Our oil fields are far from dry. Except possibly Canada, we have more than anyone. It's just that the loony leftists put up such a hissy fit that our politicians won't let any new fields be opened up, won't allow drilling off our coasts, and won't allow the building of new, more efficient refineries. It's not a matter of the US being short on oil reserves; it's a matter of American companies not being allowed to access them and not allowed to introduce new facilities to process them more efficiently.
One quick and easy solution is to respond by this by deporting all Chinese nationals who are attending American schools.
"Okay, so you want to hoard rare-earth metals? I'm sorry, but your students are immediately no longer welcome at our schools until you have fully reconsidered the matter. They will be returning to China by the end of the week and we will be invoicing you for the travel costs. Thank you, come again."
The problem is, corporate types have been thinking short-term for a couple of decades now. Short-term boosts to the bottom line were to be had by not retooling American factories, but building new factories in China, Vietnam, Mexico, etc.
Name one television manufactured in America. One hard drive. One car manufactured entirely in America (indluding all parts). One consumer camera, etc. - You can't, can you?
It boosted the bottom line of big corporations for a while, so the stock price could be driven up and the execs raked in tremendous record "profits." The thing is, this line of thinking has finally bit America in the ass, and the people who got rich from it don't care at all because they have theirs. Everyone else is left holding the bag with a shitty economy where we import almost everything.
Politicians who are supposed to be our servants have instead been fighting business. We have a NIMBY syndrome. We oppose factories, nuclear power, natural gas depots, new/modern fuel refineries, wind farms. Green or fossil-based, it doesn't matter. Most people have NIMBY as their way of thinking, and idiotic treehuggers have BANANA (build absolutely nothing anywhere near anyone). Politicians have cowed to foreign nations and lowered (in some cases dropped) import tariffs, while those same trading "partners" slap huge tariffs on our exports, making us completely uncompetitive on what little we do export. Incidentally, losing that tariff revenue has lead to heavy dependence on income and property taxes, breaking the middle class's back.
Politicians need to be reminded that a good leader is a SERVANT. They need to keep their own people's well being a higher priority than foreign interests at ALL times. They need to have a long-term outlook for our nation, not short-term profitability so corporate executives can rake in huge bonuses and then profits on their stock grants and options.
The best solution to these issues is:
* ban foreign nationals from attending our schools
* rethink our lowering and eliminating income tariffs
* introduce huge incentives (read: tax breaks) for manufacturing goods entirely in America
Right now, China has us over a fire. It can be solved very quickly, without making 'rare-earth metals [are] the new "oil"' Some parity needs to be reintroduced into the marketplace.
I'll second the Red Line water wetter. It decreased the 90*F+ summer weather operating temperature by >15*F in my ZR-1 (no other changes to the cooling system) so heat transfer is significantly improved. Using it in a geothermal water chiller is a great idea!
Fox News, CNN, and The Onion are all equally credible. At least The Onion's whole purpose is to post outright lies, parodies, and so forth. The others just do it to support their respective political bents. Both Fox and CNN are guilty of cherry-picking facts in many cases, conflating news reports with op-eds, and in some cases, fabricating "news" reports.
If you want actual unbiased news, check out the Wall Street Journal. It may be a bit more dry but when it comes to dollars and cents, investors don't fool around and won't tolerate any bias. They want the real news and WSJ delivers.
What would be better is if groups with actual political power in this area are forced to release their raw data and the method by which they arrive at their conclusions. It would be interesting to see if/how many/if any data points they reject to conform the results to their predetermined conclusions. If they were to release the raw data AND how they arrived at their conclusions and it shows they're not lying, then they would gain a lot more credibility outside of the hippie crowd.
I'm no treehugger. However I believe in personal responsibility so I do what I can to conserve, and when I can afford to build my dream home I plan to utilize both photovoltaic electricity and geothermal climate control.
However, I'm against the BANANA and NIMBY mentalities: whenever groups DO try to act upon green efforts (Cape Wind/Nantucket Sound Wind Farm, nuclear plants, new natural gas depots, fuel refineries using new "green" refining technologies and methods, etc.), self-proclaimed "green" politicians seek to oppose those efforts at every turn - most notably (the late) Ted Kennedy, the man who opposed the Nantucket Sound wind far, because it would be "unsightly" as he cruises in his yacht.
What we need is cooperation from all parties: unlike the Al Gore mentality, it does not have to be all-or-nothing. Because we are decades or centuries away from "Mr. Fusion" and "antimatter" generators, we need to make use of what we can today. Solar, water, and wind power will work only in certain locations of the globe, so we have no choice but to continue to use fossil fuels, nukes, and renewable sources like trees.
Also, electric cars aren't quite there yet (not until if you run out of a charge you can just walk a couple of miles to the nearest charging station and borrow a charged, lightweight ultracapacitor to get you there to recharge). The range just isn't there, current li-ion technologies don't handle deep cycling well, and the price needs to come WAY down before it makes good economic sense for the average driver to buy one. Right now, if you drive the average 12,000 miles per year, even a hybrid is a stupid economic choice based on the average cost premium over a conventional car. It makes sense if you drive 30,000+ miles (a hybrid would make economic sense for me) but such drivers are not the norm.
So there has to be a happy medium. I say build the nukes, but have a decent plan for recycling and/or storing the waste. Build new coal plants, or better yet, trash incinerators, but just make sure they have moden scrubbers in place, as well as a responsible ash disposal plan in place. That doesn't mean to stop investments in fusion resources, but since we don't have it yet, we can't just quit fossil fuels cold turkey.
Also, ethanol is not a good solution here in the US (corn is a poor choice), and I'm not too fond of the idea of soy-based biodiesels putting one of the 8 major allergens (soy proteins) in the air in heavy doses.
I have a handful of CDs I burned back in 1995 that still work. I had a LOT of old backup and software CDs from the same time that I tried early this year and they still worked fine. I threw most of them out since most of the backups and all of the software were completely obsolete. It was cheap media (for the time), as well. CD-R holds up very well. The major enemy is handling the CDs roughly; since the data is typically actually stored on the label side (that is, on the shiny side, under the label), not in the center of the medium like DVDs, the slightest scratch, nick, or bubble in the foil under the label will result in loss of data.
Check the discs that have failed from so-called "bit rot" by holding them up to light - chances are the foil has been damaged. If that's the case blame your storage and handling methods; not the technology.
That would be similar to "bracket racing" in the NHRA or AHRA, or weight classes in boxing, right? That would make the most sense. Perhaps there could even be an "enhanced" bracked for those who take anabolic steroids for such purposes.
It would be termed racist. However when you look at the situation isn't it likely that black men are better-built physically due to forced selective breeding by slave "owners" back in the day? Slave "owners" would want to maximize their "investment" in slaves, so why not force "ideal" black men and women to maximize strength and child-bearing features? While the reason for it is quite disgusting (treating people as mere cattle) the results are pretty remarkable, if horrifying (horrifying in the sense that people could be "owned" and forced to mate). This would be micro-evolution at work. Is this actually what occurred? I'm not familiar enough with the history of slavery to know the answer, but I do know of african-Americans in the Boston area (who told one of my friends of this theory) who believe this is the case.
Just food for thought. And believe me, I do not intend to offend anyone with this post.
As far as what is fair: it's not fair that I can't do strenuous exercise for long periods before my muscles cramp up (salt wasting). Should I demand to be allowed to compete since I am a very fast runner, and be given a handicap or other concession for my lack of endurance? Of course not. Athletic competitions have always centered around two things: physical fitness (usually by conforming to "ideal" physical structure) and skill. When it comes to running there is some skill involved but it's more about what one's physique is technically capable of.
If that selective breeding theory holds any water, is it any wonder that black people outperform white people on a consistent basis? Would it be fair to segregate competitions by races? To me that would not seem fair. If white people really see a disparity and are angry about it, nothing is stopping them from marrying based solely on athletic ability and hope that those desirable characteristics follow in the next generation. However, I do not think eugenics can be considered to be justifiable under any moral standard.
Not at all. I was consistently short-tempered and became more so over time. Removing soy from my diet caused an abrupt correction in my major personality flaws within two days. The personality change was a noticeable improvement by everyone around me. I've intentionally re-introduced soy back into my diet several times, and those same traits came back, along with the physical discomfort. The problem is, now that I've completely eliminated it from my diet, if I do eat it, the allergic reaction (hives) is more acute each time (I have scars on one wrist and on my ankles from scratching the hives in my sleep).
Many would claim that vegetable oil is safe for people with soy intolerance or allergies - the truth is that _some_ vegetable oil is safe, and some is not. I can get away with eating some brands, and other brands put me in bed for two days, with severe migraines and abdominal pain. So, at restaurants I have NO way of knowing what brands of vegetable oil they used, or even if a brand is consistent from lot# to lot# in terms of how they process it, so I do my best to avoid it.
Also, I can tolerate some soy lecithin (for example, I can eat six oreos without any kind of reaction) but even lecithin isn't so refined that I can eat as much as I want; if I eat too much I experience the same symptoms. The allergic reaction I can deal with: a little benedryl and I'm okay. The intolerance is something I can't do anything about except suffer through it.
But no, there weren't mood swings. It wasn't like I'd ever experience manic episodes - it was a consistent downward spiral until it became life-threatening and the cause was finally identified.
Now that I am very aware of the physiology and the implications of my physical issues, not just the cosmetic aspects, I often wonder when I encounter someone who is crabby or is constantly experiencing migraines: is it a food intolerance? Is it hormonal? Is it an undiagnosed case of PAIS? So, I try to cut people some slack when they're having bad days, because having been there/done that myself, I am extremely grateful I am more aware of my situation, and when I AM having a bad day, knowing that my anger is biological helps me to not act on that anger and take it out on others. I just take note and increase my cholesterol intake and am more careful to not trust "natural flavoring" ingredients when I am on the go.
When I stick to the proper diet and am careful about checking ingredients on what I eat (I eat very little processed food, and I buy all my food fresh every 1-2 days) I never experience the quick temper or migraines I used to deal with on a constant basis.
(that is the usual gotcha: all too often the "natural flavorings" catchall is soy-derived MSG, or some other form of soy, like annatto dye using soy oil as the carrier, and not other spices)
To tell you the truth I wish it were BPD: that is easily controlled through lithium, and I'd be able to eat whatever the heck I want. Also the manic aspect of BPD sounds like it would be a blessing: I would love to be able to go days without sleep. As it is I am doing housework tonight (packing to move this week), and I am exhausted and want to be in bed. If I were manic I'd be able to go without sleep for a couple of days and be all done!
On the food intolerance issue: I've read that as many as 40% of the population is slightly soy-intolerant, with the symnptoms exhibited being increased appetite (from suppressed electrolyte absorbtion) and migraines. I know quite a few people who say MSG gives them migraines so I tell them about elimination diets and how to go about it, and what various monikers major allergens (soy, wheat, milk, etc.) are listed. for example, I need to avoid "mono and diglycerides" and I REALLY need to avoid margarine. Margarine causes a very quick, acute reaction for me.
A league for intersex folk? It'd be awfully boring. How many hermaphrodites attended your high school? _maybe_ one or two over a four-year spread if you attended a large school.
What would the intersex olympics consist of: 10 athletes in total? *LOL*
Being a chimera would give them an advantage, though, not as much of an advantage as them being male.
I have that genetic mosaic "disorder" or "anomoly" or "mutation" as well as CAH and I can tell you with confidence that it is not an advantage in any respect. While I may be stronger than most women, I'm weaker than most men and also have very, very poor endurance due to the salt wasting component of CAH (basically, I don't retain electrolytes very well, and with my hormones being way out of whack, that doesn't help endurance either). In day-to-day activities there is no advantage at all - just disadvantages as my body continues to become more androgynous over time. People can be cruel.
However, I have been physically accosted and I can tell you that adrenaline rushes and accompanying androgen surges can be a help in defending myself - I have unfortunately found I can take hits without so much as flinching, taking guys by surprise which leaves them not protecting themselves because they don't expect me to a) be able to take a hit and b) deliver crippling blows to defend myself. Fortunately I have not had such "encounters" in over ten years. I try to avoid situations where people might be assholes, or at least bring attention to their asshattery so having witnesses intimidates them and makes them second-guess their motives. What those adrenaline and androgen surges do to my heart though, is another matter. They cause heart pain and it takes a couple of hours for my body to calm down and my heart to stop palpitating. My heart is healthy enough - but with my hormones being so wonky I am at risk of cardiac arrest. Any sort of stress can set my adrenals off - even something as inoccuous for getting pulled over by a police officer when I know a) I've done nothing wrong and b) know I'm getting pulled over because my new car didn't have an inspection sticker yet. Even though I knew everything was legal and I was not going to get any sort of ticket or fine, my body panicked. Trust me - the advantages are more than outweighed by all of the disadvantages and health risks which come with my intersex condition.
That is why I am against government involvement in marriage at all. Under current "gay marriage ban" or "marriage amendment" proposals, as-written, I can't legally marry anyone. Being intersexed with XX/XY genes, I am either both (so I can't marry either) or I am neither (so I cannot marry either). I wish government would get out of marriage and leave it in the hands of the church where it belongs (since it's a religious covenant ANYWAY), and only issue "civil unions" for anyone who wants to "marry" in the eyes of the state.
What if it turns out she is in fact intersexed? Should she be banned from competing as a woman?
Intersexed people are not so rare. XXY, XX males, and XY females do exist. True hermaphrodites are less common, but again, not as rare as you would think. In my case, I am a true hermaphrodite, have CAH and both XX and XY genes (genetic mosaicism), which leads doctors to believe I absorbed a twin in-utero. As I get older I am unfortunately becoming more androgynous.
I had severe migraines my whole life, was ALWAYS hungry (I could eat an entire sub, a large candy bar, drink a coke, and still be hungry) - and could not gain weight no matter how much I ate. I went for all kinds of testing and one doctor mentioned my adrenals "are a little off" and when I asked what that meant he said it's not a big deal. Years later, I went through a very stressful situation and my adrenal glands finally decided to really act up. I gained 60lbs within six months and developed facial hair growth. I hated doctors by that point (being intersexed they wanted to use me as a guinea pig and get published, making names for themselves) so I didn't get checked out until a couple of years went by and things got so bad I was getting 3-4 migraines a week, went from bad-tempered to downright bitchy (read: batshit insane!;)), and had severe heart pain. I finally got checked out by a cardiac physiologist friend (who had been telling me I have adrenal issues all along and had to get all soy out of my diet) who checked with a specialist friend of his after pulling my medical records, and confirmed the CAH suspicions. Why didn't my doctors catch that? The problem is now that my adrenals are functioning so poorly I gain weight easily.
Within a couple of days of eliminating soy from my diet, the jaundice, migraines, fatigue, insomnia, heart palpitations (and resultant pain), and my behavioral issues disappeared completely. Now I don't get migraines unless I accidentally (or on rare occasion knowingly) ingest soy (vegetable oil, vegetable protein, vegetable shortening, etc.. all contain soy proteins). My mood changed and I no longer had a quick temper. It turns out I had a slight soy allergy and a severe intolerance. The intolerance comes from the SW/CAH.
For my adrenal condition now doctors want to put me on corticosteroids, which will make me even more andgrogynous. I won't do that. So, what I decided to do instead was to adjust my diet to include a LOT more cholesterol, and a lot more salt (for the electrolyte imbalance). The extra cholesterol provides my adrenal glands with more cortisol precursors so that they can manufacture a little more cortisol, eliminating the need for injections.
Taking in a lot more cholesterol eliminated the kidney pain (my adrenals were irritating my kidneys), and eliminated the constant hunger feeling. Before then, I never knew what it was like to not feel hunger pangs.
Doctors often coerce parents to choose one sex over the other, in the name of profit. Peforming those "corrective" surgeries on infants is profitable, and they encourage parents to hide it from their children. In many cases, doctors don't even inform the parents of the causes of the intersex condition, and/or don't describe it as an intersex/hermaphroditic condition but as an "anomoly" which is intentionally vague. Unfortunately, in the case of children with CAH or PAIS, hiding those problems and not informing their children of their health condition can often lead to future health and societal problems.
Had I known then what I knew now (I knew of the cosmetic situation when I was a child, but was never informed of the underlying causes - and neither were my parents) I'd have known to avoid soy, keep my electrolytes up, and eat extra cholesterol. On top of that, avoiding the temper issues would have allowed me to advance my career even more quickly than I did before I left the corporate life (I had a severe dislike for corporate politics because it irritated me. Now I'd welcome it and play the game, knowing
Oh, and the best part? It didn't even solve the daily traffic jam problems here in Boston. They neglected to take into account that the majority of the jam is coming from the North Shore into Cambridge, and from the South Shore into the Southie and Mass Ave exits. What they really should have done if they wanted to spend $20B in the first place was to build 93 into a raised highway, with northbound and southbound both being five or six lanes wide from Mass Ave all the way down to Quincy, and from Starrow Drive all the way up to Somerville, fix the 93-95 interchange at both the North and South shore, and the braintree split, and widen 128, eliminating the wide median. They're finally working on widening 128 now, and they're finally fixing the 93/95 interchange in the South Shore.
That's not even the real cause of the daily traffic jam anyhow. The real cause is the failure to yield the right of way when the law (and courtesy) requires you to do so. If you are traveling in the breakdown lane (it's allowed here during rush hour), you MUST yield to all other traffic, and if you are merging in from the right, unless otherwise posted, you must yield. Instead, people jockey for position. Every time I drive in the right lane through the braintree split going up route 3 on to 128, some fuckwad pulls right in front of me from the on-ramp from Quincy. The best part if it is the ignorant fucks who don't yield invariably accelerate slowly. If they're in such a fucking rush that they feel the need to not yield, the least they can do is find the damned throttle and mash it down. WTF? I do like to keep right unless passing someone, but most of the time through there I try to keep through the left due to the total disregard everyone has for everyone else. There is a reason we're called Massholes here. I think we have the worst drivers in the world. I value my clean driving record (it helps keep my insurance down - I usually drive sports cars) so I tend to drive very defensively and give Massholes a wide berth.
If actual safety laws were enforced (right-of-way/yield laws, keeping to the right, not passing on the right, using turn signals, changing lanes properly and not cutting across three lanes to take your exit that's 200 feet ahead) then the daily traffic jam wouldn't exist. oh sure with the traffic volume traffic would be heavy, but it would probably be a steady 35mph rather than the stop-go-20mph-stop crap that occurs every day after the first "accident" (read: avoidable collusion) two massholes caused by jockeying for position/failing to yield.
The Big Dig isn't even done yet - the tunnels have been in constant disrepair since they were "completed" what with collapsing ceilings, gushing water leaks, and crumbling walls. It's a total clusterfuck that only Taxachusetts can mismanage so badly.
Did you feel that tremor? It was from millions of astrologist/astrology "practitioners" shuddering at the thought of a planet's permanent retrograde status!
It's premature to pronounce Microsoft's death. After all, they didn't get where they did by playing fairly. Windows and M$ Office are so entrenched that it takes a lot to convince people that other solutions just might work for them.
It's difficult to get people to even consider OpenOffice.org for example. So, what I do is open up the office suite in front of them and start working, and casually mention that I don't use Microsoft Office (even though I own multiple "licenses" for every version since Office 95). They're usually skeptical about the fact that it is free so then I explain what OpenOffice.org is, and that it's not like there isn't a company backing it, and that if they need assurance of support from a big company, they can always buy the commercial version (StarOffice from Sun). I've successfully migrated quite a few larger clients to OpenOffice.org and most of them haven't looked back.
I usually run Compiz-Fusion with a Vista skin, so I show them the 3D desktop and because of the skin I run, it looks familiar to them. They start to grasp that maybe Windows is not the be-all, end-all of business computing.
Once you get to that point though, they start asking about more open source solutions. Now, for some clients who WANT to go all open source, it just isn't possible. Needs such as AutoCAD, custom medical apps, Quickbooks, and so forth often block their moving away from Windows. However some clients are considering moving to Macs, because even after spending money on antivirus and anti-spyware solutions, they still get occasional infections. One such client is on Filemaker and OpenOffice, so they are seriously considering replacing all of their PCs with Mac minis. One question I am often asked "but does Macintosh/Linux/etc. network as well as Windows?" That is an ironic question, because truth be told, networking has always been Microsoft's achilles' heel. However, the NT family of operating systems does make networking easy to set up the basics. Set up time is usually quicker on Windows; it's the maintenance and the more complex network design that gets tricky and expensive. However, the other OSes network better than Windows, usually offer much greater throughput, far lower downtime (without redefining "downtime" to not count "maintenance windows" as downtime), and cost less due to the lack of need for "client access licenses." Linux also completely lacks any artificial limit of the number of active connections to a workstation. The end result is a lower TCO leaning toward Linux, but it's usually difficult to convince Microsoft shops of that. They've been fed the kool-aid for so many years that it takes a lot to educate them.
Getting customers to take the splash into an OS such as Chrome isn't going to happen overnight, and with the multi-front threats facing their monopoly, don't expect them to play fair. Don't expect Microsoft to sit still. Expect them to leverage their patents on prior art (XML documents for example), to maintain proprietary technologies despite their claims of interoperability (such as Silverlight), and continued FUD concerning the lack of warranties or companies backing open source - despite that their Microsoft product EULA expressly disclaims all warranties and liabilities.
The FUD will continue and grow on all fronts, and they will continue their monopolistic tactics in order to fortify their monopolies.
Encyclopaedia Britannica still retains the British English spelling, as well in its look up, e.g. it prefers "colour" over "color" and so forth.
Yeah, isn't it a shame that a reference/educational book publisher actuallu uses correct spellings rather than the incorrect/lazy spelling we Americans have standardised on? Look at "standardised" for example: that is the technically correct (not just "accepted") spelling, and the US English spell check in my browser tagged it as misspelled. Our incorrect spelling is enforced due to convention, not to the objective fact that the British English is actually the most correct form of English, since it is the origin,
One can of course make the argument that language changes over time and that American English spelling should always be considered correct, but I like that they stick to their guns and use proper English. (read up on how we arrived at our incorrect spelling - it really was due to laziness and intentionally dumbing down of the language) Having standards is hardly a bad thing. I understand English is a difficult language to learn but those extra letters do indicate a (sometimes very) subtle difference in (correct) pronounciation. "Nor" is pronounced differently from "colour" hence the "u" which is not really silent but modifies how the "o" sounds. English is a difficult enough language to begin with so why make it more difficult by dumbing it down?
So protecting your work is evil but knocking off some one else's hard work is good? If I spend five years developing a device but some one else can knock it off in a matter of months then what's the point of developing anything new?
That's not the problem. The problem is these are getting patents:
[$SomethingDoneForCenturies] but on a computer
[$SomethingDoneForCenturies] but done wirelessly
[$SomethingObviousToThoseSkilledInTheTrade]
Those are all not allowed to be patented, and yet due to work overload and quotas, USPTO clerks are rubber-stamping these patent apps and are leaving it up to the courts to sort out. Compounding the problem is that the clerks who SHOULD know better can fix this problem but due to workloads and quotas do not, while the courts know exactly shit about patents and technology and uphold patents which should not due to clever arguments based in emotion and propoganda and not based on law.
The end result is the little guy is getting fucked.
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Our oil fields are far from dry. Except possibly Canada, we have more than anyone. It's just that the loony leftists put up such a hissy fit that our politicians won't let any new fields be opened up, won't allow drilling off our coasts, and won't allow the building of new, more efficient refineries. It's not a matter of the US being short on oil reserves; it's a matter of American companies not being allowed to access them and not allowed to introduce new facilities to process them more efficiently.
One quick and easy solution is to respond by this by deporting all Chinese nationals who are attending American schools.
"Okay, so you want to hoard rare-earth metals? I'm sorry, but your students are immediately no longer welcome at our schools until you have fully reconsidered the matter. They will be returning to China by the end of the week and we will be invoicing you for the travel costs. Thank you, come again."
The problem is, corporate types have been thinking short-term for a couple of decades now. Short-term boosts to the bottom line were to be had by not retooling American factories, but building new factories in China, Vietnam, Mexico, etc.
Name one television manufactured in America. One hard drive. One car manufactured entirely in America (indluding all parts). One consumer camera, etc. - You can't, can you?
It boosted the bottom line of big corporations for a while, so the stock price could be driven up and the execs raked in tremendous record "profits." The thing is, this line of thinking has finally bit America in the ass, and the people who got rich from it don't care at all because they have theirs. Everyone else is left holding the bag with a shitty economy where we import almost everything.
Politicians who are supposed to be our servants have instead been fighting business. We have a NIMBY syndrome. We oppose factories, nuclear power, natural gas depots, new/modern fuel refineries, wind farms. Green or fossil-based, it doesn't matter. Most people have NIMBY as their way of thinking, and idiotic treehuggers have BANANA (build absolutely nothing anywhere near anyone). Politicians have cowed to foreign nations and lowered (in some cases dropped) import tariffs, while those same trading "partners" slap huge tariffs on our exports, making us completely uncompetitive on what little we do export. Incidentally, losing that tariff revenue has lead to heavy dependence on income and property taxes, breaking the middle class's back.
Politicians need to be reminded that a good leader is a SERVANT. They need to keep their own people's well being a higher priority than foreign interests at ALL times. They need to have a long-term outlook for our nation, not short-term profitability so corporate executives can rake in huge bonuses and then profits on their stock grants and options.
The best solution to these issues is:
* ban foreign nationals from attending our schools
* rethink our lowering and eliminating income tariffs
* introduce huge incentives (read: tax breaks) for manufacturing goods entirely in America
Right now, China has us over a fire. It can be solved very quickly, without making 'rare-earth metals [are] the new "oil"' Some parity needs to be reintroduced into the marketplace.
The RIAA and MPAA would have you believe that each man, woman, and child has downloaded at least that much illegal movies and music.
Since when is Israel our enemy? They are likely our only real ally and friend in the Middle East.
I'll second the Red Line water wetter. It decreased the 90*F+ summer weather operating temperature by >15*F in my ZR-1 (no other changes to the cooling system) so heat transfer is significantly improved. Using it in a geothermal water chiller is a great idea!
Fox News, CNN, and The Onion are all equally credible. At least The Onion's whole purpose is to post outright lies, parodies, and so forth. The others just do it to support their respective political bents. Both Fox and CNN are guilty of cherry-picking facts in many cases, conflating news reports with op-eds, and in some cases, fabricating "news" reports.
If you want actual unbiased news, check out the Wall Street Journal. It may be a bit more dry but when it comes to dollars and cents, investors don't fool around and won't tolerate any bias. They want the real news and WSJ delivers.
What would be better is if groups with actual political power in this area are forced to release their raw data and the method by which they arrive at their conclusions. It would be interesting to see if/how many/if any data points they reject to conform the results to their predetermined conclusions. If they were to release the raw data AND how they arrived at their conclusions and it shows they're not lying, then they would gain a lot more credibility outside of the hippie crowd.
I'm no treehugger. However I believe in personal responsibility so I do what I can to conserve, and when I can afford to build my dream home I plan to utilize both photovoltaic electricity and geothermal climate control.
However, I'm against the BANANA and NIMBY mentalities: whenever groups DO try to act upon green efforts (Cape Wind/Nantucket Sound Wind Farm, nuclear plants, new natural gas depots, fuel refineries using new "green" refining technologies and methods, etc.), self-proclaimed "green" politicians seek to oppose those efforts at every turn - most notably (the late) Ted Kennedy, the man who opposed the Nantucket Sound wind far, because it would be "unsightly" as he cruises in his yacht.
What we need is cooperation from all parties: unlike the Al Gore mentality, it does not have to be all-or-nothing. Because we are decades or centuries away from "Mr. Fusion" and "antimatter" generators, we need to make use of what we can today. Solar, water, and wind power will work only in certain locations of the globe, so we have no choice but to continue to use fossil fuels, nukes, and renewable sources like trees.
Also, electric cars aren't quite there yet (not until if you run out of a charge you can just walk a couple of miles to the nearest charging station and borrow a charged, lightweight ultracapacitor to get you there to recharge). The range just isn't there, current li-ion technologies don't handle deep cycling well, and the price needs to come WAY down before it makes good economic sense for the average driver to buy one. Right now, if you drive the average 12,000 miles per year, even a hybrid is a stupid economic choice based on the average cost premium over a conventional car. It makes sense if you drive 30,000+ miles (a hybrid would make economic sense for me) but such drivers are not the norm.
So there has to be a happy medium. I say build the nukes, but have a decent plan for recycling and/or storing the waste. Build new coal plants, or better yet, trash incinerators, but just make sure they have moden scrubbers in place, as well as a responsible ash disposal plan in place. That doesn't mean to stop investments in fusion resources, but since we don't have it yet, we can't just quit fossil fuels cold turkey.
Also, ethanol is not a good solution here in the US (corn is a poor choice), and I'm not too fond of the idea of soy-based biodiesels putting one of the 8 major allergens (soy proteins) in the air in heavy doses.
I have a handful of CDs I burned back in 1995 that still work. I had a LOT of old backup and software CDs from the same time that I tried early this year and they still worked fine. I threw most of them out since most of the backups and all of the software were completely obsolete. It was cheap media (for the time), as well. CD-R holds up very well. The major enemy is handling the CDs roughly; since the data is typically actually stored on the label side (that is, on the shiny side, under the label), not in the center of the medium like DVDs, the slightest scratch, nick, or bubble in the foil under the label will result in loss of data.
Check the discs that have failed from so-called "bit rot" by holding them up to light - chances are the foil has been damaged. If that's the case blame your storage and handling methods; not the technology.
That would be similar to "bracket racing" in the NHRA or AHRA, or weight classes in boxing, right? That would make the most sense. Perhaps there could even be an "enhanced" bracked for those who take anabolic steroids for such purposes.
It would be termed racist. However when you look at the situation isn't it likely that black men are better-built physically due to forced selective breeding by slave "owners" back in the day? Slave "owners" would want to maximize their "investment" in slaves, so why not force "ideal" black men and women to maximize strength and child-bearing features? While the reason for it is quite disgusting (treating people as mere cattle) the results are pretty remarkable, if horrifying (horrifying in the sense that people could be "owned" and forced to mate). This would be micro-evolution at work. Is this actually what occurred? I'm not familiar enough with the history of slavery to know the answer, but I do know of african-Americans in the Boston area (who told one of my friends of this theory) who believe this is the case.
Just food for thought. And believe me, I do not intend to offend anyone with this post.
As far as what is fair: it's not fair that I can't do strenuous exercise for long periods before my muscles cramp up (salt wasting). Should I demand to be allowed to compete since I am a very fast runner, and be given a handicap or other concession for my lack of endurance? Of course not. Athletic competitions have always centered around two things: physical fitness (usually by conforming to "ideal" physical structure) and skill. When it comes to running there is some skill involved but it's more about what one's physique is technically capable of.
If that selective breeding theory holds any water, is it any wonder that black people outperform white people on a consistent basis? Would it be fair to segregate competitions by races? To me that would not seem fair. If white people really see a disparity and are angry about it, nothing is stopping them from marrying based solely on athletic ability and hope that those desirable characteristics follow in the next generation. However, I do not think eugenics can be considered to be justifiable under any moral standard.
Not at all. I was consistently short-tempered and became more so over time. Removing soy from my diet caused an abrupt correction in my major personality flaws within two days. The personality change was a noticeable improvement by everyone around me. I've intentionally re-introduced soy back into my diet several times, and those same traits came back, along with the physical discomfort. The problem is, now that I've completely eliminated it from my diet, if I do eat it, the allergic reaction (hives) is more acute each time (I have scars on one wrist and on my ankles from scratching the hives in my sleep).
Many would claim that vegetable oil is safe for people with soy intolerance or allergies - the truth is that _some_ vegetable oil is safe, and some is not. I can get away with eating some brands, and other brands put me in bed for two days, with severe migraines and abdominal pain. So, at restaurants I have NO way of knowing what brands of vegetable oil they used, or even if a brand is consistent from lot# to lot# in terms of how they process it, so I do my best to avoid it.
Also, I can tolerate some soy lecithin (for example, I can eat six oreos without any kind of reaction) but even lecithin isn't so refined that I can eat as much as I want; if I eat too much I experience the same symptoms. The allergic reaction I can deal with: a little benedryl and I'm okay. The intolerance is something I can't do anything about except suffer through it.
But no, there weren't mood swings. It wasn't like I'd ever experience manic episodes - it was a consistent downward spiral until it became life-threatening and the cause was finally identified.
Now that I am very aware of the physiology and the implications of my physical issues, not just the cosmetic aspects, I often wonder when I encounter someone who is crabby or is constantly experiencing migraines: is it a food intolerance? Is it hormonal? Is it an undiagnosed case of PAIS? So, I try to cut people some slack when they're having bad days, because having been there/done that myself, I am extremely grateful I am more aware of my situation, and when I AM having a bad day, knowing that my anger is biological helps me to not act on that anger and take it out on others. I just take note and increase my cholesterol intake and am more careful to not trust "natural flavoring" ingredients when I am on the go.
When I stick to the proper diet and am careful about checking ingredients on what I eat (I eat very little processed food, and I buy all my food fresh every 1-2 days) I never experience the quick temper or migraines I used to deal with on a constant basis.
(that is the usual gotcha: all too often the "natural flavorings" catchall is soy-derived MSG, or some other form of soy, like annatto dye using soy oil as the carrier, and not other spices)
To tell you the truth I wish it were BPD: that is easily controlled through lithium, and I'd be able to eat whatever the heck I want. Also the manic aspect of BPD sounds like it would be a blessing: I would love to be able to go days without sleep. As it is I am doing housework tonight (packing to move this week), and I am exhausted and want to be in bed. If I were manic I'd be able to go without sleep for a couple of days and be all done!
On the food intolerance issue: I've read that as many as 40% of the population is slightly soy-intolerant, with the symnptoms exhibited being increased appetite (from suppressed electrolyte absorbtion) and migraines. I know quite a few people who say MSG gives them migraines so I tell them about elimination diets and how to go about it, and what various monikers major allergens (soy, wheat, milk, etc.) are listed. for example, I need to avoid "mono and diglycerides" and I REALLY need to avoid margarine. Margarine causes a very quick, acute reaction for me.
A league for intersex folk? It'd be awfully boring. How many hermaphrodites attended your high school? _maybe_ one or two over a four-year spread if you attended a large school.
What would the intersex olympics consist of: 10 athletes in total? *LOL*
I have that genetic mosaic "disorder" or "anomoly" or "mutation" as well as CAH and I can tell you with confidence that it is not an advantage in any respect. While I may be stronger than most women, I'm weaker than most men and also have very, very poor endurance due to the salt wasting component of CAH (basically, I don't retain electrolytes very well, and with my hormones being way out of whack, that doesn't help endurance either). In day-to-day activities there is no advantage at all - just disadvantages as my body continues to become more androgynous over time. People can be cruel.
However, I have been physically accosted and I can tell you that adrenaline rushes and accompanying androgen surges can be a help in defending myself - I have unfortunately found I can take hits without so much as flinching, taking guys by surprise which leaves them not protecting themselves because they don't expect me to a) be able to take a hit and b) deliver crippling blows to defend myself. Fortunately I have not had such "encounters" in over ten years. I try to avoid situations where people might be assholes, or at least bring attention to their asshattery so having witnesses intimidates them and makes them second-guess their motives. What those adrenaline and androgen surges do to my heart though, is another matter. They cause heart pain and it takes a couple of hours for my body to calm down and my heart to stop palpitating. My heart is healthy enough - but with my hormones being so wonky I am at risk of cardiac arrest. Any sort of stress can set my adrenals off - even something as inoccuous for getting pulled over by a police officer when I know a) I've done nothing wrong and b) know I'm getting pulled over because my new car didn't have an inspection sticker yet. Even though I knew everything was legal and I was not going to get any sort of ticket or fine, my body panicked. Trust me - the advantages are more than outweighed by all of the disadvantages and health risks which come with my intersex condition.
That is why I am against government involvement in marriage at all. Under current "gay marriage ban" or "marriage amendment" proposals, as-written, I can't legally marry anyone. Being intersexed with XX/XY genes, I am either both (so I can't marry either) or I am neither (so I cannot marry either). I wish government would get out of marriage and leave it in the hands of the church where it belongs (since it's a religious covenant ANYWAY), and only issue "civil unions" for anyone who wants to "marry" in the eyes of the state.
$.02
Intersexed people are not as uncommon as you would think. XX/XY and salt-wasting congenital adrenal hyperplasia here. :)
What if it turns out she is in fact intersexed? Should she be banned from competing as a woman?
Intersexed people are not so rare. XXY, XX males, and XY females do exist. True hermaphrodites are less common, but again, not as rare as you would think. In my case, I am a true hermaphrodite, have CAH and both XX and XY genes (genetic mosaicism), which leads doctors to believe I absorbed a twin in-utero. As I get older I am unfortunately becoming more androgynous.
I had severe migraines my whole life, was ALWAYS hungry (I could eat an entire sub, a large candy bar, drink a coke, and still be hungry) - and could not gain weight no matter how much I ate. I went for all kinds of testing and one doctor mentioned my adrenals "are a little off" and when I asked what that meant he said it's not a big deal. Years later, I went through a very stressful situation and my adrenal glands finally decided to really act up. I gained 60lbs within six months and developed facial hair growth. I hated doctors by that point (being intersexed they wanted to use me as a guinea pig and get published, making names for themselves) so I didn't get checked out until a couple of years went by and things got so bad I was getting 3-4 migraines a week, went from bad-tempered to downright bitchy (read: batshit insane! ;)), and had severe heart pain. I finally got checked out by a cardiac physiologist friend (who had been telling me I have adrenal issues all along and had to get all soy out of my diet) who checked with a specialist friend of his after pulling my medical records, and confirmed the CAH suspicions. Why didn't my doctors catch that? The problem is now that my adrenals are functioning so poorly I gain weight easily.
Within a couple of days of eliminating soy from my diet, the jaundice, migraines, fatigue, insomnia, heart palpitations (and resultant pain), and my behavioral issues disappeared completely. Now I don't get migraines unless I accidentally (or on rare occasion knowingly) ingest soy (vegetable oil, vegetable protein, vegetable shortening, etc.. all contain soy proteins). My mood changed and I no longer had a quick temper. It turns out I had a slight soy allergy and a severe intolerance. The intolerance comes from the SW/CAH.
For my adrenal condition now doctors want to put me on corticosteroids, which will make me even more andgrogynous. I won't do that. So, what I decided to do instead was to adjust my diet to include a LOT more cholesterol, and a lot more salt (for the electrolyte imbalance). The extra cholesterol provides my adrenal glands with more cortisol precursors so that they can manufacture a little more cortisol, eliminating the need for injections.
Taking in a lot more cholesterol eliminated the kidney pain (my adrenals were irritating my kidneys), and eliminated the constant hunger feeling. Before then, I never knew what it was like to not feel hunger pangs.
Doctors often coerce parents to choose one sex over the other, in the name of profit. Peforming those "corrective" surgeries on infants is profitable, and they encourage parents to hide it from their children. In many cases, doctors don't even inform the parents of the causes of the intersex condition, and/or don't describe it as an intersex/hermaphroditic condition but as an "anomoly" which is intentionally vague. Unfortunately, in the case of children with CAH or PAIS, hiding those problems and not informing their children of their health condition can often lead to future health and societal problems.
Had I known then what I knew now (I knew of the cosmetic situation when I was a child, but was never informed of the underlying causes - and neither were my parents) I'd have known to avoid soy, keep my electrolytes up, and eat extra cholesterol. On top of that, avoiding the temper issues would have allowed me to advance my career even more quickly than I did before I left the corporate life (I had a severe dislike for corporate politics because it irritated me. Now I'd welcome it and play the game, knowing
You would think so, but he is REALLY into his computer!
a '91 Corsica engine is best used as a boat anchor, or to be melted down and made into bending unit robots.
It sounds like your friend is a crappy attorney, if he's afraid the BSA will come down on him if he uses F/OSS software.
Oh, and the best part? It didn't even solve the daily traffic jam problems here in Boston. They neglected to take into account that the majority of the jam is coming from the North Shore into Cambridge, and from the South Shore into the Southie and Mass Ave exits. What they really should have done if they wanted to spend $20B in the first place was to build 93 into a raised highway, with northbound and southbound both being five or six lanes wide from Mass Ave all the way down to Quincy, and from Starrow Drive all the way up to Somerville, fix the 93-95 interchange at both the North and South shore, and the braintree split, and widen 128, eliminating the wide median. They're finally working on widening 128 now, and they're finally fixing the 93/95 interchange in the South Shore.
That's not even the real cause of the daily traffic jam anyhow. The real cause is the failure to yield the right of way when the law (and courtesy) requires you to do so. If you are traveling in the breakdown lane (it's allowed here during rush hour), you MUST yield to all other traffic, and if you are merging in from the right, unless otherwise posted, you must yield. Instead, people jockey for position. Every time I drive in the right lane through the braintree split going up route 3 on to 128, some fuckwad pulls right in front of me from the on-ramp from Quincy. The best part if it is the ignorant fucks who don't yield invariably accelerate slowly. If they're in such a fucking rush that they feel the need to not yield, the least they can do is find the damned throttle and mash it down. WTF? I do like to keep right unless passing someone, but most of the time through there I try to keep through the left due to the total disregard everyone has for everyone else. There is a reason we're called Massholes here. I think we have the worst drivers in the world. I value my clean driving record (it helps keep my insurance down - I usually drive sports cars) so I tend to drive very defensively and give Massholes a wide berth.
If actual safety laws were enforced (right-of-way/yield laws, keeping to the right, not passing on the right, using turn signals, changing lanes properly and not cutting across three lanes to take your exit that's 200 feet ahead) then the daily traffic jam wouldn't exist. oh sure with the traffic volume traffic would be heavy, but it would probably be a steady 35mph rather than the stop-go-20mph-stop crap that occurs every day after the first "accident" (read: avoidable collusion) two massholes caused by jockeying for position/failing to yield.
The Big Dig is Massachusetts' White Elephant.
The Big Dig isn't even done yet - the tunnels have been in constant disrepair since they were "completed" what with collapsing ceilings, gushing water leaks, and crumbling walls. It's a total clusterfuck that only Taxachusetts can mismanage so badly.
Did you feel that tremor? It was from millions of astrologist/astrology "practitioners" shuddering at the thought of a planet's permanent retrograde status!
It's premature to pronounce Microsoft's death. After all, they didn't get where they did by playing fairly. Windows and M$ Office are so entrenched that it takes a lot to convince people that other solutions just might work for them.
It's difficult to get people to even consider OpenOffice.org for example. So, what I do is open up the office suite in front of them and start working, and casually mention that I don't use Microsoft Office (even though I own multiple "licenses" for every version since Office 95). They're usually skeptical about the fact that it is free so then I explain what OpenOffice.org is, and that it's not like there isn't a company backing it, and that if they need assurance of support from a big company, they can always buy the commercial version (StarOffice from Sun). I've successfully migrated quite a few larger clients to OpenOffice.org and most of them haven't looked back.
I usually run Compiz-Fusion with a Vista skin, so I show them the 3D desktop and because of the skin I run, it looks familiar to them. They start to grasp that maybe Windows is not the be-all, end-all of business computing.
Once you get to that point though, they start asking about more open source solutions. Now, for some clients who WANT to go all open source, it just isn't possible. Needs such as AutoCAD, custom medical apps, Quickbooks, and so forth often block their moving away from Windows. However some clients are considering moving to Macs, because even after spending money on antivirus and anti-spyware solutions, they still get occasional infections. One such client is on Filemaker and OpenOffice, so they are seriously considering replacing all of their PCs with Mac minis. One question I am often asked "but does Macintosh/Linux/etc. network as well as Windows?" That is an ironic question, because truth be told, networking has always been Microsoft's achilles' heel. However, the NT family of operating systems does make networking easy to set up the basics. Set up time is usually quicker on Windows; it's the maintenance and the more complex network design that gets tricky and expensive. However, the other OSes network better than Windows, usually offer much greater throughput, far lower downtime (without redefining "downtime" to not count "maintenance windows" as downtime), and cost less due to the lack of need for "client access licenses." Linux also completely lacks any artificial limit of the number of active connections to a workstation. The end result is a lower TCO leaning toward Linux, but it's usually difficult to convince Microsoft shops of that. They've been fed the kool-aid for so many years that it takes a lot to educate them.
Getting customers to take the splash into an OS such as Chrome isn't going to happen overnight, and with the multi-front threats facing their monopoly, don't expect them to play fair. Don't expect Microsoft to sit still. Expect them to leverage their patents on prior art (XML documents for example), to maintain proprietary technologies despite their claims of interoperability (such as Silverlight), and continued FUD concerning the lack of warranties or companies backing open source - despite that their Microsoft product EULA expressly disclaims all warranties and liabilities.
The FUD will continue and grow on all fronts, and they will continue their monopolistic tactics in order to fortify their monopolies.
Yeah, isn't it a shame that a reference/educational book publisher actuallu uses correct spellings rather than the incorrect/lazy spelling we Americans have standardised on? Look at "standardised" for example: that is the technically correct (not just "accepted") spelling, and the US English spell check in my browser tagged it as misspelled. Our incorrect spelling is enforced due to convention, not to the objective fact that the British English is actually the most correct form of English, since it is the origin,
One can of course make the argument that language changes over time and that American English spelling should always be considered correct, but I like that they stick to their guns and use proper English. (read up on how we arrived at our incorrect spelling - it really was due to laziness and intentionally dumbing down of the language) Having standards is hardly a bad thing. I understand English is a difficult language to learn but those extra letters do indicate a (sometimes very) subtle difference in (correct) pronounciation. "Nor" is pronounced differently from "colour" hence the "u" which is not really silent but modifies how the "o" sounds. English is a difficult enough language to begin with so why make it more difficult by dumbing it down?
That's not the problem. The problem is these are getting patents:
[$SomethingDoneForCenturies] but on a computer
[$SomethingDoneForCenturies] but done wirelessly
[$SomethingObviousToThoseSkilledInTheTrade]
Those are all not allowed to be patented, and yet due to work overload and quotas, USPTO clerks are rubber-stamping these patent apps and are leaving it up to the courts to sort out. Compounding the problem is that the clerks who SHOULD know better can fix this problem but due to workloads and quotas do not, while the courts know exactly shit about patents and technology and uphold patents which should not due to clever arguments based in emotion and propoganda and not based on law.
The end result is the little guy is getting fucked.