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Living through your children is the very reason for having your own children, by definition: it's what you do when you pass on your genes.

Dear Mr. Chemistry,

I know in your world the chemical reactions involved in reproduction are all that you see. Combination of chromosomes, DNA replication, mutation, proteins, RNA, etc. These are all well and good, but this species whose DNA your observing developed this little thing called a prefrontal cortex. Since then, this frontal cortex (not merely DNA) has ruled the destiny of this species. After millions of years of this species evolution being heavily influenced by this prefrontal cortex, things like individualism, self-identity, social interaction, personality, culture, etc. have become central to this species.

So I ask that although you must remain focused solely on your duties of executing the chemistry underpinning life, you keep an open mind to the fact that this species is no longer bound entirely by those chemical reactions. Perhaps a viewing of one of their own exploring some of these details would help.

Sincerely,

Mr. Evolution

That reminded me of this episode of Century City. http://www.hulu.com/watch/78162/century-city-to-know-her

What is it with people having some sort of fetish for putting EVERYTHING into the frigging browser?

This problem starts, believe it or not, with certain Web designers. Some people out there will not be able to sleep at night if you and me actually control the way their pages are displayed or their Web-sites used. The Flash obsession, for example, starts with the desire to prevent you from saving videos, and it continues with an absolute necessity of making you watch ads. Me and you understand that it would be elementary to have a browser plugin that detects Web-links to video files/streams and starts an external player. The truth is, clicking on a link to a video is so easy, no one needs a plugin for that. A program like VLC is far superior to any browser gizmo with respect to controlling the video playback. On a phone form-factor, playing back inside the browser window is simply INSANE. Indeed, linking is the simplest solution, and the one with the least overhead, and also the one that was working as far back as there were video players and Web browsers, and, of course, the one still implemented on every frigging Web-site not done by dicks.

I am afraid that HTML5 is not going to change the landscape. People who have a monopoly on serving bits (or just desire it) will persist in using proprietary software and secret protocols. HTML5 will be worse than useless to them for the reason stated above. IMHO, Mozilla and W3C are mostly wasting everyone's time with the video tag. Other tags, such as the ones for Web-forms, seem far more useful. And all of this superfluous BS distracts people from converting over to XHTML, which would actually improve Web documents' quality and compatibility.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free-to-air - "Free-to-air (FTA) describes television (TV) and radio services broadcast in clear (unencrypted) form, allowing any person with the appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring a subscription (or other ongoing cost)"

http://www.hulu.com/ (free tv)
http://www.youtube.com/ (free music vids and tv)
http://www.piratebay.org/

Maybe they don't have Old Glory Robot Insurance.

This is probably pilot study.

For more info on screw flies ee:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cochliomyia_hominivorax

If you want to read a good science fiction story (I highly recommend it) read "The Screw Fly Solution" by Raccoona Sheldon aka James Tiptree, Jr. aka Alice Sheldon. There's a TV movie as well:

http://www.hulu.com/watch/187916/masters-of-horror-the-screwfly-solution

Registration required, adult themes.

Even China is automating to cut costs: http://plasticsnews.com/china/english/headlines2.html?id=1278958338
"In the wake of labor unrest, Chinese factories are adding automation to control rising labor costs. It was bound to happen. China, once considered one of the lowest-cost automotive producers because of its supply of cheap labor, is becoming another example of rising expectations as workers demand their share of the country's growing industrial prosperity."

It is the fiscal logic of mainstream capitalism in its final death spiral...

What's going to happen when a billion+ Chinese get a taste of prosperity and then lose their jobs to machine? Judging by the USA, not much... The unemployed will just suffer and die I guess... Is that the "hopeful" end to all this? Can't we hope for something better? There are other options for progressive change as I outlined, but here is a sci-fi story by Marshall Brain about two of them, suffer and die vs. a basic income as a right of citizenship:
    http://www.marshallbrain.com/manna1.htm

Also, people like to do a lot of jobs like raise good food, but our society and its economic model won't allow them (or at least makes it really hard) because the quality of the actual work experience itself is discounted:
    http://www.californiadreamseries.org/rfc.htm
    http://www.hulu.com/ripe-for-change

There was no net job growth in the USA for the entire last decade (despite rising population). That has never happened before in the USA. Yet, productivity in terms of the US GDP grew 40% (with the benefits almost entirely going to the business owners/investors). Why should that trend not continue? Mainstream economists, even liberal ones like Paul Krugman, seem pretty much oblivous to the implications. Offshoring is a huge red herring they are chasing...

Part of why mainstream economists don't have clue:
    http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/04/business/economy/04econ.html?_r=1
"But in the wake of the recent crisis, a few economists -- like Professors Reinhart and Rogoff, and other like-minded colleagues like Barry Eichengreen and Alan Taylor -- have been encouraging others in their field to look beyond hermetically sealed theoretical models and into the historical record. "There is so much inbredness in this profession," says Ms. Reinhart. "They all read the same sources. They all use the same data sets. They all talk to the same people. There is endless extrapolation on extrapolation on extrapolation, and for years that is what has been rewarded." "

It's sad how that one skit from Saturday Night Live in 1976 is still relevant and still accurate:
http://www.hulu.com/watch/4163/saturday-night-live-ernestine

Seriously, what the heck is it with telecom companies?

I may have found your boat: http://www.hulu.com/watch/73450/saturday-night-live-snl-digital-short-im-on-a-boat-uncensored

How many cores will Total require? Probably just 1 right?

Just wait for Colon Blow. It should be even more efficient.

Well, there is a guy who claims that the weather trends we are experiencing is due to some convoluted connection to the effect of the sun's magnetic force interacting with the Earth's magnetic field. And he does have something to say about it's connection with AGW.

Fox News and Rupert Murdoch aren't libertarians, they are authoritarians.
 
I certainly wouldn't count Fox News as a libertarian channel (in what sense are they authoritarian though?) but rather as conservative both fiscally and socially, which is still closer to libertarian than any other main channels. Fox Business News is very libertarian though - see Stossel's show http://www.hulu.com/stossel and Freedom Watch, the two most libertarian shows on television. Murdoch himself has a history of being anti-socialist more than anything else. In Britain, his newspapers, The Times and The Sun, supported Tony Blair against Conservatives because he defeated the long standing Labour party far left leadership (which almost destroyed the party: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labour_Party_(UK)#The_.22Wilderness_Years.22_.281979.E2.80.931997.29) and more towards the center-left.

Its an industrial reagent.

Its a desert topping.

I think the SNL reference flew over the heads of most of this crowd.

Sony doesn't need to pay attention, the PS3 is already there.

- Local media: The PS3 can do local media (video/audio/pictures on the HD, or a USB drive).
- Remote Media: The PS3 can act as a DLNA client
- CD/DVD/Blu-Ray: The PS3 has it built in.
- Netflix: Since the last update, the Netflix client is now built into the console.
- Hulu+: The Hulu+ client is available as a free download from the PSN Store (you DO need to have a Hulu+ account with Hulu though). Also, Hulu is still working on expanding the content available on Hulu+ devices versus Hulu, so some things are still missing.
- Vudu: They just added a Vudu client for "Same day as DVD release" Video on Demand.
- Sports: both "MBA.tv" and "NHL Gamecenter LIVE" have Clients (great if you're a sports nut, or married to one)
- VoD: Sony has been working to build out their VoD service. rent/buy TV/Movies (including next day availability of Cable TV shows, and making shows available by Channel to make things easier to find including HBO, Showtime, SyFy, etc.)

Coupled with the increased quality of Over The Air signals since the Digital Switchover, and the need for cable is less and less (depending on how you consume). In a busy city I get at least 10 stations (plus substations), with HD quality reception.

Personally I ditched cable and went with a PS3 and a TiVo.
The TiVo adds an easy to use DVR with a Dual Tuner (record up to two shows at once, while watching a third pre-recorded), includes a Netflix client, is supposed to get a Hulu+ client (according to both Hulu and TiVo), and also includes:
- YouTube client
- Blockbuster Video Client
- Amazon Video On Demand Client
- Pandora Radio Client
- and a few others (I'm getting too tired to list).

=========
For me the cost breakdown was as follows:
Cost:
- Top of the line TiVo with a lifetime subscription runs $500 + $13/month recurring. (gives capacity for ~150 Hours of HD quality recording or >1000 of SD level quality)
- Low end PlayStation 3 runs $300.
- Hulu+ runs $8/month
- Netflix runs $8/month (for streaming only, +$2 to include DVD shipping also)

Total cost:
Initial cost (minus tax, cables, antenna): $800
Recurring month cost: $30

Cable used to run me $130/month (for Cable+Internet), I switched to DSL (~$30/month) and what I listed above, and it dropped my monthly bills by $100 a month (though it takes 8-9 months before the savings kicks in since you're purchasing your own equpiment).
That allows me to get the occasional VoD Movie from Amazon VoD, or purchase a season of a Cable only show or two, and still come out ahead overall (plus I can budget myself and decide if I have the money for it, instead of being hit the cost every month, like it or not, wether I use it or not).
=========

As an added bonus, the PS3 also play games, and the TiVo records other shows constantly once it know what you like, so there is usually SOMETHING you might find interesting, even if it is a rerun of a different show.

You could also throw in a cheaper/cheap DVR if you don't care/want the dual tuners, or NO DVR if its just not feature you're interested in, which drops both the initial cost and the recurring cost quite a bit.

Cable's days (as we know it) are numbered, depending entirely on the Nets ability to absorb the extra use and the Cable Co's willingness to break Net Neutrality.

What a great time to head over to Hulu and watch the master at work.

The conversation will soon turn to alternative energy. I just say this documentary which I think will be interesting to others:

http://www.hulu.com/watch/158468/fuel?c=News-and-Information/Documentary-and-Biography

Some tidbits:
1) Model Ts ran on ethanol well into prohibition. Ford had designed it so farmers could grow their own fuel. A major backer of prohibition was J. P. Morgan head of Standard Oil. Prohibition killed the alchohol powered model Ts.

2) The Deisel engine was designed to run on vegetable oil. Rudolf Deisel died under mysterious circumstances

3) The Carter Administration began an ambitious energy research program and reduced the US's dependecy on foreign oil by 25%

In addition I will say the hydrogen economy is a scam. Most hydrogen is produced using hydrocarbon fractionation.

As all good science fiction does, current events and the human condition were examined, placing the characters in moral quandaries throughout the show. Religion, origins, etc. were explored while maintaining a reasonable level of scientific realism. Significantly, B5 had none of these things.

I don't know how you came to that conclusion. The only 'scientific realism' that I saw in BSG was the lack of sound in space. Since that has been a harping point amongst nerds for some time before, it just came off as another of the checklist items of "what's edgy". Contrary to half thought out beliefs, there is sound is space. You can perform an experiment right now to prove it. Say "Test. Test. Test." Go ahead, try it. Was there sound? Yep. Are you in space? Yep. Sound may not travel through a vacuum, but there is definitly sound in space. So, should you hear it in a TV show? That is artistic choice. Certainly if the perspective is from a first person, you should not be able to hear a ship fly by. On the other hand, if you are getting a third person perspective, thus are already recieving information that no character is getting, it makes exactly as much sense that you can hear the ships as you can see them.

On the other hand B5 was constantly making a point to work with science. From explaining why the different races ship blow up in different colors, to acknowledging that not every species breaths the same air, to acknowleding that they could have pests. BSG on the other hand just says "God did it".

Which brings us to religion. There is nothing new in BSG in it's "examination" of religion. It is just rehashing the Christian mythos with nothing new added. How you missed religion in B5 is beyond me. The entire 5 year story arc was riding the religious theme. Perhaps you missed it because it wasn't the same old story you've heard a million times. Maybe it was because it actually examined the religion instead of just saying "God did it". From the beginning to the end, B5 examined religion through the Shadows. Not only examining good and evil from the mortal view, but questioning the good and evil of the gods themselves. Going even farther, questioning whether the ideas of good and evil even apply.

Basically your analysis is that BSG's simplistic trendy addition of those subjects counts, while B5's deeper analysis of the subject going so far as to even question if the questions are even asked right, doesn't count.

Not to the comptrollers at "FOX, NBC Universal, ABC, ABC Family, Biography, Lionsgate, Endemol, MGM, MTV Networks, National Geographic, Digital Rights Group, Paramount, PBS, Sony Pictures Television, Warner Bros. and more."

To them it's all +.

You probably caught the Nova Episode about fractals, it has a segment where it talks about fractal phone antennas:

http://www.hulu.com/watch/181084/nova-hunting-the-hidden-dimension

Here's some other stuff:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractal_antenna

http://classes.yale.edu/fractals/Panorama/ManuFractals/FractalAntennas/FractalAntennas.html

http://www.fractenna.com/

Puppy Uppers and Doggy Downers

.

If these robots are going to be caring for old people, what will prevent them from stealing old people's medicine?

@MichaelSmith, I guess that would be a "no". But what does "copying the brain" have anything to do with anything?

However, training the brain and using an eeg apparently allows you to reconstruct images of what the person is thinking/remembering, as seen in a recent episode of House.

If I recall correctly the technique was discussed on slashdot recently, though I couldn't find the article.

Link: http://www.hulu.com/watch/126486/saturday-night-live-burn-notice-game-show

http://www.hulu.com/watch/10322/futurama-bottle-cap

But this prolonged exposure to radiation is making me thirsty...

.

They weren't abusing ANYTHING? Really?

Wow. I now have a new appreciation of historians. People forget that quickly.

Here's a SNL clip from that era: http://www.hulu.com/watch/4163/saturday-night-live-ernestine

You must mean this Deceiver (1997). Thanks for the recommendation. May be it was good at the time, but Netflix doesn't think this is a movie I would enjoy (it's only giving it 2.7 stars out of 5). Plus, it's not on Netflix streaming, nor is it on Hulu, so I think I'll pass.

For those of you living in the United States who have access to Hulu, and who've never watched 'Lie to Me'. You can watch it here for free -- with just a few ads (much less ads than one would normally see on network TV).

"According to observers, 75 percent of companies have been infected with undetected, targeted attacks"

These "observers" wouldn't happen to be people with a vested interest in the cyber-security industry would they?

This sounds a lot like "75% of the population has an undetectable terminal disease with no symptoms and so everyone needs to buy our miracle cure right away!"

Or Dogbert has upgraded his invisible robots...

http://www.hulu.com/watch/78089/dilbert-animated-cartoons-invisible-robot

Color me skeptical on this claim.

G.

Welcome to the Plastic Beach

North Korea has Old Glory Robot Insurance

The first time I heard of Monsanto was in this interview with Vandana Shiva, concerning the effects of patented seed on Indian farmers: http://www.hulu.com/watch/133725/cooking-up-a-story-vandana-shiva-the-future-of-food-part-1

Hey look at that, one day later, Hulu for iPhone, without using Flash. http://www.hulu.com/plus/devices

The block is obvious now isn't it. The PS3 is on the list of Available soon so you can watch it on your TV for a small fee so it will be literally replacing cable.

http://www.hulu.com/plus/devices

Does this mean that Hulu is some kind of ongoing criminal enterprise? How can you tell? They don't have any MPAA seal of approval or anything like that.

ICP is getting more and more famous, or is it infamous? Keep talking and drawing attention to them...they need the money. I didn't even know they had a new album out until SNL made fun of them.

For a specific example:
http://www.hulu.com/watch/153113/worlds-toughest-fixes-giant-telescope

Most will find it fairly boring, and a little superficial, but it is a specific video example of the process you described.

Polygraphs and drug dog are tools. When used properly, by honest and upright law enforcement officers (yes, they exist), they can be useful in ascertaining the truth and protecting the innocent. It's when the officers are not honest that things get hairy.

For example, polygraphs can be used to obtain false confessions. http://www.hulu.com/watch/155840/abc-2020-fri-jun-11-2010 Apparently, following hours and hours of intense "questioning", even innocent people will fail the polygraph. Add several more hours of interrogation and many people are ready to confess...

I feel sorry for most cops. For some, it's a calling. For others, it's an excuse to abuse power. For most, it's just a job. How would you like to work a job where you have to deal with people who despise you all day long. It's not a good excuse, but there is a reason why they become clique-ish and distrusting.

Actually if you are Special Forces trained, a polygraph means nothing. "It is only a state of mind". Besides a polygraph test can be manipulated and often is. If you are not in a sheilded room, like those where you get an MRI scan or X-Ray in hospitals, just even the slightest electrical interference can throw up false positives. The same thing appilies with cabling having to be double sheilded and oxygen free. There can be lots of arguements and variables involved add infinitum. Personally, I feel a polygragh is just a tool to justify unjust justice. Good hard interrogation brings out the truth eventually... no need for water-boarding, burning with hot irons, electric shock treatment etc.

Sadly, no. You must start with a healthy government before mineral riches become a boon to the average citizen, let alone the poor.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/91538/vanguard-rebels-in-the-pipeline

Polygraphs and drug dog are tools. When used properly, by honest and upright law enforcement officers (yes, they exist), they can be useful in ascertaining the truth and protecting the innocent. It's when the officers are not honest that things get hairy.

For example, polygraphs can be used to obtain false confessions. http://www.hulu.com/watch/155840/abc-2020-fri-jun-11-2010 Apparently, following hours and hours of intense "questioning", even innocent people will fail the polygraph. Add several more hours of interrogation and many people are ready to confess...

I feel sorry for most cops. For some, it's a calling. For others, it's an excuse to abuse power. For most, it's just a job. How would you like to work a job where you have to deal with people who despise you all day long. It's not a good excuse, but there is a reason why they become clique-ish and distrusting.

Hulu is never going to use HTML5 video.

When it comes to technology, our only guiding principle is to best serve the needs of all of our key customers: our viewers, our content partners who license programs to us, our advertisers, and each other. We continue to monitor developments on HTML5, but as of now it doesn’t yet meet all of our customers’ needs. Our player doesn’t just simply stream video, it must also secure the content, handle reporting for our advertisers, render the video using a high performance codec to ensure premium visual quality, communicate back with the server to determine how long to buffer and what bitrate to stream, and dozens of other things that aren’t necessarily visible to the end user. Not all video sites have these needs, but for our business these are all important and often contractual requirements.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/2329/saturday-night-live-canis

It's the same disease that infected MMS and probably contributed to the Gulf oils spill. It ultimately stems from politicians who are corrupt, blind, or both.

Oh, and they quash any attempt to label food as "GMO free", as it apparently hurts the[ir] business ... Which would be Monsanto, the single most evil corporation in the solar system.

If not, they're darn close:
http://www.hulu.com/watch/67878/the-future-of-food
(Warning: weak ending / pitiful call-to-action. Has a decent rundown of Monsanto, though.)

So are you saying that if the person who fires the gun in is in a different state than Victoria Kolakowski, it's not illegal?

Only if the bullet passes through yet another state.

I saw it on a documentary on Hulu. Funny this is, it's a cartoon so I think it's a legal thing for kids.

Not true. If the epicenter is off the coast (as the summary suggests), then the nearby coast is at grave risk. This specific coast is a risk.

For more information: http://www.hulu.com/watch/135843/how-the-earth-was-made-tsunami

And yes, this is old news. (But it is scary.)

You point is sort of muted by the fact that not only did it pass, but more of the same was done in the next administration with a congress controlled by the same parties. However, they decried that was necessary and we simply didn't understand the intricate composition of the banking/finance system. Then the government took over GM, rammed health care through, did more bailouts and so on. All of which seemed to be against public opinion. In fact, public opinion was so bad, it appears the most democrat congress critters were expecting to lose their seats in the upcoming election. In fact, it was so bad that Saturday Night Live broke for the tradition of bashing only republicans and joking with democrats and did a skit parodying it. Well, actually, SNL has been doing quite a bit of Obama bashing which is strange seeing how they publicly admitted to favoring Obama and trashing Palin in order to hamper republican chances.

Anyways, I agree with your first past the post comment. I just do not think things should change. All of the purposed solutions seem to be either superficial or make things worse.

While I do not agree with the entire just say it part of your post, I do think you have a point on the what people think when something is bleeped.

Jimmy Fallon did a few random bleeps on different celeberty shows like aproah and it really seemed like they were cussing and swearing.

Anyways, this is the closest I can find surrounding it. I don't know if they redid the song or if they simply injected bleeps in it but it proves your point pretty well.

Actually, yes they do. If I Can Dream just came out this Spring, though it doesn't do much for me, as it's just another reality TV show. If they had something original, along the lines of Lost, Fringe, Eureka, Chuck, etc, it might be worth tuning in. But watching a bunch of wanna-be stars' every waking moments is nothing more than voyeurism, and not very entertaining, IMHO. Of course, the TV industry probably doesn't understand why a site called slashdot and bills itself as, "News for Nerds. Stuff That Matters" could ever get more than 10 hits a day, either,. . .

Why fiddle with the dvd when you can watch it right now!

For some reason reading this article made me think about the SNL commercial parody for Bad Idea Jeans.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/10310/saturday-night-live-bad-idea-jeans

This is anecdotal of course, but this is more or less true for me.

Ever since the advent of Amazon MP3, and eMusic, I haven't downloaded any more music (I've used Jamendo before which also provides DRM-free music, but they didn't have any of the artists I cared about).

Hulu has precluded me from downloading a lot of videos, and it's also got some interesting movies I'd never bother to rent at a video place (I recommend Ink, and Strictly Sexual).