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Wow.
Just... wow.

OK, I don't know where you went to school or what they taught you, but do you know what they had before we fucked the middle east over?

Iraq had a Christian prime minister. Openly Christian. Back then, they didn't kill people for practicing their faith. Women equal rights with men, and could hold jobs, vote, and even run for office.

And then we had the UN start sanctioning Iraq. We set off political and religious turmoil in the region that would burn for decades just to try and counter Saddam's growing influence (not to mention that WE put the bastard there in the first place). Now fundie Muslims are in power, and everyone around the world is worse for it.

As for your "do you think they would care" bit of WTFery, take a real hard look at Bush's elite "base" as he calls them. I bet every one of those rich business owners were quite free to go and vote, and most certainly they voted for Bush this year.

You can find the paper and videos here:

http://grail.cs.washington.edu/projects/styleik/

The first part of the article deals with all the legitimate ways to move particles from point A to point B without going through the intervening space. These methods (while very, VERY far off in the future) are scientifically plausible even if they sound like they were lifted from a bad Star Trek script. The second part, of course, is full of the worst kind of pseudo-science, like telekenisis and psychic abilities. But, really, the first half of the proposal is only a waste of money because the technology involved is too far off to be useful in any reasonably timeframe.

For example, negative energy is a real phenomenon in quantum physics. It is most commonly discussed in the context of the Casimir effect. Here's an article that discusses the Casimir effect. Basically, the negative energy arises because empty space itself has a certain amount of vacuum energy, and the Casimir effect reduces these fluctuations inside two metal plates (which have to be spaced absurdly closely together and manufactured to extremely exact precision for the effect to be measureable). Because we generally say that empty space has zero energy and the space between the plates has less energy than that, the Casimir effect is regarded as a source of "negative energy". This could actually be useful (one day in the far FAR future) for opening up space-time wormholes. And, no, I'm not joking either.

Also, while "warp drive" may be an overused Trek term, it's also a (semi) legitimate topic of discussion in physics. In 1994, Dr. Miguel Alcubierre found a solution to General Relativity that seemed to allow for faster than light travel while obeying special and general relativity. What followed was a lively debate on the plausibility of the "Alcubierre Warp Drive". One of the most recent objections argued that Alcubierre's warp drive would never be able to cross lightspeed but might allow for non-Newtonion sublight travel.

Google is your friend:

http://www.npl.washington.edu/AV/altvw79.html/

http://weekendpundit.blogmosis.com/lastweekend/005 298.html/

to list the top two hits.

It would be expensive and more long term than our society likes but it can be done.

Now if I just had the money we are spending in Iraq! (That old argument again! No it wasn't just about oil but if we stop buying the oil they have no money to become a threat in the first place. Concider it a premtive action to avoid the NEXT Saddam!) /Rant

I probably shouldn't mention that 610 trillion neutrinos are passing right through your body in the second it takes to read this line, then.

http://www.npl.washington.edu/AV/altvw13.html

For more information, read anything by Chomsky.

I wouldn't say that since Noam Chomsky's huge body of work spans so many topics, but nonetheless he is arguably the leading theorist on the subject (not to mention stupifyingly brilliant).

Some specific titles:
* Knowledge of Language: Its Nature, Origins, and Use
* Language and Problems of Knowledge: The Managua Lectures
* The Architecture of Language (Chomsky et al.)
* New Horizons in the Study of Language and Mind

Other theoretical traditions would say that there is no innate grammar, but rather that learning a language consists of learning statistical patterns which are represented through neural activation patterns

Which partially describes Kuhl's work, which is the subject of the article. However, I would not go so far as to say that these theories must be mutually exclusive. I subscribe to Chomsky's notion of genetic predisposition toward certain innate language structures, and at the same time I see no contradiction between that theory and Kuhl's description of a possible mechanism for language-learning.

A link to the paper can be found at the authors'homepage. Complex phyics models are already a part of Physics engines in most graphics rendering systems. Insect and Bird flight is a well studied problem in character animation.

Here is one explanation. The Virtual Retinal Display - A Retinal Scanning Imaging System

The website you are using (Slashdot.org) is not standards compliant.
Washington University recommends you upgrade to a better site immediately.

It actually did make the list (sort it by state to find it most easily). However, the facts are just plain wrong, unless technology has gotten worse since I attended in the 90's.

For example:

Get discounted computers: yes for students and faculty (http://www.bookstore.washington.edu/)

Usenet access: um, yes... (nntp://news.u.washington.edu/nntp)

Multimedia equipment: there was certainly the opportunity to loan equipment for presentations when I was there and it seems not to have changed... (http://techfee.washington.edu/proposals/2002/2002 -360)...

Offer courses in emering Technology: http://www.extension.washington.edu/ext/ as well as in diverse departments...

It seems somewhat skewed to me if I can repudiate four of the findings in under a minute just by googling...

It actually did make the list (sort it by state to find it most easily). However, the facts are just plain wrong, unless technology has gotten worse since I attended in the 90's.

For example:

Get discounted computers: yes for students and faculty (http://www.bookstore.washington.edu/)

Usenet access: um, yes... (nntp://news.u.washington.edu/nntp)

Multimedia equipment: there was certainly the opportunity to loan equipment for presentations when I was there and it seems not to have changed... (http://techfee.washington.edu/proposals/2002/2002 -360)...

Offer courses in emering Technology: http://www.extension.washington.edu/ext/ as well as in diverse departments...

It seems somewhat skewed to me if I can repudiate four of the findings in under a minute just by googling...

It actually did make the list (sort it by state to find it most easily). However, the facts are just plain wrong, unless technology has gotten worse since I attended in the 90's.

For example:

Get discounted computers: yes for students and faculty (http://www.bookstore.washington.edu/)

Usenet access: um, yes... (nntp://news.u.washington.edu/nntp)

Multimedia equipment: there was certainly the opportunity to loan equipment for presentations when I was there and it seems not to have changed... (http://techfee.washington.edu/proposals/2002/2002 -360)...

Offer courses in emering Technology: http://www.extension.washington.edu/ext/ as well as in diverse departments...

It seems somewhat skewed to me if I can repudiate four of the findings in under a minute just by googling...

--

Does that picture remind anybody else of the sail ship that they used in the movie Tron? Were they ahead of the game -again-?

[hardesty:~]$ bc -l
bc 1.06
Copyright 1991-1994, 1997, 1998, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
For details type `warranty'.
76/30
2.53333333333333333333

BTW, there's more information on UW's space research here, and more info on this program here. And for a final bit of karma-whoring, Winglee's page can be found here (he's got movies, too!).

[hardesty:~]$ bc -l
bc 1.06
Copyright 1991-1994, 1997, 1998, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
For details type `warranty'.
76/30
2.53333333333333333333

BTW, there's more information on UW's space research here, and more info on this program here. And for a final bit of karma-whoring, Winglee's page can be found here (he's got movies, too!).

[hardesty:~]$ bc -l
bc 1.06
Copyright 1991-1994, 1997, 1998, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
For details type `warranty'.
76/30
2.53333333333333333333

BTW, there's more information on UW's space research here, and more info on this program here. And for a final bit of karma-whoring, Winglee's page can be found here (he's got movies, too!).

[hardesty:~]$ bc -l
bc 1.06
Copyright 1991-1994, 1997, 1998, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
For details type `warranty'.
76/30
2.53333333333333333333

BTW, there's more information on UW's space research here, and more info on this program here. And for a final bit of karma-whoring, Winglee's page can be found here (he's got movies, too!).

Oct. 14, 2004 |

Science and Tech
New propulsion concept could make 90-day Mars round trip possible
FROM: Vince Stricherz vinces@u.washington.edu206-543-2580
John Carscadden, University of Washington In this artist's conception, a plasma station (lower left) applies a magnetized beam of ionized plasma to a spacecraft bound for Jupiter.

A new means of propelling spacecraft being developed at the University of Washington could dramatically cut the time needed for astronauts to travel to and from Mars and could make humans a permanent fixture in space.

In fact, with magnetized-beam plasma propulsion, or mag-beam, quick trips to distant parts of the solar system could become routine, said Robert Winglee, a UW Earth and space sciences professor who is leading the project.

Currently, using conventional technology and adjusting for the orbits of both the Earth and Mars around the sun, it would take astronauts about 2.5 years to travel to Mars, conduct their scientific mission and return.

"We're trying to get to Mars and back in 90 days," Winglee said. "Our philosophy is that, if it's going to take two-and-a-half years, the chances of a successful mission are pretty low."

Mag-beam is one of 12 proposals that this month began receiving support from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Institute for Advanced Concepts. Each gets $75,000 for a six-month study to validate the concept and identify challenges in developing it. Projects that make it through that phase are eligible for as much as $400,000 more over two years.

Under the mag-beam concept, a space-based station would generate a stream of magnetized ions that would interact with a magnetic sail on a spacecraft and propel it through the solar system at high speeds that increase with the size of the plasma beam. Winglee estimates that a control nozzle 32 meters wide would generate a plasma beam capable of propelling a spacecraft at 11.7 kilometers per second. That translates to more than 26,000 miles an hour or more than 625,000 miles a day.

Mars is an average of 48 million miles from Earth, though the distance can vary greatly depending on where the two planets are in their orbits around the sun. At that distance, a spacecraft traveling 625,000 miles a day would take more than 76 days to get to the red planet. But Winglee is working on ways to devise even greater speeds so the round trip could be accomplished in three months.

But to make such high speeds practical, another plasma unit must be stationed on a platform at the other end of the trip to apply brakes to the spacecraft.

"Rather than a spacecraft having to carry these big powerful propulsion units, you can have much smaller payloads," he said.

Winglee envisions units being placed around the solar system by missions already planned by NASA. One could be used as an integral part of a research mission to Jupiter, for instance, and then left in orbit there when the mission is completed. Units placed farther out in the solar system would use nuclear power to create the ionized plasma; those closer to the sun would be able to use electricity generated by solar panels.

The mag-beam concept grew out of an earlier effort Winglee led to develop a system called mini-magnetospheric plasma propulsion. In that system, a plasma bubble would be created around a spacecraft and sail on the solar wind. The mag-beam concept removes reliance on the solar wind, replacing it with a plasma beam that can be controlled for strength and direction.

A mag-beam test mission could be possible

Oct. 14, 2004 |

Science and Tech
New propulsion concept could make 90-day Mars round trip possible
FROM: Vince Stricherz vinces@u.washington.edu206-543-2580
John Carscadden, University of Washington In this artist's conception, a plasma station (lower left) applies a magnetized beam of ionized plasma to a spacecraft bound for Jupiter.

A new means of propelling spacecraft being developed at the University of Washington could dramatically cut the time needed for astronauts to travel to and from Mars and could make humans a permanent fixture in space.

In fact, with magnetized-beam plasma propulsion, or mag-beam, quick trips to distant parts of the solar system could become routine, said Robert Winglee, a UW Earth and space sciences professor who is leading the project.

Currently, using conventional technology and adjusting for the orbits of both the Earth and Mars around the sun, it would take astronauts about 2.5 years to travel to Mars, conduct their scientific mission and return.

"We're trying to get to Mars and back in 90 days," Winglee said. "Our philosophy is that, if it's going to take two-and-a-half years, the chances of a successful mission are pretty low."

Mag-beam is one of 12 proposals that this month began receiving support from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Institute for Advanced Concepts. Each gets $75,000 for a six-month study to validate the concept and identify challenges in developing it. Projects that make it through that phase are eligible for as much as $400,000 more over two years.

Under the mag-beam concept, a space-based station would generate a stream of magnetized ions that would interact with a magnetic sail on a spacecraft and propel it through the solar system at high speeds that increase with the size of the plasma beam. Winglee estimates that a control nozzle 32 meters wide would generate a plasma beam capable of propelling a spacecraft at 11.7 kilometers per second. That translates to more than 26,000 miles an hour or more than 625,000 miles a day.

Mars is an average of 48 million miles from Earth, though the distance can vary greatly depending on where the two planets are in their orbits around the sun. At that distance, a spacecraft traveling 625,000 miles a day would take more than 76 days to get to the red planet. But Winglee is working on ways to devise even greater speeds so the round trip could be accomplished in three months.

But to make such high speeds practical, another plasma unit must be stationed on a platform at the other end of the trip to apply brakes to the spacecraft.

"Rather than a spacecraft having to carry these big powerful propulsion units, you can have much smaller payloads," he said.

Winglee envisions units being placed around the solar system by missions already planned by NASA. One could be used as an integral part of a research mission to Jupiter, for instance, and then left in orbit there when the mission is completed. Units placed farther out in the solar system would use nuclear power to create the ionized plasma; those closer to the sun would be able to use electricity generated by solar panels.

The mag-beam concept grew out of an earlier effort Winglee led to develop a system called mini-magnetospheric plasma propulsion. In that system, a plasma bubble would be created around a spacecraft and sail on the solar wind. The mag-beam concept removes reliance on the solar wind, replacing it with a plasma beam that can be controlled for strength and direction.

A mag-beam test mission could be possible

It's not clear to me how the entries determined who would be the 'master' and who would be the 'slave'. It seems that if you had lots of 'colluders' around who could be induced to 'suicide' for another's benefit, you'd very quickly get cheaters who worked to be the 'master' in all situations.

This strikes me as a lot more reminiscient of the Hawk/Dove situation.

No, and no.

1. The CPD is a private, not for profit entity.

2. Washington University, where the debate was held, is a private university in St. Louis. The University of Washington is a public university in Seattle - no debate was held there.

Do not speak ill of "fortran 77". It is a great tool when used for its intended purposes. For example, I am preparing to use zipper to help create graphics for my upcoming talk. Another tool is PLTMG. These are both written in Fortran. (Of course, Surface Evolver is also a great program.)

What is a trademark?

A trademark is an identification of goods or services which may be a word, phrase, acronym, logo, or other symbol. Manufacturers use trademarks to distinguish their products from others. A trademark does not give exclusive rights over the product to its owner; it merely prevents others from using the mark in commerce.

In the U.S., a trademark can be registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for 10 years and 3 months, and can be renewed every ten years.

Lets not forget, that for some reason we can't find WMD

hmm, could it be the reason that there aren't any!?!@#?!@?#

Only every arms inspector and expert on the area that had made Iraq their focus for the past ten years of U.S. sanctions testified to the fact that Iraq had no WMD nor the capability of creating WMD!

BTW, chemical and biological weapons technically are not WMD. They are battlefield weapons. Terrorists have employed them before, such as in the sarin nerve gas bombings in Tokyo where 12 people were killed. They are not effective off of the battlefield. The only real WMD are nukes. You know, those weapons that the Bush family is always eager to mass produce?

First post ever, my apologies if I foof up the links.

True, the Gulf Stream is a western boundary current (the Brazil, Agulhas, East Australian and Kuroshio Currents are as well). They are a "return" current caused by wind driven currents and the coreolis force. For example, in the Subtropical North Atlanic (Below 45 degrees N or so), the prevaling winds blow from west to east ("the westerlies"), which causes an equatorward drift. The Gulf Stream is the return flow of that drift "bunched up" on the western side of the the Atlantic. A bit of an oversimplification, you can read a bit more here.

The thermohaline circulation is related to deep circulation. In the North Atlantic (the Labrador, Norwegian and Greenland Seas), water can be cooled very rapidly during winter, which sets up convection cells - when cooled, the water becomes more dense and starts to sink; the formation of ice also removes pure water and increases density. So the cold, salty "deep water" sinks down (to somewhere between 1000 m and the bottom - about 4000 m), and drifts equatorward , underneath the gulf stream. That deep water is thought to make its way to the Southern Ocean, and around into the Pacific and Indian Oceans, where it eventually upwells. Deep water moves slowly, but is the counterpart to surface circulation (and there's a lot of it). This theory was put forward by an Oceanographer named Wally Broeker, who called it the "global conveyor belt" - it is thought to be very important for moving heat around.

There is some evidence for rapid climate changes in ice core records, and some have speculated that the conveyor belt could be shut down (a la The Day After Tomorrow), which had some pretty hilarious science, climate-wise). There is some geochemical evidence that it has happened in the past - for instance there's some evidence that two massive lakes filled with meltwater from the last glaciation drained into the North Atlantic over a very short period (following the failure of a massive ice dam) about 8200 years ago. The idea is that a surface layer of very fresh (i.e. low-salinity, hence low density) water, would "cap" the deepwater production areas. If it's already pretty fresh, ice formation wouldn't increase the salinity as much (and density is mostly from salinity, not temperature) - thus requiring much more cooling to make new deep water (which would be exacerbated by any warming). At some point deep water would not be created, and since the water from the Gulf Stream must go somewhere, it would "pile up" in the North Atlantic, eventually disrupting or stopping the Gulf Sream.

Obviously there aren't any glacial lakes that we need to worry about suddently draining into the North Atlantic, but the idea is that increased inputs of fresh water would eventually reduce the amount of deepwater formation. That would take a fairly large amount of warming, but is possible (~ a 20% chance in the next 50-100 IIRC). I'll refer you to a good article on the topic by Wally Broeker. It's five years old now, but still pretty much on the money. I'll refer you particularly to his figure 5.

Sorry also for my "excessive" use of "quotation marks" - bad habit.

First post ever, my apologies if I foof up the links.

True, the Gulf Stream is a western boundary current (the Brazil, Agulhas, East Australian and Kuroshio Currents are as well). They are a "return" current caused by wind driven currents and the coreolis force. For example, in the Subtropical North Atlanic (Below 45 degrees N or so), the prevaling winds blow from west to east ("the westerlies"), which causes an equatorward drift. The Gulf Stream is the return flow of that drift "bunched up" on the western side of the the Atlantic. A bit of an oversimplification, you can read a bit more here.

The thermohaline circulation is related to deep circulation. In the North Atlantic (the Labrador, Norwegian and Greenland Seas), water can be cooled very rapidly during winter, which sets up convection cells - when cooled, the water becomes more dense and starts to sink; the formation of ice also removes pure water and increases density. So the cold, salty "deep water" sinks down (to somewhere between 1000 m and the bottom - about 4000 m), and drifts equatorward , underneath the gulf stream. That deep water is thought to make its way to the Southern Ocean, and around into the Pacific and Indian Oceans, where it eventually upwells. Deep water moves slowly, but is the counterpart to surface circulation (and there's a lot of it). This theory was put forward by an Oceanographer named Wally Broeker, who called it the "global conveyor belt" - it is thought to be very important for moving heat around.

There is some evidence for rapid climate changes in ice core records, and some have speculated that the conveyor belt could be shut down (a la The Day After Tomorrow), which had some pretty hilarious science, climate-wise). There is some geochemical evidence that it has happened in the past - for instance there's some evidence that two massive lakes filled with meltwater from the last glaciation drained into the North Atlantic over a very short period (following the failure of a massive ice dam) about 8200 years ago. The idea is that a surface layer of very fresh (i.e. low-salinity, hence low density) water, would "cap" the deepwater production areas. If it's already pretty fresh, ice formation wouldn't increase the salinity as much (and density is mostly from salinity, not temperature) - thus requiring much more cooling to make new deep water (which would be exacerbated by any warming). At some point deep water would not be created, and since the water from the Gulf Stream must go somewhere, it would "pile up" in the North Atlantic, eventually disrupting or stopping the Gulf Sream.

Obviously there aren't any glacial lakes that we need to worry about suddently draining into the North Atlantic, but the idea is that increased inputs of fresh water would eventually reduce the amount of deepwater formation. That would take a fairly large amount of warming, but is possible (~ a 20% chance in the next 50-100 IIRC). I'll refer you to a good article on the topic by Wally Broeker. It's five years old now, but still pretty much on the money. I'll refer you particularly to his figure 5.

Sorry also for my "excessive" use of "quotation marks" - bad habit.

It's a good question, and I think the answer lies in how much of your life was tied up in the life of the other person.

For some insight into this you might want to read this extract of chapter 21 of "The Little Prince"

"What does that mean--tame?"

"It is an act too often neglected," said the fox. "It means to establish ties."

"To establish ties?"

"Just that," said the fox. "To me, you are still nothing more than a little boy who is just like a hundred thousand other little boys. And I have no need of you. And you, on your part, have no need of me. To you I am nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world . . ." .....

if you tame me, it will be as if the sun came to shine on my life. I shall know the sound of a step that will be different from all the others. Other steps send me hurrying back underneath the ground. Yours will call me, like music out of my burrow. And then look: you see the grain-fields down yonder? I do not eat bread. Wheat is of no use to me. The wheat fields have nothing to say to me. And that is sad. But you have hair that is the color of gold. Think how wonderful that will be when you have tamed me! The grain, which is also golden, will bring me back the thought of you. And I shall love to listen to the wind in the wheat . . . "

The fox gazed at the little prince, for a long time. "Please--tame me!" he said.

You can read more at http://students.washington.edu/yana/LP.htm or various other locations shown by google

Looks like Mount St. Helens is about to defrag.

I think they color the recent quakes red to scare the bejesus out of everyone, but the average depth over the past month is still much closer to the surface than normal.

More info to add in the last few hours to my post. According to the most recent seismograph readings, it now seems that Mount Rainer is showing signs of activity as well.

USGS earthquake info for Mt St Helens National Volcanic Monument area (wide view)

USGS Cascades Volcano Observatory Mt St Helens seismic observations

Pacific Northwest Seismograph Network Mt St Helens home page (earthquake list)

USGS earthquake info for Mt St Helens National Volcanic Monument area (wide view)

USGS Cascades Volcano Observatory Mt St Helens seismic observations

Pacific Northwest Seismograph Network Mt St Helens home page (earthquake list)

I bet that's a cheaper way to go than simulating real places, too.

What are you talking about? We're not measuring something such as the value of G, which is somewhat difficult to measure, we're talking about counting votes. This isn't an experimental science, it's simple accounting, very simple accounting, count ballots. If ballot is marked for Bush make one tally mark for him, if marked for Gore mark one for him, repeat as necessary. For ballots that are incorrectly marked apply a consistent set of rules on how to deal with those ballots (which is not done anywhere unfortunately, but again, that's not science, it's accounting).

As far as 500,000+ votes out of 100,000,000 being statistically insignificant go to a bank or large business and tell them that for every 100,000,000 million dollars they collect that they're either going to be 500,000 over or 500,000 under and then tell them not to worry as this is statistically insignificant. I'm sure they'll find that very amusing.

Haven't seen anyone say this yet, but this is one of many projects based on the GPL ARToolKit. A friend of mine has another project here.

Not exactly helpful, is it?
I dunno, that guy who posted above could have used some of the pages on that search...

Our expensive computerized cars can only go some 20mph. Quite a few of us would have expected at least 60-150mph in the city to be possible by 2004.

Try calculating the average speed of your car travel. Go to some web mapping engine, put in home address and another, get miles and driving time, calculate miles/hr.

I see cars becoming semi-accursed, slow, expensive, wasteful, polluting, dangerous, and useless money black holes.

Perhaps becoming increasingly smaller - while we figure out some way to replace it.

We're becoming quite semi-intelligent, for not coming up with a less pathetic way to get around - MUCH quicker.

Eveyone driving a one-ton $10,000 90sqft unreliable obsolete closed-source no-protocol non-networked vehicle ain't never gonna do it.

Perhaps PRT, or pneumatic tubes , or electric bicycles.

Whatever, there's dozens of better options.
-------------

... but some of the more interesting stuff happened more recently (but still awhile ago). I have recently been looking at Fast Multiresolution Image Querying as a means to find similar images for f-spot. But it sounds like this patent is very broad and generalized, and systems like those described existed long before the patent. In fact, the paper linked above describes some of those systems.

I was looking into going to CMU for their esteemed Computer Science program, but now I just hope they wont let this influence their set of courses, breadth of experience, or heterogeneous computer labs...

The University of Washington's Computer Science department recently moved into a new building partially funded by donations from Paul Allen, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Microsoft. Maybe they try to influence the software used to teach courses at other schools, but I don't see that here at all. The introductory programming courses are taught in Java (originally C++), the OS course requires that you write code on a *nix box (one of the projects involves modifying the Linux kernel), and most classes allow for projects to be coded on either a Unix or Windows machine. The computer labs actually increased percentage-wise in the number of Linux machines after moving into the new building.

This university is about a 15 minute drive from Microsoft in good traffic, and the evening CS master's program has a lot of Microsoft employees as students, so you'd expect a huge influence on course software. But Unix pops up in enough places that it feels balanced to me.

current "governments", "states", "regulators" etc haven't really built an even slightly more advanced society anywhere as far as I've seen. simple mechanisms to justify, legalize, formalize or otherwise protect the monopolies that their members profit from themselves. i can't recall many monopolies, big business or financial interests being broken down by new efforts the public organizes, in spite of technologies galore. It appears Microsoft might be the first one. We've seen how they keep trying to protect their interests, and it's far from over yet. The auto and oil industry, however, isn't going anywhere soon it seems, in spite of better altrenatives being around forever. All of these monopolies are going to put up real resistance when they see people organize and build their own alternative economies, as they largely did in Argentina, install their own communications infratructures, build their own vehicles and transportation systems, generate their own power, build their own electronics, plant and grow their own food, etc.

Sadly, PC-Pine does mess with the registry. This can bite you in the ass when upgrading. For instance, my config file was overwritten after upgrading to 4.61. It's too bad they jealously guard the Windows Pine source or I would've ripped out that abomination.

This came out a while back in yahoo and somewhere else. LINK) Washington.edu. Basically they used VR to treat burn victims, who suffer a great deal of pain from their injuries. They seemed to think (this is from the news article I can't find) that normal off the shelf video games that immerse people (particularly mmorpgs I assume) have the same affect. Pretty cool stuff, trick your brain into not feeling pain.

...remarked with bitter irony that every triumphant theory passes through three stages: first it is dismissed as untrue; then it is rejected as contrary to religion; finally, it is accepted as dogma and each scientist claims that he had long appreciated its truth.
- as quoted by S.J. Gould

http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/klee/misc/slash dot.html

Looks like it was formed in a watery animal. Scat (such as Dinosaur coprolite) is what it looks like. Mars poop Ca poop Earth poop

But I thought the idea of solar sails had been scrapped due to the relaitve scarcity of interstellar hydrogen?

Actually, light alone is sufficient to produce thrust. The problem is that at 1.3kw/m^2 (the power that reaches Earth), you're not going to go very fast with the mass of the solar sails added on.

I've been keeping an eye on Mini-Magnetospheric Plasma Propulsion (M2P2) technology, myself. Basically, it uses an EM field to increase the surface area of the ship without the added weight of solar sails. As a bonus, the ship is protected from the most common forms of radiation and cosmic rays. The concept is particularly interesting when one digs the Orion concept out of memory.

The biggest problems with Orion were plate ablation and scalability concerns (scaling DOWN, not up). With an M2P2 shield, you could use larger pulsed units, and there's no plate to erode. As a bonus, radiation protection comes as a nice side-effect. (Although some steel would still be needed to block neutron radiation.)

this? http://students.washington.edu/juew/

The cue-conflict theory says that conflicting visuals and inner ear cues will make you sick. The Rest-Frame theory says that you get sick if the inner ear or visual cues conflict, not with each other, but with your mental model of your current motion. This might explain why the driver/pilot gets less sick, and why people can adapt to sickness. On the tilt-o-wirl, you might find that you could predict where your car is going in space (relative to the ground, it goes in a spirograph pattern) and keep your eyes looking at the point where you will be several seconds in the future. This might help.

For a good descrition of several motion-sickness theories, see this thesis: http://www.hitl.washington.edu/publications/r-98-2 2/

You mean like this?

Ok, it's not direct injection, but it's pretty close. Throw in some motion tracking markers on the common tables and process for position information and you have a heck of a 3D, somewhat communal interactive display.

These are non trivial problems, but I don't see any show stoppers except for the a high dork-o-meter rating from the headmounted camera/laser assembly. It's not like there's many women hanging around users of these systems anyway, so it's no big deal anyway.

I just don't see keeping my head stock still in front of a 15 inch monitor for hours at a time for any reason.