Tourists either switch off their phones, or put them in flight mode, because of the exorbitant roaming charges they would otherwise make. I doubt they make up a significant portion of the operators' income. Your argument is easily reversed: the operators might experience an increase in revenue, once tourists actually start using their phones abroad.
Yep.
This is karma for all the years they've been price-gouging people just because they cross a border for a few days.
And it serves them right.
A lot of them have been charging ridiculous amounts of money. Some of them even charge the recipient of the call as well as the caller - i.e. somebody calls you from a company account they don't pay the bill for and it costs you money to listen to them yakking for half an hour.
Dude, increased usage means more cost for the provider. How does that offset the income loss? Unless, of course, a subscriber goes over whatever BS limits the carrier has imposed?
Not really. It all evens out. If I'm abroad then I'm not connected to a cell tower in my home country.
For biting flies to evolve, there would likely have to be a considerable reason to
The same argument applies to stripes. Maybe more so - stripes aren't food, they have a much more subtle evolutionary pressure (assuming they're the repel flies).
Longer, swishier tails to swat flies with seem much easier to evolve than stripes - there's already some genetic variation in tails.
Hindering attacks from predators trying to pick out a single quarry in a sea of seizure-inducing undulating stripes should not be considered mutually exclusive from hindering insect bites.
Predator logic... A few stripes: bite like hell until my mouth has food in it A shit-ton of stripes: bite like hell until my mouth has food in it
I read other articles that said the scientists basically found a correlation between heavy populations of biting flies and intensely stripped zebras. All they have is some statistical analysis that says these populations overlap. They [the scientists] then say that this is intriguing and someone should figure out if the stripes actually protect the zebras.
that's fine. it's good science. It's the journalists that are claiming, that flies have an aversion to striped surfaces.
Or.... maybe the flies have a good reason to avoid zebras - Zebra blood tastes bad or something.
The 'camouflage' explanation isn't very good either. I don't see many African soldiers wearing black/white striped uniforms, do you?
My theory? Zebras live in a land full of hoofed animals and the stripes let them know which other animals they're supposed to hang out/mate with. ie. Zebra eyes find stripes irresistible.
If it's proven that biting flies have aversion to landing on striped surfaces, it makes no sense to say it can't be true because flies would evolve.
Correlation != causation.
To me it makes much more sense that biting flies have evolved to avoid landing on Zebras (eg. because Zebras have a secret anti-fly weapon we don't know about yet).
How do they know to avoid Zebras? Because of the stripes.
Carts and horses. Make sure you know which is which...
Why, yes, yes I did. Twice, to make sure I wasn't imagining it.
But noooooo, not a single mention of the speed.
I've got fiber right to the little box under my table for 29.95 Euros a month+tax. I have to limit the Bit torrent rate because my hard disk can't keep up with full speed downloads and Windows 7 craps its pants trying to expand the page file to cope (does that make sense to any OS designers outside Redmond?). I'm sure his can't be that much better.
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Tourists either switch off their phones, or put them in flight mode, because of the exorbitant roaming charges they would otherwise make. I doubt they make up a significant portion of the operators' income. Your argument is easily reversed: the operators might experience an increase in revenue, once tourists actually start using their phones abroad.
Yep.
This is karma for all the years they've been price-gouging people just because they cross a border for a few days.
And it serves them right.
A lot of them have been charging ridiculous amounts of money. Some of them even charge the recipient of the call as well as the caller - i.e. somebody calls you from a company account they don't pay the bill for and it costs you money to listen to them yakking for half an hour.
Also, you're ignoring a 4th option: they might actually make more money by having reasonable roaming charges.
This bill is about not having *any* roaming charges. You pay the same abroad as you do at home.
Dude, increased usage means more cost for the provider. How does that offset the income loss? Unless, of course, a subscriber goes over whatever BS limits the carrier has imposed?
Not really. It all evens out. If I'm abroad then I'm not connected to a cell tower in my home country.
It's hot over there.
For biting flies to evolve, there would likely have to be a considerable reason to
The same argument applies to stripes. Maybe more so - stripes aren't food, they have a much more subtle evolutionary pressure (assuming they're the repel flies).
Longer, swishier tails to swat flies with seem much easier to evolve than stripes - there's already some genetic variation in tails.
I also tend to believe that the result is correct
Why?
All we have at the moment is a correlation.
that the zebra evolved stripes because those with particularly dominant stripes were less prone to disease and problems brought on by fly bites
Maybe the stripes just help zebras distinguish other zebras clearly in a world full of hoofed animals.
PS: Stripes might even attract lions: http://i.huffpost.com/gen/5923...
Hindering attacks from predators trying to pick out a single quarry in a sea of seizure-inducing undulating stripes should not be considered mutually exclusive from hindering insect bites.
Predator logic...
A few stripes: bite like hell until my mouth has food in it
A shit-ton of stripes: bite like hell until my mouth has food in it
Yep. If that's their strategy, it doesn't seem to be working: https://www.google.es/search?q...
The 'camouflage' explanation doesn't hold up under scrutiny. eg. I don't recall seeing human soldiers wearing black/white stripy uniforms in Africa...
Me? I think other zebras just find stripes irresistible, ie. Zebra eyes have evolved to enjoy being surrounded by other zebras
I read other articles that said the scientists basically found a correlation between heavy populations of biting flies and intensely stripped zebras. All they have is some statistical analysis that says these populations overlap. They [the scientists] then say that this is intriguing and someone should figure out if the stripes actually protect the zebras.
that's fine. it's good science. It's the journalists that are claiming, that flies have an aversion to striped surfaces.
Or.... maybe the flies have a good reason to avoid zebras - Zebra blood tastes bad or something.
The 'camouflage' explanation isn't very good either. I don't see many African soldiers wearing black/white striped uniforms, do you?
My theory? Zebras live in a land full of hoofed animals and the stripes let them know which other animals they're supposed to hang out/mate with. ie. Zebra eyes find stripes irresistible.
Biting flies evolve... typically at a much faster rate than large mammals.
...which makes it even less likely that strips would work to keep them away. They'd out-evolve the stripes before the stripes ever developed fully.
Not just /.
This story is *everywhere* today. The level of uncritical thinking and mindless reposting is astounding.
Biting flies can't evolve?
I found the whole thing very unconvincing.
If it's proven that biting flies have aversion to landing on striped surfaces, it makes no sense to say it can't be true because flies would evolve.
Correlation != causation.
To me it makes much more sense that biting flies have evolved to avoid landing on Zebras (eg. because Zebras have a secret anti-fly weapon we don't know about yet).
How do they know to avoid Zebras? Because of the stripes.
Carts and horses. Make sure you know which is which...
Robots are slow. They can't dig. All robots can do is scrape a few centimeters down.
Just put an Arduino in an excavator. Job done.
Oh, the real problem with sending earth-moving machinery to Mars is the weight.
Humans would add waaaaay more weight to a mars mission than a bigger spade on a Mars rover ever would.
Just launch some big cans of beans and beef jerky ahead of them. They'll do fine.
The cans can even serve as houses when they're empty.
We know damn well the fate of those we're sending on a one-way trip to Mars, even with the best of results.
You don't know that for sure. Maybe the underground-dwelling martians will take pity and save them.
Even better!
I think flies are allowed to evolve to overcome things like this, but what do I know, right?
biting flies have an aversion to landing on striped surfaces.
Biting flies can't evolve?
I found the whole thing very unconvincing.
why is it different for space?
NASA sends people to the ISS knowing that it will take years off their lives if they stay up there for more than a few days.
People are being sent to war knowing they will not return, so why not into outer space?
Not really, unless the USA is fighting some wars I don't know about.
You're more likely to die if you buy a motorcycle than if you go to Iraq/Afghanistan.
They weren't planned/intentional.
We all die.
It's about time that modern society realized that choosing when/where/how to die should be every individual's right.
(just like a lot of those more "primitive" cultures do)
Replace it with a VR headset. That way you can put cameras all around the car and have 360 degree vision at all times.
Agreed. Sideview mirrors let you see places a rearview camera won't.
Ummmm, doesn't that depend on the camera?
Why, yes, yes I did. Twice, to make sure I wasn't imagining it.
But noooooo, not a single mention of the speed.
I've got fiber right to the little box under my table for 29.95 Euros a month+tax. I have to limit the Bit torrent rate because my hard disk can't keep up with full speed downloads and Windows 7 craps its pants trying to expand the page file to cope (does that make sense to any OS designers outside Redmond?). I'm sure his can't be that much better.