The most famous -- and only known â" case of a state legislature in the US attempting to create by law a new value for pi was that of Indiana in 1897; it has become legendary, and the basis of myth and hoax. Although it has come to represent the occasional ignorance of innumerate legislators, it was not so obviously a bad idea at the time.
The bill was introduced to the house by legislator Mr. Record, but it was reported that "Mr. Record knows nothing of the bill with the exception that he introduced it by request of Dr. Edwin Goodwin of Posey County, who is the author of the demonstration."[3] The bill began in the Committee on Canals (aka the Committee on Swamp Lands), whose chairman tried unsuccessfully to send it to the Committee on Education.
Redefining the value of pi seems not to have been its principal goal, but a side effect. In fact, the bill seems to have offered four different, new values for pi. Rather, the bill was aimed at benefiting its author, who claimed to have patented a new method for "squaring the circle", which he proposed to let the state of Indiana use free of charge if they would pass his bill! Its opening statement is clear:
A bill for an act introducing a new mathematical truth and offered as a contribution to education to be used only by the State of Indiana free of cost by paying any royalties whatever on the same, provided it is accepted and adopted by the official action of the legislature of 1897.
To lend credibility to his claim, Dr. Goodwin gave these credentials:
Section 3. In further proof of the value of the author's proposed contribution to education, and offered as a gift to the State of Indiana, is the fact of his solutions of the trisection of the angle, duplication of the cube and quadrature having been already accepted as contributions to science by the American Mathematical Monthly, the leading exponent of mathematical thought in this country. And be it remembered that these noted problems had been long since given up by scientific bodies as unsolvable mysteries and above man's ability to comprehend.
It seems that Dr. Goodwin had already solved two of the great unsolvable problems of ancient geometry and claimed to have solved a third with his method of squaring the circle.
The bill made it through three readings and votes in the House, and its first reading in the Senate. It was evidently seen as of economical benefit, since Indiana would save royalties on the patent, and the legislators proclaimed themselves unfit to comprehend the details of the bill anyway. The finale was dramatic and down to the wire:[4]
That the bill was killed appears to be a matter of dumb luck rather than the superior education or wisdom of the Senate. It is true that the bill was widely ridiculed in Indiana and other states, but what actually brought about the defeat of the bill is recorded by Prof. C.A. Waldo in an article he wrote for the Proceedings of the Indiana Academy of Science in 1916. The reason he knows is that he happened to be at the State Capitol lobbying for the appropriation of the Indiana Academy of Science, on the day the Housed passed House Bill 246.... The roll was then called and the bill passed its third and final reading in the lower house. A member then showed the writer [i.e. Waldo] a copy of the bill just passed and asked him if he would like an introduction to the learned doctor, its author. He declined the courtesy with thanks remarking that he was acquainted with as many crazy people as he cared to know. That evening the senators were properly coached and shortly thereafter as it came to its final reading in the upper house they threw out with much merriment the epoch making discovery of the Wise Man from the Pocket.
Well, you need to understand that the pc gaming industry is pretty much dead in japan. I'm confident that the pc is still popular here because of its capacity to let players create their own games (like porn games)
The platform that lets the consumers create their own games and mods easily wins.
Also, don't forget that consoles are still selling because the products are not distributed on all platforms. If all games were released at the same time for all platforms with the same quality and price, the pc would win since you can easily create your own games and mod commercial games (see flash games and the mod scene).
In conclusion, while porn is an important factor when comparing technologies, we must compare apples with apples. Computers and consoles are not offering the same products right now, especially not in the US. Not all games are available for all the platforms and thus, your counterexample is flawed.
A very small, few-meter sized asteroid, designated 2008 TC3, was found Monday morning by the Catalina Sky Survey from their observatory near Tucson Arizona. Preliminary orbital computations by the Minor Planet Center suggested an atmospheric entry of this object within a day of discovery. JPL confirmed that an atmospheric impact will very likely occur during early morning twilight over northern Sudan, north-eastern Africa, at 2:46 UT Tuesday morning. The fireball, which could be brilliant, will travel west to east (from azimuth = 281 degrees) at a relative atmospheric impact velocity of 12.8 km/s and arrive at a very low angle (19 degrees) to the local horizon. It is very unlikely that any sizable fragments will survive passage through the Earth's atmosphere.
Objects of this size would be expected to enter the Earth's atmosphere every few months on average but this is the first time such an event has been predicted ahead of time.
Meteoroid/meteor: Any of the small solid extraterrestrial bodies that hits the earth's atmosphere
Meteorite: A solid body that has arrived on the Earth or Moon from outer space. It can range in size from microscopic to many tons. Its composition ranges from that of silicate rocks to metallic iron-nickel.
Asteroids: Asteroids, also called minor planets or planetoids, are a class of astronomical objects. The term asteroid is generally used to indicate a diverse group of small celestial bodies.
Softwares, lines of codes, are what will control the whole world in the future, and that is if it's not already the case.
If open-sourced code for a puny train must stay legally open-sourced, then all open-sourced code must stay open-sourced... including the most important applications that exist and those yet to come.
That train, my good friend, is the train leading us to freedom!
I know I'd miss the earth, especially the forests and mountains, but I would do it. As long as the spaceship is damn well equiped for entertainment and as long as there are computers and a couple of persons I can talk to when I need it, there's no problem. The spaceship would be a kind of small village and I really hate urban areas so I'd feel at home. No more mountain biking or trekkinh for me, but spacewalks would be nice. I can imagine myself in space, starring at the void, dreaming about reality...
I don't have 20 Ph.D. so nobody would select me though...
There are a couple of messaging softwares that use encryption. People tend to simply not care in the west about things like Tor, Freenet, I2P and encryption options in text messaging but if more scenarios that are NOT linked to child porn arise, maybe people will start to consider the more legitimate reasons to fight for our right to privacy?
I believe we need more crypto-anarchists in this world. Where are the cypherpunks when we need them?
Well, to be fair, I never said they never researched the subject. All I wanted to say is that most of the money tends to go for military research. Also, I know that no science is worthless.
As for the space elevator, the small prizes given in the USA are nothing compared to what the japanese government is giving away for that field.
Japanese Begin Working On Space Elevator AND US Congress Funds Laser Weapons...
Well, there's an easy joke in there but I could also ask if it isn't time for the USA to think about their investments.
You could ask what's in it for me but then I would tell you that any country that gets too advanced militarily will tend to bully the rest of the world. On the other hand, being advanced in other fields will make the country financially superior through commerce.
Slashdot Mirror
I wonder...
Indiana House Bill #246
The most famous -- and only known â" case of a state legislature in the US attempting to create by law a new value for pi was that of Indiana in 1897; it has become legendary, and the basis of myth and hoax. Although it has come to represent the occasional ignorance of innumerate legislators, it was not so obviously a bad idea at the time.
The bill was introduced to the house by legislator Mr. Record, but it was reported that "Mr. Record knows nothing of the bill with the exception that he introduced it by request of Dr. Edwin Goodwin of Posey County, who is the author of the demonstration."[3] The bill began in the Committee on Canals (aka the Committee on Swamp Lands), whose chairman tried unsuccessfully to send it to the Committee on Education.
Redefining the value of pi seems not to have been its principal goal, but a side effect. In fact, the bill seems to have offered four different, new values for pi. Rather, the bill was aimed at benefiting its author, who claimed to have patented a new method for "squaring the circle", which he proposed to let the state of Indiana use free of charge if they would pass his bill! Its opening statement is clear:
A bill for an act introducing a new mathematical truth and offered as a contribution to education to be used only by the State of Indiana free of cost by paying any royalties whatever on the same, provided it is accepted and adopted by the official action of the legislature of 1897.
To lend credibility to his claim, Dr. Goodwin gave these credentials:
Section 3. In further proof of the value of the author's proposed contribution to education, and offered as a gift to the State of Indiana, is the fact of his solutions of the trisection of the angle, duplication of the cube and quadrature having been already accepted as contributions to science by the American Mathematical Monthly, the leading exponent of mathematical thought in this country. And be it remembered that these noted problems had been long since given up by scientific bodies as unsolvable mysteries and above man's ability to comprehend.
It seems that Dr. Goodwin had already solved two of the great unsolvable problems of ancient geometry and claimed to have solved a third with his method of squaring the circle.
The bill made it through three readings and votes in the House, and its first reading in the Senate. It was evidently seen as of economical benefit, since Indiana would save royalties on the patent, and the legislators proclaimed themselves unfit to comprehend the details of the bill anyway. The finale was dramatic and down to the wire:[4]
That the bill was killed appears to be a matter of dumb luck rather than the superior education or wisdom of the Senate. It is true that the bill was widely ridiculed in Indiana and other states, but what actually brought about the defeat of the bill is recorded by Prof. C.A. Waldo in an article he wrote for the Proceedings of the Indiana Academy of Science in 1916. The reason he knows is that he happened to be at the State Capitol lobbying for the appropriation of the Indiana Academy of Science, on the day the Housed passed House Bill 246. ... The roll was then called and the bill passed its third and final reading in the lower house. A member then showed the writer [i.e. Waldo] a copy of the bill just passed and asked him if he would like an introduction to the learned doctor, its author. He declined the courtesy with thanks remarking that he was acquainted with as many crazy people as he cared to know. That evening the senators were properly coached and shortly thereafter as it came to its final reading in the upper house they threw out with much merriment the epoch making discovery of the Wise Man from the Pocket.
Yes, but wont the entire universe die anyway? Why wouldn't any advanced civilization simply accept death and create a civilization of entertainment?
This decadence could end up dumbing them or even destroying them eventually, but this is a possibility.
No. According to his argument, you suck it up, or select another service provider.
Script kiddies have their place too. When people feel powerless in front of any injustice, they can decide to cross the line and take up arms.
Since the government and the police aren't doing anything, I happen to approve.
Yes. Except for the fact that it is not valid. http://skepdic.com/polygrap.html
Unless you happen to wear gloves...
Ah thanks. See, I completely misunderstood the summary. I get it now...
On one day Google is evil and doesn't care about privacy, and on the other day it cares about privacy...
Are we supposed to like Google or not now?
I'm confused :(
Well, you need to understand that the pc gaming industry is pretty much dead in japan. I'm confident that the pc is still popular here because of its capacity to let players create their own games (like porn games)
The platform that lets the consumers create their own games and mods easily wins.
Also, don't forget that consoles are still selling because the products are not distributed on all platforms. If all games were released at the same time for all platforms with the same quality and price, the pc would win since you can easily create your own games and mod commercial games (see flash games and the mod scene).
In conclusion, while porn is an important factor when comparing technologies, we must compare apples with apples. Computers and consoles are not offering the same products right now, especially not in the US. Not all games are available for all the platforms and thus, your counterexample is flawed.
The consoles have no pornographic games?
Hehe, don't be so innocent...
Here are two examples (not porn):
Osouji Sentai Clean Keeper for the wii
and
Doki_Doki_Majo_Shinpan! for the DS.
Also, don't forget about the unofficial illegal porn games for consoles...
Small Asteroid Predicted to Cause Brilliant Fireball over Northern Sudan
A very small, few-meter sized asteroid, designated 2008 TC3, was found Monday morning by the Catalina Sky Survey from their observatory near Tucson Arizona. Preliminary orbital computations by the Minor Planet Center suggested an atmospheric entry of this object within a day of discovery. JPL confirmed that an atmospheric impact will very likely occur during early morning twilight over northern Sudan, north-eastern Africa, at 2:46 UT Tuesday morning. The fireball, which could be brilliant, will travel west to east (from azimuth = 281 degrees) at a relative atmospheric impact velocity of 12.8 km/s and arrive at a very low angle (19 degrees) to the local horizon. It is very unlikely that any sizable fragments will survive passage through the Earth's atmosphere.
Objects of this size would be expected to enter the Earth's atmosphere every few months on average but this is the first time such an event has been predicted ahead of time.
Meteoroid/meteor: Any of the small solid extraterrestrial bodies that hits the earth's atmosphere
Meteorite: A solid body that has arrived on the Earth or Moon from outer space. It can range in size from microscopic to many tons. Its composition ranges from that of silicate rocks to metallic iron-nickel.
Asteroids: Asteroids, also called minor planets or planetoids, are a class of astronomical objects. The term asteroid is generally used to indicate a diverse group of small celestial bodies.
If someone wants to do back ups, why not simply buy a 1.5 TB hard drive for ~200 dollars?
I don't see why we need cds anymore...
Not only that but new users will pick up 3.0. Actually, I want to learn how to program and I'm waiting for 3.0 for that very reason.
And why would that make it less "epic"?
Softwares, lines of codes, are what will control the whole world in the future, and that is if it's not already the case.
If open-sourced code for a puny train must stay legally open-sourced, then all open-sourced code must stay open-sourced... including the most important applications that exist and those yet to come.
That train, my good friend, is the train leading us to freedom!
I would do it.
I know I'd miss the earth, especially the forests and mountains, but I would do it. As long as the spaceship is damn well equiped for entertainment and as long as there are computers and a couple of persons I can talk to when I need it, there's no problem. The spaceship would be a kind of small village and I really hate urban areas so I'd feel at home. No more mountain biking or trekkinh for me, but spacewalks would be nice. I can imagine myself in space, starring at the void, dreaming about reality...
I don't have 20 Ph.D. so nobody would select me though...
You attach to much importance to appearances.
There are a couple of messaging softwares that use encryption. People tend to simply not care in the west about things like Tor, Freenet, I2P and encryption options in text messaging but if more scenarios that are NOT linked to child porn arise, maybe people will start to consider the more legitimate reasons to fight for our right to privacy?
I believe we need more crypto-anarchists in this world. Where are the cypherpunks when we need them?
I agree with parent. This just forces games to be even more locked on a platform than before.
This is not about saving or helping the pc market. It's about selling windows.
I'm going to feed this troller to death.
The 2009 US military budget is 651,2 Bil. and $79.6 Bil. of that goes to military research and testing. http://www.gpoaccess.gov/usbudget/fy09/pdf/budget/defense.pdf [gpoaccess.gov]
On the other hand, only $6.9 billion went for the National Science Foundation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_United_States_federal_budget#Total_spending [wikipedia.org]
Now, to be fair, the NSF doesn't include medical research so we'd have to consider that but where do you think you'd have to cut first?
*walks away*
The 2009 military budget for research is: $79.6 Bil. http://www.gpoaccess.gov/usbudget/fy09/pdf/budget/defense.pdf
While $6.9 billion went for the National Science Foundation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_United_States_federal_budget#Total_spending
Now, the NSF doesn't include medical research so we'd have to consider that.
Well, to be fair, I never said they never researched the subject. All I wanted to say is that most of the money tends to go for military research. Also, I know that no science is worthless.
As for the space elevator, the small prizes given in the USA are nothing compared to what the japanese government is giving away for that field.
Japanese Begin Working On Space Elevator AND US Congress Funds Laser Weapons...
Well, there's an easy joke in there but I could also ask if it isn't time for the USA to think about their investments.
You could ask what's in it for me but then I would tell you that any country that gets too advanced militarily will tend to bully the rest of the world. On the other hand, being advanced in other fields will make the country financially superior through commerce.
Think about it.
I'll admit I'm a bit clueless about USENET since I never tried it but I'm wondering... Couldn't we just host it as a distributed network like Freenet?