Well, to correct a couple things: the impact would be WAY larger than the size of a football field. And second, the "desolate frozen waste" that you speak of is hardly that. People visit these areas every year to enjoy the wilderness, hunt, hike, camp, etc. Many animal species use this land to live, breed, etc - including some endangered species. Even some natives work the land and countryside to survive. It's some of the most beautiful pristine country around and it has been the least impacted by human civilization. Even if you visit places like Rocky Mountain national park in Colorado, you can see the impact that civilization has had on the land. It is extremely important to preserve some of the last stretches of pristine nature on Earth. And I'm guessing that when you think of Alaska, you think of freezing temperatures and snow 24/7. Amazingly enough, Alaska is very warm during the summer (average highs in the 70s degF) and there are endless opporunities for outdoor adventures there.
Have any idea if you can do this on an Audiovox CDM-8900? Verizon pisses me off with the sub-panel alternating between "Verizon Wireless" and the date/time every 5 seconds. I know I have a fucking Verizon phone: there's a permanent sticker right below the sub-panel, the main panel has a banner that says Verizon, and guess what... I bought the fucking phone and pay the bill every month. It pisses me off because I use my phone as a watch, and 50% of the time when I look down to check the time, I have to continue staring for 5 seconds to wait for the "Verizon Wireless" to switch to the date/time. At first I thought it would be no big deal, but after the 100th time it has driven to insanity. I've called tech support... no help. I've called customer service and complained... no help. And I know several other people with the same phone and service and they hate it as well (and they've called and complained). Worst phone "feature" evar...
The first and primary location of Google is in Mountain View, CA. This is near Palo Alto, Los Altos Hills, Atherton, Menlo Park, etc... these names sound familiar? Well maybe not if you don't pay attention to the real estate market much. But if you do, you'll know that an empty 1/4 acre lot in those areas can easily go for $0.5 million. A 1500 ft^2 bland house on a lot with minor mechanical/structural problems will go for $1.0 million easily. It is one of the most expensive places to live in the entire country. In fact it's so expensive to live there that nearly 80% of the residential property in the area is rental property. Still, a 4 or 5 bedroom dorm-style house will fetch $450 to $600 per room; people stand to make more money buying a house and renting it there (and then living somewhere else) than they do just living in the area. And even at these prices property moves at light speed! I've seen cases where a homeowner lists a 2000 ft^2 house on a 1/4 lot for $1.2 million or $1.3 million and it's gone within 3 or 4 days. The market is crazy out there.
Well, that would be a reasonable explanation except for the fact that immediately after I lost it, I created some other source files and nothing happened to them. I didnt do trojan/worm/virus scan inbetween either. And this was the ONLY source it happened to, I had other projects on my hard drive that were perfectly fine. I'm not blaming MS for this loss by Windows or VS (I was using VS for this project), I just brought it up as an example of data loss.
Well, your watch manufacturer is simply producing watches for the public. To an individual person it really doesn't matter if they are ahead or behind in their day by 15 or 20 seconds... maybe even +/- 5 or 10 minutes. So to them, a watch that can hold time to within 5 or 10 seconds over the course of a month or so is just fine. I'm not sure how accurate a quartz watch can get, maybe it's even more like 5 or 10 seconds over a year or so?
Anyways, it's one thing for a watch manufacturer to achieve a certain accuracy. It's another thing when you are trying to transfer a satellite from high earth orbit into an elliptical sun orbit to intersect neptune or a KBO. The accuracy requirements for making certain burns to change trajectory, or making a control movement of the momentum wheels is another thing. Or in a particle accelerator, when to activate certain portions of the cyclotron, etc.
These definitions are for the purposes of science and technology. A company can offer a service where they dumb down the definition for the public.
Seriously, calling Microsoft for $5 is the last thing on your mind after working on a project for a whole day and having Windows magically lose it. I was building a data parser for the raw outputs from a lab machine one time. The code was fairly simple and straight-forward, but it still took a day to build and ensure that it handled everything properly. After compiling at the end of the day, I went back to the source code to add a few more comments and it was gone. Just up and gone, no evidence of what had happened or anything. This was on my own personal computer that no one else uses, so no one else had messed with it. Immediately after it disapppeared I used some recovery tools, assuming a program had deleted it somehow. But nothing, not a single trace. It really baffled me for a while and I never did find it or figure out what had happened.
Yeh, but you have to prove it's fraudulent. So while you may be ok if you use your card at a gas station in Kansas, and then 20 minutes later someone uses your card to buy some vodka in Russia. But if people are picking your information up around where you live and using it there, who says it isn't fraudulent?
Actually, I'd imagine it's pretty easy to check your report any time of the year for free. When I was notified by a bank (that I recently opened an account with) that I could get a free credit report any time a company checks my credit, I sent in a simple letter to get one. I indicated the bank that checked my credit and my information, and they sent out a report. But, this was a hand-typed letter of my own, not some form to be filled with standard entries. So, a person must be reading these letters because everyone formats their letters differently and may be including/excluding certain pieces of information. I'd imagine they barely hire the resources to just check your name and then send you a report. Just send them a standard letter any time you want a report and they'll probably send you one!
And if that isn't enough, if you're like me you get 20 credit card offers in the mail a week - so just send a letter indicated one of those companies. And even though they may not do a full credit check, you're getting those offers because those companies have "skimmed" your credit score or report somehow.
While I agree the system is comprised of a lot of bullshit - that everyone tracks every last piece of information about you that they can get their hands on, and trades that information with all their insurance buddies... you might have a higher rate because you are male (unless you are a lesbian since you mentioned a GF). Males in their early 20s have some of the highest rates for many reasons, some which are more fair (numbers of accidents) than others.
The whole insurance business is a crock, these companies make shitloads of money off everyone for years and years, and then when something like 9/11 happens they cry and moan to congress (despite the fact that in the end they still end up making a ton of money). It's a huge profit business driven by more executives and board-types. What we need are community insurance bureaus. Kind of like credit bureaus where the bureau revolves around some sort of organization (a university, a large company for its employees, etc). We have this sort of thing with health insurance, but as far as I can tell, we don't have it for vehicle or property insurance.
My insurance bill per year is nearly 1/2 the cost of my vehicle (I drive cheaper used vehicles) and my record is spotless other than 1 ticket (not a speeding ticket or anything, it was a technicality akin to a parking violation).
Actually, if you stay behind the leading edge a ways you can still play some of the latest games on a cheap video card. I bought a 128 MB card for $80 and used it for over 2 years before I started noticing slower frame rates at the resolutions I was using.
So, let me get this straight... you are in support of taking money from the rich and giving it to the poor just because they're poor? What do they deserve that money for? What if I worked my ass off 18 hours per day 7 days a week for 10 years, risking my money and my life, to build a company from nothing, that ends up grossing me $300k / year? While some know-nothing moron worked a mundane job 8 hours per day 5 days per week for 10 years, earning $20k / year and spent the rest of his time sitting on his couch, watching TV, and scratching his ass?
So, for all my hardwork, sweat, blood, and tears, I should just roll over and hand the guy a ton of money for doing nothing? At best that's socialism, at worst it's communism. There's no other word for it, and it's a disgusting concept. Just like you said: "not everyone is equal" - if someone works their ass off to get somewhere while someone else sits like a bump on a log, they are not equal. And they don't deserve the same salary, the same benefits, the same toys, or anything other than the basic freedoms given to us by the constitution.
But it's mandatory insurance. Health insurance is optional. Currently I don't have health insurance, but that's my decision. If I get hit by a bus, it's tough luck, and I know that.
But complaining about anything over $90k not being taxed is complete bullshit. Because in the SS system, you don't get back what you pay in. What you get back in benefits is based on some convoluted formula, while what you pay in is a strict percentage. So if I make $1 million / year, the tax says I have to pay 15% into the system (just combining worker and employer tax for simplicity), which is $150k / year for me. If I continue to make $1 million / year until I retire, and then my investments bring in $500k / year after I retire, then the SS formula might say that I get nothing back in benefits because I already have enough. Let's see, what does this sound like? Communism anyone? Over my working life (let's say 40 years, from 25 to 65) I will have paid 40 * $150k = $6 million into the system while getting nothing back in benefits. That's complete and utter bullshit, and that's why a $90k cap makes sense.
In reality the whole SS system is complete bullshit today. The original purpose may have had good intentions while our country was still in a fledgling state, but with today's economies we do not need this system anymore. Anyone with half a brain can make safe investments with less money that you pay in SS tax, and end up with more money than you would get in benefits from SS. From tax incentives on IRAs to buying long term bonds and CDs, investing for retirement is a piece of cake. We don't need the government to do it for us.
Has anyone determined exactly what darkmatter is though? To me it sounds like simply matter that in its current state is not emiting any radiation. And, is not near a source that is emiting raiation of which the dark matter would reflect that radiation.
So basically, it's like a box in a dark room. If you look into that room, you don't see the box. But, if you shine a flashlight on it, the box will reflect that light back at you. Regular matter is the same thing, but there is a nearby radiation source (a lightbulb in the dark room), or the light matter is radiating on its own (the box itself is a lightbulb). The same applies to any other EM frequency, not just visible frequencies.
Unfortunately, the PDF is currently down, but I assume it says something similar to the email Foley sent to the Slashdot editors (which has been posted in the story since then). If this is true, then here is a summary of what he said:
1) Foley has licensed ROMs from many of the publishers.
2) Foley uses MAME and his licenses to offer gaming machines for sale.
3) Pirates do not have licensed ROMs from any of the publishers.
4) Pirates use MAME and the illegal ROMs to offer gaming machines for sale.
5) The Pirates' gaming machines are cheaper than Foley's and offer more games than Foley's.
6) To combat the Pirates' (illegal) competition, Foley is trademarking MAME.
While I can sympathize with Foley's concerns about Pirates freely distributing illegal ROMs, the simply fact of the matter is that he does NOT own MAME, has no affiliation to MAME, and has no right to take control of the MAME name, logo, or to trademark them. His application for the trademark is fraudulent. He indicates (in a vague fashion) that he does not intend to sue the creators of MAME, but then he goes on to say this:
This is simply UltraCade Technologies and other publishers doing whatever it takes to protect our commercial interests and prevent other companies from stealing our market by capitalizing on unlicensed games and selling products that only have value when coupled with illegally obtained games. (Bold emphasis mine.)
"... selling products that only have value when coupled with illegally obtained games." - Hold on there!!! So, if I want to sell a box loaded with MAME, you're going to come after me? Right now he seems to be targeting only those that provide "instructions" about how to get illegal ROMs. But as with everything else in the world... the next thing you know he will be going after people who just want to create custom MAME cabinets and sell them.
Just like a heroin addiction, right? What? I'm up at midnight reading slashdot when I have to get up at 5 am for work tomorrow? Damnit! Damnit! Damnit!
In some places it may be a use tax, but in many places it simply is a cigarette tax. So whether you buy to not smoke or you buy to smoke, you still have to pay the tax. Having said that, Michigan is doing the right thing by not pursuing this criminally. They are just subjecting the users to back taxes. So you can just pay the taxes, or if you don't then the state will collect some of your assets and sell them to get the taxes. But if it's a bum on the street that has no assets, they aren't going to throw him in jail for not paying.
As far as the tax itself, this is one tax I do support (this coming from a strict conservative who believes in a small federal government and separation of church and state... not GWB's moronic republican ideology). The number of poor people (say less than $30k/house) who smoke is much higher than the number of not-poor people (say greater than $50k/house) who smoke. And these poor people are the same ones who use the public health care system the most. After a life spent smoking everyday, they end up costing the state (and fed) millions upon millions of dollars, of which they contributed very little to. So, the tax is there to collect some of the money back over their entire life. And even for some, the tax is high enough that they will give up smoking, which fixes the problem in a different and better way.
Remember, this isn't a restriction of someone's rights to do with their body whatever they please - like in the cause of marijuana, crack, etc. People can smoke all they want, we are just holding them accountable for their actions. They can't smoke their entire life and then cry "woe is me" when they end up in the hospital with emphysema and they want the state to pay for it. The same should apply to such things as marijuana. People should be able to smoke it if they want, but it should be heavily taxed. Perhaps if you ever smoked marijuana in your life, you should even be banned from using any state or fed medical services. Because in reality, it's the not-poor people who are paying for all the poor people's medical bills, even when the poor people purposefully hurt themselves everyday... and that's just bullshit.
I was at the JPL facility in Pasadena last Fall (2004) and they had a 1/3 scale model of Bigelow's inflatable module on their largest shaker table. Now this wasn't a NASA project or anything, when JPL doesn't have a current project on deck they sell time on their shaker table and space chambers to industry companies. However, this would indicate that the modules are nearly ready for prime time because they're testing a full-up model. When I was talking to the director of the environmental labs I believe he said the 1/3 scale model was the largest they could fit on the shaker table, so they would be using that data to predict the full scale model's behavior. And really, the design of the modules is simplified and much of it is based on COTS aerospace technology. So, it should be pretty easy to get a module built successfully. The problem has always been getting the module into orbit and, once in orbit, getting people to and from the module. Both of these maneuvers are still extremely expensive.
Actually the idea is not dumb at all: charge people for what they use. In case you haven't realized yet, gas taxes pay for roads you use. The idea is simple: the more gas you use, the more road you have driven on, and the more the road needs repairs. So, we should be charging people by the mile (and perhaps by the weight of the vehicle, but since most passenger cars are similar in weight we'll skip that for now). So, if you drive 100 miles, you should pay $1 to the DOT. Whether that be in a Ford Taurus or a Honda Hybrid, you both damaged the road the same amount so you both should pay the same amount of tax. This description is simplified, and to really make it work, you definitely would need to include the weight of the vehicle (and perhaps number of axles, and number of tires/axle). Because a 3.5 ton (hauling capacity) truck definitely does more harm than a Geo or a motorcycle. Perhaps weight clases would work (0 to 1000 lbs, 1000 to 2000, etc).
Now, if the gas tax was used to clean the environment you would have an argument. Then, you should be charged by the gallon because it takes the same amount of work to refine 1 gallon for a Ford Taurus as it does 1 gallon for a Honda Hybrid. And the emissions from either are relatively similar (per gallon of gas, not miles driven since the Hybrids are more efficient in the first place).
Perhaps the gas tax should be split into 2 sections? Say 50% depends on how much gas you use (tax/gallon) and 50% depends on how many miles you drive (tax/mile). Again, only if the tax was used for environmental purposes.
It's so easy to cry "woe is me, they're punishing hybrid owners". When all they want is for you to pay for the roads you use. Under the current system, people with LESS efficient cars are actually the ones being punished. They pay more-per-mile in taxes than hybrid owners even though they both cause the same amount of damage.
Now, this has other implications because many people buy hybrids to save money on gas. A tax/mile would reduce the savings (from gas tax), but you would still save a lot (from the cost of the gas less the tax). So perhaps less people would buy hybrids, when we really want more people buying hybrids. I think the savings from the cost of the gas alone would still compel plenty of people to buy hybrids.
Yeh, but nothing in the world is really honest. The dice you are throwing? Did anyone actually do the mass properties analysis to determine how much shallower the holes on the "six" side need to be than the holes on the "one" side? And how much less ink needs to be applied? For the dice to be perfectly symmetric in all dimensions, and for all moments of inertia to be exactly the same? And if they did do the analysis, did they do it right? And if they did do it right, was the production line able to produce it accurately out to the last (or infinite) significant digit? The problem is that nothing in the world is random, everything is biased in one way or another. The gates on that microchip to randomly select between 0 and 1 might be getting weak, I don't know. That pop can sitting on your desk... it's not a perfect cylinder. The radius at the top is 1/100th of an inch smaller than the radius at the bottom. Etc Etc Etc
So if I had said that same thing in your professor's class and he pitched an eraser at me while quoting the theory... I would have chucked it right back at his head for not applying the theory to the real world. Theory doesn't exist in the real world.
Hey, someone has to be an authoritative ass on some subjects. Otherwise we'd have millions of people running around thinking they know left from right when they are actually talking about red and blue. Oh wait, that's how it is today. Damn.
As one of my professors once said, and many others have alluded to in posts further up: nothing is random. The only way for the results of something to be truly random is to sample it to infinity. Since we are unable of doing that, we are always stopping our sampling at some point in time and thereby biasing the results. The bias will always show a result occuring more often than the other possible results. Well, it was something along those lines... I believe he said it more eloquently.
And actually, this was the basis of this professor's grading scheme for the class. Never in all of his classes and his colleague's classes had he ever seen a true "bell-curve" distribution for a quiz, exam, homework, etc. The simple fact was that there always existed anomalies where 2, 3, or more "humps" existed depending on characteristics of the groups of students. Perhaps there had been an athletic meet the night before, so the group of students attending that meet represented a hump that had been shifted lower. Or perhaps the teaching assistant was friends with some of the students and the met the night before to study, so that group was shifted higher. And then you have the majority group that represented the larger hump. By trying to fit all of these individual trends under one larger trend, you artificially shift the grading scale for a certain group of students. For example, say there was one larger group and one smaller group shifted upwards from the larger group. By fitting them all under a single bell curve you artificially lower the larger group's scale to maintain the "typical" distribution. I believe he graded on a straight scale.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, to correct a couple things: the impact would be WAY larger than the size of a football field. And second, the "desolate frozen waste" that you speak of is hardly that. People visit these areas every year to enjoy the wilderness, hunt, hike, camp, etc. Many animal species use this land to live, breed, etc - including some endangered species. Even some natives work the land and countryside to survive. It's some of the most beautiful pristine country around and it has been the least impacted by human civilization. Even if you visit places like Rocky Mountain national park in Colorado, you can see the impact that civilization has had on the land. It is extremely important to preserve some of the last stretches of pristine nature on Earth. And I'm guessing that when you think of Alaska, you think of freezing temperatures and snow 24/7. Amazingly enough, Alaska is very warm during the summer (average highs in the 70s degF) and there are endless opporunities for outdoor adventures there.
Have any idea if you can do this on an Audiovox CDM-8900? Verizon pisses me off with the sub-panel alternating between "Verizon Wireless" and the date/time every 5 seconds. I know I have a fucking Verizon phone: there's a permanent sticker right below the sub-panel, the main panel has a banner that says Verizon, and guess what ... I bought the fucking phone and pay the bill every month. It pisses me off because I use my phone as a watch, and 50% of the time when I look down to check the time, I have to continue staring for 5 seconds to wait for the "Verizon Wireless" to switch to the date/time. At first I thought it would be no big deal, but after the 100th time it has driven to insanity. I've called tech support ... no help. I've called customer service and complained ... no help. And I know several other people with the same phone and service and they hate it as well (and they've called and complained). Worst phone "feature" evar ...
The first and primary location of Google is in Mountain View, CA. This is near Palo Alto, Los Altos Hills, Atherton, Menlo Park, etc ... these names sound familiar? Well maybe not if you don't pay attention to the real estate market much. But if you do, you'll know that an empty 1/4 acre lot in those areas can easily go for $0.5 million. A 1500 ft^2 bland house on a lot with minor mechanical/structural problems will go for $1.0 million easily. It is one of the most expensive places to live in the entire country. In fact it's so expensive to live there that nearly 80% of the residential property in the area is rental property. Still, a 4 or 5 bedroom dorm-style house will fetch $450 to $600 per room; people stand to make more money buying a house and renting it there (and then living somewhere else) than they do just living in the area. And even at these prices property moves at light speed! I've seen cases where a homeowner lists a 2000 ft^2 house on a 1/4 lot for $1.2 million or $1.3 million and it's gone within 3 or 4 days. The market is crazy out there.
Well, that would be a reasonable explanation except for the fact that immediately after I lost it, I created some other source files and nothing happened to them. I didnt do trojan/worm/virus scan inbetween either. And this was the ONLY source it happened to, I had other projects on my hard drive that were perfectly fine. I'm not blaming MS for this loss by Windows or VS (I was using VS for this project), I just brought it up as an example of data loss.
Well, your watch manufacturer is simply producing watches for the public. To an individual person it really doesn't matter if they are ahead or behind in their day by 15 or 20 seconds ... maybe even +/- 5 or 10 minutes. So to them, a watch that can hold time to within 5 or 10 seconds over the course of a month or so is just fine. I'm not sure how accurate a quartz watch can get, maybe it's even more like 5 or 10 seconds over a year or so?
Anyways, it's one thing for a watch manufacturer to achieve a certain accuracy. It's another thing when you are trying to transfer a satellite from high earth orbit into an elliptical sun orbit to intersect neptune or a KBO. The accuracy requirements for making certain burns to change trajectory, or making a control movement of the momentum wheels is another thing. Or in a particle accelerator, when to activate certain portions of the cyclotron, etc.
These definitions are for the purposes of science and technology. A company can offer a service where they dumb down the definition for the public.
Seriously, calling Microsoft for $5 is the last thing on your mind after working on a project for a whole day and having Windows magically lose it. I was building a data parser for the raw outputs from a lab machine one time. The code was fairly simple and straight-forward, but it still took a day to build and ensure that it handled everything properly. After compiling at the end of the day, I went back to the source code to add a few more comments and it was gone. Just up and gone, no evidence of what had happened or anything. This was on my own personal computer that no one else uses, so no one else had messed with it. Immediately after it disapppeared I used some recovery tools, assuming a program had deleted it somehow. But nothing, not a single trace. It really baffled me for a while and I never did find it or figure out what had happened.
Yeh, but you have to prove it's fraudulent. So while you may be ok if you use your card at a gas station in Kansas, and then 20 minutes later someone uses your card to buy some vodka in Russia. But if people are picking your information up around where you live and using it there, who says it isn't fraudulent?
Actually, I'd imagine it's pretty easy to check your report any time of the year for free. When I was notified by a bank (that I recently opened an account with) that I could get a free credit report any time a company checks my credit, I sent in a simple letter to get one. I indicated the bank that checked my credit and my information, and they sent out a report. But, this was a hand-typed letter of my own, not some form to be filled with standard entries. So, a person must be reading these letters because everyone formats their letters differently and may be including/excluding certain pieces of information. I'd imagine they barely hire the resources to just check your name and then send you a report. Just send them a standard letter any time you want a report and they'll probably send you one!
And if that isn't enough, if you're like me you get 20 credit card offers in the mail a week - so just send a letter indicated one of those companies. And even though they may not do a full credit check, you're getting those offers because those companies have "skimmed" your credit score or report somehow.
While I agree the system is comprised of a lot of bullshit - that everyone tracks every last piece of information about you that they can get their hands on, and trades that information with all their insurance buddies ... you might have a higher rate because you are male (unless you are a lesbian since you mentioned a GF). Males in their early 20s have some of the highest rates for many reasons, some which are more fair (numbers of accidents) than others.
The whole insurance business is a crock, these companies make shitloads of money off everyone for years and years, and then when something like 9/11 happens they cry and moan to congress (despite the fact that in the end they still end up making a ton of money). It's a huge profit business driven by more executives and board-types. What we need are community insurance bureaus. Kind of like credit bureaus where the bureau revolves around some sort of organization (a university, a large company for its employees, etc). We have this sort of thing with health insurance, but as far as I can tell, we don't have it for vehicle or property insurance.
My insurance bill per year is nearly 1/2 the cost of my vehicle (I drive cheaper used vehicles) and my record is spotless other than 1 ticket (not a speeding ticket or anything, it was a technicality akin to a parking violation).
Actually, if you stay behind the leading edge a ways you can still play some of the latest games on a cheap video card. I bought a 128 MB card for $80 and used it for over 2 years before I started noticing slower frame rates at the resolutions I was using.
So, let me get this straight ... you are in support of taking money from the rich and giving it to the poor just because they're poor? What do they deserve that money for? What if I worked my ass off 18 hours per day 7 days a week for 10 years, risking my money and my life, to build a company from nothing, that ends up grossing me $300k / year? While some know-nothing moron worked a mundane job 8 hours per day 5 days per week for 10 years, earning $20k / year and spent the rest of his time sitting on his couch, watching TV, and scratching his ass?
So, for all my hardwork, sweat, blood, and tears, I should just roll over and hand the guy a ton of money for doing nothing? At best that's socialism, at worst it's communism. There's no other word for it, and it's a disgusting concept. Just like you said: "not everyone is equal" - if someone works their ass off to get somewhere while someone else sits like a bump on a log, they are not equal. And they don't deserve the same salary, the same benefits, the same toys, or anything other than the basic freedoms given to us by the constitution.
People like you are what's wrong with the world.
But it's mandatory insurance. Health insurance is optional. Currently I don't have health insurance, but that's my decision. If I get hit by a bus, it's tough luck, and I know that.
But complaining about anything over $90k not being taxed is complete bullshit. Because in the SS system, you don't get back what you pay in. What you get back in benefits is based on some convoluted formula, while what you pay in is a strict percentage. So if I make $1 million / year, the tax says I have to pay 15% into the system (just combining worker and employer tax for simplicity), which is $150k / year for me. If I continue to make $1 million / year until I retire, and then my investments bring in $500k / year after I retire, then the SS formula might say that I get nothing back in benefits because I already have enough. Let's see, what does this sound like? Communism anyone? Over my working life (let's say 40 years, from 25 to 65) I will have paid 40 * $150k = $6 million into the system while getting nothing back in benefits. That's complete and utter bullshit, and that's why a $90k cap makes sense.
In reality the whole SS system is complete bullshit today. The original purpose may have had good intentions while our country was still in a fledgling state, but with today's economies we do not need this system anymore. Anyone with half a brain can make safe investments with less money that you pay in SS tax, and end up with more money than you would get in benefits from SS. From tax incentives on IRAs to buying long term bonds and CDs, investing for retirement is a piece of cake. We don't need the government to do it for us.
Has anyone determined exactly what darkmatter is though? To me it sounds like simply matter that in its current state is not emiting any radiation. And, is not near a source that is emiting raiation of which the dark matter would reflect that radiation.
So basically, it's like a box in a dark room. If you look into that room, you don't see the box. But, if you shine a flashlight on it, the box will reflect that light back at you. Regular matter is the same thing, but there is a nearby radiation source (a lightbulb in the dark room), or the light matter is radiating on its own (the box itself is a lightbulb). The same applies to any other EM frequency, not just visible frequencies.
Unfortunately, the PDF is currently down, but I assume it says something similar to the email Foley sent to the Slashdot editors (which has been posted in the story since then). If this is true, then here is a summary of what he said:
1) Foley has licensed ROMs from many of the publishers.
2) Foley uses MAME and his licenses to offer gaming machines for sale.
3) Pirates do not have licensed ROMs from any of the publishers.
4) Pirates use MAME and the illegal ROMs to offer gaming machines for sale.
5) The Pirates' gaming machines are cheaper than Foley's and offer more games than Foley's.
6) To combat the Pirates' (illegal) competition, Foley is trademarking MAME.
While I can sympathize with Foley's concerns about Pirates freely distributing illegal ROMs, the simply fact of the matter is that he does NOT own MAME, has no affiliation to MAME, and has no right to take control of the MAME name, logo, or to trademark them. His application for the trademark is fraudulent. He indicates (in a vague fashion) that he does not intend to sue the creators of MAME, but then he goes on to say this:
This is simply UltraCade Technologies and other publishers doing whatever it takes to protect our commercial interests and prevent other companies from stealing our market by capitalizing on unlicensed games and selling products that only have value when coupled with illegally obtained games. (Bold emphasis mine.)
"... selling products that only have value when coupled with illegally obtained games." - Hold on there!!! So, if I want to sell a box loaded with MAME, you're going to come after me? Right now he seems to be targeting only those that provide "instructions" about how to get illegal ROMs. But as with everything else in the world
Just like a heroin addiction, right? What? I'm up at midnight reading slashdot when I have to get up at 5 am for work tomorrow? Damnit! Damnit! Damnit!
I doubt that.
20 % efficiency
1 m^2
200 w/m^2
6 sunlight hours per day
1200 kWh
At least a 10 year lifespawn
4,272,000 kWh to produce a 1 m^2 solar panel? Gimme a break.
In some places it may be a use tax, but in many places it simply is a cigarette tax. So whether you buy to not smoke or you buy to smoke, you still have to pay the tax. Having said that, Michigan is doing the right thing by not pursuing this criminally. They are just subjecting the users to back taxes. So you can just pay the taxes, or if you don't then the state will collect some of your assets and sell them to get the taxes. But if it's a bum on the street that has no assets, they aren't going to throw him in jail for not paying.
... not GWB's moronic republican ideology). The number of poor people (say less than $30k/house) who smoke is much higher than the number of not-poor people (say greater than $50k/house) who smoke. And these poor people are the same ones who use the public health care system the most. After a life spent smoking everyday, they end up costing the state (and fed) millions upon millions of dollars, of which they contributed very little to. So, the tax is there to collect some of the money back over their entire life. And even for some, the tax is high enough that they will give up smoking, which fixes the problem in a different and better way.
... and that's just bullshit.
As far as the tax itself, this is one tax I do support (this coming from a strict conservative who believes in a small federal government and separation of church and state
Remember, this isn't a restriction of someone's rights to do with their body whatever they please - like in the cause of marijuana, crack, etc. People can smoke all they want, we are just holding them accountable for their actions. They can't smoke their entire life and then cry "woe is me" when they end up in the hospital with emphysema and they want the state to pay for it. The same should apply to such things as marijuana. People should be able to smoke it if they want, but it should be heavily taxed. Perhaps if you ever smoked marijuana in your life, you should even be banned from using any state or fed medical services. Because in reality, it's the not-poor people who are paying for all the poor people's medical bills, even when the poor people purposefully hurt themselves everyday
He is actively engaged in an effort to build the planet's first orbiting space hotel. Bargain-basement room rate: $1 million a night.
The real question is what is a night? The 90 minute orbit in which the sun sets and rises for the module? Or a 24 hour period?
I was at the JPL facility in Pasadena last Fall (2004) and they had a 1/3 scale model of Bigelow's inflatable module on their largest shaker table. Now this wasn't a NASA project or anything, when JPL doesn't have a current project on deck they sell time on their shaker table and space chambers to industry companies. However, this would indicate that the modules are nearly ready for prime time because they're testing a full-up model. When I was talking to the director of the environmental labs I believe he said the 1/3 scale model was the largest they could fit on the shaker table, so they would be using that data to predict the full scale model's behavior. And really, the design of the modules is simplified and much of it is based on COTS aerospace technology. So, it should be pretty easy to get a module built successfully. The problem has always been getting the module into orbit and, once in orbit, getting people to and from the module. Both of these maneuvers are still extremely expensive.
Actually the idea is not dumb at all: charge people for what they use. In case you haven't realized yet, gas taxes pay for roads you use. The idea is simple: the more gas you use, the more road you have driven on, and the more the road needs repairs. So, we should be charging people by the mile (and perhaps by the weight of the vehicle, but since most passenger cars are similar in weight we'll skip that for now). So, if you drive 100 miles, you should pay $1 to the DOT. Whether that be in a Ford Taurus or a Honda Hybrid, you both damaged the road the same amount so you both should pay the same amount of tax. This description is simplified, and to really make it work, you definitely would need to include the weight of the vehicle (and perhaps number of axles, and number of tires/axle). Because a 3.5 ton (hauling capacity) truck definitely does more harm than a Geo or a motorcycle. Perhaps weight clases would work (0 to 1000 lbs, 1000 to 2000, etc).
Now, if the gas tax was used to clean the environment you would have an argument. Then, you should be charged by the gallon because it takes the same amount of work to refine 1 gallon for a Ford Taurus as it does 1 gallon for a Honda Hybrid. And the emissions from either are relatively similar (per gallon of gas, not miles driven since the Hybrids are more efficient in the first place).
Perhaps the gas tax should be split into 2 sections? Say 50% depends on how much gas you use (tax/gallon) and 50% depends on how many miles you drive (tax/mile). Again, only if the tax was used for environmental purposes.
It's so easy to cry "woe is me, they're punishing hybrid owners". When all they want is for you to pay for the roads you use. Under the current system, people with LESS efficient cars are actually the ones being punished. They pay more-per-mile in taxes than hybrid owners even though they both cause the same amount of damage.
Now, this has other implications because many people buy hybrids to save money on gas. A tax/mile would reduce the savings (from gas tax), but you would still save a lot (from the cost of the gas less the tax). So perhaps less people would buy hybrids, when we really want more people buying hybrids. I think the savings from the cost of the gas alone would still compel plenty of people to buy hybrids.
Our DARE officer from back in elementary school said it best: Just Say No.
Yeh, but nothing in the world is really honest. The dice you are throwing? Did anyone actually do the mass properties analysis to determine how much shallower the holes on the "six" side need to be than the holes on the "one" side? And how much less ink needs to be applied? For the dice to be perfectly symmetric in all dimensions, and for all moments of inertia to be exactly the same? And if they did do the analysis, did they do it right? And if they did do it right, was the production line able to produce it accurately out to the last (or infinite) significant digit? The problem is that nothing in the world is random, everything is biased in one way or another. The gates on that microchip to randomly select between 0 and 1 might be getting weak, I don't know. That pop can sitting on your desk ... it's not a perfect cylinder. The radius at the top is 1/100th of an inch smaller than the radius at the bottom. Etc Etc Etc
... I would have chucked it right back at his head for not applying the theory to the real world. Theory doesn't exist in the real world.
So if I had said that same thing in your professor's class and he pitched an eraser at me while quoting the theory
Hey, someone has to be an authoritative ass on some subjects. Otherwise we'd have millions of people running around thinking they know left from right when they are actually talking about red and blue. Oh wait, that's how it is today. Damn.
As one of my professors once said, and many others have alluded to in posts further up: nothing is random. The only way for the results of something to be truly random is to sample it to infinity. Since we are unable of doing that, we are always stopping our sampling at some point in time and thereby biasing the results. The bias will always show a result occuring more often than the other possible results. Well, it was something along those lines ... I believe he said it more eloquently.
And actually, this was the basis of this professor's grading scheme for the class. Never in all of his classes and his colleague's classes had he ever seen a true "bell-curve" distribution for a quiz, exam, homework, etc. The simple fact was that there always existed anomalies where 2, 3, or more "humps" existed depending on characteristics of the groups of students. Perhaps there had been an athletic meet the night before, so the group of students attending that meet represented a hump that had been shifted lower. Or perhaps the teaching assistant was friends with some of the students and the met the night before to study, so that group was shifted higher. And then you have the majority group that represented the larger hump. By trying to fit all of these individual trends under one larger trend, you artificially shift the grading scale for a certain group of students. For example, say there was one larger group and one smaller group shifted upwards from the larger group. By fitting them all under a single bell curve you artificially lower the larger group's scale to maintain the "typical" distribution. I believe he graded on a straight scale.