1. In almost the same breath that you acknowledge that some stories about your health care problems are hyperbole, you then then spout hyperbole about the US health care system. Don't believe everything you're told.
2. Canada does not honor US patent laws with respect to drugs (it has an 8 year patent period and even allows generics if the brand name cannot fulfill demand). That is why they are so much cheaper in Canada. So much so, that some politicians in the US, that have never passed an economics 101 course, suggest that we buy our drugs from Canada. In other words, that we should also not honor US patent laws with respect to drugs. I'll leave it as an exercise to the reader to both extrapolate the effect that decision would have on research and development AND to guestimate the amount the US markets end up subsidizing Canadian health care. If the US were to adopt a socialized health care system, there would be profound consequences in research and development. Perhaps it is worth it, but it's not the simplistic choice you make it out to be.
Considering the fact that Apple made a significant marketing deal with Cingular and that the mods undermine this deal, I would be working to protect that agreement too. People purchasing the iPhone new the deal; new what they were getting into and the risks they were taking in unlocking the iPhone. If they end up with bricks, cry me a river. You can't whine about Apple in this situation.
I remember reading an Imprimis article back in the 80's(?) that discussed public education and made the point that states in which the education tax money was spent locally did much better than those in which the money was poured into a general fund an redistributed to the school districts from a central authority. I don't have the citation, but in Texas we have passed a Robin-hood law that is very similar to those that exist in other states and the funds are shifting away from the local (and unequal) distribution to the centrally-controlled (and more equal) distribution method.
The idea being that funding from local sources encouraged better oversight from the taxpayers and led to more efficient usage.
I wonder how many, if any, states still distribute funds using the local method and if those states are at the top of the list in terms of education quality.
> I knew the subject better than the instructor did
> (Note that I've carefully said nothing that would identify the schools. This is intentional, so you might suspect that it might be schools in your area.;-)
Not likely. Graduate math students or full professors taught all the math courses at my university. I doubt very seriously that there were any students that new more than them about the material. You must have attended a Community College.:-)
Nonsense. The real issue with the 2000 election is that the election came down to statistical noise. Thus, guaranteeing 4 years of wining by the losers that the election was "stolen". Why would you want to repeat that? And why do you think that you would get a more fair result?
Well, for one thing, Mapquest is RESTful by default, while Google maps isn't. You can copy the html link from Mapquest and insert it into an email or a webpage. In order to do this with Google maps, you have to click on the cleverly hidden "Link to this page" link and then copy it out. Much easier for people to use Mapquest.
Why not all of the above (including Mars) and at the same time? Why must we deny ourselves access to resources and discoveries and achievements just because we haven't exhausted every single other possibility?
1. Get rid of their current play-by-play and color man and use Ralph Strangis and Daryl Reaugh. Seriously, listen to just one of the Stars games they call and you will be hooked.
2. Get rid of the instigator rule.
3. Have every team in the East play every team in the West once during the year. That way, everyone has a chance to see Syd the Kid (if your team plays the Pens at home that is).
4. Give the fans time to come back to the sport after the lockout all but destroyed interest. Don't believe me? The salary cap is being raised significantly this year. How can that be if they are losing money? Even though the ratings are low, the money is definitely there. TV ratings will take time to come back because it is a nation-wide measure. I'm sure there are a lot more hockey fans in Anaheim now than were there at the beginning of the season. Same for Carolina fans last year. Over time, the numbers will increase - especially if they adopt the above ideas.
He's clearly not too slow for that. You're not thinking it through. Guess who can see the future? Guess who knows he's going to live? Any guesses what might happen if he doesn't let Hiro stab him?
Whoa there hoss. I don't recall any images showing Sylar living past his date with the steel blade. Nor is there any reason to believe that Sylar accepts this as his fate. Sylar acts in his own interest and skoffs at the idea of Hiro killing him. So, although your explanation sounds good, I don't think that is what the writers intended. Also, you didn't explain the multiple opportunites to kill Sylar only to leave the boogie-man alive.
My biggest complaint about the show is the fans who don't pay attention, then blame their inability to understand what just happened on the writers.
I didn't claim not to understand, only to be dissapointed. We can disagree on whether there are excuses or explanations for some of the plot developments, but my overall point was the sophmoric writing when compared to Lost. If you love the show, then that's fine - I respect your opinion, I just have given up on it after one season. FYI, I feel the same way about Lost that you do about Heroes.
Heroes is an unbelievable dissapointment. Some of the more egregious are:
The multiple opportunities to kill Sylar, only to let him live.
Sylar's ability to stop bullets just after they have been fired at him, but he's too slow to stop Hiro from running him through with a sword (despite seeing it coming).
Hiro learning Sulu's koryu in a couple of hours.
Peter's ability to stop himself from going critical in one episode, but not being able to do so in another.
And, worst of all, letting Sylar escape unnoticed through a sewer (perhaps the cockroach dragged him in).
Sigh, I want to like this show, but I've been dissapointed time and again.
Lost's writing is a PhD graduate, Heroes' is a high school sophmore.
Not even close to true. Uranium is very plentiful. In fact, if necessary, it can be extracted from sea water. The cost of the fuel is negligable compared to the cost of handling/disposing/etc.
Do you honestly believe they HAVE to create trumped up charges? There is so much low-hanging fruit for them to grab without risking a backlash due to fabricated charges that they would be stupid beyond belief to attempt it.
Let me be the first to patent the new "flbay" software for marketing your remaining frivolous lawsuit quotas. As an added bonus I'll throw in a free copy of "How to become a lawyer in 21 days"...
But, it shows you how they think. It was suspicious to them because they are thinking along those lines. It gives you a hint at what they think is possible and how it might reasonably be used.
Or else, they're just a bunch of tin-foil spy wannabees.
Centralized planning like this always sounds so easy, but it belies the complexities involved in these areas. Perhaps you should have said, "Manhatten projects" because each one would require that level of committment to bring to fruition. Even then, you might find that the market and science had moved in a different direction and that you had squandered much or most of your investment. And that is why centralized planning fails so miserably in these complex problems. The market is vastly superior and more efficient. The best approach is to tie the true cost of energy to the fuel (ie add a tax to fossil fuels proportional to the amount of CO2 they release when burned). Then sit back and watch, as if by magic, the free market adjust and substitutes and alternatives are selected by consumers. Over time, the problems work themselves out.
Consider for a moment that the trend is to put ever more powerful weapons into the hands of a person. This occurs on the battlefield, in terrorist cells, and perhaps ultimately into the hands of a disenfranchised nihilist.
Combine that with another trend, towards more fundamentalism in whatever nationalist, religious, or communal group you find and I think we have dark times ahead.
Now, project 10 or 20 years from now. What will the consequences be for a symbol, a community, or a city. How long will it be before some individual or small group has the ability to destroy thousands of lives or more?
Now, now - play nice. His point (I'm sure) was that this information is being deliberatly hidden from view. Some businesses absolutely contribute to the local economy and some don't. Without knowing the truth about how much power they consume, you and I cannot make a value judgment on whether or not it is worth letting them build the infrastructure they want to support the business.
The most important quality that is missing in a young adult is - good judgment. There is an old saw that goes:
Good Judgment comes from wisdom, Wisdom comes from experience, Experience comes from making mistakes, Making mistakes comes from bad judgment.
I remember when I was a minor. While you might have more of a clue than I did, I simply hadn't enough experience in the work force or in making decisions for myself to be a reasonable voter. I had plenty of bad judgment, however...
I'm ok with the voting age at 18, but I agree with a previous poster that we would be better served by raising it to 21.
I think the best vehicle for a great SciFi book or series would be to follow the Battlestar Galactica model. Even Lost is pulling it off, and (for those old enough to remember) The Prisoner did it many years ago.
Ender's Game won't be done justice in any visual media. The children are too young (and too naked) to deliver the power of the book. But, Asimov's Foundation (trilogy, not the utter crap that came afterwards He/She/It/Gaia) would be perfect for a leisurly stroll down the long-running series lane.
I seem to recall some science fiction authors had a convention in order to come up with proposals for space-based weapons. This was one of them: satellites with radar absorbing foam would launch spikes of metal to rain down on unsuspecting Soviet armor formations. (No, I'm not making this up). Jerry Pournelle wrote about it in one of his columns.
Don't put your faith in Peak Oil solving our CO2 problem. The US is the MidEast of the world's Coal reserves, with about 1/4 of the entire reserves in our country. Also, before we resort to burning coal for fuel, we have natural gas to run through. It won't reach Peak Gas (sounds ominous:-) ) until after Peak Oil. There's lots of carbon to throw into the atmosphere. We have to find a way to sequester this CO2.
I'm not so sure that Sony hasn't gotten into a good thing here. After they continually screwed the pooch with the PS3, this is interesting and shows real promise.
I'm currently reading Snow Crash and couldn't help but think about the virtual world in Snow Crash as I read about the 3d "world" that Sony is making available. And while I'm not much for Second Life, I've watched Viva Pinata infect my kids and all of there friends. The next generation of gamers may very well eat this stuff up. Recently, I've wasted many hours playing the trailer to Halo3 beta (Crackdown) and I'm almost embarrassed to admit how much fun it is just running around in their virtual world. Now, imagine blending that experience with the virtual world that Sony will provide. We may have just reached the tipping point.
Even though Sony has ripped off everyone else's ideas, the PS3 may have the computing power and tools to really pull this off.
I own an Xbox, 360, and plan on getting a Wii. I don't own a PS3 and am no Sony fanboy, but Sony's ventures into this area may eventually change that.
Slashdot Mirror
Two points:
1. In almost the same breath that you acknowledge that some stories about your health care problems are hyperbole, you then then spout hyperbole about the US health care system. Don't believe everything you're told.
2. Canada does not honor US patent laws with respect to drugs (it has an 8 year patent period and even allows generics if the brand name cannot fulfill demand). That is why they are so much cheaper in Canada. So much so, that some politicians in the US, that have never passed an economics 101 course, suggest that we buy our drugs from Canada. In other words, that we should also not honor US patent laws with respect to drugs. I'll leave it as an exercise to the reader to both extrapolate the effect that decision would have on research and development AND to guestimate the amount the US markets end up subsidizing Canadian health care. If the US were to adopt a socialized health care system, there would be profound consequences in research and development. Perhaps it is worth it, but it's not the simplistic choice you make it out to be.
Considering the fact that Apple made a significant marketing deal with Cingular and that the mods undermine this deal, I would be working to protect that agreement too. People purchasing the iPhone new the deal; new what they were getting into and the risks they were taking in unlocking the iPhone. If they end up with bricks, cry me a river. You can't whine about Apple in this situation.
I remember reading an Imprimis article back in the 80's(?) that discussed public education and made the point that states in which the education tax money was spent locally did much better than those in which the money was poured into a general fund an redistributed to the school districts from a central authority. I don't have the citation, but in Texas we have passed a Robin-hood law that is very similar to those that exist in other states and the funds are shifting away from the local (and unequal) distribution to the centrally-controlled (and more equal) distribution method.
The idea being that funding from local sources encouraged better oversight from the taxpayers and led to more efficient usage.
I wonder how many, if any, states still distribute funds using the local method and if those states are at the top of the list in terms of education quality.
> I knew the subject better than the instructor did
;-)
:-)
> (Note that I've carefully said nothing that would identify the schools. This is intentional, so you might suspect that it might be schools in your area.
Not likely. Graduate math students or full professors taught all the math courses at my university. I doubt very seriously that there were any students that new more than them about the material. You must have attended a Community College.
Nonsense. The real issue with the 2000 election is that the election came down to statistical noise. Thus, guaranteeing 4 years of wining by the losers that the election was "stolen". Why would you want to repeat that? And why do you think that you would get a more fair result?
Well, for one thing, Mapquest is RESTful by default, while Google maps isn't. You can copy the html link from Mapquest and insert it into an email or a webpage. In order to do this with Google maps, you have to click on the cleverly hidden "Link to this page" link and then copy it out. Much easier for people to use Mapquest.
Why not all of the above (including Mars) and at the same time? Why must we deny ourselves access to resources and discoveries and achievements just because we haven't exhausted every single other possibility?
To fix this:
1. Get rid of their current play-by-play and color man and use Ralph Strangis and Daryl Reaugh. Seriously, listen to just one of the Stars games they call and you will be hooked.
2. Get rid of the instigator rule.
3. Have every team in the East play every team in the West once during the year. That way, everyone has a chance to see Syd the Kid (if your team plays the Pens at home that is).
4. Give the fans time to come back to the sport after the lockout all but destroyed interest. Don't believe me? The salary cap is being raised significantly this year. How can that be if they are losing money? Even though the ratings are low, the money is definitely there. TV ratings will take time to come back because it is a nation-wide measure. I'm sure there are a lot more hockey fans in Anaheim now than were there at the beginning of the season. Same for Carolina fans last year. Over time, the numbers will increase - especially if they adopt the above ideas.
Whoa there hoss. I don't recall any images showing Sylar living past his date with the steel blade. Nor is there any reason to believe that Sylar accepts this as his fate. Sylar acts in his own interest and skoffs at the idea of Hiro killing him. So, although your explanation sounds good, I don't think that is what the writers intended. Also, you didn't explain the multiple opportunites to kill Sylar only to leave the boogie-man alive.
My biggest complaint about the show is the fans who don't pay attention, then blame their inability to understand what just happened on the writers.
I didn't claim not to understand, only to be dissapointed. We can disagree on whether there are excuses or explanations for some of the plot developments, but my overall point was the sophmoric writing when compared to Lost. If you love the show, then that's fine - I respect your opinion, I just have given up on it after one season. FYI, I feel the same way about Lost that you do about Heroes.
- The multiple opportunities to kill Sylar, only to let him live.
- Sylar's ability to stop bullets just after they have been fired at him, but he's too slow to stop Hiro from running him through with a sword (despite seeing it coming).
- Hiro learning Sulu's koryu in a couple of hours.
- Peter's ability to stop himself from going critical in one episode, but not being able to do so in another.
- And, worst of all, letting Sylar escape unnoticed through a sewer (perhaps the cockroach dragged him in).
Sigh, I want to like this show, but I've been dissapointed time and again.Lost's writing is a PhD graduate, Heroes' is a high school sophmore.
Not even close to true. Uranium is very plentiful. In fact, if necessary, it can be extracted from sea water. The cost of the fuel is negligable compared to the cost of handling/disposing/etc.
Do you honestly believe they HAVE to create trumped up charges? There is so much low-hanging fruit for them to grab without risking a backlash due to fabricated charges that they would be stupid beyond belief to attempt it.
Could you sue them
with a cat?
Could you sue them
like that?
Let me be the first to patent the new "flbay" software for marketing your remaining frivolous lawsuit quotas. As an added bonus I'll throw in a free copy of "How to become a lawyer in 21 days" ...
But, it shows you how they think. It was suspicious to them because they are thinking along those lines. It gives you a hint at what they think is possible and how it might reasonably be used.
Or else, they're just a bunch of tin-foil spy wannabees.
Centralized planning like this always sounds so easy, but it belies the complexities involved in these areas. Perhaps you should have said, "Manhatten projects" because each one would require that level of committment to bring to fruition. Even then, you might find that the market and science had moved in a different direction and that you had squandered much or most of your investment. And that is why centralized planning fails so miserably in these complex problems. The market is vastly superior and more efficient. The best approach is to tie the true cost of energy to the fuel (ie add a tax to fossil fuels proportional to the amount of CO2 they release when burned). Then sit back and watch, as if by magic, the free market adjust and substitutes and alternatives are selected by consumers. Over time, the problems work themselves out.
Consider for a moment that the trend is to put ever more powerful weapons into the hands of a person. This occurs on the battlefield, in terrorist cells, and perhaps ultimately into the hands of a disenfranchised nihilist.
Combine that with another trend, towards more fundamentalism in whatever nationalist, religious, or communal group you find and I think we have dark times ahead.
Now, project 10 or 20 years from now. What will the consequences be for a symbol, a community, or a city. How long will it be before some individual or small group has the ability to destroy thousands of lives or more?
Now, now - play nice. His point (I'm sure) was that this information is being deliberatly hidden from view. Some businesses absolutely contribute to the local economy and some don't. Without knowing the truth about how much power they consume, you and I cannot make a value judgment on whether or not it is worth letting them build the infrastructure they want to support the business.
I for one would want to know the bottom line.
The most important quality that is missing in a young adult is - good judgment. There is an old saw that goes:
Good Judgment comes from wisdom,
Wisdom comes from experience,
Experience comes from making mistakes,
Making mistakes comes from bad judgment.
I remember when I was a minor. While you might have more of a clue than I did, I simply hadn't enough experience in the work force or in making decisions for myself to be a reasonable voter. I had plenty of bad judgment, however...
I'm ok with the voting age at 18, but I agree with a previous poster that we would be better served by raising it to 21.
I think the best vehicle for a great SciFi book or series would be to follow the Battlestar Galactica model. Even Lost is pulling it off, and (for those old enough to remember) The Prisoner did it many years ago.
Ender's Game won't be done justice in any visual media. The children are too young (and too naked) to deliver the power of the book. But, Asimov's Foundation (trilogy, not the utter crap that came afterwards He/She/It/Gaia) would be perfect for a leisurly stroll down the long-running series lane.
This is clearly an early test of the halo superweapon. The flood must have escaped from a nearby system.
Hmm, surprising. Several hotties, although the winner would have been instantly identifiable regardless of ordering...
I seem to recall some science fiction authors had a convention in order to come up with proposals for space-based weapons. This was one of them: satellites with radar absorbing foam would launch spikes of metal to rain down on unsuspecting Soviet armor formations. (No, I'm not making this up). Jerry Pournelle wrote about it in one of his columns.
Don't put your faith in Peak Oil solving our CO2 problem. The US is the MidEast of the world's Coal reserves, with about 1/4 of the entire reserves in our country. Also, before we resort to burning coal for fuel, we have natural gas to run through. It won't reach Peak Gas (sounds ominous :-) ) until after Peak Oil. There's lots of carbon to throw into the atmosphere. We have to find a way to sequester this CO2.
I'm not so sure that Sony hasn't gotten into a good thing here. After they continually screwed the pooch with the PS3, this is interesting and shows real promise.
I'm currently reading Snow Crash and couldn't help but think about the virtual world in Snow Crash as I read about the 3d "world" that Sony is making available. And while I'm not much for Second Life, I've watched Viva Pinata infect my kids and all of there friends. The next generation of gamers may very well eat this stuff up. Recently, I've wasted many hours playing the trailer to Halo3 beta (Crackdown) and I'm almost embarrassed to admit how much fun it is just running around in their virtual world. Now, imagine blending that experience with the virtual world that Sony will provide. We may have just reached the tipping point.
Even though Sony has ripped off everyone else's ideas, the PS3 may have the computing power and tools to really pull this off.
I own an Xbox, 360, and plan on getting a Wii. I don't own a PS3 and am no Sony fanboy, but Sony's ventures into this area may eventually change that.