From what little I know, which is not much, Neanderthal is not what I'd call "fragile." All of my "expertise" comes from documentaries. PBS had a great one, NOVA, called something like, "Where did we Come From." It was a five part series and traced the various people back and tried to find out the paths they took and how we got to be where we are today - it was pretty good.
At any rate, the Neanderthal didn't really go extinct. I mean, yeah, there are none left but there's probably some genetic material left in you. Humans and Neanderthal had a distant ancestor that they shared. The paths diverged and Neanderthal was the first to evolve into a higher form (for lack of a better word). We humans were on a different track and later we bumped into each other, probably in Europe, and had enough genetic material to successfully mate.
For whatever reason, and we do not know why, the Neanderthal itself ceased to exist - it's speculated that it was neither overpopulation, resource use, or violence. They simply don't know - it may have been a specific pathogen that only affected them but not humans or impacted humans at a lesser rate - some immunity might be there today, hidden dormant in our genetic material.
But, the Neanderthal and the Human had mated and produced offspring. So, really... It's kind of true that there are no more Neanderthals left and that means we can call them extinct but there are still plenty of them walking around - at least if you get a bunch of humans and mash 'em up in a blender or something. That's how it works, right? I don't know if extinct is the right word for it?
At any rate, they were much, much thicker and more robust than we are. If you look at their bones, they're huge. If you ever see the guys from Iceland at the Tough Man competitions, they were built a bit like them but probably a bit more broad than most of those guys. They were HUGE. They had some neat pictures of their bones and our bones, in a side by side picture, and it was impressive how huge they were. They did a CGI overlay of them (I think that's the same series) and it's amazing how much larger they were. They weren't all that much taller, necessarily, but they were much more broad and thicker. I sometimes wonder if they were what led to some of the "giant" tales that are common across the globe. Maybe not them while they were alive but it's not unlikely that someone uncovered their bones back then and figured out that they were very similar and very large.
I forget the exact numbers they gave but they had an estimated strength based on mass, density, muscle insert and origin markings on the bone, leverage, etc... They concluded that they were probably able to lift and carry large amounts of weight and were insanely strong. They've also concluded that speech, as we know it, was likely impossible for them but that they were likely rather intelligent.
But, fragile is not a word that I'd use to describe them. Of course, I'm not an expert and my knowledge comes from documentaries watched for amusement and not for educational purposes.
Given your prior links, I'd be surprised if you didn't know the song. For the rest, give it a click. It's definitely on-topic. I posted at the top of the thread and mentioned that it'd be good if Pope could see it. So, if you didn't click it the first time - there it is again.
Turn the volume up loud and get groovy. Get down with your bad selves! Dance and wave your hands around and gyrate those hips like the Summer of Love has ended and you're desperate to keep it alive! Dance like you've eaten the brown acid. Get down with your partner or get down with yourself. If all you got is a cat? Get down with that.
Or is our diagnostics getting better and we've more variety than we've had in the past?
I'm still scrolling down through the thread. I wonder if anyone will be *seriously* blaming inoculations, fluoride, or antibiotics. I'd not be surprised.
I'd love to have my DNA tested but, so far, I've not found anyone willing to do it and ensure my privacy is kept. No, you may not assign my DNA a number and throw it in with others without asking. If you ask, I'll say yes. But you may not do it without asking.
That said, it's probably likely that my DNA has already made it out into a test somewhere. I'm sure it got anonymized and sold. You give a blood sample when you enlist. You give a blood sample when you skip a few years and then reenlist. The samples get frozen and stored after getting your blood-type, or so they were. I'm guessing they either grab DNA and run it from all of them, for ID purposes in case of trouble, or that they store them for when they might need to do so.
I'm not so silly as to believe that they'd take my perfectly fine blood sample and throw it out. There wasn't much to do with it back then but they were working on it, it was 1986 when I came home. I mean, it's a perfectly good, preserved, sample and I'm betting they're not worried about room. I strongly suspect they've since run it through the machine and done what they could. I know that blood's not actually the best source of DNA but it works. I don't recall them taking any tissue samples? I wonder if they take tissue samples now? Note to self: Ask a friend. It's easy for 'em to swab a cheek.
At any rate... Anyone else think of the Dr. Demento Show? I hope I'm not the only one... I don't remember who sang it?
"I'm a Neanderthal boy, you're a Neanderthal girl, Let's make Neanderthal love, in this Neanderthal world."
I thought you'd say something similar. I'd try to type out some of the language but I have no idea how to spell it. My French Canadian had improved quite a bit but then I stopped drinking.:/
Yeah... Do you watch BBC? If so, looking for the roving packs of thieves and the people sleeping rough. Or, just Google it. It's convenient to throw stones but I'd rebuttal except I don't think you'd understand. I'll try... I'll even try to be polite.
Now, see... I have been all across Europe and I enjoyed myself. But, there are homeless people everywhere. If you don't see them that's because you don't want to see them.
In 2013, 112,070 people declared themselves homeless in England. This is a 26% increase in four years. The number of people sleeping rough in London grew by 75% to a 6,437 in 2013 (Guardian, 2014).
That's just England... Go ahead and break that down per capita, will you? Let me get you the next set of numbers...
Now, let's talk about some reality, while we're here... Europe enjoys much of what it has because the US rebuilt it - post WWII. Most of those loans, except for the UK, were forgiven. The UK paid back the vast, vast majority and just finished paying it a few years ago. The infrastructure you enjoy? Yeah, the dumb-asses bombed it into rubble, again, and we rebuilt it for them - pretty much at no cost.
Then, those countries have had to pay a total of Jack and Squat for their own defense since 1945 - except for, mostly, the UK. I suspect you're not old enough to remember it but, trust me, that defense was very much needed and Europe was very much unable to provide for itself at the time. Not to mention, we really couldn't trust them to not, again, bomb themselves into rubble.
And we're okay with that. Don't get me wrong, for the most part, the average American is okay with carrying Europe's weight. Sure, some like to point to Iraq and ISIS and try to pin that on us too. Except, look in your history books. Do you know what started that? Europe's colonizations, abuses, and then - to top it all off - the League of Nations went in and drew arbitrary borders in the sand where none had existed before. No, the US was not part of the League of Nations - we declined. We told you how to resolve WWI, we told you to not go for reparations, we told you to not swing the pendulum the other way, but Europe was hell bent on it. We chose not to even consider joining (Congress would not allow it) and tried to trust Europe again.
The mess in the Middle East? Yeah... That? It comes from that whole ordeal. Those abuses they suffered at the hands of the colonization efforts? Yeah... Those - those lines? Yeah, those countries shouldn't even *be* countries. Europe happily decided to mix tribal groups and draw lines, gifting wealth and power, where they best served their political needs at the time. This crap in the Middle East is the fallout from that.
What's my point? Well, my point is - we're doing okay. We're not doing perfect, but we're doing okay. We'd be doing a damned sight better if we hadn't had to carry the weight of Europe for those many years. You can fact check every claim I made. Feel free. We don't ask for much, just a spot to bury our dead. However, a little bit of gratitude, respect, and compassion would go a long ways.
That you didn't see any homeless is telling. No, it's telling about who you are and the type of person you are. It takes maturity to admit your flaws and work on them, it takes immaturity to ignore your own and try to exaggerate the faults of another. Our largess has enabled you the lifestyle that you have - and you'll note that I didn't use "YOU" above in who was doing what, where, when, or responsible. No, you're not responsible for shit. Our protection has afforded you the very life you lead. I suspect you're too young to remember or don't know enough history but the Cold War was very real and you had assets that Stalin really wanted. There would have been fuck-all you could have done to stop him.
Alas, we'd have just had to pay to rebuild Europe's shit again.
In hindsight, I realize you may have just not noticed that I was not the OP. Some of us have busy lives and get distracted. Thus, it may have been a simple oversight for you to have not noticed that I was not insinuating those things - I was simply supplying them with a citation for the myriad ethics violations inherent in China's science. I did not mean for it to convey any tone other than what it said - that China has a reputation for flawed ethics in science. I did not mean it as exclusionary. I was not insinuating that other bodies were not equally or greater afflicted with abuse. I was not the person who posted the initial post, I was only the one who supplied the citation. I'm still kind of baffled as to why they'd want that citation, but that's neither here nor there.
So, I do not do this with enough frequency and it's important to do so. The above is not an excuse, it is not a minimization. My response to you was abhorrent and uncalled for. The vast majority of times, I'd simply ask if you'd noticed that I was not the OP. This time, I was offended by your response and the accusatory tone of your response. I acted out of character and my behavior was unacceptable. I should have just taken the time to point out that I am not, in fact, the OP - I'm just the guy showing them the citation and making no other claims about anything other than the citation and need for it itself.
Which is to say, I apologize and hope that it doesn't happen again. I'd go on with that but anything more would be minimizing and unacceptable. Irrespective of your actions, mine were unacceptable and I am accountable for them.
I don't do this often enough but I do owe you an apology. Yes, I was "correct." However, my behavior was unacceptable. I am not normally like that but, for whatever reason, I was and I don't feel like minimizing it with excuses.
So, I am truly apologetic for my deplorable response. I took offense to your reply, did not stop to think that you might just have missed that I was not the OP - which is understandable given the amount of things that occupy our days, and responded in-kind. That is not an excuse, it does not make what I did more acceptable, and I do offer my sincere apologies for my response.
It seems that the keyboard mapping matters on entry. Why? I have no idea. However, this is the second time I've typed this out... Something odd happened. It involved a frozen computer which ate my first attempt.
So, up until just a little while ago - it was the input method that mattered. And yes, you'd think it would be the same but I can verify that it did not work - with multiple attempts with the same exact characters, in the past.
That said, err... They appear to have changed something? Another quick test seems to indicate that I can use either the U+12345 method or the keyboard layout method. Also, I am using the "plain old text" input as are you. I do have to wonder... Hmm...
Now that you mention it - and I've not given this any thought until just now as I type this... The output character should be the same - regardless of our input method, correct? The only thing that I can think of... Hmm... Are you blocking any scripts? I block the tracking scripts. I let the others through. Could that be it, maybe?
He might be depressed. Whipslash (new honcho) indicated that APK's days are numbered. He wasn't even prompted to do so - he just added it to one of his comments. Hmm... I think it was in this thread, actually. I have no idea how APK will take that but I hope he takes it well. I don't think I've ever seen anyone outright banned before? I've thought of a few ways they can implement it and there are many little things they can do to keep him busy and wondering for a while. There are also ways to bypass those, so I'll avoid going into details and I've not looked at the Slashcode in years so I'm not sure what tools they have available now.
Nah, I don't mind 'em. They're just trying to look at leaves. I don't know why they've come to my house to do it but they're mostly harmless. As i said to the other person who replied, I'm not kidding about them having gotten out with the driver.
There's a few things Maine has... Almost without fail, there is a streetlight at every street intersection in the middle of nowhere. That's not always true but it's true more often than not and it's almost invariably true if you're outside of the town but still in an area with power lines. There is no streetlight across from my driveway. Also, that trick is sort of universal and applies to other States once you're out of the city.
We also have, mandated by law, on every single municipally owned road is adorned with a green sign for the EMS folks. This is not optional. I think it even goes on private roads - roads with more than one residence. I do not have one. I am the soul resident even though there's a second residence.
They also, pretty much, all have street signs as was mandated and funded by the State of Maine. Again, for the purpose of EMS. I believe the old system is either depreciated or in the process but they still have the small green signs with numbers on them. There are both. Careful observation will show that I have no sign. I do not even have a KGIII Way sign on my driveway.
I do have a mailbox. There are many like but this one is mine. It has my last name printed clearly on it. There are no other mailboxes. This might be a good indicator that this is not actually a road, no matter what the GPS tells you. If you use a map, that will (maybe) show you the driveway but it's a bit like this:
===--- -/- === (Do not ask me how to get to the middle section - it indicates that the bridge is out, as near as I can tell, there's never been a bridge there - there's a bridge on the other road and it was out but the snowmobile club asked if they could put a new one in and I agreed. It will probably not hold a bus.)
So, no... No, I don't really mind 'em. It's just odd. I can't think of a year when I haven't seen them if I was home. I presume they go there when I'm not there. I've not yet found a note on the door, a bus in the woods, or a bunch of angry Canadians when I returned. Presumably, they turn around. Given that I have enough asphalt for them to turn around on, I'm going to not really notice it unless they go off the driveway. If they do, they might actually still be there when I get back.
However, and by now you should know I jest not, I'd certainly invite them to hang out for a while and have coffee, juice, tea, and a snack - if I knew they were coming. Some of my friends are "crafters." I'd have 'em set up tables and sell 'em stuff on my lawn. Maybe get the Historical Society (Hysterical Society) up here from down in the village with their display and have 'em tell 'em about the land. It has a mildly interesting history - it's old logging areas but still lots of old growth. There was a mill, it's still there but defunct. It ran on a steam engine, etc... It's got the big ol' leather belt thing in it still and a giant saw but it's mostly fallen down.
So, yeah, I'd be unneighborly if I didn't fix 'em something to drink and eat. It's the Mainer thing to do and I'm trying to fit in. It's my job to adapt, not their job to adapt to me. I'm still really baffled as to why they think it's a road. I've never actually gotten much of an answer except that it was on the GPS and that it looked like a good idea at the time. There's a bit of a language barrier. My Canadian French (Qubequois?) is not so very good. I can order beer, find a bathroom, and get laid but finding out why they picked my driveway is beyond my limited vocabulary.
It would appear that the person who seemingly lives there and travels there didn't notice them. I think we're experiencing some selective memory or selection bias. I'm not sure why it has to be, "You suck!" I'd think it would be more productive to try, "You know, we could all do a little better."
But hey, what do I know? I'm just a dumb American.
Then I wouldn't get a bus trundling up my driveway every fall. I'm not kidding about them getting out and taking pictures. They remind me of stereotypical Asians with cameras. Well, except they're not Asian. They're pretty pasty white. I'm also not kidding about making 'em coffee. I'd seriously make 'em coffee and set out juice and stuff - if they let me know when they were coming.
I don't really *mind* so much but I do find it baffling. It was a bit iffy before the driveway was tarred. They actually lost a UPS truck in my driveway once and then were screwing stuff all up trying to get it out. They brought in another one, emptied it by hand, and left it (with permission) until the ground had hardened up. When things were a bit more stable, they sent up a crew to fix my lawn and fill my driveway back in. I got it paved that summer.
I've never seen the same bus driver twice but I've seen several of them in one year. GPS clearly shows my driveway as a road and, technically, it was a road... Once. It even sort of went where the map shows it going. It's not very far, maybe another 3/4 of a mile past my house (the driveways pretty long - over 1/4 mile) and then about two more miles to the left and back down to the main road. So, at some point, you could have driven it but probably not in a bus. I have no idea why it is on the maps and I've sent emails to two of the GPS vendors and they've never replied. I think I might have emailed Google - their GPS has the driveway as a road but their only maps shows only a stub. Though, if you look at it with satellite it shows the pavement and some cars. I can't quite tell when the image was taken. Alas, no bus in the satellite image - that would be cool. I've never checked Bing's satellite picture.
That might be true, but he's our Joe. I think he mentioned the Chicago area once but he might actually be from Russia.:/ A kindly AC gave him some helpful advice on A vs. An up above. Well, I think they were a kindly AC. I guess that's perspective. Either way, he's our Joe.
We are running out of people who know how to do lots of things without the aid of software. If you didn't have your computer, how would you post to Slashdot?
Oh... Umm... About that... I just have a collection of Lithuanian boys that I trained to chitter like modem noises. One of them sits atop the transformer and uses a pole with a magnet on it. I sit inside, I tell them what I want to see, and they get to chitterin'. It might not be fast but it's pretty damned reliable, once you make sure that they realize their food depends on it.
There have been some issues, I prefer to call it packet loss, but Sven assures me that it will not happen again. Marty, a guy I know, says he can get a couple of 'em pre-trained and a laser pointer so I'll be upgrading to fiber soon.
It's funny that you repeat that. Up above, I left a reply for the guy who mentioned Logan. No, his GPS was probably set wrong. Rt. 1 to Logan from Portland? Plan on an extra hour and a half - literally. Well, depending on the time of the day and year. If it's a desolate road, you might only take an extra 45 minutes. If it's the Monday after Memorial Day weekend, you might be two hours longer. It is, technically, shorter in distance. It is not shorter in time - not by a long shot. With improper settings you will have issues up that way.
Way up at the top of this thread, I shared a yearly event. Every year that I've been there, without fail, a bus comes trundling up the driveway as foliage peepers are going to try to go up my driveway, through the woods, down to an old logging road that's barely passable in a Jeep, and back down the backside of the mountain and back onto the main road. Every year...
90% might be right but that's a bigger margin of error than you might think and it's those 10% that are gonna suck balls.
Funny enough, you have someone below you suggesting that Rt. 1 would have been faster. *snickers* I saw we let 'em take the GPS to Logan.
At any rate, with a TomTom, make sure you check the settings. Favor fastest, do not avoid tolls, avoid U turns, and you route should look similar to what you just posted. How do I know? Well... Err... I've made that same trip with a TomTom and it sent me by the correct route. You were better off going the way you went instead of following Rt. 1 down. I guess you should have brushed your ego aside and driven for the extra hour and a half.;-)
Seriously, you probably had it on shortest route instead of fastest. Garmin also sends me the right way. GPS can be a harsh mistress in Maine. Check your settings to avoid dirt roads! That's kind of an overlooked feature once you get up that way. Heh... Route 1? Yeah, that was gonna be a minute. It probably, technically, is a shorter distance. Just click on quicker and disable the bit about tolls - that should get you there.
Well... This references the post I made above. Err... You wouldn't happen to be a bus driver from Canada taking a bunch of old people on a foliage viewing trip? 'Cause if you are, that'd be awesome and I'll see you in the fall... Again... If you call ahead of time, I'll make coffee and set out some refreshments.
I don't know? It seems equally likely that people used to know this information but have no need to recall it as often today. Remember when you used to not have all your contacts in your cell phone? Many people don't mail anything, ever. Many people don't go anywhere without a GPS tethered to them. Like anything, without practice the talent gets weaker.
I have been told, "Keep going past the barn that used to be there, that burned down in what was it..." (Another pipes up some date in the 60s.) "That barn there, burned down in $date, go past that. When you get to the fork in the road, go left. When you see the big tree, turn around, you've gone too far. Come back, I don't know, 'bought a quarter mile and it'll be on your left." (Or something *very* close to that.)
It's only fair to add that these were a couple of old fellas from Maine who were steering me towards a fishing hole. I found it and actually got a couple of nice Brookies out of it. I've even been back a couple of times - just to get some more lunch.
So, yeah... People suck with directions. The best I got from their directions was a general area but I was able to spot the pull-off. As an interesting aside, that's a bit south of my house and the road's called "Katie's Crotch." They locals like to make jokes about the fish in Katie's Crotch. I guess, given that there's not much else to do there, I can't really blame them.
Every year, without fail, I get at least one whole bus of Canadians coming up my driveway. On GPS, and many years ago it was one, it appears to be a road. It looks like a nice little shortcut up and over the mountain that brings you back in on another road that brings you back to the main road. The bus is full of Canadians looking at foliage. We'll get back to that...
So, sure enough, they drive up and I suppose that there was a time, in the distant past, where you could have driven up my driveway and gone to this other road. However, that other road has stuff like mud holes and ruts big enough to make me think a bus might not be a good idea. I mean, yeah, I've driven on it but I'm retarded and have appropriate vehicles. Then, there's the driveway part. Yes, at some point, this was a road - it was a logging road. I've been told that it is still a road by an unhappy bus driver. I pointed out the many, many trees that go where the driveway is pointing and the lack of any road. Fortunately, my driveway is now paved so I've yet to have a stuck bus in my driveway.
Now, back to the foliage. I mean really close - but north of it. In the winter, I can take a snowmobile to Canada quicker than I can get there in a car. It's maybe 40 minutes away from Canada by car IF I count going through the border checkpoint. The snowmobile trail doesn't even really have a border checkpoint most of the time - you just cross. Yes, I must speed like a bastard to do it faster on a snowmobile but I know it can be done. It's also a good idea to point out that there are the same damned trees and same damned mountains over there.
I have yet to figure out why, exactly, they are driving up my driveway to look at foliage but I do know that they're following their GPS and I can confirm that every GPS device I've ever used, and checked, indicates my driveway is a road. As far as I know, they have done this every single year that I've been there. The first year it was not paved, that had some potential to be amusing. I guess I don't mind but it is a little shocking the first time you see a big ol' bus that says "CHARTER" on the front come plodding up your driveway and it's full of old people taking pictures.
I have no idea how to get the GPS map data changed. The Rand atlas thingy has it on there but it's indicated as dirt and stops just about where it should stop. Google and Bing both show(ed) it as a road, actually a "stub" of a road (for lack of a better word) - but not connected to the other one. I don't really mind the company but it's still a bit odd to see a bus full of old people. More than once, they've clamored out of the bus along with the driver, like it's a giant amusement park or something, to find out what's going on. Someone, somewhere, is showing their grandkids pictures of their foliage trip to Maine (that looks just like Canada) and in their deck of slides is a picture of my driveway.
I don't use Windows on my computers (I do have a Windows phone) so I don't have a dog in this fight but... Err... You know what telemetry is, right? I mean, you can (and should) be able to turn it off if you want and off should mean off - no questions asked. But, umm... If they don't know how you use the OS then they won't be *likely* to consider your use-case when they make changes. They won't know that you're one of the people with that video card and having that problem so they won't fix it if you don't send crash reports. They won't be able to optimize their personal assistant thing if you don't let them have that personal data.
Now, to be clear, I'm a firm believer in off means off. But, it's incumbent on you to know what the outcome of your choices may be. Oh, they might get enough reports about that driver and video problem but what if your peers also shut it off? This goes in both directions, actions have consequences. I don't know what the outcome will be but I'm pretty sure they're actually pretty good at collecting (and by lack of reports to the contrary) securing this telemetry data. Where I using Windows, I'd probably let them have the data - though I'd be pretty pissed if off didn't mean off. (I'm kinda big on that - off is off and on is on, it's an honesty thing.)
One other thing to note... Since the days of 95, but more pronounced with 98, there tends to be a big swing in the direction of people who are moving to Linux. Six months or so later, they're gone from the forums and the.ISO download numbers are back to normal. In a year, they've turned into rabid supporters of the OS they were so against. I have been watching and expecting a huge swing in numbers. (I seed well over 100 distros - the last time I counted there were 144, it's not an exact metric so I also look at the sites that offer their stats like DistroWatch.)
You know what I've seen? Not a whole hell of a big jump in numbers. Lots of noise. I see a lot of that. But the numbers don't seem to indicate any huge swings, perhaps fewer now than when 8 and 8.1 dropped. I'd not be surprised if someone could get and crunch the numbers and they turned out that this uptake isn't all that high with Linux right now. So, people don't actually seem to be pissed off about this at the level where they're jumping ship.
I dunno... Were I still using Windows, this might have been enough to make me bail. It's not that I dislike the telemetry. It's that I want off when I say off. If I can't trust my OS to do that, what can I trust it for?
Assuming? No. Expecting, yes. There is a difference.;-) I'd like to see it happen along the lines of what you're suggesting. History tells me that that seldom happens - but is not impossible. I do not have the requisite expertise to state, with any authority, that you're mistaken and I do hope you're right but I think that may not happen for a long time. I wonder what will happen if Un has a boy next. I'm sure he'd be favored over his daughter for succession. I'm not sure that either would mean better things.
One way or another, I doubt it will happen in my lifetime. It'd be excellent if they did open up, relax, and work to ensure they gave their citizens some choice. I do worry that after that happens, no matter how it happens, that it will end up being multi-generational thing to get passed.
How could I not see it? In the UK they call it "sleeping rough." I've spoken, in person, with members from both sides of the pond. If you didn't see them in the UK, you must have had your eyes closed.
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From what little I know, which is not much, Neanderthal is not what I'd call "fragile." All of my "expertise" comes from documentaries. PBS had a great one, NOVA, called something like, "Where did we Come From." It was a five part series and traced the various people back and tried to find out the paths they took and how we got to be where we are today - it was pretty good.
At any rate, the Neanderthal didn't really go extinct. I mean, yeah, there are none left but there's probably some genetic material left in you. Humans and Neanderthal had a distant ancestor that they shared. The paths diverged and Neanderthal was the first to evolve into a higher form (for lack of a better word). We humans were on a different track and later we bumped into each other, probably in Europe, and had enough genetic material to successfully mate.
For whatever reason, and we do not know why, the Neanderthal itself ceased to exist - it's speculated that it was neither overpopulation, resource use, or violence. They simply don't know - it may have been a specific pathogen that only affected them but not humans or impacted humans at a lesser rate - some immunity might be there today, hidden dormant in our genetic material.
But, the Neanderthal and the Human had mated and produced offspring. So, really... It's kind of true that there are no more Neanderthals left and that means we can call them extinct but there are still plenty of them walking around - at least if you get a bunch of humans and mash 'em up in a blender or something. That's how it works, right? I don't know if extinct is the right word for it?
At any rate, they were much, much thicker and more robust than we are. If you look at their bones, they're huge. If you ever see the guys from Iceland at the Tough Man competitions, they were built a bit like them but probably a bit more broad than most of those guys. They were HUGE. They had some neat pictures of their bones and our bones, in a side by side picture, and it was impressive how huge they were. They did a CGI overlay of them (I think that's the same series) and it's amazing how much larger they were. They weren't all that much taller, necessarily, but they were much more broad and thicker. I sometimes wonder if they were what led to some of the "giant" tales that are common across the globe. Maybe not them while they were alive but it's not unlikely that someone uncovered their bones back then and figured out that they were very similar and very large.
I forget the exact numbers they gave but they had an estimated strength based on mass, density, muscle insert and origin markings on the bone, leverage, etc... They concluded that they were probably able to lift and carry large amounts of weight and were insanely strong. They've also concluded that speech, as we know it, was likely impossible for them but that they were likely rather intelligent.
But, fragile is not a word that I'd use to describe them. Of course, I'm not an expert and my knowledge comes from documentaries watched for amusement and not for educational purposes.
I'd hoped I'd find you in this thread.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Given your prior links, I'd be surprised if you didn't know the song. For the rest, give it a click. It's definitely on-topic. I posted at the top of the thread and mentioned that it'd be good if Pope could see it. So, if you didn't click it the first time - there it is again.
Turn the volume up loud and get groovy. Get down with your bad selves! Dance and wave your hands around and gyrate those hips like the Summer of Love has ended and you're desperate to keep it alive! Dance like you've eaten the brown acid. Get down with your partner or get down with yourself. If all you got is a cat? Get down with that.
Or is our diagnostics getting better and we've more variety than we've had in the past?
I'm still scrolling down through the thread. I wonder if anyone will be *seriously* blaming inoculations, fluoride, or antibiotics. I'd not be surprised.
I'd love to have my DNA tested but, so far, I've not found anyone willing to do it and ensure my privacy is kept. No, you may not assign my DNA a number and throw it in with others without asking. If you ask, I'll say yes. But you may not do it without asking.
That said, it's probably likely that my DNA has already made it out into a test somewhere. I'm sure it got anonymized and sold. You give a blood sample when you enlist. You give a blood sample when you skip a few years and then reenlist. The samples get frozen and stored after getting your blood-type, or so they were. I'm guessing they either grab DNA and run it from all of them, for ID purposes in case of trouble, or that they store them for when they might need to do so.
I'm not so silly as to believe that they'd take my perfectly fine blood sample and throw it out. There wasn't much to do with it back then but they were working on it, it was 1986 when I came home. I mean, it's a perfectly good, preserved, sample and I'm betting they're not worried about room. I strongly suspect they've since run it through the machine and done what they could. I know that blood's not actually the best source of DNA but it works. I don't recall them taking any tissue samples? I wonder if they take tissue samples now? Note to self: Ask a friend. It's easy for 'em to swab a cheek.
At any rate... Anyone else think of the Dr. Demento Show? I hope I'm not the only one... I don't remember who sang it?
"I'm a Neanderthal boy, you're a Neanderthal girl,
Let's make Neanderthal love, in this Neanderthal world."
Hmm... I went and found you the song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Where's Pope at? Heh... He'll get a kick out of that reference.
I thought you'd say something similar. I'd try to type out some of the language but I have no idea how to spell it. My French Canadian had improved quite a bit but then I stopped drinking. :/
Yeah... Do you watch BBC? If so, looking for the roving packs of thieves and the people sleeping rough. Or, just Google it. It's convenient to throw stones but I'd rebuttal except I don't think you'd understand. I'll try... I'll even try to be polite.
Now, see... I have been all across Europe and I enjoyed myself. But, there are homeless people everywhere. If you don't see them that's because you don't want to see them.
In 2013, 112,070 people declared themselves homeless in England. This is a 26% increase in four years. The number of people sleeping rough in London grew by 75% to a 6,437 in 2013 (Guardian, 2014).
That's just England... Go ahead and break that down per capita, will you? Let me get you the next set of numbers...
https://www.homelessworldcup.o...
Will that work for you?
Now, let's talk about some reality, while we're here... Europe enjoys much of what it has because the US rebuilt it - post WWII. Most of those loans, except for the UK, were forgiven. The UK paid back the vast, vast majority and just finished paying it a few years ago. The infrastructure you enjoy? Yeah, the dumb-asses bombed it into rubble, again, and we rebuilt it for them - pretty much at no cost.
Then, those countries have had to pay a total of Jack and Squat for their own defense since 1945 - except for, mostly, the UK. I suspect you're not old enough to remember it but, trust me, that defense was very much needed and Europe was very much unable to provide for itself at the time. Not to mention, we really couldn't trust them to not, again, bomb themselves into rubble.
And we're okay with that. Don't get me wrong, for the most part, the average American is okay with carrying Europe's weight. Sure, some like to point to Iraq and ISIS and try to pin that on us too. Except, look in your history books. Do you know what started that? Europe's colonizations, abuses, and then - to top it all off - the League of Nations went in and drew arbitrary borders in the sand where none had existed before. No, the US was not part of the League of Nations - we declined. We told you how to resolve WWI, we told you to not go for reparations, we told you to not swing the pendulum the other way, but Europe was hell bent on it. We chose not to even consider joining (Congress would not allow it) and tried to trust Europe again.
The mess in the Middle East? Yeah... That? It comes from that whole ordeal. Those abuses they suffered at the hands of the colonization efforts? Yeah... Those - those lines? Yeah, those countries shouldn't even *be* countries. Europe happily decided to mix tribal groups and draw lines, gifting wealth and power, where they best served their political needs at the time. This crap in the Middle East is the fallout from that.
What's my point? Well, my point is - we're doing okay. We're not doing perfect, but we're doing okay. We'd be doing a damned sight better if we hadn't had to carry the weight of Europe for those many years. You can fact check every claim I made. Feel free. We don't ask for much, just a spot to bury our dead. However, a little bit of gratitude, respect, and compassion would go a long ways.
That you didn't see any homeless is telling. No, it's telling about who you are and the type of person you are. It takes maturity to admit your flaws and work on them, it takes immaturity to ignore your own and try to exaggerate the faults of another. Our largess has enabled you the lifestyle that you have - and you'll note that I didn't use "YOU" above in who was doing what, where, when, or responsible. No, you're not responsible for shit. Our protection has afforded you the very life you lead. I suspect you're too young to remember or don't know enough history but the Cold War was very real and you had assets that Stalin really wanted. There would have been fuck-all you could have done to stop him.
Alas, we'd have just had to pay to rebuild Europe's shit again.
In hindsight, I realize you may have just not noticed that I was not the OP. Some of us have busy lives and get distracted. Thus, it may have been a simple oversight for you to have not noticed that I was not insinuating those things - I was simply supplying them with a citation for the myriad ethics violations inherent in China's science. I did not mean for it to convey any tone other than what it said - that China has a reputation for flawed ethics in science. I did not mean it as exclusionary. I was not insinuating that other bodies were not equally or greater afflicted with abuse. I was not the person who posted the initial post, I was only the one who supplied the citation. I'm still kind of baffled as to why they'd want that citation, but that's neither here nor there.
So, I do not do this with enough frequency and it's important to do so. The above is not an excuse, it is not a minimization. My response to you was abhorrent and uncalled for. The vast majority of times, I'd simply ask if you'd noticed that I was not the OP. This time, I was offended by your response and the accusatory tone of your response. I acted out of character and my behavior was unacceptable. I should have just taken the time to point out that I am not, in fact, the OP - I'm just the guy showing them the citation and making no other claims about anything other than the citation and need for it itself.
Which is to say, I apologize and hope that it doesn't happen again. I'd go on with that but anything more would be minimizing and unacceptable. Irrespective of your actions, mine were unacceptable and I am accountable for them.
I don't do this often enough but I do owe you an apology. Yes, I was "correct." However, my behavior was unacceptable. I am not normally like that but, for whatever reason, I was and I don't feel like minimizing it with excuses.
So, I am truly apologetic for my deplorable response. I took offense to your reply, did not stop to think that you might just have missed that I was not the OP - which is understandable given the amount of things that occupy our days, and responded in-kind. That is not an excuse, it does not make what I did more acceptable, and I do offer my sincere apologies for my response.
It seems that the keyboard mapping matters on entry. Why? I have no idea. However, this is the second time I've typed this out... Something odd happened. It involved a frozen computer which ate my first attempt.
First, I typed out the © in Opera (my main browser), Firefox, Vivaldi, Chromium, and Midori. I pressed review and they all showed. Then, just to test something, I was back in Opera and typed out the © with the keyboard and it worked but... Now I get confused, this has not (until just now) worked. I typed the ¼ with Unicode (which is Left Alt + Shift + Left Ctrl + 12345 or whatever - usually abbreviated as U+12345) and then I typed it with the keyboard layout like so: ¼ And they both show up in preview.
Now, until today that did not happen. In fact, until just a little while ago that did not happen - so far as I know. Prior to today, that ¼ symbol would only appear (or the © or any of them) if I used the US International blah blah AltGr whatever keyboard. I don't know any other languages well enough to try their keyboard layouts - so I can only claim that it worked for that one. It does so in Linux, BSD, and Windows. I do not know about OS X. I do not know what has now changed but now the U+12345 method appears to be working - at least it does here, on this keyboard, with this OS. ;-)
So, up until just a little while ago - it was the input method that mattered. And yes, you'd think it would be the same but I can verify that it did not work - with multiple attempts with the same exact characters, in the past.
That said, err... They appear to have changed something? Another quick test seems to indicate that I can use either the U+12345 method or the keyboard layout method. Also, I am using the "plain old text" input as are you. I do have to wonder... Hmm...
Now that you mention it - and I've not given this any thought until just now as I type this... The output character should be the same - regardless of our input method, correct? The only thing that I can think of... Hmm... Are you blocking any scripts? I block the tracking scripts. I let the others through. Could that be it, maybe?
He might be depressed. Whipslash (new honcho) indicated that APK's days are numbered. He wasn't even prompted to do so - he just added it to one of his comments. Hmm... I think it was in this thread, actually. I have no idea how APK will take that but I hope he takes it well. I don't think I've ever seen anyone outright banned before? I've thought of a few ways they can implement it and there are many little things they can do to keep him busy and wondering for a while. There are also ways to bypass those, so I'll avoid going into details and I've not looked at the Slashcode in years so I'm not sure what tools they have available now.
Nah, I don't mind 'em. They're just trying to look at leaves. I don't know why they've come to my house to do it but they're mostly harmless. As i said to the other person who replied, I'm not kidding about them having gotten out with the driver.
There's a few things Maine has... Almost without fail, there is a streetlight at every street intersection in the middle of nowhere. That's not always true but it's true more often than not and it's almost invariably true if you're outside of the town but still in an area with power lines. There is no streetlight across from my driveway. Also, that trick is sort of universal and applies to other States once you're out of the city.
We also have, mandated by law, on every single municipally owned road is adorned with a green sign for the EMS folks. This is not optional. I think it even goes on private roads - roads with more than one residence. I do not have one. I am the soul resident even though there's a second residence.
They also, pretty much, all have street signs as was mandated and funded by the State of Maine. Again, for the purpose of EMS. I believe the old system is either depreciated or in the process but they still have the small green signs with numbers on them. There are both. Careful observation will show that I have no sign. I do not even have a KGIII Way sign on my driveway.
I do have a mailbox. There are many like but this one is mine. It has my last name printed clearly on it. There are no other mailboxes. This might be a good indicator that this is not actually a road, no matter what the GPS tells you. If you use a map, that will (maybe) show you the driveway but it's a bit like this:
===--- -/- === (Do not ask me how to get to the middle section - it indicates that the bridge is out, as near as I can tell, there's never been a bridge there - there's a bridge on the other road and it was out but the snowmobile club asked if they could put a new one in and I agreed. It will probably not hold a bus.)
So, no... No, I don't really mind 'em. It's just odd. I can't think of a year when I haven't seen them if I was home. I presume they go there when I'm not there. I've not yet found a note on the door, a bus in the woods, or a bunch of angry Canadians when I returned. Presumably, they turn around. Given that I have enough asphalt for them to turn around on, I'm going to not really notice it unless they go off the driveway. If they do, they might actually still be there when I get back.
However, and by now you should know I jest not, I'd certainly invite them to hang out for a while and have coffee, juice, tea, and a snack - if I knew they were coming. Some of my friends are "crafters." I'd have 'em set up tables and sell 'em stuff on my lawn. Maybe get the Historical Society (Hysterical Society) up here from down in the village with their display and have 'em tell 'em about the land. It has a mildly interesting history - it's old logging areas but still lots of old growth. There was a mill, it's still there but defunct. It ran on a steam engine, etc... It's got the big ol' leather belt thing in it still and a giant saw but it's mostly fallen down.
So, yeah, I'd be unneighborly if I didn't fix 'em something to drink and eat. It's the Mainer thing to do and I'm trying to fit in. It's my job to adapt, not their job to adapt to me. I'm still really baffled as to why they think it's a road. I've never actually gotten much of an answer except that it was on the GPS and that it looked like a good idea at the time. There's a bit of a language barrier. My Canadian French (Qubequois?) is not so very good. I can order beer, find a bathroom, and get laid but finding out why they picked my driveway is beyond my limited vocabulary.
It would appear that the person who seemingly lives there and travels there didn't notice them. I think we're experiencing some selective memory or selection bias. I'm not sure why it has to be, "You suck!" I'd think it would be more productive to try, "You know, we could all do a little better."
But hey, what do I know? I'm just a dumb American.
Then I wouldn't get a bus trundling up my driveway every fall. I'm not kidding about them getting out and taking pictures. They remind me of stereotypical Asians with cameras. Well, except they're not Asian. They're pretty pasty white. I'm also not kidding about making 'em coffee. I'd seriously make 'em coffee and set out juice and stuff - if they let me know when they were coming.
I don't really *mind* so much but I do find it baffling. It was a bit iffy before the driveway was tarred. They actually lost a UPS truck in my driveway once and then were screwing stuff all up trying to get it out. They brought in another one, emptied it by hand, and left it (with permission) until the ground had hardened up. When things were a bit more stable, they sent up a crew to fix my lawn and fill my driveway back in. I got it paved that summer.
I've never seen the same bus driver twice but I've seen several of them in one year. GPS clearly shows my driveway as a road and, technically, it was a road... Once. It even sort of went where the map shows it going. It's not very far, maybe another 3/4 of a mile past my house (the driveways pretty long - over 1/4 mile) and then about two more miles to the left and back down to the main road. So, at some point, you could have driven it but probably not in a bus. I have no idea why it is on the maps and I've sent emails to two of the GPS vendors and they've never replied. I think I might have emailed Google - their GPS has the driveway as a road but their only maps shows only a stub. Though, if you look at it with satellite it shows the pavement and some cars. I can't quite tell when the image was taken. Alas, no bus in the satellite image - that would be cool. I've never checked Bing's satellite picture.
That might be true, but he's our Joe. I think he mentioned the Chicago area once but he might actually be from Russia. :/ A kindly AC gave him some helpful advice on A vs. An up above. Well, I think they were a kindly AC. I guess that's perspective. Either way, he's our Joe.
We are running out of people who know how to do lots of things without the aid of software. If you didn't have your computer, how would you post to Slashdot?
Oh... Umm... About that... I just have a collection of Lithuanian boys that I trained to chitter like modem noises. One of them sits atop the transformer and uses a pole with a magnet on it. I sit inside, I tell them what I want to see, and they get to chitterin'. It might not be fast but it's pretty damned reliable, once you make sure that they realize their food depends on it.
There have been some issues, I prefer to call it packet loss, but Sven assures me that it will not happen again. Marty, a guy I know, says he can get a couple of 'em pre-trained and a laser pointer so I'll be upgrading to fiber soon.
You almost cost me a keyboard. How about a warning next time? Funniest reply on Slashdot so far today.
It's funny that you repeat that. Up above, I left a reply for the guy who mentioned Logan. No, his GPS was probably set wrong. Rt. 1 to Logan from Portland? Plan on an extra hour and a half - literally. Well, depending on the time of the day and year. If it's a desolate road, you might only take an extra 45 minutes. If it's the Monday after Memorial Day weekend, you might be two hours longer. It is, technically, shorter in distance. It is not shorter in time - not by a long shot. With improper settings you will have issues up that way.
Way up at the top of this thread, I shared a yearly event. Every year that I've been there, without fail, a bus comes trundling up the driveway as foliage peepers are going to try to go up my driveway, through the woods, down to an old logging road that's barely passable in a Jeep, and back down the backside of the mountain and back onto the main road. Every year...
90% might be right but that's a bigger margin of error than you might think and it's those 10% that are gonna suck balls.
Funny enough, you have someone below you suggesting that Rt. 1 would have been faster. *snickers* I saw we let 'em take the GPS to Logan.
At any rate, with a TomTom, make sure you check the settings. Favor fastest, do not avoid tolls, avoid U turns, and you route should look similar to what you just posted. How do I know? Well... Err... I've made that same trip with a TomTom and it sent me by the correct route. You were better off going the way you went instead of following Rt. 1 down. I guess you should have brushed your ego aside and driven for the extra hour and a half. ;-)
Seriously, you probably had it on shortest route instead of fastest. Garmin also sends me the right way. GPS can be a harsh mistress in Maine. Check your settings to avoid dirt roads! That's kind of an overlooked feature once you get up that way. Heh... Route 1? Yeah, that was gonna be a minute. It probably, technically, is a shorter distance. Just click on quicker and disable the bit about tolls - that should get you there.
Well... This references the post I made above. Err... You wouldn't happen to be a bus driver from Canada taking a bunch of old people on a foliage viewing trip? 'Cause if you are, that'd be awesome and I'll see you in the fall... Again... If you call ahead of time, I'll make coffee and set out some refreshments.
I don't know? It seems equally likely that people used to know this information but have no need to recall it as often today. Remember when you used to not have all your contacts in your cell phone? Many people don't mail anything, ever. Many people don't go anywhere without a GPS tethered to them. Like anything, without practice the talent gets weaker.
Address-atrophy? Cellularitis?
I have been told, "Keep going past the barn that used to be there, that burned down in what was it..." (Another pipes up some date in the 60s.) "That barn there, burned down in $date, go past that. When you get to the fork in the road, go left. When you see the big tree, turn around, you've gone too far. Come back, I don't know, 'bought a quarter mile and it'll be on your left." (Or something *very* close to that.)
It's only fair to add that these were a couple of old fellas from Maine who were steering me towards a fishing hole. I found it and actually got a couple of nice Brookies out of it. I've even been back a couple of times - just to get some more lunch.
So, yeah... People suck with directions. The best I got from their directions was a general area but I was able to spot the pull-off. As an interesting aside, that's a bit south of my house and the road's called "Katie's Crotch." They locals like to make jokes about the fish in Katie's Crotch. I guess, given that there's not much else to do there, I can't really blame them.
Every year, without fail, I get at least one whole bus of Canadians coming up my driveway. On GPS, and many years ago it was one, it appears to be a road. It looks like a nice little shortcut up and over the mountain that brings you back in on another road that brings you back to the main road. The bus is full of Canadians looking at foliage. We'll get back to that...
So, sure enough, they drive up and I suppose that there was a time, in the distant past, where you could have driven up my driveway and gone to this other road. However, that other road has stuff like mud holes and ruts big enough to make me think a bus might not be a good idea. I mean, yeah, I've driven on it but I'm retarded and have appropriate vehicles. Then, there's the driveway part. Yes, at some point, this was a road - it was a logging road. I've been told that it is still a road by an unhappy bus driver. I pointed out the many, many trees that go where the driveway is pointing and the lack of any road. Fortunately, my driveway is now paved so I've yet to have a stuck bus in my driveway.
Now, back to the foliage. I mean really close - but north of it. In the winter, I can take a snowmobile to Canada quicker than I can get there in a car. It's maybe 40 minutes away from Canada by car IF I count going through the border checkpoint. The snowmobile trail doesn't even really have a border checkpoint most of the time - you just cross. Yes, I must speed like a bastard to do it faster on a snowmobile but I know it can be done. It's also a good idea to point out that there are the same damned trees and same damned mountains over there.
I have yet to figure out why, exactly, they are driving up my driveway to look at foliage but I do know that they're following their GPS and I can confirm that every GPS device I've ever used, and checked, indicates my driveway is a road. As far as I know, they have done this every single year that I've been there. The first year it was not paved, that had some potential to be amusing. I guess I don't mind but it is a little shocking the first time you see a big ol' bus that says "CHARTER" on the front come plodding up your driveway and it's full of old people taking pictures.
I have no idea how to get the GPS map data changed. The Rand atlas thingy has it on there but it's indicated as dirt and stops just about where it should stop. Google and Bing both show(ed) it as a road, actually a "stub" of a road (for lack of a better word) - but not connected to the other one. I don't really mind the company but it's still a bit odd to see a bus full of old people. More than once, they've clamored out of the bus along with the driver, like it's a giant amusement park or something, to find out what's going on. Someone, somewhere, is showing their grandkids pictures of their foliage trip to Maine (that looks just like Canada) and in their deck of slides is a picture of my driveway.
I don't use Windows on my computers (I do have a Windows phone) so I don't have a dog in this fight but... Err... You know what telemetry is, right? I mean, you can (and should) be able to turn it off if you want and off should mean off - no questions asked. But, umm... If they don't know how you use the OS then they won't be *likely* to consider your use-case when they make changes. They won't know that you're one of the people with that video card and having that problem so they won't fix it if you don't send crash reports. They won't be able to optimize their personal assistant thing if you don't let them have that personal data.
Now, to be clear, I'm a firm believer in off means off. But, it's incumbent on you to know what the outcome of your choices may be. Oh, they might get enough reports about that driver and video problem but what if your peers also shut it off? This goes in both directions, actions have consequences. I don't know what the outcome will be but I'm pretty sure they're actually pretty good at collecting (and by lack of reports to the contrary) securing this telemetry data. Where I using Windows, I'd probably let them have the data - though I'd be pretty pissed if off didn't mean off. (I'm kinda big on that - off is off and on is on, it's an honesty thing.)
One other thing to note... Since the days of 95, but more pronounced with 98, there tends to be a big swing in the direction of people who are moving to Linux. Six months or so later, they're gone from the forums and the .ISO download numbers are back to normal. In a year, they've turned into rabid supporters of the OS they were so against. I have been watching and expecting a huge swing in numbers. (I seed well over 100 distros - the last time I counted there were 144, it's not an exact metric so I also look at the sites that offer their stats like DistroWatch.)
You know what I've seen? Not a whole hell of a big jump in numbers. Lots of noise. I see a lot of that. But the numbers don't seem to indicate any huge swings, perhaps fewer now than when 8 and 8.1 dropped. I'd not be surprised if someone could get and crunch the numbers and they turned out that this uptake isn't all that high with Linux right now. So, people don't actually seem to be pissed off about this at the level where they're jumping ship.
I dunno... Were I still using Windows, this might have been enough to make me bail. It's not that I dislike the telemetry. It's that I want off when I say off. If I can't trust my OS to do that, what can I trust it for?
Assuming? No. Expecting, yes. There is a difference. ;-) I'd like to see it happen along the lines of what you're suggesting. History tells me that that seldom happens - but is not impossible. I do not have the requisite expertise to state, with any authority, that you're mistaken and I do hope you're right but I think that may not happen for a long time. I wonder what will happen if Un has a boy next. I'm sure he'd be favored over his daughter for succession. I'm not sure that either would mean better things.
One way or another, I doubt it will happen in my lifetime. It'd be excellent if they did open up, relax, and work to ensure they gave their citizens some choice. I do worry that after that happens, no matter how it happens, that it will end up being multi-generational thing to get passed.
How could I not see it? In the UK they call it "sleeping rough." I've spoken, in person, with members from both sides of the pond. If you didn't see them in the UK, you must have had your eyes closed.