Let's ignore the fact that the earth has been significantly hotter, by several degree; had significantly higher CO2 levels, by several times. And TOTALLY IGNORE...the fact that we are leaching tons and tons of pesticides and herbicides into the water. Which have already been shown to cause harm to many micro-organisms and arthropods.
Pesticides and Herbicides are the likely true reason our reefs are dying. These reefs have endure far greater temperature and CO2 variances over the millions of years. http://www.wwf.org.au/our_work...
As for the global effect, it's probably happened hundreds of times over the span of Coral populations
"The geological record indicates that ancestors of modern coral reef ecosystems were formed at least 240 million years ago. The coral reefs existing today began growing as early as 50 million years ago. Most established coral reefs are between 5,000 and 10,000 years old."
But we'd rather blame CO2 and Global Warming for every environmental problem, even though most true science disproves it as the cause of the environmental damage and points far more to chemical poisoning from agricultural production.
How about this question. Have you or any of your family members suffered a reaction from a vaccine.
YES, and it required a visit to the ER and respiratory treatment. In this case, from the DTaP vaccine and involving my daughter.
*** Please note, that I did NOT say the vaccines didn't work, but that they were losing their efficacy and that they were become less effective against new strains. This is well documented science, see the influenza vaccines, in which depending on the strains that dominate, the flu vaccine can be largely ineffective.
Nor am I anti-vaccine. But I am anti-stupid people, and anti-bad science on both sides.
Do you realize that nearly every modern study on the safety of vaccinations is invalid?
Nearly every study conducted uses the VAERS data - this data is scientifically worthless. https://vaers.hhs.gov/index
You see, it's not mandated reporting. When reactions occur, even ones documented as potential reactions to a given vaccine, doctors will refuse to report it. Most doctors dismiss nearly any claim or concern of potential reactions out of hand. Responding, that incidents are rare. Of course, the basis for that statement is the VAERS data, which as we've just stated is not being reported to by doctors. And why would doctors not report such incidents?
1. Normalcy bias, they are indoctrinated that vaccines are safe, they have been told they are and so they believe they are. And most of them, most of the time... ARE...but not always.
2. Doctors receive a lot of kickbacks and perks from big pharmaceutical corporations. Who wants to lose those?
3. Wait, I am a doctor, I am already paying a small fortune in malpractice insurance. Why would I ever optionally report an incident with a vaccine I have administered and put me at risk for a lawsuit. When I can simply say its not the vaccine and move on.
The truth is, vaccines cause way more incidents than are documents. Incidents may even be occurring which we do not even have associated. Many of the outbreaks are NOT due to anti-vaxxers. Think about it., most kids have been vaccinated. In most of the country you cannot attend school if you have not (yes, exceptions are available, religious waivers, etc. but these are in fact rarely used).
But but....but I saw an article that stated the individuals were not vaccinated. No...they just couldn't provide records of the vaccinations. Most parents would have a tough time coughing up copies of records for the nearly hundred vaccinations their kids have received. Lack of record, doesn't mean they weren't vaccinated. Was there a waiver on file with the school? Nope? Oh, then they probably were in fact vaccinated, or they wouldn't be in the school.
Okay, so what's really going on with these outbreaks of old diseases? Well consider this scientific principal....viruses evolve. Many of our vaccines were originally formulated decades ago. Meanwhile, every year these virus have altered themselves. Eventually they diversify enough that the old vaccines are less effective against new strains. Oh , but if that's the case why wouldn't they create a new vaccine?
One, we have millions of doses stockpiled. Admitting that their efficacy is reduced and they need to be replaced, would require the disposal of all those doses. That's a significant financial loss. http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/...
Second, it's a long and laborious process to get a new vaccine formulation approved. MMR has it's roots in a 1968 development formulation. That is almost 50 years, which in the life span of a virus is like tens of thousands of years.
It's far easier to claim that the outbreak is due to anti-vaxxers who weren't vaccinated. Then to initiate what would amount to disposal and re-formulation at the costs of billions of dolars.
$ $$$ $$$$$
Does this mean I oppose vaccines. Heck no, but many of those claiming science, are about as much BS as the anti-vaxxers. And the truth is, children are hurt and die from vaccinations, and were we more honest, we could greatly reduce the quanity and risk of such incidents.
Regarding "Herd Immunity"
Herd immunity protects the following:
1. Anti-vaxxers who did not take the vaccine, and never are encounter it because it's largely been eradicated for their community.
2. Children and immuno-compromised individuals who have not had the vaccine or who's immune systems are no longer functioning.
Herd immunity is irrelevant to the vaccinated. If your children are vaccinated, and there are outbre
1. Anti-vaxxers who did not take the vaccine, and never are encounter it because it's largely been eradicated for their community.
2. Children and immuno-compromised individuals who have not had the vaccine or who's immune systems are no longer functioning.
Herd immunity is irrelevant to the vaccinated. If your children are vaccinated, and there are outbreaks of "measles", than clearly there is an issue with your vaccine (most likely that it's from 1968 and hasn't been updated to account for the evolution of the virus over tens of thousands of generations).
Do you realize that nearly every modern study on the safety of vaccinations is invalid?
Nearly every study conducted uses the VAERS data - this data is scientifically worthless. https://vaers.hhs.gov/index
You see, it's not mandated reporting. When reactions occur, even ones documented as potential reactions to a given vaccine, doctors will refuse to report it. Most doctors dismiss nearly any claim or concern of potential reactions out of hand. Responding, that incidents are rare. Of course, the basis for that statement is the VAERS data, which as we've just stated is not being reported to by doctors. And why would doctors not report such incidents?
1. Normalcy bias, they are indoctrinated that vaccines are safe, they have been told they are and so they believe they are. And most of them, most of the time... ARE...but not always.
2. Doctors receive a lot of kickbacks and perks from big pharmaceutical corporations. Who wants to lose those?
3. Wait, I am a doctor, I am already paying a small fortune in malpractice insurance. Why would I ever optionally report an incident with a vaccine I have administered and put me at risk for a lawsuit. When I can simply say its not the vaccine and move on.
The truth is, vaccines cause way more incidents than are documents. Incidents may even be occurring which we do not even have associated. Many of the outbreaks are NOT due to anti-vaxxers. Think about it., most kids have been vaccinated. In most of the country you cannot attend school if you have not (yes, exceptions are available, religious waivers, etc. but these are in fact rarely used).
But but....but I saw an article that stated the individuals were not vaccinated. No...they just couldn't provide records of the vaccinations. Most parents would have a tough time coughing up copies of records for the nearly hundred vaccinations their kids have received. Lack of record, doesn't mean they weren't vaccinated. Was there a waiver on file with the school? Nope? Oh, then they probably were in fact vaccinated, or they wouldn't be in the school.
Okay, so what's really going on with these outbreaks of old diseases? Well consider this scientific principal....viruses evolve. Many of our vaccines were originally formulated decades ago. Meanwhile, every year these virus have altered themselves. Eventually they diversify enough that the old vaccines are less effective against new strains. Oh , but if that's the case why wouldn't they create a new vaccine?
One, we have millions of doses stockpiled. Admitting that their efficacy is reduced and they need to be replaced, would require the disposal of all those doses. That's a significant financial loss. http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/...
Second, it's a long and laborious process to get a new vaccine formulation approved. MMR has it's roots in a 1968 development formulation. That is almost 50 years, which in the life span of a virus is like tens of thousands of years.
It's far easier to claim that the outbreak is due to anti-vaxxers who weren't vaccinated. Then to initiate what would amount to disposal and re-formulation at the costs of billions of dolars.
$ $$$ $$$$$
Does this mean I oppose vaccines. Heck no, but many of those claiming science, are about as much BS as the anti-vaxxers. And the truth is, children are hurt and die from vaccinations, and were we more honest, we could greatly reduce the quanity and risk of such incidents.
Write..."clone" of existing tool. See this is the problem with our industry. Those who are best at programming are often introverts, very focused, task oriented. Those of us with ideas, are often challenged to follow through and complete. The result is numerous products, by small to billion dollar companies that suck. (EXAMPLE: Amazon Kindle Fire kid management tool allows you to set different time for weekdays (M-F) and weekends (S&Su). Problem, that is NOT what parents need. Parents want to allow their kids to use their tablets later on Fridays and Saturdays, Sunday while being a weekend day is in fact a SCHOOL NIGHT. How do billion dollar companies with crap ton of developers miss these things? Why did it take Apple years to implement location based alerts. Etc.
The problem is that our engineering and development is tied to our innovation paths. But innovators often make poor engineers and developers. Steve Jobs is renown as an innovator, but he was rather sub-par as an actual engineer/programmer. He had Steve Wozniak by his side, Wozniak was a good engineer. Steve would have an idea, he would see the need, the presentation the means of accomplishing. Wozniak would engineer Steve's solution into existence.
Sadly, most companies fail to recognize this need. And the result, a lot of crappy sub-par products and innovations coming out decades later than they should.
I remember a great example of this was me sharing ideas I had with two physicist friends of mine, who were quick to dismiss my idea as not being feasible or correct to the laws of physics. But then my ideas and concepts spurred them to consider how my idea's concepts could be applied correctly to physics. Essentially, I had an interesting concept, but you can't get there from here. But gee, he could use that instead to get there and that might just work.
These are the dynamics that are lost in our modern workspace environments. Those with skills lacking inspiration, those with inspiration not being wired with the focus and constraint needed to complete a project on their own.
Yet, when there are pairings, Steve + Steve....you get jobs and wowz!
Some of the best authors and story tellers are atrocious writers. While some are amazing editors but can create a story. And often these work together and give us some of the best books we've read.
Create a game that simulates our present mess of politics. A social structure game, in which goals are established. In which one can propose a law to achieve such goals. But others will attach riders, and amendments to alter aspects.
Replicating aspects of our present congress. You vote for Bill 123, but your constituents are told you voted for a tax cut for the wealthy. But hey, that was attached to a bill funding renewable energy research. Etc.
Such a game could create really fun social structures. While at the same time educating Americans on how screwed up the political system is. Oh, and how to make it fun???? How to separate it from reality?
Make it take place in space...... "Galactic Senate"......you're given an alien race, perhaps a single planet, perhaps many planets. You have resource needs, political boondoggles, crisis, etc. Every player's race has different variables.
Such a game would be a blast. It might replace "You've died of dysentery." with "Your bill died in committee."
So there is an idea....if you a few of you dedicated coders want. Message me....I can expand this, and hey....we can have some fun.
Same reason Doom got added instead of Wolfenstein. Wolf3D was the first. But DOOM was a bit more revolutionary. And became a broader household name.
SimCity was the first, but The Sims was a larger commercial success. We nerds played Sim City, all the average folk played The Sims. I can see World of Worldcraft being one of the most successful Multi-User Environment games. But I agree that a few others are critical enough to have come before GTA3 or Diablo.
I would consider the following noteworthy:
- Zork and in mention it being the pre-curser of MUDS/MOOs - Civilization, was pretty noteworthy in it's mass appeal as an online strategy game. - Pitfall, this was the super-Mario of it's day. For the resources, this game offered amazing complexity - Minecraft - this game has altered children's childhood. If you're not a parent, you do NOT understand. - Gauntlet, this kind of was the go-to 4 playerco-op arcade game. Not sure if it was the 1st 4-player co-op game. But it was the most common one if it wasn't. - Myst (this brought the Zork text based games into a visual realm on a mainstream level)
- Final Fantasy - mainstream RPG-esque game. This game sold consoles in it's day. - Angry Birds for the phone platform. This game really made game purchasing on phones common in mainstream, I mean it basically was the commercial for smart phones as game consoles. It opened the door to many of other genres. - Halo, no not the first person shooter. They were on PCs for ages. But arguably the first first person shooter on a console to replicate the dynamic that was expected on PCs and to become so mainstream, that it essentially foot the bill for the Xbox marketing wise.
Eve, not mainstream enough, but perhaps unique enough for a 3 or 4th round pic
Driving Games, Need for Speed, what? I think no one has held this role for long enough, but it's a key genre. But is there really a best of class entry?
Spy Hunter - Why oh why, but I want this game here. In the day, it was far cooler than so many other games. It was the go to C64 game. Is it noteworthy? But the music...in a day and age when there wasn't music. And let's be honest, who of you reading this is not now hearing the "neeeeeener....neee neee neeeh neh neh neeeeerrrrhhhh" sound in their head. And now cursing and swearing at me for getting it stuck there. So perhaps we could give it credit for most brain sticking 8-bit soundtrack. But let's be honest, what was so unique about Spy Hunter, especially on the C64? I think it was the fact that every C64 featured that game, and no one paid for it. It was like the poster child of cracker groups unlocking games for free (albeit illegal) distribution.
Tom Raider - marketed to girls, I mean to us overweight geeks stuck at home with not friends to hang out with.
Their argument for GTA about games letting you do anything and breaking the mold to say that video games were just for adults. Well gee, Leisure Suit Larry? So really I think their biggest criteria is mainstream, at least in a given era. And I think all of the above were mainstream in their day.
The most recent report claimed that this was the hottest spring, and hottest March on record. So immediately, my presumption was, oh they mean globally because our region has been way cooler than normal - repeated late snows, frosts, we're in May and having March temperatures.
So I go and look at the map, and while our region is not painted deep red, from mid-atlantic to New England, we were painted light red representing 1-2 degrees above average. Okay, I've got to call BS. If anything, we've been 1-2 degrees below average. Even my hardy arctic kiwi lost all of it's leaves recently to frost.
So what are the possible explanation?
1. We're flat out being lied to and manipulated in order to serve an agenda. 2. The formulas used to try to correlate modern temperature measurements to older historical records, and paleological records are not accurate. These require a lot of guestimate and intuition. And I suspect this is where the real problem lies, I believe individual bias has led to an incorrect correlation. Mapping of modern satellite temperature readings to records of physical temperature collection hundreds of years ago down to 1-2 degrees is probably not a feasible task.
But when everyone is exclaiming where is spring, it's so darn cold, and you report that not just globally, but locally this is an above average warm spring. Something is very very very very wrong.
I'd accept this being the hottest spring on record globally. But to claim that regionally as well.....no way in hell.
Plants need three primary things = sunlight, water, and CO2.
Global Warming increases available water moisture in the atmosphere. CO2 is more abundant. The result that is not being talked about is that a lot of the world is showing evidence of turning more green.
Um, guess what....that's called "Coming out" of the ice age folks. Most people do not realize that we are technically still in an ice age. Please note the existence of polar ice caps. Until those are gone, we are still in an ice age.
Global Warming increases moisture vapor in the air. Their crops are not going to dry out, in fact, moisture traps will become far more effective allowing for a greater increase in biomass production and a reduction in deserts.
The increased warmth, and melting of the polar ice caps leads to an increased global humidity. This in turn leads to a reduction in deserts, and makes the north African and southwest Asiatic regions far more habitable. Allowing moisture to be captured and utilized to spur plant growth. Global Warming in fact could allow rich Arab countries to re-green their deserts.
Global Cooling in fact leads to more temperature extremes and an increase in equatorial deserts. That may seem counter-intuitive, but cooling increases ice caps, which in turns locks up much of the earth's water moisture, leading to dryer climates and increases in equatorial desert regions.
This is a step in the right direction. Many gun advocates have argued that the passing of smart gun laws always seems to exclude law enforcement. If you can't convince law enforcement, which have like a 100x chance of having their guns turned and used against them, to adopt smart gun technology. Why would you expect a civilian to trust it to protect herself or her family?
I am not inherently opposed to smartgun technology, however, there is a standard engineering principal. The more complex a device, the more opportunity for failure. S&W had issues with early models with built in internal locks failing, and preventing the handguns from being fired. That wasn't even an electrical system far more subject to temperature, humidity, etc.
I do not think batteries are the right choice. Perhaps a small thorium battery that can last a decade or few.
Why is the Arctic melting, while the Antarctic is accumulating ice?
That's actually a far more odd and puzzling phenomenon that is yet unexplained. And it shows just how little we actually know about climate science. Now, I've got a postulation. The orbit of the Earth has declined. Thus, the upper pole is being melted, while the southern pole is accumulating ice.
Oh wait, I know....that's impossible, sure the earth's orbit may have a variance of inclination. But that would mean if the elevation was lower, that it would be higher for the second half of the orbit. Because the planets orbit on a plane of the sun.
Okay, let me throw a loop out there for you. How big is the Earth compared to the sun? What is the internal make up and distribution of the sun? Is it solid? fluid? gas? If the latter two....is it fixed? We've seen some big solar flares, odd spots, etc. It's very possible to theorize that the distribution of the mass of the sun could in fact change. If solar storms shifted internal mass just the earths orbit would adjust. How much affect would such a variation have on Earth's climate? Do we know? It would explain why we are seeing one of Earth's poles losing ice while the other is accumulating.
1. I've long thought that making them from something like coconut husk would make a great alternative. Then you just plop a blueberry seed thru the hole, and shove it in the ground. Next thing you know....you've got a plant growing.
2. I always laugh about the talk of waste. You see, Keurig cups did NOT create more waste. Keurig cups largely replaced purchased coffee like Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts. If you look at a Starbucks coffee. (see provided link: https://cdn4.iconfinder.com/da...) you will notice the lid if made out of plastic similar to the Keurig. You will also notice that it is about the equivalent amount of plastic. On top of that, you have the whole paper/plastic cup itself. So what Keurig did, was essentially eliminate ALL those cups from the landfills.
But most people are not smart enough to comprehend this.
1. Who's drone was it? 2. Are we sure it was a drone? 3. We have had radio controlled aircraft (that's what we called drones prior to the military using them), granted they're more prolific. 4. What altitude did this incident occur? 5. How near an airport was it? 6. Was it a government controlled drone? Sorry, I just don't put it past our government to do something like this shortly before the passage of legislation in order to get it passed. *shrugs*
The truth is, there have been times when the Earth did not even have polar ice caps. But I have a hypothesis regarding this scenario.
The orbital plane of earth is slightly lower. Think about it. The Earth's orbit around the sun is not perfect - no celestial body is. Look at the moon sometimes it's higher in altitude and sometimes lower.
So what if the Earth is slightly lower in altitude of it's planar orbit around the sun? The northern hemisphere would be warmer, ice would melt. The southern hemisphere would experience the opposite, with the antarctic increasing in the accumulation of ice.
Yet I have seen very little research into this possibility that could pose a valid explanation for Earth's present climate changes.
***
None of this means we shouldn't clean up our act, stop pollution, and move to clean renewable energy. Far beyond CO2, look at the damage coal mining has done to the neighboring environments. Streams poisoned until no life is in them. I think we can ALL agree we need to clean up our act.
I wager, if you look at "hours worked", it all changes.
I wager men do far more overtime hours on salary than women do. I rarely see women work overtime or stay until 9pm or later at night. When I do, it is almost exclusively men.
"Autistic people with no learning disabilities are nine times more likely to die from suicide compared to the rest of the population"
It's because the main part of society doesn't understand us. They treat us like crap, walk all over us, they apply their motives to us and treat us as liars even when we're more honest. We're bullied from our childhood because "we're different".
Slashdot Mirror
I wonder....wouldn't both exhibit a similar effect?
Let's ignore the fact that the earth has been significantly hotter, by several degree; had significantly higher CO2 levels, by several times. And TOTALLY IGNORE...the fact that we are leaching tons and tons of pesticides and herbicides into the water. Which have already been shown to cause harm to many micro-organisms and arthropods.
Pesticides and Herbicides are the likely true reason our reefs are dying. These reefs have endure far greater temperature and CO2 variances over the millions of years.
http://www.wwf.org.au/our_work...
As for the global effect, it's probably happened hundreds of times over the span of Coral populations
"The geological record indicates that ancestors of modern coral reef ecosystems were formed at least 240 million years ago. The coral reefs existing today began growing as early as 50 million years ago. Most established coral reefs are between 5,000 and 10,000 years old."
But we'd rather blame CO2 and Global Warming for every environmental problem, even though most true science disproves it as the cause of the environmental damage and points far more to chemical poisoning from agricultural production.
How about this question. Have you or any of your family members suffered a reaction from a vaccine.
YES, and it required a visit to the ER and respiratory treatment. In this case, from the DTaP vaccine and involving my daughter.
***
Please note, that I did NOT say the vaccines didn't work, but that they were losing their efficacy and that they were become less effective against new strains. This is well documented science, see the influenza vaccines, in which depending on the strains that dominate, the flu vaccine can be largely ineffective.
Nor am I anti-vaccine. But I am anti-stupid people, and anti-bad science on both sides.
And that is so small a percentage, as to essentially be irrelevant to the real conversation ....
Do you realize that nearly every modern study on the safety of vaccinations is invalid?
Nearly every study conducted uses the VAERS data - this data is scientifically worthless.
https://vaers.hhs.gov/index
You see, it's not mandated reporting. When reactions occur, even ones documented as potential reactions to a given vaccine, doctors will refuse to report it. Most doctors dismiss nearly any claim or concern of potential reactions out of hand. Responding, that incidents are rare. Of course, the basis for that statement is the VAERS data, which as we've just stated is not being reported to by doctors. And why would doctors not report such incidents?
1. Normalcy bias, they are indoctrinated that vaccines are safe, they have been told they are and so they believe they are. And most of them, most of the time... ARE...but not always.
2. Doctors receive a lot of kickbacks and perks from big pharmaceutical corporations. Who wants to lose those?
3. Wait, I am a doctor, I am already paying a small fortune in malpractice insurance. Why would I ever optionally report an incident with a vaccine I have administered and put me at risk for a lawsuit. When I can simply say its not the vaccine and move on.
The truth is, vaccines cause way more incidents than are documents. Incidents may even be occurring which we do not even have associated. Many of the outbreaks are NOT due to anti-vaxxers. Think about it., most kids have been vaccinated. In most of the country you cannot attend school if you have not (yes, exceptions are available, religious waivers, etc. but these are in fact rarely used).
But but....but I saw an article that stated the individuals were not vaccinated. No...they just couldn't provide records of the vaccinations. Most parents would have a tough time coughing up copies of records for the nearly hundred vaccinations their kids have received. Lack of record, doesn't mean they weren't vaccinated. Was there a waiver on file with the school? Nope? Oh, then they probably were in fact vaccinated, or they wouldn't be in the school.
Okay, so what's really going on with these outbreaks of old diseases? Well consider this scientific principal....viruses evolve. Many of our vaccines were originally formulated decades ago. Meanwhile, every year these virus have altered themselves. Eventually they diversify enough that the old vaccines are less effective against new strains. Oh , but if that's the case why wouldn't they create a new vaccine?
One, we have millions of doses stockpiled. Admitting that their efficacy is reduced and they need to be replaced, would require the disposal of all those doses. That's a significant financial loss.
http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/...
Second, it's a long and laborious process to get a new vaccine formulation approved. MMR has it's roots in a 1968 development formulation. That is almost 50 years, which in the life span of a virus is like tens of thousands of years.
It's far easier to claim that the outbreak is due to anti-vaxxers who weren't vaccinated. Then to initiate what would amount to disposal and re-formulation at the costs of billions of dolars.
$
$$$
$$$$$
Does this mean I oppose vaccines. Heck no, but many of those claiming science, are about as much BS as the anti-vaxxers. And the truth is, children are hurt and die from vaccinations, and were we more honest, we could greatly reduce the quanity and risk of such incidents.
Regarding "Herd Immunity"
Herd immunity protects the following:
1. Anti-vaxxers who did not take the vaccine, and never are encounter it because it's largely been eradicated for their community.
2. Children and immuno-compromised individuals who have not had the vaccine or who's immune systems are no longer functioning.
Herd immunity is irrelevant to the vaccinated. If your children are vaccinated, and there are outbre
Herd immunity protects the following:
1. Anti-vaxxers who did not take the vaccine, and never are encounter it because it's largely been eradicated for their community.
2. Children and immuno-compromised individuals who have not had the vaccine or who's immune systems are no longer functioning.
Herd immunity is irrelevant to the vaccinated. If your children are vaccinated, and there are outbreaks of "measles", than clearly there is an issue with your vaccine (most likely that it's from 1968 and hasn't been updated to account for the evolution of the virus over tens of thousands of generations).
Do you realize that nearly every modern study on the safety of vaccinations is invalid?
Nearly every study conducted uses the VAERS data - this data is scientifically worthless.
https://vaers.hhs.gov/index
You see, it's not mandated reporting. When reactions occur, even ones documented as potential reactions to a given vaccine, doctors will refuse to report it. Most doctors dismiss nearly any claim or concern of potential reactions out of hand. Responding, that incidents are rare. Of course, the basis for that statement is the VAERS data, which as we've just stated is not being reported to by doctors. And why would doctors not report such incidents?
1. Normalcy bias, they are indoctrinated that vaccines are safe, they have been told they are and so they believe they are. And most of them, most of the time... ARE...but not always.
2. Doctors receive a lot of kickbacks and perks from big pharmaceutical corporations. Who wants to lose those?
3. Wait, I am a doctor, I am already paying a small fortune in malpractice insurance. Why would I ever optionally report an incident with a vaccine I have administered and put me at risk for a lawsuit. When I can simply say its not the vaccine and move on.
The truth is, vaccines cause way more incidents than are documents. Incidents may even be occurring which we do not even have associated. Many of the outbreaks are NOT due to anti-vaxxers. Think about it., most kids have been vaccinated. In most of the country you cannot attend school if you have not (yes, exceptions are available, religious waivers, etc. but these are in fact rarely used).
But but....but I saw an article that stated the individuals were not vaccinated. No...they just couldn't provide records of the vaccinations. Most parents would have a tough time coughing up copies of records for the nearly hundred vaccinations their kids have received. Lack of record, doesn't mean they weren't vaccinated. Was there a waiver on file with the school? Nope? Oh, then they probably were in fact vaccinated, or they wouldn't be in the school.
Okay, so what's really going on with these outbreaks of old diseases? Well consider this scientific principal....viruses evolve. Many of our vaccines were originally formulated decades ago. Meanwhile, every year these virus have altered themselves. Eventually they diversify enough that the old vaccines are less effective against new strains. Oh , but if that's the case why wouldn't they create a new vaccine?
One, we have millions of doses stockpiled. Admitting that their efficacy is reduced and they need to be replaced, would require the disposal of all those doses. That's a significant financial loss.
http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/...
Second, it's a long and laborious process to get a new vaccine formulation approved. MMR has it's roots in a 1968 development formulation. That is almost 50 years, which in the life span of a virus is like tens of thousands of years.
It's far easier to claim that the outbreak is due to anti-vaxxers who weren't vaccinated. Then to initiate what would amount to disposal and re-formulation at the costs of billions of dolars.
$
$$$
$$$$$
Does this mean I oppose vaccines. Heck no, but many of those claiming science, are about as much BS as the anti-vaxxers. And the truth is, children are hurt and die from vaccinations, and were we more honest, we could greatly reduce the quanity and risk of such incidents.
Write..."clone" of existing tool. See this is the problem with our industry. Those who are best at programming are often introverts, very focused, task oriented. Those of us with ideas, are often challenged to follow through and complete. The result is numerous products, by small to billion dollar companies that suck. (EXAMPLE: Amazon Kindle Fire kid management tool allows you to set different time for weekdays (M-F) and weekends (S&Su). Problem, that is NOT what parents need. Parents want to allow their kids to use their tablets later on Fridays and Saturdays, Sunday while being a weekend day is in fact a SCHOOL NIGHT. How do billion dollar companies with crap ton of developers miss these things? Why did it take Apple years to implement location based alerts. Etc.
The problem is that our engineering and development is tied to our innovation paths. But innovators often make poor engineers and developers. Steve Jobs is renown as an innovator, but he was rather sub-par as an actual engineer/programmer. He had Steve Wozniak by his side, Wozniak was a good engineer. Steve would have an idea, he would see the need, the presentation the means of accomplishing. Wozniak would engineer Steve's solution into existence.
Sadly, most companies fail to recognize this need. And the result, a lot of crappy sub-par products and innovations coming out decades later than they should.
I remember a great example of this was me sharing ideas I had with two physicist friends of mine, who were quick to dismiss my idea as not being feasible or correct to the laws of physics. But then my ideas and concepts spurred them to consider how my idea's concepts could be applied correctly to physics. Essentially, I had an interesting concept, but you can't get there from here. But gee, he could use that instead to get there and that might just work.
These are the dynamics that are lost in our modern workspace environments. Those with skills lacking inspiration, those with inspiration not being wired with the focus and constraint needed to complete a project on their own.
Yet, when there are pairings, Steve + Steve....you get jobs and wowz!
Some of the best authors and story tellers are atrocious writers. While some are amazing editors but can create a story. And often these work together and give us some of the best books we've read.
Create a game that simulates our present mess of politics. A social structure game, in which goals are established. In which one can propose a law to achieve such goals. But others will attach riders, and amendments to alter aspects.
Replicating aspects of our present congress. You vote for Bill 123, but your constituents are told you voted for a tax cut for the wealthy. But hey, that was attached to a bill funding renewable energy research. Etc.
Such a game could create really fun social structures. While at the same time educating Americans on how screwed up the political system is. Oh, and how to make it fun???? How to separate it from reality?
Make it take place in space...... "Galactic Senate"......you're given an alien race, perhaps a single planet, perhaps many planets. You have resource needs, political boondoggles, crisis, etc. Every player's race has different variables.
Such a game would be a blast. It might replace "You've died of dysentery." with "Your bill died in committee."
So there is an idea....if you a few of you dedicated coders want. Message me....I can expand this, and hey....we can have some fun.
Same reason Doom got added instead of Wolfenstein. Wolf3D was the first. But DOOM was a bit more revolutionary. And became a broader household name.
SimCity was the first, but The Sims was a larger commercial success. We nerds played Sim City, all the average folk played The Sims. I can see World of Worldcraft being one of the most successful Multi-User Environment games. But I agree that a few others are critical enough to have come before GTA3 or Diablo.
I would consider the following noteworthy:
- Zork and in mention it being the pre-curser of MUDS/MOOs
- Civilization, was pretty noteworthy in it's mass appeal as an online strategy game.
- Pitfall, this was the super-Mario of it's day. For the resources, this game offered amazing complexity
- Minecraft - this game has altered children's childhood. If you're not a parent, you do NOT understand.
- Gauntlet, this kind of was the go-to 4 playerco-op arcade game. Not sure if it was the 1st 4-player co-op game. But it was the most common one if it wasn't.
- Myst (this brought the Zork text based games into a visual realm on a mainstream level)
- Final Fantasy - mainstream RPG-esque game. This game sold consoles in it's day.
- Angry Birds for the phone platform. This game really made game purchasing on phones common in mainstream, I mean it basically was the commercial for smart phones as game consoles. It opened the door to many of other genres.
- Halo, no not the first person shooter. They were on PCs for ages. But arguably the first first person shooter on a console to replicate the dynamic that was expected on PCs and to become so mainstream, that it essentially foot the bill for the Xbox marketing wise.
Eve, not mainstream enough, but perhaps unique enough for a 3 or 4th round pic
Driving Games, Need for Speed, what? I think no one has held this role for long enough, but it's a key genre. But is there really a best of class entry?
Spy Hunter - Why oh why, but I want this game here. In the day, it was far cooler than so many other games. It was the go to C64 game. Is it noteworthy? But the music...in a day and age when there wasn't music. And let's be honest, who of you reading this is not now hearing the "neeeeeener....neee neee neeeh neh neh neeeeerrrrhhhh" sound in their head. And now cursing and swearing at me for getting it stuck there. So perhaps we could give it credit for most brain sticking 8-bit soundtrack. But let's be honest, what was so unique about Spy Hunter, especially on the C64? I think it was the fact that every C64 featured that game, and no one paid for it. It was like the poster child of cracker groups unlocking games for free (albeit illegal) distribution.
Tom Raider - marketed to girls, I mean to us overweight geeks stuck at home with not friends to hang out with.
Their argument for GTA about games letting you do anything and breaking the mold to say that video games were just for adults. Well gee, Leisure Suit Larry? So really I think their biggest criteria is mainstream, at least in a given era. And I think all of the above were mainstream in their day.
The most recent report claimed that this was the hottest spring, and hottest March on record. So immediately, my presumption was, oh they mean globally because our region has been way cooler than normal - repeated late snows, frosts, we're in May and having March temperatures.
So I go and look at the map, and while our region is not painted deep red, from mid-atlantic to New England, we were painted light red representing 1-2 degrees above average. Okay, I've got to call BS. If anything, we've been 1-2 degrees below average. Even my hardy arctic kiwi lost all of it's leaves recently to frost.
So what are the possible explanation?
1. We're flat out being lied to and manipulated in order to serve an agenda.
2. The formulas used to try to correlate modern temperature measurements to older historical records, and paleological records are not accurate. These require a lot of guestimate and intuition. And I suspect this is where the real problem lies, I believe individual bias has led to an incorrect correlation. Mapping of modern satellite temperature readings to records of physical temperature collection hundreds of years ago down to 1-2 degrees is probably not a feasible task.
But when everyone is exclaiming where is spring, it's so darn cold, and you report that not just globally, but locally this is an above average warm spring. Something is very very very very wrong.
I'd accept this being the hottest spring on record globally. But to claim that regionally as well.....no way in hell.
Plants need three primary things = sunlight, water, and CO2.
Global Warming increases available water moisture in the atmosphere. CO2 is more abundant. The result that is not being talked about is that a lot of the world is showing evidence of turning more green.
Um, guess what....that's called "Coming out" of the ice age folks. Most people do not realize that we are technically still in an ice age. Please note the existence of polar ice caps. Until those are gone, we are still in an ice age.
Global Warming increases moisture vapor in the air. Their crops are not going to dry out, in fact, moisture traps will become far more effective allowing for a greater increase in biomass production and a reduction in deserts.
The increased warmth, and melting of the polar ice caps leads to an increased global humidity. This in turn leads to a reduction in deserts, and makes the north African and southwest Asiatic regions far more habitable. Allowing moisture to be captured and utilized to spur plant growth. Global Warming in fact could allow rich Arab countries to re-green their deserts.
Global Cooling in fact leads to more temperature extremes and an increase in equatorial deserts. That may seem counter-intuitive, but cooling increases ice caps, which in turns locks up much of the earth's water moisture, leading to dryer climates and increases in equatorial desert regions.
This is a step in the right direction. Many gun advocates have argued that the passing of smart gun laws always seems to exclude law enforcement. If you can't convince law enforcement, which have like a 100x chance of having their guns turned and used against them, to adopt smart gun technology. Why would you expect a civilian to trust it to protect herself or her family?
I am not inherently opposed to smartgun technology, however, there is a standard engineering principal. The more complex a device, the more opportunity for failure. S&W had issues with early models with built in internal locks failing, and preventing the handguns from being fired. That wasn't even an electrical system far more subject to temperature, humidity, etc.
I do not think batteries are the right choice. Perhaps a small thorium battery that can last a decade or few.
Why is the Arctic melting, while the Antarctic is accumulating ice?
That's actually a far more odd and puzzling phenomenon that is yet unexplained. And it shows just how little we actually know about climate science. Now, I've got a postulation. The orbit of the Earth has declined. Thus, the upper pole is being melted, while the southern pole is accumulating ice.
Oh wait, I know....that's impossible, sure the earth's orbit may have a variance of inclination. But that would mean if the elevation was lower, that it would be higher for the second half of the orbit. Because the planets orbit on a plane of the sun.
Okay, let me throw a loop out there for you. How big is the Earth compared to the sun? What is the internal make up and distribution of the sun? Is it solid? fluid? gas? If the latter two....is it fixed? We've seen some big solar flares, odd spots, etc. It's very possible to theorize that the distribution of the mass of the sun could in fact change. If solar storms shifted internal mass just the earths orbit would adjust. How much affect would such a variation have on Earth's climate? Do we know? It would explain why we are seeing one of Earth's poles losing ice while the other is accumulating.
Let's use that argument.... what affect does tectonics have on air and ocean currents?
Hmm???
Best climate comment EVER!!!
1. I've long thought that making them from something like coconut husk would make a great alternative. Then you just plop a blueberry seed thru the hole, and shove it in the ground. Next thing you know....you've got a plant growing.
2. I always laugh about the talk of waste. You see, Keurig cups did NOT create more waste. Keurig cups largely replaced purchased coffee like Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts. If you look at a Starbucks coffee. (see provided link: https://cdn4.iconfinder.com/da...) you will notice the lid if made out of plastic similar to the Keurig. You will also notice that it is about the equivalent amount of plastic. On top of that, you have the whole paper/plastic cup itself. So what Keurig did, was essentially eliminate ALL those cups from the landfills.
But most people are not smart enough to comprehend this.
1. Who's drone was it?
2. Are we sure it was a drone?
3. We have had radio controlled aircraft (that's what we called drones prior to the military using them), granted they're more prolific.
4. What altitude did this incident occur?
5. How near an airport was it?
6. Was it a government controlled drone? Sorry, I just don't put it past our government to do something like this shortly before the passage of legislation in order to get it passed. *shrugs*
Arctic vs Antarctic ice
https://nsidc.org/cryosphere/s...
http://www.nasa.gov/content/go...
http://www.climatechangenews.c...
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The truth is, there have been times when the Earth did not even have polar ice caps. But I have a hypothesis regarding this scenario.
The orbital plane of earth is slightly lower. Think about it. The Earth's orbit around the sun is not perfect - no celestial body is. Look at the moon sometimes it's higher in altitude and sometimes lower.
So what if the Earth is slightly lower in altitude of it's planar orbit around the sun? The northern hemisphere would be warmer, ice would melt. The southern hemisphere would experience the opposite, with the antarctic increasing in the accumulation of ice.
Yet I have seen very little research into this possibility that could pose a valid explanation for Earth's present climate changes.
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None of this means we shouldn't clean up our act, stop pollution, and move to clean renewable energy. Far beyond CO2, look at the damage coal mining has done to the neighboring environments. Streams poisoned until no life is in them. I think we can ALL agree we need to clean up our act.
I wager, if you look at "hours worked", it all changes.
I wager men do far more overtime hours on salary than women do. I rarely see women work overtime or stay until 9pm or later at night. When I do, it is almost exclusively men.
"Autistic people with no learning disabilities are nine times more likely to die from suicide compared to the rest of the population"
It's because the main part of society doesn't understand us. They treat us like crap, walk all over us, they apply their motives to us and treat us as liars even when we're more honest. We're bullied from our childhood because "we're different".
Stop using the internet, stop driving, stop eating, stop needing medical care, stop living....