I heard a couple o' years ago that the africa Mopane tree released something as simple as methane/propane when its leaves where eaten. Other Mopane in the vicinity then produced more tannin, which made the leaves indigestable to the antelopes that eat them.
And then the English go and drink an extract of the tannin-rich tea leaf!
I've in the past been teaching Computer Studies part time and also providing extra tuition to what we call high school over here (about 8th to 12th grade / year of school - similar to British system). Of course this was done for the love of it since any salary couldn't come close to what I earn at my day time job. I'm currently involved in writing textbook material for the same audience, to be used in a distance learning/home schooling environment. I don't hold any teaching qualifications, only a CS degree. Which is apparently quite fine with the people I answer/ed to.
With this background in mind, the following points need mentioning:
1. Having been through the academic mill and having worked in industry, I'm quite amazed at the utter crap some of the local teachers/textbooks dish up to the kids. Also, these same people need to make policy descisions on what needs to be examined at year-end, what programming environments need to be used, etc. The result is very much hype-oriented which ties the kids very much into a certain tool/methodolody. I'd rather have students who know the underlying concepts and are exposed to many different tools so that they can choose and experiment for themselves, and choose the tool that suits the job at hand the best.
2. With the local currency nosediving against the Dollar and Euro (lost 40% in 2001) software is becoming prohibitively expensive. Free stuff like StarOffice, Virtual Pascal, Cygwin or Linux (including all the nice programming languages) is a REAL lifesaver.
Now let's see: I was born in Africa and spent most of my life here (exceptions being 3 months working in North America and 2 or so European holidays). True, I haven't been bitten by Tsetse yet, but I grew up in an area where outsiders took malaria prophilactics when visiting.
I don't think raping Africa like Europe and America is the way to go - but then again, that's just my opinion. Unfortunately, if any exploitation is to be done in Africa, it always seems to be done by the neo-colonial capitalist corporations from outside - the particular area's own population stay as impoverished as ever.
Oh yes, Africa's poor, black people. Europeans (and Americans) can't seem to get over their secretly racist patronising. If you really want to save African people, how about starting with AIDS?
1000 years ago Tsetse halted muslim migration south. Last century it plagued European colonial governments and today it impedes development of large areas . Some species affect humans, but many other species affect cattle and in a bad year can kill 100% of a herd. With Africa's spiralling population African govts, eg Kenya and Zimbabwe, are keen to control the fly so that land tsetse previously rendered unable to be cultivated can be developed. Scientists how sucessfully developed very environmentally benign ways of controlling the fly and have started projects with groups such as the Masai. Conservationists warn this ironically may harm the environment, by reducing the percentage of land set aside to preserve bio-diversity.
Seems to me that completely eradicating these species would be a bad thing for Africa's ecology and bio-diversity.
Well, my orig. statement was quite generalised. I agree with you that one should have clarity about the notion "own". I think it depends on the creator's goals.
I might create something for my own financial gain. Yes, my goal is better served if I retain control/ownership of my labor in some way, and copyright just makes this easier. Remember, not all of what I create may necessarily benefit society. Also, each individual has to calculate the benefit he gains by paying some money to me.
Then again, I might create to indoctrinate, uplift, bring enjoyment or bring knowledge to society. My goal is better served by encouraging sharing, but I still would not like someone to meddle with it and attribute his product to me.
To sum up, if the creator chooses to retain ownership, that's his prerogative, and I think society will gain more in the long run from the creator (more fruits of his labors) by respecting his choice.
Yeah, the whole sharing-ideal is great. But if the rightful owner doesn't want to share it, that's it. The choice of sharing or not should still be his, not so?
I suppose it is ALSO greedy to want to have something without having to pay for it. Or force someone to share without him having a choice.
The previous president, Nelson Mandela, is inter alia notorious for his booklet "How to be a good communist." The current president, Thabo Mbeki, joined the South African Communist Party in 1962 and served on both its Central Committee and its Politburo. Then one could look at cabinet ministers, govenors of the Reserve Bank, Commisioners of Police, etc. etc. None of this should however be really surprising given the ruling party's (ANC) decades-long affiliation with the SACP.
I'm not really into case modding, but I know a few social techniques to get to know girls. Like politeness with some humour mixed in. But kudos to you for your lateral thinking!
Lanzetta concludes that 90 percent of the light from the early universe is missing in the Hubble deep fields. "The previous census of the deep fields missed most of the ultraviolet light in the universe; most of it is invisible," he says.
I can't remember EVER seeing any UV light. Is it me that's clueless, or do they need some more star-savvy writers in their PR dept?
And while we're at it, isn't it high time, so long as we're zipping people around via particle beams, to find a fresher weapon than the.9mm pistol that spews all those hot, clinking cartridges all over the place?
0.9 mm is about 0.035 inch (for the metric illiterate). Pretty small! Comes quite close to a particle beam....
BTW, what's wrong with clinking cartridges? Imagine my joy when I first noticed a film that paid attention to the little details like that! (Patriot Games, I think it was).
Modern science claims a victory in the realm of cosmology because the age of the All according to the Bible is about 6000 years and the age according to our observations is something over 10 billion.
Wrong. The age of the universe according to some churches' interpretations of the Bible is about 6000 years. The original Hebrew grammar allows for all the time you need between the first two verses of Genesis 1 (as some translations have correctly shown, or translators, like Luther, shown in comments in the margin). Go check it out!:-)
Incidentally, how did the ancients measure a ((+/-) 24 hour) day? Surely by observing the rising/setting of the sun! Now of course it does not make sense to create the demarcator for days (i.e. the sun) only on the fourth of such days. So, "days" should rather be translated as "periods of time" (which is again borne out by the original Hebrew). The fact that sun, moon and stars all appeared during the same "day" whould suggest to me that they were obscured by some dust or other material in the atmosphere (been created already in the first verse), consistent with some cataclismic event like a comet or asteroid hitting the earth and causing the utter chaos of verse 2 - and the gradual clearing of it revealing them simultaneously.
Yes, when having benevolent authorities, it does. Unfortunately, it seems that authorities (which goes wider than just governments) are only kept (somewhat) benevolent because they have balance power-gathering against being removed from power alltogether (elections, funding, armed rebellion, coup, whatever).
So, go ahead and implement this system. For a time it will be beneficial - until some power-crazed person starts to use it for his/her own gain instead of the collective good. At that time, it will be too late to do anything against is. You see, under opressive regimes, attempts to oppose it are usually classified as serious crimes and are treated as such - with all resources the regime has at its disposal.
You don't need an IQ over 300 to become a mensan, as the article seems to imply. 130 or thereabouts would do (depending on which test is used). Which still turns up a couple of stupid weirdos who think themselves pretty damn smart, trying their utmost to be normal and not exclusivist (and usually failing).
Mind you, most M's are quite pleasant, normal and stimulating people.
I just wish someone would find a way to keep all those sub-70 morons out of IT. Rechannel them to marketing or management or something.
Slashdot Mirror
I heard a couple o' years ago that the africa Mopane tree released something as simple as methane/propane when its leaves where eaten. Other Mopane in the vicinity then produced more tannin, which made the leaves indigestable to the antelopes that eat them.
And then the English go and drink an extract of the tannin-rich tea leaf!
I've in the past been teaching Computer Studies part time and also providing extra tuition to what we call high school over here (about 8th to 12th grade / year of school - similar to British system). Of course this was done for the love of it since any salary couldn't come close to what I earn at my day time job. I'm currently involved in writing textbook material for the same audience, to be used in a distance learning/home schooling environment. I don't hold any teaching qualifications, only a CS degree. Which is apparently quite fine with the people I answer/ed to.
With this background in mind, the following points need mentioning:
1. Having been through the academic mill and having worked in industry, I'm quite amazed at the utter crap some of the local teachers/textbooks dish up to the kids. Also, these same people need to make policy descisions on what needs to be examined at year-end, what programming environments need to be used, etc. The result is very much hype-oriented which ties the kids very much into a certain tool/methodolody. I'd rather have students who know the underlying concepts and are exposed to many different tools so that they can choose and experiment for themselves, and choose the tool that suits the job at hand the best.
2. With the local currency nosediving against the Dollar and Euro (lost 40% in 2001) software is becoming prohibitively expensive. Free stuff like StarOffice, Virtual Pascal, Cygwin or Linux (including all the nice programming languages) is a REAL lifesaver.
Wrong again, AC. I'm just as lilly white as you, even proud of it.
Now let's see: I was born in Africa and spent most of my life here (exceptions being 3 months working in North America and 2 or so European holidays). True, I haven't been bitten by Tsetse yet, but I grew up in an area where outsiders took malaria prophilactics when visiting.
I don't think raping Africa like Europe and America is the way to go - but then again, that's just my opinion. Unfortunately, if any exploitation is to be done in Africa, it always seems to be done by the neo-colonial capitalist corporations from outside - the particular area's own population stay as impoverished as ever.
Oh yes, Africa's poor, black people. Europeans (and Americans) can't seem to get over their secretly racist patronising. If you really want to save African people, how about starting with AIDS?
So maybe they are more intelligent than us?
See http://www.cia.gov/cia/information/artifacts/marki v.htm
Well, my orig. statement was quite generalised. I agree with you that one should have clarity about the notion "own". I think it depends on the creator's goals.
To sum up, if the creator chooses to retain ownership, that's his prerogative, and I think society will gain more in the long run from the creator (more fruits of his labors) by respecting his choice.
Yeah, the whole sharing-ideal is great. But if the rightful owner doesn't want to share it, that's it. The choice of sharing or not should still be his, not so?
I suppose it is ALSO greedy to want to have something without having to pay for it. Or force someone to share without him having a choice.
The previous president, Nelson Mandela, is inter alia notorious for his booklet "How to be a good communist." The current president, Thabo Mbeki, joined the South African Communist Party in 1962 and served on both its Central Committee and its Politburo. Then one could look at cabinet ministers, govenors of the Reserve Bank, Commisioners of Police, etc. etc. None of this should however be really surprising given the ruling party's (ANC) decades-long affiliation with the SACP.
So this would make SA a Second world country, what with all the communists running the place (into the ground).
My team words just the opposite: Each individual working at breakneck speeds, but the group never gets there fast enough.
Now if they only could stop posting to /.
I'm not really into case modding, but I know a few social techniques to get to know girls. Like politeness with some humour mixed in. But kudos to you for your lateral thinking!
I can't remember EVER seeing any UV light. Is it me that's clueless, or do they need some more star-savvy writers in their PR dept?
Australia is already hosting a vibrant population of another endangered species from the African continent....
0.9 mm is about 0.035 inch (for the metric illiterate). Pretty small! Comes quite close to a particle beam....
BTW, what's wrong with clinking cartridges? Imagine my joy when I first noticed a film that paid attention to the little details like that! (Patriot Games, I think it was).
I suppose that would then be "Metacapturing the Flag".
<P><H3>This useless comment was generated by a Cockpitful of Suicidal Fanatics for you</H3>
cool!
Wrong. The age of the universe according to some churches' interpretations of the Bible is about 6000 years. The original Hebrew grammar allows for all the time you need between the first two verses of Genesis 1 (as some translations have correctly shown, or translators, like Luther, shown in comments in the margin). Go check it out! :-)
Incidentally, how did the ancients measure a ((+/-) 24 hour) day? Surely by observing the rising/setting of the sun! Now of course it does not make sense to create the demarcator for days (i.e. the sun) only on the fourth of such days. So, "days" should rather be translated as "periods of time" (which is again borne out by the original Hebrew). The fact that sun, moon and stars all appeared during the same "day" whould suggest to me that they were obscured by some dust or other material in the atmosphere (been created already in the first verse), consistent with some cataclismic event like a comet or asteroid hitting the earth and causing the utter chaos of verse 2 - and the gradual clearing of it revealing them simultaneously.
Create a cypherpunk account early, create a cypherpunk account often. Passport is "free" after all, isn't it?
Yes, when having benevolent authorities, it does. Unfortunately, it seems that authorities (which goes wider than just governments) are only kept (somewhat) benevolent because they have balance power-gathering against being removed from power alltogether (elections, funding, armed rebellion, coup, whatever).
So, go ahead and implement this system. For a time it will be beneficial - until some power-crazed person starts to use it for his/her own gain instead of the collective good. At that time, it will be too late to do anything against is. You see, under opressive regimes, attempts to oppose it are usually classified as serious crimes and are treated as such - with all resources the regime has at its disposal.
You don't need an IQ over 300 to become a mensan, as the article seems to imply. 130 or thereabouts would do (depending on which test is used). Which still turns up a couple of stupid weirdos who think themselves pretty damn smart, trying their utmost to be normal and not exclusivist (and usually failing).
Mind you, most M's are quite pleasant, normal and stimulating people.
I just wish someone would find a way to keep all those sub-70 morons out of IT. Rechannel them to marketing or management or something.
Wrong - it would probably have been at the Rhine.
Sens.? Is that the abbreviation for sensei? Nice requirement for a CIO, whouldn't you say?
From the article:
It is also hoped that the makers of fly swatting equipment increase their production in time...