* internet advises people to drink 2-3 L of fluids per day.
* 365 days per year, 70 year lifespan -> 70k liters -> 70 m^3 over lifetime.
* 7b ppl alive today. Everybody alive today will drink 500 m^3 of fluids.
* the handwavey estimate is that half of the people who have ever lived are alive today. if this is true, then the entire human species has drunk 1000 m^3 of water.
* the volume of the ocean is 1.3 10^9 km^3 -> 1.3 10^18 m^3.
You say "7b ppl alive today", but then multiply 70m^3 by 7. Either b=1, or your estimate is off by just a smidge, or 9 orders of magnitude.
Either way, most of the water we drink has not been previously drunk by another human. Dinosaurs, on the other hand, are a different story (obligatory xkcd).
The reason houses have so many windows is so that people have an escape route in the event of a fire. If it weren't for that requirement, you could make houses much more energy-efficient by reducing their number. Do you really need a window in a bathroom, for instance? Heck no.
The window in my downstairs bathroom is so small that no one capable of climbing to its height would be able to fit through. On the other hand, I might be able to barely squeeze through the window in my upstairs bathroom, but I'd probably break my neck in the fall to the ground.
One can be "in the right" and still not have done the right thing.
Pretty much what I was thinking. Back when the Earth was a molten mass and I was taking Driver Education in high school, there was a lot of emphasis on "defensive driving"; in other words, expect the other guy to do the wrong thing, and be ready for it. When you have a mix of self-driving and human-operated cars on the road, the self-driving ones better have some extremely conservative defensive driving skills.
Look at that shooter in texas - read his tweets and you can see how the FBI's harassment over the years drove him from a regular dude to someone deeply angry.
I know several people who over the years made the transition from "regular dude" to "someone deeply angry". None of them, though, have made the transition from "someone deeply angry" to "someone who tries to kill people who insult his religion".
I only post as AC because I post too infrequently to not have my account get deleted...
Wait, what? I've gone as long as five years without posting, and several years without even logging in, and I've never had my account deleted. What do you consider "infrequent"?
China is burning 5 times as much coal today as the US is, in the next 5 years or so, China will grow their coal consumption by the current total amount the US burns.
That does not make any sense. Is China now burning more than the USA or is it catching up to burn "just as much" in the next 5 years?
If it doesn't make sense, you're probably not parsing it correctly (admittedly, the commas and run-on phrasing present a little challenge). Try this:
China is burning 5 times as much coal today as the US is. In the next 5 years or so, China will grow their coal consumption by the current total amount the US burns.
Or, to re-phrase: Today, China burns 5 times as much coal as the US. In 5 or so years, China will be burning 6 times as much coal as the US. BTW, I have no idea whether this is true, but I'm pretty sure that's the message.
84% of Facebook users are aged 18 - 29, while nearly half of teen Facebook users say they're using it more than last year. http://www.businessinsider.com...
The only problem I can see with this "affordable" housing scheme is that, because of the location, it is pretty likely that property taxes will be comparatively high for people living in these homes.
It's California. Property tax is initially set at 1% of the purchase price, regardless of location. Prop 13 limits annual increases to 3% (of current tax) OR change in assessed valuation, whichever is less. My property taxes actually went down for several years in a row when values dropped a few years ago.
Plus, in what universe is "computer science" substantially equal to "english language arts"?
"Substantially" means "Considerable in importance, value, degree, amount, or extent". So, "substantially equal" means "Equal in importance, value, degree, amount, or extent." It doesn't mean equal in subject matter. So, what universe? Maybe the universe where girls underperform in computer science and boys underperform in english language arts. Sort of like the one we're in, for example.
C'mon, it's the 21st century, no one lives like that anymore, do they?
I can't tell whether you're kidding, but I'll bite. Lots of people aren't chained to a smartphone 24/7. I know quite a few people who only have their phones on their persons when they're out of the house. I usually put my phone in airplane mode and plug it into the charger when I get home from work; it doesn't wake up until I leave for work the next morning. It's not unusual for the phone to go untouched from Friday night until Monday morning unless I go someplace where it might be handy to have it with me.
You are probably at work using work email to put this bullshit up on slashdot
You might be on to something there. All these years, I've been using a web browser, completely unaware that I could post on Slashdot using email. Please elaborate on how this works.
When you read science fiction, does the character with the smart phone carry two of them so that she can have access to her secure stuff and her regular stuff? Hell no.
Science fiction != real life. But that aside, what's up with the whole lame "two phones" argument? Most people who have smartphones know you can have two email clients connecting to two different accounts on two different services on a single device.
Slashdot Mirror
It's a fad, and will be nothing but a memory in 10 years
Keurig shipped their first brewing machines in 1998; Nespresso, in 1988. Probably not a fad.
So, if we just add wifi we can have the Internet of Keurigs?
Yes. But what we really need is the Keurig of Internets.
* internet advises people to drink 2-3 L of fluids per day. * 365 days per year, 70 year lifespan -> 70k liters -> 70 m^3 over lifetime. * 7b ppl alive today. Everybody alive today will drink 500 m^3 of fluids. * the handwavey estimate is that half of the people who have ever lived are alive today. if this is true, then the entire human species has drunk 1000 m^3 of water. * the volume of the ocean is 1.3 10^9 km^3 -> 1.3 10^18 m^3.
You say "7b ppl alive today", but then multiply 70m^3 by 7. Either b=1, or your estimate is off by just a smidge, or 9 orders of magnitude.
Either way, most of the water we drink has not been previously drunk by another human. Dinosaurs, on the other hand, are a different story (obligatory xkcd).
The reason houses have so many windows is so that people have an escape route in the event of a fire. If it weren't for that requirement, you could make houses much more energy-efficient by reducing their number. Do you really need a window in a bathroom, for instance? Heck no.
The window in my downstairs bathroom is so small that no one capable of climbing to its height would be able to fit through. On the other hand, I might be able to barely squeeze through the window in my upstairs bathroom, but I'd probably break my neck in the fall to the ground.
One can be "in the right" and still not have done the right thing.
Pretty much what I was thinking. Back when the Earth was a molten mass and I was taking Driver Education in high school, there was a lot of emphasis on "defensive driving"; in other words, expect the other guy to do the wrong thing, and be ready for it. When you have a mix of self-driving and human-operated cars on the road, the self-driving ones better have some extremely conservative defensive driving skills.
You say he is a cow, yet you are the one making cow noises. How odd.
Look at that shooter in texas - read his tweets and you can see how the FBI's harassment over the years drove him from a regular dude to someone deeply angry.
I know several people who over the years made the transition from "regular dude" to "someone deeply angry". None of them, though, have made the transition from "someone deeply angry" to "someone who tries to kill people who insult his religion".
I'm with you on that one, even though (to cite another of my favorite irritants), for all intensive purposes they're the same.
I only post as AC because I post too infrequently to not have my account get deleted...
Wait, what? I've gone as long as five years without posting, and several years without even logging in, and I've never had my account deleted. What do you consider "infrequent"?
All of these recent failues (including the U.S. ones) give some insight into the Apollo program's amazing success (except for 13) in the U.S.
If you're looking for Apollo failures, Apollo 1 was rather more significant as failures go than Apollo 13. At least in 13, nobody died.
The last big news about Windows 10 was Spartan. Today's big news about Windows 10 is that Spartan has been re-named.
I can't tell you how excited I am. Really, I can't.
China is burning 5 times as much coal today as the US is, in the next 5 years or so, China will grow their coal consumption by the current total amount the US burns. That does not make any sense. Is China now burning more than the USA or is it catching up to burn "just as much" in the next 5 years?
If it doesn't make sense, you're probably not parsing it correctly (admittedly, the commas and run-on phrasing present a little challenge). Try this:
China is burning 5 times as much coal today as the US is. In the next 5 years or so, China will grow their coal consumption by the current total amount the US burns.
Or, to re-phrase: Today, China burns 5 times as much coal as the US. In 5 or so years, China will be burning 6 times as much coal as the US. BTW, I have no idea whether this is true, but I'm pretty sure that's the message.
I struggle to understand why a terrorist cell would hold a hostage for four years. Surely the cost just for feeding him would be excessive?
I have a feeling that Al Queda doesn't expend the same level of resources on the care and feeding of prisoners that we do in the USA.
Young people are fleeing FB in droves.
Half of the world's Internet users are active users of Facebook (where 'active' is defined as using at least once a month). http://www.statista.com/statis..., http://www.statista.com/statis...
84% of Facebook users are aged 18 - 29, while nearly half of teen Facebook users say they're using it more than last year. http://www.businessinsider.com...
That doesn't look much like "fleeing in droves".
The only problem I can see with this "affordable" housing scheme is that, because of the location, it is pretty likely that property taxes will be comparatively high for people living in these homes.
It's California. Property tax is initially set at 1% of the purchase price, regardless of location. Prop 13 limits annual increases to 3% (of current tax) OR change in assessed valuation, whichever is less. My property taxes actually went down for several years in a row when values dropped a few years ago.
Plus, in what universe is "computer science" substantially equal to "english language arts"?
"Substantially" means "Considerable in importance, value, degree, amount, or extent". So, "substantially equal" means "Equal in importance, value, degree, amount, or extent." It doesn't mean equal in subject matter. So, what universe? Maybe the universe where girls underperform in computer science and boys underperform in english language arts. Sort of like the one we're in, for example.
Yes, please, this!!! 1 down, 2 to go (I also want to see our National Anthem restored to its original version by having "under God" removed.
I would settle for seeing the Pledge of Allegiance not referred to as the National Anthem.
who among us has not taken an angle grinder to an errant machine?
I haven't. Maybe you have anger management issues?
I own an angle grinder, and I've never thought of using it on a computer. I have, however, considered my table saw on a couple of occasions.
you may not have your smartphone with you
C'mon, it's the 21st century, no one lives like that anymore, do they?
I can't tell whether you're kidding, but I'll bite. Lots of people aren't chained to a smartphone 24/7. I know quite a few people who only have their phones on their persons when they're out of the house. I usually put my phone in airplane mode and plug it into the charger when I get home from work; it doesn't wake up until I leave for work the next morning. It's not unusual for the phone to go untouched from Friday night until Monday morning unless I go someplace where it might be handy to have it with me.
I'd say that when one of the most anticipated features of a new operating system is a web browser, there isn't much to look forward to.
Much like you probably haven't used a manual typewriter for a long time. The only reason to use either is pure nostalgia.
Unless you need to cut a mimeograph stencil. Which would be either nostalgia or for love of the smell of mimeo ink.
people now may not know or remember this but phones even allow two-way verbal communication!
Hmm. You must be referring to the obscure, little-used app named "Phone". So 20th century.
a quite shuffle-off to jail doesn't hurt the Party nearly as badly.
I'm interested to hear your (or the AC's) ideas on how Hillary Clinton could be quietly shuffled off to jail.
You are probably at work using work email to put this bullshit up on slashdot
You might be on to something there. All these years, I've been using a web browser, completely unaware that I could post on Slashdot using email. Please elaborate on how this works.
When you read science fiction, does the character with the smart phone carry two of them so that she can have access to her secure stuff and her regular stuff? Hell no.
Science fiction != real life. But that aside, what's up with the whole lame "two phones" argument? Most people who have smartphones know you can have two email clients connecting to two different accounts on two different services on a single device.