According to Numbeo, the buy/rent ratio in Seattle is 10.
this being a math thread, I have to tell you that the buy/rent is 10 years. It is not as ratio, as it has units. However, as an Australian, that sounds awfully cheap. In fact, US cities dominate the bottom of that table. In Birmingham Al, or New Jersey, a home only costs 6 months income. Whats the catch?
Again, I was responding to "USA is as culturally diverse as all of Europe.".
I think you vastly underestimated the importance of institutions and how Americanised immigrants have become (aside from Hispanics). You are comparing a zoo to the actual jungle.
Plus, I forget that "diversity" has become a politicised buzzword in the US, and that is the sense you were using? Sure the US has Polish people, and Polish community centres. But they are still integrated in US culture and institutions. They go to schools and workplaces which are thoroughly American.
Compare Norway to Albania - you will not find any two states in the US with the tiniest fraction of that difference.
a given non-urban area in Europe tends to be much more homogenous than a given non-urban area in America.
Sure. But that is very different from diversity within a continent. You might even say it is the antithesis. Mix all the people up, and you get bland uniformity. (Not entirely a bad thing, see Yugoslavia.)
even the most isolated backwards hick town in the deep south or midwest will have a smattering of hispanics/asians/indians.
So they are not isolated. What you describe is homogenisation; a loss of cultural diversity. Every town is becoming the same.
You Euros...
Me? Bad assumption there.
You seem to be confusing local racial mix (the US political euphemistic sense) with continent wide diversity. If every town has a mix of all the people, that means all towns are the same. It is the polar opposite of diversity - bland uniformity.
The exception is farmers in very remote areas where there are no schools.
They have "school of the air" for youngsters (didn't you ever watch Skippy?) and send the kids to boarding school for high-school.
But good question! Somebody please explain this "home schooling" oddity - I thought it was just for extreme religious nutters (so extreme they can't find a religious school). Apparently not.
The kid is a serial offender. Previously disciplined for referring to another kid as "black", and for bringing a book to school depicting pregnancy. If they don't do something, what next? He might bring in a book on evolution.
Sounds like 'not a single human has suffered any health impact' to you?
He means no direct impact. No radiation poisoning or excess cancers observed. The biggest health effect are psychological, e.g. people displaced from their homes. In the context of 20,000 dead from the tsunami, and zero from radiation poisoning (there were 29 at Chernobyl) , the media is making way too much fuss about the radiation, don't you think?
Two worker deaths from heart attack have been blamed on overheating while wearing radiation suits. A big fear was thyroid cancer from iodine, but that has not materialised. Some models still predict a small increase in cases in future.
Radium has a short half life and decays in a combination of Alpha and Gamma decay.
Its not the immediate decay, but the whole decay chain that is the issue. Radium becomes Radon and then some radon gets inhaled, and decays into solids that stay and decay further.
I doubt your body knows the difference between the radiation from uranium versus plutonium.
It knows magnitude. Would you rather be hit with the lead from a BB gun, or the lead from a 20mm gattling gun. Its all lead, eh? That analogy understates the difference. BTW, we are talking about plutonium RTGs which use a different isotope to bombs or breeder reactors. I'd quote half-lives, but is amazing how many people think a longer half-life is worse.
Marie Curie died due to much radiation (not only from uranium, mainly likely from radium)
Given that radium is about a million times more radioactive than uranium, and as an experiment she kept a sample of radium on her skin until it caused an ulcer, your hunch might be correct.
If the rocket it's on explodes for some reason you've got a bit of a mess here on Earth. I think it's a valid concern.
No it isn't. A common mistake, but uranium is barely radioactive at all. Perhaps you are thinking of the plutonium RTGs in deep space probes or Mars rovers? Or reactor waste products? But no, the clean uranium fuel loaded into the reactor is quite harmless.
If the reactor is run for a few years, then crashes into earth, you get a big mess.
try to explain to said poor folk that they're now paying up to 4 cents more for food
We could avoid most of these stupid arguments by a quick look at how other countries have implemented it. Prices do not need to change, only cash transactions. The total price of your shopping basket will be rounded up or down by 2c at most. (This is legislated to minimise confusion.)
And since when has the gov't felt the need to explain policy to dumb people?
the amount always seems to be against them (i.e., it always costs 1 or 2 cents more).
Tell 'em to always fill their gas tank with a extra 2c of "free" petrol:-)
The conspiracy nutter in me wonders if this (and the lack of $1 and $5 coins) is part of a policy to discourage use of cash in favour of more trackable transactions.
Never mind the antiquated banking system, lack of metric or the crippling health-care system - explain why pennies are still in circulation in the US! There is a fundamental conservatism in the US that makes it exceptionally difficult to change anything at the national level. It is something of a paradox, since at the local level, Americans are so adaptable and innovative.
Slashdot Mirror
Do not confuse average and median .
Too late. Median is a perfectly valid type of average. Mean is another. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A...
These are the same companies where as much as 40% of sick leave is taken on a Monday or Friday.
According to Numbeo, the buy/rent ratio in Seattle is 10.
this being a math thread, I have to tell you that the buy/rent is 10 years. It is not as ratio, as it has units.
However, as an Australian, that sounds awfully cheap. In fact, US cities dominate the bottom of that table.
In Birmingham Al, or New Jersey, a home only costs 6 months income. Whats the catch?
Just read that twice and shook my head.
I suppose thats what I must sound like to a real physicist.
At least credit the source Hawking (or earlier).
But for every equation or citation in my post, I lose half my audience.
You know, what I've often asked myself is, "What was there before the Big Bang?"
Thats a bit like asking what is south of the south pole.
Again, I was responding to "USA is as culturally diverse as all of Europe.".
I think you vastly underestimated the importance of institutions and how Americanised immigrants have become (aside from Hispanics). You are comparing a zoo to the actual jungle.
Plus, I forget that "diversity" has become a politicised buzzword in the US, and that is the sense you were using? Sure the US has Polish people, and Polish community centres. But they are still integrated in US culture and institutions. They go to schools and workplaces which are thoroughly American.
Compare Norway to Albania - you will not find any two states in the US with the tiniest fraction of that difference.
a given non-urban area in Europe tends to be much more homogenous than a given non-urban area in America.
Sure. But that is very different from diversity within a continent. You might even say it is the antithesis. Mix all the people up, and you get bland uniformity. (Not entirely a bad thing, see Yugoslavia.)
even the most isolated backwards hick town in the deep south or midwest will have a smattering of hispanics/asians/indians.
So they are not isolated. What you describe is homogenisation; a loss of cultural diversity. Every town is becoming the same.
You Euros ...
Me? Bad assumption there.
You seem to be confusing local racial mix (the US political euphemistic sense) with continent wide diversity. If every town has a mix of all the people, that means all towns are the same. It is the polar opposite of diversity - bland uniformity.
And why the fuck does it auto-play when I open the article?
The page was probably coded by a woman.
Remember that the USA is as ... culturally diverse as all of Europe.
:-) You decided this after vacationing at Euro-Disney?
DNA is usually not a consideration in custody decisions.
I disagree. Possession of a second X chromosome tends to be a big advantage.
The exception is farmers in very remote areas where there are no schools.
They have "school of the air" for youngsters (didn't you ever watch Skippy?) and send the kids to boarding school for high-school.
But good question! Somebody please explain this "home schooling" oddity - I thought it was just for extreme religious nutters (so extreme they can't find a religious school). Apparently not.
Most, but not all.
e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T...
Shrug. Worst case Google can buy them out.
Like Nokia, Microsoft style?
http://vimeo.com/70498601
If you ever find a party for rational people let me know, the existing choices don't seem to cover that option.
Rational politicians do not state rational opinions or policies in public, if they want to get re-elected.
It has been explained, so don't be an idiot. Look at the half-lives: billions of years vs 1600 years.
The kid is a serial offender. Previously disciplined for referring to another kid as "black", and for bringing a book to school depicting pregnancy.
If they don't do something, what next? He might bring in a book on evolution.
How can Microsoft justify Windows 10 on a less powerful device like Raspberry Pi 2 and not support on the Surface RT?
Big companies have byzantine internal politics. Maybe the RT guys won't hand over the "secure boot" private keys for Surface? Or they just lost it.
They really should have called it the Rho.
Sounds like 'not a single human has suffered any health impact' to you?
He means no direct impact. No radiation poisoning or excess cancers observed. The biggest health effect are psychological, e.g. people displaced from their homes.
In the context of 20,000 dead from the tsunami, and zero from radiation poisoning (there were 29 at Chernobyl) , the media is making way too much fuss about the radiation, don't you think?
Two worker deaths from heart attack have been blamed on overheating while wearing radiation suits.
A big fear was thyroid cancer from iodine, but that has not materialised. Some models still predict a small increase in cases in future.
Radium has a short half life and decays in a combination of Alpha and Gamma decay.
Its not the immediate decay, but the whole decay chain that is the issue.
Radium becomes Radon and then some radon gets inhaled, and decays into solids that stay and decay further.
I doubt your body knows the difference between the radiation from uranium versus plutonium.
It knows magnitude. Would you rather be hit with the lead from a BB gun, or the lead from a 20mm gattling gun. Its all lead, eh? That analogy understates the difference. BTW, we are talking about plutonium RTGs which use a different isotope to bombs or breeder reactors. I'd quote half-lives, but is amazing how many people think a longer half-life is worse.
Marie Curie died due to much radiation (not only from uranium, mainly likely from radium)
Given that radium is about a million times more radioactive than uranium, and as an experiment she kept a sample of radium on her skin until it caused an ulcer, your hunch might be correct.
If the rocket it's on explodes for some reason you've got a bit of a mess here on Earth. I think it's a valid concern.
No it isn't. A common mistake, but uranium is barely radioactive at all. Perhaps you are thinking of the plutonium RTGs in deep space probes or Mars rovers?
Or reactor waste products? But no, the clean uranium fuel loaded into the reactor is quite harmless.
If the reactor is run for a few years, then crashes into earth, you get a big mess.
try to explain to said poor folk that they're now paying up to 4 cents more for food
We could avoid most of these stupid arguments by a quick look at how other countries have implemented it.
Prices do not need to change, only cash transactions. The total price of your shopping basket will be rounded up or down by 2c at most. (This is legislated to minimise confusion.)
And since when has the gov't felt the need to explain policy to dumb people?
the amount always seems to be against them (i.e., it always costs 1 or 2 cents more).
Tell 'em to always fill their gas tank with a extra 2c of "free" petrol :-)
The conspiracy nutter in me wonders if this (and the lack of $1 and $5 coins) is part of a policy to discourage use of cash in favour of more trackable transactions.
Never mind the antiquated banking system, lack of metric or the crippling health-care system - explain why pennies are still in circulation in the US!
There is a fundamental conservatism in the US that makes it exceptionally difficult to change anything at the national level.
It is something of a paradox, since at the local level, Americans are so adaptable and innovative.