My wife and I view our responsibility as parents as very basic:
1) Provide basic necessities an enjoyments of life (emphasis on necessities) 2) Provide love and a feeling of trust and safety in the home 3) Teach them a strong sense of identity and self-worth 4) Teach our kids what choices are, how to recognize good from bad choices, and how to accept the consequences of you actions
For computers, here's our strategy:
1) Place computers in a open public place (including our own) 2) Teach them that computers are a tool and how people use it for good and bad 3) Openly discuss what acceptable and unacceptable behavior with computers/games are 4) Limit time spent on computer 5) As much as possible, don't create double standards 6) Use OpenDNS and block certain sites depending on their age
We feel parental technology should be used to reinforce what you're already teaching, not as a substitute.
Am I the only one left in the US that doesn't want everyone to know my every move of every day life??
No, you're not. I've yet to join twitter, facebook, myspace, flickr, etc. I enjoy searching for myself on the internet and finding next to nothing.
It's kind of weird since I am a webservices developer (emphasis on services). I enjoy reading about what things people are doing with these social networks and what the latest trends are, but spending my time on them seems too much like work I guess.
My boss, one of the best developers on my team, now has about 1/4 to 1/8 of the time he used to have to write code. I've found that I've had to step it up and take charge of a lot more work (which has been a great growing experience for me) since he's going to meetings every 30 min. to an hour.
On a somewhat of a side note, I think too many institutions (college or trade) simply don't effectively teach (or don't teach at all) industry best practices such as:
-source control - every project you do in school should have to use source control
-build scripts - rather than turning in a binary, graders should checkout your code from your source control and be able to build and/or run it in one step
-bug fixing - project deadlines should be in phases where you are given a certain number of times you can have your program reviewed by others (TA's or other students) and bugs submitted against your, or your team's, bug database
-team work - once you get past the weeder courses a lot more work should be team work. If you are having your students use source control and a bug database, the graders and professor can easily see who did what and what the dynamics of the team were (if any). I'd say you could even go further (if it logistically made sense) and tell students to use an email system for the class for communication with their team about the project. Then these emails could be part of the grade since they are being graded on teamwork. Plus, having teams would mean projects could be bigger and more rewarding (ie: fulfilling to see run)
-documentation - for team projects, provide a wiki for each team to document what they are doing and communicate
Universities or trade schools are doing their graduates a disservice by sending them into the real worlds without experience in these areas.
When discussions of supporting various versions of browsers come up, it is important to know what browsers are actually visiting your site. Earlier this year IE6 users to one of my sites dipped below 10%. Since then, it has now been ~3% for the past month.
Now I no longer stress about IE6. I'll check it to make sure the site is at least functional and usable in IE6. But I no longer strive for pixel-perfect compatibility. It's simply not worth it.
You can spend the extra hours getting it to work for all browsers and end up using hacks and mangling your HTML/CSS to do so, but if all of that work is only for a small percentage of your user base, it is not worth it.
physicians injected a gene encoding a functional copy of the protein into a small part of one eye â" about eight-to-nine millimeters in diameter
Did anyone else think of that part on Star Trek First Contact where Picard dreams about being borg and having that machine inject something in his eye. Still gives me the creeps.
One of the best Starcraft LAN-play memories I have:
Myself and a small group of friends started doing LAN parties back before they became popular. I can remember spending half the time setting up the network with Windows 95 PCs, making sure everyone had the right TCP stack on their computers, and double checking coaxial terminators for the token ring network we were setting up. All this just to network Doom.
Fast forward a few years and we were playing Starcraft into the wee hours of the night/morning. One time we were doing a "big game hunters" round which went particularly long. I fell asleep and woke to see half of my base destroyed with enemy units just sitting there. I looked up and noticed that the player who attacked me had fallen asleep before finishing the attack. I retaliated but fell asleep before I was able to finish off all of his bases.
New characters/themes to bring Tron into the 21st century:
1) Qubit - flies around saying, "Yes", "no", and "maybe" 2) Tron-troll - Any scene involving communication between more than two characters is constantly interrupted by the local Tron-troll 3) Anonymous - suddenly hordes of identical looking drones appear to aid the main character in his/her quest then dissipate feeling good about themselves 4) Users - rather than only having sparse information about the users, characters in Tron know everything about the users and are constantly interrupted by the user's incessant communications about what they are currently doing or their asking Tron characters to fill out quizzes which have nothing to do with the plot of the movie 5) DRM - weapons, vehicles, and entire structures suddenly stop working at the whim of the MCP
This just in: "Mass Speculation" also suggests: 1) The world will end in 2012 2) Man never landed on the moon 3) Vaccines cause autism 4) Technology = magic 5) Science is infallible 6) Religion is infallible 7) Windows is better than Mac 8) Mac is better than Windows 9) Mac is better than *nix 10) *nix is better than Mac 11) Windows is better than *nix 12) *nix is better than Windows
I really need to meet this "Mass Speculation" guy. He seems to be all over the board on things.
Which is why if/when direct brain IO is developed, you won't find me anywhere near it, unless I am in a situation where it is the only option to restore normal faculties (ie: injury or illness). Currently, when a power surge or an attack occurs against my device/computer the damage maxes out at the value of the device (assuming I'm backing up data). If a power surge or an attack occurs via a direct link hooked up to my brain, the damage is total.
That said, the article is still relevant because neuro-tech has great potential to increase the quality and length of life in ways currently not possible. As always, it's important to stop and think about the short/long term consequences of actions (novel thought).
Really, your argument against all the benefits harnessing wind power will bring is, "It looks ugly?"
To me part of their beauty comes from what they symbolize--the beginning of the next era in human advancement where we learn to work with the planet to progress rather than exploit it. When I drive by wind turbines, all I can do is smile.
As for the "not being able to connect them to the grid" part, makes me wonder if throwing all of that money at wall/auto street couldn't have been better spend elsewhere.
In my experience, people who are adamant about the moon landing being a conspiracy seem to act that way merely because it gets them attention. They seem to feed off of the conflict. Since claiming these pictures are also a fake will continue to give them attention, this type of people will continue to hold onto their beliefs.
If people want to believe that the moon landing was a hoax, that's their prerogative. But when they become combative towards anyone who thinks otherwise, that's when they've stepped over the line. It's called basic tolerance and respect. The same applies to other subjects which are debated--science/religion, windows/mac/linux, music, sports, etc. You're entitled to your opinion and the defense of it, but you are not entitled (or at least you're credibility is not entitled) to disrespect or belittle people merely for having different opinions or beliefs.
People who feel the need to constantly attack or belittle different opinions/beliefs merely show how insecure they in their own anyways.
a lot of good people [worked] insanely long hours on this game that was butchered by outside sources.
I kills me to see this pattern repeated over and over in the technology industry. Smart managers/leads/companies know that pushing too hard will always hurt you in the long run. Of course there are times where you push hard as a team. But when 12 hour days become the rule not the exception you are establishing an unsustainable habit and company/team culture. Attrition rates will increase (draining you of talent), word will spread into the industry about the negative work atmosphere (making it hard to hire/replace lost or new talent), those still working will lose their passion and the quality of work will fall (killing your competitive edge).
I've been lucky/blessed that so far in my career I haven't been in a situation where I had to constantly choose between my life/family and my work. Part of it is setting expectations/boundaries both personally and as a team. When I was interviewed for the former company I worked for (which no longer exists since we were acquired by a big one recently), I expressed excitement and passion for my work and the technologies they were developing, but I flat-out told them that when push comes to shove when it comes to work and family that I will always chose time with my family. When I go home for the weekend, unless I've agreed otherwise or we're really down to the wire, I do not work. No email checking, no extra hours, nothing. Setting this boundary, people make sure things are squared away BEFORE the weekend comes. And if it is an emergency they know they have to call me on my personal phone (which causes people to make sure it really is an emergency before contacting me).
Again, I consider myself lucky/blessed because I know of companies or situations where setting this kind of boundary will get you fired. Honestly, I think that getting fired for standing up for your rights (and I use that word deliberately) isn't the worst thing that can happen in life. The way to handle this type of situation is to talk to HR. Confidentially show HR a well documented pattern of abusing employees by management demanding/coersing salaried (and even hourly) workers continually work extra hours and ask for their help to change the company culture. If nothing happens, then you can look for another job. If you get fired, you can sue the company since HR broke their confidentiality.
While I'm against absolute censorship (with a few extreme exceptions), I am very much for the creation of reliable tools that enable people and families to make informed decisions to control what kinds of material they interact with.
Fortunately, the internet has stepped up and done quite well at being the kind of tool I see as being effective. If you want to know what kind of material is in a game/movie/song/book/etc. there are sites or blogs full of reviews on whatever you're looking for.
Case in point, my wife and I recently ditched cable (and by not keeping up with the digital TV switch even local broad cast TV). Honestly, we couldn't justify the cost given how little we ended up watching it and how much inanity there was in many of the shows. Plus, news is better online or on the radio and neither of us are into professional sports. So now we just use Netflix/Redbox or watch shows online. Since what we're watching is not live, there are tons of reviews on the internet of exactly what kind of content (or lack thereof) is in the movie/show. So now we end up watching exactly what we like to watch and our TV watching experience is much better. Interestingly, we've found ourselves watching more independent films than blockbuster films.
Of course, this means we're a season behind the live TV viewing. But being up on all the latest shows isn't socially important to us so we don't care.
I feel there's plenty of information out there for people to be in control of what they watch if they take the time. Hopefully, more sites will pop up that are focused on providing an organized way for people to make informed decisions about their media viewing/listening/reading so you don't have to pour through random blog posts all the time.
I can understand why the professor wouldn't want to change his curriculum (it'd be like someone telling you that you can't reuse code you've written from other projects), but kudos to the department chair for siding with the quality of education rather than the status quo of the course. There are ways to detect code plagiarism beyond just doing string comparisons, so the professor may be able to even use the same project but just ratchet up the process involved in grading to detect those who just copied the work of others.
especially now, with universities ratcheting up their tuition fees and trying to justify an education that can put students into debt for the majority of their working lives.
On a somewhat self-indulging side note, my wife and I just made our last payments to our student loans this summer. Only 3 and 5 years after graduation respectively too. However, we both worked full time in college, and we've been making aggressive payments to our loans ever since graduating.
Does anyone know what datacenters do with the water that's heated? Does anyone know if there are any datacenters out there that put the heated water to good use (like this guy)?
That's weird, I'm currently working on an asynchronous distributed network of satellites which can be used coordinate the efforts of robotic forces and adapt to an enemy's tactics.
While it's in its early stages, we're just calling it Skynet--not having anything better to call it. We'll change the name once it's ready to go live.
More commonplace? Yes. Mundane? Not as much. The same thought exercise applies. If I told someone in the 1700's or 1800's that many people across the country often travel 50+ miles a day to and from work and home, I imagine they would be very awestruck.
Interesting that you mentioned that you imagine showing someone from centuries in the past our world today. I think about that all the time. It's fun to image how you would explain everything about your day to someone from centuries in the past. Computers, the internet, transportation, entertainment, economies, medicine, world history, etc. It's also interesting, when going through this thought exercise, to realize how much has largely, but not entirely, remained the same: human relations, family, politics, class caste systems, war, etc
I think that if you brought someone from centuries in the past to today, they would be shocked to say the least. But once the shock wore off, they'd recognize much of what existed then and adapt (especially if they had someone explaining things).
A poll at WhiteHouse.gov merely reflects the opinion of those who visited WhiteHouse.gov--nothing more and nothing less. A poll at cnn.com or foxnews.com merely reflects the opinions of those who visit those sites--nothing more and nothing less. It doesn't matter how popular the online poll is... THEY CANNOT BE GENERALIZED TO THE US POPULATION AT LARGE. And it would be unwise for an administration to make policy decisions based on informal online polls.
That's why we have the voting system. Those who vote represent legal US citizens who chose to exercise their constitutional right to vote--nothing more, nothing less.
This is the first time there is no paper ballot to speak of.
Then what makes them so certain that there were only 7,300 people who voted?
A paper trail is SUPPOSED to have a certain level of inconvenience. That's part of its value. Generally speaking, the more automation a voting system has, the higher the potential for fraud.
Americans can't imagine how other people could want something different from what they have, and how could they think different from what they, Americans, think. I don't know if it's true, but it's a very interesting POV.
sounds more like a Christian view rather than just an American view, but I guess since a large portion of our population is Christian it may still hold up.
I would wager that you could replace the noun "Christian" with almost any other noun describing a large population of people and you'd get a very similar percentage of people who resist seeing other's POV. What you may have observed in people claiming to be Christian is likely attributed to human nature rather than being Christian (or whatever noun you wish to lob an Ad Hominem attack on).
Slashdot Mirror
My wife and I view our responsibility as parents as very basic:
1) Provide basic necessities an enjoyments of life (emphasis on necessities)
2) Provide love and a feeling of trust and safety in the home
3) Teach them a strong sense of identity and self-worth
4) Teach our kids what choices are, how to recognize good from bad choices, and how to accept the consequences of you actions
For computers, here's our strategy:
1) Place computers in a open public place (including our own)
2) Teach them that computers are a tool and how people use it for good and bad
3) Openly discuss what acceptable and unacceptable behavior with computers/games are
4) Limit time spent on computer
5) As much as possible, don't create double standards
6) Use OpenDNS and block certain sites depending on their age
We feel parental technology should be used to reinforce what you're already teaching, not as a substitute.
Am I the only one left in the US that doesn't want everyone to know my every move of every day life??
No, you're not. I've yet to join twitter, facebook, myspace, flickr, etc. I enjoy searching for myself on the internet and finding next to nothing.
It's kind of weird since I am a webservices developer (emphasis on services). I enjoy reading about what things people are doing with these social networks and what the latest trends are, but spending my time on them seems too much like work I guess.
Besides, Google already provides a way for people who want to keep their privacy online.
My boss, one of the best developers on my team, now has about 1/4 to 1/8 of the time he used to have to write code. I've found that I've had to step it up and take charge of a lot more work (which has been a great growing experience for me) since he's going to meetings every 30 min. to an hour.
All I can say is that some people seriously need to read The Mythical Man Month.
On a somewhat of a side note, I think too many institutions (college or trade) simply don't effectively teach (or don't teach at all) industry best practices such as:
-source control - every project you do in school should have to use source control
-build scripts - rather than turning in a binary, graders should checkout your code from your source control and be able to build and/or run it in one step
-bug fixing - project deadlines should be in phases where you are given a certain number of times you can have your program reviewed by others (TA's or other students) and bugs submitted against your, or your team's, bug database
-team work - once you get past the weeder courses a lot more work should be team work. If you are having your students use source control and a bug database, the graders and professor can easily see who did what and what the dynamics of the team were (if any). I'd say you could even go further (if it logistically made sense) and tell students to use an email system for the class for communication with their team about the project. Then these emails could be part of the grade since they are being graded on teamwork. Plus, having teams would mean projects could be bigger and more rewarding (ie: fulfilling to see run)
-documentation - for team projects, provide a wiki for each team to document what they are doing and communicate
Universities or trade schools are doing their graduates a disservice by sending them into the real worlds without experience in these areas.
When discussions of supporting various versions of browsers come up, it is important to know what browsers are actually visiting your site. Earlier this year IE6 users to one of my sites dipped below 10%. Since then, it has now been ~3% for the past month.
Now I no longer stress about IE6. I'll check it to make sure the site is at least functional and usable in IE6. But I no longer strive for pixel-perfect compatibility. It's simply not worth it.
You can spend the extra hours getting it to work for all browsers and end up using hacks and mangling your HTML/CSS to do so, but if all of that work is only for a small percentage of your user base, it is not worth it.
physicians injected a gene encoding a functional copy of the protein into a small part of one eye â" about eight-to-nine millimeters in diameter
Did anyone else think of that part on Star Trek First Contact where Picard dreams about being borg and having that machine inject something in his eye. Still gives me the creeps.
Anyways, pretty cool scientific advancement.
One of the best Starcraft LAN-play memories I have:
Myself and a small group of friends started doing LAN parties back before they became popular. I can remember spending half the time setting up the network with Windows 95 PCs, making sure everyone had the right TCP stack on their computers, and double checking coaxial terminators for the token ring network we were setting up. All this just to network Doom.
Fast forward a few years and we were playing Starcraft into the wee hours of the night/morning. One time we were doing a "big game hunters" round which went particularly long. I fell asleep and woke to see half of my base destroyed with enemy units just sitting there. I looked up and noticed that the player who attacked me had fallen asleep before finishing the attack. I retaliated but fell asleep before I was able to finish off all of his bases.
Put LAN-play back in Blizzard.
Asking a question about the ethnicity of a name does not automatically make one a racist.
I know. Calm down people. Go have some beers and make up.
New characters/themes to bring Tron into the 21st century:
1) Qubit - flies around saying, "Yes", "no", and "maybe"
2) Tron-troll - Any scene involving communication between more than two characters is constantly interrupted by the local Tron-troll
3) Anonymous - suddenly hordes of identical looking drones appear to aid the main character in his/her quest then dissipate feeling good about themselves
4) Users - rather than only having sparse information about the users, characters in Tron know everything about the users and are constantly interrupted by the user's incessant communications about what they are currently doing or their asking Tron characters to fill out quizzes which have nothing to do with the plot of the movie
5) DRM - weapons, vehicles, and entire structures suddenly stop working at the whim of the MCP
What's amusing to me is that if you want to education or health care funded in the US, you have to lobby Congress like hell to fund it.
What's amusing to me is that people think education or health care is a proper role for the Federal Government.
What's amusing to me is that people think education or health care is a proper role for unaccountable entities whose primary responsibility is profit.
What's amusing to me is the frequent use of the phrase "What's amusing to me" in this thread.
This just in: "Mass Speculation" also suggests:
1) The world will end in 2012
2) Man never landed on the moon
3) Vaccines cause autism
4) Technology = magic
5) Science is infallible
6) Religion is infallible
7) Windows is better than Mac
8) Mac is better than Windows
9) Mac is better than *nix
10) *nix is better than Mac
11) Windows is better than *nix
12) *nix is better than Windows
I really need to meet this "Mass Speculation" guy. He seems to be all over the board on things.
Which is why if/when direct brain IO is developed, you won't find me anywhere near it, unless I am in a situation where it is the only option to restore normal faculties (ie: injury or illness). Currently, when a power surge or an attack occurs against my device/computer the damage maxes out at the value of the device (assuming I'm backing up data). If a power surge or an attack occurs via a direct link hooked up to my brain, the damage is total.
That said, the article is still relevant because neuro-tech has great potential to increase the quality and length of life in ways currently not possible. As always, it's important to stop and think about the short/long term consequences of actions (novel thought).
Really, your argument against all the benefits harnessing wind power will bring is, "It looks ugly?"
To me part of their beauty comes from what they symbolize--the beginning of the next era in human advancement where we learn to work with the planet to progress rather than exploit it. When I drive by wind turbines, all I can do is smile.
As for the "not being able to connect them to the grid" part, makes me wonder if throwing all of that money at wall/auto street couldn't have been better spend elsewhere.
In my experience, people who are adamant about the moon landing being a conspiracy seem to act that way merely because it gets them attention. They seem to feed off of the conflict. Since claiming these pictures are also a fake will continue to give them attention, this type of people will continue to hold onto their beliefs.
If people want to believe that the moon landing was a hoax, that's their prerogative. But when they become combative towards anyone who thinks otherwise, that's when they've stepped over the line. It's called basic tolerance and respect. The same applies to other subjects which are debated--science/religion, windows/mac/linux, music, sports, etc. You're entitled to your opinion and the defense of it, but you are not entitled (or at least you're credibility is not entitled) to disrespect or belittle people merely for having different opinions or beliefs.
People who feel the need to constantly attack or belittle different opinions/beliefs merely show how insecure they in their own anyways.
a lot of good people [worked] insanely long hours on this game that was butchered by outside sources.
I kills me to see this pattern repeated over and over in the technology industry. Smart managers/leads/companies know that pushing too hard will always hurt you in the long run. Of course there are times where you push hard as a team. But when 12 hour days become the rule not the exception you are establishing an unsustainable habit and company/team culture. Attrition rates will increase (draining you of talent), word will spread into the industry about the negative work atmosphere (making it hard to hire/replace lost or new talent), those still working will lose their passion and the quality of work will fall (killing your competitive edge).
I've been lucky/blessed that so far in my career I haven't been in a situation where I had to constantly choose between my life/family and my work. Part of it is setting expectations/boundaries both personally and as a team. When I was interviewed for the former company I worked for (which no longer exists since we were acquired by a big one recently), I expressed excitement and passion for my work and the technologies they were developing, but I flat-out told them that when push comes to shove when it comes to work and family that I will always chose time with my family. When I go home for the weekend, unless I've agreed otherwise or we're really down to the wire, I do not work. No email checking, no extra hours, nothing. Setting this boundary, people make sure things are squared away BEFORE the weekend comes. And if it is an emergency they know they have to call me on my personal phone (which causes people to make sure it really is an emergency before contacting me).
Again, I consider myself lucky/blessed because I know of companies or situations where setting this kind of boundary will get you fired. Honestly, I think that getting fired for standing up for your rights (and I use that word deliberately) isn't the worst thing that can happen in life. The way to handle this type of situation is to talk to HR. Confidentially show HR a well documented pattern of abusing employees by management demanding/coersing salaried (and even hourly) workers continually work extra hours and ask for their help to change the company culture. If nothing happens, then you can look for another job. If you get fired, you can sue the company since HR broke their confidentiality.
While I'm against absolute censorship (with a few extreme exceptions), I am very much for the creation of reliable tools that enable people and families to make informed decisions to control what kinds of material they interact with.
Fortunately, the internet has stepped up and done quite well at being the kind of tool I see as being effective. If you want to know what kind of material is in a game/movie/song/book/etc. there are sites or blogs full of reviews on whatever you're looking for.
Case in point, my wife and I recently ditched cable (and by not keeping up with the digital TV switch even local broad cast TV). Honestly, we couldn't justify the cost given how little we ended up watching it and how much inanity there was in many of the shows. Plus, news is better online or on the radio and neither of us are into professional sports. So now we just use Netflix/Redbox or watch shows online. Since what we're watching is not live, there are tons of reviews on the internet of exactly what kind of content (or lack thereof) is in the movie/show. So now we end up watching exactly what we like to watch and our TV watching experience is much better. Interestingly, we've found ourselves watching more independent films than blockbuster films.
Of course, this means we're a season behind the live TV viewing. But being up on all the latest shows isn't socially important to us so we don't care.
I feel there's plenty of information out there for people to be in control of what they watch if they take the time. Hopefully, more sites will pop up that are focused on providing an organized way for people to make informed decisions about their media viewing/listening/reading so you don't have to pour through random blog posts all the time.
I already did. It doesn't seem to be any better:
http://www.safety-devices.com/atlas_gps.htm
It's not expensive to maintain them (gravel isn't expensive)--but it is labor-intensive.
Sounds like the ideal solution for job creation: cheap but involves lots of labor.
Of course these aren't going to be jobs people will necessarily want to be doing long-term. But in this economy, a job is a job.
waste heat is dumped to the outside world
That's the part I'm talking about. Seems like that heat could be put to good use somehow.
I can understand why the professor wouldn't want to change his curriculum (it'd be like someone telling you that you can't reuse code you've written from other projects), but kudos to the department chair for siding with the quality of education rather than the status quo of the course. There are ways to detect code plagiarism beyond just doing string comparisons, so the professor may be able to even use the same project but just ratchet up the process involved in grading to detect those who just copied the work of others.
especially now, with universities ratcheting up their tuition fees and trying to justify an education that can put students into debt for the majority of their working lives.
On a somewhat self-indulging side note, my wife and I just made our last payments to our student loans this summer. Only 3 and 5 years after graduation respectively too. However, we both worked full time in college, and we've been making aggressive payments to our loans ever since graduating.
Does anyone know what datacenters do with the water that's heated? Does anyone know if there are any datacenters out there that put the heated water to good use (like this guy)?
That's weird, I'm currently working on an asynchronous distributed network of satellites which can be used coordinate the efforts of robotic forces and adapt to an enemy's tactics.
While it's in its early stages, we're just calling it Skynet--not having anything better to call it. We'll change the name once it's ready to go live.
-John Connor
Car travel, by contrast, is largely mundane.
More commonplace? Yes. Mundane? Not as much. The same thought exercise applies. If I told someone in the 1700's or 1800's that many people across the country often travel 50+ miles a day to and from work and home, I imagine they would be very awestruck.
Interesting that you mentioned that you imagine showing someone from centuries in the past our world today. I think about that all the time. It's fun to image how you would explain everything about your day to someone from centuries in the past. Computers, the internet, transportation, entertainment, economies, medicine, world history, etc. It's also interesting, when going through this thought exercise, to realize how much has largely, but not entirely, remained the same: human relations, family, politics, class caste systems, war, etc
I think that if you brought someone from centuries in the past to today, they would be shocked to say the least. But once the shock wore off, they'd recognize much of what existed then and adapt (especially if they had someone explaining things).
Putting the drug debate aside, online polls always suffer from two things:
biased sample and hasty generalization
A poll at WhiteHouse.gov merely reflects the opinion of those who visited WhiteHouse.gov--nothing more and nothing less. A poll at cnn.com or foxnews.com merely reflects the opinions of those who visit those sites--nothing more and nothing less. It doesn't matter how popular the online poll is... THEY CANNOT BE GENERALIZED TO THE US POPULATION AT LARGE. And it would be unwise for an administration to make policy decisions based on informal online polls.
That's why we have the voting system. Those who vote represent legal US citizens who chose to exercise their constitutional right to vote--nothing more, nothing less.
This is the first time there is no paper ballot to speak of.
Then what makes them so certain that there were only 7,300 people who voted?
A paper trail is SUPPOSED to have a certain level of inconvenience. That's part of its value. Generally speaking, the more automation a voting system has, the higher the potential for fraud.
Wrong and wrong.
I would wager that you could replace the noun "Christian" with almost any other noun describing a large population of people and you'd get a very similar percentage of people who resist seeing other's POV. What you may have observed in people claiming to be Christian is likely attributed to human nature rather than being Christian (or whatever noun you wish to lob an Ad Hominem attack on).