It doesn't have anything to do with the US Department of State...it's always funny to see how you Americans always think everything revolves around you. Although, lately it seems as though the hurricanes have been stiring things up down there nicely. Anyways, as previously stated in a previous post (by someone else) it's the UN that's in charge of such things as countries wanting to become independant (or, in contrast, annexation, etc etc), not the independant countries themselves. They can cry and moan for years about it, but unless their dignitaries take the necessary steps to acheive independance I'm afraid it's always going to stay that way.
They're screwed either way though if you think about it. If they choose to become separatists and form their own country, China will get insulted and crush them anyway. In this case, I believe that a bit of annoyance and whatnot is a small price to pay as compared to a mass exodus.
It's an obvious theory to me that the brain (and other aspects of human nature) would still be evolving. One of the principle codes of evolution and paleoanthropology is that things are constantly changing, and with the presentation of individual facts and findings that humans have evolved from "lesser equiped" sapiens such as the neandertal for example.
To understand evolution, you have to know how it works. Any mutation must be applied to a DNA coding that already exists. It can not be applied to coding that does not exist. Is this a silly statement? Not at all. It leads to the way that evolution changes an organism. Mutations are always applied to the existing DNA coding. Evolution makes something new out of something that already exists. If a bear becomes distressed in a given environment, it does not sprout wings and fly. Instead, such things as longer legs or claws will be tested. Also, evolution often does not fix the thing that causes a problem, it patches the problem by doing something unrelated. If an organism suffers a mutation that shortens its life so that it has difficulty rearing its children to childbearing age, that mutation will start being culled from the gene pool. Before that mutation has been completely removed from the gene pool, another mutation may occur which shortens the gestation period or child development period. If this shortens the child caring requirements enough so that the shortened life is no longer a problem, then both mutations would be acceptable as permanent residents in the gene pool.
One must remember that every cell in the human body can perform any function. Two copies of the entire genome are in every cell. A cell that is in the liver chooses to do that function. The cells in bone or in the brain choose to do those functions. When a mutation happens, it is either to the inner function of a cell, or to the size and shape of the overall cell structure (such as a skull, heart, etc.).
Using language as an example to promote the idea of human brain evolution is a good example for the common layman, but it doesn't even begin to touch on the basis and main concepts of the topic; however, that's beside the point.
Moreover, it's common knowledge within the medical feild (and other related sectors) that behaviour IS, in fact, coded....just not genetically. Behaviour has never been a characteristic for genetics, it's more of an entity in it's own right (but still obviously stored in the brain). It's strongly believed and heavily documented that every aspect of a person's life is profoundly affected in the early stages of childhood going into their early teens. For example, if a female is raised in an environment with an abusive father (or father-figure), later in life she'll subconsciously be attracted to the "bad boy" type and will unintentionally repeat that abusive cycle with her children. On the same note, if that same child is raised in a loving, healthy, and positively stimulating environment she'll be more likely to live a successful and fulfilling life.
Moreover, that's not to say that all hope is lost for the first life scenario outlined above. There are many services available to those people who recognize that they have a problem that needs to be fixed (such as AlaTeen and other such 12 step programs) in order for them to survive. The sooner the problem is recognized, the better.
In conclusion, I would just like to state that life on our planet has been evolving and improvising itself over millions of years. Just because the human race has gained the capacity to recognize many of these patterns, that doesn't mean that everything involved with the process will suddenly stop dead in it's tracks...and remember, man is not an intelligent being. He is, instead, an instinctive being with intelligence.
By typing and thinking about this topic, I've come to realize that there are an endless amount of tangents (and even perpendiculars for that matter) that can be brought to the table...but alas, despite the fact that I haven't said everything I wanted and intended to say, I'm going to wrap this up now.
Just a quick comment about this. Being a Canadian myself (Windsor, Ontario actually), don't let viva's response fool you into thinking that Canadian diamonds are the best alternative (and most cost effective route) to your little "dilemma".
Even though they may mark the package to save you any duties fees or extra taxes, they can still be quite costly...depending on the karat size you're looking for, of course. You may be able to find a smaller diamond at a decent price, but due to the fact that Canadian diamonds aren't "mass produced" like some of the more reputable names in the feild, you'll tend to pay a little extra for the better cuts.
That's not to say that the Canadian diamonds are a rip off, but the dealers will tend to treat them as a rarity depending on who you choose to buy from. Because of that supply factor, on the same note, the quality is usually higher than that of your generic "over-the-counter" diamond which will also factor into the price.
But heck, don't let any of that deter you from looking...you're bound to find a good deal, but don't go into it thinking that you'll be saving hundreds of dollars. Of course, you'll save a little because of the exchange rate between our two countries (even though our dollar is steadily rising on a daily basis), but at best you'll be happy if you find something good at a $75 face price savings. The diamond market is pretty much the same in every country though...
You obviously don't live in a large area because it's common knowledge in cities and other locales of concentrated wealth that there are cars that cost more than $558,000....the Saleen S7 costs $562,700 MSRP, plus tax and depending on what options you want you can end up spending quite a bit of money. That's just one example of an expensive exotic sports car...go to a car auction as well, lots of rare cars in mint condition can sell for over $1.5million.
I'm just going to reply to this one quickly since you obviously don't know what you're cooking...there are quite a few cars who's Playboy purchase price of $750+ and in the immediate . Moreover, the monthly interest earned is $105,000/month on $3,000,000 if the interest rate were 3.5%....I do believe that earning more in interest monthly than most people make in 3 years ($105,000)...anyone could live off of that for the rest of their lives because there would never be more interest earned monthly than you could spend. I don't quite know how your american taxes go at income tax time, but in Canada you don't pay tax on lottery winnings and stuff like that....so if you had $3million at 3.5% you'd only have to pay 3.5% of $105,000....which would be $3,675.
Anyways, that's all I gotta say about this...it's still early so my brain hasn't quite switched on yet.
Yes, the millionaire shareholders would be making the same amount regardless of how Microsoft chooses to pay their employees. The price of a stock doesn't depend on a company's payroll...it has to do with a number of factors like revenue, the amount of stocks that are issued, the amount of equity the company owns, etc etc.
If your "friend" isn't happy with the amount of work he gets from Microsoft, why wouldn't he get a job somewhere else that would be more lucrative? It's his own fault if he can't afford to live waiting by the phone for Microsoft to call him....I mean, geez, after 2 years you'd think he would've gotten the hint by now. There are thousands of lucrative computer based jobs available out there.
Moreover, it's pretty much common knowledge of how Microsoft "hires" contractors on a temporary basis for larger scale projects. Microsoft employs probably close to 50,000 people...so they don't really need temporary help all that often.
Nevertheless, as previously mentioned, if you don't like how things are going with a job a large majority of people would look for work elsewhere...what does he expect?
I'll just assume that you made that statement sound uneducated and nonsensical on purpose....what's it supposed to mean? and what is it's relevance? lol
Contractors are never _promised_ work...that's why they're considered contractors and not permanent employees on a steady salary. Needless to say, you being an unemployed contractor has nothing to do with making millions of dollars from Microsoft stock options.:-)
Sure, a million bucks isn't alot of money these days....especially if the person that gets the moddest sum is from the irresponsible sector of society. In this case, a financially irresponsible person would be someone who's poor and suddenly becomes a millionaire.
Through my personal observations of people around me, "rags to riches" people end up spending a large portion of their newly found wealth on expensive "toys" and other such material possessions and get in over their heads faster than they can realize.
For example, if one were to get $3million "overnight" they would become extremely overwhelmed and buy things like $750,000 imported sports cars. Sure, they would be able to afford the purchase...but they may not take into account the insurance cost ($180,000/year or more) and maintence...since it's an import, any parts that are needed to make repairs need to be flown from overseas on special order.
Another "fatal flaw" that this sector tends to posess is the need to brag. The more you talk about the amount of money you have, the more you'll become your family's (and friends', and neighbors') personal charity. They end up giving alot of their money away if they're insecure and/or lack will power. In these kinds of cases, more often than not, the "poorly wealthy" person ends up going insane because of constantly being harrassed, or they commit suicide.
I could go on and on with these types of examples, but my whole point here is that a fiscally responsible individual could EASILY live a modestly lavish lifestyle on the bared interest of $1million alone and would never have to work. However, a responsible person wouldn't have to live off their interest...they would have the common sense to hire a reputable accountant and investment broker so that they could continue to grow their capital without ever having to worry about drying out the well.
This is pretty off-topic from the original subject of the article, so I'll stop now before I start typing out another four paragraphs. I just hate it when I see people like this who don't know the value of a dollar....and this has just been my two cents;-)
I apologize if some of it might not make sense, I just took some painkillers so my head is slightly spinning...heh
yeah, I was kinda wondering when he was going to relate or get on track with his answer too...it's kinda funny though that he would waste his time typing that hoping people would think he was smart, but half of intelligence is relevance and there was no clear examples of either there...hmmm...
I've never heard of anything like that...sounds ridiculous if you ask me, unless YOU were this "mysterious basement freak" that you speak of...err...whatever you were talking about...DON'T LET IT HAPPEN AGAIN! heh, bye
Exactly, normal laws don't apply to people of stature....if you haven't already noticed...and I find $1 to be quite reasonable, considering they became billionaires virtually overnight! It's their way of saying that they have no need for MORE money because they have much more than they'll ever need.
The only protest I have about this stunt is that I may end up losing a bet that their networths would surpass that of Bill Gates by the year 2009....I guess I'll just keep my mouth shut and hope the bet is forgotten...heh:)
That has got to be one of the stupidest things I've ever heard...lol...especially #3. I'd love to see them decrypt any of the stuff I have protected by looking at my cache...since I clear it several times a day. As for my history, my browser is set not to keep track of it. Looks like they'd be up "crap creek" with my system.
My thoughts exactly. Besides, how stupid are people becoming that they would need to depend on a peice of M$ software to tell them how to communicate properly?
As stated though, anyone who is at least half-intelligent already knows that the grammar checker is a pile and don't use it...the same can be said for the spellcheck; although, that one works, just people don't use it as often as they should.
So on the basis of the article, people are using poor grammar with misspelled words [using grammar check, but not spellcheck]...how does that help anyone? It's all garbage anyway.:)
Those are some good points, but they only go to further elaborate on what I was proposing. Goes to show we share a wave-length on this issue.
Either way, we will probably never have to concern outselves with this type of occurance within our lifetimes, and things will always seem conservatively optimistic....but then again, either way...need I say more? hehe;)
Yeah, but who's to say that we couldn't somehow "transplant" coral from Earth in a lab transportation unit environment that would preserve the specimens and encourage it to continue to grow and thrive while in transit?
Who's to say that a procedure couldn't be devised to, more or less, synthetically create living coral...something along the lines of cloning...that would drastically shorten the time for it to mature and improve it's lifespan?
There's no saying that something like this COULD be possible in the scope of future scientific biology. It's not so far fetched, considering scientists have already created procedures that give an 85% success rate on sex selection in babies, all the advancements in medicine against cancer, AIDS, and other pandemic concerns.
I realize that those examples are a totally different sector, but when it comes to science and medicine their progresses are closely intertwined where some successes can be used to advance other studies to get favorable results.
Apart from "you never know", that's all I'm gonna say for now.:)
uhh...how old are you? What difference does it make? It's a simple spelling error. I'm sure you're not completely unfallible. The premise is there, quit your nit-picking. This isn't a spelling competition.
haha:P:)
That's rediculous! Just because the earth's magnetic feild might change, that doesn't mean the entire construction of the continents is going to change too...lol.
I'm just going to assume that you didn't mean that:P:)
With the advancement of technology and it's broad expanse of possibilities in the future, by the time we become capable of even thinking about terraforming with a certain degree of actually being able to accomplish it, I highly doubt that it would take thousands of years to make something habitable.
Sure, like anything else, it'd be a process...and a lengthy one...but saying that it would take thousands of years is rediculous. My guess would be that it would take no longer than 50 years (not taking into consideration the travel time to reach whatever planet)....provided that the planet selected isn't an obsolute barren land.
In order for a planet to be considered for candidacy, it would obviously need to have it's own supply of water and a somewhat reasonable atmosphere...but there could be things made to make the "beautification process" completely automated.
I have a number of ideas/theories on how exactly this could be done...but this is already off-topic enough from the coral story, but I just had to comment:)
Slashdot Mirror
It doesn't have anything to do with the US Department of State...it's always funny to see how you Americans always think everything revolves around you. Although, lately it seems as though the hurricanes have been stiring things up down there nicely. Anyways, as previously stated in a previous post (by someone else) it's the UN that's in charge of such things as countries wanting to become independant (or, in contrast, annexation, etc etc), not the independant countries themselves. They can cry and moan for years about it, but unless their dignitaries take the necessary steps to acheive independance I'm afraid it's always going to stay that way.
They're screwed either way though if you think about it. If they choose to become separatists and form their own country, China will get insulted and crush them anyway. In this case, I believe that a bit of annoyance and whatnot is a small price to pay as compared to a mass exodus.
It's an obvious theory to me that the brain (and other aspects of human nature) would still be evolving. One of the principle codes of evolution and paleoanthropology is that things are constantly changing, and with the presentation of individual facts and findings that humans have evolved from "lesser equiped" sapiens such as the neandertal for example.
To understand evolution, you have to know how it works. Any mutation must be applied to a DNA coding that already exists. It can not be applied to coding that does not exist. Is this a silly statement? Not at all. It leads to the way that evolution changes an organism. Mutations are always applied to the existing DNA coding. Evolution makes something new out of something that already exists. If a bear becomes distressed in a given environment, it does not sprout wings and fly. Instead, such things as longer legs or claws will be tested. Also, evolution often does not fix the thing that causes a problem, it patches the problem by doing something unrelated. If an organism suffers a mutation that shortens its life so that it has difficulty rearing its children to childbearing age, that mutation will start being culled from the gene pool. Before that mutation has been completely removed from the gene pool, another mutation may occur which shortens the gestation period or child development period. If this shortens the child caring requirements enough so that the shortened life is no longer a problem, then both mutations would be acceptable as permanent residents in the gene pool.
One must remember that every cell in the human body can perform any function. Two copies of the entire genome are in every cell. A cell that is in the liver chooses to do that function. The cells in bone or in the brain choose to do those functions. When a mutation happens, it is either to the inner function of a cell, or to the size and shape of the overall cell structure (such as a skull, heart, etc.).
Using language as an example to promote the idea of human brain evolution is a good example for the common layman, but it doesn't even begin to touch on the basis and main concepts of the topic; however, that's beside the point.
Moreover, it's common knowledge within the medical feild (and other related sectors) that behaviour IS, in fact, coded....just not genetically. Behaviour has never been a characteristic for genetics, it's more of an entity in it's own right (but still obviously stored in the brain). It's strongly believed and heavily documented that every aspect of a person's life is profoundly affected in the early stages of childhood going into their early teens. For example, if a female is raised in an environment with an abusive father (or father-figure), later in life she'll subconsciously be attracted to the "bad boy" type and will unintentionally repeat that abusive cycle with her children. On the same note, if that same child is raised in a loving, healthy, and positively stimulating environment she'll be more likely to live a successful and fulfilling life.
Moreover, that's not to say that all hope is lost for the first life scenario outlined above. There are many services available to those people who recognize that they have a problem that needs to be fixed (such as AlaTeen and other such 12 step programs) in order for them to survive. The sooner the problem is recognized, the better.
In conclusion, I would just like to state that life on our planet has been evolving and improvising itself over millions of years. Just because the human race has gained the capacity to recognize many of these patterns, that doesn't mean that everything involved with the process will suddenly stop dead in it's tracks...and remember, man is not an intelligent being. He is, instead, an instinctive being with intelligence.
By typing and thinking about this topic, I've come to realize that there are an endless amount of tangents (and even perpendiculars for that matter) that can be brought to the table...but alas, despite the fact that I haven't said everything I wanted and intended to say, I'm going to wrap this up now.
Just a quick comment about this. Being a Canadian myself (Windsor, Ontario actually), don't let viva's response fool you into thinking that Canadian diamonds are the best alternative (and most cost effective route) to your little "dilemma".
:)
Even though they may mark the package to save you any duties fees or extra taxes, they can still be quite costly...depending on the karat size you're looking for, of course. You may be able to find a smaller diamond at a decent price, but due to the fact that Canadian diamonds aren't "mass produced" like some of the more reputable names in the feild, you'll tend to pay a little extra for the better cuts.
That's not to say that the Canadian diamonds are a rip off, but the dealers will tend to treat them as a rarity depending on who you choose to buy from. Because of that supply factor, on the same note, the quality is usually higher than that of your generic "over-the-counter" diamond which will also factor into the price.
But heck, don't let any of that deter you from looking...you're bound to find a good deal, but don't go into it thinking that you'll be saving hundreds of dollars. Of course, you'll save a little because of the exchange rate between our two countries (even though our dollar is steadily rising on a daily basis), but at best you'll be happy if you find something good at a $75 face price savings. The diamond market is pretty much the same in every country though...
Good luck in your search
You obviously don't live in a large area because it's common knowledge in cities and other locales of concentrated wealth that there are cars that cost more than $558,000....the Saleen S7 costs $562,700 MSRP, plus tax and depending on what options you want you can end up spending quite a bit of money. That's just one example of an expensive exotic sports car...go to a car auction as well, lots of rare cars in mint condition can sell for over $1.5million.
I'm just going to reply to this one quickly since you obviously don't know what you're cooking...there are quite a few cars who's Playboy purchase price of $750+ and in the immediate . Moreover, the monthly interest earned is $105,000/month on $3,000,000 if the interest rate were 3.5%....I do believe that earning more in interest monthly than most people make in 3 years ($105,000)...anyone could live off of that for the rest of their lives because there would never be more interest earned monthly than you could spend. I don't quite know how your american taxes go at income tax time, but in Canada you don't pay tax on lottery winnings and stuff like that....so if you had $3million at 3.5% you'd only have to pay 3.5% of $105,000....which would be $3,675.
Anyways, that's all I gotta say about this...it's still early so my brain hasn't quite switched on yet.
Yes, the millionaire shareholders would be making the same amount regardless of how Microsoft chooses to pay their employees. The price of a stock doesn't depend on a company's payroll...it has to do with a number of factors like revenue, the amount of stocks that are issued, the amount of equity the company owns, etc etc.
If your "friend" isn't happy with the amount of work he gets from Microsoft, why wouldn't he get a job somewhere else that would be more lucrative? It's his own fault if he can't afford to live waiting by the phone for Microsoft to call him....I mean, geez, after 2 years you'd think he would've gotten the hint by now. There are thousands of lucrative computer based jobs available out there.
Moreover, it's pretty much common knowledge of how Microsoft "hires" contractors on a temporary basis for larger scale projects. Microsoft employs probably close to 50,000 people...so they don't really need temporary help all that often.
Nevertheless, as previously mentioned, if you don't like how things are going with a job a large majority of people would look for work elsewhere...what does he expect?
I'll just assume that you made that statement sound uneducated and nonsensical on purpose....what's it supposed to mean? and what is it's relevance? lol
:-)
Contractors are never _promised_ work...that's why they're considered contractors and not permanent employees on a steady salary. Needless to say, you being an unemployed contractor has nothing to do with making millions of dollars from Microsoft stock options.
Sure, a million bucks isn't alot of money these days....especially if the person that gets the moddest sum is from the irresponsible sector of society. In this case, a financially irresponsible person would be someone who's poor and suddenly becomes a millionaire.
;-)
Through my personal observations of people around me, "rags to riches" people end up spending a large portion of their newly found wealth on expensive "toys" and other such material possessions and get in over their heads faster than they can realize.
For example, if one were to get $3million "overnight" they would become extremely overwhelmed and buy things like $750,000 imported sports cars. Sure, they would be able to afford the purchase...but they may not take into account the insurance cost ($180,000/year or more) and maintence...since it's an import, any parts that are needed to make repairs need to be flown from overseas on special order.
Another "fatal flaw" that this sector tends to posess is the need to brag. The more you talk about the amount of money you have, the more you'll become your family's (and friends', and neighbors') personal charity. They end up giving alot of their money away if they're insecure and/or lack will power. In these kinds of cases, more often than not, the "poorly wealthy" person ends up going insane because of constantly being harrassed, or they commit suicide.
I could go on and on with these types of examples, but my whole point here is that a fiscally responsible individual could EASILY live a modestly lavish lifestyle on the bared interest of $1million alone and would never have to work. However, a responsible person wouldn't have to live off their interest...they would have the common sense to hire a reputable accountant and investment broker so that they could continue to grow their capital without ever having to worry about drying out the well.
This is pretty off-topic from the original subject of the article, so I'll stop now before I start typing out another four paragraphs. I just hate it when I see people like this who don't know the value of a dollar....and this has just been my two cents
I apologize if some of it might not make sense, I just took some painkillers so my head is slightly spinning...heh
yeah, I was kinda wondering when he was going to relate or get on track with his answer too...it's kinda funny though that he would waste his time typing that hoping people would think he was smart, but half of intelligence is relevance and there was no clear examples of either there...hmmm...
I've never heard of anything like that...sounds ridiculous if you ask me, unless YOU were this "mysterious basement freak" that you speak of...err...whatever you were talking about...DON'T LET IT HAPPEN AGAIN! heh, bye
Exactly, normal laws don't apply to people of stature....if you haven't already noticed...and I find $1 to be quite reasonable, considering they became billionaires virtually overnight! It's their way of saying that they have no need for MORE money because they have much more than they'll ever need. The only protest I have about this stunt is that I may end up losing a bet that their networths would surpass that of Bill Gates by the year 2009....I guess I'll just keep my mouth shut and hope the bet is forgotten...heh :)
I couldn't have stated that better myself. Well put :)
Uhh...yeah...but most people are opting for the saline ones instead....unless that was a rhetorical question? d::p
That has got to be one of the stupidest things I've ever heard...lol...especially #3. I'd love to see them decrypt any of the stuff I have protected by looking at my cache...since I clear it several times a day. As for my history, my browser is set not to keep track of it. Looks like they'd be up "crap creek" with my system.
My thoughts exactly. Besides, how stupid are people becoming that they would need to depend on a peice of M$ software to tell them how to communicate properly? As stated though, anyone who is at least half-intelligent already knows that the grammar checker is a pile and don't use it...the same can be said for the spellcheck; although, that one works, just people don't use it as often as they should. So on the basis of the article, people are using poor grammar with misspelled words [using grammar check, but not spellcheck]...how does that help anyone? It's all garbage anyway. :)
Those are some good points, but they only go to further elaborate on what I was proposing. Goes to show we share a wave-length on this issue. Either way, we will probably never have to concern outselves with this type of occurance within our lifetimes, and things will always seem conservatively optimistic. ...but then again, either way...need I say more? hehe ;)
Yeah, but who's to say that we couldn't somehow "transplant" coral from Earth in a lab transportation unit environment that would preserve the specimens and encourage it to continue to grow and thrive while in transit?
:)
Who's to say that a procedure couldn't be devised to, more or less, synthetically create living coral...something along the lines of cloning...that would drastically shorten the time for it to mature and improve it's lifespan?
There's no saying that something like this COULD be possible in the scope of future scientific biology. It's not so far fetched, considering scientists have already created procedures that give an 85% success rate on sex selection in babies, all the advancements in medicine against cancer, AIDS, and other pandemic concerns.
I realize that those examples are a totally different sector, but when it comes to science and medicine their progresses are closely intertwined where some successes can be used to advance other studies to get favorable results.
Apart from "you never know", that's all I'm gonna say for now.
uhh...how old are you? What difference does it make? It's a simple spelling error. I'm sure you're not completely unfallible. The premise is there, quit your nit-picking. This isn't a spelling competition. haha :P :)
That's rediculous! Just because the earth's magnetic feild might change, that doesn't mean the entire construction of the continents is going to change too...lol. I'm just going to assume that you didn't mean that :P :)
With the advancement of technology and it's broad expanse of possibilities in the future, by the time we become capable of even thinking about terraforming with a certain degree of actually being able to accomplish it, I highly doubt that it would take thousands of years to make something habitable. Sure, like anything else, it'd be a process...and a lengthy one...but saying that it would take thousands of years is rediculous. My guess would be that it would take no longer than 50 years (not taking into consideration the travel time to reach whatever planet)....provided that the planet selected isn't an obsolute barren land. In order for a planet to be considered for candidacy, it would obviously need to have it's own supply of water and a somewhat reasonable atmosphere...but there could be things made to make the "beautification process" completely automated. I have a number of ideas/theories on how exactly this could be done...but this is already off-topic enough from the coral story, but I just had to comment :)