ok so genetics have no effect, and then we have an increased incidence of autism when people with similar ways of thinking have kids...
Genes do influence the way people think and behave, they would be rather useless items if they didn't, now wouldn't they. Introverted and extraverted traits for example are influenced by genes.
The big house. The penthouse. The big office. The boat. The jet. The SUV... In short, money. It demonstrates an ability to provide resources for offspring to the female, it's why money turns women on and that in turn selects for males who exhibit those features. Thing is it really doesn't take that much to provide for children. However the competitive drive is there in the sex drive and the results can be seen in almost every aspect of society, to the point where the surrounding environment is destroyed for future generations.
And it's not necessarily good for the human race as a whole.
Take okcupid for example. Answer 500 muliple choice questions and the statistical grouping algorithm it uses matches you up with well lots of people who answered in a similar manner. You end up talking to people who think in a very similar way, often with similar interests. In fact it can be damned near telepathy at times. OK, that's great and getting on with someone is very easy but... As well as the influence of the nurture stuff there are underlying genetic mechanisms to the way people think and act but guess what, we're sorting these similar "good" and "bad" genes to be close to one another.
The result is potentially increased incidence of genetic diseases. Ultimately I think things like this will weed out the bad genes naturally as they express themselves in children but there's the suffering and potentally increased healthcare costs.
Don't burn the coal traditionally, gasify it and burn the gas in a combined cycle turbine. Then sell the "waste" heat to customers for space/water heating and the spoil to the construction industry. The thermal efficiency goes to about 65% and the overall efficiency to nearly 90%.
Actually the solution to human induced global warming is very simple, but it's a social one, not a technical one, all of the technical solutions already exist, and frankly it's a waste of time debating which one we should use. The market will work that out for us.
That solution is... Make energy expensive. In particular carbon produced energy. Most easily achieved by migrating taxes from goods and labour to energy production.
Is life itself... To have children, to pass your genes on to the next and all succeeding generations. That is the sole meaning of life. You can tack all the extra personal gubbins you like on to it but that's it.
So if you start mucking around with the genetic code of your kids... Whos genetic code are you passing on? It certainly isn't yours... Then even if you do have lots of kids, you've missed the point of passing your genes on. Either way the rich lose.
Or European for that matter. I wasn't talking about Africa...
Once the basic killers are covered, food, water, shelter, disease. People can breed to their heart's content, and that's exactly what they do. Unless of course they are driven by archaic competitive genes to be the number 1, the big cheese. Then they compete themselves right out of the gene pool. I find that particular irony highly amusing.
Because all the evidence says that earning lots of money is an evolutionarily weak. When do you then have time to have the dozen genetic offspring? It isn't the few at the top of the heap who're having lots of children, they're busy paying for their lifestyle.
That evolution doesn't give a toss about your concept of strength or of fitness, and guess what... poor people have more children than rich people do...
You go to college, work your arse off, earn lots of money, die without kids, the race doesn't get your genes. You're a single parent living on state benefit with 12 kids... big contribution to the gene pool.
They're crap to use. I mean, they're *useless* for any serious amount of data input, have you ever tried writing a letter on one? and a PDA or smart phone is more useful for displaying data because *it fits in a pocket*...
You want a serious computer, today, it *must* have a keyboard, otherwise it's a data display device.
For those who don't want to carry a PDA, camera, a laptop and a phone, Nokia have the Communicator devices, everything in one.
it's simple to spoof an email, I can send mail as jonathan@pcphi...com any time I want to. I can also alter mailbox information, mess about with mail headers, make it say anything I want it to.
Sending sensitive information over email is as sane as sending it on a postcard... encrypt and sign it people...
And that's how you make money... Restrict the market. You're making the assumption that there's a free market for diamonds, there isn't. You might have a million tonnes of gold in your back garden (or in space) but if you sell it by the ounce it won't have an affect on the world market.
ok so you now have a "cable" travelling at thousands of km/h in contact with what? wheels, rollers on a lifting platform/pod. Maglev? More than that, it's more than likely a carbon based cable so it'd better not get too hot, the carbon will change state, sublimate etc. and we're talking lots of power and lots of energy, therefore lots of heat.
The truth is a space elevator will have to travel at tens of miles per hour and then the huge distances we're talking about become a big problem, it'd take days to get into orbit. That's not a problem? ah well, except that we have tens, hundreds of billions of dollars worth of space elevator to pay for, maintain and operate. It has to be able to handle lots of lifts to pay for itself.
Space elevators sound like a great idea until you realise the scale of infrastructure you'd have to build to operate one economically.
DeBeers buys most of the uncut diamonds which are produced. They put them in a big vault somewhere and trickle out stones at a rate which guarantees an artificially high scarcity and therefore an artificially high price.
Just because you have something doesn't mean you have to sell it, especially when it's not in your interest to do so.
In fact the current bunch lock themselves as you walk away from them, unlock themselves when you get close, very unnerving, you have to give the key to someone else to check it's locked.
I don't really see how this is better than a swipe card or a rfid card for businesses. In the meantime I'll make do with a traditional mechanical key & lock.
Sorry, but "The DaVinci Code" is a rubbish book. It was not excellent, merely popular. It's stolid with the "plot" and characters regurgitated from the other novels he's produced. It's almost as if he has a template which he just fills in with which ever conspiracy theory is current.
The cheaper panels have more defects, less stringent quality control... Actually that's pretty much the definition of any brand... The quality control, attention to detail.
Having said that I just bought a Durabrand CRT TV. Works, does what I want... I wouldn't buy a cheap noname LCD panel though without checking for dead pixels.
Google's networked systems achieve consciousness on 10th June at 7pm GMT... blah blah blah we've all seen the results of that... Gotta be stopped... Who wants the mini-gun?
For *actual* work. Email, IM, phone for talking all you like *about* it. If the job doesn't arrive in the system it *isn't* work which needs to be done. It works for pretty much every case where one person asks another to do something.
Slashdot Mirror
ok so genetics have no effect, and then we have an increased incidence of autism when people with similar ways of thinking have kids...
Genes do influence the way people think and behave, they would be rather useless items if they didn't, now wouldn't they. Introverted and extraverted traits for example are influenced by genes.
okcupid btw, do describe their algorithm:
http://www.okcupid.com/static?p=faaaq
The big house. The penthouse. The big office. The boat. The jet. The SUV... In short, money. It demonstrates an ability to provide resources for offspring to the female, it's why money turns women on and that in turn selects for males who exhibit those features. Thing is it really doesn't take that much to provide for children. However the competitive drive is there in the sex drive and the results can be seen in almost every aspect of society, to the point where the surrounding environment is destroyed for future generations.
And it's not necessarily good for the human race as a whole.
Take okcupid for example. Answer 500 muliple choice questions and the statistical grouping algorithm it uses matches you up with well lots of people who answered in a similar manner. You end up talking to people who think in a very similar way, often with similar interests. In fact it can be damned near telepathy at times. OK, that's great and getting on with someone is very easy but... As well as the influence of the nurture stuff there are underlying genetic mechanisms to the way people think and act but guess what, we're sorting these similar "good" and "bad" genes to be close to one another.
The result is potentially increased incidence of genetic diseases. Ultimately I think things like this will weed out the bad genes naturally as they express themselves in children but there's the suffering and potentally increased healthcare costs.
Don't burn the coal traditionally, gasify it and burn the gas in a combined cycle turbine. Then sell the "waste" heat to customers for space/water heating and the spoil to the construction industry. The thermal efficiency goes to about 65% and the overall efficiency to nearly 90%.
Actually the solution to human induced global warming is very simple, but it's a social one, not a technical one, all of the technical solutions already exist, and frankly it's a waste of time debating which one we should use. The market will work that out for us.
That solution is... Make energy expensive. In particular carbon produced energy. Most easily achieved by migrating taxes from goods and labour to energy production.
Lesson 1: The meaning of life.
Is life itself... To have children, to pass your genes on to the next and all succeeding generations. That is the sole meaning of life. You can tack all the extra personal gubbins you like on to it but that's it.
So if you start mucking around with the genetic code of your kids... Whos genetic code are you passing on? It certainly isn't yours... Then even if you do have lots of kids, you've missed the point of passing your genes on. Either way the rich lose.
Or European for that matter. I wasn't talking about Africa...
Once the basic killers are covered, food, water, shelter, disease. People can breed to their heart's content, and that's exactly what they do. Unless of course they are driven by archaic competitive genes to be the number 1, the big cheese. Then they compete themselves right out of the gene pool. I find that particular irony highly amusing.
Because all the evidence says that earning lots of money is an evolutionarily weak. When do you then have time to have the dozen genetic offspring? It isn't the few at the top of the heap who're having lots of children, they're busy paying for their lifestyle.
A few generations are enough, particularly in areas with high mortality rates, high levels of disease. It just doesn't apply to the individual.
Very funny. :)
That evolution doesn't give a toss about your concept of strength or of fitness, and guess what... poor people have more children than rich people do...
I mean really? Come on...
You go to college, work your arse off, earn lots of money, die without kids, the race doesn't get your genes. You're a single parent living on state benefit with 12 kids... big contribution to the gene pool.
"At level 42 in WoW, I decided to learn cooking."
Can *you* now cook?
They're crap to use. I mean, they're *useless* for any serious amount of data input, have you ever tried writing a letter on one? and a PDA or smart phone is more useful for displaying data because *it fits in a pocket*...
l
. html
You want a serious computer, today, it *must* have a keyboard, otherwise it's a data display device.
For those who don't want to carry a PDA, camera, a laptop and a phone, Nokia have the Communicator devices, everything in one.
Big:
http://www.europe.nokia.com/nokia/0,,54106,00.htm
Small:
http://www.europe.nokia.com/nokia/0,6771,77854,00
it's simple to spoof an email, I can send mail as jonathan@pcphi...com any time I want to. I can also alter mailbox information, mess about with mail headers, make it say anything I want it to.
Sending sensitive information over email is as sane as sending it on a postcard... encrypt and sign it people...
And that's how you make money... Restrict the market. You're making the assumption that there's a free market for diamonds, there isn't. You might have a million tonnes of gold in your back garden (or in space) but if you sell it by the ounce it won't have an affect on the world market.
e.g.
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/198202/diamond
ok so you now have a "cable" travelling at thousands of km/h in contact with what? wheels, rollers on a lifting platform/pod. Maglev? More than that, it's more than likely a carbon based cable so it'd better not get too hot, the carbon will change state, sublimate etc. and we're talking lots of power and lots of energy, therefore lots of heat.
The truth is a space elevator will have to travel at tens of miles per hour and then the huge distances we're talking about become a big problem, it'd take days to get into orbit. That's not a problem? ah well, except that we have tens, hundreds of billions of dollars worth of space elevator to pay for, maintain and operate. It has to be able to handle lots of lifts to pay for itself.
Space elevators sound like a great idea until you realise the scale of infrastructure you'd have to build to operate one economically.
Of a space elevator please? People keep saying it'll be cheaper than flying rockets but they also keep failing to explain how it'll be cheaper.
DeBeers buys most of the uncut diamonds which are produced. They put them in a big vault somewhere and trickle out stones at a rate which guarantees an artificially high scarcity and therefore an artificially high price.
Just because you have something doesn't mean you have to sell it, especially when it's not in your interest to do so.
See when you get a run of 5 or more heads, rush out and place a bet on something! You're bound to win!
Alternatively read this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Probability
In fact the current bunch lock themselves as you walk away from them, unlock themselves when you get close, very unnerving, you have to give the key to someone else to check it's locked.
I don't really see how this is better than a swipe card or a rfid card for businesses. In the meantime I'll make do with a traditional mechanical key & lock.
It wipes out the local economy. We've been waging economic warfare on African farmers for the last 50-60 years now.
Sorry, but "The DaVinci Code" is a rubbish book. It was not excellent, merely popular. It's stolid with the "plot" and characters regurgitated from the other novels he's produced. It's almost as if he has a template which he just fills in with which ever conspiracy theory is current.
The cheaper panels have more defects, less stringent quality control... Actually that's pretty much the definition of any brand... The quality control, attention to detail.
Having said that I just bought a Durabrand CRT TV. Works, does what I want... I wouldn't buy a cheap noname LCD panel though without checking for dead pixels.
"What could possibly go wrong from here?"
Google's networked systems achieve consciousness on 10th June at 7pm GMT... blah blah blah we've all seen the results of that... Gotta be stopped... Who wants the mini-gun?
For *actual* work. Email, IM, phone for talking all you like *about* it. If the job doesn't arrive in the system it *isn't* work which needs to be done. It works for pretty much every case where one person asks another to do something.
e.g.
http://freshmeat.net/projects/requesttracker/
Oh and systems like these fit really nicely into workflow frameworks too.