And heck if they ever make me fly upside down!
"Slashdot: Where geeks discussing legal issues with absolutely no knowledge of the subject get modded up."
Slashdot: where people who have anything to add to the conversation get modded up. Meta bitching (did I just coin a phrase?) doesn't add to the conversation, thus I do not expect to get moddded up with this comment.
Even if you are wrong on some detail, or wrong altogether, those can be useful points of the conversation because they usually elicit a correction. But at least they add to the conversation and will likley eventually be modded back down as "overrrated" if they are wrong and someone else corrects them.
" Laziness is the mother of invention."
Or maybe I should have said.... Laziness is the father of invention.
Laziness is the mother of invention.
"enjoy the catscans, MRIs, velcro, and slashdot, all of which wouldn't be possible without the US space program."
US military more rightly.
And maybe maybe not, we will never know. An argument like that is like saying 'thank god that the sun comes up in the east', well what of it, if the sun came up in the west then what would that really matter.
If the US space program wasn't around maybe it would have been someone else. Or maybe the same people would have come up with the same ideas, but have gotten there resources elsewhere. Who knows.
I have great hopes for fusion, but hope is not a plan. If the technology had been figured out, then there would be prototype reactors that actually produced more energy than they required.
Of course, good can come from wasteful and unwise spending. Just as some people do win the lottery. But if the US government tries to win and the prize is a million dollars then the US government would spend 2 million to win it and another 10 million to study it.
The problem is that economics do matter, money is just an abstraction of the value of people's labor , which is finite. When we in debt future generations we might be making it impossible for them to make the wise investment in fusion, when the technology actually works.
"Thats 3 trillion allocated to be spent, its going to get spent, and if you saw some of the other government programs fleecing the american tax dollar, you get my point. Developing a moon base, or space elevator, or some other conceived but not yet developed idea will get a return on our tax dollars with priceless knowledge."
priceless... like your mother's hug, or a child's smile. Priceless doesn't cost a Billion dollars. A Billion Dollars is very very priceful.
A billion dollars are about the taxes on 170,000 people making 40k a year. That is taking 2 months of nearly two hundred thousand peoples lives, against their will, for your little wet dream of space ships, moon bases and jack and the beanpoles to nowhere. Double or triple that billion dollars in interest when you consider that the money is borrowed from powerful institutions which will be paid back with interest.
That the money would be wasted anyway, is not a good argument for spending money on something that will have no benefit to those who it is being taken from. I don't know about you, but an extra $6000 would have a profound effect on my life right now and I am offended that you would choose your fantasy over my life.
Now I'd be willing to bet that there are 200,000 people willing and able to give six thousand dollars apiece in order to establish a moon base or whatever it is if they are presented with a meaningful plan. Or to pledge the money for a prize to effect a plan.
Whatever bullshit you want to spread about taxes being spent according to the will of the people, paying interest on debt to buy that for which a use cannot even be fully conceived is not likely what our unborn children have in mind.
When we have a compelling plan for a public purpose and the money to pay for it, then it will be made available. Until then, don't tread on me and don't condemn future generations to a life of mediocrity enslaved to a past that they could not choose.
As for a prize that is only spent upon success of a goal, sure it is better than actually spending the money and failing, but the goals should serve a clearly definable public purpose or should be privately financed.
And for God sake, you have to know that even a measly Billion dollars here and there adds up.
"I always find it odd that so many "Nerds", people who spend their time programming in languages that demand incredibly exact syntax, can't get basic "natural language" syntax right."
Most computer geeks seem to consider natural language as a form of psuedo code. It doesn't need to work, just as long as it approximates some idea of functionality.
If someone wants voting machines, then they want to make it easier to steal your vote.
The rest is bullshit.
"Oops. You're in "Baastan". Since you live in an apartment I think it safe to assume you are not part of the Eastern Aristocrasy. Sorry, no guns for you peon."
But swords were at the ready.
... took 45 minutes to respond when two drugged out guys were trying to break down my apartment door threatening to kill me us because we threatened to call the cops when they tried to beat up a guy for telling them not to write on the walls.
Luckily the door held.
When the Boston PD finally showed up 45 minutes later, all I could say was thanks for coming and there was no more problem. It was a Saturday night, so I 'm sure the police were busy.
It comes down to sometimes the cops will be there and sometimes they won't, you have to be ready to help yourself and your neighbors with compassion, restraint and a can of whoop ass if needed.
"Yeah, I'm horrible at figuring out my own taxes. The problem is that so is just about everyone else. And while I misspoke by characterizing the 40% as the self-employment tax, it's no exaggeration to say that if you're a simple IC, you really have to put about 40% aside to cover the quarterly payments to the IRS and to make sure you don't risk penalties later."
True, income taxes might work out to about 30-35% of your income regardless of whether you are an IC. It is just that as an IC you have to do it yourself, so the "paycheck" is not the same type as when you are a W2 employee where taxes are already withheld from you. I think your perspective is about the psycological effects of having to write a cehck to the IRS every quarter versus never seeing the money in your pocket in the first place. Psycologically speaking I think it is a lot smarter to pay your own taxes so that you know how much you are paying versus having them witheld from your paycheck which makes it easier but less aparent. My guess would be that on average that people that never see their taxes taken out of their pocket are a lot more likely not to consider taxes the burden that they really are. The politicians knew this when the devised the current tax system.
I believe he was seeking a doctor or someone with some direct experience who recognized the symptoms, not someone who doesn't know what the problem is to go tell him to go see yet another doctor.
For those of you who refuse to care enough to read the account, he HAS been to several doctors who have been unable to diagnose the problem and treat it successfully.
So, if there is someone out there that is a doctor or knows a doctor or someone who has been sick recently, had these symptoms and was diagnosed and successfully treated, then that might actually be useful if you could take a look at this and spend a few minutes to think about it. Or recommend a good doctor in his area.