The funny thing about the donor egg market is that people ought to be looking at _your_ mom as an additional fitness indicator: IIRC, all of your immature egg cells were present when you were in-utero.
What do you mean? The eggs form while still in utero, but they come from the babies cells which contain both maternal & paternal genes.
You are neglecting discount rate, but if you want to do this why bother to pump it out & store it? Why not just buy an oil patch & leave it underground?
After holding a position (for instance belief in a scientific theory) for a long time - people become invested in it. If it has become profitable or they have achieved a position of power from it, they have a very strong interest in maintaining the status quo.
It is said that scientists don't change their mind, a new theory comes out and eventually all of the old fogies holding onto the outdated theories retire or die, and are replaced with people who follow the new theories.
If people live for a very long time, maintaining their position and influence - it is likely that society, science and art will stagnate. You only have to listen to baby boomer music critics/radio station DJs who say the best songs are from the 1960s to know this is true.
Cultural evolution will stop or slow, and due to having a finite world birth control must be instituted to allow so many people living so long. Thus biological evolution which depends on reproduction and death will also end.
I accept my death, and will move aside for those following me to have their go. I accept that I am not the pinnacle of existence and will pass on what I know, prepare the next generation and then stand back and see if they can do better.
So my question is - why should we want to hog the ride?
In species where there is no after-mating interaction by the male (such as some birds) the male will be the one who has the decorations and measured on attractiveness, eg Peacock vs plain pea hen.
In humans, the male is expected to share the responsibility for the offspring, by relatives, the tribe or in modern days - society (via child support)
Yes, biologically women do the most work, but it is interesting to note which sex is judged most on attractiveness and put the most effort into their appearance.
Straighten out the economy. Oil prices, housing slump
Oil prices - I assume this is so that Americans can keep consuming the amount of oil they currently do? Hey, you're using 25% of the world's oil with 5% of the people - you should be using less. Get used to it, the purchasing power of Americans is going down the toilet with your dollar, and so it should.
Abandon the countries in the middle east you have occupied, learn to live with less.
The prices of houses were bid up too high, they need to come down. The prices are phony but the debt is real, let them come down so that people don't have to promise as much of their life for their shelter. That is a good thing.
If gasoline were a more appropriate price (e.g., $6/gal), we'd see alternatives popping up.
There are no alternatives anywhere near as cheap, easy and energy dense as fossil fuels. It's a 1 off free energy bonanza of millions of years of sunlight captured from the dinosaur age. Everything else requires much more effort and far lower energy return on energy invested. Price rises would simply cause reduced usage (not a bad thing).
Have you heard the joke about two economists who were locked in a basement? They didn't worry because they were certain that with their increasing demand the market would cause sandwiches to appear.
That is the gist of the "technology will solve the energy crisis" arguments - economics and capitalism don't trump physics and geology.
Oh, another thing is presumably you would have had to have a shower anyway. There's no need to shower at home before a bike ride, just have 1 a day at work. That's what I do.
>> It would take me an hour or so to bike to work, everything added in (like a shower). That's an hour (or two if I go both ways) I could have spent on something else.
How long does it usually take to get to work? You need to subtract that time off. Also that time isn't a waste, it's exercise - you can reduce your exercise time elsewhere.
Don't exercise? You are an animal that is designed to - your brain and body will work much better and you'll get less sick and weak with age if you exercise.
You don't need to ride both ways every day. Maybe ride in one day, catch the bus home, catch the bus to work, ride home etc.
Another option is to try to live within human scale distance to your place of employment (hard I know in a society built around cars)
Section. 10. No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility.
I think science could improve its presentation. Maybe give people a sense of wonder or awe, space does that, shuttles taking people to other planets is awe inspiring, and while yes you could spend money on more boring down to earth things, governments love the big public spectacles that people can watch on TV.
There's a really big galaxy of matter, and eventually this matter formed a pattern that could rewriting itself out of more matter, and here you are thinking about it. wow!
>> You are going to die, and that is the end of it. Life, then, is utterly meaningless. Nothing you do will make a difference. When you die, you wont even remember that you were here, and in a short time, no one else will remember you either.
Yes, you are going to die, as am I.
If you have kids, your genes will continue to spread throughout the population.
If you made a difference in your community, or created something of lasting goodness or beauty, then those that are around after your death will live a better life thanks to you, and maybe even remember and thank you for it.
>> When the manufacturer can make panels efficiently enough to be more affordable than gasoline
Solar is cheaper than gasoline, after a sufficiently long time to cover upfront costs.
Pollution from gasoline is also not counted in the equation. How much is clean air and no sound of internal combustion engines worth to you? It would make my life a lot better.
>> If the government has to make you do it, it's because the process is not cost-effective overall, and more waste is taking place in the recycling process than the recycling itself saves.
Untrue, because the cost of landfill, and other externalities like pollution are not in the equation.
Total war blends civilization with an RTS - but of course doesn't have the scope of Civ.
Giving Civilization Total War's 2 modes would be sweet - the normal tile-based strategy game is the main part, but when you have combat, you control your armies like you do in Total War.
I prefer to talk to people who are 99% similar genetically, though I have heard of a Doctor named Doolittle who talked to those who are only 98.5% similar. Tarzan, too.
>> My mother does genealogy. She has parts of our family back to the 1400's
Apparently genetic testing has found 20% of people have different fathers than they think (or their mothers told them).
Going back 600 years, assuming a generation is 25 years = 24 generations.
So, you have a 0.8^24 = 0.0047 = 0.47% chance that your paternal line is correct over that time. Adoptions were common in the past, but we'll assume the maternal line is 100% accurate, so on average, you have a ~99% chance of error over that time...
Though you're probably related to them anyway if your ancestors were from the same area.
Slashdot Mirror
Get faster disks till your CPU is at 100% if you want a faster build.
The funny thing about the donor egg market is that people ought to be looking at _your_ mom as an additional fitness indicator: IIRC, all of your immature egg cells were present when you were in-utero.
What do you mean? The eggs form while still in utero, but they come from the babies cells which contain both maternal & paternal genes.
You are neglecting discount rate, but if you want to do this why bother to pump it out & store it? Why not just buy an oil patch & leave it underground?
After holding a position (for instance belief in a scientific theory) for a long time - people become invested in it. If it has become profitable or they have achieved a position of power from it, they have a very strong interest in maintaining the status quo.
It is said that scientists don't change their mind, a new theory comes out and eventually all of the old fogies holding onto the outdated theories retire or die, and are replaced with people who follow the new theories.
If people live for a very long time, maintaining their position and influence - it is likely that society, science and art will stagnate. You only have to listen to baby boomer music critics/radio station DJs who say the best songs are from the 1960s to know this is true.
Cultural evolution will stop or slow, and due to having a finite world birth control must be instituted to allow so many people living so long. Thus biological evolution which depends on reproduction and death will also end.
I accept my death, and will move aside for those following me to have their go. I accept that I am not the pinnacle of existence and will pass on what I know, prepare the next generation and then stand back and see if they can do better.
So my question is - why should we want to hog the ride?
In species where there is no after-mating interaction by the male (such as some birds) the male will be the one who has the decorations and measured on attractiveness, eg Peacock vs plain pea hen.
In humans, the male is expected to share the responsibility for the offspring, by relatives, the tribe or in modern days - society (via child support)
Yes, biologically women do the most work, but it is interesting to note which sex is judged most on attractiveness and put the most effort into their appearance.
http://www.alaskastock.com/Pix/101/DS/101DS_EH0007_001_T.JPG
Nonsense. In 4 years you expect all of America to wean itself off oil?
People have bought cars with huge internal combustion engines with loans twice that size!
Face it, Americans love driving their cars to malls more than they love not invading other countries.
We can all sit around a fire, sing songs and eat pony.
Straighten out the economy. Oil prices, housing slump
Oil prices - I assume this is so that Americans can keep consuming the amount of oil they currently do? Hey, you're using 25% of the world's oil with 5% of the people - you should be using less. Get used to it, the purchasing power of Americans is going down the toilet with your dollar, and so it should.
Abandon the countries in the middle east you have occupied, learn to live with less.
The prices of houses were bid up too high, they need to come down. The prices are phony but the debt is real, let them come down so that people don't have to promise as much of their life for their shelter. That is a good thing.
Many religions people are angriest at heretics, not unbelievers.
It's not about believing in anything, it's about believing in exactly the same thing they do. Minor technical points and all.
Faith certainly does require reason. I don't put my faith in anything without a reason.
Faith, noun:
Belief that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence.
[i]nowhere in the koran does it say killing innocents is ok[/i]
Only because it preaches that unbelievers are not innocent.
http://www.wvinter.net/~haught/Koran.html
If gasoline were a more appropriate price (e.g., $6/gal), we'd see alternatives popping up.
There are no alternatives anywhere near as cheap, easy and energy dense as fossil fuels. It's a 1 off free energy bonanza of millions of years of sunlight captured from the dinosaur age. Everything else requires much more effort and far lower energy return on energy invested. Price rises would simply cause reduced usage (not a bad thing).
Have you heard the joke about two economists who were locked in a basement? They didn't worry because they were certain that with their increasing demand the market would cause sandwiches to appear.
That is the gist of the "technology will solve the energy crisis" arguments - economics and capitalism don't trump physics and geology.
>> coal-union-controlled-labor.
The Liberals don't receive any donations from the coal industry?
Oh, another thing is presumably you would have had to have a shower anyway. There's no need to shower at home before a bike ride, just have 1 a day at work. That's what I do.
>> It would take me an hour or so to bike to work, everything added in (like a shower). That's an hour (or two if I go both ways) I could have spent on something else.
How long does it usually take to get to work? You need to subtract that time off. Also that time isn't a waste, it's exercise - you can reduce your exercise time elsewhere.
Don't exercise? You are an animal that is designed to - your brain and body will work much better and you'll get less sick and weak with age if you exercise.
You don't need to ride both ways every day. Maybe ride in one day, catch the bus home, catch the bus to work, ride home etc.
Another option is to try to live within human scale distance to your place of employment (hard I know in a society built around cars)
I am not an American but http://www.constitution.org/constit_.htm says:
Section. 10. No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility.
I think science could improve its presentation. Maybe give people a sense of wonder or awe, space does that, shuttles taking people to other planets is awe inspiring, and while yes you could spend money on more boring down to earth things, governments love the big public spectacles that people can watch on TV.
There's a really big galaxy of matter, and eventually this matter formed a pattern that could rewriting itself out of more matter, and here you are thinking about it. wow!
>> Without God, nothing matters.
It matters to you.
>> You are going to die, and that is the end of it. Life, then, is utterly meaningless. Nothing you do will make a difference. When you die, you wont even remember that you were here, and in a short time, no one else will remember you either.
Yes, you are going to die, as am I.
If you have kids, your genes will continue to spread throughout the population.
If you made a difference in your community, or created something of lasting goodness or beauty, then those that are around after your death will live a better life thanks to you, and maybe even remember and thank you for it.
>> When the manufacturer can make panels efficiently enough to be more affordable than gasoline
Solar is cheaper than gasoline, after a sufficiently long time to cover upfront costs.
Pollution from gasoline is also not counted in the equation. How much is clean air and no sound of internal combustion engines worth to you? It would make my life a lot better.
>> If the government has to make you do it, it's because the process is not cost-effective overall, and more waste is taking place in the recycling process than the recycling itself saves.
Untrue, because the cost of landfill, and other externalities like pollution are not in the equation.
Back in 2000 when our dollar was 0.50 US$ a $50US game = $100 AU. Our price-point was set.
Now with the US dollar in free-fall, we're close to 0.90 US but our games are still at $100, meaning we're paying US $90 for a game.
I guess the importers are keeping the profit from the US dollar tanking, whereas that in theory should be passed onto consumers.
Total war blends civilization with an RTS - but of course doesn't have the scope of Civ.
Giving Civilization Total War's 2 modes would be sweet - the normal tile-based strategy game is the main part, but when you have combat, you control your armies like you do in Total War.
I prefer to talk to people who are 99% similar genetically, though I have heard of a Doctor named Doolittle who talked to those who are only 98.5% similar. Tarzan, too.
>> My mother does genealogy. She has parts of our family back to the 1400's
Apparently genetic testing has found 20% of people have different fathers than they think (or their mothers told them).
Going back 600 years, assuming a generation is 25 years = 24 generations.
So, you have a 0.8^24 = 0.0047 = 0.47% chance that your paternal line is correct over that time. Adoptions were common in the past, but we'll assume the maternal line is 100% accurate, so on average, you have a ~99% chance of error over that time...
Though you're probably related to them anyway if your ancestors were from the same area.
Yes - China is just as totalitarian as the Soviets ever were... but for some reason we like them.
I guess if the Soviets had sold us cheap electronics instead of getting into space first there would have been no cold war. Silly Ruskies!