* Believes climate change is occurring and it's anthropogenic. Don't think currently-proposed huge, centralized-government-promoting solutions are good ideas.
Actually, many African nations are looking toward increased industrialization as their way out of poverty. They were some of the loudest dissenters against emissions controls at the world global warming summits.
Yes, exactly. It can be really interesting to work on software that would actually be boring to use. And it can be really boring or stressful to work on computer games that would be really fun to play.
* Capitalism or free enterprise or whatever you want to call it isn't really a human-invented economic system. "Capitalism" is just the label that Karl Marx successfully slapped on naturally-occurring economic competitive and cooperative activity among humans.
* What planned, invented economic system would even concern itself with something as non-life-essential as trying to provide a fair, pleasant life to all game developers? A central planner wouldn't even give most game developers a chance to try their ideas out. Have you ever seen the websites showing the toys that the U.S.S.R. toy companies foisted on poor little Soviet children?
You're confusing two different lines of argument. One questioning whether anthropogenic climate change is occurring. The second questioning proposed political solutions to climate change. It's understandable that you confuse the two because there is overlap in the groups of people making the two arguments, but not complete overlap.
The important point is that the second line of questioning is perfectly legitimate. You can't just brush off questions about whether proposed political solutions are a good idea or not by lumping everyone into the category of "denier".
"The Bad Astronomer". You're Phil Plait, right? I've heard you interviewed many times on the Skepticality podcast. I think you're a great guy and on "the side of the angels", BUT...
You seem to have the same mental block a lot of skeptics have when it comes to politics. The climate change debate is about more than whether the science is correct. The science may well be correct, but the political solutions proposed by politicians may be bad ideas. They are SEPARATE QUESTIONS. One can be a supporter of science, but still skeptical about politics.
The Climategate scandal is also about more than whether this or that scientist deliberately engaged in unethical conduct. It has also called into question whether there was just plain old incompetence involved, not necessarily with any deliberate malice.
* Who are these people who know what strong regulations should be put in place to make the economy work? How do we tell them apart from your average person walking around?
* Have you heard of the Sarbanes–Oxley Act? Which administration put this huge expansion of business regulation in place?
We've been using a new methodology at work where we keep track of the hours of actual productivity, not counting all the distractions. I get an average of 13 hours in per week.
Yikes! I clicked on this page, and a banner ad for the product I work on every day! Hmm, I knew we had some legacy code in our code base, but this must be the Universe letting me know it's time to look for a new job.
Does NASA have an associated charitable foundation? If not, why not? There are enough space exploration fans around to easily raise a few million dollars a year.
For the software I work on, handicapped accessibility is one of the factors that keeps our UI choices conservative. Screen readers, high-contract color schemes, etc. are all heavily dependent on the current GUI model, especially menus. And we have to cover handicapped accessibility to make government sales.
Also, localization requirements often keep us from doing some bold new UI experiment.
From a History of anatomy in India (http://www.jpgmonline.com/article.asp?issn=0022-3859;year=2002;volume=48;issue=3;spage=243;epage=5;aulast=Rajgopal):
"As far as the nervous system is concerned, very little is said about the brain in Indian medical literature. Bhela, author of Bhela samhita recognised the brain and considered it as the centre of the 'Manas'. Susruta was aware of atleast four pairs of cranial nerves-one 'Nila' and one 'Manya' situated on either side of larynx which when injured produced loss or change of voice (hoarseness); one pair of 'Vidhura' behind the ears which when cut produced deafness; a pair of 'Phana' inside the nose, destruction of which produced loss of smell and a pair of 'Apanga' below the eyes which if cut, would produce blindess."
Note that "manas" translates to mind, and that this is a description of Indian anatomical knowledge in roughly the same era as Siddhartha.
re: "people had no idea that the brain is the organ responsible for thinking"
That's a pretty strong assertion. No idea at all? Perhaps in Europe, but are you sure how Indian culture of the time regarded the brain? It wouldn't necessarily be the hardest thing to figure out, even accidentally, that the brain has something to do with thinking.
Our voting system isn't at the heart of the problem. The fundamental problem is a vast imbalance. An American citizen's power of his government is miniscule, while the government's power over him or her extends to every little aspect of his or her life.
Changing the voting system will give you only an insignificant increase in power. The best thing we can do is work on the other side of the equation: insisting our rights be respected, on government power being constrained.
What if you NEED a sharp-edged space coin. Like when you're trying to defuse a space bomb that is about to blow up your space station and you forgot your space wire cutters.
Slashdot Mirror
There's at least one more camp:
* Believes climate change is occurring and it's anthropogenic. Don't think currently-proposed huge, centralized-government-promoting solutions are good ideas.
Hard to say, isn't it, without knowing exactly what cap and trade rule is being proposed. Yet, without knowing any details, you do claim certainty.
Actually, many African nations are looking toward increased industrialization as their way out of poverty. They were some of the loudest dissenters against emissions controls at the world global warming summits.
Yes, exactly. It can be really interesting to work on software that would actually be boring to use. And it can be really boring or stressful to work on computer games that would be really fun to play.
And Sony-Ericsson's market share in the phone business isn't doing that well. If his company goes broke, what happens to his pleasant job.
Look, nobody invented competition (which folks on this thread have been calling "capitalism"). It's just the natural state of the world.
Two replies to this:
* Capitalism or free enterprise or whatever you want to call it isn't really a human-invented economic system. "Capitalism" is just the label that Karl Marx successfully slapped on naturally-occurring economic competitive and cooperative activity among humans.
* What planned, invented economic system would even concern itself with something as non-life-essential as trying to provide a fair, pleasant life to all game developers? A central planner wouldn't even give most game developers a chance to try their ideas out. Have you ever seen the websites showing the toys that the U.S.S.R. toy companies foisted on poor little Soviet children?
You're confusing two different lines of argument. One questioning whether anthropogenic climate change is occurring. The second questioning proposed political solutions to climate change. It's understandable that you confuse the two because there is overlap in the groups of people making the two arguments, but not complete overlap.
The important point is that the second line of questioning is perfectly legitimate. You can't just brush off questions about whether proposed political solutions are a good idea or not by lumping everyone into the category of "denier".
"The Bad Astronomer". You're Phil Plait, right? I've heard you interviewed many times on the Skepticality podcast. I think you're a great guy and on "the side of the angels", BUT...
You seem to have the same mental block a lot of skeptics have when it comes to politics. The climate change debate is about more than whether the science is correct. The science may well be correct, but the political solutions proposed by politicians may be bad ideas. They are SEPARATE QUESTIONS. One can be a supporter of science, but still skeptical about politics.
The Climategate scandal is also about more than whether this or that scientist deliberately engaged in unethical conduct. It has also called into question whether there was just plain old incompetence involved, not necessarily with any deliberate malice.
A couple of questions:
* Who are these people who know what strong regulations should be put in place to make the economy work? How do we tell them apart from your average person walking around?
* Have you heard of the Sarbanes–Oxley Act? Which administration put this huge expansion of business regulation in place?
They better make sure I can get dim sum for breakfast, sushi for lunch, and burritos for dinner, or I ain't going there.
We've been using a new methodology at work where we keep track of the hours of actual productivity, not counting all the distractions. I get an average of 13 hours in per week.
Really? Nobody has brought up Sea Monkeys yet?
If you start swatting insects off of yourself with your tail, and your tail is covered with razor-sharp spikes...
Yikes! I clicked on this page, and a banner ad for the product I work on every day! Hmm, I knew we had some legacy code in our code base, but this must be the Universe letting me know it's time to look for a new job.
I can imagine the huge fight someone at Microsoft must have put up to get them to make the default installation directory, "Program Files".
"Over my dead body! We can't do that, it's madness, it will break all the existing apps that don't allow spaces in the file path!"
"Yes, exactly! That's why we need to do it! In the future we won't have to dance around all their shitty code!"
Does NASA have an associated charitable foundation? If not, why not? There are enough space exploration fans around to easily raise a few million dollars a year.
On the other hand, those exposed to the E! logo were 200% more catty!
For the software I work on, handicapped accessibility is one of the factors that keeps our UI choices conservative. Screen readers, high-contract color schemes, etc. are all heavily dependent on the current GUI model, especially menus. And we have to cover handicapped accessibility to make government sales.
Also, localization requirements often keep us from doing some bold new UI experiment.
Jeeminy, Taco. There oughta be a law against being so wordy.
From a History of anatomy in India (http://www.jpgmonline.com/article.asp?issn=0022-3859;year=2002;volume=48;issue=3;spage=243;epage=5;aulast=Rajgopal):
"As far as the nervous system is concerned, very little is said about the brain in Indian medical literature. Bhela, author of Bhela samhita recognised the brain and considered it as the centre of the 'Manas'. Susruta was aware of atleast four pairs of cranial nerves-one 'Nila' and one 'Manya' situated on either side of larynx which when injured produced loss or change of voice (hoarseness); one pair of 'Vidhura' behind the ears which when cut produced deafness; a pair of 'Phana' inside the nose, destruction of which produced loss of smell and a pair of 'Apanga' below the eyes which if cut, would produce blindess."
Note that "manas" translates to mind, and that this is a description of Indian anatomical knowledge in roughly the same era as Siddhartha.
re: "people had no idea that the brain is the organ responsible for thinking"
That's a pretty strong assertion. No idea at all? Perhaps in Europe, but are you sure how Indian culture of the time regarded the brain? It wouldn't necessarily be the hardest thing to figure out, even accidentally, that the brain has something to do with thinking.
Our voting system isn't at the heart of the problem. The fundamental problem is a vast imbalance. An American citizen's power of his government is miniscule, while the government's power over him or her extends to every little aspect of his or her life.
Changing the voting system will give you only an insignificant increase in power. The best thing we can do is work on the other side of the equation: insisting our rights be respected, on government power being constrained.
In other words, the converter boxes will cost $40 more than they would in an unsubsidized market.
If only there were a way to let these people know. Perhaps, they could insert some kind of announcement into the middle of the television programs.
What if you NEED a sharp-edged space coin. Like when you're trying to defuse a space bomb that is about to blow up your space station and you forgot your space wire cutters.