NOVA (from PBS) had a three-part show called "The Human Spark" which was hosted by Alan Alda. In the shows, they examined what makes us human compared to the rest of the animal kingdom and how it relates to our brain.
During the show, they showed how babies (roughly 3 - 9 months old) could discern good from bad by watching colored blocks and how they behaved towards one another or how puppets played nice with one another.
One thing that came out during the show and made me say, "Hmmm" was the fact that if I were to point at something, without saying anything, you would look in the direction I was pointing.
Oddly enough, so do dogs. If you point at something, a dog will look. Here's the interesting part: wolves don't do this. Apparently, through the ages, as we've bred dogs to their current form, we have inadvertently bred this trait into them whereas wolves, ostensibly the originator of modern dogs, lack this trait.
In the second link, the second excerpt called Social Networks and the Spark, has the video of a baby choosing an inanimate toys who appears friendly/cooperative compared to one that isn't.
Those Asteroids that hit this morning---those were nothing---the size of basketballs and Volkswagens. This new one we're tracking is the size of Texas, Mr. President. It's what we call a Global Killer....the end of mankind. Half the world will be incinerated by the heat blast.....the rest will freeze to death in a nuclear winter. Basically, the worst part of the Bible !
No. It is used to replace our mainframe operations which ran our merchandising operations. All of our apps were home-grown and trying to maintain/upgrade them had become a spaghetti of code and incomplete/invalid information.
The powers that be decided on Oracle to replace the mainframe operations and brought in Deloitte Consulting to do the upgrade.
So far we're at $80 million and counting and the software is not as functional or easy to use as the previous operations were. Nor is the transformation done.
When we install IE7* at work and are prompted on first use, we change the default search to Google.
Bing is utter crap.
Ok, maybe mom and dad who were told they had to upgrade to continue using the web don't know any better, but surely people with the smallest amount of common sense change to Google (or something other than Bing).
*We have to use IE7 because many of our apps, including our multi-million dollar black hole ERP project using Oracle, won't run on IE8
does not mean that everyone else don't get drunk (and make some bad decisions while drunk) occasionally too.
When you say bad decisions, you mean like Karen F. Owens and her PowerPoint presentation?
If I were in charge of making hiring decisions, she would get the circular file. Not because she slept with a bunch of guys, not because she wrote about it, but because she was stupid and lacked common sense in thinking that said list wouldn't be all over the Net shortly after giving the list to some friends.
If that is the kind of judgment that person makes, I wouldn't want them in my company.
re-design our city's streets for rapid busses and greater pedestrian and cycling improvements
Really? And just how do you propose to make thse changes? Are you going to make the sidewalks more narrow, thus giving New Yorkers more ammunition to whine about all the slow-moving tourists who bring billions to their economy each year?
Or perhaps you will knock down some buildings so streets can be widened. Maybe start with the Pan Am Building just north of Grand Central Terminal.
Considering I've been visiting The Big Apple for over half my life and stop by twice a year, the grid pattern of Manhattan is perfectly suited for both buses and bikes with the only thing that needs to be done is make specific lanes for each. Oh wait, that's what Bloomberg is doing as I speak.
Think about all the people who don't get vaccines for one reason or another (Jenny McCarthy's hysteria for example). While the low-dose antibiotics are making the bugs stronger, they kill off the weak and infirm of our population, making the overall herd that much stronger.
Just invent a one-way time machine. Then you could mate with all the women you wanted when men become scarce (after the giraffes have long since ceased to rule the planet) then move forward in time, wait for the last photon to decay, see the Big Bang take place, take a potshot at Hitler and as the current time approaches, slow down enough to see the comments appearing, wait for someone else to make the joke then mod them up!
Of course you have to hope this universe isn't 10' higher than the previous universe.
Next, educate with the new income from fines and increased insurance costs.
Virginia tried to change people's driving habits by imposing a fine starting at $1000 if someone was caught going 20 mph over the speed limit. The idea was to penalize people as well as raise revenue. You should have heard the whining and gnashing of teeth as well as some of the comments from people. One guy said the Commonwealth should just raise taxes instead of penalizing people driving 20 mph over the speed limit.
Fining people only goes so far. There comes a point when more draconian measures are needed.
The people who believe they are superior to everyone else and can concentrate on texting and driving at the same time will pay the price in higher insurance rates from all the accidents they cause. They also get to pay for the medical bills of those they injure. They may even go to jail if they kill someone, thus preventing them from doing any more damage (other than to the taxpayer's wallet).
As to the answer to this question:
So if the laws don't work, what is a better solution to preventing texting while driving accidents?"
The police should be allowed to remove one digit from a person's hand when found to be texting and driving or have caused an accident as the result of texting and driving.
"Ma'am, just hold your hand up and spread your fingers. This will only take a moment."
Since the building is basically parabolic, won't the spot stay mostly stationary?
Obviously neither you nor the mod who gave you insightful read the article because had either of you done so, you would have read the following:
Fixing the problem isn't going to be easy. As the Earth spins, the sun moves across the horizon. But as the seasons change, the angle of the Earth to the sun changes too, meaning shadows - and in this case the hot spot - move in a different way. Putting in one row of thick umbrellas won't solve the problem because each day they would have to be a few feet back or a few feet forward from their prior day's position.
One doesn't even need a parabolic reflector to experience this. Go to any city during a clear, sunny day and you will find hot spots being created from the nice, shiny windows on the flat (non-curved) buildings. While not focused like the rays from this building, you will feel substantially warmer.
However, stand still for a few minutes, and as the Earth rotates and moves about the sun, the hot spot will move with it.
I'm not the most brilliant person when it comes to science, but even I know what you said is wrong!
I'm a bit late to this story (read it yesterday), but here's a link to the Mainichi Daily News which has an article on the same subject. I did not read the IT World article so I don't know how much overlap there is.
they tried to switch to Oracle, but it was too slow.
What? Oracle too slow? How dare you besmirch the all-powerful Larry Ellison. We switched from a mainframe environment which handled all our sales data to an Oralce-based ERP system. I'll show you how fast this puppy now runs. Let me show you our sales data for the last month...
Hang on, I'll get the answer in a minute...
Bear with me, it will be here soon...
Here's a bottle of Mountain Dew while you wait...
Can I get you anything to snack on? M&M's? Doritos? A Snickers bar perhaps?
The reason there is a script a trained monkey can follow is because if, at the end, things don't go as planned, the steps taken can be reviewed. Since the process is documented and has been shown to be accurate, the obvious answer to why something doesn't do what it should lies elsewhere.
I do the same thing with any procedure I have to document. I provide detailed, step-by-step directions, including screenshots, so anyone, even the new guy/girl, with basic knowledge can follow the steps and get the same results. If they don't, guess where the problem lies.
You would love me then. When I have a word with the letter 'P', I use the word 'porcupine' to verify the letter. No one has ever misunderstood what letter I meant though I do get some remarks to the effect, "Oh, never heard that one before. I like that!"
Ahh yes, the old fallacy of "just switch". So, what are people like me supposed to do where you have exactly two providers, both offering the same level of service for the same amount of money? That's right, I'm in Comcast/Verizon hell.
Neither is willing to lower their prices or offer just internet only plans at the same speeds as the bundled package, nor for the price of 1/3 of the bundled price ($33/month).
So, either you keep jumping back and forth between the two, hoping you can get a better deal for a short time, or you drop everything and start piecing out which company gets which piece of the pie.
Competition in many parts of the U.S. is non-existent for various reasons, the main being because local governments have exclusive agreements with one or two firms so there is no reason to have price competition.
If the current administration was truly serious about getting broadband availability to just about everyone, they would force the states to open the door wide to competition and stop the shenanigans.
Slashdot Mirror
NOVA (from PBS) had a three-part show called "The Human Spark" which was hosted by Alan Alda. In the shows, they examined what makes us human compared to the rest of the animal kingdom and how it relates to our brain.
During the show, they showed how babies (roughly 3 - 9 months old) could discern good from bad by watching colored blocks and how they behaved towards one another or how puppets played nice with one another.
One thing that came out during the show and made me say, "Hmmm" was the fact that if I were to point at something, without saying anything, you would look in the direction I was pointing.
Oddly enough, so do dogs. If you point at something, a dog will look. Here's the interesting part: wolves don't do this. Apparently, through the ages, as we've bred dogs to their current form, we have inadvertently bred this trait into them whereas wolves, ostensibly the originator of modern dogs, lack this trait.
To see the programs, visit http://video.pbs.org/program/1356407145/
or here:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/humanspark/tag/alan-alda/
In the second link, the second excerpt called Social Networks and the Spark, has the video of a baby choosing an inanimate toys who appears friendly/cooperative compared to one that isn't.
No. It is used to replace our mainframe operations which ran our merchandising operations. All of our apps were home-grown and trying to maintain/upgrade them had become a spaghetti of code and incomplete/invalid information.
The powers that be decided on Oracle to replace the mainframe operations and brought in Deloitte Consulting to do the upgrade.
So far we're at $80 million and counting and the software is not as functional or easy to use as the previous operations were. Nor is the transformation done.
When we install IE7* at work and are prompted on first use, we change the default search to Google.
Bing is utter crap.
Ok, maybe mom and dad who were told they had to upgrade to continue using the web don't know any better, but surely people with the smallest amount of common sense change to Google (or something other than Bing).
*We have to use IE7 because many of our apps, including our multi-million dollar black hole ERP project using Oracle, won't run on IE8
does the stone look like you, does it talk, walk, think like you?
If you saw Serenity, the first two parts are true (well, not the stone itself but the image in the stone).
It will go over like a lead balloon.
You can no longer use that phrase as the MythBusters showed you can make a balloon out of lead and have it float.
I prefer to use the phrase, "It will go over like a granite balloon."
does not mean that everyone else don't get drunk (and make some bad decisions while drunk) occasionally too.
When you say bad decisions, you mean like Karen F. Owens and her PowerPoint presentation?
If I were in charge of making hiring decisions, she would get the circular file. Not because she slept with a bunch of guys, not because she wrote about it, but because she was stupid and lacked common sense in thinking that said list wouldn't be all over the Net shortly after giving the list to some friends.
If that is the kind of judgment that person makes, I wouldn't want them in my company.
and say "oops, my aim was off" when the fan gets smashed in the face by the deflated projectile. Cool, huh?
Just ask Maude Flanders how cool that is.
Yes, yes, that's all well and good, but how did Brenda Song (Christy) look and did she strip?
re-design our city's streets for rapid busses and greater pedestrian and cycling improvements
Really? And just how do you propose to make thse changes? Are you going to make the sidewalks more narrow, thus giving New Yorkers more ammunition to whine about all the slow-moving tourists who bring billions to their economy each year?
Or perhaps you will knock down some buildings so streets can be widened. Maybe start with the Pan Am Building just north of Grand Central Terminal.
Considering I've been visiting The Big Apple for over half my life and stop by twice a year, the grid pattern of Manhattan is perfectly suited for both buses and bikes with the only thing that needs to be done is make specific lanes for each. Oh wait, that's what Bloomberg is doing as I speak.
Think about all the people who don't get vaccines for one reason or another (Jenny McCarthy's hysteria for example). While the low-dose antibiotics are making the bugs stronger, they kill off the weak and infirm of our population, making the overall herd that much stronger.
Evolution at it's best!
Just invent a one-way time machine. Then you could mate with all the women you wanted when men become scarce (after the giraffes have long since ceased to rule the planet) then move forward in time, wait for the last photon to decay, see the Big Bang take place, take a potshot at Hitler and as the current time approaches, slow down enough to see the comments appearing, wait for someone else to make the joke then mod them up!
Of course you have to hope this universe isn't 10' higher than the previous universe.
Next, educate with the new income from fines and increased insurance costs.
Virginia tried to change people's driving habits by imposing a fine starting at $1000 if someone was caught going 20 mph over the speed limit. The idea was to penalize people as well as raise revenue. You should have heard the whining and gnashing of teeth as well as some of the comments from people. One guy said the Commonwealth should just raise taxes instead of penalizing people driving 20 mph over the speed limit.
Fining people only goes so far. There comes a point when more draconian measures are needed.
The people who believe they are superior to everyone else and can concentrate on texting and driving at the same time will pay the price in higher insurance rates from all the accidents they cause. They also get to pay for the medical bills of those they injure. They may even go to jail if they kill someone, thus preventing them from doing any more damage (other than to the taxpayer's wallet).
As to the answer to this question:
So if the laws don't work, what is a better solution to preventing texting while driving accidents?"
The police should be allowed to remove one digit from a person's hand when found to be texting and driving or have caused an accident as the result of texting and driving.
"Ma'am, just hold your hand up and spread your fingers. This will only take a moment."
Obviously neither you nor the mod who gave you insightful read the article because had either of you done so, you would have read the following:
One doesn't even need a parabolic reflector to experience this. Go to any city during a clear, sunny day and you will find hot spots being created from the nice, shiny windows on the flat (non-curved) buildings. While not focused like the rays from this building, you will feel substantially warmer.
However, stand still for a few minutes, and as the Earth rotates and moves about the sun, the hot spot will move with it.
I'm not the most brilliant person when it comes to science, but even I know what you said is wrong!
I can't remember which comedian said it (though I'm sure someone will point them out) but they're quote was:
It's not the dress that makes you look fat, it's the fat that makes you look fat!
Guilty as charged.
I'm a bit late to this story (read it yesterday), but here's a link to the Mainichi Daily News which has an article on the same subject. I did not read the IT World article so I don't know how much overlap there is.
Mainichi news article.
they tried to switch to Oracle, but it was too slow.
What? Oracle too slow? How dare you besmirch the all-powerful Larry Ellison. We switched from a mainframe environment which handled all our sales data to an Oralce-based ERP system. I'll show you how fast this puppy now runs. Let me show you our sales data for the last month...
Hang on, I'll get the answer in a minute...
Bear with me, it will be here soon...
Here's a bottle of Mountain Dew while you wait...
Can I get you anything to snack on? M&M's? Doritos? A Snickers bar perhaps?
It'll be nice to get a grove when I'm dead.
A grove of what? Lemons? Oranges? Apples?
The reason there is a script a trained monkey can follow is because if, at the end, things don't go as planned, the steps taken can be reviewed. Since the process is documented and has been shown to be accurate, the obvious answer to why something doesn't do what it should lies elsewhere.
I do the same thing with any procedure I have to document. I provide detailed, step-by-step directions, including screenshots, so anyone, even the new guy/girl, with basic knowledge can follow the steps and get the same results. If they don't, guess where the problem lies.
You would love me then. When I have a word with the letter 'P', I use the word 'porcupine' to verify the letter. No one has ever misunderstood what letter I meant though I do get some remarks to the effect, "Oh, never heard that one before. I like that!"
If they look like Veronica Mars and are amateurs, I would be more than willing to help make them professionals.
That is actually... nasty. Even worse than Fry being his own uncle.
However, what does that say about the Time Paradox? How can you go back in time and impregnate your mom before you were born?
Ahh yes, the old fallacy of "just switch". So, what are people like me supposed to do where you have exactly two providers, both offering the same level of service for the same amount of money? That's right, I'm in Comcast/Verizon hell.
Neither is willing to lower their prices or offer just internet only plans at the same speeds as the bundled package, nor for the price of 1/3 of the bundled price ($33/month).
So, either you keep jumping back and forth between the two, hoping you can get a better deal for a short time, or you drop everything and start piecing out which company gets which piece of the pie.
Competition in many parts of the U.S. is non-existent for various reasons, the main being because local governments have exclusive agreements with one or two firms so there is no reason to have price competition.
If the current administration was truly serious about getting broadband availability to just about everyone, they would force the states to open the door wide to competition and stop the shenanigans.
And yes, I do realize the sarcasm of your post.