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BYU Project to Silence Computer Fans
phunster writes "The New York Times has an article about Scott D. Sommerfeldt and his students at BYU who have created a noise suppression system for computer fans (drop of human blood required to read article). The technology is not new, he uses out of phase sound to substantially cancel out the sound of the fan. What is interesting is his implementation of the technique. While other systems place a microphone and speakers in the center of a room, he places four miniature speakers and microphones around the noise source itself. His results are promising."
"We love Apple!"
"Go Go Gateway!!!"
"Exidy Sorceror is pure magic!""
"Dude, we got Dell!!!"
(click)
Blessed silence.....
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
i first read the headline and assumed it was a new tactic by the group 'BYU' to forcefully quiet the complaints of geeks and nerds everywhere!
must be one of those days i guess.
Funny.... Someone who belongs to a cult that was led by a prophet that said the following:
You see some classes of the human family that are black, uncouth, un- comely, disagreeable and low in their habits, wild, and seemingly deprived of nearly all the blessings of the intelligence that is generally bestowed upon mankind.
calls another a bigot for criticism of his/her beliefs. This is a quote from Brigham Young. Who's the bigot now?
Brigham Young would be the bigot, none of us.
Do I have any excuse for what Brigham Young said? Nope. But as far as it goes concerning the LDS church, it has no real baring on the church or its standings. It was a Journal entry from Brigham Young, never taught as doctrine of our church or any such thing. To not excuse him, but to cover us, I say that he was a man. Who made mistakes just as other men do.
You and I both know that this is the tip of the iceberg. You could list examples of the bigotry taught by the LDS church for hours. Why do the American Indians have dark skin? It's because they were evil and wicked.... That's not bigotry is it?
"Petition, also, ye goodly inhabitants of the slave states, your legislators to abolish slavery by the year 1850, or now, and save the abolitionist from reproach and ruin, infamy and shame.
.
"Pray Congress to pay every man a reasonable price for his slaves out of the surplus revenue arising from the sale of public lands and from the deduction of pay from the members of Congress.
"Break off the shackles from the poor black man, and hire him to labor like other human beings; for 'an hour of virtuous liberty on earth is worth a whole eternity of bondage.'" -- Joseph Smith, 1844
Real racist there. I mean geez. If you're gonna condemn the Mormons you should condemn anyone that accepts the Old Testament as scripture. Gimme a break. For every racist remark I could list one contrary. What it shows is that a collection of weak men in a country that was, more as less, built up by a majority of racists.
Please try not to remove the era from the statements. Brigham Young lived in a time where half of America didn't even view blacks or indians as human. They were considered subhuman savages. How is his view any different from that of Joshua or Moses who would go in and butcher those who weren't members of "The Tribe."
The LDS prophets, even to those who believe that they are divinely inspired do not claim their perfection in any way.
Of course the church was full of racism. It was formed by a huge collection of hicks in pre-civil war America. America was still segregated into the mid-twentieth century and racism still abounds.
To point to the LDS Church as anything special in the world of racism is ridiculous. Was it riddled with racism? Yeah. Is it still? To some degree. Is it a lot different that dozens of other Christian organizations? Not really.
"Why do the American Indians have dark skin? It's because they were evil and wicked.... That's not bigotry is it?"
How often, in the Bible, are the sins of the fathers answered on the heads of the children and on to further generations? This concept is also not specific to being LDS. Furthermore there are plenty of Christian sects (and I don't count the modern, pop-culture Christians who have created a religion that is ignorant of its own history) that believe the blacks are the descendents of Cain. Again, nothing specific to being LDS.
Oh yes, and as for the American Indians with dark skin, if you read the actual text of the Book of Mormon you would know that in the last days they are to be one of the most blessed peoples of earth and that in the days after Christ were among the most righteous on earth.
The LDS church never was and still isn't anymore racist than the country it was born in. No matter what the doctrine of a belief, it's always affected by the cultures it operates in, for better or for worse. Give credit where credit is due.
Brigham Young was a racist. It was wrong. However, I don't see you up in arms making the same statements about George Washington or...
Most of us here have grown up in a post civil rights movement world. Racism in the general public is *finally* viewed as a bad thing. How different would you or I be if we were born into a culture that told us people with dark skin were lesser beings? I don't mean just our immediate family, but the guy at the grocery store, our school teachers, the people we worked with, etc.
Brighman Young lived in a country where it was the "in thing" to shoot Native Americans. You can say, "Oh! That's racist and wrong! How could anyone ever do such a thing!?"
Take your own family tree back 150 years and I'm sure your family faired no better than most Americans (assuming your family was here back then). Again, the point here is to look at context. That much beloved First Amendment that we love to scream about here at Slashdot was written by a bunch of racists who lived in a completely different world than you and I. Cut'm some slack.