In Brussels, Belgium (cause I live here), we have trams, metros, busses, etc... all the usual aspects of a decent modern public transport system. The tram is essentially a street-train. And as far as scheduling/transfers go, they come every few minutes, are damn well integrated by now, run on electric, etc... And they're cheap.
In other words, it can be done. But I think the parent poster's point is that the will of the people (never mind the political will) is not there, in the US. Americans love their cars too much.
Quick fixes for overweight people, or diet and exercise? Which do you think works?
What makes you think there's a quick fix for ignorance?
People who are not educated in statistics have only one solution which will work: Get educated in statistics. That doesn't mean taking a maths degree. Any number of books or basic courses could help.
The problem is that most ignorant people don't want education. And the really ignorant ones don't even believe that there's such a thing as being smart.
Just look at the number of people who play the lottery. Think any of them have the vaguest notion about statistics? Think any of them WANT to learn?
I can't tell you how often the damn thing is just wrong. It has difficulty distinguishing roads that are really near to each other, as well as roads that pass over one another. You can be driving along a motorway, and suddenly she pipes up "TURN LEFT!!" If you were keyed to obey her, you'd fly off the overpass and fall down into traffic.
There are parts of Wales I have visited, particularly in Holyhead, where old roads simply don't exist on the map.
And take a look (use google earth) at the roads and routes around any major airport, (for me, Zaventem in Belgium). Sat-nav is useless there.
The sat nav is about as useful as having google maps on a laptop in the car. Pull over and check it out if you must. Plan your route before you go though.
It's a slow day, and you're bored. And while copying the files, perhaps you notice that one of the folders was marked "hidden". And while copying it you see filenames like "Angie giving head.jpg" So yeah, you take a look.
Or maybe you're a bit of a voyeur when it comes to other peoples data. You routinely scan each hard drive that you have access to, for *.avi, *.mpg, *.jpg, *.mp3 etc..
It takes 2 minutes to look over the results of that scan, and see if there's anything juicy in the names, or interesting the sizes (350Mb avi's are usually tv shows, 700Mb avi's are usually movies, etc..)
"it's entirely possible that this is a script invented for such a language."
Possible, but highly unlikely.
One of the cool things about the manuscript is not just the script that the text is written in. It's the fact that the diagrams show both plants, and constellations, which are not known on earth.
It could be a religious text (with someone describing what their idea of the next world is like) or it could be an elaborate fiction, like some proto D&D manual. Or it could just be a hoax of some sort. But it's unlikely to be just a invented script for an otherwise unscripted language.
This is similar to the rise of the Green Party (in various countries) through the 1980's. As their fringe status grew into mainstream status, the main political parties started advocating more green policies, and began to win back some of the votes they had lost to green protest voting.
I imagine something similar will happen with the BNP.
If anyone has seen the pilot of Ron Moore's new show, there's a (spoiler) virtual rape sequence. It's not shown, just the prelude and after effects. But as graphics and interfaces get more and more advanced, (with the holodeck being an example of the distant future possibilities) these are issues (virtual rape, virtual murder, virtual crimes) we'll continually have to face as a species, unless we can move beyond our more base instincts.
I've shown some non-geek friends of mine that there is nothing wrong with their web browser, or their laptop, or their internet connection. Web browsing is really very fast, provided you turn off advertising.
I set them up with a combo of Ad Block Plus on Firefox, and a customised hosts file. They can't believe the difference.
Well then the history you've learned is very different from the history I've learned.
For one thing, how can a 6 year admitted cover-up, be headline news when the incident happened?
Still, if you say that you were taught these 3 incidents in school, I'm impressed. I know quite a few people (not long out of school) who couldn't identify the incidents from the information provided.
Yes, we all think it's terrible that the majority of the youth in China don't even know about the Tianamen Square "incident"
But within America itself, how many of you know of, or recognise the following incidents?
1) US Government (ATF/FBI) burns to death 76 people in their homes, and the FBI lies about it for six years, when it finally comes clean. No one is ever held accountable.
2) 4 plain-clothed officers shoot an unarmed man standing in his doorway. They shoot a total of 41 times. He is hit 19 times. After the officers are convicted, the court orders them re-tried, and the second time around they are all acquitted.
3) Unarmed students at an anti-war protest, are shot at by the National Guard. 4 die, 9 are injured. Again, no accountability. No convictions.
and I swear, it's like reading the Duke Nukem Forever "reviews" that appeared when the product is/was/ vaporware.
"The ITER tokamak, 24 metres high and 30 metres wide, will be smaller than a conventional power station. It will produce up to 500 MW of thermal power in a toroidal fusion plasma of 800m^3 volume confined by strong magnetic fields. It will demonstrate prolonged power production aiming ultimately a steady-state operation."
Slashdot Mirror
Or rails *in addition* to asphalt.
In Brussels, Belgium (cause I live here), we have trams, metros, busses, etc... all the usual aspects of a decent modern public transport system. The tram is essentially a street-train. And as far as scheduling/transfers go, they come every few minutes, are damn well integrated by now, run on electric, etc... And they're cheap.
In other words, it can be done. But I think the parent poster's point is that the will of the people (never mind the political will) is not there, in the US. Americans love their cars too much.
Oh, okay then. Only 10,000 bombs. That makes it at least 10 times more plausible.
Do we have ANY super-villain cyber hackers in the world who WANT to start a nuclear war and launch 100,000 hiroshima type bombs?
Seriously?
Who do they envision being behind this? Doctor Evil???
Quick fixes for overweight people, or diet and exercise? Which do you think works?
What makes you think there's a quick fix for ignorance?
People who are not educated in statistics have only one solution which will work: Get educated in statistics.
That doesn't mean taking a maths degree. Any number of books or basic courses could help.
The problem is that most ignorant people don't want education.
And the really ignorant ones don't even believe that there's such a thing as being smart.
Just look at the number of people who play the lottery. Think any of them have the vaguest notion about statistics?
Think any of them WANT to learn?
"The UK's data protection act requires that all information that can be used to personally identify an individual is held securely."
And then left on some unencrypted CD-Roms on the train to Chester.
While the laptop with your source files is left in a topless bar near Camden Town.
I know that might seem like a strange amendment to make to the law, but trust us, it saved a TON of paperwork.
How did this story ever get on to Slashdot?
If I post a blog entry about discovering the cure for fat, will I get slashdotted?
Clean air, clean water, clean land. These are things no one is going to argue with.
Oh REALLY? You should take a long hard look at the hilariously mis-titled Clear Skies Act sometime.
Clean air, clean water, clean land. Politicians aren't being lobbied by corporations to provide these things.
and don't mind travelling perpendicular to the route which will actually get you to your destination...
Sounds like the inlay text on a Spectrum 48K cartridge game.
I can't tell you how often the damn thing is just wrong.
It has difficulty distinguishing roads that are really near to each other, as well as roads that pass over one another.
You can be driving along a motorway, and suddenly she pipes up "TURN LEFT!!"
If you were keyed to obey her, you'd fly off the overpass and fall down into traffic.
There are parts of Wales I have visited, particularly in Holyhead, where old roads simply don't exist on the map.
And take a look (use google earth) at the roads and routes around any major airport, (for me, Zaventem in Belgium).
Sat-nav is useless there.
The sat nav is about as useful as having google maps on a laptop in the car. Pull over and check it out if you must. Plan your route before you go though.
It's a slow day, and you're bored. And while copying the files, perhaps you notice that one of the folders was marked "hidden".
And while copying it you see filenames like "Angie giving head.jpg" So yeah, you take a look.
Or maybe you're a bit of a voyeur when it comes to other peoples data. You routinely scan each hard drive that you have access to, for *.avi, *.mpg, *.jpg, *.mp3 etc..
It takes 2 minutes to look over the results of that scan, and see if there's anything juicy in the names, or interesting the sizes (350Mb avi's are usually tv shows, 700Mb avi's are usually movies, etc..)
"it's entirely possible that this is a script invented for such a language."
Possible, but highly unlikely.
One of the cool things about the manuscript is not just the script that the text is written in. It's the fact that the diagrams show both plants, and constellations, which are not known on earth.
It could be a religious text (with someone describing what their idea of the next world is like) or it could be an elaborate fiction, like some proto D&D manual. Or it could just be a hoax of some sort. But it's unlikely to be just a invented script for an otherwise unscripted language.
This is similar to the rise of the Green Party (in various countries) through the 1980's. As their fringe status grew into mainstream status, the main political parties started advocating more green policies, and began to win back some of the votes they had lost to green protest voting.
I imagine something similar will happen with the BNP.
If anyone has seen the pilot of Ron Moore's new show, there's a (spoiler) virtual rape sequence. It's not shown, just the prelude and after effects. But as graphics and interfaces get more and more advanced, (with the holodeck being an example of the distant future possibilities) these are issues (virtual rape, virtual murder, virtual crimes) we'll continually have to face as a species, unless we can move beyond our more base instincts.
This is probably a good time for it to happen to, during Summer repeats.
Let's hope the new thing, whatever it is, is up and running in time for the Fall season premieres...
I've shown some non-geek friends of mine that there is nothing wrong with their web browser, or their laptop, or their internet connection. Web browsing is really very fast, provided you turn off advertising.
I set them up with a combo of Ad Block Plus on Firefox, and a customised hosts file. They can't believe the difference.
it could go the family guy route of being stale almost immediately after it returned to screens.
I'll agree that Family Guy was a shadow of its former self, once it returned from cancellation.
It took some time, but the show *has* returned to something like it's former levels of comedy though.
Actually, it was a reference to Amadou Diallo.
I wonder what went through that person's mind?
I'd hazard a guess that it was something along the lines of "Why do you hate America?" (c) Fox 2009.
Well then the history you've learned is very different from the history I've learned.
For one thing, how can a 6 year admitted cover-up, be headline news when the incident happened?
Still, if you say that you were taught these 3 incidents in school, I'm impressed. I know quite a few people (not long out of school) who couldn't identify the incidents from the information provided.
Yes, we all think it's terrible that the majority of the youth in China don't even know about the Tianamen Square "incident"
But within America itself, how many of you know of, or recognise the following incidents?
1) US Government (ATF/FBI) burns to death 76 people in their homes, and the FBI lies about it for six years, when it finally comes clean. No one is ever held accountable.
2) 4 plain-clothed officers shoot an unarmed man standing in his doorway. They shoot a total of 41 times. He is hit 19 times. After the officers are convicted, the court orders them re-tried, and the second time around they are all acquitted.
3) Unarmed students at an anti-war protest, are shot at by the National Guard. 4 die, 9 are injured. Again, no accountability. No convictions.
Well that depends. If they'd obtained the information by waterboarding, then it probably would have been okay.
Smithers, use the amnesia ray.
Er, no. I think you overestimate how much nuclear fuel is available.
And bear in mind, that no nuclear fission power station turns a profit. Not one.
They're all huge money sinks, which have to be directly subsidised by the state. (ie taxpayer)
and I swear, it's like reading the Duke Nukem Forever "reviews" that appeared when the product is/was/ vaporware.
"The ITER tokamak, 24 metres high and 30 metres wide, will be smaller than a conventional power station. It will produce up to 500 MW of thermal power in a toroidal fusion plasma of 800m^3 volume confined by strong magnetic fields. It will demonstrate prolonged power production aiming ultimately a steady-state operation."
In the words of wikipedia, citation please?