We're no longer a democracy, we've crossed the line into corpocracy.
It is made much worse with the supreme court allowing mega-corps to spend massive amounts of money. Beyond that though, lobbyists should be made illegal, it is overt corruption. "Pass this measure for me and I'll host a fundraising event for you - how is that tolerated?
If I were amending the constitution I would include: No campaign can spend more than $1million (adjusted for inflation) on advertising. (make them win debates, and give interviews... it shouldn't be about who can raise the most money).
Do away with companies giving money to candidates. Nope! Should not be allowed.
No individual or individuals should be allowed to represent a corporation in granting favours to a politician. No hosting fundraisers, giving them money.
Only idiots think that make climate change a hoax.
I agree...
2015 was unequivocally *not* "the hottest year on record", unless you accept a p value that is equivalent to a coin flip, and ignore the doctoring of the climate data.
It's not that animals and plants can't live in warmer temperatures and higher CO2 levels. They clearly can.
The problem is, animals and plants are adapted to the current climate. A sudden shift will cause many species to go extinct. It takes many millions of years to build back biodiversity. Humans will probably be extinct before biodiversity returns to pre-industrial levels.
Also, parts of the world that are currently arable will become barren; and some parts that are currently barren will become arable. There could potentially be food shortages and distribution problems until we adapt. Certainly, we can and shall adapt, but how many people will suffer in the interim.
We can relocate people from islands and coastal areas, but at what cost? Monetary costs? Emotional costs? cultural costs?
Storms and extreme weather events will become more frequent. Not ideal for civilization, people will die. We will adapt, but again at what cost. So yes, there may have been more biodiversity during the Jurassic (I haven't checked to compare), but I assure you, there won't be more biodiversity any time soon. Many species will die before new ones are born.
It could be. There really isn't any evidence either way. There have been several big media stories on studies in the last few years showing women may be better than men.
None of them are truly convincing, as I said, it could be you have to be the best of your gender to compete in a field that is dominated by the alternate sex. (Many of the top hairdressers, and clothes designers are men despite being the minority sex... not because men are better, but for same reason)
However, I don't think it is unreasonable to say that men and women are better at different things. Men just might not be better at programming.
An alternate solution would be just to kill 9 out of 10 males. (not me, you, or any of my friends and family of course)
This would open up lots of tech jobs, and other jobs to women. Plus, one man can fertilise many women, so we don't have to worry about civilization collapsing. The only major downside I can see is that Hobby Lobby would open on every corner, at least the Taco trucks will be well decorated.
I loved programming as a kid, I didn't have any consoles or money for games, I wrote my own. I've been programming since before I turned 5 years old. As soon as I could read there was a keyboard in front of me.
I had a passion for programming. Now I'm an adult and it is a job, I find it boring, repetitive, and often times more fiddly than fun. God help anyone who doesn't like programming to begin with.
So if there were outside factors that biologically predisposed men and women towards different career paths or interests would you accept that those might result in something other than an even distribution of employment in certain vocations?
Studies have shown that female programmers write more efficient code on average than male programmers. Now, I'm not going to say this makes women better than men at programming, it could be, you have to be really focused to be a woman going into a male dominated profession.
However, it does show that there is definitely reason to doubt that males are biologically better at it.
Actually, I see quite the opposite more often. A lot of TV shows are making quite an effort to change the gender stereotypes. Nowadays you see more females doing the tech or science jobs and roles on kids TV shows than you do males. Obviously not working, there are other societal factors at work, or kids are smart enough to realize those characters are exceptions meant to reverse the rule.
Bacterial vats, or single cell algae are probably the future of space food. Add crap and energy into vats and either bacteria or algae converts the crap into food.
And artificial lighting, either by concentrating suns rays onto greenhouses, or LEDs powered by solar power farms. The sunlight otherwise might not be powerful enough to grow crops.
The other problem is that there are compounds in the Martian substrate that are toxic to life. We have to make sure that the plants aren't killed by them, and that they don't absorb the toxins and kill humans.
One hopes they will be used more for preventative measures than actual reactionary deployment.
Drones have cameras, they record what you're doing. Think of it like the empty cop car sometimes parked on the side of the highway, it's there to prevent people speeding, people see it, don't realize it's empty and slows down.
The best use of such drones can be set up for sporting events or large concerts, as people load and unload from stadium, just to watch for trouble. That they make noise and draw attention to themselves is probably a good thing, a visual reminder to people to behave. I doubt they would be much use at suppressing a riot or chasing after criminals.
Actually, that's a great idea. (the pepper spray not the peaceful protestors or non-white part).
Pepper spray is far less likely to be accidentally lethal than stun guns or rubber bullets. Someone controlling a drone is far less likely to shoot in the first place because they're less likely to panic, or feel threatened.
A drone has a camera on it at all times. Make it required that the video footage is available for independent bodies to review for abuse, and pass federal laws denying police the rights to put anything more lethal on a drone. I think pepper spray drones could be a great way to lessen police violence and killings.
Indeed, a drone cannot be "killed" only disabled, so cannot use an excuse of protecting itself for the argument for lethal force. Hopefully, you'll have fewer cops panicing that they're about to be in danger and so killing someone who is holding a water pistol, or a wallet, or a book.
Arming a drone with a stun gun is far favourable to a cop with gun, This is potentially a good thing. There has to be strict laws in place at a federal level now though, that prevents the police being able to put anything more deadly that a stun gun on one of these things.
Stun Guns, I'm ok with that, but let's not let this escalate anymore.
How do we know Stephen Hawking is really Stephen Hawking? Sure, the body is his, but who is to say that the computer that controls his voice isn't really an evil AI?
I'm not the least worried about AI, but having watched this election, the humans in my country scare the shit out of me.
I had a hard time understanding how 40% of my fellow countrymen could still vote for Trump, until I realized it explained why we have warning labels telling us not to eat soap...
Donald Trump will either be the worst thing to happen to humanity or he will lose the election.
Slashdot Mirror
We're no longer a democracy, we've crossed the line into corpocracy.
It is made much worse with the supreme court allowing mega-corps to spend massive amounts of money. Beyond that though, lobbyists should be made illegal, it is overt corruption. "Pass this measure for me and I'll host a fundraising event for you - how is that tolerated?
If I were amending the constitution I would include:
No campaign can spend more than $1million (adjusted for inflation) on advertising. (make them win debates, and give interviews... it shouldn't be about who can raise the most money).
Do away with companies giving money to candidates. Nope! Should not be allowed.
No individual or individuals should be allowed to represent a corporation in granting favours to a politician. No hosting fundraisers, giving them money.
I find both candidates to be revolting.
The west wouldn't care either if it were playing catch-up, or if it were still heavily industrial.
We care because we have the luxury of being able to care, and because it hurts us less for the world to go green.
Only idiots think that make climate change a hoax.
I agree...
2015 was unequivocally *not* "the hottest year on record", unless you accept a p value that is equivalent to a coin flip, and ignore the doctoring of the climate data.
... found one!
It's not that animals and plants can't live in warmer temperatures and higher CO2 levels. They clearly can.
The problem is, animals and plants are adapted to the current climate. A sudden shift will cause many species to go extinct. It takes many millions of years to build back biodiversity. Humans will probably be extinct before biodiversity returns to pre-industrial levels.
Also, parts of the world that are currently arable will become barren; and some parts that are currently barren will become arable. There could potentially be food shortages and distribution problems until we adapt. Certainly, we can and shall adapt, but how many people will suffer in the interim.
We can relocate people from islands and coastal areas, but at what cost? Monetary costs? Emotional costs? cultural costs?
Storms and extreme weather events will become more frequent. Not ideal for civilization, people will die. We will adapt, but again at what cost. So yes, there may have been more biodiversity during the Jurassic (I haven't checked to compare), but I assure you, there won't be more biodiversity any time soon. Many species will die before new ones are born.
Internet becoming unreadable because of lighter, more transparent content.
Joe paid Jane $20 for "last night".
Jane liked this.
So you are saying that it is sex dependent?
It could be. There really isn't any evidence either way. There have been several big media stories on studies in the last few years showing women may be better than men.
None of them are truly convincing, as I said, it could be you have to be the best of your gender to compete in a field that is dominated by the alternate sex. (Many of the top hairdressers, and clothes designers are men despite being the minority sex... not because men are better, but for same reason)
However, I don't think it is unreasonable to say that men and women are better at different things. Men just might not be better at programming.
There's this little thing called google that slashdotters need to learn to use!
Here's one article: https://www.theguardian.com/te...
If you want one of the other articles on similar studies done I suggest you learn to google. Here is a great resource for learning how to google:
http://searchengineland.com/gu...
An alternate solution would be just to kill 9 out of 10 males. (not me, you, or any of my friends and family of course)
This would open up lots of tech jobs, and other jobs to women. Plus, one man can fertilise many women, so we don't have to worry about civilization collapsing. The only major downside I can see is that Hobby Lobby would open on every corner, at least the Taco trucks will be well decorated.
It's a relatively decent paying job too. Especially considering the lack of educational requirements.
I loved programming as a kid, I didn't have any consoles or money for games, I wrote my own. I've been programming since before I turned 5 years old. As soon as I could read there was a keyboard in front of me.
I had a passion for programming. Now I'm an adult and it is a job, I find it boring, repetitive, and often times more fiddly than fun. God help anyone who doesn't like programming to begin with.
So if there were outside factors that biologically predisposed men and women towards different career paths or interests would you accept that those might result in something other than an even distribution of employment in certain vocations?
Studies have shown that female programmers write more efficient code on average than male programmers. Now, I'm not going to say this makes women better than men at programming, it could be, you have to be really focused to be a woman going into a male dominated profession.
However, it does show that there is definitely reason to doubt that males are biologically better at it.
Actually, I see quite the opposite more often. A lot of TV shows are making quite an effort to change the gender stereotypes. Nowadays you see more females doing the tech or science jobs and roles on kids TV shows than you do males. Obviously not working, there are other societal factors at work, or kids are smart enough to realize those characters are exceptions meant to reverse the rule.
Bacterial vats, or single cell algae are probably the future of space food. Add crap and energy into vats and either bacteria or algae converts the crap into food.
(more too it than that, but that forms the bulk)
And artificial lighting, either by concentrating suns rays onto greenhouses, or LEDs powered by solar power farms. The sunlight otherwise might not be powerful enough to grow crops.
The other problem is that there are compounds in the Martian substrate that are toxic to life. We have to make sure that the plants aren't killed by them, and that they don't absorb the toxins and kill humans.
The mining robots are going to be made of organic material incase times get tough.
One hopes they will be used more for preventative measures than actual reactionary deployment.
Drones have cameras, they record what you're doing. Think of it like the empty cop car sometimes parked on the side of the highway, it's there to prevent people speeding, people see it, don't realize it's empty and slows down.
The best use of such drones can be set up for sporting events or large concerts, as people load and unload from stadium, just to watch for trouble. That they make noise and draw attention to themselves is probably a good thing, a visual reminder to people to behave. I doubt they would be much use at suppressing a riot or chasing after criminals.
Actually, that's a great idea. (the pepper spray not the peaceful protestors or non-white part).
Pepper spray is far less likely to be accidentally lethal than stun guns or rubber bullets. Someone controlling a drone is far less likely to shoot in the first place because they're less likely to panic, or feel threatened.
A drone has a camera on it at all times. Make it required that the video footage is available for independent bodies to review for abuse, and pass federal laws denying police the rights to put anything more lethal on a drone. I think pepper spray drones could be a great way to lessen police violence and killings.
Female cops and female bandits both to be supplied with pillows. To clash in college dorms.
Indeed, a drone cannot be "killed" only disabled, so cannot use an excuse of protecting itself for the argument for lethal force. Hopefully, you'll have fewer cops panicing that they're about to be in danger and so killing someone who is holding a water pistol, or a wallet, or a book.
Arming a drone with a stun gun is far favourable to a cop with gun, This is potentially a good thing. There has to be strict laws in place at a federal level now though, that prevents the police being able to put anything more deadly that a stun gun on one of these things.
Stun Guns, I'm ok with that, but let's not let this escalate anymore.
How do we know Stephen Hawking is really Stephen Hawking? Sure, the body is his, but who is to say that the computer that controls his voice isn't really an evil AI?
I'm not the least worried about AI, but having watched this election, the humans in my country scare the shit out of me.
I had a hard time understanding how 40% of my fellow countrymen could still vote for Trump, until I realized it explained why we have warning labels telling us not to eat soap...
Donald Trump will either be the worst thing to happen to humanity or he will lose the election.
25cents when the coin fell into the gutter.
Great, the world will be full of Brobots instead of robots.