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A thousand developers all going a thousand different directions.

And after a thousand compilations each day and after a thousand days, we will end up with the most beautiful Desktop Environment ever!

No, no, no. This was first.

From looking at the cover, maybe this was an issue with it looking very, very similar to another series of books that is fairly famous?

It's almost identical to Buzz's suit.

* Green on the chest piece
* Green at the elbows
* Green around the crotch
* Green around the hands
* Bubble dome
It's just missing the decals and wings.

Just for comparison:
NASA
Pixar

Of course they don't.

Instead, you get this.

Which many people just click right on through.

Turn in your geek card now.

You should have linked to the original Comic or at least the Stallone movie.

mmmm.... three sea shells....

Superjudge

Superman

You be the... "judge".

Fusion scientists often get criticized for making unrealistic promises ("Fusion has been thirty years away, for fifty years!" or some variation on that). But take a look at the graph here. The graph shows the funding estimates from a 1976 fusion development plan, with various paths to a reactor. The black curve way at the bottom is the actual funding profile.

I heard that in the Urkel voice. :-)

The link you cite was a prediction from 2009.

A fact I mentioned myself in another comment. Your point is?

This graph of the last two solar cycles [wikipedia.org] shows that Solar Cycle 24 [wikipedia.org] is not nearly as strong as Cycle 23 (which peaked in 2000). So why didn't we have a similar or even greater melt off back in 2000?

Take a look at this graph from Wikipedia. Notice that the latter half of the 20th Century has seen more sunspot activity (generally correlated with total solar irradiance) than the earlier 20th Century, or the latter half of the 19th.

If you put a pot of water on the burner of your stove, and turn the heat up to, say just hypothetically, medium-high, and let it sit there for a while, guess what happens? The pot will eventually begin to boil, because you are inputting more heat than it can dissipate otherwise.

If you then turn the heat down to, say, 5 (out of 10), guess what happens? It continues to boil. Because you are STILL putting in more heat than the pot of water can otherwise dissipate.

See, the exact up-and-down of the knob doesn't matter so much. The only thing necessary is that the heat input is greater than the heat dissipation.

We have no evidence that this is NOT the case with the Earth in the latter half of the 20th Century. The heat input (solar irradiance) was unprecedented, at least for recorded times. Yes, it has lessened... but who is to say that it has lessened enough to cause cooling to actually occur? We don't know because we haven't been recording that long.

Has solar activity been lower lately? Yes. But as the pot of water analogy shows, the temperature does not have to follow the actual curve of the input (one of AGW advocates' favorite -- but completely bogus -- arguments). It is sufficient that the input is over the minimal level that results in a net gain. Even if it's only 50% of what it was last year (an exaggeration, but the point is made).

Although the SHORT-TERM solar cycle has been milder than normal, we have been at the peak of longer-term cycles (called the "Solar Grand Maximum"), and that is going away now, or will be within a year or two. I expect most global warming predictions to start failing just about then.

"You are aware that this is a PREDICTION by Kaku, not an observation, right?"

I think that goes without saying, since it was posted in 2009.

But here's the important part: that prediction appears to be true. We have been seeing ACTUAL unusual solar activity, just as he predicted. So... where's the beef?

"Despite the recent flare activity, this is one of the weakest solar cycles (so far) in many decades."

Nevertheless, this is the time of the peak of the 11-year cycle, and we ARE getting more activity than we have in recent years. It is not surprising that we are experiencing a heatwave.

"How many satellites and power grids have been knocked offline by solar activity?"

That's kind of a silly thing to ask. Regardless of whether it did damage, the recent flare was in the same general class as those that DID cause telephone service in Illinois to go down in 1974, and the power grid in Ottowa to go down in 1988. (I'm not positive I have those years right, but I think so.)

Your argument is kind of like saying that since a tsunami did not hit a major population center, it couldn't have been a big tsunami. When a more realistic assessment is probably: "Coastal cities got lucky for a change."

"By the way, we haven't yet hit the peak - probably still a year away , but it likely won't be much more severe that what we've seen so far."

The peak should happen ABOUT now... the "11 years" is only approximate (and in fact I think the average is more like 10.8, if memory serves). But some of them have been 9+ years, others 12+ years. The recent flares are rather to be expected... after all, it *IS* a cycle, not just a spike in the graph. The middle of the last peak was about 2002, which means it should just be starting to hit peak pretty close to now. Peaks typically last a couple of years... like I said, not a spike.

Also, one must keep in mind that there are known, longer-term cycles than just the 11-year cycle. For example, in this graph, you can clearly see that sunspot activity has averaged a great deal higher during the latter half of the 20th Century than in the latter part of the 19th. There are cycles that are in the 100-year range, and cycles that are in the 1000-year range. The fact is, we are just now coming off of what is called the "solar grand maximum", even though it may be somewhat milder given this short-term cycle, than the last Grand Maximum.

It should also be noted that even though flare and sunspot incidence has been down, on average, over this last cycle, total solar irradiance is still pretty close to average. But we only have that data for the last 30 years or so... less than 3 of the short cycles.

It's not so much what "society" will be like.

Consider the ramifications of a single social catastrophic failure. And when you considr this idea, remember that Science Fiction seems to have a way of becoming less fictitious lately.

Imagine, for instance, a coup d'etat with international support, where the American Government, engaged in a lengthy war, capitulates and is occupied by a non-English-speaking power. Let's say they speak Esperanto (considering its checkered political past). Let's say EVERY DATA CENTER ON U.S. SOIL FALLS INTO THEIR HANDS. Let's say they wax totalitarian, and decide to purge suspicious people. They'd have a treasure trove of data, to compile their list.

And it's not just WWW usage and browser statistics they'd get. They'd have Credit Card, Voice, EZ-Pass, GPS, Digital Video Surveillance, the works.

It's Skynet mannnn. The singularity mannnnnn.

I'm kind of half kidding around. But the half of me that isn't can only shake it's head (all half of it).

Nowadays, can someone please tell me now many are out there?

Many: https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Category:United_States_intelligence_agencies

Note that not all of those entries are for agencies; some are for programs, etc.

Yeah I know because shit like that has never happened before, not in Japan.... Oh wait, it has:

Pick

your

poison

!!!

Yeah I know because shit like that has never happened before, not in Japan.... Oh wait, it has:

Pick

your

poison

!!!

Yeah I know because shit like that has never happened before, not in Japan.... Oh wait, it has:

Pick

your

poison

!!!

Yeah I know because shit like that has never happened before, not in Japan.... Oh wait, it has:

Pick

your

poison

!!!

"Some interesting points to note include the painted-over windows (the gray circles near the nose), the amazing intricacy and build quality of the landing gear mechanism, and the tail piece. The Enterprise was never fitted with engines so it has that specially designed part in the back."

Umm, hate to be "that guy" but there is so much fail in that one snippet I can't stand it.

• The "gray circles near the nose" are not windows that were painted over. They're inserts to block the nozzles for the RCS system (and thereby reduce drag for glide tests).
• The Enterprise may not have had real engines, but it DID have mockups for handling tests at KSC (as seen here.
• That "specially designed part in the back" is an aerodynamic faring used to reduce drag on the ferry flights and thus reduce fuel consumption in an already heavily burdened 747 carrier aircraft. They ALL have one of those that could have been fitted when called for.

Normally I wouldn't get this worked up, but from a site supposedly aimed at geeks, I expected more...

Muller was a real skeptic. He had questions about the science but once he ran the numbers himself he was willing to accept that the others were right all along. The problem you have with denegrating Mann's original "Hockey Stick" graph is that there have been a number of studies since then from different researchers that use different sets of proxies that all pretty much agree with it. So if Mann faked the data for his hockey stick graph then he got lucky and got it right.

Here is a graph that shows Mann's original graph (in blue) along with 9 others. Notice that Mann's graph doesn't stand out from the others.

They probably got it wrong because of translating from Russian and back, but it's "Mahdi" in the source code and the file directory shown in the article. Also, that's the standard English-language spelling for the Mahdi, who's approximately the Muslim version of the Messiah (depending on which branch of Islam you're talking to - it comes from hadiths and tradition rather than directly from the Quran.) So it's kind of an arrogant thing to name your program - does that mean it was really done by the Israelis, or by some Arab haxx0r-k1dd13?

When apocalypse comes, Mann will be there, taking pictures.

(oh, I had him as a prof back in the nineties, he was always taking chances with the surrounding population)

If I'm looking up, say, a foreign city, I want collections of random images. It gives feel for the city.

But it is not Wikipedia's function to display image galleries - just go to Commons (one click away).

Random example: Augsburg (Wikipedia) - Augsburg (Commons)

Examples?

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Category:Emerging_technologies

... and plugged into a small little audrino powered by induction transfer from outside the safe!

(that is, after somehow solving the 'faraday cage' issue with metal safes :D ... we need to get power out, and exchange a Wifi signal with the outside world)

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arduino_Pro_Mini_powerd_by_inductive_power_transfer.jpg

There is no instance of a woman not having sex getting pregnant.

I hope you're being sarcastic or trolling...

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Assisted_reproductive_technology

Dextr's kind of cute, though most studies have found that for two-handed typing, there isn't actually much performance difference between layouts, once people have time to adjust to them. And while Dvorak may have been a bit better designed, "alternating hands" was pretty much the goal of QWERTY as well, because that kept keys from jamming.

FITALY is a keypad design intended for one-finger (or one-stylus) usage. The design paid attention not only to what letters are used most often, but also what letters are often used near each other, and seems to be fairly efficient. Unfortunately, due to the magic of Software Patents, you may never get to use it, but there are a few implementations out there. (It was patented in 1996, back in Palm Pilot days, but could probably be easily adapted for modern touchscreen smartphones, if the patent holder is still actively developing it.)

Maybe so but there have been a number of other paleoclimate reconstructions using different proxies since that original graph 14 years ago that all support it so the original hockey stick graph, done over 14 years ago, is just one piece of evidence among many. Since it is not fundamentally contradicted by other studies including the one in question on this /. post I think it's held up pretty well.

FYI: This graph of 11 such studies including Mann, 1999. The original hockey stick graph doesn't really stand out from the others and I suspect if you added the Esper, et. al. paper to it that it wouldn't either.

I guess you missed the spike in this graph.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2000_Year_Temperature_Comparison.png

And the displayed data only goes to 2004, so it misses the following 8 years of higher trending.

If I were a conspiracy nut, I'd say it were chopped off to not show recent events. I know the reality is, they haven't compiled new graphs to include yet.

There are always alternative methods of boarding the passengers.

Wikimedia actually has fairly detailed statistics on how it's accessed, including the most popular apps. The 4.15% is for the Android browser, tablet and mobile combined, but the apps are largely irrelevant, with a combined user share of half that of Opera (desktop).

Slide to unlock is pretty obvious to anyone who has ever used a bolt...

This is what one looks like for anyone unfamiliar with the term:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/Bolt_lock.jpg

And if Apple's patent claimed "sliding an implement from one position to another to unlock a portal" then you'd be right, but it doesn't. In other words, if a physical bolt would infringe Apple's patent, and the physical bolt came first (which it did), then the bolt would anticipate the patent and render it invalid.

But it doesn't... here's the first claim:

1. A method of unlocking a hand-held electronic device, the device including a touch-sensitive display, the method comprising: detecting a contact with the touch-sensitive display at a first predefined location corresponding to an unlock image; continuously moving the unlock image on the touch-sensitive display in accordance with movement of the contact while continuous contact with the touch screen is maintained, wherein the unlock image is a graphical, interactive user-interface object with which a user interacts in order to unlock the device; and unlocking the hand-held electronic device if the moving the unlock image on the touch-sensitive display results in movement of the unlock image from the first predefined location to a predefined unlock region on the touch-sensitive display.

A bolt lock wouldn't infringe that claim, and therefore, a bolt lock also doesn't anticipate that claim.

Using technical jargon to dress up a claim doesn't make something that's intuitively obvious suddenly non-obvious.

Only a semi-literate clod would think it does. Wouldn't you agree, Theaetetus? Have a great day!

An image is much more educational:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9f/Solarmap.png/800px-Solarmap.png

Slide to unlock is pretty obvious to anyone who has ever used a bolt...

This is what one looks like for anyone unfamiliar with the term:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/Bolt_lock.jpg

And if Apple's patent claimed "sliding an implement from one position to another to unlock a portal" then you'd be right, but it doesn't. In other words, if a physical bolt would infringe Apple's patent, and the physical bolt came first (which it did), then the bolt would anticipate the patent and render it invalid.

But it doesn't... here's the first claim:

1. A method of unlocking a hand-held electronic device, the device including a touch-sensitive display, the method comprising:
detecting a contact with the touch-sensitive display at a first predefined location corresponding to an unlock image;
continuously moving the unlock image on the touch-sensitive display in accordance with movement of the contact while continuous contact with the touch screen is maintained, wherein the unlock image is a graphical, interactive user-interface object with which a user interacts in order to unlock the device; and
unlocking the hand-held electronic device if the moving the unlock image on the touch-sensitive display results in movement of the unlock image from the first predefined location to a predefined unlock region on the touch-sensitive display.

A bolt lock wouldn't infringe that claim, and therefore, a bolt lock also doesn't anticipate that claim.

Slide to unlock is pretty obvious to anyone who has ever used a bolt...

This is what one looks like for anyone unfamiliar with the term:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/Bolt_lock.jpg

A sulky appears to be a kind of lightweight carriage. Jefferson probably used it to go driving with the single ladies (put a ring on it). Just kidding. ;-) Thom was a very shy person who barely spoke.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5f/Sulky_racing_Vincennes_DSC03735_cropped.JPG
Dog version: http://www.ikonsuspension.com/images/customer_projects/customer-projects-dog-sulky-4-lg.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8a/Density_of_ice_and_water_(en).svg

Civil Defense is everybody's business. It's your business.

In case of air raid, tune your radio to AM 640 and 1240 kilocycles on your regular radio receiver for Civil Defense Instructions. CONELRAD

ALL broadcasting stations AM, FM, TV in USA/Canada must automatically immediately cease operation, by presidential order

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d9/Cdb_prime_cvr.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAxjkMtJA6E

http://conelrad.blogspot.com/

What are you, 9?

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/USA_wars

Don't tell me democracies don't like wars, USA is a massive warmonger, if that psycho Romney gets in you'll probably go to war with Iran.

If you think about the distances involved, then it is completely possible that clouds of dust in a particular configuration could make the light from a supernova appear to be in a cross shape.

If you have a look at this image of the great rift near Cygnus, you can see how these dust clouds obscure the stars behind them.

Also, I think its pretty safe to say people at this time were reasonably familiar with the relatively transient lightshows provided by the aurora. They may not have understood what caused them, but they saw them often enough for them to be considered fairly commonplace. For a light in the sky to be noteworthy, it would have to hang around for a significant amount of time. In 1987, a supernova took place which took 85 days to reach maximum brightness and gradually faded over the next two years.

Depending how distant the supernova is, (among other things) determines how bright it is and therefore, how likely it is to be visible to the naked eye. Betelgeuse is estimated to be 640 light years away and when it goes supernova, it is expected to be naked eye visible during the day. Given the one mentioned in the chronicle was visible shortly after sunset, it would seem it was a fair bit further away than Betelgeuse.

Finally, while it is completely possible for a sun pillar to appear to have a crucifix shape, I would again say this phenomenon while pretty and interesting in itself, is probably too transitory and common to have been included among chronicles which were recording such things as the deaths and coronations of the most powerful people in the land.

All conjecture, I know, but when you are dealing with 1200 year old non-scientific records, nothing can be nailed down. You simply have to work with conjecture and plausibility.

Many migrants lack https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Social_mobility in their native countries and hence move to USA.
http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/news/releases/respect-from-friends-matters-more-than-money-for-happiness-in-life.html

Personally, while the idea of my browsing data being logged anywhere does not fill me with joy, the idea of the U.S. government having access to it...

What leap of logic could possibly lead people to believe that just because the server is in the US that the US Feds have access to it, or even care?

One of the provisions of the Patriot Act gives the US government access to all data stored within the US on request. Essentially unlimited access can be granted in secret, and the request for access and the reasoning behind the request can be kept secret.

While people in the west were crediting facebook and twitter for organizing the arab spring, the leaders in the middle east understood that it was al jazeera that actually was responsible for forming perceptions, in some ways it exerts more influence in the middle east than any other regime in the world. I suggest that interested individuals read "propaganda" by Edward Burnayes, whom was the nephew of Sigmud Freud but far more influential, by being responsible for corporate perception management in the USA. Of course the internet has thrown the media a curve ball, but they still hold asymmetrical power and influence, which is why governments want to filter out the internet.

I recently found this to be good source of main world information, especially if you read it 2-3 days delayed. Clean short description of what is happening in the world. Without ads.

This is an example of what post journalism should look like, more like citation based research conducted by qualified agents using the scientific method, analyzed and automated using Natural language processing and statistics including "reporters" as datasets. Once people can have a reasonable objective certainty of what is true and false, it will get alot easier to separate the wheat from the chaff in politics. However none of this will ever occur if we don't fight for the net neutrality and freedom of information, information asymmetry will be used to manipulate people and consensus for ulterior motives.

I recently found this to be good source of main world information, especially if you read it 2-3 days delayed. Clean short description of what is happening in the world. Without ads.

All you are seeing here is that the people are better represented in state and local governments than they could ever dream of being in the federal government.

So, it's state governments that are achieving record-level deportations?

Your interesting and amusing anecdote helped me remember William Demming, the statistician/consultant who helped to bring about Japan's reputation for quality in manufacturing.

No problem... we have headless servers, and that works fine, so why not a headless government?

Because if you ssh even into the best and brightest, the logon message's just this. ;-)

Here are several scruffy (and one neck-bearded) Apple associates, and here is one with what looks like dreds, and here are several with arm ink.

Danes have a real gift for filming, from Dogme 95 to that second video you posted. Thanks for sharing. :o)

Austria is being paved over with highways, strip malls, excessive parking, soulless suburbs and soviet style housing projects at breakneck speed. Our decadent and postmodernist elites plunck down atrocities like these (Kunsthaus Graz) into the middle of our beautiful town centers.

Wow, that's right out of the Howard Roarke school of architecture, the one that says "F You, I'm an artist!" to the people who have to live with the building.

Austria is being paved over with highways, strip malls, excessive parking, soulless suburbs and soviet style housing projects at breakneck speed. Our decadent and postmodernist elites plunck down atrocities like these (Kunsthaus Graz) into the middle of our beautiful town centers.
The income from tourism provides the only political motivation for some restraint. Funny how tourists aren't interested in any places or buildings that were built during the last 60 years. But even this concern is considered parochial and therefore under constant attack from the (pseudo)intellectual class. To preserve what is beautiful is disparaged as "wishing to live in a museum". A redoubled effort to build even more brutalist and grotesque structures on the other hand is alleged to bring a more "sophisticated" set of tourists.

Great civilizations imitate and learn from the achievements of the past and others and build upon it. The modernism and postmodernism of the West on the other hand seeks to wipe the slate clean and start from scratch. The result is perpetual dilettantism.

The Chinese are on the right track. I wish they would copy more or even build an Austrian town here in Austria.