The point about office thermostats is true where I work. I have a nice new office complete with thermostat. The temperature regularly climbs to beyond 82 Degrees F (that's ~28C), when I complained about it, they told me to use the thermostat to adjust the temp. That was the point where I told them that I watched the process of construction as they built the office, and that I know that the thermostat is a dummy (looks good, but isn't connected to anything, wires just dangling in the wall). At this point they realized they were busted, but still wouldn't do anything for me. The claim is that fixing this for me would require the re-balancing of the the entire building, and they weren't going to do it for just one person. So I keep a fan going for when it's too warm, and a sweater for wen it's too cold. For them the ruse still worked, I don't complain any longer, 'cause I know that nothing will change.
Good brief history lesson. Just one nit to pick, Unitarians (prior to their merger with the Universalists) did have real problems with the whole Council of Nicea thing, and therefore the whole concept of the Trinity. But they were definatly Christian. However, since the time of the merger of the two denominations, they have moved markedly to the left of the religous spectrum; and are no longer considered by either themselves or others to be 'Christian', what ever that means. So while they might be a 'fringe group' to some, they are certainly NOT a fringe CHRISTIAN group, nor are they in the same conservative mold as the Latter Day Saints (Mormons) or the Witnesses, or the Adventists etc. Perhaps Ghandi said it best when he said: "I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians, they are so unlike your Christ."
There is a religion out there that doen't condemn any/everyone. It's called Unitarian Universalism http://www.uua.org/. It's based on seven principles, the first one being "Belief in the inherent worth and diginty of every person". Sometimes it's hard to find that "worth and dignity", but we try not to exclude people en masse . We probably don't fit your definition of 'major religions', but there are >150K of us out there.
On another point, the town is Fishkill, and the name derives from the original Dutch settlers, but the meaning is as you said (fish river).
Just my $0.02
This is essentially what Richard Feynman states "It is a great adventure to contemplate the universe beyond man, to think of what it means without man - as it was for the great part of its long history, and as it is in the great majority of places. When this objective view is finally obtained, and the mystery and majesty of matter are appreciated, then to turn the objective eye back on man viewed as matter, to see life as part of the universal mystery of greatest depth, is to sense an experience which is rarely described.....These scientific views end in awe and mystery, lost at the edge of uncertainty, but they appear to be so deep and so impressive that the theory that it is all arranged simple as a stage for God to watch man's struggle for good and evil seems inadequate."
"The Meaning of it All", by Richard P. Feynman, Addison-Wesley, 1998, pg. 39.
I think that the real issue here is that Apple needs to keep their trade secrets. The USPTO requires that entities ACTIVELY protect their trade secrets (Overview here http://www.lawguru.com/faq/19.18.html or here http://www.ipwatchdog.com/tradesecret.html. If products in development are not trade secrets, then what is?
I agree that parenting is not a spectator sport, you've got to roll up your sleeves and get involved every single day. It is not for the faint of heart.
That being said, I've got to disagree with your blanket statement: "There's an easy check to see if someone has done a poor job of parenting (in 75% of the cases): see if one of their kids has a TV, phone, gaming console, or computer in their own room (extra points if they have more than one)." By your definition I'm a bad parent, as both my sons have a computer in their rooms. Both boys have excellent grades at a difficult high school, play sports, referee, are deeply involved in their church youth group, volunteer, play guitar and sax, and have active social lives. Their computers are usually on, and a chat client is going; but they have learned to prioritize their time. Homework MUST get done; no ifs, ands, or buts. The doors to their rooms are open, and I drop in several times a night to see what's up and to chat.
Their computers were a reward for getting straight A's for a year. We made a deal, and they fulfilled their part, so I fulfilled my part. I have to say that while they do play games on them, this only done a minority of the time; they more typically are using them for homework, music, or art.
So, please don't judge me as a bad parent unless you actually have data to suggest that I am one.
I agree with the general thrust of TFA, but I think that it gives short shrift to one of the real difficulties: that of trying to explain frequently very complex theories to the non-specialist. I'm a professional scientist, and am frequently asked to talk to the public (typically intelligent but naive in the sense of 'uninformed'). I find preparing this kind of talk MUCH more difficult and time consuming than that required for presenting to my scientific peers. There is just a vast amount of assumed knowledge implicit in any professional talk. Little to none of that background is understood by the general population (journalists included). Try to explain genome research if your audience only has a basic knowledge of DNA, with no concept of introns, exons, splice variations, or regulatory elements. So I spend half my time just trying to get my audience up to speed.
This is why I have nothing but repect for those few scientist who CAN do this well. You may not like his "billions and billions", but Carl Sagan could communicate his ideas on cosmology to a naive (but intelligent) audience.
I have two points to make about this.
1. My kids are entering their 'prime music buying' ages (mid-teens) and my experience mirrors the grandparent post; they prefer music form the 60s-80s; although they do like some current bands.
2. I have a big collection of vinyl from that period (100's of LPs); and it ages pretty well. Enough so that the boys are taking the LPs that aren't easily found on CD and digitizing them and putting them on their iPods. So this either means my experience is different from the parent post, or my taste is (was) better than average.
On my iPod (excluding CDs and vinyl): 1) Roughly what percent of your music collection is unauthorized files from P2P like Kazaa, FTP, etc.? 0% 2) Roughly what percent of your music collection comes from sources like iTunes Music Store, eMusic, etc? 5% 3) Roughly what percent of your music collection comes from shareable sources like Creative Commons-licensed music? 0% 4) Roughly what percent of your music collection comes from rips of your own CDs? 95% 5) Roughly what percent of your music collection comes from rips of friends' CDs? 0% (what are these friends of which you speak?)
It has to be pointed out that there is a significant difference between "The field's strength has waned 10 to 15 percent." which is what the article says; and "the north pole's magnetic field at about 10-15 percent it's strength of 150 years ago" which is what Timothy says.
The former means that the field strength is still 85 to 90 percent of the original value (still nearly intact), while the latter means that it is only 10-15 percent of that value (nearly gone). This distiction not insignificant.
That being said, it's still neat to follow (even though I don't think that I'll be around at the end).
Our Church, the Unitarian Universalist Church of Danbury has been doing this for at least 25 years. It was originally done so that shut-ins and others who have missed the service had access to the audio.
On another note, I'm now trying to convince my son to digitise some of the old sermons so that they can be made available on line. I think that we've got the details worked out, I just need to light a fire under him so that he actually does it.
I work for a fairly large Corp, but several years ago our group was in a satellite site several hundred meters from the main buildings. So we were essentially left alone. Our director had a sense of humor and let us have some fun while we were working. She had a sign up that said "Sexual harassment will not be tolerated, however it will be graded". Our HR people nearly had heart attacks when they saw _that_ one. The sign didn't last long.
However, I was on vacation and returned on Monday, to find "Wanda" sitting at my desk. Wanda is a not a real lady, she was an inflatable best friend. This would have been fine, except that we had a potential new-hire coming through the offices that morning for interviews. So all day long we were running around with Wanda about one-step ahead of the candidate, lest she get the idea that we were nuts.
Another good prank was when we filled up the office of a colleague with empty boxes while he was on vacation. Ahhh those were the days. Now we are in the same building as the rest of the organization and have fewer opportunities for mischief.
My great-grandfater actually bought the Brooklyn Bridge (OK so he paid for it). This was about 1910 or there-abouts. He was living in Little Italy with his sons and daughter. They were out making a living, by being sand-hogs (digging the subways for those of you who don't know) or tailoring/seamstressing, but Great-Grandpa wasn't working, evidently he got out of practice while still in the Old Country and never really got back into the swing of it (that's a separate story). So while wandering about the town, he comes into the proverbial huckster selling the Brooklyn Bridge. As this is a limited-time offer, he has to put the money down right away, i.e. before talking to his sons who have a better command of the language and know about this particular con. So that night, over the family dinner table, he say to his brood that their money troubles are over, he's just bought the bridge outside the window for $500. All they have to do is put up toll booth and they are set. At this point the kids pick up their jaws from the table and figure out how they can get Pop out of the City pronto. The next morning, they go to the train station, go to the end of the line, and find a place to move the family. So that's why my relatives live where they do. i figure out that I can tell this story, any gullibiity genes involved have been diluted 8-fold by know, so I'm probably OK.
One of my monitors indaily use is an NEC 6FG, 21 inches of CRT goodness, somewhere in the 12 year-old ballpark. Originally attached to a Mac Centris, followed by a beige G3, then a succession of Compaq desktops. The company is trying tostandardize on LCD displays, but isn't willing to shell out for one this sized. It still works beautifully and keeps my office toasty on cold winter days like today.
I burn my shredded docs. In my high tech fireplace, complete wth catalytic converter (www.fireplacextrordinair.com/). It great, provides that boost to get thi living areas up to a comfy level on the brisk nights.
Others have pointed out that it is possible to buy a replacement battery; so I'm not going to beat that particular dead horse. But I will say that it is pretty much dead easy to follow the instructions (complete with pretty pictures) and do so. My 15 yr-old son couldn't wait for me to get home to 'help' him replace the battery on his 2G iPod so he did it himself. No problems, scratches, or other difficulties. 3 months later it still holds a >8 hour charge.
Heh, Heh. I like the references to Bored of the Rings. I first read this _years_ ago, right after I read the trilogy for the second time, and I remembered portions of it vividly for years. I was looking for it for years, and finally found it again, when they shamelessly (what else?!) reissued it to time with the new films.
"It was pity that stayed Dildo's hand. It was a pity that he had run out of bullets". "Argle bargle flogle woosh". Goodgulf, Moxie and Pepsi, Sorehed, and of course, the Nozedrool. Thanks for bringing this up.
This is cool. Bethel is a small town (~17K) located in Western CT. Our last big bust (5 yrs ago), was when they shut down the local "health club" after it was noticed that the business hours seemed to peak after 10PM, and all of the exercise equip. was dusty. We don't make the paper often, which is why I like it here.
We just went through this last night with my son. He's 15 and formerly went the Limewire route, we've been telling him that this was A Bad Idea, and that the proper thing to do is to pay for music. With the iTMS and his iPod, he has come to see that this is not only correct, but possible. Only problem is that he has no credit card, so he pays me cash, and I send him a gift certificate. No problems. I like this idea better than an allowance, that's just a mechanism to suck his wallet dry. This way, he has a fixed amount that he determines how much and how he wants to spend it.
Gotta agree that these were some of the best comic of the past 20 yrs. But my all time favorite is Pogo. The social and political satire/commentary was the best of it's time. If you can find any of the old anthologies, read them. I learned more about cold war politics from Walt Kelly than just about anyone (Khruschev as a pig and Castro as a goat trying to undermine the US economy with counterfeit green stamps).
Hey, I've actually used a Polytron. It's used in biochemistry (Grind 'n Find). All it is is a Tim-Taylor-the-Toolman Binfordized blender. And no I naever made mouse-shakes. We used it for ginding up plants.
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The point about office thermostats is true where I work. I have a nice new office complete with thermostat. The temperature regularly climbs to beyond 82 Degrees F (that's ~28C), when I complained about it, they told me to use the thermostat to adjust the temp. That was the point where I told them that I watched the process of construction as they built the office, and that I know that the thermostat is a dummy (looks good, but isn't connected to anything, wires just dangling in the wall). At this point they realized they were busted, but still wouldn't do anything for me. The claim is that fixing this for me would require the re-balancing of the the entire building, and they weren't going to do it for just one person. So I keep a fan going for when it's too warm, and a sweater for wen it's too cold. For them the ruse still worked, I don't complain any longer, 'cause I know that nothing will change.
Good brief history lesson. Just one nit to pick, Unitarians (prior to their merger with the Universalists) did have real problems with the whole Council of Nicea thing, and therefore the whole concept of the Trinity. But they were definatly Christian. However, since the time of the merger of the two denominations, they have moved markedly to the left of the religous spectrum; and are no longer considered by either themselves or others to be 'Christian', what ever that means. So while they might be a 'fringe group' to some, they are certainly NOT a fringe CHRISTIAN group, nor are they in the same conservative mold as the Latter Day Saints (Mormons) or the Witnesses, or the Adventists etc. Perhaps Ghandi said it best when he said: "I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians, they are so unlike your Christ."
There is a religion out there that doen't condemn any/everyone. It's called Unitarian Universalism http://www.uua.org/. It's based on seven principles, the first one being "Belief in the inherent worth and diginty of every person". Sometimes it's hard to find that "worth and dignity", but we try not to exclude people en masse . We probably don't fit your definition of 'major religions', but there are >150K of us out there. On another point, the town is Fishkill, and the name derives from the original Dutch settlers, but the meaning is as you said (fish river). Just my $0.02
This is essentially what Richard Feynman states "It is a great adventure to contemplate the universe beyond man, to think of what it means without man - as it was for the great part of its long history, and as it is in the great majority of places. When this objective view is finally obtained, and the mystery and majesty of matter are appreciated, then to turn the objective eye back on man viewed as matter, to see life as part of the universal mystery of greatest depth, is to sense an experience which is rarely described.....These scientific views end in awe and mystery, lost at the edge of uncertainty, but they appear to be so deep and so impressive that the theory that it is all arranged simple as a stage for God to watch man's struggle for good and evil seems inadequate." "The Meaning of it All", by Richard P. Feynman, Addison-Wesley, 1998, pg. 39.
I think that the real issue here is that Apple needs to keep their trade secrets. The USPTO requires that entities ACTIVELY protect their trade secrets (Overview here http://www.lawguru.com/faq/19.18.html or here http://www.ipwatchdog.com/tradesecret.html. If products in development are not trade secrets, then what is?
I agree that parenting is not a spectator sport, you've got to roll up your sleeves and get involved every single day. It is not for the faint of heart.
That being said, I've got to disagree with your blanket statement: "There's an easy check to see if someone has done a poor job of parenting (in 75% of the cases): see if one of their kids has a TV, phone, gaming console, or computer in their own room (extra points if they have more than one)." By your definition I'm a bad parent, as both my sons have a computer in their rooms. Both boys have excellent grades at a difficult high school, play sports, referee, are deeply involved in their church youth group, volunteer, play guitar and sax, and have active social lives. Their computers are usually on, and a chat client is going; but they have learned to prioritize their time. Homework MUST get done; no ifs, ands, or buts. The doors to their rooms are open, and I drop in several times a night to see what's up and to chat.
Their computers were a reward for getting straight A's for a year. We made a deal, and they fulfilled their part, so I fulfilled my part. I have to say that while they do play games on them, this only done a minority of the time; they more typically are using them for homework, music, or art.
So, please don't judge me as a bad parent unless you actually have data to suggest that I am one.
I agree with the general thrust of TFA, but I think that it gives short shrift to one of the real difficulties: that of trying to explain frequently very complex theories to the non-specialist. I'm a professional scientist, and am frequently asked to talk to the public (typically intelligent but naive in the sense of 'uninformed'). I find preparing this kind of talk MUCH more difficult and time consuming than that required for presenting to my scientific peers. There is just a vast amount of assumed knowledge implicit in any professional talk. Little to none of that background is understood by the general population (journalists included). Try to explain genome research if your audience only has a basic knowledge of DNA, with no concept of introns, exons, splice variations, or regulatory elements. So I spend half my time just trying to get my audience up to speed. This is why I have nothing but repect for those few scientist who CAN do this well. You may not like his "billions and billions", but Carl Sagan could communicate his ideas on cosmology to a naive (but intelligent) audience.
I have two points to make about this. 1. My kids are entering their 'prime music buying' ages (mid-teens) and my experience mirrors the grandparent post; they prefer music form the 60s-80s; although they do like some current bands. 2. I have a big collection of vinyl from that period (100's of LPs); and it ages pretty well. Enough so that the boys are taking the LPs that aren't easily found on CD and digitizing them and putting them on their iPods. So this either means my experience is different from the parent post, or my taste is (was) better than average.
On my iPod (excluding CDs and vinyl):
1) Roughly what percent of your music collection is unauthorized files from P2P like Kazaa, FTP, etc.? 0%
2) Roughly what percent of your music collection comes from sources like iTunes Music Store, eMusic, etc? 5%
3) Roughly what percent of your music collection comes from shareable sources like Creative Commons-licensed music? 0%
4) Roughly what percent of your music collection comes from rips of your own CDs? 95%
5) Roughly what percent of your music collection comes from rips of friends' CDs? 0% (what are these friends of which you speak?)
You're right; so I'll give a big mea culpa. Sorry, Timothy.
It has to be pointed out that there is a significant difference between "The field's strength has waned 10 to 15 percent." which is what the article says; and "the north pole's magnetic field at about 10-15 percent it's strength of 150 years ago" which is what Timothy says. The former means that the field strength is still 85 to 90 percent of the original value (still nearly intact), while the latter means that it is only 10-15 percent of that value (nearly gone). This distiction not insignificant. That being said, it's still neat to follow (even though I don't think that I'll be around at the end).
Our Church, the Unitarian Universalist Church of Danbury has been doing this for at least 25 years. It was originally done so that shut-ins and others who have missed the service had access to the audio. On another note, I'm now trying to convince my son to digitise some of the old sermons so that they can be made available on line. I think that we've got the details worked out, I just need to light a fire under him so that he actually does it.
I work for a fairly large Corp, but several years ago our group was in a satellite site several hundred meters from the main buildings. So we were essentially left alone. Our director had a sense of humor and let us have some fun while we were working. She had a sign up that said "Sexual harassment will not be tolerated, however it will be graded". Our HR people nearly had heart attacks when they saw _that_ one. The sign didn't last long.
However, I was on vacation and returned on Monday, to find "Wanda" sitting at my desk. Wanda is a not a real lady, she was an inflatable best friend. This would have been fine, except that we had a potential new-hire coming through the offices that morning for interviews. So all day long we were running around with Wanda about one-step ahead of the candidate, lest she get the idea that we were nuts.
Another good prank was when we filled up the office of a colleague with empty boxes while he was on vacation. Ahhh those were the days. Now we are in the same building as the rest of the organization and have fewer opportunities for mischief.
My great-grandfater actually bought the Brooklyn Bridge (OK so he paid for it). This was about 1910 or there-abouts. He was living in Little Italy with his sons and daughter. They were out making a living, by being sand-hogs (digging the subways for those of you who don't know) or tailoring/seamstressing, but Great-Grandpa wasn't working, evidently he got out of practice while still in the Old Country and never really got back into the swing of it (that's a separate story). So while wandering about the town, he comes into the proverbial huckster selling the Brooklyn Bridge. As this is a limited-time offer, he has to put the money down right away, i.e. before talking to his sons who have a better command of the language and know about this particular con. So that night, over the family dinner table, he say to his brood that their money troubles are over, he's just bought the bridge outside the window for $500. All they have to do is put up toll booth and they are set. At this point the kids pick up their jaws from the table and figure out how they can get Pop out of the City pronto. The next morning, they go to the train station, go to the end of the line, and find a place to move the family. So that's why my relatives live where they do. i figure out that I can tell this story, any gullibiity genes involved have been diluted 8-fold by know, so I'm probably OK.
Wasn't Riff-Raff from Transexual not Mars?
One of my monitors indaily use is an NEC 6FG, 21 inches of CRT goodness, somewhere in the 12 year-old ballpark. Originally attached to a Mac Centris, followed by a beige G3, then a succession of Compaq desktops. The company is trying tostandardize on LCD displays, but isn't willing to shell out for one this sized. It still works beautifully and keeps my office toasty on cold winter days like today.
I burn my shredded docs. In my high tech fireplace, complete wth catalytic converter (www.fireplacextrordinair.com/). It great, provides that boost to get thi living areas up to a comfy level on the brisk nights.
Others have pointed out that it is possible to buy a replacement battery; so I'm not going to beat that particular dead horse. But I will say that it is pretty much dead easy to follow the instructions (complete with pretty pictures) and do so. My 15 yr-old son couldn't wait for me to get home to 'help' him replace the battery on his 2G iPod so he did it himself. No problems, scratches, or other difficulties. 3 months later it still holds a >8 hour charge.
Heh, Heh. I like the references to Bored of the Rings. I first read this _years_ ago, right after I read the trilogy for the second time, and I remembered portions of it vividly for years. I was looking for it for years, and finally found it again, when they shamelessly (what else?!) reissued it to time with the new films. "It was pity that stayed Dildo's hand. It was a pity that he had run out of bullets". "Argle bargle flogle woosh". Goodgulf, Moxie and Pepsi, Sorehed, and of course, the Nozedrool. Thanks for bringing this up.
This is cool. Bethel is a small town (~17K) located in Western CT. Our last big bust (5 yrs ago), was when they shut down the local "health club" after it was noticed that the business hours seemed to peak after 10PM, and all of the exercise equip. was dusty. We don't make the paper often, which is why I like it here.
We just went through this last night with my son. He's 15 and formerly went the Limewire route, we've been telling him that this was A Bad Idea, and that the proper thing to do is to pay for music. With the iTMS and his iPod, he has come to see that this is not only correct, but possible. Only problem is that he has no credit card, so he pays me cash, and I send him a gift certificate. No problems. I like this idea better than an allowance, that's just a mechanism to suck his wallet dry. This way, he has a fixed amount that he determines how much and how he wants to spend it.
Gotta agree that these were some of the best comic of the past 20 yrs. But my all time favorite is Pogo. The social and political satire/commentary was the best of it's time. If you can find any of the old anthologies, read them. I learned more about cold war politics from Walt Kelly than just about anyone (Khruschev as a pig and Castro as a goat trying to undermine the US economy with counterfeit green stamps).
Hey, I've actually used a Polytron. It's used in biochemistry (Grind 'n Find). All it is is a Tim-Taylor-the-Toolman Binfordized blender. And no I naever made mouse-shakes. We used it for ginding up plants.