So the role requires someone who can stand around and not emote one single bit no matter what happens around him? Obviously it would be perfect for Keanu Reeves then.
That is at most a miniscule part of any "cheap" ticket. Do the math yourself. Pilots and copilots both could be paid $40K more a year and the impact on your ticket price for an average 2-hour flight would be about 63 cents.
The reason pilots are being paid like burger flippers these days is because airline execs think they can be.
You'd think for a publicity stunt they'd come up with an idea that didn't look for ways to cut costs at the expense of passenger safety. Couple such publicity with one bad crash and you can write the entire company off.
Perhaps it hasn't been well studied before, but it has been widely known in the medical industry for a long, long time that alcohol consumption has health benifits.
Many many years ago I read an article on heart disease (I believe in National Geographic) that mentioned as an aside that alcohol is known to clear artiries of the kinds of buildups that cause heart attacks. They said that coroners can immediately tell they are autopsying alcholoics because of two things: their greatly enlarged hearts (from trying to pump around all that thinned-out blood, probably a bad thing), and their artieres are all as clean as a whistle. They went on to say that they don't like to publicise this, due worries that it might encourage alcoholisim.
I noticed many years later that medical professionals seemed to settle for advising "moderate consumption" of alcohol (probably on the theory that nobody can mistake that for encouraging alcoholisim). The truth, buried in that article long ago, is that alcohol is good for you as long as you can avoid overdoing it to the extent that an alcoholic would. The problem is that some people are just predisposed to alcoholisim, and for that smaller group starting drinking is a very Bad Thing.
The "splitting infinitves" thing is particularly laughable. The only reason it is supposedly verboten is that it isn't possible to do in Latin, and early grammarians were all Latin scholars.
The problem with that is, of course, that English is a different language. The two aren't even all that closely related. They are both Indo-Europian, but that doesn't mean much. You might just as well try applying Latin lingustic rules to Bengali.
They get beat up a fair bit. In fact, they finance themselves off of lawsuits against the people who beat them up, the cities that fail to protect them properly, etc. Their whole existance is probably just a racket to live off of legal settlements. This is why they tried their darndest to piss off as many people as possible.
Trying to piss off a bunch of comic nerds would seem to be a bit of a tactical error though. This isn't exactly a crowd that's likely to view physical violence as an effective tool in their personal arsenals...
Actually, we got all the convicts first. We just like to pretend its was religous folks so we can act superior.
England only started sending convicts to Australia after 1776 when they lost their North American dumping ground.
The regulators were tasked to check that the companies followed the procedures for checking their own operations. This kind of twice-removed oversight is becoming increasingly common in lots of places, because it saves money for the government (popular with voters) as well as being popular in the private sector (for obvious reasons).
It works great as long as companies are overall honest and all their problems are caused by simple negligence. It doesn't work so well in the face of outright fraud.
It doesn't work period. Anybody who understands economics (as "fiscal conservatives" claim they do) should understand that you can't expect entities to act contrary to the incentives around them out of a sense of civic duty or something. When you set up a system where there are tremendous financial incentives to cheat, the chances are getting caught are almost nil, and even then the punishments will be laughable compared to the money saved by cheating, it would be insane to not expect things like this to happen.
The only way to prevent reoccurances is to change the system. That will require changing the regulations.
The exact same thing happens here (where we can't rely on solar during the day, due to heavy clouding during wintertime where powerconsumption is highest), the windmills overproduce heavily at night, where the cost of energy can actually drop to NEGATIVE (yes, you get paid to buy power at certain times of the night on rare occasions in northern Europe).
So do people run around the house turning everything on at night?
Lights? Check.
TV? Check.
Blender? Check.
Timmy, you open that fridge door back up right now! Don't go closing it again.
Becky, you turn your stereo back up to max right now and leave it there, young lady!
This appears to be part of the ongoing fracas over manned vs. unmanned exploration. People somehow got it into their heads that there will only be money for one in these days of tightened belts, so they split into factions and started publicly fighting about it.
The problem I have with this is that when it goes to congress the unmanned-supporters will vote to kill the manned missions and the manned-supporters will vote to kill the manned missions, and the budget-demagoging Republicans will vote as a block against both. So nothing will pass.
In fighting over the leftover pieces like this, NASA supporters are going to lose the entire pie.
I see from your choice of units you are not a US citizen, so perhaps you don't understand how things are here. Realize that this is from someone who actually has used a bycycle for commuting for years. So I am sympathetic to the idea.
Sweat: It gets over 100 degrees F here in the summer. Even in the mornings it is often over 90. When it is that hot, meerly *being* outside for any serious length of time will have a healthy person sweating profusely. Excersise of any kind (and riding a bike certianly qualifies) when it is over about 80 will cause me to sweat so much that a shower is required afterwards. This is not a conditioning issue. I play about 5 hours a week of fairly intense soccer, so by USA standards I'm in pretty damn good shape. Most employers here do not provide shower facilities either. There's only so much you can do for yourself with a paper-towel spongebath in the bathroom.
Safety: Streets here were designed for cars, not bikes. Outside of a few enlightended citites, streets do not have bike lanes. Motorists here drive gigantic vehicles, and universally have the attitude that bikes are toys and do not belong on roadways (when they even notice them). I just had a discussion with someone on this point yesterday. I can count on being yelled at just about every trip, and have even had things thrown at me. At least those folks know I'm there. Most people will make right turns into shops or side streets without even considering that there might be a bike (or pedestrian) there. If you ride enough in the city, this is how you will die.
That wouldn't help at all. The lazy "standers" would obviously all want to stand in the fastest lane. So if you want to walk, you'd now have to do it in one of the slower lanes. The only way to pass someone would be to get in the next slowest lane over and sprint.
Slashdot Mirror
So the role requires someone who can stand around and not emote one single bit no matter what happens around him? Obviously it would be perfect for Keanu Reeves then.
I actually liked Maximum Overdrive for what it was: A zombie-style horror movie with mechanical devices taking the place of the zombies.
Perhaps if I'd read the book I would have found it appalling?
You do not train a child to be rational and logical by mocking them.
So now you're insulting the British educational system too?
As a white male and OkCupid member I'd like to say that b) I live Tom Clancy novels (not the movies)
I'd think Jack Ryan would at least post as Anonymous Hero.
They used to do that back in the early 2000's, but some loser named vpotus@whitehouse.gov kept erasing his own house from the database.
Always write code as though it will be maintained by a homicidal, axe-wielding maniac who knows where you live.
That is at most a miniscule part of any "cheap" ticket. Do the math yourself. Pilots and copilots both could be paid $40K more a year and the impact on your ticket price for an average 2-hour flight would be about 63 cents.
The reason pilots are being paid like burger flippers these days is because airline execs think they can be.
You'd think for a publicity stunt they'd come up with an idea that didn't look for ways to cut costs at the expense of passenger safety. Couple such publicity with one bad crash and you can write the entire company off.
Perhaps it hasn't been well studied before, but it has been widely known in the medical industry for a long, long time that alcohol consumption has health benifits.
Many many years ago I read an article on heart disease (I believe in National Geographic) that mentioned as an aside that alcohol is known to clear artiries of the kinds of buildups that cause heart attacks. They said that coroners can immediately tell they are autopsying alcholoics because of two things: their greatly enlarged hearts (from trying to pump around all that thinned-out blood, probably a bad thing), and their artieres are all as clean as a whistle. They went on to say that they don't like to publicise this, due worries that it might encourage alcoholisim.
I noticed many years later that medical professionals seemed to settle for advising "moderate consumption" of alcohol (probably on the theory that nobody can mistake that for encouraging alcoholisim). The truth, buried in that article long ago, is that alcohol is good for you as long as you can avoid overdoing it to the extent that an alcoholic would. The problem is that some people are just predisposed to alcoholisim, and for that smaller group starting drinking is a very Bad Thing.
You want Eris? You must, since it is the next largest object. If you wanted Pluto in, you'd have to make it ten.
The "splitting infinitves" thing is particularly laughable. The only reason it is supposedly verboten is that it isn't possible to do in Latin, and early grammarians were all Latin scholars.
The problem with that is, of course, that English is a different language. The two aren't even all that closely related. They are both Indo-Europian, but that doesn't mean much. You might just as well try applying Latin lingustic rules to Bengali.
...and of course those of us who are 40-somethings or beyond should just give it up and switch carreers to Walmart greeting.
What better guards could you have than Grizzly bears with the munchies?
I don't believe this, but I have no way of disproving it.
They get beat up a fair bit. In fact, they finance themselves off of lawsuits against the people who beat them up, the cities that fail to protect them properly, etc. Their whole existance is probably just a racket to live off of legal settlements. This is why they tried their darndest to piss off as many people as possible.
Trying to piss off a bunch of comic nerds would seem to be a bit of a tactical error though. This isn't exactly a crowd that's likely to view physical violence as an effective tool in their personal arsenals...
Actually, we got all the convicts first. We just like to pretend its was religous folks so we can act superior. England only started sending convicts to Australia after 1776 when they lost their North American dumping ground.
The regulators were tasked to check that the companies followed the procedures for checking their own operations. This kind of twice-removed oversight is becoming increasingly common in lots of places, because it saves money for the government (popular with voters) as well as being popular in the private sector (for obvious reasons). It works great as long as companies are overall honest and all their problems are caused by simple negligence. It doesn't work so well in the face of outright fraud.
It doesn't work period. Anybody who understands economics (as "fiscal conservatives" claim they do) should understand that you can't expect entities to act contrary to the incentives around them out of a sense of civic duty or something. When you set up a system where there are tremendous financial incentives to cheat, the chances are getting caught are almost nil, and even then the punishments will be laughable compared to the money saved by cheating, it would be insane to not expect things like this to happen.
The only way to prevent reoccurances is to change the system. That will require changing the regulations.
For months, the computer system had been locking up, producing what the crew deemed the 'blue screen of death.'
Of course now we have the black sea of death. :-(
Mean earth surface per inhabitant: 0,074 Km^2/habitant, or, to give it in "real international standards units", about 13,7 football fields.
For us USA citizens, that's 13.9 football fields.
Clearly we could help this situation a bit if everyone would just switch to playing American Football.
You guys do care about saving the planet, right?
The exact same thing happens here (where we can't rely on solar during the day, due to heavy clouding during wintertime where powerconsumption is highest), the windmills overproduce heavily at night, where the cost of energy can actually drop to NEGATIVE (yes, you get paid to buy power at certain times of the night on rare occasions in northern Europe).
So do people run around the house turning everything on at night?
Lights? Check.
TV? Check.
Blender? Check.
Timmy, you open that fridge door back up right now! Don't go closing it again.
Becky, you turn your stereo back up to max right now and leave it there, young lady!
This appears to be part of the ongoing fracas over manned vs. unmanned exploration. People somehow got it into their heads that there will only be money for one in these days of tightened belts, so they split into factions and started publicly fighting about it.
The problem I have with this is that when it goes to congress the unmanned-supporters will vote to kill the manned missions and the manned-supporters will vote to kill the manned missions, and the budget-demagoging Republicans will vote as a block against both. So nothing will pass.
In fighting over the leftover pieces like this, NASA supporters are going to lose the entire pie.
In the long run I think these folks are in for a disappointment. Economics works the same way with phones that it does for computers.
Sweat: It gets over 100 degrees F here in the summer. Even in the mornings it is often over 90. When it is that hot, meerly *being* outside for any serious length of time will have a healthy person sweating profusely. Excersise of any kind (and riding a bike certianly qualifies) when it is over about 80 will cause me to sweat so much that a shower is required afterwards. This is not a conditioning issue. I play about 5 hours a week of fairly intense soccer, so by USA standards I'm in pretty damn good shape. Most employers here do not provide shower facilities either. There's only so much you can do for yourself with a paper-towel spongebath in the bathroom.
Safety: Streets here were designed for cars, not bikes. Outside of a few enlightended citites, streets do not have bike lanes. Motorists here drive gigantic vehicles, and universally have the attitude that bikes are toys and do not belong on roadways (when they even notice them). I just had a discussion with someone on this point yesterday. I can count on being yelled at just about every trip, and have even had things thrown at me. At least those folks know I'm there. Most people will make right turns into shops or side streets without even considering that there might be a bike (or pedestrian) there. If you ride enough in the city, this is how you will die.
Again, this is from a fan.
That wouldn't help at all. The lazy "standers" would obviously all want to stand in the fastest lane. So if you want to walk, you'd now have to do it in one of the slower lanes. The only way to pass someone would be to get in the next slowest lane over and sprint.
Just look at the streets on a busy intersection
I tried, but I'm having trouble seeing much gum under the husks of a thousand discarded cigarette butts.