Original Ideas are usually story driven and dont need a big screen (there are a few exceptions like Matrix & Star Wars)
Lately the really good original ideas not only don't require a big screen, but they DO require long character development arcs, and require multiple hours to really tell a good story (Breaking Bad, Dexter, Walking Dead).
So, here we have a golden opportunity to work for one of the most brilliant humans to ever exist, tinkering with an amazing if poorly documented system, jetsetting around the globe, being paid to attend sold-out physics lectures... and all half the/. community can think to do is bitch about the pay grade.
Seems the Green-Eyed Monster (and this global recession) has ruined a lot of folks. The way I see it, the fact that Hawking is likely footing the bill for the room, board, and travel expenses of whoever gets the gig (as they would be considered a member of his 'care team'), not to mention getting to hang out with Stephen fucking Hawking, $38,000 per annum seems like a pretty damn good deal.
Now, if only I could get my wife on board... I wonder if he needs an economist, too...
But how does it make sense to send a VIPR team to search people getting on or off a train? How do you justify that? Are they going to drive the train off the tracks and blow up a building?
There's a reason it's referred to as security 'theater,' Broseph.
No, it was "Hey, you were a customer once and we'd like to milk you some more. Here's a not-very-good incentive to buy more services from us."
Unless they're sending Danica over to do the milking, I'm not interested.
Re:This is what's wrong with private healthcare.
on
How Doctors Die
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· Score: 4, Insightful
Ok, and how do you propose we fix it?
Couple of ideas:
1) Ban pharmaceutical company reps from hospitals. 2) Limit hospital administrator pay to the median salary of their employees. 3) Criminalize the practice of outrageous markup on medical procedures and equipment; The one time I had surgery, I was charged full retail price for every implement present in the OR at the time, as well as $25 for the fucking Sharpie they drew on me with... and they wouldn't even let me keep the tools (scalpels, forceps, etc.) I payed for!
Should the medical profession community be forced to absorb the insane cost of education only then be forced to accept a salary they themselves do not want?
If so, that would put them more in line with the real world in terms of compensation versus cost of education. Do you think they deserve a better post-college shake than the rest of us, simply by virtue of the fact they chose to spend more on said education?
The real problem I see is that some people think they have a right to not be offended.
This, a million times over.
Consequently, if you actually read and comprehend the Constitution and Amendments, you'll note that within the First Amendment, there is no limitation specified on freedom of expression; in fact, the First specifically prohibits the federal government from establishing any sort of inhibition, evidenced by use of the phrase, "Congress shall make no law..." Essentially, everyone has the right to be offensive, and if one finds another's expression offensive, one has the right to stop paying attention; however, one does not have the right to silence said offender.
In order to preempt the inevitable straw-man of, "Google isn't the government," I contend that any institution that fails to honor the rights guaranteed us by our Constitution is not one any patriotic American should be doing business with. Does this mean I intend on cancelling my Google+ accounts? Perhaps, but first I intend to use my First Amendment rights of free expression to join the visual protest, thus informing Google of my chagrin, and subsequently offering them the opportunity to do right.
I really don't put it beyond people's capability to make a threatening phone call including his family, in fact I would almost guarantee it would happen.
You're probably right in that, and I'm not saying that doing so is OK at any time for any reason, but A) that doesn't excuse Christoforo's treatment of the customer, and B) I'm hard pressed to believe that the issue is as big a deal as Christoforo wants everyone to believe, considering the guy is a lying asshole. He may have gotten one or two, or even a dozen messages to that effect, but I would bet dollars to pesos not nearly the volume he's claiming.
Everyone started to flame him, spam his email accounts, call him and threaten him and his wife? I mean they even brought his two year old son into this.
I would agree with you, if not for the fact that there is zero evidence that anyone, let alone "everyone" (here come the Hyperbole Police, coming to take to to Exaggerationtraz) has made any threats to him or his family, outside Christoforo claiming that they have.
Considering this guy is a class-A lying, egomaniacal asshole, I would suggest taking any claims he makes with a very large amount of NaCl.
And "vastly healthier" could be scientifically argued and proven wrong within the vegetarian community...not that you really need to when a simple visual comparison between the two groups is obvious enough.
I can't bring myself to vote for Ron Paul. I do not believe he can keep himself from forcing his religious views on others once he gains some power.
1) Wouldn't being a congressman for 30+ years qualify as "some power?" That said, you would think if he was going to abuse it he would have done so by now.
2) Paul is the only candidate who rabidly (or seemingly at all, for that matter) adheres to the concept that the U.S. Constitution is the supreme law of the land; in that, the Constitution guarantees religious freedom. Paul also abhors the concept of "executive privilege," i.e. the practice of letting the President do whatever he wants and civil liberties be damned, so it therefore stands to reason that Ron Paul would honor the Constitution and thus not impose his ideals of religion on the masses.
3) There are more people involved in the American legislative process than just the President; contrary to modern belief, there exists a system of checks and balances that, when honored and followed, prevent unconstitutional legislation from becoming law. I know it's pretty passe these days to talk about responsible governance in accordance with the Constitution, but that is exactly the ideology Paul embraces.
As for the accusations regarding RP and the "racist newsletter," I say meh; I didn't get sucked into the whole "Jeremiah Wright hates America So That Means Obama Does Too" non-story, and I intend on patently ignoring this one as well.
You've got me all wrong, Mac. I was specifically responding to OP's sentence, "the automobile as a means of personal conveyance is unsustainable no matter what you fuel you choose," stated as though it were a universal truth. I've got nothing against city living (OK, well, maybe a little), and if I lived in a place where it wasn't necessary to own a car, I probably wouldn't. I merely resent the implication that everyone lives in a location where automobile ownership is 'unsustainable,' when that is obviously far from reality.
FYI, from what I understand, Chi-Town is also in what is considered flyover country, save for the fact they have a major airport where many flights connect; otherwise, to coastal elitists, you might as well be living in a cornfield in Iowa.
but many of us enjoy the convenience as well as the additional choices we have in a city: Bike to work, go to the farmer's market to get incredibly delicious, chemical-free foods/meats as opposed to Wal-Mart, and delicious dining experiences that I have never, ever been able to find outside of a city
Farmer's markets are awesome, but you can't top buying your produce, dairy, and meats from the farmer himself... what can I say, I like to look my food in the EYE before it hits my plate, mwa ha ha. I have to ask: where does this concept that Wal-Marx is the only store in every small town in America come from? Sitcoms, I presume? Anyway, nothing could be farther from the truth, at least where I live. Yea, there's about 30 Wally-worlds within a 100-mile radius (which I assume is a result of the fact their corporate headquarters is within said radius), but that is by no means the only option for supplies (thank GOD for that). Truth be told, I haven't set foot in a Wal-Marx in damn near a decade, and I intend to keep it that way.
I have the opposite problem: I look at the suburbs and the country and think,"You people are missing out on a wonderful lifestyle... why would you drive 150 miles one way to work? Are you insane?"
Well, you said you like to shop at farmer's markets, right? OK, how many farmers do you know who live in city limits?
Farmers excluded, a lot of us country folk prefer the freedom and open spaces that you just can't get in a city. Property is often far cheaper in the country; for what I paid for my in-town, 1400 sq. ft. house on less than 1/4 acre, I could have purchased 20-30 acres with a similarly sized house in the nearby countryside. Some other perks (I consider them perks, YMMV) include being able to own horses, plenty of space to add outbuildings as needed, private hunting grounds, and my personal favorite, the ability to step out of my house and unload a few magazines into the nearest backstop. Not the favored lifestyle for everyone, but I wouldn't trade it for the world.
As for driving 150 miles to work - regardless of the fact that was a temporary situation, look up rental prices in Fredricktown, MO, vs rental prices in St. Louis, and you'll see my point.. oh yea, also factor in the facts that I was paid quite well and gas was cheap in those days... we're talking '99 prices.
It's disheartening that most of the first posters are all trolls wondering why we would ever need this or are just trying to get cheap jabs in on a site for nerds. If you don't like the science behind it (climate sciences), or you don't like the technology behind it (computing systems), then why come here to comment?
You think that's bad, try reading the comments on TFA.
It seems there's never been a better time to be a Luddite than the present...
i was waiting for picked me up this morning, didnt need to find parking, and costs less than a cup of coffee. the only people still masturbating furiously over Tesla motors and electric cars in general are people who dont understand that the automobile as a means of personal conveyance is unsustainable no matter what you fuel you choose. If you dont believe me, try getting from long beach to downtown LA at 7:30 am.
I'm sure this is a difficult concept for coastal dwelling Luddites to understand, but not everyone lives in a dense population center in which every aspect of your meager existence is within a 5-mile radius (and yet it still takes 2 hours to get anywhere).
Here in what you smog-breathers often refer to as 'flyover country,' it's not uncommon for an individual to drive over 150 miles daily to and from work, schools, shopping, etc. When I was a young man working in a factory in St. Louis, I drove 300 miles a day round trip, as the cost to do so was a pittance compared to real estate prices closer to my work; and that doesn't include any side trips. Today my commute is significantly shorter, but still far to long to even consider whatever ridiculous mode of transport you seem to be espousing the glories of.
Because gas is really fucking cheap? We don't all live in Venezuela you know...
Hmm, that thought does conjure an important question: What's the cost-per-mile of operation (or rather, the formula for determining such in an EV)?
For example, the 2012 Jetta TDI I just bought my wife gets about 45 MPG, and diesel is $3.55 a gallon right now, making the CPM of her car a little less than $0.08.
Can any of the Tesla models (or any EV, for that matter) beat those numbers?
Won't happen, ever; the GOP hates Paul because he would end their imperialistic endeavors and open-ended, unfunded wars, end the Fed, and go back to a currency standard that's actually backed by tangible value (not this B.S. "fractional reserve" system we have today).
The party elite hate him even more than the Democrats do, but they're not the ones who pick the candidate. With the lousy selection of choices this year I think he has a pretty good chance, particularly if the Democrats continue to attack the front-runners.
As much as I would like to see that happen, something tells me the rank-and-file GOP won't be willing to accept his "extremist" ideals of reverting from a centralized, authoritarian, militaristic, imperial oligarchy back into an essentially isolationist, constitutional republic governed by the People, for the People. Too many people of all political ideologies have worked diligently over the past 40 years to convince the general populace that the current regime is "how things should be," and would never allow a usurper like Paul to change our nation back to the way it's supposed to be operated, in which the Constitution is the supreme, unalienable law of the land which cannot be superseded by anything short of an Amendment, approved by a 2/3 vote by the states. Sadly, at this point, electing Ron Paul is the only chance we, as Americans, have if we want to avoid living in a dystopian future akin to that of 1950's science fiction novels.
To paraphrase Leia Organa, "You're our only hope, Obi-Ron!"
Don't worry. All the Democrats will achieve by this is to increase the odds of Ron Paul being the Republican nominee.
Won't happen, ever; the GOP hates Paul because he would end their imperialistic endeavors and open-ended, unfunded wars, end the Fed, and go back to a currency standard that's actually backed by tangible value (not this B.S. "fractional reserve" system we have today). Otherwise, one would think they would have nominated him at least once in the 30+ years he's been in D.C.
Of course, both Democrat and Republican politicians despise RP because he wants to get rid of the cushy perks they''ve assigned themselves, but more importantly, put more power in the hands of the states and people as per the Constitution... and we can't have people making their own decisions, now can we? Whose palms would the lobbyists need to grease, if the people had the power instead of the federal government? Who would bail out the "too-big-to-fail" institutions when they pissed away all their funding on bad bets?
Replacing... mm perhaps not. But I think that relegating it to backup-status for now will be common... If it is only needed to provide electricity, you can tune it much better than when it needs to provide power to the wheels.
Very true.
Now, if only someone could figure out a way to build such a system inexpensively... oh wait, someone did - 32 years ago.
Slashdot Mirror
Original Ideas are usually story driven and dont need a big screen (there are a few exceptions like Matrix & Star Wars)
Lately the really good original ideas not only don't require a big screen, but they DO require long character development arcs, and require multiple hours to really tell a good story (Breaking Bad, Dexter, Walking Dead).
I'll give you Breaking Bad, but FYI, Dexter and The Walking Dead are derivative works.
They are awesome, regardless.
Try coming up with an original idea that doesn't SUCK .
So, here we have a golden opportunity to work for one of the most brilliant humans to ever exist, tinkering with an amazing if poorly documented system, jetsetting around the globe, being paid to attend sold-out physics lectures... and all half the /. community can think to do is bitch about the pay grade.
Seems the Green-Eyed Monster (and this global recession) has ruined a lot of folks. The way I see it, the fact that Hawking is likely footing the bill for the room, board, and travel expenses of whoever gets the gig (as they would be considered a member of his 'care team'), not to mention getting to hang out with Stephen fucking Hawking, $38,000 per annum seems like a pretty damn good deal.
Now, if only I could get my wife on board... I wonder if he needs an economist, too...
But how does it make sense to send a VIPR team to search people getting on or off a train? How do you justify that? Are they going to drive the train off the tracks and blow up a building?
There's a reason it's referred to as security 'theater,' Broseph.
No, it was "Hey, you were a customer once and we'd like to milk you some more. Here's a not-very-good incentive to buy more services from us."
Unless they're sending Danica over to do the milking, I'm not interested.
Ok, and how do you propose we fix it?
Couple of ideas:
1) Ban pharmaceutical company reps from hospitals.
2) Limit hospital administrator pay to the median salary of their employees.
3) Criminalize the practice of outrageous markup on medical procedures and equipment; The one time I had surgery, I was charged full retail price for every implement present in the OR at the time, as well as $25 for the fucking Sharpie they drew on me with... and they wouldn't even let me keep the tools (scalpels, forceps, etc.) I payed for!
Should the medical profession community be forced to absorb the insane cost of education only then be forced to accept a salary they themselves do not want?
If so, that would put them more in line with the real world in terms of compensation versus cost of education. Do you think they deserve a better post-college shake than the rest of us, simply by virtue of the fact they chose to spend more on said education?
"common sense" is seldom all that common, and never makes any sense.
The real problem I see is that some people think they have a right to not be offended.
This, a million times over.
Consequently, if you actually read and comprehend the Constitution and Amendments, you'll note that within the First Amendment, there is no limitation specified on freedom of expression; in fact, the First specifically prohibits the federal government from establishing any sort of inhibition, evidenced by use of the phrase, "Congress shall make no law..." Essentially, everyone has the right to be offensive, and if one finds another's expression offensive, one has the right to stop paying attention; however, one does not have the right to silence said offender.
In order to preempt the inevitable straw-man of, "Google isn't the government," I contend that any institution that fails to honor the rights guaranteed us by our Constitution is not one any patriotic American should be doing business with. Does this mean I intend on cancelling my Google+ accounts? Perhaps, but first I intend to use my First Amendment rights of free expression to join the visual protest, thus informing Google of my chagrin, and subsequently offering them the opportunity to do right.
I really don't put it beyond people's capability to make a threatening phone call including his family, in fact I would almost guarantee it would happen.
You're probably right in that, and I'm not saying that doing so is OK at any time for any reason, but A) that doesn't excuse Christoforo's treatment of the customer, and B) I'm hard pressed to believe that the issue is as big a deal as Christoforo wants everyone to believe, considering the guy is a lying asshole. He may have gotten one or two, or even a dozen messages to that effect, but I would bet dollars to pesos not nearly the volume he's claiming.
Everyone started to flame him, spam his email accounts, call him and threaten him and his wife? I mean they even brought his two year old son into this.
I would agree with you, if not for the fact that there is zero evidence that anyone, let alone "everyone" (here come the Hyperbole Police, coming to take to to Exaggerationtraz) has made any threats to him or his family, outside Christoforo claiming that they have.
Considering this guy is a class-A lying, egomaniacal asshole, I would suggest taking any claims he makes with a very large amount of NaCl.
And "vastly healthier" could be scientifically argued and proven wrong within the vegetarian community...not that you really need to when a simple visual comparison between the two groups is obvious enough.
Right, 'cause only meat causes obesity, and there's no such thing as a obese vegan...
/sarcasm
If I'm the "product," wouldn't that mean I'm entitled to some form of compensation (preferably monetary)?
I can't bring myself to vote for Ron Paul. I do not believe he can keep himself from forcing his religious views on others once he gains some power.
1) Wouldn't being a congressman for 30+ years qualify as "some power?" That said, you would think if he was going to abuse it he would have done so by now.
2) Paul is the only candidate who rabidly (or seemingly at all, for that matter) adheres to the concept that the U.S. Constitution is the supreme law of the land; in that, the Constitution guarantees religious freedom. Paul also abhors the concept of "executive privilege," i.e. the practice of letting the President do whatever he wants and civil liberties be damned, so it therefore stands to reason that Ron Paul would honor the Constitution and thus not impose his ideals of religion on the masses.
3) There are more people involved in the American legislative process than just the President; contrary to modern belief, there exists a system of checks and balances that, when honored and followed, prevent unconstitutional legislation from becoming law. I know it's pretty passe these days to talk about responsible governance in accordance with the Constitution, but that is exactly the ideology Paul embraces.
As for the accusations regarding RP and the "racist newsletter," I say meh; I didn't get sucked into the whole "Jeremiah Wright hates America So That Means Obama Does Too" non-story, and I intend on patently ignoring this one as well.
Cheers!
I can't be the only one who finds the idea of patents for " Mining of User... Data to Identify User[s]" a bit unnerving....
Of course, I'm one of the apparent minority who tend to adhere to the concept that privacy is still a right.
may conduct offensive operations in cyberspace to defend
You see nothing wrong with this. Then you wonder why the world hates you.
Congratulations on proving you're no better than the redneck sister-fuckers who claim all Muslims are terrorists, with your blanket generalization.
Now fuck off.
Anyone else notice the full path to the list of SOPA Supporters. You think they meant "Rogue" rather than "Rouge"?
http://judiciary.house.gov/issues/Rouge%20Websites/SOPA%20Supporters.pdf
I just assume it was written by Joseph McCarthy.
FYI, from what I understand, Chi-Town is also in what is considered flyover country, save for the fact they have a major airport where many flights connect; otherwise, to coastal elitists, you might as well be living in a cornfield in Iowa.
but many of us enjoy the convenience as well as the additional choices we have in a city: Bike to work, go to the farmer's market to get incredibly delicious, chemical-free foods/meats as opposed to Wal-Mart, and delicious dining experiences that I have never, ever been able to find outside of a city
Farmer's markets are awesome, but you can't top buying your produce, dairy, and meats from the farmer himself... what can I say, I like to look my food in the EYE before it hits my plate, mwa ha ha.
I have to ask: where does this concept that Wal-Marx is the only store in every small town in America come from? Sitcoms, I presume? Anyway, nothing could be farther from the truth, at least where I live. Yea, there's about 30 Wally-worlds within a 100-mile radius (which I assume is a result of the fact their corporate headquarters is within said radius), but that is by no means the only option for supplies (thank GOD for that). Truth be told, I haven't set foot in a Wal-Marx in damn near a decade, and I intend to keep it that way.
I have the opposite problem: I look at the suburbs and the country and think,"You people are missing out on a wonderful lifestyle... why would you drive 150 miles one way to work? Are you insane?"
Well, you said you like to shop at farmer's markets, right? OK, how many farmers do you know who live in city limits?
Farmers excluded, a lot of us country folk prefer the freedom and open spaces that you just can't get in a city. Property is often far cheaper in the country; for what I paid for my in-town, 1400 sq. ft. house on less than 1/4 acre, I could have purchased 20-30 acres with a similarly sized house in the nearby countryside. Some other perks (I consider them perks, YMMV) include being able to own horses, plenty of space to add outbuildings as needed, private hunting grounds, and my personal favorite, the ability to step out of my house and unload a few magazines into the nearest backstop. Not the favored lifestyle for everyone, but I wouldn't trade it for the world.
As for driving 150 miles to work - regardless of the fact that was a temporary situation, look up rental prices in Fredricktown, MO, vs rental prices in St. Louis, and you'll see my point.. oh yea, also factor in the facts that I was paid quite well and gas was cheap in those days... we're talking '99 prices.
It's disheartening that most of the first posters are all trolls wondering why we would ever need this or are just trying to get cheap jabs in on a site for nerds. If you don't like the science behind it (climate sciences), or you don't like the technology behind it (computing systems), then why come here to comment?
You think that's bad, try reading the comments on TFA.
It seems there's never been a better time to be a Luddite than the present...
Spend this money on putting people back to work and improving the infrastructure of this country.
Yea, 'cause it's not like any people are involved with the design, engineering, manufacture, transport, operation, and maintenance of a supercomputer!
What a maroon...
i was waiting for picked me up this morning, didnt need to find parking, and costs less than a cup of coffee. the only people still masturbating furiously over Tesla motors and electric cars in general are people who dont understand that the automobile as a means of personal conveyance is unsustainable no matter what you fuel you choose. If you dont believe me, try getting from long beach to downtown LA at 7:30 am.
I'm sure this is a difficult concept for coastal dwelling Luddites to understand, but not everyone lives in a dense population center in which every aspect of your meager existence is within a 5-mile radius (and yet it still takes 2 hours to get anywhere).
Here in what you smog-breathers often refer to as 'flyover country,' it's not uncommon for an individual to drive over 150 miles daily to and from work, schools, shopping, etc. When I was a young man working in a factory in St. Louis, I drove 300 miles a day round trip, as the cost to do so was a pittance compared to real estate prices closer to my work; and that doesn't include any side trips. Today my commute is significantly shorter, but still far to long to even consider whatever ridiculous mode of transport you seem to be espousing the glories of.
I won't even mention the friggin' weather.
Because gas is really fucking cheap? We don't all live in Venezuela you know...
Hmm, that thought does conjure an important question: What's the cost-per-mile of operation (or rather, the formula for determining such in an EV)?
For example, the 2012 Jetta TDI I just bought my wife gets about 45 MPG, and diesel is $3.55 a gallon right now, making the CPM of her car a little less than $0.08.
Can any of the Tesla models (or any EV, for that matter) beat those numbers?
Won't happen, ever; the GOP hates Paul because he would end their imperialistic endeavors and open-ended, unfunded wars, end the Fed, and go back to a currency standard that's actually backed by tangible value (not this B.S. "fractional reserve" system we have today).
The party elite hate him even more than the Democrats do, but they're not the ones who pick the candidate. With the lousy selection of choices this year I think he has a pretty good chance, particularly if the Democrats continue to attack the front-runners.
As much as I would like to see that happen, something tells me the rank-and-file GOP won't be willing to accept his "extremist" ideals of reverting from a centralized, authoritarian, militaristic, imperial oligarchy back into an essentially isolationist, constitutional republic governed by the People, for the People. Too many people of all political ideologies have worked diligently over the past 40 years to convince the general populace that the current regime is "how things should be," and would never allow a usurper like Paul to change our nation back to the way it's supposed to be operated, in which the Constitution is the supreme, unalienable law of the land which cannot be superseded by anything short of an Amendment, approved by a 2/3 vote by the states. Sadly, at this point, electing Ron Paul is the only chance we, as Americans, have if we want to avoid living in a dystopian future akin to that of 1950's science fiction novels.
To paraphrase Leia Organa, "You're our only hope, Obi-Ron!"
Don't worry. All the Democrats will achieve by this is to increase the odds of Ron Paul being the Republican nominee.
Won't happen, ever; the GOP hates Paul because he would end their imperialistic endeavors and open-ended, unfunded wars, end the Fed, and go back to a currency standard that's actually backed by tangible value (not this B.S. "fractional reserve" system we have today). Otherwise, one would think they would have nominated him at least once in the 30+ years he's been in D.C.
Of course, both Democrat and Republican politicians despise RP because he wants to get rid of the cushy perks they''ve assigned themselves, but more importantly, put more power in the hands of the states and people as per the Constitution... and we can't have people making their own decisions, now can we? Whose palms would the lobbyists need to grease, if the people had the power instead of the federal government? Who would bail out the "too-big-to-fail" institutions when they pissed away all their funding on bad bets?
What would we replace it with?
To paraphrase Ben Franklin, a Constitutional Republic, if you can keep it.
Replacing... mm perhaps not. But I think that relegating it to backup-status for now will be common... If it is only needed to provide electricity, you can tune it much better than when it needs to provide power to the wheels.
Very true.
Now, if only someone could figure out a way to build such a system inexpensively... oh wait, someone did - 32 years ago.