Maybe, but we don't know that for sure. There could be genetic markers that can work to match up personality and compatibility. Nothing else seems to work.
We do so many things scientifically, or at least with a process in our society, but when it comes to mating rituals there is simply chaos. Not only have we not introduced much practical technology to dating, all of the processes that have evolved over millenia have been summarily rejected by an enlightened society that believes procreation should be governed by romantic feelings instead of any kind of parental input or societal pressure.
Personally I would welcome a system that would sample my DNA and provide me with a suitable partner. It couldn't really work any worse than our current system.
Not really. The person in the next cube coding naked would most likely be distracting in one form or another regardless of appearance. I already have adequate distractions.
You are right, Obama can't micromanage every department, but when things become public like this he could address those. The TSA essentially works for him, it would take him 30 seconds to shoot a message from his blackberry to the head of the TSA asking him to release this information.
I'm not asking Obama to fix everything, but take a little time off from the talk show circuit and take care of these obvious failings in his 'transparent' government. In your example the real problems was the production of the goods, not the actual lying that was the problem, plus it was the 1950s, they barely had phones. The lines of communication are so much better, I don't think your example really applies.
So how many megawatts does it take to build a panel? Would a factory that produces 1 solar panel per hour consume 5 megawatts? If so, does the life span have to average 10 years? What are the odds of the solar panel actually having a lifetime of 20 years? Panels are going to get damaged or replaced due to new technology, taking 20 years (or even 10) to recoup the costs seems really ambitious.
No, just make sure everyone knows that Linux has been too busy saving the world Buckaroo Bonzai style to bother showing up at the little meetings of PC and Mac.
My favorite "Alternative Medicine" story
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About 15 years ago magnets were all the rage. I had a friend who's uncle was part of a pyramid scheme to sell magnetic insoles and other items. He came out to give us a demo of his products. He had a massager with magnets in it, and a little gizmo that lighted up when you introduced EMF to it. He spun the massager to show us how the magnets created an electric field and caused his tester to light up.
I was an electronics student at the time and understood magnetics and electricity. I grabbed my electric mixer, plugged it in, and ran it next to it's tester. The tester, of course, glowed much brighter with my mixer. I then asked him why I should buy his massager when I could accomplish the same thing by using anything that had an electric motor.
I don't think he liked me much after that.
Re:Chiropractic treatment worked for me
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Don't know about his case, but the people I've known who have had back surgery that didn't solve their problems in the long term. That may be anecdotal, but the reality is surgeries aren't always 100% effective.
Weigh that in with the risks of any surgery, and the fact that costs of surgery would offset years of chiropractic visits, it's probably still a good choice if it works.
You are probably right, but I'm guessing MRI prices would fall drastically if you could book them around the clock - and if they weren't being used for medical diagnostic purposes requiring specialized personnel.
I was thinking about that, but I do think it is fairly reasonable for a sentient cybernetic race to evolve and an extremely fast rate. Look how far we've come in the last 50 years.
You will just have to prove you weren't integrated into society to start with.
Re:"Geek" subcultures are becoming too mainstream.
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American Nerd
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This is always the case. When cars were first introduced it was a big thing to be a 'motorist'. Now 90% of drivers have no idea how their car works. They just run the key and put gas in it.
Likewise, I remember in the 80s when we were listening to "alternative music". Now, all the bands we listened to back then are considered mainstream, when you tune in to an "80s music station" half the songs they play were only on college stations at the time. Punk, synthpop, electronica, etc... are all mainstream genres now.
Popularity makes cool stuff mainstream, it's always been the way.
Also, my hands move faster than I can think sometimes. When words like "there/their/they're" come along, my brain just says "there". Especially in a hurry or under stress, my brain doesn't say "WHOA there buddy. That sound can be spelled more than one way depending on the context".
I have the same issue, except I would say that my brain moves faster than my hands, and I have not time or inclination to go back and fix spelling/grammar errors. It's just slashdot after all, once I submit I'm on to the next comment.
Obviously some people do want spam, or at least buy things from spammers. If they didn't, no one would send out spam. His comparison does make sense, spam is big business. As long as it's profitable, it will exist. When it ceases to be so, it will go away.
My comment was intended to address the more specific topic of regulation, which is at a federal level, and not a city level, but I would like to make a few comments.
First, I think local government (city, county, state) is great. It's much more manageable, easier to have your voice heard, and more decisions should be made their.
That being said, and this is a comment more about my locality than me making any assumptions about your, we live in an internet age. There is no reason why anyone should have to go to the library to look at the numbers. My city government has done some great things, but has also done a horrible job of distributing information electronically. The primary source of local news, the hometown newspaper, routinely just reports on whatever is controversial and sensational. Like you say, only the screwups make headlines.
Back to my original comment, there are a couple reasons why it's hard to have examples of success in government. Often times our government, local, state and federal, is not as transparent as it could be, so it's difficult to see the successes. Also, as you say, the news outlets only pickup on the problems. Finally, in regards to federal regulations on business, it's too broad based and too easily manipulated. As in this article, a private company, in this case the bus company, was able to work the regulation system for it's own means. Corruption and bureaucracy create more problems than they solve.
There are plenty of cases where government gets it right, plenty of cases where businesses get it wrong.
Amazingly enough, no one seems to be able to come up with examples of when the 'government gets it right', just plenty of cases where they get it wrong.
I think a degree is helpful later in life as well. It's going to be helpful when you want to move out of regular IT into that management position. At that point the school becomes important too. A degree from MIT or Caltech is going to help you get a good management job, a position on a board of directors, whatever, if that is your goal.
Like most things in life, it all depends on where you want to end up.
I agree, mostly, but can you honestly say that a degree wouldn't have helped? Would you be any better off with that piece of paper? Would any additional doors be opened?
I didn't get a degree either, at least not a bachelor's, and it's probably one of the biggest regrets in my life. Had this discussion with a friend recently... in a different world I would have had at least a masters, maybe a phd, but didn't have the support to get past the stupid decisions I made as an 18 year old.
There are way too many people going to college just for the experience. In addition, many people don't think about how they will pay for it later. Not all degrees will raise your earnings enough to make it worthwhile.
This, of course, can't cover everything, but based on US Census Bureau from 2006 the average High School Grad made $25,900 and the average Bachelor's degree recipient made $45,400. That's a $20,000 annual difference. MANY companies here in the US either won't hire you for certain positions without a college degree, or won't promote you without a college degree, regardless of what the degree is in.
Let's do a little basic analysis (not really scientific, but what the heck). Let's say that you spend $45,000 a year in loans over a four year period and have $135K in debt at graduation. This would seem like an insane amount to me, but whatever. Then let's say that getting out of college you can make $20K/year more than you could as a high school grad just because you have a degree and not because of the field it's in. Let's also assume that you will continue to make $20K/year more than a high school grad, and not take into account any changes in inflation. Finally, let's assume that you consolidate your $135K loan into a 20 year note at 7% interest.
Payments on a 135K loan at 7% will be $1046.65/month or $12559.80/year. The college grad will net $7440.20/year for the next 20 years for a net gain of $283,799.48 by the time the loan is paid off.
This seems like a worst case scenario to me, and even so the student would come out ahead. In fact, I can only see a couple common situations where having a college degree doesn't pay off. If a couple gets married who both took on significant student loan debt and one of them decides to stay home with the kids. Then your debt could be doubled and end up a negative. The only other situation I can see is if you take a job that absolutely will not reward you for your years in college.
I second that, I live in Canada. We get free physical once a year, blood work twice a year and free flu shots. I only get flu shots cause a nurse comes to my workplace and and our admin schedules our time, so when my outlook pops up saying I have flu vaccine waiting, I go.
However my last physical/blood work was over 5 years ago. Part of the problem is the damn clinic opens during business hours.
Thing is physicals, blood work and flu shots aren't the problem. All that would amount to a few hundred dollars, max. Most Americans could afford that easily. What kills everyone are catastrophic injuries or disease. Come down with cancer and you are bankrupt. Get injured in a car wreck, you are bankrupt. Have a child with a serious problem, you are bankrupt. Preventative maintenance is great - if you can get people to participate, but it doesn't solve the real issue.
It's not really even close here... McCain wants to privatize and deregulate. Imagine your social security benefits in the hands of the people McCain trusted so much that he felt that less scrutiny and transparency was necessary. Now imagine your health care benefits managed the same way.
Imagine if health care is managed the same way. Imagine if the government becomes insolvent, and we have no healthcare at all - just like we won't have Social Security benefits in a few short years...
Slashdot Mirror
Maybe, but we don't know that for sure. There could be genetic markers that can work to match up personality and compatibility. Nothing else seems to work.
We do so many things scientifically, or at least with a process in our society, but when it comes to mating rituals there is simply chaos. Not only have we not introduced much practical technology to dating, all of the processes that have evolved over millenia have been summarily rejected by an enlightened society that believes procreation should be governed by romantic feelings instead of any kind of parental input or societal pressure. Personally I would welcome a system that would sample my DNA and provide me with a suitable partner. It couldn't really work any worse than our current system.
Not really. The person in the next cube coding naked would most likely be distracting in one form or another regardless of appearance. I already have adequate distractions.
You are right, Obama can't micromanage every department, but when things become public like this he could address those. The TSA essentially works for him, it would take him 30 seconds to shoot a message from his blackberry to the head of the TSA asking him to release this information. I'm not asking Obama to fix everything, but take a little time off from the talk show circuit and take care of these obvious failings in his 'transparent' government. In your example the real problems was the production of the goods, not the actual lying that was the problem, plus it was the 1950s, they barely had phones. The lines of communication are so much better, I don't think your example really applies.
Or better yet, when the safety mechanism kicks in and they get stuck at the 100 km level and starve to death/aphyxiate?
So how many megawatts does it take to build a panel? Would a factory that produces 1 solar panel per hour consume 5 megawatts? If so, does the life span have to average 10 years? What are the odds of the solar panel actually having a lifetime of 20 years? Panels are going to get damaged or replaced due to new technology, taking 20 years (or even 10) to recoup the costs seems really ambitious.
I think if I ever want to get rid of someone I'll do it in a diabolical Batman (the TV Show) villain method. Nobody will believe it.
No, just make sure everyone knows that Linux has been too busy saving the world Buckaroo Bonzai style to bother showing up at the little meetings of PC and Mac.
Ok, Rodney McKay and his girlfriend Kaylee.
About 15 years ago magnets were all the rage. I had a friend who's uncle was part of a pyramid scheme to sell magnetic insoles and other items. He came out to give us a demo of his products. He had a massager with magnets in it, and a little gizmo that lighted up when you introduced EMF to it. He spun the massager to show us how the magnets created an electric field and caused his tester to light up.
I was an electronics student at the time and understood magnetics and electricity. I grabbed my electric mixer, plugged it in, and ran it next to it's tester. The tester, of course, glowed much brighter with my mixer. I then asked him why I should buy his massager when I could accomplish the same thing by using anything that had an electric motor.
I don't think he liked me much after that.
Don't know about his case, but the people I've known who have had back surgery that didn't solve their problems in the long term. That may be anecdotal, but the reality is surgeries aren't always 100% effective.
Weigh that in with the risks of any surgery, and the fact that costs of surgery would offset years of chiropractic visits, it's probably still a good choice if it works.
You are probably right, but I'm guessing MRI prices would fall drastically if you could book them around the clock - and if they weren't being used for medical diagnostic purposes requiring specialized personnel.
I was thinking about that, but I do think it is fairly reasonable for a sentient cybernetic race to evolve and an extremely fast rate. Look how far we've come in the last 50 years.
They will have to invent square roombas.
You will just have to prove you weren't integrated into society to start with.
This is always the case. When cars were first introduced it was a big thing to be a 'motorist'. Now 90% of drivers have no idea how their car works. They just run the key and put gas in it.
Likewise, I remember in the 80s when we were listening to "alternative music". Now, all the bands we listened to back then are considered mainstream, when you tune in to an "80s music station" half the songs they play were only on college stations at the time. Punk, synthpop, electronica, etc... are all mainstream genres now.
Popularity makes cool stuff mainstream, it's always been the way.
Also, my hands move faster than I can think sometimes. When words like "there/their/they're" come along, my brain just says "there". Especially in a hurry or under stress, my brain doesn't say "WHOA there buddy. That sound can be spelled more than one way depending on the context".
I have the same issue, except I would say that my brain moves faster than my hands, and I have not time or inclination to go back and fix spelling/grammar errors. It's just slashdot after all, once I submit I'm on to the next comment.
Obviously some people do want spam, or at least buy things from spammers. If they didn't, no one would send out spam. His comparison does make sense, spam is big business. As long as it's profitable, it will exist. When it ceases to be so, it will go away.
My comment was intended to address the more specific topic of regulation, which is at a federal level, and not a city level, but I would like to make a few comments.
First, I think local government (city, county, state) is great. It's much more manageable, easier to have your voice heard, and more decisions should be made their.
That being said, and this is a comment more about my locality than me making any assumptions about your, we live in an internet age. There is no reason why anyone should have to go to the library to look at the numbers. My city government has done some great things, but has also done a horrible job of distributing information electronically. The primary source of local news, the hometown newspaper, routinely just reports on whatever is controversial and sensational. Like you say, only the screwups make headlines.
Back to my original comment, there are a couple reasons why it's hard to have examples of success in government. Often times our government, local, state and federal, is not as transparent as it could be, so it's difficult to see the successes. Also, as you say, the news outlets only pickup on the problems. Finally, in regards to federal regulations on business, it's too broad based and too easily manipulated. As in this article, a private company, in this case the bus company, was able to work the regulation system for it's own means. Corruption and bureaucracy create more problems than they solve.
There are plenty of cases where government gets it right, plenty of cases where businesses get it wrong.
Amazingly enough, no one seems to be able to come up with examples of when the 'government gets it right', just plenty of cases where they get it wrong.
I think a degree is helpful later in life as well. It's going to be helpful when you want to move out of regular IT into that management position. At that point the school becomes important too. A degree from MIT or Caltech is going to help you get a good management job, a position on a board of directors, whatever, if that is your goal.
Like most things in life, it all depends on where you want to end up.
I agree, mostly, but can you honestly say that a degree wouldn't have helped? Would you be any better off with that piece of paper? Would any additional doors be opened? I didn't get a degree either, at least not a bachelor's, and it's probably one of the biggest regrets in my life. Had this discussion with a friend recently... in a different world I would have had at least a masters, maybe a phd, but didn't have the support to get past the stupid decisions I made as an 18 year old.
There are way too many people going to college just for the experience. In addition, many people don't think about how they will pay for it later. Not all degrees will raise your earnings enough to make it worthwhile.
This, of course, can't cover everything, but based on US Census Bureau from 2006 the average High School Grad made $25,900 and the average Bachelor's degree recipient made $45,400. That's a $20,000 annual difference. MANY companies here in the US either won't hire you for certain positions without a college degree, or won't promote you without a college degree, regardless of what the degree is in.
Let's do a little basic analysis (not really scientific, but what the heck). Let's say that you spend $45,000 a year in loans over a four year period and have $135K in debt at graduation. This would seem like an insane amount to me, but whatever. Then let's say that getting out of college you can make $20K/year more than you could as a high school grad just because you have a degree and not because of the field it's in. Let's also assume that you will continue to make $20K/year more than a high school grad, and not take into account any changes in inflation. Finally, let's assume that you consolidate your $135K loan into a 20 year note at 7% interest.
Payments on a 135K loan at 7% will be $1046.65/month or $12559.80/year. The college grad will net $7440.20/year for the next 20 years for a net gain of $283,799.48 by the time the loan is paid off.
This seems like a worst case scenario to me, and even so the student would come out ahead. In fact, I can only see a couple common situations where having a college degree doesn't pay off. If a couple gets married who both took on significant student loan debt and one of them decides to stay home with the kids. Then your debt could be doubled and end up a negative. The only other situation I can see is if you take a job that absolutely will not reward you for your years in college.
I second that, I live in Canada. We get free physical once a year, blood work twice a year and free flu shots. I only get flu shots cause a nurse comes to my workplace and and our admin schedules our time, so when my outlook pops up saying I have flu vaccine waiting, I go.
However my last physical/blood work was over 5 years ago. Part of the problem is the damn clinic opens during business hours.
Thing is physicals, blood work and flu shots aren't the problem. All that would amount to a few hundred dollars, max. Most Americans could afford that easily. What kills everyone are catastrophic injuries or disease. Come down with cancer and you are bankrupt. Get injured in a car wreck, you are bankrupt. Have a child with a serious problem, you are bankrupt. Preventative maintenance is great - if you can get people to participate, but it doesn't solve the real issue.
It's not really even close here... McCain wants to privatize and deregulate. Imagine your social security benefits in the hands of the people McCain trusted so much that he felt that less scrutiny and transparency was necessary. Now imagine your health care benefits managed the same way.
Seriously? You are going to use Social Security benefits as an example? Have you seen how badly the federal government has screwed that up? It's so poorly managed even a 15 year old can see the problems.
Imagine if health care is managed the same way. Imagine if the government becomes insolvent, and we have no healthcare at all - just like we won't have Social Security benefits in a few short years...