don't forget all the little ways you can make a difference that are actually attainable.
I heard an interesting story about how an accountant reduced CO2 emissions by a hundred thousand tons per year.
Potatoes were sold by the ton. So farmers would soak their harvested potatoes in water to increase the weight before they sold them. Then the buyers would put the potatoes in warehouses and run giant dehumidifiers to dry them out so they wouldn't spoil, and so they would cook faster.
An accounting change, started by McDonalds and soon adopted by the rest of the fast food industry and then groceries, was to buy potatoes based on dry-weight. This obviated the need to soak and then dry the potatoes, saving time and energy consumption by both the farmers and their customers.
Signed with blue ink, so it's evident that it's a real signature instead of Photoshopped.
Even Adobe Acrobat allows you to insert a blue signature (or any other color) onto a PDF. No need for Photoshop, or a printer, or a fax machine.
Only once have I had a digitally inserted signature rejected, and that was because I had to sign more than one page, and they noticed the signatures were identical.
So now I have three digital signatures, each slightly different, and rotate them when I need to sign more than one page.
Come up with actual solutions that don't involve mass starvation before throwing around insults like "denier" and "liar."
I am a science supporter. Here are my solutions:
1. Better and more available contraceptives for 3rd world women.
2. Better education, healthcare, higher literacy rates, and better sex ed for 3rd world women
In the long run, these first two solutions will likely have the greatest effect. No one will use less CO2 than the people that aren't born. The 1st world has already turned the corner on both population growth and energy consumption. We need to help the rest of the world do the same, and do it faster.
3. More efficient air conditioners. The best ACs use a 3rd the power of the worst. Wider adoption of ACs in India, China, and SE Asia is the biggest reason for growing CO2 emissions. We should have an $10M X-Prize for a better and cheaper AC.
4. More efficient and cost effective insulation, and improved passive heating systems for buildings.
5. Better sensors to detect people moving around in buildings. Only heat/cool/light where the people are.
6. Better batteries. Wider adoption of electric cars.
7. Wider adoption of wind and solar, along with better storage, and better long distance transmission.
8. Improvement of internet speeds and tele-presence technology so that fewer people need to travel and commute.
9. Aggregated self-driving-delivery-on-demand services, so no one needs to drive to the grocery store to buy a jug of milk, or go to the post office to drop off a package.
10. Iron fertilization of the oceans to generate plankton blooms. This will remove CO2 from the ocean, and increase fish harvests. People can eat more fish and less beef. Of all the geo-engineering proposals, this is the easiest and the most likely to work.
None of these require killing half the human race (although #1 and #2 will reduce our numbers) nor destroying our civilization.
Sea levels are rising at about 4mm per year, and that rate is expected to accelerate as warming continues. This is a SERIOUS PROBLEM in the long run, and we need to deal with it.
But since 2014, that is 16mm, or about 0.6 inches. It is ridiculous to claim that this is the cause of coastal flooding. This sort of silly alarmism is causing "crisis fatigue" and just making people more and more skeptical about global warming and science in general.
For a long time I had no score. Nothing. When soft credit reports were pulled on me, it returned no data at all, because I had no hard queries done for more than seven years.
"No data" is not the same as "no score". If they have a record of you existing, you have a score.
If you have ever had a bank account, you have a score. If you have paid for utilities in your own name, you have a score. If you have a non-prepaid cell phone, you have a score. If you have ever had a hard query, such as applying to rent an apartment, then you have a score.
think about how complicated it gets to attempt to scan an image, and then get that image into an email attachment?
Many professions that still use faxes receive documents and images by email or download, print them out on paper, and then feed the paper into a fax machine.
There is nothing "sudden" about xenophobia. It has been around since the cro-magnon invaders wiped out the neanderthals. Xenophobia is the natural state of humanity.
Even ants will kill any ant that is not a member of their colony.
This is the exact opposite of reality. Wages for developers have gone up far more than the average wage over the last 20 years. With unemployment for programmers under 3%, this trend is unlikely to reverse.
Wages for developers are going up even faster in poor countries. $15 an hour may not sound like much to you, but in India, and even China, that is a very good wage. Five times the average wage in China, and ten times the average Indian wage.
If you are going to be pedantic, at least get it right.
The modern standard pinyin spelling is: "Qingdao".
The Wade-Giles romanization is: "Tsing Tao"
"Tsing Tao" is what is printed on the bottles, for reasons of tradition and marketing.
"Qingdao" is the name of the city in Shandong where the beer is brewed, and is what the Chinese call the beer.
"Ching Dao" is not correct under any romanization scheme. "Ch" and "Q" may sound the same to monolingual English speakers, but they represent different phonemes that are distinguishable in many languages.
Yes you do. You may not know what it is, but if you are an adult in America, you likely have a credit rating.
... because I've never felt like spending more than I have.
That is NOT the only reason to have credit. You should apply for credit and establish a track record of handing it responsibly. Otherwise, someday you are going to want to borrow to buy a house or pay for your kid's college, and the answer is going to be "no".
Get a credit card with a $500 limit. Use it. Set auto-pay from your bank account so you never miss a payment and never pay a cent in interest. After a year, ask the issuer to raise the debt limit.
If you want to be successful in life, you need to learn basic money management. If you have no credit line, you are doing it wrong.
Yes I understood that they were all going to the US at some point.
Mostly yes. But for different reasons. The "sea level rise" may be a problem someday, but for now sea levels are rising about 4mm per year, which may be a lot after a century, but is not even noticeable so far.
Several of their islands are contaminated with radiation from US testing, and they have a high birth rate, so the "clean" islands are getting crowded. Marshallese have a right to immigrate to America, and many of them have done so. Many settled in Arkansas, where they work growing chickens for Tyson. There is also a large group of Marshallese on the Big Island of Hawaii, where they tend to be resented by the locals for working too hard.
There is no evidence whatsoever that this capability is preinstalled by the vendor.
If they did that, it would be highly illegal in many jurisdictions, there would be hundreds of people involved in this illegal activity, and it would be a complete disaster for the vendor when (not if) it leaked. So how long would it take to leak? Less than 24 hours, since anyone with a voltmeter could detect the microphone turning on.
The only control I have over this is to not have a smartphone.
That is not the only control you have. You also have the ability to not download and install apps that access your microphone.
If you install an app that uses the microphone, then read the fine print so you understand why it needs that access, and what it is doing with the data.
I wish someone who did have control over this would put a stop to it.
Look in the mirror. You will see the person who has control.
Have you ever wondered why there is more social unrest and more mass shootings?
The social unrest such as strikes and protests tend to happen where workers are already treated well. Amazon workers in Europe get more vacation, parental leave, etc., yet that is where these protests are happening, not in America.
Mass shootings are caused by mental illness, and have no connection to a lack of worker rights. Also, mass shootings are not more frequent than in the past.
Someone noticed that trendy new places were using something to signal the fact that they were trendy to everyone.
None of the photos in TFA are of trendy places. They small mom-and-pop Asian and Mexican family restaurants in what look like normal urban neighborhoods.
That, and it doesn't seem that common judging by the pictures the author chose...
Indeed. In every picture the majority of the signs are in a different font. Most of the examples in Choc were Asian restaurants. In East Asia, calligraphy is often done with a brush rather than a pen, so the appeal of a font that looks "brushed" makes sense.
Or maybe to encourage browsing and seed dispersal by birds and mammals while discouraging insect attack.
Tea has caffeine in the leaves. Coffee has it in the seeds. Neither species benefits from these being eaten.
Neither birds nor non-human mammals like the taste of caffeine.
Btw: "Hongyacha" means "red bud tea".
In every language the word for tea is similar to either "tea" or "cha". If tea first came to the country by sea, they adopted the Fujianese word "ti". If it came by land, they adopted the word "cha" used in northern China and along the Silk Road. The only exception is Japanese which uses "cha" despite tea first arriving by sea.
Slashdot Mirror
don't forget all the little ways you can make a difference that are actually attainable.
I heard an interesting story about how an accountant reduced CO2 emissions by a hundred thousand tons per year.
Potatoes were sold by the ton. So farmers would soak their harvested potatoes in water to increase the weight before they sold them. Then the buyers would put the potatoes in warehouses and run giant dehumidifiers to dry them out so they wouldn't spoil, and so they would cook faster.
An accounting change, started by McDonalds and soon adopted by the rest of the fast food industry and then groceries, was to buy potatoes based on dry-weight. This obviated the need to soak and then dry the potatoes, saving time and energy consumption by both the farmers and their customers.
Signed with blue ink, so it's evident that it's a real signature instead of Photoshopped.
Even Adobe Acrobat allows you to insert a blue signature (or any other color) onto a PDF. No need for Photoshop, or a printer, or a fax machine.
Only once have I had a digitally inserted signature rejected, and that was because I had to sign more than one page, and they noticed the signatures were identical.
So now I have three digital signatures, each slightly different, and rotate them when I need to sign more than one page.
So they can get their own seaweed.
Or we could just eat manatees.
Come up with actual solutions that don't involve mass starvation before throwing around insults like "denier" and "liar."
I am a science supporter. Here are my solutions:
1. Better and more available contraceptives for 3rd world women.
2. Better education, healthcare, higher literacy rates, and better sex ed for 3rd world women
In the long run, these first two solutions will likely have the greatest effect. No one will use less CO2 than the people that aren't born. The 1st world has already turned the corner on both population growth and energy consumption. We need to help the rest of the world do the same, and do it faster.
3. More efficient air conditioners. The best ACs use a 3rd the power of the worst. Wider adoption of ACs in India, China, and SE Asia is the biggest reason for growing CO2 emissions. We should have an $10M X-Prize for a better and cheaper AC.
4. More efficient and cost effective insulation, and improved passive heating systems for buildings.
5. Better sensors to detect people moving around in buildings. Only heat/cool/light where the people are.
6. Better batteries. Wider adoption of electric cars.
7. Wider adoption of wind and solar, along with better storage, and better long distance transmission.
8. Improvement of internet speeds and tele-presence technology so that fewer people need to travel and commute.
9. Aggregated self-driving-delivery-on-demand services, so no one needs to drive to the grocery store to buy a jug of milk, or go to the post office to drop off a package.
10. Iron fertilization of the oceans to generate plankton blooms. This will remove CO2 from the ocean, and increase fish harvests. People can eat more fish and less beef. Of all the geo-engineering proposals, this is the easiest and the most likely to work.
None of these require killing half the human race (although #1 and #2 will reduce our numbers) nor destroying our civilization.
Sea levels are rising at about 4mm per year, and that rate is expected to accelerate as warming continues. This is a SERIOUS PROBLEM in the long run, and we need to deal with it.
But since 2014, that is 16mm, or about 0.6 inches. It is ridiculous to claim that this is the cause of coastal flooding. This sort of silly alarmism is causing "crisis fatigue" and just making people more and more skeptical about global warming and science in general.
For a long time I had no score. Nothing. When soft credit reports were pulled on me, it returned no data at all, because I had no hard queries done for more than seven years.
"No data" is not the same as "no score". If they have a record of you existing, you have a score.
If you have ever had a bank account, you have a score. If you have paid for utilities in your own name, you have a score. If you have a non-prepaid cell phone, you have a score. If you have ever had a hard query, such as applying to rent an apartment, then you have a score.
think about how complicated it gets to attempt to scan an image, and then get that image into an email attachment?
Many professions that still use faxes receive documents and images by email or download, print them out on paper, and then feed the paper into a fax machine.
Here is a list of who still uses faxes:
1. Governments
2. Lawyers, insurance companies, and others that have to interact with governments.
Why the sudden xenophobia?
There is nothing "sudden" about xenophobia. It has been around since the cro-magnon invaders wiped out the neanderthals. Xenophobia is the natural state of humanity.
Even ants will kill any ant that is not a member of their colony.
Out of Every 10 Silicon Valley Jobs Pays Less Than In 1997, Report Finds
Go back and RTFA. That article talking about NON-technical jobs in Silicon Valley: Grocery clerks, truck drivers, waitresses.
These non-techs have seen their incomes stagnate in the face of soaring housing prices, while the techs have prospered.
This also makes it easier to deduct it 100% as a business expense.
Home office deductions are an American, or at least 1st world, concept.
These 3rd world workers are not reporting their income, or even filing tax returns. So they don't need any deductions.
Software, in general, is a race to zero.
This is the exact opposite of reality. Wages for developers have gone up far more than the average wage over the last 20 years. With unemployment for programmers under 3%, this trend is unlikely to reverse.
Wages for developers are going up even faster in poor countries. $15 an hour may not sound like much to you, but in India, and even China, that is a very good wage. Five times the average wage in China, and ten times the average Indian wage.
"Ching Dao." Geez.
If you are going to be pedantic, at least get it right.
The modern standard pinyin spelling is: "Qingdao".
The Wade-Giles romanization is: "Tsing Tao"
"Tsing Tao" is what is printed on the bottles, for reasons of tradition and marketing.
"Qingdao" is the name of the city in Shandong where the beer is brewed, and is what the Chinese call the beer.
"Ching Dao" is not correct under any romanization scheme. "Ch" and "Q" may sound the same to monolingual English speakers, but they represent different phonemes that are distinguishable in many languages.
I have no credit score ...
Yes you do. You may not know what it is, but if you are an adult in America, you likely have a credit rating.
... because I've never felt like spending more than I have.
That is NOT the only reason to have credit. You should apply for credit and establish a track record of handing it responsibly. Otherwise, someday you are going to want to borrow to buy a house or pay for your kid's college, and the answer is going to be "no".
Get a credit card with a $500 limit. Use it. Set auto-pay from your bank account so you never miss a payment and never pay a cent in interest. After a year, ask the issuer to raise the debt limit.
If you want to be successful in life, you need to learn basic money management. If you have no credit line, you are doing it wrong.
Nope. Foreigners can not buy land in the Marshall Islands.
Yes I understood that they were all going to the US at some point.
Mostly yes. But for different reasons. The "sea level rise" may be a problem someday, but for now sea levels are rising about 4mm per year, which may be a lot after a century, but is not even noticeable so far.
Several of their islands are contaminated with radiation from US testing, and they have a high birth rate, so the "clean" islands are getting crowded. Marshallese have a right to immigrate to America, and many of them have done so. Many settled in Arkansas, where they work growing chickens for Tyson. There is also a large group of Marshallese on the Big Island of Hawaii, where they tend to be resented by the locals for working too hard.
Bill, word has it that you don't even have to download any apps
That is not what TFA says.
Do you have evidence whatsoever that this capability is "baked right into the firmware"?
There is no evidence whatsoever that this capability is preinstalled by the vendor.
If they did that, it would be highly illegal in many jurisdictions, there would be hundreds of people involved in this illegal activity, and it would be a complete disaster for the vendor when (not if) it leaked. So how long would it take to leak? Less than 24 hours, since anyone with a voltmeter could detect the microphone turning on.
The only control I have over this is to not have a smartphone.
That is not the only control you have. You also have the ability to not download and install apps that access your microphone.
If you install an app that uses the microphone, then read the fine print so you understand why it needs that access, and what it is doing with the data.
I wish someone who did have control over this would put a stop to it.
Look in the mirror. You will see the person who has control.
Have you ever wondered why there is more social unrest and more mass shootings?
The social unrest such as strikes and protests tend to happen where workers are already treated well. Amazon workers in Europe get more vacation, parental leave, etc., yet that is where these protests are happening, not in America.
Mass shootings are caused by mental illness, and have no connection to a lack of worker rights. Also, mass shootings are not more frequent than in the past.
Robots are quite expensive
Robots are expensive to design and program. Once that is done, the marginal cost of manufacturing them is not expensive.
the shape of a font is not copyrightable.
Not in America, but typefaces are protected in many other countries, including the UK, France, and Germany.
In America, typefaces can be protected by design patents, but that is much harder to get than a copyright. The name of a font can be trademarked.
Someone noticed that trendy new places were using something to signal the fact that they were trendy to everyone.
None of the photos in TFA are of trendy places. They small mom-and-pop Asian and Mexican family restaurants in what look like normal urban neighborhoods.
That, and it doesn't seem that common judging by the pictures the author chose...
Indeed. In every picture the majority of the signs are in a different font. Most of the examples in Choc were Asian restaurants. In East Asia, calligraphy is often done with a brush rather than a pen, so the appeal of a font that looks "brushed" makes sense.
Or maybe to encourage browsing and seed dispersal by birds and mammals while discouraging insect attack.
Tea has caffeine in the leaves. Coffee has it in the seeds. Neither species benefits from these being eaten.
Neither birds nor non-human mammals like the taste of caffeine.
Btw: "Hongyacha" means "red bud tea".
In every language the word for tea is similar to either "tea" or "cha". If tea first came to the country by sea, they adopted the Fujianese word "ti". If it came by land, they adopted the word "cha" used in northern China and along the Silk Road. The only exception is Japanese which uses "cha" despite tea first arriving by sea.