So, with the context of this article, is it my right to be the victim of fraud and racketeering?
"Racketeering" is a generic term for "heading a criminal enterprise." Illegal gambling falls under that umbrella - but no one was forcing the gamblers to play, so I don't see anyone being hurt! The only entities being "defrauded" are the US and State governments, since they don't get their share of the profits of the operation in taxes. In that, I don't see how different this is from going to a casino in Europe and playing there. Either way, unless you win, there's no way the US is getting a tax profit. If you do win, I'd suspect that electronic winnings may actually be easier to track and tax than cash winnings.
This is nothing more than a money grab by the US government. Moral of the story: don't fly through the US if you do something to keep money away from its government!
With a good enough detection system, there is no such thing as borderline. It would detect the foreign substance, virus, or bacteria molecules and allow for immediate treatment the very day you noticed a symptom.
That would be way cool, if it scanned your entire body as a whole, not just blood, urine, or what have you. Some viruses and bacteria like to hang out at particular sites in the body (CSF, joint fluid, muscles, skin, liver, whatever) and testing other parts is going to give you little or no result. Also, unless the system is sentient or nearly so, it's only going to detect known baddies, or at least baddies that look similar to known problems.
1: Buy a petrol company.
2: Invent Hot Wheels(tm) that run on tiny gasoline engines...
3:....
4: PROFIT!!!
There are *already* model cars that run on 'gasoline.' Although the liquid fuel they use is more like a mixture of nitromethane, kerosine, and alcohol...
yeah it takes a real pro to prescribe antibiotics for a mystery illness.
(a) antibiotics don't treat Lyme immediately. It can take weeks to months to completely remove the bacteria from your body. Thus, the usual course of 10-days of antibiotics at a normal dosage would have done little or nothing (also, when you start antibiotics, Lyme often gets worse, not better).
(b) the Lyme symptoms are close to many autoimmune disorders, and thus can be mistaken for such. Thus, some doctors have prescribed steroids - corticosteroids lower immune responce, which is the exact opposite effect than the one desired.
It's pretty clear that better Lyme Disease tests would have been easier and more effective. Bring on the technology!
Absolutely, and I'm all for creating better blood tests, since the current generation of tests checks for a certain kind of antibody rather than the spirochaetes themselves. Problem is: not everyone produces enough of the antibody to be detectable:(
My point was quite different: that doctors must be first and foremost taught to *think* and also listen to patients' symptoms and use that data as part of their method of making a diagnosis. My point was that doctors shouldn't make the mistake of thinking that technology is infallable. Even if the Lyme Disease test is perfected (I hope so), there'll be a new test 42 years from now for Martian Contagious
Pseudo-Leproid Syndrome that is thought to be nearly 100% accurate, but turns out not to be 15 years after it is invented.
Well, my experience here in Edmonton Alberta (Canada's northernmost major city) is that RWD is rarely a good thing when you get a big dump of snow... this past winter we got a good meter in the span of a couple days, and every stuck vehicle I saw as a RWD. As for handling, on slick surfaces, the torque generated by the spinning rear tires can make them very difficult to drive safely, as they tend to cause the vehicle to swerve. But, in this case, I suppose YMMV...;)
I don't know - I've driven my Volvo 240 on some pretty bad days - 6" of unplowed snow still on the roads, topped with a nice layer of ice. it handled just fine with snow tires. The advantage of RWD was that you could play with the throttle to tighten up the turns, whereas a front-wheel drive car would just plow straight and not turn. Not that I was trying any rallye-type stuff in the snow: I was going 15-20 mph at most...
The keys to good RWD handling in snow are good snow tires and 50/50 weight distribution. The problem is that many older American RWD cars and current RWD trucks are front-heavy, so the rear doesn't have that much traction and slides around. Also, good traction control (that activates near the limit of adhesion rather than hobbling the car) is a plus and can be integrated into modern ECU's cheaply, using existing sensors.
Winter 2004-5. I was feeling like I had the flu all the time, sleepy all the time, dizzy, feverish, achy, back pain, had a remnant of a strange rash in two places on my body. Also a history of tick bites and living in NJ and PA basically my whole life. This went on for a few months (really more like a year beforehand, to a lesser extent). Went to two different doctors. They gave me a bunch of blood tests each time, and said that I had nothing wrong with me. Even the Lyme disease test came back negative.
Finally, went to a third doctor who gave me a different Lyme test which came back borderline (but still technically negative). She put me on antibiotics for a few months, and thanks to that treatment, I'm much better (not as well as before, but about 95%) now. It takes a good diagnostician to listen to the patient's symptoms, ask questions about his/her history, and *not* blindly look at test results.
I'm not saying that this equipment isn't important, just that there's still a place for talented physicians - those things are an adjunct, not a panacea.
"We think [open-source antivirus products] are fine. They've never been something that was really in the same class as ours, but we've always been big supporters of open-source antivirus," he said.
"Same class?" Meaning as slow to start, buggy, and bloated as McAfee products? Open-source developers should by thanking that guy for the compliment.
Some of us like to take our automobiles to the track on weekends and have fun with it. In that case, 2L engines don't really cut it.
Drive a 1990-1993 1.6L Mazda Miata or Toyota MR2 through some twisties. Then get back to me please... If you're talking about drag racing, there's no skill involved in that boring sport. Rev up, dump the clutch, and go straight. So boring.
The gearbox is computer controlled to keep the ratio between engine speed (rpm) and the effect needed optimally at all times, thereby keeping the engine speed as low as possible which in general results in up to 50-80% less consumption of fuel.
Sounds like a CVT (Continuously Variable Trans). CVTs are already 90% efficient and optimize RPMs. Adding another 10% efficiency will increase economy by another 10% or so, and the best CVTs get maybe 20% better mileage than a traditional automatic and are 5% better than a good manual gearbox. Another 10% gain won't cut consumption by 50-80%!
We know. I'm an offroader and an electrical engine would be great. Unfortunately they don't hold enough charge and aren't reliable enough. Try dumping one in water a few times and see what happens.:)
Try sucking water into a gasser or Diesel. It'll stall if you're lucky. If you're not, bent piston rods will be the least of your worries. Remember, kids, water doesn't compress...
A brushless permanent-magnet or AC induction electric motor can be made with no exposed electrically live parts. Assuming intact insulation and sealed bearings, it'll happily run under water.
Lightweight FWD cars can go through an amazing amount of snow with the right tires. If I was still in Minnesota at the same place, I'd have the same setup for myself and my wife for winter.
Just to pick a nit: Miata is lightweight, but *not* FWD. RWD cars can do the same as long as they have good snow tires and are well balanced front to rear. Some people would even argue that RWD is better in snow since accelerating doesn't affect the traction available at the steering (front) wheels.
Leave oil to the 18 wheelers that keep the country moving, that would drop the price to the point that the small operators can still move equipment around the country while a better way to make a fully electric 18 wheeler hits.
Agreed. And minimize the use of 18 wheelers at all by investing in electrified, improved, freight railroads. Instead of the massively long freight trains of today, use automated (maybe single-person-operated) short trains of self-powered freight cars that can quickly be switched and routed in the most efficient fashion. If the unions don't go for it, put forth the argument that more jobs will be created controlling, maintaining, and building the things than will be lost by a move away from "traditional" railroad practices.
Long-haul truck drivers? Too bad for some, but there'll always be some market for trucking heavy goods that need to be moved *right now*.
Local delivery can and should be done with either hybrid trucks or fully electric trucks (that can be recharged at each stop). The British have done this for the past 50 years or so with electric "milk floats", and battery tech has come a long way in that time.
Key word old. What's the gas mileage on that old wagon?
30 mpg highway in my case from an OLD Volvo 240DL. Not great; not horrible. If I'd have bought an old Mercedes diesel wagon (probably would have cost $2500 or so) I'd have been getting closer to 45 mpg.
... you can pick up a domestic wagon on the cheap that easily hauls 4 comfortably and has more cargo capacity than a tiny cr-v.
And gets 6-8 miles to the gallon.
Nah. I had a 1992 Chevy Caprice wagon for a while. The car got around 27 mpg on the highway, was big, comfortable, and moderately fast. Current car is a 1988 Volvo 240 wagon that can seat 4 and their crap easily, gets 28-30 mpg highway, but is sadly not even moderately fast:(
There's no way it makes sense to spend five extra digits (nevermind the mpg cost) on a vehicle just to haul a boat/atv/etc a handful of times per year.
Why is an SUV needed to tow a boat or ATV? The average ATV is probably under 1000 lb. Unless your boat is huge (and probably then you store it at the marina) it'll be under a tonne. My car (Volvo 240 wagon) is rated for a towing capacity of 3300 lb (actually, closer to 2500 lb if you observe safe tongue weight limits) and makes 30 mpg on the highway with a 5-speed manual gearbox. Someone just needs to produce a similar car today with a slightly more aerodynamic body and a Diesel engine - I'm sure that it could get 45 mpg while having the tow capacity of an SUV.
Closest thing I can think of is the 1998-2005 VW Passat 4Motion. Unfortunately, the diesels were front-drive-only, which isn't good for towing, and the new Passats have a crappy front-biased AWD system.
Cyclists and pedestrians are killed by motor vehicles at a weekly rate.
NYC has 8 million people. People will die in traffic accidents. Do you suppose that no cyclists and pedestrians get hit by cars in a given week in the state of New Jersey, which also has a population of about 8 mil? If anything, NYC drivers are more respectful of cyclists than arseholes in the suburps - all of the crap like honking, opening doors, and having bottled pegged at me, hasn't happened in NYC!
And the "middle class" has been completely eviscerated in NYC - a family of 3 with an income under $100,000 per year have to live like refugees.
Maybe in Manhattan this is true. Manhattan is not all of NYC. Also, incomes for the same type of work are substantially higher in NYC than in the rest of the region.
Try to do that in the city. Driving into the city is enough of a pain for a truck, but then getting to each store on the route is also tricky. You have the traffic, the lights, the parking, etc. Besides the gas it takes to drive around it becomes a logistics nightmare. Sure, you have multiple stores closer together in the city, but it probably takes longer to get to them.
This is why a city would be a perfect application for an electric truck or hybrid truck in electric mode. Distances are fairly short, so distance-on-a-charge isn't as much of an issue. And regenerative braking can recoup much of the energy ordinarily lost driving in stop-and-go traffic.
Sure, you may walk to the grocery store, but those groceries didn't grow in that store, they were shipped in.
Economy of scale: it costs less energy to ship in bulk than seperately. Plus, cities have shorter distances, so they'd be perfect for use of electric vehicles. Unload goods from an electric train at the freight terminal. Use an electric "milk float" type truck that can plug in to a ubiquitous charging station whenever parked and has regenerative braking to deliver the goods to customers. How to make the electricity? Nuclear, hydro, geothermal, wind, solar - plenty of "clean" options...
If city folk REALLY want to make a difference, it's easy. Turn the heat off, turn the airco off, turn the lights off...
Guess what? City folk usually live in smaller spaces than their suburpan brethren. Smaller spaces take less energy to heat and cool. And, by "city", I'm not necessarily meaning something as overwhelming as NYC. There are plenty of smaller towns/cities that are walkable, and where the average house isn't a 4000 sq. ft. McMansion.
The McMansions are a real problem because they're huge and often really cheaply built, making for poor efficiency. If houses were a bit smaller (~1200 sq ft avg) and incorporated architectural features that made them capable of passive climate control - areas of glass in the appropriate place to catch the sun in winter and passive air circuation in the summer. As I said before, we had a beach house in NJ with a broken furnace. I went there during the coldest part of winter in 1996 - it was about 10 deg. out for a few days and the indoor temperature didn't drop below 55 deg. The large glassed front porch caught the sun and trapped heat - the masonry floor stored that heat and radiated it evenly through the day. In summer? The windows could be opened or removed, and the house was pretty comfortable, even without A/C.
But don't go blaming women for the stupidity you mention. Half the time that's the fault of Zero Tolerance policies, which are imposed from above.
I'm not *blaming* - I'm stating that they're innately less able to control male children. (As in: a male child is less likely to listen to a female teacher.)
However, yes, in modern schools, it's almost entirely women until high school, and that's a bit late. It's not sexism, it's more that women like the job better. Schools have tried solutions like male priciples and male gym teachers, but I'm not seeing a lot of solutions.
Maybe the solution is gender segregated public schools from an early age. Also, after about 4th grade, there should be seperate classes for math/science, English, literature, etc - so that a teacher can teach his/her pupils what he is good at, rather than attempting to be a *generalized* teacher who knows little about the subject matter at hand. I know that hiring preferences can't be gender-based, but I suspect that men would be more likely to want to teach at boys' schools.
The error is in thinking that appeasing bloodthirsty savage brutes would really change things. They already have a long list of targets for unreasoning hatred.
To make it completely clear, I am no friend of those "brutes." In fact, regardless of the future of Israel, I advocate complete isolation of the Middle East by the United States until the support for terrorist organisations ceases. This means: no trade in oil (we can be self-sufficient with energy, fuck you very much), no foreign aid (had a natural disaster? too bad. starve.), and no *unprovoked* military intervention to prop up regimes. Terrorist attacks should, of course, be repaid in the same coin, with interest, unless the perpetrators and planners are voluntarily and speedily given up to US authorities.
During the height of the rule of Islamic law (middle ages), this meant that Jews in Muslim-occupied lands were forced to pay a special tax for being Jewish, forced to obey many laws of a religion they did not agree with, and they were also denied participation in government. It was a second-class citizen status very roughly equivalent to blacks in the Jim Crow south.
This is in comparison to polytheists who were forced to either convert (if they were ever even given the option) or lose their heads. Also, compare this to the Christian treatment of Jews during the Spanish Inquisition.
So, a nation "isn't needed". That sounds almost like a code word for justifying genocide against that nation.
Far from it (I'm Polish-American, of mixed Jewish and Catholic ancestry - both sides of my family went through the Holocaust.) I'm just stating that the state of Israel isn't necessary for the success or continuation of Judaism, and might in fact be detrimental since it serves as the focus of Muslim hatred.
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"Racketeering" is a generic term for "heading a criminal enterprise." Illegal gambling falls under that umbrella - but no one was forcing the gamblers to play, so I don't see anyone being hurt! The only entities being "defrauded" are the US and State governments, since they don't get their share of the profits of the operation in taxes. In that, I don't see how different this is from going to a casino in Europe and playing there. Either way, unless you win, there's no way the US is getting a tax profit. If you do win, I'd suspect that electronic winnings may actually be easier to track and tax than cash winnings.
This is nothing more than a money grab by the US government. Moral of the story: don't fly through the US if you do something to keep money away from its government!
-b.
That would be way cool, if it scanned your entire body as a whole, not just blood, urine, or what have you. Some viruses and bacteria like to hang out at particular sites in the body (CSF, joint fluid, muscles, skin, liver, whatever) and testing other parts is going to give you little or no result. Also, unless the system is sentient or nearly so, it's only going to detect known baddies, or at least baddies that look similar to known problems.
-b.
Well, I suppose you could beat someone over the head with one in a pinch... :g
-b.
There are *already* model cars that run on 'gasoline.' Although the liquid fuel they use is more like a mixture of nitromethane, kerosine, and alcohol...
-b.
(a) antibiotics don't treat Lyme immediately. It can take weeks to months to completely remove the bacteria from your body. Thus, the usual course of 10-days of antibiotics at a normal dosage would have done little or nothing (also, when you start antibiotics, Lyme often gets worse, not better).
(b) the Lyme symptoms are close to many autoimmune disorders, and thus can be mistaken for such. Thus, some doctors have prescribed steroids - corticosteroids lower immune responce, which is the exact opposite effect than the one desired.
-b.
Absolutely, and I'm all for creating better blood tests, since the current generation of tests checks for a certain kind of antibody rather than the spirochaetes themselves. Problem is: not everyone produces enough of the antibody to be detectable :(
My point was quite different: that doctors must be first and foremost taught to *think* and also listen to patients' symptoms and use that data as part of their method of making a diagnosis. My point was that doctors shouldn't make the mistake of thinking that technology is infallable. Even if the Lyme Disease test is perfected (I hope so), there'll be a new test 42 years from now for Martian Contagious Pseudo-Leproid Syndrome that is thought to be nearly 100% accurate, but turns out not to be 15 years after it is invented.
-b.
I don't know - I've driven my Volvo 240 on some pretty bad days - 6" of unplowed snow still on the roads, topped with a nice layer of ice. it handled just fine with snow tires. The advantage of RWD was that you could play with the throttle to tighten up the turns, whereas a front-wheel drive car would just plow straight and not turn. Not that I was trying any rallye-type stuff in the snow: I was going 15-20 mph at most...
The keys to good RWD handling in snow are good snow tires and 50/50 weight distribution. The problem is that many older American RWD cars and current RWD trucks are front-heavy, so the rear doesn't have that much traction and slides around. Also, good traction control (that activates near the limit of adhesion rather than hobbling the car) is a plus and can be integrated into modern ECU's cheaply, using existing sensors.
-b.
Finally, went to a third doctor who gave me a different Lyme test which came back borderline (but still technically negative). She put me on antibiotics for a few months, and thanks to that treatment, I'm much better (not as well as before, but about 95%) now. It takes a good diagnostician to listen to the patient's symptoms, ask questions about his/her history, and *not* blindly look at test results.
I'm not saying that this equipment isn't important, just that there's still a place for talented physicians - those things are an adjunct, not a panacea.
-b.
"Same class?" Meaning as slow to start, buggy, and bloated as McAfee products? Open-source developers should by thanking that guy for the compliment.
-b,
Drive a 1990-1993 1.6L Mazda Miata or Toyota MR2 through some twisties. Then get back to me please... If you're talking about drag racing, there's no skill involved in that boring sport. Rev up, dump the clutch, and go straight. So boring.
Thanks, -b.
Sounds like a CVT (Continuously Variable Trans). CVTs are already 90% efficient and optimize RPMs. Adding another 10% efficiency will increase economy by another 10% or so, and the best CVTs get maybe 20% better mileage than a traditional automatic and are 5% better than a good manual gearbox. Another 10% gain won't cut consumption by 50-80%!
-b.
Try sucking water into a gasser or Diesel. It'll stall if you're lucky. If you're not, bent piston rods will be the least of your worries. Remember, kids, water doesn't compress...
A brushless permanent-magnet or AC induction electric motor can be made with no exposed electrically live parts. Assuming intact insulation and sealed bearings, it'll happily run under water.
-b.
Just to pick a nit: Miata is lightweight, but *not* FWD. RWD cars can do the same as long as they have good snow tires and are well balanced front to rear. Some people would even argue that RWD is better in snow since accelerating doesn't affect the traction available at the steering (front) wheels.
-b.
Long-haul truck drivers? Too bad for some, but there'll always be some market for trucking heavy goods that need to be moved *right now*.
Local delivery can and should be done with either hybrid trucks or fully electric trucks (that can be recharged at each stop). The British have done this for the past 50 years or so with electric "milk floats", and battery tech has come a long way in that time.
-b.
30 mpg highway in my case from an OLD Volvo 240DL. Not great; not horrible. If I'd have bought an old Mercedes diesel wagon (probably would have cost $2500 or so) I'd have been getting closer to 45 mpg.
-b.
And gets 6-8 miles to the gallon.
Nah. I had a 1992 Chevy Caprice wagon for a while. The car got around 27 mpg on the highway, was big, comfortable, and moderately fast. Current car is a 1988 Volvo 240 wagon that can seat 4 and their crap easily, gets 28-30 mpg highway, but is sadly not even moderately fast :(
-b.
Taurus is out of production as of 2006, in favor of the boat-like Ford 500...
-b.
Why is an SUV needed to tow a boat or ATV? The average ATV is probably under 1000 lb. Unless your boat is huge (and probably then you store it at the marina) it'll be under a tonne. My car (Volvo 240 wagon) is rated for a towing capacity of 3300 lb (actually, closer to 2500 lb if you observe safe tongue weight limits) and makes 30 mpg on the highway with a 5-speed manual gearbox. Someone just needs to produce a similar car today with a slightly more aerodynamic body and a Diesel engine - I'm sure that it could get 45 mpg while having the tow capacity of an SUV.
Closest thing I can think of is the 1998-2005 VW Passat 4Motion. Unfortunately, the diesels were front-drive-only, which isn't good for towing, and the new Passats have a crappy front-biased AWD system.
-b.
NYC has 8 million people. People will die in traffic accidents. Do you suppose that no cyclists and pedestrians get hit by cars in a given week in the state of New Jersey, which also has a population of about 8 mil? If anything, NYC drivers are more respectful of cyclists than arseholes in the suburps - all of the crap like honking, opening doors, and having bottled pegged at me, hasn't happened in NYC!
And the "middle class" has been completely eviscerated in NYC - a family of 3 with an income under $100,000 per year have to live like refugees.
Maybe in Manhattan this is true. Manhattan is not all of NYC. Also, incomes for the same type of work are substantially higher in NYC than in the rest of the region.
-b.
This is why a city would be a perfect application for an electric truck or hybrid truck in electric mode. Distances are fairly short, so distance-on-a-charge isn't as much of an issue. And regenerative braking can recoup much of the energy ordinarily lost driving in stop-and-go traffic.
-b.
Economy of scale: it costs less energy to ship in bulk than seperately. Plus, cities have shorter distances, so they'd be perfect for use of electric vehicles. Unload goods from an electric train at the freight terminal. Use an electric "milk float" type truck that can plug in to a ubiquitous charging station whenever parked and has regenerative braking to deliver the goods to customers. How to make the electricity? Nuclear, hydro, geothermal, wind, solar - plenty of "clean" options...
If city folk REALLY want to make a difference, it's easy. Turn the heat off, turn the airco off, turn the lights off...
Guess what? City folk usually live in smaller spaces than their suburpan brethren. Smaller spaces take less energy to heat and cool. And, by "city", I'm not necessarily meaning something as overwhelming as NYC. There are plenty of smaller towns/cities that are walkable, and where the average house isn't a 4000 sq. ft. McMansion.
The McMansions are a real problem because they're huge and often really cheaply built, making for poor efficiency. If houses were a bit smaller (~1200 sq ft avg) and incorporated architectural features that made them capable of passive climate control - areas of glass in the appropriate place to catch the sun in winter and passive air circuation in the summer. As I said before, we had a beach house in NJ with a broken furnace. I went there during the coldest part of winter in 1996 - it was about 10 deg. out for a few days and the indoor temperature didn't drop below 55 deg. The large glassed front porch caught the sun and trapped heat - the masonry floor stored that heat and radiated it evenly through the day. In summer? The windows could be opened or removed, and the house was pretty comfortable, even without A/C.
-b.
I'm not *blaming* - I'm stating that they're innately less able to control male children. (As in: a male child is less likely to listen to a female teacher.)
However, yes, in modern schools, it's almost entirely women until high school, and that's a bit late. It's not sexism, it's more that women like the job better. Schools have tried solutions like male priciples and male gym teachers, but I'm not seeing a lot of solutions.
Maybe the solution is gender segregated public schools from an early age. Also, after about 4th grade, there should be seperate classes for math/science, English, literature, etc - so that a teacher can teach his/her pupils what he is good at, rather than attempting to be a *generalized* teacher who knows little about the subject matter at hand. I know that hiring preferences can't be gender-based, but I suspect that men would be more likely to want to teach at boys' schools.
-b.
To make it completely clear, I am no friend of those "brutes." In fact, regardless of the future of Israel, I advocate complete isolation of the Middle East by the United States until the support for terrorist organisations ceases. This means: no trade in oil (we can be self-sufficient with energy, fuck you very much), no foreign aid (had a natural disaster? too bad. starve.), and no *unprovoked* military intervention to prop up regimes. Terrorist attacks should, of course, be repaid in the same coin, with interest, unless the perpetrators and planners are voluntarily and speedily given up to US authorities.
-b.
This is in comparison to polytheists who were forced to either convert (if they were ever even given the option) or lose their heads. Also, compare this to the Christian treatment of Jews during the Spanish Inquisition.
So, a nation "isn't needed". That sounds almost like a code word for justifying genocide against that nation.
Far from it (I'm Polish-American, of mixed Jewish and Catholic ancestry - both sides of my family went through the Holocaust.) I'm just stating that the state of Israel isn't necessary for the success or continuation of Judaism, and might in fact be detrimental since it serves as the focus of Muslim hatred.
-b.
I suspect that the length of a passport number or the structure might identify the passport holder as an American...
-b.