"the majority in the US are Christian or some flavor of it. And those that aren't are religious(or spiritual) in some way"
Except for the 10% who identify themselves as atheists.
"Or you can look at heavily religious countries(heya Israel) "
What do you call a jew that does not belive in god? - Answer - A jew. Israel is much closer to a typical European state than the US when it comes to religious belief, about one third of Israeli's label themselves as either atheist or agnostic.
"They do run hospices as well, which are basically the same as our hospices in the USA They are a place where the terminally ill can die with dignity and minimal pain and suffering.
The Lancet and The British medical Journal both disagree with your anecdotal assesment of the quality of care offered by the missionaries of charity. Like many fanatical Catholics Mother Theresa was a strong adherent to the masochistic belief that the path to enlightenment is through poverty and suffering.
It's good to see someone actually spoke to Brian Deegan, his story was being misused by the media to suggest he was angered and offended by the assignment.
Also that type of assignment is nothing new, especially in forensic science classes. When my daughter was attending HS in Oz (over a decade ago) she came home with an assignment to plot the perfect kidnapping/ransom crime. The teacher then selected several of these plots and the new class assignment was to use forensic methods to cath the fictional kidnapper. The upshot was that her teacher and I learnt that my daughter had a promising career as either a forensic scientist or a master criminal.
Most of her classmates also loved forensics, IMHO it's an entertaining and engaging way to teach science and critical thinking, which btw is the very thing that is lacking in the tabloid reporting of this story.
I've got nothing against windows, I've been earning good money from it for 20yrs. However I'm old enough to remeber when "start me up" was in the charts, so the first thing that came into my head when I heard the ad was the lyrics; "You make a grown man cry. You make a dead man cum".
"They were called the baby boomer years. Everyone now says that schools back then were better."
I was born at the end of the baby boom (1959). I was schooled in Oz from '64 to '76. Class sizes were 30-35, teachers regularly beat you with a cane, a strap, a ruler, or an open hand, this was done with the full blessing of most parents. My primary school classroom was built in the 1880's, there was no such thing as air-conditioning. My public HS was sex segregated, we had seperate areas in the playground and were not allowed to sit next to each other in class. Boys were not allowed to learn typing or home eco, girls were not allowed to learn mechanical drawing or woodwork. My HS principle would do military style inspections on the boys, if your hair touched your collar then he would draw a line on the back of your neck with a black texta and send you to the barber.
All that was perfectly normal to me but I found HS increadibly boring and dropped out at 16. When I reached my late twenties I'd had enough of "strong back, weak head" minimum wage jobs. However by that time I had found what I was interested in, so I got a job with flexible hours (taxi driver) and went back to get a degree in my interest. That was 20yrs ago, I haven't looked back since.
A day is defined as 86,400 seconds. If you define a day using the sun from zenith to zenith it becomes 86,400 +/- 8 seconds depending on where the Earth is on it's orbit around the sun. How do you propose calibrating the vibrating crystal in your clock to 1/86400th of an interval of time that varies with the seasons?
The reason why we have to "shoehorn" an SI second into a day is because there is no invariant time interval in Earth's orbital mechanics that can be used to define a day. Because of nature's messy ways our nice neat calenders will always need adjustments to stay in sync with nature.
How do you define a "day"? If you use the sun from zenith to zenith then depending on where you are in the yearly orbit that value can vary by ~8 seconds either side of the average (24hrs). So now you have the problem of calibrating the vibrating crystal in your clock to something that is not only abitrary (zenith to zenith) but also changes depending on the season (24hrs +/- 8 seconds).
Sorry but that's an "april fools" soultion, it won't fix calender drift and it would screw up physics. The second is the SI unit of time, it's definition has nothing to do with the motion of the Earth.
"I also always wondered why undergraduate studies for computer science didn't make time a relevant issue."
They did when I was at uni, I'd never heard of leap seconds or the 100yr & 400yr rules for leap days until I had to redo the same dammned calender assignment every time a new language was introduced.
Who's going to rescue you from Everest? There's a reason why there are over 100 dead bodies littering the summit, it's too high to be rescued by chopper and it's too risky to carry a dead body down. Insurance or no insurance, nobody is coming to get you if you get into trouble on Everest.
You don't need special insurance, punish the handfull of irresponsible idiots not the millions of responsible hikers and climbers. They could start by drowning the "salty water" idiots in the Colorado river.
A mouthpiece who also happens to be the chief editor with the final word on what gets published. However I do agree WL is more than just it's current chief editor.
I also agree we should reserve judgement and think a quote from Mr Spock is in order; "Gentlemen we are arguing in a vacum, there are no facts".
No dishonesty here mate, that's just how I (mis)interpreted it. I'm more than willing to admit you know better than I as to what your words were trying to say.
Although Telstra would dearly like to be a monoploy again those days are long gone. These days there are plenty of ISP's to choose from. The Optus cable plan I have been on for over 10yrs years had a 20GB cap, when I recently started bumping up against the cap for a couple of months in a row they rang me up and said for an extra $5/month I could have a 170GB cap. It was win-win, I was happy they noticed and offered a cheap solution and they are happy to be getting an extra $5/m. I know Optus are far from the chapest ISP out there but they sure beat the shit out of the luddites at Telstra.
The only reason I haven't switched to iiNet or one of the other cheap ISP's is because of the excellent service I have recieved from Optus over the years. Since I often work from home a responsive helpdesk is more important to me than minimum price, even better is the fact I've only needed to use said helpdesk a few times in the last decade.
And no I don't work for Optus, I just happen to think I get exactly the kind of reliable service I'm willing to pay for.
California is not getting wetter. The same thing is happening to California as has happened to SE Australia only to a smaller degree (so far). Here in Oz, the CSIRO has found that a 10% decrease in rainfall results in a 30% decrease in runoff in water catchment areas. This is why ALL the major cities in Australia are spending billions constructing some of the largest desal plants on the planet.
"One thing I would like to understand better is why people say there will be more drought."
As the tropics get warmer the circulation of the Hadley cell will become stronger and therefore dump more dry air onto the desert bands that lay on either side of the tropics. Temprate zones will be pushed further poleward. So it's extremely unlikely the Sahara will get greener. You are however correct that the global average rainfall will increase, we have already obserevd an increase in water vapour of about 5% since the 1970's.
We obviously disagree on the magnitude of good/bad changes but you have my upmost respect for actually looking at the IPCC reports to find out the real weaknesses of climate models. I agree wholeheartedly that on a regional scale the best they can do is give a "broad brush" view of what we can expect to see. I also agree that a warming of less than 2degC would be a crap shoot as to wether changes in any particular area would be benificial or detrimental, but I think we lack the political will to keep it under 2degC.
Slashdot Mirror
"the majority in the US are Christian or some flavor of it. And those that aren't are religious(or spiritual) in some way"
Except for the 10% who identify themselves as atheists.
"Or you can look at heavily religious countries(heya Israel) "
What do you call a jew that does not belive in god? - Answer - A jew. Israel is much closer to a typical European state than the US when it comes to religious belief, about one third of Israeli's label themselves as either atheist or agnostic.
"They do run hospices as well, which are basically the same as our hospices in the USA They are a place where the terminally ill can die with dignity and minimal pain and suffering.
The Lancet and The British medical Journal both disagree with your anecdotal assesment of the quality of care offered by the missionaries of charity. Like many fanatical Catholics Mother Theresa was a strong adherent to the masochistic belief that the path to enlightenment is through poverty and suffering.
It's good to see someone actually spoke to Brian Deegan, his story was being misused by the media to suggest he was angered and offended by the assignment.
Also that type of assignment is nothing new, especially in forensic science classes. When my daughter was attending HS in Oz (over a decade ago) she came home with an assignment to plot the perfect kidnapping/ransom crime. The teacher then selected several of these plots and the new class assignment was to use forensic methods to cath the fictional kidnapper. The upshot was that her teacher and I learnt that my daughter had a promising career as either a forensic scientist or a master criminal.
Most of her classmates also loved forensics, IMHO it's an entertaining and engaging way to teach science and critical thinking, which btw is the very thing that is lacking in the tabloid reporting of this story.
You can not be serious!
"Whatever has happened to personal responsibility? Why is this such a problem? If a nurse is doing their job..."
Your the one human on this planet who has never made a stupid mistake, right?
"Oh yeah! LIBERAL arts!. Presto. All media outlets, by default, will tend to be to the left of center."
That's pure gold, have you considered writing for the Onion?
"Free market" is the most misunderstood term on the internet.
"Market" - A set of rules and regulations governing ownership and trade.
"Free" - Everyone has the right to participate in the "market".
A market free from any regulation is an oxymoron.
Yep, that was my point. There were no "good 'ol days".
I've got nothing against windows, I've been earning good money from it for 20yrs. However I'm old enough to remeber when "start me up" was in the charts, so the first thing that came into my head when I heard the ad was the lyrics; "You make a grown man cry. You make a dead man cum".
Sure "you make a grown man cry" but I doubt "you make a dead man cum".
"They were called the baby boomer years. Everyone now says that schools back then were better."
I was born at the end of the baby boom (1959). I was schooled in Oz from '64 to '76. Class sizes were 30-35, teachers regularly beat you with a cane, a strap, a ruler, or an open hand, this was done with the full blessing of most parents. My primary school classroom was built in the 1880's, there was no such thing as air-conditioning. My public HS was sex segregated, we had seperate areas in the playground and were not allowed to sit next to each other in class. Boys were not allowed to learn typing or home eco, girls were not allowed to learn mechanical drawing or woodwork. My HS principle would do military style inspections on the boys, if your hair touched your collar then he would draw a line on the back of your neck with a black texta and send you to the barber.
All that was perfectly normal to me but I found HS increadibly boring and dropped out at 16. When I reached my late twenties I'd had enough of "strong back, weak head" minimum wage jobs. However by that time I had found what I was interested in, so I got a job with flexible hours (taxi driver) and went back to get a degree in my interest. That was 20yrs ago, I haven't looked back since.
UT1? - I thought you said you wanted to reduce complexity?
A day is defined as 86,400 seconds. If you define a day using the sun from zenith to zenith it becomes 86,400 +/- 8 seconds depending on where the Earth is on it's orbit around the sun. How do you propose calibrating the vibrating crystal in your clock to 1/86400th of an interval of time that varies with the seasons?
The reason why we have to "shoehorn" an SI second into a day is because there is no invariant time interval in Earth's orbital mechanics that can be used to define a day. Because of nature's messy ways our nice neat calenders will always need adjustments to stay in sync with nature.
How do you define a "day"? If you use the sun from zenith to zenith then depending on where you are in the yearly orbit that value can vary by ~8 seconds either side of the average (24hrs). So now you have the problem of calibrating the vibrating crystal in your clock to something that is not only abitrary (zenith to zenith) but also changes depending on the season (24hrs +/- 8 seconds).
Sorry but that's an "april fools" soultion, it won't fix calender drift and it would screw up physics. The second is the SI unit of time, it's definition has nothing to do with the motion of the Earth.
"I also always wondered why undergraduate studies for computer science didn't make time a relevant issue."
They did when I was at uni, I'd never heard of leap seconds or the 100yr & 400yr rules for leap days until I had to redo the same dammned calender assignment every time a new language was introduced.
Who's going to rescue you from Everest? There's a reason why there are over 100 dead bodies littering the summit, it's too high to be rescued by chopper and it's too risky to carry a dead body down. Insurance or no insurance, nobody is coming to get you if you get into trouble on Everest.
You don't need special insurance, punish the handfull of irresponsible idiots not the millions of responsible hikers and climbers. They could start by drowning the "salty water" idiots in the Colorado river.
"besides which he is just a mouthpiece"
A mouthpiece who also happens to be the chief editor with the final word on what gets published. However I do agree WL is more than just it's current chief editor.
I also agree we should reserve judgement and think a quote from Mr Spock is in order; "Gentlemen we are arguing in a vacum, there are no facts".
No dishonesty here mate, that's just how I (mis)interpreted it. I'm more than willing to admit you know better than I as to what your words were trying to say.
Although Telstra would dearly like to be a monoploy again those days are long gone. These days there are plenty of ISP's to choose from. The Optus cable plan I have been on for over 10yrs years had a 20GB cap, when I recently started bumping up against the cap for a couple of months in a row they rang me up and said for an extra $5/month I could have a 170GB cap. It was win-win, I was happy they noticed and offered a cheap solution and they are happy to be getting an extra $5/m. I know Optus are far from the chapest ISP out there but they sure beat the shit out of the luddites at Telstra.
The only reason I haven't switched to iiNet or one of the other cheap ISP's is because of the excellent service I have recieved from Optus over the years. Since I often work from home a responsive helpdesk is more important to me than minimum price, even better is the fact I've only needed to use said helpdesk a few times in the last decade.
And no I don't work for Optus, I just happen to think I get exactly the kind of reliable service I'm willing to pay for.
"I don't know, why did you try?"
I (and greenman) are countering the "we would do better to double CO2 levels" part.
Was supposed to point to California
California is not getting wetter. The same thing is happening to California as has happened to SE Australia only to a smaller degree (so far). Here in Oz, the CSIRO has found that a 10% decrease in rainfall results in a 30% decrease in runoff in water catchment areas. This is why ALL the major cities in Australia are spending billions constructing some of the largest desal plants on the planet.
"One thing I would like to understand better is why people say there will be more drought."
As the tropics get warmer the circulation of the Hadley cell will become stronger and therefore dump more dry air onto the desert bands that lay on either side of the tropics. Temprate zones will be pushed further poleward. So it's extremely unlikely the Sahara will get greener. You are however correct that the global average rainfall will increase, we have already obserevd an increase in water vapour of about 5% since the 1970's.
We obviously disagree on the magnitude of good/bad changes but you have my upmost respect for actually looking at the IPCC reports to find out the real weaknesses of climate models. I agree wholeheartedly that on a regional scale the best they can do is give a "broad brush" view of what we can expect to see. I also agree that a warming of less than 2degC would be a crap shoot as to wether changes in any particular area would be benificial or detrimental, but I think we lack the political will to keep it under 2degC.
"If you prefer to believe that you aren't capable of designing and implementing such a system, that's fine. I know differently."
No, you don't
"Yeah. A Utopian society where everybody wants to do the right thing."
The irony is that communisim is predicated on the same fantasy, they just define "the right thing" differently.