Did you actually read that snippet? We didn't reform cancer cells into herpes "cells". We found that a particularly malignant strain of brain cancer occurs with a specific herpes virus that we can create a treatment for. The treatment induces cellular apoptosis of the cancerous cells but not of the healthy tissue. Google virus and then google cell, you may understand why the idea of "a mass of herpes cells" is ridiculous.
Y'know, I've wondered about buck hunting in the past. I will preface this by stating I know next to nothing about any type of hunting and would love to hear some facts from a hunter or ranger. I've wondered whether human hunting could, in the long term, negatively affect the deer herds by taking out the best breeding stock? My reasoning is that in general human hunters aren't killing the weak and the sick bucks, they're killing the big healthy multi-pronged bucks, presumably the best genes in the population.
Is this a problem for the deer herds? If it is, what steps are undertaken to prevent a genetically inferior herd? Do we cull sick and weak animals as well as large and picturesque animals? I was just wondering.
He's not presenting nonsense, you're being obtuse. His argument is that the reason we have such wonderfully developed and complex engineering marvels is because of "democratically" distributed funds advancing the research and design of solutions to difficult engineering problems. He establishes that as his main premise, and implies the conclusion that if we are already doing research for private companies with public funds, we could just scratch out the middle man and do public research with public funds that would go to the benefit of the contributors, the public. You could retort that many large scale engineering feats were conceived by and implemented by profit driven companies and then provide a list that the slashdot readership could research, which would indicate his premise was false and his conclusion would follow to be likely false as well. Instead you decided to be a dick.
As regards Noam Chomsky, he is an enormously well read man who offers volumes of citations to support his arguments. You can clearly disagree with his interpretation of the data, but to claim that it doesn't make any sense only demonstrates your difficulty with reading comprehension. Chomsky has made time tested contributions to the field of linguistics and has made critiques of current cultural trends that any intelligent person would do well to at least consider. Your designation is little more than an attempt to poison the well against the GP by associating his writings with your flawed understanding of Chomsky's. You and the great-grandparent are both exactly whats wrong with slashdot. You may be "clever" within some approximation of the word, but intelligent you are not.
He was speaking about a metric tonne. 1 metric tonne= 1000kg=1Mg There are a bunch of tons. 900kg is a great approximation for the US. Ton, and a decentish approximation for the british long ton and metric tonnes.
Any chance the ranchers didn't want you to stumble upon their weed farm? Everyone is taking the side of the ranchers protecting their property, I just want to play devil's advocate here and say maybe the ranchers had something to hide...
To quickly clarify a point, I wrote about The Enlightenment, specifically meaning the increase in scientific thinking in the Mid to Late 18th century. I did not reference enlightenment in the "illuminated person" sense. In fact after rereading my statement I think its clear you did not read my last paragraph in which I mention classical mathematicians and engineers (I was thinking Pythagoras and Archimedes respectively.)
I will respond further at my earliest convenience.
HIV treatment is largely a logistic/economics problem at this point. With all your meds and treatments AIDS becomes a manageable though terribly unpleasant sickness akin to diabetes but worse (not in effect, but in management requirements.)
Immunoresistant TB is a difficult problem also created largely through logistic/economic failings and improper treatment follow through. However, TB can be effectively treated and large amounts of research continue to try to find targetable proteins for treatment and eventual cure.
We're still fucked by the common cold and flu which are caused by numerous pathogens.
You don't feel threatened because they believe something, you feel threatened because they believe in something and they will do their level best to make everyone else believe that something as well. Some beliefs aren't terribly important, but when those beliefs include an end times scenario, arguments for preventable death and a Samson syndrome then you can feel justifiably threatened.
(Conjecture) Science has been countering religious arguments for centuries. If you don't understand that look up Galileo. Where was the peaceful coexistence there? If there is an early correlation between scientists and monastic types it has drastically less to do with the religious teachings of the church versus the inadvertently fostered intellectual atmosphere of specific monastic orders. (end conjecture)
I contest your statement that science hasn't been threatened since its inception. I further contest the implication that science as we know it has been around thousands of years. The roots of modern science may have been laid by some of the early mathematicians and engineers in the classical age, but the observe, hypothesize, experiment, confirm model came to fruition at the beginning of the enlightenment.
Some get through, absolutely. I think your friend was underselling himself, I've been told the ID's in my neck of the woods run in the 300 dollar range. And so far I haven't seen any that react the same under a UV light as the DMV issued ones. Although if I had seen one, I probably wouldn't have known!
To get back on topic though, I agree, its a losing battle and since getting legitimate ID isn't all that hard for a terrorist anyway, exactly what is this kind of policy supposed to do? I'm inclined to believe its for show, but like many posters I'm concerned its in the greater interest of cowing us.
I don't hate teenagers, I like being able to pay my rent and bills. If the fine for underage drinking was reasonable I wouldn't have to be "anal" about checking every single ID and being as sure as is reasonably possible that the person I'm vetting is over 21.
Summing is simple addition. If you can't add five single digit numbers together then you are most likely too drunk to be further served. It also suggests that you've rotely memorized the information on your ID and are unable to offer any further analysis of a simple fact about yourself. It is an effective method that quickly weeds out the obvious fakers who then are able to freely move along and try their hand at another bar. And the point isn't that they got the answer right, its that they began trying to solve the problem like anyone would when confronted with a question, by assessing the facts they know about themselves against the information requested of them.
I will make no presumption of your country of origin, but please understand, in California the drinking age is 21. If I were to allow in a 16 year old kid because he gave me some ID that claimed he was of age I would be contributing to the delinquency of a minor at least and could be held criminally negligent by the teenager's parents. If a teenager wants to drink he can do it like the rest of us, bribing a homeless guy to buy us some forties.
Further, the law is squarely on our side and we are allowed to refuse service to anyone. I've attended multiple seminars about what we can and can't do with the patrons and everytime the ABC agents and Sheriffs were clear, if for ANY reason you are uncomfortable with a customer you can refuse to allow them in. The reason I am more comfortable with allowing in state IDs in is because I know what I can look for to best determine a fake. In worrying about the remote possibility of a discrimination suit versus the very real eventuality of an ABC raid I will, in the future as I have in the past, err on the side of ABC raid.
And finally, if you think underage drinkers are honorable and honest when the sheriff questions them about how they got into the bar, you are delusional. Twice I've seen underage kids ditch their fake ID's and throw the doormen on duty under the bus to escape reprisal from parents. CYA doesn't stop just because they have some sort of ID, you as a doorman have to keep them accountable and a good doorman has a great memory for faces and dates. I can generally recall at least two details of every ID I check over the course of a night for one to two hours after seeing it. And that is a skill that saved my ass on the occasion when an underage drinker got rolled in my bar.
California ID's have several features that would be hard for any non-professional printer to pull off. There are specific colors to look for on the hologram, the magnetic stripe on the back, the shape of the cardboard which is die cut, position and resolution of the pictures and a few more. However, with that said, many of the well to do kids have managed to get nearly perfect ID's. It really sucks for the bar because the fines for serving a minor are so steep. In orange county the ABC fines the bar $10,000, the server $2,000 and pretty much assures the doorman gets fired (as a consequence of the fines not by decree.)
I worked as a doorman at a bar for two years and I would regularly turn away customers that I thought were too young. If they had an out of state ID that I couldn't verify, and I had any doubt, I told them to move it down the line. Hell, if I asked some stupid non-obvious question like "What's your zodiac sign?" and they hesitated to answer I'd send them off. If they couldn't sum the digits in their zip code I'd send them off.
The point of a realistic fake ID is to confound a distrustful doorman. If everything looked ok, and the hologram was UV reactive, I probably wouldn't get too suspicious. If some young looking kid shows me a texas license and has no twang, he/she is not likely to get in.
Ha! This got modded troll, but the parent post claiming "the gays stole rainbows" got interesting. God damn queers = A-OK
Bush sanctioned torture = move along troll.
You have to love slashdot.
I'm tired of the "teacher's don't get enough support, pay them more" meme I hear constantly. Teaching is a job with ample benefits and a salary at or above the average wage in America. The median wage for a first year teacher is around $40,000 a year* with guaranteed benefits, time off and guaranteed raises over time. Try getting that at Barnes and Nobles where the starting wage is around $8.00 an hour, raises are not guaranteed, good luck with getting your benefits (how many managers shave off hours to keep employees out of the full-time bracket to keep store costs down?) and your schedule will vary week to week. If as a barnes and noble employee I were to work 40 hrs a week at $8 an hour what would my salary be? $16640/year! Mind you thats for working ALL 52 weeks in a year.
I'm not saying teaching isn't a demanding job, but I read over and over how they could make more money at some crap retail job and they need to be payed more. Its an elitist and annoying idea that as someone who has worked in many industries bugs the bejesus out of me. Don't think low-end entry level jobs are hard, work one for a year and tell me why EVERYONE is clamoring for a better job. Starting wage for a construction laborer in Orange County CA, just about $10 an hour. Physically intensive, massive time-sink (6am-6pm days are common), unstable pay(rain? no work, job done? no work, client not paying for the remodel, no pay) if you're not working union you're unlikely to be receiving benefits. What about warehouse work? Or secretarial, or clerical or what have you. What about office jobs? And unlike teaching, in order to be payed substantially more in any of these jobs you have to take on more responsibilities. You're unlikely to make more than $12 an hour at any retail store as a cashier/information associate. Want more money? Fight hard to be a manager. After 6-10 years in construction you'll cap out at around $20-25 an hour... don't like it? Become an independent contractor or learn a highly technical skill (welding, ornamental iron, plaster) With teaching on the other hand, you have the same responsibilities year to year and you still get substantial wage increases. First year teacher has between 30-35 students/class, 20 year teacher has between 30-35students/class. First year teacher teaches the state approved curriculum, 20 year teacher teaches the same curriculum. Teachers put in many hours outside of class? Sure do, but in the comfort of their own homes, in front of their TV grading children's papers! A 60 hour work-week for that supremely dedicated (and likely just starting) teacher is not the same 60 hour work-week a roofer or a mason puts in.
The kind of arrogance implicit in the statement: "I could make more money working at x retail store" is staggering. If that's true then do it, go there and after a year of dealing with all the bullshit that goes into entry-level work, and dealing with all the snooty sops looking down on you for being behind that register and dealing with all the managers on little power trips and dealing with barely making ends meets even though you're not living particularly high on the hog and dealing with the mind-numbing monotony of the same soul crushing work with no glimmer of meaning to be found and then say how happy you are to not be teaching any more. Tell me about the meaning you've found in working at B&N, let me hear about the wonderful financial decision it was then and how teaching was such a dead end because of the lack of support from parents and communities. I'll be interested to know the responses from family and friends about what a respectable job you've managed to get. But until then don't even pretend for a moment that teaching isn't a supported job. Don't suggest or imply that the community at large better rewards the people at the very bottom more than the "omni-suffering, omni-dedicated teacher/hero who selflessly devotes each and every second to compassionately and intelligently guiding
Slashdot Mirror
Did you actually read that snippet? We didn't reform cancer cells into herpes "cells". We found that a particularly malignant strain of brain cancer occurs with a specific herpes virus that we can create a treatment for. The treatment induces cellular apoptosis of the cancerous cells but not of the healthy tissue. Google virus and then google cell, you may understand why the idea of "a mass of herpes cells" is ridiculous.
Y'know, I've wondered about buck hunting in the past. I will preface this by stating I know next to nothing about any type of hunting and would love to hear some facts from a hunter or ranger. I've wondered whether human hunting could, in the long term, negatively affect the deer herds by taking out the best breeding stock? My reasoning is that in general human hunters aren't killing the weak and the sick bucks, they're killing the big healthy multi-pronged bucks, presumably the best genes in the population.
Is this a problem for the deer herds? If it is, what steps are undertaken to prevent a genetically inferior herd? Do we cull sick and weak animals as well as large and picturesque animals? I was just wondering.
Brandon
He's not presenting nonsense, you're being obtuse. His argument is that the reason we have such wonderfully developed and complex engineering marvels is because of "democratically" distributed funds advancing the research and design of solutions to difficult engineering problems. He establishes that as his main premise, and implies the conclusion that if we are already doing research for private companies with public funds, we could just scratch out the middle man and do public research with public funds that would go to the benefit of the contributors, the public. You could retort that many large scale engineering feats were conceived by and implemented by profit driven companies and then provide a list that the slashdot readership could research, which would indicate his premise was false and his conclusion would follow to be likely false as well. Instead you decided to be a dick.
As regards Noam Chomsky, he is an enormously well read man who offers volumes of citations to support his arguments. You can clearly disagree with his interpretation of the data, but to claim that it doesn't make any sense only demonstrates your difficulty with reading comprehension. Chomsky has made time tested contributions to the field of linguistics and has made critiques of current cultural trends that any intelligent person would do well to at least consider. Your designation is little more than an attempt to poison the well against the GP by associating his writings with your flawed understanding of Chomsky's. You and the great-grandparent are both exactly whats wrong with slashdot. You may be "clever" within some approximation of the word, but intelligent you are not.
Brandon
Mod this comment up! This is the best comment on this entire pissing match thread. Its informative and has actual factual basis.
He was speaking about a metric tonne.
1 metric tonne= 1000kg=1Mg
There are a bunch of tons. 900kg is a great approximation for the US. Ton, and a decentish approximation for the british long ton and metric tonnes.
Any chance the ranchers didn't want you to stumble upon their weed farm? Everyone is taking the side of the ranchers protecting their property, I just want to play devil's advocate here and say maybe the ranchers had something to hide...
To quickly clarify a point, I wrote about The Enlightenment, specifically meaning the increase in scientific thinking in the Mid to Late 18th century. I did not reference enlightenment in the "illuminated person" sense. In fact after rereading my statement I think its clear you did not read my last paragraph in which I mention classical mathematicians and engineers (I was thinking Pythagoras and Archimedes respectively.)
I will respond further at my earliest convenience.
HIV treatment is largely a logistic/economics problem at this point. With all your meds and treatments AIDS becomes a manageable though terribly unpleasant sickness akin to diabetes but worse (not in effect, but in management requirements.)
Immunoresistant TB is a difficult problem also created largely through logistic/economic failings and improper treatment follow through. However, TB can be effectively treated and large amounts of research continue to try to find targetable proteins for treatment and eventual cure.
We're still fucked by the common cold and flu which are caused by numerous pathogens.
You don't feel threatened because they believe something, you feel threatened because they believe in something and they will do their level best to make everyone else believe that something as well. Some beliefs aren't terribly important, but when those beliefs include an end times scenario, arguments for preventable death and a Samson syndrome then you can feel justifiably threatened.
(Conjecture) Science has been countering religious arguments for centuries. If you don't understand that look up Galileo. Where was the peaceful coexistence there? If there is an early correlation between scientists and monastic types it has drastically less to do with the religious teachings of the church versus the inadvertently fostered intellectual atmosphere of specific monastic orders.
(end conjecture)
I contest your statement that science hasn't been threatened since its inception. I further contest the implication that science as we know it has been around thousands of years. The roots of modern science may have been laid by some of the early mathematicians and engineers in the classical age, but the observe, hypothesize, experiment, confirm model came to fruition at the beginning of the enlightenment.
Some get through, absolutely. I think your friend was underselling himself, I've been told the ID's in my neck of the woods run in the 300 dollar range. And so far I haven't seen any that react the same under a UV light as the DMV issued ones. Although if I had seen one, I probably wouldn't have known!
To get back on topic though, I agree, its a losing battle and since getting legitimate ID isn't all that hard for a terrorist anyway, exactly what is this kind of policy supposed to do? I'm inclined to believe its for show, but like many posters I'm concerned its in the greater interest of cowing us.
I don't hate teenagers, I like being able to pay my rent and bills. If the fine for underage drinking was reasonable I wouldn't have to be "anal" about checking every single ID and being as sure as is reasonably possible that the person I'm vetting is over 21.
Summing is simple addition. If you can't add five single digit numbers together then you are most likely too drunk to be further served. It also suggests that you've rotely memorized the information on your ID and are unable to offer any further analysis of a simple fact about yourself. It is an effective method that quickly weeds out the obvious fakers who then are able to freely move along and try their hand at another bar. And the point isn't that they got the answer right, its that they began trying to solve the problem like anyone would when confronted with a question, by assessing the facts they know about themselves against the information requested of them.
I will make no presumption of your country of origin, but please understand, in California the drinking age is 21. If I were to allow in a 16 year old kid because he gave me some ID that claimed he was of age I would be contributing to the delinquency of a minor at least and could be held criminally negligent by the teenager's parents. If a teenager wants to drink he can do it like the rest of us, bribing a homeless guy to buy us some forties.
Further, the law is squarely on our side and we are allowed to refuse service to anyone. I've attended multiple seminars about what we can and can't do with the patrons and everytime the ABC agents and Sheriffs were clear, if for ANY reason you are uncomfortable with a customer you can refuse to allow them in. The reason I am more comfortable with allowing in state IDs in is because I know what I can look for to best determine a fake. In worrying about the remote possibility of a discrimination suit versus the very real eventuality of an ABC raid I will, in the future as I have in the past, err on the side of ABC raid.
And finally, if you think underage drinkers are honorable and honest when the sheriff questions them about how they got into the bar, you are delusional. Twice I've seen underage kids ditch their fake ID's and throw the doormen on duty under the bus to escape reprisal from parents. CYA doesn't stop just because they have some sort of ID, you as a doorman have to keep them accountable and a good doorman has a great memory for faces and dates. I can generally recall at least two details of every ID I check over the course of a night for one to two hours after seeing it. And that is a skill that saved my ass on the occasion when an underage drinker got rolled in my bar.
California ID's have several features that would be hard for any non-professional printer to pull off. There are specific colors to look for on the hologram, the magnetic stripe on the back, the shape of the cardboard which is die cut, position and resolution of the pictures and a few more. However, with that said, many of the well to do kids have managed to get nearly perfect ID's. It really sucks for the bar because the fines for serving a minor are so steep. In orange county the ABC fines the bar $10,000, the server $2,000 and pretty much assures the doorman gets fired (as a consequence of the fines not by decree.)
I worked as a doorman at a bar for two years and I would regularly turn away customers that I thought were too young. If they had an out of state ID that I couldn't verify, and I had any doubt, I told them to move it down the line. Hell, if I asked some stupid non-obvious question like "What's your zodiac sign?" and they hesitated to answer I'd send them off. If they couldn't sum the digits in their zip code I'd send them off. The point of a realistic fake ID is to confound a distrustful doorman. If everything looked ok, and the hologram was UV reactive, I probably wouldn't get too suspicious. If some young looking kid shows me a texas license and has no twang, he/she is not likely to get in.
Ha! This got modded troll, but the parent post claiming "the gays stole rainbows" got interesting. God damn queers = A-OK Bush sanctioned torture = move along troll. You have to love slashdot.
I'm tired of the "teacher's don't get enough support, pay them more" meme I hear constantly. Teaching is a job with ample benefits and a salary at or above the average wage in America. The median wage for a first year teacher is around $40,000 a year* with guaranteed benefits, time off and guaranteed raises over time. Try getting that at Barnes and Nobles where the starting wage is around $8.00 an hour, raises are not guaranteed, good luck with getting your benefits (how many managers shave off hours to keep employees out of the full-time bracket to keep store costs down?) and your schedule will vary week to week. If as a barnes and noble employee I were to work 40 hrs a week at $8 an hour what would my salary be? $16640/year! Mind you thats for working ALL 52 weeks in a year.
I'm not saying teaching isn't a demanding job, but I read over and over how they could make more money at some crap retail job and they need to be payed more. Its an elitist and annoying idea that as someone who has worked in many industries bugs the bejesus out of me. Don't think low-end entry level jobs are hard, work one for a year and tell me why EVERYONE is clamoring for a better job. Starting wage for a construction laborer in Orange County CA, just about $10 an hour. Physically intensive, massive time-sink (6am-6pm days are common), unstable pay(rain? no work, job done? no work, client not paying for the remodel, no pay) if you're not working union you're unlikely to be receiving benefits. What about warehouse work? Or secretarial, or clerical or what have you. What about office jobs? And unlike teaching, in order to be payed substantially more in any of these jobs you have to take on more responsibilities. You're unlikely to make more than $12 an hour at any retail store as a cashier/information associate. Want more money? Fight hard to be a manager. After 6-10 years in construction you'll cap out at around $20-25 an hour... don't like it? Become an independent contractor or learn a highly technical skill (welding, ornamental iron, plaster) With teaching on the other hand, you have the same responsibilities year to year and you still get substantial wage increases. First year teacher has between 30-35 students/class, 20 year teacher has between 30-35students/class. First year teacher teaches the state approved curriculum, 20 year teacher teaches the same curriculum. Teachers put in many hours outside of class? Sure do, but in the comfort of their own homes, in front of their TV grading children's papers! A 60 hour work-week for that supremely dedicated (and likely just starting) teacher is not the same 60 hour work-week a roofer or a mason puts in.
The kind of arrogance implicit in the statement: "I could make more money working at x retail store" is staggering. If that's true then do it, go there and after a year of dealing with all the bullshit that goes into entry-level work, and dealing with all the snooty sops looking down on you for being behind that register and dealing with all the managers on little power trips and dealing with barely making ends meets even though you're not living particularly high on the hog and dealing with the mind-numbing monotony of the same soul crushing work with no glimmer of meaning to be found and then say how happy you are to not be teaching any more. Tell me about the meaning you've found in working at B&N, let me hear about the wonderful financial decision it was then and how teaching was such a dead end because of the lack of support from parents and communities. I'll be interested to know the responses from family and friends about what a respectable job you've managed to get. But until then don't even pretend for a moment that teaching isn't a supported job. Don't suggest or imply that the community at large better rewards the people at the very bottom more than the "omni-suffering, omni-dedicated teacher/hero who selflessly devotes each and every second to compassionately and intelligently guiding