Critics note that nearly 3,000 teachers have been laid off over the past two years, the academic year and programs have been slashed, the district faces a $640 million shortfall and some schools persistently rank among the nation's lowest performing.
Keep in mind that capital costs and operating costs are very different things when it comes to government accounting. Very often funds from higher levels of government are for capital costs only. Capital costs provide quick economic turnover which is something the government strives to do. If they hadn't built this school it doesn't mean the money would have gone to pay teachers. Not that I'm suggesting that the system is ok, just that you shouldn't necessarily criticize this particular project on these grounds.
The choice to incorporate is not one that the state can require you to do.
Who said anything about incorporation? Business license != incorporation. Lots of people run non-incorporated businesses and require a license to do so.
It's most likely the water chemistry. Most North American water systems are saturated with minerals
Wow. Imagine that. Minerals. In water. The humanity. I demand that North America triple distill all water before piping it to homes, lest we all be harmed by these evil minerals.
The only way the $1 coin will ever be adopted is if they stop circulating the $1 paper currency. Additionally, it will require vending machine companies to replace all their coin slots to accept $1 coins, rather than having the $1 bill slot. While it shouldn't be an impossible task, since coin slots are available in other countries, and there should be an easy migration route, it would still be an expense.
Ehh it's not too big a deal. I remember when they came out with the toonie and the vendors complained about having to update their machines. They got over it though.
There are problems though. Either it would reduce the tips in strip clubs, since you couldn't pay in $1 bills, or it would increase their revenue since you'd now be paying with $5 bills. No girl likes coins tossed at her.
Funny you should mention that. I've heard tell from my oil field buddies that there are strip clubs in Alberta where the girls have set up a little game. The game works like this: they tape stuff to their nipples (usually posters and such), and the audience throws loonies at them. If you knock the object off with your loonie you get to keep it as a prize.
This will let teachers troll for payoff kickbacks, a good-size scandal is almost certain.
That was my concern, but it seems like bet limits might not make that worthwhile. It seems like you can only bet a few tens of dollars at first. Even with some of the best odds (100:1 for a 1st year betting that they'll have a 4.0 at the end of four years) you can't stand to win more than 2 or 3 thousand dollars. To ensure winning that bet you'd have to have a bunch of profs in on it. And if you try to ensure a bet where it only takes one prof, the odds are going to be much lower and there won't likely be enough payoff for the two of you to put your necks on the line.
Game the system. If there are not betting limits, heres what you do.
1. Attend college on list for a few semesters, fail most classes, but not enough to get kicked out.
2. Bet double your accumulated tuition cost, and then overload on your mickey mouse degree classes.
3. No xxxxxxxx step, just straight profit
If you RTFA you'd see that they have limits on your bets. You can't bet enough to make it worthwhile to flush your tuition down the drain or to throw a few semesters.
Bet $1Billion you will get an F, then don't show up for the exam. For that kind of sum I won't bother repeating the year - in fact, I won't bother even going back to school.
That was my first thought, until I RTFA. They have capped bets. The limit increases the more you use the system, but I doubt it ever increases to the point where a single statistical anomaly (aka a forced F) would bankrupt them.
Another way to look at the study is that iPhone owners are insufferable idiots not prepared to make the compromises necessary to stay in a long term relationship
What are you talking about? They've been faithful to Apple and AT&T for almost four years now.
Either way I hope they enjoy their HPV induced cervical cancer and other sexually transmitted diseases.
Well now you're just being jealous. You'd take 10 sex partners if you could get 'em.
George Carlin: People add extra words when they want things to sound more important than they really are. "Boarding process". Sounds important. It isn't.
[laughter]
George Carlin: It's just a bunch of people getting on an airplane. People like to sound important. Weathermen on Television talk about shower activity. Sounds more important than showers. I even heard one guy on CNN talk about a rain event. I swear to God. He said, "Louisiana's expecting a rain event". I said, "holy shit I hope I can get tickets to that!"
Perhaps a little offtopic, so feel free to mod me so...
I work in urban planning, and for some reason my profession likes to refer to things like "water features" and "street furniture". It's a fucking fountain and a bench, can't we please stop being pompous assholes?
Couldn't they just build a separate rail system next to the road or are they too cramped for space?
That. Most roads that are worth having public transit on also happen to be in areas that have buildings along them. Even if there aren't buildings, the rail builder needs to aquaire the right-of-way to put this separate rail system. We're talking major cash and major headaches caused if there's even a single place where the right-of-way can't be aquired. With this design they could use existing RoWs at minimum cost.
I'm betting it costs a lot less to lay rails than to actually build an el and all of that infrastructure.
I definitely agree with you on that. However, the real benefit to cost probably isn't the infrastructure savings, but the right-of-way benefits. One of the biggest costs of building light rail or monorail or whatever is getting a place to put it. With this "bus" the city already has the right-of-way and is doubling up on its use.
Actually you make some good points. I'm just overly sensitive to proposed solutions of anthropogenic global warming; they always seem to reek of a thinly-veiled global socialist agenda.
If politics could be completely stripped from the debate I think people would find that many of us "deniers" are not as closed-minded as it appears. It's just that I would rather live in a hot free society than socialist one.
Ummm wow. I actually had a double take there. Someone on Slashdot was reasonable enough to acknowledge another argument that had merit.
I guess I can't help but do the same. You're right, this issue has become way too political. There's a lot of productive problem solving that could happen if this was a discussion rather than a "fucking [insert political affiliation here] want to destroy the world."
I think one thing we need to do is separate the argument over global warming happening from the argument over people causing it. It seems to be pretty clear that warming IS happening, whether it's because of people, or sun cycles, or whatever explanation you have. It's also very clear that there are things we can do to prepare for this warming; things like placing infrastructure in areas where it's going to be safe from sea level rise. However, so many discussions about this preparation are bogged down in arguing about cause, when they're two separate issues.
As we can now see that Global Warming supporters have turned it into a religion ("undeniable" is a typical way to say that you won't accept new facts, eg: "God's existence is undeniable"), perhaps they can qualify for tax free status and I can deny their religion because I'm an atheist?
Do you really believe we're sitting in some "magical temperature sweet spot"?
I do actually. At least there is for our civilization. The Earth couldn't care less what the temperature is. However, we humans have build our major civilizations along existing coasts. We've built our most populous cities in temperate areas. We've focused our agriculture on areas that are relatively nearby to our cities. We depend on seasonal temperatures and rainfall that are historically predictable to make decisions on what to plant. We have made incredible investment in a system that is based around current world temperatures. There is a "magical temperature sweet spot" and it's the status quo.
I've suggested this elsewhere for other wind farms. How about having a hydrogen electrolysis plant nearby where water can be turned into Hydrogen that can be turned back into electricity during non-peak wind (tidal, or whatever) periods. Hydrogen can be burnt turning it back into water easily and produces heat that can be turned into electricity cheaply and easily. The most expensive part of the whole unit would be the hydrogen storage. This can safely be placed underground to avoid leaks and explosions if required.
They are doing this in some locations. I know that this is what's happening for British Columbia's first wind farm. However, the incentive is not grid stability, but power lines that are too far away. It's cheaper to truck hydrogen than it is to extend the power grid to the farm.
But I guess it would have been their right to remove a flyer you would have stuck in the inside of the shop door, doesn't it? Your example works backwards it seems.
And therin lies the nub of the issue. Apple certainly has no right to stop the Consumer Report from being published, just as the computer store couldn't stop the other poster from handing out flyers. However, I imagine Apple is well within their bounds to remove posts about the topic on THEIR forums, just as they could remove posts about porn or hacking or racism, or just as they could remove unwated flyers from their physical store.
Whether they should exercise this power is another matter entirely. Methinks the damage done by this move outweighs the damage of allowing the posts to contine.
I get this feeling every time I sit down to watch the World Cup and they mention 20 year old Thomas Muller. Gah! 20! What the hell have I done with my 22 years?
Or bypass the permit altogether and do it under the table. It's really no one's business what you build on your property.
Except that what you build on your property very often affects your neighbours. What you build can affect fire safety, rainwater runoff, noise, etc. I would say what you build on your own property is very much everyone else's business.
This is already done with birds. I worked at a bird observatory for a little while. We could catch birds in nets, clip a small feather from their wing, and send the samples off to be analyzed. We were able to tell a lot about the travels of our birds based on isotope ratios in their feathers.
Slashdot Mirror
Critics note that nearly 3,000 teachers have been laid off over the past two years, the academic year and programs have been slashed, the district faces a $640 million shortfall and some schools persistently rank among the nation's lowest performing.
Keep in mind that capital costs and operating costs are very different things when it comes to government accounting. Very often funds from higher levels of government are for capital costs only. Capital costs provide quick economic turnover which is something the government strives to do. If they hadn't built this school it doesn't mean the money would have gone to pay teachers. Not that I'm suggesting that the system is ok, just that you shouldn't necessarily criticize this particular project on these grounds.
The choice to incorporate is not one that the state can require you to do.
Who said anything about incorporation? Business license != incorporation. Lots of people run non-incorporated businesses and require a license to do so.
Over half of what people recycle, ends up in our landfills anyway because it's cheaper to dump it, than it is to recycle it.
Source? And the Bullshit episode doesn't count. Penn and Teller officially retracted that one.
It's most likely the water chemistry. Most North American water systems are saturated with minerals
Wow. Imagine that. Minerals. In water. The humanity. I demand that North America triple distill all water before piping it to homes, lest we all be harmed by these evil minerals.
The only way the $1 coin will ever be adopted is if they stop circulating the $1 paper currency. Additionally, it will require vending machine companies to replace all their coin slots to accept $1 coins, rather than having the $1 bill slot. While it shouldn't be an impossible task, since coin slots are available in other countries, and there should be an easy migration route, it would still be an expense.
Ehh it's not too big a deal. I remember when they came out with the toonie and the vendors complained about having to update their machines. They got over it though.
There are problems though. Either it would reduce the tips in strip clubs, since you couldn't pay in $1 bills, or it would increase their revenue since you'd now be paying with $5 bills. No girl likes coins tossed at her.
Funny you should mention that. I've heard tell from my oil field buddies that there are strip clubs in Alberta where the girls have set up a little game. The game works like this: they tape stuff to their nipples (usually posters and such), and the audience throws loonies at them. If you knock the object off with your loonie you get to keep it as a prize.
This will let teachers troll for payoff kickbacks, a good-size scandal is almost certain.
That was my concern, but it seems like bet limits might not make that worthwhile. It seems like you can only bet a few tens of dollars at first. Even with some of the best odds (100:1 for a 1st year betting that they'll have a 4.0 at the end of four years) you can't stand to win more than 2 or 3 thousand dollars. To ensure winning that bet you'd have to have a bunch of profs in on it. And if you try to ensure a bet where it only takes one prof, the odds are going to be much lower and there won't likely be enough payoff for the two of you to put your necks on the line.
Game the system. If there are not betting limits, heres what you do. 1. Attend college on list for a few semesters, fail most classes, but not enough to get kicked out. 2. Bet double your accumulated tuition cost, and then overload on your mickey mouse degree classes. 3. No xxxxxxxx step, just straight profit
If you RTFA you'd see that they have limits on your bets. You can't bet enough to make it worthwhile to flush your tuition down the drain or to throw a few semesters.
Bet $1Billion you will get an F, then don't show up for the exam. For that kind of sum I won't bother repeating the year - in fact, I won't bother even going back to school.
That was my first thought, until I RTFA. They have capped bets. The limit increases the more you use the system, but I doubt it ever increases to the point where a single statistical anomaly (aka a forced F) would bankrupt them.
Another way to look at the study is that iPhone owners are insufferable idiots not prepared to make the compromises necessary to stay in a long term relationship
What are you talking about? They've been faithful to Apple and AT&T for almost four years now.
Either way I hope they enjoy their HPV induced cervical cancer and other sexually transmitted diseases.
Well now you're just being jealous. You'd take 10 sex partners if you could get 'em.
I think it's mandatory in "plane speech". George Carlin did a famous routine about it:
Quote
George Carlin: People add extra words when they want things to sound more important than they really are. "Boarding process". Sounds important. It isn't. [laughter] George Carlin: It's just a bunch of people getting on an airplane. People like to sound important. Weathermen on Television talk about shower activity. Sounds more important than showers. I even heard one guy on CNN talk about a rain event. I swear to God. He said, "Louisiana's expecting a rain event". I said, "holy shit I hope I can get tickets to that!"
Perhaps a little offtopic, so feel free to mod me so...
I work in urban planning, and for some reason my profession likes to refer to things like "water features" and "street furniture". It's a fucking fountain and a bench, can't we please stop being pompous assholes?
Couldn't they just build a separate rail system next to the road or are they too cramped for space?
That. Most roads that are worth having public transit on also happen to be in areas that have buildings along them. Even if there aren't buildings, the rail builder needs to aquaire the right-of-way to put this separate rail system. We're talking major cash and major headaches caused if there's even a single place where the right-of-way can't be aquired. With this design they could use existing RoWs at minimum cost.
Only problem there would be debris de-railing them.
Debris don't seem to be a proble with trolly buses or light rail. I'm not sure this will be an issue.
I'm betting it costs a lot less to lay rails than to actually build an el and all of that infrastructure.
I definitely agree with you on that. However, the real benefit to cost probably isn't the infrastructure savings, but the right-of-way benefits. One of the biggest costs of building light rail or monorail or whatever is getting a place to put it. With this "bus" the city already has the right-of-way and is doubling up on its use.
Games? Bring on the thermoelectric Fleshlight!
May I introduce you to the Real Touch. Most definitely NSFW.
Actually you make some good points. I'm just overly sensitive to proposed solutions of anthropogenic global warming; they always seem to reek of a thinly-veiled global socialist agenda. If politics could be completely stripped from the debate I think people would find that many of us "deniers" are not as closed-minded as it appears. It's just that I would rather live in a hot free society than socialist one.
Ummm wow. I actually had a double take there. Someone on Slashdot was reasonable enough to acknowledge another argument that had merit.
I guess I can't help but do the same. You're right, this issue has become way too political. There's a lot of productive problem solving that could happen if this was a discussion rather than a "fucking [insert political affiliation here] want to destroy the world."
I think one thing we need to do is separate the argument over global warming happening from the argument over people causing it. It seems to be pretty clear that warming IS happening, whether it's because of people, or sun cycles, or whatever explanation you have. It's also very clear that there are things we can do to prepare for this warming; things like placing infrastructure in areas where it's going to be safe from sea level rise. However, so many discussions about this preparation are bogged down in arguing about cause, when they're two separate issues.
As we can now see that Global Warming supporters have turned it into a religion ("undeniable" is a typical way to say that you won't accept new facts, eg: "God's existence is undeniable"), perhaps they can qualify for tax free status and I can deny their religion because I'm an atheist?
Ahh yes, the classic argumentum ad hominem
Do you really believe we're sitting in some "magical temperature sweet spot"?
I do actually. At least there is for our civilization. The Earth couldn't care less what the temperature is. However, we humans have build our major civilizations along existing coasts. We've built our most populous cities in temperate areas. We've focused our agriculture on areas that are relatively nearby to our cities. We depend on seasonal temperatures and rainfall that are historically predictable to make decisions on what to plant. We have made incredible investment in a system that is based around current world temperatures. There is a "magical temperature sweet spot" and it's the status quo.
I'm not sure I'd want organs from someone who has ALS. Wouldn't that become a problem for me in time?
ALS is a disease of the central nervous system. His organs are likely fine, his central nervous system that controsl them is not.
Nuclear power offers the advantage of massive energy production on a small area of land, giving it a high W/skm rate.
I wonder how that changes when you take into account the land needed to mine fuel.
Ooo ooo can I file a patent on a process in which one trolls patents? That would be justice to hit them with patent infringement...
I've suggested this elsewhere for other wind farms. How about having a hydrogen electrolysis plant nearby where water can be turned into Hydrogen that can be turned back into electricity during non-peak wind (tidal, or whatever) periods. Hydrogen can be burnt turning it back into water easily and produces heat that can be turned into electricity cheaply and easily. The most expensive part of the whole unit would be the hydrogen storage. This can safely be placed underground to avoid leaks and explosions if required.
They are doing this in some locations. I know that this is what's happening for British Columbia's first wind farm. However, the incentive is not grid stability, but power lines that are too far away. It's cheaper to truck hydrogen than it is to extend the power grid to the farm.
But I guess it would have been their right to remove a flyer you would have stuck in the inside of the shop door, doesn't it? Your example works backwards it seems.
And therin lies the nub of the issue. Apple certainly has no right to stop the Consumer Report from being published, just as the computer store couldn't stop the other poster from handing out flyers. However, I imagine Apple is well within their bounds to remove posts about the topic on THEIR forums, just as they could remove posts about porn or hacking or racism, or just as they could remove unwated flyers from their physical store. Whether they should exercise this power is another matter entirely. Methinks the damage done by this move outweighs the damage of allowing the posts to contine.
Every year you age, it will get worse.
I get this feeling every time I sit down to watch the World Cup and they mention 20 year old Thomas Muller. Gah! 20! What the hell have I done with my 22 years?
Or bypass the permit altogether and do it under the table. It's really no one's business what you build on your property.
Except that what you build on your property very often affects your neighbours. What you build can affect fire safety, rainwater runoff, noise, etc. I would say what you build on your own property is very much everyone else's business.
This is already done with birds. I worked at a bird observatory for a little while. We could catch birds in nets, clip a small feather from their wing, and send the samples off to be analyzed. We were able to tell a lot about the travels of our birds based on isotope ratios in their feathers.