Comment Come on people (Score 1) 96
When I told you once, I told you a thousand times, and run Google translation by hand twice, and then run the grammar checker word.
If you copy a word for word, and then caught.
Comment women are objects in India (Score 0) 180
I have a friend who got back from a trip to India. She was traveling in a group with some other women and one man. The taxi drivers would grab the women by the arms and force them in the car like luggage, and then talk with the man about where he would like to go (with his women). My friend had bruises on her arms from repeated grabs.
Comment silenced? (Score 1) 398
I'm having a bit of trouble feeling sorry for the 'victims' who chose to sell out here. If they are taking hush money, then they are complicit here.
Comment unimpressed (Score 1) 59
I have higher expectations from proto-humans than some zigzag lines scratched into a shell. Come on, you really expect me to accept that as art?
Comment Re:Academic Beclowining (Score 1) 213
Not (just) a perfectly logical person, but a perfectly logical selfish person. Altruism perplexed game theorists for years.
Comment Re:Matters of Scale (Score 1) 213
Capitalism is about owning and trading things, not about making things. Certainly making things is a big part of owning them, and is a big drive of the capitalist model, but it is not a defining feature, as all societies make things. A defining feature is owning and trading things that are not (human) made, such as land, water rights, and the electromagnetic spectrum.
Comment Re:Federal Funding is not contingent on speed limi (Score 1) 525
As far as hitting wandering creatures goes, there is no real-world difference (in either chance or damages caused) between driving 60mph and 85mph
That statement goes against common sense and needs to be backed up with something.
Taxi Medallion Prices Plummet Under Pressure From Uber 329
HughPickens.com writes Most major American cities have long used a system to limit the number of operating taxicabs, typically a medallion system: Drivers must own or rent a medallion to operate a taxi, and the city issues a fixed number of them. Now Josh Barro reports at the NYT that in major cities throughout the United States, taxi medallion prices are tumbling as taxis face competition from car-service apps like Uber and Lyft. The average price of an individual New York City taxi medallion fell to $872,000 in October, down 17 percent from a peak reached in the spring of 2013, according to an analysis of sales data. "I'm already at peace with the idea that I'm going to go bankrupt," said Larry Ionescu, who owns 98 Chicago taxi medallions. As recently as April, Boston taxi medallions were selling for $700,000. The last sale, in October, was for $561,000. "Right now Uber has a strong presence here in Boston, and that's having a dramatic impact on the taxi industry and the medallion values," says Donna Blythe-Shaw, a spokeswoman for the Boston Taxi Drivers' Association. "We hear that there's a couple of medallion owners that have offered to sell at 425 and nobody's touched them."
The current structure of the American taxi industry began in New York City when "taxi medallions" were introduced in the 1930s. Taxis were extremely popular in the city, and the government realized they needed to make sure drivers weren't psychopaths luring victims into their cars. So, New York City required cabbies to apply for a taxi medallion license. Given the technology available in the 1930s, It was a reasonable solution to the taxi safety problem, and other cities soon followed suit. But their scarcity has made taxi medallions the best investment in America for years. Where they exist, taxi medallions have outperformed even the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index. In Chicago, their value has doubled since 2009. The medallion stakeholders are many and deep pockets run this market. The system in Chicago and elsewhere is dominated by large investors who rely on brokers to sell medallions, specialty banks to finance them and middle men to manage and lease them to drivers who own nothing at all. Together, they're fighting to protect an asset that was worth about $2.4 billion in Chicago last year. "The medallion owners seem to be of the opinion that they are entitled to indefinite appreciation of their asset," says Corey Owens, Uber's head of global public policy.. "The taxi medallion in the U.S. was the best investment you could have made in the last 30 years. Will it go up forever? No. And if they expected that it would, that was their mistake."
The current structure of the American taxi industry began in New York City when "taxi medallions" were introduced in the 1930s. Taxis were extremely popular in the city, and the government realized they needed to make sure drivers weren't psychopaths luring victims into their cars. So, New York City required cabbies to apply for a taxi medallion license. Given the technology available in the 1930s, It was a reasonable solution to the taxi safety problem, and other cities soon followed suit. But their scarcity has made taxi medallions the best investment in America for years. Where they exist, taxi medallions have outperformed even the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index. In Chicago, their value has doubled since 2009. The medallion stakeholders are many and deep pockets run this market. The system in Chicago and elsewhere is dominated by large investors who rely on brokers to sell medallions, specialty banks to finance them and middle men to manage and lease them to drivers who own nothing at all. Together, they're fighting to protect an asset that was worth about $2.4 billion in Chicago last year. "The medallion owners seem to be of the opinion that they are entitled to indefinite appreciation of their asset," says Corey Owens, Uber's head of global public policy.. "The taxi medallion in the U.S. was the best investment you could have made in the last 30 years. Will it go up forever? No. And if they expected that it would, that was their mistake."
Comment Re:The Same Game (Score 1) 454
Perhaps the solution isn't to pay workers more, but to pay CEOs less.
Comment Re:I thought the distinction was arbitrary already (Score 1) 59
There are two types of mass: inertial mass and gravitational mass. As far as we know, these two are equivalent.
Inertial mass is the resistance to motion (change in velocity). In Newtonian terms, F = ma. In special relativity, F = dp/dt = d(gamma*m*v)/dt
So, you can define mass as long as you can define a velocity and acceleration.
Gravitational mass is associated with gravity. In Newtonian physics, F = -G*m1*m2/r^2. In general relativity, gravitational mass is equivalent to rest energy. Gravity is given by Einstein's field equations which depend on the stress-energy tensor, which is a 4x4 matrix. The [0,0] element of the matrix is the rest energy density, which is the gravitational mass density/c^2.
Comment Re:I thought the distinction was arbitrary already (Score 1) 59
Unfortunately, the term matter isn't universally agreed upon. Let's look at the definitions in wikipedia:
1. Does it have mass and volume (occupies space)? A phonon has mass, and maybe has volume, but doesn't 'occupy space' because it is a boson.
2. relativity, has rest mass? Phonons don't fit the equation E^2 = m^2 c^4 + p^2 c^2, because they have nonlinear dispersion equations, so it doesn't really make too much sense to talk about them at rest. They aren't Lorentz invariant, since they depend on the velocity of the material they are traveling through.
3. Is it made of atoms. Phonons are not made of atoms.
4. Is it made of electrons and baryons. no.
5. Is it made of quarks and leptons? No
Comment Re:I thought the distinction was arbitrary already (Score 1) 59
The term mass, without additional qualifications, means rest mass. Unusual definitions of mass ought to be clearly labeled, such as relativistic mass.
Comment Re:I thought the distinction was arbitrary already (Score 2) 59
Matter has mass, but not all that has mass is matter. There are several types of polaritons, and some of them are clearly not matter, even though they have mass. Phonon-electromagnetic wave quanta are clearly not matter. Moreover, you state that light has no mass, which normally I wouldn't disagree with, but in the context of polaritons, what about light propagating through nonlinear media? I think it's totally appropriate to say it is massive.
Comment Re:Real investments come with guidance (Score 1) 473
Can't be done in a month before release.
Comment Re:Automation changes future job market (Score 1) 84
Am I wrong to think that plumbing, as a profession, will outlive every job in the tech sector?
