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If your car seat slides back unexpectedly, the most likely problem will be a decreased ability to press down in the accelerator. The seat would generally slide back only under forwards acceleration. Under braking the seat would slide forward giving positive pressure onto the brake pedal.

Removing feral animals is difficult, especially cats, see:

http://www.australianwildlife.org/field-programs/feral-cat-r...

So it is being done, however, to truly remove cats, it needs to be done in an fenced off areas(or islands). Fence maintenance is ongoing and expensive, plus Australia is a big place:

http://world.bymap.org/LandArea.html

While the AWC approach is effective, it will take decades and huge investment to scale out across the continent.

If small scale experiments like the article describes show promise, it might provide cheaper and faster methods for mitigation (not elimination) of the impact of feral animal predation on native marsupial populations. Hopefully enough to keep the marsupial populations viable in more areas.

Sometimes fencing an eradication are not effective tools for feral animal removal.

Eradication and containment efforts for preventing the spread of cane toads (another introduced species gone feral in Australia) have proven ineffective despite significant investment and effort. This is largely due to cane toads being able to move great distances during the wet season when large areas of northern Australia are flooded and their ability to breed in great numbers.

Research into training quolls to avoid eating cane toads by feeding them cane toad sausages with small amounts of a nausea inducing agent have show promise. Enough to make them unwell, but not kill them.

https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/wildlife/2017...

http://www.reptilesmagazine.com/Aussie-Authorities-Expand-Ca...

I have done off-track hikes through the Kimberley region in Western Australia over the past few years. Cane toads reached the Manning River (central Kimberley) a couple of years ago. On this years hike there was a noticeable decrease in the numbers of native animals (fresh water crocodiles, snakes, long-necked turtles, goannas, fish etc - we don't tend to see many marsupials as they tend to be noturnal) in the Manning River region.

As eradication and containment are ineffective tools for cane toad management, I'd say any research into alternative programs for improving long term native animal survival against feral predation/impact is a good idea.

Cyclists tend to break bones at slower speeds. Pro-cyclists racing down mountains will lose a lot of skin in a fall but unless they hit something hard (rock, pole, wall) they don't tend to break bones. At walking speeds, a sideways fall often results in broken collar bones and wrists.

It is all about the angular momentum of the cyclist wrt to the road.

I started shaving to a No 2 in university due to thinning hair. At the time I perceived a decrease in interest from women. 20+yras later, I shave with no comb (< No 1) about once a month. There is a definite increase in interest from women when my head is freshly shaved vs after a couple of weeks of regrowth. So I feel there is an attractiveness spectrum where full head of hair > none or almost no hair > partially bald / balding.

Interestingly in winter I often wear a beanie and people take a much longer look when greeting me while I have it on. I am not sure if it is because it forces them to focus more on my facial features for recognition or maybe they are trying to work out what my hair might look like underneath.

Regardless, losing hair and shaving my head did affect my attractiveness. Weirdly I think it also can be similar to the "grey-hair" effect where people attribute a sign of aging to greater experience and wisdom.

2kW is right about the wattage of a small electric fan heater for comparison. So regardless of how they made it look, anyone standing near it should have felt warmer.

I previously worked for a company that spent $5-10k psychometrically testing each potential hire in 1 on 1 sessions with a psychologist after they had passed an initial interview. The tests were a mix of general IQ (to ensure people actually had suitable mathematic and literary skills needed the role) but also quite a bit of personality testing. The company founders recognised the huge detrimental impact certain personality types could inflict on an organisation. So they spent considerable money and effort to try to detect and reject candidates that were likely to be passive aggressive, too dominating, inflexible etc. They actively favoured candidates that were able to demonstrate aptitude and personality traits aligned with being a team player, even if the candidate was less experienced for role (ie find quality people first, train them if necessary).

This was the best place I have ever worked. Problems (and successes) were shared. Internal conflict was very rare. If one person was overloaded, the team would work out who might be light on work at the moment and could assist. Work hours were very flexible - outputs not inputs were what mattered. We had a lot of autonomy and were encouraged to be creative and take some risks in developing new tools and services.

The employees were from a diverse range of ethnic and religious backgrounds. The male/female ratio was probably around 60/40 for a company of mostly engineers. Age of employee was mixed but favoured younger engineers. The company was a consultancy so it was a place people would work at to gain diverse experience then move on to specialist positions elsewhere. It was rare for older engineers to be looking to gain diversity of experience.

Given the personality types - this meant we had lots of really interesting discussions about different countries and cultures and life experiences. So "culture fit" at this company did not mean "the same as me" other that with respect to: will work hard, is intelligent enough, will be a team player.

Sadly, after a few years of awesome work life, some of the owners wanted to cash out and the company was acquired by a multi-national. The culture of the original company was quickly destroyed. No autonomy, ridiculous levels of authorisation (4-5 just to purchase $500 of IT equipment for example), competition from internal groups stealing clients, very few team players, inputs favoured over outputs (lots of "make work" going on). The transition experience really rammed home how real the Peter Principle is and the drawbacks of tall hierarchical management structures.

"Culture fit" to me means rejecting people that won't work within the organisational structure you are trying to build. Note that it doesn't mean non-team players should always be rejected. If you have a team of individuals that largely work in isolation and prefer to reduce communication to a minimum, hiring a team-oriented person could be detrimental.

As for "culture fit" being used as a cover for discrimination, I'm sure it happens. If someone is discriminating then they will want to cover their arse somehow and "culture fit" is vague enough that it can easily be used for that purpose.

Perhaps "personality fit" would be a better term for what I describe above? Though I have never heard it being used and I suspect a lot of-people in tech like to think that merit matters more and could find "personality fit" to be offensive.

When I was taught basic electronics in the early 80's we prototyped on cardboard by pushing in thumbtacks as connecting points then soldering the through hole components and bare, solid core copper wire onto the thumbtacks.

The solid core wire was quick thick and could be bent into rigid paths before soldering so there was little risk of shorting if you were careful. A few dabs of hot glue could be useful sometimes to keep close wires separate.

I wonder if you could do something similar today with smaller specifically designed tacks to replicate modern SMT solder pads. You'd need some good magnification to place the tacks.

Hmmm, I definitely prefer to stand when in a creative flow state. Any activity that requires a lot of reading I prefer to sit for.

I use Eclipse with Subversion as the VCS. With Subversion you can disable to automatic History tab update on selection change (ie unlink from Editor). Can you not do the same with the Git functionality?

...who have nausea.

It is not uncommon in Australia to say you are going over to a friend's house.

In Perth people often would say they are "going over" to Melbourne or Sydney. There is also the reverse "coming over"

"Out" is used generally such as in "heading out" where often no destination is specified. Also we sometimes use "outback" meaning anywhere not in a city or suburban area.

Any fines paid will ultimately be passed back to the consumer through increased prices.

Maybe the funes should be replaced by firing and/or imprisonment of culpable management?

Is there potential for a news article broker to sit between the readers and the major news sites? For example you credit an account on a news broker then when younwant to read an article the article access fee is deducted from your account. That avoids readers needed to subscribe to many newspapers or magazines and would provide a more friction free way to access specific articles.

DPD is wholly owned by La Poste which is 73% owned by the French government.

Seems ironic that a company owned by a government with strong social welfare and laws preventing long work hours would act in such a hostile way towards staff in pursuit of profits.

For Java:

Effective Java by Joshua Bloch.

For Spring:

Pro Spring 3 by Harrop and Ho was useful to me in getting a basic CRUD application running.

While the article is focused on transfer of various pathogens from ticks to humans, there is also a risk of developing and allergy to mammalian meat:

http://www.mydr.com.au/allergy/mammalian-meat-allergy

There is evidence of similar allergies occurring in the US and Europe due to tick bite.

So it is very important that you remove a tick carefully to minimise the potential for the tick to vomit. Permethrin creams (used to treat scabies) can be used for small/juvenile ticks.

Second target shooting but suggest Archery instead of guns. Less noise, more walking to retrieve your arrows after each end (round) and you can choose from a range of draw weights to find something that you comfortably sustain.

Like all hobbies you can start affordably then take it to extremes in a variety of ways.

Never is a long time.

Were earlier human ancestors able to " abstract the concepts and evolve our morals"?

So his point perhaps is the inequality to focus on is the disproportionate political leverage enjoyed by large corporations and the wealthy.

Seems a bit of a chicken and egg situation though. Those with more money can buy legislation that enables them to maintain or enhance their ability to extract wealth which begets the next cycle.

Breaking the political leverage is something the non-wealthy majority can do through voting for a party that will reign in political donations.

Why do you think you need native look and feel?

I have worked on a Java desktop app with Swing UI for over a decade. Mid 2000s we would get asked to "modernise" our applications UI, which really meant: "make it look like Windows XP".

After Apple released iTunes, which totally ignored the native look and feel on Windows, people stopped caring so much as long as it looked ok and was intuitive. The boom in web apps with every SPA defining it own internal LAF through CSS and Javascript and the fad for flat UI components seems to have further watered down the arguments for conforming to a native LAF.

I haven't played much yet with JavaFX so can't answer your actual question but I believe it is more flexible than Swing and Swing is already very customisable (though you sometimes need to create your own widgets by extending/implmenting off the default widgets).

The whole idea of potentially unpleasant or not consumable (due to allergies) output is a problem for me. The waste in time, work and resources to output something that has a high likelihood to be discarded (pizza is perishable) isn't something that should be encouraged. Especially when there are steps the service provider could take with minimal effort to avoid that outcome.

Typically with roulette there is a substantial upside to winning as well (large payout at casino for example). What is great thing you get by winning pizza roulette? A pizza that you could simply have ordered at no risk?

Hmmm, Smarties in Australia used to come in a small rectangular box and you opened it at one of the ends.

I can't recall ever seeing Smarties in cylindrical tubes with plastic lids.

Feels like we missed out on some fun.

After M&Ms were introduced in the 80's, Smarties became less common. I remember thinking Smarties tasted better at the time, but now I feel Smarties have lower quality chocolate than M&Ms. Maybe it is just familiarity bias.

Research and development on something likely to improve lives or benefit society. Non-profitable pharmaceuticals, renewable energy, environmental restoration etc.

Does the 4k monitor have multiple inputs? If it does, then connect both laptops to different input channels and switch inputs on the monitor as needed. Then presumably all you would need is a USB switch for keyboard and mouse input.

I have often wondered why no one offers wireless keyboard/mouse combos with multiple USB fobs and a switch on the keyboard to change which fob it talks to.

The frequency of cooking oil change has a large impact on the taste of the fried food. Some places will keep using the same oil for a few days, only filtering it each day. Fries from a day when the oil is changed could be great while 2 days later they will taste crap.

Using Lotus Notes at my current employer.

Notes itself has some great functionality. The UI feels a little clunky - but generally you can do what you need to do.

The main problems I encounter is the way our IT department have deployed it. Many functions are not enabled or only partially working. As far as I am aware, we have no Lotus/Domino expert in our country; head office (other side of the world) has quite a few though. Any requests made through our regional helpdesk for fixes/improvements mostly go nowhere.

I like the idea of the replicated databases for email and other business functions. It should mean staff could switch to a different machine and quickly and painlessly get access to all their email and other data. However, there is a considerable amount of convoluted configuration required (the way it is currently configured) that appears to require local admin access that makes it impossible without helpdesk assistance.

I suspect many companies deployed Lotus/Domino is similar semi-functional ways that made it less useful than it could be.

The reason many companies migrated away from Lotus/Domino though was the risk of vendor lock in. My employer is stuck with a vast amount of business process captured in Lotus/Domino. They have been slowly migrating core functionality out to other web or networked database applications over the last 12 years. Even so, I don't see any move away from Lotus Notes for email for many years to come.

Strangely on point ancedata:

My father worked as a drain cleaning specialist for many decades without a plumbing certificate. When he started his business drain cleaning was not regulated under the local plumbing trade. He knew vastly more about how to locate sewerage pipes, clean difficult lines (tight corners), which trees/shrubs were likely to be causing problems through invasive roots or causing movement of the pipes than any of the certified plumbers. He had knowledge of the types of pipes that a house within a suburb was likely to have (terra cotta, cast iron, PVC etc) and the right way to deal with blockages in each type.

He did work for many plumbers who knew they didn't have the right equipment or knowledge required for some of the larger jobs (sewerage lines vs sinks for example). Many plumbers were not interested in drain cleaning as it often involved dealing with unpleasant waste, jobs were typically only an hour or two in length while construction plumbing or gas fitting was cleaner work with more billable time. He also coordinated with the local water authority when a blockage was suspected to be in the sewer main.

My father would not do any pipe repair or fittings replacement. As he was not a licensed plumber he was not even permitted to change a tap washer.

The Plumbers Association eventually lobbied to have drain cleaning included under their certification. This came in when my father was about 50 years old. He did not want to do an apprenticeship to become a licensed plumber. An apprenticeship would have taken quite a few years at low pay to learn plumbing construction, gas fitting and a bunch of other stuff that he was not interested in doing.

So my father had to then be "supervised" by a licensed plumber. Luckily "supervised" was interpreted quite loosely for a long time.

My fathers rates for drain cleaning were substantially less per hour than a licensed plumber charged. By capturing drain cleaning under the plumbing certification - prices for drain cleaning did go up for most people.

From my perspective my father was not an "uncertified person taking advantage of the poor". An organised group (the Plumbers Association) instead lobbied to capture exclusive access to work via regulation. None of my father's associates who held plumbing licences thought it was a good change - so they helped him through "supervision" to keep working.

Generally, I see certification and regulation as a good thing. I am skeptical, however, of organised groups lobbying to increase their power/exclusive access etc through more regulation. Any such regulatory capture should be backed by solid risk analysis.

As you pointed out, the risk in drain cleaning includes damaged pipework. This could be mitigated by professional insurance, which my father carried - it does not require regulation and licensing.

Except many times the update will ask to expand its access to information in your phone it shouldn't need. So you choose between explicitly granting permission for unnecessary data access or don't update and hope you don't get owned via a vulnerability in that app.

A printout of XML contains the data in a structured and understandable format.

A printout of a binary dump does not provide any clues as to how the data was structured.

Beyond boredom, many people will develop bad body odor from the choline in eggs:

https://nutritionfacts.org/2014/08/19/how-eggs-can-impact-bo...

My partner eats boiled eggs daily for breakfast and at one point I tried to switch to having 2 eggs for breakfast every couple of days. I rapidly developed an unpleasant body odor that went away when I stopped having eggs so frequently. So daily eggs is not be a viable solution for everyone.