Nice bit of revisionist history. The USA never threatened to attack North Korea, we just said we would stop sending fuel and food if they continued to develop nukes. North Korea actually agreed to stop developing nukes and then continued developing them anyways. As far as terrorism is concerned, North Korea has engaged in this type of activity. Kidnapping of civilians (ask the Japanese about this), dispatching covert squads to kill South Korean politicians, not to mention a recent torpedo incident.
The North Vietnamese did similar things during the Vietnam War, including signing armistices and then promptly breaking them.
Your post is what passes for insightful on slashdot.
Both of my daughters get regular vacinations, intelligent design is laughable and I wouldn't object to a firing squad for the 9/11 opportunists. And yet I find most of AGW alarmism nonsensical. It doesn't take 300 or 3000 scientists to prove a point and yet that is the main proof that continually gets offered.
It is a shame that so much of what passes for science these days is starting at the conclusion and looking for supporting data. That's not science, that's a recipe for self-delusion. Compounding matters is the corruption of the peer review process by allowing submitters to select or have access to their reviewers and allowing editors to block the publication of papers that don't agree with their conclusions. You can shout down your opponents all you want, but it won't win any debates.
For me, it boils down to two simple questions that have not been answered:
What causes the Ice Ages? Don't spout Milankovitch cycles or tell me that it is well understood, because if it was, we would know when the next one is due and we don't. Given that we don't know what causes Ice Ages, how can you tell me we understand climate. Ice Ages are the dominate signature in the earths climate history. The last decade or two are just noise.
Will global warming delay the next Ice Age? If it does, isn't that a good thing? Of all the scary "could happen" scenarios with global warming, I don't see anything nearly as bad as what will happen when the next Ice Age hits. Given the political and economic climate around the world, long term mitigation appears to be winning out over self immolation.
Major League Baseball attracts the best talent from the entire world. Japan has a Professional Baseball League, but the best players still come to the US to play in the Majors. Japanese players that come into the league are considered rookies, the same as some one coming up from Scranton AAA (minor league).
The same could be said about the NBA or the MLH. I'm sure there are enthusiasts for Russian Hockey or Italian Basketball, but try finding results in your local paper.
Here is my algorithm, starting with the final...
If (team.name = "brazil")
Losses = 0;
Goto End; If (team.name = "germany")
Losses = 1;
Goto End;...
I can't argue with the attach rate, we own 2 Wii games and that includes Wii sports. However, the Wii is a great game machine for lots of people who would otherwise not have any game machine. For my family, it is something we do together and that is pretty amazing. Even the wife enjoys playing it. Is the hardware underpowered for what it was intended? Not at all. The things you cite as lacking are things that aren't important for what the Wii was intended.
Anywhile, attach rate is not something that gamers should care about and it is certainly nothing that Nintendo should care about. Lack of attach rate hasn't stopped companies from developing for it.
You should read Hyperion by Dan Simmons.
An argument is made that Abraham was testing God as much as God was testing Abraham. I won't rehash all the details but it is an interesting read and certainly will make you think.
You should also watch the Godfellas episode of Futurama. Good stuff.
I'm not a christian, jew or muslim, but somehow the uncomfortable truth on slashdot gets labelled troll. I have karma to burn and I also had mod points, but every time this happens (a story about Islam turned into a Christian hate fest), I wonder what Freud would have thought.
I don't hate any religions, I hate some of the followers and some of the practices, but then the same could be true of atheists, like most of the people turning this discussion of "Draw Mohammed Day" into "I have Mommy issues and she was a Christian" or what ever your problem is. Some of the atheists here are more dangerously deranged then the majority of people who think there might be a god somewhere, somehow.
One of the unwritten rules of Slashdot is that every discussion of Islam must be turned into a Christian hate fest. The same logic does not apply to stories about Christians but who would ever think about asking for balance from zealots. It is intellectually dishonest and bad logic to boot, but don't let that stop you.
Maybe settlement was too strong a word, but there are structures that have been revealed by retreating ice. Even the Sandnes farm you mention was preserved by permafrost. I'm sure it wasn't permafrost when they were actually farming there.
Typical that you would so casually ignore 90% of my post and then rebut with photos of settlement not covered by ice to prove some pedantic nonsense? I never said they were all under ice or that even a significant percentage are under ice, so I don't see how that helps this discussion at all.
"however it has been demonstrated time and again that they were regional anomolies"
That is propaganda and was completely ridiculous when the first 'scientist' thought it up. It's about as smart as the 'Greenland isn't really green' argument. We all know that, but there are settlements that are still under ice that weren't during the MWP. The most you could have said was that there was no data to support a global MWP and RWP, however even that is no longer valid. How many other regions have to show the same warming before you will admit that there have been global warm periods in the past? Or did it just happen to warm in China, South America, North America, Indonesia and the Northern Hemisphere at the same time? And why do the MWP and RWP offend so many AGWers? I have a hard time believing predictions about the future from people who can't get the past right.
It is the same with the hockey stick. I'm sure from your repeating of the AGW line that the hockey stick is also a proven fact in your mind, despite nature not cooperating with your facts.
I could just as well have put "an ice free arctic" or "global sea level rise" instead of "the hockey stick" in that last paragraph and it would still be a valid criticism. The arctic is recovering and sea levels are not rising any faster then they did in the past.
The idea that there are only positive feedbacks is completely ludicrous. Try to get a consensus on when the next ice age is going to occur or whether CO2 is hastening or delaying it. You can't have an ice age without negative feedback or admitting there are external forces which govern climate that are more powerful then the trace amounts of CO2 in the atmosphere. Don't you find it odd that ice ages have occurred during times of increased CO2?
If we were talking about Venus, I would heartily agree that CO2 is a prime factor in climate. But we aren't talking about Venus.
Which really explains the need for this 'open' letter, which just happens to be hidden behind a pay wall.
As an adamant supporter of the Scientific method, I have to wonder why so many in the AGW camp are not concerned that data and methods have been lost. I'm also more than a little puzzled about how peer review became friend review for AGW supporters and fiend review for any doubters. Call me old fashioned, but I liked the IPCC report more when it still showed the MWP and RWP. If AGW is correct, why the need to change the temperature records? Weren't past IPCC reports peer reviewed (back when peer review maybe meant something)?
I think if you check around, you can buy windows from a great variety of places. I know, without even looking, that Frys and Amazon sell lots of different versions of it in different colored boxes. I know this was true not too long ago, but Dell and HP both sold machines that come with windows and if you let them install some trial software they would cover the cost themselves.
Just FYI...
I would add a few things to the scientific misconduct list:
Publishing results and allowing others to use those results when the original data has been destroyed and the results can not be independently verified. This is especially heinous as the CRU was long regarded as the gold standard of temperature reconstructions and is the foundation for much of AGW theory.
Suppressing past temperature reconstructions and studies that show the medieval and roman warm periods. Look at past IPCC reports and you will clearly see both the MWP and the RWP represented. This is a clear example of how perverted this 'science' has become. A few bad apples at the top clearly acted in concert to subvert the truth that these were global phenomenon.
The worst bit of scientific misconduct is declaring that the science is settled. If climate science is settled, then perhaps an AGW supporter can tell me when the next Ice Age is coming. Not sure, what, that's not part of climate science? How about answering whether man-made CO2 has delayed the next Ice Age or whether it is hastening it. I've heard both from supposedly consensual scientists.
Here is an easy question, which would be worse for mankind, global warming or global freezing?
More unsubstantiated hear say to go along with all of the other whispers about Sarah and her family.
So basically a home up for sale was broken into by 3 adult boys, some underage boys and some underage girls. A party occurred and some damage was done. When caught, all of the boys blame one of the underage girls, whose mother just happens to be the ex-governor of the state. The ex-governor then starts calling in favors, intimidating the other parents and calling secret meetings with state officials to cover up her daughter's crime.
Or at least, that's what 1 blogger says happened and another blogger has decided must be the truth.
You should print up a 'Citizen of the World' passport or better yet a UFP ID card. Then you can laminate your 'basic human rights' on another card and hand those to the JP next time they stop you. I'm sure they will admire your brave stand against the indignity "of having to remember one's precious papers whenever leaving the house". You decry the psychological burden of your situation but fail to recognize the psychological trauma of having to enforce such arbitrary and fascist laws.
One solution is to limit yourself to Disney World Japan. You may need to stick to fantasy land or the world of tomorrow.
Not true. The headline for this article says that the UEA were exonerated and I don't believe it at all.
As I said when climategate first started, this is only the beginning of the end. There is much more that has come out recently and there will be more in the future. You'll know when the end is near when the RWP, MWP and LIA are restored in the climate history. It was pure hubris that removed them from the record. I'm sure most of the climate scientists would like things to go back to 2008, a banner year to be sure, but if you want to repack an opened can of worms, you're going to need a bigger can.
Glad to see that almost no one is using the term 'climate change' anymore. There is nothing to be ashamed about when using the term 'global warming', if that is what you believe in.
The barbarians that conquered Europe after the fall of Rome were not beatnik pacifists. Christianity was a huge improvement over the belief system that the hordes were practicing at the time, which allowed them to plunder, pillage and rape with no bad feelings at all.
Contrast that to Islam where plunder, pillage and rape is still okay so long as it is against non-Muslims.
It certainly is a shame that so many slashdotters were molested by priests (the only reason I can see for the anti-christian hostility on display), but that doesn't excuse distorting history and turning every story about Islam into an anti-christian hate fest. What kind of argument is "but the christians did bad things also". A bad argument to be sure.
Those $600 desktops that you built a few years ago are now worth $100 each. If they were capable of handling software development a few years ago, they should still be able to handle software development.
Saddam Hussein held elections, didn't make him the democratically elected leader of Iraq. Iran also has elections, but to be a candidate you have to get approval from the ruling elites. Hamas on the other hand threw their opponents off the top of buildings and even massacred whole families after they won.
Still, I think the study is flawed. It is more likely that smokers answered enough questions to "pass", filled in the rest as quickly as possible and left to go have a cigarette. I remember taking the pre-enlistment test and the week of testing during boot camp. Both are a pain and are a test of patience as much as anything. The phrase 'hurry up and wait' comes to mind and the too close face of a drill sgt screaming at recruits to stay off his grass. Fun times.
Don't know what it says about my IQ, but I had the highest score for my entire Company, including the Major.
The missing link here is that the study gives people large doses of ketamine to produce a similar experience but I'm not aware of ketamine being produced by the body. If the body does produce ketamine during NDEs, then they might be on to something, but without that, I don't see the science here. It's more like a bunch of religiously challenged people reinforcing their own world view that they are right and more importantly that religious people are superstitious nimrods.
There is nothing inherently wrong with that, but it aint science. You have to be extra self critical when starting from the hypothesis side. If you have strange data, then you can have all kinds of wild hypothesis. If you have a single hypothesis, you better have lots of data.
Slashdot Mirror
And security, don't forget how much more secure the blackberry is. Why do you think repressive governments don't like them?
Also, blackberries use less network resources then other phones. Kind of nice if you have a data limited plan.
Call quality on the blackberry is always exceptional.
Battery life is pretty good, compared to other smart phones.
So except for the keyboards, enterprise software, security, network compression, call quality and battery life, Blackberries are just average.
Nice bit of revisionist history. The USA never threatened to attack North Korea, we just said we would stop sending fuel and food if they continued to develop nukes. North Korea actually agreed to stop developing nukes and then continued developing them anyways. As far as terrorism is concerned, North Korea has engaged in this type of activity. Kidnapping of civilians (ask the Japanese about this), dispatching covert squads to kill South Korean politicians, not to mention a recent torpedo incident.
The North Vietnamese did similar things during the Vietnam War, including signing armistices and then promptly breaking them.
Your post is what passes for insightful on slashdot.
Both of my daughters get regular vacinations, intelligent design is laughable and I wouldn't object to a firing squad for the 9/11 opportunists. And yet I find most of AGW alarmism nonsensical. It doesn't take 300 or 3000 scientists to prove a point and yet that is the main proof that continually gets offered. It is a shame that so much of what passes for science these days is starting at the conclusion and looking for supporting data. That's not science, that's a recipe for self-delusion. Compounding matters is the corruption of the peer review process by allowing submitters to select or have access to their reviewers and allowing editors to block the publication of papers that don't agree with their conclusions. You can shout down your opponents all you want, but it won't win any debates. For me, it boils down to two simple questions that have not been answered: What causes the Ice Ages? Don't spout Milankovitch cycles or tell me that it is well understood, because if it was, we would know when the next one is due and we don't. Given that we don't know what causes Ice Ages, how can you tell me we understand climate. Ice Ages are the dominate signature in the earths climate history. The last decade or two are just noise. Will global warming delay the next Ice Age? If it does, isn't that a good thing? Of all the scary "could happen" scenarios with global warming, I don't see anything nearly as bad as what will happen when the next Ice Age hits. Given the political and economic climate around the world, long term mitigation appears to be winning out over self immolation.
Major League Baseball attracts the best talent from the entire world. Japan has a Professional Baseball League, but the best players still come to the US to play in the Majors. Japanese players that come into the league are considered rookies, the same as some one coming up from Scranton AAA (minor league).
The same could be said about the NBA or the MLH. I'm sure there are enthusiasts for Russian Hockey or Italian Basketball, but try finding results in your local paper.
Here is my algorithm, starting with the final...
If (team.name = "brazil") ...
Losses = 0;
Goto End;
If (team.name = "germany")
Losses = 1;
Goto End;
Slavery existed under British rule. It was a problem inherited by the nation, not a value it was founded upon.
Why does the rest of the world continue to believe that slavery started in the USA after the revolution? Are you really that ignorant.
I can't argue with the attach rate, we own 2 Wii games and that includes Wii sports. However, the Wii is a great game machine for lots of people who would otherwise not have any game machine. For my family, it is something we do together and that is pretty amazing. Even the wife enjoys playing it. Is the hardware underpowered for what it was intended? Not at all. The things you cite as lacking are things that aren't important for what the Wii was intended.
Anywhile, attach rate is not something that gamers should care about and it is certainly nothing that Nintendo should care about. Lack of attach rate hasn't stopped companies from developing for it.
You should read Hyperion by Dan Simmons. An argument is made that Abraham was testing God as much as God was testing Abraham. I won't rehash all the details but it is an interesting read and certainly will make you think. You should also watch the Godfellas episode of Futurama. Good stuff.
I'm not a christian, jew or muslim, but somehow the uncomfortable truth on slashdot gets labelled troll. I have karma to burn and I also had mod points, but every time this happens (a story about Islam turned into a Christian hate fest), I wonder what Freud would have thought.
I don't hate any religions, I hate some of the followers and some of the practices, but then the same could be true of atheists, like most of the people turning this discussion of "Draw Mohammed Day" into "I have Mommy issues and she was a Christian" or what ever your problem is. Some of the atheists here are more dangerously deranged then the majority of people who think there might be a god somewhere, somehow.
One of the unwritten rules of Slashdot is that every discussion of Islam must be turned into a Christian hate fest. The same logic does not apply to stories about Christians but who would ever think about asking for balance from zealots. It is intellectually dishonest and bad logic to boot, but don't let that stop you.
Maybe settlement was too strong a word, but there are structures that have been revealed by retreating ice. Even the Sandnes farm you mention was preserved by permafrost. I'm sure it wasn't permafrost when they were actually farming there.
Typical that you would so casually ignore 90% of my post and then rebut with photos of settlement not covered by ice to prove some pedantic nonsense? I never said they were all under ice or that even a significant percentage are under ice, so I don't see how that helps this discussion at all.
"however it has been demonstrated time and again that they were regional anomolies"
That is propaganda and was completely ridiculous when the first 'scientist' thought it up. It's about as smart as the 'Greenland isn't really green' argument. We all know that, but there are settlements that are still under ice that weren't during the MWP. The most you could have said was that there was no data to support a global MWP and RWP, however even that is no longer valid. How many other regions have to show the same warming before you will admit that there have been global warm periods in the past? Or did it just happen to warm in China, South America, North America, Indonesia and the Northern Hemisphere at the same time? And why do the MWP and RWP offend so many AGWers? I have a hard time believing predictions about the future from people who can't get the past right.
It is the same with the hockey stick. I'm sure from your repeating of the AGW line that the hockey stick is also a proven fact in your mind, despite nature not cooperating with your facts.
I could just as well have put "an ice free arctic" or "global sea level rise" instead of "the hockey stick" in that last paragraph and it would still be a valid criticism. The arctic is recovering and sea levels are not rising any faster then they did in the past.
The idea that there are only positive feedbacks is completely ludicrous. Try to get a consensus on when the next ice age is going to occur or whether CO2 is hastening or delaying it. You can't have an ice age without negative feedback or admitting there are external forces which govern climate that are more powerful then the trace amounts of CO2 in the atmosphere. Don't you find it odd that ice ages have occurred during times of increased CO2?
If we were talking about Venus, I would heartily agree that CO2 is a prime factor in climate. But we aren't talking about Venus.
Which really explains the need for this 'open' letter, which just happens to be hidden behind a pay wall.
As an adamant supporter of the Scientific method, I have to wonder why so many in the AGW camp are not concerned that data and methods have been lost. I'm also more than a little puzzled about how peer review became friend review for AGW supporters and fiend review for any doubters. Call me old fashioned, but I liked the IPCC report more when it still showed the MWP and RWP. If AGW is correct, why the need to change the temperature records? Weren't past IPCC reports peer reviewed (back when peer review maybe meant something)?
I think if you check around, you can buy windows from a great variety of places. I know, without even looking, that Frys and Amazon sell lots of different versions of it in different colored boxes. I know this was true not too long ago, but Dell and HP both sold machines that come with windows and if you let them install some trial software they would cover the cost themselves. Just FYI...
You hate them because they patched a bug in their software? Something might be wrong with your hardware.
I would add a few things to the scientific misconduct list:
Publishing results and allowing others to use those results when the original data has been destroyed and the results can not be independently verified. This is especially heinous as the CRU was long regarded as the gold standard of temperature reconstructions and is the foundation for much of AGW theory.
Suppressing past temperature reconstructions and studies that show the medieval and roman warm periods. Look at past IPCC reports and you will clearly see both the MWP and the RWP represented. This is a clear example of how perverted this 'science' has become. A few bad apples at the top clearly acted in concert to subvert the truth that these were global phenomenon.
The worst bit of scientific misconduct is declaring that the science is settled. If climate science is settled, then perhaps an AGW supporter can tell me when the next Ice Age is coming. Not sure, what, that's not part of climate science? How about answering whether man-made CO2 has delayed the next Ice Age or whether it is hastening it. I've heard both from supposedly consensual scientists.
Here is an easy question, which would be worse for mankind, global warming or global freezing?
More unsubstantiated hear say to go along with all of the other whispers about Sarah and her family.
So basically a home up for sale was broken into by 3 adult boys, some underage boys and some underage girls. A party occurred and some damage was done. When caught, all of the boys blame one of the underage girls, whose mother just happens to be the ex-governor of the state. The ex-governor then starts calling in favors, intimidating the other parents and calling secret meetings with state officials to cover up her daughter's crime.
Or at least, that's what 1 blogger says happened and another blogger has decided must be the truth.
Sorry, but color me not convinced.
You should print up a 'Citizen of the World' passport or better yet a UFP ID card. Then you can laminate your 'basic human rights' on another card and hand those to the JP next time they stop you. I'm sure they will admire your brave stand against the indignity "of having to remember one's precious papers whenever leaving the house". You decry the psychological burden of your situation but fail to recognize the psychological trauma of having to enforce such arbitrary and fascist laws.
One solution is to limit yourself to Disney World Japan. You may need to stick to fantasy land or the world of tomorrow.
Not true. The headline for this article says that the UEA were exonerated and I don't believe it at all.
As I said when climategate first started, this is only the beginning of the end. There is much more that has come out recently and there will be more in the future. You'll know when the end is near when the RWP, MWP and LIA are restored in the climate history. It was pure hubris that removed them from the record. I'm sure most of the climate scientists would like things to go back to 2008, a banner year to be sure, but if you want to repack an opened can of worms, you're going to need a bigger can.
Glad to see that almost no one is using the term 'climate change' anymore. There is nothing to be ashamed about when using the term 'global warming', if that is what you believe in.
The barbarians that conquered Europe after the fall of Rome were not beatnik pacifists. Christianity was a huge improvement over the belief system that the hordes were practicing at the time, which allowed them to plunder, pillage and rape with no bad feelings at all.
Contrast that to Islam where plunder, pillage and rape is still okay so long as it is against non-Muslims.
It certainly is a shame that so many slashdotters were molested by priests (the only reason I can see for the anti-christian hostility on display), but that doesn't excuse distorting history and turning every story about Islam into an anti-christian hate fest. What kind of argument is "but the christians did bad things also". A bad argument to be sure.
EMACS is great and you could post a long list of accolades, but 'top selling' wouldn't be one of them.
Those $600 desktops that you built a few years ago are now worth $100 each. If they were capable of handling software development a few years ago, they should still be able to handle software development.
If it was a German camera it would have gone Klink?
Saddam Hussein held elections, didn't make him the democratically elected leader of Iraq. Iran also has elections, but to be a candidate you have to get approval from the ruling elites. Hamas on the other hand threw their opponents off the top of buildings and even massacred whole families after they won.
To recap, elections != democracy...
Still, I think the study is flawed. It is more likely that smokers answered enough questions to "pass", filled in the rest as quickly as possible and left to go have a cigarette. I remember taking the pre-enlistment test and the week of testing during boot camp. Both are a pain and are a test of patience as much as anything. The phrase 'hurry up and wait' comes to mind and the too close face of a drill sgt screaming at recruits to stay off his grass. Fun times.
Don't know what it says about my IQ, but I had the highest score for my entire Company, including the Major.
The missing link here is that the study gives people large doses of ketamine to produce a similar experience but I'm not aware of ketamine being produced by the body. If the body does produce ketamine during NDEs, then they might be on to something, but without that, I don't see the science here. It's more like a bunch of religiously challenged people reinforcing their own world view that they are right and more importantly that religious people are superstitious nimrods.
There is nothing inherently wrong with that, but it aint science. You have to be extra self critical when starting from the hypothesis side. If you have strange data, then you can have all kinds of wild hypothesis. If you have a single hypothesis, you better have lots of data.