Argue about what it is, what it means.. but don't argue that it doesn't exist, unless you have a NObel quality replacement.
I totally agree. Dark matter and dark energy are just placeholder names we use to describe things that have observable effects, but which we don't understand. There's something holding galaxies together, and there's something accelerating the expansion of space.
It's not unreasonable to presume that "some kind of matter we can't see" accounts for the extra gravity holding galaxies together, since the presence of matter causes gravity.
It's also not unreasonable to presume that "some kind of energy we can't see" is responsible for accelerating the expansion of space, since energy is required for things to accelerate.
Science does not have any insights into what consciousness, intelligence, intuition, etc. actually is.
Contradicts this one:
it looks more and more like intelligence on the level of a smart human being cannot actually be done with computing machinery in this universe either, not enough matter and energy available.
If we don't know what intelligence is, how can we know whether or not it's possible to create using computers? The very fact that our brains do not comprise more matter or energy than the universe is evidence that what you're saying can't possibly be true. You're basically putting forward the age-old "God of the gaps" argument, and it holds up just as much as it ever did. Just because we don't understand something now is not evidence that we'll never understand it.
It’s one of life’s great mysteries isn't it? Why are we here? I mean, are we the product of some cosmic coincidence? Or is there really a God watching everything, you know, with a plan for us and stuff. I don’t know, man, but it keeps me up at night.
First of all, how is protesting the convention of a political party infringing on anyone's freedom of association?
Second of all, how is the convention of a political party considered a private conversation? They are literally deciding the platform from which the party will (supposedly) derive its policies; they want it to be public, that's why they have a convention in the first place. Otherwise, what's all the press for?
Finally, what do you mean by "disrupt"? A protest isn't automatically disruptive just because you disagree with the participants or the message. Skinheads holding up signs and chanting racist slogans on public property near a black church aren't breaking the law. Ever heard of the Westboro Baptist Church?
For perfect case in point, why the FUCK would you protest a gathering of a political party? That is to say, what exactly are you protesting? Their right to peacefully assemble? Their right to speak their minds? I must be missing something huge
You are. They are protesting because they disagree with what is being said.
Maybe. I was in Ecuador a couple years ago, and they have a completely unregulated taxi/minibus industry (and very little public transport), and as a result it has a lot of problems. For example, the bus may show up at 6:30am everyday, or not. It may go the same route everyday, or not. The driver may decide to charge the same price today, or not. You may have already paid the driver to take you to a particular place, but they decide they don't want to go to that part of town today, and so kick you out miles away from where you paid to be dropped off.
Because of the complete lack of regulation, you end up with a system where the exchange of money for service is not guaranteed. Capitalism only functions if the transactions are valid (i.e. I get what I pay for, and if not, I have a method of redress). Hence why you need regulation. However, like you said, it can go too far, when regulations become the means by which major players stifle competition.
While it's cool that it's scaleable and and made from widely-available non-toxic materials, salt-ion batteries have a pathetic energy density (even compared to other batteries, which are already pathetic), about 1.4 MJ/kg. Even lithium-ion, among the "best" rechargeable batteries, top out at around 2.6 MJ/kg. As a comparison, gasoline has an energy density of around 34 MJ/kg.
According to your link, a shipping container sized battery from Aquion can store 2.88 MWh. Based on this, average worldwide power consumption is 385 W/person. Assuming no losses it would take about 135 shipping container sized batteries to provide power to a city of 1 million for 1 hour. If they're standard twenty-foot-equivalent units, it would require about 5200m^3 of space.
I don't know if that's reasonable or not. Container ships can carry 10,000+ TEU's, so maybe it is...?
It has nothing to do with "psychopathic private corporations"...
I live in Alberta too. You seem to have forgotten about this. An excerpt:
In 2014, the province’s Market Surveillance Administrator alleged that TransAlta engaged in “anti-competitive conduct” in 2010 and 2011 by taking three coal-fired power plants off line on four cold days, during high-demand hours and in periods when other players in Alberta’s competitive power market were the least likely to be able to pick up the slack. This, the administrator said, drove up electricity prices and allowed TransAlta to reap millions in additional profits.
Would you have us stand back and watch while people self destruct, killing themselves a little bit at a time?
We do that all the time with lot's of things, including drugs which are already legal, like alcohol, tobacco, and pharmaceuticals. Some of these pharmaceuticals, by the way, are identical to illegal drugs, but in a more pure and profitable form. For example, people under extreme pain may be prescribed or given diamorphine as a pain killer. You might know it by its more common name, heroin.
I disagree with the legalization argument, based on the fact it will be really bad for a lot of people to fall into drug dependency.
You hold the more common viewpoint of how addiction actually works, i.e. that you take the drug too much and then you are unable to stop, all else being equal. Up until recently, in spite of being pro-legalization, so did I. However, it's apparently not as cut-and-dry as that. Kurzgesagt made a pretty good video outlining why this model of addiction is harmful and the evidence against it.
No it isn't simple. The formation of political parties, how they gain influence, how members achieve seniority; these things take decades. The causes are deeply rooted in history, some of it going back over a century or more.
Voting is not an idealistic, philosophical choice. It's game theory. You only get a few options, and you have to choose from among those that is most likely to be the best possible outcome is for you and your interests.
"The most corrupt and reprehensible people"? Oh my sweet summer child... The reason there won't be an uprising is because things aren't bad enough to warrant it. This isn't Russia in 1917, or France in 1789. This isn't even as bad as the US in 1968, when 17,000 US soldiers had been killed in Vietnam, Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated within 2 months of each other, and there were riots all over the country. The average person has enough sense to realize it's not that bad, and so should you.
As my Irish grandmother would say: I hope you always have as good.
Fair enough, I was generalizing a bit. Just about everything I said in the GP could have a * next to it (which was kind of the point).
You won't be an expert at the language within a week, but you'll be familiar enough with the syntax and most of the operators to be able to read and understand someone else's code, and begin writing some of your own, with a Google search here and there to clarify something.
There are always outliers. As you said, object-oriented programming: if you've never really dealt with classes, inheritance, polymorphism, etc., it will definitely take some more time to get the hang of. The first time you deal with an Assembly language springs to mind as another good example. And as an AC above mentioned, if you're a masochist, there's always brainfuck, lol.
You definitely piqued my curiosity about Haskell. I'd heard of it in passing, but never really looked into it. Just based off the code snippets on the Wikipedia page I can absolutely see what you mean. In the spirit of this thread, what made you decide to pick it up? Where do you find it more useful than other languages, and why?
That is how the placebo effect works. The triggers may be psychological, but the feelings are real. Same with the nocebo effect. The people who say that WiFi gives them headaches are getting real headaches, just not from the WiFi.
This is a brilliant idea! Take out a large life insurance policy on your wife/husband/partner. When they're out running errands, call the car in stolen. Then the cop shoots them, because apparently we don't need trials or due process (AND grand theft auto carries the death penalty). Time to cash in!
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, it's called empathy. Most people have it, except those with narcissistic personality disorder or psychopathy or something like that.
Argue about what it is, what it means.. but don't argue that it doesn't exist, unless you have a NObel quality replacement.
I totally agree. Dark matter and dark energy are just placeholder names we use to describe things that have observable effects, but which we don't understand. There's something holding galaxies together, and there's something accelerating the expansion of space.
It's not unreasonable to presume that "some kind of matter we can't see" accounts for the extra gravity holding galaxies together, since the presence of matter causes gravity.
It's also not unreasonable to presume that "some kind of energy we can't see" is responsible for accelerating the expansion of space, since energy is required for things to accelerate.
You can have 2 different locations which have the same climate experiencing different weather.
Wooosh!
Mother Nature started the fight for survival, and now she wants to quit because she's losing?
- Charles Montgomery Burns
This statement:
Science does not have any insights into what consciousness, intelligence, intuition, etc. actually is.
Contradicts this one:
it looks more and more like intelligence on the level of a smart human being cannot actually be done with computing machinery in this universe either, not enough matter and energy available.
If we don't know what intelligence is, how can we know whether or not it's possible to create using computers? The very fact that our brains do not comprise more matter or energy than the universe is evidence that what you're saying can't possibly be true. You're basically putting forward the age-old "God of the gaps" argument, and it holds up just as much as it ever did. Just because we don't understand something now is not evidence that we'll never understand it.
It’s one of life’s great mysteries isn't it? Why are we here? I mean, are we the product of some cosmic coincidence? Or is there really a God watching everything, you know, with a plan for us and stuff. I don’t know, man, but it keeps me up at night.
Ahh yes anecdotal evidence. Now tell me the one about the guy with a hook for a hand.
Long live Moore's Law!
This is why there is actually quite a lot of black trump supporters.
Yeah, except the wolf eats all of us.
First of all, how is protesting the convention of a political party infringing on anyone's freedom of association?
Second of all, how is the convention of a political party considered a private conversation? They are literally deciding the platform from which the party will (supposedly) derive its policies; they want it to be public, that's why they have a convention in the first place. Otherwise, what's all the press for?
Finally, what do you mean by "disrupt"? A protest isn't automatically disruptive just because you disagree with the participants or the message. Skinheads holding up signs and chanting racist slogans on public property near a black church aren't breaking the law. Ever heard of the Westboro Baptist Church?
For perfect case in point, why the FUCK would you protest a gathering of a political party? That is to say, what exactly are you protesting? Their right to peacefully assemble? Their right to speak their minds? I must be missing something huge
You are. They are protesting because they disagree with what is being said.
Maybe. I was in Ecuador a couple years ago, and they have a completely unregulated taxi/minibus industry (and very little public transport), and as a result it has a lot of problems. For example, the bus may show up at 6:30am everyday, or not. It may go the same route everyday, or not. The driver may decide to charge the same price today, or not. You may have already paid the driver to take you to a particular place, but they decide they don't want to go to that part of town today, and so kick you out miles away from where you paid to be dropped off.
Because of the complete lack of regulation, you end up with a system where the exchange of money for service is not guaranteed. Capitalism only functions if the transactions are valid (i.e. I get what I pay for, and if not, I have a method of redress). Hence why you need regulation. However, like you said, it can go too far, when regulations become the means by which major players stifle competition.
Depends. My mom would turn me in.
what, you mean like a battery system that can scale up to the size of warehouses?
While it's cool that it's scaleable and and made from widely-available non-toxic materials, salt-ion batteries have a pathetic energy density (even compared to other batteries, which are already pathetic), about 1.4 MJ/kg. Even lithium-ion, among the "best" rechargeable batteries, top out at around 2.6 MJ/kg. As a comparison, gasoline has an energy density of around 34 MJ/kg.
According to your link, a shipping container sized battery from Aquion can store 2.88 MWh. Based on this, average worldwide power consumption is 385 W/person. Assuming no losses it would take about 135 shipping container sized batteries to provide power to a city of 1 million for 1 hour. If they're standard twenty-foot-equivalent units, it would require about 5200m^3 of space.
I don't know if that's reasonable or not. Container ships can carry 10,000+ TEU's, so maybe it is...?
Nobody controls the wind or the sun.
Tell that to Cobra Commander.
It has nothing to do with "psychopathic private corporations"...
I live in Alberta too. You seem to have forgotten about this. An excerpt:
In 2014, the province’s Market Surveillance Administrator alleged that TransAlta engaged in “anti-competitive conduct” in 2010 and 2011 by taking three coal-fired power plants off line on four cold days, during high-demand hours and in periods when other players in Alberta’s competitive power market were the least likely to be able to pick up the slack. This, the administrator said, drove up electricity prices and allowed TransAlta to reap millions in additional profits.
What the fuck are you talking about?
Would you have us stand back and watch while people self destruct, killing themselves a little bit at a time?
We do that all the time with lot's of things, including drugs which are already legal, like alcohol, tobacco, and pharmaceuticals. Some of these pharmaceuticals, by the way, are identical to illegal drugs, but in a more pure and profitable form. For example, people under extreme pain may be prescribed or given diamorphine as a pain killer. You might know it by its more common name, heroin.
I disagree with the legalization argument, based on the fact it will be really bad for a lot of people to fall into drug dependency.
You hold the more common viewpoint of how addiction actually works, i.e. that you take the drug too much and then you are unable to stop, all else being equal. Up until recently, in spite of being pro-legalization, so did I. However, it's apparently not as cut-and-dry as that. Kurzgesagt made a pretty good video outlining why this model of addiction is harmful and the evidence against it.
Pest control. That Charmander could have started a fire in your front yard!
No it isn't simple. The formation of political parties, how they gain influence, how members achieve seniority; these things take decades. The causes are deeply rooted in history, some of it going back over a century or more.
Voting is not an idealistic, philosophical choice. It's game theory. You only get a few options, and you have to choose from among those that is most likely to be the best possible outcome is for you and your interests.
"The most corrupt and reprehensible people"? Oh my sweet summer child... The reason there won't be an uprising is because things aren't bad enough to warrant it. This isn't Russia in 1917, or France in 1789. This isn't even as bad as the US in 1968, when 17,000 US soldiers had been killed in Vietnam, Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated within 2 months of each other, and there were riots all over the country. The average person has enough sense to realize it's not that bad, and so should you.
As my Irish grandmother would say: I hope you always have as good.
Fair enough, I was generalizing a bit. Just about everything I said in the GP could have a * next to it (which was kind of the point).
You won't be an expert at the language within a week, but you'll be familiar enough with the syntax and most of the operators to be able to read and understand someone else's code, and begin writing some of your own, with a Google search here and there to clarify something.
There are always outliers. As you said, object-oriented programming: if you've never really dealt with classes, inheritance, polymorphism, etc., it will definitely take some more time to get the hang of. The first time you deal with an Assembly language springs to mind as another good example. And as an AC above mentioned, if you're a masochist, there's always brainfuck, lol.
You definitely piqued my curiosity about Haskell. I'd heard of it in passing, but never really looked into it. Just based off the code snippets on the Wikipedia page I can absolutely see what you mean. In the spirit of this thread, what made you decide to pick it up? Where do you find it more useful than other languages, and why?
That is how the placebo effect works. The triggers may be psychological, but the feelings are real. Same with the nocebo effect. The people who say that WiFi gives them headaches are getting real headaches, just not from the WiFi.
This is a brilliant idea! Take out a large life insurance policy on your wife/husband/partner. When they're out running errands, call the car in stolen. Then the cop shoots them, because apparently we don't need trials or due process (AND grand theft auto carries the death penalty). Time to cash in!