But it [a through-the wall sensing device in development]
Now, wait a minute. Are they "sensing" through American walls (cardboard, wood and plaster) or through European walls (bricks or concrete) ? There's quite a bit of difference here, as anyone who tried to set up a WLAN may have found out...
I'd say hospital equipment shouldn't malfunction when presented with interference on a widely used spectrum, but that's just me.
Let me guess: You neither have degrees nor pratical experience in biomedical engineering.
I have both. And let me tell you, it's enough of a pain in the arse to get different medical devices not interfering with each other. The last thing you want next to the patient when trying to measure signals in the mV range or mOhm-changes of a kOhm impedance is something blasting out pulsed HF noise.
Yes, the devices may tolerate a cellphone in the same room. But there's a distance from the patient that is _too short_ to avoid interference, and you can bet that some clueless jokers are going to stick their cellphone _right there_.
You are more likely to win the lottery twice in a row than it would be for those bombs to go off if the plane crashed (nuclear warheads, are delicate, even if made from plutonium, and if those are uranium warheads, they are even more so).
Actually, those bombs create enough mess even without going off.
Also, just imagine what would have happened if there was an accident and the people in charge had not known that the plane was (accidentially) carrying nuclear weapons. "OMG, it's all radioactive ! We've been nuked ! Who did it ? China, North Korea or Russia ? Heck, let's just nuke'em all and let God sort 'em out. Contact the president immediately !"
The true test would be a closed system here on Earth, with only energy input (from the sun or from a nuclear reactor). See if it can function for two years or whatever the required duration of a mission to Mars is without running out of air, water, or nutrient.
Sorry, but that would be a fairly useless test. Getting the amount of consumables right is a matter of doing some math and adding appropriate safety margins. Plus, we have plenty of experience in outfitting space missions already. At least if we stick with working technology and don't try something completely untested (in-situ resource utilization, growing their own food in space or whatever).
Researchers have developed a technique for determining what illicit drugs people might be consuming in a given area
I remember hearing about something like this being done in an Italian city, with surprising results, months (or even years) ago. These researchers just seem to have copied that idea.
ie, the universe. In local areas (say the Earth), order can increase. Think about when you've got a pot of boiling water on the stove and you pour in salt until it won't dissolve any more. Then you let it cool and you get crystal growth.
Yikes. That's a complex example. How about just opening your fridge and checking the temperature ? That's all the proof you need that entropy can decrease locally (by adding it to another system, in this example to the universe that's outside the fridge).
First of all, I question whether Stella's burns were anywhere near as bad as those in your "example" pic.
Third degree burns are bad. Spill some 90 degree celsius water on your pants to find out for sure, but don't go suing anyone but yourself since you've been informed of the results.
Secondly, even IF McDonalds was found to be at fault (which I disagree with), one woman and one greedy attorney were not entitled to millions of dollars.
Oddly enough, at first she only wanted a couple of hundred dollars to cover her medical bills. Do you think she was entitled to that ?
It's the other way round. Their music/movies suck (mostly), and by keeping you from remembering that they can sell you even crappier stuff, maybe even multiple times (movie theatre ticket). How many movies did you see more than once lately ?
Put another way and assuming chance was nice to us once already, if it is so inevitable, then why, even in our local Solar System, did it only happen once?
We haven't combed through all the corners of our own solar system yet. But even if we come up empty, we already know that we have one direct hit and several near misses - and that's just one solar system out of... lots.
Why have we not found another Earth somewhere else in the observable universe?
Because, right now, we're essentially blind, deaf, and wearing boxing gloves while looking for a dozen needles in a haystack. Heck, we know that there are _tons_ of planets out there (with our primitive measurements, we've found quite a bunch of them) - we've just had the means to discover the more obvious ones (large planets in short-duration orbits, transiting planets) for only ten years.
We couldn't find a exact copy of Earth if it circled around a star just 30 ly from us with out present methods, unless we got exceptionally lucky and it was transiting.
Would you happen to know if this is myth or has some basis in reality?
I wouldn't rule it out. Maybe not.22 long rifle, since they don't have enough velocity, but.223 should pack enough punch.
Interestingly enough, new military "sidearms" (called "personal defence weapons", for example the FN P90) use small caliber, high velocity rounds and supposedly pierce common body armor at up to 200m.
That's a compulsory tiering, of course: letting people select degrees of depth is fine, as long as they get to change them if they're wrong (;-))
Well, that's entirely possible in the German school system. Heck, you can even get the "higher tier" diplomas later in life if you're willing to put enough effort in it. Prominent example would be ex-chancellor Schröder, who worked his way up from the lowest tier school diploma and a position as a sales clerk all the way to a university degree in Law. Another example is a buddy of mine who flunked the Gymnasium, but took an alternate path to college and eventually got his degree.
The gymnasium also offers various "paths", but they're mainly about how many foreign languages you will learn (two or three), what those will be, and how much sciences you're going to have. It's a matter of personal preference and doesn't set you on any career path, as the Abitur (gymnasium degree) is the "universal" ticket to university that allows you to pick any major. There are other paths that lead to specific majors, if you don't care for getting the Abitur.
Can an American get a high school degree when he's 25 and dropped out of high school earlier ?
At the time I didn't even speak German, so for about 3-4 months I had to communicate in English.
Well, most people who have gone through the German school system do know some level of English, so you could communicate with them.
The "dumb foreigner" problem pops up when you have a bunch of kids show up in elementary school who have lived in Germany for years but speak only Turkish (and other uncommon languages) because that's what their parents speak at home and their parents didn't send them to kindergarten or otherwise mix with kids who speak German. Of course they'll end up _years_ behind the German kids because they need that long to catch up on language skills - that is, if they actually manage to catch up at all.
This is even worse than the similar issue the States have with immigrants from Middle/South America - they all speak (some dialect of) Spanish. Here in Germany, you'll get a class of 20 kids that speaks five different languages, none of them being German or English or any other commonly taught language.
It's not sufficient to say "country x is sucessful", when you're trying to prove a policy used by x is good. First you need to prove that the country will be sucessful if and only if the policy is good.
Strictly speaking, yes.
However, I believe that _truly horrendous_ policies will significantly affect a countries situation negatively at least in the medium term, if not in the short term. And many Americans seem to believe that having a tiered school system is such a _truly horrendous_ policy (similar to communism), and that it will keep any country that implements it from succeeding. My argument is that tiered school systems aren't such a _truly horrendous_ policy, and will not prevent a country from being successful. For this, I only need one example... and I even have two that are quite different in culture.
Both Germany and Japan have tried this same approach, in grade school, expecting the children ot their parents to be able to predict the future some twent to thirty years on.
Yes, and they're doing things so terribly wrong that they're only #2 and #4 (maybe even #3) economically. Who knows, if they started doing things "right", they might move up a few places.
This one is unlikely, but who's to say what alien DNA is like?
Wasn't there a TNG episode detailing that some (all) of the humanoid races in that corner of the galaxy have a common ancestor race that "seeded" their planets before (I forget) departing the galaxy or dying out ?
Would a bullet fired from one of those not pierce a kevlar vest?
Depends on the bullet and its velocity. Usually, if you want to pierce armor, you'd go for small caliber and high velocity. Large, heavy, but slow bullets are going to leave nastier bruises, but less chance of piercing the armor.
Sorry, I don't think a Newtonian physics model is in our brain from day one. I know saying anything against evolution is a bad idea, but in this case I think your internal physics model is a learned behavior.
The labyrinths in your ears work because of Newtonian physics, and they are definitely in your head. So, evolution figured out how to make use of Newtonian physics long, long before Mr. Newton was even born.
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So if they'd told him repeatedly "Stop resisting or we'll pump you full of lead.", they would have been justified in doing so ?
Nightsticks and guns, I'd guess.
Or maybe they just saw a chance to try out their new toy.
Ever heard of "mandatory military service" ? We got that over here, and not just in wartime.
Now, wait a minute. Are they "sensing" through American walls (cardboard, wood and plaster) or through European walls (bricks or concrete) ? There's quite a bit of difference here, as anyone who tried to set up a WLAN may have found out
Yes. It costs way more than the other guys plan. You're fired. (Welcome to capitalism)
Let me guess: You neither have degrees nor pratical experience in biomedical engineering.
I have both. And let me tell you, it's enough of a pain in the arse to get different medical devices not interfering with each other. The last thing you want next to the patient when trying to measure signals in the mV range or mOhm-changes of a kOhm impedance is something blasting out pulsed HF noise.
Yes, the devices may tolerate a cellphone in the same room. But there's a distance from the patient that is _too short_ to avoid interference, and you can bet that some clueless jokers are going to stick their cellphone _right there_.
Actually, those bombs create enough mess even without going off.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palomares
Also, just imagine what would have happened if there was an accident and the people in charge had not known that the plane was (accidentially) carrying nuclear weapons. "OMG, it's all radioactive ! We've been nuked ! Who did it ? China, North Korea or Russia ? Heck, let's just nuke'em all and let God sort 'em out. Contact the president immediately !"
Sorry, but that would be a fairly useless test. Getting the amount of consumables right is a matter of doing some math and adding appropriate safety margins. Plus, we have plenty of experience in outfitting space missions already. At least if we stick with working technology and don't try something completely untested (in-situ resource utilization, growing their own food in space or whatever).
I remember hearing about something like this being done in an Italian city, with surprising results, months (or even years) ago. These researchers just seem to have copied that idea.
Yikes. That's a complex example. How about just opening your fridge and checking the temperature ? That's all the proof you need that entropy can decrease locally (by adding it to another system, in this example to the universe that's outside the fridge).
And, still, how are they guaranteeing that the other networks my data travels through are also treating it neutrally ? They can't ? Oh well
Third degree burns are bad. Spill some 90 degree celsius water on your pants to find out for sure, but don't go suing anyone but yourself since you've been informed of the results.
Secondly, even IF McDonalds was found to be at fault (which I disagree with), one woman and one greedy attorney were not entitled to millions of dollars.
Oddly enough, at first she only wanted a couple of hundred dollars to cover her medical bills. Do you think she was entitled to that ?
It's the other way round. Their music/movies suck (mostly), and by keeping you from remembering that they can sell you even crappier stuff, maybe even multiple times (movie theatre ticket). How many movies did you see more than once lately ?
You memory contains illegal copies (aka memories) of their stuff. This will put an end to your illegal behavior.
We haven't combed through all the corners of our own solar system yet. But even if we come up empty, we already know that we have one direct hit and several near misses - and that's just one solar system out of
Why have we not found another Earth somewhere else in the observable universe?
Because, right now, we're essentially blind, deaf, and wearing boxing gloves while looking for a dozen needles in a haystack. Heck, we know that there are _tons_ of planets out there (with our primitive measurements, we've found quite a bunch of them) - we've just had the means to discover the more obvious ones (large planets in short-duration orbits, transiting planets) for only ten years.
We couldn't find a exact copy of Earth if it circled around a star just 30 ly from us with out present methods, unless we got exceptionally lucky and it was transiting.
Interestingly enough, new military "sidearms" (called "personal defence weapons", for example the FN P90) use small caliber, high velocity rounds and supposedly pierce common body armor at up to 200m.
Well, that's entirely possible in the German school system. Heck, you can even get the "higher tier" diplomas later in life if you're willing to put enough effort in it. Prominent example would be ex-chancellor Schröder, who worked his way up from the lowest tier school diploma and a position as a sales clerk all the way to a university degree in Law. Another example is a buddy of mine who flunked the Gymnasium, but took an alternate path to college and eventually got his degree.
The gymnasium also offers various "paths", but they're mainly about how many foreign languages you will learn (two or three), what those will be, and how much sciences you're going to have. It's a matter of personal preference and doesn't set you on any career path, as the Abitur (gymnasium degree) is the "universal" ticket to university that allows you to pick any major. There are other paths that lead to specific majors, if you don't care for getting the Abitur.
Can an American get a high school degree when he's 25 and dropped out of high school earlier ?
Well, most people who have gone through the German school system do know some level of English, so you could communicate with them.
The "dumb foreigner" problem pops up when you have a bunch of kids show up in elementary school who have lived in Germany for years but speak only Turkish (and other uncommon languages) because that's what their parents speak at home and their parents didn't send them to kindergarten or otherwise mix with kids who speak German. Of course they'll end up _years_ behind the German kids because they need that long to catch up on language skills - that is, if they actually manage to catch up at all.
This is even worse than the similar issue the States have with immigrants from Middle/South America - they all speak (some dialect of) Spanish. Here in Germany, you'll get a class of 20 kids that speaks five different languages, none of them being German or English or any other commonly taught language.
Strictly speaking, yes.
However, I believe that _truly horrendous_ policies will significantly affect a countries situation negatively at least in the medium term, if not in the short term. And many Americans seem to believe that having a tiered school system is such a _truly horrendous_ policy (similar to communism), and that it will keep any country that implements it from succeeding. My argument is that tiered school systems aren't such a _truly horrendous_ policy, and will not prevent a country from being successful. For this, I only need one example
Yes, and they're doing things so terribly wrong that they're only #2 and #4 (maybe even #3) economically. Who knows, if they started doing things "right", they might move up a few places.
Then again, some guy who started out as a sales clerk managed to become Chancellor.
Wasn't there a TNG episode detailing that some (all) of the humanoid races in that corner of the galaxy have a common ancestor race that "seeded" their planets before (I forget) departing the galaxy or dying out ?
fifty cal what ? BMG ? A.E. ? Muzzleloader ?
Would a bullet fired from one of those not pierce a kevlar vest?
Depends on the bullet and its velocity. Usually, if you want to pierce armor, you'd go for small caliber and high velocity. Large, heavy, but slow bullets are going to leave nastier bruises, but less chance of piercing the armor.
Sorry, I don't think a Newtonian physics model is in our brain from day one. I know saying anything against evolution is a bad idea, but in this case I think your internal physics model is a learned behavior.
The labyrinths in your ears work because of Newtonian physics, and they are definitely in your head. So, evolution figured out how to make use of Newtonian physics long, long before Mr. Newton was even born.
So, in astronomical terms, it's still moving at snail's pace ?