From the first sentence of your response, I thought you were going to be a troll/threadjack, and then you said something intelligent and on-topic in the second paragraph. Thank you for that.
Seconded. Email is great for links and urls, but the people who think I want a personal copy on my hard drive of their joke video forward, or their 100 pictures from something are sadly mistaken. I would be happy to have those stored in the cloud. And if I could get my coworkers to use the shared drives we're provided, it would ensure I'm always accessing the latest version of their file as well. *sigh*
Essentially, what you're saying, and what it's saying, is that the majority of our population-- sadly-- are not engineers.
Sadly? If everyone was an engineer, they wouldn't pay you what they do for you to do what you do. Be glad they're not all engineers; you'd become commonplace and jobless.
I propose the opposite. I propose you do not need to know anything about what happens under the hood to be a good driver. And by good driver, I mean someone who is safe, fully compliant with all applicable laws and regulations and who can navigate around other objects (which is complying with the laws of physics). A good driver does need to know the laws of physics, the rules of the road, and which knobs, buttons, dials and levers do what within the cockpit of their car.
I have a mechanic; I pay him to take care of everything (yes, everything) under the hood. I am a man, and comfortable in my manhood, even without changing my own oil, cleaning the stuck windshield squirter nozzle, or fixing the switch that keeps my dome light on during cold or rainy weather (I pull out the bulb instead).
The race car driver example is irrelevant; your local freeways and city streets are not supposed to be competitions of speed and dexterity but venues for transportation; you are graded on courtesy, not pole position. And if everyone will keep their eyes on the road and off their cell phones/iWhatnots, use their turn signals, and observe appropriate distance from the vehicle in front of them, I would call them all good drivers.
If you knew how military officers work, it goes like this: Something is wrong, they do *SOMETHING*.
Please do not think this is only about the military. This happens in businesses and universities and governments and police departments and school districts and non-profit organizations as well. Expect to see HP roll out mandatory HR training about sexual harassment in light of Mark Hurd stepping down. A cop does something that upsets folks, and he gets put on administrative leave for a bit. ACORN conducted some sort of "internal review" after the candid camera pimp videos were released. Heck, back in college, whenever someone did something stupid that offended a person of a Student Union (Women's, Black, Asian-American, etc.), there would inevitably be marches by students, milquetoast apologies published in the school paper by the offender, a declaration of support for diversity by the administration, and inter-racial dialogues facilitated by some off-campus person. Nobody asked if or how any of these activities actually changed the offender or the community, but everyone believed the process of doing *SOMETHING* was important.
It's all cargo-cult if you ask me. But many leaders can't make the right changes that they need, until they get the mobocracy off their backs. So quit being the mob, and then the leaders can go do the smart things first, without wasting time with "internal investigations."
RTFA. The wind gusts are overwhelming the hydro reservoir system. Largely because this is the Columbia River, with lovely tasty salmon in it and there are min/max flow guidelines to ensure that the river is useful for things other than just electricity generation.
This assessment of a neutral environment goes beyond rational vs. irrational. It also includes interference from agents unaccounted for. According to the law of gravity, if I drop something, it should fall onto the floor. But if I interpose myself and catch it before it hit the floor, I have not disproven the law of gravity. The law is still fine, but it cannot predict the interference of an agent acting with purpose and ability. To my knowledge, I cannot transcend rational laws, so your statement needs refinement.
This is not at all like buying a scratched DVD in a second-hand shop. It's like buying a DVD and then letting them come into your house whenever they want to scratch it, break it, take it away, or replace it with a grainy home movie version of the same. If someone did that with your furniture, you'd tie up the guy and call the cops for breaking and entering, vandalism, theft, and more. Explain why you would want to agree to all of that when you buy a song?
I'm sorry to hear what your sister in law makes. I have a relative who teaches in a private school (college prep too) in California, who makes less than your sister in law. If he moved to the public schools, he'd get a 50% raise even if they paid her as an entry level teacher. I'm sure there are private schools that pay more than the public schools, but they aren't all like that.
I'm sorry to hear it, and from your other posts, I understand we're in two totally different environments. I wish you the best, and want to let you know that being a supportive shoulder to your fiancee is the biggest thing you can do.
My comments were partly aimed to balance out the folks who were firing off technology solutions without asking what educational problems you face that their uber-nifty designs might solve. I saw a lot of that growing up, the "we have several computer labs to be on the cutting edge. oh, by the way, our library is *cough* leaking, so we need more money." If you see a need that can be met with technology, great. If the kids lack pens and paper to do their homework, putting fancy software in the classroom may not be the solution. Thanks for reading and best of luck.
What are the problems and issues facing your school? Are their computers crippled with spyware? Do the kids spend all day playing games and looking for un-educational materials? Do the teachers know how to use computers to make their lives easier?
Even better, probe deeper and find out what are the real problems they're facing? My wife teaches high school, and they have a different set of classes meeting each day of the week(for reasons that are an essay in itself). So she was working by hand to track how many times each class had met, to ensure her different class periods each had equal prep time before a test or the same amount of time to complete a project, and she struggled at times to reuse last year's lesson plans with this year's schedule. I made an Excel tool that could keep track of the schedule, store day-by-day lesson plans, and had several easy-to-execute reports showing her plans by week/class subject/month/semester. Now she saves quite a bit of time planning lessons, which gives us more time together.
By the way, no flames please on my choice of software. It's done and delivered, there's no going back, and I used a tool that I and the customer knew well and already had in our environments. I'm sure there are many wonderful alternatives, and my customer is very happy with what she has. Plus, she's been able to demo it for interested coworkers. When your customer can do the demos and training for you, I think it's a good sign.
What is good for one but bad for everyone in this case is the fallacy of composition. Saving is held up as a common example: when I don't spend as much, I have money for later, but if everyone cuts their spending, it can reduce demand for products enough that people lose their jobs, cancelling out the benefit of their savings. The tragedy of the commons is just one specific case of the fallacy of composition.
Cute, but completely impossible scenario. Quoth the IRS in IRS Tax Tip 2008-15 "If you gave any one person gifts in 2007 that are valued at more than $12,000, you must report the total gifts to the Internal Revenue Service and may have to pay tax on the gifts. The person who receives your gift does not have to report the gift to the IRS or pay gift or income tax on its value."
My relatives took advantage of this to reduce their taxable estate before death. And I sure didn't mind receiving a nice big check.
A larger company will sell below cost because they know a smaller company will go bankrupt trying to compete on price well before they will.
How? Your comment sounds insightful but is void of any economic sense. Suppose I control 90% of the market and you only 10%. When we engage in a price war and underprice our products, I lose $9 for every $1 you lose. Plus, once I jack up my prices, it's profitable for you (or your friend) to enter the market again. I only win if I'm willing to burn piles of money to keep you out, and in that case, it's cheaper to buy you.
You suggest people in general think that government in concept is bad. I believe they think their government is not bad, just inadequate. If people really thought government was bad, they wouldn't have been relying on government to build and maintain the dikes and levees. Nor would they be mad at FEMA for not giving enough money soon enough. They think government is good - and they think they're not getting enough of it. Government subsidies on everything from home-buying to college tuition continue to drive up the prices, yet people clamor for more. Government ethanol mandates mean that we pay more for gasoline, beef, milk, corn, and a million other things, but very few people say, "Ditch that and go nuclear!" There are good things about government, but none of these are they.
People freely gravitate to having government take responsibility and blame, so they can have fun and be irresponsible without feeling guilty. They get the government they deserve. And so do I.
So if Global Warming cannot be confirmed nor denied, is it a secret government program?
More seriously, if it cannot be confirmed nor denied, and it can produce both temperature rises and falls, and it's so complex as to cancel out its own effects, then it fails two tests in my book: 1) it is not science and 2) it should not be used for any policy-making.
Science is about testable, observable hypotheses. Those things which are not testable and observable are outside the realm of science to discuss. And policy-making should be done by calm, collected, seasoned minds rather than based on such hype as we see today.
Warning: this comment does not contain puns, jokes, or attempts at humour except for British spelling.
Why is everything that doesn't go according to our plan labeled a disorder? Boys are no longer restless; they're ADD. We don't get the winter doldrums; we suffer from Seasonal-Affective Disorder. Gulf War vets don't get shell-shock; they get Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. I don't move in my sleep; I have Restless Leg Syndrome. And now bees get Colony Collapse Disorder.
Judging by all these labels, one would think the entire universe were machined to such high tolerances it couldn't handle these deviations from someone's definition of the ideal. And yet somehow the world survived for thousands of years before it developed its affinity for labeling everything a disorder. That's the real monoculture to be concerned with, a society that believes only one personality type is desirable.
Sometimes it's wasteful. And sometimes it's reasonable and misunderstood. Take the $600 toilet seat example. Sounds ridiculous, but when you look into the details, you find it was a custom-made fiberglass retrofit for 20 B-52 bombers and had to meet strict standards for vibration resistance, weight, and durability. This wasn't something you could purchase at Lowe's or Home Depot.
I don't understand the problem.
1. Apparently it's not irreplaceable, since you found it on eBay.
2. You were willing to pay $200 but only had to pay $160.
3. Your wife is happy with you because you replaced the plate.
4. A happy wife can mean a very happy husband.
I think you did quite well and should quit your whining. A happy wife could have cost you $100 for dinner, $200 for a new dress and shoes, $200 for theatre tickets, and another $150 for the hotel.
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From the first sentence of your response, I thought you were going to be a troll/threadjack, and then you said something intelligent and on-topic in the second paragraph. Thank you for that.
Seconded. Email is great for links and urls, but the people who think I want a personal copy on my hard drive of their joke video forward, or their 100 pictures from something are sadly mistaken. I would be happy to have those stored in the cloud. And if I could get my coworkers to use the shared drives we're provided, it would ensure I'm always accessing the latest version of their file as well. *sigh*
Essentially, what you're saying, and what it's saying, is that the majority of our population-- sadly-- are not engineers.
Sadly? If everyone was an engineer, they wouldn't pay you what they do for you to do what you do. Be glad they're not all engineers; you'd become commonplace and jobless.
I propose the opposite. I propose you do not need to know anything about what happens under the hood to be a good driver. And by good driver, I mean someone who is safe, fully compliant with all applicable laws and regulations and who can navigate around other objects (which is complying with the laws of physics). A good driver does need to know the laws of physics, the rules of the road, and which knobs, buttons, dials and levers do what within the cockpit of their car.
I have a mechanic; I pay him to take care of everything (yes, everything) under the hood. I am a man, and comfortable in my manhood, even without changing my own oil, cleaning the stuck windshield squirter nozzle, or fixing the switch that keeps my dome light on during cold or rainy weather (I pull out the bulb instead).
The race car driver example is irrelevant; your local freeways and city streets are not supposed to be competitions of speed and dexterity but venues for transportation; you are graded on courtesy, not pole position. And if everyone will keep their eyes on the road and off their cell phones/iWhatnots, use their turn signals, and observe appropriate distance from the vehicle in front of them, I would call them all good drivers.
Please do not think this is only about the military. This happens in businesses and universities and governments and police departments and school districts and non-profit organizations as well. Expect to see HP roll out mandatory HR training about sexual harassment in light of Mark Hurd stepping down. A cop does something that upsets folks, and he gets put on administrative leave for a bit. ACORN conducted some sort of "internal review" after the candid camera pimp videos were released. Heck, back in college, whenever someone did something stupid that offended a person of a Student Union (Women's, Black, Asian-American, etc.), there would inevitably be marches by students, milquetoast apologies published in the school paper by the offender, a declaration of support for diversity by the administration, and inter-racial dialogues facilitated by some off-campus person. Nobody asked if or how any of these activities actually changed the offender or the community, but everyone believed the process of doing *SOMETHING* was important.
It's all cargo-cult if you ask me. But many leaders can't make the right changes that they need, until they get the mobocracy off their backs. So quit being the mob, and then the leaders can go do the smart things first, without wasting time with "internal investigations."
RTFA. The wind gusts are overwhelming the hydro reservoir system. Largely because this is the Columbia River, with lovely tasty salmon in it and there are min/max flow guidelines to ensure that the river is useful for things other than just electricity generation.
If you have decided that the actions these persons are taking is destructive, you have classified them as "assholes." Age and gender are irrelevant.
This assessment of a neutral environment goes beyond rational vs. irrational. It also includes interference from agents unaccounted for. According to the law of gravity, if I drop something, it should fall onto the floor. But if I interpose myself and catch it before it hit the floor, I have not disproven the law of gravity. The law is still fine, but it cannot predict the interference of an agent acting with purpose and ability. To my knowledge, I cannot transcend rational laws, so your statement needs refinement.
A university is one sort of a mental institution, so yes.
And if the students don't learn the lesson, you fill the bucket with water.
This is not at all like buying a scratched DVD in a second-hand shop. It's like buying a DVD and then letting them come into your house whenever they want to scratch it, break it, take it away, or replace it with a grainy home movie version of the same. If someone did that with your furniture, you'd tie up the guy and call the cops for breaking and entering, vandalism, theft, and more. Explain why you would want to agree to all of that when you buy a song?
With inflation, "twice the price" will be a bargain later.
I'm sorry to hear what your sister in law makes. I have a relative who teaches in a private school (college prep too) in California, who makes less than your sister in law. If he moved to the public schools, he'd get a 50% raise even if they paid her as an entry level teacher. I'm sure there are private schools that pay more than the public schools, but they aren't all like that.
I'm sorry to hear it, and from your other posts, I understand we're in two totally different environments. I wish you the best, and want to let you know that being a supportive shoulder to your fiancee is the biggest thing you can do.
My comments were partly aimed to balance out the folks who were firing off technology solutions without asking what educational problems you face that their uber-nifty designs might solve. I saw a lot of that growing up, the "we have several computer labs to be on the cutting edge. oh, by the way, our library is *cough* leaking, so we need more money." If you see a need that can be met with technology, great. If the kids lack pens and paper to do their homework, putting fancy software in the classroom may not be the solution. Thanks for reading and best of luck.
What are the problems and issues facing your school? Are their computers crippled with spyware? Do the kids spend all day playing games and looking for un-educational materials? Do the teachers know how to use computers to make their lives easier?
Even better, probe deeper and find out what are the real problems they're facing? My wife teaches high school, and they have a different set of classes meeting each day of the week(for reasons that are an essay in itself). So she was working by hand to track how many times each class had met, to ensure her different class periods each had equal prep time before a test or the same amount of time to complete a project, and she struggled at times to reuse last year's lesson plans with this year's schedule. I made an Excel tool that could keep track of the schedule, store day-by-day lesson plans, and had several easy-to-execute reports showing her plans by week/class subject/month/semester. Now she saves quite a bit of time planning lessons, which gives us more time together.
By the way, no flames please on my choice of software. It's done and delivered, there's no going back, and I used a tool that I and the customer knew well and already had in our environments. I'm sure there are many wonderful alternatives, and my customer is very happy with what she has. Plus, she's been able to demo it for interested coworkers. When your customer can do the demos and training for you, I think it's a good sign.
What is good for one but bad for everyone in this case is the fallacy of composition. Saving is held up as a common example: when I don't spend as much, I have money for later, but if everyone cuts their spending, it can reduce demand for products enough that people lose their jobs, cancelling out the benefit of their savings. The tragedy of the commons is just one specific case of the fallacy of composition.
Cute, but completely impossible scenario. Quoth the IRS in IRS Tax Tip 2008-15 "If you gave any one person gifts in 2007 that are valued at more than $12,000, you must report the total gifts to the Internal Revenue Service and may have to pay tax on the gifts. The person who receives your gift does not have to report the gift to the IRS or pay gift or income tax on its value."
My relatives took advantage of this to reduce their taxable estate before death. And I sure didn't mind receiving a nice big check.
A larger company will sell below cost because they know a smaller company will go bankrupt trying to compete on price well before they will.
How? Your comment sounds insightful but is void of any economic sense. Suppose I control 90% of the market and you only 10%. When we engage in a price war and underprice our products, I lose $9 for every $1 you lose. Plus, once I jack up my prices, it's profitable for you (or your friend) to enter the market again. I only win if I'm willing to burn piles of money to keep you out, and in that case, it's cheaper to buy you.
You suggest people in general think that government in concept is bad. I believe they think their government is not bad, just inadequate. If people really thought government was bad, they wouldn't have been relying on government to build and maintain the dikes and levees. Nor would they be mad at FEMA for not giving enough money soon enough. They think government is good - and they think they're not getting enough of it. Government subsidies on everything from home-buying to college tuition continue to drive up the prices, yet people clamor for more. Government ethanol mandates mean that we pay more for gasoline, beef, milk, corn, and a million other things, but very few people say, "Ditch that and go nuclear!" There are good things about government, but none of these are they.
People freely gravitate to having government take responsibility and blame, so they can have fun and be irresponsible without feeling guilty. They get the government they deserve. And so do I.
Maybe the eggs would be made by lizards instead. Or snakes.
More seriously, if it cannot be confirmed nor denied, and it can produce both temperature rises and falls, and it's so complex as to cancel out its own effects, then it fails two tests in my book: 1) it is not science and 2) it should not be used for any policy-making.
Science is about testable, observable hypotheses. Those things which are not testable and observable are outside the realm of science to discuss. And policy-making should be done by calm, collected, seasoned minds rather than based on such hype as we see today.
Warning: this comment does not contain puns, jokes, or attempts at humour except for British spelling.
Why is everything that doesn't go according to our plan labeled a disorder? Boys are no longer restless; they're ADD. We don't get the winter doldrums; we suffer from Seasonal-Affective Disorder. Gulf War vets don't get shell-shock; they get Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. I don't move in my sleep; I have Restless Leg Syndrome. And now bees get Colony Collapse Disorder.
Judging by all these labels, one would think the entire universe were machined to such high tolerances it couldn't handle these deviations from someone's definition of the ideal. And yet somehow the world survived for thousands of years before it developed its affinity for labeling everything a disorder. That's the real monoculture to be concerned with, a society that believes only one personality type is desirable.
Sometimes it's wasteful. And sometimes it's reasonable and misunderstood. Take the $600 toilet seat example. Sounds ridiculous, but when you look into the details, you find it was a custom-made fiberglass retrofit for 20 B-52 bombers and had to meet strict standards for vibration resistance, weight, and durability. This wasn't something you could purchase at Lowe's or Home Depot.
I look forward to combining all those useless departments into the Federal Department of Food, Clothing and Shelter.
P.S. The first thing we'll do is outsource these services to competitive bidders, called "employers."
I don't understand the problem.
1. Apparently it's not irreplaceable, since you found it on eBay.
2. You were willing to pay $200 but only had to pay $160.
3. Your wife is happy with you because you replaced the plate.
4. A happy wife can mean a very happy husband.
I think you did quite well and should quit your whining. A happy wife could have cost you $100 for dinner, $200 for a new dress and shoes, $200 for theatre tickets, and another $150 for the hotel.