City by Clifford Simak ( reviews here) tells an opposite tale. Here are the opening lines.
‘These are the stories that the Dogs tell when the fires burn high and the wind is from the north. Then each family circle gathers at the hearthstone and the pups sit silently and listen and when the story’s done they ask many questions:
“What is Man?” they’ll ask.
Or perhaps: “What is a city?”
Or: “What is a war?” ‘ (Page 1.)
The book was first published in 1952, and has won some awards. I read it as a kid, and still remember the impact it had on me.
Most mammals live for a billion (10^9) heartbeats, humans live about 60 years, twice as long. One theory is the Grandmother Effect. That is having older women share the burden of childrearing aided in the children's survival.
In the 1980s, Kristen Hawkes and James O'Connell spent time with Hadza hunter-gatherers. They noticed that the older women in the society spent their days collecting tubers and other food for their grandchildren. That was the proverbial fallen apple that sparked Hawkes' interest in the Grandmother Theory, which says that humans evolved to live so long because grandmothers were around to help take care of the young'uns.
Even better, string them along and give them a fake credit card number (The first 4 digits must be from a real number). When that fails, give them another fake number. When that fails express surprise that they keep calling back in spite of giving fake numbers on previous calls.
All of us benefit from being the heirs of the industrial revolution. Even the poorest of us have better health and nutrition than before. We all have better health care than the mightiest king did 300 years ago. Yet for the average person who lived during the industrial revolution life was poor hell. Craftsmen and herders were sent into Dickensian factories and mines. I hope we can live long enough for the majority of citizens to see a benefit from our present computer revolution.
Perhaps most widespread are psychosomatic illnesses--even in not-too-contaminated areas, there has been a large upswing in stress-related physical ailments, notably stomach and autoimmune disorders. In fact, morbidity and mortality due to such disorders may well in the end exceed sicknesses and deaths caused by radiation.
Also see the book Toxic Turmoil (one review here)for more discussion of the role of stress in disasters.
We should note the Chernobyl's radiation release was an order of magnitude greater than Fukashima's .
Every time the homicide rate goes up or down, we all cast about for causes. The usual suspects, the economy, policing, and number of prisoners, do not work out. The changes are usually national, while policing and prison policies differ over the country. Crime rates were low in the Depression, are low now, in our deep recession and were high during the prosperous 80's.
The historian David Hackett Fischer, in his book "The Great Wave" (one review here ) using over 700 years of British records shows that the homicide rate and inflation are closely correlated. High inflation, high crime, low inflation low crime. It certainly holds for the examples above. Fisher himself concedes that correlation is not causation, but it rules out the usual explanations.
When I visited a friend in Czechoslovakia in 1985, he had just installed a very expensive ( for him ) satellite dish so he could watch West German TV. Now the Internet makes it easy to watch and participate. Even with heavy censorship closed societies can no longer control the ongoing discourse. Closed society can mean anything from China to various "self contained" religious groups.
Yup. I followed this closely. To get re-elected, Reid needed it killed. And Obama needed Reid. And it never came up during the election.
By the way, the cost quoted is only the cost of the project. In addition, the USG is on the hook for another 12 B because DOE signed contracts to start taking fuel in 1998. The utilities are suing to recover their costs since 1998. Worst, this last cost does not come from the Waste Fund. It comes from general revenues.
I am retired and have time to kill. At each call I strung them along, answered all the questions. When they asked me for my credit card number, I said that I have to go and get it. A minute later I picked up the phone and gave them a fake credit card number. (The first 4 digits should match a real card as there are only a few allowable codes. ). The number did not go through of course. I apologized and gave them another fake number. When that didn't go through I thanked them for making my day less lonely and asked them the call again. What is amazing is they didn't get the hint and kept calling.
Just shows the difference between the level and scrutiny of funding between the military/intelligence sector and the civilian sector. NASA has to go through a long period of request and debate to get a space telescope, while the military just builds a few too many with no comment from anyone.
I'm confused. I thought the non-encoding (junk) DNA was not selected for. That is random mutations were passed on because they evidently did not effect the organism's survival or reproduction. Coding DNA ( genes ) accumulated fewer mutations because mutations adversely effected it or it's offspring's survival.
Now it appears that that non-encoding DNA is important, but seems to be less effected by mutations. Am I missing something?
In 1965, I got a bargain round trip to London from a student association charter on Icelandic Airlines. It was the first time I ever flew . The cost was $600, 18% of my graduate student yearly stipend. In today's dollars that is $4300.
If you want old fashion service, take your dollars and fly first class. It is still less than I paid.
One aspect is that we are part of an international consortium, and to pull back would initiate an diplomatic scuffle. In a more rational world we would't be building this.
To put things into perspective it is not more money than we use to bail out one sleazy banker so he can get his bonus, or run a few days of a stupid war.
Twenty years ago I was a program officer at the Office of Fusion Energy, US Department of Energy. The ITER planning had started. My take -- there is no way on Earth that a tokamak can be cost competitive. Even if it works, even if the first wall problem is solved as may be indicated above, the engineering costs are so prohibitive as to price the whole concept out of consideration.
I earlier worked on Trisops, a simpler fusion concept that might be economically feasible, but I even doubt that. In the official fusion community, which is fixated on the the tokamak, it suffered from the NIH ( Not Invented Here ) syndrome and was defunded.
There go millions of truck and taxi driver jobs. Not great jobs, but still jobs.
Many will say that this is inevitable and will make us safer and more productive. The industrial revolution also did wonders for our wealth and quality of life in the long run, but it was pure hell for the lower classes when it happened.
I read Clifford Simak's "City" as a teenager in the 50's and I still remember it as clear as it was yesterday. It is one of my two all time favorites. The other is Bester's "The Stars my Destination". Bester is at least not underappreciated
The ultra strong tidal forces around the black hole probably squeezed the star apart rather than peeled off the surface. This is called the noodle effect or spaghettification.
His lessons are too slow. It's like getting a lesson from Grandpa Simpson. He only teaches one tiny basic concept per video and it takes him at least five minutes to get there and another five repeating, and repeating, and repeating. I can't watch more than half a video before I can't take it anymore.
Not all students can learn as quickly and easily as most/. readers.
Slashdot Mirror
We denigrate politicians because they lie, but candidates who tell the truth don't get elected.
City by Clifford Simak ( reviews here) tells an opposite tale. Here are the opening lines.
The book was first published in 1952, and has won some awards. I read it as a kid, and still remember the impact it had on me.
Most mammals live for a billion (10^9) heartbeats, humans live about 60 years, twice as long. One theory is the Grandmother Effect. That is having older women share the burden of childrearing aided in the children's survival.
Even better, string them along and give them a fake credit card number (The first 4 digits must be from a real number). When that fails, give them another fake number. When that fails express surprise that they keep calling back in spite of giving fake numbers on previous calls.
All of us benefit from being the heirs of the industrial revolution. Even the poorest of us have better health and nutrition than before. We all have better health care than the mightiest king did 300 years ago. Yet for the average person who lived during the industrial revolution life was poor hell. Craftsmen and herders were sent into Dickensian factories and mines. I hope we can live long enough for the majority of citizens to see a benefit from our present computer revolution.
We denigrate politicians because they lie, but candidates who tell the truth do not get elected.
From the IEEE spectrum's article Chernobyl's Stressful After-Effects
Also see the book Toxic Turmoil (one review here)for more discussion of the role of stress in disasters.
We should note the Chernobyl's radiation release was an order of magnitude greater than Fukashima's .
Every time the homicide rate goes up or down, we all cast about for causes. The usual suspects, the economy, policing, and number of prisoners, do not work out. The changes are usually national, while policing and prison policies differ over the country. Crime rates were low in the Depression, are low now, in our deep recession and were high during the prosperous 80's.
The historian David Hackett Fischer, in his book "The Great Wave" (one review here ) using over 700 years of British records shows that the homicide rate and inflation are closely correlated. High inflation, high crime, low inflation low crime. It certainly holds for the examples above. Fisher himself concedes that correlation is not causation, but it rules out the usual explanations.
It's nicknamed "Money ITER"
When I visited a friend in Czechoslovakia in 1985, he had just installed a very expensive ( for him ) satellite dish so he could watch West German TV. Now the Internet makes it easy to watch and participate. Even with heavy censorship closed societies can no longer control the ongoing discourse. Closed society can mean anything from China to various "self contained" religious groups.
Yup.
I followed this closely. To get re-elected, Reid needed it killed. And Obama needed Reid. And it never came up during the election.
By the way, the cost quoted is only the cost of the project. In addition, the USG is on the hook for another 12 B because DOE signed contracts to start taking fuel in 1998. The utilities are suing to recover their costs since 1998. Worst, this last cost does not come from the Waste Fund. It comes from general revenues.
I am retired and have time to kill. At each call I strung them along, answered all the questions. When they asked me for my credit card number, I said that I have to go and get it. A minute later I picked up the phone and gave them a fake credit card number. (The first 4 digits should match a real card as there are only a few allowable codes. ). The number did not go through of course. I apologized and gave them another fake number. When that didn't go through I thanked them for making my day less lonely and asked them the call again. What is amazing is they didn't get the hint and kept calling.
Just shows the difference between the level and scrutiny of funding between the military/intelligence sector and the civilian sector. NASA has to go through a long period of request and debate to get a space telescope, while the military just builds a few too many with no comment from anyone.
I'm confused. I thought the non-encoding (junk) DNA was not selected for. That is random mutations were passed on because they evidently did not effect the organism's survival or reproduction. Coding DNA ( genes ) accumulated fewer mutations because mutations adversely effected it or it's offspring's survival.
Now it appears that that non-encoding DNA is important, but seems to be less effected by mutations. Am I missing something?
If you're in Britain you want a computer with efficient chips.
In 1965, I got a bargain round trip to London from a student association charter on Icelandic Airlines. It was the first time I ever flew . The cost was $600, 18% of my graduate student yearly stipend. In today's dollars that is $4300.
If you want old fashion service, take your dollars and fly first class. It is still less than I paid.
One aspect is that we are part of an international consortium, and to pull back would initiate an diplomatic scuffle. In a more rational world we would't be building this.
To put things into perspective it is not more money than we use to bail out one sleazy banker so he can get his bonus, or run a few days of a stupid war.
Twenty years ago I was a program officer at the Office of Fusion Energy, US Department of Energy. The ITER planning had started. My take -- there is no way on Earth that a tokamak can be cost competitive. Even if it works, even if the first wall problem is solved as may be indicated above, the engineering costs are so prohibitive as to price the whole concept out of consideration.
I earlier worked on Trisops, a simpler fusion concept that might be economically feasible, but I even doubt that. In the official fusion community, which is fixated on the the tokamak, it suffered from the NIH ( Not Invented Here ) syndrome and was defunded.
There go millions of truck and taxi driver jobs. Not great jobs, but still jobs.
Many will say that this is inevitable and will make us safer and more productive. The industrial revolution also did wonders for our wealth and quality of life in the long run, but it was pure hell for the lower classes when it happened.
I read Clifford Simak's "City" as a teenager in the 50's and I still remember it as clear as it was yesterday. It is one of my two all time favorites. The other is Bester's "The Stars my Destination". Bester is at least not underappreciated
Curiosity project budget: USD 2.5 billion
Cost of "War on Terror" so far: USD 1.36 trillion and counting (yes that's one thousand three hundred and sixty billion)
The $2.5B would hardly serve to bail out one sleazy banker so he can get his bonus.
The ultra strong tidal forces around the black hole probably squeezed the star apart rather than peeled off the surface. This is called the noodle effect or spaghettification.
In real life, the entangled states would be broken as particles in thermal motion collided with each other.
His lessons are too slow. It's like getting a lesson from Grandpa Simpson. He only teaches one tiny basic concept per video and it takes him at least five minutes to get there and another five repeating, and repeating, and repeating. I can't watch more than half a video before I can't take it anymore.
Not all students can learn as quickly and easily as most /. readers.
We are all glad that we are heirs to the industrial revolution, but it was pure hell for the displaced farmers and craftsmen who lived through it.
We may be in a similar time.