$ jlc (10,317)

I did get your mockery...but I think that the boat that the article missed was that of a 'desired change' vs that of a 'cosmetic promotional alteration'.

There is so much that is advertised that is just 'stuff' and nothing really advantageous. Making something that is actually an asset can still get sales.

Jan

Jan

I do not think the conclusion this article comes to is at all accurate. I think that the reason that auto sales are stalling is that everyone knows that the self-driving cars are on the verge of being released. For decades, automakers have been trying to sell their new models on the basis of 'has a dashboard that looks like an airplane' or 'has a rear style that looks like an elephant sat on it'. People flocked to buy electric and hybrid vehicles when they were released, because it was an actual substantial change. Now, with the possibility of having a autodrive option...why would you buy a car before that came out?

I have never bought a new car, but I have good credit and would consider buying a nice Jeep Grand Cherokee new if it came with autodrive that was at least good on highways.

Jan

This is wonderful. Millions of people who would not have heard of libertarianism now know about it. And certainly the pope speaking out against it will give it the dark attraction of the forbidden. I hope that he continues to rail against individualism as found in libertarianism.

Jan

You are correct I misspoke. I will try to send you further discussion but work is workish today.

Jan

I agree that we tend to underestimate how advanced ancient civilizations were, falsely equating technology with intelligence, and these conceptions are frequently being overturned eg the 200K year old ocher mines in Africa and the copper ax of the Iceman. But it does not matter what lines up with what: If radioisotope dating limits the building to 4th C BC, then we have to include that datum.

Jan

There is also a dead space along Hwy 1 in the mid-coast of California. (I camp there.) So, yes, I certainly agree. (It would be nice to know that if something went wrong while I was camping, I could call for help...no such luck.)

Jan

This is a discussion that is interesting. To the best of my knowledge, the pyramids were built in the 3rd millennium BC. (http://www.aeraweb.org/projects/how-o...) My argument is not based on 19th C assumptions, but on 20th C radiocarbon dating. I will readily agree that the pyramids could be a few hundred years older, but not 10K years older. If you have any sources for scientific dating that shows the pyramids are millennia older, I would like to take a look at it.

Gheorghiu's interpretation of the carvings at Gobekli Tepe is an interesting hypothesis - but it is only that. Schmidt, the original excavator of the site, does not endorse Gheorghiu's interpretation.

Jan

We really, as a culture, need to do a better job of handling scientific disagreement. Continental drift, Lamarkism/Lysencoism, blank slate/genetic inheritance, pre-Clovis settlement of the Americas...all of these issues have been politicized and one side or the other declared anathema.

People have to learn that everything is a hypothesis; nothing is settled. Change is normal in science and disagreements need to be seen as part of the usual process.

I have read about the astronomical figures in Gobekli Tepe and think that is possible, but certainly not clear. And the cometary event is far from 'confirmed.

Jan

I think that a good parallel is that Africa and S.Am will not have to go through the phase of 'stringing miles of copper wire on poles' in order to have telephones. With this type of development, 'building networks of roads and bridges to access countryside' will similarly not be necessary for areas that go into development post roadless-travel vehicles.

This is also tangentially related to the Fermi Paradox.

Jan

Why not ground travel? Even if this were restricted to near-surface use, flying at 10' above the ground over unpaved (but perhaps marked or electronically tagged) surfaces would be very useful.

It would mean that you could ride a fence line or monitor livestock or build a roadless house in the wilderness.

Jan

I would like that, Brett. You can email me directly at "jlc@schuylerhouse.com". I am interested in reading the details of your expo.

Yes, we are still in SoCal. (I was stationed at Mather for 2.5 years, though, so Sac qualifies as 'old stomping grounds'.)

Jan

I have not been posting for the last...almost a year, I guess, so I am not as aware of this as you are (and I don't do social media). I think that your observations are likely, though. I could counter that I occasionally post on io9 (flamingly liberal site) on matters of my interest, which might give them the 'ghost' impression of me.

Jan

I am sometimes dismayed to find that my tendency towards paranoia, which I keep sternly controlled, is not only correct but inadequate.

Jan

I thought you might be interested in this article on 'where California businesses move to'.
http://www.spectrumlocationsolutions....

Jan

Crow epistemology is interesting, but not what I was referring to. In facial research, a composite image made from 10 pics is found to be selected as more attractive and any individual; a composite made from 100 pics is selected as more attractive than the 10-fold composite, etc. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Average...)

If there is a composite language created from all of the languages extant, then it might actually be better at expressing all of the concepts we need, and it will probably be more logically constructed. Whether or not it is suitable for humans to use is, as you point out, another question entirely.

Jan

It is a tough decision. I have been looking at moving to Texas for a number of years now. The problem is that while Texas is definitely better than Calif, it is 'not enough better' (yet) to merit the dislocation of a move. For example, Texas would not have been able to 'protect' me/us (the company) from Obamacare regs.
I am curious about where people chose to go because it informs me of a potential choice as well.

Even in CA, the center is 'red' - not enough to offset the coastal population centers but still a lot of silent people who have been bullied into thinking that they are hicks and therefor not worthy of having opinions. One of the things I am looking for is for this element of the population to 'start talking'. It is possible that a collateral benefit of Trump's upcoming presidency will be that, even in Calif, the 'cool liberal kids' will now find people disagreeing with them. I am hoping that this might bring about a change in the political atmosphere.

If Trump can protect all of the US from the EPA and Obamacare, and enforce the 2nd amendment, that will give all states a bit of a breather.

Jan

Where will you go?

Jan

Well, the key to this article is the Harvard/Northwestern study. If that study is inaccurate, there are correspondingly more or less guns and/or gun owners.

I suspect that, like Heinleinian anarchists there are 'big mouthed gun owners' and 'small mouthed gun owners' (not sure if I am paraphrasing Heinlein accurately - corrections welcome); it is going to be a lot easier to count the former than the latter.

Jan

This makes me wonder about the structure of the internal language. We have all seen the studies where the perception of beauty is enhanced by averaging tens/hunderds of pictures into a composite human face; now we can postulate a situation where a hundred human languages are averaged to make a single artificial human language - one that might be better than all existing natural languages.

Jan

Rocky -

I looked into oral colloidal silver a few weeks ago and did not find anything scientific that substantiated all the claims made for it. Topical silver salve is, on the other hand, a known and tested remedy.

If you use the oral form of colloidal silver, you might want to do it in addition to conventional medical treatment.

Jan

Uh. Can you provide me with a scientific article or clinical trial that shows that? I can find where Vit C kills Mycobacterium spp in Vitro and where it provides benefits (lower chemotherapy time; greater resistance against initial infection) in live beings (humans or pigs) but I do not see any way to consider it a 'cure'. If it is, then this is 2M people per year whose lives are saved for very little money - Vit C is cheap.

Jan

I think I can help you here. There is a Gerontology Research Group out of UCLA which has an email list to which I subscribe. Some of the people on that list may be interested in squeezing your genetic code for all that it is worth. Please send me a private message if you would like a contact.

Jan

I have a slightly different slant on this problem. Whilst I acknowledge that the facts of overdiagonsis are probably correct, I think that a significant portion of this is not due to evil pharma but because people go to the doctor expecting a 'magic pill'.

We have known for decades that doctors (a) typically prescribe antibiotics for viral infections, and (b) almost never do a culture and sensitivity to determine a causative bacterial organism and what antibiotic it specifically is sensitive to. This is not because Pharma is trying to sell more antibiotics or because the doctor is lazy-bad: It is because the patient genuinely expects to go home(right now!) with a pill that will make everything better. He looks at the doctor with puppydog eyes (and will bitch like hell if not given a prescription). The doctor gives him what the patient wants. This results in antibiotic resistant bacteria, which is not a good thing.

Similarly, the non-ADHD kids who are problem children are probably 'helped' by the prescription. "... clinical trials found that therapeutic doses of amphetamine and methylphenidate result in modest yet unambiguous improvements in cognition, including working memory, episodic memory, and inhibitory control, in normal healthy adults." So, it does the magic it is supposed to do, which encourages doctors to prescribe it and people to take it.

I do not have a problem with adults taking Ritalin if they want to - It is not my job to run their lives. I do think that the psychiatric path of least resistance that results in prescribing drugs to non-ADHD kids is unethical and should be investigated as such.

Jan

Ok. Count me amongst the officially amazed.

Jan

Is this real? Does anyone have info indicating that this is not just a gif? What is the technology?

The turns look like the Laws of Physics are being dissed; the scenes with both the flier (at the very top of the screen) and the jet skis in them look suspicious.

Jan