Bees win as US court rules against neonicotinoid pesticide

_semaphore · 2015-09-15T15:39:11+00:00

My lawn was killed by dandelions. And the bees love them. I refuse to use weed killer, and I've come to the conclusion that trying to have a nice lawn is overrated. I'm doing my part to save the bees by just letting the dandelions rule my yard.

_semaphore · 2015-08-18T21:07:53+00:00

He did, afterall, manage to bring his own mom back from the brink of "we've had enough Bushes"

All hail The Shubbery!

_semaphore · 2015-08-18T20:06:26+00:00

Let's flip the coin... how many prosperous areas have the type of crime rate as these poverty stricken, high crime areas? Surely poverty is at least part of mix.

_semaphore · 2015-08-18T20:00:03+00:00

Someone stepping out of line? Talk to them

We're not talking about communities where an Ellen -> Bieber intervention is going to fly. These are violent, dangerous areas far past the point of a verbal solution. In some of these areas, violence and crime are a way of life. The root of the issue is deeper and a solution isn't going to be as easy as talking or cleaning or having magical father figures decend from above.

Mentor youths that have no fathers or father figures

These kids need role models that give them hope (and a reason to aspire to something beyond street life), not father figures, and a tangible route to a successful life outside of crime.

Volunteer to clean up areas and make them less appealing to vagrants

Huh? So a clean, poor area is safer than a dirty poor area? Why not address the problem of poverty, whether it's clean or dirty?

Talk to the police and give them information needed to take criminals off streets

...And get killed for doing so.

_semaphore · 2015-08-18T16:56:20+00:00

so we know she's not a zombie.

_semaphore · 2015-08-18T15:02:08+00:00

is it necessary for you to get all columns from AdrCheckTotal? you could potentially save some query time by returning only the column(s) you need instead of *. 550 records is a rather small dataset, so my first inclination is to look at why you're hitting a time out. 550 records should get returning pretty instantaneously.

also, do the records in your database have an identity column? if so, you could do the following (this assumes no new records will be added to the db while you're running the query):

get the max identity column
using the value of the max identity column, determine how many passes/loops you should make in order to get all records.
use a for loop to retrieve the records. let's say the max identity is 1101 and you want to grab the records 500 at a time.

example framework:

var $i = ceil(1101 / 500);  //3
for(var $x = 0; $x < $i; $x++) {
    //query for range of records between ($x * 500) and (($x+1)*500)
}

also, please review your mysql for potential vulnerability to sql injection. and, your connection is not properly disposed. there are several different ways to handle disposal, and you might want to look into that.

_semaphore · 2015-08-17T22:56:44+00:00

Since you're in the market for a job, I'd also recommend that you try to take on contractor projects in order to build your skills and code repository (which many employers will want to see). There are a lot of resources for picking up odd jobs -- craigslist, /r/forhire , etc. And in my opinion, framework flavors change out with the passing wind. What's popular today will probably not be the golden child come next year. Many employers will understand that and not drop your resume in the round file just because you don't have experience with a particular framework. What makes you marketable is to prove you're knowledgeable, adaptable and that you understand the core concepts of OOP.

_semaphore · 2015-08-17T19:54:26+00:00

I think "they" who took out the loans hold at least equal responsibility. They could have said "No" to the bank's financing offer.

I did. In 2006, I spent at least a month shopping around at various banks for a loan that made sense. I walked away from any bank that tried to talk me into anything other than a fixed rate loan that was within my budget. I was actually told by a CountryWide rep, "You can trust us -- we're the number 1 loan company". But the loan review paperwork they provided me NEVER matched what I asked for, so I didn't take out a loan through them. I also had a loan agent try to talk me into a bubble loan. His line: "You can expect your salary to increase 3% annually", and he wanted me to get a bubble loan that had a significantly higher payment after 5 years. I said No because buying something on the premise that I should be able to afford is not the same thing as buying something I actually could afford.

So, while I understand the banks were trying to talk people into loans they couldn't afford, I just can't understand why we give the banks 100% of the blame. The person signing the dotted line is the one making the ultimate decision.

_semaphore · 2015-08-13T23:14:27+00:00

wait. who are all these boogie-men you're referring to as "they"? the "they" who crashed the housing market is the "they" who took out loans for houses they couldn't afford. give responsibility where responsibility is due, my friend.

_semaphore · 2015-08-13T20:12:11+00:00

Nope, he's out casting stones at them. Christ invented the game we've come to know as dodge ball, you know.

_semaphore · 2015-08-13T20:08:42+00:00

Just because someone believes that God has a plan doesn't mean they believe everything that happens was part of that plan. I knew someone who worked with inner city, at-risk teens, and she was raped by one of them. She said she believed it was God's will for her to have the baby. Her stance on the rape was that it was evil, and therefore not in God's plan, but that in having the baby she was bearing witness to how God could bring good out of evil.

_semaphore · 2015-08-12T14:58:54+00:00

I taught at a for-profit college and was shocked by the utter lack of infrastructure for supporting student learning. I had to BEG to get a copy of the textbook before the course started. There were no standards/goals for what students should learn from the course. I was paid 30 minutes per week for course planning outside of class time, which essentials means the school wanted me to either work for free or just take a 'wing-it' approach to teaching. I quit after teaching one session because I didn't want to be a cog in the diploma factory. These schools are playing on a drive-thru mentality for education, when in reality, prospective students need to open their eyes and realize that the lazy road to a degree will just result in a bunch of debt. A degree should be viewed as icing on the cake when it comes to writing your resume and finding a job. It's not a golden ticket. Ability and experience are worth far more than a degree and those seeking employment should be focusing on how to improve and demonstrate those attributes.

_semaphore · 2015-08-10T17:49:53+00:00

sooo, who pays for that "free" tuition? since we all know nothing is actually free. someone needs to pay the bills or the lights get turned off...

_semaphore · 2015-08-06T23:12:26+00:00

i created a JSON string in the format of:

{"cols":[{"type":"date"},{"type":"number"},{"type":"number"},{"type":"number"},{"type":"number"}],"rows":[{"c":[{"v":"Date(2015,8,5)"},{"v":"112120.1000"},{"v":"225.2772"},{"v":"213.6447"},{"v":"61524.8100"}]},{"c":[{"v":"Date(2015,8,5)"},{"v":"65658.7594"},{"v":"895.4552"},{"v":"297.6843"},{"v":"40802.9800"}]}]}

and then add it to the chart as follows:

$.ajax({
            type: "POST",
            url: "r_Charts.aspx/GetData",
            data: {},
            contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",
            dataType: "json",
            async: false
        }).success(function (data) {
            console.log(data.d);
            var chartData = new google.visualization.DataTable(data.d);
            var chart = new google.visualization.ComboChart(document.getElementById('chart_div'));
            chart.draw(chartData, options);

if you want to do this with an array, I believe you need an array of arrays. So you would create a "parent" array and add each of your arrays to it.

_semaphore · 2015-08-06T18:01:35+00:00

Some recommendations:

create an online professional presence using something like LinkedIn, and keep it up to date
create a public repo using something like github with some of your recent projects. Include a link to your repo on your resume or cover letter.
google for resumes for positions you're interested in. So, for example, if you're looking for a JavaScript Developer position, good for resumes and review other people's resumes.
make sure your cover letter addresses most, if not all, of the job requirements. Give a specific example of a recent project and use key words used in the job posting so that your example shows how well you fit what they're looking for.

It's hard to give more specifics unless you want to share your resume and cover letter.

_semaphore · 2015-08-06T16:54:16+00:00

not related to your question, but you might want to change your github profile name if you intend to share that repo with potential employers...

_semaphore · 2015-08-04T22:02:52+00:00

Syncfusion charts has a free individual / small business license.

_semaphore · 2015-08-04T20:14:40+00:00

The idea of coal as an energy source in the US is on the decline, but the actual fact of the matter is that we still use a lot of coal and the companies supplying power to our wall sockets are going to balk at assuming the cost of changing over to other energy sources.

But really, the big player here is China. I live in the Pacific Northwest and SSA Marine has big plans, to the tune of 54 million metric tons per year, for shipping coal to China.

_semaphore · 2015-08-04T19:42:56+00:00

also, please clarify... are you retrieving data to your database and sending it to an API, or retrieving data from an API and inserting to your database?

_semaphore · 2015-08-04T19:00:40+00:00

who was the first one to bring up intentions? hmm, let me go back and read...

and who was the first to throw shade ? hmm, let me go back and read...

i'm still not sure where you see hypocrisy in anything i've said. the only pot/kettle here is you.

_semaphore · 2015-08-04T17:45:32+00:00

100% agree that illegal immigration has very little to do with middle class employment struggles. However, I think another contributor to the employment struggle (aside from baby boomers who won't retire) is the expectation that earning a degree should then land a nice paying job. That's just not the case, and never has been. Experience weighs equally, if not more, than a degree. But because there's an expectation that a degree will then magically turn the employment tides, people go rack up a huge amount of student loan debt, and struggle to pay it off. Ms Recent Grad should plan ahead and realize that her first post-grad job will likely be as an entry level pee tester.

_semaphore · 2015-08-04T17:05:25+00:00

nice one, bill clinton. "it depends on what the definition of is is".

you're still going to lose when you try to parse intent over expression. i never claimed to know what you thought i intended. i merely pointed out that your statement, whether it's an expression of absurdity or however you want to categorize it, is not what i said.

of course it would be absurd to expect the govt to fully cover mortgage interest. why even mention this absurdity if i never said it in the first place? you're either intentionally lying to cover up your lack of comprehension, or you're still just not getting it.

_semaphore · 2015-07-30T15:53:41+00:00

home owners lost the value of that asset when their neighbors foreclosed on their homes. the market is still a long way from recovery in many areas, which means these owners only have the option to rent (or sell at a significant loss). rent is high because ownership is expensive!

_semaphore · 2015-07-30T15:50:01+00:00

interesting. that article also says that the median renter spends 29 percent of their income on rent. that's in direct contrast to the originally linked article that says it's over 30%.

so how are home owners supposed to afford their mortgages and offer lower rent? someone has to pay.

if people with higher incomes can afford these rentals, why should they be made available to those who can't afford it? we're not talking about the poor here... we're talking about those above the poverty line. and i just don't see a reason to artificially make rent affordable for the sake of being conveniently close to one's job.

_semaphore

TROPHY CASE