Well, what they do in Sweden for voting is still old-school paper ballots... in fact, to a former North American it is almost a bit scary as the political parties are allowed to hang around the polling stations handing out polling slips... yes, you use a specific polling slip for the party you want to vote for, and the well-organized and well-funded parties will sometimes send out the voting slips ahead of time!
What they also have in Sweden is a national ID system - everyone has an ID number that is used for everything - taxes, healthcare, picking up packages from the post office - everything! And tied to that system are the major bank systems, many of which us a Bank-ID token which you load on your computer to allow online tax submissions, health insurance claims, parental leave (hello 480 days paid leave!), etc. The online part of the ID validation is based on either a single-use scratch bankcard or a keypad that you insert your bankcard into, which you enter a validation code, your PIN, and then it returns a validation code. So, my guess is that switching to e-voting in Sweden would be a breeze, and the security would definitely be strong.
Now that I think about it, no idea really why there is no e-voting here yet - heck, you can file your taxes by SMS here!
Agreed. While some people fret about modern society approaching the dystopia of 1984, I think it's scary that technology has moved to the point where government could easily do even more to hold citizens down. Orwell didn't foresee electronic tracking devices that could follow you wherever you go. In the book, the protagonist got a break from the telescreen for a few hours by walking down to a remote place. Now, even this means of privacy isn't guaranteed.
42,642 people died in 2006 in the USA from vehicle crashes. If requiring a GPS in every vehicle would help reduce this number, and also protect citizens from the occasional police harassment, why not? And for those not fond of the government knowing so much about them, do like I do - ride a bicycle to work! Of course, maybe GPSing bicycles is the future too...
Better yet, why not black on black? The ultimate in savings for those with CRT monitors, and a good test of your physic abilities to understand the search results. So, who is "feeling lucky" today?
There is lots of research on application rates for urine - and urine is in fact jammed-packed with nutrients, specifically NPK (nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium). Test trials comparing a crop grown with and without applications of urine all show a big increase in crop yield with urine fertilization.
And part of the point of using ecosan is that all nutrients from the urine and feces are reclaimed and used for agricultural production. Flushing with salt water would make it impossible to use on cropland (plus there is still the high cost of major sewage infrastructure...)
It's called composting, but in the sense of rendering a product useful and safe (sanitized). Storage of the urine for six months to one year ensures that the urine is completely sanitized and safe to use to fertilize crops.
Ecological sanitation will be the only choice available to countries like India and China who are water-scarce. There is no way that all 2.5 billion+ people will be able to use water-based flush sanitation. Yet sanitation must be safe, clean, and easy to use. Ecological sanitation (or ecosan) is based on dry, urine-seperating toilets. No water is required, no major infrastructure, and all urine and faeces is safely composted without any need for electricity. The composted urine and faeces can be safely used on cropland for fertilizer. Currently, over two million Chinese use urine-seperating toilets in the south of China, and there is a major urban pilot project in Inner Mongolia. Additionally, some African countries are committing to 100% use of ecosan. No water, low-tech, no smell and no flies - plus fertilizer? No question of why, merely when and how!
Internet cafes should go British-style, have coin-operated electricity plugs for those hard-core wi-fiers. An extra income stream for cafe owners, and a good alternative for those wi-fiers who are shaking from too manys coffees, and relatively headache-free compared to paying for wi-fi. (Of course, auto-disconnects or time-outs after half-an-hour on the wi-fi connection would be good too, makes playing WOW mid-battle a wee bit more difficult!)
The issue of muscle loss when using such a device could go either way - the ability to move around much more actively could actually stimulate muscles. Resistance could be fine-tuned so that the muscles gradually strengthen. Often, the reason old people become so weak is that they are afraid to do things, or at least do them actively (my own grandmothers are afraid to be outside) - so having a body suit would be amazing, if they actually leave the house!!
All these google map/earth features and well and fine, but what I want to know about is the projection! And what about UTM? Lat/long is a okay for the globe, but for regions UTM makes much more sense - and its what I like!
Looks like Sweden is ready to go along with the world to a viking past! Old viking-era laws on stealing and murder were quite different - if you were caught stealing three times, then it was the end for you, and not valhalla! However, if you killed someone, you merely had to produce enough silver equal to their rank and you were homefree. Yet the vikings had no problem going around raiding and pillaging (and trading, if that gave them a better deal!)
and "canada evil" yields 6 million hits...so we'd better be careful
global warming? No, global climate change....
on
BBC on Global Dimming
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
As a student of global climate change (the warming part has long since been dropped), a few scientific facts need to be added.
#1 - Global climate change means exactly that - it will get warmer in some places, colder in others. And while idyllic thoughts of long summers around Great Bear Lake might spark a real estate boom, there will be a few downsides to the change. Disease vectors love warm weather, which means that pesky malaria (so, caused by bad air after all!) will become a feature of northern summers.
#2 - The problem of increased warming due to pollution reduction is well known. These are relatively large particles being talked about, the ones that reflect sunlight back out (like after a volcano) - this does not include the smaller particles that have a much larger "green house" effect. Thus as we reduce large particulate pollution, the speed of warming will indeed increase.
#3 - The "wait and study it so we know what is happending" arguement. This arguement has many supporters, including those who love discount rates. The fact is, once a glacier begins to melt (ahem, Greenland), there will be no way to stop it. Mind you, it might take a few hundred to a few thousand years... so maybe 2k'ers get the last laugh?
Slashdot Mirror
Well, what they do in Sweden for voting is still old-school paper ballots... in fact, to a former North American it is almost a bit scary as the political parties are allowed to hang around the polling stations handing out polling slips... yes, you use a specific polling slip for the party you want to vote for, and the well-organized and well-funded parties will sometimes send out the voting slips ahead of time! What they also have in Sweden is a national ID system - everyone has an ID number that is used for everything - taxes, healthcare, picking up packages from the post office - everything! And tied to that system are the major bank systems, many of which us a Bank-ID token which you load on your computer to allow online tax submissions, health insurance claims, parental leave (hello 480 days paid leave!), etc. The online part of the ID validation is based on either a single-use scratch bankcard or a keypad that you insert your bankcard into, which you enter a validation code, your PIN, and then it returns a validation code. So, my guess is that switching to e-voting in Sweden would be a breeze, and the security would definitely be strong. Now that I think about it, no idea really why there is no e-voting here yet - heck, you can file your taxes by SMS here!
Agreed. While some people fret about modern society approaching the dystopia of 1984 , I think it's scary that technology has moved to the point where government could easily do even more to hold citizens down. Orwell didn't foresee electronic tracking devices that could follow you wherever you go. In the book, the protagonist got a break from the telescreen for a few hours by walking down to a remote place. Now, even this means of privacy isn't guaranteed.
42,642 people died in 2006 in the USA from vehicle crashes. If requiring a GPS in every vehicle would help reduce this number, and also protect citizens from the occasional police harassment, why not? And for those not fond of the government knowing so much about them, do like I do - ride a bicycle to work! Of course, maybe GPSing bicycles is the future too...
Better yet, why not black on black? The ultimate in savings for those with CRT monitors, and a good test of your physic abilities to understand the search results. So, who is "feeling lucky" today?
There is lots of research on application rates for urine - and urine is in fact jammed-packed with nutrients, specifically NPK (nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium). Test trials comparing a crop grown with and without applications of urine all show a big increase in crop yield with urine fertilization.
And part of the point of using ecosan is that all nutrients from the urine and feces are reclaimed and used for agricultural production. Flushing with salt water would make it impossible to use on cropland (plus there is still the high cost of major sewage infrastructure...)
It's called composting, but in the sense of rendering a product useful and safe (sanitized). Storage of the urine for six months to one year ensures that the urine is completely sanitized and safe to use to fertilize crops.
Ecological sanitation will be the only choice available to countries like India and China who are water-scarce. There is no way that all 2.5 billion+ people will be able to use water-based flush sanitation. Yet sanitation must be safe, clean, and easy to use. Ecological sanitation (or ecosan) is based on dry, urine-seperating toilets. No water is required, no major infrastructure, and all urine and faeces is safely composted without any need for electricity. The composted urine and faeces can be safely used on cropland for fertilizer. Currently, over two million Chinese use urine-seperating toilets in the south of China, and there is a major urban pilot project in Inner Mongolia. Additionally, some African countries are committing to 100% use of ecosan. No water, low-tech, no smell and no flies - plus fertilizer? No question of why, merely when and how!
Internet cafes should go British-style, have coin-operated electricity plugs for those hard-core wi-fiers. An extra income stream for cafe owners, and a good alternative for those wi-fiers who are shaking from too manys coffees, and relatively headache-free compared to paying for wi-fi. (Of course, auto-disconnects or time-outs after half-an-hour on the wi-fi connection would be good too, makes playing WOW mid-battle a wee bit more difficult!)
The issue of muscle loss when using such a device could go either way - the ability to move around much more actively could actually stimulate muscles. Resistance could be fine-tuned so that the muscles gradually strengthen. Often, the reason old people become so weak is that they are afraid to do things, or at least do them actively (my own grandmothers are afraid to be outside) - so having a body suit would be amazing, if they actually leave the house!!
All these google map/earth features and well and fine, but what I want to know about is the projection! And what about UTM? Lat/long is a okay for the globe, but for regions UTM makes much more sense - and its what I like!
Looks like Sweden is ready to go along with the world to a viking past! Old viking-era laws on stealing and murder were quite different - if you were caught stealing three times, then it was the end for you, and not valhalla! However, if you killed someone, you merely had to produce enough silver equal to their rank and you were homefree. Yet the vikings had no problem going around raiding and pillaging (and trading, if that gave them a better deal!)
and "canada evil" yields 6 million hits...so we'd better be careful
As a student of global climate change (the warming part has long since been dropped), a few scientific facts need to be added.
#1 - Global climate change means exactly that - it will get warmer in some places, colder in others. And while idyllic thoughts of long summers around Great Bear Lake might spark a real estate boom, there will be a few downsides to the change. Disease vectors love warm weather, which means that pesky malaria (so, caused by bad air after all!) will become a feature of northern summers.
#2 - The problem of increased warming due to pollution reduction is well known. These are relatively large particles being talked about, the ones that reflect sunlight back out (like after a volcano) - this does not include the smaller particles that have a much larger "green house" effect. Thus as we reduce large particulate pollution, the speed of warming will indeed increase.
#3 - The "wait and study it so we know what is happending" arguement. This arguement has many supporters, including those who love discount rates. The fact is, once a glacier begins to melt (ahem, Greenland), there will be no way to stop it. Mind you, it might take a few hundred to a few thousand years... so maybe 2k'ers get the last laugh?