But honestly when you tell me that a solar panel has a life expectancy of 25 years, well, spread out the manufacturing "damage" over 25 years. It's not so bad after all, compared to burning oil/coal for 25 years, is it?
But the "damage" isn't spread out, we pay it up front and then hope to make up for it over the 25 year life span of these panels. Do we really want to do that at this time when we might be on the edge already ? The greenest way out is to use less and spend what we do use more wisely manufacturing "greener" power sources that we then use to bootstrap production of ever greater numbers of these same power sources, not this phony economic thinking.
Find the people who are the target for your application and sell to them. Go to whatever blogs, forums, etc they hang out on and tell them about your application and be helpful. Like this guy says: become a part of the community, give a crap and build something worthwhile.
Maybe the problem isn't that some people are rude but that that the majority of people allow the mouth breathers to act the way they do. Whatever happened to social pressure ? It's not that rude behavior has somehow become socially acceptable but that the silent majority doesn't want to speak up for some reason. Good on you for doing so.
Car Stereos I think win the rude device award. If I can hear your stereo in my car with the windows up, ac on, and over my stereo it is TOO freaking loud. Throw in playing songs with R rated lyrics so loud that you can not escape the strings of profanities and you have a recipe for bad manners.
Nope, still cell-phones. I don't know if it's just where I live but lately youths (mostly of the "ethnic" variety) have been using their cell phones as mini portable stereo's. Nothing worse than being stuck on a train with some idiot playing middle-eastern music over a tinny sounding phone speaker. Just when you thought cell phones couldn't get more annoying. At least in a car you can let them pass and you're rid of them.
Try complaining online about the Chinese system while in china and see how long you last. Freedom of speech and freedom of the press aren't just nice ideas, they're essential to the quality of life of the average citizen.
I agree, I'm also not defending the Chinese government here.
Our shelves in the west continue to overflow while all other nations on earth envy our wealth. You assume that all people WANT is a shirt, any shirt on their back, any meal in their stomachs, etc., which is an incredibly arrogant assumption on your part.
What people want is irrelevant, everybody wants to live like the Sultan of Brunei. It's unsustainable because it's only possible because of exploitation like that of the workers in China (and Africa and South-America) whose products we buy. Our shelves are overflowing because we are emptying others'.
Hand wringer like you always discount the value of human ingenuity.
I firmly believe we could engineer our way out of current mess but will we ? I'm not convinced the powers that be, who are all heavily involved in oil politics, won't run western civilization into the ground first. I'm a cynic, so shoot me.
Your selected metrics of health, literacy and nutrition are actually wonderful measures of the success of western capitalism when you compare the levels of first and third world nations because the first world wins every single time.
I agree, we've done quite well but we started with a lead (at least partly due to western imperialism and colonization.) My point was that countries who started their modern development later under a communist system improved a lot and generally more than their third world neighbors. If they failed, they failed upward.
People who bear an entitlement mentality tend to do poorly in such a system, but then again stupidity should hurt. You can not force someone to WANT to improve their lot in life.
I don't understand this mentality, equating poverty to stupidity and laziness, at all. It must be part of the famous protestant work ethic.
Regarding China I can recommend this TED presentation which shows quite nicely the change in priorities between the "communist" and "state capitalist" periods in China around the 03:50 mark. The fact there is starvation in the midst of a revolution or civil war should come as a surprise to no one and really doesn't say much about the actors in those events.
I'm not saying there were no institutional problems, such as forcing collectivization on farmers who historically are fiercely individualist and the whole quota system is clearly a bad idea. However at least part of the reason for the shortages in the eastern block was the fact that we were bankrupting them through an expensive arms race (in fact the western world is bankrupt too though it hasn't come out yet because we're still on top for the moment and China keeps buying our debt) while also gauging them in international trade for ideological reasons. Furthermore the "supermarket shelves overflowing with goods" is a bad metric for success. It is rather an example of the west's unsustainable way of living: there is no way all the people on earth could live like this without depleting all our resources in short order. Better metrics would be general health, literacy, lack of malnutrition, etc.
One of the problems I have with these discussions is the beam in our own eye is often ignored. The west has had more than its share of tyranny and abuses though it generally, though not exclusively, preferred to apply them to foreign countries and their populace rather than its own.
Our populace has many kinds of idiots, including those that think the only reason communism has failed everywhere it's been tried is because the right people weren't in charge.
If you look at many communist states they grew spectacularly despite many abuses in the system. Russia under communism for instance grew from a pre-industrial backwater that got beat down by the Japanese to a world superpower that pushed back the german war machine. Cuba grew from a defacto US plantation colony into an independent state with an infant mortality rate lower than that of the US. China became the workshop of the world under communism and the biggest US creditor holding USD 740 billion in U.S. debt. All 3 of these grew from dirt poor to states with good healthcare and education surpassing others in their region. To say they have "failed" is simplistic at best.
However, say the principal is sitting there with the student with a device with wires sticking out of it all over the place. The principal doesn't know enough about electronics to to be sure whether it is a safe device, or is indeed a bomb. Additionally, the principal doesn't trust the student since if it is a bomb the student probably wouldn't admit to it.
Someone who personally knows the student and could accurately assess the situation should have been there. The principle, and assistant principle or just a teacher. Was there no-one around who actually knew the kid ? Seems like a pretty bad school to me.
Emotional stress. Caused by the construction of a radio tower near their houses, leading to stress related illnesses. Maybe there's a lawsuit there if they can make a case for the company being negligent by not properly informing the residents of the impact (or lack thereof) of such a tower near them.
It's just a new take on an old custom. Here in Belgium there's a lot of (older) people who get their car blessed once a year during the pilgrimage to Scherpenheuvel. It's silly but hey to each his own.
I'm more worried about the pollution generated by the batteries going into these things. We're constructing huge motorized battery packs and I've not heard one person discuss how much pollution is generated during mining of the metals (in China, so coal-powered) to make them and later to recycle them. Seems to me the first step should be less cars, not different ones.
I propose we invoke the law of the school yard which clearly states that if they're going to see ours they're going to have to show us theirs. That should put an end to that.
Alpha Centauri would had been great otherwise, but future scifi thing wasn't that interesting for me.
I liked the whole living planet thing but then again I'm a big Frank Herbert fan so I was probably part of the target audience.
Not really the history part in Civ's either tho, I always just rushed to modern day with technology, but it's the necessary evil to build up your civilization for the modern days.
Interesting. I'm the exact opposite: I like building up a civ but lose interest when the game reaches modern times. Maybe that's why I liked AC with its focus on terraforming.
They should do a 15th year anniversary edition for next year, like Blue Byte did with Settlers 2.
Sounds great but if it's going to be anything like what they did to Colonization with Civilization IV: Colonization I'd rather they didn't. Unfortunately I think they are completely invested in the new Civ IV UI so the next iteration is probably going to be based on some updated version of it.
AI is better but the interface is a pain. I don't need zoomable 3D battles of units, that's only interesting the first time you see it (like friggin' Battlechess.) I still say Firaxis peaked with Alpha Centauri.
I think it might have survived if it was given time to find a company willing to invest in it. However they were in trouble during the biggest paradigm shift in modern computing: the birth (or rather popularization) of the internet. All companies that didn't have the resources to jump in at the right time and keep up with the net's accelerating development fell by the wayside.
Chinese society is quite conservative about sex, or at least it has that appearance. For example, it isn't unheard of to hear of a foreigner beaten into a coma for deflowering local girls. In a country where virginity is prized and sex can almost be like a contract for marriage, that sort of thing isn't taken lightly. In the same way, if Chinese people think their women are being debased (as in porn), they tend to get very angry.
To illustrate: recently former miss Belgium, UN goodwill ambassador and sexologist Goedele Liekens went to China to speak at the university of Beijing. Her lecture got shut down by the professor in charge because, true to her no nonsense nature, she wasn't shy about talking directly about the male and female genitals.
There's no way this law will stand. It'll take 1 person to go through the system up to the European Court of Human Rights to get it struck down. Freedom of expression is guaranteed by the EU human rights convention.
Are you suggesting that the astronomically low odds of being a victim of a terrorist attack while flying is due to the increased security? If so -- citations please.
No it's because the number of actual terrorists is pretty small and common sense measures already go a long way. The increased "security" measures probably have the opposite effect IMHO: added bureaucracy is the enemy of efficiency because it always provides a convenient excuse for incompetence or laziness and shift focus from doing the job to turf wars.
Slashdot Mirror
The guy who draws first is the agressor, we can't let the agressor win.
That seems awfully old fashioned in these times of preemptive wars doesn't it ?
But honestly when you tell me that a solar panel has a life expectancy of 25 years, well, spread out the manufacturing "damage" over 25 years. It's not so bad after all, compared to burning oil/coal for 25 years, is it?
But the "damage" isn't spread out, we pay it up front and then hope to make up for it over the 25 year life span of these panels. Do we really want to do that at this time when we might be on the edge already ? The greenest way out is to use less and spend what we do use more wisely manufacturing "greener" power sources that we then use to bootstrap production of ever greater numbers of these same power sources, not this phony economic thinking.
Marge clearly showed her tits, please move on to other types of porn.
As these were "child characters", I doubt he was interested in seeing breasts.
Find the people who are the target for your application and sell to them. Go to whatever blogs, forums, etc they hang out on and tell them about your application and be helpful. Like this guy says: become a part of the community, give a crap and build something worthwhile.
Maybe the problem isn't that some people are rude but that that the majority of people allow the mouth breathers to act the way they do. Whatever happened to social pressure ? It's not that rude behavior has somehow become socially acceptable but that the silent majority doesn't want to speak up for some reason. Good on you for doing so.
Car Stereos I think win the rude device award. If I can hear your stereo in my car with the windows up, ac on, and over my stereo it is TOO freaking loud.
Throw in playing songs with R rated lyrics so loud that you can not escape the strings of profanities and you have a recipe for bad manners.
Nope, still cell-phones. I don't know if it's just where I live but lately youths (mostly of the "ethnic" variety) have been using their cell phones as mini portable stereo's. Nothing worse than being stuck on a train with some idiot playing middle-eastern music over a tinny sounding phone speaker. Just when you thought cell phones couldn't get more annoying. At least in a car you can let them pass and you're rid of them.
Try complaining online about the Chinese system while in china and see how long you last. Freedom of speech and freedom of the press aren't just nice ideas, they're essential to the quality of life of the average citizen.
I agree, I'm also not defending the Chinese government here.
Our shelves in the west continue to overflow while all other nations on earth envy our wealth. You assume that all people WANT is a shirt, any shirt on their back, any meal in their stomachs, etc., which is an incredibly arrogant assumption on your part.
What people want is irrelevant, everybody wants to live like the Sultan of Brunei. It's unsustainable because it's only possible because of exploitation like that of the workers in China (and Africa and South-America) whose products we buy. Our shelves are overflowing because we are emptying others'.
Hand wringer like you always discount the value of human ingenuity.
I firmly believe we could engineer our way out of current mess but will we ? I'm not convinced the powers that be, who are all heavily involved in oil politics, won't run western civilization into the ground first. I'm a cynic, so shoot me.
Your selected metrics of health, literacy and nutrition are actually wonderful measures of the success of western capitalism when you compare the levels of first and third world nations because the first world wins every single time.
I agree, we've done quite well but we started with a lead (at least partly due to western imperialism and colonization.) My point was that countries who started their modern development later under a communist system improved a lot and generally more than their third world neighbors. If they failed, they failed upward.
People who bear an entitlement mentality tend to do poorly in such a system, but then again stupidity should hurt. You can not force someone to WANT to improve their lot in life.
I don't understand this mentality, equating poverty to stupidity and laziness, at all. It must be part of the famous protestant work ethic.
TL;DR I think we'll have to agree to disagree ;-)
Regarding China I can recommend this TED presentation which shows quite nicely the change in priorities between the "communist" and "state capitalist" periods in China around the 03:50 mark. The fact there is starvation in the midst of a revolution or civil war should come as a surprise to no one and really doesn't say much about the actors in those events.
I'm not saying there were no institutional problems, such as forcing collectivization on farmers who historically are fiercely individualist and the whole quota system is clearly a bad idea. However at least part of the reason for the shortages in the eastern block was the fact that we were bankrupting them through an expensive arms race (in fact the western world is bankrupt too though it hasn't come out yet because we're still on top for the moment and China keeps buying our debt) while also gauging them in international trade for ideological reasons. Furthermore the "supermarket shelves overflowing with goods" is a bad metric for success. It is rather an example of the west's unsustainable way of living: there is no way all the people on earth could live like this without depleting all our resources in short order. Better metrics would be general health, literacy, lack of malnutrition, etc.
One of the problems I have with these discussions is the beam in our own eye is often ignored. The west has had more than its share of tyranny and abuses though it generally, though not exclusively, preferred to apply them to foreign countries and their populace rather than its own.
Our populace has many kinds of idiots, including those that think the only reason communism has failed everywhere it's been tried is because the right people weren't in charge.
If you look at many communist states they grew spectacularly despite many abuses in the system. Russia under communism for instance grew from a pre-industrial backwater that got beat down by the Japanese to a world superpower that pushed back the german war machine. Cuba grew from a defacto US plantation colony into an independent state with an infant mortality rate lower than that of the US. China became the workshop of the world under communism and the biggest US creditor holding USD 740 billion in U.S. debt. All 3 of these grew from dirt poor to states with good healthcare and education surpassing others in their region. To say they have "failed" is simplistic at best.
However, say the principal is sitting there with the student with a device with wires sticking out of it all over the place. The principal doesn't know enough about electronics to to be sure whether it is a safe device, or is indeed a bomb. Additionally, the principal doesn't trust the student since if it is a bomb the student probably wouldn't admit to it.
Someone who personally knows the student and could accurately assess the situation should have been there. The principle, and assistant principle or just a teacher. Was there no-one around who actually knew the kid ? Seems like a pretty bad school to me.
The symptoms must be caused by something else.
Emotional stress. Caused by the construction of a radio tower near their houses, leading to stress related illnesses. Maybe there's a lawsuit there if they can make a case for the company being negligent by not properly informing the residents of the impact (or lack thereof) of such a tower near them.
It's just a new take on an old custom. Here in Belgium there's a lot of (older) people who get their car blessed once a year during the pilgrimage to Scherpenheuvel. It's silly but hey to each his own.
I'm more worried about the pollution generated by the batteries going into these things. We're constructing huge motorized battery packs and I've not heard one person discuss how much pollution is generated during mining of the metals (in China, so coal-powered) to make them and later to recycle them. Seems to me the first step should be less cars, not different ones.
I propose we invoke the law of the school yard which clearly states that if they're going to see ours they're going to have to show us theirs. That should put an end to that.
Wow, Bennett. You sure do like the sound of your own typing, don't you? You could really have said all that in 1/10th the space.
TL;DR
Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You're a plague and we are the cure.
Okay that's done with.
No, John. You are the cancer.
And then John was a virus.
It's the same in every field of activity (banks, everything), not only in IT.
In many fields where you are doing office work. The same isn't true for those working on an assembly line.
Alpha Centauri would had been great otherwise, but future scifi thing wasn't that interesting for me.
I liked the whole living planet thing but then again I'm a big Frank Herbert fan so I was probably part of the target audience.
Not really the history part in Civ's either tho, I always just rushed to modern day with technology, but it's the necessary evil to build up your civilization for the modern days.
Interesting. I'm the exact opposite: I like building up a civ but lose interest when the game reaches modern times. Maybe that's why I liked AC with its focus on terraforming.
They should do a 15th year anniversary edition for next year, like Blue Byte did with Settlers 2.
Sounds great but if it's going to be anything like what they did to Colonization with Civilization IV: Colonization I'd rather they didn't. Unfortunately I think they are completely invested in the new Civ IV UI so the next iteration is probably going to be based on some updated version of it.
AI is better but the interface is a pain. I don't need zoomable 3D battles of units, that's only interesting the first time you see it (like friggin' Battlechess.) I still say Firaxis peaked with Alpha Centauri.
I think it might have survived if it was given time to find a company willing to invest in it. However they were in trouble during the biggest paradigm shift in modern computing: the birth (or rather popularization) of the internet. All companies that didn't have the resources to jump in at the right time and keep up with the net's accelerating development fell by the wayside.
I did but all they told me was that I talk like a fag and my shit's all retarded.
Chinese society is quite conservative about sex, or at least it has that appearance. For example, it isn't unheard of to hear of a foreigner beaten into a coma for deflowering local girls. In a country where virginity is prized and sex can almost be like a contract for marriage, that sort of thing isn't taken lightly. In the same way, if Chinese people think their women are being debased (as in porn), they tend to get very angry.
To illustrate: recently former miss Belgium, UN goodwill ambassador and sexologist Goedele Liekens went to China to speak at the university of Beijing. Her lecture got shut down by the professor in charge because, true to her no nonsense nature, she wasn't shy about talking directly about the male and female genitals.
There's no way this law will stand. It'll take 1 person to go through the system up to the European Court of Human Rights to get it struck down. Freedom of expression is guaranteed by the EU human rights convention.
Are you suggesting that the astronomically low odds of being a victim of a terrorist attack while flying is due to the increased security? If so -- citations please.
No it's because the number of actual terrorists is pretty small and common sense measures already go a long way. The increased "security" measures probably have the opposite effect IMHO: added bureaucracy is the enemy of efficiency because it always provides a convenient excuse for incompetence or laziness and shift focus from doing the job to turf wars.
DON'T GIVE THEM IDEAS!
Unless they are using tequila to induce this coma, then I'm all for it. "I'm sorry sir this is a 10 drink minimum flight."