All I need to do is secure the rotten tomato concession outside that conference, and I'll be rich beyond my wildest dreams! Oh wait... it's in Australia... never mind.
Yes and no. While teleconferencing and remote presence works for some things, it doesn't work for others.
Teaching positions can surely be outsourced, unless your referring to the part-babysitter types... Yes, lectures are probably best delivered recorded or via teleconference from a real expert. But there still needs to be someone physically present in the room to keep order and keep students from cheating.
Pharmacist can also be outsourced. It's really the lower-paid assistants that actually fill the perscriptions, once the pharmacist has said "Okay, that probably won't kill him." Consults could be done via teleconference. But just try getting your state board of Pharmacology to approve someone in another country signing off on presciptions they can't see in person, and see how far you get. None of the "lower-paid assistants" have keys to the safe with the schedule 2 narcotics either, for obvious reasons.
Doctors are already being outsourced. Reading of X-Rays, MRIs, etc. is easy to outsource, and it's being done right now. Hmmm... maybe I should have said Nurse instead of Doctor, since they do most of the hands-on work. However, I'm pretty sure I DON'T want to get my prostate exams from a robot! Your preferences may differ...
Bein a lawyer is all information-based. While you'll need one in the courtroom, the other 5 can be Indians, in their US law library, researching rulings, typing up motions, deciding on the best arguments, etc. Lawyers, like Pharmacists, are required to be licensed in the state in which they practice. How many people living overseas do you know that are currently licensed to practice law in your state?
Also bear in mind that remote presence ain't cheap, and never will be. Plus networks introduce lag -- do you want the doctor operating on you doing it over the same network that makes first persons shooters virtually unplayable? Do you really think sending a remote-control robot out to a dairy farm as a veterinarian is cheaper then sending a person? (Hint: somebody has to drive the truck carrying the robot, then unload it and set it up when it gets there. Plus, it will require a satellite up link, 'cause most dairy farms don't have T1 lines.) Do you really beleive the average Hooters waitress is in much danger of having her job outsourced? Do you really beleive the technician required to maintain and transport the robot plumber is than much cheaper than the plumber himself? And I notice you don't even try to explain how emergency workers could be outsourced. I'm sorry, but any service position that could be outsourced could also be automated and thereby eliminated entirely.
Smart people aren't just born, they're reared and trained to be intelligent and creative by parents and community. Yep, and the US school system, with it's emphasis on socialization, conformity, and suspending any child who dares to question the dominant paradigm is EXACTLY the kind of environment that can nuture any moron into becoming a WORLD CLASS SCIENTIST!
What kind of a Leave-it-to-Beaver dreamland are you living with? I'd love to see the study that proves that all of America's top scientists are native born, because any casual perusal of technical paper attributions seems to indicate they are mostly Chinese, Indian, Pakistani, Japanese, Russian, German, etc. Einstein was German. Many of the people who developed the atom bomb were foreign born. If you don't buy the assertion that only about 5% of the best scientists are American born, than what percentage do you accept? 50%? 75%? Anything less than the insane assumption of 100%, and my point is still valid -- we're better off hiring the best people from overseas than trying to make every Britney Spears wannabe in the US into a scientist.
Just wait 'till the MBAs discover that there are MBA grads over in China willing to do THEIR job for one tenth the salary too!
Face it, management can easily be outsourced. The only thing that can't be outsourced are service jobs. Want to be sure of having a job in the future? Become a teacher, pharmacist, plumber, doctor, lawyer, fireman, policeman, or any of the many other jobs that one can't telecommute to because they are required by the laws of physics to be in physical proximity to their clients.
Why train our own scientists when it is cheaper and quicker to simply hire away the best scientists from other countries? Saying we should spend more on training our own scientists is like saying the Yankees should invest in developing New York youth into world-class baseball players instead of simply paying top dollar for the best Cuban players! There are 6 billion people in the world and only 300 million in the US -- this means that 95% of the smartest people in the world aren't born in the US. Why should we pay to educate people when other countries are willing to educate them for us?
1) Aiming each mirror separately is not the same as trying to aim ~100 mirrors all at the same time while being unable to distinguish the feedback from your mirror from that of all the other mirrors.
2) Unless the ocean was glass-smooth, actual boats would have been rocking/bobbing up and down in the waves. It looks like light needed to be focused on the same spot for 10 minutes to acheive ignition. This would seem to be impossible given a rocking boat and manually aimed mirrors.
That being said, shields polished to mirror smoothness would have been effective for something: blinding the eyes of the guys shooting arrows at you. Setting a ship on fire probably could actually be accomplished, but that would require an array of mirrors in a parabolic configuration all attached to a single frame, and this would only work at a single fixed distance.
Thank you for your polite reply. Yes, I did speak to hastily -- I can find nothing in the bible that directly states the earth is the center of the universe. Historically people have interpreted the bible to imply that the earth was the center of the universe, or at least that the sun revolved around the earth, but that was because historically people have had an extremely self-centric view of the universe.
There is much wisdom to be found in the Bible, the Koran, and the Talmud. Unfortunately, leaders have always twisted the words of the prophets, misinterpreted scripture, suppressed gospels that didn't fit their world view, even rewritten the "words of god" to suit their own purposes. Yes, we would all be much better off if people read and tried to understand these books on their own, instead of letting "leaders" with their own agenda explain the books to them. For example, from Pat Robertson's call for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, we can only conclude that either Pat Robertson has never actually read the bible, or that his reading comprehension is so poor that he has completely misunderstood the book. And please, don't even get me started on the Catholic Church's selective interpretation of the bible.
I'm sorry, you must be correct. Galileo was put under arrest for heresy for espousing views that conflict with nothing that the bible says. Thanks for clearing that one up!
If I remember Genesis correctly, it states that Earth was created first, the sun and stars several days later. Genesis, 1:16-17, says that the "sun, moon, and stars also" were created "to light the earth." NOT to light other planets!
Now please point out to be the verse in the bible that states that I should have only a single wife!
With technology like this, we could even determine if the inhabitants of distant planets are so mindbogglingly primitive that they're still driving SUVs!
Right, 'cause there certainly aren't any other companies besides Microsoft that massively overhype and underdeliver on their new products, is there? {cough}Sony{cough}
Did you ever stop to think that perhaps the home-bound internet addicts will be the ONLY ones to survive the next big flu epidemic? Taking farm boys that had never been out of their home town and then shipping them all over the world was a primary cause of the Spanish Flu epidemic. Staying at home prostrating yourself before the glowing CRT could actually save your life!
Uh, these people arms are positioned perfectly for punching a man where it hurts the most... shinguards hell, I'll take my guards at a slightly higher position, thank you very much!
Don't most "dwarves" have "normal" size heads? Also wouldn't most genetic mutations (like microencephalism) have prevented the individual from living long enough to have wear on their teeth and bone structure like an adult? I think the apparent age at death provides strong evidence that these individuals were normal members of the population, not abberations. Of course, the more samples you can find of this size without larger size fossils mix in, the better the argument for little people. Local folktales in the area also tell of little people coming down from the hills to raid crops. If these stories have any credence, that would seem to indicate this subspecies died out much more recently than 12,000 years ago. Of course, this could have simply been an extremly inbreed band of humans, not a true separate species.
Jaw bones contain teeth. Wear on the teeth is usually a pretty good indicator of age. So yes, it could have just been a small child that had been chewing tough food for at least 20 years...
But should they be allowed to screw you? No. No one can screw you without your compliance... well, at least in the area of software purchasing, anyway.
The universities competing in this competition know perfectly well they're helping the armed forces kill people. Over 2000 good soldiers dead in Iraq, many by Improvised Explosive Devices... how many of those deaths good have been prevented by using autonomous vehicles for patrols instead of manned ones? Perhaps the universities beleive the opposite is true -- there helping keep armed forces people from being killed. Face, if the goal of the armed forces were simply to kill people, then nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons would do it much more quickly and efficiently than an autonomous vehicle! The trick is not simply to kill people, but to kill the RIGHT people. I don't think anybody honestly beleives that autonomous vehicles can decide who the right people are, so it is much more likely these will be used to prevent deaths rather than cause them. That could only be a good thing, unless you happen to be a member of an "insurgency". Personally, I prefer being able to say "Ha-ha! You just killed a robot!" to anybody that attacks our vehicles.
This is America... we don't breed the smartest people in the world, we just attract them from wherever they happen to have been born. Ultimately, the ability to attract the brightest, most highly motivated people from all over the world has always been America's only real advantage.
That's the mystical explanation. The scientfic term for dark matter dark matter is that it is a "universal fudge factor", also known as "insert arbitrary constant just to make the math come out right."
For science, hasn't "best" always been defined as "the simplest explanation that models observed phenomena close enough to predict results"? I.e. a useful theory must coincide with available data AND be testable.
Slashdot Mirror
All I need to do is secure the rotten tomato concession outside that conference, and I'll be rich beyond my wildest dreams! Oh wait... it's in Australia... never mind.
Teaching positions can surely be outsourced, unless your referring to the part-babysitter types... Yes, lectures are probably best delivered recorded or via teleconference from a real expert. But there still needs to be someone physically present in the room to keep order and keep students from cheating.
Pharmacist can also be outsourced. It's really the lower-paid assistants that actually fill the perscriptions, once the pharmacist has said "Okay, that probably won't kill him." Consults could be done via teleconference. But just try getting your state board of Pharmacology to approve someone in another country signing off on presciptions they can't see in person, and see how far you get. None of the "lower-paid assistants" have keys to the safe with the schedule 2 narcotics either, for obvious reasons.
Doctors are already being outsourced. Reading of X-Rays, MRIs, etc. is easy to outsource, and it's being done right now. Hmmm... maybe I should have said Nurse instead of Doctor, since they do most of the hands-on work. However, I'm pretty sure I DON'T want to get my prostate exams from a robot! Your preferences may differ...
Bein a lawyer is all information-based. While you'll need one in the courtroom, the other 5 can be Indians, in their US law library, researching rulings, typing up motions, deciding on the best arguments, etc. Lawyers, like Pharmacists, are required to be licensed in the state in which they practice. How many people living overseas do you know that are currently licensed to practice law in your state?
Also bear in mind that remote presence ain't cheap, and never will be. Plus networks introduce lag -- do you want the doctor operating on you doing it over the same network that makes first persons shooters virtually unplayable? Do you really think sending a remote-control robot out to a dairy farm as a veterinarian is cheaper then sending a person? (Hint: somebody has to drive the truck carrying the robot, then unload it and set it up when it gets there. Plus, it will require a satellite up link, 'cause most dairy farms don't have T1 lines.) Do you really beleive the average Hooters waitress is in much danger of having her job outsourced? Do you really beleive the technician required to maintain and transport the robot plumber is than much cheaper than the plumber himself? And I notice you don't even try to explain how emergency workers could be outsourced. I'm sorry, but any service position that could be outsourced could also be automated and thereby eliminated entirely.
What kind of a Leave-it-to-Beaver dreamland are you living with? I'd love to see the study that proves that all of America's top scientists are native born, because any casual perusal of technical paper attributions seems to indicate they are mostly Chinese, Indian, Pakistani, Japanese, Russian, German, etc. Einstein was German. Many of the people who developed the atom bomb were foreign born. If you don't buy the assertion that only about 5% of the best scientists are American born, than what percentage do you accept? 50%? 75%? Anything less than the insane assumption of 100%, and my point is still valid -- we're better off hiring the best people from overseas than trying to make every Britney Spears wannabe in the US into a scientist.
Does that mean that (shudder...) I won't be able to receive spam from Russia and China anymore?
Face it, management can easily be outsourced. The only thing that can't be outsourced are service jobs. Want to be sure of having a job in the future? Become a teacher, pharmacist, plumber, doctor, lawyer, fireman, policeman, or any of the many other jobs that one can't telecommute to because they are required by the laws of physics to be in physical proximity to their clients.
Why train our own scientists when it is cheaper and quicker to simply hire away the best scientists from other countries? Saying we should spend more on training our own scientists is like saying the Yankees should invest in developing New York youth into world-class baseball players instead of simply paying top dollar for the best Cuban players! There are 6 billion people in the world and only 300 million in the US -- this means that 95% of the smartest people in the world aren't born in the US. Why should we pay to educate people when other countries are willing to educate them for us?
2) Unless the ocean was glass-smooth, actual boats would have been rocking/bobbing up and down in the waves. It looks like light needed to be focused on the same spot for 10 minutes to acheive ignition. This would seem to be impossible given a rocking boat and manually aimed mirrors.
That being said, shields polished to mirror smoothness would have been effective for something: blinding the eyes of the guys shooting arrows at you. Setting a ship on fire probably could actually be accomplished, but that would require an array of mirrors in a parabolic configuration all attached to a single frame, and this would only work at a single fixed distance.
There is much wisdom to be found in the Bible, the Koran, and the Talmud. Unfortunately, leaders have always twisted the words of the prophets, misinterpreted scripture, suppressed gospels that didn't fit their world view, even rewritten the "words of god" to suit their own purposes. Yes, we would all be much better off if people read and tried to understand these books on their own, instead of letting "leaders" with their own agenda explain the books to them. For example, from Pat Robertson's call for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, we can only conclude that either Pat Robertson has never actually read the bible, or that his reading comprehension is so poor that he has completely misunderstood the book. And please, don't even get me started on the Catholic Church's selective interpretation of the bible.
If I remember Genesis correctly, it states that Earth was created first, the sun and stars several days later. Genesis, 1:16-17, says that the "sun, moon, and stars also" were created "to light the earth." NOT to light other planets!
Now please point out to be the verse in the bible that states that I should have only a single wife!
They wanted to call it TWA (Telescope With Attitude), but unfortunately that acronym was already taken.
'Cause you know, I get really bored when I'm driving alone, and it would be really great if I had something to WATCH to help pass the time!
Are we forgetting that the bible claims our Earth is the center of the universe?
With technology like this, we could even determine if the inhabitants of distant planets are so mindbogglingly primitive that they're still driving SUVs!
Right, 'cause there certainly aren't any other companies besides Microsoft that massively overhype and underdeliver on their new products, is there? {cough}Sony{cough}
Did you ever stop to think that perhaps the home-bound internet addicts will be the ONLY ones to survive the next big flu epidemic? Taking farm boys that had never been out of their home town and then shipping them all over the world was a primary cause of the Spanish Flu epidemic. Staying at home prostrating yourself before the glowing CRT could actually save your life!
Uh, these people arms are positioned perfectly for punching a man where it hurts the most... shinguards hell, I'll take my guards at a slightly higher position, thank you very much!
Don't most "dwarves" have "normal" size heads? Also wouldn't most genetic mutations (like microencephalism) have prevented the individual from living long enough to have wear on their teeth and bone structure like an adult? I think the apparent age at death provides strong evidence that these individuals were normal members of the population, not abberations. Of course, the more samples you can find of this size without larger size fossils mix in, the better the argument for little people. Local folktales in the area also tell of little people coming down from the hills to raid crops. If these stories have any credence, that would seem to indicate this subspecies died out much more recently than 12,000 years ago. Of course, this could have simply been an extremly inbreed band of humans, not a true separate species.
Jaw bones contain teeth. Wear on the teeth is usually a pretty good indicator of age. So yes, it could have just been a small child that had been chewing tough food for at least 20 years...
But should they be allowed to screw you? No. No one can screw you without your compliance... well, at least in the area of software purchasing, anyway.
So maybe the edges of the universe are anisotropic?
I can't wait 'till women start using this scanner! Since I always carry Trojans Extra-Extra-Extra-Large, I'm sure they'll be impressed!
The universities competing in this competition know perfectly well they're helping the armed forces kill people. Over 2000 good soldiers dead in Iraq, many by Improvised Explosive Devices... how many of those deaths good have been prevented by using autonomous vehicles for patrols instead of manned ones? Perhaps the universities beleive the opposite is true -- there helping keep armed forces people from being killed. Face, if the goal of the armed forces were simply to kill people, then nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons would do it much more quickly and efficiently than an autonomous vehicle! The trick is not simply to kill people, but to kill the RIGHT people. I don't think anybody honestly beleives that autonomous vehicles can decide who the right people are, so it is much more likely these will be used to prevent deaths rather than cause them. That could only be a good thing, unless you happen to be a member of an "insurgency". Personally, I prefer being able to say "Ha-ha! You just killed a robot!" to anybody that attacks our vehicles.
This is America... we don't breed the smartest people in the world, we just attract them from wherever they happen to have been born. Ultimately, the ability to attract the brightest, most highly motivated people from all over the world has always been America's only real advantage.
That's the mystical explanation. The scientfic term for dark matter dark matter is that it is a "universal fudge factor", also known as "insert arbitrary constant just to make the math come out right."
For science, hasn't "best" always been defined as "the simplest explanation that models observed phenomena close enough to predict results"? I.e. a useful theory must coincide with available data AND be testable.