Historically, how common is it for scientists to get serious work done when they're in love or chasing hot women? The degree of concentration and dedication required for groundbreaking work would seem to me to usually preclude that.
I'm a scientist and as hard as it is to believe, I actually had a girlfriend who later become my wife after 8 years of courtship. We now have several kids and truthfully, I couldn't imagine what life would be like without them. While I am no Einstein or Pasteur, my wife is a constant source of affection and unconditional support and I try to return it the best that I can. My wife and kids gives me something to look forward to after a hard days work. They provide me with the emotional and mental push needed to complete difficult research projects. It is no accident that I have their photo on my lab bench to remind me the reason why I am working hard. If this is you perception of life, then I am truly sad for you.
It is not Wikileaks that is the danger, it is the trigger happy US and allied military and the uncaring and arrogant US government that is jeopardising the safety and image of Americans to the world. To turn the oft repeated slogan on its head; "If you got nothing to hide, you should not fear Wikileaks". I am sick of hearing "political analysts" and politicians saying Wikileaks is endangering American soldiers because they expose atrocities committed by American soldiers, and as the flawed logic goes, emboldens the enemy. Seriously, this is something Goebbles or Stalin might say, not the leaders of the free world. Wikileaks is actually helping the US by creating negative consequences for excesses of its military. Instead of trying to silence Wikileaks by extra-legal, Gestapo/NKVD/Kempetai-like "rendering" of the founder (which will only worsen the US image), maybe the US should rein in their cowboy soldiers and walk the "spreading freedom and democracy" talk.
Asians eh? Warning, you prejudice might be showing. I'm an "Asian" but I am not offended by your comment. This is because, until very recently in human history, copying what others created is the norm. Be it in language, music, food, vehicles or weapons. You after all got the Chinese to thank for gunpowder, among other things. I don't recall Europeans paying the Chinese any royalties on that.
This is very important. As you said, aircraft carriers and big surface ships are where Battleships were during the inter-World War years. They are still here because there are no large naval battles to test them. The biggest threat to such large surface sips are the true capital ships of today, the nuclear submarines. Generally, an underwater hit is more fatal than a hit to the superstructure by "breaking the back" of the surface vessel. North Korea just sunk a South Korea vessel using a dinky outdated submarine. This is the writing on the wall for aircraft carriers.
Yet, defected I did. I got on to Facebook fairly early, back when I had to take a lot of effort to convince my friends to sign up. Now, I have to do the opposite. Now, when someone tells me he will put something on Facebook for me to see, I have to spend 5-10 minutes explaining why I deleted my account. Happily, after a few days of withdrawal symptoms, I realized how useless Facebook is. Most of the people on my "friends" list are not true friends, but only acquaintances. Most of my real friends are near me or reachable by phone or email. I also realize that I don't need to know what some semi-stranger ate for breakfast, or how angry he is at Japanese whalers. I already get this during morning tea at the lab I work in or when I go out for lunch with co-workers. I also finally accepted that losing touch with friends is natural. There are usually some good reason why you grew apart with someone and no amount of Friending or Mafia invites could ever return you to the old days. While it is sad, you will go on to make new friends (and enemies) and that is life.
I have a problem with "medical surveys" in that they a prone to make correlation-causation errors. This seems to be a measurable problem that can be tested in the lab. Why don't people do this instead. Put a lab monkey next to an active mobile phone and keep them there for several years. After that, dissect the monkey for any signs of cancer. If there is, then alert the public. You then look into how it happened, i.e the biochemical interactions that caused it. Just "surveying" people introduces biases, other factors like diet and lifestyle and also crackpots.
Specifically, bamboo http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamboo which can grow 60cm in a day. The summary seems to imply that biological systems are simple compared to high tech artificial systems. I might be biased because I am a microbiologist, but nothing humans have ever constructed have even remotely approached the complexity and efficiency of biological systems. For example, have a look at the bacterial outboard motor (flagellum) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flagellum. Just look at it. Isn't it beautiful, complex yet efficient at what it does. Considering that at bacterial scale, the liquid medium surrounding it is like molasses, makes it more incredible.
but companies could face anti-trust action even if they don't own a monopoly over a product or service. (Confirm/Deny?) I am also smirking over the reaction of Apple supporters over this news. Previously, it was "we are the champions, no time for losers" now it is "hey, told you we're not evil because we are the underdogs, support the underdogs!" Not trolling by the way.
Wear pants. Seriously. No skorts or kilts or whatever they are called.
Don't shit where you eat (no office romance, trust me it is better this way).
Greet the Gatekeepers (receptionists, tea lady etc.) and be nice to them. You will be surprised how this will be helpful later on in your career at the company.
Be sociable and polite. Say please and thank you. In real life, people have less tolerance for "ironic" or sarcastic statements than online. Ditto for anything racist or chauvinistic.
Be respectful to people who are more knowledgeable than you, even if they are assholes.
Be patient to people who are less knowledgeable than you. Teaching someone will benefit you too during the process.
To paraphrase Star Trek, bosses/customers are like children. They want everything and they want it now. The trick is to make them want what they really need.
This article actually doesn't belong in the Idle section. This is a very serious issue with wide-ranging ramifications, i.e. the automation of our automobiles (hah!). I have said before, and I will say it again, we have gone past the point where adding any more automation to the car will do any good, instead of improving the driver's skills.
And your point being? Facebook used to be a benign and somewhat useful tool. Now it is mutating into a privacy vampire. I am a geek, though not a "computer geek". My expertise is bacteria and microorganisms, not IT or computer science. Yet, I have recently wiped a lot of stuff that on longer thinking, I shouldn't have put on Facebook, stuff like certain photos, phone numbers and real world mailing address. Heck, I now even wiped my birthday from Facebook. I did this after reading about Facebook privacy concerns on Slashdot and everyday news outlets and became concerned myself. In fact, I will probably cancel my account soon because after 4 years on Facebook, I got little benefit from it that I couldn't get from just emailing someone. Sure it was fun to find your long-lost friend from primary school, but how many of us really follow up? There is usually a good reason why we lost touch with someone, the most common is that we just grew up into a different person. Out of my several hundred Facebook "friends", I can count around only 20 that are actually real friends, not just acquaintances or the social equivalent of archaeological fossils. Coming back to your point that an open version of Facebook, made by selfless enthusiasts won't work, please go to the Diaspora website linked in this thread. A couple of university kids with nothing but big dreams and good intentions had already managed to raise $17000. This proves that there is a need for such service and people are willing to pay good money for it.
Alarm bells triggered in my head the first time I read your use of the word "Jihadis". Seriously, how is this modded insightful? Would it get the same modding if he used "Dirty Jew"? And how is this even related to the Catholic Church, the subject of this thread? Islamic law ONLY applies to Muslims. In fact, there is a prohibition in the Quran against forcing people to convert to Islam (surah al-Baqarah 2:256). There are also prohibitions against oppressing non-Muslims (and Muslims) in the Quran and hadiths (sayings of the Prophet Muhammad). How in the world you came to the conclusion that Muslims wishes to impose sharia law on to non-Muslims? In fact, in many former colonised countries, it is the opposite situation where Judeo-Christian inspired laws (English) are still being used. Here is an example of Islamic law in action for the people of Slashdot to read and make your own conclusions.
While walking at night, a Caliph once heard a commotion behind the wall of a house. So, he climbed the wall and peeked inside. He saw a Muslim man drinking wine fed by his mistress (drinking alcohol is prohibited to Muslims). Of course the Caliph was angry and scolded the man. But the drunk man said that the Caliph committed a greater sin by invading his privacy (i.e., it is required in Islam to request entrance to a house before hand and it is absolutely forbidden to peek into a house). On hearing this, the Caliph, realised his mistake and dropped the issue.
Sigh...not this shit again
on
iPad Jailbroken
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· Score: 4, Insightful
For the love of God people! WTF is wrong with you guys? It is a freaking mass produced consumer product, not the elixir of youth or manna from heaven. It is also not the Dajjal (AntiChrist) either. Do you vehemently argue over the merits/evils of your washing machine or your sink's waste disposal unit? If people want to buy a severely crippled product, it is their own decision to make and money to spend. You do not lose anything if someone else buys it. Similarly, if people don't like a particular Apple/Microsoft/Boeing/Airbus/Sienar/Incom etc. product, then they are not committing heresy against the Holy name of the Immortal Omniscient God Emperor either. Get it into your heads people! There is no obligation on you to support or hate a freaking mass-production, soulless commercial entity.
As a Muslim, I am fond of quoting from Hadiths (the authenticated sayings of the Prophet Muhammad) and also from the Quran in daily life. Funnily enough, I get the same vibe when you, the AC, quoted all these sayings by famous Atheists or agnostics. I think it is time that evangelical Atheists (as opposed to real atheists who unobtrusively go about their business) accept the fact that they are members of the Church of the god Null and are no different that Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists etc. in their zeal to preach the one true faith.
An how is this different from "traditional sports"? Strip all the fluff and trappings of sports such as football (soccer to you Yanks) for example, it is just 22 grown men running around kicking an inanimate spherical rubber object. These men get paid millions of dollars per season for what they do and looking at it baldly, it is just plain ridiculous. It is more ridiculous that people identify themselves with the teams and pay real hard-earned money to watch the sports. What's more, unlike say Farmville or
WoW, the real-world sports fans don't even get anything tangible from the sports, other than vicariously sharing the ups and downs of "their" teams. Yet it is deemed by society as "normal". Why not for virtual social games such as Farmville?
One more reason out of hundreds to not go to the US of A, land of the free. I am compiling a list of reasons on why I should never go visit the US. This is just another entry on to the list: asshole paranoid-xenophobic-megalomaniac border officials. I come from Malaysia. My country borders Thailand's volatile southern regions. We have military checkpoints, military road blocks, army bases and soldiers with heavy weapons in APC's patrolling the Malaysia-Thai border. On the side of the Thai border, there are massacres, bombings, shootings and assassinations. Yet, I am treated with professional courtesy while crossing the border to Thailand by Malaysian and Thai Customs officers and back again. Same thing when I cross over to Singapore. This Peter Watts case shows how paranoid and "trigger happy" the US government and people have become, no doubt due to their government's shoot first, cowboy sheriff mentality.
No, I don't want to be able to pan around while watching Lord of the Rings or any other movie. If I wanted to do that, I will play a computer game, where the ability to pan around is important to control RTS units for example. If I could look around a scene in a movie, I could easily miss important plot points and ruin my viewing experience. It would also make making a movie more complicated for the director. He now has to make sure that the filmed scene is perfect all 360 degrees instead of just the scene in front of the camera.
Except of course if they have moved on and developed new technologies that doesn't require the said rare minerals/resources. You then end up missing making a profit. I believe that the US is sitting on a stockpile of oil based on this pie analogy. If the rest of the world moves away from oil and use other sources of power, then those stockpiles will become worthless. You also forget that that while you are buying their resources cheaply, they are making a big profit and with rival countries like China, this means you will have a rich and more powerful rival to contend with.
Amen, brother. My daily morning routine used to be open up my email, browse Slashdot and then Ars. Been doing this for many years now. I even whitelisted Ars but after reading the exceedingly arrogant comments by the Ars site admins, I have deleted the Ars website from my bookmarks. The truth is that there are many other websites out there that do what Ars does and pissing off your readers is suicide. Good luck to Ars if they continue on this trajectory.
The Islamic view of time and the universe in general is that what has happened, is happening and will happen has already been determined ("it is written"). What has happened can never be undone and this is mentioned many-many times in the Quran. This means that time travel is impossible. In fact, the belief in fate and predestination and accepting the outcome whether good or bad, is one of the core of iman or Belief. What is happening and what will happen also cannot be avoided. To some extent, mankind has the ability of self determination on the small scale but in the larger scheme of things, God had determined everything. For example, the time of death for a person is already determined(though we will not know it) even before birth and mankind could not avoid or add or subtract even 1 second to this. Similarly, the time of Qiamat or Armageddon where the entire universe will fold upon itself is also already determined. Many Muslim scholars have dwelt on this subject, particularly its impact on the concept of sin and reward. The Prophet Muhammad actually discourages too much dwelling on this matter because human minds could not fathom the will of God. God is not some bearded Caucasian with long hair and wearing a white robe. God exist outside of time and the universe and thus is unfathomable. "He" is nothing that any human mind could ever imagine or grasp any more than a bacterium in a petri dish could grasp the concept of a sentient human being.
but my opinion is that we should leave any life-bearing planet alone. If a planet has conditions suitable for life, then chances are there will be life forms there. Chances are also that the forms of life there will be totally alien, not only in the movie cliche kind of way, but also down to the biochemical and genetic level. Any direct interaction between us and alien life would most probably have disastrous consequences for all. By all means, send a sterilized robotic probe and study them but no colonisation. Instead, we should confine ourselves to lifeless planets or asteroids, or even become space-nomads, living on huge motherships. If our civilization could finally manage to travel the gap between the stars, then we should have the technology to terraform a lifeless planet or asteroid or survive indefinitely in space. I don't really know what we should do if we meet any other sentient species. There are no precedents for this. We couldn't even understand different cultures of our own species. I think it might be a good idea if we ever become truly space-borne, to go out of our way from ever contacting or be detected by any other technologically advanced species.
It looks like a computer mouse, or a shoe. Looking at the picture of the car at the Wired website, it seems that the car has a large surface area covered with glass. This means that the car will turn into a hot glasshouse during the day. Opening the windows or switching on the air-con would be inefficient/use up a lot of power. Another concern is the structural integrity of the car. A head on collision will shatter the glass windscreen/roof directly on the passengers. I assume, that should the car ever go into production, it would by necessity, look like a conventional car.
Why the need to over complicate a relatively simple mechanical construct that is the car? The old adage still hold true: if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Modern fighter jets are purposely designed to be unstable for manoeuvrability or due to the effects of stealthy design and thus requires fly-by-wire capability. Cars don't need such complexity. Why would I need my steering wheel to be mechanically decoupled from the wheels or my brake pedals to the actual brake discs? This introduces more intermediate steps in the process and therefore increases the chances of failure somewhere along the line. The previous hydraulic systems worked just fine and gives fairly instantaneous feedback. What's more, you couldn't tinker with the car yourself any more and have to send them to expensive specialist mechanics. This is all just an unhealthy infatuation with technology and shoe horning them where they are not needed.
Sure. But how many native English speakers speak Arabic? You are making the assumption that the translation site is for the benefit of the Arabs but have you considered that it is actually more for you Westerners. We non-Westerners (I'm a Malaysian Muslim) have had a lot of exposure to your Western culture, values and language. In Malaysia, English is a compulsory subject at school but we certainly did not learn it for your benefit. After more than 30 years of life, I have not found much to be gained from your Western values, culture and your vapid mindless "entertainment" that my people are so fond of aping. Maybe it is you Westerners who should take the effort to learn about other cultures to avoid being so easily mind controlled by your politician's xenophobic propaganda. P.s. to those of you who are making anti-Iran jokes: the Iranians speak Farsi, not Arabic, you dolt!
brilliant but handsome Hari Seldon (played by Russel Crowe) is accused of treason and is on the run from the Galactic Empire after prophesying the fall of the Empire. We will see Trantor in all its CG glory as a copy of Coruscant which was a copy of Trantor in the first place. We will also see the decadence and corruption prevalent in the Empire through a series of melodramatic montages of oppression and bacchanal scenes. There will be thrilling CG chases and fights through out the labyrinthine corridors on Trantor. Hari Seldon will raise a rag-tag band of plucky followers but eventually, he is captured after a tense Mexican stand-off and is put on trial. There will then be nail-biting court sequences where Hari Seldon forcefully defends his prediction but all seems lost when the Establishment had already made their mind. He is sentenced to death but on his execution day, his followers sprung him from jail and they departed in exile to a far away uninhabited planet called Terminus. There will be Moses-like scenes where the colony ship they are in are chased by miles-long Imperial battlecruisers but superior technology secretly developed by Hari Seldon will save the day. They managed to destroy the pursuing battlecruisers in a BSG-esque space battle and limped on to Terminus. On landing, there will be a poignant close-up shot of Hari Seldon's face looking at the stars, followed by him vowing to set up a Foundation to save humanity. Then a dramatic seamless CG zoom out to see the planet, then the solar system, then the star clusters and then finally the whole galaxy. The end.
Slashdot Mirror
Historically, how common is it for scientists to get serious work done when they're in love or chasing hot women? The degree of concentration and dedication required for groundbreaking work would seem to me to usually preclude that.
I'm a scientist and as hard as it is to believe, I actually had a girlfriend who later become my wife after 8 years of courtship. We now have several kids and truthfully, I couldn't imagine what life would be like without them. While I am no Einstein or Pasteur, my wife is a constant source of affection and unconditional support and I try to return it the best that I can. My wife and kids gives me something to look forward to after a hard days work. They provide me with the emotional and mental push needed to complete difficult research projects. It is no accident that I have their photo on my lab bench to remind me the reason why I am working hard. If this is you perception of life, then I am truly sad for you.
It is not Wikileaks that is the danger, it is the trigger happy US and allied military and the uncaring and arrogant US government that is jeopardising the safety and image of Americans to the world. To turn the oft repeated slogan on its head; "If you got nothing to hide, you should not fear Wikileaks". I am sick of hearing "political analysts" and politicians saying Wikileaks is endangering American soldiers because they expose atrocities committed by American soldiers, and as the flawed logic goes, emboldens the enemy. Seriously, this is something Goebbles or Stalin might say, not the leaders of the free world. Wikileaks is actually helping the US by creating negative consequences for excesses of its military. Instead of trying to silence Wikileaks by extra-legal, Gestapo/NKVD/Kempetai-like "rendering" of the founder (which will only worsen the US image), maybe the US should rein in their cowboy soldiers and walk the "spreading freedom and democracy" talk.
Asians eh? Warning, you prejudice might be showing. I'm an "Asian" but I am not offended by your comment. This is because, until very recently in human history, copying what others created is the norm. Be it in language, music, food, vehicles or weapons. You after all got the Chinese to thank for gunpowder, among other things. I don't recall Europeans paying the Chinese any royalties on that.
This is very important. As you said, aircraft carriers and big surface ships are where Battleships were during the inter-World War years. They are still here because there are no large naval battles to test them. The biggest threat to such large surface sips are the true capital ships of today, the nuclear submarines. Generally, an underwater hit is more fatal than a hit to the superstructure by "breaking the back" of the surface vessel. North Korea just sunk a South Korea vessel using a dinky outdated submarine. This is the writing on the wall for aircraft carriers.
Yet, defected I did. I got on to Facebook fairly early, back when I had to take a lot of effort to convince my friends to sign up. Now, I have to do the opposite. Now, when someone tells me he will put something on Facebook for me to see, I have to spend 5-10 minutes explaining why I deleted my account. Happily, after a few days of withdrawal symptoms, I realized how useless Facebook is. Most of the people on my "friends" list are not true friends, but only acquaintances. Most of my real friends are near me or reachable by phone or email. I also realize that I don't need to know what some semi-stranger ate for breakfast, or how angry he is at Japanese whalers. I already get this during morning tea at the lab I work in or when I go out for lunch with co-workers. I also finally accepted that losing touch with friends is natural. There are usually some good reason why you grew apart with someone and no amount of Friending or Mafia invites could ever return you to the old days. While it is sad, you will go on to make new friends (and enemies) and that is life.
I have a problem with "medical surveys" in that they a prone to make correlation-causation errors. This seems to be a measurable problem that can be tested in the lab. Why don't people do this instead. Put a lab monkey next to an active mobile phone and keep them there for several years. After that, dissect the monkey for any signs of cancer. If there is, then alert the public. You then look into how it happened, i.e the biochemical interactions that caused it. Just "surveying" people introduces biases, other factors like diet and lifestyle and also crackpots.
Specifically, bamboo http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamboo which can grow 60cm in a day. The summary seems to imply that biological systems are simple compared to high tech artificial systems. I might be biased because I am a microbiologist, but nothing humans have ever constructed have even remotely approached the complexity and efficiency of biological systems. For example, have a look at the bacterial outboard motor (flagellum) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flagellum. Just look at it. Isn't it beautiful, complex yet efficient at what it does. Considering that at bacterial scale, the liquid medium surrounding it is like molasses, makes it more incredible.
but companies could face anti-trust action even if they don't own a monopoly over a product or service. (Confirm/Deny?) I am also smirking over the reaction of Apple supporters over this news. Previously, it was "we are the champions, no time for losers" now it is "hey, told you we're not evil because we are the underdogs, support the underdogs!" Not trolling by the way.
Good luck and may the workforce be with you.
This article actually doesn't belong in the Idle section. This is a very serious issue with wide-ranging ramifications, i.e. the automation of our automobiles (hah!). I have said before, and I will say it again, we have gone past the point where adding any more automation to the car will do any good, instead of improving the driver's skills.
And your point being? Facebook used to be a benign and somewhat useful tool. Now it is mutating into a privacy vampire. I am a geek, though not a "computer geek". My expertise is bacteria and microorganisms, not IT or computer science. Yet, I have recently wiped a lot of stuff that on longer thinking, I shouldn't have put on Facebook, stuff like certain photos, phone numbers and real world mailing address. Heck, I now even wiped my birthday from Facebook. I did this after reading about Facebook privacy concerns on Slashdot and everyday news outlets and became concerned myself. In fact, I will probably cancel my account soon because after 4 years on Facebook, I got little benefit from it that I couldn't get from just emailing someone. Sure it was fun to find your long-lost friend from primary school, but how many of us really follow up? There is usually a good reason why we lost touch with someone, the most common is that we just grew up into a different person. Out of my several hundred Facebook "friends", I can count around only 20 that are actually real friends, not just acquaintances or the social equivalent of archaeological fossils. Coming back to your point that an open version of Facebook, made by selfless enthusiasts won't work, please go to the Diaspora website linked in this thread. A couple of university kids with nothing but big dreams and good intentions had already managed to raise $17000. This proves that there is a need for such service and people are willing to pay good money for it.
While walking at night, a Caliph once heard a commotion behind the wall of a house. So, he climbed the wall and peeked inside. He saw a Muslim man drinking wine fed by his mistress (drinking alcohol is prohibited to Muslims). Of course the Caliph was angry and scolded the man. But the drunk man said that the Caliph committed a greater sin by invading his privacy (i.e., it is required in Islam to request entrance to a house before hand and it is absolutely forbidden to peek into a house). On hearing this, the Caliph, realised his mistake and dropped the issue.
For the love of God people! WTF is wrong with you guys? It is a freaking mass produced consumer product, not the elixir of youth or manna from heaven. It is also not the Dajjal (AntiChrist) either. Do you vehemently argue over the merits/evils of your washing machine or your sink's waste disposal unit? If people want to buy a severely crippled product, it is their own decision to make and money to spend. You do not lose anything if someone else buys it. Similarly, if people don't like a particular Apple/Microsoft/Boeing/Airbus/Sienar/Incom etc. product, then they are not committing heresy against the Holy name of the Immortal Omniscient God Emperor either. Get it into your heads people! There is no obligation on you to support or hate a freaking mass-production, soulless commercial entity.
As a Muslim, I am fond of quoting from Hadiths (the authenticated sayings of the Prophet Muhammad) and also from the Quran in daily life. Funnily enough, I get the same vibe when you, the AC, quoted all these sayings by famous Atheists or agnostics. I think it is time that evangelical Atheists (as opposed to real atheists who unobtrusively go about their business) accept the fact that they are members of the Church of the god Null and are no different that Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists etc. in their zeal to preach the one true faith.
An how is this different from "traditional sports"? Strip all the fluff and trappings of sports such as football (soccer to you Yanks) for example, it is just 22 grown men running around kicking an inanimate spherical rubber object. These men get paid millions of dollars per season for what they do and looking at it baldly, it is just plain ridiculous. It is more ridiculous that people identify themselves with the teams and pay real hard-earned money to watch the sports. What's more, unlike say Farmville or WoW, the real-world sports fans don't even get anything tangible from the sports, other than vicariously sharing the ups and downs of "their" teams. Yet it is deemed by society as "normal". Why not for virtual social games such as Farmville?
One more reason out of hundreds to not go to the US of A, land of the free. I am compiling a list of reasons on why I should never go visit the US. This is just another entry on to the list: asshole paranoid-xenophobic-megalomaniac border officials. I come from Malaysia. My country borders Thailand's volatile southern regions. We have military checkpoints, military road blocks, army bases and soldiers with heavy weapons in APC's patrolling the Malaysia-Thai border. On the side of the Thai border, there are massacres, bombings, shootings and assassinations. Yet, I am treated with professional courtesy while crossing the border to Thailand by Malaysian and Thai Customs officers and back again. Same thing when I cross over to Singapore. This Peter Watts case shows how paranoid and "trigger happy" the US government and people have become, no doubt due to their government's shoot first, cowboy sheriff mentality.
No, I don't want to be able to pan around while watching Lord of the Rings or any other movie. If I wanted to do that, I will play a computer game, where the ability to pan around is important to control RTS units for example. If I could look around a scene in a movie, I could easily miss important plot points and ruin my viewing experience. It would also make making a movie more complicated for the director. He now has to make sure that the filmed scene is perfect all 360 degrees instead of just the scene in front of the camera.
Except of course if they have moved on and developed new technologies that doesn't require the said rare minerals/resources. You then end up missing making a profit. I believe that the US is sitting on a stockpile of oil based on this pie analogy. If the rest of the world moves away from oil and use other sources of power, then those stockpiles will become worthless. You also forget that that while you are buying their resources cheaply, they are making a big profit and with rival countries like China, this means you will have a rich and more powerful rival to contend with.
Amen, brother. My daily morning routine used to be open up my email, browse Slashdot and then Ars. Been doing this for many years now. I even whitelisted Ars but after reading the exceedingly arrogant comments by the Ars site admins, I have deleted the Ars website from my bookmarks. The truth is that there are many other websites out there that do what Ars does and pissing off your readers is suicide. Good luck to Ars if they continue on this trajectory.
The Islamic view of time and the universe in general is that what has happened, is happening and will happen has already been determined ("it is written"). What has happened can never be undone and this is mentioned many-many times in the Quran. This means that time travel is impossible. In fact, the belief in fate and predestination and accepting the outcome whether good or bad, is one of the core of iman or Belief. What is happening and what will happen also cannot be avoided. To some extent, mankind has the ability of self determination on the small scale but in the larger scheme of things, God had determined everything. For example, the time of death for a person is already determined(though we will not know it) even before birth and mankind could not avoid or add or subtract even 1 second to this. Similarly, the time of Qiamat or Armageddon where the entire universe will fold upon itself is also already determined. Many Muslim scholars have dwelt on this subject, particularly its impact on the concept of sin and reward. The Prophet Muhammad actually discourages too much dwelling on this matter because human minds could not fathom the will of God. God is not some bearded Caucasian with long hair and wearing a white robe. God exist outside of time and the universe and thus is unfathomable. "He" is nothing that any human mind could ever imagine or grasp any more than a bacterium in a petri dish could grasp the concept of a sentient human being.
but my opinion is that we should leave any life-bearing planet alone. If a planet has conditions suitable for life, then chances are there will be life forms there. Chances are also that the forms of life there will be totally alien, not only in the movie cliche kind of way, but also down to the biochemical and genetic level. Any direct interaction between us and alien life would most probably have disastrous consequences for all. By all means, send a sterilized robotic probe and study them but no colonisation. Instead, we should confine ourselves to lifeless planets or asteroids, or even become space-nomads, living on huge motherships. If our civilization could finally manage to travel the gap between the stars, then we should have the technology to terraform a lifeless planet or asteroid or survive indefinitely in space. I don't really know what we should do if we meet any other sentient species. There are no precedents for this. We couldn't even understand different cultures of our own species. I think it might be a good idea if we ever become truly space-borne, to go out of our way from ever contacting or be detected by any other technologically advanced species.
It looks like a computer mouse, or a shoe. Looking at the picture of the car at the Wired website, it seems that the car has a large surface area covered with glass. This means that the car will turn into a hot glasshouse during the day. Opening the windows or switching on the air-con would be inefficient/use up a lot of power. Another concern is the structural integrity of the car. A head on collision will shatter the glass windscreen/roof directly on the passengers. I assume, that should the car ever go into production, it would by necessity, look like a conventional car.
Why the need to over complicate a relatively simple mechanical construct that is the car? The old adage still hold true: if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Modern fighter jets are purposely designed to be unstable for manoeuvrability or due to the effects of stealthy design and thus requires fly-by-wire capability. Cars don't need such complexity. Why would I need my steering wheel to be mechanically decoupled from the wheels or my brake pedals to the actual brake discs? This introduces more intermediate steps in the process and therefore increases the chances of failure somewhere along the line. The previous hydraulic systems worked just fine and gives fairly instantaneous feedback. What's more, you couldn't tinker with the car yourself any more and have to send them to expensive specialist mechanics. This is all just an unhealthy infatuation with technology and shoe horning them where they are not needed.
Sure. But how many native English speakers speak Arabic? You are making the assumption that the translation site is for the benefit of the Arabs but have you considered that it is actually more for you Westerners. We non-Westerners (I'm a Malaysian Muslim) have had a lot of exposure to your Western culture, values and language. In Malaysia, English is a compulsory subject at school but we certainly did not learn it for your benefit. After more than 30 years of life, I have not found much to be gained from your Western values, culture and your vapid mindless "entertainment" that my people are so fond of aping. Maybe it is you Westerners who should take the effort to learn about other cultures to avoid being so easily mind controlled by your politician's xenophobic propaganda. P.s. to those of you who are making anti-Iran jokes: the Iranians speak Farsi, not Arabic, you dolt!
brilliant but handsome Hari Seldon (played by Russel Crowe) is accused of treason and is on the run from the Galactic Empire after prophesying the fall of the Empire. We will see Trantor in all its CG glory as a copy of Coruscant which was a copy of Trantor in the first place. We will also see the decadence and corruption prevalent in the Empire through a series of melodramatic montages of oppression and bacchanal scenes. There will be thrilling CG chases and fights through out the labyrinthine corridors on Trantor. Hari Seldon will raise a rag-tag band of plucky followers but eventually, he is captured after a tense Mexican stand-off and is put on trial. There will then be nail-biting court sequences where Hari Seldon forcefully defends his prediction but all seems lost when the Establishment had already made their mind. He is sentenced to death but on his execution day, his followers sprung him from jail and they departed in exile to a far away uninhabited planet called Terminus. There will be Moses-like scenes where the colony ship they are in are chased by miles-long Imperial battlecruisers but superior technology secretly developed by Hari Seldon will save the day. They managed to destroy the pursuing battlecruisers in a BSG-esque space battle and limped on to Terminus. On landing, there will be a poignant close-up shot of Hari Seldon's face looking at the stars, followed by him vowing to set up a Foundation to save humanity. Then a dramatic seamless CG zoom out to see the planet, then the solar system, then the star clusters and then finally the whole galaxy. The end.