America and Russia are moving closer in many ways. During the Cold War, Americans were sometimes baffled when the Russians would tell baldfaced lies directly into the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Back then, most Americans believed in objective truth, while that has never really been part of Russian culture, whether under the Czar, Communism, or Putinism. But now America is finally catching up on the malleability of facts.
Or is your understanding of average different than mine?
Perhaps. You said I was assuming a "uniform 2 degree increase", which is not the same as an "average increase of 2 degrees". If you think they are the same, then your understanding is different than mine.
Most climate projections forecast more ocean warming near the poles, and less in tropical seas.
If they know your B&M shopping habits, they can feed you more effective ads online. Just by knowing that you shop at Whole Foods is enough for them to tell that you don't care about price, and you may be willing to buy other overpriced stuff online.
thermal expansion of water is pretty small, being 2% over about 60 degrees C. Isn't global warming only showing up as 1 or 2 degrees over the last 10 years?
The average depth of the ocean is 12,100 feet, and the thermal expansion of water is 0.000207. So a 2C rise in ocean temp will result in a rise of 2*12100*0.000207 = 5 feet. This is in addition to any rise from melting ice.
The word "Artificial" means "made by humans". So it seems pretty silly to say it isn't Artificial Intelligence if humans are involved in making it.
True, the computer reinvented a better way how to play Go, one that humans likely cannot emulate.
Wrong. Ke Jie, the world's strongest player, lost 0-3 to AlphaGo. He then studied AlphaGo's tactics, and went on a 22-game winning streak against other human players. Statistically he should have won only 60% of those games. So in this case, humans did not teach AI, AI taught humans.
Al Gore got it wrong some 20 years ago, so what makes you think we have it right now?
Al Gore was basically just shooting off his mouth, and was not representing the scientific thinking of the time. It was a big mistake that climate scientists didn't distance themselves from his alarmism and "alternative facts", and instead let a partisan politician become the figurehead for climate change. That pretty much destroyed the possibility of a bipartisan approach to policy.
I have JS enabled, and I rarely see ads. The ads that slip through Adblock are mostly hardcoded in HTML, so you would see them too. I never see popups, unless they are from sites where I have specifically enabled them, such as my bank.
Instead of disabling JS, maybe you should just spend two minutes configuring your browser.
... and the people of Africa, Asia and Latin America and a minute carbon footprint compared to the West.
That is changing fast. Their economies are growing quickly, and their energy consumption is going up. So if they start reducing their population growth now, it will have a big impact in the future.
Many 3rd world women would like to have smaller families. They don't have access to contraceptives, for legal and cultural reasons, and end up having kids that they don't even want. Getting contraceptives to the people that need them is way more cost effective than any other form of CO2 reduction
But silicon tetrachloride is an environmental "show stopper" if not reprocessed...it's worse than the old Roman idea of "salting the land". Nothing grows, animals die, etc.
Silicon tetrachloride is a volatile liquid, that quickly evaporates... and it degrades in the presence of water to SO2 and HCl. So I am skeptical that it could stick around long enough to cause significant long term harm. Do you have a citation for its supposed Carthaginian properties?
IF you produce this stuff in an environmentally acceptable way it's more expensive, a lot more expensive.
Only if you go totally overboard, like say, California, where the wastewater is required to be significantly cleaner than the original tap water. That is one reason why silicon is no longer made in "Silicon Valley".
Are you sure the processing can be done in a clean, let alone profitable, way?
It can and is done cleanly. Polycrystalline silicon is manufactured worldwide, including in the US. Outside China it is mostly higher quality "electronics grade" rather than lower priced "solar grade", but it is routinely done with more stringent pollution controls than was previously acceptable in China.
Collecting the volatiles, and cleaning up and recycling the wastewater has a cost, but if everyone is required to do it, the cost can be pushed downstream to the panel manufacturers, and they will pass it on to their customers. This is not a solar showstopper, but it will make panels a bit more expensive.
Does anyone else think it is silly that something made in factories is called a "raw material"?
I think it is just another symptom of the dumbing down of the general population....
People have always been dumb, and there is no evidence that they are getting dumber. Every generation has believed that they are the smartest, and the next generation is dumb and lazy. Your parents thought the same thing about your generation.
Susceptibility to Alzheimers is only partly genetic, so it can affect anybody. Alzheimers is estimated to cost the American economy over $100B per year, so this $100M is only 0.1% of a single year. It helps, but overall we invest way way too little in finding a solution to dementia, even if you only look at the economics. As our society ages, the problem is going to get even worse.
$286M is revenue, not profit. The profit is just enough so that it isn't (yet) worth removing all the pay phones. But new pay phones are not being installed, and broken pay phones are often removed rather than repaired.
Since a regatta isn't a boat I don't see what your point is.
The word "regatta" was used in a test from the 1970s. If "cultural bias" is really a big problem, then we wouldn't have to go back 45 years to find an example of it.
Also, the highest scores in America are achieved by the children of Asian immigrants. How does "cultural bias" explain that?
1. Black children have nearly twice the average blood lead levels of white children. This depresses IQ and causes antisocial behavior. Blood lead levels have declined since the banning of leaded gasoline, with big benefits to society including lower crime rates. But clearly we still have work to do, and we need to find and eliminate other sources of environmental lead. While we are at it, we should work on reducing other neurotoxins such as mercury and cadmium as well.
2. Black mothers consume significantly less folic acid while pregnant. Folic acid is critical to neurological development. If black women are drinking soda instead of eating broccoli, then maybe we should be putting folic acid in soda pop.
3. Black women are less likely to breastfeed. The reasons for this are mostly cultural. Breastfeeding is correlated with a 3 point gain in IQ.
4. Blacks are less motivated to do well on IQ tests. While a test is in progress, blacks are more likely to have relaxed postures, more likely to be looking around the room, more likely to finish early and put down their pencils rather than checking their answers, etc. This could be due to a culture of low expectations.
Interestingly, Asians and Jews (who are technically Asian) have mean IQ scores above whites, and they "win" on all 4 of these points. They have lower average blood lead levels, they consume more folic acid, they are more likely to breastfeed, and they have cultural pressure for academic success.
There is historical evidence that IQ gaps can be closed. The average soldier in WW1 had an IQ score nearly 15 points lower than today. In the early 1900s, there was a 10 point gap between Irish protestants and Irish catholics, and that gap has completely disappeared.
Since the USA has enough military capability to "nuke the site from orbit, just to be sure", several times over, this seems like a wasted effort.
This isn't about stopping an American attack, it is about deterring it. If NK can learn enough about our ABM capabilities and counter our defenses enough so that we think they have a chance to take out a few west coast cities, then we aren't going to start a war by attacking them.
There is nothing inherently wrong with communism. It just doesn't work with physical goods. But it seems to work fine with software and other intellectual property, by eliminating the need for artificial scarcity.
There are more than two billion computers running some form of Linux. Normal economics doesn't reflect all that value because it is "free", but it is a tremendous amount of goodness available to each according to their need.
What's the benefit to this versus what I already have?
The benefit is that you don't have to be a basement-dwelling geek to get it to work. You just plug it in and turn it on. This is for normal people to use their phone with a large display and a nice keyboard, to edit docs, work with spreadsheets, tweak images, etc. For many people, their phone is their computer, and this will make that easier and more common.
Slashdot Mirror
we can't be friends?
America and Russia are moving closer in many ways. During the Cold War, Americans were sometimes baffled when the Russians would tell baldfaced lies directly into the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Back then, most Americans believed in objective truth, while that has never really been part of Russian culture, whether under the Czar, Communism, or Putinism. But now America is finally catching up on the malleability of facts.
Or is your understanding of average different than mine?
Perhaps. You said I was assuming a "uniform 2 degree increase", which is not the same as an "average increase of 2 degrees". If you think they are the same, then your understanding is different than mine.
Most climate projections forecast more ocean warming near the poles, and less in tropical seas.
If they know your B&M shopping habits, they can feed you more effective ads online. Just by knowing that you shop at Whole Foods is enough for them to tell that you don't care about price, and you may be willing to buy other overpriced stuff online.
Just checked and at Ralphs you can get a turkey for $1.89/lb or an organic turkey for $2.99/lb without paying the Prime tax.
At my local Walmart, a whole turkey is $0.99 / lb. Organic is not an option.
You're assuming (without facts in evidence) that the thermal expansion is based on uniform 2 degree increase in Temperature.
No I'm not. I assuming an average increase of 2C. Whether it is uniform or not would not make a big difference.
thermal expansion of water is pretty small, being 2% over about 60 degrees C. Isn't global warming only showing up as 1 or 2 degrees over the last 10 years?
The average depth of the ocean is 12,100 feet, and the thermal expansion of water is 0.000207. So a 2C rise in ocean temp will result in a rise of 2*12100*0.000207 = 5 feet. This is in addition to any rise from melting ice.
Without the humans? not so much.
The word "Artificial" means "made by humans". So it seems pretty silly to say it isn't Artificial Intelligence if humans are involved in making it.
True, the computer reinvented a better way how to play Go, one that humans likely cannot emulate.
Wrong. Ke Jie, the world's strongest player, lost 0-3 to AlphaGo. He then studied AlphaGo's tactics, and went on a 22-game winning streak against other human players. Statistically he should have won only 60% of those games. So in this case, humans did not teach AI, AI taught humans.
Al Gore got it wrong some 20 years ago, so what makes you think we have it right now?
Al Gore was basically just shooting off his mouth, and was not representing the scientific thinking of the time. It was a big mistake that climate scientists didn't distance themselves from his alarmism and "alternative facts", and instead let a partisan politician become the figurehead for climate change. That pretty much destroyed the possibility of a bipartisan approach to policy.
Also, it was 12 years ago, not 20.
I have JS enabled, and I rarely see ads. The ads that slip through Adblock are mostly hardcoded in HTML, so you would see them too. I never see popups, unless they are from sites where I have specifically enabled them, such as my bank.
Instead of disabling JS, maybe you should just spend two minutes configuring your browser.
... and the people of Africa, Asia and Latin America and a minute carbon footprint compared to the West.
That is changing fast. Their economies are growing quickly, and their energy consumption is going up. So if they start reducing their population growth now, it will have a big impact in the future.
Many 3rd world women would like to have smaller families. They don't have access to contraceptives, for legal and cultural reasons, and end up having kids that they don't even want. Getting contraceptives to the people that need them is way more cost effective than any other form of CO2 reduction
But silicon tetrachloride is an environmental "show stopper" if not reprocessed...it's worse than the old Roman idea of "salting the land". Nothing grows, animals die, etc.
Silicon tetrachloride is a volatile liquid, that quickly evaporates ... and it degrades in the presence of water to SO2 and HCl. So I am skeptical that it could stick around long enough to cause significant long term harm. Do you have a citation for its supposed Carthaginian properties?
IF you produce this stuff in an environmentally acceptable way it's more expensive, a lot more expensive.
Only if you go totally overboard, like say, California, where the wastewater is required to be significantly cleaner than the original tap water. That is one reason why silicon is no longer made in "Silicon Valley".
Are you sure the processing can be done in a clean, let alone profitable, way?
It can and is done cleanly. Polycrystalline silicon is manufactured worldwide, including in the US. Outside China it is mostly higher quality "electronics grade" rather than lower priced "solar grade", but it is routinely done with more stringent pollution controls than was previously acceptable in China.
Collecting the volatiles, and cleaning up and recycling the wastewater has a cost, but if everyone is required to do it, the cost can be pushed downstream to the panel manufacturers, and they will pass it on to their customers. This is not a solar showstopper, but it will make panels a bit more expensive.
Does anyone else think it is silly that something made in factories is called a "raw material"?
I think it is just another symptom of the dumbing down of the general population....
People have always been dumb, and there is no evidence that they are getting dumber. Every generation has believed that they are the smartest, and the next generation is dumb and lazy. Your parents thought the same thing about your generation.
So, other than driving a Prius ...
The average person in the world has NO car. So if you drive a Prius you are already producing much more than your fair share of CO2.
Susceptibility to Alzheimers is only partly genetic, so it can affect anybody. Alzheimers is estimated to cost the American economy over $100B per year, so this $100M is only 0.1% of a single year. It helps, but overall we invest way way too little in finding a solution to dementia, even if you only look at the economics. As our society ages, the problem is going to get even worse.
$286M is revenue, not profit. The profit is just enough so that it isn't (yet) worth removing all the pay phones. But new pay phones are not being installed, and broken pay phones are often removed rather than repaired.
Now for 99% of jobs someones IQ isn't really important.
Not true. For many jobs IQ is a strong predictor of job performance.
Since a regatta isn't a boat I don't see what your point is.
The word "regatta" was used in a test from the 1970s. If "cultural bias" is really a big problem, then we wouldn't have to go back 45 years to find an example of it.
Also, the highest scores in America are achieved by the children of Asian immigrants. How does "cultural bias" explain that?
We need to fix the gap, not deny it exists
Indeed, and there are plenty of things we can do:
1. Black children have nearly twice the average blood lead levels of white children. This depresses IQ and causes antisocial behavior. Blood lead levels have declined since the banning of leaded gasoline, with big benefits to society including lower crime rates. But clearly we still have work to do, and we need to find and eliminate other sources of environmental lead. While we are at it, we should work on reducing other neurotoxins such as mercury and cadmium as well.
2. Black mothers consume significantly less folic acid while pregnant. Folic acid is critical to neurological development. If black women are drinking soda instead of eating broccoli, then maybe we should be putting folic acid in soda pop.
3. Black women are less likely to breastfeed. The reasons for this are mostly cultural. Breastfeeding is correlated with a 3 point gain in IQ.
4. Blacks are less motivated to do well on IQ tests. While a test is in progress, blacks are more likely to have relaxed postures, more likely to be looking around the room, more likely to finish early and put down their pencils rather than checking their answers, etc. This could be due to a culture of low expectations.
Interestingly, Asians and Jews (who are technically Asian) have mean IQ scores above whites, and they "win" on all 4 of these points. They have lower average blood lead levels, they consume more folic acid, they are more likely to breastfeed, and they have cultural pressure for academic success.
There is historical evidence that IQ gaps can be closed. The average soldier in WW1 had an IQ score nearly 15 points lower than today. In the early 1900s, there was a 10 point gap between Irish protestants and Irish catholics, and that gap has completely disappeared.
Since the USA has enough military capability to "nuke the site from orbit, just to be sure", several times over, this seems like a wasted effort.
This isn't about stopping an American attack, it is about deterring it. If NK can learn enough about our ABM capabilities and counter our defenses enough so that we think they have a chance to take out a few west coast cities, then we aren't going to start a war by attacking them.
There is nothing inherently wrong with communism. It just doesn't work with physical goods. But it seems to work fine with software and other intellectual property, by eliminating the need for artificial scarcity.
There are more than two billion computers running some form of Linux. Normal economics doesn't reflect all that value because it is "free", but it is a tremendous amount of goodness available to each according to their need.
What's the benefit to this versus what I already have?
The benefit is that you don't have to be a basement-dwelling geek to get it to work. You just plug it in and turn it on. This is for normal people to use their phone with a large display and a nice keyboard, to edit docs, work with spreadsheets, tweak images, etc. For many people, their phone is their computer, and this will make that easier and more common.
At home and at the office, where you surely can use an actual PC anyway. So, again, what's the point?
The point is that you don't need to buy a PC, or a laptop. Your phone is your computer. For 90% of people, a phone has plenty of computing power.
Nuclear rockets work by passing the propellant through the reactor.
Oh. I was thinking it would be like an RTG. I guess I should have RTFA.
How do you suggest we drag it behind the ship when it's the thing propelling the craft forwards?
Okay, then tether the ship a km behind the reactor.