He is saying that it is only "science" if it is easy or if we already know all the answers. Since he doesn't understand economics, and is too lazy to learn, it can't be science.
50 miles is well beyond the lethal radius of overpressure of a 10 megaton warhead.
The 10 MT warheads were all decommissioned decades ago. A typical warhead today is about 250KT, or 40 fold less powerful. The accuracy of modern ICBMs, SLBMs, and cruise missiles has made the big warheads unnecessary. But a nuclear strike is only one possible scenario, and not the most likely. I live in California, and I keep about a years worth of rice and beans, and other basic survival goods, including a vegetable garden, a flock of chickens, and a nice assault rifle. My primary concern is a big quake. But other possibilities are a big crop disrupting volcano, a major infectious disease outbreak, an infectious blight on major crops, etc. Plenty of things could cause a disruption of the food supply.
Exactly. It is disgusting how President Romney was able to buy his way into office. Here in California, both Governor Whitman and Senator Fiorina were swept into office by spending millions of their own fortunes along with plenty of corporate contributions. Yup, the people have no power, and you would have to be dumb to think otherwise.
Companies are obligated to obey the law. Apple is doing what they have to do. Their only alternative would be to abandon China, and leave the Chinese market to even more compliant domestic competitors. Google tried that, and accomplished nothing. Apple is not going to "fix" China, nor is any other foreign entity, and it is absurd to expect them to.
using its cargo capacity for extra fuel always seemed like a no-brainer to me.
It is actually not a good idea. You need chemical rockets for the initial boost to get out of the atmosphere and into low earth orbit, because you need to get there quickly. But once you are in orbit, chemical rockets make little sense. It is much better to use ion thrusters, which are slower but far more efficient, to climb to higher orbits, or to head beyond earth orbit.
The biggest safety issue was using a manned flight for something that didn't need people. All other things being equal, you will have 10 times the death rate if you launch 100 manned missions rather than 10 manned missions and 90 unmanned rockets. When the Challenger exploded, killing 7 astronauts, it was on a "stick a satellite in orbit" mission, that did not need to be manned.
And how long would it take before they realize that they can cut years off their time by taking a easy course ?
Most inmates don't serve their full sentence, and many are released early for dumber reasons that this. We have way too many people in prison, so almost anything that gets people out earlier is a step in the right direction.
Summary is that re-offend rates were 32% for non participants & 23% for participants.
This is an uncontrolled study, so it is not very meaningful. The participants were self-selecting, and likely those already more motivated to straighten themselves out. You cannot confidently say that the program did any good at all.
in situations such as "Economics Research" that there are all sorts of incentives to cook the book
This is not unique to economics. Most scientific fields have problems with replication. Journals are strongly biased toward publishing positive results, and nobody gets tenure for negative results or replication. I believe the last Nobel Prize for a failed experiment was Albert Michelson in 1907. There are strong incentives to cheat, or at least cut corners.
you'd expect a team that won a national title in debate to be somewhat good.
It is unlikely that it was the same people. After winning the national title, it is likely that the seniors left the team, and were replaced by incoming freshmen.
I care. If it reduces recidivism from 40% to 2%, then enrolling more inmates could save billions in incarceration rates and reduced crime. If the class size was limited, an obvious comparison would be the recidivism rate of graduates vs. the rate for applicants that were turned away.
It is the only judgement that matters, whether it is "fair" or not.
What about all the biases that everyone has?
No one gives a crap about the gender of the person that wrote the code. When I submit a patch to an open source project, no one asks me about my gender. It is irrelevant, and often unknown.
To block passengers in your car from doing useful tasks
Most modern cars have weight sensors in the front seats, so the computer will know if there is someone in the passenger seat. If the car is in motion, and there is no passenger, then it is reasonable to change the UI behavior.
This nanny corp crap really needs to go away.
You may feel different when some distracted driver runs over your kid. This isn't just about protecting people from themselves. Distracted drivers are a danger to other people as well.
Labor may be overpriced; but you can't reduce costs by just reducing labor price.
This is not just (or even mostly) about unit labor costs. Rice farming in Japan is incredibly inefficient. Japan does not have a good climate for growing rice. It is too cold, and the rains come at the wrong time. Land ownership is highly fragmented, so you see tiny little plots, far too small for normal farm machinery. So instead you see a 70 year old with a roto-tiller preparing his plot, and then later stooped over, planting individual plants by hand. In a first world country, that is an insane waste of manpower. If/when the subsidies end, these farms will immediately switch to producing high value fruits and vegetables, which are suited to the climate and require far less labor.
Prosperity comes from the production of goods and services, not by "keeping people busy". Japan has a declining population and serious labor shortages. Labor intensive rice farming in Japan makes no economic sense, and is only kept going with massive subsidies funded by taxing the productive economy.
The automation and sensors described in TFA are also stupid, since they just make a stupid system slightly less so. A far better solution would be for Japan to buy rice from countries with lower labor costs and climates friendlier to rice production. The the rice farmers in Japan can find productive employment. For instance, they could grow high value fruits and vegetables.
Fewer man-hours, more rice from less work, fewer farmers, less time spent working, less paid in wages, more produced, cheaper rice.
The way to get cheaper rice is for Japan to ratify TPP, kick these farmers off the dole, and buy rice from Thailand or Louisiana for a tenth the price.
We still have people claiming value and wealth come from land, not from labor.
In this case, it comes from neither. I comes from massive subsidies, tariffs, and artificial price supports.
So there is a list of names and addresses on the Internet. There is also a list of names and addresses in the phone book. I don't really see the difference. Who is harmed by this?
I also don't know the odds of a war against Russia, China or India. Are you suggesting we should arm ourselves for that?
That is the entire point of the F-35. It is for fighting another super-power. For any 3rd rate power, like Iran, good old fashioned F-15, F-16, and F-18 aircraft would be fine.
Slashdot Mirror
Care to elaborate?
He is saying that it is only "science" if it is easy or if we already know all the answers. Since he doesn't understand economics, and is too lazy to learn, it can't be science.
50 miles is well beyond the lethal radius of overpressure of a 10 megaton warhead.
The 10 MT warheads were all decommissioned decades ago. A typical warhead today is about 250KT, or 40 fold less powerful. The accuracy of modern ICBMs, SLBMs, and cruise missiles has made the big warheads unnecessary. But a nuclear strike is only one possible scenario, and not the most likely. I live in California, and I keep about a years worth of rice and beans, and other basic survival goods, including a vegetable garden, a flock of chickens, and a nice assault rifle. My primary concern is a big quake. But other possibilities are a big crop disrupting volcano, a major infectious disease outbreak, an infectious blight on major crops, etc. Plenty of things could cause a disruption of the food supply.
You'd have to be dumb to think otherwise....
Exactly. It is disgusting how President Romney was able to buy his way into office. Here in California, both Governor Whitman and Senator Fiorina were swept into office by spending millions of their own fortunes along with plenty of corporate contributions. Yup, the people have no power, and you would have to be dumb to think otherwise.
Companies are obligated to obey the law. Apple is doing what they have to do. Their only alternative would be to abandon China, and leave the Chinese market to even more compliant domestic competitors. Google tried that, and accomplished nothing. Apple is not going to "fix" China, nor is any other foreign entity, and it is absurd to expect them to.
that might have swine flu
OTOH, you can eat bacon anytime you want.
using its cargo capacity for extra fuel always seemed like a no-brainer to me.
It is actually not a good idea. You need chemical rockets for the initial boost to get out of the atmosphere and into low earth orbit, because you need to get there quickly. But once you are in orbit, chemical rockets make little sense. It is much better to use ion thrusters, which are slower but far more efficient, to climb to higher orbits, or to head beyond earth orbit.
I knew there were safety issues with it
The biggest safety issue was using a manned flight for something that didn't need people. All other things being equal, you will have 10 times the death rate if you launch 100 manned missions rather than 10 manned missions and 90 unmanned rockets. When the Challenger exploded, killing 7 astronauts, it was on a "stick a satellite in orbit" mission, that did not need to be manned.
A formal logic class (whether heavy on symbols or not) would be a good idea for everyone.
Can you point to any evidence whatsoever that people trained in "formal logic" actually make better real life decisions?
Formal logic is not even particularly useful for logic design. The software tools do it for you. I haven't written out a Karnaugh map in 20 years.
And how long would it take before they realize that they can cut years off their time by taking a easy course ?
Most inmates don't serve their full sentence, and many are released early for dumber reasons that this. We have way too many people in prison, so almost anything that gets people out earlier is a step in the right direction.
Summary is that re-offend rates were 32% for non participants & 23% for participants.
This is an uncontrolled study, so it is not very meaningful. The participants were self-selecting, and likely those already more motivated to straighten themselves out. You cannot confidently say that the program did any good at all.
in situations such as "Economics Research" that there are all sorts of incentives to cook the book
This is not unique to economics. Most scientific fields have problems with replication. Journals are strongly biased toward publishing positive results, and nobody gets tenure for negative results or replication. I believe the last Nobel Prize for a failed experiment was Albert Michelson in 1907. There are strong incentives to cheat, or at least cut corners.
you'd expect a team that won a national title in debate to be somewhat good.
It is unlikely that it was the same people. After winning the national title, it is likely that the seniors left the team, and were replaced by incoming freshmen.
who cares about correlation vs. causation.
I care. If it reduces recidivism from 40% to 2%, then enrolling more inmates could save billions in incarceration rates and reduced crime. If the class size was limited, an obvious comparison would be the recidivism rate of graduates vs. the rate for applicants that were turned away.
No one wants to sacrifice for a greater good
Sending meat to the moon is not "for a greater good". A robot can do 90% of what a human can do for 1% of the cost.
Who judges merit?
The users.
How do they judge it?
By using, or not using, code.
Is it a fair judgement?
It is the only judgement that matters, whether it is "fair" or not.
What about all the biases that everyone has?
No one gives a crap about the gender of the person that wrote the code. When I submit a patch to an open source project, no one asks me about my gender. It is irrelevant, and often unknown.
To block passengers in your car from doing useful tasks
Most modern cars have weight sensors in the front seats, so the computer will know if there is someone in the passenger seat. If the car is in motion, and there is no passenger, then it is reasonable to change the UI behavior.
This nanny corp crap really needs to go away.
You may feel different when some distracted driver runs over your kid. This isn't just about protecting people from themselves. Distracted drivers are a danger to other people as well.
If you want a practical application of neutrino detectors and their relevance today ...
Neutrino detectors may also be useful in high frequency trading. That is certainly an application that benefits the common people.
,,,are Geeks.
None of the geeks I know watch TV.
They are too busy getting stuff done.
Labor may be overpriced; but you can't reduce costs by just reducing labor price.
This is not just (or even mostly) about unit labor costs. Rice farming in Japan is incredibly inefficient. Japan does not have a good climate for growing rice. It is too cold, and the rains come at the wrong time. Land ownership is highly fragmented, so you see tiny little plots, far too small for normal farm machinery. So instead you see a 70 year old with a roto-tiller preparing his plot, and then later stooped over, planting individual plants by hand. In a first world country, that is an insane waste of manpower. If/when the subsidies end, these farms will immediately switch to producing high value fruits and vegetables, which are suited to the climate and require far less labor.
My grandmother lived to be 102, and all she did in her later years was sit on her butt and post anecdotes to Internet forums.
improve the world by gutting jobs?
Prosperity comes from the production of goods and services, not by "keeping people busy". Japan has a declining population and serious labor shortages. Labor intensive rice farming in Japan makes no economic sense, and is only kept going with massive subsidies funded by taxing the productive economy.
The automation and sensors described in TFA are also stupid, since they just make a stupid system slightly less so. A far better solution would be for Japan to buy rice from countries with lower labor costs and climates friendlier to rice production. The the rice farmers in Japan can find productive employment. For instance, they could grow high value fruits and vegetables.
Fewer man-hours, more rice from less work, fewer farmers, less time spent working, less paid in wages, more produced, cheaper rice.
The way to get cheaper rice is for Japan to ratify TPP, kick these farmers off the dole, and buy rice from Thailand or Louisiana for a tenth the price.
We still have people claiming value and wealth come from land, not from labor.
In this case, it comes from neither. I comes from massive subsidies, tariffs, and artificial price supports.
So there is a list of names and addresses on the Internet.
There is also a list of names and addresses in the phone book.
I don't really see the difference.
Who is harmed by this?
Huh? Google isn't even in the same ballpark as LHM when it comes to aviation.
This isn't about aircraft, this is about the AI to control them. For that, Google is lightyears ahead of Lockheed.
I also don't know the odds of a war against Russia, China or India. Are you suggesting we should arm ourselves for that?
That is the entire point of the F-35. It is for fighting another super-power. For any 3rd rate power, like Iran, good old fashioned F-15, F-16, and F-18 aircraft would be fine.