I don't buy it.
The first article says that the pecticide manufacturers, PBS, and ACS (american cancer society) used the same PR guy. Doesn't sound controlling to me.
The second article says DDT, PCBs and dioxin (agent orange) are bad. Yeah we know. Thats why there off the market.
There were some lapses in corporate responsibility, but ever since the industrial revolution we've been getting better. I think we're at a pretty good place right now (though not perfect.) The EPA and FDA have really tightened the screws (not without good reason) on chemical manufacturers, and its starting to pay off.
It also accuses industries (Zenica in particular) of marketing anti-breast cancer drugs, being involved in the pesticide market, and sponsoring some ACS functions. I don't see what the problem is.
Also in the second article are complaints about hormones used in the meat industry. Im not gonna argue with that I think its a problem too.
The third article is a keynote address from one of the guys who did the original work for the PBS report thats taked about in the first article. He basically says corporations try to hide stuff.
Are there nasty chemicals? Yes. Have some of them been used on our food supply? Yes. Did they contribute to cancer? Probably. Are they still being used? No. America as a whole gotten more health conscience, and DDT is no longer an approved pesticide.
Without pesticides our crop yields would plummet. The cost of groceries would sky-rocket. American consumers are ready and willing to make the trade off.
Industries aren't prefect, but they give us what we ask for. The trick is to keep em honest and at least tell us that that we're getting. The really expensive lawsuits that started in the 80's are doing that.
If you want to be able to supply a growing world population the fact of the matter is that you need some of the advances brought by the chemical industry. Some of those advances are going to contain nasty intermidiates.
While you are clearly more knowledable on the matter than me, I think you make my point extremely well. 1.) Were it not for the US (direct protection and/or military supplier) China would invade Taiwan. 2.) If China were to invade Taiwan the US would respond
3.) Neither country wants to be seen sabre-rattling because they can't publicly step down
4.) If China somehow manages to invade Taiwan there are more important things to worry about than electronics
Dirty Hippies have been aginst anything industrial longer. The Evil Relgious Right only got upset whe we started talking stem cells and cloning. They don't take issue with tech unless it can be used to create an evil clone army of walking (and re-aminated) Chirstopher Reeves.
The only reason that China hasn't invaded already is because the US keeps threatining to intervene. The US won't want to look like it has been bluffing so it will inevetably dispatch warships, which the Chinese will inevitably shoot at (China considers the strait its territory,) the US will respond in kind. What happens next is anybodys guess.
Ok maybe not quickly as in within a couple of months.
Consequences of a Chineese invasion of Taiwan:
On one hand you have increased electornics prices and decreased availability. On the other this conversation: China says, "Look I'm dealing with a renegade state here mind your own buisness." The US responds, "Its not your state, and it is our buisness. Step off, we have subs in the strait who have orders to open fire on any Chinese military vessles." China comes back, "Fire on one of our ships (that are on their way) and I've got a giant red button right here that says Los Angeles under it."
Somehow I don't see electronics as being the most important thing affected by a Chineese invasion
America's tech industry might take a temporary hit, but since its not their assets in Taiwan, they'd quickly find a contractor willing and able to make the parts elsewhere (India).
I'm more concerned that if the US will be compelled to intervene if China invades.
Its likely due to a pressure build up. They don't yet know what the energy source is though inferring from TFA they seem to think that it is tidal forces.
So intense tidal forces agitate a (mostly) solid methane well, which imparts heat, which causes it to melt, which increases the pressure, which causes an eruption.
Could they make it so it labels and stores the media too? I hate sorting thorugh a spindle going I know its on one of these poorly labeled disks somewhere...
To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;
While I agree that first to invent is superior to first to file I have a question about your constitutionality argument. Is the right to grant patents really in the constitution? If so could you point it out for me?
IANACS (constitutional scholar) and since your sig indicates you are a lawyer I suspect you know what you are talking about.
However, I did bring up a copy of the constitution and did a ctrl+f patent and didn't find anything.
The construction on the intergalactic super highway has already begun. Since the architect of this fantastic piece of engineering is a bit of a mad genius he decided to bypass the tradtional demolition method used in public works projects and instead created the guide rails of the a material that super-conducts at the ambient inter-planetary temperature. These (guide) rails run close to and trangent to the earth, and a the gap will be spanned with a large piece of a traditionally conductive metal (possibly a copper astroid belt.) Then a large voltage will be applied to the (guide) rails. The astroid belt will complete the cicuit and liquify due to ohmic heating. The former astroid belt will then rapidly accelerate due to the magnetic field created by the high voltage present on the (guide) rails and propel the earth forward at tremendous speed.
Now while this will prevent the total destuction of the planet and will succeed in moving the earth from its (unfortunate) position clearing the way for the highway I wouldn't get to excited.
The massive acceleration will cause anyone or anything on the the side of the direction of accelration to be flattened into the crust of the earth, and anyone on the opposite side to be accelerated into space.
Calculators are extremely useful, provided you know how to use them. By the time you get to high school you (should) know how most of the functions on a scientific calculator work.
When students are learning fractions however I see no reason for a calculator to be present. In fact I think the first time a calculator sould be necessary is when students start using the quadratic equation.
Banning the use of a calculator is a terrible idea. I used my graphing calculator extensively in math classes starting in high school. If you can count on your students to quickly be able to solve a fourth order polynomial, you can teach (and test) much more. The calculator is a tool and taking it away hurts, not helps education.
Part of the issue I see when you start getting into higher math is that the tests need to be carefully designed so that you can test concepts without them bieng trivial because of the calculator. Especially now that calculator can do symbolic calculations...
Whatever they do its always going to be a better neutron sourse than a power source.
I think the interesting thing you are referring to about boron is that it readily accepts (thermal) neutrons. It then fissions and releases a fair amount of energy in the form of an alpha particle and a lithium nucleus.
I almost said the same thing but I'll thank you for taking the karma hit instead;)
I definately react negatively to anything that contains the words christian and science in close proximety... (and I call myself christian)
But hey I read that article that my sibling posted about evolution and intelligent design and was pleasantly surprised.
Now as for TFA, while there is a place for dumbed-down science and over-simplified physics I don't think they need to be linked on slashdot.
The people here (for the most part) can understand at least the principles of how the device works w/o having to explain that protons have positive charges...
I'd appreciate it if slashdot could steer away from science for english majors. (This is not a slam on English majors, If I were on a page advertising reviews for bibliophiles I wouldn't expect a break down on whay symbolism is)
First of all I don't think that a majority of christians see Pat Robertson as representative of their faith. Second of all there are definately a large number of Muslims who do consider bin Laden to be representatice of their face. (no where near a majority though) Third thats all irrelevent because looking down your nose at someone different than you is still bigotry.
I also have a problem with fundementalist (anything actually, but in this case) Christians who are intolerent of others because of their preconcieved notions or divine mandate. This is the same reason I have a problem with the poster stating that more religion leads to more ignorance.
pfft, many people don't even have an understanding of their own religion (Jesus=good / not_Jesus=Bad), why expect them to understand anything of anyone elses?
Actually IMHO he makes a much better point than you acknowledge. Its not just evolution, its the fact that many bible beaters pick and choose which parts of the OT to acknowledge.
For example the OT is very clear on what it thinks of homosexuality, and what the consequences are. 700 club viewers love this and will spout off on it all the time. However, within 10 pages are dictates against eating pork, wearing 2 types of natural cloth (e.g. linen and cotton), eating meat and drinking milk, and many, many other rules that the same fundemenatlists feel free to ignore.
Your new covenant argument has some merit, but what parts of the old law do we embrace, and which parts are over-ruled?
Slashdot Mirror
In fact the first line of your reference is Maybe there is a distincion, but I've not heard it, and apparently neither has dictionary.com
I don't buy it.
The first article says that the pecticide manufacturers, PBS, and ACS (american cancer society) used the same PR guy. Doesn't sound controlling to me.
The second article says DDT, PCBs and dioxin (agent orange) are bad. Yeah we know. Thats why there off the market.
There were some lapses in corporate responsibility, but ever since the industrial revolution we've been getting better. I think we're at a pretty good place right now (though not perfect.) The EPA and FDA have really tightened the screws (not without good reason) on chemical manufacturers, and its starting to pay off.
It also accuses industries (Zenica in particular) of marketing anti-breast cancer drugs, being involved in the pesticide market, and sponsoring some ACS functions. I don't see what the problem is.
Also in the second article are complaints about hormones used in the meat industry. Im not gonna argue with that I think its a problem too.
The third article is a keynote address from one of the guys who did the original work for the PBS report thats taked about in the first article. He basically says corporations try to hide stuff.
Are there nasty chemicals? Yes. Have some of them been used on our food supply? Yes. Did they contribute to cancer? Probably. Are they still being used? No. America as a whole gotten more health conscience, and DDT is no longer an approved pesticide.
Without pesticides our crop yields would plummet. The cost of groceries would sky-rocket. American consumers are ready and willing to make the trade off.
Industries aren't prefect, but they give us what we ask for. The trick is to keep em honest and at least tell us that that we're getting. The really expensive lawsuits that started in the 80's are doing that.
If you want to be able to supply a growing world population the fact of the matter is that you need some of the advances brought by the chemical industry. Some of those advances are going to contain nasty intermidiates.
While you are clearly more knowledable on the matter than me, I think you make my point extremely well.
1.) Were it not for the US (direct protection and/or military supplier) China would invade Taiwan.
2.) If China were to invade Taiwan the US would respond
3.) Neither country wants to be seen sabre-rattling because they can't publicly step down
4.) If China somehow manages to invade Taiwan there are more important things to worry about than electronics
Dirty Hippies have been aginst anything industrial longer. The Evil Relgious Right only got upset whe we started talking stem cells and cloning. They don't take issue with tech unless it can be used to create an evil clone army of walking (and re-aminated) Chirstopher Reeves.
I don't think increase in pressure necessarily leads to a increase in temperature. Remember liquid methane is not an ideal gas.
I could be wrong (about the first part anyway.) Feel free to correct me if that's the case.
Pressure has units of N/m^2
Energy has units of J=Nm
IIRC heat typically has units of power (W=Nm/s) as in heat flux (W/m^2)
While not entirely clear I think the GP post is accurate
not sure what your point was but neither heat nor energy was created. However, the temperature did increase.
The only reason that China hasn't invaded already is because the US keeps threatining to intervene. The US won't want to look like it has been bluffing so it will inevetably dispatch warships, which the Chinese will inevitably shoot at (China considers the strait its territory,) the US will respond in kind. What happens next is anybodys guess.
Ok maybe not quickly as in within a couple of months.
Consequences of a Chineese invasion of Taiwan:
On one hand you have increased electornics prices and decreased availability. On the other this conversation: China says, "Look I'm dealing with a renegade state here mind your own buisness." The US responds, "Its not your state, and it is our buisness. Step off, we have subs in the strait who have orders to open fire on any Chinese military vessles." China comes back, "Fire on one of our ships (that are on their way) and I've got a giant red button right here that says Los Angeles under it."
Somehow I don't see electronics as being the most important thing affected by a Chineese invasion
America's tech industry might take a temporary hit, but since its not their assets in Taiwan, they'd quickly find a contractor willing and able to make the parts elsewhere (India).
I'm more concerned that if the US will be compelled to intervene if China invades.
maybe the pipeline can double as a space elevator?
Its likely due to a pressure build up. They don't yet know what the energy source is though inferring from TFA they seem to think that it is tidal forces.
So intense tidal forces agitate a (mostly) solid methane well, which imparts heat, which causes it to melt, which increases the pressure, which causes an eruption.
Either that or it just had too many beans
Hell?
Could they make it so it labels and stores the media too? I hate sorting thorugh a spindle going I know its on one of these poorly labeled disks somewhere...
On a serious note I *do* think its a good idea
While I agree that first to invent is superior to first to file I have a question about your constitutionality argument. Is the right to grant patents really in the constitution? If so could you point it out for me?
IANACS (constitutional scholar) and since your sig indicates you are a lawyer I suspect you know what you are talking about.
However, I did bring up a copy of the constitution and did a ctrl+f patent and didn't find anything.
Well I'm glad you asked.
The construction on the intergalactic super highway has already begun. Since the architect of this fantastic piece of engineering is a bit of a mad genius he decided to bypass the tradtional demolition method used in public works projects and instead created the guide rails of the a material that super-conducts at the ambient inter-planetary temperature. These (guide) rails run close to and trangent to the earth, and a the gap will be spanned with a large piece of a traditionally conductive metal (possibly a copper astroid belt.) Then a large voltage will be applied to the (guide) rails. The astroid belt will complete the cicuit and liquify due to ohmic heating. The former astroid belt will then rapidly accelerate due to the magnetic field created by the high voltage present on the (guide) rails and propel the earth forward at tremendous speed.
Now while this will prevent the total destuction of the planet and will succeed in moving the earth from its (unfortunate) position clearing the way for the highway I wouldn't get to excited.
The massive acceleration will cause anyone or anything on the the side of the direction of accelration to be flattened into the crust of the earth, and anyone on the opposite side to be accelerated into space.
While the slashdot summary may not have been perfect (the horror!), in TFA the frame of refrance was specified.
Calculators are extremely useful, provided you know how to use them. By the time you get to high school you (should) know how most of the functions on a scientific calculator work.
When students are learning fractions however I see no reason for a calculator to be present. In fact I think the first time a calculator sould be necessary is when students start using the quadratic equation.
Banning the use of a calculator is a terrible idea. I used my graphing calculator extensively in math classes starting in high school. If you can count on your students to quickly be able to solve a fourth order polynomial, you can teach (and test) much more. The calculator is a tool and taking it away hurts, not helps education.
Part of the issue I see when you start getting into higher math is that the tests need to be carefully designed so that you can test concepts without them bieng trivial because of the calculator. Especially now that calculator can do symbolic calculations...
Would that be something "completely different"
Funny, in Soviet Russia the police delete you.
Whatever they do its always going to be a better neutron sourse than a power source.
I think the interesting thing you are referring to about boron is that it readily accepts (thermal) neutrons. It then fissions and releases a fair amount of energy in the form of an alpha particle and a lithium nucleus.
I almost said the same thing but I'll thank you for taking the karma hit instead ;)
I definately react negatively to anything that contains the words christian and science in close proximety... (and I call myself christian)
But hey I read that article that my sibling posted about evolution and intelligent design and was pleasantly surprised.
Now as for TFA, while there is a place for dumbed-down science and over-simplified physics I don't think they need to be linked on slashdot.
The people here (for the most part) can understand at least the principles of how the device works w/o having to explain that protons have positive charges...
I'd appreciate it if slashdot could steer away from science for english majors. (This is not a slam on English majors, If I were on a page advertising reviews for bibliophiles I wouldn't expect a break down on whay symbolism is)
First of all I don't think that a majority of christians see Pat Robertson as representative of their faith.
Second of all there are definately a large number of Muslims who do consider bin Laden to be representatice of their face. (no where near a majority though)
Third thats all irrelevent because looking down your nose at someone different than you is still bigotry.
I also have a problem with fundementalist (anything actually, but in this case) Christians who are intolerent of others because of their preconcieved notions or divine mandate. This is the same reason I have a problem with the poster stating that more religion leads to more ignorance.
pfft, many people don't even have an understanding of their own religion (Jesus=good / not_Jesus=Bad), why expect them to understand anything of anyone elses?
Actually IMHO he makes a much better point than you acknowledge. Its not just evolution, its the fact that many bible beaters pick and choose which parts of the OT to acknowledge.
For example the OT is very clear on what it thinks of homosexuality, and what the consequences are. 700 club viewers love this and will spout off on it all the time. However, within 10 pages are dictates against eating pork, wearing 2 types of natural cloth (e.g. linen and cotton), eating meat and drinking milk, and many, many other rules that the same fundemenatlists feel free to ignore.
Your new covenant argument has some merit, but what parts of the old law do we embrace, and which parts are over-ruled?