What version of Windows did that ship with? I don't recall seeing that as a standard feature before... To say nothing of whether or not I think such a program deserves to be categorized as a "standard application" for an operating system.
You know what else has a spore state! Shrooms man!
Shrooms must have been huge 45 million years ago!..and I bet there was mycelial networks the size of Russia.
What are you trying to say? Were you shrooming when you were writing that?
If we can do this with other multimillion-year-old spores, seeds, and other "deep freeze"-states of living creatures, we might be able to bring back some of Jurassic Park without resorting to cloning.
I suspect we'd be limited primarily to species that have a spore state. Bringing back old yeast is nowhere near as difficult as bringing back old vertebrates - yeast form spores to be able to sit out starvation indefinitely - I don't know many vertebrates that can do the same.
Without a spore stage, the degradation of DNA and cellular machinery could be severe, and even bringing back a vertebrate encased in amber could be excruciatingly difficult (if possible at all).
if something has been killed by another species and that species was naturally occurring
The naturally occurring part is what I am trying to emphasize here. Were humans naturally occurring on the Galapagos islands?
Or what if we dropped off a population of grizzly bears there and they killed off the tortoises? Would that be natural?
We're talking about non-native species killing off the native species. You can call it natural selection if you want, though I disagree. Did the Galapagos tortoise have a natural predator on the islands before people found them and started killing them?
Humans are not external to "the ecosystem" - we all live on planet earth here
That statement is only valid if you view the entire planet as a single ecosystem. I would say that really the planet needs to be viewed as a collection of distinct ecosystems, some of which humans really ought to be considered external to.
What does "balance" mean in regards to an "ecosystem"?
Ever monitor the carbon cycle? How about the nitrogen and phosphorous cycles? Everything alive in an ecosystem (and some inert material as well) contributes to the cycles of an environment.
I agree that there is plenty of change in an ecosystem, but there are plenty of cyclical processes that take place regularly to keep the system habitable for the plants and animals present.
Let's not go wrapping it pseudo-scientific language in some strange attempt to morally justify it.
You are presenting about half an argument here. However you don't seem to have a firm grasp on the static forces in an environment. You are welcomed to disagree with me, but you could do us all a favor by familiarizing yourself with environmental science before accusing me of "pseudo-science".
on the theory that human activity is somehow unnatural. I would contend that human activity is perfectly natural
I would say that not all human activity is natural. Humans are on a very, very, short list of animals that kill just to kill. Look at the extinction of the dodo bird, for example. The dodo bird had a distinct niche in its own environment, until humans wiped it out. But how many of those birds were killed for anything other than enjoyment?
Also, if the giant tortoise was destroyed because it was slow moving (as someone above mentioned), wouldn't that mean its niche was gone?
People killed it because it was slow moving and easy to kill. Some people just have an urge to kill anything they can.
However, the slow moving lifestyle of the tortoise was fine for its environment. Its nice was in no way diminished by its slow movement, and there were even other species that developed symbiotic relationships with the tortoise (see the galapagos finches) whose niches were disrupted by the loss tortoise populations.
So to answer your question - no - the niche of the tortoise was not gone.
Couldn't that reasoning be used to justify humans driving any animal to extinction that they don't like? What if I have something against timberwolves? Could I start killing them on sight and claim natural selection?
Yep. Unless you have some explanation other than natural selection for how humans got to be advanced enough to do that.
Then I guess we differ in opinion of what mans' obligation is to the rest of the world.
Going extinct because something enjoys killing you is dramatically different than going extinct because you are not able to compete effectively for resources.
The giant tortoises seemed to be doing pretty well for resources in their environment, until a new animal showed up that enjoyed killing them.
Humans are as much a part of natural selection as anything else
Couldn't that reasoning be used to justify humans driving any animal to extinction that they don't like? What if I have something against timberwolves? Could I start killing them on sight and claim natural selection?
What is behind your assumption that extinction by natural selection (as opposed, I assume, to human activity) is better for an ecosystem?
Generally natural selection takes out a species when it either no longer fills is niche in the ecosystem, or the niche no longer exists. If external forces (such as humans) knock a species out of existence, then the ecosystem is out of balance due to the loss of that species.
Isn't evidence of ecological catastrophes of all sizes common in the fossil record?
Ecological catastrophes are a good question. However, when something like that happens (be it asteroids, volcanoes, plate tectonics, etc), there are usually a very large number of species eliminated from an area at once. Yes, the ecosystem will come back, but it generally re-emerge with much different flora and fauna than what it had prior.
Catastrophes happen in the record, yes. But individual extinctions of species due to non-natural events are of a different scale and could have dramatic effects on a delicate, semi-isolated ecosystem such as the Galapagos.
Can someone explain the value of these giant tortioses in objective, real terms?
There are a few things that would be useful about bringing back an extinct tortoise.
For one, it allows the animal to reclaim its place in the ecosystem. I don't have information on what caused the extinction of this tortoise, but I know of certain mammals that are fond of killing slow-moving things. If the tortoise went extinct not by natural selection, then it may have left a void in its natural ecosystem that could have downstream effects on stability of the same.
Though perhaps more tangible is that some of these tortoises could live 150+ years. If we want to study aging and what mechanisms could prolong a healthy life, then something that lives extraordinarily long would be quite valuable. Of course we could study old trees, but we have more in common with other vertebrates.
violated her privacy, broke the law, and distracted from other issues during the presidential election.
And just what issues have been discussed since she was announced the VP candidate?
The Palin nomination has done a fantastic job of taking the media's attention away from issues. How long was the "mainstream media" obsessing over makeup on farm animals?
DOS will not have any of the power management features required to operate a modern laptop. The hit to your battery life would be SEVERE
Its not clear that battery life is relevant to the question. Original question did after all mention
"boot my laptop and edit a few lines of text, or jot down an idea or two"
I think even the worst possible power management should survive long enough to meet that task. If boot speed is the primary objective, then DOS should be just fine. The question did not say that the user wants to boot quickly and write a novel, after all.
... Can't they ensure minimum bandwidth as well? Why not sell a plan that guarantees a certain minimum bandwidth 24/7, so that the people who feel they need to download so much material constantly can do so without worrying that (favorite pr0n) 7 might take longer to download than did (favorite pr0n) 6?
For that matter, isn't that was the "business-class" broadband does?
Maybe I'm just not angry about this enough yet. I use a cable modem (though not through comcast) and haven't really been found bandwidth to be a problem yet. Maybe our connection has been throttled at times, but if it has, I haven't noticed it.
Slashdot Mirror
Windows Movie Maker
What version of Windows did that ship with? I don't recall seeing that as a standard feature before... To say nothing of whether or not I think such a program deserves to be categorized as a "standard application" for an operating system.
You know what else has a spore state! Shrooms man! ..and I bet there was mycelial networks the size of Russia.
Shrooms must have been huge 45 million years ago!
What are you trying to say? Were you shrooming when you were writing that?
If we can do this with other multimillion-year-old spores, seeds, and other "deep freeze"-states of living creatures, we might be able to bring back some of Jurassic Park without resorting to cloning.
I suspect we'd be limited primarily to species that have a spore state. Bringing back old yeast is nowhere near as difficult as bringing back old vertebrates - yeast form spores to be able to sit out starvation indefinitely - I don't know many vertebrates that can do the same.
Without a spore stage, the degradation of DNA and cellular machinery could be severe, and even bringing back a vertebrate encased in amber could be excruciatingly difficult (if possible at all).
if something has been killed by another species and that species was naturally occurring
The naturally occurring part is what I am trying to emphasize here. Were humans naturally occurring on the Galapagos islands?
Or what if we dropped off a population of grizzly bears there and they killed off the tortoises? Would that be natural?
We're talking about non-native species killing off the native species. You can call it natural selection if you want, though I disagree. Did the Galapagos tortoise have a natural predator on the islands before people found them and started killing them?
... As evidence for a restraining order?
on a 30mm x 30mm playing field
Granted, I'm not a soccer fan myself, but I don't recall ever seeing it played on a square field before...
Humans are not external to "the ecosystem" - we all live on planet earth here
That statement is only valid if you view the entire planet as a single ecosystem. I would say that really the planet needs to be viewed as a collection of distinct ecosystems, some of which humans really ought to be considered external to.
What does "balance" mean in regards to an "ecosystem"?
Ever monitor the carbon cycle? How about the nitrogen and phosphorous cycles? Everything alive in an ecosystem (and some inert material as well) contributes to the cycles of an environment.
I agree that there is plenty of change in an ecosystem, but there are plenty of cyclical processes that take place regularly to keep the system habitable for the plants and animals present.
Let's not go wrapping it pseudo-scientific language in some strange attempt to morally justify it.
You are presenting about half an argument here. However you don't seem to have a firm grasp on the static forces in an environment. You are welcomed to disagree with me, but you could do us all a favor by familiarizing yourself with environmental science before accusing me of "pseudo-science".
on the theory that human activity is somehow unnatural. I would contend that human activity is perfectly natural
I would say that not all human activity is natural. Humans are on a very, very, short list of animals that kill just to kill. Look at the extinction of the dodo bird, for example. The dodo bird had a distinct niche in its own environment, until humans wiped it out. But how many of those birds were killed for anything other than enjoyment?
Also, if the giant tortoise was destroyed because it was slow moving (as someone above mentioned), wouldn't that mean its niche was gone?
People killed it because it was slow moving and easy to kill. Some people just have an urge to kill anything they can.
However, the slow moving lifestyle of the tortoise was fine for its environment. Its nice was in no way diminished by its slow movement, and there were even other species that developed symbiotic relationships with the tortoise (see the galapagos finches) whose niches were disrupted by the loss tortoise populations.
So to answer your question - no - the niche of the tortoise was not gone.
Couldn't that reasoning be used to justify humans driving any animal to extinction that they don't like? What if I have something against timberwolves? Could I start killing them on sight and claim natural selection?
Yep. Unless you have some explanation other than natural selection for how humans got to be advanced enough to do that.
Then I guess we differ in opinion of what mans' obligation is to the rest of the world.
And how else would they go extinct?
Going extinct because something enjoys killing you is dramatically different than going extinct because you are not able to compete effectively for resources.
The giant tortoises seemed to be doing pretty well for resources in their environment, until a new animal showed up that enjoyed killing them.
Humans are as much a part of natural selection as anything else
Couldn't that reasoning be used to justify humans driving any animal to extinction that they don't like? What if I have something against timberwolves? Could I start killing them on sight and claim natural selection?
What is behind your assumption that extinction by natural selection (as opposed, I assume, to human activity) is better for an ecosystem?
Generally natural selection takes out a species when it either no longer fills is niche in the ecosystem, or the niche no longer exists. If external forces (such as humans) knock a species out of existence, then the ecosystem is out of balance due to the loss of that species.
Isn't evidence of ecological catastrophes of all sizes common in the fossil record?
Ecological catastrophes are a good question. However, when something like that happens (be it asteroids, volcanoes, plate tectonics, etc), there are usually a very large number of species eliminated from an area at once. Yes, the ecosystem will come back, but it generally re-emerge with much different flora and fauna than what it had prior.
Catastrophes happen in the record, yes. But individual extinctions of species due to non-natural events are of a different scale and could have dramatic effects on a delicate, semi-isolated ecosystem such as the Galapagos.
Can someone explain the value of these giant tortioses in objective, real terms?
There are a few things that would be useful about bringing back an extinct tortoise.
For one, it allows the animal to reclaim its place in the ecosystem. I don't have information on what caused the extinction of this tortoise, but I know of certain mammals that are fond of killing slow-moving things. If the tortoise went extinct not by natural selection, then it may have left a void in its natural ecosystem that could have downstream effects on stability of the same.
Though perhaps more tangible is that some of these tortoises could live 150+ years. If we want to study aging and what mechanisms could prolong a healthy life, then something that lives extraordinarily long would be quite valuable. Of course we could study old trees, but we have more in common with other vertebrates.
violated her privacy, broke the law, and distracted from other issues during the presidential election.
And just what issues have been discussed since she was announced the VP candidate?
The Palin nomination has done a fantastic job of taking the media's attention away from issues. How long was the "mainstream media" obsessing over makeup on farm animals?
This clock would have fit right in with the sets for The Dark Crystal.
DOS will not have any of the power management features required to operate a modern laptop. The hit to your battery life would be SEVERE
Its not clear that battery life is relevant to the question. Original question did after all mention
"boot my laptop and edit a few lines of text, or jot down an idea or two"
I think even the worst possible power management should survive long enough to meet that task. If boot speed is the primary objective, then DOS should be just fine. The question did not say that the user wants to boot quickly and write a novel, after all.
Their website has gone up in smoke. I hope nobody was trying to get campus information from them today.
The Schrodinger software is available under any of the GPLv2, MIT or MPL licences. Libraries may also be used under LGPL.
Sounds like someone wanted there to be no question about whether it was open source.
Sounds to me like the license exists in multiple states at once, which may be exactly the way Schrodinger would have liked it.
Obama's liberalism is socialism
By that quote I would say that you don't understand liberalism or socialism.
For that matter you likely don't understand Obama's policies, either.
Except, for well, that democracy part...
Hitler was appointed the head of a democratic state after losing a race for president. Sound familiar to anyone?
... Can't they ensure minimum bandwidth as well? Why not sell a plan that guarantees a certain minimum bandwidth 24/7, so that the people who feel they need to download so much material constantly can do so without worrying that (favorite pr0n) 7 might take longer to download than did (favorite pr0n) 6?
For that matter, isn't that was the "business-class" broadband does?
Maybe I'm just not angry about this enough yet. I use a cable modem (though not through comcast) and haven't really been found bandwidth to be a problem yet. Maybe our connection has been throttled at times, but if it has, I haven't noticed it.
Knowing Metallica, they probably cranked out a half-ass 10-minute session in the studi
high-fived each other over beers
solid gold Ferraris
Have you been watching Napster Bad again too?
I was tempted to post: "Holy crap, this is big news!! SGI is still in business!!!"
Surprisingly enough, not only is SGI still in business, but they'll even sell you a workstation with a MIPS processor (if you really want one).
They will also launch advertising billboards and take pictures of them high above the earth
So who would that appeal to, really? People with ridiculous advertising budgets who don't know how to use Photoshop?
Because I'm real sure that banana picture is real...
You don't even have to be a believer in the Moon Landing Conspiracy Theory to see the opportunity for faking this business operation.
... How often do we see an article on SGI here that doesn't either forecast their demise or have updates on their latest bankruptcy filing?
the orange juice does keep them scurvy bones away
Not in the volumes they sell it in. Unless you already have two peg-legs, you'll never protect your bones by going there.
How is a post that discusses the text of the article summary off-topic? Sounds like exactly the topic, really.
Looks like somebody has too many moderator points today.