1. The distance from the sun a planet is does NOT make as much a difference in the amount of radiation the planet will absorb as the composition of the atmosphere. As I have demonstrated, we know the makeup of the atmosphere and they are extremely similar. Your distance theory just makes you look stupid. Mercury is 27 Million miles from the sun and has an average surface temperature of 250F - yeah, that seems really low for being so close to the sun, but that's because it spins so slowly and the high temperature only reaches about 800F (How can that be???). According to your distance logic, the average temperature of Mercury should be about 1450F and the average temperature of Earth should be approximately 413F - really dumb statements on your part.
2. The planet's size makes a difference? So, you're saying that if you put a bowling ball on the sidewalk next to ball bearing, the bowling ball will get hotter? I bet they fall at different speeds if tossed off a building too - where did your learn your physics? Assuming they had similar enough compositions, the temperatures would be very similar eventually - the bowling ball would store more energy, but it can't change that energy into more heat just because you want it to. Maybe Al Gore will change the laws of physics for you if you vote for him.
3. Composition of the planet does matter too - but you don't know how it matters or why it matters do you? I can't effective explain it here, and will not even bother trying. It's like having a stimulating conversation with bunny turds - there is a lot we don't know about Venus and why it is so hot, but we do know that it is NOT all CO2's fault and knowing this; why do idiots still insist that CO2 is going to kill us all?
The point I was making is that all these fruit-cakes just itching to give themselves over to the next socialist dictator who offers to give them something for free (Pretty much any Modern Democratic Politian's aspiration) have absolutely no interest in finding the truth. They attempt to poke holes in actual explanations offered by others while providing absolutely no actual evidence to support their theories. Go buy your hybrid and make your favorite Zinc miner richer. You're not part of the solution no matter how badly you want to be; you and those like you are merely prolonging the suffering of others because you want to be important and believe you should be. Not every child gets to be an Astronaut, but every moron that watched "An Inconvienent Truth" and believed it is now dumber than the average sack of cat vomit.
Ok, I'd like to cite a reputable source, but I can't prove that anyone else has said the same thing in the past. Here's how it boils down. Batteries are dirty little bastards to build due to the mining effort (Big, honking yellow trucks ripping holes in the earth spewing exhaust as they go) + the refining effort (Large factory type installations using all sorts of interesting chemicals to separate what they want from what they don't, then you've got the waste materiel - usually toxic and extremely poisonous). You know how they smelt gold don't you? It's a nasty process and it's full of waste and pollution - but the end product is so valuable it's considered to be worth it. The same is true for Lead, Nickel, Iron, Silver, Lithium, Zinc and whatever other minerals are mined and refined to create batteries. It's a dirty, dirty job and the process of making the batteries is pretty nasty too. All I can say is do a bit of research regarding what components go into these Hybrid cars, look at how they are made and staple yourself to the product from natural resources all the way to finished product and just look at how dirty and inefficient it is. With Oil - we worry about funding terrorists, filth and pollution and created in Mining, transportation, refining and transportation of the final product - but all in all, though it is filthy as well, it's cleaner and less damaging to the environment than a Hybrid (Focusing on the fuel-type components only - I'm not even getting into the plastic and junk that make up the rest of the car). Maybe my explanation is not good enough and everyone will think I'm a dummy - but really look at it and you'll see what I'm talking about. (Both options are dirty and damaging, but Hybrids and worse - that's all I can say) I don't know where we're going to get something truly clean to power our lives, but Hybrids can't take us there.
"Hmm, the evidence is pretty strong that more CO2 leads to higher temperatures. If C02 was a symptom, please explain what you think would release more C02 as the temperature rises." - Mars vs. Venus. If more CO2 leads to higher temperatures; Venus could serve as pretty solid evidence: Approximately 96.5% CO2 by volume (+ 3.5% Nitrogen) averaging approximately 900F (480C). But Mars can throw a wrench into the whole theory with its 95.32% by volume (+ Nitrogen (N2): 2.7%, Argon (Ar): 1.6%, Oxygen (O2): 0.13%, Water (H2O): 0.03%, Neon (Ne): 0.00025%) with a maximum temperature of 68F (20C) and a minimum of -220F (-140C) - it starts to look like the CO2 rule of higher temperatures is pretty much doo-doo science. (Look it up here http://www.solarviews.com/eng/mars.htm and here http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/solar/v enusenv.html#c2 - Earth's atmosphere contains the following gasses (by volume): nitrogen: 78%, oxygen: 20.95%, argon: 0.93% and finally - carbon dioxide: 0.038% - wow, that's a pretty high concentration - I think we're all going to die. I'll reply to the other comment in my next post - because it's a little more difficult to compile that data and many sources contradict each other.
Basically; the left use death and destruction to their political advantage and the "numbers" aren't as damming as they'd like, so they'll spread misinformation and try to sell Gore-Brand batteries instead - because that's profitable for them. The Right seem to think there is a God that would never allow the ecosystem to fail and they ignore the fact that humans can and have changed the environment around us. Accepting Global Warming as a fact is fine, but don't put too much stock into what you're being told about it. C02 emissions aren't causing global warming - the evidence shows that C02 emissions are more likely to be a symptom than cause; but neither side can actually prove it either way, so go with what is more scientifically plausible. If you buy a Hybrid to cut your C02 footprint; you get used - it's more environmentally destructive to create one of those inefficient turds than it is to go with what's already out there - you'd have to drive the same one for about 75 years to have done less damage than buying a new oil-burner every 5 - 10. We need a 3rd option - but we'll never get it because it cannot be easily taxed. I guess I am a racist - because the human race is a bunch if panicky, stupid animals.
How is what was written an attempt at manipulation? You're post is as much a manipulation as the parent post to which you responded. You refer to it as a "Casuse [cause]" which implies an agenda. The cause is distorted, in your eyes, because you don't agree. You state that the "cause" is "his own" in order to minimize its legitimacy. Finally you have your "The difference is often subtle" statement attempting to make all readers believe that you're a "thinker" and you must really have this thing nailed down. The facts are; Global Warming is a fact as much as Global Cooling is - it happens, has happened and will continue to happen; the question is, are we helping it this time? The Global Warming scare is based on science that is backed up by dissimilar measurement techniques attempting to qualify conditions that we do not fully understand yet (CO2 and it's relation to Global Warming - cause or effect?). The atmosphere of Venus is hotter than the surface of Mercury - the atmosphere of Venus is something like 97% CO2 (look it up, I'm not your babysitter) - is this evidence that CO2 causes the temperature to rise? Possibly, but the atmosphere of Mars is approximately 95% CO2 and the temperature is drastically less than that of earth - does this disprove the assertion that atmospheric CO2 content is directly linked to Global Warming? Not really - all it means is that we can't state with any degree of absolute accuracy exactly what it means. Read through historic news reports as far back as you can find and you will see that approximately every 40 - 60 years we, humans, change gears and start screaming it's either cooling or warming. Now, today, we have the scientific experience to understand to some degree what people were scared of 40 - 300 years ago and we can write off their fright as ignorance, but how is then any different from now? Humans have the ability to change the global climate no matter what the Neo-Cons think - just launch a bunch of Nukes and watch the snow come if you happen to live through it or cut down every tree and pave all the grasslands - see what happens - God isn't going to save anything. But the Global Warming alarmists are wrong too - they focus on the wrong things because it is profitable for them. Al Gore stands to make enormous money from increased mining of Zinc, which is a common component in many types of batteries - so there is no reason to trust what he says. The Global Warming Alarmists want us to "reduce our carbon footprint", but that's not what's important - we don't need to be more efficient with oil and add batteries and solar panels to everything - we need to eliminate the use of Oil because it's obsolete and we don't need it. Simple machines have been built back far as the mid-1800s that would run for many years - I've read about examples of these machines running up to about 100 years. http://www.sparkmuseum.com/PERPMO.HTM - it's not free exactly and I doubt we'll find a perpetual motion machine or anything that makes truly free energy - but there are overwhelming examples of amazingly cheap and efficient energy sources abound and we continue to ignore them in favor of paying some schmuck for their inefficient way of doing things and getting taxed out the yin-yang at the same time. We're not killing the planet right now - we have hurt it, but in 1,000,000 years from now there will scarcely be any evidence that we were even here. And to answer the initial article - if the dude is the surgeon general - what does he have to offer in the Global Warming debate? Quite similar to me joining a debate about particle acceleration except I understand when I don't know what I'm talking about - do you?
You people seem to have no idea what a pardon is. A pardon is intended to stop politically motivated persecution. Libby was not the only person who "obstructed justice", yet he was the only one persecuted for it. Libby has lost his right to ever practice law again anywhere - the conviction stands - he simply will not serve any time. It is all a bunch of BS anyway because he never leaked the name for which he was under investigation for leaking and even if he had, she was not a covert operative - her name was not a secret. He tried to cover some facts to save his ass when, had he told the truth; he wouldn't have needed it. Bill Clinton pardoned - I have no idea how many people, among them; a Puerto Rican Terrorist and a laundry list of others - nobody complained and said it was so unethical. The reason: he used his pardons to stop what he felt was the unjust politically motivated persecution of persons who would have not otherwise been under investigation, how is this any different? Whether it's all on the up and up - I cannot say, but does Libby really deserve to spend 30 months in jail simply because Bush is unpopular? It's a pretty dumb argument.
My scope statement was to point out that nearly all (if not all) of our government's 3-Letter agencies fall under the scope of DHS. You feel that the CIA is a bunch of incompetent fools? Cruel, heartless bastards - maybe, but incompetent: no. The ridiculous behavior you see at airports is as a result of local, civilian management attempting to adhere to policy - but not really; they pick and choose what they want to enforce and as they keep getting their pee-pees whacked for not doing what they are supposed to, they change and distort the policies in an attempt to prove that the way they were doing it was better in the first place - you and I suffer for those interoffice politics. FEMA's response to hurricane Katrina was exactly what was called for at the moment - I watched the mayor of N.O. state that local emergency management organizations were handling everything just fine and that he didn't require any federal assistance - 2 days later he was screaming about the lack of response - he should have lost his job for failing to evaluate the situation correctly. That thing was botched from the bottom up, not the top down. I don't give a crap about a threat color - I didn't care about it when I was in the military either, but why are the threats ridiculous; this world is full of people who don't like Americans for a multitude of reasons (I've lived all over it and have been the target of these people) - most of the reasons are because they are misguided politically - if you don't know what's going on in the world, nobody should expect you to form an intelligent opinion about it and you can't really expect misinformed people to make intelligent decisions either. I know misinformation from the US government is alive and well - but not always as the result of stupidity. We live in a ridiculous time, our political, economic and social systems are completely out of whack with reality - I took issue to this initial story because it is just one more example of people trying to prove evidence with a point rather than a proving a point with evidence.
You're right; 800 is the number they know about and a large part of that number comes from reports generated by Signature-Based Intrusion Detection Systems. Do a little research on Intrusion Detection Systems and you will find that they inherently have an extremely high false-positive rate: A poorly written program or improperly configured access permissions will trigger a high number of false positives - this is by design because it is generally safer to assume an action was malicious so that you have to track it down and find out what really happened, then update your signatures (who ever does that?) rather than assume it was a new printer with UPNP making a nuisance of itself. 800 is the number they know about and I can guarantee you that this number is pretty darn close to being dead-on. Additionally, unauthorized hits on their boundary defenses are counted - also counted are inexperienced hackers who get sucked into the honeypot. I know you want to believe that DHS is a bunch of incompetent fools running around with no idea what they should be doing, but I know, first hand, that they are a seriously organized (though overly bureaucratized) group of organizations (you do realize the scope of DHS don't you? It's absolutely ENORMOUS!).
Look at any government agency or corporate IT infrastructure - 800 break-ins is not a big number. I have been conducting information security analyses for many years for corporate networks and government entities and 800 is not a high figure. What you have to find out before considering this a valid story is; was integrity, confidentiality or availability of their infrastructure effected by these break-ins or was it just dorks poking their nose through the DMZ to see what they could find.
A big difference is that you and I do not need to buy any specific manufacturer's PC parts, and those companies are not allowed to fix prices. Oil companies throughout the US are allowed to fix prices - the days prices are set each morning and distributed throughout the US and those vendors tack on a little extra to cover whatever additives they use. Something you failed to mention is that lack of oil is not the problem here - oil by the barrel prices are approximately what they were in the mid 1990s, but the price per gallon of gasoline is more than a dollar higher - that's because many countries and companies world wide (approximately 60%, can't remember where I found that figure) are putting their refineries through lengthy preventative maintenance measures at the moment and enjoying the increased profit resulting from diminished output. Beyond all this, oil has been obsolete since approximately the 1960s - Browns Gas (look it up on Wiki or some other reference) is as stable as water and will power an internal combustion engine with little modification and is much more fuel efficient - additionally, it has been patented and re-patented at least 9 times since the late 1970s and I have found at least 3 recorded news casts on YouTube where local news are interviewing someone who was driving a car that runs entirely off of distilled water. I'm not interested in a Hybrid car - it's pointless. We don't need oil anymore - save it for industrial lubrication and internal combustion hobbyists. Sorry I don't have resources sited, but Wiki and YouTube are pretty easy to search to find this stuff - it's not hidden, it's just ignored because "scientists" keep trying to say it's an internet rumor or myth - I've tested this technology in tiny, low-tech tests (all I can afford to do) and it works well, but it is #1 going to be really hard to pass a 30 cents per gallon fuel tax on water and #2 you and I can make distilled water with little investment - who makes money off that?
I thought Steve Jobs intention was to drive Apple completely into the ground and make them a complete laughing stock and the butt of many jokes . I heard Michael Dell came back because "Spin City" no longer needed a Richard Kind stunt double.
Fox news is held accountable. Fox news is a credible source of information - you just need to ignore all the dumb-assed god references. Fox news is directed at those who want a little fantasy (god) with their news while Michael More is for those who want a little lie with their fantasy. Is CNN the news source you choose? CNN invents or "Makes News" while Fox tries to spin it in the direction that is political advantageous for them - either way isn't really news. Glad you took the opportunity to bash Fox - why not bash CNN or MSNBC as well - all of the major news outlets stink. Heck, even SlashDot - news for nerds, stuff that matters, focuses on spinning everything towards the left with a Bush-is-bad, Global Warming is real kind of focus whenever possible, ignoring the fact that important things are happening in the world and focused, intelligent reporting is sought by the masses. Bush is a dork (does that get me an insightful mod?) Gore is a total moron (Ooh, now I'm a troll) Nader is a nobody (Confused?).
Parent Post Not Insightful = I'm a troll. Michael Moore's junk always takes swings at Reps and Dems because Michael Moore is neither - his ego could not handle ever being on the winning end of an argument. That's why he always supports the whack-job megalomaniacs from third-parties. The US healthcare system is expensive and not perfect, but it is the best in the world when you look at your own survivability. I've been to many of the socialist countries that he has probably cited as examples of primo healthcare systems and I've even had to have emergency surgery in one - waiting for 2 weeks to have your leg put back together after getting run over by a truck because their oh-so-enlightened healthcare system doesn't have any competent surgeons available and you have to get put on a waiting list while the bones sticking out of your knee are festering and your risk of loosing your leg increases every day- well, it's not fun and it just helped me to understand that with all the faults our country has, it is still the best place in the world to live if you want to have some personal freedoms, opportunity to improve your station in life and survivability after an illness or injury.
I worked at Microsoft for a number of years back in the late 90s - when I arrived; Microsoft was a great place to work. We had guys that dressed up like Spock, Disco Stu and whoever else nerds may emulate - 1.5 hours of paid nap-time every day also, roving burrito-ladies, free coffee & soda. No shirt, no shoes, no problem - there was no dress code - it was just a bunch of nerds (about 50% were Unix Gurus as well). Microsoft sold off their Windows support groups to a company named Keane - Keane quickly learned that making money in tech support is nearly impossible, so they sold us off to my FAVORITE Company - Convergys. Convergys first order of business was to sell off the entire infrastructure that wasn't absolutely necessary - we had a 6:1 Person to Printer ratio - Convergys fixed that so we had one printer per floor - and that printer never worked. Convergys' corporate plan for us was to establish a 318% attrition rate such that most employees never pass their initial 90 days performance evaluation period - which would entitle them to a higher hourly rate. Ultimately, I was training people from India over the phone, who had PhDs and were willing to do the job for approximately $3 per hour - after they were trained and ready to handle some of the volume, Convergys fired 80 of us in one fell swoop and told it that it was because we hadn't called in sick appropriately sometime in the past 6 months - they then proceeded to put every employment lawyer in the state on retainer. I blame Microsoft for not keeping their tech support in-house. You'd have to look at Convergys' customer list to know what they handle currently, but while I was there I knew of contracts with Microsoft, Dell, Gateway, RoadRunner and Cox Cable. Tech Support exists to address deficiencies in the product your company provides and as such, one should not expect to turn a profit from it. Attempting to turn a profit from Tech Support is unethical - in my opinion. That's my rant for the day. Happy Da/.ers.
Sounds like this whole iPhone is going to be almost as popular as the Newton. Great job Apple. I really think they should get IBM involved driving fees with service vendors so high that nobody will be willing to service the product as well - but maybe they can wait on that until after they've alienated as much of their customer base as possible. Apple's acronym exposed; A.P.P.L.E = All People Purchase Lame Equipment (They hope anyway).
Baby I'm more than a little concerned you see
about the New World Order conspiracies
And the covert spreading of deadly disease
They've got earthquake machines and UFO's
and black helicopters wherever we go
But I forget them all when you are with me
They can telepathically read my mind
I'm not scared of what they'll find
Let them do what they're gonna do
Cuz if the government can read my mind
they know I'm thinking of you.
They've got secretly funded internment camps
and biological warfare labs
But when you look at me they all don't seem so bad
They've got Martian traded technology,
and mind control psychology
I'll let them do what they wanna do
Cuz if the government can read my mind
they know I'm thinking of you.
I could stockpile food and join a militia
but I'd rather stay at home and kiss ya
Let them do what they're gonna do
Cuz if the government can read my mind
they know I'm thinking of you.
If the government can read my mind baby
you know it doesn't matter what they find
Cuz if the government can read my mind
they know I'm thinking of you.
-The Vandals "If The Government Could Read My Mind"
This was insightful? Slashdot moderators; pull your heads out of your buttocks and read the posts before saying they are insightful - it's ranting drivel, not even close to an actual coherent thought. I think Bush has not been the president I would have wanted him to be, but Gore and Horse-face would have turned us into the Islamic States of Mexico as quickly as they could had they been elected. The Reps and the Dems are worthless; unfortunately the Libertarians and Green Party folks are an equally scary prospect. The country elects the president it deserves and I am saddened to admit that collectively, we deserve GWB. Until we, as a people, stop focusing on what makes us different and start focusing on what makes us the same, we will continue to deserve the worthless presidents.
The iPod was successful because it did just enough of what it was designed to do to be useful, had simple menus and was given to enough MTV-Types to find its way into coolness - it's not actually superior to most of the alternatives out there, in fact; I never used the iPod I bought because there were so many less-irritating options available - I bought it because my wife wanted one - then I bought an Archos for less, with a better screen and more options. 50 Cent and J-Lo will get the iPhones and then the rest of the sheep will follow - not because it's better, but because it's "in". What's the point? Apple's stuff just isn't that cool - it is marketed really really well and they have established a base that will continue to buy their junk just because the commercials tell them to. How is the iPhone really that different from what's already available? I'm just waiting for Apple's iCall software to be released (would be similar to iTunes in that it allows you to pay Apple directly for things that don't really belong to them...like your phone calls maybe?) then that they can clever-menu my butt into paying more for less and have me feeling cool doing it.
Why send in the robot or troops? The problem of wounded troops was solved a long, long time ago with the invention of BOMBS. And don't worry about the innocents; the terror associated with a fiery, explosive death is generally over pretty quickly.
Oh Yeah - wires...good one. We could use Token-Ring...Ooh! Ooh! - We could use Serial Cables - that'd be good too - let's go as retro as possible. It's an idea - not necessarily an extremely good idea nor a particularly plausible one, however; what will you do when the fees pile up so much that normal people can scarcely afford internet access? I do not plan to simply "Piss and moan like an impotent jerk and then take it up the tailpipe".
I've been reading these posts, trying to gain some understanding of what this whole thing is and yours is the first one that is actually informaitive. I say; if this whole thing were to happen; we abandon the internet and the geeks of the world unite to establish our own seperate network - the Ubernet maybe - and keep it private: I'll host my stuff, you host yours and a series of interconnection agreements should serve to effectively keep big business out of it - if they want to play with us, they'd have to play by our rules.
I'm sure it'd be more complicated than that, but I don't see why it really would need to be.
Words are simply organized sounds that humans use to convey ideas, feelings, etc. The value or meaning of the words we use has been established over great lengths of time and with that passage of time, the meaning or popularly accepted intent of those words has changed. The word fuck has cognates in other Germanic languages, such as German "ficken" (to copulate), Middle Dutch "fokken" (to thrust, copulate, or to breed), dialectical Norwegian "fukka" (to copulate), and dialectical Swedish "focka" (to strike, copulate) and "fock" (penis). The use of a particular word does not indicate "an awful lot about the person" though if we pay attention to the words people use we may be able to gain some understanding of the ideas or feelings they are trying to convey. There are no thought crimes, though censorship would tend to suggest otherwise, insinuating that a person is of lesser mental capability simply because they choose to use words that some human or group of humans deemed "naughty" may be an indication that one would make a fine, compassionate deputy for the Though Police.
I am no physicist, but I do follow physics to some degree (kind of like it was my favorite sports team: I can't do it, but I enjoy knowing what's going on). My understanding has been that String Theory (A 10 dimensional theory) can explain anything we observe in our universe if we invent a very specific theoretical parallel universe to satisfy the equation. This is troubling to me because it gives you free reign to invent new physics whenever they can't find the answers they are looking for. M-Theory (An 11 dimensional theory) is basically complimented by string theory because in includes an 11th dimension (A membrane which exists within an extremely close proximity to everything within our universe) and, as I understand it, contains limitless parallel universes and strictly speaking, our universe is there too. Therefore, String Theory is an expression of M-Theory and "alternative loop quantum gravity" (I think also referred to as the "Super Gravity" - originating in the 11th dimension) is also complimentary to M-theory. My question - what's the problem? It sounds like an old argument all over again. I thought they had each accepted their place in physics and peace had been accomplished.
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1. The distance from the sun a planet is does NOT make as much a difference in the amount of radiation the planet will absorb as the composition of the atmosphere. As I have demonstrated, we know the makeup of the atmosphere and they are extremely similar. Your distance theory just makes you look stupid. Mercury is 27 Million miles from the sun and has an average surface temperature of 250F - yeah, that seems really low for being so close to the sun, but that's because it spins so slowly and the high temperature only reaches about 800F (How can that be???). According to your distance logic, the average temperature of Mercury should be about 1450F and the average temperature of Earth should be approximately 413F - really dumb statements on your part. 2. The planet's size makes a difference? So, you're saying that if you put a bowling ball on the sidewalk next to ball bearing, the bowling ball will get hotter? I bet they fall at different speeds if tossed off a building too - where did your learn your physics? Assuming they had similar enough compositions, the temperatures would be very similar eventually - the bowling ball would store more energy, but it can't change that energy into more heat just because you want it to. Maybe Al Gore will change the laws of physics for you if you vote for him. 3. Composition of the planet does matter too - but you don't know how it matters or why it matters do you? I can't effective explain it here, and will not even bother trying. It's like having a stimulating conversation with bunny turds - there is a lot we don't know about Venus and why it is so hot, but we do know that it is NOT all CO2's fault and knowing this; why do idiots still insist that CO2 is going to kill us all? The point I was making is that all these fruit-cakes just itching to give themselves over to the next socialist dictator who offers to give them something for free (Pretty much any Modern Democratic Politian's aspiration) have absolutely no interest in finding the truth. They attempt to poke holes in actual explanations offered by others while providing absolutely no actual evidence to support their theories. Go buy your hybrid and make your favorite Zinc miner richer. You're not part of the solution no matter how badly you want to be; you and those like you are merely prolonging the suffering of others because you want to be important and believe you should be. Not every child gets to be an Astronaut, but every moron that watched "An Inconvienent Truth" and believed it is now dumber than the average sack of cat vomit.
Ok, I'd like to cite a reputable source, but I can't prove that anyone else has said the same thing in the past. Here's how it boils down. Batteries are dirty little bastards to build due to the mining effort (Big, honking yellow trucks ripping holes in the earth spewing exhaust as they go) + the refining effort (Large factory type installations using all sorts of interesting chemicals to separate what they want from what they don't, then you've got the waste materiel - usually toxic and extremely poisonous). You know how they smelt gold don't you? It's a nasty process and it's full of waste and pollution - but the end product is so valuable it's considered to be worth it. The same is true for Lead, Nickel, Iron, Silver, Lithium, Zinc and whatever other minerals are mined and refined to create batteries. It's a dirty, dirty job and the process of making the batteries is pretty nasty too. All I can say is do a bit of research regarding what components go into these Hybrid cars, look at how they are made and staple yourself to the product from natural resources all the way to finished product and just look at how dirty and inefficient it is. With Oil - we worry about funding terrorists, filth and pollution and created in Mining, transportation, refining and transportation of the final product - but all in all, though it is filthy as well, it's cleaner and less damaging to the environment than a Hybrid (Focusing on the fuel-type components only - I'm not even getting into the plastic and junk that make up the rest of the car). Maybe my explanation is not good enough and everyone will think I'm a dummy - but really look at it and you'll see what I'm talking about. (Both options are dirty and damaging, but Hybrids and worse - that's all I can say) I don't know where we're going to get something truly clean to power our lives, but Hybrids can't take us there.
"Hmm, the evidence is pretty strong that more CO2 leads to higher temperatures. If C02 was a symptom, please explain what you think would release more C02 as the temperature rises." - Mars vs. Venus. If more CO2 leads to higher temperatures; Venus could serve as pretty solid evidence: Approximately 96.5% CO2 by volume (+ 3.5% Nitrogen) averaging approximately 900F (480C). But Mars can throw a wrench into the whole theory with its 95.32% by volume (+ Nitrogen (N2): 2.7%, Argon (Ar): 1.6%, Oxygen (O2): 0.13%, Water (H2O): 0.03%, Neon (Ne): 0.00025%) with a maximum temperature of 68F (20C) and a minimum of -220F (-140C) - it starts to look like the CO2 rule of higher temperatures is pretty much doo-doo science. (Look it up here http://www.solarviews.com/eng/mars.htm and here http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/solar/v enusenv.html#c2 - Earth's atmosphere contains the following gasses (by volume): nitrogen: 78%, oxygen: 20.95%, argon: 0.93% and finally - carbon dioxide: 0.038% - wow, that's a pretty high concentration - I think we're all going to die. I'll reply to the other comment in my next post - because it's a little more difficult to compile that data and many sources contradict each other.
Basically; the left use death and destruction to their political advantage and the "numbers" aren't as damming as they'd like, so they'll spread misinformation and try to sell Gore-Brand batteries instead - because that's profitable for them. The Right seem to think there is a God that would never allow the ecosystem to fail and they ignore the fact that humans can and have changed the environment around us. Accepting Global Warming as a fact is fine, but don't put too much stock into what you're being told about it. C02 emissions aren't causing global warming - the evidence shows that C02 emissions are more likely to be a symptom than cause; but neither side can actually prove it either way, so go with what is more scientifically plausible. If you buy a Hybrid to cut your C02 footprint; you get used - it's more environmentally destructive to create one of those inefficient turds than it is to go with what's already out there - you'd have to drive the same one for about 75 years to have done less damage than buying a new oil-burner every 5 - 10. We need a 3rd option - but we'll never get it because it cannot be easily taxed. I guess I am a racist - because the human race is a bunch if panicky, stupid animals.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADHD_predominantly_in attentive
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moron_(psychology)
How is what was written an attempt at manipulation? You're post is as much a manipulation as the parent post to which you responded. You refer to it as a "Casuse [cause]" which implies an agenda. The cause is distorted, in your eyes, because you don't agree. You state that the "cause" is "his own" in order to minimize its legitimacy. Finally you have your "The difference is often subtle" statement attempting to make all readers believe that you're a "thinker" and you must really have this thing nailed down. The facts are; Global Warming is a fact as much as Global Cooling is - it happens, has happened and will continue to happen; the question is, are we helping it this time? The Global Warming scare is based on science that is backed up by dissimilar measurement techniques attempting to qualify conditions that we do not fully understand yet (CO2 and it's relation to Global Warming - cause or effect?). The atmosphere of Venus is hotter than the surface of Mercury - the atmosphere of Venus is something like 97% CO2 (look it up, I'm not your babysitter) - is this evidence that CO2 causes the temperature to rise? Possibly, but the atmosphere of Mars is approximately 95% CO2 and the temperature is drastically less than that of earth - does this disprove the assertion that atmospheric CO2 content is directly linked to Global Warming? Not really - all it means is that we can't state with any degree of absolute accuracy exactly what it means. Read through historic news reports as far back as you can find and you will see that approximately every 40 - 60 years we, humans, change gears and start screaming it's either cooling or warming. Now, today, we have the scientific experience to understand to some degree what people were scared of 40 - 300 years ago and we can write off their fright as ignorance, but how is then any different from now? Humans have the ability to change the global climate no matter what the Neo-Cons think - just launch a bunch of Nukes and watch the snow come if you happen to live through it or cut down every tree and pave all the grasslands - see what happens - God isn't going to save anything. But the Global Warming alarmists are wrong too - they focus on the wrong things because it is profitable for them. Al Gore stands to make enormous money from increased mining of Zinc, which is a common component in many types of batteries - so there is no reason to trust what he says. The Global Warming Alarmists want us to "reduce our carbon footprint", but that's not what's important - we don't need to be more efficient with oil and add batteries and solar panels to everything - we need to eliminate the use of Oil because it's obsolete and we don't need it. Simple machines have been built back far as the mid-1800s that would run for many years - I've read about examples of these machines running up to about 100 years. http://www.sparkmuseum.com/PERPMO.HTM - it's not free exactly and I doubt we'll find a perpetual motion machine or anything that makes truly free energy - but there are overwhelming examples of amazingly cheap and efficient energy sources abound and we continue to ignore them in favor of paying some schmuck for their inefficient way of doing things and getting taxed out the yin-yang at the same time. We're not killing the planet right now - we have hurt it, but in 1,000,000 years from now there will scarcely be any evidence that we were even here. And to answer the initial article - if the dude is the surgeon general - what does he have to offer in the Global Warming debate? Quite similar to me joining a debate about particle acceleration except I understand when I don't know what I'm talking about - do you?
You people seem to have no idea what a pardon is. A pardon is intended to stop politically motivated persecution. Libby was not the only person who "obstructed justice", yet he was the only one persecuted for it. Libby has lost his right to ever practice law again anywhere - the conviction stands - he simply will not serve any time. It is all a bunch of BS anyway because he never leaked the name for which he was under investigation for leaking and even if he had, she was not a covert operative - her name was not a secret. He tried to cover some facts to save his ass when, had he told the truth; he wouldn't have needed it. Bill Clinton pardoned - I have no idea how many people, among them; a Puerto Rican Terrorist and a laundry list of others - nobody complained and said it was so unethical. The reason: he used his pardons to stop what he felt was the unjust politically motivated persecution of persons who would have not otherwise been under investigation, how is this any different? Whether it's all on the up and up - I cannot say, but does Libby really deserve to spend 30 months in jail simply because Bush is unpopular? It's a pretty dumb argument.
I don't know what it is, but I imagine it's dandy. I just wanted to post first. Let's see if it worked. :)
My scope statement was to point out that nearly all (if not all) of our government's 3-Letter agencies fall under the scope of DHS. You feel that the CIA is a bunch of incompetent fools? Cruel, heartless bastards - maybe, but incompetent: no. The ridiculous behavior you see at airports is as a result of local, civilian management attempting to adhere to policy - but not really; they pick and choose what they want to enforce and as they keep getting their pee-pees whacked for not doing what they are supposed to, they change and distort the policies in an attempt to prove that the way they were doing it was better in the first place - you and I suffer for those interoffice politics. FEMA's response to hurricane Katrina was exactly what was called for at the moment - I watched the mayor of N.O. state that local emergency management organizations were handling everything just fine and that he didn't require any federal assistance - 2 days later he was screaming about the lack of response - he should have lost his job for failing to evaluate the situation correctly. That thing was botched from the bottom up, not the top down. I don't give a crap about a threat color - I didn't care about it when I was in the military either, but why are the threats ridiculous; this world is full of people who don't like Americans for a multitude of reasons (I've lived all over it and have been the target of these people) - most of the reasons are because they are misguided politically - if you don't know what's going on in the world, nobody should expect you to form an intelligent opinion about it and you can't really expect misinformed people to make intelligent decisions either. I know misinformation from the US government is alive and well - but not always as the result of stupidity. We live in a ridiculous time, our political, economic and social systems are completely out of whack with reality - I took issue to this initial story because it is just one more example of people trying to prove evidence with a point rather than a proving a point with evidence.
You're right; 800 is the number they know about and a large part of that number comes from reports generated by Signature-Based Intrusion Detection Systems. Do a little research on Intrusion Detection Systems and you will find that they inherently have an extremely high false-positive rate: A poorly written program or improperly configured access permissions will trigger a high number of false positives - this is by design because it is generally safer to assume an action was malicious so that you have to track it down and find out what really happened, then update your signatures (who ever does that?) rather than assume it was a new printer with UPNP making a nuisance of itself. 800 is the number they know about and I can guarantee you that this number is pretty darn close to being dead-on. Additionally, unauthorized hits on their boundary defenses are counted - also counted are inexperienced hackers who get sucked into the honeypot. I know you want to believe that DHS is a bunch of incompetent fools running around with no idea what they should be doing, but I know, first hand, that they are a seriously organized (though overly bureaucratized) group of organizations (you do realize the scope of DHS don't you? It's absolutely ENORMOUS!).
Look at any government agency or corporate IT infrastructure - 800 break-ins is not a big number. I have been conducting information security analyses for many years for corporate networks and government entities and 800 is not a high figure. What you have to find out before considering this a valid story is; was integrity, confidentiality or availability of their infrastructure effected by these break-ins or was it just dorks poking their nose through the DMZ to see what they could find.
A big difference is that you and I do not need to buy any specific manufacturer's PC parts, and those companies are not allowed to fix prices. Oil companies throughout the US are allowed to fix prices - the days prices are set each morning and distributed throughout the US and those vendors tack on a little extra to cover whatever additives they use. Something you failed to mention is that lack of oil is not the problem here - oil by the barrel prices are approximately what they were in the mid 1990s, but the price per gallon of gasoline is more than a dollar higher - that's because many countries and companies world wide (approximately 60%, can't remember where I found that figure) are putting their refineries through lengthy preventative maintenance measures at the moment and enjoying the increased profit resulting from diminished output. Beyond all this, oil has been obsolete since approximately the 1960s - Browns Gas (look it up on Wiki or some other reference) is as stable as water and will power an internal combustion engine with little modification and is much more fuel efficient - additionally, it has been patented and re-patented at least 9 times since the late 1970s and I have found at least 3 recorded news casts on YouTube where local news are interviewing someone who was driving a car that runs entirely off of distilled water. I'm not interested in a Hybrid car - it's pointless. We don't need oil anymore - save it for industrial lubrication and internal combustion hobbyists. Sorry I don't have resources sited, but Wiki and YouTube are pretty easy to search to find this stuff - it's not hidden, it's just ignored because "scientists" keep trying to say it's an internet rumor or myth - I've tested this technology in tiny, low-tech tests (all I can afford to do) and it works well, but it is #1 going to be really hard to pass a 30 cents per gallon fuel tax on water and #2 you and I can make distilled water with little investment - who makes money off that?
I thought Steve Jobs intention was to drive Apple completely into the ground and make them a complete laughing stock and the butt of many jokes . I heard Michael Dell came back because "Spin City" no longer needed a Richard Kind stunt double.
Fox news is held accountable. Fox news is a credible source of information - you just need to ignore all the dumb-assed god references. Fox news is directed at those who want a little fantasy (god) with their news while Michael More is for those who want a little lie with their fantasy. Is CNN the news source you choose? CNN invents or "Makes News" while Fox tries to spin it in the direction that is political advantageous for them - either way isn't really news. Glad you took the opportunity to bash Fox - why not bash CNN or MSNBC as well - all of the major news outlets stink. Heck, even SlashDot - news for nerds, stuff that matters, focuses on spinning everything towards the left with a Bush-is-bad, Global Warming is real kind of focus whenever possible, ignoring the fact that important things are happening in the world and focused, intelligent reporting is sought by the masses. Bush is a dork (does that get me an insightful mod?) Gore is a total moron (Ooh, now I'm a troll) Nader is a nobody (Confused?).
Parent Post Not Insightful = I'm a troll. Michael Moore's junk always takes swings at Reps and Dems because Michael Moore is neither - his ego could not handle ever being on the winning end of an argument. That's why he always supports the whack-job megalomaniacs from third-parties. The US healthcare system is expensive and not perfect, but it is the best in the world when you look at your own survivability. I've been to many of the socialist countries that he has probably cited as examples of primo healthcare systems and I've even had to have emergency surgery in one - waiting for 2 weeks to have your leg put back together after getting run over by a truck because their oh-so-enlightened healthcare system doesn't have any competent surgeons available and you have to get put on a waiting list while the bones sticking out of your knee are festering and your risk of loosing your leg increases every day- well, it's not fun and it just helped me to understand that with all the faults our country has, it is still the best place in the world to live if you want to have some personal freedoms, opportunity to improve your station in life and survivability after an illness or injury.
I worked at Microsoft for a number of years back in the late 90s - when I arrived; Microsoft was a great place to work. We had guys that dressed up like Spock, Disco Stu and whoever else nerds may emulate - 1.5 hours of paid nap-time every day also, roving burrito-ladies, free coffee & soda. No shirt, no shoes, no problem - there was no dress code - it was just a bunch of nerds (about 50% were Unix Gurus as well). Microsoft sold off their Windows support groups to a company named Keane - Keane quickly learned that making money in tech support is nearly impossible, so they sold us off to my FAVORITE Company - Convergys. Convergys first order of business was to sell off the entire infrastructure that wasn't absolutely necessary - we had a 6:1 Person to Printer ratio - Convergys fixed that so we had one printer per floor - and that printer never worked. Convergys' corporate plan for us was to establish a 318% attrition rate such that most employees never pass their initial 90 days performance evaluation period - which would entitle them to a higher hourly rate. Ultimately, I was training people from India over the phone, who had PhDs and were willing to do the job for approximately $3 per hour - after they were trained and ready to handle some of the volume, Convergys fired 80 of us in one fell swoop and told it that it was because we hadn't called in sick appropriately sometime in the past 6 months - they then proceeded to put every employment lawyer in the state on retainer. I blame Microsoft for not keeping their tech support in-house. You'd have to look at Convergys' customer list to know what they handle currently, but while I was there I knew of contracts with Microsoft, Dell, Gateway, RoadRunner and Cox Cable. Tech Support exists to address deficiencies in the product your company provides and as such, one should not expect to turn a profit from it. Attempting to turn a profit from Tech Support is unethical - in my opinion. That's my rant for the day. Happy Da /.ers.
Sounds like this whole iPhone is going to be almost as popular as the Newton. Great job Apple. I really think they should get IBM involved driving fees with service vendors so high that nobody will be willing to service the product as well - but maybe they can wait on that until after they've alienated as much of their customer base as possible. Apple's acronym exposed; A.P.P.L.E = All People Purchase Lame Equipment (They hope anyway).
Baby I'm more than a little concerned you see about the New World Order conspiracies And the covert spreading of deadly disease They've got earthquake machines and UFO's and black helicopters wherever we go But I forget them all when you are with me They can telepathically read my mind I'm not scared of what they'll find Let them do what they're gonna do Cuz if the government can read my mind they know I'm thinking of you. They've got secretly funded internment camps and biological warfare labs But when you look at me they all don't seem so bad They've got Martian traded technology, and mind control psychology I'll let them do what they wanna do Cuz if the government can read my mind they know I'm thinking of you. I could stockpile food and join a militia but I'd rather stay at home and kiss ya Let them do what they're gonna do Cuz if the government can read my mind they know I'm thinking of you. If the government can read my mind baby you know it doesn't matter what they find Cuz if the government can read my mind they know I'm thinking of you. -The Vandals "If The Government Could Read My Mind"
This was insightful? Slashdot moderators; pull your heads out of your buttocks and read the posts before saying they are insightful - it's ranting drivel, not even close to an actual coherent thought. I think Bush has not been the president I would have wanted him to be, but Gore and Horse-face would have turned us into the Islamic States of Mexico as quickly as they could had they been elected. The Reps and the Dems are worthless; unfortunately the Libertarians and Green Party folks are an equally scary prospect. The country elects the president it deserves and I am saddened to admit that collectively, we deserve GWB. Until we, as a people, stop focusing on what makes us different and start focusing on what makes us the same, we will continue to deserve the worthless presidents.
The iPod was successful because it did just enough of what it was designed to do to be useful, had simple menus and was given to enough MTV-Types to find its way into coolness - it's not actually superior to most of the alternatives out there, in fact; I never used the iPod I bought because there were so many less-irritating options available - I bought it because my wife wanted one - then I bought an Archos for less, with a better screen and more options. 50 Cent and J-Lo will get the iPhones and then the rest of the sheep will follow - not because it's better, but because it's "in". What's the point? Apple's stuff just isn't that cool - it is marketed really really well and they have established a base that will continue to buy their junk just because the commercials tell them to. How is the iPhone really that different from what's already available? I'm just waiting for Apple's iCall software to be released (would be similar to iTunes in that it allows you to pay Apple directly for things that don't really belong to them...like your phone calls maybe?) then that they can clever-menu my butt into paying more for less and have me feeling cool doing it.
Why send in the robot or troops? The problem of wounded troops was solved a long, long time ago with the invention of BOMBS. And don't worry about the innocents; the terror associated with a fiery, explosive death is generally over pretty quickly.
Oh Yeah - wires...good one. We could use Token-Ring...Ooh! Ooh! - We could use Serial Cables - that'd be good too - let's go as retro as possible. It's an idea - not necessarily an extremely good idea nor a particularly plausible one, however; what will you do when the fees pile up so much that normal people can scarcely afford internet access? I do not plan to simply "Piss and moan like an impotent jerk and then take it up the tailpipe".
I've been reading these posts, trying to gain some understanding of what this whole thing is and yours is the first one that is actually informaitive. I say; if this whole thing were to happen; we abandon the internet and the geeks of the world unite to establish our own seperate network - the Ubernet maybe - and keep it private: I'll host my stuff, you host yours and a series of interconnection agreements should serve to effectively keep big business out of it - if they want to play with us, they'd have to play by our rules. I'm sure it'd be more complicated than that, but I don't see why it really would need to be.
Words are simply organized sounds that humans use to convey ideas, feelings, etc. The value or meaning of the words we use has been established over great lengths of time and with that passage of time, the meaning or popularly accepted intent of those words has changed. The word fuck has cognates in other Germanic languages, such as German "ficken" (to copulate), Middle Dutch "fokken" (to thrust, copulate, or to breed), dialectical Norwegian "fukka" (to copulate), and dialectical Swedish "focka" (to strike, copulate) and "fock" (penis). The use of a particular word does not indicate "an awful lot about the person" though if we pay attention to the words people use we may be able to gain some understanding of the ideas or feelings they are trying to convey. There are no thought crimes, though censorship would tend to suggest otherwise, insinuating that a person is of lesser mental capability simply because they choose to use words that some human or group of humans deemed "naughty" may be an indication that one would make a fine, compassionate deputy for the Though Police.
I am no physicist, but I do follow physics to some degree (kind of like it was my favorite sports team: I can't do it, but I enjoy knowing what's going on). My understanding has been that String Theory (A 10 dimensional theory) can explain anything we observe in our universe if we invent a very specific theoretical parallel universe to satisfy the equation. This is troubling to me because it gives you free reign to invent new physics whenever they can't find the answers they are looking for. M-Theory (An 11 dimensional theory) is basically complimented by string theory because in includes an 11th dimension (A membrane which exists within an extremely close proximity to everything within our universe) and, as I understand it, contains limitless parallel universes and strictly speaking, our universe is there too. Therefore, String Theory is an expression of M-Theory and "alternative loop quantum gravity" (I think also referred to as the "Super Gravity" - originating in the 11th dimension) is also complimentary to M-theory. My question - what's the problem? It sounds like an old argument all over again. I thought they had each accepted their place in physics and peace had been accomplished.