"Not all people who fail a breathalyzer test are impaired or indeed have even had a single alcoholic beverage"
Which is why (here in Oz) you are given a blood test after you blow over the limit, the odds of an unexplained false positive on both tests are well beyond reasonable doubt, it only requires one false/real negative and your free to go.
"you can really only judge people by their actions, not by some bullshit metric."
They are already being judged on the action of drink driving. The alternative to "bullshit metrics" is "bullshit evidence", for example, relying on the cops to judge your level of intoxication has a significantly higher risk of false positives than a machine that doesn't care if you are wearing a chicken bone in your nose for jewelry and have a speech impediment. Or are you suggesting the cops should wait for the drunk/junkie to perform the action of killing your family so as to properly confirm their inability to drive? And having waited for such an action how do you then prove beyond reasonable doubt the driver was drunk without using "bullshit metrics"?
I got my license 35yrs ago at a time when drink driving was tecnically illegal but socially acceptable, nobody (including the cops) cared if you were drunk behind the wheel until you actually hurt someone. The introduction of random breath testing in Australia during the late 80's cut the road toll by more than half. Having personally experienced both sides of the coin I would much rather see millions of drivers suffer a minor inconvienience than see several thousand people killed and tens of thousands maimed every year.
"Fortunately, the stay was covered, which was lucky because my insurance company only covers one of the local hospitals for things which aren't trauma care or preapproval."
As an Aussie who enjoys cheap and effective universal health care, I cannot for the life of me understand why Americans are not outraged by that sort of bullshit.
"They are showing a warming in relation from 1961-1971 on (depending on the graph). Note that's exactly the period when things were getting pretty cold and people were scared about another ice age [time.com]. (that article is from 1974)"
Things were not getting "pretty cold", the trend was still upward in the 60's. About 30% of relevant papers published in the 70's predicted some cooling, the rest predicted warming. The reason for this is that there were no restriction on sulphate emmission which besides creating acid rain also have a cooling effect on the climate. Ronald Reagan was instrumental in reducing acid rain from the sulphate problem by personally pushing for the current international cap and trade system on sulpur emmissions.
The rest of you post consists of similarly twisted half truths, falsehoods and plain old ad-homs.
"Yeah, you should be somewhat wary of trusting Wikipedia on AGW - if you think there's heated debate on the issue at Slashdot that's nothing compared to the editor wars there."
On the contrary, the editor wars over that page have made it into a very informative article.
Yes snow recently fell on the hills around Melbourne (where I have lived for 50yrs) but the December temprature anomally for SE Australia was still 1-2degC above normal. Also it's not as rare as you seem to think to get snow in Oz during summer storms, it happens every 2-3 years.
From the link - The cold anomaly in Northern Europe in November has continued and strengthened in the first half of December. Combined with the unusual cold winter of 2009-2010 in Northern Hemisphere mid-latitudes, this regional cold spell has caused widespread commentary that global warming has ended. That is hardly the case. On the contrary, globally November 2010 is the warmest November in the GISS record. Figure 2(a) illustrates that there is a good chance that 2010 as a whole will be the warmest year in the GISS analysis. Even if the December global temperature anomaly is unusually cool, 2010 will at least be in a statistical tie with 2005 for the warmest year.
"Yea got to love government rationed health care. It is rationed because there is only so much to spend on it each year, it has a budget."
Any sane system has a budget and priorities including insurance payouts, your rationing argument is a strawman and so far from relaity it's unworthy of a response. Doctors, surgeons and other medical proffesionals here in Oz a free to set their own prices but many of them just bulk bill the government. Waiting times for surgery are much shorter in Oz than they are in the US, it is illegal to give waiting list preference to privately insured patients. Most doctors do not require an appointment, just walk in and wait for half an hour or so.
The US health system is a classic case of someone spending $5 to save $0.05. Face it, your paying 10X as much for an inferior service and a lot of that extra expense is watsed on a vast army of bean counters who's sole purpose is to decide who gets what and who pays for it. But hey, it's your money and it's your right to give a handout to insurance companies rather than someone who actually needs it.
"If "space aliens" used pre-DNA descriptive methods of defining species, they'd certainly categorize tall, blonde Swedes and African Pygmies as two difference species."
Well at least until the alien zoologists discovered pygmy porn.
To be fair, it predicts what the standard model does, the problem is it doesn't add any novel and testable predictions that would allow science to determine if it's any better or worse than the standard model. It's worth pursuing until such a time when either model can come up with a "smoking gun" test. After all it took the best part of a century before the heliocentric model could make better predictons than the geocentric one.
Climate is not chaotic in the mathematical sense until you get into geologic time scales that are long enough to negate the regulating influence of the Milankovich cycles (ie: millions of years). Weather is chaotic on timescales of days.
You can see the same mathematical concept in a pan of water on the stove, you can make a usefully accurate model to predict how long it will take to boil but there is no way to predict when or where the first bubble will start to form.
Climate model forecasts of climate trend (particularly golbal average temps) have matched observations within their defined error margin for over 30yrs now.
Since this stuff is so easy to google I can only assume you haven't tried answering your own question.
"I work hard and pay my OWN way in life, and because I don't expect anyone else to pay my way unfairly"
Unfair? Your blind greed and selfishness is being used aginst you. You're paying insurance companies 10X what an Aussie pays their government for a better service.
You don't have to become a new species to evolve. Different races of humans have evolved different features (skin colour, hair, eyes, etc) but they are all human.
"Sometimes, like when you're forcing three disparate people to share the wealth of one tiny corner of an otherwise inhospitable province, it really could be that a despot is the best choice."
Saddam was not interested in "sharing the wealth", he was a Sunni and kept wealth and power in the hands of Sunni's by ruthlessly oppressing the Kurds and the Shia with tourture, summary executions, and at least one attempt at genocide. Why do you think the no fly zones were forced apon him after the first war?
"Expect it will have an effect on singing in kindergartens as childern that young won't know the words, so the words have to be spelled out for the child. it is really hard to teach simply by talking about a given subject.
My grandaughter who has yet to turn 2 can sing "twinkle, twinkle, little star", no sheet music required.
Not picking on you personally but where did you get the idea that WL is aiming for "total transparency", is it from the same people who are always ranting about the government taking away your freedom? I've heard it repeated many times and AFAIK it's "total bullshit". WL spent a month working with 3 major newspapers deciding what to publish and what not to publish. Therefore if WL has a "simplistic view of total transparency" then so do their mainstream partners, The Gaurdian, The NYT, and Der Spiegel.
"The latter part of the article is the important part. It suggests that Wikileaks may force the government to come down hard in its enforcement of laws, and hurt journalism in the long run."
The only people looking to harm journalisim are the people who are calling for his head when they know full well that the right to publish leaks and protect sources is the bedrock on which a free press is built. Take a tip from an old fart who has seen it all before, mark the politicans and news outlets who are screaming the loudest for future reference, these are the people who above all desire to control what you know and how you think.
Slashdot Mirror
"See climate change denialist."
Speaking of budgets, WP's $16M budget is roughly 3X that of the IPCC.
Yes they did, 30yrs ago when I didn't earn enough to pay the levy someone else's contribution saved my son's life.
"Just because YOU aren't paying for it, doesn't mean it is cheap."
Don't be a presumptious dickhead. My 1.5% medicare tax levy pays the health care costs of 6 Aussies I have never met.
"Not all people who fail a breathalyzer test are impaired or indeed have even had a single alcoholic beverage"
Which is why (here in Oz) you are given a blood test after you blow over the limit, the odds of an unexplained false positive on both tests are well beyond reasonable doubt, it only requires one false/real negative and your free to go.
"you can really only judge people by their actions, not by some bullshit metric."
They are already being judged on the action of drink driving. The alternative to "bullshit metrics" is "bullshit evidence", for example, relying on the cops to judge your level of intoxication has a significantly higher risk of false positives than a machine that doesn't care if you are wearing a chicken bone in your nose for jewelry and have a speech impediment. Or are you suggesting the cops should wait for the drunk/junkie to perform the action of killing your family so as to properly confirm their inability to drive? And having waited for such an action how do you then prove beyond reasonable doubt the driver was drunk without using "bullshit metrics"?
I got my license 35yrs ago at a time when drink driving was tecnically illegal but socially acceptable, nobody (including the cops) cared if you were drunk behind the wheel until you actually hurt someone. The introduction of random breath testing in Australia during the late 80's cut the road toll by more than half. Having personally experienced both sides of the coin I would much rather see millions of drivers suffer a minor inconvienience than see several thousand people killed and tens of thousands maimed every year.
"Fortunately, the stay was covered, which was lucky because my insurance company only covers one of the local hospitals for things which aren't trauma care or preapproval."
As an Aussie who enjoys cheap and effective universal health care, I cannot for the life of me understand why Americans are not outraged by that sort of bullshit.
"Fact: a driver who is "not otherwise detain-able" is one who's not committing the already-existing crime of "reckless driving"."
All drunk drivers are reckless but not all reckless drivers are drunk.
There is no needle, it's a pin prick on your finger. It's safe, cheap and accurate.
"I'd rather my restrictions be enumerated than my freedoms."
1. Society will restrict your freedom to drive while intoxicated.
"They are showing a warming in relation from 1961-1971 on (depending on the graph). Note that's exactly the period when things were getting pretty cold and people were scared about another ice age [time.com]. (that article is from 1974)"
Things were not getting "pretty cold", the trend was still upward in the 60's. About 30% of relevant papers published in the 70's predicted some cooling, the rest predicted warming. The reason for this is that there were no restriction on sulphate emmission which besides creating acid rain also have a cooling effect on the climate. Ronald Reagan was instrumental in reducing acid rain from the sulphate problem by personally pushing for the current international cap and trade system on sulpur emmissions.
The rest of you post consists of similarly twisted half truths, falsehoods and plain old ad-homs.
Like this one
"Yeah, you should be somewhat wary of trusting Wikipedia on AGW - if you think there's heated debate on the issue at Slashdot that's nothing compared to the editor wars there."
On the contrary, the editor wars over that page have made it into a very informative article.
Yes snow recently fell on the hills around Melbourne (where I have lived for 50yrs) but the December temprature anomally for SE Australia was still 1-2degC above normal. Also it's not as rare as you seem to think to get snow in Oz during summer storms, it happens every 2-3 years.
"Of course when you combine that with Midsummer snow in Australia and unusually cold weather in many other areas, you start to get a global cooling."
No, the plural of anecdote is not data.
According to NASA November 2010 was the warmest November on record
From the link - The cold anomaly in Northern Europe in November has continued and strengthened in the first half of December. Combined with the unusual cold winter of 2009-2010 in Northern Hemisphere mid-latitudes, this regional cold spell has caused widespread commentary that global warming has ended. That is hardly the case. On the contrary, globally November 2010 is the warmest November in the GISS record. Figure 2(a) illustrates that there is a good chance that 2010 as a whole will be the warmest year in the GISS analysis. Even if the December global temperature anomaly is unusually cool, 2010 will at least be in a statistical tie with 2005 for the warmest year.
"Yea got to love government rationed health care. It is rationed because there is only so much to spend on it each year, it has a budget."
Any sane system has a budget and priorities including insurance payouts, your rationing argument is a strawman and so far from relaity it's unworthy of a response. Doctors, surgeons and other medical proffesionals here in Oz a free to set their own prices but many of them just bulk bill the government. Waiting times for surgery are much shorter in Oz than they are in the US, it is illegal to give waiting list preference to privately insured patients. Most doctors do not require an appointment, just walk in and wait for half an hour or so.
The US health system is a classic case of someone spending $5 to save $0.05. Face it, your paying 10X as much for an inferior service and a lot of that extra expense is watsed on a vast army of bean counters who's sole purpose is to decide who gets what and who pays for it. But hey, it's your money and it's your right to give a handout to insurance companies rather than someone who actually needs it.
"If "space aliens" used pre-DNA descriptive methods of defining species, they'd certainly categorize tall, blonde Swedes and African Pygmies as two difference species."
Well at least until the alien zoologists discovered pygmy porn.
The only thing you have demonstrated by linking to HowTheWorldWorks is that you don't understand irony.
"it doesn't predict a whole lot"
To be fair, it predicts what the standard model does, the problem is it doesn't add any novel and testable predictions that would allow science to determine if it's any better or worse than the standard model. It's worth pursuing until such a time when either model can come up with a "smoking gun" test. After all it took the best part of a century before the heliocentric model could make better predictons than the geocentric one.
Climate is not chaotic in the mathematical sense until you get into geologic time scales that are long enough to negate the regulating influence of the Milankovich cycles (ie: millions of years). Weather is chaotic on timescales of days.
You can see the same mathematical concept in a pan of water on the stove, you can make a usefully accurate model to predict how long it will take to boil but there is no way to predict when or where the first bubble will start to form.
Climate model forecasts of climate trend (particularly golbal average temps) have matched observations within their defined error margin for over 30yrs now.
Since this stuff is so easy to google I can only assume you haven't tried answering your own question.
The US has a different definition of "middle" than the rest of the western world.
"I work hard and pay my OWN way in life, and because I don't expect anyone else to pay my way unfairly"
Unfair? Your blind greed and selfishness is being used aginst you. You're paying insurance companies 10X what an Aussie pays their government for a better service.
You don't have to become a new species to evolve. Different races of humans have evolved different features (skin colour, hair, eyes, etc) but they are all human.
"Sometimes, like when you're forcing three disparate people to share the wealth of one tiny corner of an otherwise inhospitable province, it really could be that a despot is the best choice."
Saddam was not interested in "sharing the wealth", he was a Sunni and kept wealth and power in the hands of Sunni's by ruthlessly oppressing the Kurds and the Shia with tourture, summary executions, and at least one attempt at genocide. Why do you think the no fly zones were forced apon him after the first war?
Problem is, that's how they got into this mess in the first place.
"Expect it will have an effect on singing in kindergartens as childern that young won't know the words, so the words have to be spelled out for the child. it is really hard to teach simply by talking about a given subject.
My grandaughter who has yet to turn 2 can sing "twinkle, twinkle, little star", no sheet music required.
Not picking on you personally but where did you get the idea that WL is aiming for "total transparency", is it from the same people who are always ranting about the government taking away your freedom? I've heard it repeated many times and AFAIK it's "total bullshit". WL spent a month working with 3 major newspapers deciding what to publish and what not to publish. Therefore if WL has a "simplistic view of total transparency" then so do their mainstream partners, The Gaurdian, The NYT, and Der Spiegel.
"The latter part of the article is the important part. It suggests that Wikileaks may force the government to come down hard in its enforcement of laws, and hurt journalism in the long run."
The only people looking to harm journalisim are the people who are calling for his head when they know full well that the right to publish leaks and protect sources is the bedrock on which a free press is built. Take a tip from an old fart who has seen it all before, mark the politicans and news outlets who are screaming the loudest for future reference, these are the people who above all desire to control what you know and how you think.