Are you trying to disprove his point or support it? Of course a choose your own adventure book cannot be "High Art". Try to imagine a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure of Anna Karenina. There is a mountain of metaphor and plot that would lost if at the end you choose not to jump in front of the train.
So they couldn't get 3 million orders, so they decided to go ahead with production anyway? That might sound like a good plan from a cheery-"We're going to save the world" point of view, but that would be a bad sign in any business situation. They've basically tested the market, found that there's not as much demand as expected and chugged ahead regardless. Along with the failure to meet the actual goal of a $100 laptop, this has all the earmarks of a sinking project.
I'm surprised Microsoft wasn't involved because this is exactly what happened with the Zune and Vista.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: the OLPC will end with a massive taxpayer bailout when congress is asked to spend $300 million on laptops that no one wants.
Point of Order
You used the Kitty Genovese story as an example of a group of people acting dumb, then linked to an article about how most the story is urban legend, that most of the witnesses weren't eye-witnesses, there were at most one to three actual witnesses and that the police were called after the initial attack by one of those witnesses.
Its a terrible, tragic incident, but it's actually not a very good example of groups of people acting dumb. A
Ron Paul has a consistent voting record going back thirty years. He's one of the very few congressmen who didn't vote for the PATRIOT ACT or the authorization of force in Iraq. He personally doesn't accept Medicare or Medicaid because he doesn't believe in them, but instead does the work for free or lowered payment. You may not agree for everything he stands for, I don't, but there's no question that the guy is authentic.
Neither group has a working prototype, so there's plenty of reason for both approaches to be investigated. Honestly, are you some sort of MIT-fanboy that you have to put down another university's research?
The point was made, but no experiment was proposed nor does it say what would be measured. I realize that Bad Astronomy is written for a layman audience, but it's kind of lame to make a big deal about how its testable without telling what the test would be.
The theory that is proposed in the article is that our universe came from a former "crunched" universe. But the current observations of our universe indicate accelerating expansion which in turn implies that our universe will end in a cold death rather than a big crunch. That seems to be an unresolved contradiction. Does these mean that loop quantum gravity is incompatible with observation (which would conclude that LQG is not correct)? Or did the previous universe have such different laws of physics that it's fate was different than the fate of our universe?
I was hoping that the article was going to propose an experiment that would confirm or deny loop quantum gravity, but it doesn't. AFAIK, LQG and string theory are not experimentally falsifiable theories, that has been one of the principle controversies. A lot of scientists (Philip Anderson for instance) don't think these its real science.
Note that the lobes appear to be tilted away from us by about 40 degrees or so. That's a good thing. When stars like Eta Carinae explode, they tend to shoot of beams of energy and matter that, at its distance of 7500 light years, could kill every living thing on Earth. But since it's pointed away from us, all we'll get is a spectacular light show. It could potentially wipe out life on Earth, but its pointed in the wrong direction...hopefully.
IANAL, but isn't 'selective prosecution' is usually an issue in criminal courts, not civil. I can't see how it could possibly apply to civil cases because then you have to sue EVERYONE that causes you harm or else the one time that you did sue it would be thrown out as selective prosecution.
Very interesting. But one thing seems off, with such low GPA's how did half of them get advanced degrees? I'm really wondering about the physician who had a 3.12. Will a med school accept someone with such low grades? My grades were a little higher than that with excellend GRE, published research, etc. and I still got turned down by a couple of grad schools that I applied to.
People are better at extrapolating than you give them credit for. "From the Earth to the Moon" was written by Jules Verne in 1865, has many similarities to the actually Apollo missions.
If you've read anything by Stross, you would know that he's a pretty imaginative guy and even this article takes into account a lot of speculative technology. Its been nearly 40 years since anyone as has gone to the moon and we haven't made much progress since then. It's entirely possible that our space travel capabilities have already peaked out.
The Catholic church got burned on the whole "heliocentric" issue and since then has been pretty open-minded about science like evolution and cosmology.
The question was irrelevant because Clinton wasn't being investigated for sexual harrassment. The Whitewater investigation to determine what the Clinton's involvement was in an illegal land deal. What does a blowjob have to do with real estate?!
Kenneth Starr was grasping for straws when he brought up Lewinski.
BTW it was a criminal case, there were 40 criminal convictions related to the Whitewater Development Corporation.
The terminator gene prevents germination, but not pollination. So it can still trade genes with other plants, then those plants are unable to germinate.
#14 was about KBR, a contractor, not the KGB.
Iran was was given parts for a nuclear reactor, not a bomb.
Exaggeration may help get people's attention, but not in a positive way.
Texas is 262,000 sq miles. Your calculations are for the area of a square that is 262,000 miles on each side. There is a very important difference. 262,000 sq miles = 5280^2 * 262,000 = 7.3041408 × 10^12 sq feet. That's more like 1196 sq feet per person. That's still enough for a modest house, I suppose.
In terms of raw potential and talent, the smartest person ever to live was probably not Eistein or Newton or anyone that you might have heard of. It was probably someone who lived their entire life in a rice patty, died young and never got a chance at an education.
At risk of invoking Godwins Law, consider how many brillant scientists were driven away from Germany by the persecution of the Jews.
Women are 51% percent of the population. Unless you make some sexist assumptions, the most potentially talented programmer is probably a woman. If there is systematic discrimination, its everyone's loss. Society is missing out on the best people by not giving everyone the opportunities that they deserve.
Slashdot Mirror
Are you trying to disprove his point or support it? Of course a choose your own adventure book cannot be "High Art". Try to imagine a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure of Anna Karenina. There is a mountain of metaphor and plot that would lost if at the end you choose not to jump in front of the train.
So they couldn't get 3 million orders, so they decided to go ahead with production anyway? That might sound like a good plan from a cheery-"We're going to save the world" point of view, but that would be a bad sign in any business situation. They've basically tested the market, found that there's not as much demand as expected and chugged ahead regardless. Along with the failure to meet the actual goal of a $100 laptop, this has all the earmarks of a sinking project.
I'm surprised Microsoft wasn't involved because this is exactly what happened with the Zune and Vista.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: the OLPC will end with a massive taxpayer bailout when congress is asked to spend $300 million on laptops that no one wants.
Point of Order
You used the Kitty Genovese story as an example of a group of people acting dumb, then linked to an article about how most the story is urban legend, that most of the witnesses weren't eye-witnesses, there were at most one to three actual witnesses and that the police were called after the initial attack by one of those witnesses.
Its a terrible, tragic incident, but it's actually not a very good example of groups of people acting dumb. A
Ron Paul has a consistent voting record going back thirty years. He's one of the very few congressmen who didn't vote for the PATRIOT ACT or the authorization of force in Iraq. He personally doesn't accept Medicare or Medicaid because he doesn't believe in them, but instead does the work for free or lowered payment. You may not agree for everything he stands for, I don't, but there's no question that the guy is authentic.
This may be the first major act by President Bush that is unquestionably constitutional.
Neither group has a working prototype, so there's plenty of reason for both approaches to be investigated. Honestly, are you some sort of MIT-fanboy that you have to put down another university's research?
The point was made, but no experiment was proposed nor does it say what would be measured. I realize that Bad Astronomy is written for a layman audience, but it's kind of lame to make a big deal about how its testable without telling what the test would be.
The theory that is proposed in the article is that our universe came from a former "crunched" universe. But the current observations of our universe indicate accelerating expansion which in turn implies that our universe will end in a cold death rather than a big crunch. That seems to be an unresolved contradiction. Does these mean that loop quantum gravity is incompatible with observation (which would conclude that LQG is not correct)? Or did the previous universe have such different laws of physics that it's fate was different than the fate of our universe?
I was hoping that the article was going to propose an experiment that would confirm or deny loop quantum gravity, but it doesn't. AFAIK, LQG and string theory are not experimentally falsifiable theories, that has been one of the principle controversies. A lot of scientists (Philip Anderson for instance) don't think these its real science.
Because declaring bankruptcy doesn't absolve you have federally subsidized student loans.
IANAL, but isn't 'selective prosecution' is usually an issue in criminal courts, not civil. I can't see how it could possibly apply to civil cases because then you have to sue EVERYONE that causes you harm or else the one time that you did sue it would be thrown out as selective prosecution.
Very interesting. But one thing seems off, with such low GPA's how did half of them get advanced degrees? I'm really wondering about the physician who had a 3.12. Will a med school accept someone with such low grades? My grades were a little higher than that with excellend GRE, published research, etc. and I still got turned down by a couple of grad schools that I applied to.
Ender wasn't smarter than Peter or Val, he was more emotionally suited for Battle School. Not too cruel, not too merciful.
Yes, every unusual event can be safely assumed to be caused by global warming until there is evidence to the contrary. Who can deny that logic?
People are better at extrapolating than you give them credit for. "From the Earth to the Moon" was written by Jules Verne in 1865, has many similarities to the actually Apollo missions.
If you've read anything by Stross, you would know that he's a pretty imaginative guy and even this article takes into account a lot of speculative technology. Its been nearly 40 years since anyone as has gone to the moon and we haven't made much progress since then. It's entirely possible that our space travel capabilities have already peaked out.
With all due respect to Mr. Stross, he is neither a scientist nor elderly.
I hope that the RIAA doesn't change tactics after hearing about this
The Catholic church got burned on the whole "heliocentric" issue and since then has been pretty open-minded about science like evolution and cosmology.
The question was irrelevant because Clinton wasn't being investigated for sexual harrassment. The Whitewater investigation to determine what the Clinton's involvement was in an illegal land deal. What does a blowjob have to do with real estate?! Kenneth Starr was grasping for straws when he brought up Lewinski. BTW it was a criminal case, there were 40 criminal convictions related to the Whitewater Development Corporation.
The terminator gene prevents germination, but not pollination. So it can still trade genes with other plants, then those plants are unable to germinate.
#14 was about KBR, a contractor, not the KGB.
Iran was was given parts for a nuclear reactor, not a bomb.
Exaggeration may help get people's attention, but not in a positive way.
Texas is 262,000 sq miles. Your calculations are for the area of a square that is 262,000 miles on each side. There is a very important difference. 262,000 sq miles = 5280^2 * 262,000 = 7.3041408 × 10^12 sq feet. That's more like 1196 sq feet per person. That's still enough for a modest house, I suppose.
In terms of raw potential and talent, the smartest person ever to live was probably not Eistein or Newton or anyone that you might have heard of. It was probably someone who lived their entire life in a rice patty, died young and never got a chance at an education.
At risk of invoking Godwins Law, consider how many brillant scientists were driven away from Germany by the persecution of the Jews.
Women are 51% percent of the population. Unless you make some sexist assumptions, the most potentially talented programmer is probably a woman. If there is systematic discrimination, its everyone's loss. Society is missing out on the best people by not giving everyone the opportunities that they deserve.