Perhaps I'm interpreting the numbers incorrectly, but shouldn't kids with higher IQ's have underwear wedged in their ass? At least, among teen girls anyway . . .
My first thought when I looked at the article was "What the heck is this doing on CBS!?!" Sure, its wonderful that they're trying to mainstream the competitive side of video games and that the event involves a variety of games (with a noticeable absence of an RTS). But, why in the name of Tassadar are they running this on CBS?
Let's see . . . CBS is best known for its half-dozen procedural crime dramas, an investigative news magazine whose trademark is a device many video gamer players have never seen in real life (a mechanical stop watch), and for being partnered with AOL: your parents' internet. The target demographic for CBS is upper-middle-class 40+ professionals who are getting ready to bury their parents. Ever watch CBS in the morning (The Price is Right, Sunday Morning)? Count how many commercials they run for life insurance, death insurance, investment/retirement firms, and luxury cars. Oh, and Country Music, we can't forget how much CBS loves the soundtrack of the heartland.
Running a video game competition on CBS is like running something educational on FOX. And, no, Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader does not count. And I just can't wait for the running commentary.
"Wow Jane, video games have really come a long way since Pac-Man and Pong!"
"I agree Scott. Hey, do you think the winners will get their prize money in quarters?"
So, once you paint your house or car with these nanotube-based organic solar cells, how do you get the electrons they produce into your car's electric motor or your home's appliances? In order to use the energy produced by paint-on solar cells, you need a surface that will conduct the electricity to a battery, motor, or conventional wiring. Your house, for example, would have to be paneled with circuit boards or some sort of wire mesh and then painted with the solar cells.
Carbon Dioxide is rising, hugely in our atmosphere
Carbon Dioxide does contribute to global warming.
- Carbon Dioxide is rising from a local minimum.
- Carbon Dioxide rised every time there was a warm period. Cause and effect are still being argued.
See, this is exactly what I'm talking about. The first two statements are simple facts. The second two statements are also true but appear to conflict with the first two because they are less simple. The average person looks at this tiny slice of the climate debate and comes away confused or disinterested.
So, either scientists censor themselves in public and turn climatology into a series of dogmatic t-shirt slogans or we use the current interest in climate change as an opportunity to teach people about the Earth and improve science education. Then maybe we will be able to clone up some wooly mammoths!
A. Sarcastic humor. When replying to a funny post, one usually tries to also be funny. Or, so I've observed.
B. Brevity. Because long posts aren't funny and nobody reads them. Or, so I've been told.
C. Geology professor. At least, that's what my 20-50 students call me every semester.
Snippyness aside, I have read up on the issue. Extensively. Climatology isn't my specialty, but I understand it enough to know its an incredibly complex field. I will never disagree that promoting energy efficiency, recycling, renewable energy, and large-scale reforesting endeavors are good things. But, I worry that scaring people into "going green" by declaring a climate crisis may backfire and seriously injure the credibility of all scientists. Its bad enough that FDA screw-ups are causing many parents to forego immunizing their children against serious diseases. Imagine what will happen if all of Earth science gets written off as a bunch of over-zealous, money-grubbing hippies.
I really believe that we need more time and research before we declare ourselves the murders of Mother Earth. And, when I say research I don't mean surveys on environmental awareness and expeditions to take pictures of polar bears. I mean proper calibration of weather satellites so that they stop indicating cooling while ground stations measure warming, better correlation of the rock and ice core records with the Earth's 100Ka eccentricity cycle, and so on. There's still a lot to global warming that we don't understand entirely. If we promise people that buying a hybrid car will stop global warming and it doesn't, they're going to be upset. Torches-and-pitchforks upset.
And don't even get me started on the utter disinformation and confusion that the well-intentioned, well-paid celebrity activists and politicians are spreading. How does not using plastic bottles fix the climate? How does biodiesel reduce carbon emissions? Who decided "clean" and "coal" should go in the same sentence? Why is that when the state geologist goes in and tells beach-front property owners that dumping a million dollars worth of sand in front of their house that they've built five feet from the high-tide line won't save them from the next storm, nobody listens? But, when some dim-witted celebrity bats their eyelashes at a camera and tells people that the Earth is dying, women swoon and grown men cry!
Global warming is happening, most likely. I'm not yet convinced human activity is the sole cause and its arrogant and anthrocentric to assume that we are. The public should be educated about the Earth and the environment, not scared into action. We should cut back on carbon emissions because it makes the air clean and improves the economy, not to save the polar bears. People are more amenable to small steps with goals and results observable in their own lifetimes. Its bad enough our government is running on reactionary fear right now, I don't want to see science end up the same way.
I knew I should have "does wooly mammoth taste like chicken?" joke . . .
But wait, if "global warming" ended the last ice age and drove cold-adapted species to extinction, then either a) cavemen had cars (hence the GEICO ads) or b) "global warming" can be a natural phenomenon.
I'm confused - we'd better ask Leonardo DiCaprio what he's been paid to think about all this!
Certainly an open, well-documented format is useful for data storage. But, is it really going to be impossible to read a.pdf 100 years from now? Individuals and museums collect old hardware and software. Corporations keep archives of their own products. Programs exist that covert old formats to new. Digital archeology may become the hot growth industry of the 22nd century.
Yes, I understand he's a lawyer and no doubt quite qualified. Yale Law School? OK, I hear Yale still does that well at least.
I looked at the article summary, read "Godwin's Law" and thought to myself 'I never heard of Godwin's Law, but it must be succinct and insightful like Moore's Law". I followed the link to discover that's its basically a joke about internet discussions. I wish people would be more judicious when declaring things "laws".
The Law of Inverse Squares is a law. Comparing Walmart to nazi Germany is a$$hattery.
Wait, so this guy comes up with a humorous modern-day interpretation of the old "Murphy's Law" addage and this qualifies him to provide legal council for Wikipedia? Yeah, sure, he's probably a lawyer and all but this is what led them to hire him over other applicants.
I came up with one of these when I started teaching intro. geology. "Everything in science comes in twos, threes, and fives." Can I work for NASA now?
Why do many asteroid craters have flat bottoms? I understand that there are theories regarding this (melted bottoms), but have we observed flat bottomed craters from our own nuclear explosion tests? No, I don't think so...
Why do many craters have central peaks? Oftentimes, if not always, the stratigraphy of the land surrounding the crater is preserved within these central peaks. Isn't that a bit unusual?
'
You don't really need to set off a nuclear bomb to simulate a meteor impact. Scale experiments using materials that behave like metallic or chondritic meteors and planetary surfaces can and have been used to observe patterns in crater formation. Computer modeling is also no doubt useful.
As for specifics . ..
You said yourself one way that a flat-bottomed crater can form. The conversion of kinetic energy to thermal energy on impact could melt the planetary or meteor surface, causing material to pool at the bottom of the crater. Alternatively, debris from the sides of the crater or the meteor itself could fill in the crater's bottom. Go dig a hole in the sand at the beach and see how long the bottom actually stays round.
As for peaks at the center of the crater, look for a video clip of a water droplet landing in a pool/bowl/glass of water taken in slow-motion. After the initial impact the water's surface rebounds, sending droplets of water upwards. You might say its an equal but opposite reaction to the impact. Now imagine instead of water, you're dealing with a flash-molten rocky or metal surface in a cold environment. That upwards splash could freeze in place.
The mountain won't come to you and you may not be able to go to the mountain. So, you build as accurate a model of the mountain as possible and learn what you can from it.
Even more simply, this kind of brain-machine interface could be used to control motorized prosthetic hands and arms. As I understand, amputees currently rely on flexing their shoulder muscles, for example, to controlled a motorized hand. More capabilities could be added to these devices if controlling them becomes easier.
Unexplained affluence, failing to report overseas travel, showing unusual interest in information outside the job scope, keeping unusual work hours, unreported contacts with foreign nationals, unreported contact with foreign government, military, or intelligence officials, attempting to gain new accesses without the need to know, and unexplained absences are all considered potential espionage indicators.
Affluence? My students whine about buying the textbook, but they're out in the hall before class playing a PSP. They always ask strange questions "outside the . . . scope" of the lesson. Contact with military officials - do the army recruiters constantly parked outside the main entrance to campus count? As for unexplained absences, well I'm usually suspicious of the one that have extensive explanations for missing labs and exams.
I just tried this and its like the Start menu in Windows. How wretched! All those nested menus, everything in alphabetical order. Its bad enough I have to look at Windows if order to play Half-Life.
The icons in my Documents folder are organized so that folders containing work-related material are in one part of the window and recreation stuff is in another. If I'm having trouble finding a folder, I type the first few letters of its name. My real-world office is organized the same way. Papers for one class are in one stack on the desk, papers for another are on top of a filing cabinet, etc. I only wish that stack of missing lab quizzes would flow when I thought of its name.
I would probably use Stacks as a way of listing all the apps on my Mac in the Dock with only the most-used getting their own icon.
Now that's interesting. An example of taxation causing something to become legal. If the gov starts taxing virtual currency sales, it could force Blizzard to change its tune on fair use of one's game account.
Of course, equating marijuana and game currency sales (two illegal things that may be taxed) may backfire and result in video games being declared an addictive controlled substance . . .
yea! I hate using the desktop for anything but wallpaper
So, am I the only Mac user left in the world that has their disk icons and a "Documents" folder lined up along the right side of their desktop? Maybe because my first real computer was a Performa running System 7.1 I'm just used to working on the desktop. What I liked most when the Dock first came out was that it worked so much like the old Launcher.
. . . it'll have all sorts of unintended consequences too.
What virtual property is the government going to tax exactly? The few MMO's that offer legitimate currency exchange, such as Second LIfe and Entropia, convert your virtual goods and income into real world income. This real, legal currency is then taxed as miscellaneous income. If you make more than X dollars a year this way (or through eBay, etc.) then you pay taxes. So, the government already taxes income from virtual sources.
Then there's the vast illegitimate virtual currency exchange market that Congress and the media gets its "billion-dollar-a-year business" numbers from. Sure, WoW gold may sell for 500/$25 but it does so in violation of Blizzard's EULA which is a binding legal agreement. So, if the feds start taxing the illegitimate purchase of virtual currency, either a) Sale of virtual goods and currency becomes legal and Blizzard, Sony, etc. can't place restrictions or b) All forms of piracy or "black market" business become taxable since there's no difference between selling gold that Blizzard has the legal rights to and selling copies of movies or music that Sony, etc. have the legal rights to.
Taxation of virtual goods will have all sorts of interesting legitimizing consequences. Virtual worlds may end up declaring themselves states or countries for tax purposes. But, then, that wouldn't be unprecedented. The US started out as an investment venture and revenue source which later became a country in order to avoid taxes.
China has been a major source of new theropod fossils over the past 15 or so years. I have friends at the AMNH who are working on dinosaur and bird fossils from the Gobi. The AMNH cosponsors digs with Chinese researchers all the time. Sometimes their government is not very enthusiastic about sharing material, but we often work something out.
Check out http://palaeoblog.blogspot.com/2007/06/gigantorapt or-erlianensis-from-china.html for more information. It turns out a Japanese film crew was there when the fossil was being uncovered. You may also want to look at the link on the same page to the original journal article for this find. Hopefully Nature can live up to the high academic standards of slashdot readers.
Because "portable wireless communication and data retrieval device" takes way too long to say.
"Cell phone" was what they were called first and the name just stuck. When you "dial" someone's number, you may not use an actual rotary dial, but you certainly use the word. I'm "typing" this response, but it doesn't mean I'm lining up little wooden blocks with letters carved in to them. Language rarely evolves as quickly as technology.
I think its good to see both letters. Yeah, obviously that second one is from Lala Land, but the first letter is a good contrast. Its good to see that some people are working and some institutions and ideals are still being upheld.
As long as letters to your senator or congress person result in a polite response rather than a SWAT team visit, things can't be all that bad.
Actually they've been talking about a movie for a few months now. Its pretty obvious that the finale was just a hook to keep people interested until the movie comes out.
Its kind of funny how everyone is analyzing the symbolism and artistic merits of the unresolved ending. Nothing was completely resolved at the end of the story because the story isn't over yet. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
You know that oft reproduced scene in the old Frankenstein movie where all the villagers are gathered outside the caste with torches and pitchforks and all? I always wondered who would react that way to hearing about a breakthrough in immortality research.
Errr, umm . . . I'm not sure I see the connection between Mages and Mac users. (I was a Warlock on an iMac, but w/e). If anything, I remember it being slightly difficult to find mac-compatible versions of the add-ons and macro sets many casters use.
This will probably boil down into a Chuck Norris joke anyway.
Evan seems to be summarizing everyone's arguements, so I'll address this post . ..
There are 4+ legged animals in more nooks and crannies and extreme environments than humans will EVER be able to colonize, no matter how advanced our technology gets.
Certianly there are quadrapeds that live in forests and deserts and mountains and everywhere. But, is there a single species that can live in any and all of these environments? Horses, for example, are very well adapted for running in plains environments. But, they're not very efficient on sand and they could never climb a mountain. Snow leopards and mountain goats have adaptations for living in rocky environments, but they sacrfice speed and size for it. Right now there is only one obligate bipedal organism living and that's us. And, we're everywhere!
Insects alone, which all have 6+ legs, make up for approximately 80% of all the world's animal species.
The invertebrate bauplan is just the result of their evolutionary history. Someone else pointed out that vertebrates have four limbs because that's what they started with. Well, invertebrates started with 10-12 and have narrowed it down to 6-8. Yes, insects are everywhere, but each species is specialized to and thus limited to certain environments and terrain. Many insects control their myriad limbs in a manner similar to our blink reflex because of the inherent difficulty in coordinating multiple pairs of limbs.
I grew up up in the 80's, I used to watch Captain Planet. So, I'm all for human bashing. But, one must admit that humans as a species have done pretty well for themselves. We're not the fastest runners, swimmers, or climbers, but we're capable to doing all three. We're not the best at living in deserts or tundra, but you can find us in both. As generalists, we can adapt to and survive in a wide variety and environments and one of our generalist adaptations is bipedal locomotion. Therefore, if we're going to expect robots to be as adaptable as we are and live and work in the same places as we do, bipedalism shouldn't be ruled out.
Slashdot Mirror
Perhaps I'm interpreting the numbers incorrectly, but shouldn't kids with higher IQ's have underwear wedged in their ass? At least, among teen girls anyway . . .
My first thought when I looked at the article was "What the heck is this doing on CBS!?!" Sure, its wonderful that they're trying to mainstream the competitive side of video games and that the event involves a variety of games (with a noticeable absence of an RTS). But, why in the name of Tassadar are they running this on CBS?
Let's see . . . CBS is best known for its half-dozen procedural crime dramas, an investigative news magazine whose trademark is a device many video gamer players have never seen in real life (a mechanical stop watch), and for being partnered with AOL: your parents' internet. The target demographic for CBS is upper-middle-class 40+ professionals who are getting ready to bury their parents. Ever watch CBS in the morning (The Price is Right, Sunday Morning)? Count how many commercials they run for life insurance, death insurance, investment/retirement firms, and luxury cars. Oh, and Country Music, we can't forget how much CBS loves the soundtrack of the heartland.
Running a video game competition on CBS is like running something educational on FOX. And, no, Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader does not count. And I just can't wait for the running commentary.
"Wow Jane, video games have really come a long way since Pac-Man and Pong!"
"I agree Scott. Hey, do you think the winners will get their prize money in quarters?"
So, once you paint your house or car with these nanotube-based organic solar cells, how do you get the electrons they produce into your car's electric motor or your home's appliances? In order to use the energy produced by paint-on solar cells, you need a surface that will conduct the electricity to a battery, motor, or conventional wiring. Your house, for example, would have to be paneled with circuit boards or some sort of wire mesh and then painted with the solar cells.
See, this is exactly what I'm talking about. The first two statements are simple facts. The second two statements are also true but appear to conflict with the first two because they are less simple. The average person looks at this tiny slice of the climate debate and comes away confused or disinterested.
So, either scientists censor themselves in public and turn climatology into a series of dogmatic t-shirt slogans or we use the current interest in climate change as an opportunity to teach people about the Earth and improve science education. Then maybe we will be able to clone up some wooly mammoths!
Hmmm . . .
A. Sarcastic humor. When replying to a funny post, one usually tries to also be funny. Or, so I've observed.
B. Brevity. Because long posts aren't funny and nobody reads them. Or, so I've been told.
C. Geology professor. At least, that's what my 20-50 students call me every semester.
Snippyness aside, I have read up on the issue. Extensively. Climatology isn't my specialty, but I understand it enough to know its an incredibly complex field. I will never disagree that promoting energy efficiency, recycling, renewable energy, and large-scale reforesting endeavors are good things. But, I worry that scaring people into "going green" by declaring a climate crisis may backfire and seriously injure the credibility of all scientists. Its bad enough that FDA screw-ups are causing many parents to forego immunizing their children against serious diseases. Imagine what will happen if all of Earth science gets written off as a bunch of over-zealous, money-grubbing hippies.
I really believe that we need more time and research before we declare ourselves the murders of Mother Earth. And, when I say research I don't mean surveys on environmental awareness and expeditions to take pictures of polar bears. I mean proper calibration of weather satellites so that they stop indicating cooling while ground stations measure warming, better correlation of the rock and ice core records with the Earth's 100Ka eccentricity cycle, and so on. There's still a lot to global warming that we don't understand entirely. If we promise people that buying a hybrid car will stop global warming and it doesn't, they're going to be upset. Torches-and-pitchforks upset.
And don't even get me started on the utter disinformation and confusion that the well-intentioned, well-paid celebrity activists and politicians are spreading. How does not using plastic bottles fix the climate? How does biodiesel reduce carbon emissions? Who decided "clean" and "coal" should go in the same sentence? Why is that when the state geologist goes in and tells beach-front property owners that dumping a million dollars worth of sand in front of their house that they've built five feet from the high-tide line won't save them from the next storm, nobody listens? But, when some dim-witted celebrity bats their eyelashes at a camera and tells people that the Earth is dying, women swoon and grown men cry!
Global warming is happening, most likely. I'm not yet convinced human activity is the sole cause and its arrogant and anthrocentric to assume that we are. The public should be educated about the Earth and the environment, not scared into action. We should cut back on carbon emissions because it makes the air clean and improves the economy, not to save the polar bears. People are more amenable to small steps with goals and results observable in their own lifetimes. Its bad enough our government is running on reactionary fear right now, I don't want to see science end up the same way.
I knew I should have "does wooly mammoth taste like chicken?" joke . . .
But wait, if "global warming" ended the last ice age and drove cold-adapted species to extinction, then either a) cavemen had cars (hence the GEICO ads) or b) "global warming" can be a natural phenomenon.
I'm confused - we'd better ask Leonardo DiCaprio what he's been paid to think about all this!
Certainly an open, well-documented format is useful for data storage. But, is it really going to be impossible to read a .pdf 100 years from now? Individuals and museums collect old hardware and software. Corporations keep archives of their own products. Programs exist that covert old formats to new. Digital archeology may become the hot growth industry of the 22nd century.
Yes, I understand he's a lawyer and no doubt quite qualified. Yale Law School? OK, I hear Yale still does that well at least.
I looked at the article summary, read "Godwin's Law" and thought to myself 'I never heard of Godwin's Law, but it must be succinct and insightful like Moore's Law". I followed the link to discover that's its basically a joke about internet discussions. I wish people would be more judicious when declaring things "laws".
The Law of Inverse Squares is a law. Comparing Walmart to nazi Germany is a$$hattery.
Wait, so this guy comes up with a humorous modern-day interpretation of the old "Murphy's Law" addage and this qualifies him to provide legal council for Wikipedia? Yeah, sure, he's probably a lawyer and all but this is what led them to hire him over other applicants.
I came up with one of these when I started teaching intro. geology. "Everything in science comes in twos, threes, and fives." Can I work for NASA now?
Why do many asteroid craters have flat bottoms? I understand that there are theories regarding this (melted bottoms), but have we observed flat bottomed craters from our own nuclear explosion tests? No, I don't think so ...
Why do many craters have central peaks? Oftentimes, if not always, the stratigraphy of the land surrounding the crater is preserved within these central peaks. Isn't that a bit unusual?
'You don't really need to set off a nuclear bomb to simulate a meteor impact. Scale experiments using materials that behave like metallic or chondritic meteors and planetary surfaces can and have been used to observe patterns in crater formation. Computer modeling is also no doubt useful.
As for specifics . . .
You said yourself one way that a flat-bottomed crater can form. The conversion of kinetic energy to thermal energy on impact could melt the planetary or meteor surface, causing material to pool at the bottom of the crater. Alternatively, debris from the sides of the crater or the meteor itself could fill in the crater's bottom. Go dig a hole in the sand at the beach and see how long the bottom actually stays round.
As for peaks at the center of the crater, look for a video clip of a water droplet landing in a pool/bowl/glass of water taken in slow-motion. After the initial impact the water's surface rebounds, sending droplets of water upwards. You might say its an equal but opposite reaction to the impact. Now imagine instead of water, you're dealing with a flash-molten rocky or metal surface in a cold environment. That upwards splash could freeze in place.
The mountain won't come to you and you may not be able to go to the mountain. So, you build as accurate a model of the mountain as possible and learn what you can from it.
But, People magazine and Tom Cruise told me that vaccines cause autism! How can a vaccine cure autism?
Even more simply, this kind of brain-machine interface could be used to control motorized prosthetic hands and arms. As I understand, amputees currently rely on flexing their shoulder muscles, for example, to controlled a motorized hand. More capabilities could be added to these devices if controlling them becomes easier.
. . . seen a college classroom lately?
Unexplained affluence, failing to report overseas travel, showing unusual interest in information outside the job scope, keeping unusual work hours, unreported contacts with foreign nationals, unreported contact with foreign government, military, or intelligence officials, attempting to gain new accesses without the need to know, and unexplained absences are all considered potential espionage indicators.Affluence? My students whine about buying the textbook, but they're out in the hall before class playing a PSP. They always ask strange questions "outside the . . . scope" of the lesson. Contact with military officials - do the army recruiters constantly parked outside the main entrance to campus count? As for unexplained absences, well I'm usually suspicious of the one that have extensive explanations for missing labs and exams.
All kidding aside, I'm in that classroom for one thing: to educate my students. If the FBI needs someone to do their job for them, then can call in the Geek Squad http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-05-09-for t-dix-clerk_N.htm
Bleck!
I just tried this and its like the Start menu in Windows. How wretched! All those nested menus, everything in alphabetical order. Its bad enough I have to look at Windows if order to play Half-Life.
The icons in my Documents folder are organized so that folders containing work-related material are in one part of the window and recreation stuff is in another. If I'm having trouble finding a folder, I type the first few letters of its name. My real-world office is organized the same way. Papers for one class are in one stack on the desk, papers for another are on top of a filing cabinet, etc. I only wish that stack of missing lab quizzes would flow when I thought of its name.
I would probably use Stacks as a way of listing all the apps on my Mac in the Dock with only the most-used getting their own icon.
Now that's interesting. An example of taxation causing something to become legal. If the gov starts taxing virtual currency sales, it could force Blizzard to change its tune on fair use of one's game account.
Of course, equating marijuana and game currency sales (two illegal things that may be taxed) may backfire and result in video games being declared an addictive controlled substance . . .
So, am I the only Mac user left in the world that has their disk icons and a "Documents" folder lined up along the right side of their desktop? Maybe because my first real computer was a Performa running System 7.1 I'm just used to working on the desktop. What I liked most when the Dock first came out was that it worked so much like the old Launcher.
. . . it'll have all sorts of unintended consequences too.
What virtual property is the government going to tax exactly? The few MMO's that offer legitimate currency exchange, such as Second LIfe and Entropia, convert your virtual goods and income into real world income. This real, legal currency is then taxed as miscellaneous income. If you make more than X dollars a year this way (or through eBay, etc.) then you pay taxes. So, the government already taxes income from virtual sources.
Then there's the vast illegitimate virtual currency exchange market that Congress and the media gets its "billion-dollar-a-year business" numbers from. Sure, WoW gold may sell for 500/$25 but it does so in violation of Blizzard's EULA which is a binding legal agreement. So, if the feds start taxing the illegitimate purchase of virtual currency, either a) Sale of virtual goods and currency becomes legal and Blizzard, Sony, etc. can't place restrictions or b) All forms of piracy or "black market" business become taxable since there's no difference between selling gold that Blizzard has the legal rights to and selling copies of movies or music that Sony, etc. have the legal rights to.
Taxation of virtual goods will have all sorts of interesting legitimizing consequences. Virtual worlds may end up declaring themselves states or countries for tax purposes. But, then, that wouldn't be unprecedented. The US started out as an investment venture and revenue source which later became a country in order to avoid taxes.
Great job with MINERVA! The story-telling style reminds me a lot of the Marathon series. Keep up the good work.
China has been a major source of new theropod fossils over the past 15 or so years. I have friends at the AMNH who are working on dinosaur and bird fossils from the Gobi. The AMNH cosponsors digs with Chinese researchers all the time. Sometimes their government is not very enthusiastic about sharing material, but we often work something out.
Check out http://palaeoblog.blogspot.com/2007/06/gigantorapt or-erlianensis-from-china.html for more information. It turns out a Japanese film crew was there when the fossil was being uncovered. You may also want to look at the link on the same page to the original journal article for this find. Hopefully Nature can live up to the high academic standards of slashdot readers.
Because "portable wireless communication and data retrieval device" takes way too long to say.
"Cell phone" was what they were called first and the name just stuck. When you "dial" someone's number, you may not use an actual rotary dial, but you certainly use the word. I'm "typing" this response, but it doesn't mean I'm lining up little wooden blocks with letters carved in to them. Language rarely evolves as quickly as technology.
I think its good to see both letters. Yeah, obviously that second one is from Lala Land, but the first letter is a good contrast. Its good to see that some people are working and some institutions and ideals are still being upheld.
As long as letters to your senator or congress person result in a polite response rather than a SWAT team visit, things can't be all that bad.
Actually they've been talking about a movie for a few months now. Its pretty obvious that the finale was just a hook to keep people interested until the movie comes out.
Its kind of funny how everyone is analyzing the symbolism and artistic merits of the unresolved ending. Nothing was completely resolved at the end of the story because the story isn't over yet. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
You know that oft reproduced scene in the old Frankenstein movie where all the villagers are gathered outside the caste with torches and pitchforks and all? I always wondered who would react that way to hearing about a breakthrough in immortality research.
Now I know.
Errr, umm . . . I'm not sure I see the connection between Mages and Mac users. (I was a Warlock on an iMac, but w/e). If anything, I remember it being slightly difficult to find mac-compatible versions of the add-ons and macro sets many casters use.
This will probably boil down into a Chuck Norris joke anyway.
Evan seems to be summarizing everyone's arguements, so I'll address this post . . .
There are 4+ legged animals in more nooks and crannies and extreme environments than humans will EVER be able to colonize, no matter how advanced our technology gets.Certianly there are quadrapeds that live in forests and deserts and mountains and everywhere. But, is there a single species that can live in any and all of these environments? Horses, for example, are very well adapted for running in plains environments. But, they're not very efficient on sand and they could never climb a mountain. Snow leopards and mountain goats have adaptations for living in rocky environments, but they sacrfice speed and size for it. Right now there is only one obligate bipedal organism living and that's us. And, we're everywhere!
Insects alone, which all have 6+ legs, make up for approximately 80% of all the world's animal species.The invertebrate bauplan is just the result of their evolutionary history. Someone else pointed out that vertebrates have four limbs because that's what they started with. Well, invertebrates started with 10-12 and have narrowed it down to 6-8. Yes, insects are everywhere, but each species is specialized to and thus limited to certain environments and terrain. Many insects control their myriad limbs in a manner similar to our blink reflex because of the inherent difficulty in coordinating multiple pairs of limbs.
I grew up up in the 80's, I used to watch Captain Planet. So, I'm all for human bashing. But, one must admit that humans as a species have done pretty well for themselves. We're not the fastest runners, swimmers, or climbers, but we're capable to doing all three. We're not the best at living in deserts or tundra, but you can find us in both. As generalists, we can adapt to and survive in a wide variety and environments and one of our generalist adaptations is bipedal locomotion. Therefore, if we're going to expect robots to be as adaptable as we are and live and work in the same places as we do, bipedalism shouldn't be ruled out.