Sid Morrison's Comments
I read Chang's book as well, and it is a great one. It's too bad that sort of thing isn't covered in today's politically correct high school history classes.
The story about the decapitation contest is a well-recorded one. If I recall correctly, both Japanese officers were later executed for their crimes. Don't quote me on that, though.
Finally, I think Chang sadly killed herself after some severe bouts of depression while researching her latest writing project which concerned the Bataan death march. It's quite a shame, as she was so talented and so young (30s). She did what she did well, but I think the subject matter may have been a little too much for her.
Straight talk from Sid.
The story about the decapitation contest is a well-recorded one. If I recall correctly, both Japanese officers were later executed for their crimes. Don't quote me on that, though.
Finally, I think Chang sadly killed herself after some severe bouts of depression while researching her latest writing project which concerned the Bataan death march. It's quite a shame, as she was so talented and so young (30s). She did what she did well, but I think the subject matter may have been a little too much for her.
Straight talk from Sid.
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Pardon my candor in my previous posts -- obviously not all appreciate "Straight Talk with Sid". Allow my to rephrase...
1. Yes, there are people messed up enough to have genuine gender identity issues. Fundamentally their sex is whatever their 23rd pair of chromosomes make it to be. Yes, they can cut pieces off and turn things inside out, but that doesn't change the genetics. If they want to pay for it though (not the taxpayers or insurance companies forced to cover it), more power to them.
2. There is no way any kind of surgery of that sort or even alternate-sex hormones should be administered to a minor. This is purely elective stuff. The odds of screwing someone up permanently are far higher than the "confusion" they may suffer as they wait a couple of years and making an informed adult decision.
3. The whole idea that a very young child is so forcefully objecting to having male bits is absurd. As #19 (MoniA) noted, somebody is putting this junk into the kid's head. 2 year olds do not know that much about anatomy!
STFS!
1. Yes, there are people messed up enough to have genuine gender identity issues. Fundamentally their sex is whatever their 23rd pair of chromosomes make it to be. Yes, they can cut pieces off and turn things inside out, but that doesn't change the genetics. If they want to pay for it though (not the taxpayers or insurance companies forced to cover it), more power to them.
2. There is no way any kind of surgery of that sort or even alternate-sex hormones should be administered to a minor. This is purely elective stuff. The odds of screwing someone up permanently are far higher than the "confusion" they may suffer as they wait a couple of years and making an informed adult decision.
3. The whole idea that a very young child is so forcefully objecting to having male bits is absurd. As #19 (MoniA) noted, somebody is putting this junk into the kid's head. 2 year olds do not know that much about anatomy!
STFS!
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Yeah, I read the story. It said:
"It's then dried to prevent fungal growth, making it unlikely to trigger mold and fungus allergies,"
Well, that is super-swell when it is dry, but how about when it remoistens while inside that nice dark environment? It WILL remoisten in use because in cold climates, the house's warm interior air holds a lot more moisture than the cold outside air. When it exfiltrates (some exfiltration is inevitable no matter how tight you build), the moisture condenses on wall cavity insulation. Does the nice dry petri dish spring to life?
Also, while it was revealed it takes a week or two to grow to the proper thickness, how long does it take to dry thereafter? Or how much energy must be expended to dry it? More process time to add on....
Kudos for them trying, but for as long as the article was, it left a lot of questions unasked and showed everything looking really rosy. Typical greenie writing, unfortunately. I might be wrong, but I am betting their biggest challenge will be competing on throughput. Their manufacturing process relies on the growth rate of fungus and that will be difficult to scale up. They may find some specialized use for it, but I think it will be pretty hard to compete against synthetic insulations. These can be engineered for cost AND performance. "Sustainability" and "recycbility" are not really considered, and thus don't hamper the design. Since houses are (usually) built to last many decades, how important are these anyhow? Hey, who knows, maybe they'll find some niche use among the greenies... There are people who spend extra $ buying the Toyota Prius, so ANYTHING is possible! :-)
"It's then dried to prevent fungal growth, making it unlikely to trigger mold and fungus allergies,"
Well, that is super-swell when it is dry, but how about when it remoistens while inside that nice dark environment? It WILL remoisten in use because in cold climates, the house's warm interior air holds a lot more moisture than the cold outside air. When it exfiltrates (some exfiltration is inevitable no matter how tight you build), the moisture condenses on wall cavity insulation. Does the nice dry petri dish spring to life?
Also, while it was revealed it takes a week or two to grow to the proper thickness, how long does it take to dry thereafter? Or how much energy must be expended to dry it? More process time to add on....
Kudos for them trying, but for as long as the article was, it left a lot of questions unasked and showed everything looking really rosy. Typical greenie writing, unfortunately. I might be wrong, but I am betting their biggest challenge will be competing on throughput. Their manufacturing process relies on the growth rate of fungus and that will be difficult to scale up. They may find some specialized use for it, but I think it will be pretty hard to compete against synthetic insulations. These can be engineered for cost AND performance. "Sustainability" and "recycbility" are not really considered, and thus don't hamper the design. Since houses are (usually) built to last many decades, how important are these anyhow? Hey, who knows, maybe they'll find some niche use among the greenies... There are people who spend extra $ buying the Toyota Prius, so ANYTHING is possible! :-)
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Daniel, you totally beat me to it on the Soylent Green reference. I was thinking the same thing!
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And by the way, the part about the "W" sound coming from a 1930s textbook is also rubbish. You can find a bunch of scanned 19th century Latin texts on Google books, and they mostly employ "W" sounding pronounciation. The linguists who figured it out did so long ago.
Here's an example from a 1897 text:
http://books.google.com/books?id=_rAAAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1&dq=latin&as_brr=1#PPP3,M1
see page 3: "v like W"
And, for what it's all worth, I personally prefer the Late Latin / Ecclesiastical pronounciation better. And, I like that they use the letter "J". And I like punctuation as well! And lower case letters! All these things developed over time.
Straight talk from Sid.
Here's an example from a 1897 text:
http://books.google.com/books?id=_rAAAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1&dq=latin&as_brr=1#PPP3,M1
see page 3: "v like W"
And, for what it's all worth, I personally prefer the Late Latin / Ecclesiastical pronounciation better. And, I like that they use the letter "J". And I like punctuation as well! And lower case letters! All these things developed over time.
Straight talk from Sid.
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anthony's last sentence (Look, if my...) is priceless.
Most excellent.
Most excellent.
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"As he predated the founding of Islam, he would have been neither Sunni nor Shiite. Those two groups came to rare agreement late last week when they mutually declared him an infidel and subjected the corpse to a postmortem decapitation."
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Hey, it's nice to see Rensselaer Polytechnic get some good press -- I'm an alumnus as well.
That said, the rose-colored article doesn't address some serious expected "issues". Hopefully they don't overlook them as well:
1. As others have noted, what happens when this stuff gets wet or even a little moist from air exfiltration? There's no built in vapor barrier, so any moist air than makes it through the interior walls is going to condense on the insulation in the wall cavity. I suspect bad news when that happens. Fiberglass can handle that without any problem.
2. Another problem will be that it seems to take an enormous amount of time to make the insulation board (they said 1 - 2 weeks to grow the fungus that makes a 1" thick board). This will mean producing the stuff in any volume will require an enormous controlled environment facility of "inventory in progress". That is a big problem -- they will need to speed it up. This same problem plagued the early auto industry -- it took weeks for paint to dry on the finished cars -- hence the birth of lacquer. They will need a way to spit out many board a minute somehow.
3. Costs? Fiberglas is really cheap and the typical isocyanurate board insulation (which is the product they should really be going up against but their R values are currently too low) is more expesnive, but the R-values and ability to block airflow are a lot better.
I wish them well. Hopefully all the stuff overlooked in the article is due to faulty reporting and not faulty engineering on their part.
Straight talk from Sid.
That said, the rose-colored article doesn't address some serious expected "issues". Hopefully they don't overlook them as well:
1. As others have noted, what happens when this stuff gets wet or even a little moist from air exfiltration? There's no built in vapor barrier, so any moist air than makes it through the interior walls is going to condense on the insulation in the wall cavity. I suspect bad news when that happens. Fiberglass can handle that without any problem.
2. Another problem will be that it seems to take an enormous amount of time to make the insulation board (they said 1 - 2 weeks to grow the fungus that makes a 1" thick board). This will mean producing the stuff in any volume will require an enormous controlled environment facility of "inventory in progress". That is a big problem -- they will need to speed it up. This same problem plagued the early auto industry -- it took weeks for paint to dry on the finished cars -- hence the birth of lacquer. They will need a way to spit out many board a minute somehow.
3. Costs? Fiberglas is really cheap and the typical isocyanurate board insulation (which is the product they should really be going up against but their R values are currently too low) is more expesnive, but the R-values and ability to block airflow are a lot better.
I wish them well. Hopefully all the stuff overlooked in the article is due to faulty reporting and not faulty engineering on their part.
Straight talk from Sid.
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Tyler is dead nuts (hah hah!) on, here. The parents are twisted and the kids needs a shrink and some good foster parenting.
How about this quote of the parents:
"We’ll say things like, ‘You’re special. God made you special.’ Because there aren’t very many little girls out there that have a penis,"
THERE AREN'T ANY!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is going to be one messed up teenager and adult someday. Look for him on a sex offender list near you.
Straight Talk from Sid.
How about this quote of the parents:
"We’ll say things like, ‘You’re special. God made you special.’ Because there aren’t very many little girls out there that have a penis,"
THERE AREN'T ANY!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is going to be one messed up teenager and adult someday. Look for him on a sex offender list near you.
Straight Talk from Sid.
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Regarding the pronounciation of "V" :
Latin was a language that was "alive" for a VERY long time. The Latin of Cicero was not exactly the same Latin spoken in the Rennaisance. Spelling, grammar, and yes, pronounciation changed over time (linguists can tell this by studying verse written in varied periods -- they can deduce pronounciation by fiuring what should rhyme with what, etc.).
Depending on whom you learn your Latin from, you will pronouce the V as is pronounced in English today or you will pronounce it like a W. If you are being taught Classical (early) Latin, your instructor will use the "W" pronounciation, if you are taught late Latin or Ecclesiastical (Church) Latin, you'll get the "V" sound. Neither is incorrect, unless the context is specified and you get it wrong. For what it is worth, Caesar would have used something more akin to the "W" pronounciation, though.
Straight talk from Sid.
Latin was a language that was "alive" for a VERY long time. The Latin of Cicero was not exactly the same Latin spoken in the Rennaisance. Spelling, grammar, and yes, pronounciation changed over time (linguists can tell this by studying verse written in varied periods -- they can deduce pronounciation by fiuring what should rhyme with what, etc.).
Depending on whom you learn your Latin from, you will pronouce the V as is pronounced in English today or you will pronounce it like a W. If you are being taught Classical (early) Latin, your instructor will use the "W" pronounciation, if you are taught late Latin or Ecclesiastical (Church) Latin, you'll get the "V" sound. Neither is incorrect, unless the context is specified and you get it wrong. For what it is worth, Caesar would have used something more akin to the "W" pronounciation, though.
Straight talk from Sid.
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That's pretty neat. Check out this site http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/nca/1906/kap/lawrence.php which shows a wonderful super-high res pic of San Francisco taken by kite right after the 1906 earthquake. Click on the B&W pic, and then drag the red box around. Be sure to use teh zoom controls! Check out the legend and the ships at dock in the foreground. Incredible, huh?
Oh, the "Lawrence Captive Airship" was the photographer's massive kite-camera. Sounds more impressive than "Larry's Kite-Camera", huh?
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/nca/1906/kap/lawrence.php
Oh, the "Lawrence Captive Airship" was the photographer's massive kite-camera. Sounds more impressive than "Larry's Kite-Camera", huh?
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/nca/1906/kap/lawrence.php
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A drug user running from Dutch cops? They were probably only looking to get "hooked up" themselves.
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and when we're talking big cats, how about Roy Horn?
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I'll bet they do get sat on!
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Did he go to the prom with a date? Let's see her?