"Once fluoride is incorporated into the teeth of children, the problem of dental infection by decay-causing bacteria is solved, because the pH required to cause decay in teeth that have fluoride included is never achieved by the bacteria."
It doesn't work that way. I am a dentist and can guarantee you that even fluoride treated teeth and teeth with systemic fluoride incorporation can and do get cavities. I drill and fill them all day every day. Fluoride is only one factor in keeping teeth healthy. You still have to brush, floss, maintain a healthy diet, etc.
most musicians traveled and got paid by passing the hat. Then came the record companies that turned musicianship (or at least marketing of music) into a multibillion dollar business, including big bucks for a few megapopular artists that they hyped and pushed on radio stations.
My question is this- why should musicians (or athletes, etc.) make millions of dollars for making music? Why don't the engineers who designed the iPhone (no, it wasn't Jobs who designed it) make millions? All the fuss over pirating music is because the record companies can't figure out how to keep their cash-cow mooing. They've been screwing most musicians for years. Now they are getting screwed and they don't like it. I find it hard to feel any sympathy for them. And to musicians who have trouble earning a living I say this: don't quit your day job.
True, your random fingerprint with no identifying info is worthless. But your fingerprint tied to your identity via your phone is valuable. It allows the agency collecting the data to put a name to a random fingerprint found at a crime scene, etc.
The problem is who knows what use that information will be in the future. Maybe police cars will be equipped with fingerprint scanners that can scan everything within 50m of the car for fingerprints and identify everyone who has touched any object within view, like license plate scanners they are now being equipped with, and facial recognition software being used on cameras in public spaces. Maybe your fingerprint is found on a door, making you a suspect in a crime inconveniencing you mightily and requiring you to hire legal defense (along with the 300 other schmucks who happened to touch that door that a criminal passed through).
synchronize their cilia? I have watched them under stroboscopic illumination and there are wave-like patterns in the motion, similar to what you see when a centipede runs across the floor. Paramecia are single celled and have no nerves, no muscles. How do they synchronize the motion of those hundreds (or thousands) of cilia? Is it simply cascading chemical reactions?
built in? I am wondering if what is really needed here is not a watch sized display that talks to the phone in your bag, but a phone mounted on your wrist. The only problem with that scenario now is that shirt sleeves aren't made to accommodate a phone-sized object strapped to your wrist. So what we really need then is for shirts to be made with bigger sleeves and some sort of strap attachment for a phone to put it on your wrist (OK, maybe a minor tweak to the phone design so that the power button is located where you can get at it more easily while the phone is strapped to your wrist).
The great breakthrough is going to come from a clothing designer, NOT a phone maker.
One more thing- that strap should hold the phone along the radius- the bone on the thumb side of your wrist (like a pipboy 3000) - where it is easy to access without turning your wrist into an uncomfortable position, as many so-called smart watches require.
it, but common sense tells me there is not and can never be any such thing as secure internet/network communication. An individual with limited resources can't possibly compete with the comparably unlimited resources of any government.
If you want any hope of secure communications, you have to communicate in person. Yes, it is expensive. Encrypting stuff to send it "securely" over the internet is simply an attempt to reduce the cost of such communications by compromising on the security.
Tuition has risen because of simple supply/demand principles taught in ECON 101. It's like the price of anything in a gold mining town. When people are finding gold, everything costs more.
More money has been made available through student loans (an increased supply) so the schools have raised tuition to soak up the excess.
There is no policy guiding the granting of student loans. It is a free-for-all, similar to the home mortgage market just before the crash. By handing money to people who have no ability to repay their loans, they are creating a bubble that will eventually have to burst. The difference between the two is that student loan debt follows you to the grave, thus creating a permanent underclass of federally owned slaves.
Why say 1400 terawatts, then explain that 1 terawatt is sufficient to power 85,000 homes when you could just as easily say that it generates "1400 terawatts, enough to power 119,000,000 homes"?
I don't want to upset you, but you are confusing "not accumulating debt" with earning a living. I think it is safe to say that most people don't view seeping on a couch in mom and dad's basement as a long-term goal.
It is true that a STEM education is likely to land you a higher paying job and thus more likely to enable you to make student loan payments than studying something like sociology, but that points to some structural problems with the whole student loan system. First and foremost, they'll lend money to anyone to study anything. The CEOs, politicians, etc. continually decry the poor state of education that doesn't produce qualified workers in one breath and then hand money to people to study underwater basket weaving as readily as they do to people who want to study STEM, (and in the next breath the CEOs moan about high taxes).
Not only that, but they charge the same interest rate for studying engineering that they charge for studying art history. In a truly capitalist society (which seems to be popular with the Fox news crowd) the interest rate on the loan should be commensurate with the risk- every loan shark knows that- but the feds charge the same rate to study medicine that they charge to study silly things. Furthermore, post grad interest rates are 2x the rate of undergraduate rates, though post grad educated people are far more likely to be able to repay loans than undergrads. We are still smarting from the lesson that Goldman Sachs taught us about the safety of home mortgages, yet the mortgage on my house is 3.6% while I am paying off my post grad student loans at 6.8%.
Furthermore, as in the home mortgage disaster, people who should not be given loans are being handed blank checks. If you're interested in studying art history and you take on $100k in loans without ever giving a thought to how you're going to pay that money back, you're an idiot. Yes, society needs a few people who know art history- the key word is "few". If you want to study art history and you don't have some sort of connection that is going to guarantee work as an art historian when you finish school, pick a different field of professional study and be satisfied with studying art history as a hobby.
The goal of the student loan program appears to be the same as the goal of the banks who issue credit cards- to turn people into slaves at an early age.
'they will end up in other sectors of the economy and be productive."
That may be true (STEM grads probably have functioning brains), but is a STEM education an efficient way to train greeters at Walmart or burger flippers? A STEM education IS good at creating a new crop of student loan slaves every year...
convenience. No modern OS should be used, no modern hardware, and no internet connection. I'm going to dig out my old 386 computer, stack of OS/2 floppies, and an old copy of PGP that I have on a floppy from when it first came out. The encrypted files will be stored on 5" floppies in my off-site safe and if they need to be shared with others, it will be done by sneaker net.
Wait, isn't that what Al queda does? Wait, if that is what Al Queda does, why is the NSA monitoring everything on the internet? What is their real purpose?
It's true that programming requires structured thought and attention to detail, but the context tends to be limited by the language you're learning. The goal of programming is generally to figure out how to use the available language syntax to produce a specific result. With physics, for example, the syntax is a set of laws that apply to almost everything in the universe, a context within which we all have daily experience whether we realize it or not (physics often reveals that context to the student).
Calculus may not be directly useful in many fields but it trains one to approach problem solving in an organized way and with attention to detail. Physics is similar in that even if you never use specific facts learned in the class, the approach to problem solving stays with you -if you are the sort who realizes that the physics approach is generally applicable and not limited to solving physics homework problems.
trying to achieve full employment when no one really wants to work. We should be trying to achieve universal unemployment where no one has to work to earn a living. That means all jobs functions, especially the dangerous, dirty, unappealing jobs that employ so many at or below minimum wage. Work would not be eliminated entirely, but should be left to those who really want to do it.
I'm so sick of the press' obsession with 3D printed guns. Almost as sick as I am of my fellow American's infantile obsession with things that go "bang!". Maybe fireworks should be legalized everywhere so that people can get their dose of "bang!" without having to resort to flinging bits of metal through the air at lethal velocities.
Motorola in 1981 they used to say "work smarter, not harder", we got comp time off for overtime worked, etc. After a while it became "work harder", and the comp time off went away, and overtime was expected with no compensation. A little while later it became "work!", followed by "work, goddamit!" where you were viewed unfavorably if you used company time to take a leak.
who drink soda 4 times or more per day is that they are able to do so because of a lack of parental supervision (plus a few because of extreme dental ignorance on the part of the parents). I think that that same lack of supervision leads to bad behavior in little kids. I don't think I'd blame the soda for bad behavior, though caffeine may be contributing to the problem.
Slashdot Mirror
"Once fluoride is incorporated into the teeth of children, the problem of dental infection by decay-causing bacteria is solved, because the pH required to cause decay in teeth that have fluoride included is never achieved by the bacteria."
It doesn't work that way. I am a dentist and can guarantee you that even fluoride treated teeth and teeth with systemic fluoride incorporation can and do get cavities. I drill and fill them all day every day. Fluoride is only one factor in keeping teeth healthy. You still have to brush, floss, maintain a healthy diet, etc.
most musicians traveled and got paid by passing the hat. Then came the record companies that turned musicianship (or at least marketing of music) into a multibillion dollar business, including big bucks for a few megapopular artists that they hyped and pushed on radio stations.
My question is this- why should musicians (or athletes, etc.) make millions of dollars for making music? Why don't the engineers who designed the iPhone (no, it wasn't Jobs who designed it) make millions? All the fuss over pirating music is because the record companies can't figure out how to keep their cash-cow mooing. They've been screwing most musicians for years. Now they are getting screwed and they don't like it. I find it hard to feel any sympathy for them. And to musicians who have trouble earning a living I say this: don't quit your day job.
True, your random fingerprint with no identifying info is worthless. But your fingerprint tied to your identity via your phone is valuable. It allows the agency collecting the data to put a name to a random fingerprint found at a crime scene, etc.
The problem is who knows what use that information will be in the future. Maybe police cars will be equipped with fingerprint scanners that can scan everything within 50m of the car for fingerprints and identify everyone who has touched any object within view, like license plate scanners they are now being equipped with, and facial recognition software being used on cameras in public spaces. Maybe your fingerprint is found on a door, making you a suspect in a crime inconveniencing you mightily and requiring you to hire legal defense (along with the 300 other schmucks who happened to touch that door that a criminal passed through).
synchronize their cilia? I have watched them under stroboscopic illumination and there are wave-like patterns in the motion, similar to what you see when a centipede runs across the floor. Paramecia are single celled and have no nerves, no muscles. How do they synchronize the motion of those hundreds (or thousands) of cilia? Is it simply cascading chemical reactions?
"The statement would then disappear since it would no longer be true. "
and we all know that if something is on the internet it MUST be true...
built in? I am wondering if what is really needed here is not a watch sized display that talks to the phone in your bag, but a phone mounted on your wrist. The only problem with that scenario now is that shirt sleeves aren't made to accommodate a phone-sized object strapped to your wrist. So what we really need then is for shirts to be made with bigger sleeves and some sort of strap attachment for a phone to put it on your wrist (OK, maybe a minor tweak to the phone design so that the power button is located where you can get at it more easily while the phone is strapped to your wrist).
The great breakthrough is going to come from a clothing designer, NOT a phone maker.
One more thing- that strap should hold the phone along the radius- the bone on the thumb side of your wrist (like a pipboy 3000) - where it is easy to access without turning your wrist into an uncomfortable position, as many so-called smart watches require.
it, but common sense tells me there is not and can never be any such thing as secure internet/network communication. An individual with limited resources can't possibly compete with the comparably unlimited resources of any government.
If you want any hope of secure communications, you have to communicate in person. Yes, it is expensive. Encrypting stuff to send it "securely" over the internet is simply an attempt to reduce the cost of such communications by compromising on the security.
Tuition has risen because of simple supply/demand principles taught in ECON 101. It's like the price of anything in a gold mining town. When people are finding gold, everything costs more.
More money has been made available through student loans (an increased supply) so the schools have raised tuition to soak up the excess.
There is no policy guiding the granting of student loans. It is a free-for-all, similar to the home mortgage market just before the crash. By handing money to people who have no ability to repay their loans, they are creating a bubble that will eventually have to burst. The difference between the two is that student loan debt follows you to the grave, thus creating a permanent underclass of federally owned slaves.
Why say 1400 terawatts, then explain that 1 terawatt is sufficient to power 85,000 homes when you could just as easily say that it generates "1400 terawatts, enough to power 119,000,000 homes"?
I don't want to upset you, but you are confusing "not accumulating debt" with earning a living. I think it is safe to say that most people don't view seeping on a couch in mom and dad's basement as a long-term goal.
It is true that a STEM education is likely to land you a higher paying job and thus more likely to enable you to make student loan payments than studying something like sociology, but that points to some structural problems with the whole student loan system. First and foremost, they'll lend money to anyone to study anything. The CEOs, politicians, etc. continually decry the poor state of education that doesn't produce qualified workers in one breath and then hand money to people to study underwater basket weaving as readily as they do to people who want to study STEM, (and in the next breath the CEOs moan about high taxes).
Not only that, but they charge the same interest rate for studying engineering that they charge for studying art history. In a truly capitalist society (which seems to be popular with the Fox news crowd) the interest rate on the loan should be commensurate with the risk- every loan shark knows that- but the feds charge the same rate to study medicine that they charge to study silly things. Furthermore, post grad interest rates are 2x the rate of undergraduate rates, though post grad educated people are far more likely to be able to repay loans than undergrads. We are still smarting from the lesson that Goldman Sachs taught us about the safety of home mortgages, yet the mortgage on my house is 3.6% while I am paying off my post grad student loans at 6.8%.
Furthermore, as in the home mortgage disaster, people who should not be given loans are being handed blank checks. If you're interested in studying art history and you take on $100k in loans without ever giving a thought to how you're going to pay that money back, you're an idiot. Yes, society needs a few people who know art history- the key word is "few". If you want to study art history and you don't have some sort of connection that is going to guarantee work as an art historian when you finish school, pick a different field of professional study and be satisfied with studying art history as a hobby.
The goal of the student loan program appears to be the same as the goal of the banks who issue credit cards- to turn people into slaves at an early age.
The original quote included the word "productive".
Yeah, but like Morcheeba says, "Who can you trust?"
'they will end up in other sectors of the economy and be productive."
That may be true (STEM grads probably have functioning brains), but is a STEM education an efficient way to train greeters at Walmart or burger flippers? A STEM education IS good at creating a new crop of student loan slaves every year...
convenience. No modern OS should be used, no modern hardware, and no internet connection. I'm going to dig out my old 386 computer, stack of OS/2 floppies, and an old copy of PGP that I have on a floppy from when it first came out. The encrypted files will be stored on 5" floppies in my off-site safe and if they need to be shared with others, it will be done by sneaker net.
Wait, isn't that what Al queda does? Wait, if that is what Al Queda does, why is the NSA monitoring everything on the internet? What is their real purpose?
It's true that programming requires structured thought and attention to detail, but the context tends to be limited by the language you're learning. The goal of programming is generally to figure out how to use the available language syntax to produce a specific result. With physics, for example, the syntax is a set of laws that apply to almost everything in the universe, a context within which we all have daily experience whether we realize it or not (physics often reveals that context to the student).
include having dark skin...
Calculus may not be directly useful in many fields but it trains one to approach problem solving in an organized way and with attention to detail.
Physics is similar in that even if you never use specific facts learned in the class, the approach to problem solving stays with you -if you are the sort who realizes that the physics approach is generally applicable and not limited to solving physics homework problems.
trying to achieve full employment when no one really wants to work. We should be trying to achieve universal unemployment where no one has to work to earn a living. That means all jobs functions, especially the dangerous, dirty, unappealing jobs that employ so many at or below minimum wage. Work would not be eliminated entirely, but should be left to those who really want to do it.
will steal ANYTHING from anybody.
but they aren't wrong ALL the time, and that's the best we can do.
"That's just how people do things."
You mean "people" as in "corporations", which are people according to SCOTUS? And money=free speech?
I'm so sick of the press' obsession with 3D printed guns. Almost as sick as I am of my fellow American's infantile obsession with things that go "bang!". Maybe fireworks should be legalized everywhere so that people can get their dose of "bang!" without having to resort to flinging bits of metal through the air at lethal velocities.
Motorola in 1981 they used to say "work smarter, not harder", we got comp time off for overtime worked, etc. After a while it became "work harder", and the comp time off went away, and overtime was expected with no compensation. A little while later it became "work!", followed by "work, goddamit!" where you were viewed unfavorably if you used company time to take a leak.
The bean counters always win...
George Costanza: "It isn't a lie if you believe it"
who drink soda 4 times or more per day is that they are able to do so because of a lack of parental supervision (plus a few because of extreme dental ignorance on the part of the parents). I think that that same lack of supervision leads to bad behavior in little kids. I don't think I'd blame the soda for bad behavior, though caffeine may be contributing to the problem.