Seriously, way to completely conflate things the article said. These people are NOT advocating a forced limit on the number of children like China has done.
They are talking about providing funding for family planning- access to and education about birth control methods. And they're right- this is an effective way to reduce carbon emissions. It is also an effective way to promote development, education, and economic growth in impoverished areas, while empowering women to have more say in the course of their lives and more control over their bodies.
That statistic though- that China saved 18 million tons of CO2 by preventing 400 million birhts- has to be a gross underestimate, since China's average CO2 emissions are ~5 tons per person per year.
Not to mention #7 isn't even really right. It assumes that light speed travel means travel through space at or near light speed.
This is, generally speaking, not what the story describes. Hyperspace travel involves travel through extra dimensions, which may be far emptier than normal space. Wormhole travel effectively shortens the distance the travelers must traverse, making high speeds unnecessary. Warp drive distorts spacetime in a bubble around the ship, contracting in in front and expanding it behind; the ship is technically stationary, and so I suspect debris would appear to curve around the bubble, rather than penetrate it and collide with the ship.
This isn't the first solar powered aircraft to fly, though.
It might be the first manned solar powered flight. All the ones I've heard of before have been unmanned. ut the linked article doesn't make that clear.
You would be basically right, except for the caveat "cap of 100,000 won per family (£475 at the official exchange rate)."
In other words, anyone who has more than £475 worth of cash (in N Korean currency) will lose 99% of the value of that extra cash. Instantly. If they jad held their wealth in goods or foreign currency, they'd be fine. Unfortunately now that this has been announced, it is too late to do that. I'm sure if we could see the finances of some government officials, we'd find at least a few trades on currency and commodity markets in the recent past, though.
"We, the people, could very easily insist on real transparency, and our idea of proper behavior, if even 1/2 of us were so inclined."
Yes, we could do it, but it wouldn't be easy. We would need (over the course of 6 years) to oust every member of congress, and elect people who are intelligent, far-sighted, honest, and able to stand up to tremendous lobbying pressure. We would need the cooperation of a very large, ignorant fraction of the population to get a whole lot smarter and more interested in the wider world.
It should be easy, but so should solving most of the rest of our problems (poverty; global warming; access to education, water and food; and whatnot). All the legal, technological, and scientific solutions exist, but people are irrational (in ways sometimes good, sometimes bad) and fallible, and that holds everything up.
I'm generally a good tipper, 18-25%. More than once I've gone out with a bunch of cheap friends and ended up paying a heck of a lot extra to ensure a decent tip (not a mandatory one).
I understand why gratuity should be higher at fancy restaurants- generally such meals are longer, with more courses and more attentive service. Still, in an ideal world, I don't think a % is the best way to calculate the extra appropriate tip. Whether I order mashed potatoes or or porterhouse, it's one plate to bring over. The % system is also unfair at breakfast- what do I tip on a $5 meal? It would be insulting to leave $1.
I'd much rather have servers paid more and factor it all into the meal prices, but really (since the tip system is already in place), it wouldn't work unless a LOT of places did it at once. Patrons wouldn't know what changed, and would tip anyway (or not go, because they see a price hike). How many times to you see people ask their servers about things that are clearly spelled out on the menu?
There are plenty of physicists debating what, if anything, was here before the big bang, what banged, and so on. None of them can be considered steady-state. That debate was settled long ago.
Original sin was Adam's and Eve's eating of the fruit of the tee of knowledge, against God's orders. This got 'em kicked out of paradise, and tainted every human sould from there on out.
According to the church, Jesus made it possible for us to avoid damnation and, by god's grace, go to heaven. Baptism washes away original sin, and going to confession and atoning lets us cleanse ourselves of the the sins we commit in life.
So basically, original sin is why the unbaptized can't go to heaven. Accordng to the Catholic church, even unbaptized babies are damned. This creates a whole host of interesting debates all its own.
Does the law distinguish among various ethnic and racial backgrounds, or does it simply assume everyone in Japan has the build of a typical Japanese person? Because a 6'6" white guy with a 33" waist is probably not healthy, law or no law.
I'm average height for an American, and not 40 years old, but by all accounts and measures I'm a normal, healthy weight for my height- with a 34" waist.
They are talking about providing funding for family planning- access to and education about birth control methods. And they're right- this is an effective way to reduce carbon emissions. It is also an effective way to promote development, education, and economic growth in impoverished areas, while empowering women to have more say in the course of their lives and more control over their bodies.
That statistic though- that China saved 18 million tons of CO2 by preventing 400 million birhts- has to be a gross underestimate, since China's average CO2 emissions are ~5 tons per person per year.
This is, generally speaking, not what the story describes. Hyperspace travel involves travel through extra dimensions, which may be far emptier than normal space. Wormhole travel effectively shortens the distance the travelers must traverse, making high speeds unnecessary. Warp drive distorts spacetime in a bubble around the ship, contracting in in front and expanding it behind; the ship is technically stationary, and so I suspect debris would appear to curve around the bubble, rather than penetrate it and collide with the ship.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycerine about poisonings in 2007 from glycerine contaminated with diethylene glycol.
But yeah, glycerine in and of itself is not poisonous, and is used as a sweetener.
This isn't the first solar powered aircraft to fly, though.
It might be the first manned solar powered flight. All the ones I've heard of before have been unmanned. ut the linked article doesn't make that clear.
You would be basically right, except for the caveat "cap of 100,000 won per family (£475 at the official exchange rate)."
In other words, anyone who has more than £475 worth of cash (in N Korean currency) will lose 99% of the value of that extra cash. Instantly. If they jad held their wealth in goods or foreign currency, they'd be fine. Unfortunately now that this has been announced, it is too late to do that. I'm sure if we could see the finances of some government officials, we'd find at least a few trades on currency and commodity markets in the recent past, though.
:-)
Yes, we could do it, but it wouldn't be easy. We would need (over the course of 6 years) to oust every member of congress, and elect people who are intelligent, far-sighted, honest, and able to stand up to tremendous lobbying pressure. We would need the cooperation of a very large, ignorant fraction of the population to get a whole lot smarter and more interested in the wider world.
It should be easy, but so should solving most of the rest of our problems (poverty; global warming; access to education, water and food; and whatnot). All the legal, technological, and scientific solutions exist, but people are irrational (in ways sometimes good, sometimes bad) and fallible, and that holds everything up.
I understand why gratuity should be higher at fancy restaurants- generally such meals are longer, with more courses and more attentive service. Still, in an ideal world, I don't think a % is the best way to calculate the extra appropriate tip. Whether I order mashed potatoes or or porterhouse, it's one plate to bring over. The % system is also unfair at breakfast- what do I tip on a $5 meal? It would be insulting to leave $1.
I'd much rather have servers paid more and factor it all into the meal prices, but really (since the tip system is already in place), it wouldn't work unless a LOT of places did it at once. Patrons wouldn't know what changed, and would tip anyway (or not go, because they see a price hike). How many times to you see people ask their servers about things that are clearly spelled out on the menu?
I certainly hope you're joking.
There are plenty of physicists debating what, if anything, was here before the big bang, what banged, and so on. None of them can be considered steady-state. That debate was settled long ago.
Original sin was Adam's and Eve's eating of the fruit of the tee of knowledge, against God's orders. This got 'em kicked out of paradise, and tainted every human sould from there on out.
According to the church, Jesus made it possible for us to avoid damnation and, by god's grace, go to heaven. Baptism washes away original sin, and going to confession and atoning lets us cleanse ourselves of the the sins we commit in life.
So basically, original sin is why the unbaptized can't go to heaven. Accordng to the Catholic church, even unbaptized babies are damned. This creates a whole host of interesting debates all its own.
I'm average height for an American, and not 40 years old, but by all accounts and measures I'm a normal, healthy weight for my height- with a 34" waist.
Or to put it another way, "These aren't the Americans you're looking for."