In addition, let me remind you that the track record of the consensus is nothing to be proud of. Let's review a few cases.
In past centuries, the greatest killer of women was fever following childbirth . One woman in six died of this fever. In 1795, Alexander Gordon of Aberdeen suggested that the fevers were infectious processes, and he was able to cure them. The consensus said no. In 1843, Oliver Wendell Holmes claimed puerperal fever was contagious, and presented compellng evidence. The consensus said no. In 1849, Semmelweiss demonstrated that sanitary techniques virtually eliminated puerperal fever in hospitals under his management. The consensus said he was a Jew, ignored him, and dismissed him from his post. There was in fact no agreement on puerperal fever until the start of the twentieth century. Thus the consensus took one hundred and twenty five years to arrive at the right conclusion despite the efforts of the prominent "skeptics" around the world, skeptics who were demeaned and ignored. And despite the constant ongoing deaths of women.
There is no shortage of other examples. In the 1920s in America, tens of thousands of people, mostly poor, were dying of a disease called pellagra. The consensus of scientists said it was infectious, and what was necessary was to find the "pellagra germ." The US government asked a brilliant young investigator, Dr. Joseph Goldberger, to find the cause. Goldberger concluded that diet was the crucial factor. The consensus remained wedded to the germ theory. Goldberger demonstrated that he could induce the disease through diet. He demonstrated that the disease was not infectious by injecting the blood of a pellagra patient into himself, and his assistant. They and other volunteers swabbed their noses with swabs from pellagra patients, and swallowed capsules containing scabs from pellagra rashes in what were called "Goldberger's filth parties." Nobody contracted pellagra. The consensus continued to disagree with him. There was, in addition, a social factor-southern States disliked the idea of poor diet as the cause, because it meant that social reform was required. They continued to deny it until the 1920s. Result-despite a twentieth century epidemic, the consensus took years to see the light.
Probably every schoolchild notices that South America and Africa seem to fit together rather snugly, and Alfred Wegener proposed, in 1912, that the continents had in fact drifted apart. The consensus sneered at continental drift for fifty years. The theory was most vigorously denied by the great names of geology-until 1961, when it began to seem as if the sea floors were spreading. The result: it took the consensus fifty years to acknowledge what any schoolchild sees.
And shall we go on? The examples can be multiplied endlessly. Jenner and smallpox, Pasteur and germ theory. Saccharine, margarine, repressed memory, fiber and colon cancer, hormone replacement therap6y...the list of consensus errors goes on and on.
Finally, I would remind you to notice where the claim of consensus is invoked. Consensus is invoked only in situations where the science is not solid enough. Nobody says the consensus of scientists agrees that E=mc2. Nobody says the consensus is that the sun is 93 million miles away. It would never occur to anyone to speak that way.
The US Federal government has given a $100 Million grant to "research" Ann Arbor To Detroit mass transit system that just won't be built!
All of the important decisions about the rail have already been made, and the "research" mainly consists of trying to convince people that it's worth the astronomical costs to invest more money in such a system.
We get so much federal funding from gas taxes specially allocated to mass transit, and Michigan has very little besides cars, so it's use it or loose it, but the proposal is just not going to happen in a region with a local recession, reasonably limited traffic congestion, and stable to declining population.
Sadly, this "research" gets in the way examinig of potentially useful and applicable solutions, which might actually be installed, and might actually have a net positive impact, especially in Detroit where poverty is so aweful and people have a genuine lack of transportation. Cheaper and faster solutions such as Mini Pods, more buses, or even rentable GPS tracked electric motor bikes might be considered instead.
Heck, just toss aside a measly 3% and double the M-Prize and you'll do the people of Metro Detroit more good.
When I was a kid, my father came home very upset from the automotive factory one day.
It seems a man had stepped over a security barrier on the production line and into the area of a robot that welds doors on cars.
The robot picked him up and proceeded to weld him to the car - killing him.
My dad had to shut everything down and pull the body out.
PS: Officially, he died at the hospital, because insurance payments are higher if you die on the assembly site, but there is no doctor there to declare you dead.
A relative of mine, of whom I'm very proud BTW, served as a US Marine in Iraq, and wanted to send some pictures back to his family. I sent some basic instructions to his hotmail account, but my mail never got to him. He didn't receive any of my subsequent messages either, although to be fair, he did admit he was busy fighting 14 hours a day, and had little time for e-mail, so some of them may just have been overlooked.
Anyway, I had the distinct impression that the US military had a hidden "delete" button over his e-mail Inbox.
Seems like a scaled up version of this might be useful in an industrial capacity without going all of the way to space.
Walmart has what, like 900 distribution centers in the USA? Figure that many of them are 100 miles or less apart.
An automated glider holding a pallette could be launched from a 10 mile high elevator and glide with a 10:1 glide ratio to an adjacent distribution center. Given safe landing points at 25, 50, and 75 miles, it would be relatively safe, and Walmart could move goods throughout the USA by lifting the glider, releasing it, letting it land, and lifting it again.
Run it on solar power, and it's pollution free.
The US Postal service, FedEx ground, and UPS ground could send mail this way too.
"Often survey results can be skewed... the FBI reduced the estimated number of affected organizations from 64 percent to a more conservative 20 percent. "
Why? Because that seemed like a good number? This inexplicable change causes me to question the validity of the whole study.
An obvious "improvement" is the addition of a VIP button, card, or code that allows some people priority, VIP access to the elevators.
While the regular joes may find this annoying, a building manager may like it because it can reduce the bulk and expense for special penthouse elevators.
It may even allow them to bill an extra $25.00 per month for VIP access in rent, or setup a pay per use service.
"It's a braindead waste of time. I don't see how I can put it more politely."
How about, "I disagree with the direction that Novell is taking its free software project, which they are spending their own time and money on, and giving away for free, but I won't insult their intelligence just because I don't agree with them".
I'm writing several applications for Linux using Mono. Yes, deployment is a pain, but the apps are designed for limited deployment. Mono is a great language, and the productivity gains are worth the extra effort.
Thank you Novell for supporting Mono and thank you Fedora for making my future deployments easier!
I've driven as far as Detroit-Washington D.C., in my lovely fuel inefficient SUV - alone, because it's more economical than flying, and I would do it again.
Firstly, it's much cheaper. At 14 miles per gallon, and $2.20 per gallon, it cost me about $165 for gas round trip. Yes, there are wear and tear costs on my SUV, but I'm already paying for it, and I need a car, and I'm keeping it for at least 7 years no matter what, so those are sunken costs.
Airfare today, with a 1 week lead time (which I did not have), is $153.59. Factor in airport parking ($6.00/day for 7 days = $42), and the price of a rental car for 7 days ($45.00/day for 7 days = $315), and travel costs are $510.59, or about 300% higher.
Secondly, it's not that much slower. The distance is 525 miles, or about 10 hours, but it actually took about 11 hours with stops. Non-stop flight time is 1 hour and 45 minutes. I actually follow the TSA guidelines and get there 2 hours early, and it's 30 minutes to the airport. Also, it's another 30 minutes to get out of the airport and get to my true destination. That's 4 hours and 45 minutes for a direct flight, or about twice as fast. When I checked, there was a transfer and a layover, adding an additional couple of hours.
There are benefits too. I don't come into contact with as many people, so I get fewer germs. My car is more comfortable than a discount airplane seat, and most importantly, I did not know how long I would be staying, so I had the flexibility of leaving when the job was done - not a day later.
Admitedly, I was pretty much exhausted and road weary when I got to my destination, but a good night's sleep pretty much took care of that.
Yes, I have flown, and I would never drive for a single day meeting. When you factor in the cost of my time, flying makes a great deal of sense, but for many people, driving, even very long distances, is the most cost effective means of getting from point a to point b.
Make a major presentation to the board predicting a disaster, and outline the steps needed to avert that disaster.
Then the penny-pinching, overweight, business-friendly, man in a suit scowls at you can calls you a fool.
Then the disaster hits, you make a few recommendations to get them going, and then you run off to save your kid or girlfriend.
Seriously, predict a specific disaster, request resources, get denied, then watch that disaster unfold. You will be free of blame, and you will get your resources.
But make sure that you get specific commitments from management in the middle of the disaster, and not after you've fixed it. Gratitude fades very quickly.
IIRC, US special forces were sent in to disable them. (Thank you)
If the Iraqis had the capability to knock out a GPS satellite, and degrade the system upon which their enemy's most effective weapons relied, don't you think they would have done that too? It might not take a lot; just a high powered laser and an accurate tracking device. The Soviet/Russian anti-satelite systems were little more than a missle filled with ball bearings. Messy, but effective.
For a variety of reasons, IT at work has given to me a Windows 2000 Desktop system that's 5+ years old. (HP Vectra VL).
It has a randomly failing hard drive. Sometimes, the system won't recognize the hard drive, so it helps to pull the cord and rock the system back and forth, left and right. If this doesn't work, disconnecting the hard drive and cleaning the IDE cable as well as the power cable to the HD with compressed air usually does the trick. (I also spray the fan, the RAM, and anything else dusty while I'm in there)
This may not happen for weeks, but when it acts up, I can spend several hours fiddling with it before it boots.
The replacement systems that IT has given me are similar, older models, with identical failure modes. (Swap drives - same result, swap systems - same result, copy drives - fails)
Is it possible to copy its 20GB Windows partition to another hard drive with different tracks, sectors, etc? If I get a new hard drive, which brands come with software to automatically do that?
Alternatively, what open source software, if any, could I use to boot a virtual 20GB image from this hard drive? I have a newer computer with Windows XP Home or Fedora Core 3 ready for this task.
I actually do most of my work on a newer, inexpensive Linux system that work paid for as a line item in a travel budget, but I haven't been on any trips recently:), and I need Windows for e-mail, corporate VPN software, etc.
"Cryptically stating that Asia wants the U.S. to become 'the France of the 21st century"
It's only cryptic if you don't understand that France is a former world power that has been permanently eclipsed economically, technologically, culturally, and militarily, and it has an almost obsessive desire to act as if it is America's nemesis, complaining almost reflexively of most of America's moves on the international stage.
That's not to say that the French aren't nice people, nor that I wouldn't love to hang out on one of their topless beaches, nor watch Paris's nightly display of lights, but in the realpolitik world, France doesn't matter! Thus their desire for a strong, core European Union, which along with Germany, they hope to dominate, to unite Europe as a strong and meaningful entity on the global stage.
You will know that the US is screwed when it seeks to create a transnational government with Canada and Mexico.
Standard Severance - 4 weeks + 1 week/year of service, sometimes capped at 5 years of service. (This varies. Well placed executives may get years of severance, and store clerks may get none)
A "Stay to the Bitter End" Bonus - Approximately an additional 4 weeks of salary or $10,000 for those who stay until the very last day they are needed.
Immediate release from all restrictions in your employee agreement with regards to working for competitors.
Verification that the conditions of your termination will allow you to collect unemployement.
Find a new job now. Tell the hiring managers that your bonuses will keep you at your current position until the closing date. Don't fret about taking an hour here or there to interview; it's expected. Besides, they're already going to let you go soon. They need you and they're not going to fire you. It's time for you to start thinking about greener pastures.
Later, if they hire you back (and it may happen), offer to do so for a 25% raise, but settle for no less than 10%. If you don't have a new job, don't let them know about it. Your new "consulting" position prevents you from speaking about it.
Technology helped build the holocaust gas chambers. Technology allowed the East Germans to make automatic machine guns to fire at anyone attempting to escape to West Berlin. Technology allowed the Kamar Rouge to kill with ease and impunity.
It's what we do with the technology that makes the world better or worse.
Thus I could use technology to mail you a steaming pile of pooh (if I knew your snail mail address), or build a catapult to fling it at you, but I won't to that. I'll just explain that in this instance you're mistaken.
The real advantage of this system is that it's governed by the law of the sea. These vessels can fly flags of convenience and simply import Hydrogen. You want to complain that they're killing birds? Too bad They're bothering your politically-connected and oh so expensive Cape Cod view? Thanks for playing "We don't care".
And if one of our friendly, small, and oh so bribable CAFTA partners such as Costa Rica offers the flag of convenience, guess what? That hydrogen is entering the USA duty free! Don't try to stop it, or you'll end up in a corporate friendly and politically insulated CAFTA court.
The sad part is that just like Sea Launch, it's getting so that you have to move out of the country to avoid all of the hassles and get 'er done. Thus the biggest joke of the recent energy bill. A $500 million grant to pay for people to deal with the nuclear power bureaucrats in Washington so that we might ~think~ about making another nuclear power plant. (Well, perhaps second biggest after that Alaskan bridge fiasco)
Which brings up a good idea. You might as well cut out all of this hippie wind power BS and build a nuclear power plant out at sea to generate electricity to distill water, split it, and make hydrogen. We must have a spare nuclear aircraft carrier around here somewhere. Sell it to Costa Rica and they can rent it out to "Clean Hydrogen At Sea Corp"
Business method patent pending. Send $100,000 and you can have it.
Or you have a recreational trailer and your SUV is your tow vehicle, and you've done the math, and it's not cost effective to buy a more fuel efficient third car, because the insurance costs alone will more than eat away at the gas savings, even if the car is otherwise free and gets 45 miles to the gallon.
Look at the nationwide map. It looks like most, if not all, of PA is covered with Verizon wireless high speed intnernet ($59/month+regular cell - unlimited - 400Kbps-800Kbps with 2Mbps bursting).
Also, if you can find someone within line of sight who has DSL or Cable modem, you can roll your own point to point wireless network pretty easilly, even with plain old 802.11a/b/g.
The next time a Microsoftee (Microserf) says "Microsoft Has a Lower TCO based on independent research", you may answer:
"So does Linux".
Which, unless he/she or you is interested enough to delve into the details and determine exactly why this study or that is the biased creation of money grubbing two bit hacks, and the other is pure, independent, and impregnable research from uninvolved, dispassionate, and brilliant scientists, sent down from a pristine ivory tower and given to us mere mortals as pure knowlege for the good of humanity, pretty much shows that these studies are biased and takes them off the table.
Then we can talk about real stuff. Like the fact that Linux is free and it has a cool GUI.
Pentagram wrote:
"Your claim was not that global warming was not due to human influence, but that it might not be occurring. At least you seem to have dropped that absurd position."
You're reading what you want to read! I guess I didn't explicitely state everything again.
What originally I wrote was:
"there is still some wiggle room vis-a-vis global warming and human causation"
Do I still think it's "there is some wiggle room" that most of the warming in the last century was caused by by climactic changes, or that some of the measured changes might have been caused by unreliable data from early weather stations, and that the climate might vary whichever way it pleases no matter what we do?
Yes.
Do I really think that's true?
Probably not, but there is SOME WIGGLE ROOM. (i.e. there is some doubt)
Pentagram wrote:
"It is not the warming itself that is so dramatic, but the rate of warming"
No, the measured rate of warming is about 0.8 degrees C per century.
(Source is this graph)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Instrumental_Te mperature_Record.png
Looking at the graph to which you linked, there were other time periods when warming moved similarly. Say about 550AD-600AD.
We can handle that over the next 100 years no problem.
The REAL threat is a runaway acceleration caused by increased CO2 concentrations, and the climactic impact that those changes may have.
If we go from 0.8 to 1.6 or even 3.2, and all the ice in Greenland melts, and the Oceans rise up 30 meters, yeah we have major problems.
Do I think it's worth making some effort to make sure that this doesn't happen?
Heck Yes.
Will I respond again?
Heck No.
Like many wikipedia articles, it's somewhat inconsistent in places.
The top talks about oil prices. The bottom regarding other factors.
One area suggests stagflation lasted until the 1980s. I remember the nation having been in a recession and when my father was afraid for his job.
At first, it talks about oil prices causing stagflation.
Another part talks about various supply side theories (such as your description).
I didn't realize that there was so much debate!
However, you don't have to listen to to many market reports to know that commentators often blame oil price spikes when stocks go down.
Nor do you need to have a degree in economics to realize that if gas costs $100 per gallon, then no one who works at Walmart is going to pay to drive her car 10 miles to work for a wage of $8.00 per hour (8 hour shift -> wages $64. 15 miles per gallon -> cost of gas would be $66), so higher gas prices eliminate certain economic activities that were previously viable.
Here's a useful qoute from the National Science Foundation:
"Greenhouse gases are accumulating in Earth's atmosphere as a result of human activities, causing surface air temperatures and subsurface ocean temperatures to rise. Temperatures are, in fact, rising. The changes observed over the last several decades are likely mostly due to human activities, but we cannot rule out that some significant part of these changes is also a reflection of natural variability. Human-induced warming and associated sea level rises are expected to continue through the 21st century. Secondary effects are suggested by computer model simulations and basic physical reasoning. These include increases in rainfall rates and increased susceptibility of semi-arid regions to drought. The impacts of these changes will be critically dependent on the magnitude of the warming and the rate with which it occurs."
All I'm saying is that there is some doubt that humans are causing global warming, and the extent to which the climate is changing. If that makes me ridiculous in your eyes, then that's OK by me.
"I said the US was bad at it because the ratio of GDP:CO2 emissions is about half that of the EU countries."
The only comparitive reference I found was from the government of Romania:
Besides, with a shrinking population, and greater energy efficiencies that naturally develop through new technologies, Russia can pretty much do nothing and comply with Kyoto.
Slashdot Mirror
From "Aliens Cause Global Warming"
s _quote04.html
Michael Crichton
http://www.crichton-official.com/speeches/speeche
In addition, let me remind you that the track record of the consensus is nothing to be proud of. Let's review a few cases.
In past centuries, the greatest killer of women was fever following childbirth . One woman in six died of this fever. In 1795, Alexander Gordon of Aberdeen suggested that the fevers were infectious processes, and he was able to cure them. The consensus said no. In 1843, Oliver Wendell Holmes claimed puerperal fever was contagious, and presented compellng evidence. The consensus said no. In 1849, Semmelweiss demonstrated that sanitary techniques virtually eliminated puerperal fever in hospitals under his management. The consensus said he was a Jew, ignored him, and dismissed him from his post. There was in fact no agreement on puerperal fever until the start of the twentieth century. Thus the consensus took one hundred and twenty five years to arrive at the right conclusion despite the efforts of the prominent "skeptics" around the world, skeptics who were demeaned and ignored. And despite the constant ongoing deaths of women.
There is no shortage of other examples. In the 1920s in America, tens of thousands of people, mostly poor, were dying of a disease called pellagra. The consensus of scientists said it was infectious, and what was necessary was to find the "pellagra germ." The US government asked a brilliant young investigator, Dr. Joseph Goldberger, to find the cause. Goldberger concluded that diet was the crucial factor. The consensus remained wedded to the germ theory. Goldberger demonstrated that he could induce the disease through diet. He demonstrated that the disease was not infectious by injecting the blood of a pellagra patient into himself, and his assistant. They and other volunteers swabbed their noses with swabs from pellagra patients, and swallowed capsules containing scabs from pellagra rashes in what were called "Goldberger's filth parties." Nobody contracted pellagra. The consensus continued to disagree with him. There was, in addition, a social factor-southern States disliked the idea of poor diet as the cause, because it meant that social reform was required. They continued to deny it until the 1920s. Result-despite a twentieth century epidemic, the consensus took years to see the light.
Probably every schoolchild notices that South America and Africa seem to fit together rather snugly, and Alfred Wegener proposed, in 1912, that the continents had in fact drifted apart. The consensus sneered at continental drift for fifty years. The theory was most vigorously denied by the great names of geology-until 1961, when it began to seem as if the sea floors were spreading. The result: it took the consensus fifty years to acknowledge what any schoolchild sees.
And shall we go on? The examples can be multiplied endlessly. Jenner and smallpox, Pasteur and germ theory. Saccharine, margarine, repressed memory, fiber and colon cancer, hormone replacement therap6y...the list of consensus errors goes on and on.
Finally, I would remind you to notice where the claim of consensus is invoked. Consensus is invoked only in situations where the science is not solid enough. Nobody says the consensus of scientists agrees that E=mc2. Nobody says the consensus is that the sun is 93 million miles away. It would never occur to anyone to speak that way.
All of the important decisions about the rail have already been made, and the "research" mainly consists of trying to convince people that it's worth the astronomical costs to invest more money in such a system. We get so much federal funding from gas taxes specially allocated to mass transit, and Michigan has very little besides cars, so it's use it or loose it, but the proposal is just not going to happen in a region with a local recession, reasonably limited traffic congestion, and stable to declining population.
Sadly, this "research" gets in the way examinig of potentially useful and applicable solutions, which might actually be installed, and might actually have a net positive impact, especially in Detroit where poverty is so aweful and people have a genuine lack of transportation. Cheaper and faster solutions such as Mini Pods, more buses, or even rentable GPS tracked electric motor bikes might be considered instead.
Heck, just toss aside a measly 3% and double the M-Prize and you'll do the people of Metro Detroit more good.
When I was a kid, my father came home very upset from the automotive factory one day.
It seems a man had stepped over a security barrier on the production line and into the area of a robot that welds doors on cars.
The robot picked him up and proceeded to weld him to the car - killing him.
My dad had to shut everything down and pull the body out.
PS: Officially, he died at the hospital, because insurance payments are higher if you die on the assembly site, but there is no doctor there to declare you dead.
A relative of mine, of whom I'm very proud BTW, served as a US Marine in Iraq, and wanted to send some pictures back to his family. I sent some basic instructions to his hotmail account, but my mail never got to him. He didn't receive any of my subsequent messages either, although to be fair, he did admit he was busy fighting 14 hours a day, and had little time for e-mail, so some of them may just have been overlooked.
Anyway, I had the distinct impression that the US military had a hidden "delete" button over his e-mail Inbox.
Seems like a scaled up version of this might be useful in an industrial capacity without going all of the way to space.
Walmart has what, like 900 distribution centers in the USA? Figure that many of them are 100 miles or less apart.
An automated glider holding a pallette could be launched from a 10 mile high elevator and glide with a 10:1 glide ratio to an adjacent distribution center. Given safe landing points at 25, 50, and 75 miles, it would be relatively safe, and Walmart could move goods throughout the USA by lifting the glider, releasing it, letting it land, and lifting it again.
Run it on solar power, and it's pollution free.
The US Postal service, FedEx ground, and UPS ground could send mail this way too.
It's the Elevator-net!
Why? Because that seemed like a good number? This inexplicable change causes me to question the validity of the whole study.
An obvious "improvement" is the addition of a VIP button, card, or code that allows some people priority, VIP access to the elevators.
While the regular joes may find this annoying, a building manager may like it because it can reduce the bulk and expense for special penthouse elevators.
It may even allow them to bill an extra $25.00 per month for VIP access in rent, or setup a pay per use service.
"It's a braindead waste of time. I don't see how I can put it more politely."
How about, "I disagree with the direction that Novell is taking its free software project, which they are spending their own time and money on, and giving away for free, but I won't insult their intelligence just because I don't agree with them".
I'm writing several applications for Linux using Mono. Yes, deployment is a pain, but the apps are designed for limited deployment. Mono is a great language, and the productivity gains are worth the extra effort.
Thank you Novell for supporting Mono and thank you Fedora for making my future deployments easier!
Firstly, it's much cheaper. At 14 miles per gallon, and $2.20 per gallon, it cost me about $165 for gas round trip. Yes, there are wear and tear costs on my SUV, but I'm already paying for it, and I need a car, and I'm keeping it for at least 7 years no matter what, so those are sunken costs.
Airfare today, with a 1 week lead time (which I did not have), is $153.59. Factor in airport parking ($6.00/day for 7 days = $42), and the price of a rental car for 7 days ($45.00/day for 7 days = $315), and travel costs are $510.59, or about 300% higher.
Secondly, it's not that much slower. The distance is 525 miles, or about 10 hours, but it actually took about 11 hours with stops. Non-stop flight time is 1 hour and 45 minutes. I actually follow the TSA guidelines and get there 2 hours early, and it's 30 minutes to the airport. Also, it's another 30 minutes to get out of the airport and get to my true destination. That's 4 hours and 45 minutes for a direct flight, or about twice as fast. When I checked, there was a transfer and a layover, adding an additional couple of hours.
There are benefits too. I don't come into contact with as many people, so I get fewer germs. My car is more comfortable than a discount airplane seat, and most importantly, I did not know how long I would be staying, so I had the flexibility of leaving when the job was done - not a day later.
Admitedly, I was pretty much exhausted and road weary when I got to my destination, but a good night's sleep pretty much took care of that.
Yes, I have flown, and I would never drive for a single day meeting. When you factor in the cost of my time, flying makes a great deal of sense, but for many people, driving, even very long distances, is the most cost effective means of getting from point a to point b.
It's not ignorance, it's good economics.
Make a major presentation to the board predicting a disaster, and outline the steps needed to avert that disaster.
Then the penny-pinching, overweight, business-friendly, man in a suit scowls at you can calls you a fool.
Then the disaster hits, you make a few recommendations to get them going, and then you run off to save your kid or girlfriend.
Seriously, predict a specific disaster, request resources, get denied, then watch that disaster unfold. You will be free of blame, and you will get your resources.
But make sure that you get specific commitments from management in the middle of the disaster, and not after you've fixed it. Gratitude fades very quickly.
GPS-jammer contractor plays both sides of war
IIRC, US special forces were sent in to disable them. (Thank you)
If the Iraqis had the capability to knock out a GPS satellite, and degrade the system upon which their enemy's most effective weapons relied, don't you think they would have done that too? It might not take a lot; just a high powered laser and an accurate tracking device. The Soviet/Russian anti-satelite systems were little more than a missle filled with ball bearings. Messy, but effective.
For a variety of reasons, IT at work has given to me a Windows 2000 Desktop system that's 5+ years old. (HP Vectra VL).
:), and I need Windows for e-mail, corporate VPN software, etc.
It has a randomly failing hard drive. Sometimes, the system won't recognize the hard drive, so it helps to pull the cord and rock the system back and forth, left and right. If this doesn't work, disconnecting the hard drive and cleaning the IDE cable as well as the power cable to the HD with compressed air usually does the trick. (I also spray the fan, the RAM, and anything else dusty while I'm in there)
This may not happen for weeks, but when it acts up, I can spend several hours fiddling with it before it boots.
The replacement systems that IT has given me are similar, older models, with identical failure modes. (Swap drives - same result, swap systems - same result, copy drives - fails)
Is it possible to copy its 20GB Windows partition to another hard drive with different tracks, sectors, etc? If I get a new hard drive, which brands come with software to automatically do that?
Alternatively, what open source software, if any, could I use to boot a virtual 20GB image from this hard drive? I have a newer computer with Windows XP Home or Fedora Core 3 ready for this task.
I actually do most of my work on a newer, inexpensive Linux system that work paid for as a line item in a travel budget, but I haven't been on any trips recently
"Cryptically stating that Asia wants the U.S. to become 'the France of the 21st century"
It's only cryptic if you don't understand that France is a former world power that has been permanently eclipsed economically, technologically, culturally, and militarily, and it has an almost obsessive desire to act as if it is America's nemesis, complaining almost reflexively of most of America's moves on the international stage.
That's not to say that the French aren't nice people, nor that I wouldn't love to hang out on one of their topless beaches, nor watch Paris's nightly display of lights, but in the realpolitik world, France doesn't matter! Thus their desire for a strong, core European Union, which along with Germany, they hope to dominate, to unite Europe as a strong and meaningful entity on the global stage.
You will know that the US is screwed when it seeks to create a transnational government with Canada and Mexico.
Standard Severance - 4 weeks + 1 week/year of service, sometimes capped at 5 years of service. (This varies. Well placed executives may get years of severance, and store clerks may get none)
A "Stay to the Bitter End" Bonus - Approximately an additional 4 weeks of salary or $10,000 for those who stay until the very last day they are needed.
Immediate release from all restrictions in your employee agreement with regards to working for competitors.
Verification that the conditions of your termination will allow you to collect unemployement.
Find a new job now. Tell the hiring managers that your bonuses will keep you at your current position until the closing date. Don't fret about taking an hour here or there to interview; it's expected. Besides, they're already going to let you go soon. They need you and they're not going to fire you. It's time for you to start thinking about greener pastures.
Later, if they hire you back (and it may happen), offer to do so for a 25% raise, but settle for no less than 10%. If you don't have a new job, don't let them know about it. Your new "consulting" position prevents you from speaking about it.
Technology helped build the holocaust gas chambers. Technology allowed the East Germans to make automatic machine guns to fire at anyone attempting to escape to West Berlin. Technology allowed the Kamar Rouge to kill with ease and impunity.
It's what we do with the technology that makes the world better or worse.
Thus I could use technology to mail you a steaming pile of pooh (if I knew your snail mail address), or build a catapult to fling it at you, but I won't to that. I'll just explain that in this instance you're mistaken.
Have a nice day!
The real advantage of this system is that it's governed by the law of the sea. These vessels can fly flags of convenience and simply import Hydrogen. You want to complain that they're killing birds? Too bad They're bothering your politically-connected and oh so expensive Cape Cod view? Thanks for playing "We don't care".
And if one of our friendly, small, and oh so bribable CAFTA partners such as Costa Rica offers the flag of convenience, guess what? That hydrogen is entering the USA duty free! Don't try to stop it, or you'll end up in a corporate friendly and politically insulated CAFTA court.
The sad part is that just like Sea Launch, it's getting so that you have to move out of the country to avoid all of the hassles and get 'er done. Thus the biggest joke of the recent energy bill. A $500 million grant to pay for people to deal with the nuclear power bureaucrats in Washington so that we might ~think~ about making another nuclear power plant.
(Well, perhaps second biggest after that Alaskan bridge fiasco)
Which brings up a good idea. You might as well cut out all of this hippie wind power BS and build a nuclear power plant out at sea to generate electricity to distill water, split it, and make hydrogen. We must have a spare nuclear aircraft carrier around here somewhere. Sell it to Costa Rica and they can rent it out to "Clean Hydrogen At Sea Corp"
Business method patent pending. Send $100,000 and you can have it.
Just like reporters in the US voluntarily avoided questioning the actions of J Edgar Hoover and the FBI?
Or just like newspapers in Hong Kong voluntarily avoid articles that are too critical of the central government in Beijing?
Or how news of the severity of the plague of 1919 was voluntarily toned down in the US?
Or how the crash of a space ship in Roswell, New Mexico was voluntarily suppressed?
(Well, 3 out of 4 isn't bad).
BATNA = Best Alternative To Negotiated Agreement
Can you take your extra salary and go get an advanced degree somewhere?
Or max out your 401K and retire 5 years earlier, at which time you can choose to work for yourself?
Or can you work out an arrangement where you take 75%-80% salary for 4 days of work a week? How about EVERY Friday off?
Or you have a recreational trailer and your SUV is your tow vehicle, and you've done the math, and it's not cost effective to buy a more fuel efficient third car, because the insurance costs alone will more than eat away at the gas savings, even if the car is otherwise free and gets 45 miles to the gallon.
But hey, you know everything.
Look at the nationwide map. It looks like most, if not all, of PA is covered with Verizon wireless high speed intnernet ($59/month+regular cell - unlimited - 400Kbps-800Kbps with 2Mbps bursting).
http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/mobileoptions/
It may not be WiMax, but it gets the job done.
Also, if you can find someone within line of sight who has DSL or Cable modem, you can roll your own point to point wireless network pretty easilly, even with plain old 802.11a/b/g.
But it's counter-bullshit.
The next time a Microsoftee (Microserf) says "Microsoft Has a Lower TCO based on independent research", you may answer:
"So does Linux".
Which, unless he/she or you is interested enough to delve into the details and determine exactly why this study or that is the biased creation of money grubbing two bit hacks, and the other is pure, independent, and impregnable research from uninvolved, dispassionate, and brilliant scientists, sent down from a pristine ivory tower and given to us mere mortals as pure knowlege for the good of humanity, pretty much shows that these studies are biased and takes them off the table.
Then we can talk about real stuff. Like the fact that Linux is free and it has a cool GUI.
Pentagram wrote: "Your claim was not that global warming was not due to human influence, but that it might not be occurring. At least you seem to have dropped that absurd position." You're reading what you want to read! I guess I didn't explicitely state everything again. What originally I wrote was: "there is still some wiggle room vis-a-vis global warming and human causation" Do I still think it's "there is some wiggle room" that most of the warming in the last century was caused by by climactic changes, or that some of the measured changes might have been caused by unreliable data from early weather stations, and that the climate might vary whichever way it pleases no matter what we do? Yes. Do I really think that's true? Probably not, but there is SOME WIGGLE ROOM. (i.e. there is some doubt) Pentagram wrote: "It is not the warming itself that is so dramatic, but the rate of warming" No, the measured rate of warming is about 0.8 degrees C per century. (Source is this graph) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Instrumental_Te mperature_Record.png
Looking at the graph to which you linked, there were other time periods when warming moved similarly. Say about 550AD-600AD.
We can handle that over the next 100 years no problem.
The REAL threat is a runaway acceleration caused by increased CO2 concentrations, and the climactic impact that those changes may have.
If we go from 0.8 to 1.6 or even 3.2, and all the ice in Greenland melts, and the Oceans rise up 30 meters, yeah we have major problems.
Do I think it's worth making some effort to make sure that this doesn't happen?
Heck Yes.
Will I respond again?
Heck No.
Like many wikipedia articles, it's somewhat inconsistent in places.
The top talks about oil prices. The bottom regarding other factors.
One area suggests stagflation lasted until the 1980s. I remember the nation having been in a recession and when my father was afraid for his job.
At first, it talks about oil prices causing stagflation.
Another part talks about various supply side theories (such as your description).
I didn't realize that there was so much debate!
However, you don't have to listen to to many market reports to know that commentators often blame oil price spikes when stocks go down.
Nor do you need to have a degree in economics to realize that if gas costs $100 per gallon, then no one who works at Walmart is going to pay to drive her car 10 miles to work for a wage of $8.00 per hour (8 hour shift -> wages $64. 15 miles per gallon -> cost of gas would be $66), so higher gas prices eliminate certain economic activities that were previously viable.
"overall the world is heating up dramatically"
a nge/Romania-Energy%20Efficient%20Project/PAD-P0680 62-toc.pdf
Here's a useful qoute from the National Science Foundation:
"Greenhouse gases are accumulating in Earth's atmosphere as a result of human activities, causing surface air temperatures and subsurface ocean temperatures to rise. Temperatures are, in fact, rising. The changes observed over the last several decades are likely mostly due to human activities, but we cannot rule out that some significant part of these changes is also a reflection of natural variability. Human-induced warming and associated sea level rises are expected to continue through the 21st century. Secondary effects are suggested by computer model simulations and basic physical reasoning. These include increases in rainfall rates and increased susceptibility of semi-arid regions to drought. The impacts of these changes will be critically dependent on the magnitude of the warming and the rate with which it occurs."
Quoted via:
http://www.csicop.org/doubtandabout/crichton/
Notice the part about "but we cannot rule out that some significant part of these changes is also a reflection of natural variability" ?
Also, measured warming is 0.8 degrees (C) in 100 years. Yes, it's warming, but that's not really terribly dramatic.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Warming
The Little Ice Age was dramatic:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Ice_Age
All I'm saying is that there is some doubt that humans are causing global warming, and the extent to which the climate is changing. If that makes me ridiculous in your eyes, then that's OK by me.
"I said the US was bad at it because the ratio of GDP:CO2 emissions is about half that of the EU countries."
The only comparitive reference I found was from the government of Romania:
http://www.gefonline.org/ProjectDocs/Climate%20Ch
It looks like the US is right about in the middle of the pack.
You're right. Russia is experiencing GDP growth now.
7 0_russia_gdp_300.gif
i on_of_Russia
However, Russia has a lot of growing to do before its GDP expands significantly beyond 1990s levels.
http://www.tcm-mec.gc.ca/russia/images/gdp.gif
http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/670000/images/_6701
Besides, with a shrinking population, and greater energy efficiencies that naturally develop through new technologies, Russia can pretty much do nothing and comply with Kyoto.
http://www.lifecoalition.com/russia2.html
So they signed Kyoto to sell their credits to the Europeans.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyoto_Protocol#Posit