America does less science research per capita than do many of the European nations, especially the countries that Rightwingers love to call "socialist"
This is based on citations-per-capita. There is a big question whether citations-per-capita or articles-per-capita really translates to "science per capita".
The US has as many Ph.D.'s per 1,000 population as France, the UK, and even the EU in general. And the US has more full-time researchers per 1,000 population than any EU country or the EU as a whole. Only Japan has more researchers per 1,000 population than the US, but they have fewer Ph.D.'s per 1,000 population than the US.
The US contains 5% of the world's population but consumes 25% of the world's resources.
Not sure what your exact definition of "resources" is, but one should remember that the US produces 25% of global GDP - that is, 25% of the worlds goods and services.
Looking at pollution, CO2 emmissions per dollar of US GDP have been steadilly decreasing for 50 years. On the other hand, CO2 emmissions per capita in the US (and the UK) have held pretty steady, despite significant increases in GDP per capita.
Between 6500 and 3500 B.C. (the "Holocene Maximum"), earth average temperature was much 62 F, much warmer than today, and close to what global warming models project for the Earth by 2100.
The most striking fact is that it was during this period that the Agricultural Revolution began in the Middle East, laying the foundation for civilization.
The crossover point between Ku-distributed content and terrestrial today is at the level of 20-30 receive sites.
Of course, some movie theater locations may be much farther from a major terrestrial POP, and local loop can add up.
Terrestrial costs are going down, but satellite modulation techniques are allowing more bits per hertz at the same time.
I'm currently working on a 180 receive site system for MPEG-2 based television show file distribution. Satellite blows terrestrial away for this application.
I like the part about how we grew food before pesticides. Yes, but then again, back then, there were a lot of hungry people. Also the US had LESS forested land then because of the need for more farmland.
I much rather invest $10,000 in an diversified stock index fund today than in bonds if I want to take that money out in 40 years. If I want to take it out in 1 year, I would put it in bonds.
Another issue: if a stock index fund does not have a strong return over 40 years, the economy, as a result, will be so screwed up that the government won't be able to tax people to come up with the money anyway...
Also newer DTV receivers perform MUCH better than old ones. The "Fifth Generation" receivers can use signal multipath to enhance reception, rather than reduce it.
720p vs. 1080i is a religious issue more than anything else. Some DTV stations multicast 1080i HD with an SD channel as well.
A lot of public television stations are adopting multicast because they feel it is the best way to serve the public. Especially in a time with limited HD production, many are doing up to 4 channel multicasts during the day, including dedicated Kids and Adult Learning channels, and switching to HD-only or 1 HD/1 SD at night.
For a while there was a "simulcast requirement" on DTV that mandated stations without expensive HD encoders or upconverters had to run SD simulcasts or their analog signal. This is going away soon though.
Re:And long may it continue
on
Ceefax Turns 30
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· Score: 2, Informative
CBS initially did not participate in EIA-608 (line 21) closed captioning because CBS wanted to use teletext technology instead of line 21 for captioning, which resulted in active protest against CBS by the deaf community. In 1984, CBS relented.
PAL teletext data is digitally encoded in the VBI on lines 17 through 20 at 96 kbps.
Evidently VHS users in Britain can obtain some VHS movies with line 21 captions re-encoded onto line 22 of the PAL VBI. But generally you need an add-on decoder.
BTW, while NTSC line 21 field 1 is used for Closed Captions, line 21 field 2 is used for V-Chip and the XDS service that can automagically set your VCR clock.
The real-time HD encoders used in the broadcast world cost around $50,000. It is a tough job to squish 1.2 Gbps down to under 20 Mbps and make it look good.
Even the lamest quality HD MPEG-2 encoders on the HDV prosumer camcorders are at least several hundred dollars.
I used to be pretty hard-core in the Libertarian Party, even presenting tens of thousands of signatures to the Commission on Presidential Debates to get the LP candidate in the debates.
While I think the LP is a bit ideologic for general consumption, and has no chance of electing a presidential candidate, I support local candidate efforts.
The LP misses on some key economic issues - 1) A gold standard is more volatile than the modern Fed, plus in some ways an inflation-sensitive Fed policy is equivalent to a diversified commodity basket anyway and 2) There are real "commons" infrastructure issues that are key to developing economies that cannot be ignored (but these don't involve 90% of current government spending.)
Regardless, I find myself unable to swallow voting for the much lamer candidates (Bush, Kerry, Nader) on the ballot...
My wife (with a rare health condition) surives on a drug that due to FDA-meddling is illegal to prescribe in the US.
Fortunately, it is available in most of the rest of the planet, and it can be ordered over the Net.
I'm willing to compromise. FDA safety regulations can stay. The tight FDA effectiveness requirements (which always tie into specific diseases and specific pre-determined effects) should be voluntary.
The lowest bid, in this case, will be done by the nurses who most need the extra hours. They may or may not be the lowest quality. They may have more children to feed, or need more money to advance their education.
I dare to stand against the prevailing mythos of anti-corporatism and say that this is an economically efficient solution for nurses who want overtime and hospitals who are often in financial distress, not to mention keeping all of our health care costs lower.
Well, the article says "Dr. Sarpeshkar expects the chip to be available commercially within two years." So I guess we will see in 2006 if some real useful product is built with analog neuromorphic chips. I'd be happy to see such a thing. But I doubt it...
I am co-inventor on an analog VLSI cochlear model patent (that has since run out...) We talked with hearing aid and cochlear implant companies, but at the time they said they were happy to use standard analog filter technology (op-amps and R/C) in their devices, and didn't see a need to change it.
Less cynically, I knew a lot of people who dropped out of college (high school in some instances) to become router jocks. Now, mind you, these people often became very experienced router jocks, but they never had a full level of exposure to CS/IT theory as you would in college. They can't really change with the times effectively.
However, I should say that they are all employed now. Some are selling mortgages, but others have snuck back in to networking.
So far, analog neuromorphic VLSI has hit a dead-end in terms of real applications. Also digital signal processing has been speeding up to the point where it can go almost as fast as a lot of the parallel analog models.
The one exception is that the work on analog retina models lead to the development of the Foveon X3 technology, which is just packing R,G, and B CMOS sensors into a single vertical column on a chip. But again, the neuromorphic part of the retina model is not the X3 technology, the X3 technology is stacking CMOS sensors.
Analog neuromorphic VLSI did have one big result, the electrical engineers managed to teach the biologists a lot about signal processing, and the cross-pollination of this knowledge has lead to discoveries such as ripple analysis in auditory cortex.
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America does less science research per capita than do many of the European nations, especially the countries that Rightwingers love to call "socialist"
This is based on citations-per-capita. There is a big question whether citations-per-capita or articles-per-capita really translates to "science per capita".
The US has as many Ph.D.'s per 1,000 population as France, the UK, and even the EU in general. And the US has more full-time researchers per 1,000 population than any EU country or the EU as a whole. Only Japan has more researchers per 1,000 population than the US, but they have fewer Ph.D.'s per 1,000 population than the US.
The US contains 5% of the world's population but consumes 25% of the world's resources.
Not sure what your exact definition of "resources" is, but one should remember that the US produces 25% of global GDP - that is, 25% of the worlds goods and services.
Looking at pollution, CO2 emmissions per dollar of US GDP have been steadilly decreasing for 50 years. On the other hand, CO2 emmissions per capita in the US (and the UK) have held pretty steady, despite significant increases in GDP per capita.
The Oxbridge CO2/GDP Analysis has some more data.
Between 6500 and 3500 B.C. (the "Holocene Maximum"), earth average temperature was much 62 F, much warmer than today, and close to what global warming models project for the Earth by 2100.
The most striking fact is that it was during this period that the Agricultural Revolution began in the Middle East, laying the foundation for civilization.
The crossover point between Ku-distributed content and terrestrial today is at the level of 20-30 receive sites.
Of course, some movie theater locations may be much farther from a major terrestrial POP, and local loop can add up.
Terrestrial costs are going down, but satellite modulation techniques are allowing more bits per hertz at the same time.
I'm currently working on a 180 receive site system for MPEG-2 based television show file distribution. Satellite blows terrestrial away for this application.
I like the part about how we grew food before pesticides. Yes, but then again, back then, there were a lot of hungry people. Also the US had LESS forested land then because of the need for more farmland.
Amen, brother! The world will be a much better place when the Indian GDP per capita is equivalent to the US one.
[THIS IS NOT A QUESTION]
While stocks are risky in the short term, their risk over time is much less. Examine the Historical Behavior of Asset Returns.
I much rather invest $10,000 in an diversified stock index fund today than in bonds if I want to take that money out in 40 years. If I want to take it out in 1 year, I would put it in bonds.
Another issue: if a stock index fund does not have a strong return over 40 years, the economy, as a result, will be so screwed up that the government won't be able to tax people to come up with the money anyway...
Also newer DTV receivers perform MUCH better than old ones. The "Fifth Generation" receivers can use signal multipath to enhance reception, rather than reduce it.
720p vs. 1080i is a religious issue more than anything else. Some DTV stations multicast 1080i HD with an SD channel as well.
A lot of public television stations are adopting multicast because they feel it is the best way to serve the public. Especially in a time with limited HD production, many are doing up to 4 channel multicasts during the day, including dedicated Kids and Adult Learning channels, and switching to HD-only or 1 HD/1 SD at night.
For a while there was a "simulcast requirement" on DTV that mandated stations without expensive HD encoders or upconverters had to run SD simulcasts or their analog signal. This is going away soon though.
CBS initially did not participate in EIA-608 (line 21) closed captioning because CBS wanted to use teletext technology instead of line 21 for captioning, which resulted in active protest against CBS by the deaf community. In 1984, CBS relented.
PAL teletext data is digitally encoded in the VBI on lines 17 through 20 at 96 kbps.
Evidently VHS users in Britain can obtain some VHS movies with line 21 captions re-encoded onto line 22 of the PAL VBI. But generally you need an add-on decoder.
BTW, while NTSC line 21 field 1 is used for Closed Captions, line 21 field 2 is used for V-Chip and the XDS service that can automagically set your VCR clock.
In August the three-month annualized increases for the CPI and core CPI were 1.3 percent and 1 percent, respectively.
The real-time HD encoders used in the broadcast world cost around $50,000. It is a tough job to squish 1.2 Gbps down to under 20 Mbps and make it look good.
Even the lamest quality HD MPEG-2 encoders on the HDV prosumer camcorders are at least several hundred dollars.
Yeah, but serving out static content is not a challenge...granted, your eCommerce operations were probably impressive.
If you are looking for scalable OSS solutions, also look into Zope with Zope Enterprise Objects (ZEO).
I used to be pretty hard-core in the Libertarian Party, even presenting tens of thousands of signatures to the Commission on Presidential Debates to get the LP candidate in the debates.
While I think the LP is a bit ideologic for general consumption, and has no chance of electing a presidential candidate, I support local candidate efforts.
The LP misses on some key economic issues - 1) A gold standard is more volatile than the modern Fed, plus in some ways an inflation-sensitive Fed policy is equivalent to a diversified commodity basket anyway and 2) There are real "commons" infrastructure issues that are key to developing economies that cannot be ignored (but these don't involve 90% of current government spending.)
Regardless, I find myself unable to swallow voting for the much lamer candidates (Bush, Kerry, Nader) on the ballot...
My wife (with a rare health condition) surives on a drug that due to FDA-meddling is illegal to prescribe in the US.
Fortunately, it is available in most of the rest of the planet, and it can be ordered over the Net.
I'm willing to compromise. FDA safety regulations can stay. The tight FDA effectiveness requirements (which always tie into specific diseases and specific pre-determined effects) should be voluntary.
Economic efficiency is when the value consumers place on a good or service equals the cost of the resources used in production.
The lowest bid, in this case, will be done by the nurses who most need the extra hours. They may or may not be the lowest quality. They may have more children to feed, or need more money to advance their education.
Suggestion: get skilled
Come now, nursing is regulated by the government, do you not trust the government to ensure that nurses have appropriate skills & training?
I dare to stand against the prevailing mythos of anti-corporatism and say that this is an economically efficient solution for nurses who want overtime and hospitals who are often in financial distress, not to mention keeping all of our health care costs lower.
Well, the article says "Dr. Sarpeshkar expects the chip to be available commercially within two years." So I guess we will see in 2006 if some real useful product is built with analog neuromorphic chips. I'd be happy to see such a thing. But I doubt it...
I am co-inventor on an analog VLSI cochlear model patent (that has since run out...) We talked with hearing aid and cochlear implant companies, but at the time they said they were happy to use standard analog filter technology (op-amps and R/C) in their devices, and didn't see a need to change it.
So much for .NET managed code being safe. I suppose it is - if .NET itself is safe!
Less cynically, I knew a lot of people who dropped out of college (high school in some instances) to become router jocks. Now, mind you, these people often became very experienced router jocks, but they never had a full level of exposure to CS/IT theory as you would in college. They can't really change with the times effectively.
However, I should say that they are all employed now. Some are selling mortgages, but others have snuck back in to networking.
So far, analog neuromorphic VLSI has hit a dead-end in terms of real applications. Also digital signal processing has been speeding up to the point where it can go almost as fast as a lot of the parallel analog models.
The one exception is that the work on analog retina models lead to the development of the Foveon X3 technology, which is just packing R,G, and B CMOS sensors into a single vertical column on a chip. But again, the neuromorphic part of the retina model is not the X3 technology, the X3 technology is stacking CMOS sensors.
Analog neuromorphic VLSI did have one big result, the electrical engineers managed to teach the biologists a lot about signal processing, and the cross-pollination of this knowledge has lead to discoveries such as ripple analysis in auditory cortex.