I suggest you look at flux compression generators. They've been around since the 1950s, fairly low tech and inexpensive to construct, the one that I've seen a plan for was supposed to have a nominal range of half a mile and would fit into a minivan.
Are you sure you have not been watching Ocean's 11?
Imagine having a library in your village that could show you how to build water condensers, new farming techniques, basic chemistry that could improve your quality of life, really ANY piece of information you could conceive of as well as the ability to communicate remotely with other vilalges trying to overcome similar problems at the touch of your hands.
But no, better to hand out fish then give access to fishing instructions.
Knowledge is power.
You know, this sounds like a great idea in practice.
In reality it is quite different. I agree with Calibax. Having seen the poverty first hand and having worked to help build a medical clinic in Kenya, as well as my Ex, who runs a charity in Tanzania.
We got them some of these books, and some of this knowledge. They have access to a lot of it believe it or not. The problem is not that they don't know how to do it, but the same infrastructure problems that bother us in the modern world. We might "know" that building a good rail network in a city area will improve infrastructure - but politics and other factors get in the way.
In the same way, gaining access to clean water sounds like it should make a difference, just give the people the knowledge of how to build that dam and water pipe, as well as a sand filter system, and it will all be fixed right?
Not in my experience. People in poor countries are just like us, but with fewer "toys". They procrastinate, they like to have fun. They would love to own an ipod or iphone. They are more concerned with getting the next meal and next "fun" thing than they are with building infrastructure. When is the last time you went out and built yourself a water line by hand? They just don't see it as a priority. I know this because when we worked on one trying to bring cleaner water to the clinic, all the locals wondered why we would bother when you could just get water from the stream like they always have. And yes, they know that the stream water would make them sick, but it is rather like dealing with a smoker - they have got along just fine this far with stream or swamp water, why should they change if things are working fine? There are other things to worry about.
So, in my experience, they have the material to teach them how to change, but are so focused on living day to day that they don't have the mental bandwidth to build infrastructure projects like you would expect. In my experience, Bill Gates approach is the right one - fix the basic needs first, then they will have the mental bandwidth to devote to projects.
8 years on Slashdot?
GET OFF MY LAWN!
$17 trillion in debt....
Nothing else, even a shutdown or default is undermining the dollar worse than running $1+ trillion deficits.
And if we don't stop, the government shutdown will eventually become PERMANENT. How much will that cost the economy folks.
Oh, and might I add, that the Democrats are punks because all they do is kick the bucket down past the next election.
Nothing else? How about the United States losing it's status as the reserve currency? How about the loss of said status causing the interest on that debt to skyrocket?
Yes, that debt is bad, but believing that it must be reduced at all costs - and one of those costs being increasing the interest rate on the debt to make the debt worse - is a bad solution.
The debt is bad yes. Other countries have bad debt too. The debt needs to be controlled. Risking default is not a way to control the debt, but amplify it.
My wife is a Police Detective.
The Police Procedures in Dexter (and other shows) drive her insane.
Given that I have a fair idea of how the money process works, I can see without RTFA how this could work.
Say you are in charge of a large enterprise project that will need a large amount of computing horsepower. You don't know when you will have these resources available to complete the project - but you know you need to hold the Virtual cycles in reserve because of budget and other reasons that occur with Layer 8 issues. So, you buy a large block of time - but you can't use that virtual processing time yet - so you sell it to someone else that can - and you decrease your loss on the holding time, but you can get that time back any time you need it.
Take that simple scenario, and extend it out - have various lenders holding various blocks of virtual computing and you have the makings of a futures market. This is what is done with corn for example.
The idea is exactly the same - the only difference is one is a farm, the other is a server farm.
> Kids should learn to code IF AND ONLY IF THEY WANT TO, AND ONLY WHEN THEY WANT TO
Er... I guess they should only learn math, English, history, geography and whatever else IF AND ONLY IF THEY WANT TO as well. Imagine the education cost savings if we only taught children what they wanted to learn!
We teach children what they need to know, and _what we need them to know_ to further our economy. Our future economy needs more children to know how to code, at least as much as they need to know history, geography, biology or chemistry, if not math or English.
Does it? Can you be sure of that in the future? Around me some schools are only beginning to phase out cursive writing - teachers are still adamant that it be taught because "you will need it in Highschool and College and Business".
I work in IT, but I have barely touched code in the last 12 years apart from occasional scripts. Have many co-workers around me that don't code either. And guess what? We support a whole bunch of people are don't do IT at all.
There are many things we should teach kids - but if a child wants a career as an economist, learning to code is probably not going to interest them. There are many many different paths for people to take. What we should be teaching kids in school are skills that apply across the spectrum, and let them become more specialized as they get older.
I like how this is modded offtopic - as if the majority of users on now don't know or remember these things.
I found the same thing.
It seems to me that some people tried to set this up as a cool meme as a joke, and then it took on a life of its own. People watch the show because they believe it is cool, and they believe it is cool because other people watch the show......
To be fair, both people are right.
It *IS* basic thermodynamics. After all, everything is, you can't escape that.
However, the margin of error is greatly skewed by other environmental factors. So, a 100 calorie per day change may not be outside the margin of error of other factors. What is required is enough change to all the variables to account for the margin of error, which in the case of weight gain and calorie counts is rather large.
Depends on the country you are in. You can't get the diesel engined Hyluxes for example in the United States until they are at least 25 years old.
There is a good reason the Hylux is one of the premiere off road vehicles, and most of those are diesel. (See also Top Gear episode on the Hylux for amusement).
When have the mods ever "done their job?"
This is both the bane and the boon of Slashdot. Slashdot is not going downhill, it is the same as it ever was.
I thought you got one girl for each number in your UID?
I carry it around the hotel room with me
Uhhhh...what? Do you mean you have it in a pocket or something or do you literally mean that you hold it in your hand as you move about your hotel room so you don't have to worry about needing to use it when it's all the way over the other side?
I carry it in my hands, the same way I do when I walk around reading a book. I may read it on the bed, or in a chair, or get up to go to the car and continue reading it on my way. I treat the iPad 2 in the same way I treat a book or a magazine.
The laptop is provided by my employer, it cost me nothing. I also have an iPhone 4 as provided by my employer.
I don't just use the iPad on the plane, I play my exercise videos on it as I work out in hotel gyms. I read the morning "paper" on it. When I just need something simple, I can flip open the cover and it instantly wakes from sleep. I carry it around the hotel room with me, and I have it when I go out to eat at restaurants for dinner instead of a single book. My laptop I have to carry for work. Same with my smart phone ( I was able to choose my own phone ).
The fact is, for most entertainment purposes, my iPad has replaced magazines, my laptop, my cell phone/mp3, books' newspaper and TV. It is a singular go-to device while I travel. It makes the nature of my constant travel easier to bear, and face time is SO much better with the large screen, and that is extremely important to me as I am on the road so often.
I could use my free iPhone 4 to do many of these tasks, but the screen is small and battery life not as good, not to mention the keyboard. It is much easier to post to slashdot from this plane than from my iPhone. I don't have to hold the iPad up to my face to see my posts.
The simple fact is, that yes, I can do all these things with the gear that I already have, but I have been on the road doing this kind of work for a number of years, and I can say that my iPad makes my "road warrior" life much easier. FaceTime has also helped my personal life out as well. Easier than Skype, and I can pick up the iPad and walk around places while using FaceTime to stay in touch.
For someone like me that travels over 80% of the time for work, the iPad 2 is a godsend.
I would not say it is for everyone, but for me, I can easily afford it and it makes my personal life better and easier. Why wouldn't I want that?
I tell them to turn to the study of mathematics, for it is only there that they might escape the lusts of the flesh. -- Thomas Mann, "The Magic Mountain"
