Proof by contradiction: Consider a mentally retarded human with an IQ of 60. Such a person is capable of doing routine work under supervision. Assuming a normal human reaches full adult functioning at age 18, then our example person should be capable of the normal adult functioning at the age of 30. Clearly this is not so, hence IQ is also a capacity measurement.
Expecting a human to become "more intelligent" is akin to expecting your computer to suddenly run faster because you really, really want it to. There is a finite amount of processing power that can be accessed. The human brain is a machine with finite capabilities based upon its particular genetic developmental program.
"I think people are an infinite well of potential, their decisions shape their potential."
Not true. Some people are clearly more gifted in certain areas than others. Peoples' brains develop differently and different task competencies arise from parts of the brain that are more or less effective in different people.
While it's true that in many fields one can become an expert through years of hard work overcoming natural limits or through years of easier work in a field they are gifted in, only someone who is naturally gifted and a hard worked can aspire to and achieve recognition as a genius in their field.
Given your example, despite my huge intellect, no matter how much I studied I would still not have the skills of composition and form of Rembrandt or Michaelangelo. I'm sure, however, that I could be a quite accomplished painter but I don't have the genius for it that these men do.
Let me close with by stating that the Standard Social Science Model (where all intellectual skills are culturally determined) is bunk. Just as some people are taller or shorter, blacker or whiter, faster or slower, some people are smarter or dumber. Just as some people have stronger upper bodies or stronger lower bodies, are faster runners or swimmers or rowers or powerlifters, the brain is modular and people are better or worse at math, music, logic, spirituality, face recognition, self-control, and many of the other functions of the brain. These genetic differences in intellectual ability are just as important as the intellectual environment and need to be aligned with it in order to achieve genius-level work.
Most browsers allow the user to change the text size and colors so the people with good vision can have a lot of text on the screen at once while the people with poorer vision can just tell their browser to adjust it.
Most web designers know that God Almighty Himself wants every single web page to be written in a 5 point font so that the layout of their precious advertising doesn't get broken. Apparently they will burn in the hellfire of damnation for eternity if they don't do everything in their power to prevent the user from changing the size of the font.
"Use of a breeder reactor assumes nuclear reprocessing of the breeder blanket at least, without which the concept is meaningless. In practice, all proposed breeder reactor programs involve reprocessing of the fuel elements as well. This is important due to nuclear weapons proliferation concerns, as any nation conducting reprocessing using the traditional aqueous-based PUREX family of reprocessing techniques could potentially divert plutonium towards weapons building. In practice, commercial plutonium from reactors with significant burnup would require sophisticated weapon designs, but the possibility must be considered. To address this concern, modified aqueous reprocessing systems are proposed which add extra reagents which force minor actinide "impurities" such as curium and neptunium to commingle with the plutonium. Such impurities matter little in a fast spectrum reactor, but make weaponizing the plutonium extraordinarily difficult, such that even very sophisticated weapon designs are likely to fail to fire properly. Such systems as the TRUEX and SANEX are meant to address this. [8]"
Here's a handy little editorial device you might want to learn: [sic]. From wikipedia, "Sic is a Latin word meaning "thus", "so", or "just as that". In writing, it is italicized and placed within square brackets [sic] to indicate that an incorrect or unusual spelling, phrase, or other preceding quoted material is a verbatim reproduction of the quoted original and is not a transcription error."
Proper use of this device will shift the blame for grammatical stupidity away from you and onto the submitter where it rightfully belongs.
"People who feel that the Earth is becoming overpopulated don't see colonization as a real cure. "
This is exactly true. Imagine that we discovered a miraculous "Earth 2" orbiting on the far side of the sun, ready and waiting for human colonization. Santa comes in his magic sleigh and carries three billion people to the new earth. Give us one generation, and boom! Both earths full.
Pure and simple. If you don't pay taxes, people with guns come, take your money, and give it to those you may not want it to go to. Maybe you're all fine and dandy with it happening to other people, and maybe even to yourself, but I think it's a shame and not a fit way to treat a human being.
Capitalism is succeeding because it is a more efficient economic engine than socialism. It has its negative points (namely that it does lead to significant wealth disparity), but its efficiency will lead it to dominate the world economic ecosystem. Natural selection in action.
The biggest problems come when our governments, in whom we have vested a monopoly of force (they are the only legitimate user of force), become corrupt and gain control over and become influenced by corporations. This leads to massive corruption. The government should only be involved in the market to enforce accounting of externalities and ensure that all costs are accounted for by those incurring them to avert the tragedy of the commons.
And the death tax is nothing but a money grab by politicians who want more money for their pet projects.
Historically death taxes have been used politically to prevent the build-up of power in family lines which would challenge the current ruling party. It's only a nice side effect that they get to use they money for their own purposes.
"...it is impossible for most titanium alloys to be hardened beyond the mid-40's on the Rockwell hardness "C" scale. For knife blades this becomes a major detriment as most knives need to be heat treated to high-50s, low 60's RC"
"...here's an example using some average values for titanium alloys and high carbon steels: A steel when hardened to RC 60 has tensile yield strength of 1,500 units/cross-sectional area... it also weighs 7,800 units per volume; an alpha-titanium alloy can be hardened to RC 40 and has yield strength of 850 units/cross-sectional-area and it weighs 4,500 units per volume. So, for a given volume of material at the hardnesses mentioned, the titanium is about half as strong and twice as light as the steel."
It has come to my attention that you are doing a woefully inept job. Communication between editors is apparently non-existent, no attempt is made to drill down to original sources, misleading and incorrect article summaries are often posted, your copy editing is virtually non-existent and you frequently commit numerous other sins against journalism. *You should be ashamed* by your lack of professionalism. It casts a shadow on you, on Slashdot, and on the tech community. In fact, were you my employees, you would almost certainly be out of a job.
Please, please, please, stop screwing around and treat this like a fucking job. There are eight hours in a workday: use them for working and you might even gain the respect of the Slashdot community and that of other, professional journalists.
I can rest assured that this technology will only be used to catch terrorists and certainly never to infringe on my constitutionally protected right to be secure in my person, house, papers, and effects. Unless I'm at an airport. Or a public street. Or looking suspicious. Or sitting in my house.
Well, EVE has it's own problem...that those who started when it went live are so far ahead of someone starting today that it's not even competitive.
Not entirely true. They have a lot more options available to them when they go to play, but after two months you can be an effective, hard-hitting player. You'll be limited to one race's ships, and you probably won't be flying any of the specialized craft, but you can make a difference in PvP as well as tackle the high-end NPC content.
Hell Yeah. Coal puts far more radioactives *into the air* than nuclear produces in a compact, easily stored form. Americans living near coal plants are exposed to *more* radiation than those living near nuclear plants. For a good summary, see http://www.ornl.gov/info/ornlreview/rev26-34/text/ colmain.html
Slashdot Mirror
"IQs are measurements of rate, not of capacity."
Proof by contradiction: Consider a mentally retarded human with an IQ of 60. Such a person is capable of doing routine work under supervision. Assuming a normal human reaches full adult functioning at age 18, then our example person should be capable of the normal adult functioning at the age of 30. Clearly this is not so, hence IQ is also a capacity measurement.
Expecting a human to become "more intelligent" is akin to expecting your computer to suddenly run faster because you really, really want it to. There is a finite amount of processing power that can be accessed. The human brain is a machine with finite capabilities based upon its particular genetic developmental program.
"I think people are an infinite well of potential, their decisions shape their potential."
Not true. Some people are clearly more gifted in certain areas than others. Peoples' brains develop differently and different task competencies arise from parts of the brain that are more or less effective in different people.
While it's true that in many fields one can become an expert through years of hard work overcoming natural limits or through years of easier work in a field they are gifted in, only someone who is naturally gifted and a hard worked can aspire to and achieve recognition as a genius in their field.
Given your example, despite my huge intellect, no matter how much I studied I would still not have the skills of composition and form of Rembrandt or Michaelangelo. I'm sure, however, that I could be a quite accomplished painter but I don't have the genius for it that these men do.
Let me close with by stating that the Standard Social Science Model (where all intellectual skills are culturally determined) is bunk. Just as some people are taller or shorter, blacker or whiter, faster or slower, some people are smarter or dumber. Just as some people have stronger upper bodies or stronger lower bodies, are faster runners or swimmers or rowers or powerlifters, the brain is modular and people are better or worse at math, music, logic, spirituality, face recognition, self-control, and many of the other functions of the brain. These genetic differences in intellectual ability are just as important as the intellectual environment and need to be aligned with it in order to achieve genius-level work.
Most browsers allow the user to change the text size and colors so the people with good vision can have a lot of text on the screen at once while the people with poorer vision can just tell their browser to adjust it.
Most web designers know that God Almighty Himself wants every single web page to be written in a 5 point font so that the layout of their precious advertising doesn't get broken. Apparently they will burn in the hellfire of damnation for eternity if they don't do everything in their power to prevent the user from changing the size of the font.
No, "LEGO is already plural" is essentially a shortened form of "The word 'LEGO' is already plural.". 'word' is the singular subject.
The biggest political problem is the possibility of weaponization. From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breeder_reactor
"Use of a breeder reactor assumes nuclear reprocessing of the breeder blanket at least, without which the concept is meaningless. In practice, all proposed breeder reactor programs involve reprocessing of the fuel elements as well. This is important due to nuclear weapons proliferation concerns, as any nation conducting reprocessing using the traditional aqueous-based PUREX family of reprocessing techniques could potentially divert plutonium towards weapons building. In practice, commercial plutonium from reactors with significant burnup would require sophisticated weapon designs, but the possibility must be considered. To address this concern, modified aqueous reprocessing systems are proposed which add extra reagents which force minor actinide "impurities" such as curium and neptunium to commingle with the plutonium. Such impurities matter little in a fast spectrum reactor, but make weaponizing the plutonium extraordinarily difficult, such that even very sophisticated weapon designs are likely to fail to fire properly. Such systems as the TRUEX and SANEX are meant to address this. [8]"
Here's a handy little editorial device you might want to learn: [sic]. From wikipedia, "Sic is a Latin word meaning "thus", "so", or "just as that". In writing, it is italicized and placed within square brackets [sic] to indicate that an incorrect or unusual spelling, phrase, or other preceding quoted material is a verbatim reproduction of the quoted original and is not a transcription error."
Proper use of this device will shift the blame for grammatical stupidity away from you and onto the submitter where it rightfully belongs.
Yours in pointless pedantry,
Acy
Nope, apparently if you read the article, you ignore the comments, and if you comment, you don't read the article. It's simple, see?
"People who feel that the Earth is becoming overpopulated don't see colonization as a real cure. "
This is exactly true. Imagine that we discovered a miraculous "Earth 2" orbiting on the far side of the sun, ready and waiting for human colonization. Santa comes in his magic sleigh and carries three billion people to the new earth. Give us one generation, and boom! Both earths full.
But I'll be the one laughing in 10^130 years.
Ever heard of the concept?
Pure and simple. If you don't pay taxes, people with guns come, take your money, and give it to those you may not want it to go to. Maybe you're all fine and dandy with it happening to other people, and maybe even to yourself, but I think it's a shame and not a fit way to treat a human being.
Capitalism is succeeding because it is a more efficient economic engine than socialism. It has its negative points (namely that it does lead to significant wealth disparity), but its efficiency will lead it to dominate the world economic ecosystem. Natural selection in action.
The biggest problems come when our governments, in whom we have vested a monopoly of force (they are the only legitimate user of force), become corrupt and gain control over and become influenced by corporations. This leads to massive corruption. The government should only be involved in the market to enforce accounting of externalities and ensure that all costs are accounted for by those incurring them to avert the tragedy of the commons.
Acy
And the death tax is nothing but a money grab by politicians who want more money for their pet projects.
Historically death taxes have been used politically to prevent the build-up of power in family lines which would challenge the current ruling party. It's only a nice side effect that they get to use they money for their own purposes.
It means "The Fucking Article". In polite conversation we use the noun phrase "the article" instead. Save the "Fucking" for when you really need it.
Thanks,
Acy
"Government Says More Government Needed"
Simple evolution folks. Any government that didn't try to amass power would die out and be replaced with one which does.
From http://swordforum.com/metallurgy/titanium.html
... it also weighs 7,800 units per volume; an alpha-titanium alloy can be hardened to RC 40 and has yield strength of 850 units/cross-sectional-area and it weighs 4,500 units per volume. So, for a given volume of material at the hardnesses mentioned, the titanium is about half as strong and twice as light as the steel."
"...it is impossible for most titanium alloys to be hardened beyond the mid-40's on the Rockwell hardness "C" scale. For knife blades this becomes a major detriment as most knives need to be heat treated to high-50s, low 60's RC"
"...here's an example using some average values for titanium alloys and high carbon steels: A steel when hardened to RC 60 has tensile yield strength of 1,500 units/cross-sectional area
Acy
Dear sirs:
It has come to my attention that you are doing a woefully inept job. Communication between editors is apparently non-existent, no attempt is made to drill down to original sources, misleading and incorrect article summaries are often posted, your copy editing is virtually non-existent and you frequently commit numerous other sins against journalism. *You should be ashamed* by your lack of professionalism. It casts a shadow on you, on Slashdot, and on the tech community. In fact, were you my employees, you would almost certainly be out of a job.
Please, please, please, stop screwing around and treat this like a fucking job. There are eight hours in a workday: use them for working and you might even gain the respect of the Slashdot community and that of other, professional journalists.
Thanks for your time,
Acy Stapp
I can rest assured that this technology will only be used to catch terrorists and certainly never to infringe on my constitutionally protected right to be secure in my person, house, papers, and effects. Unless I'm at an airport. Or a public street. Or looking suspicious. Or sitting in my house.
It's not "Object Orientated". It's "Object Orientificamated"
Said government being a world power.
I don't think a prodigy and one of the brightest minds of the century is a good example of a typical child.
Well, EVE has it's own problem...that those who started when it went live are so far ahead of someone starting today that it's not even competitive.
Not entirely true. They have a lot more options available to them when they go to play, but after two months you can be an effective, hard-hitting player. You'll be limited to one race's ships, and you probably won't be flying any of the specialized craft, but you can make a difference in PvP as well as tackle the high-end NPC content.
Liability ... are? I know the editors are not quite Mensa geniuses but this is a new low.
That name is 'Troll'.
To speak the same *what*? Same is an adjective, thus it modifies a noun. You seem to be missing one. Maybe you were looking for an adverb?
Hell Yeah. Coal puts far more radioactives *into the air* than nuclear produces in a compact, easily stored form. Americans living near coal plants are exposed to *more* radiation than those living near nuclear plants. For a good summary, see/ colmain.html
http://www.ornl.gov/info/ornlreview/rev26-34/text
Acy