I'm NOT on LinkedIn but every time someone I know signs up, I get a dozen spam messages pertaining to what he or she supposedly does / wants to do / is an expert at. And another dozen exhorting me to join.
Sounds totally useless. I just block the damned site like all of the other stupid social networks.
I've often wondered what happens to all the 7.62mm that gets fired in intimidation/celebration in Africa and the Middle East.
It kills or injures people occasionally. If the bullet went mostly up (small horizontal vector magnitude) it would come down with the terminal velocity of an African 70 grain (or so) bullet. Not necessarily lethal but possibly so.
If it had a significant horizontal speed, it could easily be fatal.
The days of being able to keep your car running with a flat bladed screwdriver, a spark plug wrench and a can of WD-40 are long gone.
Of course, vehicles these days typically don't need their carburetor adjusted every week, the spark plugs cleaned frequently and the distributed dried off every morning.
I for one, welcome our OBDC, fuel injected, distributorless overlords.
Seriously, cars are not that different than they were. You just need to update your knowledge, just like at your job. I used to be pretty good with Windows 95, but that knowledge is largely useless to me now. That doesn't mean I can't work on computers.
You'd be surprised. Look at the newer Ford vehicles. You'll feel right at home.
"Gulf" (Deep oil) - maybe one or two more 'Thunderhorse' size fields to be developed, but man, that's some expensive drilling rig you've got there. Costs money. Oh, and depletion rates for Deep Oil tend to be pretty fast compared with land based large fields.
"Shale Oil" - actually not all that much of shale oil, mostly gas. Lots of gas but again depletion rates seem to be awfully fast (maybe 20% per year). That's a problem since you have to keep drilling new wells on a good clip. And big horizontal frac jobs aren't cheap. And now we've glutted the natural gas market because everybody is hell bent on drilling something so the bottom dropped out on nat gas prices. So the drilling is slowing down.
"Tundra Oil" - mostly ANWAR which really doesn't amount to a hill of beans, volume wise. Maybe more in the Arctic Basin, maybe not but the majors haven't been all that arsed to spend a lot of money looking just yet. And if they find it, it's going to be expensive to produce.
And the list actually doesn't go on all that much. OPEC is producing flat out. Saudi Arabia is lying it's teeth off telling everyone they have lots of spare capacity but they're now redrilling their extremely old fields to push the very last of the heavy crude (that refineries don't really want) out the door. Funny, their 'reserves' haven't changed at all over the past decade. They're on record saying they'd like $80 / barrel oil but they can't bring their production up to anywhere near the volumes needed to get that. Funny that.
And there hasn't been a new refinery built in the US in the past thirty years. Not because of regulatory issues (most refineries have pre approved major expansion plans - you typically enlarge an oil refinery rather than build a new one). It's because demand is dropping. US refineries are IMPORTING crude and EXPORTING product.
US taxes are probably too low to support maintained on existing roads. They should be higher not lower. Do you like that last series of potholes you ran over?
And the list goes on (China / India pulling larger amounts of oil out of the market, the fact that the oil companies are scrambling after smaller fields, no more super giants, not to mention carbon production / global warming which of course, isn't really happening.
You can only keep your head in the tar sands for so long (and no, they're not going to help overmuch).
*** PLEASE FORWARD TO THE APPROPRIATE STAFF MEMBERS ****
Dear Sirs:
I have been requested by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company to contact you for assistance in resolving a matter. The Nigerian National Petroleum Company has recently concluded a large number of contracts for oil exploration in the sub-Sahara region. The contracts have immediately produced moneys equalling US$40,000,000. The Nigerian National Petroleum Company is desirous of oil exploration in other parts of the world, however, because of certain regulations of the Nigerian Government, it is unable to move these funds to another region.
You assistance is requested as a non-Nigerian citizen to assist the Nigerian National Petroleum Company, and also the Central Bank of Nigeria, in moving these funds out of Nigeria. If the funds can be transferred to your name, in your United States account, then you can forward the funds as directed by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company. In exchange for your accommodating services, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company would agree to allow you to retain 10%, or US$4 million of this amount.
However, to be a legitimate transferee of these moneys according to Nigerian law, you must presently be a depositor of at least US$100,000 in a Nigerian bank which is regulated by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
If it will be possible for you to assist us, we would be most grateful. We suggest that you meet with us in person in Lagos, and that during your visit I introduce you to the representatives of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company, as well as with certain officials of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
Please call me at your earliest convenience at 234-598-212-5419. Time is of the essence in this matter; very quickly the Nigerian Government will realize that the Central Bank is maintaining this amount on deposit, and attempt to levy certain depository taxes on it.
The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again.
Fortunately, not every business falls under the dark cloud of socialist regulatory agencies. Some companies run unfettered and free in the glorious economic wilderness that is the American capitalist system.
I've backpacked around a lot of countries and I'm telling you that it is not easy to keep a passport in perfect condition especially if you try to keep on yourself all the time (recommended in a lot of countries). Various factors that put a beating on it include rain season, keeping it your pocket, perspiration, tight jeans (lol), and much much more!
And have you had a problem? My current passport is pretty beat up for exactly those reasons. Nobody seems to care.
What criminals? The panty bomber, who was caught by the passengers on the plane, no harm done? The TSA serves no actual purpose (OK, beyond being a jobs program). It does not make us safer, in any way; not even a little bit safer. So there's not even a "but I want to give up my rights, because I'm a frightened little child" argument to be made here - there's no tradeoff, just government imposition.
Do you think that those uniforms, the scanners, the badges, the epaulettes, the reams of paper, the computers necessary to print out the reams of paper and the people needed to program the computers needed to print out the reams of paper (OK, they probably came from India) aren't helping our economy grow larger and stronger?
When you travel outside the U.S., you need to accept that you may not be able to keep to your schedule, plan for it.
Christ, yes. I remain thoroughly amazed that people expect to fly half way around the world, do something and fly back all within a 2 hour window of time. Historically those trips (if they were possible at all) took months or years and almost always were subject to delays perhaps lasting weeks.
Slow down America! Enjoy the ride. The mess will still be there when you get back.
And he's basically an idiot. My passport got pretty well trashed after a camping / climbing trip in South America. When I got back the customs guy said 'looked like you had fun'. The RFID didn't work (or the reader, it wasn't clear), so he looked at the passport briefly and let me through.
I've had more trouble getting on the plane in Seattle.
It would be nice if they figured out what they planned on sequencing. TFS thinks protein, TFA says DNA. I'm inclined to go with the atter since sequencing protiens isnt all that entertaining.
But this doesn't really change things. You can't just drop some blood into this device and get a useable result - you have to purify the sample and know what you purified. It's not set up to do SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism analysis - which is what current forensic 'DNA sequencing really is). They don't talk much about the most important part - the software. A couple hundred thousand base pairs in a row is awfully hard to interpret.
I know this has been rated Troll by the slashdot gods, but I just have to say how COOL bird-based satellite antennas would be. All that needs to be done is to figure out the mini-motor system to keep them pointed in the right direction.
Assuming this technology pans out, why would you call it fake? Just like a lab-grown emerald, it is chemically identical to the natural source without all the damage to the landscape, infection(inclusion) exposure, or unnecessary cost. (sure it costs a lot now, it's an experiment. In a couple decades time, it'll clock in at a ten, maybe a hundredth of the cost of 'real-but-otherwise-inferior' meat off the killed organism.)
Because it won't be the same. They're not making a T-bone steak, they're making protein mush. It may well look and taste like something you get a McDonald's but it will be a far cry from 'real meat'.
And Guppy's comment is also relevant - it's unlikely to be cheaper than cows on a hoof.
And the incidence of colon/rectal cancers from red meat just happens to coincide with the rise of antibiotics and hormones used in cattle to produce bigger animals and to pre-treat diseases. It has nothing to do with the red meat itself, it has to do with what is allowed to happen to the meat before it gets to your dinner table. In that sense, you have to blame your government for allowing it and then blame them when you come down with cancer.
The incidence of colorectal cancers might just happen to coincide with a number of things - jet aircraft, iPhones, WalMart, Republican Presidents and Television. That doesn't mean much.
The data for these things is pretty weak - they're all observational studies with numerous biases. They certainly cannot be used to determine causality. Most of the red meat / cancer data comes from comparing crappy data from primitive vegetarian societies (who tend not to get screened for much of anything) with western societies that do get screened for various cancers and tend to live longer anyway. Coming up with a one to one correlation might be fun, but it's very unlikely to be accurate.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm NOT on LinkedIn but every time someone I know signs up, I get a dozen spam messages pertaining to what he or she supposedly does / wants to do / is an expert at. And another dozen exhorting me to join.
Sounds totally useless. I just block the damned site like all of the other stupid social networks.
Animal Huggers are not in season yet, and you have to have a permit.
No one wants to really shoot one tho, they're hard to clean.
Not in Alaska. They're considered varmints. Open season. You can even use spotlights and helicopters.
I've often wondered what happens to all the 7.62mm that gets fired in intimidation/celebration in Africa and the Middle East.
It kills or injures people occasionally. If the bullet went mostly up (small horizontal vector magnitude) it would come down with the terminal velocity of an African 70 grain (or so) bullet. Not necessarily lethal but possibly so.
If it had a significant horizontal speed, it could easily be fatal.
It isn't a good idea.
The days of being able to keep your car running with a flat bladed screwdriver, a spark plug wrench and a can of WD-40 are long gone.
Of course, vehicles these days typically don't need their carburetor adjusted every week, the spark plugs cleaned frequently and the distributed dried off every morning.
I for one, welcome our OBDC, fuel injected, distributorless overlords.
Seriously, cars are not that different than they were. You just need to update your knowledge, just like at your job. I used to be pretty good with Windows 95, but that knowledge is largely useless to me now. That doesn't mean I can't work on computers.
You'd be surprised. Look at the newer Ford vehicles. You'll feel right at home.
Oh let's see:
"Gulf" (Deep oil) - maybe one or two more 'Thunderhorse' size fields to be developed, but man, that's some expensive drilling rig you've got there. Costs money. Oh, and depletion rates for Deep Oil tend to be pretty fast compared with land based large fields.
"Shale Oil" - actually not all that much of shale oil, mostly gas. Lots of gas but again depletion rates seem to be awfully fast (maybe 20% per year). That's a problem since you have to keep drilling new wells on a good clip. And big horizontal frac jobs aren't cheap. And now we've glutted the natural gas market because everybody is hell bent on drilling something so the bottom dropped out on nat gas prices. So the drilling is slowing down.
"Tundra Oil" - mostly ANWAR which really doesn't amount to a hill of beans, volume wise. Maybe more in the Arctic Basin, maybe not but the majors haven't been all that arsed to spend a lot of money looking just yet. And if they find it, it's going to be expensive to produce.
And the list actually doesn't go on all that much. OPEC is producing flat out. Saudi Arabia is lying it's teeth off telling everyone they have lots of spare capacity but they're now redrilling their extremely old fields to push the very last of the heavy crude (that refineries don't really want) out the door. Funny, their 'reserves' haven't changed at all over the past decade. They're on record saying they'd like $80 / barrel oil but they can't bring their production up to anywhere near the volumes needed to get that. Funny that.
And there hasn't been a new refinery built in the US in the past thirty years. Not because of regulatory issues (most refineries have pre approved major expansion plans - you typically enlarge an oil refinery rather than build a new one). It's because demand is dropping. US refineries are IMPORTING crude and EXPORTING product.
US taxes are probably too low to support maintained on existing roads. They should be higher not lower. Do you like that last series of potholes you ran over?
And the list goes on (China / India pulling larger amounts of oil out of the market, the fact that the oil companies are scrambling after smaller fields, no more super giants, not to mention carbon production / global warming which of course, isn't really happening.
You can only keep your head in the tar sands for so long (and no, they're not going to help overmuch).
Afterburners take a lot of fuel. But the look neat and keep the tailgaters off your butt.
OK, thanks, here goes:
*** PLEASE FORWARD TO THE APPROPRIATE STAFF MEMBERS ****
Dear Sirs:
I have been requested by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company to contact you for assistance in resolving a matter. The Nigerian National Petroleum Company has recently concluded a large number of contracts for oil exploration in the sub-Sahara region. The contracts have immediately produced moneys equalling US$40,000,000. The Nigerian National Petroleum Company is desirous of oil exploration in other parts of the world, however, because of certain regulations of the Nigerian Government, it is unable to move these funds to another region.
You assistance is requested as a non-Nigerian citizen to assist the Nigerian National Petroleum Company, and also the Central Bank of Nigeria, in moving these funds out of Nigeria. If the funds can be transferred to your name, in your United States account, then you can forward the funds as directed by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company. In exchange for your accommodating services, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company would agree to allow you to retain 10%, or US$4 million of this amount.
However, to be a legitimate transferee of these moneys according to Nigerian law, you must presently be a depositor of at least US$100,000 in a Nigerian bank which is regulated by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
If it will be possible for you to assist us, we would be most grateful. We suggest that you meet with us in person in Lagos, and that during your visit I introduce you to the representatives of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company, as well as with certain officials of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
Please call me at your earliest convenience at 234-598-212-5419. Time is of the essence in this matter; very quickly the Nigerian Government will realize that the Central Bank is maintaining this amount on deposit, and attempt to levy certain depository taxes on it.
You
The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again.
Fortunately, not every business falls under the dark cloud of socialist regulatory agencies. Some companies run unfettered and free in the glorious economic wilderness that is the American capitalist system.
Stubborn old coot. Information wants to be free!
On the other hand, there was printing on *NIX before there was CUPS. There can still be printing in a post-CUPS era.
I doubt that. By the time CUPS goes away we should have direct-to-optic nerve printing down pat.
I've backpacked around a lot of countries and I'm telling you that it is not easy to keep a passport in perfect condition especially if you try to keep on yourself all the time (recommended in a lot of countries). Various factors that put a beating on it include rain season, keeping it your pocket, perspiration, tight jeans (lol), and much much more!
And have you had a problem? My current passport is pretty beat up for exactly those reasons. Nobody seems to care.
I'm pretty sure citizenship does entitle you to a passport.
Some restrictions apply.
YMMV. Past performance is no guarantee of future profits. Do not taunt happy fun ball.
What criminals? The panty bomber, who was caught by the passengers on the plane, no harm done? The TSA serves no actual purpose (OK, beyond being a jobs program). It does not make us safer, in any way; not even a little bit safer. So there's not even a "but I want to give up my rights, because I'm a frightened little child" argument to be made here - there's no tradeoff, just government imposition.
Do you think that those uniforms, the scanners, the badges, the epaulettes, the reams of paper, the computers necessary to print out the reams of paper and the people needed to program the computers needed to print out the reams of paper (OK, they probably came from India) aren't helping our economy grow larger and stronger?
This is the free market at work!
Why do you hate America?
When you travel outside the U.S., you need to accept that you may not be able to keep to your schedule, plan for it.
Christ, yes. I remain thoroughly amazed that people expect to fly half way around the world, do something and fly back all within a 2 hour window of time. Historically those trips (if they were possible at all) took months or years and almost always were subject to delays perhaps lasting weeks.
Slow down America! Enjoy the ride. The mess will still be there when you get back.
And he's basically an idiot. My passport got pretty well trashed after a camping / climbing trip in South America. When I got back the customs guy said 'looked like you had fun'. The RFID didn't work (or the reader, it wasn't clear), so he looked at the passport briefly and let me through.
I've had more trouble getting on the plane in Seattle.
I use a full spectrum monitor
So, you stare at a florescent light bulb all day.
You must be in management.....
It would be nice if they figured out what they planned on sequencing. TFS thinks protein, TFA says DNA. I'm inclined to go with the atter since sequencing protiens isnt all that entertaining.
But this doesn't really change things. You can't just drop some blood into this device and get a useable result - you have to purify the sample and know what you purified. It's not set up to do SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism analysis - which is what current forensic 'DNA sequencing really is). They don't talk much about the most important part - the software. A couple hundred thousand base pairs in a row is awfully hard to interpret.
Thety readsmy thoughits and it punches! But the DEVIL will see your card!!!! And he is late.
Wow. An encrypted Slashdot post. I wonder what it means.
I know this has been rated Troll by the slashdot gods, but I just have to say how COOL bird-based satellite antennas would be. All that needs to be done is to figure out the mini-motor system to keep them pointed in the right direction.
This would certainly give RFC 2549 a boost.
Pigeon net - could work well in crowded city environments.
Thanks Slashdot, for continuing your slide into sensationalist & misleading summaries.
In a world where we talk about holographic storage, holo decks and the Year of Linux on the Desktop, 10-20 years is 'soon'.
Assuming this technology pans out, why would you call it fake? Just like a lab-grown emerald, it is chemically identical to the natural source without all the damage to the landscape, infection(inclusion) exposure, or unnecessary cost. (sure it costs a lot now, it's an experiment. In a couple decades time, it'll clock in at a ten, maybe a hundredth of the cost of 'real-but-otherwise-inferior' meat off the killed organism.)
Because it won't be the same. They're not making a T-bone steak, they're making protein mush. It may well look and taste like something you get a McDonald's but it will be a far cry from 'real meat'.
And Guppy's comment is also relevant - it's unlikely to be cheaper than cows on a hoof.
And the incidence of colon/rectal cancers from red meat just happens to coincide with the rise of antibiotics and hormones used in cattle to produce bigger animals and to pre-treat diseases. It has nothing to do with the red meat itself, it has to do with what is allowed to happen to the meat before it gets to your dinner table. In that sense, you have to blame your government for allowing it and then blame them when you come down with cancer.
The incidence of colorectal cancers might just happen to coincide with a number of things - jet aircraft, iPhones, WalMart, Republican Presidents and Television. That doesn't mean much.
The data for these things is pretty weak - they're all observational studies with numerous biases. They certainly cannot be used to determine causality. Most of the red meat / cancer data comes from comparing crappy data from primitive vegetarian societies (who tend not to get screened for much of anything) with western societies that do get screened for various cancers and tend to live longer anyway. Coming up with a one to one correlation might be fun, but it's very unlikely to be accurate.
Have you seen the inside of some labs these days? Disgusting. Doritos everywhere. Chemicals piled up on racks. Blue LEDs.
You'd want to eat something that came out of that environment?
Not me. I'll go for stuff raised in manure any time.