Exactly. You are not allowed to call it a 'credit card fee', but you may call it something else. My local movie theatre will add a "handling fee" if you pay by credit card, even though the ticket is electronic and no handling takes place. It's just a matter of PR, the credit card companies do not want to be labelled as fee-hungry even though they are...
You do not need a big enormous boat to do whaling, that is a common misconception. More often than not, you drag the whale back to shore while it Also, responsible whaling is possible. Yes, in the early years there were over fishing on some species, but sustainable hunting was never an issue until modern times - for any kind of hunting and fishing. I'm no expert on whaling, especially not when it comes to non-Norwegian whalers, but the Norwegian side I know quite well. And if anyone claims this is not sustainable, they need a dictionary. Of course, I cannot speak for the Japanese side of things, but I have an impression that they are not too far away from this reality either even though the industry is bigger. Also, tuna fishing has only one thing in common with whaling: Sea Shepherd. It is not a part of the whaling discussion and there is nothing else linking these cases.
Eating that delicious piece of whale steak that has been grilled just a few seconds on each side, with a hint of salt and pepper, is something I do with a clean conscience.
And to me, Sea Shepherd has lost most of it's credibility equal to Greenpeace, but I assume they need to be picky about their cases in order to secure funding. Picking the great big battles that matter will annoy too many of the people they need in order to have funds for their work. I find them irrelevant when it comes to contributing to a sustainable use of our resources.
They have tried to sink boats with fishermen aboard, but I will not neglect the fact that on one occasion one can argue who ran into who. For a boat captain to lose his boat which e has invested his life in, it is not a trivial matter. At least in Norway we are not talking big business, just plain fishermen.
The whole whaling debate is fueled by black and white arguments. Truth is, that the nations involved in whaling only allow hunting on selected species that have sustainable stock. Sea Shepherd has lost most of it's credibility ages ago, and their mode of operation is threatening and destroying lives.
I'll set fire to all my karma and throw in some kind words on the subject of seal hunting as well;) Fortunately there aren't many PETA-people around in Norway, they tend to freeze to death.
You are required to (a)deplete the fuel tanks and (b)disconnect the batteries.
I think (a) is to reduce the potential damage in case of a collision (b) is to stop the satellite from reactivating itself due to solar storms and the like
There is a reason that the international norm when decommissioning a satellite you put it in an orbit which makes it reenter and disintegrate within 25 years. It's hard to get it to reenter controlled and switch it off at the same time.
Same in Norway. Any private property is considered 'public' if you, the owner, treat it as such. Which means malls, parking lots etc. You cannot demand or expect privacy by visiting such places (you might get filmed or photographed by someone without consent - and you can photograph someone without their consent).
I assume this particular case is a misguided case of protecting the children from pedos and women from upskirt shooters, coupled with a security guard with a God complex.
And I work for a company that deals a great deal with NASA, and they are happy to lose satellite data while waiting for a replacement demodulator to pass their security scans on an internal network.
They do make an effort, but personally I think they strive to achieve perfect security and in the process people has to poke holes in it in order to make it work:)
'Cheap' is a matter of definition, but putting a payload into orbit has, in many cases, become cheaper than employing someone to do the equivalent job on earth. One such example is Cryosat2 which is measuring ice thickness, which was deemed cheaper than having scientists traveling around the globe and constantly measuring it 'manually'.
I love this trend as it is providing my daily bread:)
Doesn't the US have laws also requiring the employee to be loyal? There is a difference between whistleblowing and badmouthing.
In Norway the law requires the empoyee to be loyal. Where the line between letting out some steem on your facebook and not being loyal can be difficult to determine. Rule of thumb: do not talk about your work in public forums.
Reading all these posts I realize just how little employees are protected in the US. In Norway the number of hours per week (for regular employees) can not be more than 40 hours. Anything more is overtime with a minimum of 40% extra pay. There are further restrictions by law: overtime cannot, under any circumstance, surpass 48 hours for one week, and no more than 200 hours per year (unless there is a union and they have an agreement with the employer. In that case the maximum is 300 hours).
Any breach here will protect you from being laid off if you refuse to comply. Further the employer will also be fined if a breach is reported to the authorities.
Also, for someone to get laid off the employer must have a very good reason. Major restructuring or severe incompetence is mainly the only option, and in any case you have at least 3 months notice. Employees are also bound by a 3 month notice when resigning. Employer may let you go sooner, but have to give you 3 months pay regardless. Anti-competitive clauses are not allowed unless you also receive a full salary for the duration of the quarantine.
Oh, and you have at least 4 weeks paid vacation (most have 5).
Also, it is the copyright holder who has to sue, not the end user. Which makes all the discussions about retailers pretty moot, which sadly affects most comments on the issue so far:(
TFA reports the data has been collected over two months which should give several repeated measurements over the same area and thus compensate for most variable things. That noted, the project has been receiving science data from the gradiometer (known as the EGG) for about a year now with inly minor interruptions.
The GOCE is a spectacular satellite, as it's low 250km orbit means it actually suffers from drag. Hence the Xenon Ion Thruster which keeps it from falling down. Normally a satellite does not have to worry about aerodynamics, but GOCE even has wings to keep it stable.
The Norwegian mobile operators have been forced to blacklist a certain US number as numerous iPhones has initiated call diversion to this number. As it lacks the international extension all the calls wound up at one unlucky guy in a small town. They confirm the issue, while Apple has refused to comment on it.
I find the wording "customers who were impacted" interesting. Once something has leaked the problem doesn't go away by only plugging the leak and not cleaning up. Just ask BP.
You probably do not realize that the images Google Earth uses are largely collected by private satellites? GeoEye is one of them, for instance. DigitalGlobe operates several as well.
As for hefty infrastructure on the ground; there are companies selling ground station services. I work for one of them and it doesn't cost you much to buy a time slot to communicate with your satellite. Heck, we offer the complete process, you only need TCP/IP (or ISDN if you are conservative). The launch does not have to be too expensive if you piggyback on the Indian launchers. But of course, you have to build it first:)
And Iridium has a decent ground network for something like this (we actually happen to host some of it too).
Questionnaires are tricky, very tricky. And the theory surrounding them is rapidly changing, Also there is a huge 'cultural' factor involved when answering the exact kind of of questionnaire as the one linked (rating something from 0 to 5 for example), Americans have a tendency to rate things extremely good or extremely bad, rating it either 0 or 5 and rarely choosing 3. Norwegians tend to stick around the middle and rarely go beyond 4 on any rating ("thing can always be better or worse so I must reserve the most extreme option"). Cisco, for example, has such a questionnaire that their Silver and Gold partners must forward to some of their customer. In order to maintain their partner status they have to score X number of points on different topics, and they have chosen this threshold based largely on the feedback they have from American customers. In some countries even the best partners have no chance of even coming close to this number, due to the cultural differences when answering such questionnaires. Also, people have become more accustomed to answering these questionnaires and might be less/more honest than they used to. Changes in how it is conducted might also skew the results (pen and paper at an institute vs. online questionnaire).
So things are more difficult than they might appear, thus I am wary of actually believing the numbers presented. I feel TFA touches too lightly on this before ranting.
The idea is good, but the suggested implementation is very bad. We do oil spill detection in near realtime using satellites, and adopting it to detect a tsunami might be feasable. We detect and alert authorities usually in less than 1 hour from the oil spill is detected. It can possibly be advanced futher by using floating sensors and AIS.
Organisation is not the hard part, it is already in place for oil spill detection and working great.
Heck, even most satellites launched these days use GPS instead of doppler and ranging measurements. Not that they ever used LORAN-C, but it ought to demonstrate that nobody believes GPS will be gone any time soon.
I have yet to experience a stable 3G on any phone or provider in Norway. Edge works fine, but 3G is buggy. Tried different phones and providers, they all show the same.
If you are that sensitive to it, then you ought to wear a mask at all times. As you point out yourself, the hazard is not only there the brief moment the nuts are consumed. Someone could have eaten them earlier and the particles got stuck on their clothing. They are released again when people takes off their jacket inside the cabin and then you are dead anyways.
I'll start eating peanuts and blowing in the face of people I dislike. I might get lucky.
Based on this, all you can say is that your allergie is real.
There are many, many ways you could have come into contact with nuts regardless of these M&Ms. What if a hand you shook earlier that day had been in contact with nuts? Or that hand touched the same doorhandle as you? You even say that this happened at school, where one desk is used by several others throughout a day. Maybe someone ate something containing nuts a few days ago and there was some residue left on the desk. You could have contracted it via skin or gotten it on your fingers. Once on your fingers it's quickly transferred to some weak spot like eyes, nose or mouth.
The M&Ms are just indices, not evidence. And to you personally it's a reminder that you have to be careful. If it is within range that you can smell it, it's most likely also in range for physical contact and you deal with that.
And if it really is airborne, then how is buffer zones going to help? It can travel by air outside the zone and stick to clothing or hair and then drop off inside the zone.
Allergies are complex, that's why we have no cure. Some allergies are triggered by air (pollen), but that allergie is also very different from nut allergies. You react to different things. Also keep in mind that most allergies also cross react with other things, which we have not mapped out completely. Something else may trigger your nut allergie and nobody knows what. It is far too complex to tackle allergies by banning stuff.
Also, maybe I haven't been paying attention, but I've never seen an employer require a doctor's note for sick leave of any length. Maybe companies put language to that effect in their employee handbook in case they need it to deal with abuse of the system, but in 20 years working I've never known of anyone being asked for a note.
Would that mean *paid* sick leave? I'm just asking, as that is the rule here. Also, many employers are part of a new program that gives you almost unlimited days of sick leave without involving any doctors. Instead of abusing the system, the trend is less need for sick leave. People became healthier. Also, if your kids are sick it's covered by the same rules. We generally do not lose any income due to being sick.
Relevant Norwegian info: ~28-30% income tax and no health insurance needed (and very few available on the 'market').
Slashdot Mirror
Exactly. You are not allowed to call it a 'credit card fee', but you may call it something else. My local movie theatre will add a "handling fee" if you pay by credit card, even though the ticket is electronic and no handling takes place. It's just a matter of PR, the credit card companies do not want to be labelled as fee-hungry even though they are...
You do not need a big enormous boat to do whaling, that is a common misconception. More often than not, you drag the whale back to shore while it
Also, responsible whaling is possible. Yes, in the early years there were over fishing on some species, but sustainable hunting was never an issue until modern times - for any kind of hunting and fishing.
I'm no expert on whaling, especially not when it comes to non-Norwegian whalers, but the Norwegian side I know quite well. And if anyone claims this is not sustainable, they need a dictionary. Of course, I cannot speak for the Japanese side of things, but I have an impression that they are not too far away from this reality either even though the industry is bigger.
Also, tuna fishing has only one thing in common with whaling: Sea Shepherd. It is not a part of the whaling discussion and there is nothing else linking these cases.
Eating that delicious piece of whale steak that has been grilled just a few seconds on each side, with a hint of salt and pepper, is something I do with a clean conscience.
And to me, Sea Shepherd has lost most of it's credibility equal to Greenpeace, but I assume they need to be picky about their cases in order to secure funding. Picking the great big battles that matter will annoy too many of the people they need in order to have funds for their work. I find them irrelevant when it comes to contributing to a sustainable use of our resources.
They have tried to sink boats with fishermen aboard, but I will not neglect the fact that on one occasion one can argue who ran into who.
For a boat captain to lose his boat which e has invested his life in, it is not a trivial matter. At least in Norway we are not talking big business, just plain fishermen.
The means are not justified in my view.
Their form of action is to sink ships, sometimes with people and sometimes without people. I find that hard to condone either way.
The whole whaling debate is fueled by black and white arguments.
Truth is, that the nations involved in whaling only allow hunting on selected species that have sustainable stock. Sea Shepherd has lost most of it's credibility ages ago, and their mode of operation is threatening and destroying lives.
I'll set fire to all my karma and throw in some kind words on the subject of seal hunting as well ;)
Fortunately there aren't many PETA-people around in Norway, they tend to freeze to death.
You are required to (a)deplete the fuel tanks and (b)disconnect the batteries.
I think
(a) is to reduce the potential damage in case of a collision
(b) is to stop the satellite from reactivating itself due to solar storms and the like
There is a reason that the international norm when decommissioning a satellite you put it in an orbit which makes it reenter and disintegrate within 25 years. It's hard to get it to reenter controlled and switch it off at the same time.
Same in Norway. Any private property is considered 'public' if you, the owner, treat it as such. Which means malls, parking lots etc.
You cannot demand or expect privacy by visiting such places (you might get filmed or photographed by someone without consent - and you can photograph someone without their consent).
I assume this particular case is a misguided case of protecting the children from pedos and women from upskirt shooters, coupled with a security guard with a God complex.
And I work for a company that deals a great deal with NASA, and they are happy to lose satellite data while waiting for a replacement demodulator to pass their security scans on an internal network.
They do make an effort, but personally I think they strive to achieve perfect security and in the process people has to poke holes in it in order to make it work :)
'Cheap' is a matter of definition, but putting a payload into orbit has, in many cases, become cheaper than employing someone to do the equivalent job on earth. One such example is Cryosat2 which is measuring ice thickness, which was deemed cheaper than having scientists traveling around the globe and constantly measuring it 'manually'.
I love this trend as it is providing my daily bread :)
Doesn't the US have laws also requiring the employee to be loyal?
There is a difference between whistleblowing and badmouthing.
In Norway the law requires the empoyee to be loyal. Where the line between letting out some steem on your facebook and not being loyal can be difficult to determine. Rule of thumb: do not talk about your work in public forums.
Reading all these posts I realize just how little employees are protected in the US.
In Norway the number of hours per week (for regular employees) can not be more than 40 hours. Anything more is overtime with a minimum of 40% extra pay.
There are further restrictions by law: overtime cannot, under any circumstance, surpass 48 hours for one week, and no more than 200 hours per year (unless there is a union and they have an agreement with the employer. In that case the maximum is 300 hours).
Any breach here will protect you from being laid off if you refuse to comply. Further the employer will also be fined if a breach is reported to the authorities.
Also, for someone to get laid off the employer must have a very good reason. Major restructuring or severe incompetence is mainly the only option, and in any case you have at least 3 months notice. Employees are also bound by a 3 month notice when resigning. Employer may let you go sooner, but have to give you 3 months pay regardless. Anti-competitive clauses are not allowed unless you also receive a full salary for the duration of the quarantine.
Oh, and you have at least 4 weeks paid vacation (most have 5).
I would not survive in the US :(
Also, it is the copyright holder who has to sue, not the end user. :(
Which makes all the discussions about retailers pretty moot, which sadly affects most comments on the issue so far
TFA reports the data has been collected over two months which should give several repeated measurements over the same area and thus compensate for most variable things.
That noted, the project has been receiving science data from the gradiometer (known as the EGG) for about a year now with inly minor interruptions.
The GOCE is a spectacular satellite, as it's low 250km orbit means it actually suffers from drag. Hence the Xenon Ion Thruster which keeps it from falling down. Normally a satellite does not have to worry about aerodynamics, but GOCE even has wings to keep it stable.
The Norwegian mobile operators have been forced to blacklist a certain US number as numerous iPhones has initiated call diversion to this number. As it lacks the international extension all the calls wound up at one unlucky guy in a small town.
They confirm the issue, while Apple has refused to comment on it.
One translated source http://translate.google.com/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=no&ie=UTF-8&layout=1&eotf=1&u=http://www.tv2underholdning.no/hjelperdeg/iphonemysteriet-apple-ikke-vil-uttale-seg-om-3206505.html&sl=no&tl=en
Seems the walled garden has a few leaks of the unwanted kind.
I find the wording "customers who were impacted" interesting. Once something has leaked the problem doesn't go away by only plugging the leak and not cleaning up. Just ask BP.
You probably do not realize that the images Google Earth uses are largely collected by private satellites?
GeoEye is one of them, for instance. DigitalGlobe operates several as well.
As for hefty infrastructure on the ground; there are companies selling ground station services. I work for one of them and it doesn't cost you much to buy a time slot to communicate with your satellite. Heck, we offer the complete process, you only need TCP/IP (or ISDN if you are conservative). The launch does not have to be too expensive if you piggyback on the Indian launchers. But of course, you have to build it first :)
And Iridium has a decent ground network for something like this (we actually happen to host some of it too).
Questionnaires are tricky, very tricky. And the theory surrounding them is rapidly changing, Also there is a huge 'cultural' factor involved when answering the exact kind of of questionnaire as the one linked (rating something from 0 to 5 for example),
Americans have a tendency to rate things extremely good or extremely bad, rating it either 0 or 5 and rarely choosing 3. Norwegians tend to stick around the middle and rarely go beyond 4 on any rating ("thing can always be better or worse so I must reserve the most extreme option").
Cisco, for example, has such a questionnaire that their Silver and Gold partners must forward to some of their customer. In order to maintain their partner status they have to score X number of points on different topics, and they have chosen this threshold based largely on the feedback they have from American customers. In some countries even the best partners have no chance of even coming close to this number, due to the cultural differences when answering such questionnaires.
Also, people have become more accustomed to answering these questionnaires and might be less/more honest than they used to. Changes in how it is conducted might also skew the results (pen and paper at an institute vs. online questionnaire).
So things are more difficult than they might appear, thus I am wary of actually believing the numbers presented. I feel TFA touches too lightly on this before ranting.
The idea is good, but the suggested implementation is very bad.
We do oil spill detection in near realtime using satellites, and adopting it to detect a tsunami might be feasable. We detect and alert authorities usually in less than 1 hour from the oil spill is detected.
It can possibly be advanced futher by using floating sensors and AIS.
Organisation is not the hard part, it is already in place for oil spill detection and working great.
Heck, even most satellites launched these days use GPS instead of doppler and ranging measurements. Not that they ever used LORAN-C, but it ought to demonstrate that nobody believes GPS will be gone any time soon.
I have yet to experience a stable 3G on any phone or provider in Norway. Edge works fine, but 3G is buggy.
Tried different phones and providers, they all show the same.
Also, I would imagine the US operators are lobbying hard to put dirt on the phone to show you that it's always best ot get their branded ones.
If you are that sensitive to it, then you ought to wear a mask at all times.
As you point out yourself, the hazard is not only there the brief moment the nuts are consumed. Someone could have eaten them earlier and the particles got stuck on their clothing. They are released again when people takes off their jacket inside the cabin and then you are dead anyways.
I'll start eating peanuts and blowing in the face of people I dislike. I might get lucky.
Based on this, all you can say is that your allergie is real.
There are many, many ways you could have come into contact with nuts regardless of these M&Ms. What if a hand you shook earlier that day had been in contact with nuts? Or that hand touched the same doorhandle as you?
You even say that this happened at school, where one desk is used by several others throughout a day. Maybe someone ate something containing nuts a few days ago and there was some residue left on the desk. You could have contracted it via skin or gotten it on your fingers. Once on your fingers it's quickly transferred to some weak spot like eyes, nose or mouth.
The M&Ms are just indices, not evidence. And to you personally it's a reminder that you have to be careful. If it is within range that you can smell it, it's most likely also in range for physical contact and you deal with that.
And if it really is airborne, then how is buffer zones going to help? It can travel by air outside the zone and stick to clothing or hair and then drop off inside the zone.
Allergies are complex, that's why we have no cure. Some allergies are triggered by air (pollen), but that allergie is also very different from nut allergies. You react to different things. Also keep in mind that most allergies also cross react with other things, which we have not mapped out completely. Something else may trigger your nut allergie and nobody knows what. It is far too complex to tackle allergies by banning stuff.
Also, maybe I haven't been paying attention, but I've never seen an employer require a doctor's note for sick leave of any length. Maybe companies put language to that effect in their employee handbook in case they need it to deal with abuse of the system, but in 20 years working I've never known of anyone being asked for a note.
Would that mean *paid* sick leave?
I'm just asking, as that is the rule here. Also, many employers are part of a new program that gives you almost unlimited days of sick leave without involving any doctors. Instead of abusing the system, the trend is less need for sick leave. People became healthier.
Also, if your kids are sick it's covered by the same rules. We generally do not lose any income due to being sick.
Relevant Norwegian info: ~28-30% income tax and no health insurance needed (and very few available on the 'market').