I have a better invention for the Army. This device is very cheap, uses off-the-shelf and proven technology, can be folded many-many times into almost any shape you want, has a very user-friendly user interface and changes-tracking system, has excellent backwards and future compatibility, is an excellent storage medium that can last for centuries, has very high resolution, can come in waterproof versions, needs absolutely no electricity and is easy to destroy to avoid capture by the enemy. It is called "Paper". Even better, the patent for this device ran out hundreds of years ago. Snarky comments aside, I'm not saying that this e-paper will not be useful, just that for many situations, there is nothing better than plain old paper.
Why can't we send a probe that will land on this asteroid and then piggy ride on it. That way we don't need more fuel to carry it round the solar system. If the asteroid doesn't go where we want, then have a relaunch mechanism for the probe to get off at the most suitable point in the asteroid's orbit.
Please do not apply what happened in Christian Europe during the Enlightenment to what is happening in Iran now. Despite stemming from the same roots, Islam has a different view on knowledge and science than Christianity.
The Prophet Muhammad basically said the same things 1400 years ago what the Ayatollah has repeated, as also most Muslim religious scholars and scientists. In Islam, there is really no division between "secular" and "religious" knowledge. All knowledge comes from Allah and Allah reveals to us what he wants to reveal. In the Quran and many hadiths, there are many encouragement for mankind to study the natural world and through that recognize Allah's greatness. There are also many admonishments and warnings for those who seek to destroy the world instead of managing it properly. There has been no injunctions on science in Islam, except when the methods are immoral. The main rule is that "the ends does not justify the means". In fact, there is what is called "collective obligation" or "fardhu kifayah" for any Muslim society to have scientists and scholars. If they don't, then Allah wrath will befall upon the society as a whole.
Right now, there is an intense intellectual awakening in the Muslim world that the Western media chooses not to show, or in the case of Iran, skewed and propagandised. Muslims are finally starting to realise that depending 100% on God without putting in the effort is futile. Muslim scientists are now in almost every Western Universities, doing what the Christian monks did during the Middle Ages. Muslim governments are finally realizing the importance of science, not only to national security, but to the prestige of Muslims around the world. We are not there yet but do not underestimate us. The wheel of history has turned before but it is still turning.
iran doesnt invade any country actively, but they invade them through the religious terorrist organizations they fund. hezbollah, hamas, ibda-c, numerous groups trying to invade pakistan, afghanistan are just a few.
much more annoying and dangerous.
So what? All it proves is that Iran has been playing the game intelligently, as opposed to the ham-fisted Israelis and Americans. This is how one plays the Great Game and Iran has thousands of years of history and experience to fall back on. They have masterfully benefited from your idiotic George Bush and should be admired because of this.
The Iranian people are rightly proud of their heritage. I have had many Iranian science students at my University where I teach and they are adamant that they are not Arabs. They are Muslims, but they have their own history and cultural identity. With this launch, in my opinion, signals that it is now too late for Israel and her backers to staunch the re-emergence of Iran as a power in the Middle East, short of a long and bloody war that will not benefit both sides. A strong, nuclear Iran would actually bring balance back into the Middle East by moderating the excesses of the already nuclear armed Israelis. This is the real reason why Israel is so against a nuclear Iran. Not because Iran is a berserker country but because Israel will now have to tread more carefully in the region.
It's funny how some people (not flaming you or anything) will go on and on about "for the future of the humanity" or "for humanity to survive, we must leave the Earth-Mother lest an asteroid smacks us on the head" yet would not give a flying excrement to the homeless guy down the street. Lets face it. Should humans ever manage to colonise other planets, YOU won't probably be going on the trip. You will probably be dead by then. If you're an Atheist, you don't even get the satisfaction of watching down from heaven on your great-great grand children's space hijinks. If people truly care for humanity, maybe they should instead of pining for the Alpha-Centaurian fjords, start doing something good and immediate that helps people around them.
The real question: is Apple okay with the use of its iPod for the purpose of killing people? I guess this won't go down too well with the Apple crowd. On the other hand, Microsoft could benefit from this. "Hi, I'm a Mac, and I kill people". (Not saying Microsoft doesn't kill people, albeit not on purpose).
The general public seems to have this mental image of molecular biology scientists as this mad genius with bad hair and surrounded by giant humming arcane machines with arcs of electricity jumping around. The truth is, anyone with a mediocum of scientific and mathemathical knowledge (also some money helps) could do what we do in the lab. You could order kits for extracting DNA, cloning etc. online. You will also need to buy a microcentrifuge, a PCR thermocycler, a gel electrophoresis kit, UV light, micropipettors and a few other consummables. Overall, around 10-25 thousand dollars in start up money. You don't need to sequence the DNA yourself as there are private companies who can do it for you for a fee. However, before you get all tingly with the thought of making your own girlfriend in a petri dish, the state of the art labs can barely manage to clone sheep and dogs. Hell, in my lab, even cloning genes into E.coli only results in 10-50 successful insertions out of millions of cells. SO, it's not out of reach if you have some money lying around but don't start dreaming of playing god just yet.
Well, this could be useful in space travel, barring we develop hyperdrives. Sci fi have been playing around with sleeper ship concepts for decades. It might also be useful for people who have terminal cancer for example, who might want to opt to be frozen in the hope of a cure being developed during the interim (though there will be the problem of reintegrating into society after even just a few years). A more plausible use maybe is to put into suspended animation a critically injured person until he can be transported to a hospital and treated to minimise cell damage (assuming the serum does less damage).
I think this article will open up a can of worms on Slashdot. The issue I have here is that bringing someone back from suspended animation where they were alive to begin with is not the same as 'reviving the dead'. I think nature has been doing this in hibernating animals for millions of years. If someone could freeze a medically dead person and then make him alive again with his memories, personality etc. intact, (i.e. not cloning, which is already feasible) then they can claim they have revived the dead. Other than that, it is just playing with semantics.
You are correct. As long as you keep your job. What happens if the company you work for folds over. Or, what happens if your own business dies because customers can't afford to pay what you are selling? To keep your skills updated, you need to be employed to gain experience or have money to finance your education. Without a job, it will be difficult to do. What if during your whole career you have been coding in front of the computer and suddenly the only job available is to shovel coal? You can't move to another country as this is a global problem. Yeah, it's not so easy to nimbly dodge a falling mountain. Therefore, it is perfectly acceptable for common people to be concerned about the recession.
in a medium sized village during my youth. Maybe I am just generalizing based on my experience in this one village, but what they claim is a big exaggeration. Sure you will hear about who is going out with who or who is cheating on their husband or wife but you won't know how many phone calls someone makes a day or what channel he watches on TV or listens on the radio. There is an unwritten treshold of 'decency' where as long as what you do is not over this decency threshold, no one will take notice, hence the gossips about infidelity etc. So, no, we are not returning to norm with regards to privacy.
The waterboarding and other torture at Gitmo was immoral; shamefully immoral, but was ethical.
Wtf? How is torturing anyone "ethical"? How can something in your words, shamefully immoral, be ethical. The fact that it is legal in the US (Guantanamo IS under US jurisdiction)has no bearing on making torture ethical and shows the world how your nation is the biggest hypocrites there is.
Strewth. This is why I like vegetarians. They are so environmentally friendly (unlike beef), not to mention delicious when grilled medium rare and dressed with extra virgin olive oil.
then the Navy should be required to take certain precautions before doing their exercises.
Well gentlemen, the solution is obvious. Every time before the Navy wants to use the Sonar, they must drop depth charges into the ocean to scare off whales, lest they are harmed by the sonar.
Amen. And think about it... Micro-soft itself is a pretty ho-hum name, in fact it's downright lame.
I couldn't agree more. I mean, what was Bill Gates thinking? When you hear Micro + Soft what is the first thing that comes to your (dirty) mind? Maybe it's time to rename the company to MacroHard or TurgidBlimb or RibbedGiant etc.
...looks at Playboy magazine and listens to gangsta rap. Boy, those Westerners sure elevate their women more than mooselims. Seriously. You atheists need to chill out. Look back throughout history and you will find so-called secular or atheistic governments are no better and sometimes even worse than theologies. Look at the Soviet union, the French Revolution, the 2 World Wars etc. In fact, "secular" nationalism is even worse than religion in intolerance and bigotry.
Talking with many of my friends, we've agreed "winning" is just a word being used for "Leaving a fair and stable democratic government in Iraq that is not and will not be a threat to America or it's allies"
Just my $0.02
Yeah right. I'm sure that the 6 Iraqi carrier battle groups, nuclear ICBMs, nuclear subs, strategic bombers and crack Fremen troops (long live the fighters!) were poised on attacking Amerikka if the US had not invaded and spread freedom to the Iraqis. We all know that the US arms it soldiers, tanks and fighter planes with guns and bombs that shoots freedom rays and were welcomed with a shower of flowers by the freed Iraqi people.
Uh, it was the US military who toppled Saddam, not a people's uprising. The current quagmire is due to the power vacuum that the invasion created plus the inadequate planning and manpower of the US military to maintain an occupation. Anyone who has fantasies of US citizens conducting an armed uprising is clearly dreaming. Hell, your police force is as heavily armed as the military of some nations. Your government also has shown that it is not averse to imprisoning and torturing people without trial and illegally spying on US citizens. In other words, you're screwed and there is nothing you can do. One of the posters mentioned that you will need to pass checkpoints to travel towards the border. This to me, brings to mind the defences on the eastern side of the Berlin Wall that were designed to keep people in, not out.
No ozone layer, no (weak?) magnetic field, no breathable atmosphere, no growing food, no one to talk to and see (other than the people who went with you or over the radio), no way of repairing stuff except waiting for the next supply drop, lower gravity, extreme low temperatures and in this case, no way to go home. More like hell you mean. Mars offers marginal advantages compared to a spaceship or space station. The only reason people still want to go there is because of 100 years of sci-fi saying there will horny big-breasted red Martian women waiting for the astronauts.
So, this guy is like Sauron then. Sauron can't fathom that anyone who posses the Ring won't use it for his own personal gain. Does this makes OSS proponents, Hobbits?
Warlords, politicians and governments have been getting rid of subversives through centuries using the most convenient excuses. Here how it works:
Absolute monarchy: You are a traitor to the King/Queen.
Total dictatorship: Just a bullet to the back of the head
Military junta/Revolutionaries: You are a traitor to the state/revolution.
Theocracy: You are an apostate/blasphemer.
Modern "Democracies": You are an IP pirate/Terrorist/Politically Incorrect.
So yeah, there is nothing new here. It doesn't excuse what is happening but all the same I'm not surprised. Politicians and governments are the same everywhere. Whether they are Muslims, Christians, Hindu or atheists does not matter.
as in, make it a law that all computers sold from now on must have a genetic sequencer attached to it. Any time you want to open your email, the server will show you a, uh, suggestive jpeg and you, uh, express your, um, genetic material, into the genetic sequencer. Its totally fool proof and pleasurable as well, even if you have someone pointing a gun to your head. Crap...I just realised this won't work for women. Back to the drawing board.
Slashdot Mirror
I have a better invention for the Army. This device is very cheap, uses off-the-shelf and proven technology, can be folded many-many times into almost any shape you want, has a very user-friendly user interface and changes-tracking system, has excellent backwards and future compatibility, is an excellent storage medium that can last for centuries, has very high resolution, can come in waterproof versions, needs absolutely no electricity and is easy to destroy to avoid capture by the enemy. It is called "Paper". Even better, the patent for this device ran out hundreds of years ago. Snarky comments aside, I'm not saying that this e-paper will not be useful, just that for many situations, there is nothing better than plain old paper.
Why can't we send a probe that will land on this asteroid and then piggy ride on it. That way we don't need more fuel to carry it round the solar system. If the asteroid doesn't go where we want, then have a relaunch mechanism for the probe to get off at the most suitable point in the asteroid's orbit.
Please do not apply what happened in Christian Europe during the Enlightenment to what is happening in Iran now. Despite stemming from the same roots, Islam has a different view on knowledge and science than Christianity. The Prophet Muhammad basically said the same things 1400 years ago what the Ayatollah has repeated, as also most Muslim religious scholars and scientists. In Islam, there is really no division between "secular" and "religious" knowledge. All knowledge comes from Allah and Allah reveals to us what he wants to reveal. In the Quran and many hadiths, there are many encouragement for mankind to study the natural world and through that recognize Allah's greatness. There are also many admonishments and warnings for those who seek to destroy the world instead of managing it properly. There has been no injunctions on science in Islam, except when the methods are immoral. The main rule is that "the ends does not justify the means". In fact, there is what is called "collective obligation" or "fardhu kifayah" for any Muslim society to have scientists and scholars. If they don't, then Allah wrath will befall upon the society as a whole. Right now, there is an intense intellectual awakening in the Muslim world that the Western media chooses not to show, or in the case of Iran, skewed and propagandised. Muslims are finally starting to realise that depending 100% on God without putting in the effort is futile. Muslim scientists are now in almost every Western Universities, doing what the Christian monks did during the Middle Ages. Muslim governments are finally realizing the importance of science, not only to national security, but to the prestige of Muslims around the world. We are not there yet but do not underestimate us. The wheel of history has turned before but it is still turning.
iran doesnt invade any country actively, but they invade them through the religious terorrist organizations they fund. hezbollah, hamas, ibda-c, numerous groups trying to invade pakistan, afghanistan are just a few.
much more annoying and dangerous.
So what? All it proves is that Iran has been playing the game intelligently, as opposed to the ham-fisted Israelis and Americans. This is how one plays the Great Game and Iran has thousands of years of history and experience to fall back on. They have masterfully benefited from your idiotic George Bush and should be admired because of this. The Iranian people are rightly proud of their heritage. I have had many Iranian science students at my University where I teach and they are adamant that they are not Arabs. They are Muslims, but they have their own history and cultural identity. With this launch, in my opinion, signals that it is now too late for Israel and her backers to staunch the re-emergence of Iran as a power in the Middle East, short of a long and bloody war that will not benefit both sides. A strong, nuclear Iran would actually bring balance back into the Middle East by moderating the excesses of the already nuclear armed Israelis. This is the real reason why Israel is so against a nuclear Iran. Not because Iran is a berserker country but because Israel will now have to tread more carefully in the region.
It's funny how some people (not flaming you or anything) will go on and on about "for the future of the humanity" or "for humanity to survive, we must leave the Earth-Mother lest an asteroid smacks us on the head" yet would not give a flying excrement to the homeless guy down the street. Lets face it. Should humans ever manage to colonise other planets, YOU won't probably be going on the trip. You will probably be dead by then. If you're an Atheist, you don't even get the satisfaction of watching down from heaven on your great-great grand children's space hijinks. If people truly care for humanity, maybe they should instead of pining for the Alpha-Centaurian fjords, start doing something good and immediate that helps people around them.
The real question: is Apple okay with the use of its iPod for the purpose of killing people? I guess this won't go down too well with the Apple crowd. On the other hand, Microsoft could benefit from this. "Hi, I'm a Mac, and I kill people". (Not saying Microsoft doesn't kill people, albeit not on purpose).
if the President has nothing to hide, then he shouldn't be worried right?
The general public seems to have this mental image of molecular biology scientists as this mad genius with bad hair and surrounded by giant humming arcane machines with arcs of electricity jumping around. The truth is, anyone with a mediocum of scientific and mathemathical knowledge (also some money helps) could do what we do in the lab. You could order kits for extracting DNA, cloning etc. online. You will also need to buy a microcentrifuge, a PCR thermocycler, a gel electrophoresis kit, UV light, micropipettors and a few other consummables. Overall, around 10-25 thousand dollars in start up money. You don't need to sequence the DNA yourself as there are private companies who can do it for you for a fee. However, before you get all tingly with the thought of making your own girlfriend in a petri dish, the state of the art labs can barely manage to clone sheep and dogs. Hell, in my lab, even cloning genes into E.coli only results in 10-50 successful insertions out of millions of cells. SO, it's not out of reach if you have some money lying around but don't start dreaming of playing god just yet.
Well, this could be useful in space travel, barring we develop hyperdrives. Sci fi have been playing around with sleeper ship concepts for decades. It might also be useful for people who have terminal cancer for example, who might want to opt to be frozen in the hope of a cure being developed during the interim (though there will be the problem of reintegrating into society after even just a few years). A more plausible use maybe is to put into suspended animation a critically injured person until he can be transported to a hospital and treated to minimise cell damage (assuming the serum does less damage).
I think this article will open up a can of worms on Slashdot. The issue I have here is that bringing someone back from suspended animation where they were alive to begin with is not the same as 'reviving the dead'. I think nature has been doing this in hibernating animals for millions of years. If someone could freeze a medically dead person and then make him alive again with his memories, personality etc. intact, (i.e. not cloning, which is already feasible) then they can claim they have revived the dead. Other than that, it is just playing with semantics.
is that you can punch the person sitting next to you in the car to shut him up but you can't do it over the mobile phone.
You are correct. As long as you keep your job. What happens if the company you work for folds over. Or, what happens if your own business dies because customers can't afford to pay what you are selling? To keep your skills updated, you need to be employed to gain experience or have money to finance your education. Without a job, it will be difficult to do. What if during your whole career you have been coding in front of the computer and suddenly the only job available is to shovel coal? You can't move to another country as this is a global problem. Yeah, it's not so easy to nimbly dodge a falling mountain. Therefore, it is perfectly acceptable for common people to be concerned about the recession.
in a medium sized village during my youth. Maybe I am just generalizing based on my experience in this one village, but what they claim is a big exaggeration. Sure you will hear about who is going out with who or who is cheating on their husband or wife but you won't know how many phone calls someone makes a day or what channel he watches on TV or listens on the radio. There is an unwritten treshold of 'decency' where as long as what you do is not over this decency threshold, no one will take notice, hence the gossips about infidelity etc. So, no, we are not returning to norm with regards to privacy.
The waterboarding and other torture at Gitmo was immoral; shamefully immoral, but was ethical.
Wtf? How is torturing anyone "ethical"? How can something in your words, shamefully immoral, be ethical. The fact that it is legal in the US (Guantanamo IS under US jurisdiction)has no bearing on making torture ethical and shows the world how your nation is the biggest hypocrites there is.
Strewth. This is why I like vegetarians. They are so environmentally friendly (unlike beef), not to mention delicious when grilled medium rare and dressed with extra virgin olive oil.
then the Navy should be required to take certain precautions before doing their exercises.
Well gentlemen, the solution is obvious. Every time before the Navy wants to use the Sonar, they must drop depth charges into the ocean to scare off whales, lest they are harmed by the sonar.
Amen. And think about it... Micro-soft itself is a pretty ho-hum name, in fact it's downright lame.
I couldn't agree more. I mean, what was Bill Gates thinking? When you hear Micro + Soft what is the first thing that comes to your (dirty) mind? Maybe it's time to rename the company to MacroHard or TurgidBlimb or RibbedGiant etc.
"Internet addiction" is no more or less real than "Television addiction." Both have the same cure - TURN THE DAMN THING OFF!
O.k. I will listen to you and turn off my Inte
Talking with many of my friends, we've agreed "winning" is just a word being used for "Leaving a fair and stable democratic government in Iraq that is not and will not be a threat to America or it's allies" Just my $0.02
Yeah right. I'm sure that the 6 Iraqi carrier battle groups, nuclear ICBMs, nuclear subs, strategic bombers and crack Fremen troops (long live the fighters!) were poised on attacking Amerikka if the US had not invaded and spread freedom to the Iraqis. We all know that the US arms it soldiers, tanks and fighter planes with guns and bombs that shoots freedom rays and were welcomed with a shower of flowers by the freed Iraqi people.
Uh, it was the US military who toppled Saddam, not a people's uprising. The current quagmire is due to the power vacuum that the invasion created plus the inadequate planning and manpower of the US military to maintain an occupation. Anyone who has fantasies of US citizens conducting an armed uprising is clearly dreaming. Hell, your police force is as heavily armed as the military of some nations. Your government also has shown that it is not averse to imprisoning and torturing people without trial and illegally spying on US citizens. In other words, you're screwed and there is nothing you can do. One of the posters mentioned that you will need to pass checkpoints to travel towards the border. This to me, brings to mind the defences on the eastern side of the Berlin Wall that were designed to keep people in, not out.
No ozone layer, no (weak?) magnetic field, no breathable atmosphere, no growing food, no one to talk to and see (other than the people who went with you or over the radio), no way of repairing stuff except waiting for the next supply drop, lower gravity, extreme low temperatures and in this case, no way to go home. More like hell you mean. Mars offers marginal advantages compared to a spaceship or space station. The only reason people still want to go there is because of 100 years of sci-fi saying there will horny big-breasted red Martian women waiting for the astronauts.
So, this guy is like Sauron then. Sauron can't fathom that anyone who posses the Ring won't use it for his own personal gain. Does this makes OSS proponents, Hobbits?
So yeah, there is nothing new here. It doesn't excuse what is happening but all the same I'm not surprised. Politicians and governments are the same everywhere. Whether they are Muslims, Christians, Hindu or atheists does not matter.
as in, make it a law that all computers sold from now on must have a genetic sequencer attached to it. Any time you want to open your email, the server will show you a, uh, suggestive jpeg and you, uh, express your, um, genetic material, into the genetic sequencer. Its totally fool proof and pleasurable as well, even if you have someone pointing a gun to your head. Crap...I just realised this won't work for women. Back to the drawing board.