If you think they won't spend the next 3 months doing the exact same thing this time, you are living in la-la land.
I don't think so. Considering that the election is just eight weeks away, three months seems like overkill.
I think Obama has a solid shot at winning. Remember, it is the Republican convention that just ended, so if McCain is polling ahead right now you could chalk that up in whole or in part to post-convention bounce and initial excitement about his running mate pick (though she was announced a few days before, the convention was the first time many people saw her).
Whatever technology they use it'll be out of date before they finish installing 12.5 square miles of the stuff
Meaning what? Not the latest and greatest? I'm not aware of a rush to decommission other types of power plants just because they aren't the latest and greatest.
and replacing it will mean starting from zero.
Why? I can't think of any power generation technology that is more modular than PV solar. Why couldn't you swap out or add newer panels?
Thermal plants are far more sensible at the moment.
I don't know the specifics of the renewable energy mandate PG&E is working under, but I would expect that any solar qualifies. And it seems they (PG&E) would choose the best type of plant for their needs. I'm not saying you're wrong about PV vs. thermal solar, but with the number of dollars at stake, I'm pretty sure someone has done a comparative analysis of many different options (including ignoring the mandate and facing any fines and penalties that would result).
Being empathetic and making hard decisions are not mutually exclusive. Of course, firing poor performers is not necessarily a hard decision. I think the GP post is mistaken in saying that a CEO needs to be ruthless, which is not the same thing as not "coddling people".
Based on this quote from TFA, I would guess some kind of bicycle-related porn:
"Whether that's gang-related or fraud-related, or whether it deals with those who pedal child pornography, police will have additional powers to keep our community safer."
No, that shouldn't even come into play. I don't claim to know the law particularly well, and certainly not in all jurisdictions, but I am only familiar with laws against underage attempts to purchase alcohol and "underage drinking". Never heard of "underage beer holding" or "underage being photographed with beverages that appear alcoholic" as violations of the law. Now, you could make a case for underage drinking if an officer comes upon a minor or group thereof with open containers of alcohol which can't be explained away by having adults present as well. But not based on a photo. Video might be another story, but there was no mention of that in the article.
To me, the sad thing is that the article is about the number of people working in the different categories (agriculture, industry, services) and says nothing about land use. Yet you've spawned a whole thread of people bemoaning (mostly) the loss of agricultural land and diminished food production, neither of which is supported by the article -- and may not even be accurate (a quick google search didn't turn up anything to that effect).
1. Build a factory, mill, whatever (bonus if you're exploiting local resources)
2. Hire villagers to work there very cheaply
3. Profit!
4. Villagers can now buy food (from the company store? Profit! again)
But wait, it gets better...
5. Workers go on strike for better pay and conditions
6. Fire them and replace them with monkeys (we already know they can/will imitate human behavior for food)
7. Profit even more!
not done yet...
8. Villagers or monkeys start causing trouble again...
9. Re-hire villagers at slightly higher wages
10. Invite monkeys to "unemployment office"
11. New business selling vervet McNuggets from building that looks suspiciously like "unemployment office"
12. Profit!
I apologize for posting so late to this thread, but this seemed too good to pass up.
But why is it always about "prove that not..."? There is no proof that it does exist. Why should I proof that something does not exist when you can't even proof that it does exist in the first place?
In general discussion, that is reasonable. But in this case, several people have claimed that it is an absolute fact (rather than the most logical conclusion or something similar) that God does not exist. It is not unreasonable to ask for some proof when something has been declared a fact.
I understand why many religious people get so worked up over this kind of thing, but I don't get why atheists get so adamant.
To expect a child to choose a career at that age is ridiculous
Fortunately, this doesn't seem to be the case, at least in Florida, which seems to be the the only widespread implementation (the Mississippi program mentioned in TFA is a pilot program, and the only other program cited is a single school). The Florida program requires only 4 credits (half of a students electives). I have mixed feelings about the concept. On one hand I think students should get exposure to many areas of study to find out what interests them. On the other hand, a single intro course probably won't go deep enough for a student to adequately gauge interest in the subject.
Plenty of real doctors used BMI for the "application of health-care" including considerations of candidacy for surgeries, drug dosing, drug selection, and prognosis generation.
Is that a good thing? I suppose BMI could be a useful tool for an MD if he knows when it makes sense to use and when to ignore it. I'm not a medical professional, but it seems like body composition would be better for all those considerations than BMI.
"...if you want to damage your kidneys, starve your brain of glucose, and generally damage your body, that is.
"Low carb" diets are toxic."
You know, I've heard this many times (mostly on the internet, of course) and never seen a shred of evidence to back it up. I have seen studies that found low carb diets safe and effective, though (Example of a study from the Journal of the American Medical Association).
"The body needs carbohydrates for energy, protien for tissue building, and fats for a variety of metabolic purposes. Carbs are what you're supposed to be burning, not protein; protein doesn't burn clean."
The body certainly needs protein and fats, but aside from being found with other important nutrients (vitamins and fiber) carbohydrates are not essential, strictly speaking.
"Eat less... exercise more, and learn to de-stress - I think the constant low-level stress of American society is an under-explored cause of our obesity problem."
I agree completely with the above statement.
Re:Tractor?!?! LOL!!
on
Vertical Farming
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Perhaps filtering through your own experience is too limiting. There are other factors which could maybe bring the concept closer to being competitive. Isn't the premium on organic produce 50-100%? I don't buy it, so I'm not sure. But based on some items I've seen, that seems in the ballpark. There may also be a slight bonus for locally grown produce. So the income from this produce will be greater than the average farm. From there, consider that you probably wouldn't grow bulk/commodity crops like corn. Rather you would favor crops that require less automated handling to begin with (berries, lettuces, etc...) which also tend to be more fragile (local growing would result in less loss during transportation) and expensive. Finally, consider that you might have three harvests a year instead of one, and zero loss due to weather conditions such as drought or excessive heavy rain.
I'm not saying it is feasible, but I think your comparison is too simplistic.
a quick search on google turns up 17k hits for "lisp" and 9k hits for "cobol". your point?
Not surprising, since there are multiple definitions for lisp. Nevertheless, my point was clear. Reports of the demise of COBOL are premature. And your implication that LISP has fared better than COBOL doesn't appear to be supported by a quick (but by no means comprehensive) measure of job prospects for the two skills. And we haven't even touched on the "LISP good, COBOL bad" discussion.
Perhaps you missed this COBOL has been around nearly 50 years and still has a very strong user base, as indicated in the linked post. Moreso than LISP, I would say (a quick search on Monster turns up over 1000 hits for "COBOL" and 55 for "LISP"). COBOL has its place despite 20 years or so of people claiming that it is dead.
And how does learning java lead to learning forth anyway?
Its a gateway language.
Gateway? Do they even make those anymore? Maybe they were bought by Dell or HP or someone...?
In that case, you can't "ignore a positive" for that person shoplifting in the "last 10 years" (like someone mentioned).
Or illegally parking. Or DUI. Or whatever.
Indeed. And I'm sure there are places where such offenses can bar you from employment.
I'm seriously against cocaine and meth, but if a guy did coke 5 years ago at a party, wtf should I care?
I'm not particularly knowledgeable of such things, but I know some things stay in your system longer than others. Though I believe it is quite difficult (and more expensive) to detect anything farther back than a few months.
unless I see studies showing that people who smoke weed (or even do meth) tend to publish your source code/steal from you/whatever, I still think testing programmers for drugs is irrelevant and hypocritical.
Those tests cost money, so I'm sure there is some study of loss prevention (or liability discount, something along those lines) out there with numbers to justify the cost. As others have pointed out, though, there are companies that get along fine without requiring a drug test. I believe some government contracts give preference to companies with "drug free workplace" policies... so that would be another aspect of it.
Tightening your belt is easy, tightening the diaper budget is not.
I didn't say it was easy. I said set your priorities and choose accordingly.
He's in a good situation personally.... There would still be hard times if he stuck to his principles which are the principles America was founded upon.
Principles such as freedom of choice? Still there. Potentially difficult doesn't mean impossible, nor does it equate to having no choice.
For a bank I can see some background checking done, fingerprinting isn't required for that...
While I respect your opinion in that regard, fingerprinting seems to be fairly standard for financial institutions (banks, brokerages, even insurance companies). As for drug testing, ask a company that does it why they do it, and I'm sure you'll get a better explanation than I can offer.
I look to the Apollo Group and subsequently the University of Phoenix for good hiring practices. They do quite well without drug testing and have many people in their employment across the country.
Well there you have it. There are probably many more examples of such companies, so choices are available.
Some of the best (and most reliable) programmers I've met use drugs.
Why would I be afraid to hire someone just because he smokes a joint after work or during the weekend?
I don't understand why these companies don't choose to treat these people as adults who know exactly what effect drugs give them...
I believe someone else mentioned "compromising one's integrity". I think that is part of it. For those in the U.S. at least, producing/buying/possessing/using drugs is a crime (a felony in some cases). I guess the logic goes that if someone is willing to violate the law for personal gratification, what else would they be willing to do? Perhaps for greater reward? That may be a tough sell for something seemingly innocuous like pot, but if you screen for cocaine or meth or whatever you can't just ignore a positive for marijuana.
Slashdot Mirror
That's great.
I don't think so. Considering that the election is just eight weeks away, three months seems like overkill.
I think Obama has a solid shot at winning. Remember, it is the Republican convention that just ended, so if McCain is polling ahead right now you could chalk that up in whole or in part to post-convention bounce and initial excitement about his running mate pick (though she was announced a few days before, the convention was the first time many people saw her).
Uh, that's the whole point. The state is providing the numbers online already. She's just drawing attention to it.
In Canada, music comes in milk crates.
Yeah, that's no problem. It's having your milk come in CD cases that's a bitch.
Whatever technology they use it'll be out of date before they finish installing 12.5 square miles of the stuff
Meaning what? Not the latest and greatest? I'm not aware of a rush to decommission other types of power plants just because they aren't the latest and greatest.
and replacing it will mean starting from zero.
Why? I can't think of any power generation technology that is more modular than PV solar. Why couldn't you swap out or add newer panels?
Thermal plants are far more sensible at the moment.
I don't know the specifics of the renewable energy mandate PG&E is working under, but I would expect that any solar qualifies. And it seems they (PG&E) would choose the best type of plant for their needs. I'm not saying you're wrong about PV vs. thermal solar, but with the number of dollars at stake, I'm pretty sure someone has done a comparative analysis of many different options (including ignoring the mandate and facing any fines and penalties that would result).
Being empathetic and making hard decisions are not mutually exclusive. Of course, firing poor performers is not necessarily a hard decision. I think the GP post is mistaken in saying that a CEO needs to be ruthless, which is not the same thing as not "coddling people".
No, that shouldn't even come into play. I don't claim to know the law particularly well, and certainly not in all jurisdictions, but I am only familiar with laws against underage attempts to purchase alcohol and "underage drinking". Never heard of "underage beer holding" or "underage being photographed with beverages that appear alcoholic" as violations of the law. Now, you could make a case for underage drinking if an officer comes upon a minor or group thereof with open containers of alcohol which can't be explained away by having adults present as well. But not based on a photo. Video might be another story, but there was no mention of that in the article.
The way I read it, the content was the issue, not the simple fact of accessing or posting on sites (or via IM). But I could be mistaken.
To me, the sad thing is that the article is about the number of people working in the different categories (agriculture, industry, services) and says nothing about land use. Yet you've spawned a whole thread of people bemoaning (mostly) the loss of agricultural land and diminished food production, neither of which is supported by the article -- and may not even be accurate (a quick google search didn't turn up anything to that effect).
1. Build a factory, mill, whatever (bonus if you're exploiting local resources)
2. Hire villagers to work there very cheaply
3. Profit!
4. Villagers can now buy food (from the company store? Profit! again)
But wait, it gets better...
5. Workers go on strike for better pay and conditions
6. Fire them and replace them with monkeys (we already know they can/will imitate human behavior for food)
7. Profit even more!
not done yet...
8. Villagers or monkeys start causing trouble again...
9. Re-hire villagers at slightly higher wages
10. Invite monkeys to "unemployment office"
11. New business selling vervet McNuggets from building that looks suspiciously like "unemployment office"
12. Profit!
I apologize for posting so late to this thread, but this seemed too good to pass up.
I understand why many religious people get so worked up over this kind of thing, but I don't get why atheists get so adamant.
"...if you want to damage your kidneys, starve your brain of glucose, and generally damage your body, that is. "Low carb" diets are toxic."
... exercise more, and learn to de-stress - I think the constant low-level stress of American society is an under-explored cause of our obesity problem."
You know, I've heard this many times (mostly on the internet, of course) and never seen a shred of evidence to back it up. I have seen studies that found low carb diets safe and effective, though (Example of a study from the Journal of the American Medical Association).
"The body needs carbohydrates for energy, protien for tissue building, and fats for a variety of metabolic purposes. Carbs are what you're supposed to be burning, not protein; protein doesn't burn clean."
The body certainly needs protein and fats, but aside from being found with other important nutrients (vitamins and fiber) carbohydrates are not essential, strictly speaking.
"Eat less
I agree completely with the above statement.
Perhaps filtering through your own experience is too limiting. There are other factors which could maybe bring the concept closer to being competitive. Isn't the premium on organic produce 50-100%? I don't buy it, so I'm not sure. But based on some items I've seen, that seems in the ballpark. There may also be a slight bonus for locally grown produce. So the income from this produce will be greater than the average farm. From there, consider that you probably wouldn't grow bulk/commodity crops like corn. Rather you would favor crops that require less automated handling to begin with (berries, lettuces, etc...) which also tend to be more fragile (local growing would result in less loss during transportation) and expensive. Finally, consider that you might have three harvests a year instead of one, and zero loss due to weather conditions such as drought or excessive heavy rain.
I'm not saying it is feasible, but I think your comparison is too simplistic.
I've seen a number of perfect spheres of silicone, and they typically come in pairs.
a quick search on google turns up 17k hits for "lisp" and 9k hits for "cobol". your point?
Not surprising, since there are multiple definitions for lisp. Nevertheless, my point was clear. Reports of the demise of COBOL are premature. And your implication that LISP has fared better than COBOL doesn't appear to be supported by a quick (but by no means comprehensive) measure of job prospects for the two skills. And we haven't even touched on the "LISP good, COBOL bad" discussion.
Perhaps you missed this COBOL has been around nearly 50 years and still has a very strong user base, as indicated in the linked post. Moreso than LISP, I would say (a quick search on Monster turns up over 1000 hits for "COBOL" and 55 for "LISP"). COBOL has its place despite 20 years or so of people claiming that it is dead.
And how does learning java lead to learning forth anyway?
Its a gateway language.
Gateway? Do they even make those anymore? Maybe they were bought by Dell or HP or someone...?