The north also has better clothing, I think, for the cold.
A Walmart in Minneapolis probably can probably produce a warmer jacket than a specialized outdoors store in Memphis. About the only way that gear will keep you warm is if you burn it.
Plus one learns as the weather changes (hopefully), and "cold" gains a different meaning. 20F (-7C) is warm to me. About 0F (-18C) is when it gets cold, and -10F (-23C) is where clothing becomes very important even for minor tasks such as taking out the garbage.
The researchers in the article say that this is a completely shocking discovery, I'd be shocked if it didn't happen. The stress response affects not only the mother, but also the baby, and those changes can be noticed in their later lives. Quel surprise.
I always figured that was realistic as well. Mothers and fetus share many of the same chemicals. Isn't it evolutionary adventageous for the offspring to adapt itself to the environment (the chemicals) it causes? Does the mother seem to have low stress and plenty of food? Time to grow into a large healthy offspring. Mother under high stress and less food? Smaller offspring will survive on less food, and perhaps faster maturation as well, since it seems that they could be at risk of dying before being able to breed.
I have no legally available weapon to defend myself against millions of knife-wielding gangsters in our buses and subways, the "youth", you know who I'm talking about.
If you are cycling, not only do you have the advantage of velocity ( F = m*a anyone? ) but you also have handy access to a heavy U-lock if you are locking up in high-risk areas and while riding, it is often easily accessible.
Second, and this is the most important reason in my mind, it discourages people from voting. On many occasions, I have heard people mention how it was pointless for a liberal to vote in ND, or alternatively, for a conservative to vote in Minnesota.
Why would it be pointless for a conservative to vote in Minnesota?
The 2008 election has one of the closest races for the senate (currently being litigated over), and the 2006 election had a Republican re-elected for governor.
Our system only disenfranchises those who only care about presidential elections, instead of congressional, state and local elections?
Maybe this sounds elitist, but I am finding it hard to care. If a voter is too lazy to even figure out what congressional candidate to support, I'd rather he or she not vote.
For example, my office is 10 minutes away by car. Yet if I were to ride the bus that goes there it would take 1.5 HOURS because first I have to wait 15 minutes for it to show up, then I have to ride downtown to a central station, wait another 15 minutes for the bus going to where I want to go, and then ride that bus. All the way these buses are starting and stopping and go maybe overall 1/2 the speed of a car.
I don't have 1.5 hours of free time to spend commuting. Judging by the ridership, nobody else that is gainfully employed does either.
It's called a bicycle. Get some fenders, a good lock, and add a pannier or two for your work clothes.
Travel slowly so you don't sweat (say around 10mph or so).
If your office is 10 minutes away by car, odds are it is within two or three miles, should be easy to reach it within 20 minutes or so.
Too bad we don't have any other way to make magenets...oh wait.
To be fair, the conservation movement often attacks conventional energy and material sources in a similar manner. You'll see claims of "in X years, we're screwed because we'll run out of Y", without any assumption that once the price of X goes up, it either becomes conventional to extract X from non-conventional or marginal sources, or else a substitute for X will be used instead.
The most sensational sources seem to predict the resulting fall of civilization (or something equally as daft) because of this.
Sensationalism sells. Its boring to hear about how the current extraction infrastructure and known reserves for foobarium aren't enough to meet predicted future demand and thus alternative sources or alternative materials will be used in the future. Its more exciting to hear how critical technology relies on foobarium currently and predict the end of the world as we know it because current foobarium supply won't meet future demand.
It's a shame this happens because it desensitizes us to major problems with resource depletion. We're so busy reporting every tiny wackjob's claim that we're horribly, completely and absolutely screwed that the real problems start to get lost in the chaff.
Allegations of "leftist bias" are almost always specious. An inclusive worldview and a fact-based decision-making methodology are embedded in the foundation of progressivism. On the other hand, modern conservative politics are almost entirely built on deceiving a large ignorant group to vote against its economic interests. Conservative bias has been far more common during the last 30 years than anything else. In short, "reality has a well-known liberal bias". Stop whining.
I don't know.
When it comes to subjects such as alternative energy, I see a strong bias towards "feel good" solutions without asking hard questions. For example, consider articles proposing a wind energy solution (such as the Pickens plan) -- how many of them talk about base energy load and what percentage of electrical generation wind could practically supply (I've seen numbers stating that anything over 20% is going to cause problems due to the variability of wind power. Are these numbers right? Who knows, our media sucks at engineering.:p).
Or consider global warming. Not many people look at the cost/benefit ratio of climate change mitigation vs (say) habitat preservation.
There's a bias in the media. It isn't due to some vast liberal conspiracy (or vast conservative conspiracy, depending on the outlet). The media lives and dies on advertising, and because of that, it is going to run the stories its recipients want.
the need for security does not stem from fear of those that elected him, but from fear of foreign interests getting their hands on sensitive information. I could care less if China, Al-Queda, Russia, etc. get their hands on his emails from his wife
Why do many people assume that personal communications don't leak information?
The frequency, length, and subject of personal communication could all be indicative of how focused the president is and what is his frame of mind.
Assume, for example, Mainland China and Taiwan have an incident. The US issues a canned response and the military in the area goes up a level of alert.
Would you, as a hypothetical member of China's intelligence service, be interested if an hour later, Obama emails his wife asking if she's still available for dinner, or if he emails his wife telling her that he has to cancel dinner for it is going to be a late night?
1) Do you really think that the people of this village wake up in the morning and think "By gum, I can't wait for another day of handling toxic materials with no protection whatsoever. My only hope is that those meddling foreigners, and their insipid health and safety standards, don't rob me of this, my most beloved pastime!"
What are the alternative jobs available?
Perhaps slowly poisoning yourself is preferable to whatever else is available. If there are no other jobs that pays as much, and if recycling allows you to feed your family and keep your children going to school, wouldn't you do it?
Maybe there don't have to be any unnatural deaths, just less births. All life requires energy to exist. The human race tripled in size over the 72 years between 1927 and 1999. Where has the energy come from to enable that to happen ? Fossil fuels. Stored energy which we have used to establish ourselves as masters of the planet. But when those fossil fuels run out, or they cause the climate to change (meaning we can't use them), then the numbers of humans must re-adjust to the available energy. Unless you want to live in a world like a cube farm.
I ran the numbers the other day for uranium extraction from sea water, the refresh rate of uranium due to erosion, and the energy produced by a fast breeder reactor using a natural uranium isotope mix.
We could produce double the energy output of the earth currently for tens of thousands of years with current technology without lowering the uranium content in seawater below 25%.
2) A brown family of nine people get on a plane. They are dressed in traditional clothing of Islamic people. Three of the young adults make a remark about where would be the safest place to sit on the plane in the event of an accident or explosion.
Little known fact: The gene that causes brown skin and Arabic speaking is also responsible for terrorism.
We're safe though. AFAICT from the DHS guidelines, terrorists are dumb shits that always try the same attack. That's why we have to take off our shoes for inspection at airport security. Terrorists would never think of packaging high explosive in some other item, such as a laptop's battery pack.
Instead of a $.50/gallon tax instituted at once, I'd like to see it gradually increase.
Say by +$.10/gallon per year for the first 10 years.
That gives both consumers, companies and manufacturers time to switch.
In addition, I'd like to see a "floor" on gasoline prices -- say $1.75/gallon, adjusted for inflation.
If gas goes below $1.75/gallon before the $.10/gallon/year tax, the government taxes it until it goes
up to $1.75. This prevents market flucuations from creating artificially-low long term average mpg.
Some of the cheapo LED nightlights (just bright enough to see to get up in the middle of the night, not bright enough to make it hard to get back to sleep) and some spot lighting from Ikea.
The spot lighting are two LED lights, with some sort of diffuser on them. I have them mounted in the living room above the couch.
The wattage is insanely low, and it is bright enough to read underneath them. They clearly are directional lights, and they are a little spendy when compared to a cheap CFL fixture, but for nighttime illumination, I think they are fine. OTOH, I have the belief that lights at night aren't to replace the sun but to allow us enough light to do our tasks before going to sleep.
The band I'm currently fascinated with right now isn't released in English, isn't available on Amazon, only one crappy video is on youtube, and I've only found them due to a passing reference to a musical technique in another band's lyrics and a great deal of googling.
This is where the long tail dies. I'll probably end up buying the band's CD (their demo album is free to download in mp3 format), but it will require effort on my behalf to figure out why the distributor isn't showing it as available to buy.
Plus there's the whole conversion from dollars to euros.
Capitalism is hardly responsible for it. No private company did this, until the Ansari X Prize subsidized them. That prize money was donated, making SS1 of charitable origins. Capitalism is anything but charitable. In fact, between the charity money and the academic foundation that dreamed up the whole thing, it's closer to a centralised, socialist model.
I realize that you and the broader movement for denying human-caused global are not pro-pollution, but those are the bedfellows you're lying down with. The net result of your movement is more pollution and more environmental degradation. I just keep hoping that well-intentioned people would be willing to table the academic questions about what's causing global warming until we've achieved the goals I think we mostly agree on; to stop crapping up our planet.
That's why I'm against people who criticize the war on terror. By pushing for close overview of the government's actions, they are aligning themselves with those who wish to terrorize and hurt others.
Respecting human rights isn't a bad idea, but we need to make everyone safe first and catch the bad guys.
Slashdot Mirror
The north also has better clothing, I think, for the cold.
A Walmart in Minneapolis probably can probably produce a warmer jacket than a specialized outdoors store in Memphis. About the only way that gear will keep you warm is if you burn it.
Plus one learns as the weather changes (hopefully), and "cold" gains a different meaning. 20F (-7C) is warm to me. About 0F (-18C) is when it gets cold, and -10F (-23C) is where clothing becomes very important even for minor tasks such as taking out the garbage.
Didn't Haruki Murakami once write that alcohol doesn't remove the pain, it just gives it a life of its own, away from ours?
I always figured that was realistic as well. Mothers and fetus share many of the same chemicals. Isn't it evolutionary adventageous for the offspring to adapt itself to the environment (the chemicals) it causes? Does the mother seem to have low stress and plenty of food? Time to grow into a large healthy offspring. Mother under high stress and less food? Smaller offspring will survive on less food, and perhaps faster maturation as well, since it seems that they could be at risk of dying before being able to breed.
Is a car any better? Easy enough for a mugger to wait by a stop sign.
If you are cycling, not only do you have the advantage of velocity ( F = m*a anyone? ) but you also have handy access to a heavy U-lock if you are locking up in high-risk areas and while riding, it is often easily accessible.
Why would it be pointless for a conservative to vote in Minnesota?
The 2008 election has one of the closest races for the senate (currently being litigated over), and the 2006 election had a Republican re-elected for governor.
Our system only disenfranchises those who only care about presidential elections, instead of congressional, state and local elections?
Maybe this sounds elitist, but I am finding it hard to care. If a voter is too lazy to even figure out what congressional candidate to support, I'd rather he or she not vote.
It's called a bicycle. Get some fenders, a good lock, and add a pannier or two for your work clothes.
Travel slowly so you don't sweat (say around 10mph or so).
If your office is 10 minutes away by car, odds are it is within two or three miles, should be easy to reach it within 20 minutes or so.
To be fair, the conservation movement often attacks conventional energy and material sources in a similar manner. You'll see claims of "in X years, we're screwed because we'll run out of Y", without any assumption that once the price of X goes up, it either becomes conventional to extract X from non-conventional or marginal sources, or else a substitute for X will be used instead.
The most sensational sources seem to predict the resulting fall of civilization (or something equally as daft) because of this.
Sensationalism sells. Its boring to hear about how the current extraction infrastructure and known reserves for foobarium aren't enough to meet predicted future demand and thus alternative sources or alternative materials will be used in the future. Its more exciting to hear how critical technology relies on foobarium currently and predict the end of the world as we know it because current foobarium supply won't meet future demand.
It's a shame this happens because it desensitizes us to major problems with resource depletion. We're so busy reporting every tiny wackjob's claim that we're horribly, completely and absolutely screwed that the real problems start to get lost in the chaff.
If he's traveling at highway speeds as well? I presume so, since the relative speed difference would be minor.
I don't know.
When it comes to subjects such as alternative energy, I see a strong bias towards "feel good" solutions without asking hard questions. For example, consider articles proposing a wind energy solution (such as the Pickens plan) -- how many of them talk about base energy load and what percentage of electrical generation wind could practically supply (I've seen numbers stating that anything over 20% is going to cause problems due to the variability of wind power. Are these numbers right? Who knows, our media sucks at engineering. :p).
Or consider global warming. Not many people look at the cost/benefit ratio of climate change mitigation vs (say) habitat preservation.
There's a bias in the media. It isn't due to some vast liberal conspiracy (or vast conservative conspiracy, depending on the outlet). The media lives and dies on advertising, and because of that, it is going to run the stories its recipients want.
the need for security does not stem from fear of those that elected him, but from fear of foreign interests getting their hands on sensitive information. I could care less if China, Al-Queda, Russia, etc. get their hands on his emails from his wife
Why do many people assume that personal communications don't leak information?
The frequency, length, and subject of personal communication could all be indicative of how focused the president is and what is his frame of mind.
Assume, for example, Mainland China and Taiwan have an incident. The US issues a canned response and the military in the area goes up a level of alert.
Would you, as a hypothetical member of China's intelligence service, be interested if an hour later, Obama emails his wife asking if she's still available for dinner, or if he emails his wife telling her that he has to cancel dinner for it is going to be a late night?
OTOH, wiping it the best replacement for encryption.
What happens when your drive remaps a bad sector that has sensitive data that is still partially readable?
No mention is made of the estimated CO2 output of creating a new car from scratch, vs driving that "inefficient" until it dies.
I wouldn't be surprised if the clunker is more friendly to the environment.
Newsflash: Politicians tend to be political weasels.
That's why we don't elect senators in Minnesota. :p
What are the alternative jobs available?
Perhaps slowly poisoning yourself is preferable to whatever else is available. If there are no other jobs that pays as much, and if recycling allows you to feed your family and keep your children going to school, wouldn't you do it?
I ran the numbers the other day for uranium extraction from sea water, the refresh rate of uranium due to erosion, and the energy produced by a fast breeder reactor using a natural uranium isotope mix.
We could produce double the energy output of the earth currently for tens of thousands of years with current technology without lowering the uranium content in seawater below 25%.
Little known fact: The gene that causes brown skin and Arabic speaking is also responsible for terrorism.
We're safe though. AFAICT from the DHS guidelines, terrorists are dumb shits that always try the same attack. That's why we have to take off our shoes for inspection at airport security. Terrorists would never think of packaging high explosive in some other item, such as a laptop's battery pack.
Instead of a $.50/gallon tax instituted at once, I'd like to see it gradually increase.
Say by +$.10/gallon per year for the first 10 years.
That gives both consumers, companies and manufacturers time to switch.
In addition, I'd like to see a "floor" on gasoline prices -- say $1.75/gallon, adjusted for inflation.
If gas goes below $1.75/gallon before the $.10/gallon/year tax, the government taxes it until it goes up to $1.75. This prevents market flucuations from creating artificially-low long term average mpg.
I have a few LEDs for illumination.
Some of the cheapo LED nightlights (just bright enough to see to get up in the middle of the night, not bright enough to make it hard to get back to sleep) and some spot lighting from Ikea.
The spot lighting are two LED lights, with some sort of diffuser on them. I have them mounted in the living room above the couch.
The wattage is insanely low, and it is bright enough to read underneath them. They clearly are directional lights, and they are a little spendy when compared to a cheap CFL fixture, but for nighttime illumination, I think they are fine. OTOH, I have the belief that lights at night aren't to replace the sun but to allow us enough light to do our tasks before going to sleep.
How many people actively search out new things?
The band I'm currently fascinated with right now isn't released in English, isn't available on Amazon, only one crappy video is on youtube, and I've only found them due to a passing reference to a musical technique in another band's lyrics and a great deal of googling.
This is where the long tail dies. I'll probably end up buying the band's CD (their demo album is free to download in mp3 format), but it will require effort on my behalf to figure out why the distributor isn't showing it as available to buy.
Plus there's the whole conversion from dollars to euros.
This is where the long tail dies.
We didn't have D. D. Harriman in this timeline. :(
That's why I'm against people who criticize the war on terror. By pushing for close overview of the government's actions, they are aligning themselves with those who wish to terrorize and hurt others.
Respecting human rights isn't a bad idea, but we need to make everyone safe first and catch the bad guys.
Ah, you live in Minneapolis/St. Paul.
If ice is a problem, hit one of the local bike stores and pick up a nice set of studded tires. I recommend the Nokian brand.
Avoid the trails until they are plowed. Just use one of the streets and seize a lane if the shoulder or bike lane isn't plowed.
HTH. ;)
PS: We're still ranked #2 for the percentage of bicycling commuters in the US. :D
Still a problem, since memory can swap to disk, unless disabled.
Ramdisk + wipe swap or encrypted swap would be a better solution.
OTOH, you can also recover from RAM, so I guess the only solution is to thermite your computer after use.