I just got done reading the book about two minutes ago. I have not yet seen the film.
Lots of interesting points about what's scientifically accurate or not... I had complaints every time it touched on biology or food (freeze-dried potatoes are a whole different beast than fresh potatoes.) Having driven in the desert, where dust pits are a hazard, I muttered about that too. Some I could chalk up to "Not Watney's area of expertise" but some was pretty evidently "author just didn't think to check beyond his own lack of experience".
But what I noticed more than anything is that this is a book written for the masses. It is NOT written for an experienced SF audience, and is barely SF -- and then only because it's set on Mars rather than Antarctica. Mars is more dramatic. Good choice. But when I realised this, I stopped expecting ordinary hard-SF rigor from it.
He didn't do too well on the microbiology either. Being freeze-dried doesn't kill an awful lot of bacteria; it just makes 'em encapsulate until conditions improve.
A point that might need to be examined is -- how do the various ingredients interact when heated? Do they combine to make some less healthful chemical? Is it significantly more harmful than what you might fry up for dinner?
Tho even if not quite harmless, it still doubtless compares quite favorably to the array of ring carbon compounds etc. in cig smoke.
I don't have studies immediately to hand (and am too lazy to go hunt 'em down this instant) but the reason "diet soda makes you fatter" is because aspartame is a thyroid inhibitor, so slows down your metabolism, and considering that being overweight is frequently caused by being borderline hypothyroid in the first place... it's likely to add to the problem more than would just consuming a sugared drink (which at least would temporarily satisfy the sugar craving that's also caused by low thyroid, so you don't go raid the cookie bin as well as drinking that diet soda).
That's interesting about the ecigs tests, but yeah, just about anything can be made to fail interestingly if you run it far enough outside its normal parameters. What they did sound like someone testing home heating systems by disabling the thermostat so it never shuts off, then declaring that central heating causes house fires.
We've become so risk-averse that nothing gets done unless it can be done *perfectly* safely. There's no such thing as perfectly safe exploration. You can see the problem...
Also, there's no immediate threat on the horizon to give us a kick in the pants. Back in the early era of space launches, the threat was the USSR getting there first. I don't think it's coincidence that the USSR and the space program fell apart in tandem.
This starts to look like it's somewhere between browser and OS, rather than just in the browser. Or at least requires something from the OS to trigger the bug.
When I was vetting hardware for the local PC club, a lot of the donations were PCs junked by the local (SoCal) school system. So I tried out a bunch of this "learning software" meant for gradeschooler and middle-schoolers. And what I noted across the board is that the software encourages not learning the subject, but learning how to make the software spit up the desired response. BIG difference.
Certainly (sometimes I wonder if Russia has any other industry!), but does not my eyes-on experience, much of it in a crowded driving environment, reveal something too? Call me a dashcam of one -- I've been driving since 1972 and have never seen anyone in America drive like I can see any day on Youtube. The rare idiot, but not like that.
And remember, the average dashcam doesn't just show one driver. It puts a pretty good window on everyone on that road. I've watched enough of 'em to see definite regional trends. Frex, drivers in Germany and Japan aren't so oblivious as the Russians, but they make up for it by being more aggressive. Chinese drivers seem to be lemmings; if one goes over a cliff, all the rest will follow. But what's definitely different from American drivers across the board, is that everywhere else seems to have a "me first, screw you" attitude about traffic controls and lane use (common to see someone drive in any damn lane that's vacant, including the oncoming lane). Conversely, traffic in America tends to be relatively anal about respecting the rules of the road. Here, four-way stops work; they evidently don't for the rest of the driving world.
Generally the thought is if a driver lacks moving violations, retesting them is a waste of resources as they've demonstrated their everyday competence by not screwing up. If you've driven tens or hundreds of thousands of miles (as has the average American) with no accidents and no serious violations, why should there be an assumption that you're suddenly incompetent just because you haven't been retested lately??
Some states do mandatory road testing of people over a certain age. Some require a driver training course, either through high school or independent. Basically, they test outliers (novices and those with potential for impaired reflexes).
But all this aside, our relative lack of carnage on the road indicates that we're doing all right, despite some people's perceptions... truth is, per capita risk of fatality per mile falls under "uncommon risks" and is therefore perceived as worse than it really is.
I watch a lot of these vids, and being bored with Russian dashcams I've looked for others. There are a few from anywhere but damn few from the U.S. And of course I drive in the U.S. -- and I've never seen that level of idiocy, not even with 28 years driving in Los Angeles.
One thing I particularly note, here in the U.S. we're overwhelmingly respectful of signs and lanes and traffic signals, whereas in much of the world they're roundly ignored.
I've noted a close correlation between ignoring such traffic controls as well as stuff like not bothering to signal, and an "entitlement mentality".
Proof that you trust your fellow man -- with your very life:
You drive on two-lane roads, don't you??
Someone linked the Wiki fatality stats page, and... looks to me like for most of the first world, fatalities amount to statistical noise. Factor in miles driven per death and suddenly the hazard level amounts to... well, nothing. Especially in America, where we drive a whole long longer distances than does most of the world.
Driving is basically the same skill, albeit extended, as running through the woods withing banging into either trees or your fellow hunters or the occasional bear, or running across the prairie without breaking a leg in a gopher hole or stepping on a cactus or rattlesnake. If there is one trait that sets humans above other animals, it's the ability to extend a skill to a new activity. So... I'm really not very surprised that as a species, we're pretty durn good at this driving thing (even allowing for the entertainment provided by Russian dashcams).
One might consider that a signficant percentage of rear-end crashes are a byproduct of redlight-enforcement cameras, which cause people to slam on the brakes (unexpectedly to the person behind them) for fear of getting a ticket, rather than exercising judgment. This problem goes away when yellow light times are lengthened -- even one second is enough to almost entirely eliminate rear-end crashes at controlled intersections -- but that makes redlight cameras unprofitable, since they rely on not giving drivers enough time to exercise good judgment, typically by shortening yellow light times to the legal minimum (and occasionally even shorter).
I can't find it again offhand or I'd cite it, but just this morning I read of a study one of the insurance associations did in 2012 that found, much to their surprise, that cars with proximity sensors have a a higher rate of "lane incursion" type accidents. Ooops....
This is very much as I'd expect: when people think someone else is watching out for them, they generally stop watching out for themselves.
In the U.S., you also need to take theory and practical tests to be licensed. But most states accept tests from other states and sometimes other countries. If you didn't have to take a test, it's because yours too was accepted.
One factor not generally considered is that in America, we drive a whole lot more miles per capita than most of the world. The Wiki chart has per-capita distance for only a few countries, but we're down in the "statistical noise" range there... despite that overall, our driving is longer distances at higher speeds than any of our 'rivals'. Someone will immediately spit up the Autobahn as a speed demon, but how many Germans drive a thousand miles in a single day, most of it at 70-80mph?? that wouldn't be at all unusual in America.
Thanks. I'm not a regular linux user but when there I do prefer KDE, and I usually like the K-apps... yet had somehow never noticed this little program exists.
The Windows program I can't live without? Corel PhotoPaint, which runs rings around Photoshop for usability. I use v8 by preference, but any version would do. There was a 'native' linux version at one point but I never got it to run.
Roddenberry spoke at my university just before the release of the first film, and one of his major subjects was how he viewed the ST society and how he thought we could (and should) achieve it. And right from his own mouth -- he did indeed view his utopian ST future as a sort of idealized communism. Not communism as implemented by imperfect humans, but as implemented by equally-idealized humans. He didn't call it that, but it was precisely what he described.
His talk was the seed that produced my current profound distrust of utopias, and of utopian ideals.
I totally hate the phonification of desktops. Surefire way to get me to use something else.
As one who prefered KDE to all other linux DEs thru 4.x, but dislikes 5.x (and in my latest distro test, PClinuxOS was one of my 4 or 5 "finalists") -- now downloading the ISO of PClinuxOS-with-TDE to give it a look.
KDE5 looked to me like change for the sake of change, or because Win8 and smartphones did it, not because it was more functional on a PC. Nowhere near the sharkpit Gnome is hovering over, but still headed the wrong direction.:(
Get your thyroid antibodies checked. Psoriatic arthritis can be a symptom of Hashimoto's thyroiditis. (If skin is also affected, it can progress to a form of elephantiasis.) Treating the underlying hypothyrodism can effect a cure.
Slashdot Mirror
I just got done reading the book about two minutes ago. I have not yet seen the film.
Lots of interesting points about what's scientifically accurate or not... I had complaints every time it touched on biology or food (freeze-dried potatoes are a whole different beast than fresh potatoes.) Having driven in the desert, where dust pits are a hazard, I muttered about that too. Some I could chalk up to "Not Watney's area of expertise" but some was pretty evidently "author just didn't think to check beyond his own lack of experience".
But what I noticed more than anything is that this is a book written for the masses. It is NOT written for an experienced SF audience, and is barely SF -- and then only because it's set on Mars rather than Antarctica. Mars is more dramatic. Good choice. But when I realised this, I stopped expecting ordinary hard-SF rigor from it.
He didn't do too well on the microbiology either. Being freeze-dried doesn't kill an awful lot of bacteria; it just makes 'em encapsulate until conditions improve.
A point that might need to be examined is -- how do the various ingredients interact when heated? Do they combine to make some less healthful chemical? Is it significantly more harmful than what you might fry up for dinner?
Tho even if not quite harmless, it still doubtless compares quite favorably to the array of ring carbon compounds etc. in cig smoke.
I don't have studies immediately to hand (and am too lazy to go hunt 'em down this instant) but the reason "diet soda makes you fatter" is because aspartame is a thyroid inhibitor, so slows down your metabolism, and considering that being overweight is frequently caused by being borderline hypothyroid in the first place... it's likely to add to the problem more than would just consuming a sugared drink (which at least would temporarily satisfy the sugar craving that's also caused by low thyroid, so you don't go raid the cookie bin as well as drinking that diet soda).
That's interesting about the ecigs tests, but yeah, just about anything can be made to fail interestingly if you run it far enough outside its normal parameters. What they did sound like someone testing home heating systems by disabling the thermostat so it never shuts off, then declaring that central heating causes house fires.
We've become so risk-averse that nothing gets done unless it can be done *perfectly* safely. There's no such thing as perfectly safe exploration. You can see the problem...
Also, there's no immediate threat on the horizon to give us a kick in the pants. Back in the early era of space launches, the threat was the USSR getting there first. I don't think it's coincidence that the USSR and the space program fell apart in tandem.
And a great deal of the branded and generic drugs are manufactured in India anyway, so that makes little difference.
This starts to look like it's somewhere between browser and OS, rather than just in the browser. Or at least requires something from the OS to trigger the bug.
Didn't crash Chrome v. 35.0.1916.153 either. It did make it go to my home page, which happens to be about:blank.
SeaMonkey and PaleMoon just did "site not found".
When I was vetting hardware for the local PC club, a lot of the donations were PCs junked by the local (SoCal) school system. So I tried out a bunch of this "learning software" meant for gradeschooler and middle-schoolers. And what I noted across the board is that the software encourages not learning the subject, but learning how to make the software spit up the desired response. BIG difference.
Certainly (sometimes I wonder if Russia has any other industry!), but does not my eyes-on experience, much of it in a crowded driving environment, reveal something too? Call me a dashcam of one -- I've been driving since 1972 and have never seen anyone in America drive like I can see any day on Youtube. The rare idiot, but not like that.
And remember, the average dashcam doesn't just show one driver. It puts a pretty good window on everyone on that road. I've watched enough of 'em to see definite regional trends. Frex, drivers in Germany and Japan aren't so oblivious as the Russians, but they make up for it by being more aggressive. Chinese drivers seem to be lemmings; if one goes over a cliff, all the rest will follow. But what's definitely different from American drivers across the board, is that everywhere else seems to have a "me first, screw you" attitude about traffic controls and lane use (common to see someone drive in any damn lane that's vacant, including the oncoming lane). Conversely, traffic in America tends to be relatively anal about respecting the rules of the road. Here, four-way stops work; they evidently don't for the rest of the driving world.
Generally the thought is if a driver lacks moving violations, retesting them is a waste of resources as they've demonstrated their everyday competence by not screwing up. If you've driven tens or hundreds of thousands of miles (as has the average American) with no accidents and no serious violations, why should there be an assumption that you're suddenly incompetent just because you haven't been retested lately??
Some states do mandatory road testing of people over a certain age. Some require a driver training course, either through high school or independent. Basically, they test outliers (novices and those with potential for impaired reflexes).
But all this aside, our relative lack of carnage on the road indicates that we're doing all right, despite some people's perceptions... truth is, per capita risk of fatality per mile falls under "uncommon risks" and is therefore perceived as worse than it really is.
I watch a lot of these vids, and being bored with Russian dashcams I've looked for others. There are a few from anywhere but damn few from the U.S. And of course I drive in the U.S. -- and I've never seen that level of idiocy, not even with 28 years driving in Los Angeles.
One thing I particularly note, here in the U.S. we're overwhelmingly respectful of signs and lanes and traffic signals, whereas in much of the world they're roundly ignored.
I've noted a close correlation between ignoring such traffic controls as well as stuff like not bothering to signal, and an "entitlement mentality".
Proof that you trust your fellow man -- with your very life:
You drive on two-lane roads, don't you??
Someone linked the Wiki fatality stats page, and ... looks to me like for most of the first world, fatalities amount to statistical noise. Factor in miles driven per death and suddenly the hazard level amounts to... well, nothing. Especially in America, where we drive a whole long longer distances than does most of the world.
Driving is basically the same skill, albeit extended, as running through the woods withing banging into either trees or your fellow hunters or the occasional bear, or running across the prairie without breaking a leg in a gopher hole or stepping on a cactus or rattlesnake. If there is one trait that sets humans above other animals, it's the ability to extend a skill to a new activity. So... I'm really not very surprised that as a species, we're pretty durn good at this driving thing (even allowing for the entertainment provided by Russian dashcams).
One might consider that a signficant percentage of rear-end crashes are a byproduct of redlight-enforcement cameras, which cause people to slam on the brakes (unexpectedly to the person behind them) for fear of getting a ticket, rather than exercising judgment. This problem goes away when yellow light times are lengthened -- even one second is enough to almost entirely eliminate rear-end crashes at controlled intersections -- but that makes redlight cameras unprofitable, since they rely on not giving drivers enough time to exercise good judgment, typically by shortening yellow light times to the legal minimum (and occasionally even shorter).
Assloads of studies can be found here:
http://thenewspaper.com/
I can't find it again offhand or I'd cite it, but just this morning I read of a study one of the insurance associations did in 2012 that found, much to their surprise, that cars with proximity sensors have a a higher rate of "lane incursion" type accidents. Ooops....
This is very much as I'd expect: when people think someone else is watching out for them, they generally stop watching out for themselves.
In the U.S., you also need to take theory and practical tests to be licensed. But most states accept tests from other states and sometimes other countries. If you didn't have to take a test, it's because yours too was accepted.
One factor not generally considered is that in America, we drive a whole lot more miles per capita than most of the world. The Wiki chart has per-capita distance for only a few countries, but we're down in the "statistical noise" range there... despite that overall, our driving is longer distances at higher speeds than any of our 'rivals'. Someone will immediately spit up the Autobahn as a speed demon, but how many Germans drive a thousand miles in a single day, most of it at 70-80mph?? that wouldn't be at all unusual in America.
This must be why most of the car crash videos come from Europe, China, India, Russia...
I've driven all over the western U.S. for over 40 years and I've never seen the kind of aggressively oblivious driving like comes out of Europe.
Thanks. I'm not a regular linux user but when there I do prefer KDE, and I usually like the K-apps... yet had somehow never noticed this little program exists.
The Windows program I can't live without? Corel PhotoPaint, which runs rings around Photoshop for usability. I use v8 by preference, but any version would do. There was a 'native' linux version at one point but I never got it to run.
Well, not if you're starting from the assumption that free market advocates are deluded.
No, Roddenberry's notion was more like there's no money and therefore no markets, free or otherwise.
Roddenberry spoke at my university just before the release of the first film, and one of his major subjects was how he viewed the ST society and how he thought we could (and should) achieve it. And right from his own mouth -- he did indeed view his utopian ST future as a sort of idealized communism. Not communism as implemented by imperfect humans, but as implemented by equally-idealized humans. He didn't call it that, but it was precisely what he described.
His talk was the seed that produced my current profound distrust of utopias, and of utopian ideals.
I totally hate the phonification of desktops. Surefire way to get me to use something else.
As one who prefered KDE to all other linux DEs thru 4.x, but dislikes 5.x (and in my latest distro test, PClinuxOS was one of my 4 or 5 "finalists") -- now downloading the ISO of PClinuxOS-with-TDE to give it a look.
KDE5 looked to me like change for the sake of change, or because Win8 and smartphones did it, not because it was more functional on a PC. Nowhere near the sharkpit Gnome is hovering over, but still headed the wrong direction. :(
Get your thyroid antibodies checked. Psoriatic arthritis can be a symptom of Hashimoto's thyroiditis. (If skin is also affected, it can progress to a form of elephantiasis.) Treating the underlying hypothyrodism can effect a cure.
The instructions I've seen said specifically to use distilled water, never tap water.