Part of the problem here is that the U.S. is running short of options when it comes to employment, so a lot of people have jumped on the medical bandwagon because money still seems to be flowing in that sector. Across the U.S., approximately 12% of the total employed population works in the healthcare field (http://www.bls.gov/spotlight/2009/health_care/). That means expenses for medical treatment (the product of such employment) needs to cover the salaries of almost a tenth of the total payroll in the country on average. For comparison, in 1978, less than 7% of the population worked in healthcare. If, as I suspect might be the case, the metoric rise of healthcare costs is more related to the lack of living-wage jobs available in other sectors, it makes sense that the end bill will come out higher but results don't necessarily have to improve.
If free will doesn't exist, then I cannot choose to be remorseful / repentant or to be faithful. My feelings about an issue are guided by forces outside of my control, why should I be punished any more or less for those than for the actions taken?
Nit picky issue here: Nevada does have sales tax, it does not have state income tax. There is no use tax in Nevada, so goods purchased from out of state effectively have no obligation. However, about 30 miles out from Reno is Fernley where a very large Amazon warehouse exists. Depending on where the item is shipping from, Amazon may or may not calculate an owed tax on goods; if it's shipping from out of state, no taxes are owed.
I think this has more to do with keeping an active discussion going. People have been commenting on Slashdot for years that the only reason they stay is for the comments. Posting "stories" which are really just encouragement for active discussion is a way of keeping people engaged so there are more comments and a more lively community in general.
It's been a while since I researched how recycling works, but if I remember correctly, for paper products, the main reason it's not terribly efficient is because of the ratios required to get a product that people will actually use. For starters, mixing recycled content with new content doesn't work. To get a reasonable grade of paper out of the end process, a certain (fairly high) percentage of the paper needed to be clean going into the process. So when you read, "30% post-consumer recycled" paper, the other 70% is also recycled, but it's recycled from previously unused paper. In the end, this doesn't result in savings, rather, it increases the amount of total paper required as well as the total chemical treatment of paper to make that "30% post consumer" feel-good number.
And a working stove, a paid electric / gas bill, and a host of other hidden costs that may not be affordable to those on the lower end of the income pool.
The thing is, everyone has something to hide, either due to loss of status, embarrassment, or a whole host of other reasons. Lying is a common social interaction, and most people choose not to share every aspect of their lives, thoughts, feelings, et cetera with anyone who cares to ask. "That's none of your business" is a common phrase, as is lying to protect privacy. It also isn't enough for law enforcement to say, "We don't care about most stuff you would normally lie about." There is no way for an average citizen to enforce that contract. We shouldn't have to accept that as an argument, we have a constitution with explicit words to protect us from that.
https://www.techdirt.com/artic...
This article assumes a lot about private R&D, namely that it still exists. Searching private R&D trends on scholar.google.com shows many studies on the effects of public policy on private R&D, and also shows a generally declining rate of private R&D over the past 30 years. I seem to recall a lot of tax cuts and incentive programs being implemented in that time, and yet companies still are increasingly not doing such research themselves. If private companies will not step up, then we are left with public entities such as NASA to pick up the slack.
The main advantage of being married without children is that you get to average your incomes together. This makes getting married to someone with roughly equal salary less appealing, but the alternative opens up the door to alimony payments should things go south. Guess you get to pick your poison.
Even the classic, "Does this dress make me fat" is, in the long run, better off for everyone if the simple unadulterated truth is used. It might hurt feelings in the short run, but in the long run, it will lead the dress-wearer to select more actually flattering clothing, which in turn would be actually appreciated by the admirer. At minimum, it would let both parties know more about the preferences of the other and may lead to more informed decisions. White lies are still lies and still lead to undesirable outcomes eventually.
It's true that government continues to give advice, and people continue to gain weight, but you know, the whole correlation != causation bit. At the same time that governments are giving advice, private companies have been actors as well. Marketing budgets have increased, quality of ingredients has decreased, farming practices have changed, and world population has gone up. All of these things express correlation, and each may be influential, but when looking for the root cause of a problem, it's better to come with an open mind than a specific agenda.
Desalinization is an expensive process, and salt is a highly corrosive substance. According to Bloomberg, "Desalination plants on average use about 15,000 kilowatt-hours of power for every million gallons of fresh water that’s produced..." (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-05-01/energy-makes-up-half-of-desalination-plant-costs-study). In the above scenario, you'd need 800 plants each providing 50 million gallons each using 15,000 KWh (15 MWh) per million gallons. 40,000m gallons * 15 MWh = 600 GWh of energy to produce. The largest nuclear plant in the country produces about 4 GWh energy (http://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=104&t=3). So you're saying we should multiply the total fleet of nuclear plants (or another energy equivalent) by 2.5x nationally to provide water for California?
In all fairness, I've worked for several large companies (started in telecommunications and now in education) and so far, all of them have used Microsoft Office as a general productivity suite for day-to-day business. I work in data analytics (mostly report writing, actually), but the number of times that a project is best completed using VBA in Excel, Access, PowerPoint or even Outlook makes understanding VB well enough to automate monthly or quarterly reports in a format that executives find comfortable to work with has kept me employed far more than the ability to write complex queries in SQL or full applications in C++.
This phrase screams of false dichotomy. The enemy of my enemy is my enemy's enemy, nothing more. The common ground may establish enough of an opportunity to discuss a mutually beneficial agreement, but if my enemy's enemy is just as bad as my enemy, that is far from certain.
I know that a lot of my initial programming experience came from the Star Craft map editor. Event-oriented programming, nested logic loops, the use of counters in interesting methods, I think the basic map editors with limited tools provides a nice sandbox for learning algorithm design and logic modeling. Unfortunately, by the time Blizzard got to War Craft 3, the editor was as complex as most IDEs that I've worked with, so the barrier to entry seems much higher now.
Basically, historical rates of EROEI for petroleum has been around 150-200:1. As those rates are no longer available, more energy (directly translatable to money) is required to generate the same power that we had already been used to. The infrastructure that we already have assumes there will be ample surplus energy to maintain that infrastructure. As you start moving from 150:1 to the 20:1 or worse renewables, the surplus energy tends to fall. More of the energy that would have been put to productive use gets diverted to just maintaining the energy generation in the first place. You can build more windmills or solar panels or whatever, but ultimately, more labor hours and resources are still required to maintain that infrastructure. Most people have a problem with the price of gasoline running about $4/gallon in the U.S., but imagine when electric cars require $16/40 miles of travel due to the increased price of electricity. Now add the fact that all other infrastructure that we currently maintain with hidden costs (taxes, fees, etc) will require the same type of scaled increase in the cost of energy. It won't be pretty.
I always find it amusing how large organizations, particularly governments, are so incompetent as to not be able to tie their own shoelaces, but at the same time, they are capable of the evil genius required to coordinate massive conspiracies when its convenient for them to have done so.
Why would people think bigger Brians are better than smaller ones? I thought it was more common to discriminate against big people (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weightism).
I worked at a third-party call center providing support for AT&T customers for years. I ran an administrative job, keeping track of attendance and payroll and the like, but I had to go through the same training as any new hire on the floor. The training is more about handling irate customers and how to get them to feel like you've empathized with their situation more than product knowledge or what is actually happening when you click various buttons on the troubleshooting system U.I. The actual troubleshooting steps themselves are done in flow-chart format, so when a customer mentions a specific symptom, representatives are supposed to type in some keywords and then follow the script. They are recorded, so there is no leeway when following the script. Every step has to be tried until the customer responds that they have attempted the step or whatever. The employees are basically told they have no authority to actually help the customers, but they are held responsible for the customer's feeling of having been helped. It makes no sense. The average tenure at the position is about 6 months. Those that make it to the year mark in this environment have a fair shot of being labled "Team Lead" and those are the ones you generally get when you ask for a manager. There is no way to get to a person who can actually make policy, the system isn't designed to go that high. If you don't like talking to one team lead, you can escalate further, which will get you a new and different team lead with no more authority than the first. That's as high as you can get.
This entire argument is stupid. If you don't want employees using personal hotspots on your property, make an employment policy to restrict the usage of such devices. Employees found violating this policy could be disciplined as appropriate, including termination for a security violation. You don't need to use technology to disable other technology to accomplish this for legitimate business purposes.
Slashdot Mirror
Part of the problem here is that the U.S. is running short of options when it comes to employment, so a lot of people have jumped on the medical bandwagon because money still seems to be flowing in that sector. Across the U.S., approximately 12% of the total employed population works in the healthcare field (http://www.bls.gov/spotlight/2009/health_care/). That means expenses for medical treatment (the product of such employment) needs to cover the salaries of almost a tenth of the total payroll in the country on average. For comparison, in 1978, less than 7% of the population worked in healthcare. If, as I suspect might be the case, the metoric rise of healthcare costs is more related to the lack of living-wage jobs available in other sectors, it makes sense that the end bill will come out higher but results don't necessarily have to improve.
If free will doesn't exist, then I cannot choose to be remorseful / repentant or to be faithful. My feelings about an issue are guided by forces outside of my control, why should I be punished any more or less for those than for the actions taken?
Nit picky issue here: Nevada does have sales tax, it does not have state income tax. There is no use tax in Nevada, so goods purchased from out of state effectively have no obligation. However, about 30 miles out from Reno is Fernley where a very large Amazon warehouse exists. Depending on where the item is shipping from, Amazon may or may not calculate an owed tax on goods; if it's shipping from out of state, no taxes are owed.
I think this has more to do with keeping an active discussion going. People have been commenting on Slashdot for years that the only reason they stay is for the comments. Posting "stories" which are really just encouragement for active discussion is a way of keeping people engaged so there are more comments and a more lively community in general.
It's been a while since I researched how recycling works, but if I remember correctly, for paper products, the main reason it's not terribly efficient is because of the ratios required to get a product that people will actually use. For starters, mixing recycled content with new content doesn't work. To get a reasonable grade of paper out of the end process, a certain (fairly high) percentage of the paper needed to be clean going into the process. So when you read, "30% post-consumer recycled" paper, the other 70% is also recycled, but it's recycled from previously unused paper. In the end, this doesn't result in savings, rather, it increases the amount of total paper required as well as the total chemical treatment of paper to make that "30% post consumer" feel-good number.
And a working stove, a paid electric / gas bill, and a host of other hidden costs that may not be affordable to those on the lower end of the income pool.
Yep, Modern Family is basically watered-down Arrested Development, and the ratings basically prove your point.
The thing is, everyone has something to hide, either due to loss of status, embarrassment, or a whole host of other reasons. Lying is a common social interaction, and most people choose not to share every aspect of their lives, thoughts, feelings, et cetera with anyone who cares to ask. "That's none of your business" is a common phrase, as is lying to protect privacy. It also isn't enough for law enforcement to say, "We don't care about most stuff you would normally lie about." There is no way for an average citizen to enforce that contract. We shouldn't have to accept that as an argument, we have a constitution with explicit words to protect us from that. https://www.techdirt.com/artic...
I think Mr. Gillette would disagree. http://www.maxtonmen.com/blogs... https://hbr.org/2010/09/gillet...
This article assumes a lot about private R&D, namely that it still exists. Searching private R&D trends on scholar.google.com shows many studies on the effects of public policy on private R&D, and also shows a generally declining rate of private R&D over the past 30 years. I seem to recall a lot of tax cuts and incentive programs being implemented in that time, and yet companies still are increasingly not doing such research themselves. If private companies will not step up, then we are left with public entities such as NASA to pick up the slack.
Who cares? It's not like we produce most of our oil here anyway, so why does it matter which foreign country gets those dollars?
The main advantage of being married without children is that you get to average your incomes together. This makes getting married to someone with roughly equal salary less appealing, but the alternative opens up the door to alimony payments should things go south. Guess you get to pick your poison.
Even the classic, "Does this dress make me fat" is, in the long run, better off for everyone if the simple unadulterated truth is used. It might hurt feelings in the short run, but in the long run, it will lead the dress-wearer to select more actually flattering clothing, which in turn would be actually appreciated by the admirer. At minimum, it would let both parties know more about the preferences of the other and may lead to more informed decisions. White lies are still lies and still lead to undesirable outcomes eventually.
Hell, there's a name for it: a workaholic.
What is this workahol, and is it better than regular alcohol?
It's true that government continues to give advice, and people continue to gain weight, but you know, the whole correlation != causation bit. At the same time that governments are giving advice, private companies have been actors as well. Marketing budgets have increased, quality of ingredients has decreased, farming practices have changed, and world population has gone up. All of these things express correlation, and each may be influential, but when looking for the root cause of a problem, it's better to come with an open mind than a specific agenda.
Desalinization is an expensive process, and salt is a highly corrosive substance. According to Bloomberg, "Desalination plants on average use about 15,000 kilowatt-hours of power for every million gallons of fresh water that’s produced..." (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-05-01/energy-makes-up-half-of-desalination-plant-costs-study). In the above scenario, you'd need 800 plants each providing 50 million gallons each using 15,000 KWh (15 MWh) per million gallons. 40,000m gallons * 15 MWh = 600 GWh of energy to produce. The largest nuclear plant in the country produces about 4 GWh energy (http://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=104&t=3). So you're saying we should multiply the total fleet of nuclear plants (or another energy equivalent) by 2.5x nationally to provide water for California?
In all fairness, I've worked for several large companies (started in telecommunications and now in education) and so far, all of them have used Microsoft Office as a general productivity suite for day-to-day business. I work in data analytics (mostly report writing, actually), but the number of times that a project is best completed using VBA in Excel, Access, PowerPoint or even Outlook makes understanding VB well enough to automate monthly or quarterly reports in a format that executives find comfortable to work with has kept me employed far more than the ability to write complex queries in SQL or full applications in C++.
This phrase screams of false dichotomy. The enemy of my enemy is my enemy's enemy, nothing more. The common ground may establish enough of an opportunity to discuss a mutually beneficial agreement, but if my enemy's enemy is just as bad as my enemy, that is far from certain.
I know that a lot of my initial programming experience came from the Star Craft map editor. Event-oriented programming, nested logic loops, the use of counters in interesting methods, I think the basic map editors with limited tools provides a nice sandbox for learning algorithm design and logic modeling. Unfortunately, by the time Blizzard got to War Craft 3, the editor was as complex as most IDEs that I've worked with, so the barrier to entry seems much higher now.
Basically, historical rates of EROEI for petroleum has been around 150-200:1. As those rates are no longer available, more energy (directly translatable to money) is required to generate the same power that we had already been used to. The infrastructure that we already have assumes there will be ample surplus energy to maintain that infrastructure. As you start moving from 150:1 to the 20:1 or worse renewables, the surplus energy tends to fall. More of the energy that would have been put to productive use gets diverted to just maintaining the energy generation in the first place. You can build more windmills or solar panels or whatever, but ultimately, more labor hours and resources are still required to maintain that infrastructure. Most people have a problem with the price of gasoline running about $4/gallon in the U.S., but imagine when electric cars require $16/40 miles of travel due to the increased price of electricity. Now add the fact that all other infrastructure that we currently maintain with hidden costs (taxes, fees, etc) will require the same type of scaled increase in the cost of energy. It won't be pretty.
I always find it amusing how large organizations, particularly governments, are so incompetent as to not be able to tie their own shoelaces, but at the same time, they are capable of the evil genius required to coordinate massive conspiracies when its convenient for them to have done so.
Why would people think bigger Brians are better than smaller ones? I thought it was more common to discriminate against big people (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weightism).
https://xkcd.com/1357/
I worked at a third-party call center providing support for AT&T customers for years. I ran an administrative job, keeping track of attendance and payroll and the like, but I had to go through the same training as any new hire on the floor. The training is more about handling irate customers and how to get them to feel like you've empathized with their situation more than product knowledge or what is actually happening when you click various buttons on the troubleshooting system U.I. The actual troubleshooting steps themselves are done in flow-chart format, so when a customer mentions a specific symptom, representatives are supposed to type in some keywords and then follow the script. They are recorded, so there is no leeway when following the script. Every step has to be tried until the customer responds that they have attempted the step or whatever. The employees are basically told they have no authority to actually help the customers, but they are held responsible for the customer's feeling of having been helped. It makes no sense. The average tenure at the position is about 6 months. Those that make it to the year mark in this environment have a fair shot of being labled "Team Lead" and those are the ones you generally get when you ask for a manager. There is no way to get to a person who can actually make policy, the system isn't designed to go that high. If you don't like talking to one team lead, you can escalate further, which will get you a new and different team lead with no more authority than the first. That's as high as you can get.
This entire argument is stupid. If you don't want employees using personal hotspots on your property, make an employment policy to restrict the usage of such devices. Employees found violating this policy could be disciplined as appropriate, including termination for a security violation. You don't need to use technology to disable other technology to accomplish this for legitimate business purposes.