The thing about free speech is this. Your words have consequences, which might include you losing your job. There is no first amendment guarantee to others not taking action against you because of your words.
Crime is illegal. Firing somebody for revealing a crime is obstruction of justice, and if it isn't, should be criminal. It show that the company in question, given the choice, would rather have continued the illegal practices, and is thus also 'collusion to commit crime'. In short, if you fire somebody over whisteblowing society would probably be better of with you locked up.
and.. Economic power should never, ever put anybody above the law.
Congratulations, you're the first American to have made a funny anti-french post, actually somewhat understanding the whole 'friendly-rivalry' thing. As this shows you may be capable non-crude, slightly intelligent humour I suggest your US citizenship be instantly revoked, since you're setting a dangerous precedent here... Next thing, you want to elect a president that doesn't think 'intelligent' or 'book-reader' are insults. Insanity!
Ahh, but according to China there's no such thing as Tibet; there's only China:)
Kinda like the with Turks and the Kurds. "Repressing Kurds? Never, there is no such things as Kurds! Only Turks!... and Turks who falsely claim to be Kurdish, but we're improsening them like that liers they are!"
Hopefully this new wireless technology will help them crack the 50% literacy milestone.
Well, I'm functionally illiterate and I'm perfectly capable of using the internet (atleast, I think I'm functionally illitereate. Yesterday f.x. I visited this cool site and couldn't understand a word of what people wrote in their user profiles.. even so, I could still enjoy the pictures and vidoes of fat chicks showing body parts I really didn't want to see! yay me!).
I'm sure the 4% of the population with internet access will really appreaciate it, though.
Well, the whole point of improving the infrastructure is to, well, get a better infrastructure.
What does this tell us? If you believe in supply and demand, this tells us that there are MORE than enough top quality scientists being produced and that science education is not lagging in the least and that science knowledge is a commodity. This article is a bunch of hand-wringing over nothing.
That arguments only holds as long as you view science as an isolated career choice. While science, as in knowledge of physics, mathemathics, logic, etc certainly are specific skill-sets, there is more to science. The ability to come up with valid arguments, follow other peoples train of thoughts, and identifying what you're actually disagreeing on when discussing (realising your own assumptions and premises, and your own priorities) are all scientific abilities. I don't think many people are really that scared of lack of physics-knowledge, but rather lack of ability for logical reasoning (given the state of TV-debates etc, I don't think blaming this on the kids is necessarily right though).
In the end, your argument is pretty much the same as claiming 'social ability' is not important and in ample supply because there are really sociable people who're unemployed. The world simply doesn't work that way.
Warning, it's butt ugly - seriously, instead of expelling him, they should send him to design
Well, the background picture makes up for a damn lot! Bloody hell, I'd like to.. erm.. date her:)
On another note, how old are these kids? Shouldn't they have learnt how to avoid basic writing mistakes by now? I mean, that text reads basically like my english in high-school (or rather, our equivalent), and I'm bloody Norwegian:)
In Europe, there are still some old social rules that you cannot patronize certain restaurants if a member of the lower class even if you can afford to go there.
There are certain restaurants that set a minimum standard for dress and behaviour. They're not going to ask you for family credentials, they're demanding that you act in the specific way whatever cliche they're targetting do. I do realise that for some Americans having minimum standards for public behaviour is a strange and unfamiliar concept, so I do understand where your confusion is coming from.
Either way, even if they did, so what? Restaurants are (or atleast should be) serve, or not serve, whoever they want.
I'm even more shocked! Press journalists are known to be corrupt and inept, but a blogger screwing up.... well that really makes you spill your cup of tea!
You may have been sarcastic, but you really hit the nail on the head as far as my opinions are.
Journalists are inept, stupid people who study to become good at writing, and never, ever to be good at what they're writing about; in other words, it's a whole industry based on being good at faking knowledge (kinda like college in other words).
Bloggers, on the other hand, are for the most part random people with random opinions. While they are almost as frequently wrong and incompetent as journalists, they're much closer to a cross-section of the populace and are thus not as prone to systematic partial incompetence as journalists are. Now, bloggers will for the most part write about subject that interest them, and for the most part, this means subjects they actually have a modicrum of knowledge about. If the "community" of random bloggers agree on something, I'm much more inclined to take it seriously than if the heterogenous society of 'not good enough to be a real writer, and too stupid to get into the university'-journalists.
Oh, sorry for ranting, but just making one thing clear:
The preceding rant was in no way Bush specific. The current administration have been worse, and less overt regarding 'undue diplomatic pressure', but AFAIK the previous administrations were no fucking saints either.
This means that the US can demand extradition of a lot of foreign citizens while those people's countries can't do the same to us. This isn't our fault necessarily, it's what both parties agreed to whenever the treaty was signed.
Come again? Whose fault is it then?
I know the one-way extradition treaty you have with Norway is bugging the hell out of us, BUT IF WE GO AGAINST YOUR BLOODY ADMINISTRATION IN ***ANYTHING*** WE'LL LOOSE ***ALL*** SUPPORT FROM YOU RIGHT AWAY SO WE'RE PRETTY MUCH STUCK WITH WHATEVER YOU WANT. (Apologies for caps)
You see, Norway is pretty dependant on the US on three things, trade, military protection/co-operation (we've got a lot of oil-platforms, and you've got one hell of a navy) and most importantly diplomatic support in the on-going trade-war against Russia over oil-supplies in the barentsea. (Russia doesn't recogognize the evenly split naval-terrority border; and have been busily stealing our fish for some time, and are looking hungrily at our oilsupplies there). It's easy for you to say 'grow a backbone', but actions that are completly inconsequental for the US can potentially totally fuck over us. We have backbones enough, they're just crushed way to easily:/
At the moment, if Saudi-Arabia, Venezuela, Russia ++ decided to oil-embargo the US, and Norway had a vote to decide if we wanted to join, I would actually vote *FOR IT*. The more I learn about politics and recent norwegian relations with the US the sicker I get of it.
There is no accurate and meaningful real world analogy for computer network security so keep your unlocked cars, unattended briefcases, and snail mail stories to yourself
I think I've got one that works decently:)
Putting something on the internet is like putting up a poster on the front of your house. Anybody can see it, but they have to be walking (browsing) by randomly in order to spot it.
On the other hand, putting something on your intranet is like putting the poster inside the house. Anybody you let in can see it.
Now, putting confidential information on the internet, is like plastering a bloody poster on the wrong side of the wall. Even if you were an utter retard, it'd still be an remarkably stupid thing to do.
Also, I had a friend who was on the student exchange program at the same University at the same time. She was a pretty average C grade student (I'm sure she won't mind me describing her like that), but in her year in the US she got straight As.
Was she the same the age as everyone else?
Either way, from my experience grade-inflation is really, really bad over there. When I talk with people I pretty much map 'Straight A student' directly to 'above average'.
Well. It's an extreemely good point.. however, I think the police / criminals analogy works on another level too; at first glance, you'd think it's the criminals that's making the streets unsafe, and not the police. Start looking around a little in the real world though, and you'll find plenty of countries where it's more or less debatable wether the police are solving more problems than they create (Russia, most parts of Africa and some parts of South America)..
Likewise, as bad as some internet security products are, it's atleast debatable wether they're causing more problems than they solve. How many geeks do you know that run Norton Antivirus (or whatever it's called nowadays)? (and yes, these products are by definition created by security profesionals (ie; people making a living by doing security)).
Quality is dropping, yet for some reason demand is still high. I don't know if this is just a normal perception as one gets in his mid 30s or if this is a real trend or not, but it seems to be a common consensus that quality is not there as it once was. To me, rock music peaked in the 70s and the 60s-70s era bands were still strong in the 80s with a more polished and professional approach.
Well, first of all, music has always gotten worse, *this* generation of kids have always been the worst one yet, etc. We all know the drill; we judge everything else based on our own idolized past, and act all outraged and shocked when the present fails to measure up.
Secondly, while I whole-heartedly concur that the current crop of mainstream R&B / pop isn't even usable for scaring cats, and that the American rock(++) scene is seriously fucked up; there is still alot of good new music out there. While I'm really in no position to comment American music, as for some obscene reason (just as with movies) you only seem to export the crap stuff; There are myriads of really bloody European bands doing interesting stuff.. and I'm sure if you only look there's plenty of stuff over at your side of the pond too... The only trick is to NEVER EVER UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE use MTV, RADIO or any CORPORATE CONTROLLED DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL EVER.
Listen to the good shit; ignore the shit they're trying to push.
I mean, what would you be thinking about the movie industry if all you got to see was the last Ashton Kutcher and/or Random-Scientology-Maniac-Whose-Name-I-Ought-To-Re member movies?
Since when does "government funded" equate to socilaism (the ideology)? In fact, "government funded" is more toward the antithesis of socialism, which is collective ownership.
Socalism is not collective ownership; but collective responsibility. While I personally will not see any benefit from academia research, society will be better off; hence, I pay my taxes gladly. We, collectivly, pay for what we collectivly will benefit from.
You can have a fully Libertarian system that has government funded sectors.
Yes, which highlights how utterly useless all these words really are.. however, as I'm not assuming Market Liberal means private roads, no law enforcement etc (ie; the extremist view of Free Market), please don't assume I mean the extremist variants of Socialism (or other terms) when I'm referring to them. As I'm not an utter retard, I am of course referring to socialist tendencies, or lines of thought commonly found in socialist leaning people.
The rest of your post is hyper-ideological, which fails far more than any of the other things you mention.
Yes, the last paragraph certainly was, and I wasn't trying to hide it.
Welcome to the class of people who have given up actually thinking.
Thank you. How is it here?
I know you think you think, and think you are so wise, but you mind has gone to seed within an ideological singularity.
In sharp contrast to you, who is the paragon of neautral language and impartialiaty:)
It's why Socialism, Communism, Fascism, "state Capitalism" and all other big government ideologies fail spectacularly.
I expect by 'all other big government' you meant Market Liberalism / Capitalism? Because the government sector in the US can compete with pretty much anything when it comes to size. How's your military? NSA/CIA/FBI etc? NASA? Research programs at universities? Medicare? Public Infrastructure... etc
Where do you think the US would be today without its socialist(ie government-funded) support of research through the universities? Or the space-program? Small-state advocates never give the government credit for what it does, and have done. I mean, seriously, barring Bell Labs (which basically was goverment anyways) have the all-glory no-guts private industry ever made any usefull discoveries in any way whatsover without goverment involvment? No?
So, my point is, how(who) you elect/choose your government (or not) is important when it comes to personal freedom. How you run your economy is not. All hyper-capatilistic projects so far have failed (see the world-bank, South America, Africa) (but still Americans advocate that other countries should use systems themselves refuse to adapt).
Which is not "breaking the law", it's breaking a contract.
'Trade Secret' laws are fun. If I'm in possesion of "illegal information", f.x. information released by somebody else breaking their non-disclure contract it is illegal for me to utilize said information in any way whatsoever and must take steps in order to pretend I never had that information. As such, non-disclure contracts aren't just contracts; but specifically protected by law.
I'm an AI grad student, and I can tell you that (rather complex) statistical learning methods, which are considered part of AI,
That's what I said:)
Perhaps by AI you're referring just to neural nets?
By AI I'm referring to something that is not inheretly (too) bound by the abstractions required to make it work. EG; how easily transferable is the experience from numbers to actualc concepts. Various forms of regression analysis and stuff sure do wonders, but to be honest, they feel so inheretly limited I don't see much hope for them. It's mathemathicians playing with maths, like scripts emulating AI in games are programmers playing with programming, getting neat/good enough results; but still not making actual progress.
I guess all it means is that AI is hard, and I have way too much faith in the people that are supposed to be more intelligent than me.
If these examples are supposed to highlight how you want games to be more like real-life, I think you haven't been too much outside:)
rip a moist leaf on the tree like a sheet of paper.
Leafs don't tear like sheets of paper. They tear like leaves.
Wake me up when I can knock down a building,
People don't knock down buildings too often. They're mostly made of concrete and fairly big. Being able to knock one down is *not* a sign of a good physics engine.
have grass that actually grows, and can cause wildfires (just like in real life)
I have never ever seen grass cause wildfires. Grass, atleast over here in Europe, seem to be mildly content with staying put right where it is and trying to grow.
some sand from the beach with a bucket and pour it all over the nearest NPC and see all the little grains of sand stick to his shirt.
Firstly, are you fantasizing about pouring sand over strangers? Got a shrink yet?
Secondly, you want to pour sand over someone, and have all of it stick to his shirt? Have you *ever* been at a beach?
Imagine MMORPGs where you can actually DIG A SECRET TUNNEL underground to invade your enemie's territory
Bloody hell, any idea how much time that would take? I'll stick to teleporting thank you.
Possibilities are endless. Seriously, how long do you guys think it'll take for some crude implementation of what I listed above comes to fruition?
Adhesive sand, pyromanic grass, leaves made of paper and buildings which anybody can knock down? Hopefully; really soon. Sounds fun as hell =)
I think it's amazing how such simple data structures can generate such complex behaviour.
Me, on the other hand, think it's pretty amazing how simplistic behaviour these basic models can recreate and still be at the forefront of academic research. Simple statistical models outperform AI-techniques on most classification problems any day. They bloody well shouldn't!
Haven't self-heating cans been used in Japan for years now? Why not just use the same design as there?
Over here in Europe, I've several times had the pleasure of introducing Americans to waiter-boilers (self-heating cans). Not one of them had seen one before.. which is pretty amazing considering how usefull they are, and how much useless machinery Americans seem to fill up their kitchens with:)
Slashdot Mirror
Crime is illegal. Firing somebody for revealing a crime is obstruction of justice, and if it isn't, should be criminal. It show that the company in question, given the choice, would rather have continued the illegal practices, and is thus also 'collusion to commit crime'. In short, if you fire somebody over whisteblowing society would probably be better of with you locked up.
and.. Economic power should never, ever put anybody above the law.
Congratulations, you're the first American to have made a funny anti-french post, actually somewhat understanding the whole 'friendly-rivalry' thing. As this shows you may be capable non-crude, slightly intelligent humour I suggest your US citizenship be instantly revoked, since you're setting a dangerous precedent here... Next thing, you want to elect a president that doesn't think 'intelligent' or 'book-reader' are insults. Insanity!
Ahh, but according to China there's no such thing as Tibet; there's only China :)
Kinda like the with Turks and the Kurds. "Repressing Kurds? Never, there is no such things as Kurds! Only Turks! ... and Turks who falsely claim to be Kurdish, but we're improsening them like that liers they are!"
Yeah, it's about time they grew up and started killing other countries' populace like the grown-ups are.
Well, I'm functionally illiterate and I'm perfectly capable of using the internet (atleast, I think I'm functionally illitereate. Yesterday f.x. I visited this cool site and couldn't understand a word of what people wrote in their user profiles.. even so, I could still enjoy the pictures and vidoes of fat chicks showing body parts I really didn't want to see! yay me!).
I'm sure the 4% of the population with internet access will really appreaciate it, though.
Well, the whole point of improving the infrastructure is to, well, get a better infrastructure.
That arguments only holds as long as you view science as an isolated career choice. While science, as in knowledge of physics, mathemathics, logic, etc certainly are specific skill-sets, there is more to science. The ability to come up with valid arguments, follow other peoples train of thoughts, and identifying what you're actually disagreeing on when discussing (realising your own assumptions and premises, and your own priorities) are all scientific abilities. I don't think many people are really that scared of lack of physics-knowledge, but rather lack of ability for logical reasoning (given the state of TV-debates etc, I don't think blaming this on the kids is necessarily right though).
In the end, your argument is pretty much the same as claiming 'social ability' is not important and in ample supply because there are really sociable people who're unemployed. The world simply doesn't work that way.
Well, the background picture makes up for a damn lot! Bloody hell, I'd like to .. erm.. date her :)
On another note, how old are these kids? Shouldn't they have learnt how to avoid basic writing mistakes by now? I mean, that text reads basically like my english in high-school (or rather, our equivalent), and I'm bloody Norwegian :)
There are certain restaurants that set a minimum standard for dress and behaviour. They're not going to ask you for family credentials, they're demanding that you act in the specific way whatever cliche they're targetting do. I do realise that for some Americans having minimum standards for public behaviour is a strange and unfamiliar concept, so I do understand where your confusion is coming from.
Either way, even if they did, so what? Restaurants are (or atleast should be) serve, or not serve, whoever they want.
I'm more wondering how the hell they manage to spit so far.
Personally; last time I tried spitting over the pond, I had to dodge my own spit coming back... bloody coastal winds!
You may have been sarcastic, but you really hit the nail on the head as far as my opinions are.
Journalists are inept, stupid people who study to become good at writing, and never, ever to be good at what they're writing about; in other words, it's a whole industry based on being good at faking knowledge (kinda like college in other words).
Bloggers, on the other hand, are for the most part random people with random opinions. While they are almost as frequently wrong and incompetent as journalists, they're much closer to a cross-section of the populace and are thus not as prone to systematic partial incompetence as journalists are. Now, bloggers will for the most part write about subject that interest them, and for the most part, this means subjects they actually have a modicrum of knowledge about. If the "community" of random bloggers agree on something, I'm much more inclined to take it seriously than if the heterogenous society of 'not good enough to be a real writer, and too stupid to get into the university'-journalists.
You don't watch too much TV do you? :)
The preceding rant was in no way Bush specific. The current administration have been worse, and less overt regarding 'undue diplomatic pressure', but AFAIK the previous administrations were no fucking saints either.
Come again? Whose fault is it then?
I know the one-way extradition treaty you have with Norway is bugging the hell out of us, BUT IF WE GO AGAINST YOUR BLOODY ADMINISTRATION IN ***ANYTHING*** WE'LL LOOSE ***ALL*** SUPPORT FROM YOU RIGHT AWAY SO WE'RE PRETTY MUCH STUCK WITH WHATEVER YOU WANT. (Apologies for caps)
You see, Norway is pretty dependant on the US on three things, trade, military protection/co-operation (we've got a lot of oil-platforms, and you've got one hell of a navy) and most importantly diplomatic support in the on-going trade-war against Russia over oil-supplies in the barentsea. (Russia doesn't recogognize the evenly split naval-terrority border; and have been busily stealing our fish for some time, and are looking hungrily at our oilsupplies there). It's easy for you to say 'grow a backbone', but actions that are completly inconsequental for the US can potentially totally fuck over us. We have backbones enough, they're just crushed way to easily :/
At the moment, if Saudi-Arabia, Venezuela, Russia ++ decided to oil-embargo the US, and Norway had a vote to decide if we wanted to join, I would actually vote *FOR IT*. The more I learn about politics and recent norwegian relations with the US the sicker I get of it.
I think I've got one that works decently :)
Putting something on the internet is like putting up a poster on the front of your house. Anybody can see it, but they have to be walking (browsing) by randomly in order to spot it.
On the other hand, putting something on your intranet is like putting the poster inside the house. Anybody you let in can see it.
Now, putting confidential information on the internet, is like plastering a bloody poster on the wrong side of the wall. Even if you were an utter retard, it'd still be an remarkably stupid thing to do.
Was she the same the age as everyone else?
Either way, from my experience grade-inflation is really, really bad over there. When I talk with people I pretty much map 'Straight A student' directly to 'above average'.
Well. It's an extreemely good point.. however, I think the police / criminals analogy works on another level too; at first glance, you'd think it's the criminals that's making the streets unsafe, and not the police. Start looking around a little in the real world though, and you'll find plenty of countries where it's more or less debatable wether the police are solving more problems than they create (Russia, most parts of Africa and some parts of South America)..
Likewise, as bad as some internet security products are, it's atleast debatable wether they're causing more problems than they solve. How many geeks do you know that run Norton Antivirus (or whatever it's called nowadays)? (and yes, these products are by definition created by security profesionals (ie; people making a living by doing security)).
Well, first of all, music has always gotten worse, *this* generation of kids have always been the worst one yet, etc. We all know the drill; we judge everything else based on our own idolized past, and act all outraged and shocked when the present fails to measure up.
Secondly, while I whole-heartedly concur that the current crop of mainstream R&B / pop isn't even usable for scaring cats, and that the American rock(++) scene is seriously fucked up; there is still alot of good new music out there. While I'm really in no position to comment American music, as for some obscene reason (just as with movies) you only seem to export the crap stuff; There are myriads of really bloody European bands doing interesting stuff.. and I'm sure if you only look there's plenty of stuff over at your side of the pond too... The only trick is to NEVER EVER UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE use MTV, RADIO or any CORPORATE CONTROLLED DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL EVER.
Listen to the good shit; ignore the shit they're trying to push.
I mean, what would you be thinking about the movie industry if all you got to see was the last Ashton Kutcher and/or Random-Scientology-Maniac-Whose-Name-I-Ought-To-Re member movies?
Socalism is not collective ownership; but collective responsibility. While I personally will not see any benefit from academia research, society will be better off; hence, I pay my taxes gladly. We, collectivly, pay for what we collectivly will benefit from.
You can have a fully Libertarian system that has government funded sectors.
Yes, which highlights how utterly useless all these words really are.. however, as I'm not assuming Market Liberal means private roads, no law enforcement etc (ie; the extremist view of Free Market), please don't assume I mean the extremist variants of Socialism (or other terms) when I'm referring to them. As I'm not an utter retard, I am of course referring to socialist tendencies, or lines of thought commonly found in socialist leaning people.
The rest of your post is hyper-ideological, which fails far more than any of the other things you mention.
Yes, the last paragraph certainly was, and I wasn't trying to hide it.
Welcome to the class of people who have given up actually thinking.
Thank you. How is it here?
I know you think you think, and think you are so wise, but you mind has gone to seed within an ideological singularity.
In sharp contrast to you, who is the paragon of neautral language and impartialiaty :)
I expect by 'all other big government' you meant Market Liberalism / Capitalism? Because the government sector in the US can compete with pretty much anything when it comes to size. How's your military? NSA/CIA/FBI etc? NASA? Research programs at universities? Medicare? Public Infrastructure... etc
Where do you think the US would be today without its socialist(ie government-funded) support of research through the universities? Or the space-program? Small-state advocates never give the government credit for what it does, and have done. I mean, seriously, barring Bell Labs (which basically was goverment anyways) have the all-glory no-guts private industry ever made any usefull discoveries in any way whatsover without goverment involvment? No?
So, my point is, how(who) you elect/choose your government (or not) is important when it comes to personal freedom. How you run your economy is not. All hyper-capatilistic projects so far have failed (see the world-bank, South America, Africa) (but still Americans advocate that other countries should use systems themselves refuse to adapt).
'Trade Secret' laws are fun. If I'm in possesion of "illegal information", f.x. information released by somebody else breaking their non-disclure contract it is illegal for me to utilize said information in any way whatsoever and must take steps in order to pretend I never had that information. As such, non-disclure contracts aren't just contracts; but specifically protected by law.
That's what I said :)
Perhaps by AI you're referring just to neural nets?
By AI I'm referring to something that is not inheretly (too) bound by the abstractions required to make it work. EG; how easily transferable is the experience from numbers to actualc concepts. Various forms of regression analysis and stuff sure do wonders, but to be honest, they feel so inheretly limited I don't see much hope for them. It's mathemathicians playing with maths, like scripts emulating AI in games are programmers playing with programming, getting neat/good enough results; but still not making actual progress.
I guess all it means is that AI is hard, and I have way too much faith in the people that are supposed to be more intelligent than me.
rip a moist leaf on the tree like a sheet of paper.
Leafs don't tear like sheets of paper. They tear like leaves.
Wake me up when I can knock down a building,
People don't knock down buildings too often. They're mostly made of concrete and fairly big. Being able to knock one down is *not* a sign of a good physics engine.
have grass that actually grows, and can cause wildfires (just like in real life)
I have never ever seen grass cause wildfires. Grass, atleast over here in Europe, seem to be mildly content with staying put right where it is and trying to grow.
some sand from the beach with a bucket and pour it all over the nearest NPC and see all the little grains of sand stick to his shirt.
Firstly, are you fantasizing about pouring sand over strangers? Got a shrink yet?
Secondly, you want to pour sand over someone, and have all of it stick to his shirt? Have you *ever* been at a beach?
Imagine MMORPGs where you can actually DIG A SECRET TUNNEL underground to invade your enemie's territory
Bloody hell, any idea how much time that would take? I'll stick to teleporting thank you.
Possibilities are endless. Seriously, how long do you guys think it'll take for some crude implementation of what I listed above comes to fruition?
Adhesive sand, pyromanic grass, leaves made of paper and buildings which anybody can knock down? Hopefully; really soon. Sounds fun as hell =)
Me, on the other hand, think it's pretty amazing how simplistic behaviour these basic models can recreate and still be at the forefront of academic research. Simple statistical models outperform AI-techniques on most classification problems any day. They bloody well shouldn't!
Over here in Europe, I've several times had the pleasure of introducing Americans to waiter-boilers (self-heating cans). Not one of them had seen one before.. which is pretty amazing considering how usefull they are, and how much useless machinery Americans seem to fill up their kitchens with :)