"Social Justice: A liberal getting slugged in the teeth."
The US conservative answer to any problem is, if you don't undrestand it then beat up the nearest liberal. Also seems to be the foundation of their foriegn policy. Hooray for freedom, you fucking wanker!
A tank of LPG last me about the same as a tank of petrol. Not sure how much a conversion costs these days, 10yrs ago it was ~$1500(AU) and no more complex than a day at the garage. My car (V6, 4door) had dual fuel already fitted, it has slightly less power and slightly lower mpg stats on LPG but it takes a rev-head to notice the difference. Over here most petrol stations have at least one LPG pump, filling the car is as easy as filling up with petrol. Virtually all taxi's in Australia run exlusively on LPG.
Perhaps the only drawback in my experience would be that the tank takes up ~1/3 of my boot space.
Curves tend to do that as they aproach their apex. I do agree that the level of starvation has dramatically dropped since the 1960's and it is mainly due to improvements in China. However the world population is still increasing at an unsustainable rate and will eventually crash if it does not correct itself.
You put up a link to the Cato Institute as evidence for decreasing pollution. Do you realise who they are and who funds them? Hint, their psudeo-science is politically and financially motivated bull-shit, changing the leagal definition of pollution does not make it go away. No matter what you or Cato theorise via conservitive ideology, you still need to eat, drink, breath and shit, just like all the other rapidly dissapearing life-forms here on Earth.
Readthis. Make sure you note, "Dozens of huge corporations, eager to roll back government regulatory powers, are among Cato's largest donors." Followed by a long list of the usual suspects.
Yep petrol hovers around $US4.00-4.50 / gallon lately. Even with the recent price hikes, petrol in the US is still very cheap compared to the rest of the western world.
I have run my car on LPG for the last 10yrs (~200,000KM). It has cost me 1/3 - 1/2 the price of petrol.
Rate of change, humans are the most adaptable of species and it is said we will have a hard time adapting. How do you think the rest of food web will cope? Global warming is more than wet feet.
The "I know what's happening crowd" have a much stronger case than the "I have sand in my ears crowd".
Mythbusters - Smoke and Mirrors.
on
Archimedes Death Ray
·
· Score: 2, Informative
Yes, but IIRC the show also pointed out that an earlier generation of mythbusters had demonstated it is possible to set a wooden boat on fire using soldiers holding large mirrors. Each soldier directs an individual mirror onto the boat, use enough mirrors and it will start smoking.
I don't belive the ancient greeks had the technology to make a glass lense large enough to fry a boat, let alone focus on a moving target. However it is certainly possible using multiple mirrors, even the crude ones made from polished metal like Archimedies would have had access to.
"It might as well have been the law of invisible elves of slow rotation."
If your proposed IESR law can predict the rotation of randomly selected galaxies of various shapes and sizes better than Newtonion, Relativistic or any other laws, then it is a shoe-in for a Nobel prize.
Perhaps this paper is correct and others have simply been using the wrong equations. Sounds plausible and I am sure it will be followed up given all the interest in this long standing puzzle. This is how most good ideas end up, in fact it's highly likely that some of the "shinny pebbles" on Eienstien's imaginary beach turned out to be wet turds. Imagination and curiosity can discover things like black-holes and bent spacetime decades before anyone observes them in nature. Eienstien, Newton, Maxwell,... are all immortal because they discovered stanger and more useful models than IESR(as it currently stands).
PS: Rename it to IEFR at least that would reflect the observations it is attempting to explain.
Disclaimer: This post is not directed at you, I agree with your common-sense.
The problem with pin numbers, passwords, etc is once you have stolen them you need to turn them into cash. Buying goods is easier to get away with but obviously less valuable. I don't know about anyone else's banking arragements but over here in Australia my bank states in writing that I will only ever have to pay the first $50 of any fraud perpertrated on my account. A hacker could empty my account (all at once or a bit at a time), I get a new one and it costs me a $50 "fine" for asssumed security slackness on my part. It may not be exactly fair if you did everything by the book but by far the main liability is on the bank, this "encourages" the bank to take responsility for their systems security seriously (don't know of a bank that is not serious when it comes to money). The "fine" pays for the occasional "suspisous transfer" letters I get from the banks and I am sure the "fine" is also designed to be just enough "pissing about" to make customers cautious with their cards, passwords and pins.
Consumer based electronic transfers did not take off in a big way until consumers were confident they were not going to get electronically mugged. So why all the parinoia? Do overseas banks let their customers take all the risk?
If your bank won't promise (in writing) to keep your money safe for a competitive fee then I suggest you find another bank.
"People who have either been well-off their whole lives or fortunate enough to rise from a lower class to a higher one tend not to realize how difficult it is for the vast majority of people to improve their economic status."
I would say that people who have spent thier whole life at either end of the income spectrum are the most extreme in their attitudes. Having spent about ~15yrs at either end of the scale, I know where I want to be, I know what it takes to get/stay there and that "what it takes" is different for everyone.
The problem is not as the GP suggests "worthless wage slaves". The problem is that the GP's ignorance is widespread in the "Bussiness" community. This in turn creates "entry level jobs" (or some other euphemisim meaning you work inflexible 60hr weeks to keep the wolves from the door). Who takes these kind of jobs - people who can't find anything to pay THIS WEEKS rent, why do they stay there - to pay NEXT WEEKS rent, why don't they study - there working 60hrs already and the electricity bill is due!
We have a system that gloryfies the top 500 income earners, nothing wrong with that until... they start thinking they actually deserve it and conclude the bottom 500,000,000 are worthless and should show more gratitude for the crumbs. This attitude is offset by petty crooks at the other end of the economic scale who tell society to shove the crumbs up their arse. It would be a much less insane planet if any one with a full time job could live a modest and healthy life on 2/3 of their take-home pay. Off course any global move to redistribute wealth/power towards the poor would be communisim and thus anti-christian and anti-mom-and-apple-pie.
"You do know that those things regenerate, right?"
No, do you have a reference, all the ones I've seen say that very little is known about the species.
"Please take the tree-hugging shit somewhere else"?"
Don't you mean "squid-hugging".
"...support from non-communist-green humans..."
Ahhh, now we are getting somewhere, the whole thing is about politics, right?
"...protect the existance of a species that has not been proven to exist"
I suppose the specimens that are caught in nets or washed up on shore prove nothing.
That's worth whatever sacrifice to that species that the photos necessitated."
To you maybe but I think the squid would disagree.
Re:Its a matter of perspective
on
Pay vs. Happiness
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Without "wage slaves" civilization as you know it would collapse in less than 3 days. Your post clearly shows a disconnection from the "real world". Maybe your a kid or a troll or a nobleman, I don't really care except to say you need to get a grip and understand that productivity/responsibility is not measured by a persons pay packet (eg: Train driver or the kid with his finger in the dam).
Ego-maniacs should be forced to clean public toilets for a while before taking on a "real job". If the shit doesn't stick to you then you can claim to be a king.
If we could get the rest of the planet to agree we might be on to something.:)
The current US doctrine of "overwhelming force" simply creates overwhelming resistance. Osma-bin-forgotten does not need a huge army, he just needs enough people to be so pissed off that they are willing to fly/drive/carry a bomb to "get even". Why does our side continue to supply OBL with this "cannon-fodder" by demonising the Arabs to the point where dropping bombs on villages is considered ok?
Would your average Westener be pleased to see their own morally bankrupt goverment replaced by warring factions in an ever deepening spiral of violence or would they prefer assistance and advice on how to remove the bastards by sheer weight of numbers?
How would the average Westener react if China occupied their country and dropped a few bombs on the house next door? What would it be like to come home and find your whole family obliterated because they ran in to help to people next door and were killed by a second bomb run?
It has been happening for a long time. Geronimo (the Indian) fought alongside the US army only to return home and find his whole family had been butcherd by the same army he was helping.
Sure, anyone can make a model, but before complaining about a lack of information you might want to check out if there are "standard" models that climate scientists use. I can't be bothered doing your research for you but I assure you such models do exists and are well known to climatoligists (like ANSII C is well known slashdotters).
I could not read the article because it now demands rego but I agree it should at least state if the model used is a "standard" model (eg, The model used to predict Katrina's path and strength was a "standard" weather model).
If climate change simply means we get warmer weather and the sea floods a few cities then it's not the end of the civilization, we can adapt rapidly. OTOH: Plants, pollinating insects, plankton, coral, ect, are more sensitive to their environment and can not adapt as rapidly. If these changes cause the food web to suddenly collapse then we have along way to fall. Acidic oceans from Co2 plus massive crop failures from rapidly changing environments are the real dangers that barely rate a mention in the media. A quick google for historical trends on global grain demand, production and reserves might show you something surprising when looked at in the light of the "peak oil" (google it) predictions.
What I want to know is why don't the media practice "equal time" during the daily weather forecast. Now I know weather and climate are two different things but surely, in the name of fair and balanced reporting, they could find someone who wants (or is paid) to predict the path of a hurricane and consistently dis-agree with the official forecasts.
Climatologists have a kind of "official forecast" for our future climate using standard models, yet every prediction that is reported in the media is offset by a nay-saying stooge or an obscure nut-case. Nobody in their right mind claims the standard climate models are totally accurate (to me they seem optomistic in terms of feedback). Doing nothing about C02 emmisions would be like hanging out your washing when told to evacuate.
Great post, but what can be done about it. The modern idea of a Nation state is ~500yrs old now and has served it's purpose of consolidating the warlords. Violently competing nations are now clearly doing humanity more harm than good. Throughout history we have seen ourselves as members of conflicting tribes and the tribes just keep getting bigger and more powerful. A world government is a possibility this century, it could end up like 1984 or it could go the other way.
Since WW2 a kind off multi-party mexican stand off has existed between the veto-weilding security council members, many of the wars of the last 50yrs could be categorised as "proxy wars" between these members. It cannot continue indefinitely, someone, somewhere will freak out and push the button, an hour later everyone else will panic and do the same.
The internet tribe may be the biggest tribe of all at the moment, keep it "free as in beer".
I'm obviously not a great "communicator", I only meant I trust Nature & Science more because of their "journal" status. I agree New Scientist is more suited to a general audience and is also widely available on the newstands as is Scientific American. Both are good mags.
Why bad science reporting pisses me off:
I am a recovered victim of bad science reporting. Until the age of 30 I did not have any science education to speak except good marks for science at high school. In my late teens I belived all sorts of crap (especially phycic stuff). In my early twenties I read many books and magazines (from the science section in the newsagent!), I had been convinced that Uri Geller was genuine since I was 16! I picked up a second-hand book by The Great Randi and found out I had been reading science fiction as science fact.
After that I became more selective and started reading Scientific American and found a copy in the Library that contained J. Conway's "Game of Life". Like a true nerd I spent hours hand drawing grids to see what would happen. I got frustrated with the tedious drawings and taught myself programming on a secondhand Apple IIE. About 8yrs later I ended up with a Computer Science degree and a healthy pay-pack.
The first thing that people need to learn about science is the scientific method, ie:what is science. Unfortunately my high-school science class was absorbed in the experiments and results that flowed from the method, I can't remember it ever being mentioned. We were told to write our "reports" as Hypothesis, Method, Results, Conclusion. We did, but we didn't know why, most of the time we knew what we were suposed to "prove" and simply worked backwards. In hindsight the teachers either just assumed everybody knew about it or had no idea themselves. A magician taught me more about science in one thin book than the public school system had in ten years. I still get sucked in by bad science but at least it doesn't happen every day now.:)
Slashdot Mirror
"Social Justice: A liberal getting slugged in the teeth."
The US conservative answer to any problem is, if you don't undrestand it then beat up the nearest liberal. Also seems to be the foundation of their foriegn policy. Hooray for freedom, you fucking wanker!
A tank of LPG last me about the same as a tank of petrol. Not sure how much a conversion costs these days, 10yrs ago it was ~$1500(AU) and no more complex than a day at the garage. My car (V6, 4door) had dual fuel already fitted, it has slightly less power and slightly lower mpg stats on LPG but it takes a rev-head to notice the difference. Over here most petrol stations have at least one LPG pump, filling the car is as easy as filling up with petrol. Virtually all taxi's in Australia run exlusively on LPG.
Perhaps the only drawback in my experience would be that the tank takes up ~1/3 of my boot space.
And the curve is flattening...
Curves tend to do that as they aproach their apex. I do agree that the level of starvation has dramatically dropped since the 1960's and it is mainly due to improvements in China. However the world population is still increasing at an unsustainable rate and will eventually crash if it does not correct itself.
You put up a link to the Cato Institute as evidence for decreasing pollution. Do you realise who they are and who funds them? Hint, their psudeo-science is politically and financially motivated bull-shit, changing the leagal definition of pollution does not make it go away. No matter what you or Cato theorise via conservitive ideology, you still need to eat, drink, breath and shit, just like all the other rapidly dissapearing life-forms here on Earth.
Readthis. Make sure you note, "Dozens of huge corporations, eager to roll back government regulatory powers, are among Cato's largest donors." Followed by a long list of the usual suspects.
"Strictly speaking, climate is inherently unpredictable beyond next nanosecond."
:)
Strictly speaking, the universe is inherently unpredictable beyond a quantum time tick. Hasn't been a problem so far.
Yep petrol hovers around $US4.00-4.50 / gallon lately. Even with the recent price hikes, petrol in the US is still very cheap compared to the rest of the western world.
I have run my car on LPG for the last 10yrs (~200,000KM). It has cost me 1/3 - 1/2 the price of petrol.
"There is no vaccine against bird flu. At least not yet"
No wuckers, we already know our politicians are paid bullshit artists.
"I am concerned if the EU or UN is able to take over control that we will suffer due to censorship."
Mr Pot, meet Mr Kettle.
"Sorry, but the "Population Bomb" didn't happen either."
...listen carefully and you can hear it ticking.
1900 - World pop. ~1Billion
1950 - World pop. ~3Billion
2000 - World pop. ~6Billion
"...climate... is inherently unpredictable beyond a few days."
"Because five years is an awful small time speaking about climate."
If climate does not change in 5 years why is it "inherently unpredictable beyond a few days"?
We seem to be in agreement but I think you need to proof read your posts.
"You see, climate is the poster child for dynamic complex systems, and is inherently unpredictable beyond a few days."
You are making the common mistake of equating climate to weather.
Example:
(Climate)-I predict the climate of Florida will still be tropical on 25/7/2010.
(Weather)-I predict a hurricane will hit Miami on 25/7/2010.
"Please explain to me what that's a bad thing."
Rate of change, humans are the most adaptable of species and it is said we will have a hard time adapting. How do you think the rest of food web will cope? Global warming is more than wet feet.
Psuedo scientific poppycock!
The "I know what's happening crowd" have a much stronger case than the "I have sand in my ears crowd".
Yes, but IIRC the show also pointed out that an earlier generation of mythbusters had demonstated it is possible to set a wooden boat on fire using soldiers holding large mirrors. Each soldier directs an individual mirror onto the boat, use enough mirrors and it will start smoking.
I don't belive the ancient greeks had the technology to make a glass lense large enough to fry a boat, let alone focus on a moving target. However it is certainly possible using multiple mirrors, even the crude ones made from polished metal like Archimedies would have had access to.
"It might as well have been the law of invisible elves of slow rotation."
If your proposed IESR law can predict the rotation of randomly selected galaxies of various shapes and sizes better than Newtonion, Relativistic or any other laws, then it is a shoe-in for a Nobel prize.
Perhaps this paper is correct and others have simply been using the wrong equations. Sounds plausible and I am sure it will be followed up given all the interest in this long standing puzzle. This is how most good ideas end up, in fact it's highly likely that some of the "shinny pebbles" on Eienstien's imaginary beach turned out to be wet turds. Imagination and curiosity can discover things like black-holes and bent spacetime decades before anyone observes them in nature. Eienstien, Newton, Maxwell,... are all immortal because they discovered stanger and more useful models than IESR(as it currently stands).
PS: Rename it to IEFR at least that would reflect the observations it is attempting to explain.
Maths is never offtopic on a nerd site. The parent post deserves +5 QED.
Disclaimer: This post is not directed at you, I agree with your common-sense. The problem with pin numbers, passwords, etc is once you have stolen them you need to turn them into cash. Buying goods is easier to get away with but obviously less valuable. I don't know about anyone else's banking arragements but over here in Australia my bank states in writing that I will only ever have to pay the first $50 of any fraud perpertrated on my account. A hacker could empty my account (all at once or a bit at a time), I get a new one and it costs me a $50 "fine" for asssumed security slackness on my part. It may not be exactly fair if you did everything by the book but by far the main liability is on the bank, this "encourages" the bank to take responsility for their systems security seriously (don't know of a bank that is not serious when it comes to money). The "fine" pays for the occasional "suspisous transfer" letters I get from the banks and I am sure the "fine" is also designed to be just enough "pissing about" to make customers cautious with their cards, passwords and pins.
Consumer based electronic transfers did not take off in a big way until consumers were confident they were not going to get electronically mugged. So why all the parinoia? Do overseas banks let their customers take all the risk?
If your bank won't promise (in writing) to keep your money safe for a competitive fee then I suggest you find another bank.
"People who have either been well-off their whole lives or fortunate enough to rise from a lower class to a higher one tend not to realize how difficult it is for the vast majority of people to improve their economic status."
I would say that people who have spent thier whole life at either end of the income spectrum are the most extreme in their attitudes. Having spent about ~15yrs at either end of the scale, I know where I want to be, I know what it takes to get/stay there and that "what it takes" is different for everyone.
The problem is not as the GP suggests "worthless wage slaves". The problem is that the GP's ignorance is widespread in the "Bussiness" community. This in turn creates "entry level jobs" (or some other euphemisim meaning you work inflexible 60hr weeks to keep the wolves from the door). Who takes these kind of jobs - people who can't find anything to pay THIS WEEKS rent, why do they stay there - to pay NEXT WEEKS rent, why don't they study - there working 60hrs already and the electricity bill is due!
We have a system that gloryfies the top 500 income earners, nothing wrong with that until... they start thinking they actually deserve it and conclude the bottom 500,000,000 are worthless and should show more gratitude for the crumbs. This attitude is offset by petty crooks at the other end of the economic scale who tell society to shove the crumbs up their arse. It would be a much less insane planet if any one with a full time job could live a modest and healthy life on 2/3 of their take-home pay. Off course any global move to redistribute wealth/power towards the poor would be communisim and thus anti-christian and anti-mom-and-apple-pie.
"You do know that those things regenerate, right?"
No, do you have a reference, all the ones I've seen say that very little is known about the species.
"Please take the tree-hugging shit somewhere else"?"
Don't you mean "squid-hugging".
"...support from non-communist-green humans..."
Ahhh, now we are getting somewhere, the whole thing is about politics, right?
"...protect the existance of a species that has not been proven to exist"
I suppose the specimens that are caught in nets or washed up on shore prove nothing.
That's worth whatever sacrifice to that species that the photos necessitated."
To you maybe but I think the squid would disagree.
Without "wage slaves" civilization as you know it would collapse in less than 3 days. Your post clearly shows a disconnection from the "real world". Maybe your a kid or a troll or a nobleman, I don't really care except to say you need to get a grip and understand that productivity/responsibility is not measured by a persons pay packet (eg: Train driver or the kid with his finger in the dam).
Ego-maniacs should be forced to clean public toilets for a while before taking on a "real job". If the shit doesn't stick to you then you can claim to be a king.
Thanks, any sufficiently long article without an index is indistinguishable from a pay-per-click scam.
I agree, bad reporting is often worse than no reporting, particularly when it comes to politically charged science in the mass media.
If we could get the rest of the planet to agree we might be on to something. :)
The current US doctrine of "overwhelming force" simply creates overwhelming resistance. Osma-bin-forgotten does not need a huge army, he just needs enough people to be so pissed off that they are willing to fly/drive/carry a bomb to "get even". Why does our side continue to supply OBL with this "cannon-fodder" by demonising the Arabs to the point where dropping bombs on villages is considered ok?
Would your average Westener be pleased to see their own morally bankrupt goverment replaced by warring factions in an ever deepening spiral of violence or would they prefer assistance and advice on how to remove the bastards by sheer weight of numbers?
How would the average Westener react if China occupied their country and dropped a few bombs on the house next door? What would it be like to come home and find your whole family obliterated because they ran in to help to people next door and were killed by a second bomb run?
It has been happening for a long time. Geronimo (the Indian) fought alongside the US army only to return home and find his whole family had been butcherd by the same army he was helping.
Sure, anyone can make a model, but before complaining about a lack of information you might want to check out if there are "standard" models that climate scientists use. I can't be bothered doing your research for you but I assure you such models do exists and are well known to climatoligists (like ANSII C is well known slashdotters).
I could not read the article because it now demands rego but I agree it should at least state if the model used is a "standard" model (eg, The model used to predict Katrina's path and strength was a "standard" weather model).
If climate change simply means we get warmer weather and the sea floods a few cities then it's not the end of the civilization, we can adapt rapidly. OTOH: Plants, pollinating insects, plankton, coral, ect, are more sensitive to their environment and can not adapt as rapidly. If these changes cause the food web to suddenly collapse then we have along way to fall. Acidic oceans from Co2 plus massive crop failures from rapidly changing environments are the real dangers that barely rate a mention in the media. A quick google for historical trends on global grain demand, production and reserves might show you something surprising when looked at in the light of the "peak oil" (google it) predictions.
What I want to know is why don't the media practice "equal time" during the daily weather forecast. Now I know weather and climate are two different things but surely, in the name of fair and balanced reporting, they could find someone who wants (or is paid) to predict the path of a hurricane and consistently dis-agree with the official forecasts.
Climatologists have a kind of "official forecast" for our future climate using standard models, yet every prediction that is reported in the media is offset by a nay-saying stooge or an obscure nut-case. Nobody in their right mind claims the standard climate models are totally accurate (to me they seem optomistic in terms of feedback). Doing nothing about C02 emmisions would be like hanging out your washing when told to evacuate.
Great post, but what can be done about it. The modern idea of a Nation state is ~500yrs old now and has served it's purpose of consolidating the warlords. Violently competing nations are now clearly doing humanity more harm than good. Throughout history we have seen ourselves as members of conflicting tribes and the tribes just keep getting bigger and more powerful. A world government is a possibility this century, it could end up like 1984 or it could go the other way.
Since WW2 a kind off multi-party mexican stand off has existed between the veto-weilding security council members, many of the wars of the last 50yrs could be categorised as "proxy wars" between these members. It cannot continue indefinitely, someone, somewhere will freak out and push the button, an hour later everyone else will panic and do the same.
The internet tribe may be the biggest tribe of all at the moment, keep it "free as in beer".
I'm obviously not a great "communicator", I only meant I trust Nature & Science more because of their "journal" status. I agree New Scientist is more suited to a general audience and is also widely available on the newstands as is Scientific American. Both are good mags.
:)
Why bad science reporting pisses me off:
I am a recovered victim of bad science reporting. Until the age of 30 I did not have any science education to speak except good marks for science at high school. In my late teens I belived all sorts of crap (especially phycic stuff). In my early twenties I read many books and magazines (from the science section in the newsagent!), I had been convinced that Uri Geller was genuine since I was 16! I picked up a second-hand book by The Great Randi and found out I had been reading science fiction as science fact.
After that I became more selective and started reading Scientific American and found a copy in the Library that contained J. Conway's "Game of Life". Like a true nerd I spent hours hand drawing grids to see what would happen. I got frustrated with the tedious drawings and taught myself programming on a secondhand Apple IIE. About 8yrs later I ended up with a Computer Science degree and a healthy pay-pack.
The first thing that people need to learn about science is the scientific method, ie:what is science. Unfortunately my high-school science class was absorbed in the experiments and results that flowed from the method, I can't remember it ever being mentioned. We were told to write our "reports" as Hypothesis, Method, Results, Conclusion. We did, but we didn't know why, most of the time we knew what we were suposed to "prove" and simply worked backwards. In hindsight the teachers either just assumed everybody knew about it or had no idea themselves. A magician taught me more about science in one thin book than the public school system had in ten years. I still get sucked in by bad science but at least it doesn't happen every day now.