Rather than innovate, I think we'll see more companies resorting to attacks of competitors' information systems. Innovation costs real money. You have to hire really smart people and they're not as inexpensive as the dullards who willingly participate in these schemes.
Of course, it's a matter of time before terrorists and/or other countries (China and North Korea being two that come to mind) start these kinds of attacks on their enemies' or perceived enemies infrastructure.
Answers in Science (with a capital "S") are supposed to change. That is why, when you do Science, you state your findings in what's called a "theory." And one of the most important things about scientific inquiry is that one's statement of theory must be disprovable by observations.
Religion, on the other hand, doesn't have to use theory. Religion can state things like, "suicide-bombing innocent people is the will of god and will get you into paradise."
Now, of course I'm writing this on September 11th but I'm also reflecting on the Pope's orders to sack Constantinople (sack means loot, kill, destroy and rape, for those of you interested). He stated that all who died in this "holy war" would be granted eternal life.
The lack of decent benefits in jobs has been caused by corporate boards and executives deciding to not be good corporate citizens. That is usually a result of those corporate executives deriving great quantities of pay from stock price increases, which changes the way they do business. And that has nothing to do with stating scientific theories or religion. Being a good corporate citizen is a moral responsibility that these executives have but they tend to not act on it. And they don't act on it because there are no laws requiring these actions. And they hire lobbyists to prevent such laws from being enacted.
I shall assume you have read the previous comment about Lot's family not being so perfect. The writer misspelled "Gomorrah" but I suppose, sine the original language of that area didn't necessarily use the same alphabet, the point is moot.
Continuing our story though and you shall find how his daughters aren't so perfect:
Genesis 19, V. 30-38 (KJV):
And Lot went up out of Zo'ar, and dwelt in the mountain, and his two daughters with him; for he feared to dwell in Zo'ar: and he dwelt in a cave, he and his two daughters.
And the firstborn said unto the younger, Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth to come in unto us after the manner of all the earth:
Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father.
And they made their father drink wine that night: and the firstborn went in, and lay with her father; and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose.
And it came to pass on the morrow, that the firstborn said unto the younger, Behold, I lay yesternight with my father: let us make him drink wine this night also; and go thou in, and lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father.
And they made their father drink wine that night also: and the younger arose, and lay with him; and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose.
Thus were both the daughters of Lot with child by their father.
And the firstborn bare a son, and called his name Moab: the same is the father of the Moabites unto this day.
And the younger, she also bare a son, and called his name Ben-am'mi: the same is the father of the children of Ammon unto this day.
This is not exactly what I would call "consentual sex," and incest is not considered a very good idea, though royal families have used this to justify it.
But I have heard it said that Lot and Abraham are essentially one in the same, that Lot is the name used for Abraham not living as a saintly man. The best verse I can pull out of my hat to suggest this is Gen. 19, V.29:
And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in the which Lot dwelt.
Of course beware: Quoting the Bible (or any other "sacred scripture") is liable to misinform.
Perhaps we should not [put] the wind farm in Nantucket sound but in the Gulf of Mexico.
Actually, both might be an excellent idea. I am familiar with the protests against placing a wind farm in Nantucket Sound and how people are saying that they'll kill birds, etc. It's a load of hooey -- these people who are against the proposal think wind farms are "unsightly" and are trying to use an environmental argument to oppose an environmentally sane solution to an energy problem.
I think the only solution to the Nantucket debate is to provide the residents there with cheaper electricity for a number of years. Were that to happen, all concern about "those poor birds" will dissapate like fog on a hot day.
I am sure you also will have noted the comment that stated that at wind speeds above 25 MPH, most of these wind farms cease operation.
We in the US pay a lot less for gasoline, not because we're an oil-producing country (the UK is, too) but because it's politically infeasable for us to tax it. I have heard it said that every time an European nation wishes to close a budget gap, they hike the price of petrol.
There are two lines of thought to this: It's "greener" because you folks tend to buy fewer "Yank Tanks" and tend to drive less. Americans are almost required to drive more, as our country is larger and we tend to be more mobile than Europeans (whose whole countries are about the same size as some of our States).
I should admit to some envy though. You have a much better rail system so it is actually possible to commute into your larger cities without too much driving.
To be fair though, might I ask you to look into how much of your costs are actually taxes?
A by no means exhaustive search seems to point out two prevalent theories that are in direct opposition.
I am lead to believe that the Earth's core is not really solid so much as made mostly of molten iron that spins, thus imparting a magnetic field to the earth (and saving our atmosphere from excessive solar bleed-off as is in the case of Mars). Jupiter and Saturn both have very strong magnetic fields, which leads me to believe that there is some rotation at the core that would create that.
So there may be no solid core so much as a core that would be solid on the surface of the Earth without all that pressure and heat, just like the Earth's core would be.
But this deviates from the topic. My particular question was a search for some kind of analogy that would help me to understand what was being described in the article about the density of the asteroid.
Thanks. I can completely understand pine, as I have used a chainsaw and understand the difference between it and, say oak (or stone). I realize that the article was written by someone who understands phrases like 600 Kg per cubic meter. It is handy, though, to give the reader an accurate assessment of scientific terms like that.
One great technical term I read explained was that the planet Jupiter, because it was made up of gas only, would float in a body of water, were one able to find a body of water large enough.
Obviously, this comet would float if it has the density of pine.
BEDEVERE: Quiet! Quiet! Quiet! Quiet! There are ways of telling whether she is a witch.
VILLAGER #1: Are there?
VILLAGER #2: Ah?
VILLAGER #1: What are they?
CROWD: Tell us! Tell us!...
BEDEVERE: Tell me. What do you do with witches?
VILLAGER #2: Burn!
VILLAGER #1: Burn!
CROWD: Burn! Burn them up! Burn!...
BEDEVERE: And what do you burn apart from witches?
VILLAGER #1: More witches!
VILLAGER #3: Shh!
VILLAGER #2: Wood!
BEDEVERE: So, why do witches burn?
[pause]
VILLAGER #3: B--... 'cause they're made of... wood?
BEDEVERE: Good! Heh heh.
CROWD: Oh, yeah. Oh.
BEDEVERE: So, how do we tell whether she is made of wood?
VILLAGER #1: Build a bridge out of her.
BEDEVERE: Ah, but can you not also make bridges out of stone?
VILLAGER #1: Oh, yeah.
RANDOM: Oh, yeah. True. Uhh...
BEDEVERE: Does wood sink in water?
VILLAGER #1: No. No.
VILLAGER #2: No, it floats! It floats!
VILLAGER #1: Throw her into the pond!
CROWD: The pond! Throw her into the pond!
BEDEVERE: What also floats in water?
VILLAGER #1: Bread!
VILLAGER #2: Apples!
VILLAGER #3: Uh, very small rocks!
VILLAGER #1: Cider!
VILLAGER #2: Uh, gra-- gravy!
VILLAGER #1: Cherries!
VILLAGER #2: Mud!
VILLAGER #3: Uh, churches! Churches!
VILLAGER #2: Lead! Lead!
ARTHUR: A duck!
CROWD: Oooh.
BEDEVERE: Exactly. So, logically...
VILLAGER #1: If... she... weighs... the same as a duck,... she's made of wood.
BEDEVERE: And therefore?
VILLAGER #2: A witch!
VILLAGER #1: A witch!
CROWD: A witch! A witch!...
I recall my sister, who lives in St. Louis, MO, telling me about a light rail system that was planned there some years ago. I wonder what became of that idea.
I lived for 20 years in New York. I would say that the "rite of passage" experienced by 16-year-olds in taking the drivers' education class and getting their license to drive a car is almost unknown in NYC. Some New Yorkers never learn to drive a car -- nor do they care. If they have to get anywhere, it's the subway or a bus or, if the place is inaccessible or they don't know the way, a taxi. And the subways in NYC are faster than most ground transportation.
I now live in Connecticut, near Hartford and still commute into NYC. For me, it's a 40-minute drive to a commuter train (not a subway) and then an hour and forty minutes by train. It's a really long commute and the commuter train might be a little slower than taking a car all the way but it saves on gasoline and reduces pollution and it offers me the chance to read. I'd imagine commuters who take trains into inner cities like NYC and Chicago are more literate than those who drive everywhere.
Having seen (and lived) both sides of the coin, I'm compelled to comment that it takes a certain political will to build commuter systems. And that includes ponying up higher taxes. NYC has a larger budget than all but two states in the US. And metropolitan transit is governed by a board that is mostly controlled from outside the city. While I don't like the governance of the MTA (it's a political football that does not express the will of the people), I am in agreement with paying to play. NYC residents pay federal income tax, state income tax and city income tax. The sales tax in New York City is 4.37% which is added to a 4.25% New York State tax rate, resulting in an 8.62% effective rate. As sales taxes are regressive, they hit those on low incomes harder. But one may argue that the lower incomes also benefit more from a good system of public transportation.
I work with a former Texan who gripes constantly about the high taxes he has to pay in New York. I think he appropriately reflects an overall view in Western states that high taxes are for naught. He also reflects the opinion that governments will tend to muck up any program, versus the private sector (a Libertarian viewpoint).
I will admit freely that the MTA does not control costs well and also tends to pay its managers too well for bad management, while paying those who actually cause the trains and busses to move less, in proportion to those managers.
But, unless the public dedicates itself to voting for higher taxes for the construction of public alternatives to cars, highways, pollution and higher individual transportation costs, nothing will ever work for those "low tax libertarians" in the west. And this cannot be a passing fad; this kind of a movement must be sustained over 20 to 30 years of building.
I would encourage anyone reading this to study France's TGV system, which is transforming the countryside in Northern France. The line north of New York City pretty much ends in New Haven in Connecticut. And it takes an hour and forty minutes to get from New Haven to NYC. Were it a fast TGV system, one could commute from Springfield, MA to NYC in under one hour.
There has to be a national will to build something like that. The current chairperson of the US House of Representatives Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure is Representative Thomas Petri of Wisconsin. Now here's a man who may tend to block funding of Amtrak and other rail in favor of roads and cars. This is not to single him out for public disparagement, the man has probably never lived in the northeast corridor, which is the only area of the US well-served by rail. The last Committee chairperson was from Oklahoma and he wanted to zero out all funding for Amtrak.
So if you are interested in public transit, you need to consider two things: Higher taxes and popular will. I would imagine those train tracks that pass close to your house will be torn up before there is any change in either.
Additionally, an Apple Macintosh, running OS X can "print to a PDF" from any application running in OS X. I suppose if you wanted to annotate a PDF, you could cut and paste it as a graphic into another application, then print the resultant PDF.
Tiger (OS X 10.4.x) allows even more PDF editing. This is not the same thing as purchasing Acrobat Distiller but it could be helpful.
I think one of the reasons for the continued use of windoze 2000 is the existence of older machines that don't have the resources to run the newer Microsoft OS. It certainly seems that way where I work.
I grew up in Kansas and fully understand how you are probably voting Republican because everyone around you is. My grandfather grew up in Osage County, Kansas and voted Democrat. He became a Democrat when, after he had returned from WW I, a Republican President ordered a Republican General (MacArthur) to order a Republican Colonel (Eisenhower) to clear out the encampment of WW I veterans encamped near the White House.
The result of this unprovoked attack on what was called the "Bonus Army" who were just trying to lobby their government for an early payout of their war bonus to ease the pain they (and all Americans) were suffering during the Great Depression. Many were killed. My grandfather reacted accordingly when he saw his former brothers-in-arms attacked.
Kansas is presently trying to redefine "science." This is because "real" science doesn't fit into the unscientific nonesense that a group of right-wing religious nuts wish taught in high schools. They want to allow students to consider that "beliefs" can also function in scientific enquiry.
So, this means that if you want to suppose anything, based on your belief, it may be part of your scientific statement of theory. Kind of like, "The sky is blue on this planet because it's a color that some greater intelligent being than mankind thinks goes well with this planet." Of course the process of the scattering of photons as received by the sun, something that may be empirically observed in a laboratory experiment really isn't all that important.
According to the strict interpretation of the Judeo-Christian Bible made by James Ussher, the world began on 23 October, 4004 BCE. Never mind that we have radiocarbon dating evidence showing fossils that vastly pre-date this, we'll just redefine scientific methodology until it fits what we want it to fit.
You state: There is nothing wrong with evolution, but when you try to expand that (as above) into guaranteed fact and teach that, I think that's a mistake. This alone shows that you know nothing about scientific methodology, a world where what we know is built on a series of premises, called theories, borne out by persistent observation. Theories are not "guaranteed facts." A scientist may theorize that a human being could not survive a fall from an airplane at an altitude of 10,000 feet. This is proven a number of times. But then, someone comes up with a parachute and the theory must be altered to fit observable results. In other words, no theory gets a free ride they all must survive repeated observations.
Darwin's theory of evolution is not at odds with what is observed. It is also dis-provable, which is a very important part of scientific methodology. No scientist, practicing as such, would ever hold fast to a theory, unmodified, in the face of contrary evidence that may be tested. As stated, Charles Darwin's theory of evolution is good science. He clearly states that his theory may be disproved or nullified and clearly states how this might be accomplished in his book, "The Origin of Species." Nowhere in his book does he state that a religious persuasion may disprove all or part of his theory based on religious beliefs, because religion and science are two different practices utterly. The essence of science is observable actions or things, not beliefs or feelings.
Albert Einstein theorized the possibility that gravitation could cause a "lensing" effect on stars or galaxies that were on the other side of a gravitational field. This was never proved in his lifetime (he died in 1954). This didn't make his theory any less valid; he stated it as science ought to be stated, suggesting experiments that would prove him right or prove him wrong.
So with Darwin. The fact that human beings have not evolved into another species since he published his theory does not disprove it. His theory states that the process of speciation takes many,
My doctor regularly prints out prescriptions with his digital signature from his computerized prescription program. It's particularly handy in that it will flag a prescription that might cause problems in view of the other prescriptions the patient is taking.
I would also mention that my doctor is younger than I am and so probably is more technologically savvy than some of the older GPs.
I'd like to call up Dr. Philip Mach and see if he would be so kind as to renew a prescription I have just to hear what he says...
Our IT department did "push" a patch to all of the possible machines that could be infected and I cannot say whether or not CNN's IT people did. But on at least one machine that I regularly use, the patch didn't work. The computer booted up and had an error message, saying that something was corrupted in the installation, so I had to call IT to have them manually patch the machine.
I was told that many of the pee cees around here did not accept the patch correctly, due to idiosyncratic configurations.
Multiply that into a worldwide news organization and you have a pretty massive IT headache, hence's CNN's on-air hysteria.
I would note that the AP wires are currently reporting that one airline infected with the worm had problems booking passengers
I cannot see how a laptop would be more of a vector than the desktops. Our desktops are connected to the Internet all of the time. Laptops are connected to the Internet some of the time. Unless the worm, virus or other malware specifically targets WiFi or laptops, it's all the same.
Of course we have producers who edit in the field with laptops, either using Final Cut Pro (since they're on Macintosh computers they're more resistant to malware and 100% resistant to Windows viruses) or Avid's pee-cee-based Mini-DV cutter (which is not). I have not yet heard of a laptop editing operation that missed air due to a virus issue though.
Then I would suggest my second idea, which is these companies have rolled out so many Windoze 2000 computers that won't run XP well that they're now depending on that OS.
Else there is a different application that is problematic that we rely on. Heck, within this organization, I cannot set up a computer to print to an area Canon printer without calling IT. And our printers are pretty close to "unfindable" as they're named things like "\\LA12PNEWSNBCGE\NN536S Producer - HP 4050" instead of something that is easy to remember.
There have been a number of comments about aboriginal Americans overhunting megafauna on the North American Continent and I shall assume that those interested in re-introducing these animals to the wilds in North American preserves would not also want to re-introduce hunting-to-extinction.
But as Tim Flannery points out in his book The Eternal Frontier: An Ecological History of North America and Its Peoples the North American continent is unique in its mountains are oriented largely north-south, which creates extremes of temperatures in the interior, while most other continents have east-west oriented mountains, which prevent the same extremes.
As someone who grew up in Kansas with 110 degree heat in the summer and -20 degree cold in the winter, I wonder if those who wish to re-introduce these animals into America also have plans to construct warmed and cooled shelters.
The CNN coverage was probably due to CNN still using Windoze 2000, which we use here at NBC for all of our desktop computers.
Mind you, we also have high end workstations running Avid Newscutters and the DS that are based on XP but for desktop use, it's strictly 2000.
It is quite possible that news ops software, like Avid's iNews (a very necessary script-writing, show organizing and newswire access tool that almost every news organization uses) does not work or is not supported on XP. It may also be an issue that XP requires better hardware (highly likely) than 2000 and large, worldwide organizations like CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, BBC and so on are highly dependent on that version of Microsoft's OS.
So, at least in their case, the hysteria at CNN may have been warranted.
I have everything I need in a paid service: I use Apple's OS X and have a.mac account. I can post photos, I have a complete calendar application, e-mail and snail mail address bookand it all works very well, hot-syncing with my iPod and Palm device.
If you want these things really bad, is paying for them so awful?
I'm going to assume everyone who is re-hashing the "we should have" vs. the "We should not have" dropped the Bombs wasn't around during WW II. I wasn't.
Did Harry Truman give the "go ahead" because he wanted to impress the Russians? The best biography I have read on him suggests that was not the case (I say this with apologies to Mr. Terkel who was around during WW II). Did he do it because there was no hope for ending the war with Japan? That same biography clearly points out that the Japanese Government had made overtures at least a month beforehand
I think the true answer lies somewhere in between. Americans, at that time, were pretty jingoistic. We had to have been if we locked up thousands of law-abiding Americans with Japanese ancestry in concentration camps. Our military seemed pretty terrified of the Japanese commitment to the war effort, with kamakaze attacks on our capital ships, common Japanese soldiers fighting ours until they were killed and Japan's lack of "respect" for the "Western 'rules' for warfare."
In other words, you really have to put your mind into the mindset of the times, else you cannot really understand why we risked the lives to build atomic weapons and ended so many other lives in using two of them in war.
I suppose one could say that it's bad form to rape the female citizens of a foreign power against whom you are at war, but it happened all the time during the middle ages by "civilized" nations. Later, when the Europeans found that the American Natives used ritual torture to determine the manliness of captured European prisoners, they were horrified, while they in turn were burning so-called 'witches' at the stake and hanging them on a gallows by hoisting them (and not dropping them so that they would die almost instantly).
To understand these actions is not a product of a thick skin, it's a product of a fuller understanding of the times. Those whom do not study and learn by history are doomed to repeat it.
According to the New York Times (today, 04-21-2005) the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation donated $100,000 in 2003 to the Delay Foundation, which runs an orphanage and is a means by which friends of the Majority Leader may get lucrative contracts for friends of him that are involved in construction.
If you were to ask Mr. Delay, I think he'd be not all that eager to support gay and lesbian issues, including same sex partnership rights, marriage, adoption and all sorts of issues that are important to gay and lesbian taxpayers. I'm also certain Mr. Delay is perfectly happy to limit life and living options available to these taxpayers all the while accepting their tax dollars and spending them as if they were regular tax dollars based on some notion that comes out of a rather obscure story in the Old Testament.
What is really indicated in this gift from one non-profit to another is a measure of political support, because the Republicans, if you will recall, stopped the breakup of Microsoft and prevented the US Department of Justice from pressing for any real remedy for the Microsoft monopolistic practices.
Of course, this calls to question the political support given by Bill and Melinda, along with Microsoft to Mr. Delay for his campaigns as well as his trips abroad, his campaign to jerrymander Texas so that it is always Republican and his other political interests. One doesn't tend to care about Mr. Delay's charity unless one is doing business with him.
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It was actually a Pigs In Space episode, where Ms. Piggy accidentially pushes the "Death Ray" button and Beeker gets toasted.
Please see sgt doom's comment, which preceeds yours.
You are right, of course. There is no honor among thieves.
Please see Ergo98's comment, which follows yours.
And I do agree with you. It's just that it will start being more visible, like this one.
Rather than innovate, I think we'll see more companies resorting to attacks of competitors' information systems. Innovation costs real money. You have to hire really smart people and they're not as inexpensive as the dullards who willingly participate in these schemes.
Of course, it's a matter of time before terrorists and/or other countries (China and North Korea being two that come to mind) start these kinds of attacks on their enemies' or perceived enemies infrastructure.
Answers in Science (with a capital "S") are supposed to change. That is why, when you do Science, you state your findings in what's called a "theory." And one of the most important things about scientific inquiry is that one's statement of theory must be disprovable by observations.
Religion, on the other hand, doesn't have to use theory. Religion can state things like, "suicide-bombing innocent people is the will of god and will get you into paradise."
Now, of course I'm writing this on September 11th but I'm also reflecting on the Pope's orders to sack Constantinople (sack means loot, kill, destroy and rape, for those of you interested). He stated that all who died in this "holy war" would be granted eternal life.
The lack of decent benefits in jobs has been caused by corporate boards and executives deciding to not be good corporate citizens. That is usually a result of those corporate executives deriving great quantities of pay from stock price increases, which changes the way they do business. And that has nothing to do with stating scientific theories or religion. Being a good corporate citizen is a moral responsibility that these executives have but they tend to not act on it. And they don't act on it because there are no laws requiring these actions. And they hire lobbyists to prevent such laws from being enacted.
I shall assume you have read the previous comment about Lot's family not being so perfect. The writer misspelled "Gomorrah" but I suppose, sine the original language of that area didn't necessarily use the same alphabet, the point is moot.
Continuing our story though and you shall find how his daughters aren't so perfect:
Genesis 19, V. 30-38 (KJV):
And Lot went up out of Zo'ar, and dwelt in the mountain, and his two daughters with him; for he feared to dwell in Zo'ar: and he dwelt in a cave, he and his two daughters.
And the firstborn said unto the younger, Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth to come in unto us after the manner of all the earth:
Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father.
And they made their father drink wine that night: and the firstborn went in, and lay with her father; and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose.
And it came to pass on the morrow, that the firstborn said unto the younger, Behold, I lay yesternight with my father: let us make him drink wine this night also; and go thou in, and lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father.
And they made their father drink wine that night also: and the younger arose, and lay with him; and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose.
Thus were both the daughters of Lot with child by their father.
And the firstborn bare a son, and called his name Moab: the same is the father of the Moabites unto this day.
And the younger, she also bare a son, and called his name Ben-am'mi: the same is the father of the children of Ammon unto this day.
This is not exactly what I would call "consentual sex," and incest is not considered a very good idea, though royal families have used this to justify it.
But I have heard it said that Lot and Abraham are essentially one in the same, that Lot is the name used for Abraham not living as a saintly man. The best verse I can pull out of my hat to suggest this is Gen. 19, V.29:
And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in the which Lot dwelt.
Of course beware: Quoting the Bible (or any other "sacred scripture") is liable to misinform.
Perhaps we should not [put] the wind farm in Nantucket sound but in the Gulf of Mexico.
Actually, both might be an excellent idea. I am familiar with the protests against placing a wind farm in Nantucket Sound and how people are saying that they'll kill birds, etc. It's a load of hooey -- these people who are against the proposal think wind farms are "unsightly" and are trying to use an environmental argument to oppose an environmentally sane solution to an energy problem.
I think the only solution to the Nantucket debate is to provide the residents there with cheaper electricity for a number of years. Were that to happen, all concern about "those poor birds" will dissapate like fog on a hot day.
I am sure you also will have noted the comment that stated that at wind speeds above 25 MPH, most of these wind farms cease operation.
We in the US pay a lot less for gasoline, not because we're an oil-producing country (the UK is, too) but because it's politically infeasable for us to tax it. I have heard it said that every time an European nation wishes to close a budget gap, they hike the price of petrol.
There are two lines of thought to this: It's "greener" because you folks tend to buy fewer "Yank Tanks" and tend to drive less. Americans are almost required to drive more, as our country is larger and we tend to be more mobile than Europeans (whose whole countries are about the same size as some of our States).
I should admit to some envy though. You have a much better rail system so it is actually possible to commute into your larger cities without too much driving.
To be fair though, might I ask you to look into how much of your costs are actually taxes?
A by no means exhaustive search seems to point out two prevalent theories that are in direct opposition.
I am lead to believe that the Earth's core is not really solid so much as made mostly of molten iron that spins, thus imparting a magnetic field to the earth (and saving our atmosphere from excessive solar bleed-off as is in the case of Mars). Jupiter and Saturn both have very strong magnetic fields, which leads me to believe that there is some rotation at the core that would create that.
So there may be no solid core so much as a core that would be solid on the surface of the Earth without all that pressure and heat, just like the Earth's core would be.
But this deviates from the topic. My particular question was a search for some kind of analogy that would help me to understand what was being described in the article about the density of the asteroid.
I got answers that are just ducky.
Thanks. I can completely understand pine, as I have used a chainsaw and understand the difference between it and, say oak (or stone). I realize that the article was written by someone who understands phrases like 600 Kg per cubic meter. It is handy, though, to give the reader an accurate assessment of scientific terms like that.
One great technical term I read explained was that the planet Jupiter, because it was made up of gas only, would float in a body of water, were one able to find a body of water large enough.
Obviously, this comet would float if it has the density of pine.
BEDEVERE: Quiet! Quiet! Quiet! Quiet! There are ways of telling whether she is a witch.
VILLAGER #1: Are there?
VILLAGER #2: Ah?
VILLAGER #1: What are they?
CROWD: Tell us! Tell us!...
BEDEVERE: Tell me. What do you do with witches?
VILLAGER #2: Burn!
VILLAGER #1: Burn!
CROWD: Burn! Burn them up! Burn!...
BEDEVERE: And what do you burn apart from witches?
VILLAGER #1: More witches!
VILLAGER #3: Shh!
VILLAGER #2: Wood!
BEDEVERE: So, why do witches burn?
[pause]
VILLAGER #3: B--... 'cause they're made of... wood?
BEDEVERE: Good! Heh heh.
CROWD: Oh, yeah. Oh.
BEDEVERE: So, how do we tell whether she is made of wood?
VILLAGER #1: Build a bridge out of her.
BEDEVERE: Ah, but can you not also make bridges out of stone?
VILLAGER #1: Oh, yeah.
RANDOM: Oh, yeah. True. Uhh...
BEDEVERE: Does wood sink in water?
VILLAGER #1: No. No.
VILLAGER #2: No, it floats! It floats!
VILLAGER #1: Throw her into the pond!
CROWD: The pond! Throw her into the pond!
BEDEVERE: What also floats in water?
VILLAGER #1: Bread!
VILLAGER #2: Apples!
VILLAGER #3: Uh, very small rocks!
VILLAGER #1: Cider!
VILLAGER #2: Uh, gra-- gravy!
VILLAGER #1: Cherries!
VILLAGER #2: Mud!
VILLAGER #3: Uh, churches! Churches!
VILLAGER #2: Lead! Lead!
ARTHUR: A duck!
CROWD: Oooh.
BEDEVERE: Exactly. So, logically...
VILLAGER #1: If... she... weighs... the same as a duck,... she's made of wood.
BEDEVERE: And therefore?
VILLAGER #2: A witch!
VILLAGER #1: A witch!
CROWD: A witch! A witch!...
Ergo, our comet is actually a duck.
From the article: the density of the nucleus is about 600 kilograms per cubic metre.
Can anyone give me examples of what that density is like? What is water's density?
I recall my sister, who lives in St. Louis, MO, telling me about a light rail system that was planned there some years ago. I wonder what became of that idea.
I lived for 20 years in New York. I would say that the "rite of passage" experienced by 16-year-olds in taking the drivers' education class and getting their license to drive a car is almost unknown in NYC. Some New Yorkers never learn to drive a car -- nor do they care. If they have to get anywhere, it's the subway or a bus or, if the place is inaccessible or they don't know the way, a taxi. And the subways in NYC are faster than most ground transportation.
I now live in Connecticut, near Hartford and still commute into NYC. For me, it's a 40-minute drive to a commuter train (not a subway) and then an hour and forty minutes by train. It's a really long commute and the commuter train might be a little slower than taking a car all the way but it saves on gasoline and reduces pollution and it offers me the chance to read. I'd imagine commuters who take trains into inner cities like NYC and Chicago are more literate than those who drive everywhere.
Having seen (and lived) both sides of the coin, I'm compelled to comment that it takes a certain political will to build commuter systems. And that includes ponying up higher taxes. NYC has a larger budget than all but two states in the US. And metropolitan transit is governed by a board that is mostly controlled from outside the city. While I don't like the governance of the MTA (it's a political football that does not express the will of the people), I am in agreement with paying to play. NYC residents pay federal income tax, state income tax and city income tax. The sales tax in New York City is 4.37% which is added to a 4.25% New York State tax rate, resulting in an 8.62% effective rate. As sales taxes are regressive, they hit those on low incomes harder. But one may argue that the lower incomes also benefit more from a good system of public transportation.
I work with a former Texan who gripes constantly about the high taxes he has to pay in New York. I think he appropriately reflects an overall view in Western states that high taxes are for naught. He also reflects the opinion that governments will tend to muck up any program, versus the private sector (a Libertarian viewpoint).
I will admit freely that the MTA does not control costs well and also tends to pay its managers too well for bad management, while paying those who actually cause the trains and busses to move less, in proportion to those managers.
But, unless the public dedicates itself to voting for higher taxes for the construction of public alternatives to cars, highways, pollution and higher individual transportation costs, nothing will ever work for those "low tax libertarians" in the west. And this cannot be a passing fad; this kind of a movement must be sustained over 20 to 30 years of building.
I would encourage anyone reading this to study France's TGV system, which is transforming the countryside in Northern France. The line north of New York City pretty much ends in New Haven in Connecticut. And it takes an hour and forty minutes to get from New Haven to NYC. Were it a fast TGV system, one could commute from Springfield, MA to NYC in under one hour.
There has to be a national will to build something like that. The current chairperson of the US House of Representatives Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure is Representative Thomas Petri of Wisconsin. Now here's a man who may tend to block funding of Amtrak and other rail in favor of roads and cars. This is not to single him out for public disparagement, the man has probably never lived in the northeast corridor, which is the only area of the US well-served by rail. The last Committee chairperson was from Oklahoma and he wanted to zero out all funding for Amtrak.
So if you are interested in public transit, you need to consider two things: Higher taxes and popular will. I would imagine those train tracks that pass close to your house will be torn up before there is any change in either.
Additionally, an Apple Macintosh, running OS X can "print to a PDF" from any application running in OS X. I suppose if you wanted to annotate a PDF, you could cut and paste it as a graphic into another application, then print the resultant PDF.
Tiger (OS X 10.4.x) allows even more PDF editing. This is not the same thing as purchasing Acrobat Distiller but it could be helpful.
I think one of the reasons for the continued use of windoze 2000 is the existence of older machines that don't have the resources to run the newer Microsoft OS. It certainly seems that way where I work.
And we were definitely hit by the ZOTOB worm
I grew up in Kansas and fully understand how you are probably voting Republican because everyone around you is. My grandfather grew up in Osage County, Kansas and voted Democrat. He became a Democrat when, after he had returned from WW I, a Republican President ordered a Republican General (MacArthur) to order a Republican Colonel (Eisenhower) to clear out the encampment of WW I veterans encamped near the White House.
The result of this unprovoked attack on what was called the "Bonus Army" who were just trying to lobby their government for an early payout of their war bonus to ease the pain they (and all Americans) were suffering during the Great Depression. Many were killed. My grandfather reacted accordingly when he saw his former brothers-in-arms attacked.
Kansas is presently trying to redefine "science." This is because "real" science doesn't fit into the unscientific nonesense that a group of right-wing religious nuts wish taught in high schools. They want to allow students to consider that "beliefs" can also function in scientific enquiry.
So, this means that if you want to suppose anything, based on your belief, it may be part of your scientific statement of theory. Kind of like, "The sky is blue on this planet because it's a color that some greater intelligent being than mankind thinks goes well with this planet." Of course the process of the scattering of photons as received by the sun, something that may be empirically observed in a laboratory experiment really isn't all that important.
According to the strict interpretation of the Judeo-Christian Bible made by James Ussher, the world began on 23 October, 4004 BCE. Never mind that we have radiocarbon dating evidence showing fossils that vastly pre-date this, we'll just redefine scientific methodology until it fits what we want it to fit.
You state: There is nothing wrong with evolution, but when you try to expand that (as above) into guaranteed fact and teach that, I think that's a mistake. This alone shows that you know nothing about scientific methodology, a world where what we know is built on a series of premises, called theories, borne out by persistent observation. Theories are not "guaranteed facts." A scientist may theorize that a human being could not survive a fall from an airplane at an altitude of 10,000 feet. This is proven a number of times. But then, someone comes up with a parachute and the theory must be altered to fit observable results. In other words, no theory gets a free ride they all must survive repeated observations.
Darwin's theory of evolution is not at odds with what is observed. It is also dis-provable, which is a very important part of scientific methodology. No scientist, practicing as such, would ever hold fast to a theory, unmodified, in the face of contrary evidence that may be tested. As stated, Charles Darwin's theory of evolution is good science. He clearly states that his theory may be disproved or nullified and clearly states how this might be accomplished in his book, "The Origin of Species." Nowhere in his book does he state that a religious persuasion may disprove all or part of his theory based on religious beliefs, because religion and science are two different practices utterly. The essence of science is observable actions or things, not beliefs or feelings.
Albert Einstein theorized the possibility that gravitation could cause a "lensing" effect on stars or galaxies that were on the other side of a gravitational field. This was never proved in his lifetime (he died in 1954). This didn't make his theory any less valid; he stated it as science ought to be stated, suggesting experiments that would prove him right or prove him wrong.
So with Darwin. The fact that human beings have not evolved into another species since he published his theory does not disprove it. His theory states that the process of speciation takes many,
My doctor regularly prints out prescriptions with his digital signature from his computerized prescription program. It's particularly handy in that it will flag a prescription that might cause problems in view of the other prescriptions the patient is taking.
I would also mention that my doctor is younger than I am and so probably is more technologically savvy than some of the older GPs.
I'd like to call up Dr. Philip Mach and see if he would be so kind as to renew a prescription I have just to hear what he says...
Our IT department did "push" a patch to all of the possible machines that could be infected and I cannot say whether or not CNN's IT people did. But on at least one machine that I regularly use, the patch didn't work. The computer booted up and had an error message, saying that something was corrupted in the installation, so I had to call IT to have them manually patch the machine.
I was told that many of the pee cees around here did not accept the patch correctly, due to idiosyncratic configurations.
Multiply that into a worldwide news organization and you have a pretty massive IT headache, hence's CNN's on-air hysteria.
I would note that the AP wires are currently reporting that one airline infected with the worm had problems booking passengers
I cannot see how a laptop would be more of a vector than the desktops. Our desktops are connected to the Internet all of the time. Laptops are connected to the Internet some of the time. Unless the worm, virus or other malware specifically targets WiFi or laptops, it's all the same.
Of course we have producers who edit in the field with laptops, either using Final Cut Pro (since they're on Macintosh computers they're more resistant to malware and 100% resistant to Windows viruses) or Avid's pee-cee-based Mini-DV cutter (which is not). I have not yet heard of a laptop editing operation that missed air due to a virus issue though.
Then I would suggest my second idea, which is these companies have rolled out so many Windoze 2000 computers that won't run XP well that they're now depending on that OS.
Else there is a different application that is problematic that we rely on. Heck, within this organization, I cannot set up a computer to print to an area Canon printer without calling IT. And our printers are pretty close to "unfindable" as they're named things like "\\LA12PNEWSNBCGE\NN536S Producer - HP 4050" instead of something that is easy to remember.
There have been a number of comments about aboriginal Americans overhunting megafauna on the North American Continent and I shall assume that those interested in re-introducing these animals to the wilds in North American preserves would not also want to re-introduce hunting-to-extinction.
But as Tim Flannery points out in his book The Eternal Frontier: An Ecological History of North America and Its Peoples the North American continent is unique in its mountains are oriented largely north-south, which creates extremes of temperatures in the interior, while most other continents have east-west oriented mountains, which prevent the same extremes.
As someone who grew up in Kansas with 110 degree heat in the summer and -20 degree cold in the winter, I wonder if those who wish to re-introduce these animals into America also have plans to construct warmed and cooled shelters.
The CNN coverage was probably due to CNN still using Windoze 2000, which we use here at NBC for all of our desktop computers.
Mind you, we also have high end workstations running Avid Newscutters and the DS that are based on XP but for desktop use, it's strictly 2000.
It is quite possible that news ops software, like Avid's iNews (a very necessary script-writing, show organizing and newswire access tool that almost every news organization uses) does not work or is not supported on XP. It may also be an issue that XP requires better hardware (highly likely) than 2000 and large, worldwide organizations like CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, BBC and so on are highly dependent on that version of Microsoft's OS.
So, at least in their case, the hysteria at CNN may have been warranted.
I have everything I need in a paid service: I use Apple's OS X and have a .mac account. I can post photos, I have a complete calendar application, e-mail and snail mail address bookand it all works very well, hot-syncing with my iPod and Palm device.
If you want these things really bad, is paying for them so awful?
Now my Astrologer is going to have to recalculate everything!
I'm going to assume everyone who is re-hashing the "we should have" vs. the "We should not have" dropped the Bombs wasn't around during WW II. I wasn't.
Did Harry Truman give the "go ahead" because he wanted to impress the Russians? The best biography I have read on him suggests that was not the case (I say this with apologies to Mr. Terkel who was around during WW II). Did he do it because there was no hope for ending the war with Japan? That same biography clearly points out that the Japanese Government had made overtures at least a month beforehand
I think the true answer lies somewhere in between. Americans, at that time, were pretty jingoistic. We had to have been if we locked up thousands of law-abiding Americans with Japanese ancestry in concentration camps. Our military seemed pretty terrified of the Japanese commitment to the war effort, with kamakaze attacks on our capital ships, common Japanese soldiers fighting ours until they were killed and Japan's lack of "respect" for the "Western 'rules' for warfare."
In other words, you really have to put your mind into the mindset of the times, else you cannot really understand why we risked the lives to build atomic weapons and ended so many other lives in using two of them in war.
I suppose one could say that it's bad form to rape the female citizens of a foreign power against whom you are at war, but it happened all the time during the middle ages by "civilized" nations. Later, when the Europeans found that the American Natives used ritual torture to determine the manliness of captured European prisoners, they were horrified, while they in turn were burning so-called 'witches' at the stake and hanging them on a gallows by hoisting them (and not dropping them so that they would die almost instantly).
To understand these actions is not a product of a thick skin, it's a product of a fuller understanding of the times. Those whom do not study and learn by history are doomed to repeat it.
According to the New York Times (today, 04-21-2005) the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation donated $100,000 in 2003 to the Delay Foundation, which runs an orphanage and is a means by which friends of the Majority Leader may get lucrative contracts for friends of him that are involved in construction.
If you were to ask Mr. Delay, I think he'd be not all that eager to support gay and lesbian issues, including same sex partnership rights, marriage, adoption and all sorts of issues that are important to gay and lesbian taxpayers. I'm also certain Mr. Delay is perfectly happy to limit life and living options available to these taxpayers all the while accepting their tax dollars and spending them as if they were regular tax dollars based on some notion that comes out of a rather obscure story in the Old Testament.
What is really indicated in this gift from one non-profit to another is a measure of political support, because the Republicans, if you will recall, stopped the breakup of Microsoft and prevented the US Department of Justice from pressing for any real remedy for the Microsoft monopolistic practices.
Of course, this calls to question the political support given by Bill and Melinda, along with Microsoft to Mr. Delay for his campaigns as well as his trips abroad, his campaign to jerrymander Texas so that it is always Republican and his other political interests. One doesn't tend to care about Mr. Delay's charity unless one is doing business with him.