Myopia will be our species' downfall. The sad thing is, we will have known better. The universe has given us plenty warning, many truths stare us down, but short term profit and willful ignorance will blind us to the bitter end.
I wonder how many intelligent (by human standards) species across the universe have been wiped out similarly?
As I understand it, dark matter is our best guess at explaining an observation of mass via gravitational lensing and other effects where there is not enough visible matter to account for it. What I never see mentioned, and perhaps there's a good reason for this unbeknownst to me, is the possibility that this phenomenon exists independent from any matter, just as we do observe it. It seems to suggest that without matter space time would be flat across the entire universe. Why isn't it possible that space time is inherently imperfect, with it's own curvatures independent of mass? I've never seen this question asked, or answered. Maybe I've been looking in the wrong places, though. Can someone enlighten me?
"The origin of the cursive method is associated with practical advantages of writing speed and infrequent pen lifting to accommodate the limitations of the quill. Quills are fragile, easily broken, and will spatter unless used properly." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C...
Modern pens, obviously, suffer none of these drawbacks. The idea that writing in cursive is somehow quicker with modern pens is dubious at best. The real reason cursive stuck around so long more likely lies in our tendency for traditionalism. I would guess the generation of teachers who are eschewing the instruction of cursive in favor of typing skills had themselves been forced to learn cursive in their youth and likely thought "I will never need to use this outside of school." They would have been correct with that assertion.
We are completely and totally fucked as a species if we do not figure out how to live independently of Earth. That means manned spaceflights. That means colonization of the Moon, Mars, and possibly elsewhere. The sooner we begin this work the better chance our species has for survival. The trouble is getting our current anti-science government to believe it.
As I understand it in order to sustain catastrophic, life eradicating damage from a GRB you need to be looking directly down the "barrel of the gun" so to speak, or rather directly in the line of fire emanating from the star's poles. This forms a fairly narrow beam of intense energy that decreases with distance. It doesn't seem that likely to me that 90% of life supporting planets in the universe would find themselves in just this predicament.
Who seriously expected the physics of a marble rolling on a rubber sheet to exactly match the physics of a planetary body in orbit? Who thought the analogy was ever meant to make that statement? It's still a pretty good analogy for giving a layperson the gist of how gravity works, and I seriously doubt it was ever meant to do any more than just that.
If Mars has been covered in a global sand storm as recently as 2001, why is it such a shock that there might be winds strong enough to ripple up some sand dunes?
You do realize that there is still a huge gap between a storm like Irene and Katrina, or even Katrina and the 1970 "Bhola Cyclone" which took the lives of over 300,000 people? I never once said Irene was not a bad storm, just an over-hyped and over-covered one.
Yes, it was a Bad Storm. Nobody is going to deny that. However, the media's over-hype and over-coverage of the storm could have a serious "boy who cried wolf" effect. I would hate to see people woefully under-prepared if and when the next "Katrina" arrives, due to lack in confidence in media storm reporting and forecasting. We really don't need to instill a mindset of "it's not going to be as bad as they say it is" in hurricane prone areas. That kind of thinking costs lives, but is none the less engendered by ratings hungry news networks over-hyping relatively weak storms like Irene.
Stupid media hype. In that very same article it is stated that it would take 3 years -at minimum- to verify the existence of an Earth-size exoplanet. So clearly there aren't five of them on the books yet. Kepler went up in March 2009.
The new design shows up as a complete fustercluck in Internet Explorer 6, which is sadly the only browser I can use at work. Had to wait till I got home to post this comment! Oh well.
I'm no astrophysicist but shouldn't a galactic anchor supermassive black hole tearing ass through it's soon-to-be former host galaxy be dragging a fair amount of material with it and creating a bow shock, much as this runaway star is doing?
What do you think is generating the x-rays they're using to spot the black hole?
I believe the X-Ray source may be a foreground or background object not associated with the galaxy, and possibly stationary as well. I would expect a super-massive black hole capable of anchoring an entire galaxy that is so off-center would cause some serious deformation to the host galaxy, which is a feature that clearly is not present in the provided image. I also believe the lack of an X-Ray source at the galactic nucleus is not due to the super-massive black hole being removed, but rather simply that the super-massive black hole that is there is not currently "eating" anything and thus is not producing prodigious amounts of X-Rays.
I'm no astrophysicist but shouldn't a galactic anchor supermassive black hole tearing ass through it's soon-to-be former host galaxy be dragging a fair amount of material with it and creating a bow shock, much as this runaway star is doing?
I can see what they are getting at but it is a real douche thing for them to be all "shame on you!" for downloading and using software that they themselves created, provided, and handed out. I can't see a whole lot of people taking them seriously, as a result.
When it comes to unsecured debt there is little lenders can do to recover their losses on defaults but to raise the interest rates on everybody. If lenders didn't raise these rates, lending would become unprofitable and loans would cease to be available... which is hardly a preferable alternative I should think. As has already been mentioned in another comment, the interest rates aren't anything that weren't in writing when the borrower signed for the loan.
It's plain and simple. The reason interest rates on a certain category of loans is high is because the borrowers in that category present a high risk of default to the lenders. This means that as more and more college grads struggle to land jobs, more and more of them will default on their loans, and interest rates on the whole will rise for everybody as lenders compensate for the increased risk.
Fox has disappeared entirely from Comcast's ClearQAM selection since the switch. At least in Minneapolis. I wonder if they are still carrying it, or are simply encrypting it now (which I'm fairly certain is illegal)? At least it was the only casualty.
Slashdot Mirror
Myopia will be our species' downfall. The sad thing is, we will have known better. The universe has given us plenty warning, many truths stare us down, but short term profit and willful ignorance will blind us to the bitter end. I wonder how many intelligent (by human standards) species across the universe have been wiped out similarly?
Weren't we reading these exact same headlines at nearly the same time last month? What happened?
As I understand it, dark matter is our best guess at explaining an observation of mass via gravitational lensing and other effects where there is not enough visible matter to account for it. What I never see mentioned, and perhaps there's a good reason for this unbeknownst to me, is the possibility that this phenomenon exists independent from any matter, just as we do observe it. It seems to suggest that without matter space time would be flat across the entire universe. Why isn't it possible that space time is inherently imperfect, with it's own curvatures independent of mass? I've never seen this question asked, or answered. Maybe I've been looking in the wrong places, though. Can someone enlighten me?
"The origin of the cursive method is associated with practical advantages of writing speed and infrequent pen lifting to accommodate the limitations of the quill. Quills are fragile, easily broken, and will spatter unless used properly." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C... Modern pens, obviously, suffer none of these drawbacks. The idea that writing in cursive is somehow quicker with modern pens is dubious at best. The real reason cursive stuck around so long more likely lies in our tendency for traditionalism. I would guess the generation of teachers who are eschewing the instruction of cursive in favor of typing skills had themselves been forced to learn cursive in their youth and likely thought "I will never need to use this outside of school." They would have been correct with that assertion.
We are completely and totally fucked as a species if we do not figure out how to live independently of Earth. That means manned spaceflights. That means colonization of the Moon, Mars, and possibly elsewhere. The sooner we begin this work the better chance our species has for survival. The trouble is getting our current anti-science government to believe it.
As I understand it in order to sustain catastrophic, life eradicating damage from a GRB you need to be looking directly down the "barrel of the gun" so to speak, or rather directly in the line of fire emanating from the star's poles. This forms a fairly narrow beam of intense energy that decreases with distance. It doesn't seem that likely to me that 90% of life supporting planets in the universe would find themselves in just this predicament.
Who seriously expected the physics of a marble rolling on a rubber sheet to exactly match the physics of a planetary body in orbit? Who thought the analogy was ever meant to make that statement? It's still a pretty good analogy for giving a layperson the gist of how gravity works, and I seriously doubt it was ever meant to do any more than just that.
Death is not a bug, it's a feature. It's the only way we get rid of old assholes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I28e0IqIgPc -- KRTV out of Great Falls, Montana.
Pretty impossible to say if the planet is habitable, but at 4 times the Earth's mass it definitely isn't Earth-like. The search continues...
Demand suddenly skyrocketed! You all saw it!
If Mars has been covered in a global sand storm as recently as 2001, why is it such a shock that there might be winds strong enough to ripple up some sand dunes?
You do realize that there is still a huge gap between a storm like Irene and Katrina, or even Katrina and the 1970 "Bhola Cyclone" which took the lives of over 300,000 people? I never once said Irene was not a bad storm, just an over-hyped and over-covered one.
This. A million times this. We have serious problems in the way media presents information before, during, and after events such as this.
Yes, it was a Bad Storm. Nobody is going to deny that. However, the media's over-hype and over-coverage of the storm could have a serious "boy who cried wolf" effect. I would hate to see people woefully under-prepared if and when the next "Katrina" arrives, due to lack in confidence in media storm reporting and forecasting. We really don't need to instill a mindset of "it's not going to be as bad as they say it is" in hurricane prone areas. That kind of thinking costs lives, but is none the less engendered by ratings hungry news networks over-hyping relatively weak storms like Irene.
Stupid media hype. In that very same article it is stated that it would take 3 years -at minimum- to verify the existence of an Earth-size exoplanet. So clearly there aren't five of them on the books yet. Kepler went up in March 2009.
The new design shows up as a complete fustercluck in Internet Explorer 6, which is sadly the only browser I can use at work. Had to wait till I got home to post this comment! Oh well.
I'm no astrophysicist but shouldn't a galactic anchor supermassive black hole tearing ass through it's soon-to-be former host galaxy be dragging a fair amount of material with it and creating a bow shock, much as this runaway star is doing?
What do you think is generating the x-rays they're using to spot the black hole?
I believe the X-Ray source may be a foreground or background object not associated with the galaxy, and possibly stationary as well. I would expect a super-massive black hole capable of anchoring an entire galaxy that is so off-center would cause some serious deformation to the host galaxy, which is a feature that clearly is not present in the provided image. I also believe the lack of an X-Ray source at the galactic nucleus is not due to the super-massive black hole being removed, but rather simply that the super-massive black hole that is there is not currently "eating" anything and thus is not producing prodigious amounts of X-Rays.
I'm no astrophysicist but shouldn't a galactic anchor supermassive black hole tearing ass through it's soon-to-be former host galaxy be dragging a fair amount of material with it and creating a bow shock, much as this runaway star is doing?
I can see what they are getting at but it is a real douche thing for them to be all "shame on you!" for downloading and using software that they themselves created, provided, and handed out. I can't see a whole lot of people taking them seriously, as a result.
When it comes to unsecured debt there is little lenders can do to recover their losses on defaults but to raise the interest rates on everybody. If lenders didn't raise these rates, lending would become unprofitable and loans would cease to be available... which is hardly a preferable alternative I should think. As has already been mentioned in another comment, the interest rates aren't anything that weren't in writing when the borrower signed for the loan.
It's plain and simple. The reason interest rates on a certain category of loans is high is because the borrowers in that category present a high risk of default to the lenders. This means that as more and more college grads struggle to land jobs, more and more of them will default on their loans, and interest rates on the whole will rise for everybody as lenders compensate for the increased risk.
How will I poop?
I also kept getting warranty cards, seemingly for vehicles I didn't even own anymore. Glad I ignored them.
Fox has disappeared entirely from Comcast's ClearQAM selection since the switch. At least in Minneapolis. I wonder if they are still carrying it, or are simply encrypting it now (which I'm fairly certain is illegal)? At least it was the only casualty.