http://physics.ucsd.edu/do-the-math/2011/08/recipe-for-climate-change/ Most of us should have taken at least a basic chemistry class at one point. It's pretty obvious that the amount of fuel we burn on an annual basis produces a lot of CO2 as a byproduct. It seems rather naive to me to think that adding that much of ANY compound to the atmosphere will have no effect at all.

hey hayyyyyy

Probably Detroit.

According to TFA: "We will not be following the model of using standard field-effect transistors (FETs), but will pursue devices that use ballistic conductors and quantum interference. We are headed straight into using the electron wave effects in graphene."

As much as I hate to say it, you shouldn't count them as completely unreliable. They were the first to uncover the John Edwards scandal. IIRC, it took the major media outlets a few months to finally pick up on it.

You can have your weather back on one condition; you have to take the Palins back, and keep them quiet.

When I was in grade school, calculators weren't allowed until 7th grade (strictly banned from elementary school). Even then, they had to be simple calculators that couldn't solve complex problems (graphing calculators were strictly disallowed until high school). Approaching it like this forced the students to learn to do new kinds of problems by hand. The expectation was that by the time tools were given, students should already know how to accomplish the same things their calculators do for them.

I don't know whether that's how calculators are still used in grade school or not, but it ought to be (in my opinion).

The same should apply for using spell check on exams. If they're at a level where they should be familiar enough with spelling to do so with a reasonable level of accuracy, then I think a spell checker should be okay.

What concerns me is that once spell checkers are introduced all of the time, the students may start to learn new words and not even attempt to learn to spell them properly (spell checker will do that for them, right?). For it to be equivalent to my logic on calculators above, the students would need to learn to spell the new words properly before being allowed to spell check them. Which isn't realistic to monitor or force upon students, unfortunately.

I bet you're a blast at parties.

Share on, you crazy pirate.

I tend towards doubting the "science" of the Breathalyzers used also. One of my friend was stopped recently and the cop told him that if he was chewing mint gum, spit it out and wait a bit because it could increase the alcohol reading by up to 0.02%. That's a HUGE margin of error for determining whether or not to give a guy a $6000 fine.

The same Rampart division, yes. The show is loosely based on it. The characters in the show do have alliances/pay-offs with fictional rap moguls, were involved in a "money train heist" where the money was never found (similar to the bank robbery of Rampart's "David Mack"), and they used similar acronyms/symbols (instead of CRASH, it was STRIKE team and they had cards with symbols for their division).

So, no... it's not supposed to be a direct documentary on the Rampart division, but it's similar enough. The show was originally titled "Rampart", even, but was changed to not anger the LAPD.

That said, The Shield is one of the best television series ever produced and it's worth watching all 7 seasons. Each one is better than the last.

I really like some of the Treehouse of Horror episodes. Episodes 5 and 7 are probably my favorites, because of "The Shinning" and "Citizen Kang".

You're right, with the caveat that most people tend to try to speak differently when they know they're speaking to digital transcription. The Android voice input also requires that you actually say the punctuation, as well (i.e. Hello comma Mom period Yes comma a visit would be nice exclamation point). So, unfortunately, even with Google's web powered voice transcription, you're still not speaking naturally.

I'm assuming that Google Voice uses the same technology for their automated transcription. In this case, the person will definitely be speaking naturally. The transcriber is spotty at best in that setting. I can usually get the gist of what's being said without needing to actually listen to the message and I appreciate how it applies different style types for things it thinks it could have gotten wrong (guesses are in a lighter shade of gray)... but it's far from perfect.

Well in my case they certainly did. The password I had been using was "very secure", or whatever their highest rating of them is called, and somehow they got in to my account to send messages. I saw server bounce messages popping up on emails written in Spanish, so I was fairly certain they weren't coming from me. This was around Jan/Feb though, and from TFA: