It is popularly suggested that cockroaches will "inherit the earth" if humanity destroys itself in a nuclear war. Cockroaches do indeed have a much higher radiation resistance than vertebrates, with the lethal dose perhaps 6 to 15 times that for humans. However, they are not exceptionally radiation-resistant compared to other insects, such as the fruit fly. The MythBusters of Discovery Channel had tested this popular belief in an episode aired on January 30, 2008, and had confirmed that fruit flies do indeed have a higher resistance to radiation than cockroaches.
The cockroach's ability to withstand radiation better than human beings can be explained in terms of the cell cycle. Cells are more vulnerable to effects of radiation when they are dividing. A cockroach's cells divide only once when in its molting cycle, which at most happens weekly in a juvenile roach. The cells of the cockroach take roughly 48 hours to complete a molting cycle, which would give time enough for radiation to affect it but not all cockroaches would be molting at the same time. This would mean some would be unaffected by the initial radiation and thus survive, at least until the fallout arrived.
you wouldn't expect TSgt Luddite to go clean a toilet would you???
That's where you're dead wrong. Maybe when you hit SMSgt you're safe from that sort of thing, but I see TSgts cleaning toilets EVERY SINGLE DAY (I stick to mopping, personally).
The real benefits: free medical (though sketchy and ugly at times, it's free nonetheless), pension (hey, it's something), 30-day leave policy (though I once had a duty section where long forecasted leave was denied far more than approved) and definitely TA/GI Bill.
You've obviously never been in a maintenance shop before then. LAN parties were the norm most weekends back in the day. Now that almost everyone has broadband most everyone is playing WOW or other online game together. Whole sections go raiding and then talk about it the whole next day.
Okay. I'll bite.
When I was in Iceland, I used to be an avionics troop, and sure enough, I started up LAN parties with a 3C0 I knew and before we knew it, we had folks dragging their desktops from base housing to get in on the action. They were all comm folks and seemed fairly geeky to me. But that was 1999.
I since retrained into comm a while back and I tell you, I've run into more "I hate computers" folks than not. Right now I'm in a shop with one (semi-) computer geek... me. The rest are computer illiterate outside of anything they may have picked up in a school. There are about 4 truly computer savvy people in the building, a step up from my last unit which had maybe 2-3. I'm sure some units may have a better ratio, but I think the sentiment that the OP had is quite valid. Military culture is intrinsically counter to geek culture. The military has an inescapable undertone of comformity, groupthink, etc. If you're an ubergeek, you're generally not going to fit in.
When I first joined up, I wanted in comm, but the numbers weren't in my favor, so I ended up elsewhere. And that's the catch: people don't necessarily go where they want. When I was in 2E2 school there was a knucklehead in my class who wanted to be a crew chief, but ended up in infrastructure. Recruiters don't give a rat's ass about putting people where they belong, so people like me end up on the flightline and people like the wanna be crew chief end up in network infrastructure. End result: Comm squadrons can easily get filled with people who have an aversion to computing. Sure, there are some random gamers, but that doesn't qualify as computer geek to me.
So where are you stationed at that is so full of geeks?
Love the pointing stick. Hate the touchpad... very much.
It's simple really... I get much more accuracy and dexterity out of the pointing stick. That and you don't have to move your hand to switch between it and the keyboard. And I don't accidentally hit the pointing stick causing the mouse to jump or click like I do with the pad.
1. Voter licensing: Some sort of test on government/logic/whatever before you can vote (similar to a driver's test). 2. Jury licensing... some test to weed out lousy jurors. 3. Balanced budget required by law (and a fierce effort at reducing the national debt). 4. Close various overseas bases. 5. Encourage other countries to handle world hotspots (like sell arms to Isreal and help them take over arab countries). 6. Minefield on the southern border in addition to a fence. 7. School vouchers. 8. Free healthcare for anyone under 21. 9. Flat tax (in addition to lowering taxes). 10. Removal of tax haven status for religion. 11. Get rid of most government subsidies. 12. Get rid of social security and welfare. 13. Tax the hell out of gas and auto related crap and use it to build lots of mass transit. 14. Legalize prostitution. 15. English only... though I would prefer any phonetic world language (Esperanto, perhaps?). 16. Adopt metric by force. 17. Slowly convert traffic signage to something more European. 18. Go after scammers like Kevin Trudeau & Sylvia Brown, spammers, domain squatters, lobbyists, racists, thugs... and anyone else I don't like.
There's a flaw in your assumption. They still aren't overly concerned about their kids' education. They are overly concerned about their kids' religion (and how the education system could affect it).
The first person I saw dowsing was my psychic. He was able to reliably find water all the time, but I figured it was mostly due to his psychic powers, so I wrote it off. Then I found that my phrenologist was able to do the same, but I figured it had something to do with his skill with head calipers. But, finally I decided to try it on my own after I saw my astrologer finding water with dowsing. I mean, it was during the day, so it wasn't like she had any edge, right? Sure enough, my experience was a tremendous success. I hit a geyser! It turned out to be a sewage line and before I knew it, I was knee deep!
Keep in mind, they weren't just flying them as cargo: They were flying with them attached to the wing.
Can somebody who's worked buffs please clarify exactly where the ordinance is stored? I somehow doubt they are in the wings, particularly "attached" to them.
"Cops aren't going to track you down and throw you in jail because when you had jury duty, and were being questioned by the judge, you lied about some small detail."
They ought to if it's a grand jury and you were blatantly deceptive.
All of their products are 'dry', meaning they use baffles, rather than 'wet', indicating wipes.
That is misinformative. A typical suppressor uses baffles and can be fired dry or wet (by adding water/oil/grease/solvent/whatever). Wipes are an entirely different matter altogether.
From wikipedia: "Wipes are inner dividers intended to touch the bullet as it passes. Wipes are typically rubber or plastic or foam. They may have a hole drilled in them before use, or a pattern cut through at the point the bullet will strike them, or they may simply use the bullet's energy to punch a hole.
Wipes typically last for a small number of firings, perhaps no more than 5 before their performance is significantly degraded."
AND... for all you folks throwing out dubious and subjective claims about sound levels, see here for actual dB levels.
I will answer that with a question: What makes you think there is a "real world", or that being awake is any more real then being asleep?
I find accepting the reality as presented through my senses to be a fairly small leap of faith, as the "real world" is the simplest and most likely explanation for what my senses present to me. Besides, what else am I to believe?
And, during dreams, there is nothing that suggests to me that it is much more than a deeper sort of daydream.
The reality is that we probably have nothing to look forward to after we die.
Upon what do you base this assertion?
If your consciousness is simply the interaction of neurons in your brain, would it not be logical to assume that when your brain stops working, so does your consciousness? That would seem to be the common sense answer.
I find it far more likely that after you die, you inhabit the dream realm (or a realm similar to it) semi-permanently. I say this because 1) it's a place where you exist without physical body, 2) you're comfortable with it, as you spend 1/3 - 1/4 of your life there anyway and 3) the rules of the place allow you to construct your own Heaven, Hell, or whatever else it is you "expect" to be in the afterlife for yourself out of nothing but thought.
Here's the spot for "Upon what do you base this assertion?". What makes you think there is a "dream realm" or that dreaming is more than just your brain at work while you're asleep? To be blunt, I find the latter part of your comment to be entirely ridiculous. You might as well start on about your consciousness going to the planet Kolob.
I'm going to disagree with your opening statement on the basis of a documentary I saw about a kid who had a massive head injury and instantly became deeply and radically religious. I also have a friend with bipolar, who, when unmedicated, heads in a simliar (albeit less severe) direction. I think these examples show that there is some neurochemical basis behind religiosity and, if that's true, it would follow that genetics could indeed have some role, no?
That's not to say the rest of your comment is completely invalid. Though, really, religious belief is the result of a number of factors: indoctrination/societal factors, a possible neurochemical disposition, and yes, the simple fact of religion being a comfort, a way of life, a philosophy, a social structure, a meaning of life, and an explanation for things that are, to them, inexplicable (a science, of sorts).
I believe your comment vastly oversimplifies the matter.
his viewing of those pictures supports the creation of those pictures
How come downloading kiddie porn via p2p is a crime because it supports kiddie porn creators, but downloading hollywood films via p2p is a crime because it doesn't support it's creators?
On this, you and I simply disagree. I think unacceptable behavior should be corrected on the spot.
You might write my view of thinking off as deranged or maladaptive, but there's a method to my madness, of course. First of all, I figure on some level that if you keep letting people get away with being assholes, we just end up with a world full of assholes. I don't want violent assholes all around me, getting away with whatever they please just because it's so much nobler to turn the other cheek. I want them held accountable.
You know, maybe arresting and fining people just isn't good enough. Maybe everytime somebody does something shitty, they should, in addition, be counseled. Find out why they did whatever they did. Have it explained to them why their actions were unacceptable and explain how they are being fined/arrested and how their actions affect society. Let them know that their shittiness is just going to bite them in the ass more and more and that demonstrating a little self-control now and then might make their lives a little easier.
Or maybe it's already too late at that point. Maybe we could use something in our public education system to better prepare children for life. Classes on ethics, or how one might function as a decent member in society. Instead, it's like prison, where children learn bad behavior from more bad behavior. Monkey see, monkey do.
I don't know. I don't have all the answers. But I do know that letting people simply get away with being shitty doesn't sit right with me.
There are a lot of unethical people out there who don't quite see their actions the way you do. When you hold them accountable, they see your actions as unjust. To them, you are a tyrant. They just want to shoot up, beat their wife, etc. And it's none of your business. Who the hell are you to interfere?
They don't see the big picture. They don't care about you. They don't care about much of anyone else besides themselves.
So... they hate you and everything you stand for without even knowing you.
It's unfortunate. But it's just the way things are.
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Cockroaches don't fare much better than humans to radiation.
From wikipedia:
It is popularly suggested that cockroaches will "inherit the earth" if humanity destroys itself in a nuclear war. Cockroaches do indeed have a much higher radiation resistance than vertebrates, with the lethal dose perhaps 6 to 15 times that for humans. However, they are not exceptionally radiation-resistant compared to other insects, such as the fruit fly. The MythBusters of Discovery Channel had tested this popular belief in an episode aired on January 30, 2008, and had confirmed that fruit flies do indeed have a higher resistance to radiation than cockroaches.
The cockroach's ability to withstand radiation better than human beings can be explained in terms of the cell cycle. Cells are more vulnerable to effects of radiation when they are dividing. A cockroach's cells divide only once when in its molting cycle, which at most happens weekly in a juvenile roach. The cells of the cockroach take roughly 48 hours to complete a molting cycle, which would give time enough for radiation to affect it but not all cockroaches would be molting at the same time. This would mean some would be unaffected by the initial radiation and thus survive, at least until the fallout arrived.
you wouldn't expect TSgt Luddite to go clean a toilet would you???
That's where you're dead wrong. Maybe when you hit SMSgt you're safe from that sort of thing, but I see TSgts cleaning toilets EVERY SINGLE DAY (I stick to mopping, personally).
The real benefits: free medical (though sketchy and ugly at times, it's free nonetheless), pension (hey, it's something), 30-day leave policy (though I once had a duty section where long forecasted leave was denied far more than approved) and definitely TA/GI Bill.
You've obviously never been in a maintenance shop before then. LAN parties were the norm most weekends back in the day. Now that almost everyone has broadband most everyone is playing WOW or other online game together. Whole sections go raiding and then talk about it the whole next day.
Okay. I'll bite.
When I was in Iceland, I used to be an avionics troop, and sure enough, I started up LAN parties with a 3C0 I knew and before we knew it, we had folks dragging their desktops from base housing to get in on the action. They were all comm folks and seemed fairly geeky to me. But that was 1999.
I since retrained into comm a while back and I tell you, I've run into more "I hate computers" folks than not. Right now I'm in a shop with one (semi-) computer geek... me. The rest are computer illiterate outside of anything they may have picked up in a school. There are about 4 truly computer savvy people in the building, a step up from my last unit which had maybe 2-3. I'm sure some units may have a better ratio, but I think the sentiment that the OP had is quite valid. Military culture is intrinsically counter to geek culture. The military has an inescapable undertone of comformity, groupthink, etc. If you're an ubergeek, you're generally not going to fit in.
When I first joined up, I wanted in comm, but the numbers weren't in my favor, so I ended up elsewhere. And that's the catch: people don't necessarily go where they want. When I was in 2E2 school there was a knucklehead in my class who wanted to be a crew chief, but ended up in infrastructure. Recruiters don't give a rat's ass about putting people where they belong, so people like me end up on the flightline and people like the wanna be crew chief end up in network infrastructure. End result: Comm squadrons can easily get filled with people who have an aversion to computing. Sure, there are some random gamers, but that doesn't qualify as computer geek to me.
So where are you stationed at that is so full of geeks?
Love the pointing stick. Hate the touchpad... very much.
It's simple really... I get much more accuracy and dexterity out of the pointing stick. That and you don't have to move your hand to switch between it and the keyboard. And I don't accidentally hit the pointing stick causing the mouse to jump or click like I do with the pad.
I'm thinking more speed + better accuracy + better dexterity - annoyances = win
I would NEVER buy a laptop without a pointing stick.
But as "benevolent dictator":
1. Voter licensing: Some sort of test on government/logic/whatever before you can vote (similar to a driver's test).
2. Jury licensing... some test to weed out lousy jurors.
3. Balanced budget required by law (and a fierce effort at reducing the national debt).
4. Close various overseas bases.
5. Encourage other countries to handle world hotspots (like sell arms to Isreal and help them take over arab countries).
6. Minefield on the southern border in addition to a fence.
7. School vouchers.
8. Free healthcare for anyone under 21.
9. Flat tax (in addition to lowering taxes).
10. Removal of tax haven status for religion.
11. Get rid of most government subsidies.
12. Get rid of social security and welfare.
13. Tax the hell out of gas and auto related crap and use it to build lots of mass transit.
14. Legalize prostitution.
15. English only... though I would prefer any phonetic world language (Esperanto, perhaps?).
16. Adopt metric by force.
17. Slowly convert traffic signage to something more European.
18. Go after scammers like Kevin Trudeau & Sylvia Brown, spammers, domain squatters, lobbyists, racists, thugs... and anyone else I don't like.
There's a flaw in your assumption. They still aren't overly concerned about their kids' education. They are overly concerned about their kids' religion (and how the education system could affect it).
You didn't stumble upon him... I told you about him :)
I stumbled across him in the greek section of a philosophy book...
My thoughts exactly.
The first person I saw dowsing was my psychic. He was able to reliably find water all the time, but I figured it was mostly due to his psychic powers, so I wrote it off. Then I found that my phrenologist was able to do the same, but I figured it had something to do with his skill with head calipers. But, finally I decided to try it on my own after I saw my astrologer finding water with dowsing. I mean, it was during the day, so it wasn't like she had any edge, right? Sure enough, my experience was a tremendous success. I hit a geyser! It turned out to be a sewage line and before I knew it, I was knee deep!
It's called Pareidolia.
Try listening to SGU for more examples.
http://www.mst3kinfo.com/ward_e/Bit812.html
I concur.
Aha... thanks.
Keep in mind, they weren't just flying them as cargo: They were flying with them attached to the wing.
Can somebody who's worked buffs please clarify exactly where the ordinance is stored? I somehow doubt they are in the wings, particularly "attached" to them.
"Series of tubes"
Whoa, whoa -- slow down, egghead!
"Cops aren't going to track you down and throw you in jail because when you had jury duty, and were being questioned by the judge, you lied about some small detail."
They ought to if it's a grand jury and you were blatantly deceptive.
The parent comment is not a troll and those who moderated it as such should lose their mod privileges.
BTW, I agree. I believe the primary strength of wikipedia is easy access to obscure info (easy-to-follow, thorough articles on just about everything).
All of their products are 'dry', meaning they use baffles, rather than 'wet', indicating wipes.
That is misinformative. A typical suppressor uses baffles and can be fired dry or wet (by adding water/oil/grease/solvent/whatever). Wipes are an entirely different matter altogether.
From wikipedia:
"Wipes are inner dividers intended to touch the bullet as it passes. Wipes are typically rubber or plastic or foam. They may have a hole drilled in them before use, or a pattern cut through at the point the bullet will strike them, or they may simply use the bullet's energy to punch a hole.
Wipes typically last for a small number of firings, perhaps no more than 5 before their performance is significantly degraded."
AND... for all you folks throwing out dubious and subjective claims about sound levels, see here for actual dB levels.
It has been my experience that the senses lie and deceive too often to put that much faith into them.
My experience has not been as such.
By our previous reasoning, this processing is nothing but a random firing of neutrons..
I wouldn't categorize visual processing as random.
it's actually quite remarkable that most of us can even agree at what we're looking at
I disagree with that statement also.
I will answer that with a question: What makes you think there is a "real world", or that being awake is any more real then being asleep?
I find accepting the reality as presented through my senses to be a fairly small leap of faith, as the "real world" is the simplest and most likely explanation for what my senses present to me. Besides, what else am I to believe?
And, during dreams, there is nothing that suggests to me that it is much more than a deeper sort of daydream.
The reality is that we probably have nothing to look forward to after we die.
Upon what do you base this assertion?
If your consciousness is simply the interaction of neurons in your brain, would it not be logical to assume that when your brain stops working, so does your consciousness? That would seem to be the common sense answer.
I find it far more likely that after you die, you inhabit the dream realm (or a realm similar to it) semi-permanently. I say this because
1) it's a place where you exist without physical body,
2) you're comfortable with it, as you spend 1/3 - 1/4 of your life there anyway and
3) the rules of the place allow you to construct your own Heaven, Hell, or whatever else it is you "expect" to be in the afterlife for yourself out of nothing but thought.
Here's the spot for "Upon what do you base this assertion?". What makes you think there is a "dream realm" or that dreaming is more than just your brain at work while you're asleep? To be blunt, I find the latter part of your comment to be entirely ridiculous. You might as well start on about your consciousness going to the planet Kolob.
I'm going to disagree with your opening statement on the basis of a documentary I saw about a kid who had a massive head injury and instantly became deeply and radically religious. I also have a friend with bipolar, who, when unmedicated, heads in a simliar (albeit less severe) direction. I think these examples show that there is some neurochemical basis behind religiosity and, if that's true, it would follow that genetics could indeed have some role, no?
That's not to say the rest of your comment is completely invalid. Though, really, religious belief is the result of a number of factors: indoctrination/societal factors, a possible neurochemical disposition, and yes, the simple fact of religion being a comfort, a way of life, a philosophy, a social structure, a meaning of life, and an explanation for things that are, to them, inexplicable (a science, of sorts).
I believe your comment vastly oversimplifies the matter.
his viewing of those pictures supports the creation of those pictures
How come downloading kiddie porn via p2p is a crime because it supports kiddie porn creators, but downloading hollywood films via p2p is a crime because it doesn't support it's creators?
...There's no reason to tazer an asshole,...
On this, you and I simply disagree. I think unacceptable behavior should be corrected on the spot.
You might write my view of thinking off as deranged or maladaptive, but there's a method to my madness, of course. First of all, I figure on some level that if you keep letting people get away with being assholes, we just end up with a world full of assholes. I don't want violent assholes all around me, getting away with whatever they please just because it's so much nobler to turn the other cheek. I want them held accountable.
You know, maybe arresting and fining people just isn't good enough. Maybe everytime somebody does something shitty, they should, in addition, be counseled. Find out why they did whatever they did. Have it explained to them why their actions were unacceptable and explain how they are being fined/arrested and how their actions affect society. Let them know that their shittiness is just going to bite them in the ass more and more and that demonstrating a little self-control now and then might make their lives a little easier.
Or maybe it's already too late at that point. Maybe we could use something in our public education system to better prepare children for life. Classes on ethics, or how one might function as a decent member in society. Instead, it's like prison, where children learn bad behavior from more bad behavior. Monkey see, monkey do.
I don't know. I don't have all the answers. But I do know that letting people simply get away with being shitty doesn't sit right with me.
That's just the way it is.
There are a lot of unethical people out there who don't quite see their actions the way you do. When you hold them accountable, they see your actions as unjust. To them, you are a tyrant. They just want to shoot up, beat their wife, etc. And it's none of your business. Who the hell are you to interfere?
They don't see the big picture. They don't care about you. They don't care about much of anyone else besides themselves.
So... they hate you and everything you stand for without even knowing you.
It's unfortunate. But it's just the way things are.