Seriously, try walking 1 meter in 1 minute and 40 seconds and you'll get an idea just how slow the rovers travel. Now walk 22 miles at that speed.
That said, the accomplishment is still incredible. Show me any moving device that had received no maintenance in 9 years and still works.
I agree with the orphaned phones idea. The one thing that Ubuntu is pretty good at is regularly updating their OS while keeping it runable on old tech. This might make it a good option for the low-end smart phone market, too.
I'm an Ubuntu user on the desktop. I mostly love it (even Unity), though it does have its occasional bugs. Part of me really wants an Ubuntu phone OS so that my phone and my computer can speak the same language seamlessly.
But part of me worries that this will result in the same fragmentation and lack of focus that has plagued Linux on the desktop since, well, since Linux on the desktop. Android is already fragmenting as so many phone companies won't update the OS on older phones. The result is 4 or 5 versions of Android running out there. Adding Ubuntu phone to the mix will further complicate matters.
So, my dream wish is that the Android people and the Ubuntu people will get together (for their own financial good, I think) and decide on some actual standards....and then actually stick with them.
As this makes a fair amount of sense, it will almost certainly not happen.
"New, from Almay, our all new hemoceutical line...containing pure bionutrient yb1, found in young and healthy blood. Make your face look up to 10 years younger in just four weeks..."
FYI: Zack is a college student who, while a high school student in Louisiana, decided that no one was going to repeal this law while he was in school. He started an organization to try and ensure that Louisiana students could get a proper education.
I am a chemistry teacher, and I can tell you definitively that NO chemistry teacher worth their salt would allow this "experiment". Anything that explodes is not good science, it's just a nasty burn or cut (or worse) waiting to happen.
What's more, this "experiment" was done in a bathroom.
If you want to do science, clear it with your teacher. There are ways of doing "explosive" chemistry that are safe enough for students to do but still exciting enough to get them interested.
Expulsion is certainly appropriate. Felony charges? That seems a bit much (no one was hurt), but misdemeanors? Absolutely. Someone could easily have been blinded or seriously hurt by this.
It seems to me that every day there is a copyright story here at/. I am not complaining - I think our copyright system needs a major overhaul. But perhaps it's time for a new sub-header. Maybe split yro into copywrong and tinfoilhat?
Years ago I went to a lecture given by a food chemist. His research had produced excellent "synthetic coffee" in the 80s and 90s. He said that they had tested the coffee with groups of drinkers who generally found it delicious. So why don't we have synthetic coffee today? Government regulations required that they not use the term "coffee". Essentially, they were forced to call it "coffee substitute" or "synthetic coffee drink" or other such drivel. The result? People thought they were drinking "chemicals", and not coffee. In reality, it was made from organic sources (chickory root, spices, etc.)
The minute people realize that the "chemicals" in kopi luwak are just that - chemicals - the sooner we could just synthesize these in the lab and allow people to have the shit-coffee and leave the civets to romp in their truffula trees.
Years ago, this was a significant debate, but in recent years the debate was "settled" - the universe's expansion is actually increasing in rate.
I have always felt that it was wrong to call this settled. The increased rate of expansion of the universe is explained by "Dark Energy", a completely unknown entity with unknown properties. There is no reason why the effects of Dark Energy might change (or even reverse) over time. So, is the universe expanding at an increasing rate? Apparently. Will it continue to do so? I don't think that is even close to answered.
I am a chemistry teacher, which means my work involves symbols, sub- and superscripts, diagrams, etc. Creating that sort of work on a tablet / phone is painful. I don't see that changing any time soon, either. A dedicated keyboard allows multi-key commands (Ctrl-Shift-= for superscript, etc) that a tablet cannot do. A mouse allows for nested menus with thousands of options. That's a no-go for tablets.
For me, mobile = consumption and desktop = production.
Originally there was some opposition to police car dashboard cameras. The thinking was that they would result in an invasion of privacy for average citizens. This has actually happened to a small extent, but I think the primary result has been an increased transparency of the police department. Procedures are better followed and cops who violate rules are more easily punished.
So for all of the doom and gloom about a police state and the lack of privacy this technology will bring, I tend to think the opposite will happen - Police departments that use these UAVs for inappropriate purposes will be caught and publicly denounced. In the meantime, they might actually find missing people or spot criminals, which is definitely a public good.
...for a moon base is to use native materials. The cost of launching all of the base's construction materials to the moon would render the project prohibitively expensive. The notion of digging into the moon and building sub-surface bases runs into a similar problem: digging equipment is big and heavy. To my mind, this is one of only two economically feasible ways to build a lunar base (the other being to use existing lava tubes or caves).
Now, that's not to say this method would be cheap, but it would certainly be cheaper than building a base from materials brought entirely from Earth.
This is just another example of the placebo (or I guess the "nocebo") effect. If you tell people something will make them fell bad, particularly if they are inclined to dislike the thing in question (for whatever reason), they will almost magically start to feel bad. You can do this for fun and excitement at parties: Tell people you have an upset stomach from the salad (or soup or chicken or whatever). You'll pretty quickly find one other person who tells you they don't feel well either. And now there are two people spreading the "sickness".
This was mentioned above, but the reality is that a nearby coal power plant can actually make you sick, whereas a nearby windmill is almost certainly benign. And yet for many people, the power of suggestion is greater than people's "belief" in evidence.
The unfun stuff is the killer every time. Either you pay somebody to do that work, or it doesn't generally get done. I have used Ubuntu for several years now, and I have never seen the reason for the wrath some people have toward Unity. That said, there are a few glitches and odd functionalities that, were I a programmer, I would contribute fixes for. But I'm not. And the work required to correct these problems is certainly going to be time-consuming and tedious. Therefore, it probably won't get done.
In total, though, I'd still rather work on Ubuntu than Windows or Mac any day. Windows because it seems to be able to slow down the fastest machine in no time flat, and Mac because despite its reliability I don't like it and I can't change the things I don't like. With Ubuntu I (generally) can.
...and I can see why technology is not more thoroughly embraced. For starters, the OP makes a good point: How hard is it to keep track of a syllabus? If you're the kind of person who can't keep a piece of paper, or who can't enter the important information from that piece of paper into the data device of your choosing, you're probably not going to do well in the course anyway.
But more to the point, learning technology is almost always more suited for the student than for the instructor. I can project a video on the screen and talk about it, but students who sleep during lecture are still going to sleep through lecture, and students who pay attention will learn either way. For students on their own, the technology can be more useful. I have used technology, and will continue to, but it's not a major part of my instruction and I could easily do without it entirely.
The conductivity issue is impressive, as TFA says that the conductivity is on par with copper and aluminum.
But if the "stronger than steel" of carbon nanotubes turns into "as strong as cotton thread" of these threads, don't expect these to replace steel cable any time soon.
Next question: Cost? Can they be made more cheaply than copper or aluminum?
...or doesn't it seem a bit odd to name the crash site after Sally Ride? I mean, name the Mountain after her...OK. But a crash site named after a (now dead) astronaut seems a little wrong.
...In Soviet Russia, Baikonur leases YOU! ...In Soviet Russia, Bribery is run by the Government! ...In Soviet Russia, corruption is impeded by rocket launches! ...In Soviet Russia, 140% of people vote for TWO Baikonurs!
Meh...these aren't very good. Somebody please do better. This is/. people. We have a reputation to maintain!
That's an interesting hypothesis, and personally I hope it's right. I've always worried that the Fermi Paradox results from the enormous costs of traveling interstellar distances. Societies that could attempt it simply don't because it is prohibitive to do so. I'd much rather our species travel to another planet only to find it covered in algae than to have our species bottled up here for eternity.
Reminds me very much of "The Mote in God's Eye". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mote_in_God's_Eye The humans discover faster-than-light travel and encounter an intelligent species that never discovered the secret. They have degenerated into a civilization / crash / rebuild cycle.
I hope the same doesn't happen to us, as I don't think faster-than-light travel is possible.
...this is a statistically important discovery. This is a nearby solar system that is remarkably similar to our own. Find a few more like these (and we're well on our way in that department) and you'll have compelling evidence that solar systems like ours are very common. And this, in turn, suggests that habitable worlds are common.
This would leave the Fermi paradox without one of its better possible explanations: that habitable worlds are exceedingly rare.
It also means that human colonies in other solar systems may be more plausible than it currently seems.
Slashdot Mirror
If there is one thing that conservatives all agree on, it's that you should change the facts to match your agenda, not the other way around.
Seriously, try walking 1 meter in 1 minute and 40 seconds and you'll get an idea just how slow the rovers travel. Now walk 22 miles at that speed. That said, the accomplishment is still incredible. Show me any moving device that had received no maintenance in 9 years and still works.
I agree with the orphaned phones idea. The one thing that Ubuntu is pretty good at is regularly updating their OS while keeping it runable on old tech. This might make it a good option for the low-end smart phone market, too.
I'm an Ubuntu user on the desktop. I mostly love it (even Unity), though it does have its occasional bugs. Part of me really wants an Ubuntu phone OS so that my phone and my computer can speak the same language seamlessly.
But part of me worries that this will result in the same fragmentation and lack of focus that has plagued Linux on the desktop since, well, since Linux on the desktop. Android is already fragmenting as so many phone companies won't update the OS on older phones. The result is 4 or 5 versions of Android running out there. Adding Ubuntu phone to the mix will further complicate matters.
So, my dream wish is that the Android people and the Ubuntu people will get together (for their own financial good, I think) and decide on some actual standards....and then actually stick with them.
As this makes a fair amount of sense, it will almost certainly not happen.
"New, from Almay, our all new hemoceutical line...containing pure bionutrient yb1, found in young and healthy blood. Make your face look up to 10 years younger in just four weeks..."
"Because you're worth it"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zack_Kopplin
http://www.repealcreationism.com/
FYI: Zack is a college student who, while a high school student in Louisiana, decided that no one was going to repeal this law while he was in school. He started an organization to try and ensure that Louisiana students could get a proper education.
Maybe he should run for state senator!
I've seen conflicting accounts on this, but the location was NOT in a fume hood, in a science classroom, with a teacher.
The fact that you "turned out fine" is subject to debate. However, you could easily have lost an eye or suffered other serious injuries.
AND if you had bothered to read my post, you would have seen that I suggested that the teacher demonstrate a safer version of this kind of reaction.
I am a chemistry teacher, and I can tell you definitively that NO chemistry teacher worth their salt would allow this "experiment". Anything that explodes is not good science, it's just a nasty burn or cut (or worse) waiting to happen.
What's more, this "experiment" was done in a bathroom.
If you want to do science, clear it with your teacher. There are ways of doing "explosive" chemistry that are safe enough for students to do but still exciting enough to get them interested.
Expulsion is certainly appropriate. Felony charges? That seems a bit much (no one was hurt), but misdemeanors? Absolutely. Someone could easily have been blinded or seriously hurt by this.
It seems to me that every day there is a copyright story here at /. I am not complaining - I think our copyright system needs a major overhaul. But perhaps it's time for a new sub-header. Maybe split yro into copywrong and tinfoilhat?
Years ago I went to a lecture given by a food chemist. His research had produced excellent "synthetic coffee" in the 80s and 90s. He said that they had tested the coffee with groups of drinkers who generally found it delicious. So why don't we have synthetic coffee today? Government regulations required that they not use the term "coffee". Essentially, they were forced to call it "coffee substitute" or "synthetic coffee drink" or other such drivel. The result? People thought they were drinking "chemicals", and not coffee. In reality, it was made from organic sources (chickory root, spices, etc.)
The minute people realize that the "chemicals" in kopi luwak are just that - chemicals - the sooner we could just synthesize these in the lab and allow people to have the shit-coffee and leave the civets to romp in their truffula trees.
Years ago, this was a significant debate, but in recent years the debate was "settled" - the universe's expansion is actually increasing in rate.
I have always felt that it was wrong to call this settled. The increased rate of expansion of the universe is explained by "Dark Energy", a completely unknown entity with unknown properties. There is no reason why the effects of Dark Energy might change (or even reverse) over time. So, is the universe expanding at an increasing rate? Apparently. Will it continue to do so? I don't think that is even close to answered.
Thanks! I have just started using LibreOffice (at the suggestion of another teacher) and have been very impressed.
This.
I am a chemistry teacher, which means my work involves symbols, sub- and superscripts, diagrams, etc. Creating that sort of work on a tablet / phone is painful. I don't see that changing any time soon, either. A dedicated keyboard allows multi-key commands (Ctrl-Shift-= for superscript, etc) that a tablet cannot do. A mouse allows for nested menus with thousands of options. That's a no-go for tablets.
For me, mobile = consumption and desktop = production.
Originally there was some opposition to police car dashboard cameras. The thinking was that they would result in an invasion of privacy for average citizens. This has actually happened to a small extent, but I think the primary result has been an increased transparency of the police department. Procedures are better followed and cops who violate rules are more easily punished.
So for all of the doom and gloom about a police state and the lack of privacy this technology will bring, I tend to think the opposite will happen - Police departments that use these UAVs for inappropriate purposes will be caught and publicly denounced. In the meantime, they might actually find missing people or spot criminals, which is definitely a public good.
...for a moon base is to use native materials. The cost of launching all of the base's construction materials to the moon would render the project prohibitively expensive. The notion of digging into the moon and building sub-surface bases runs into a similar problem: digging equipment is big and heavy. To my mind, this is one of only two economically feasible ways to build a lunar base (the other being to use existing lava tubes or caves).
Now, that's not to say this method would be cheap, but it would certainly be cheaper than building a base from materials brought entirely from Earth.
This is just another example of the placebo (or I guess the "nocebo") effect. If you tell people something will make them fell bad, particularly if they are inclined to dislike the thing in question (for whatever reason), they will almost magically start to feel bad. You can do this for fun and excitement at parties: Tell people you have an upset stomach from the salad (or soup or chicken or whatever). You'll pretty quickly find one other person who tells you they don't feel well either. And now there are two people spreading the "sickness".
This was mentioned above, but the reality is that a nearby coal power plant can actually make you sick, whereas a nearby windmill is almost certainly benign. And yet for many people, the power of suggestion is greater than people's "belief" in evidence.
+1
The unfun stuff is the killer every time. Either you pay somebody to do that work, or it doesn't generally get done. I have used Ubuntu for several years now, and I have never seen the reason for the wrath some people have toward Unity. That said, there are a few glitches and odd functionalities that, were I a programmer, I would contribute fixes for. But I'm not. And the work required to correct these problems is certainly going to be time-consuming and tedious. Therefore, it probably won't get done.
In total, though, I'd still rather work on Ubuntu than Windows or Mac any day. Windows because it seems to be able to slow down the fastest machine in no time flat, and Mac because despite its reliability I don't like it and I can't change the things I don't like. With Ubuntu I (generally) can.
...and I can see why technology is not more thoroughly embraced. For starters, the OP makes a good point: How hard is it to keep track of a syllabus? If you're the kind of person who can't keep a piece of paper, or who can't enter the important information from that piece of paper into the data device of your choosing, you're probably not going to do well in the course anyway.
But more to the point, learning technology is almost always more suited for the student than for the instructor. I can project a video on the screen and talk about it, but students who sleep during lecture are still going to sleep through lecture, and students who pay attention will learn either way. For students on their own, the technology can be more useful. I have used technology, and will continue to, but it's not a major part of my instruction and I could easily do without it entirely.
Oh please...they can easily get new jobs making buggy whips...
Industries change, people find new careers. It's evolution, baby!
The conductivity issue is impressive, as TFA says that the conductivity is on par with copper and aluminum.
But if the "stronger than steel" of carbon nanotubes turns into "as strong as cotton thread" of these threads, don't expect these to replace steel cable any time soon.
Next question: Cost? Can they be made more cheaply than copper or aluminum?
...or doesn't it seem a bit odd to name the crash site after Sally Ride? I mean, name the Mountain after her...OK. But a crash site named after a (now dead) astronaut seems a little wrong.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsW9MlYu31g
Seriously, what did you expect?
...In Soviet Russia, Baikonur leases YOU!
...In Soviet Russia, Bribery is run by the Government!
...In Soviet Russia, corruption is impeded by rocket launches!
...In Soviet Russia, 140% of people vote for TWO Baikonurs!
/. people. We have a reputation to maintain!
Meh...these aren't very good. Somebody please do better. This is
That's an interesting hypothesis, and personally I hope it's right. I've always worried that the Fermi Paradox results from the enormous costs of traveling interstellar distances. Societies that could attempt it simply don't because it is prohibitive to do so. I'd much rather our species travel to another planet only to find it covered in algae than to have our species bottled up here for eternity.
Reminds me very much of "The Mote in God's Eye". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mote_in_God's_Eye The humans discover faster-than-light travel and encounter an intelligent species that never discovered the secret. They have degenerated into a civilization / crash / rebuild cycle.
I hope the same doesn't happen to us, as I don't think faster-than-light travel is possible.
...this is a statistically important discovery. This is a nearby solar system that is remarkably similar to our own. Find a few more like these (and we're well on our way in that department) and you'll have compelling evidence that solar systems like ours are very common. And this, in turn, suggests that habitable worlds are common.
This would leave the Fermi paradox without one of its better possible explanations: that habitable worlds are exceedingly rare.
It also means that human colonies in other solar systems may be more plausible than it currently seems.