The electrical wires in your house are insulated in plastic. Fortunately it's PVC, not PE, but if the bacteria mutates again, things could get way too interesting.
The Fall of Cities in the Ringworld books comes to mind. At least ours are not levitating on superconductors.
"If everyone had their basic survival guaranteed through an unconditional minimum wage, the work market would be driven by individual initiatives to create pretty things and to improve from that basic status by pursuing luxury."
But the taxes needed to pay for the universal basic income would prevent anyone from improving from that basic status. Now Krugman stated a few years ago that the well-off were status-crazed workaholics who would keep on working even at 100% marginal rates. I don't agree, but then I am not a workaholic.
Another side effect is that you would have to shut the border to the point North Korea looks like a free trade area.
On the other side, as the robots take over, and I firmly believe that will keep happening, we will have to come up with something. Even on the right wing people are starting to mutter that it would be cheaper to have a universal basic income than 30 or 40 separate government programs doling out benefits. And there are voices on the Left who don't like it because (as usual) they don't trust people to be able to look out for themselves; they need government help to select what is in their own best interests (as determined by that ever benevolent government). See Bloomberg and his big soft drink ban. The overlapping government agencies ensure there is meticulous and continuous supervision of the rabble.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out over the next 20 years.
"And the main reason for this is simply that there are not enough people who have enough money to become consumers."
True only to a point. Then diminishing returns sets in as well. For instance, I could buy a camper, but I have little free time I could use to go camping. I could buy a new TV, but it would be only marginally better than the old one. I am sitting on brand new chair, which was bought because the old one wore out. The same thing happened to the dishwasher last month.
As far as material goods go, I'm down to basic replacement, and the increasingly desperate screeching of "BUY! BUY! BUY!" is having ever less effect. Buy what? For what purpose? Large blocks of Time, which I actually could use, are not for sale at any price.
"We've been doing unintentional geoengineering for hundreds of years now, why would some intentional geoengineering be so bad?"
Sooner or later, we are going to have to start geoengineering. The ice age cycles are not over, and if you think the trouble from 4 C of warming is bad, you might want to look at a map reconstruction from 20,000 years ago. The ice goes down to Long Island, and sea level is 300 feet lower.
"(v) while hunting if the hunting is legal in all places where the person to whom the firearm is transferred possesses the firearm."
If you and the neighbor live in the country, this might cover you. But if you possess the firearm in a town anywhere along the way, you are in violation because it's not legal to hunt in town.
I merely read what is written in plain English.
Even under your interpretation, you would also not be covered the day before hunting season opened, or the day after the season ends, because the hunting is not legal at those times.
Either this bill is very badly drafted, OR it is intentionally designed to entrap as many people as possible. I'll accept either interpretation. But if the former, then I expect that you will support amendments in the legislature to clarify the intent of the temporary transfer section.
This would be an acceptable amendment.
(v) From one week before to one week after a hunting season appropriate for the transferred firearm provided the person to whom the firearm is transferred has completed all training and holds all licenses or permits required for such hunting, provided that any temporary transfer allowed by this subsection is permitted only if the person to whom the firearm is transferred is not prohibited from possessing firearms under state or federal law; or
This would also fix the problem in section 4 where you can loan your 17 year old a deer rifle, but you can't once she's 18. Although you could gift it to her, but if she gifts it right back at the end of the season was it a bona-fide gift? I wouldn't care to argue point that in court, but there may be precedent given the Potlatch culture.
Interesting comparison; "gun control means you don't get to own a gun if you have a criminal record" True in USA as well. "you don't get to own a gun unless you first learned to use it properly," Proper safety classes are encouraged, but not required. "you don't get to own a gun unless you have demonstrated knowledge of the relevant laws" Required for a hunting license (the course covers gun laws as well as hunting, and also required for a concealed carry permit in this state. " you don't get to own a gun unless you have a certified firearms and ammo storage locker" Encouraged but not required. California has some such rules. "you don't get to own an gun without registering it with the police" Now in effect in Washington state. Actually I think it was in effect before for handguns. There was a Federal form as well as a State form to fill out for those, but only the Federal form for rifles and shotguns. The state form went off somewhere, but I don't know where.
"you don't get to sell your gun without first informing the police." Also now in effect in WA.
Are you allowed to borrow a friend's shotgun to go duck hunting, or is having a gun not registered to you, even temporarily with a permission note a crime?
From the dictionary definitions, one would think that "liberal gun-control ideologies" would mean to encourage as wide as distribution of as many guns as possible. But this is not the case. But "liberal gun-control ideologies" actually means as few guns as possible to as few people as possible.
Just a random thought from a Blue State (WA) where another freedom of action was circumscribed despite the Red Wave that swept the rest of the country. See I-594, specifically the definition of transfers. No more borrowing a friend's shotgun.
Sadly false. In a good number of dog attacks the dog is not able to be recalled, and keeps at it until the victim or the dog is dead. There has been a rash of those recently around here, usually but not always pit bills.
"It seems to me the use of strategies like this assume that the people involved are relatively rational.
In our current world this doesn't seem to be that good an assumption."
Nor in the past world. Read "The Guns of August" by Barbara Tuchman.
My first thought was "What were they thinking?" My next thought was "There was no thought involved." 17 million dead by the end, and not a nuke in sight. They didn't even discover the neutron until 1932.
A PRISM database on an AS-400. It's officially been "on it's way out' for over a decade now. The rest of the companies operations switched to SAP, but every time management gets a quote for migrating the PRISM functions to SAP, they gulp and keep the AS-400.
Actually, you have a point. And so does the plan to make plans for geological engineering. The climate has not been stable for 2 million years. If we don't manage to overheat it (by which I mean get back to at least mid-Miocene standards), then it will fall into another ice age. Like the last one that pushed all the way down to Long Island.
So one way or another humans are going to have to stabilize the climate, or go back to migrating around the edges of the ice (whereever they may be). And the coast lines as well, remember that sea level goes up and down 100 meters during an ice age cycle. Try keeping your ports operating through that.
"It is silly to require an N-stamp on every last nut and bolt (even in non-safety related systems) rather than using off the shelf parts where suitable."
That is a legacy of the Thresher. You don't always know what part is really critical until it fails.
As far as "Regulations should be focused on safe designs, not on libraries of paperwork certifying safety" I wholeheartedly agree. But OSHA does not. They want an auditable full documentation paper trial of every change, no matter how minor. We have several people at work who only track paperwork. You might look up the 14 point Management Of Change program sometime.
And I do not work in the nuclear industry. They are an order of magnitude worse.
One of the Soviet Union's great accomplishments was the depth and breadth of the education they provided. And the end result of that was it's collapse when the citizens figured out how thoroughly they were being lied to. Don't think other governments didn't notice this little detail. Compare the longevity of the Soviet union with that of the House of Bourbon in France, where education of the commoners was, shall we say, less important.
"Then require that all new construction below 5-6 stories will have on-site AE that will equal or exceed its HVAC usage."
So what form of alternative energy will work in the Inland Northwest's freezing fog, where you have no wind, all-day fog, high temperatures in the mid 20's (F), and the day is barely 9 hours long, and sun (if you could see it) is no higher than 25 degrees above the horizon?
Now if you are going to use an annual average it might be doable, because right now I have 15 hours of daylight, and so far this summer I've used 4 hours of AC. Last year I used the AC mode of the heat pump 10 days total, as compared to the 7 months with the heating mode engaged.
"*Not* being a college graduate is a certain guarantee of a lifetime of poorly paying jobs."
False. Chemical plant operators earn six figures with their overtime and shift differential. They may be working a rotating shift, wearing Nomex, and carrying an escape breather wherever they go, but it's not a poorly paying job.
"They've been actively focusing on increasing power efficiency for a number of years now, so I have no doubt they'll be able to bring strong competition."
It Intel wants to, they can bring strong competition. They used to have their own ARM variant, but sold it off. They decided that there was no future in low power. Oops.
When they do get a low power chip they seem to lose interest, and then crank up its performance, and its power budget. Then Steve Jobs would yell at them, and they would produce another low power chip. Then repeat the cycle. Now that Steve is gone, will they go back to thinking a 135W CPU is acceptable?
In Intel's world, Grand Coulee dam exists to power their CPU, and the rest of the hydropower on the Columbia is to run the cooling system for that chip. Institutionally they haven't figured out that we have all the cycles per second we need, and battery life is now the critical parameter. Obviously if your dream PC has a 1000 W power supply on a dedicated circuit you will not care about power the same way you will if your phone keeps going dead every time you need it.
As is often the case, the problem is Management, not Engineering.
For the record, I'm using a 2.5 Ghz Core 2 Duo P8700. It's 6 year old technology and entirely fast enough. It has a 25 W power budget. The "ultra-low power" 2 core Haswell has a 35 w power budget. So they have gone backwards. Remember, I don't need more speed, so I don't care if the Haswell CPU is faster.
The question is does Intel get this point? If they say "you are not our target demographic" then fine, and I'll pay them just as much attention as I pay to Miley Cyrus. Which is to say none.
I dumped Dish earlier this year. Same reasons; too many commercials on the few channels I did watch, and their last price hike crossed the $50 line.
They tried to convince me stay by offering a free upgrade to HD, but I told them I didn't have an HDTV. That is not strictly speaking true, my TV will do 720P, but it does not have an HDMI input (it has component, composite and S-video.) But close enough. All these HDMI-only boxes are useless (including yours Apple.) And no I'm not replacing my TV until it dies.
They finally gave up and went away. I got a bottom end Roku for watching the few things that might interest me. The one "local" TV station (only 120 miles away) has a Roku channel, so I get some local news and the weather.
"The only reasons to buy a manual are cost and 'fun to drive',"
and better mileage; and ability to push start; and better engine braking; and safer on snow/ice; (clutch removes all drive from wheels, and can you step on the pedal when you see the ice coming. ) and ability to skip gears entirely if needed and avoiding WEEEE-woooo-WEEEE-woooo all the way up any moderate grade. Yeah I can shift the silly PRNDL down myself and stop it, but it's supposed to be an automatic transmission.
"I say "keyless" because my Nissan has a physical key hidden inside the key less remote fob to open the door if the car battery is dead."
So there is a key in the keyless system. I always wondered what you were supposed to do when your car battery died. Smashing the window with the nearest rock just to get the hood open in order to put the jumper cables on the battery didn't seem very sensible.
Fortunately my vehicles have normal keys, so this never came up.
Several of the farm tractors I was familiar with as a kid had a toggle switch for the ignition/electrical circuits, and a separate pushbutton to engage the starter motor.
In retrospect, combining everything into one switch to rule them all may not have been such a good idea.
"We already have proximity keys on automobiles. How often do they let people down? How often are people locked out of their car because the key doesn't work?"
Quite often until I cut the wires going to the power door locks. Note to self, never buy a car with power locks again.
Actually the problem is slightly different than you describe, the truck arbitrarily locked its doors at random times while parked. That still deons't improve my confidence in the locking control system. And that is relevant to the discussion at hand.
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The electrical wires in your house are insulated in plastic. Fortunately it's PVC, not PE, but if the bacteria mutates again, things could get way too interesting.
The Fall of Cities in the Ringworld books comes to mind. At least ours are not levitating on superconductors.
"If everyone had their basic survival guaranteed through an unconditional minimum wage, the work market would be driven by individual initiatives to create pretty things and to improve from that basic status by pursuing luxury."
But the taxes needed to pay for the universal basic income would prevent anyone from improving from that basic status. Now Krugman stated a few years ago that the well-off were status-crazed workaholics who would keep on working even at 100% marginal rates. I don't agree, but then I am not a workaholic.
Another side effect is that you would have to shut the border to the point North Korea looks like a free trade area.
On the other side, as the robots take over, and I firmly believe that will keep happening, we will have to come up with something. Even on the right wing people are starting to mutter that it would be cheaper to have a universal basic income than 30 or 40 separate government programs doling out benefits. And there are voices on the Left who don't like it because (as usual) they don't trust people to be able to look out for themselves; they need government help to select what is in their own best interests (as determined by that ever benevolent government). See Bloomberg and his big soft drink ban. The overlapping government agencies ensure there is meticulous and continuous supervision of the rabble.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out over the next 20 years.
"And the main reason for this is simply that there are not enough people who have enough money to become consumers."
True only to a point. Then diminishing returns sets in as well. For instance, I could buy a camper, but I have little free time I could use to go camping. I could buy a new TV, but it would be only marginally better than the old one. I am sitting on brand new chair, which was bought because the old one wore out. The same thing happened to the dishwasher last month.
As far as material goods go, I'm down to basic replacement, and the increasingly desperate screeching of "BUY! BUY! BUY!" is having ever less effect. Buy what? For what purpose? Large blocks of Time, which I actually could use, are not for sale at any price.
"We've been doing unintentional geoengineering for hundreds of years now, why would some intentional geoengineering be so bad?"
Sooner or later, we are going to have to start geoengineering. The ice age cycles are not over, and if you think the trouble from 4 C of warming is bad, you might want to look at a map reconstruction from 20,000 years ago. The ice goes down to Long Island, and sea level is 300 feet lower.
"(v) while hunting if the hunting is legal in all places where the person to whom the firearm is transferred possesses the firearm."
If you and the neighbor live in the country, this might cover you. But if you possess the firearm in a town anywhere along the way, you are in violation because it's not legal to hunt in town.
I merely read what is written in plain English.
Even under your interpretation, you would also not be covered the day before hunting season opened, or the day after the season ends, because the hunting is not legal at those times.
Either this bill is very badly drafted, OR it is intentionally designed to entrap as many people as possible. I'll accept either interpretation. But if the former, then I expect that you will support amendments in the legislature to clarify the intent of the temporary transfer section.
This would be an acceptable amendment.
(v) From one week before to one week after a hunting season appropriate for the transferred firearm provided the person to whom the firearm is transferred has completed all training and holds all licenses or permits required for such hunting, provided that any temporary transfer allowed by this subsection is permitted only if the person to whom the firearm is transferred is not prohibited from possessing firearms under state or federal law; or
This would also fix the problem in section 4 where you can loan your 17 year old a deer rifle, but you can't once she's 18. Although you could gift it to her, but if she gifts it right back at the end of the season was it a bona-fide gift? I wouldn't care to argue point that in court, but there may be precedent given the Potlatch culture.
Interesting comparison;
"gun control means you don't get to own a gun if you have a criminal record" True in USA as well.
"you don't get to own a gun unless you first learned to use it properly," Proper safety classes are encouraged, but not required.
"you don't get to own a gun unless you have demonstrated knowledge of the relevant laws" Required for a hunting license (the course covers gun laws as well as hunting, and also required for a concealed carry permit in this state.
" you don't get to own a gun unless you have a certified firearms and ammo storage locker" Encouraged but not required. California has some such rules.
"you don't get to own an gun without registering it with the police" Now in effect in Washington state. Actually I think it was in effect before for handguns. There was a Federal form as well as a State form to fill out for those, but only the Federal form for rifles and shotguns. The state form went off somewhere, but I don't know where.
"you don't get to sell your gun without first informing the police." Also now in effect in WA.
Are you allowed to borrow a friend's shotgun to go duck hunting, or is having a gun not registered to you, even temporarily with a permission note a crime?
From the dictionary definitions, one would think that "liberal gun-control ideologies" would mean to encourage as wide as distribution of as many guns as possible. But this is not the case. But "liberal gun-control ideologies" actually means as few guns as possible to as few people as possible.
Just a random thought from a Blue State (WA) where another freedom of action was circumscribed despite the Red Wave that swept the rest of the country. See I-594, specifically the definition of transfers. No more borrowing a friend's shotgun.
"They can be recalled, do not kill instantly,"
Sadly false. In a good number of dog attacks the dog is not able to be recalled, and keeps at it until the victim or the dog is dead. There has been a rash of those recently around here, usually but not always pit bills.
"It seems to me the use of strategies like this assume that the people involved are relatively rational.
In our current world this doesn't seem to be that good an assumption."
Nor in the past world. Read "The Guns of August" by Barbara Tuchman.
My first thought was "What were they thinking?" My next thought was "There was no thought involved." 17 million dead by the end, and not a nuke in sight. They didn't even discover the neutron until 1932.
A PRISM database on an AS-400. It's officially been "on it's way out' for over a decade now. The rest of the companies operations switched to SAP, but every time management gets a quote for migrating the PRISM functions to SAP, they gulp and keep the AS-400.
Actually, you have a point. And so does the plan to make plans for geological engineering. The climate has not been stable for 2 million years. If we don't manage to overheat it (by which I mean get back to at least mid-Miocene standards), then it will fall into another ice age. Like the last one that pushed all the way down to Long Island.
So one way or another humans are going to have to stabilize the climate, or go back to migrating around the edges of the ice (whereever they may be). And the coast lines as well, remember that sea level goes up and down 100 meters during an ice age cycle. Try keeping your ports operating through that.
"It is silly to require an N-stamp on every last nut and bolt (even in non-safety related systems) rather than using off the shelf parts where suitable."
That is a legacy of the Thresher. You don't always know what part is really critical until it fails.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U...
As far as "Regulations should be focused on safe designs, not on libraries of paperwork certifying safety" I wholeheartedly agree. But OSHA does not. They want an auditable full documentation paper trial of every change, no matter how minor. We have several people at work who only track paperwork. You might look up the 14 point Management Of Change program sometime.
And I do not work in the nuclear industry. They are an order of magnitude worse.
One of the Soviet Union's great accomplishments was the depth and breadth of the education they provided. And the end result of that was it's collapse when the citizens figured out how thoroughly they were being lied to. Don't think other governments didn't notice this little detail. Compare the longevity of the Soviet union with that of the House of Bourbon in France, where education of the commoners was, shall we say, less important.
Yes, I'm feeling cynical today.
"I'm more shocked that Infinity doesn't have some sort of sensor in the drivers seat to make sure there is actually somebody behind the wheel."
Especially since my riding lawnmower has one.
"Then require that all new construction below 5-6 stories will have on-site AE that will equal or exceed its HVAC usage."
So what form of alternative energy will work in the Inland Northwest's freezing fog, where you have no wind, all-day fog, high temperatures in the mid 20's (F), and the day is barely 9 hours long, and sun (if you could see it) is no higher than 25 degrees above the horizon?
Now if you are going to use an annual average it might be doable, because right now I have 15 hours of daylight, and so far this summer I've used 4 hours of AC. Last year I used the AC mode of the heat pump 10 days total, as compared to the 7 months with the heating mode engaged.
"*Not* being a college graduate is a certain guarantee of a lifetime of poorly paying jobs."
False. Chemical plant operators earn six figures with their overtime and shift differential. They may be working a rotating shift, wearing Nomex, and carrying an escape breather wherever they go, but it's not a poorly paying job.
"They've been actively focusing on increasing power efficiency for a number of years now, so I have no doubt they'll be able to bring strong competition."
It Intel wants to, they can bring strong competition. They used to have their own ARM variant, but sold it off. They decided that there was no future in low power. Oops.
When they do get a low power chip they seem to lose interest, and then crank up its performance, and its power budget. Then Steve Jobs would yell at them, and they would produce another low power chip. Then repeat the cycle. Now that Steve is gone, will they go back to thinking a 135W CPU is acceptable?
In Intel's world, Grand Coulee dam exists to power their CPU, and the rest of the hydropower on the Columbia is to run the cooling system for that chip. Institutionally they haven't figured out that we have all the cycles per second we need, and battery life is now the critical parameter. Obviously if your dream PC has a 1000 W power supply on a dedicated circuit you will not care about power the same way you will if your phone keeps going dead every time you need it.
As is often the case, the problem is Management, not Engineering.
For the record, I'm using a 2.5 Ghz Core 2 Duo P8700. It's 6 year old technology and entirely fast enough. It has a 25 W power budget. The "ultra-low power" 2 core Haswell has a 35 w power budget. So they have gone backwards. Remember, I don't need more speed, so I don't care if the Haswell CPU is faster.
The question is does Intel get this point? If they say "you are not our target demographic" then fine, and I'll pay them just as much attention as I pay to Miley Cyrus. Which is to say none.
http://www.amazon.com/Worlds-W...
My favorite is the Blohm and Voss Bv-141. Symmetry is for weenies.
I dumped Dish earlier this year. Same reasons; too many commercials on the few channels I did watch, and their last price hike crossed the $50 line.
They tried to convince me stay by offering a free upgrade to HD, but I told them I didn't have an HDTV. That is not strictly speaking true, my TV will do 720P, but it does not have an HDMI input (it has component, composite and S-video.) But close enough. All these HDMI-only boxes are useless (including yours Apple.) And no I'm not replacing my TV until it dies.
They finally gave up and went away. I got a bottom end Roku for watching the few things that might interest me. The one "local" TV station (only 120 miles away) has a Roku channel, so I get some local news and the weather.
"Every night I sleep with my air conditioner set to 70"
Must be nice. I still have my heat set to 67. And it's on. It did make it up to 68 today, for a few minutes at least.
"The only reasons to buy a manual are cost and 'fun to drive',"
and better mileage;
and ability to push start;
and better engine braking;
and safer on snow/ice; (clutch removes all drive from wheels, and can you step on the pedal when you see the ice coming. )
and ability to skip gears entirely if needed
and avoiding WEEEE-woooo-WEEEE-woooo all the way up any moderate grade. Yeah I can shift the silly PRNDL down myself and stop it, but it's supposed to be an automatic transmission.
"I say "keyless" because my Nissan has a physical key hidden inside the key less remote fob to open the door if the car battery is dead."
So there is a key in the keyless system. I always wondered what you were supposed to do when your car battery died. Smashing the window with the nearest rock just to get the hood open in order to put the jumper cables on the battery didn't seem very sensible.
Fortunately my vehicles have normal keys, so this never came up.
Several of the farm tractors I was familiar with as a kid had a toggle switch for the ignition/electrical circuits, and a separate pushbutton to engage the starter motor.
In retrospect, combining everything into one switch to rule them all may not have been such a good idea.
"And yes, all machines - including cars - should have a kill switch that mechanically cuts off the power"
Especially ironic since motorcycles, which would do much less damage in a runaway situation, do have have kill switches.
"We already have proximity keys on automobiles. How often do they let people down? How often are people locked out of their car because the key doesn't work?"
Quite often until I cut the wires going to the power door locks. Note to self, never buy a car with power locks again.
Actually the problem is slightly different than you describe, the truck arbitrarily locked its doors at random times while parked. That still deons't improve my confidence in the locking control system. And that is relevant to the discussion at hand.