Domain: playfuls.com
Stories and comments across the archive that link to playfuls.com.
Comments · 20
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Re:Did Someon Call the Skeptic?
......i'm afraid that scientists have lost the valuable trait of skepticism when it comes to this kind of thing........
The whole idea of theorizing that similarity in structure implies descent or ancestry sounds fishy. We don't do such things for human made things or devices. Horse drawn carriages and modern automobiles have wheels and axles. Does that mean that the latter descended from the former or that similar designs and structures work for similar functions and were implemented by the builders?
(......who has the integrity to question what everyone so dearly wants to be true..........)
One of the things evolutionists want VERY dearly to be true us the great age of millions or years ago when dinosaurs supposedly lived and went extinct. Without the millions or billions of time, evolution is dead and all evolutionists know that. The same article was also here:
http://www.playfuls.com/news_006520_Original_Prote in_Found_in_Tissue_Taken_From_Tyrannosaurus_Rex.ht ml
In that article there is this:
"When Schweitzer demineralized the T. rex bone, she was surprised to find such a matrix, because current theories of fossilization held that no original organic material could survive that long."
The thought of course that the original material isn't all that old goes against the "old age" dogma of evolutionists and isn't even brought up as a possibility. If the creationists are right, who assert that the long ages of millions of years in reality are only thousands, then Dr. Mary Schweitzer would not need be surprised. It is well established that living matter can be preserved for thousands of years, but not millions. A "mainstream" scientist is allowed to be skeptical about all sorts of things, except fundamental tenets of the evolutionist religion. Anyone who expresses such doubts is immediately branded some sort of Christian right wing nut. -
Re:Thais take this very seriouslyThais are some of the most friendly, inviting people on the planet. Is that before or after you are beheaded?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3763085.st m
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4118810.st m
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-04-04-thai land-insurgency_N.htm?POE=NEWISVA
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/03/19/news/thai.p hp
http://www.playfuls.com/news_10_17706-Suspected-Mi litants-Behead-58-year-old-Man-In-Thailands-Deep-S outh.html
300 beheadings and 1,800 additional deaths by guns and bombings in 3 years sounds like a barrel of laughs. -
Europeans Reject the PS3 Due to High Price
... Just stumbled across this a few minutes ago:
http://www.playfuls.com/news_06713_Europeans_Rejec t_the_PS3_Due_to_High_Price.html
Gotta love the media. -
RFID passports to be abandonded?Secretary Chertoff, US Department of Homeland Security: RFID passports to be abandonded.
That said, it looks like some of these passports are out there already. Secondly, I haven't come across a definitive statement or timeline from DHS as to when RFID passpots will be abandonded.
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Re:Mmm...
From what I read, no. The winner was Lucy Davidson. She felt the same symptoms the victim felt. See here.
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Re:Killed??
Actually a nurse called into the radio station and warned the station of the dangers of drinking so much water and the disc jockey dismissed the warning. SO yes it was quite stupid.
"During the contest, a nurse called in to the station warn of the dangers of drinking too much water quickly. Her worries were dismissed by the disc jockey, The Bee reported."
http://www.playfuls.com/news_10_9225-Water-Drinkin g-Contest-Winner-Shocked-By-US-Death-Of-Rival.html -
Re:sheeshThis article has more details; they say that a nurse had called during the contest to warn them about it:
During the contest, a nurse called in to the station warn of the dangers of drinking too much water quickly. Her worries were dismissed by the disc jockey, The Bee reported.
They also mention that the winner felt pretty sick afterwards as well. -
Re:Paging DVD Jon
"Jon here."....."I see."
"Talk to this kid. He says he has it under control." -
Re:How many do we need?
Let's see, the U.S. has GPS. And the Europeans don't trust Americans, so they want Galileo.
Well, GPS failure is said to be the cause of a European power outage
So what if the US suddenly decides it takes away GPS in certain parts of the world? look at it the other way around. What if Japan would have been had GPS and controlled it. Don't you think the US would want one for themselves? And rightfully so.
It isn't different for any other country. -
Zoink
I know it's popular to bash Zoink right now for being so biased (typically biased towards the XBox) but I don't think that it is really fair. For the most part, at this point in time there are far more positive stories for the Wii and XBox 360 than there are for the PS3; and there are far more negative stories for the PS3 than there are for the Wii or XBox 360. Just a quick look at google news and you get the following stories:
Testing Sony
I remember those being my first thoughts as I learned of Sony's ambitious goals for the launch of the PS3. 2 million units shipped and a worldwide launch? Pretty sweet. Sony's plan looked like a good thing, too -- there'd be enough PS3s to go around, and everyone in the world could lay hands on the company's next-gen console. But things don't always go as planned, and it seems like Sony's in a bit of a pickle right now.
http://www.gamersmark.com/articles/206
Sony Doesn't Even Have Dev Kits Anymore
And just when you thought things can't get any worse for the guys at Sony... I'm no big Sony fan, but i honestly feel kinda bad for them, they've been running into alot of trouble lately... Yesterday their PAL release issues and the dramatic cut in numbers of PS3s available at launch... And today an even more shameful event: Sony don't even have enough dev kits to supply game-developers.
http://www.playfuls.com/news_7071_Sony_Doesnt_Even _Have_Dev_Kits_Anymore.html
Game Delay Hits Sony's Shares
TOKYO -- Sony Corp. shares fell 1.6% in Tokyo on concerns that a four-month delay in the launch of its PlayStation 3 game console in Europe could damage the Japanese electronics giant's earnings.
http://online.wsj.com/google_login.html?url=http%3 A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB11576590436725 6693.html%3Fmod%3Dgooglenews_wsj
Sony Setback Will Help Rivals
Sony Corp.'s disclosure Wednesday that manufacturing problems will diminish the launch of its PlayStation 3, slated to be the market's most expensive and advanced videogame player, will give rivals more time to establish their consoles in the market.
http://online.wsj.com/google_login.html?url=http%3 A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB11575827587965 5647.html%3Fmod%3Dgooglenews_wsj
The truth is that the Playstation 3 went from being the golden child of the videogame industry (where everyone was certain of it's success before it's launch), to being a console which many gamers want to see fail. I know, you'll say "But the opinion of people online doesn't matter, just look at 'snakes on a plane' or Microsoft's Windows." to which I would reply:
There are certain similarities between the Movie (operating system) market and the videogame market; in these markets it is the uninformed consumers who (simply through their massive numbers) makes most of the purchases. The difference though is that for (about) the first 12-18 months the only people who buy a videogame system are the informed customer (who will spend their time online chatting in forums about the fate of a product); in order for a console to attract exclusive third party development the console's manufacturer has to sell vast quantities of systems to the informed consumer.
No matter what you think, it is clear that Sony is in trouble and no ammount of spin or bias on their behalf will actually help them; Zoink isn't going out of his way to publish bad Sony stories and Positive Wii/XBox 360 stories, those are just the stories that exist. -
The satellite was destroyed
It is not mentioned much in news, but the satellite was destroyed by security officer present there after the satellite veered off its trajectory. This was done to save possible loss of life in heavily populated regions near the launch site.
http://www.playfuls.com/news_001546_India_destroys _its_own_satellite_in_air_to_prevent_ground_deaths .html -
Game Graphics Haven't Aged
It's just your perception that newer-flashier eye candy is superior and preferable to the simple, eligent graphics of yor. Honestly, Pac-man rendered with crisp graphics would actually look tawdry, losing it's original charm.
Was there already an article about Microsoft releasing classic arcade games such as Frogger and pac-man for the XBox 360? It's in the news anyway. All it really needs is PC emulation as the games have been on PC's for ages.
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DRM Thoughts
How long until they DRM our thoughts? I mean with singing sensation Meatloaf trying to lay claim to the phrase "Bat out of Hell" http://www.playfuls.com/news_0000516_Meatloaf_My_
B at_Out_Of_Hell.html I am going to trademark "like um" and then be rich, I am talking crazy boy band rich.... -
Re:stran9e
Yup, this "scorpion" definitely more like a crayfish to me. Or maybe they just got their pictures confused.
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stran9e
"Every species we examined had no eyes which means they lost their sight due to evolution," said Dimantman. How do the scientists know that considering the so called blind scorpion was dead and the others were live. Perhaps eyes looked differently and evolved into what they now expect. For all they know those creatures could have had some motion imaging sensors that were eyes. Anyhow here is a picture of the scorpion. What that article also failed to mention was that all but one scorpion were found alive:
The invertebrate animals found in the cave - four seawater and freshwater crustaceans and four terrestial species - are related to but different from other, similar life forms known to scientists. The species have been sent to biological experts in both Israel and abroad for further analysis and dating. It is estimated that these species are millions of years old. Also found in the cave were bacteria that serve as the basic food source in the ecosystem.
The animals found there were all discovered live, except for a blind species of scorpion, although Dr. Dimentman is certain that live scorpions will be discovered in further explorations and also probably an animal or animals which feed on the scorpions.
http://www.playfuls.com/news_001136_Previously_Unk nown_Prehistoric_Species_Discovered_In_Israel_Cave .html -
stran9e
"Every species we examined had no eyes which means they lost their sight due to evolution," said Dimantman. How do the scientists know that considering the so called blind scorpion was dead and the others were live. Perhaps eyes looked differently and evolved into what they now expect. For all they know those creatures could have had some motion imaging sensors that were eyes. Anyhow here is a picture of the scorpion. What that article also failed to mention was that all but one scorpion were found alive:
The invertebrate animals found in the cave - four seawater and freshwater crustaceans and four terrestial species - are related to but different from other, similar life forms known to scientists. The species have been sent to biological experts in both Israel and abroad for further analysis and dating. It is estimated that these species are millions of years old. Also found in the cave were bacteria that serve as the basic food source in the ecosystem.
The animals found there were all discovered live, except for a blind species of scorpion, although Dr. Dimentman is certain that live scorpions will be discovered in further explorations and also probably an animal or animals which feed on the scorpions.
http://www.playfuls.com/news_001136_Previously_Unk nown_Prehistoric_Species_Discovered_In_Israel_Cave .html -
Re:I still don't get it
The EU bureaucrats (a highly unelected and unaccountable bunch) don't like strong American companies on their turf. In their eyes it's basically another form of "American hegemony". They're busy doing the same kind of thing as they're doing to Microsoft to American-based credit card companies (see, for example, this article as well as Forbes), accusing them of making too much money, even though, with the exception of Visa, their margins are all running under 8%. Google's, by way of comparison, is like 25%.
So, the EU crowd runs around rattling sabers at American companies, demanding that the companies basically lie down and give away product or service to competitors, "levelling the playing field," or suggesting that there needs to be a properly "European" (an adjective that is a very recent invention in itself) counterpart to every American business. As if having a myriad of credit card companies or document formats or software platforms would really benefit consumers.
Microsoft shouldn't be judged solely because they're trying to be competitive in their markets. (How many Linux distros could be accused of bundling too much software?) Unless you're a communist (like some prominent figures in organizations with recursive acronyms), how can one demand that source code be given to competitors?
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Re:_A_ missing link, not _the_ missing link
I'm not sure whether you should post seeing as if you can't read.
They may have printed "a link" in the first CNN story, but other follow-ups correctly interprete the researchers as having meant "the link". In other words, the new find is positioned as "THE" link.
This is corroborated by:
a) "According to Sileshi Semaw, an Ethiopian research scientist at the Stone Age Institute at Indiana University, it appears "to be intermediate between the earlier Homo erectus and the later Homo sapiens".
http://www.playfuls.com/news_00527_Hominid_Cranium _Discovered_In_Ethiopia_May_Lead_To_Uncovering_The _Missing_Link.html
b) Another educated opinion:
"This is really exciting because it joins a limited number of fossils which appear to be evolutionary between Homo erectus and our own species Homo sapiens," said Eric Delson, a paleoanthropologist at Lehman College of the City University of New York, who was not involved in the discovery but has followed the project.
IF you these people offer you "science", THEN it'd be heresy to not believe it -
Tape defeats Sony DRM
Last time it was a felt-tip pen, this time it's gaffer tape. I bet a pen will work just as well.
To quote Gartner in one the playfuls.com link:
"After more than five years of trying, the recording industry has not yet demonstrated a workable DRM scheme for music CDs. Gartner believes that it will never achieve this goal as long as CDs must be playable by stand-alone CD players."
Let's call this one the disable-the-data-track-hole. -
Nutch
I run Nutch, a project which is now part of Apache Incubator. I'm indexing a few tens of gaming-related websites, on www.playfuls.com. There is a lack of documentationm but if you read and play with the config files, you'll do fine.