So, where are the goods? I mean, pics of an iPhone with a big lens strapped on are cool, I guess.... but I was kind of hoping for what the results of that unholy union are.
You, sir, are very delusional if you don't think the Republicans far outpace the Democrats when it comes to outright lying to their constituents. How many Fox News viewers think Saddam was responsible for 9/11?
No, both parties manipulate the truth to their benefit but one party takes it to a whole new and exciting level.
That the problem is that people are so hard-wired to find social ineptitude a problem.
Yes. This is society. Is it really a revelation that people that don't conform to social norms get ostracized by that very society?
The later stages of grade school and high school are glorified hazing rituals. Whereas other cultures have more structured rites of passage, we in the West like to throw all our kids into a vicious washing machine with all their insecurities and watch them become all the worst things our society has taught them through the TV. It's the price you pay to join society. Many don't make it through with society's blessing and become outcasts. I'd say those people have a strong voice here on Slashdot.
Anyhow, I guess I was struck by the fact that people seem mystified that society demands conformity. That's what society is. We just have a bizarre society and an awful way of joining it.
I'm not a huge RPG kind of gamer but every now and then I get the itch to battle dragons and cast magic so I got Dragon Age. It's really a pretty good game. Long, not terribly repetitive, plot twists to keep it interesting, interesting characters, etc.
But one thing that really gets to me about these RPGs is all the damned talking. Talk to the bartender, ask him 20 questions, 15 of which are getting at the same thing only worded slightly differently. Interview the bar patron, ask 20 questions, 15 of which rehash what the bartender said. Interview the barmaid, ask 20 questions.... interview the angry drunkard.... move to the next building and interview 5 more people....
I think the interaction between scientists and the public has changed over the years.
In the heady days of yesteryear, it seems science was respected. People went to school for a long time to learn an aspect of science and people respected their expertise. The scientist would come out and say "It turns out X is affected by Y." People listened and anyone who wanted to know more about how or why X is affected by Y could hit the books and find out for themselves.
Nowadays, it seems healthy skepticism has turned unhealthy. Science isn't as respected... in fact, there's a lot of mistrust from the public. A scientist can devote her whole career to puzzling out some fact of the world, only to be second guessed by high-school dropouts. "X is affected by Y." People don't accept that anymore. Explain why. Explain how. Spell it out for me in great detail, this X and Y business. "The detailed methodology is in the research paper." But that's hard to read and involves lots complicated terms and references tons of previous work. Tell me in simple language, preferably in two sentences or less, and don't bore me...
In other words, the public wants to be pandered to and scientists have better things to do than explain in small words every detail of their work to people that have the attention span of a gnat.
That is precisely my take on this issue. I thought the whole point was to go on record. You're writing your name down on a list...
And besides, would they have had to block the people's names who had previously signed the petition? One signature per page? Who gets to see the names?
I'm just saying that if another company doesn't swap those BOP batteries out on schedule and cuts corners like BP did and there's another blowout in the next couple of decades, people will come after them with pitchforks. Literally. Well, not literally pitchforks necessarily, but those executives will probably be hiring a few more bodyguards.
I honestly don't think this will be much of an issue. You've seen what happened to BP. If you're a deep water drilling company and you don't have all your ducks in a row after that, you're an idiot. So Obama's reasoning for the moratorium, until the safety measures can be re-evaluated, is redundant because these companies had better be at the forefront of responsibility without further external incentives.
Kind of like how Ford, GM, and Honda were probably double and triple checking their acceleration systems after Toyota's little stint in the headlines recently.
If I ever find the asshole that came up with that campaign....
Of all the most useless, trite, idiotic, ungrammatical things ever.... ARGH! Especially since everyone and their sister thinks it's extremely clever and has asked us billions of times if we got whatever the hell they love that week.
The problem is that you need generation to cover your power peaks. Let's say your power company, on your average day at 10:00am, needs to generate a megawatt for your neighborhood. But that one really hot day a year, at 5:30pm, everyone gets home and turns the air up, your power company needs to provide 5MW.
So your power company needs to have at least 5MW available even though most of it is going to sit idle, maybe for years. This costs tons of money to make sure that they can serve the peaks.
So all these "big brother" schemes are the start down the path towards finding way to reduce that peak so the power company can keep their current generation longer without having to upgrade it. Shaving the peak, shifting it, smart appliances, smart meters... these are all really cool things. It's just a PR war that power companies are losing right now, mostly because people's eyes glaze over when you try to explain peak power and all that. They just want to turn their TV on when they want to and who's to tell them they can't?! And they'll be damned if you tell them how to set their thermostat!
But soon enough we'll have hourly rate changes sent down the wire to your house and your appliances will be set with thresholds. You'll load the dishwasher and punch the start button, it will check the price of power and if it's too much, it will wait till the price dips enough and turn on. You'd be able to over ride it, of course.
But that doesn't happen over night and some of the growing stages certainly come off as big brother-ish. I don't blame people for being squeamish.
Broadcast. Broad cast. Broad: a large area. Cast: throw or disseminate. Broadcast: throwing your crap over a wide area.
The problem is that we want convenience with our electronic and communications. In order for that to work seamlessly, our access points are spewing out crap non-stop, advertising its existence for all to hear and explaining what kinds of connections it offers and what you'll need to connect to it. It's really convenient to do it that way because then we just turn the wifi on the laptop on and click OK when the dialog pops up asking to connect to your random access point.
But that convenience comes at the price of your access point spewing crap over as wide of a range as possible. Hell, even marketers highlight the range of their products as desirable. "You can spew your crap over a much broader range than our competitors!"
So either sacrifice convenience for extra privacy or realize that you're spewing crap all over the place and accept the fact anyone strolling by can listen in. And pray that he doesn't sue you for your radio waves penetrating his skull and giving him brain cancer or something ludicrous.
He'll never be able to hide from it. He has to embrace it. Own it. "Yes, I'm the Star Wars kid. Thankfully, lightsaber skills aren't a requirement for this job!" Ha ha. We've all done stupid shit in our lives. His happened to be seen by a lot more people and that really sucks. I'm not saying it's easy but he has to come to terms with it.
And who knows, maybe this news story is coming from him. Maybe he's finally ready to get back out there.
Look at Tron Guy. He's owned it. Good lord, I would have wanted to lock myself away for a while after hearing what people were saying after seeing the pics. But he rolled with it. Of course, he was a bit more "mature" than a highschooler and that could explain the differences is how they dealed with their "fame".
Too often, when the US as a country was debating the ethics of torture, did we have people saying that if there was info that was needed *right now* from a prisoner to save lives, torture should legally be on the table.
I disagree. I think torture should always be illegal and if it's very obvious that you need to smack someone around to get at some vital info, you do it because the consequences of being put on trial for torturing someone is outweighed by saving lives. You hope for the leniency of the courts if you truly did save lives. If you blew it and tortured someone for no reason, as it turns out.... oops, better be sure next time.
I feel the same way in this regard. There should be strong laws preventing the leaking of sensitive materials. Obviously, this guy thought that his country's benefits of knowing this info was more important than the consequences he faced for leaking it. I hope the courts are lenient.
And I'm sure getting rid of probable cause makes their jobs easier too. I guess I don't want their jobs to be easy. I want their jobs to be really fucking hard. That's what you get along with a badge and a gun... scrutiny. At least, that's what should happen but rarely does.
After all, if you have nothing to hide Mr. Office Sir, what's the big deal?
I'm just eternally grateful for these BP heroes that have worked so many sleepless nights since this began in order to wrestle this thing under control. No one has ever had to deal with something like this before and by using their ingenuity and ability to adapt and innovate, they were able to accomplish a herculean feat.
I don't think anyone else will be able to replicate it, though. I think you get the good press for being one of the first to try it and then it becomes old news when someone else tries.
Of course, I realize that most animals make a home and hence modify their environment. I was trying to suggest that none of them go quite as far as the beaver. They don't just build a home, they build a neighborhood too.
I also like working for the Department of Redundancy Dept like I do. I like liking.... like...
Putting aside the obvious jokes for a second, I always liked the fact that beavers are like humans because they modify their environment to suit their needs like we do.
Slashdot Mirror
So, where are the goods? I mean, pics of an iPhone with a big lens strapped on are cool, I guess.... but I was kind of hoping for what the results of that unholy union are.
You, sir, are very delusional if you don't think the Republicans far outpace the Democrats when it comes to outright lying to their constituents. How many Fox News viewers think Saddam was responsible for 9/11? No, both parties manipulate the truth to their benefit but one party takes it to a whole new and exciting level.
That the problem is that people are so hard-wired to find social ineptitude a problem.
Yes. This is society. Is it really a revelation that people that don't conform to social norms get ostracized by that very society?
The later stages of grade school and high school are glorified hazing rituals. Whereas other cultures have more structured rites of passage, we in the West like to throw all our kids into a vicious washing machine with all their insecurities and watch them become all the worst things our society has taught them through the TV. It's the price you pay to join society. Many don't make it through with society's blessing and become outcasts. I'd say those people have a strong voice here on Slashdot.
Anyhow, I guess I was struck by the fact that people seem mystified that society demands conformity. That's what society is. We just have a bizarre society and an awful way of joining it.
I'm not a huge RPG kind of gamer but every now and then I get the itch to battle dragons and cast magic so I got Dragon Age. It's really a pretty good game. Long, not terribly repetitive, plot twists to keep it interesting, interesting characters, etc.
But one thing that really gets to me about these RPGs is all the damned talking. Talk to the bartender, ask him 20 questions, 15 of which are getting at the same thing only worded slightly differently. Interview the bar patron, ask 20 questions, 15 of which rehash what the bartender said. Interview the barmaid, ask 20 questions.... interview the angry drunkard.... move to the next building and interview 5 more people....
http://tattuinardoelasaga.wordpress.com/2010/03/01/tattuinardoela-saga-if-star-wars-were-an-icelandic-saga/
Surely you're not referring to this. If so, your BS detector needs calibrating.
I think the interaction between scientists and the public has changed over the years.
In the heady days of yesteryear, it seems science was respected. People went to school for a long time to learn an aspect of science and people respected their expertise. The scientist would come out and say "It turns out X is affected by Y." People listened and anyone who wanted to know more about how or why X is affected by Y could hit the books and find out for themselves.
Nowadays, it seems healthy skepticism has turned unhealthy. Science isn't as respected... in fact, there's a lot of mistrust from the public. A scientist can devote her whole career to puzzling out some fact of the world, only to be second guessed by high-school dropouts. "X is affected by Y." People don't accept that anymore. Explain why. Explain how. Spell it out for me in great detail, this X and Y business. "The detailed methodology is in the research paper." But that's hard to read and involves lots complicated terms and references tons of previous work. Tell me in simple language, preferably in two sentences or less, and don't bore me...
In other words, the public wants to be pandered to and scientists have better things to do than explain in small words every detail of their work to people that have the attention span of a gnat.
I hope that was intentionally ironic.
That is precisely my take on this issue. I thought the whole point was to go on record. You're writing your name down on a list...
And besides, would they have had to block the people's names who had previously signed the petition? One signature per page? Who gets to see the names?
I'm just saying that if another company doesn't swap those BOP batteries out on schedule and cuts corners like BP did and there's another blowout in the next couple of decades, people will come after them with pitchforks. Literally. Well, not literally pitchforks necessarily, but those executives will probably be hiring a few more bodyguards.
I honestly don't think this will be much of an issue. You've seen what happened to BP. If you're a deep water drilling company and you don't have all your ducks in a row after that, you're an idiot. So Obama's reasoning for the moratorium, until the safety measures can be re-evaluated, is redundant because these companies had better be at the forefront of responsibility without further external incentives.
Kind of like how Ford, GM, and Honda were probably double and triple checking their acceleration systems after Toyota's little stint in the headlines recently.
If I ever find the asshole that came up with that campaign....
Of all the most useless, trite, idiotic, ungrammatical things ever.... ARGH! Especially since everyone and their sister thinks it's extremely clever and has asked us billions of times if we got whatever the hell they love that week.
The problem is that you need generation to cover your power peaks. Let's say your power company, on your average day at 10:00am, needs to generate a megawatt for your neighborhood. But that one really hot day a year, at 5:30pm, everyone gets home and turns the air up, your power company needs to provide 5MW.
So your power company needs to have at least 5MW available even though most of it is going to sit idle, maybe for years. This costs tons of money to make sure that they can serve the peaks.
So all these "big brother" schemes are the start down the path towards finding way to reduce that peak so the power company can keep their current generation longer without having to upgrade it. Shaving the peak, shifting it, smart appliances, smart meters... these are all really cool things. It's just a PR war that power companies are losing right now, mostly because people's eyes glaze over when you try to explain peak power and all that. They just want to turn their TV on when they want to and who's to tell them they can't?! And they'll be damned if you tell them how to set their thermostat!
But soon enough we'll have hourly rate changes sent down the wire to your house and your appliances will be set with thresholds. You'll load the dishwasher and punch the start button, it will check the price of power and if it's too much, it will wait till the price dips enough and turn on. You'd be able to over ride it, of course.
But that doesn't happen over night and some of the growing stages certainly come off as big brother-ish. I don't blame people for being squeamish.
Broadcast. Broad cast. Broad: a large area. Cast: throw or disseminate. Broadcast: throwing your crap over a wide area.
The problem is that we want convenience with our electronic and communications. In order for that to work seamlessly, our access points are spewing out crap non-stop, advertising its existence for all to hear and explaining what kinds of connections it offers and what you'll need to connect to it. It's really convenient to do it that way because then we just turn the wifi on the laptop on and click OK when the dialog pops up asking to connect to your random access point.
But that convenience comes at the price of your access point spewing crap over as wide of a range as possible. Hell, even marketers highlight the range of their products as desirable. "You can spew your crap over a much broader range than our competitors!"
So either sacrifice convenience for extra privacy or realize that you're spewing crap all over the place and accept the fact anyone strolling by can listen in. And pray that he doesn't sue you for your radio waves penetrating his skull and giving him brain cancer or something ludicrous.
So if I were to set up a radio transmitter that transmitted certain info, can I then accuse whoever looks at that info of being a criminal?
This is what I would call an extremely interesting discussion...
sigh
He'll never be able to hide from it. He has to embrace it. Own it. "Yes, I'm the Star Wars kid. Thankfully, lightsaber skills aren't a requirement for this job!" Ha ha. We've all done stupid shit in our lives. His happened to be seen by a lot more people and that really sucks. I'm not saying it's easy but he has to come to terms with it.
And who knows, maybe this news story is coming from him. Maybe he's finally ready to get back out there.
Look at Tron Guy. He's owned it. Good lord, I would have wanted to lock myself away for a while after hearing what people were saying after seeing the pics. But he rolled with it. Of course, he was a bit more "mature" than a highschooler and that could explain the differences is how they dealed with their "fame".
Too often, when the US as a country was debating the ethics of torture, did we have people saying that if there was info that was needed *right now* from a prisoner to save lives, torture should legally be on the table.
I disagree. I think torture should always be illegal and if it's very obvious that you need to smack someone around to get at some vital info, you do it because the consequences of being put on trial for torturing someone is outweighed by saving lives. You hope for the leniency of the courts if you truly did save lives. If you blew it and tortured someone for no reason, as it turns out.... oops, better be sure next time.
I feel the same way in this regard. There should be strong laws preventing the leaking of sensitive materials. Obviously, this guy thought that his country's benefits of knowing this info was more important than the consequences he faced for leaking it. I hope the courts are lenient.
And I'm sure getting rid of probable cause makes their jobs easier too. I guess I don't want their jobs to be easy. I want their jobs to be really fucking hard. That's what you get along with a badge and a gun... scrutiny. At least, that's what should happen but rarely does.
After all, if you have nothing to hide Mr. Office Sir, what's the big deal?
Just think of the new generation of people we'll have to wean off of stupid design decisions.
I'm just eternally grateful for these BP heroes that have worked so many sleepless nights since this began in order to wrestle this thing under control. No one has ever had to deal with something like this before and by using their ingenuity and ability to adapt and innovate, they were able to accomplish a herculean feat.
Yes, I'm being facetious.
I don't think anyone else will be able to replicate it, though. I think you get the good press for being one of the first to try it and then it becomes old news when someone else tries.
What problems can't a nuclear explosion solve?
Of course, I realize that most animals make a home and hence modify their environment. I was trying to suggest that none of them go quite as far as the beaver. They don't just build a home, they build a neighborhood too.
I also like working for the Department of Redundancy Dept like I do. I like liking.... like...
Putting aside the obvious jokes for a second, I always liked the fact that beavers are like humans because they modify their environment to suit their needs like we do.
Let the soul sucking begin!