Some people even believe that the moon landing was faked, and that the U.S. government caused the 2001 WTC attacks.
I meant to say, "...and that the U.S. government faked the 2001 WTC attacks."
Whether or not the U.S. government caused the attacks is debatable, depending on one's subjective definition of the word "caused," and one's view of culpability. Since I do not want to start an offtopic debate, I am correcting that sentence.
I don't know why, but in many parts of India, the government needs to pay people to use a toilet. Even when the government supplies a deluxe porta-potty, the likes of which you can only find at a multi-millionaire rapper's BBQ, the people simply won't use it. I don't know if it's a cultural taboo, or that squatting on the side of the street is believed to be cleaner or easier, but the people just won't use them. I wonder if this bag would be useful in that kind of situation, or if the people just wouldn't use it either.
Remember, we live in a world where many Africans believe that having intercourse with a virgin will cure HIV. Then there are some cultures that punish women with floggings, execution, or even immolation, for having the audacity to be raped. Men are killed for wearing shorts, and lesbians are raped in an effort to cure them. Some people even believe that the moon landing was faked, and that the U.S. government caused the 2001 WTC attacks.
Even if people own a shovel, many simply won't use it because they're too lazy, or too stupid.
I play single-player games, like Ubisoft's, when my computer is offline. For example, I would play these games on my laptop while sitting on a train, when the power goes out, or after moving and waiting for internet service to be connected. I'd rather play an MMO when I have an internet connection.
I have owned a copy of Dragon Age: Origins since Christmas. I have had a subscription to Lord of the Rings Online since November of 2006 (I was a beta tester and have maintained an uninterrupted subscription since then). Since I got DAO, I have played it about 20 hours. In that same time, I have played LotRO about 150 hours. The only reason I played DAO, which I enjoy a lot, was because my cable modem died. I just enjoy the social aspect of MMO games a lot more than single-player games.
I'm sorry Ubisoft, but your games just aren't that good to warrant continous internet connectivity.
Perhaps I am misunderstanding which part of your statement was supposed to be the sarcastic part (which words are receiving the intonation), but he's talking about the rotation of the water molecules spinning around (not the plate rotating in the oven).
In PA (USA) the legal limit for driving while intoxicated was 1.0. Now it's 0.8. Legal limits change when new facts are discovered. Do you remember asbestos? Lead paint? What about cigarettes? Oh, wait, cigarettes are still legal, even though their deadly effects are well documented.
Note: I do not believe that cell phones cause cancer, but just because something is legal doesn't mean it's safe.
It's not a law yet. Eventually, once it is ratified, it will become a law. Until that time, it is just a document. Once it becomes a law, it will be made public. At least, that is my understanding. Of course, the problem with opacity here is that once it's been agreed upon by the participating countries, it's 9/10th of the way to becoming a law here in the US. If it isn't made public, then we can't yell and scream about how evil each provisiou is. Once again, that is my (potentially erroneous) understanding.
Furthermore, the summary is a bit misleading with regard to the new plants that SoCo is building. To say that the taxpayer is "on the hook" implies that this is money being given away, never to be seen again. In fact, these are loan guarantees. The money is expected to be fully repaid, and considering how well SoCo performs as a business, this is a sure bet.
That plant has to be at least 30 years old. I think that technology has changed a bit in that time. In general, new is usually better than retrofitted old.
While I've never done it myself, I have heard that ecstasy (or X) tastes horrible and has a tendency to get stuck on the way down. Supposedly, you can mask the taste by shoving it into a gummy bear (or Mike & Ike) and swallow it whole.
Recent studies have shown that the executive portion of the brain, that is, the portion that makes complex decisions, doesn't fully mature until the early 20s. Important decisions, like voting, sexual activity, college major, marriage, etc, are controlled by this portion of the brain. The age of 18 is a balance between sexual development and mental development. By this age, most of the important mental capacities have reached maturity. The age of 18 isn't arbitrary. It may differ from culture to culture, but each culture has made this decision based on accurate observations and the responsibilities of adulthood in their society.
In fact, what one society values and requires of people may differ from another, and thus necessitate a different age of majority. An agrarian society may choose the age of 13 because by that age, you are mentally developed enough to function as an adult. You may not be mentally developed enough to choose a spouse, and therefore have one chosen for you by your parents, but you don't need to choose a career or even drive a car.
Modern western societies require much more by way of executive decisions, and place the burden of such decisions on the individual. Adult members of our society need to be capable of choosing their own career, their own spouse, and live with the consequences of their sexual choices without having the large network of social support that more "primitive" societies provide. This is also supported by many studies (which I am too lazy to cite at this time) that show a much greater rate of divorce among those who marry as teens (under the age of 20), the frequency by which college students change majors, and a higher rate of accidents, deaths, and road citations (per person) among new teenage drivers (16-19 year olds with less than 2 years of driving experience) vs. older new drivers (25-30 year olds with less than 2 years of driving experience).
It's my opinion that everyone should be considered a minor until age 22. That means no drinking, voting, marriage, sex, driving, military service, etc, should be permitted until the age of 22. College should be an extension of high school, made compulsory, and made more general. This would be more in line with the expectations we place on modern adults, and while it may delay the granting of liberties, it would equip them with the tools they need to deal with the demands we expect of them already. Of course, this would require many changes across all aspects of society, and therefore is infeasible at this time.
This research shows that the frontal cortex develops rapidly in early childhood, with important changes occurring at particular ages (at the end of the first year of life, between 3 and 6 years, and around puberty), and then continues to develop into adulthood. Grey matter, for example, doesn’t reach adult levels in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex until at least the end of adolescence, and myelination of this region continues into the 20s or possibly 30s.
That was actually forbidden. Even if we had PE for our last period of the day, we still had to shower after class. Skip it, get a demerit. Do that 5 times (2.5 weeks) and lose a letter grade. Do that 10 times, and fail the class entirely. I skipped it 9 times. Just enough to not fail.
We all play roles in life, we all gain "levels" and earn currency to barter for more stuff. We grind out content with to earn a reward. RPGs are designed to imitate life in a mathematical way that isn't so far-fetched that it destroys our suspension of disbelief. The current parallels between life and RPGs don't impress me. However, the one and only feature that I truly wish I could have from an RPG would be the ability to reload. Or in the case of an MMORPG, the ability to reroll/rez. When that happens, THEN I will be impressed.
Putting cameras in the bathrooms is considered procuring child pornography? My HS phys ed teacher would enforce a showering rule after every class. If we didn't take a shower, we got a demerit. Get enough demerits, you lose a letter grade. He enforced it by watching us shower, and checking off our names in a notebook. This was in the mid-90s. BTW, I'm male, the same gender as the phys ed teacher. It really creeped me out, but my parents didn't seem to care. Neither did any of the other kids' parents.
I'm guessing that the kid was looking at smut, and was caught self-abusing. Or maybe he was using the webcam to post a picture on his Facebook page of himself making a rude gesture and adding a profane tag to it. Perhaps he was searching Google for information about how to roll a joint, and he was caught practicing. Any scenario I can think of would stem from the kid doing something on the laptop that raised a red flag to a network admin, who then investigated the incident.
One of my best friends has a daughter that attends that school. I haven't spoken to him in a few days, but I'll be sure to ask him about this tonight. He is not the type of person who would physically harm someone, but if this were me... well... all I'm saying is that I consider someone spying in my home to be the same thing as physically invading it. What would YOU do if someone invaded your home?
After reading the article, I'm still not sure how this was simulated. Was it basically a situation where a bunch of agency heads sat around, were given a scenario, and asked 'what would you do'? Was this a test of department decision making, or an actual test of doing something? I'm just having a hard time understanding the 'format' of this simulation.
Hindsight is supposed to be 20/20, but I have to wonder, were these mines the product of shortsighted people who were focused too intently on their present-day worries, or were they a necessity that just didn't get cleaned up like a respondible entity should do?
Wars come and go, but humanity continues on (for now). Was mining the sea a shortsighted endeavor that ultimately caused more harm than what was being prevented (invasion)? Or was the outcome of the war so pivotal to the course of human existance that mining the sea was a necessity, but those responsible simply failed to clean up their mess?
Never underestimate the idiocy of a subset of the human population. There are plenty of sane, rational environmentalists out there, but then there's PETA. An animatronic groundhog? Protesting the Westminster dog show? Those animals have better lives than I do, and mine is pretty good.
There will always be someone, somewhere, ready to protest anything.
I wonder if this works with that nasty fake stuff that Palmer makes. You know the stuff, made with vegetable oil instead of cocoa butter, and labelled "Milk Chocolate flavored candy"? It may change the melting dynamics just enough to invalidate the whole experiment. I bet that stuff isn't even good enough for science experiments.
@AC: Well, it's obviously a valid question. I asked a question, and gave details as to why it matters to me. In fact, other people are asking the same question. I think you're latching onto the wrong part of my post, and taking it out of context to mean something that I was not intending. Anyway, have a pleasant day.
Slashdot Mirror
Some people even believe that the moon landing was faked, and that the U.S. government caused the 2001 WTC attacks.
I meant to say, "...and that the U.S. government faked the 2001 WTC attacks."
Whether or not the U.S. government caused the attacks is debatable, depending on one's subjective definition of the word "caused," and one's view of culpability. Since I do not want to start an offtopic debate, I am correcting that sentence.
I don't know why, but in many parts of India, the government needs to pay people to use a toilet. Even when the government supplies a deluxe porta-potty, the likes of which you can only find at a multi-millionaire rapper's BBQ, the people simply won't use it. I don't know if it's a cultural taboo, or that squatting on the side of the street is believed to be cleaner or easier, but the people just won't use them. I wonder if this bag would be useful in that kind of situation, or if the people just wouldn't use it either.
Remember, we live in a world where many Africans believe that having intercourse with a virgin will cure HIV. Then there are some cultures that punish women with floggings, execution, or even immolation, for having the audacity to be raped. Men are killed for wearing shorts, and lesbians are raped in an effort to cure them. Some people even believe that the moon landing was faked, and that the U.S. government caused the 2001 WTC attacks.
Even if people own a shovel, many simply won't use it because they're too lazy, or too stupid.
I play single-player games, like Ubisoft's, when my computer is offline. For example, I would play these games on my laptop while sitting on a train, when the power goes out, or after moving and waiting for internet service to be connected. I'd rather play an MMO when I have an internet connection.
I have owned a copy of Dragon Age: Origins since Christmas. I have had a subscription to Lord of the Rings Online since November of 2006 (I was a beta tester and have maintained an uninterrupted subscription since then). Since I got DAO, I have played it about 20 hours. In that same time, I have played LotRO about 150 hours. The only reason I played DAO, which I enjoy a lot, was because my cable modem died. I just enjoy the social aspect of MMO games a lot more than single-player games.
I'm sorry Ubisoft, but your games just aren't that good to warrant continous internet connectivity.
Sometimes I'm utterly clueless. [now I'll get modded as "informative" and "overrated"]
Perhaps I am misunderstanding which part of your statement was supposed to be the sarcastic part (which words are receiving the intonation), but he's talking about the rotation of the water molecules spinning around (not the plate rotating in the oven).
In PA (USA) the legal limit for driving while intoxicated was 1.0. Now it's 0.8. Legal limits change when new facts are discovered. Do you remember asbestos? Lead paint? What about cigarettes? Oh, wait, cigarettes are still legal, even though their deadly effects are well documented.
Note: I do not believe that cell phones cause cancer, but just because something is legal doesn't mean it's safe.
It's not a law yet. Eventually, once it is ratified, it will become a law. Until that time, it is just a document. Once it becomes a law, it will be made public. At least, that is my understanding. Of course, the problem with opacity here is that once it's been agreed upon by the participating countries, it's 9/10th of the way to becoming a law here in the US. If it isn't made public, then we can't yell and scream about how evil each provisiou is. Once again, that is my (potentially erroneous) understanding.
Furthermore, the summary is a bit misleading with regard to the new plants that SoCo is building. To say that the taxpayer is "on the hook" implies that this is money being given away, never to be seen again. In fact, these are loan guarantees. The money is expected to be fully repaid, and considering how well SoCo performs as a business, this is a sure bet.
That plant has to be at least 30 years old. I think that technology has changed a bit in that time. In general, new is usually better than retrofitted old.
While I've never done it myself, I have heard that ecstasy (or X) tastes horrible and has a tendency to get stuck on the way down. Supposedly, you can mask the taste by shoving it into a gummy bear (or Mike & Ike) and swallow it whole.
Recent studies have shown that the executive portion of the brain, that is, the portion that makes complex decisions, doesn't fully mature until the early 20s. Important decisions, like voting, sexual activity, college major, marriage, etc, are controlled by this portion of the brain. The age of 18 is a balance between sexual development and mental development. By this age, most of the important mental capacities have reached maturity. The age of 18 isn't arbitrary. It may differ from culture to culture, but each culture has made this decision based on accurate observations and the responsibilities of adulthood in their society.
In fact, what one society values and requires of people may differ from another, and thus necessitate a different age of majority. An agrarian society may choose the age of 13 because by that age, you are mentally developed enough to function as an adult. You may not be mentally developed enough to choose a spouse, and therefore have one chosen for you by your parents, but you don't need to choose a career or even drive a car.
Modern western societies require much more by way of executive decisions, and place the burden of such decisions on the individual. Adult members of our society need to be capable of choosing their own career, their own spouse, and live with the consequences of their sexual choices without having the large network of social support that more "primitive" societies provide. This is also supported by many studies (which I am too lazy to cite at this time) that show a much greater rate of divorce among those who marry as teens (under the age of 20), the frequency by which college students change majors, and a higher rate of accidents, deaths, and road citations (per person) among new teenage drivers (16-19 year olds with less than 2 years of driving experience) vs. older new drivers (25-30 year olds with less than 2 years of driving experience).
It's my opinion that everyone should be considered a minor until age 22. That means no drinking, voting, marriage, sex, driving, military service, etc, should be permitted until the age of 22. College should be an extension of high school, made compulsory, and made more general. This would be more in line with the expectations we place on modern adults, and while it may delay the granting of liberties, it would equip them with the tools they need to deal with the demands we expect of them already. Of course, this would require many changes across all aspects of society, and therefore is infeasible at this time.
Here are some links to support my claims:
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/teenage-brain-a-work-in-progress-fact-sheet/index.shtml
http://www.aboutkidshealth.ca/News/Executive-Function-Part-Four-Brain-growth-and-the-development-of-executive-function.aspx?articleID=8071&categoryID=news-type
This research shows that the frontal cortex develops rapidly in early childhood, with important changes occurring at particular ages (at the end of the first year of life, between 3 and 6 years, and around puberty), and then continues to develop into adulthood. Grey matter, for example, doesn’t reach adult levels in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex until at least the end of adolescence, and myelination of this region continues into the 20s or possibly 30s.
That was actually forbidden. Even if we had PE for our last period of the day, we still had to shower after class. Skip it, get a demerit. Do that 5 times (2.5 weeks) and lose a letter grade. Do that 10 times, and fail the class entirely. I skipped it 9 times. Just enough to not fail.
I use a cell phone for 3 purposes.
1. Talking
2. Texting when I can't talk (like brief and infrequent messages to my wife while at work)
3. Sudoku while I'm on the toilet
I have no need nor desire to have a camera, web browser, or projector on my phone. No thank you.
We all play roles in life, we all gain "levels" and earn currency to barter for more stuff. We grind out content with to earn a reward. RPGs are designed to imitate life in a mathematical way that isn't so far-fetched that it destroys our suspension of disbelief. The current parallels between life and RPGs don't impress me. However, the one and only feature that I truly wish I could have from an RPG would be the ability to reload. Or in the case of an MMORPG, the ability to reroll/rez. When that happens, THEN I will be impressed.
Putting cameras in the bathrooms is considered procuring child pornography? My HS phys ed teacher would enforce a showering rule after every class. If we didn't take a shower, we got a demerit. Get enough demerits, you lose a letter grade. He enforced it by watching us shower, and checking off our names in a notebook. This was in the mid-90s. BTW, I'm male, the same gender as the phys ed teacher. It really creeped me out, but my parents didn't seem to care. Neither did any of the other kids' parents.
I'm guessing that the kid was looking at smut, and was caught self-abusing. Or maybe he was using the webcam to post a picture on his Facebook page of himself making a rude gesture and adding a profane tag to it. Perhaps he was searching Google for information about how to roll a joint, and he was caught practicing. Any scenario I can think of would stem from the kid doing something on the laptop that raised a red flag to a network admin, who then investigated the incident.
One of my best friends has a daughter that attends that school. I haven't spoken to him in a few days, but I'll be sure to ask him about this tonight. He is not the type of person who would physically harm someone, but if this were me... well... all I'm saying is that I consider someone spying in my home to be the same thing as physically invading it. What would YOU do if someone invaded your home?
After reading the article, I'm still not sure how this was simulated. Was it basically a situation where a bunch of agency heads sat around, were given a scenario, and asked 'what would you do'? Was this a test of department decision making, or an actual test of doing something? I'm just having a hard time understanding the 'format' of this simulation.
Hindsight is supposed to be 20/20, but I have to wonder, were these mines the product of shortsighted people who were focused too intently on their present-day worries, or were they a necessity that just didn't get cleaned up like a respondible entity should do?
Wars come and go, but humanity continues on (for now). Was mining the sea a shortsighted endeavor that ultimately caused more harm than what was being prevented (invasion)? Or was the outcome of the war so pivotal to the course of human existance that mining the sea was a necessity, but those responsible simply failed to clean up their mess?
Never underestimate the idiocy of a subset of the human population. There are plenty of sane, rational environmentalists out there, but then there's PETA. An animatronic groundhog? Protesting the Westminster dog show? Those animals have better lives than I do, and mine is pretty good.
There will always be someone, somewhere, ready to protest anything.
I wonder if this works with that nasty fake stuff that Palmer makes. You know the stuff, made with vegetable oil instead of cocoa butter, and labelled "Milk Chocolate flavored candy"? It may change the melting dynamics just enough to invalidate the whole experiment. I bet that stuff isn't even good enough for science experiments.
Looks like Iceman is being put on ice for 13 years. It's well-deserved, IMO.
Who needs ritalin when you've got wi-fi on the bus?
Correct. I didn't download or buy it. I just skipped it.
@AC: Well, it's obviously a valid question. I asked a question, and gave details as to why it matters to me. In fact, other people are asking the same question. I think you're latching onto the wrong part of my post, and taking it out of context to mean something that I was not intending. Anyway, have a pleasant day.