Is there anyone here who, upon receiving spam, remarks to themselves, "Ah, yes, free speech is not dead. I'm glad that - although I personally could care less about replica watches or increasing the size of my body parts - that somewhere, someone out there is free to send such materials to my inbox. USA! USA! USA!"
No, I'm not gladdened by the sight of spam in my inbox. BUT...I'm also not terribly offended by it - I mark it as spam, train my spam filter, and continue without a second thought. It's just not worth getting excited about.
*But*, the government absolutely fucked up by letting F&F get so big... having such a large single point of failure in the economy was absolutely ridiculous.
What's really bad is that Freddie Mac was created by the government so that Fannie Mae would have some competition and not grow so large. Alas, there's something about knowing that if you screw up the taxpayers will pay to cover up your mistakes that inclines CEO's of both organizations to play fast and loose with their accounting.
And if it ever became a problem, just use a big slingshot (or whatever) to hurl it off in the general direction of the sun.. the only reason we dont do this with nuclear waste now is that the cost-to-orbit sucks, but for a reactor on the moon or already in space, most of the cost is absorbed already.
No. Delta-V to drop something into the Sun from the moon is on the order of 24000 m/s. Delta-V to drop something into the Sun from the Earth is on the order of 32000 m/s.
Note that Apollo had a total delta-V (from Earth to Luna and back, including the LM's delta-V) on the order of 20000 m/s.
Ignoring the physical difficulty of dropping radioactive waste into the Sun, why would you want to? The stuff might be useful someday.
It is well known that during the london plague the mayor thought dog & cat could have been transporting the plague
It is also well known that attributing the lunacy of one individual to an entire society is the mark of loose and muddy thinking.
Note that the Lord Mayor of London was NOT "Christianity", but rather one desperate man who happened to be Christian.
Note further that he was almost right - it was the fleas, not the dogs and cats who had the fleas. The rats were merely a reservoir of fleas that could not be exterminated by any technique available at the time (with one exception, that exception being unavailable to the Lord Mayor of London at that time)
Read more history. Absent disease or starvation (or any of the other usual causes of people dying young - war, crime, that sort of thing), people lived just as long then as now. Note that childhood diseases killed far more people than the Plague most years - so much so that some cultures didn't even NAME kids till they'd lived through the dangerous period. Once you reached adulthood, you could reasonably expect to make 60, and 70+ wasn't out of the question.
I note Galileo Galilei as an easily checked example from the Renaissance - 78. Or Gaius Octavius Thurinus from the Roman period - 76.
Enter Christianity. Rather than examine the basis of other religions and cultures reverence for the cat (understanding their practical utility shouldn't have been that hard, even in the middle ages), they associated cats with pagan religions and eventually witchcraft. Cats were feared, driven out of human habitations and killed en mass. Now, the bubonic plague arrives. Societies that didn't buy into the cat loathing of Christianity fared far better then those that did.
Wherever did you get the idea that Christians had a problem with cats? Barnyard cats have been parts of farms in Christian lands for pretty much all of human history.
And which societies that "didn't buy into the cat loathing of Christianity" fared far better during the Black Plague? I've never read that Christian societies fared particularly worse (or better) than anyone else during the Plague.
Just look at all those confederate flags still flown down in the southern states. This country is still packed with fucking racists.
There are a lot of racists in the Old South. But in my experience, living all over the country, there are more racists up North than in the South these days. They're just not flying Confederate Battle Flags. Note, by the way, that very few of the people I know who fly a Confederate Battle Flag aren't expecially racist. No more than in the general population, certainly, and usually a lot less. About half the people with Confederate Battle Flags that I know are reenactors, who just like to play dress up and shoot rifle-muskets on weekends.
And yes I understand that evolution is not "smart" in the sense of guided. But it does tend to drift toward beneficial features, and something that is deleterious tends to go away.
Of course, as far as evolution is concerned, "beneficial" means that you survive to have kids, "deletrious" means you don't. Or at least not as many as the rest of the population. A lot of changes are basically null signals evolutionarily speaking. Red hair? Who cares? (Well, Moslems tend to think it is unlucky, but other than them...) That gene that makes you pretty much immune to AIDS? Didn't matter a hill of beans through most of history, since there was no AIDS. And so on.
now it is only about 50,000 or so really hard core PvP players left
Not that many. DAoC (which I still play) has about 3000 people playing most nights in North America. It seldom breaks 2000 out of primetime. And that includes buffbots, which amount to perhaps 20%-30% of the online population.
A better guestimate might be 10,000-15,000 players left. Or perhaps lower than that - I tend to agree that the remaining players tend to be pretty hardcore, and I think a higher percentage of them are playing every day than for your typical MMO.
Note also that, on average, less than half of them (including bots) are doing PvP at any given time.
Re:More than scientific learning
on
LHC Success!
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· Score: 1
My only question is, when the smoke clears and we're all fine, will the doomsayers ever learn for the next time?
Of course, since all they did was shoot protons in one direction, with no fun collisions involved, the hypothetical EENSY-WEENSY BLACK HOLE (tm) wouldn't have been produced, even were the device capable of doing so. Why not wait till they actually use the thing as intended before you say "SEE??? I TOLD YOU IT WAS HARMLESS!". It'll make you look ever so much more like you know what you're talking about that way.
They're making it difficult for mediocre companies to compete, damn it! In fact, the Fed should step in and use tax dollars to help those companies compete. Or use legislation to make Google less competitive.
You jest, but this is essentially what happened to Alcoa back in the day - they were hit with an antitrust suit because they kept making aluminum more efficiently than anyone else and lowering their prices.
Note that the similarities end there. There are strategic reasons to not want a single source for a critical material. There are no such strategic reasons relating to Google. That I can think of.
People get into habits. Getting up a 5AM is one of those habits, and they'd feel put-upon by their employers if their employers told them they had to get up at 4AM. Change the clock, and they can still get up at 5AM, and get the benefits of getting up at 4AM without the put-upon feeling.
My thoughts *exactly*. That whole DST idea was broken from the very beginning and I wonder what could actually break if we just got rid of it right now?
Nonsense! In the beginning it served an important purpose - it allowed the pubs to stay open after people got off work and before the blackout went into effect in the evening during WW1.
Anyone who can say that keeping the pubs open an extra hour was "broken from the very beginning" is a sick, depraved individual....
Given that the Progress resupply ships are essentially unmanned Soyuz capsules, I think you have to count a lot more than merely the 99 manned flights.
Whyever should we care about Progress in a discussion of manned spaceflight? Which is what this is, in case you missed the GP.
The Soyuz design is the most tested manned flight system out there.
Except for the Shuttle, of course. Which has flown more flights (123 as opposed to 99), with a higher success rate (two major failures as opposed to four).
Why do you think that `we' and `our' didn't include China and India?
Because they were the ones who told the Kyoto follow-on committee to take a flying leap if they thought that China and India were going to sign on to ANY mandatory emission controls?
It makes sense that if a virulent and deadly disease borne by insects arose in one species of dinosaur, it would have an easier time adapting to others than the newly arisen mammals.
It would...
Of course, it affected the Flying Reptiles (pternadon, etc.) as well, which weren't Dinosaurs.
And then there's the Marine Reptiles (ichthyosaurs, mososaurs, that lot), which weren't Dinosaurs.
A disease that could jump around that far across the biosphere probably isn't going to bypass a bunch of rats. Especially given that...
...the mammals weren't "newly arisen" - they'd been around for a hundred million years or so at that point.
Only want to answer part of this, since a long dissertation during a hurricane (even a weenie storm like Gustav) isn't something I want to waste time on right now.
And as for humans having rights, well, "Cogito Ergo Sum" translating into "I think therefore I am". We have sentience. I believe we have rights, by the very fact that we can think. We can articulate our thinking, therefore, we can assert our rights. I wouldn't be waiting for any deities or higher powers to bestow upon us these rights, so it's up to us to take them.
Sounds like you believe in the soul. Very religious of you. Alas, it's not so clear as all that. Remember, disregarding religion, we're just another animal. So, why should this particular species have "rights" but no others do? Does that imply that no hypothetical aliens would have rights, since they're not the same species as us? If a hypothetical alien has "rights", how, exactly, do you decide which species gets "rights" (and which ones), and which don't?
Is there proof? Well, we are alive, we are here, so, that's practical enough.
Cows are alive, they're here. Why don't they have rights? Do you KNOW that they aren't sentient? Define "sentient".
Should there BE proof? That would mean, we would be answering to a higher form of authority, which, again, hasn't presented itself.
Well, if you don't have proof, you have faith. Again, very religious sounding, not so scientific.
After all, we are questing for truth. I don't see any other species on the planet doing it.
I doubt you've ever looked closely at what other species on the planet are doing in the way of questing for the truth. Keep in mind that not knowing as much of the truth as humans is NOT the same as not questing for the truth.
I am thinking you missed my point entirely. Never suggested any parallels between your ideas and Stalin or Hitler. Or that theocracies were good things. Merely pointed out that the majority of human misery (by a very large amount) has NOT been caused by religion.
If you want to deal with human misery, try working on the actual causes of human misery - don't just blindly assert that religion is responsible for the evils of the world.
Note, by the way, that this is in no way an endorsement of your ideas - I still dislike the notion of a society with a single source of power, whether that source is religion or government. Because I HAVE read enough history to know what either are capable of, given no restraint.
Telling people that they are subservient to the State is just as bad as telling them they are subservient to God (or Gods, depending on your personal preferences).
Oh, and I'm still waiting on that proof that humans have "rights" - you've avoided the subject quite well so far....
Perhaps because Bush was the fucking President and McCain and Obama aren't?
Ahh. I didn't realize that being President included an obligation to interfere in major disaster relief by stopping by a for a photo-op. My bad.
Or do you really think that the effort to get the President to anywhere is so trivial as all that. There are multiple planeloads of people associated with a move by POTUS. Plus the local security people of course. Last time a President came to New Orleans in GOOD weather, it screwed up traffic all over the city for a day - people were swearing up a blue streak when they realized that someone that they didn't even vote for had turned their 20 minute commute into a three hour commute....
There's a difference between showing up for a (hopefully) peaceful protest and bringing a rifle. As in one is a constitutionally-protected right, and the other is a very clear intent of first degree murder.
Really? So, the last time I put one of my rifles into my car to take it up to the farm to plink, I was preparing for first-degree murder? How odd - I could have sworn I was just going up to target shoot.
Note also that buckets of urine doesn't equate very well with "peaceful" protest.
Mind you, I'm not trying to argue that this is right and proper behaviour. I don't have enough of the facts (and neither do you) to know. What I do know is that it doesn't just happen at the RNC, it happens at the DNC (yes, the "friends of the people" do their best to keep the riffraff at arms' length during their convention too, and further that it isn't new to the last eight years - it's a forty year old pattern, and thus not really attributable to Bush.
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Actually, along with biological weapons and nuclear weapons, poison gas IS a WMD. With or without a sophisticated delivery system.
No, I'm not gladdened by the sight of spam in my inbox. BUT...I'm also not terribly offended by it - I mark it as spam, train my spam filter, and continue without a second thought. It's just not worth getting excited about.
What's really bad is that Freddie Mac was created by the government so that Fannie Mae would have some competition and not grow so large. Alas, there's something about knowing that if you screw up the taxpayers will pay to cover up your mistakes that inclines CEO's of both organizations to play fast and loose with their accounting.
No. Read more history. The witchcraft hysteria was an EFFECT of the Plague. It came well after the fact.
And I can tell you're guessing - and doing it badly, I might add. Again, read more history.
No. Delta-V to drop something into the Sun from the moon is on the order of 24000 m/s. Delta-V to drop something into the Sun from the Earth is on the order of 32000 m/s.
Note that Apollo had a total delta-V (from Earth to Luna and back, including the LM's delta-V) on the order of 20000 m/s.
Ignoring the physical difficulty of dropping radioactive waste into the Sun, why would you want to? The stuff might be useful someday.
It is also well known that attributing the lunacy of one individual to an entire society is the mark of loose and muddy thinking.
Note that the Lord Mayor of London was NOT "Christianity", but rather one desperate man who happened to be Christian.
Note further that he was almost right - it was the fleas, not the dogs and cats who had the fleas. The rats were merely a reservoir of fleas that could not be exterminated by any technique available at the time (with one exception, that exception being unavailable to the Lord Mayor of London at that time)
Read more history. Absent disease or starvation (or any of the other usual causes of people dying young - war, crime, that sort of thing), people lived just as long then as now. Note that childhood diseases killed far more people than the Plague most years - so much so that some cultures didn't even NAME kids till they'd lived through the dangerous period. Once you reached adulthood, you could reasonably expect to make 60, and 70+ wasn't out of the question.
I note Galileo Galilei as an easily checked example from the Renaissance - 78. Or Gaius Octavius Thurinus from the Roman period - 76.
Wherever did you get the idea that Christians had a problem with cats? Barnyard cats have been parts of farms in Christian lands for pretty much all of human history.
And which societies that "didn't buy into the cat loathing of Christianity" fared far better during the Black Plague? I've never read that Christian societies fared particularly worse (or better) than anyone else during the Plague.
There are a lot of racists in the Old South. But in my experience, living all over the country, there are more racists up North than in the South these days. They're just not flying Confederate Battle Flags. Note, by the way, that very few of the people I know who fly a Confederate Battle Flag aren't expecially racist. No more than in the general population, certainly, and usually a lot less. About half the people with Confederate Battle Flags that I know are reenactors, who just like to play dress up and shoot rifle-muskets on weekends.
Of course, as far as evolution is concerned, "beneficial" means that you survive to have kids, "deletrious" means you don't. Or at least not as many as the rest of the population. A lot of changes are basically null signals evolutionarily speaking. Red hair? Who cares? (Well, Moslems tend to think it is unlucky, but other than them...) That gene that makes you pretty much immune to AIDS? Didn't matter a hill of beans through most of history, since there was no AIDS. And so on.
Not that many. DAoC (which I still play) has about 3000 people playing most nights in North America. It seldom breaks 2000 out of primetime. And that includes buffbots, which amount to perhaps 20%-30% of the online population.
A better guestimate might be 10,000-15,000 players left. Or perhaps lower than that - I tend to agree that the remaining players tend to be pretty hardcore, and I think a higher percentage of them are playing every day than for your typical MMO.
Note also that, on average, less than half of them (including bots) are doing PvP at any given time.
Of course, since all they did was shoot protons in one direction, with no fun collisions involved, the hypothetical EENSY-WEENSY BLACK HOLE (tm) wouldn't have been produced, even were the device capable of doing so. Why not wait till they actually use the thing as intended before you say "SEE??? I TOLD YOU IT WAS HARMLESS!". It'll make you look ever so much more like you know what you're talking about that way.
To me, it's cutting off one end of a string to tie to the other end, no matter how you manage it.
You jest, but this is essentially what happened to Alcoa back in the day - they were hit with an antitrust suit because they kept making aluminum more efficiently than anyone else and lowering their prices.
Note that the similarities end there. There are strategic reasons to not want a single source for a critical material. There are no such strategic reasons relating to Google. That I can think of.
People get into habits. Getting up a 5AM is one of those habits, and they'd feel put-upon by their employers if their employers told them they had to get up at 4AM. Change the clock, and they can still get up at 5AM, and get the benefits of getting up at 4AM without the put-upon feeling.
Nonsense! In the beginning it served an important purpose - it allowed the pubs to stay open after people got off work and before the blackout went into effect in the evening during WW1.
Anyone who can say that keeping the pubs open an extra hour was "broken from the very beginning" is a sick, depraved individual....
Whyever should we care about Progress in a discussion of manned spaceflight? Which is what this is, in case you missed the GP.
Except for the Shuttle, of course. Which has flown more flights (123 as opposed to 99), with a higher success rate (two major failures as opposed to four).
Because they were the ones who told the Kyoto follow-on committee to take a flying leap if they thought that China and India were going to sign on to ANY mandatory emission controls?
Let's see. $19350, I believe the article said. That's between $5000 and $50,000. Sounds like 2-3 to me, as well.
It would...
Of course, it affected the Flying Reptiles (pternadon, etc.) as well, which weren't Dinosaurs.
And then there's the Marine Reptiles (ichthyosaurs, mososaurs, that lot), which weren't Dinosaurs.
A disease that could jump around that far across the biosphere probably isn't going to bypass a bunch of rats. Especially given that...
...the mammals weren't "newly arisen" - they'd been around for a hundred million years or so at that point.
Only want to answer part of this, since a long dissertation during a hurricane (even a weenie storm like Gustav) isn't something I want to waste time on right now.
Sounds like you believe in the soul. Very religious of you. Alas, it's not so clear as all that. Remember, disregarding religion, we're just another animal. So, why should this particular species have "rights" but no others do? Does that imply that no hypothetical aliens would have rights, since they're not the same species as us? If a hypothetical alien has "rights", how, exactly, do you decide which species gets "rights" (and which ones), and which don't?
Cows are alive, they're here. Why don't they have rights? Do you KNOW that they aren't sentient? Define "sentient".
Well, if you don't have proof, you have faith. Again, very religious sounding, not so scientific.
I doubt you've ever looked closely at what other species on the planet are doing in the way of questing for the truth. Keep in mind that not knowing as much of the truth as humans is NOT the same as not questing for the truth.
If you want to deal with human misery, try working on the actual causes of human misery - don't just blindly assert that religion is responsible for the evils of the world.
Note, by the way, that this is in no way an endorsement of your ideas - I still dislike the notion of a society with a single source of power, whether that source is religion or government. Because I HAVE read enough history to know what either are capable of, given no restraint.
Telling people that they are subservient to the State is just as bad as telling them they are subservient to God (or Gods, depending on your personal preferences).
Oh, and I'm still waiting on that proof that humans have "rights" - you've avoided the subject quite well so far....
Ahh. I didn't realize that being President included an obligation to interfere in major disaster relief by stopping by a for a photo-op. My bad.
Or do you really think that the effort to get the President to anywhere is so trivial as all that. There are multiple planeloads of people associated with a move by POTUS. Plus the local security people of course. Last time a President came to New Orleans in GOOD weather, it screwed up traffic all over the city for a day - people were swearing up a blue streak when they realized that someone that they didn't even vote for had turned their 20 minute commute into a three hour commute....
Really? So, the last time I put one of my rifles into my car to take it up to the farm to plink, I was preparing for first-degree murder? How odd - I could have sworn I was just going up to target shoot.
Note also that buckets of urine doesn't equate very well with "peaceful" protest.
Mind you, I'm not trying to argue that this is right and proper behaviour. I don't have enough of the facts (and neither do you) to know. What I do know is that it doesn't just happen at the RNC, it happens at the DNC (yes, the "friends of the people" do their best to keep the riffraff at arms' length during their convention too, and further that it isn't new to the last eight years - it's a forty year old pattern, and thus not really attributable to Bush.