"The World Health Organization and other sources attribute about 1 million deaths/year to coal air pollution." "For every person killed by nuclear power generation, 4,000 die due to coal, adjusted for the same amount of power produced."
"attribute this phenomenon first and foremost to what is described as engineering thinking or an engineering mindset. The concept includes an assumption, which has been raised in psychological research, that engineering as a field of study and a profession tends to attract people who seek certainty, and their approach to the world is largely mechanistic. So they are characterized by a greater intolerance of uncertainty - a quality that is evident among extremists, both religious and secular.
Those with engineering mindsets are also characterized by an approach that requires society to operate "like clockwork" and abhors democratic politics, which requires compromises. It's clear that this is a cumulative tendency and not a stereotypical generalization."
On the contrary. Not only are both efficiency and quality of government-run health care disputed, but so are the methodologies used to compare them between countries. The media keep repeating, that US health care is somehow worse and point to life expectancy statistics among others but health care is only one of the determinants of life expectancy - rate of homicides, deaths from traffic accidents and broader lifestyle variations in the US are significant too, yet they have little relevance to efficiency or quality of health care. When these factors are accounted for, US health care quality suddenly jumps to the top.
By trusted, I mean a user who has earned "karma" by submitting good articles over a period of time. If a user went to the trouble to earn trust, he would be less likely to blow it by writing overly biased articles.
The problem with karma etc. is that it may be earned in one area and valid there but completely irrelevant in another. You may have a knowledgeable scientist who has contributed enormously to articles on, say, fiber optics but whose view on the Iraq war or global warming can be described as extreme. The karma system works well for slashdot because slashdot discusses topics in a relatively narrow area of human interests but trustworthiness (because that's what karma says) gained in one area may be completely irrelevant in another. Now how would you distinguish in Wikipedia where a certain contributor earned their points?
Canada is setting itself up for other kinds of problems, though. Check this:
An incident in Kakabeka Falls last month has apparently caught the attention of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the F.B.I.
ABC News reports that the arrest of two people driving a van loaded 12 drums of red phosphorous has caused concern because of fears of a new terror attack in the U.S. The chemical is highly incendiary, and ABC says American authorities have reports a spectacular attack may be planned for sometime before the Presidential election this fall.
Thunder Bay Police charged a man and a woman only for violations of the Dangerous Goods Act. Police spokesperson Chris Adams says it's an ongoing drug investigation, since red phosphorous can be used to make Speed. He says U.S. officials have not contacted Thunder Bay, but may have picked up on the case through Interpol.
ABC reports the two people arrested here were Muslims, and that they claimed they were paid $4500 to drive the phosphorous to the U.S. Adams says that in fact, they said they were paid to drive the van to Toronto. They were released with a court appearance set for July.
or Canada's tolerance for Sharia within its jurisdiction, even though it is seriously and fundamentally at odds with Canada's democracy and set of freedoms: here or here.
Now, I'm not saying that we should turn our Western world into a police state. At the same time, though, there are those among us who are determined to destroy our civilazation - and discussions like this we're having here on/. help us weigh the pros and cons to make informed opinions, and keep our rights, yet not at the cost of safety.
It was frankly stupid and insensitive for the makers of Matrix reloaded to use emotive words with years of history like Zion and Trinity.
First, you can never please everyone. We would have no books, no movies, in fact we would have nothing if we always caved in and self-censored.
Second, what should be so insensitive about Zion (Sinai)? That's where - traditionally - the Jewish code of law was given and note that both Christianity and Islam relate to it. Why not show a movie which treats it creatively, yet with some respect? There's nothing wrong in playing with items from our shared heritage if it's done with sane mind and has some artistic quality.
...the present Government of Israel has so disgraced the word "Zion"...
That's a serious accusation but you bring no evidence. First, the present government of Israel has been democratically elected, just like every government in Israel to-date. Can you say that about Egypt which you call "a better society than much of the Middle East"?
Second, being democratically elected the government represents the majority of its electorate. Your excuse that you don't mean, "please, Jews or the bulk of the Israeli people" is lame.
it [Satanic Verses] was ostensibly attacked by Iran for being blasphemous
You miss the point. It is Mr. Rushdie who has been attacked, his life turned upside down because otherwise Iran's Islamic rulers would have had him long killed by now!
Your advise? He shouldn't have written a "difficult" book. That's the wrong advise. You must never give in to criminals and those who pervert human values. Instead, you hunt them down (if possible) and punish according to their crimes. This is the major tenet of our Western civilization as we know it - we define what our rights are and defend them. If we don't, soon we won't have any left.
how would US fundamentalists react if the Egyptians made a film in which evil Southern baptists launched an attack on a society presented as being good but called "The Third Reich"?
US fundamentalists?? Do they decide what we get to see on the TV? Do they censor the newspapers? If an Egyptian made a movie as you describe, I think pretty much noone in the US would give a damn. Try to come up with a better analogy.
You mention Taliban. Hm, you are right we don't want them in Egypt. Does it help then to not screen Matrix and instead show the Protocols of Zion, made up by Russian Secret Police to blame an economic misery on the Jews? Does it help to smuggle TNT belts to Gaza so that they can be used to blow up busses with people like you and me in them? Does it help to issue building permits for mosques but not for churches even though Egypt sports a sizable Coptic Christian minority? Look up on the net how many of the 9/11 terrorists were Egyptians, how many of the virulently anti-human Islamic preachers active in mosques in the UK and US studied their craft at the state-controlled Egyptian University of Cairo.
Before "letting a rational though out", please get the facts straight first. Thank you.
The civilization currently in place in Egypt has in fact little in common with the one you're refering to and does not really predate ours - although at times which are now the past it was more tolerant than what we now call the West.
So, it was before 8,000 years that organized agriculture appeared in Egypt.
It was in about 3,100 BCE that Egypt's Old and Middle Kingdoms and the New Empire started, being governed by a succession of some 30 pharaonic dynasties. It was during this time that the management of the Nile river came under one authority.
The pyramids at Giza were built in the fourth dynasty; the Great Pyramid (tomb of Cheops) was built then, too.
Times started a-changing only a few centuries BCE. Egypt was invaded by the Persians, then came under a Roman/Byzantine rule.
It was only in 642 CE (3,000 years after they pyramids had been built and 1,000 years after the last pharaoh had been dethroned!) that Egypt was invaded and conquered by Arab tribes and only then it was forcibly turned into an Islamist state.
So, there once was a civilizatinon in Egypt that predated ours by millenia but it's gone now. Forever.
Slashdot Mirror
Great and simple tips!
from http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/03/deaths-per-twh-by-energy-source.html
"The World Health Organization and other sources attribute about 1 million deaths/year to coal air pollution."
"For every person killed by nuclear power generation, 4,000 die due to coal, adjusted for the same amount of power produced."
"attribute this phenomenon first and foremost to what is described as engineering thinking or an engineering mindset. The concept includes an assumption, which has been raised in psychological research, that engineering as a field of study and a profession tends to attract people who seek certainty, and their approach to the world is largely mechanistic. So they are characterized by a greater intolerance of uncertainty - a quality that is evident among extremists, both religious and secular.
Those with engineering mindsets are also characterized by an approach that requires society to operate "like clockwork" and abhors democratic politics, which requires compromises. It's clear that this is a cumulative tendency and not a stereotypical generalization."
From http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/why-are-so-many-would-be-terrorists-engineers-1.263214 earlier this year.
See the WSJ here http://blogs.wsj.com/numbersguy/does-the-us-lead-in-life-expectancy-223/tab/article/
and The City Journal here http://www.city-journal.org/html/17_3_canadian_healthcare.html
The problem with karma etc. is that it may be earned in one area and valid there but completely irrelevant in another. You may have a knowledgeable scientist who has contributed enormously to articles on, say, fiber optics but whose view on the Iraq war or global warming can be described as extreme. The karma system works well for slashdot because slashdot discusses topics in a relatively narrow area of human interests but trustworthiness (because that's what karma says) gained in one area may be completely irrelevant in another. Now how would you distinguish in Wikipedia where a certain contributor earned their points?
Now, I'm not saying that we should turn our Western world into a police state. At the same time, though, there are those among us who are determined to destroy our civilazation - and discussions like this we're having here on /. help us weigh the pros and cons to make informed opinions, and keep our rights, yet not at the cost of safety.
First, you can never please everyone. We would have no books, no movies, in fact we would have nothing if we always caved in and self-censored.
Second, what should be so insensitive about Zion (Sinai)? That's where - traditionally - the Jewish code of law was given and note that both Christianity and Islam relate to it. Why not show a movie which treats it creatively, yet with some respect? There's nothing wrong in playing with items from our shared heritage if it's done with sane mind and has some artistic quality.
That's a serious accusation but you bring no evidence. First, the present government of Israel has been democratically elected, just like every government in Israel to-date. Can you say that about Egypt which you call "a better society than much of the Middle East"?
Second, being democratically elected the government represents the majority of its electorate. Your excuse that you don't mean, "please, Jews or the bulk of the Israeli people" is lame.
You miss the point. It is Mr. Rushdie who has been attacked, his life turned upside down because otherwise Iran's Islamic rulers would have had him long killed by now!
Your advise? He shouldn't have written a "difficult" book. That's the wrong advise. You must never give in to criminals and those who pervert human values. Instead, you hunt them down (if possible) and punish according to their crimes. This is the major tenet of our Western civilization as we know it - we define what our rights are and defend them. If we don't, soon we won't have any left.
US fundamentalists?? Do they decide what we get to see on the TV? Do they censor the newspapers? If an Egyptian made a movie as you describe, I think pretty much noone in the US would give a damn. Try to come up with a better analogy.
You mention Taliban. Hm, you are right we don't want them in Egypt. Does it help then to not screen Matrix and instead show the Protocols of Zion, made up by Russian Secret Police to blame an economic misery on the Jews? Does it help to smuggle TNT belts to Gaza so that they can be used to blow up busses with people like you and me in them? Does it help to issue building permits for mosques but not for churches even though Egypt sports a sizable Coptic Christian minority? Look up on the net how many of the 9/11 terrorists were Egyptians, how many of the virulently anti-human Islamic preachers active in mosques in the UK and US studied their craft at the state-controlled Egyptian University of Cairo.
Before "letting a rational though out", please get the facts straight first. Thank you.
The civilization currently in place in Egypt has in fact little in common with the one you're refering to and does not really predate ours - although at times which are now the past it was more tolerant than what we now call the West.
So, it was before 8,000 years that organized agriculture appeared in Egypt.
It was in about 3,100 BCE that Egypt's Old and Middle Kingdoms and the New Empire started, being governed by a succession of some 30 pharaonic dynasties. It was during this time that the management of the Nile river came under one authority.
The pyramids at Giza were built in the fourth dynasty; the Great Pyramid (tomb of Cheops) was built then, too.
Times started a-changing only a few centuries BCE. Egypt was invaded by the Persians, then came under a Roman/Byzantine rule.
It was only in 642 CE (3,000 years after they pyramids had been built and 1,000 years after the last pharaoh had been dethroned!) that Egypt was invaded and conquered by Arab tribes and only then it was forcibly turned into an Islamist state.
So, there once was a civilizatinon in Egypt that predated ours by millenia but it's gone now. Forever.