One more thing (dammit Slashdot! Let me edit my damned posts already!!!) --
They just did a new series (the one I linked to above is a little dated - almost 10 years old at this point). You can see that one here. It covers cosmology as well as a bit of quantum mechanics. Still very approachable.
I've been watching this NOVA series on quantum mechanics - it's been an excellent primer on this stuff for me. It's hosted by Brian Greene, a prof at Columbia who wrote a book about it for a lay audience. I think it would be very approachable for anybody with an interest in science, but without a scientific background.
Imagine a 'Boston Common' scenario where four sheep farmers share a plot of grazing land. Each farmer can use the land to graze his sheep. Soon, the common is completely grazed clean as farmers use the land as much as possible to out-compete their neighbors - because if Farmer Joe takes more than he needs, there won't be enough for Farmer Tom - therefore Farmer Tom needs to consume as much as he can before Farmer Joe takes it all. If the common is fenced off in four equal portions, the common stays green as farmers budget the land, each to his own need, because he knows the land will be there for him in the future - no need to over-consume the resource.
because such things can drag out conversations that could be had in an hour into drawn out e-mail threads that span over days or weeks, wasting precious time?
The time difference is always the vendor's problem - never the customer's.
We've dumped European vendors because they were unable to provide service and support during August. Believe it or not, your holiday time really screws you economically.
Facebook, OpenID, Yahoo, AOL, Google, Microsoft - they all support SSO for websites that want to use it. It's just a matter of the individual websites implementing it.
Around here (Chicago), if you leave too big of a gap in front of you, somebody will merge into that gap. If you have ACC, and your car decides on the standard 2 second following distance on the expressway, somebody will merge in front of you, causing you to slow down, creating a bigger gap, causing someone to merge in front of you, causing you to slow down to create a bigger gap... until you've actually created a traffic jam instead of avoided one.
I completely disagree with you on the types of indoctrination. I see the following lies being taught:
The government will take care of you If you fail, it's society's fault. If it's not society's fault, it's your competitor's fault. If it's not your competitor's fault, it's the government's fault for not taking care of you. It's NEVER your fault, because you are a unique snowflake who is entitled to all the riches in the universe, given to you by the government The rich got where they are not by creating wealth for themselves, but by taking it away from others - despite the fact that those others are more prosperous as well
Community is tribal behavior, which hurts the individual for the sake of the group. If the group then benefits individuals, then that's the way it's supposed to work, but when those groups feed off of individuals to benefit themselves as though the group is the ends and not the means, as is the case with government and many churches, then it's time for those individuals to leave the group. The solution is to break out of the shackles of 'community' and embrace individualism - only there can we be truly free. Once free, those individuals can re-form institutions, free from corruption (for a while anyway).
>There is no "trust" in science - there is nothing to "believe."
Close, but you're missing the point. Science is not the natural laws of the universe, science is the study of those laws, and it's scientists (in the mind of conservatives, think of them as 'people who claim to know more than the rest of us') that conservatives don't trust. In order for someone to believe you're telling the truth, they have to trust you. If they don't trust scientists to tell them the truth, then science itself becomes untrusted. In the Conservative vs. Liberal wars, we have two camps that each consist of leaders and followers. Followers follow the leaders, not because they always agree with them, but because they **trust** them. Is that trust misplaced? Possibly, on both sides.
Want to know why self-proclaimed Conservatives oppose things like the health care law? It's not because they won't benefit (obviously they will benefit in far greater numbers than more wealthy liberals), it's because it's been successfully branded 'Obamacare', and they simply do not trust Barack Obama to do anything that won't hurt them. His image, to them, is that of a subversive radical Muslim (who wasn't even born here) who is trying to take over the country, and must be stopped at all costs. It has nothing to do with the fact that they can't get insurance, can't get healthcare, whatever. The issues don't matter, it's the image that counts.
>There is no "trust" in science - there is nothing to "believe."
Close, but you're missing the point. Science is not the natural laws of the universe, science is the study of those laws, and it's scientists (in the mind of conservatives, think of them as 'people who claim to know more than the rest of us') that conservatives don't trust. In order for someone to believe you're telling the truth, they have to trust you. If they don't trust scientists to tell them the truth, then science itself becomes untrusted.
In the Conservative vs. Liberal wars, we have two camps that each consist of leaders and followers. Followers follow the leaders, not because they always agree with them, but because they **trust** them. Is that trust misplaced? Possibly, on both sides.
Want to know why self-proclaimed Conservatives oppose things like the health care law? It's not because they won't benefit (obviously they will benefit in far greater numbers than more wealthy liberals), it's because it's been successfully branded 'Obamacare', and they simply do not trust Barack Obama to do anything that won't hurt them. His image, to them, is that of a subversive radical Muslim (who wasn't even born here) who is trying to take over the country, and must be stopped at all costs. It has nothing to do with the fact that they can't get insurance, can't get healthcare, whatever. The issues don't matter, it's the image that counts.
>What I'd like to see is some kind of very tough civics test as a requirement for voting.
Outlawed in 1965 because such exams prevent racial minorities from voting.
Your analogy is only valid if there are exactly two commerical airlines, each with a fleet of one plane apiece that take six months to refuel and prep for the next trip.
1. Manned telescope on the Moon.
2. Supply depot/launch pad for a Mars shot.
3. Fusion research (He^3)
4. Nuclear and other dangerous research (we can blow stuff up/melt down/whatever without affecting our biosphere!)
5. Space based manufacturing plant for future missions
I think it's commercial wholesale pricing - the types and volumes of panels you'd use for a massive solar plant in the desert somewhere, not the type of kit you'd put on your roof. They're talking about $1/watt because they're comparing it to the equivalent cost of coal fired electricity, and the $1/watt figure is an apples-to-apples comparison.
Slashdot Mirror
One more thing (dammit Slashdot! Let me edit my damned posts already!!!) --
They just did a new series (the one I linked to above is a little dated - almost 10 years old at this point). You can see that one here. It covers cosmology as well as a bit of quantum mechanics. Still very approachable.
I've been watching this NOVA series on quantum mechanics - it's been an excellent primer on this stuff for me. It's hosted by Brian Greene, a prof at Columbia who wrote a book about it for a lay audience. I think it would be very approachable for anybody with an interest in science, but without a scientific background.
> No one here cares ;-)
No? How's your unemployment rate?
Danish actually.
The problem with that, inherently, is the Tragedy of the Commons.
Imagine a 'Boston Common' scenario where four sheep farmers share a plot of grazing land. Each farmer can use the land to graze his sheep. Soon, the common is completely grazed clean as farmers use the land as much as possible to out-compete their neighbors - because if Farmer Joe takes more than he needs, there won't be enough for Farmer Tom - therefore Farmer Tom needs to consume as much as he can before Farmer Joe takes it all. If the common is fenced off in four equal portions, the common stays green as farmers budget the land, each to his own need, because he knows the land will be there for him in the future - no need to over-consume the resource.
because such things can drag out conversations that could be had in an hour into drawn out e-mail threads that span over days or weeks, wasting precious time?
The time difference is always the vendor's problem - never the customer's.
We've dumped European vendors because they were unable to provide service and support during August. Believe it or not, your holiday time really screws you economically.
I'd love to see the digital version of the Illudium Q-36 explosive space modulator...
Facebook, OpenID, Yahoo, AOL, Google, Microsoft - they all support SSO for websites that want to use it. It's just a matter of the individual websites implementing it.
If you notice, Slashdot has even implemented it.
See that's the problem.
Around here (Chicago), if you leave too big of a gap in front of you, somebody will merge into that gap. If you have ACC, and your car decides on the standard 2 second following distance on the expressway, somebody will merge in front of you, causing you to slow down, creating a bigger gap, causing someone to merge in front of you, causing you to slow down to create a bigger gap... until you've actually created a traffic jam instead of avoided one.
I wouldn't say nobody in .com land is going out there...
Don't forget about these guys.
Or they're learning our weaknesses and how to exploit them - like Yamamoto.
I'm allergic, so if I tried to huff a kitten, I'd likely wind up with my face swollen shut. I suppose that makes it unsafe...
We use Keepass on a CIFS share. It locks the password file when multiple people have it open so you don't have write problems.
You can also put the file up on a LAMP style website with Web-Keepass.
I completely disagree with you on the types of indoctrination. I see the following lies being taught:
The government will take care of you
If you fail, it's society's fault.
If it's not society's fault, it's your competitor's fault.
If it's not your competitor's fault, it's the government's fault for not taking care of you.
It's NEVER your fault, because you are a unique snowflake who is entitled to all the riches in the universe, given to you by the government
The rich got where they are not by creating wealth for themselves, but by taking it away from others - despite the fact that those others are more prosperous as well
Community is tribal behavior, which hurts the individual for the sake of the group. If the group then benefits individuals, then that's the way it's supposed to work, but when those groups feed off of individuals to benefit themselves as though the group is the ends and not the means, as is the case with government and many churches, then it's time for those individuals to leave the group. The solution is to break out of the shackles of 'community' and embrace individualism - only there can we be truly free. Once free, those individuals can re-form institutions, free from corruption (for a while anyway).
>There is no "trust" in science - there is nothing to "believe."
Close, but you're missing the point. Science is not the natural laws of the universe, science is the study of those laws, and it's scientists (in the mind of conservatives, think of them as 'people who claim to know more than the rest of us') that conservatives don't trust. In order for someone to believe you're telling the truth, they have to trust you. If they don't trust scientists to tell them the truth, then science itself becomes untrusted. In the Conservative vs. Liberal wars, we have two camps that each consist of leaders and followers. Followers follow the leaders, not because they always agree with them, but because they **trust** them. Is that trust misplaced? Possibly, on both sides.
Want to know why self-proclaimed Conservatives oppose things like the health care law? It's not because they won't benefit (obviously they will benefit in far greater numbers than more wealthy liberals), it's because it's been successfully branded 'Obamacare', and they simply do not trust Barack Obama to do anything that won't hurt them. His image, to them, is that of a subversive radical Muslim (who wasn't even born here) who is trying to take over the country, and must be stopped at all costs. It has nothing to do with the fact that they can't get insurance, can't get healthcare, whatever. The issues don't matter, it's the image that counts.
MODS: Please bury this post to oblivion. I will repost with better formatting. Dammit, Slashdot - let us edit our damned posts already!
>There is no "trust" in science - there is nothing to "believe." Close, but you're missing the point. Science is not the natural laws of the universe, science is the study of those laws, and it's scientists (in the mind of conservatives, think of them as 'people who claim to know more than the rest of us') that conservatives don't trust. In order for someone to believe you're telling the truth, they have to trust you. If they don't trust scientists to tell them the truth, then science itself becomes untrusted. In the Conservative vs. Liberal wars, we have two camps that each consist of leaders and followers. Followers follow the leaders, not because they always agree with them, but because they **trust** them. Is that trust misplaced? Possibly, on both sides. Want to know why self-proclaimed Conservatives oppose things like the health care law? It's not because they won't benefit (obviously they will benefit in far greater numbers than more wealthy liberals), it's because it's been successfully branded 'Obamacare', and they simply do not trust Barack Obama to do anything that won't hurt them. His image, to them, is that of a subversive radical Muslim (who wasn't even born here) who is trying to take over the country, and must be stopped at all costs. It has nothing to do with the fact that they can't get insurance, can't get healthcare, whatever. The issues don't matter, it's the image that counts.
>What I'd like to see is some kind of very tough civics test as a requirement for voting. Outlawed in 1965 because such exams prevent racial minorities from voting.
Your analogy is only valid if there are exactly two commerical airlines, each with a fleet of one plane apiece that take six months to refuel and prep for the next trip.
1. Manned telescope on the Moon. 2. Supply depot/launch pad for a Mars shot. 3. Fusion research (He^3) 4. Nuclear and other dangerous research (we can blow stuff up/melt down/whatever without affecting our biosphere!) 5. Space based manufacturing plant for future missions
Menards does this today. linky-link
Funny - you do this: s/environment/economy/g and you're voting for Ron Paul
I think it's commercial wholesale pricing - the types and volumes of panels you'd use for a massive solar plant in the desert somewhere, not the type of kit you'd put on your roof. They're talking about $1/watt because they're comparing it to the equivalent cost of coal fired electricity, and the $1/watt figure is an apples-to-apples comparison.
> There is no free space flight. I've been waiting since X-wing Alliance for a new Star Wars game that allowed that.