Olympus Mons is nothing but an endurance test. Yes, it's very tall, but it's also really, REALLY wide. The average slope is only at something like a 5 degree angle. Interstate highways are allowed to be more steep than that.
Unfortunately, you're right. There's likely no 100% effective way to prevent the smuggling of items into prisons.
Say you invent a magical contriband detector that always sees any item you want on a person. All it takes is to bribe the person operating the machine, and it becomes useless. Make a machine that's totally automated and decides for itself, and you're getting dangerously close to Skynet.
Right, except that crooked guards are how the inmate got ahold of the phone in the first place. It comes down to a point where you've got to really trust your guards.
But it still did generate profit. In this economy, even if it was running at a small loss, the only compassionate thing for Microsoft to do would be continuing the product line, to keep the people working on Zune in their jobs.
The fact that Gitmo is closing doesn't necessarily mean that anybody's going to be released. There's a 4 month moritorium on continued "trials", and up to a 1 year period over which the facility will close.
My hope is that with it's closing, the practices of ignoring the Geneva convention that Gitmo has become famous for spawning will begin to fade, at least when it comes to the treatment of prisoners by American military personell. Sure, others may still perform torture, but there's something to be said for being the better man, and setting an example. The US used to be a beacon of light for the world. It hasn't been that way recently. Sure would be nice to be back in that position, wouldn't you say?
Considering that he's already signed an order to close Gitmo within the year (and immediately stop all ongoing trials there for at least 120 days), I'd say we're off to a good start.
Maybe we can finally create more powerful chips using this as a substrate
New from Frito-Lays, it's Power Chips!!! Forget energy drinks, coffee, and soda; just one serving of Power Chips, made with our patented potato-graphene substrate, and you won't need to sleep for a week!
This bridge? Looking at what the NTSB concluded, I don't see how spending more money on it would have helped. The primary cause turned out to be "under-sized gusset plates" (IANAE). That sounds to me like somebody made a mistake 40 years ago, and with the extra weight on the bridge, the plates couldn't hold up.
I see this voucher program as an excellent way to pull some of the most polluting, fuel-inneficient vehicles off the road, and help the economy through a trickle-up approach. Hell, it would even help some people who are upside-down in their car loans to get out of a bad situation. Recycling companies and auto makers would both get a boost, cities would have marginally cleaner air, consumers get a likely morale boost out of having a new-to-them vehicle to drive (and save money on gas), and the sales tax off so many used and new car sales would likely zero out the original cost of the voucher.
But how often do the kids in the situation I've described actually get to the gifted school?
If they're lucky, they'll stumble across a teacher who's good/interested enough to get paperwork started to get he kid admitted (provided the school isn't full with a waiting list). It's not likely that the gifted school is near the bad neighborhood, so the kid is either going to need daily rides from their parent (hah!), or hope that the school district has the resources to bus them in.
And even then, they're still going to get beaten up at the bus stop, because they're different and misunderstood by the other children.
I appologise for the OT rant. This issue just hits a little close to home./rant
How many people in the USA lack food and shelter because of circumstances beyond their control, and how many of them lack food and shelter as a direct result of their parent/guardian's choices?
There, fixed that for you. In all seriousness though, there will always be people who failed on their own, and people who were given no chance to succeed.
Maybe you were born with a silver spoon in your mouth, but then turned around and used the spoon to cook up a hit of heroin.
Or maybe you were born into a poor, abusive family, but had a natural aptitude for science & math. Unfortunately, you'd get beaten to a pulp in school if you actually showed off your talent, and made the self-defense decision to learn to play football instead.
Of course every individual's situtation is different, but I never assume that every person has a chance to succeed in life. The best we can hope for is to get as close to 100% of our overall potential as we can, and "try to make your child's life better than your own".
Looking at human history as a whole, we're doing much better now than we were 100, 500, or 1,000 years ago. I do fear though that we're nearing the point of diminishing returns, and that scares me.
I've got to disagree. Movies keep breaking box office records, because there's no way to pirate the experience of going out to the theatre. If anything is going to kill that, it's going to be the bad economy.
DVD/Blu-Ray sales also continue to increase. I just read an article yesterday stating that legal music downloads are growing faster than illegal ones. The only explanation is that priacy is just not as rampant as it's being made out to be. In reality, most people (read: average consumer) would sooner go out and pay for a physical disc instead of figuring out how to pirate the movie/music.
I get the feeling that if there were a magical statistic machine that were right 100% of the time (if only!), we'd see that the ratio of pirates:paying customers is rediculously low, and that a relatively few people are the cause of a relative majority of pirating.
It's been said before, but I'll state it here again: Movie/music executives are using the fact that piracy exists at all as an excuse for any decline/slow increse in their sales numbers. In reality, it's more likely a bum economy, and a lower quality of product (though 2008 was an incredible year for movies) that's causing the dip in sales.
Slashdot Mirror
I'd throw $20 in, except that this is /., so they would probably just read the summary on the flap and then act as if they had read the book.
Olympus Mons is nothing but an endurance test. Yes, it's very tall, but it's also really, REALLY wide. The average slope is only at something like a 5 degree angle. Interstate highways are allowed to be more steep than that.
Excuse me, but we disagree with you. Thanks, US Auto Industry US Airline Industry US Banking Industry
I knew it! They're building the cell phone sonar-imaging device from Dark Knight!
Is it still flamebaiting, if those who would be baited are blocked?
Unfortunately, you're right. There's likely no 100% effective way to prevent the smuggling of items into prisons.
Say you invent a magical contriband detector that always sees any item you want on a person. All it takes is to bribe the person operating the machine, and it becomes useless. Make a machine that's totally automated and decides for itself, and you're getting dangerously close to Skynet.
Right, except that crooked guards are how the inmate got ahold of the phone in the first place. It comes down to a point where you've got to really trust your guards.
Come on guys, you can figure this out. It isn't rocket scien...never mind.
But if you know that, don't you have your OWN yard to have people get off of?
Your basement has a lawn?
There, fixed that for you.
Good point. We need to create a waywaybackmachine.
That's not a risk I'm willing to take. Won't somebody think of the grandchildren!?
Why not nitrogen? It's the most common gas in earth's atmosphere (something like 70% IIRC), and it's what museaums are using to preserve mummies.
But it still did generate profit. In this economy, even if it was running at a small loss, the only compassionate thing for Microsoft to do would be continuing the product line, to keep the people working on Zune in their jobs.
The fact that Gitmo is closing doesn't necessarily mean that anybody's going to be released. There's a 4 month moritorium on continued "trials", and up to a 1 year period over which the facility will close.
My hope is that with it's closing, the practices of ignoring the Geneva convention that Gitmo has become famous for spawning will begin to fade, at least when it comes to the treatment of prisoners by American military personell. Sure, others may still perform torture, but there's something to be said for being the better man, and setting an example. The US used to be a beacon of light for the world. It hasn't been that way recently. Sure would be nice to be back in that position, wouldn't you say?
Considering that he's already signed an order to close Gitmo within the year (and immediately stop all ongoing trials there for at least 120 days), I'd say we're off to a good start.
Maybe we can finally create more powerful chips using this as a substrate
New from Frito-Lays, it's Power Chips!!!
Forget energy drinks, coffee, and soda; just one serving of Power Chips, made with our patented potato-graphene substrate, and you won't need to sleep for a week!
This bridge? Looking at what the NTSB concluded, I don't see how spending more money on it would have helped. The primary cause turned out to be "under-sized gusset plates" (IANAE). That sounds to me like somebody made a mistake 40 years ago, and with the extra weight on the bridge, the plates couldn't hold up.
I see this voucher program as an excellent way to pull some of the most polluting, fuel-inneficient vehicles off the road, and help the economy through a trickle-up approach. Hell, it would even help some people who are upside-down in their car loans to get out of a bad situation. Recycling companies and auto makers would both get a boost, cities would have marginally cleaner air, consumers get a likely morale boost out of having a new-to-them vehicle to drive (and save money on gas), and the sales tax off so many used and new car sales would likely zero out the original cost of the voucher.
But how often do the kids in the situation I've described actually get to the gifted school?
/rant
If they're lucky, they'll stumble across a teacher who's good/interested enough to get paperwork started to get he kid admitted (provided the school isn't full with a waiting list). It's not likely that the gifted school is near the bad neighborhood, so the kid is either going to need daily rides from their parent (hah!), or hope that the school district has the resources to bus them in.
And even then, they're still going to get beaten up at the bus stop, because they're different and misunderstood by the other children.
I appologise for the OT rant. This issue just hits a little close to home.
How many people in the USA lack food and shelter because of circumstances beyond their control, and how many of them lack food and shelter as a direct result of their parent/guardian's choices?
There, fixed that for you. In all seriousness though, there will always be people who failed on their own, and people who were given no chance to succeed.
Maybe you were born with a silver spoon in your mouth, but then turned around and used the spoon to cook up a hit of heroin.
Or maybe you were born into a poor, abusive family, but had a natural aptitude for science & math. Unfortunately, you'd get beaten to a pulp in school if you actually showed off your talent, and made the self-defense decision to learn to play football instead.
Of course every individual's situtation is different, but I never assume that every person has a chance to succeed in life. The best we can hope for is to get as close to 100% of our overall potential as we can, and "try to make your child's life better than your own".
Looking at human history as a whole, we're doing much better now than we were 100, 500, or 1,000 years ago. I do fear though that we're nearing the point of diminishing returns, and that scares me.
It's not like this would be the first time the US government came up with false positives...
I've got to disagree. Movies keep breaking box office records, because there's no way to pirate the experience of going out to the theatre. If anything is going to kill that, it's going to be the bad economy.
DVD/Blu-Ray sales also continue to increase. I just read an article yesterday stating that legal music downloads are growing faster than illegal ones. The only explanation is that priacy is just not as rampant as it's being made out to be. In reality, most people (read: average consumer) would sooner go out and pay for a physical disc instead of figuring out how to pirate the movie/music.
I get the feeling that if there were a magical statistic machine that were right 100% of the time (if only!), we'd see that the ratio of pirates:paying customers is rediculously low, and that a relatively few people are the cause of a relative majority of pirating.
It's been said before, but I'll state it here again: Movie/music executives are using the fact that piracy exists at all as an excuse for any decline/slow increse in their sales numbers. In reality, it's more likely a bum economy, and a lower quality of product (though 2008 was an incredible year for movies) that's causing the dip in sales.
If my mod points weren't gone I'd + insightful on that....
That's what she said. [/ducks and runs]
Would you prefer it work well, or look good?
Besides, I don't think it's ugly at all.
The mechanic has been short on work recently, so he put a quart of oil in your gas tank after your last visit, to make sure that you come back again.
...but it used to fit, back when the Earth was in High School. It seems we have already succumbed to Global Fattening.