All of these are excellent points and I was going to go into it in my earlier post but I got too lazy to do it, so I'm glad that you did. What I would add is that in all religions there is a tension between "true believers" who think that a religion should avoid hierarchies and stay out of public life, versus the "help the people" group that thinks that a religion *has* to be out in the world where the people are.
The problem with the "true believers" approach is that hiding up in a monastery and saying prayers 20 hours a day doesn't seem to do much to help actual people in real suffering, and to a lot of religious people, that is important. Further, its insularity can lead to total inflexibility and stagnation, or even just irrelevance to the outside world. OTOH, the problem with the "help the people" group is that the more a religion has contact with the outside world, there are more temptations and that will lead to more corruption.
The Catholic Church has tended towards the more worldly, "help the people" view, and the Jesuits even more so (of which the current Pope is a member of). But as a result, it has often gotten involved in real world power struggles and fallen to the corruption that a more "pure" religion is less susceptible to. However, it also has a strong component of "true believers," with an option to lead a monastic life, while even clergy that deal directly with the public live a life that is very different from the public that they interact with (vows of poverty, chastity, etc). That flexibility to do both has probably been a big part of why the Catholic Church has lasted as long as it has.
Ummm...exactly. The Bible is obviously an important part of the Catholic belief system but it's the institution of the Church that has the final say. Catholicism is what the Catholic Church, with the Pope at its head, says it is. It may seem tautological but it actually isn't. For example, for many Protestant (especially Evangelical) sects, a layperson could make an effective argument about a controversial subject by saying "Here is what it says in Bible...", while an argument that appeals to an authority such as a pastor would not be (theologically) persuasive. But to a Catholic, the only real trump card is "The Church says..."
some countries like the USA and GB will have to start pretty much from the beginning, having destroyed their industrial base through corporate looting and offshoring
It might not have just been Apple. Maybe they took the $578MM from Apple, and another $500MM from a bank to build a $1 bn factory. Even if there were protections against Apple cancelling the order and demanding their money back, there might be others who they owed money to.
I'm not sure what you are saying here. So what if $39.2 billion of education spending is done by the Feds. Isn't having state expenditures (and hopefully state control) a better way of doing things? And most Federal money should be spent on special ed and disadvantaged programs. Costs for special ed can be highly variable and a couple high needs kids could bust the budget of a small district, so spreading that out over a larger tax base is a good thing. And disadvantaged programs tend to have localized severity so that the kind of district that needs to spend on those services won't have the resources from the local tax base and has to get it from elsewhere.
The rest of your stats are a non sequitur. Why is 23.5% after inflation too much? That's about 2.1% per year. Real wages and salaries have gone up by 40% over that time. Maybe there is something more to be said here but this somewhat random data is not advancing your argument
Would it be morally better for that average laborer in China to live on about $1 a day like they did a quarter century ago? I think the situation is much less morally clear than many people would like it to be.
Most phones tend to be free or nearly so with their contract so price isn't a significant factor for most people
But the choices of subsidized phones are being determined by your selection of carrier, which people choose based largely on cost. If you have AT&T or Verizon, you are generally looking at the best tier of "free" phones, if you have something like MetroPCS, you are looking at a different tier of "free" phones, all running android. So price is a huge factor for most people in their phone choice, it's just indirectly through their choice of carrier.
I'm sure the children^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hsons of the ruling class are getting plenty of instruction in disciplines of military value. They will be able to buy weapons from more advanced nations with money obtained from oil sales and ransoms. It is only the ruled who will be kept ignorant so that they are easier to control. Therefore it is likely that they will last a great while, unless a greater military force (most likely external) finds it in its own best interest to overthrow them.
I've never owned a Mac (iPhones yes, Mac no), so I can't say with 100% certainty, but I'm pretty sure the experience on one is vastly different from the other.
Part of that expectation comes from the fact that the operating system of the Mac is named "OS X" and the operating system on the phone/tablets is named "iOS". If they named the iPhone OS "OS X" there probably would be confusion.
move up to lighter drugs (lighter side effects, even if less effective), and then into the heavy shit (methylphenedate, adderall, drug cocktails)
What are "lighter drugs"? Not trying to call you out; I appreciate the level of honesty in your post. But I thought that stimulants were lighter drugs, compared to, say, antidepressants or antipsychotics
Go back in time a little and enormous cultural variations can be found in architectural design
Perhaps that says more about the reduction in cultural variances than changes in architectural design. Huge commercial skyscrapers dominate the skyline of globalized commercial centers around the world because globalized commercial centers share the same culture.
Being against this particular transaction is not the same as being against the evolution of language. As far as I can tell, the new meaning of the phrase "begs the question" is the same as "raises the question," except with the additional nuance that the speaker/writer wants to sound like a person who is well read enough to have encountered the phrase in its original usage but, in fact, is not and has not. Being against that does not make one a grammar nazi or language Luddite.
So you rarely find someone who says "I would pay $115 (but not $116) after shipping for a 500GB (but not 500 GiB) SSD."
Although the particular person at $115 is pretty rare, they are very important, since they are the marginal buyer at $115. The "rare" marginal buyer at 115, and the "rare" buyer at 116, and at 117, and at 118, etc.create the demand curve.
But there are likely to be discontinuities in the curve, especially at round numbers, so the number of marginal buyers of a 500gb drive from $250 down to $249 is probably a decent sized chunk, whereas the number of buyers from say $257 to $256 is probably not so significant.
Yes clearly my recommendation is jurisdiction-limited. In most countries they would probably wonder why you are talking about a state attorney general in the first place, as I doubt it's a common title outside of the US. Of course, a customer service rep in plenty of countries would probably wonder why you are speaking in English to them in the first place.
But seriously even if I had the choice between a bureaucrat in a well-functioning regulatory body versus an aggressive American lawyer I would still pick the attorney general to best protect my interests.
The correct hard ball approach is: I am recording this call and forwarding to my state attorneys general
FTFY. Large companies generally aren't afraid of most government agencies, due to regulatory capture. But tell them that you might be in touch with the office of an ambitious politician with subpoena power and suddenly they become very helpful.
Yes it does. At least, it means more distance is covered during your reaction time, which is the same thing as driving slower and having an impaired reaction time due to not paying attention.
if the IRS should be allowed aggressive auditing powers (and I'm not saying they shouldn't), then it's only fair that an elected body such as Congress should have the right to aggressively audit those audits to ensure those powers aren't being abused. If the IRS can get out of that check by losing particular emails that is a serious problem, just as if the political non profits being audited could avoid problems by disposing of evidence they would rather not have the IRS look at
But a negative correlation can DISprove cause-and-effect.
Unfortunately even that isn't true: see Simpson's Paradox. Not to pick on you, but it is really tough to make strong assertions one way or the other based on social science data. I think the best we can do is a Bayesian approach; start with some prior assumption based on ideology and personal experience, then adjust that prior based on the results of scientific studies. So in parent poster's case, his prior is that guns are pretty good in society, so the reinforcing data point that more guns = less crime makes his belief stronger. Someone whose prior is that guns are bad should probably not be as affected by that data (and if they are being intellectually honest, it would lessen their conviction that guns are bad), and someone who really had no opinion (if you could find such a person!) should be slightly more positively disposed to guns with that data. Of course, another study will typically come out shortly thereafter saying the opposite, so unless you get a series of studies all going in one direction, science will typically not change people's minds.
But the effects of this on the non-zero sum economy are important to consider. If the new markings actually do discourage parking in front of the hydrant, then both New Yorkers and the New York Government can be better off because of the improved ability to control fires, thereby reducing damage and protecting firefighters. Hence the knowledge gained from proper analysis of the data makes the world a better place.
I'm not sure which of these technologies will be successful in the coming months, but I am certain that before the year is over we will see many job postings requiring 3 years experience with Swift.
Slashdot Mirror
All of these are excellent points and I was going to go into it in my earlier post but I got too lazy to do it, so I'm glad that you did. What I would add is that in all religions there is a tension between "true believers" who think that a religion should avoid hierarchies and stay out of public life, versus the "help the people" group that thinks that a religion *has* to be out in the world where the people are.
The problem with the "true believers" approach is that hiding up in a monastery and saying prayers 20 hours a day doesn't seem to do much to help actual people in real suffering, and to a lot of religious people, that is important. Further, its insularity can lead to total inflexibility and stagnation, or even just irrelevance to the outside world. OTOH, the problem with the "help the people" group is that the more a religion has contact with the outside world, there are more temptations and that will lead to more corruption.
The Catholic Church has tended towards the more worldly, "help the people" view, and the Jesuits even more so (of which the current Pope is a member of). But as a result, it has often gotten involved in real world power struggles and fallen to the corruption that a more "pure" religion is less susceptible to. However, it also has a strong component of "true believers," with an option to lead a monastic life, while even clergy that deal directly with the public live a life that is very different from the public that they interact with (vows of poverty, chastity, etc). That flexibility to do both has probably been a big part of why the Catholic Church has lasted as long as it has.
If not who gets to make that call? The Pope?
Ummm...exactly. The Bible is obviously an important part of the Catholic belief system but it's the institution of the Church that has the final say. Catholicism is what the Catholic Church, with the Pope at its head, says it is. It may seem tautological but it actually isn't. For example, for many Protestant (especially Evangelical) sects, a layperson could make an effective argument about a controversial subject by saying "Here is what it says in Bible...", while an argument that appeals to an authority such as a pastor would not be (theologically) persuasive. But to a Catholic, the only real trump card is "The Church says..."
Slashdotter geekoid has been on top of this for as long as I have left .sigs on
some countries like the USA and GB will have to start pretty much from the beginning, having destroyed their industrial base through corporate looting and offshoring
I can't speak for GB but the USA is the world's second largest manufacturer. Or does it only count as industry if it looks like Pittsburgh in 1950 instead of California in 2014?
At least compared to these Apple products. (Here's a nytimes link if you don't want to go to a random site)
But seriously I'm glad it's going to be displayed in a museum.
It might not have just been Apple. Maybe they took the $578MM from Apple, and another $500MM from a bank to build a $1 bn factory. Even if there were protections against Apple cancelling the order and demanding their money back, there might be others who they owed money to.
Please explain any possible "C" that explains the correlation between US crude oil imports from Norway versus Drivers killed in collision with railway train. Sometimes correlation is just correlation.
I'm not sure what you are saying here. So what if $39.2 billion of education spending is done by the Feds. Isn't having state expenditures (and hopefully state control) a better way of doing things? And most Federal money should be spent on special ed and disadvantaged programs. Costs for special ed can be highly variable and a couple high needs kids could bust the budget of a small district, so spreading that out over a larger tax base is a good thing. And disadvantaged programs tend to have localized severity so that the kind of district that needs to spend on those services won't have the resources from the local tax base and has to get it from elsewhere.
The rest of your stats are a non sequitur. Why is 23.5% after inflation too much? That's about 2.1% per year. Real wages and salaries have gone up by 40% over that time. Maybe there is something more to be said here but this somewhat random data is not advancing your argument
The big metal part at the base of the bulb gets quite hot, even though the plastic cover over the lights remains cool to the touch
Would it be morally better for that average laborer in China to live on about $1 a day like they did a quarter century ago? I think the situation is much less morally clear than many people would like it to be.
Most phones tend to be free or nearly so with their contract so price isn't a significant factor for most people
But the choices of subsidized phones are being determined by your selection of carrier, which people choose based largely on cost. If you have AT&T or Verizon, you are generally looking at the best tier of "free" phones, if you have something like MetroPCS, you are looking at a different tier of "free" phones, all running android. So price is a huge factor for most people in their phone choice, it's just indirectly through their choice of carrier.
I'm sure the children^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hsons of the ruling class are getting plenty of instruction in disciplines of military value. They will be able to buy weapons from more advanced nations with money obtained from oil sales and ransoms. It is only the ruled who will be kept ignorant so that they are easier to control. Therefore it is likely that they will last a great while, unless a greater military force (most likely external) finds it in its own best interest to overthrow them.
I've never owned a Mac (iPhones yes, Mac no), so I can't say with 100% certainty, but I'm pretty sure the experience on one is vastly different from the other.
Part of that expectation comes from the fact that the operating system of the Mac is named "OS X" and the operating system on the phone/tablets is named "iOS". If they named the iPhone OS "OS X" there probably would be confusion.
move up to lighter drugs (lighter side effects, even if less effective), and then into the heavy shit (methylphenedate, adderall, drug cocktails)
What are "lighter drugs"? Not trying to call you out; I appreciate the level of honesty in your post. But I thought that stimulants were lighter drugs, compared to, say, antidepressants or antipsychotics
Go back in time a little and enormous cultural variations can be found in architectural design
Perhaps that says more about the reduction in cultural variances than changes in architectural design. Huge commercial skyscrapers dominate the skyline of globalized commercial centers around the world because globalized commercial centers share the same culture.
Being against this particular transaction is not the same as being against the evolution of language. As far as I can tell, the new meaning of the phrase "begs the question" is the same as "raises the question," except with the additional nuance that the speaker/writer wants to sound like a person who is well read enough to have encountered the phrase in its original usage but, in fact, is not and has not. Being against that does not make one a grammar nazi or language Luddite.
So you rarely find someone who says "I would pay $115 (but not $116) after shipping for a 500GB (but not 500 GiB) SSD."
Although the particular person at $115 is pretty rare, they are very important, since they are the marginal buyer at $115. The "rare" marginal buyer at 115, and the "rare" buyer at 116, and at 117, and at 118, etc.create the demand curve.
But there are likely to be discontinuities in the curve, especially at round numbers, so the number of marginal buyers of a 500gb drive from $250 down to $249 is probably a decent sized chunk, whereas the number of buyers from say $257 to $256 is probably not so significant.
Yes clearly my recommendation is jurisdiction-limited. In most countries they would probably wonder why you are talking about a state attorney general in the first place, as I doubt it's a common title outside of the US. Of course, a customer service rep in plenty of countries would probably wonder why you are speaking in English to them in the first place.
But seriously even if I had the choice between a bureaucrat in a well-functioning regulatory body versus an aggressive American lawyer I would still pick the attorney general to best protect my interests.
The correct hard ball approach is: I am recording this call and forwarding to my state attorneys general
FTFY. Large companies generally aren't afraid of most government agencies, due to regulatory capture. But tell them that you might be in touch with the office of an ambitious politician with subpoena power and suddenly they become very helpful.
Yes it does. At least, it means more distance is covered during your reaction time, which is the same thing as driving slower and having an impaired reaction time due to not paying attention.
if the IRS should be allowed aggressive auditing powers (and I'm not saying they shouldn't), then it's only fair that an elected body such as Congress should have the right to aggressively audit those audits to ensure those powers aren't being abused. If the IRS can get out of that check by losing particular emails that is a serious problem, just as if the political non profits being audited could avoid problems by disposing of evidence they would rather not have the IRS look at
But a negative correlation can DISprove cause-and-effect.
Unfortunately even that isn't true: see Simpson's Paradox. Not to pick on you, but it is really tough to make strong assertions one way or the other based on social science data. I think the best we can do is a Bayesian approach; start with some prior assumption based on ideology and personal experience, then adjust that prior based on the results of scientific studies. So in parent poster's case, his prior is that guns are pretty good in society, so the reinforcing data point that more guns = less crime makes his belief stronger. Someone whose prior is that guns are bad should probably not be as affected by that data (and if they are being intellectually honest, it would lessen their conviction that guns are bad), and someone who really had no opinion (if you could find such a person!) should be slightly more positively disposed to guns with that data. Of course, another study will typically come out shortly thereafter saying the opposite, so unless you get a series of studies all going in one direction, science will typically not change people's minds.
With four parameters I can fit an elephant, and with five I can make him wiggle his trunk.
- John von Neumann
Von Neumann said it; that's close enough to a law for me!
But the effects of this on the non-zero sum economy are important to consider. If the new markings actually do discourage parking in front of the hydrant, then both New Yorkers and the New York Government can be better off because of the improved ability to control fires, thereby reducing damage and protecting firefighters. Hence the knowledge gained from proper analysis of the data makes the world a better place.
I'm not sure which of these technologies will be successful in the coming months, but I am certain that before the year is over we will see many job postings requiring 3 years experience with Swift.