"One of the most impressive things about this mission is that it was done incredibly cheap, at $250,000, which is far below the costs associated with traditional spacecraft."
That's like being impressed that a moped is cheaper than Bugatti Veyron. No effing duh the moped is cheaper.
You're seeing the selection occur, and then deciding that this is some permanent result on an unchanging gene pool.
No, I haven't assumed any change in the gene pool. I've assumed a permanent change in human behavior because there is absolutely no evidence to assume otherwise.
What you're doing is like noticing a billion years ago that creatures are getting killed by increasing oxygen levels, assuming this will always be the case, and ignoring those few individuals that tolerate and even benefit from oxygen.
No, what I'm doing is observing past and current conditions and the differences between them and the causes for those differences. What you're doing is ignorantly assuming that for some unspecified reasons we will 'evolve' from current conditions back into previous conditions. Not only are you supremely ignorant about how evolution works, you don't understand that we're not puppets of our genes.
I'm done here. You're an ignorant jackass who has no clue what he's braying about.
A lot of roads in florida have the shell middens underneath instead of limestone.
The loose and unconsolidated shell material under most roads in Florida are the remains of sandbars and shallows that accumulated over the millenia that Florida was mostly sandbars and shallows and then later bulldozed up. Not shell middens. Left alone that material would eventually have become coquina and with more time and pressure, limestone.
God only knows how much history was lost as we paved our way to suburbia in the 50s and 60s.
Not much - Florida was pretty much not suburbia outside of limited areas in the 50's and 60's. Florida's real growth started in the 70's.
Because we are all already descended from people who are programmed by genetics and conditioned by experience to have as many children as possible. Yet, the birthrate drops.
If some people are less affected by those conditions, eventually their offspring will dominate. Such people exist.
We are all descended from people who are less affected by those conditions. Those offspring already dominate. Yet, the birthrate drops.
There is no evidence that this trend will reverse. Noe, zip, nada.
It's interesting to see what concepts they felt the need to state explicitly back then. "If a player-controlled car has a serious crash, it will blow up after a short time. Hence, the player must get out of the car and find another one."
That's what design documents are for in the first place. Finding an explicit description of how a major part of the game is supposed to work in design documents is roughly as surprising (and interesting) as finding bread being used to make your sandwich.
Essentially everybody will descend from those few women of today who decided either to avoid education or to pop out a dozen kids despite education. It simply won't matter if a woman has education, rights, birth control, or whatever -- she will produce many kids.
We're *all* already descended from thousands of generations of people programed by genetics and conditioned by experience to have as many children as possible. For hundreds of thousands of years that's how the human race and it's progenitors survived and prospered.
Yet still, the birth rate drops when the conditions I listed hold true. Therefore, your theory is proven false.
I can see the digitalization of out of print material where the author is deceased and therefore has no say in the matter.
The problem is that the rights don't expire with the author, but rather they survive him for some years. (Depending on when the author died/dies and when the material was created.)
"Lockheed Martin on Tuesday unveiled the first Orion spacecraft, a part of what NASA had planned as the sprawlingly ambitious Constellation project"
Keep in mind that while this was NASA's plan - the plan only existed because NASA was directed to create and implement the plan by the Bush administration.
I do believe in evolution. But what I don't do is assume that it is a blind and invincible force that overrides all else.
The proportion of people with DNA to make them breed like mad is increasing exponentially.
The same is true for all humans across all time. But none the less, the effects I discussed are real. The presence of increased education, etc... invariably causes a drop in the birth rate.
In the space of a couple generations, sure, the birthrate will drop. You haven't given evolution much of a chance. The selection pressure of birth control is enormous, so fast changes are to be expected, but not THAT fast. We've only had reliable birth control for half a century, which is just 2 to 4 generations. Changes might be noticable after 10 or so.
Changes are *already* noticeable - in areas where the conditions I mention hold, birth rates are dropping. Evolution is irrelevant here, because our genes do not blindly override other pressures.
See where this goes? Natural selection can trivially defeat birth control.
The problem with your speculation is just that - it's uninformed speculation *and* it's completely at variance with the facts.
(Rant: For a site which prides itself on supposedly being smarter, there's an awful lot of ignorance and stupidity on Slashdot.)
The grandparent has it right - rising freedom, rising education, and increased economic opportunities across all levels of society invariably leads to a drop in the birthrate. Across the globe there are no exceptions. None. Nada, Zip. Religion doesn't matter. Race doesn't matter. Only those three things.
That's the simple minded version - and it was all the rage back in the 60's and 70's. But it's wrong.
What those simple minded prophets and their grade school mathematics missed (and why the global food riots of the 80's didn't happen) is that the birth rate *isn't* fixed. In fact, in the developed world it's been steadily dropping for decades.
We've known for years how to get the birth rate down - the only problem is implementing the solution(s).
Greater education, particularly for women,
Acess to basic medical care, particularly for women and children.
Finance isn't easy but its easier than math and finance produces nothing, whereas at least math can be used to build bridges that won't collapse, compute the most efficient design for wings, etc.
Without finance, there won't be anyone to pay for those wings. (Nor a 401k for you when you retire from designing wings.)
The bright kids today are going into law or the financial industry, because that's where all the money is. Why bother working your ass off in school studying hard subjects that involve math, when you can party your way through school, get a law degree or something in financial mumbo-jumbo, and make 3 times as much working for Merril Lynch?
If you party you're way through school, you're not going to end up in the top 10% of your class - and you won't be making those big bucks at Merrill Lynch. You'll be making a third of that (if you're lucky) working for the ones that didn't party and did study.
Apples and oranges. Those complaining that it's too simplified are intellectuals and nerds - exactly the audience this isn't intended for. Those complaining it's too complex are those interested in the graphic actually being useful for education and information.
Option 3 : those complaining it's too complex are beyond help from a simple chart and need to get a better basic education.
Considering I'm educated in nuclear power and nuclear physics, this is just more elitist bullshit. You haven't a fucking clue what I know or don't know or as to what you're talking about. You're an ignorant jackass with a pathetic need to belittle others in order to make yourself feel better.
The facts remain, in any given field there are people more qualified than yourself to give advice and implement useful solutions.
I never said there were not. I merely rejected your suggestion that those not highly qualified or educated had no business sticking their noses into the decision making process.
And yes, when it comes to a nuclear meltdown scenario, I want the elite of nuclear power research to have much more of a say in what should happen next than an incompetent moron whose suggestions would just as soon cause supercriticality as being utterly worthless.
had I suggested that such 'morons' be included in the process, you'd have a point. But, since I didn't - you're not only an elitist prick, you're an elitist prick with the reading comprehension of a damp sponge.
Given your statements thus far, I'm inclined to be disinterested in anything you have to say. You may be right on something, but I don't like the chances.
Which is laughable - because I stated a position based on facts and experience, and pointed to sources and references... and all you've supplied is handwaving, nonsense, and elitist bullshit.
I'd rather get my advice from somebody level-headed.
As you've failed to demonstrate I;m not knowledgeable, you've failed to demonstrate I'm not level headed. Treating an ignorant prick who replied to my on topic critique with elitist bullshit as an ignorant prick shows no such thing. Or, once again, you feel the need to belittle others to shore up your self esteem.
I understand your point, but Randall has a specialized audience who is suited to absorbing more information than "someone on the street"
Randall has a specialized audience who *think* they are better suited to absorbing information than the common man. But when it comes to fields they are unfamiliar with, they're no better than the common man. (That is, when they aren't worse because of the common and mistaken assumption that being a geek makes them smart and expert in all fields.)
I have to say I thought it was brilliantly executed and easily grok'ed.
I grokked it easily too - but then I'm in the 99th percentile. But I've also studied Tufte and related topics and understand I am not common.
Someone else posted links to other graphs that were pyramidal in shape that were easier to understand and yet somehow misleading due to the logarithmic scale - how do you communicate that to the general public?
You don't need to to communicate that - if they're easy to understand and convey the required information, they'll do the job just fine. The nit picking over the logarithmic scale is just geek wanking because invoke irrelevant math is the geek way of 'proving' his superiority. In reality, it's as meaningless as and no different from a frat boy drinking contest.
I love it. Half the people are complaining that this chart is an oversimplification and the other half is too complicated.
Apples and oranges. Those complaining that it's too simplified are intellectuals and nerds - exactly the audience this isn't intended for. Those complaining it's too complex are those interested in the graphic actually being useful for education and information.
Here's an idea. If this chart overwhelms you, you aren't smart enough to engage in any meaningful conversation on the topic.
Here's an idea - you're an elitist idiot. You don't want anyone educated because that means they might actually want to take part in our representative democracy. You want to hand this country over to a self appointed body empowered to make decisions for the rest of us.
So kick back and relax and stop trying to analyze the situation. You'll be doing more for your country than you ever could by trying to get involved.
Piss right the hell off. I'm a citizen of this country and have every right to participate in this discussion.
I am a firm believer in Darwin's theory of evolution and my genes are the alpha ones bud
Alpha's are only Alpha because there is a social structure for them to be top dog of. If you truly understood Darwin's theory - you'd understand you're not an Alpha, you're a self centered egotist jerk. An exception in a society that has survived and prospered because it has evolved a social structure based on cooperation.
There have been FIVE magnitude 8.5 or greater mega-quakes since 2004. This seems odd since there have only been two dozen of these bad boys since the 1700s.
Since we only have accurate magnitude data since roughly 1900, you're just blowing smoke.
Could there be a link between the solar cycle and plate techtonics?
Since solar minima happen regularly, and earthquakes happen constantly - it's pretty easy to cherry pick and 'prove' anything you want. Given the number of large earthquakes which you ignore which *didn't* happen in your time frames (and in fact outnumber those which happened in your time frames) shows that, again, you're just blowing pseudo scientific smoke.
Not only does the Pacific plate go nowhere near Chile (the Nazca plate intervenes)... There's a hell of a lot of border of the the Pacific plate that doesn't go anywhere near California *and* hasn't had a big quake recently. (Ever heard of the Aleutian Islands?)
This just taking what we already knew (that California is at severe risk for a Big One) and wrapping it in unsourced journalistic hype.
Slashdot Mirror
"One of the most impressive things about this mission is that it was done incredibly cheap, at $250,000, which is far below the costs associated with traditional spacecraft."
That's like being impressed that a moped is cheaper than Bugatti Veyron. No effing duh the moped is cheaper.
No, I haven't assumed any change in the gene pool. I've assumed a permanent change in human behavior because there is absolutely no evidence to assume otherwise.
No, what I'm doing is observing past and current conditions and the differences between them and the causes for those differences. What you're doing is ignorantly assuming that for some unspecified reasons we will 'evolve' from current conditions back into previous conditions. Not only are you supremely ignorant about how evolution works, you don't understand that we're not puppets of our genes.
I'm done here. You're an ignorant jackass who has no clue what he's braying about.
The loose and unconsolidated shell material under most roads in Florida are the remains of sandbars and shallows that accumulated over the millenia that Florida was mostly sandbars and shallows and then later bulldozed up. Not shell middens. Left alone that material would eventually have become coquina and with more time and pressure, limestone.
Not much - Florida was pretty much not suburbia outside of limited areas in the 50's and 60's. Florida's real growth started in the 70's.
(Why yes, yes I did grow up in Florida.)
Yeah, the project leaders are obviously unaware of work done forty years ago - and technology has stood still since then.
Because we are all already descended from people who are programmed by genetics and conditioned by experience to have as many children as possible. Yet, the birthrate drops.
We are all descended from people who are less affected by those conditions. Those offspring already dominate. Yet, the birthrate drops.
There is no evidence that this trend will reverse. Noe, zip, nada.
That's what design documents are for in the first place. Finding an explicit description of how a major part of the game is supposed to work in design documents is roughly as surprising (and interesting) as finding bread being used to make your sandwich.
We're *all* already descended from thousands of generations of people programed by genetics and conditioned by experience to have as many children as possible. For hundreds of thousands of years that's how the human race and it's progenitors survived and prospered.
Yet still, the birth rate drops when the conditions I listed hold true. Therefore, your theory is proven false.
The problem is that the rights don't expire with the author, but rather they survive him for some years. (Depending on when the author died/dies and when the material was created.)
But neither of those solutions address the underlying problem - the Guild doesn't have the authority to license those rights.
Well, that's pretty much like saying water is wet and fire is hot - it's the stone cold truth.
Nope, just reaching for clarity here. Too many people act as if NASA were some independent entity. It isn't.
Keep in mind that while this was NASA's plan - the plan only existed because NASA was directed to create and implement the plan by the Bush administration.
I do believe in evolution. But what I don't do is assume that it is a blind and invincible force that overrides all else.
The same is true for all humans across all time. But none the less, the effects I discussed are real. The presence of increased education, etc... invariably causes a drop in the birth rate.
Changes are *already* noticeable - in areas where the conditions I mention hold, birth rates are dropping. Evolution is irrelevant here, because our genes do not blindly override other pressures.
The problem with your speculation is just that - it's uninformed speculation *and* it's completely at variance with the facts.
(Rant: For a site which prides itself on supposedly being smarter, there's an awful lot of ignorance and stupidity on Slashdot.)
The grandparent has it right - rising freedom, rising education, and increased economic opportunities across all levels of society invariably leads to a drop in the birthrate. Across the globe there are no exceptions. None. Nada, Zip. Religion doesn't matter. Race doesn't matter. Only those three things.
That's the simple minded version - and it was all the rage back in the 60's and 70's. But it's wrong.
What those simple minded prophets and their grade school mathematics missed (and why the global food riots of the 80's didn't happen) is that the birth rate *isn't* fixed. In fact, in the developed world it's been steadily dropping for decades.
We've known for years how to get the birth rate down - the only problem is implementing the solution(s).
Without finance, there won't be anyone to pay for those wings. (Nor a 401k for you when you retire from designing wings.)
If you party you're way through school, you're not going to end up in the top 10% of your class - and you won't be making those big bucks at Merrill Lynch. You'll be making a third of that (if you're lucky) working for the ones that didn't party and did study.
Which has roughly zip point zero to do with what I said. And still isn't an excuse for piracy.
Considering I'm educated in nuclear power and nuclear physics, this is just more elitist bullshit. You haven't a fucking clue what I know or don't know or as to what you're talking about. You're an ignorant jackass with a pathetic need to belittle others in order to make yourself feel better.
I never said there were not. I merely rejected your suggestion that those not highly qualified or educated had no business sticking their noses into the decision making process.
had I suggested that such 'morons' be included in the process, you'd have a point. But, since I didn't - you're not only an elitist prick, you're an elitist prick with the reading comprehension of a damp sponge.
Which is laughable - because I stated a position based on facts and experience, and pointed to sources and references... and all you've supplied is handwaving, nonsense, and elitist bullshit.
As you've failed to demonstrate I;m not knowledgeable, you've failed to demonstrate I'm not level headed. Treating an ignorant prick who replied to my on topic critique with elitist bullshit as an ignorant prick shows no such thing. Or, once again, you feel the need to belittle others to shore up your self esteem.
Randall has a specialized audience who *think* they are better suited to absorbing information than the common man. But when it comes to fields they are unfamiliar with, they're no better than the common man. (That is, when they aren't worse because of the common and mistaken assumption that being a geek makes them smart and expert in all fields.)
I grokked it easily too - but then I'm in the 99th percentile. But I've also studied Tufte and related topics and understand I am not common.
You don't need to to communicate that - if they're easy to understand and convey the required information, they'll do the job just fine. The nit picking over the logarithmic scale is just geek wanking because invoke irrelevant math is the geek way of 'proving' his superiority. In reality, it's as meaningless as and no different from a frat boy drinking contest.
Apples and oranges. Those complaining that it's too simplified are intellectuals and nerds - exactly the audience this isn't intended for. Those complaining it's too complex are those interested in the graphic actually being useful for education and information.
Here's an idea - you're an elitist idiot. You don't want anyone educated because that means they might actually want to take part in our representative democracy. You want to hand this country over to a self appointed body empowered to make decisions for the rest of us.
Piss right the hell off. I'm a citizen of this country and have every right to participate in this discussion.
Excellent idea, poorly executed. The graphic is too crowded, contains too much information, and is overwhelming.
Randall needs to read and head Tufte.
Alpha's are only Alpha because there is a social structure for them to be top dog of. If you truly understood Darwin's theory - you'd understand you're not an Alpha, you're a self centered egotist jerk. An exception in a society that has survived and prospered because it has evolved a social structure based on cooperation.
Since we only have accurate magnitude data since roughly 1900, you're just blowing smoke.
Since solar minima happen regularly, and earthquakes happen constantly - it's pretty easy to cherry pick and 'prove' anything you want. Given the number of large earthquakes which you ignore which *didn't* happen in your time frames (and in fact outnumber those which happened in your time frames) shows that, again, you're just blowing pseudo scientific smoke.
Not only does the Pacific plate go nowhere near Chile (the Nazca plate intervenes)... There's a hell of a lot of border of the the Pacific plate that doesn't go anywhere near California *and* hasn't had a big quake recently. (Ever heard of the Aleutian Islands?)
This just taking what we already knew (that California is at severe risk for a Big One) and wrapping it in unsourced journalistic hype.
Try reading Wikipedia - refuelings are generally public knowledge.