"There is no messenger you cannot impeach with an attitude like that, and by impeaching the right messengers you're free to construct any sort of alternate paper-thin reality you want that can exclude any X you choose.....People who think like this drive me crazy. And there are so many of them."
You are right on the verge of realising we are ALL part of the monkeysphere and that there are as many "alternate realities" as there are people on the planet, many more if you consider other species.
"Pretty sad, really. (I'm getting a bit paranoid as I write this)."
Don't get me wrong, my post was supposed to indicate that when reading/writing/. posts I don't give a shit about technicalities such as speeeeling as long as the meaning is reasonably clear. I know, I know, "everything is an art we should strive to improve" but I find the endless nit-picking of common errors tiresome, especially on a public forum where english is a second language to a good portion of the people who post.
Disclaimer: 40yrs ago I started high school in the "dumb class" for english rather than the French classes I wanted to participate in. Strange thing, but two years later the same "dumb class" english teacher thought a friend and I had cheated on a nation-wide test showing we were both in the top 5% for literacy skills. Oh, I was also banned from touch typing and cooking classes because I had a dick (dickless people were banned from woodwork and technical drawing classes).
In case you are wondering, ~35wpm with 3-4 fingers (and a science degree) is all I have ever needed in my 20yrs as a software developer, the guy who sits next to me uses two fingers (loudly like it's an old punch type) and has spent 30yrs programming. Formal languages have a whole lot less rules and quirks than natural language, yet I still haven't met a programmer who's source compiles "first time - every time". And if I did meet such a programmer I would instinctively suspect his code was meaningless./rant
"our population will hit a ceiling at 15 billion or so, which considering the huge resources we have on this planet, is nothing at all."
Fisheries collapsing like dominoes since the 80's, world's grain harvest peaked in the late 90's, expanding deserts, shrinking forests, not enough fresh water for those alive today, ect, ect, ect....not a snowball's chance in hell of reaching 15B in 100yrs time. Sure one day we may be able to terra-form other planets or make sugar directly from shit, but for the forseeable future we (and most likely our g-g-great-granchildren) are stuck here with a half-dozen or so acres of arable land per head. With 15B people it would be down to ~2 acres (and 1/2 a sardine) per person.
"our rate of population growth has rapidly decreased"
Ironically much of the slowdown came from the policy in China that this bit of/. is arguing about. The pill in the west was a technological/social revolution that had similar results.
"your entire argument is muddled and makes no more sense then some strange homeless guy ranting in the street"
Which makes me think that if resources are so plentifull then why are there so many homeless people on the streets of the country that consumes half of all the resources collected by mankind? Anyway, before I'm accused of being muddled and/or homeless, the point I think the GP was trying to make is that if we don't impose "real life" limits on ourselves then the laws of nature dictate someone or something else must do it for us. The inevitable result of any species in "plague" proportions has always been a very rapid population drop.
Disclaimer: I have two adult children and got "snipped" (felt like "bricked") after the second, for purely selfish reasons. In my country we have the #2 man in power walking around with a stupid grin on his face chanting "one for mum, one for dad, and one for the country" and handing out cheques to those that do.
Ok, so how do you explain that Gore was not convinced on AGW until after he met J. Hansen at a 1989 senate hearing? Also the information that Gore uses in his "play book" is not simply dreamt up by him, one of his advisers, or even a popular sci-fi authour, it was produced by the IPCC. The IPCC represents the considered (and cautious) opinion of every national science body on the planet INCLUDING THE USA.
"open your eyes...ignorance of the masses"
Ironically if wiped the political blinkers from your own eyes it may enable you see the ignorance demonstrated in your post.
Disclaimer: From what I read here on/. many people in the US appear to judge issues based on the red/blue dichotomy regardless of the amount of contrary information that is freely available. I don't live in the US and couldn't give a rat's arse who you pick to be "ruler of the free world", but to accuse Gore of using Bush's tactics in order to push "his agenda" is just plain nonesense.
"IMO the main reason for current focus on "friendly fire" and collateral damage is that now there is a reasonable expectation we can do something about it."
That is the most intelligent and compasionate thing I have read in this story and I think many modern day generals would agree with you. OTOH: The fact that Israel uses drones to assasinate elected officials in an unrelenting effort to keep it's demographics jewish does not bode well for "the spread of democracy and freedom in the middle east".
As I understand it the wobble mirror can use a reference star outside the field of view, it's not bound by the target. Theoretically you could use post-processing to build an image but the reason I like wobble mirrors is their engineering "elegance" makes all that complexity redundant.
"Presumably if you know how the atmosphere distorts while taking the image"
The light that forms the image may take hours or even days to accumulate. The distortion is dynamic and will randomly wander about the place during the exposure period, meaning that many pixels will be erroneously "overwritten".
In other words the photons collected by the CCD cannot be used after the fact to "know how the atmosphere distorts while taking the image" because the distortion is also a function of time.
I saw a rabbit plague in Robe S.A. I was also a kid holidaying with the family (in the late 60's), at night the road was "alive", during the day people were carting them away in ute's and trailers.
Speaking of the 60's, I also had a large 1940-50ish meccano set with a clockwork motor that I inherited from my dad's mis-spent youth as a buding mechanical engineer. Make your own gyroscope, clockwork robot, grandfather clock (I said it was a large set)...and IIRC it also had instructions for something with a pencil and a sliding arm that made squiggly lines using gears (much like the picture in TFA but smaller) - great toy!:)
"Do you really think that Iraq was about oil for domestic consumption?"
Yes, since you need a domestic infrastructure to support the military that "protects" the oil supply. However in times of "real" war, oil would be rationed for all but the military.
"Sure, oil lubricates this system, but don't be deluded into thinking that they're out their to help fill your Hummer."
Oil supply is essential to a modern military, the allies discovered this toward the end of WW2 when they started focusing their air-raids on Germany's refineries to such an extent that that Hitlers grounded air-force was a sitting duck. Nothing has changed, controling the oil supply still gives you the ability to control "everything".
Here in Australia it is illegal to grow tabacco without a license, even for private use. The punishment is a $10K fine for each plant, ~20x the fine imposed for a dope plant.
"Slashdot would be a better place is people could leave their partisanship on the side and just present facts....But somehow you don't see Republicans claiming the "Kerry Camp" tried to get it silenced."
You know, I was right with you until just at the end when you decided to join the partisans...
I agree, asprin is also in apples but you would have to eat a shitload to get 3 tablets worth. It's much more convienient and cost effective to extract the SAME STUFF from coal and eat apples for other reasons. Just because our ancestors had no other choice than to chew on bark doesn't mean we sholud reject forms of pain relief that are demonstratably more effective.
Slashdot Mirror
I know, I know, but there's no need to go apeshit over it. :)
"Why bother with allowing the HTML mimetype, if it has no advantages other than it's what was done in the past?"
Because what was done in the past will be installed next Friday.
"the members of a corporation must do whatever is legally possible to increase shareholder value"
Did it ever occur to you that the shareholders ARE the corporation.
"There is no messenger you cannot impeach with an attitude like that, and by impeaching the right messengers you're free to construct any sort of alternate paper-thin reality you want that can exclude any X you choose.....People who think like this drive me crazy. And there are so many of them."
You are right on the verge of realising we are ALL part of the monkeysphere and that there are as many "alternate realities" as there are people on the planet, many more if you consider other species.
"maybe also the confusion of "lol" as a punctuation character rather than an actual expression of finding something really funny"
lol. (The second kind)
"Pretty sad, really. (I'm getting a bit paranoid as I write this)."
/. posts I don't give a shit about technicalities such as speeeeling as long as the meaning is reasonably clear. I know, I know, "everything is an art we should strive to improve" but I find the endless nit-picking of common errors tiresome, especially on a public forum where english is a second language to a good portion of the people who post.
/rant
Don't get me wrong, my post was supposed to indicate that when reading/writing
Disclaimer: 40yrs ago I started high school in the "dumb class" for english rather than the French classes I wanted to participate in. Strange thing, but two years later the same "dumb class" english teacher thought a friend and I had cheated on a nation-wide test showing we were both in the top 5% for literacy skills. Oh, I was also banned from touch typing and cooking classes because I had a dick (dickless people were banned from woodwork and technical drawing classes).
In case you are wondering, ~35wpm with 3-4 fingers (and a science degree) is all I have ever needed in my 20yrs as a software developer, the guy who sits next to me uses two fingers (loudly like it's an old punch type) and has spent 30yrs programming. Formal languages have a whole lot less rules and quirks than natural language, yet I still haven't met a programmer who's source compiles "first time - every time". And if I did meet such a programmer I would instinctively suspect his code was meaningless.
"our population will hit a ceiling at 15 billion or so, which considering the huge resources we have on this planet, is nothing at all."
/. is arguing about. The pill in the west was a technological/social revolution that had similar results.
Fisheries collapsing like dominoes since the 80's, world's grain harvest peaked in the late 90's, expanding deserts, shrinking forests, not enough fresh water for those alive today, ect, ect, ect....not a snowball's chance in hell of reaching 15B in 100yrs time. Sure one day we may be able to terra-form other planets or make sugar directly from shit, but for the forseeable future we (and most likely our g-g-great-granchildren) are stuck here with a half-dozen or so acres of arable land per head. With 15B people it would be down to ~2 acres (and 1/2 a sardine) per person.
"our rate of population growth has rapidly decreased"
Ironically much of the slowdown came from the policy in China that this bit of
"your entire argument is muddled and makes no more sense then some strange homeless guy ranting in the street"
Which makes me think that if resources are so plentifull then why are there so many homeless people on the streets of the country that consumes half of all the resources collected by mankind? Anyway, before I'm accused of being muddled and/or homeless, the point I think the GP was trying to make is that if we don't impose "real life" limits on ourselves then the laws of nature dictate someone or something else must do it for us. The inevitable result of any species in "plague" proportions has always been a very rapid population drop.
Disclaimer: I have two adult children and got "snipped" (felt like "bricked") after the second, for purely selfish reasons. In my country we have the #2 man in power walking around with a stupid grin on his face chanting "one for mum, one for dad, and one for the country" and handing out cheques to those that do.
Yes, but the GP can choose to ignore that. /sarcastic_paradox
Thankyou, I take great delight in watching grammar Nazi's shoot themselves in the foot.
In 1991 I had a 2400 connection to "the internet" much better than my 1200 connection to BBS's :)
I asked about price because a freind of mine paid $1500 for a 2x CD-ROM circa 1990.
Ok, so how do you explain that Gore was not convinced on AGW until after he met J. Hansen at a 1989 senate hearing? Also the information that Gore uses in his "play book" is not simply dreamt up by him, one of his advisers, or even a popular sci-fi authour, it was produced by the IPCC. The IPCC represents the considered (and cautious) opinion of every national science body on the planet INCLUDING THE USA.
/. many people in the US appear to judge issues based on the red/blue dichotomy regardless of the amount of contrary information that is freely available. I don't live in the US and couldn't give a rat's arse who you pick to be "ruler of the free world", but to accuse Gore of using Bush's tactics in order to push "his agenda" is just plain nonesense.
"open your eyes...ignorance of the masses"
Ironically if wiped the political blinkers from your own eyes it may enable you see the ignorance demonstrated in your post.
Disclaimer: From what I read here on
14K modem in 1991, I'm impressed - how much did it cost?
"IMO the main reason for current focus on "friendly fire" and collateral damage is that now there is a reasonable expectation we can do something about it."
That is the most intelligent and compasionate thing I have read in this story and I think many modern day generals would agree with you. OTOH: The fact that Israel uses drones to assasinate elected officials in an unrelenting effort to keep it's demographics jewish does not bode well for "the spread of democracy and freedom in the middle east".
Thanks for the vote of confidence :)
"(or other object I suppose)"
As I understand it the wobble mirror can use a reference star outside the field of view, it's not bound by the target. Theoretically you could use post-processing to build an image but the reason I like wobble mirrors is their engineering "elegance" makes all that complexity redundant.
"Presumably if you know how the atmosphere distorts while taking the image"
The light that forms the image may take hours or even days to accumulate. The distortion is dynamic and will randomly wander about the place during the exposure period, meaning that many pixels will be erroneously "overwritten".
In other words the photons collected by the CCD cannot be used after the fact to "know how the atmosphere distorts while taking the image" because the distortion is also a function of time.
"It doesn't matter where the oil goes after that."
Don't kid yourself, it goes to their friends first (like the friendly military that supports them).
I saw a rabbit plague in Robe S.A. I was also a kid holidaying with the family (in the late 60's), at night the road was "alive", during the day people were carting them away in ute's and trailers.
:)
Speaking of the 60's, I also had a large 1940-50ish meccano set with a clockwork motor that I inherited from my dad's mis-spent youth as a buding mechanical engineer. Make your own gyroscope, clockwork robot, grandfather clock (I said it was a large set)...and IIRC it also had instructions for something with a pencil and a sliding arm that made squiggly lines using gears (much like the picture in TFA but smaller) - great toy!
"Do you really think that Iraq was about oil for domestic consumption?"
Yes, since you need a domestic infrastructure to support the military that "protects" the oil supply. However in times of "real" war, oil would be rationed for all but the military.
"Sure, oil lubricates this system, but don't be deluded into thinking that they're out their to help fill your Hummer."
Oil supply is essential to a modern military, the allies discovered this toward the end of WW2 when they started focusing their air-raids on Germany's refineries to such an extent that that Hitlers grounded air-force was a sitting duck. Nothing has changed, controling the oil supply still gives you the ability to control "everything".
Here in Australia it is illegal to grow tabacco without a license, even for private use. The punishment is a $10K fine for each plant, ~20x the fine imposed for a dope plant.
"Slashdot would be a better place is people could leave their partisanship on the side and just present facts....But somehow you don't see Republicans claiming the "Kerry Camp" tried to get it silenced."
You know, I was right with you until just at the end when you decided to join the partisans...
Jebus AC's are dumb as dogshit, or should I say canine coprolites?
The words "like to think" were key in my post.
"I'd really like to know how to properly conceptualize or model the notion of a dimension having scale."
A telephone wire looks one dimentional from a distance, but up close there are ants walking on it's 2D surface.
I agree, asprin is also in apples but you would have to eat a shitload to get 3 tablets worth. It's much more convienient and cost effective to extract the SAME STUFF from coal and eat apples for other reasons. Just because our ancestors had no other choice than to chew on bark doesn't mean we sholud reject forms of pain relief that are demonstratably more effective.
It's a joke, laugh you identity impared troll!