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Submission + - Lasers Unearth Lost 'Agropolis' of New England (sciencemag.org)

sciencehabit writes: Hidden ruins are customary in the wild jungles of South America or on the white shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Now, researchers have uncovered a long-lost culture closer to Western civilization—in New England. Using aerial surveys created by LiDAR, a laser-guided mapping technique, the team detected the barely perceptible remnants of a former “agropolis” around three rural New England towns. Near Ashford, Connecticut, a vast network of roads offset by stone walls came to light underneath a canopy of oak and spruce trees. More than half of the town has become reforested since 1870, according to historical documents, exemplifying the extent of the rural flight that marked the late 1800s. Some structures were less than 2 feet high and buried in inaccessible portions of the forest, making them essentially invisible to on-the-ground cartography.

Comment Re:Hey Americans! (Score 1) 644

The primary motivation against socialized healthcare in the U.S. is to maintain a state of decentralized power. We want our Federal Government to have less power not more power. When the U.S. Government has control over healthcare in the U.S. it will have significantly increased its power over a significant part of the U.S. economy. Add that power to the power of the U.S. military and the rest of the world may start thinking that maybe decentralized power in the U.S. looks like a pretty good idea.

Comment Re:Officials say? (Score 1) 644

There is also no constitutional right to social security, roads, clean water, safe food, ...

Good roads, clean water, safe food, are all benefits to public health and national security. It's a happy accident that these things benefit individuals.

Social security and healthcare for individuals are charity. They are not Constitutional or God given rights.

Submission + - Code.org Disincentivizes Teaching CS to Boys

theodp writes: As supporters of Mark Zuckerberg's FWD.us PAC, leaders of the nation's tech giants are lobbying for an increase in the number of H-1B visas to "meet our workforce needs." And as supporters of Code.org, many of the same leaders, their companies, and the politicians receiving FWD.us support have declared a Computer Science education crisis in the U.S., saying there simply aren't enough kids studying CS to fill a projected 1,000,000 CS job shortfall by 2020 (assuming the job vacancies are still there after FWD.us is done). But Code.org is sending the message that boys aren't the answer to this CS crisis with its learn-to-code program which calls for educators who teach Code.org classes where fewer than 40% of the students are female to receive 25% less money from the organization. "When 10 or more students complete the course," explains Code.org, "you will receive a $750 DonorsChoose.org gift code. If 40% or more of your participating students are female, you'll receive an additional $250, for a total gift of $1,000 in DonorsChoose.org funding!" (CNET reports that Slashdot owner Dice supports efforts like Code.org and Donors Choose). The $1+ million Code.org-DonorsChoose partnership appears to draw inspiration from a $5 million Google-DoonorsChoose partnership which can completely disqualify schools from its AP STEM funding (including CS) if participation by female students is deemed insufficient. So, since the NY Times just reported that women account for only about 25% of all employees at Code.org supporters Apple, Google, Facebook, and Microsoft, shouldn't their CEOs cut salaries at their own companies by 25% until 40% of their programmers are women?

Comment Re:Furloughed workers (Score 1) 346

So ... I repeat my wife's question: do you REALLY want these people in charge of your healthcare? I don't.

Does your wife really think that insurance companies don't make errors with billing, coding or paying the bills?

Next time you're in your doctor's office, ask them how much effort it is to work with the various insurance companies.

Ask them which is worse - the insurance companies or Medicare?

Yes. The insurance company haters should ask their medical providers this question. They will find that medical providers are encouraged to "over treat" patients in order to be reimbursed enough from Medicare to pay for a visit's "paperwork" costs.

Comment Re:Answer: No. (Score 1) 404

Rare? Nearly every government contract offered to the private sector since Bush took office has been no-bid. Remember the deals made during the Iraq War? Every single one of those was no-bid to Halliburton. This kind of cronyism is NOT rare at all; it is the norm, and has been for over a decade.

I assume "Bush" means George W. Bush. The 43rd President of the United States. He has not been president for almost five years. Anyhow, cronyism existed long before he became president.

On the issue of purported no bid contracts: What services did Halliburton provide for the U.S. Military in Iraq? Who were the likely competitors to provide those services? What services did CGI Federal provide the U.S. Government? Were there any likely competitors (i.e. has anyone else built a website to service millions of customers)?

One more question: Why did congressional Democrats originally vote to support the Iraq War during the Bush administration? Was there some sort of quid pro quo?

Comment Re:logic (Score 1) 299

learning logic skills should be well in advance of coding. i do think our society waits too late on that.
that alone could improve lots of things out side of computer programming as well.

The zeitgeist in U.S. elementary education is to discourage students from using the "traditional" algorithms to solve multiplication and division problems. Algorithm practice is now referred to, by educators, with the pejorative "drill and kill". If students are not familiar with following algorithms, and possibly have disdain for doing so, they're going to have difficulty learning to code.

Comment Re:WHAT ARE THE NULL HYPOTHESES? (Score 1) 1105

Okay. Someone somewhere measured an increase of 85 ppm (i.e. 85/1,000,000 = 0.000085 parts) of C02 in the atmosphere between 1960 and "today." Is this a significant increase? Is the increase consistent throughout the Earth's atmosphere? How do we know that this increase in C02 lead to increased global temperatures? Would an increase in global temperatures necessarily be bad?

I've had "the planet has a fever" as an earworm, triggered by references to AGW, for many years now.

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