The purpose of the police isn't to stop crime anyway. (Well, at least in the US... the Supreme court ruled that law enforcement is under no obligation to stop a crime in progress. Sure the ruling was made to prevent cops who don't stop a crime from being sued, but it sure set a nice precedent.) So yeah, I could conceivably be robbed, beaten, raped, and murdered in full view of a camera.
But you know what? Chances are, at least, that the culprit will at least be caught. Therein lies the value of the cameras. Seriously, it's pretty obvious from the nightly news that cameras in convenience stores don't stop robberies, but they do sometimes help to catch the guy.
I'm of the opinion that all public spaces should be covered by cameras. The more cameras, the greater the coverage. The more cameras, the less time a human can have an eyeball on any particular monitor, so you actually get more privacy. Again, it's never been about stopping a crime - in order to stop a crime you'd need a cop in that area as it's happening, not a cop in a monitoring station 20 miles away.
I figure, if you can at least cover public areas, then when you're in that dark non-covered alley getting beaten by your pimp, you could at least run toward downtown so the cops have a nice video of it. Maybe the pimp walk will set off the "funny walk" detector...
Maybe the'll put those little Georgia Tech nanogenerators in the soldier's boots. No problem getting kinetic energy from there. O suppose it would be smarter to put it in a pack frame though. Pity, it would seem like those shoe commercials they played; whose company I cannot remember (but it had kangaroos).
Hey now, don't give him crap. He just doesn't know how to use google to actually look up the thing he is ranting about. Heck, the very first search page turns up Tesla Motors, the REVA, and freakin' Global Electric Motorcars, which is a Chrysler company, or even the upcoming Chevy Volt.
Maybe he thinks those electric cars suck (it's ok, a lot of other people think that too - but the Roadster and the Volt look pretty cool to me), he'd rather have a electric Civic or something like that. It's too bad there is a conspiracy to keep people from converting their existing cars to electricity. Oh, wait, no there isn't.
Google is the friend of the ranter... it keeps you from looking retarded.
Ummm, actually I don't believe that you would buy one immediately. Why would I question your statement? Because there are already companies that make electric cars and yet you complain that there aren't any.
I could also go into the economics of why one person saying they would buy an electric car doesn't help a society that works off of the principles of mass production, but I would just bore myself to sleep. Rather, I suggest that you (and all of these other people who would like, totally get an electric car, fer sure! could - and I'm just putting it out there - buy an electric car.
Or maybe you want to buy one in a different store, like Wal Mart? In which case, I can highly recommend this high-tech model.
Duh.. loud stereos hurt your ears. Therefore you need louder a stereo after a few months. It's an ever increasing cycle, with the express purpose of annoying you.
Also, loud music is fun.
Slashdot: news for nerds, commentary by geriatrics.
I've always wondered how that used to work. My step-father's high school had an indoor firing range; and people brought their guns to school on the bus. I think they had to turn them into the range master prior to going to homeroom. They obviously don't do that now, but I am curious when and how the policy change occurred.
Of course this was in rural Georgia (Athens-Clarke County) sometime in the 50's.
Anyhoo, it's not that you don't have a right to bear arms as a minor, just that those rights are severely restricted. And ownership is usually flat out (not that it kept any of my friends from "owning" a.22 or maybe a.410).
They have this already, actually in a number of different configurations. The most common, I suppose, would be the XM992 Infrared Illuminant Cartridge. It works just like the old white phosphorus flares. There was an episode of FutureWeapons where they demonstrated how this looks with and without night vision goggles. (The grenade launcher was the "future weapon", not the flare...)
Actually, the reason that locomotives use generators rather than directly linking the engine to the wheels is due to something that would have to be MUCH more complicated than the generator itself (they don't really have 2000 lbs of batteries, the excess energy is diffused as heat through a grid). That would be the 65 speed transmission that would have to be there otherwise. So, its not so much an issue of efficiency (though it does allow a smaller engine) than it is an issue of torque. When trying to overcome inertia for a 60,000 ton train, it pays to have a heavy engine.
I pity the guy operating the clutch on that thing...
No, he's just saying that the religious will reproduce more and that those kids will be unlikely to have a proper education - thus continuing the cycle.
In his latest book, Richard Dawkins offers up his own interpretation of this. Using the analogy of a moth flying into the flame (seeing this as a normally useful trait - following the light of stars for navigation - that has been 'short-circuited' by fire) he attempted to offer an explanation of a 'short-circuited' human trait tat may lend itself to religion.
His best bet was that it is an evolutionary advantage for children to believe what elders tell them without proof. Kids that believe that [x] berry is poisonous; without testing it themselves; tend to survive more than kid who don't. It may be a little pompous to suggest that religion is popular because people have evolved to be gullible - but it is certainly entertaining.
Actually, my municipality has electronics recycling, and they are really good about it. Just bring it over to the landfill, pay them $7.00, and they'll throw it away for you!
I'm not kidding... somehow you can throw it away for free (well, it's considered part of your waste removal fee), but if you want to recycle it you either have to pay for it, or hold-on to it for the free recycle day event that happens every 6 months. They're so good at advertizing these events too, signs up all over the place, if you consider all over the place to mean less than 2 miles from the landfill.
So I just leave all of it sitting in my yard. (joke)
Yes, but batteries can be recycled, and the 10 or 20 railroad cars of coal that you would use due to coal generation at the power plant can't.
Why does everyone seem to forget that?
Maybe you meant industrial waste in the production of batteries? Humm, I don't know about that at all, I'm not a chemist. Anyone?
I've always wondered why the solar market hasn't tried to tie into the hydrogen market. I've always though the solid state hydrogen batteries (the kind that attach the hydrogen in a solid matrix rather than a gas) could be installed in a home and refilled by electrolyzing water powered by a solar cell... Maybe you could tap off of it and use the extra to fuel your car. For that matter, why hasn't anyone thought to put a solar cell on a hydrogen car? If you ran out of 'gas' in the desert, you could pee into the tank and wait a couple of hours. Then drink the exhaust:-)
This information is usualy developed at the university level at this time - therefore, the amino acid signature for viruses are currently published in bioinformatic journals. A friend of mine is working on his CS doctorate, writing a sequencer that will sequence a virus (Hep C if you care) in under a week. Plus a bunch of other crap that blows my mind.
In this case, not only is the sequence published, so is the program. So if you happen to have a million dollar sequencer, you could do this yourself:)
Hee hee... that's funny, despite the fact that it's wrong.
Frame of reference is an idea that actually had it's beginnings in Einstein's work. The idea being, can a person determine the absolute velocity of [something]. For example, from the frame of reference of the earth, my car goes 65 miles per hour. From the frame of reference of the sun, my car goes 2.9 km/s (because the earth moves that fast around the sun.
Why is this important? Well, Einstein used this to question why the speed of light seemed constant despite your frame of reference. On a ball of rock orbiting the sun at 2.9 km/s, the speed of light is c. On the surface of the sun (which has no orbital velocity in comparison to the earth), the speed of light is still c. From the frame of reference of the center of the galaxy (where the sun has extremely high relative velocity - which I'm too lazy to look up) the speed of light is still c.
Which means that, either the speed of light somehow knows how fast you are going and adjusts itself (which is, of course, retarded) or there is something about spacetime that makes it seem that way. Hence the general theory of relativity was developed to explain it. (Which, in case you are curious, states that the ruler that you are using lenghtens or shortens depending on your "frame of reference")
Once I was driving into work in the morning, doing my normal thing when I get a call from my wife. Apparently, I had called her by accident and she wanted to thank me for singing to her - and her coworkers - on my drive in.
That day, I wished I had had a flip phone. My singing along to Junior Kelly surely doesn't sound all that great.
The standard recording contact typically states that a) 100% of the costs of the tour is paid by the artist; and b) the artist gets 50% of the profit (not including merchandising - which they typically don't get any part of).
Not surprisingly, since the profit margin is so low on concerts (compared to recordings), most tours actually lose money. At least from the position of the artist. The recording company makes a ton of money off the merchandising and the lack of any up-front costs for them.
The RIAA is nothing but a glorified protection racket, especially when you're a new band. If you expect to make any money as an artist, you had better be extremely popular, popular enough to hire a lawyer to negotiate your second contract, cause you sure ain't making money on the first contract. Meanwhile that record company is making a fortune with their higher royality percentage and their recoupables.
There is a reason that Vanilla Ice isn't rich right now, and it's not that he spent it all either...it's because he likely got a nickel for each CD sold, and had to use the proceeds from that to pay for his tours. All the while the record company pockets $1.50 from each album, and still gets the merchandising proceeds.
No offense meant to bands (I can't play an instrument and respect those who can) but this isn't going to get any better until bands educate themselves about the business end of the industry. You can get a nickel from each $19 album sale, or get $3.50 from a $5 album sale (by doing it themselves). Hire a geek to handle the digital side of it, hire an accountant to handle the money, and you've got your own record company that isn't there to screw you. Geeks will work for groupies (and I imagine, so will accountants).
I completely agree with the ban on using Wikipedia for college level work. First, since it changes, you can't have anyone go back and continue your research. Secondly, if people in college are actually using wikipedia or an encyclopedia to get their research information, they need to be ashamed of themselves.
The fact that they even need to ban it says a lot about the current state of academics. Wkipedia is a great tool for elementary school reports, or personal learning, but it is NOT a college level resource and should never attempt to be. Personally, were I a history professor, I would flunk every single person who listed Wikipedia as a reference. Higher education is part and parcel with research, which should actually take a bit of work. Otherwise, why dig through old ruins trying to find new papryus scrolls, when you could just google it.
Actually, Air Marshalls use different ammunition than a soldier or peace officer would use - for the very reasons that you cite. Rather than ball or hollowpoint (read: solid) ammunition, they use frangible or Glazer ammunition.
Glazer ammunition are (basically) tiny BB's suspended in a gel - which individually don't have the inertia to penetrate an aircraft. They have such low penetration that they can be stopped by a wallet. Frangible ammunition is, well...frangible, and simply turns to dust after striking a solid surface.
So dead pilots from Stormtrooper-stylee shooting, isn't really an issue.
I would also point you toward the MythBusters episode on explosive decompression. It's not as explosive as the movies would have you believe.
On another note, I always thought that they had a good idea when they considered arming the pilots themselves. When you realize that 95% of airline pilots are ex-military, it seemed a good compromise. Never could understand why it failed...
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The purpose of the police isn't to stop crime anyway. (Well, at least in the US... the Supreme court ruled that law enforcement is under no obligation to stop a crime in progress. Sure the ruling was made to prevent cops who don't stop a crime from being sued, but it sure set a nice precedent.) So yeah, I could conceivably be robbed, beaten, raped, and murdered in full view of a camera.
But you know what? Chances are, at least, that the culprit will at least be caught. Therein lies the value of the cameras. Seriously, it's pretty obvious from the nightly news that cameras in convenience stores don't stop robberies, but they do sometimes help to catch the guy.
I'm of the opinion that all public spaces should be covered by cameras. The more cameras, the greater the coverage. The more cameras, the less time a human can have an eyeball on any particular monitor, so you actually get more privacy. Again, it's never been about stopping a crime - in order to stop a crime you'd need a cop in that area as it's happening, not a cop in a monitoring station 20 miles away.
I figure, if you can at least cover public areas, then when you're in that dark non-covered alley getting beaten by your pimp, you could at least run toward downtown so the cops have a nice video of it. Maybe the pimp walk will set off the "funny walk" detector...
Maybe the'll put those little Georgia Tech nanogenerators in the soldier's boots. No problem getting kinetic energy from there. O suppose it would be smarter to put it in a pack frame though. Pity, it would seem like those shoe commercials they played; whose company I cannot remember (but it had kangaroos).
Not that I'm normally this deep or anything...
:)
The nice thing about progress is that everything is a small step toward that.
It's the period between then and now that you have to worry about. Star Trek had 2 more World Wars before Cochrine developed the warp drive.
Being from Atlanta, I have to wonder how Canadians handle snow at all :)
Honestly though, I'd have to think that they would work poorly in the snow. At least based upon the EV1 only being offered in the southwest - supposedly due to poor performance in cold weather "GM's internal research showed very clearly that the EV1's already perilously low range would be reduced by as much as 50% for use in cold-weather states". Maybe you edited Wikipedia to say that - you're part of the conspiracy!
Hey now, don't give him crap. He just doesn't know how to use google to actually look up the thing he is ranting about. Heck, the very first search page turns up Tesla Motors, the REVA, and freakin' Global Electric Motorcars, which is a Chrysler company, or even the upcoming Chevy Volt.
Maybe he thinks those electric cars suck (it's ok, a lot of other people think that too - but the Roadster and the Volt look pretty cool to me), he'd rather have a electric Civic or something like that. It's too bad there is a conspiracy to keep people from converting their existing cars to electricity. Oh, wait, no there isn't.
Google is the friend of the ranter... it keeps you from looking retarded.
Ummm, actually I don't believe that you would buy one immediately. Why would I question your statement? Because there are already companies that make electric cars and yet you complain that there aren't any.
I could also go into the economics of why one person saying they would buy an electric car doesn't help a society that works off of the principles of mass production, but I would just bore myself to sleep. Rather, I suggest that you (and all of these other people who would like, totally get an electric car, fer sure! could - and I'm just putting it out there - buy an electric car.
Or maybe you want to buy one in a different store, like Wal Mart? In which case, I can highly recommend this high-tech model.
Duh.. loud stereos hurt your ears. Therefore you need louder a stereo after a few months. It's an ever increasing cycle, with the express purpose of annoying you.
Also, loud music is fun.
Slashdot: news for nerds, commentary by geriatrics.
I've always wondered how that used to work. My step-father's high school had an indoor firing range; and people brought their guns to school on the bus. I think they had to turn them into the range master prior to going to homeroom. They obviously don't do that now, but I am curious when and how the policy change occurred.
.22 or maybe a .410).
Of course this was in rural Georgia (Athens-Clarke County) sometime in the 50's.
Anyhoo, it's not that you don't have a right to bear arms as a minor, just that those rights are severely restricted. And ownership is usually flat out (not that it kept any of my friends from "owning" a
Sure, it's constant, but it does shift.
We don't need microphones, what we need are speakers. This would bring construction worker jeers to a whole new level!
"Hey baby, you walking so fine you set the alarm off. Why don't you come and see me? I'm 38 blocks north."
They have this already, actually in a number of different configurations. The most common, I suppose, would be the XM992 Infrared Illuminant Cartridge. It works just like the old white phosphorus flares. There was an episode of FutureWeapons where they demonstrated how this looks with and without night vision goggles. (The grenade launcher was the "future weapon", not the flare...)
Ummm, because it was funny?
Actually, the reason that locomotives use generators rather than directly linking the engine to the wheels is due to something that would have to be MUCH more complicated than the generator itself (they don't really have 2000 lbs of batteries, the excess energy is diffused as heat through a grid). That would be the 65 speed transmission that would have to be there otherwise. So, its not so much an issue of efficiency (though it does allow a smaller engine) than it is an issue of torque. When trying to overcome inertia for a 60,000 ton train, it pays to have a heavy engine.
I pity the guy operating the clutch on that thing...
No, he's just saying that the religious will reproduce more and that those kids will be unlikely to have a proper education - thus continuing the cycle.
In his latest book, Richard Dawkins offers up his own interpretation of this. Using the analogy of a moth flying into the flame (seeing this as a normally useful trait - following the light of stars for navigation - that has been 'short-circuited' by fire) he attempted to offer an explanation of a 'short-circuited' human trait tat may lend itself to religion.
His best bet was that it is an evolutionary advantage for children to believe what elders tell them without proof. Kids that believe that [x] berry is poisonous; without testing it themselves; tend to survive more than kid who don't. It may be a little pompous to suggest that religion is popular because people have evolved to be gullible - but it is certainly entertaining.
Actually, my municipality has electronics recycling, and they are really good about it. Just bring it over to the landfill, pay them $7.00, and they'll throw it away for you!
I'm not kidding... somehow you can throw it away for free (well, it's considered part of your waste removal fee), but if you want to recycle it you either have to pay for it, or hold-on to it for the free recycle day event that happens every 6 months. They're so good at advertizing these events too, signs up all over the place, if you consider all over the place to mean less than 2 miles from the landfill.
So I just leave all of it sitting in my yard. (joke)
Yes, but batteries can be recycled, and the 10 or 20 railroad cars of coal that you would use due to coal generation at the power plant can't.
:-)
Why does everyone seem to forget that?
Maybe you meant industrial waste in the production of batteries? Humm, I don't know about that at all, I'm not a chemist. Anyone?
I've always wondered why the solar market hasn't tried to tie into the hydrogen market. I've always though the solid state hydrogen batteries (the kind that attach the hydrogen in a solid matrix rather than a gas) could be installed in a home and refilled by electrolyzing water powered by a solar cell... Maybe you could tap off of it and use the extra to fuel your car. For that matter, why hasn't anyone thought to put a solar cell on a hydrogen car? If you ran out of 'gas' in the desert, you could pee into the tank and wait a couple of hours. Then drink the exhaust
This information is usualy developed at the university level at this time - therefore, the amino acid signature for viruses are currently published in bioinformatic journals. A friend of mine is working on his CS doctorate, writing a sequencer that will sequence a virus (Hep C if you care) in under a week. Plus a bunch of other crap that blows my mind.
:)
In this case, not only is the sequence published, so is the program. So if you happen to have a million dollar sequencer, you could do this yourself
Of course, now the terrorists know what genes to add to that retro virus they're working on to give us all diabetes.
And you thought it was all those donuts...
Hee hee... that's funny, despite the fact that it's wrong.
Frame of reference is an idea that actually had it's beginnings in Einstein's work. The idea being, can a person determine the absolute velocity of [something]. For example, from the frame of reference of the earth, my car goes 65 miles per hour. From the frame of reference of the sun, my car goes 2.9 km/s (because the earth moves that fast around the sun.
Why is this important? Well, Einstein used this to question why the speed of light seemed constant despite your frame of reference. On a ball of rock orbiting the sun at 2.9 km/s, the speed of light is c. On the surface of the sun (which has no orbital velocity in comparison to the earth), the speed of light is still c. From the frame of reference of the center of the galaxy (where the sun has extremely high relative velocity - which I'm too lazy to look up) the speed of light is still c.
Which means that, either the speed of light somehow knows how fast you are going and adjusts itself (which is, of course, retarded) or there is something about spacetime that makes it seem that way. Hence the general theory of relativity was developed to explain it. (Which, in case you are curious, states that the ruler that you are using lenghtens or shortens depending on your "frame of reference")
So, it's actually quite important.
Once I was driving into work in the morning, doing my normal thing when I get a call from my wife. Apparently, I had called her by accident and she wanted to thank me for singing to her - and her coworkers - on my drive in.
That day, I wished I had had a flip phone. My singing along to Junior Kelly surely doesn't sound all that great.
The standard recording contact typically states that a) 100% of the costs of the tour is paid by the artist; and b) the artist gets 50% of the profit (not including merchandising - which they typically don't get any part of).
Not surprisingly, since the profit margin is so low on concerts (compared to recordings), most tours actually lose money. At least from the position of the artist. The recording company makes a ton of money off the merchandising and the lack of any up-front costs for them.
The RIAA is nothing but a glorified protection racket, especially when you're a new band. If you expect to make any money as an artist, you had better be extremely popular, popular enough to hire a lawyer to negotiate your second contract, cause you sure ain't making money on the first contract. Meanwhile that record company is making a fortune with their higher royality percentage and their recoupables.
There is a reason that Vanilla Ice isn't rich right now, and it's not that he spent it all either...it's because he likely got a nickel for each CD sold, and had to use the proceeds from that to pay for his tours. All the while the record company pockets $1.50 from each album, and still gets the merchandising proceeds.
No offense meant to bands (I can't play an instrument and respect those who can) but this isn't going to get any better until bands educate themselves about the business end of the industry. You can get a nickel from each $19 album sale, or get $3.50 from a $5 album sale (by doing it themselves). Hire a geek to handle the digital side of it, hire an accountant to handle the money, and you've got your own record company that isn't there to screw you. Geeks will work for groupies (and I imagine, so will accountants).
Some people are allergic to aspirin...
I completely agree with the ban on using Wikipedia for college level work. First, since it changes, you can't have anyone go back and continue your research. Secondly, if people in college are actually using wikipedia or an encyclopedia to get their research information, they need to be ashamed of themselves.
The fact that they even need to ban it says a lot about the current state of academics. Wkipedia is a great tool for elementary school reports, or personal learning, but it is NOT a college level resource and should never attempt to be. Personally, were I a history professor, I would flunk every single person who listed Wikipedia as a reference. Higher education is part and parcel with research, which should actually take a bit of work. Otherwise, why dig through old ruins trying to find new papryus scrolls, when you could just google it.
Actually, Air Marshalls use different ammunition than a soldier or peace officer would use - for the very reasons that you cite. Rather than ball or hollowpoint (read: solid) ammunition, they use frangible or Glazer ammunition.
Glazer ammunition are (basically) tiny BB's suspended in a gel - which individually don't have the inertia to penetrate an aircraft. They have such low penetration that they can be stopped by a wallet. Frangible ammunition is, well...frangible, and simply turns to dust after striking a solid surface.
So dead pilots from Stormtrooper-stylee shooting, isn't really an issue.
I would also point you toward the MythBusters episode on explosive decompression. It's not as explosive as the movies would have you believe.
On another note, I always thought that they had a good idea when they considered arming the pilots themselves. When you realize that 95% of airline pilots are ex-military, it seemed a good compromise. Never could understand why it failed...