Sadly, you've confused evolution with selection, natural and otherwise. Selection is easily observable - peppered moths, dog breeds, finches, etc. What "evolution" requires to get from goo to you is an increase in genetic information. Random mutations are either a corruption or loss of information.
absolute nonsense. you seem to be gleefully ignorant of bacteria that have evolved the biochemical pathway in able to use nylon oligomers as an energy source. not only did this pathway not exist until long term exposure to the oligomers, it evolved in at least two completely seperate ways. we understand what mutations generally produced the pathway and we demonstrated it in the lab.
Evolution predicts countless intermediate forms. Creation predicts none. So far all we have is a handful of disputable examples.
disputable my ass, have you no idea how many fossil species, genetic evidence, geological evidence and genetic experimentation we have done over the years? we showed how flagellum evolve, the evolutionary intermediates of key proteins roughly conserved in several phylla for over 600 million years, the evolution of enzymes, proteins, polypeptide aptamers for drug research- they were not designed THEY EVOLVED. we showed how speciation can occur and what genetic changes occured over millions of years backed up with experiments to determine intermediary proteins that evolved. when you understand just how much research has been done, in fact enough that the books alone could crush a man under its weight you'd know just how damn foolish it is to ignore.
if the effect was limited just to the hull i'd agree, except that there is obviously a supply of air inside the spacecraft. it could be detected from a distance... inside the craft. which in principle could also be used to detect leaks.
correct, the plasma membrane is studded with a number of receptors, ion channels and signalling compounds- this in particular seems to use capsacian as a "key" to allow the second compound through so that it can work. the plasma membrane being semipermeable as it is, does act somewhat like a wall- a barrier that maintains a chemical gradient/controlled intracellular environment. an all too common mistake on their part.
Last question: Do you always hate inferior equipment?
yes. for example, I consider Windows type OSes inferior, I don't use them, I advocate against their use but still have to deal with their garbage. why? because for one reason or another, Microsoft keeps trying to break any open formats they can find to destroy any competition. So yes, I hate inferior products and garbage standards that are not open.
Why on Earth *hate* it? Ignore it, dismiss it, not buy it, tell your friends it's not a good buy sure. But hate it? Someone has issues.
Yes, I have issues with a closed source OS that utterly refuses to use good security practice in favor of usability. I have issues with over 99% of the botnets being based on compromised windows flavor OSes. I have issues with a broken and closed source set of "standards" Microsoft keeps trying to fast-track.
yes that's true but suppose we synthesized polyethylene from a mix of tritium substituted ethylene and normal ethylene, it would produces heat as the tritium in the polymer decayed and at the same time act as its own shielding and containment. people that broke open the battery would need to go out of their way to ingest the material. it would be a fairly large chunk that you an't just "eat"
I googled it a bit and I read that the half life in these things was like twelve hundred years.
12.5 years not 1200. this isn't an unreasonable number when you consider people can use the battery long after the device it was originally in is in the local city dump. especially if there is a bit of a cost to them, which there likely is. if they do throw it away, the radiation will decrease by nearly 300 fold in less than 100 years. we can make containers good enough to survive at least that long in a dump and certainly in the military where it's likely to be used more. a solution might be to imbed a beta-emitter isotope in a polymer that acts to absorb the beta radiation, no radiation release, relatively cheap and still allows the device to function. contains the ratioactive isotope for decades and keeps idiots from releasing radiation into the environment.
the article is correct that radiation destroys semiconductor efficiency although not all "nuclear battery" designs involve semiconductors. space probes sometimes use a chunk of radioactive material that has shielding around it while the energy released is in the form of heat. this heat [temperature gradient] is harnessed by a thermoelectric materal- basically it consists of several layers of different metals that produce a voltage potential in response to a temperature gradient. the advantage in this is that you can use metal as shielding and not relatively fragile semiconductor material. although you need a radioisotope that can generate enough heat from decay to be useful- tritium's half-life is about 12 years so it might qualify, although a better solution might be a solid unless they use T2O, ditritium monoxide, which is "superheavy water"
except that MIT already showed that under certain conditions foil on the head actually focuses electromagnetic radiation, a very ineffective "brain wave shield" indeed. although this one in particular seems to require a measurement of blood flow, presumably anything that shields against electromagnetic radiation capable of measuring blood flow would be sufficient.:)
and this is why you don't put just one safegaurd... you put several in at once- they're going to have to be very creative in their adapting to break this one. then again in the case of these printers, the bacteria at no time actually get near them so it's a non-issue. besides, we already use bacteria to produces enzymes, polypeptides and the like- ask anyone who needs insulin now that we use bacteria to produce it instead of harvesting insulin from the dead. those new color-safe "bleaches" use enzymes derived from hyperthermophile bacteria too, your local water treatment plant also uses *tons* of bacteria to digest organic material. bacteria are EVERYWHERE and encountered on a daily basis so the fear factor here is due precisely to people not paying any attention to simple biology until someone starts the fear-mongering.
all Ecoli are not the same, some strains are bad, some are good. The process has virtually no chance of causing any dangerous effects that were not already there from Ecoli strains in the wild. If it really concerns you that Ecoli of any strain got out, a number of safegaurds can and likely will be used. for example, a set of genes for key metabolic processes can be removed making the bacteria completely dependent on the special environment in the printers/labs etc.
To put it a different way, what if colonies of harmless bacteria (called biofilms) that often dwell in water systems, like the bacteria that harmlessly inhabit the human gut, were to trap pathogens and shield them from disinfectants?
biofilms are not simply harmless bacteria, biofilms are generally a large colony of bacteria working together to form what amounts to a bacteria-made protective environment. they can infact be the cause of serious disease because they are more resistant to changing environmental conditions than free living bacteria. the biofilms can be composed of harmful bacteria although harmful bacteria generally are capable of making their own biofilms without the assistance of "good bacteria"
the implication (to me) is that if there are fossils embedded in rocks with the polarity reversed then the two were simultaneous, and that some mechanism other than sight was used for sensing the fields.
these flips happen every 100,000-200,000 years or so which is virtually nothing on the geological scale, species can survive for millions of years so there's a fair chance they could start dying out around the time of a flip, that doesn't really mean that the field was causing an extinction unless there is some pretty convincing evidence to go along with it. this can be tested and I would bet they already have tried this, but we could expose the birds to a magnetic field and vary it according to what we think flips are like and see what happens.
the brain is very flexible, if one part is damaged another takes over, it could be that these birds evolved to utilize the extra processing power of their brains that work with light vision in a similar way. rather than evolve an entirely new region of the brain solely involved in the processing of this magnetic field sese, they use what they already have- an evolutionary macguyver in a way.
I don't think the notion of having one's text messages screened/monitored would sit well with most Americans any more than something similar would for voice messages.
warrentless wiretapping ring a bell? I wouldn't have thought that would sit well with people either, I was wrong. never underestimate the power of complacency and ignorance.
I don't usually text but isn't there some blacklist/whitelist you can set, if not there should be. Verizon doesn't/shouldn't have a right to decide who what when and why anyone gets information wanted or not, it isn't their job. Their sole job is to carry the information, not to act as information cops. it's disturbing that they thought this was an appropriate thing to do but with the wiretapping nonsense I'm not the least bit surprised.
Answer:
Yes
I vote for giving the NASA budget to Burt Rutan and see what he could do with a couple billion dollars.
I vote they put up a few billion in the form of prizes rather than giving a select few a huge amount of funding. let them fight over it and you'll get a lot of innovation, give it to them and you get NASA style stagnation.
Not if the two different versions of Excel use different instructions
now why would that be? oh right, we can't have backwards compatibility, that would allow competition. [just kidding] but really, what was the reason for changing the way excel evaluates a function?
what did that change actually improve? security? ease of use? what?
"NO ONE should be tortured EVER for ANY reason."
This I disagree....if they're trying to kill millions, then yes, we can keep them.
these terrorists you speak of are willing to blow themselves to hell, what do you think torturing them is going to do other than get false info and validating their fanaticism? they do what they do because they actually at some level believe that they are dying for their god, this will only validate that belief for them. people don't confess the truth when they are tortured, they confess ANYTHING to make it stop.
"what is the reasoning behind defending a citizen's rights when you trample on everyone else's?"
Um...hmm...sorry if I've trampled on the rights of someone working with Al-Quaeda.
so if people think you are working for al-quaeda we can torture you? nice plan
"So what you are saying is that because the terrorists do not respect life or any laws that we should go along with doing the same?"
Well gee, isn't that what almost every liberal stands for? Because terrorists (ie: street thugs, murderers, etc) use guns to kill people liberals want to take away our right to own guns.
yes damn liberals trying to keep the fucking crazy people and criminals from getting guns. shame on us. keep your guns, just don't rob anyone, that would of course preclude you from owning any more guns.
"third geneva convention treaty staes that you must treat prisoners of war humanely and must be protected from violence,"
Of thise I agree. In fact, I believe the soldiers who were in Abu Ghraib committed treason and deserved either the death penalty or life imprisonment.
it's nice that you agree.
Oh guess what....if I recall correctly, there are requirements for receiving those benefits. (ie: spies do not receive said benefits).
and if I remember correctly, even spies get a trial, tribunal or otherwise before they are hanged. there's still due process, you can't just kill anyone you desire because it is easier to do so.
I used to be proud of the USA, now I'm ashamed of it because of the things my country is willing to do for "security." The fact that our constitution was written in a time of war where foreign powers had burned the nation's capitol to the ground while today we are arguably a lot better off and yet the government is slowly peeling these rights we had away bit by bit and no one is doing anything about it.
warrentless wiretapping and no-knock raids, are you telling me they didn't have enough probable cause for a warrent but enough to break into your house and screw with everything you have? enough to monitor who you call but not enough that they could convince their own judges it was enough for a warrent? it is a matter of national security after all, i'm sure they wouldn't need much to get one. torturing people for information when it has been long estabolished that torture is not effective in extracting truthfull information from unwilling sources? these people are willing to get splattered for their god, it isn;t that much to dying under torture for their god, only this time they believe it is even more honorable.
And two fallen towers in NYC and attempts to secure nuclear material to cause even more harm do not equate to public safety.
republicans had their chance to prevent this, Clinton's administration tried to institute anti-terrorism laws and guess what happened? that's right republicans voted against it. would they have stopped 9-11? who knows but the fact remains that 9-11 is a half assed attempt to weaken rights that are inherant to all human beings, not just american citizens. these laws are passed under the guise of security from terrorism and are never repealed long after the threat has passed.
Frankly, I don't believe we can risk innocent until proven guilty in some of these cases. Because courts require "beyond a reasonable doubt". And it's really tough to get that info until it's too late.
NO ONE should be locked up for months at a time without being charged. NO ONE should be tortured EVER for ANY reason. your right to be tried by relevant peers in a fair trial with the presumption of innocence until proven otherwise is not the government's right to take away for any reason. It doesn't matter what threat we are under, if we give up our rights as human beings we will have nothing to fight for.
We're not talking about detaining citizens, or even migrants. Only those individuals who are either illegal (ie: should be either kicked out of the country or thrown in jail anyways) or enemy combatants engaged in foriegn conflict zones.
what is the reasoning behind defending a citizen's rights when you trample on everyone else's? there is not a good reason why you deserve rights while other people not like you do not. No reason at all.
Yes, teh same enemy combatants who repeatedly break the Geneva conventions but expect to be rewarded the priveledges of those conventions. And in so breaking those conventions they endanger civilian life. Sorry, if you were merely the limo driver for Al-quaeda members...you've earned enough suspician for a life time sentence.
So what you are saying is that because the terrorists do not respect life or any laws that we should go along with doing the same? what does that make you exactly? The Geneva conventions is an international set of rules for the treatment of enemy combatants that was originally drafted to prevent torture and very inhumane treatment of people captured under times of war. specifically article 13 of the third geneva convention treaty staes that you must treat prisoners of war humanely and must be protected from violence, article 17 forbids torture, article 33 provides for protection of medics and other people who prvide treatment and religious rights etc. take a look at the rights that enemy combatants are afforded under the geneva convention treaties [all 4] it is merely to make sure people are being treated humanely rather than tortured, starved or forbidden any due process. This isn't a right the united states or any other country has the right to take away for any reason. Any governemental power that violates these laws is doing so against the spirit and will of humanity not simply trying to solve their petty nationalist problems.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Geneva_Conventions
Article 4 of the US Constitution states that habeas corpus shall not be suspended unless in cases of rebellion and invasion when the public safety may require it.
or more precisely which suits their poltical agenda. these powers were self-given and not surprisingly the polical party with the most to lose from reinstatment of habeas corpus largely voted against it.
Slashdot Mirror
if the effect was limited just to the hull i'd agree, except that there is obviously a supply of air inside the spacecraft. it could be detected from a distance... inside the craft. which in principle could also be used to detect leaks.
correct, the plasma membrane is studded with a number of receptors, ion channels and signalling compounds- this in particular seems to use capsacian as a "key" to allow the second compound through so that it can work. the plasma membrane being semipermeable as it is, does act somewhat like a wall- a barrier that maintains a chemical gradient/controlled intracellular environment. an all too common mistake on their part.
there is no air in space but the spacecraft its self can transit "sound waves" they're called vibrations. they don't need air.
yes that's true but suppose we synthesized polyethylene from a mix of tritium substituted ethylene and normal ethylene, it would produces heat as the tritium in the polymer decayed and at the same time act as its own shielding and containment. people that broke open the battery would need to go out of their way to ingest the material. it would be a fairly large chunk that you an't just "eat"
the article is correct that radiation destroys semiconductor efficiency although not all "nuclear battery" designs involve semiconductors. space probes sometimes use a chunk of radioactive material that has shielding around it while the energy released is in the form of heat. this heat [temperature gradient] is harnessed by a thermoelectric materal- basically it consists of several layers of different metals that produce a voltage potential in response to a temperature gradient. the advantage in this is that you can use metal as shielding and not relatively fragile semiconductor material. although you need a radioisotope that can generate enough heat from decay to be useful- tritium's half-life is about 12 years so it might qualify, although a better solution might be a solid unless they use T2O, ditritium monoxide, which is "superheavy water"
except that MIT already showed that under certain conditions foil on the head actually focuses electromagnetic radiation, a very ineffective "brain wave shield" indeed. although this one in particular seems to require a measurement of blood flow, presumably anything that shields against electromagnetic radiation capable of measuring blood flow would be sufficient. :)
and this is why you don't put just one safegaurd... you put several in at once- they're going to have to be very creative in their adapting to break this one. then again in the case of these printers, the bacteria at no time actually get near them so it's a non-issue. besides, we already use bacteria to produces enzymes, polypeptides and the like- ask anyone who needs insulin now that we use bacteria to produce it instead of harvesting insulin from the dead. those new color-safe "bleaches" use enzymes derived from hyperthermophile bacteria too, your local water treatment plant also uses *tons* of bacteria to digest organic material. bacteria are EVERYWHERE and encountered on a daily basis so the fear factor here is due precisely to people not paying any attention to simple biology until someone starts the fear-mongering.
you forgot about insensitive clod, you insensitive clod.
the brain is very flexible, if one part is damaged another takes over, it could be that these birds evolved to utilize the extra processing power of their brains that work with light vision in a similar way. rather than evolve an entirely new region of the brain solely involved in the processing of this magnetic field sese, they use what they already have- an evolutionary macguyver in a way.
well yes that actually could be true if you consider small protectorates like the vatican city and such
I don't usually text but isn't there some blacklist/whitelist you can set, if not there should be. Verizon doesn't/shouldn't have a right to decide who what when and why anyone gets information wanted or not, it isn't their job. Their sole job is to carry the information, not to act as information cops. it's disturbing that they thought this was an appropriate thing to do but with the wiretapping nonsense I'm not the least bit surprised.
I vote they put up a few billion in the form of prizes rather than giving a select few a huge amount of funding. let them fight over it and you'll get a lot of innovation, give it to them and you get NASA style stagnation.
I used to be proud of the USA, now I'm ashamed of it because of the things my country is willing to do for "security." The fact that our constitution was written in a time of war where foreign powers had burned the nation's capitol to the ground while today we are arguably a lot better off and yet the government is slowly peeling these rights we had away bit by bit and no one is doing anything about it.
warrentless wiretapping and no-knock raids, are you telling me they didn't have enough probable cause for a warrent but enough to break into your house and screw with everything you have? enough to monitor who you call but not enough that they could convince their own judges it was enough for a warrent? it is a matter of national security after all, i'm sure they wouldn't need much to get one. torturing people for information when it has been long estabolished that torture is not effective in extracting truthfull information from unwilling sources? these people are willing to get splattered for their god, it isn;t that much to dying under torture for their god, only this time they believe it is even more honorable.