It's worth noting that they have yet to find any evidence of negative effects. Odds are high, given the content and packaging of sperm, that there will be serious detrimental effects, but as of yet they have proven no such thing. Also, humans are vastly larger creatures than mice, so it is quite feasible that the causal agents can be in far less concentration by the time they reach our bits.
Besides, 60% could easily be 16 mutations instead of 10.
Not being in the office is plenty distracting. Your standard cubicle and coworkers has a lot less to offer than something like your own home, especially far from supervision. Most annoying people walking by will probably learn after being asked once or twice to only stop by if it's important. I've always seen the personal interactions being far superior to some slight decrease in productivity.
Just as in Biology, a lot of what is observed in Astronomy is what's big, pretty, and easy. Venus and Mercury are two planets that are largely unappealing by normal standards - way too hot, completely dead and barren. It's always good to see good science being done for the sake of science, not public opinion. Cassini and the rovers were fantastic, but the less glamorous missions are just as important to our understanding.
My feeling on any legislation (which this ISN'T) of this sort is sort of how I feel about the draft - anybody would have to be absolutely mental to put it into law. No congressperson wants to have any of their private correspondences probed, not to mention the voting public. It'd be the end of their (political) career in an instant. It's the old analogy of the frog in water - slowly turn up the heat and it will stay, but if you put a frog in extremely hot water, it will jump out. If you're gonna take away freedoms like this, it can't be in one fell swoop. Or, if it is, it needs to be after some big event (e.g. Pearl Harbor, 9/11).
There's no way this will ever even come near coming true.
I think you might find this interesting, if you haven't seen it before. It's a cool little zombie infection simulation. Not complex, but has some cool ideas, such as having non-panicked people becoming panicked when they see another human who is panicked.
There is a certain, and strange, Microsoft fanbase that is roughly of the mindset of "Microsoft is always teh winner". Well, Microsoft WAS the winner as far as pretty much everything computer-related was concerned for almost all users. The past ten years or so has seen hugely increased Apple adoption, as well as a number of products that are distinctly NON Microsoft that are beginning to compete. Google, Firefox, all the rest. Instead of the giant Microsoft conglomerate, there are a half dozen or so specialized competitors that, while never coming near to combating Microsoft, can whittle away at one specific aspect of their overall package. MS is still the evil empire, but far larger portions of the users are beginning to realize that there are other options. When there was nothing to compete with, there was no problem. But now that the little guys are around, it's an issue when Microsoft stomps down on them.
Don't forget to multiply! It's actually 0.01% so it's more akin to throwing a baby at an 18-wheeler. Not a huge effect, but when it's traveling fast it might dent a small portion of it, which is all we would need, really.
However, I was more referencing the ability of the cloud to interact with everything else going on. A baby/bug will either bounce or splat against a truck/car but the gas can and will interact with nearby stars, solar systems, etc. THAT's what would be cool to measure - aside from the fact that it'd be very complex and unpredictable (although, by then, who knows) any minute deviation could give an indication of the amount of dark matter (not) floating around, for example.
Articles state Lockheed will be helping out in that department - it's a complete collaboration and will probably give 'em a chance. Lockheed's got more pull and power than most anyone else, so in this arena their input is good for development. Now, whether you'd rather have this thing drop immediately into the hands of military contractors is another issue, but you've got to admit - they get the job done.
It seems to me that something with enough gas to create 1M stars akin to the Sun might have a noticeable impact on the revolutionary nature of the galaxy. Nothing astounding, probably akin to the added wobble of the Earth after the giant 2004 earthquake (the one that caused the tsunami) but it's probably something that, on the off chance we or some other life form is around, would be really awesome to observe. Also, assuming we don't have all the answers yet, seeing how the galaxy responds to such a sudden, massive change compared to our models could really tell us exactly how much mass there is, how it's distributed, etc.
Science shouldn't worry so damn much about what people think, it should be about the truth, finding it and offering it, not making people believe it. Same goes for religion. The rest is just name calling and childishness. There's a reason the battle is always in schools - the kids. Scientists don't really give a damn what the general populous thinks - it's a lost cause anyway. Religions often care (hence, proselytizing) but the same argument applies - people will largely think what they want and won't change. But kids are easy to manipulate. Especially the early years, but anything they get up into and past their teens will be pretty much solidified for the rest of their lives. It's the same thing that happened in the Slavery debate - every time a state was up for admission it threatened to throw the balance off and one side would gain true dominance. Clearly evolutionists think evolution is truth (until a better theory pops up) and anti-evolutionists think some other opposite is true. And they'll fight to the bitter end for their truth, because when those kids grow up they'll impose their thoughts on other people, government, and their own kids; each group wants their own to survive.
Honestly, if I were God, I'd make a deal with Satan to procure a special place in Hell for the blasphemers who say Evolution has no founding, is "just a theory," etc.
Front row seats to their torture would be MY heaven.
What it comes down to is overall "betterness." Different things produce different results - there's a reason NASCAR doesn't use the same stuff my car does. And you wouldn't want that same exhaust in your house. Using ethanol you get "more better" because 1. the carbon is (as stated) already around so there's no net gain, 2. it's renewable, to an extent - we can just grow more corn/switchgrass while we can't kill more dinosaurs and wait a few dozen million years, and 3. at the very least, ethanol has less carbon than, say, octane or all the aromatics they add to gasoline. Now, if we could just get a methan(e)(ol) engine...
You know, to be honest, I'd really like to suggest a title change for the articles concerned - "12 Florida Schools Pass Anti-Science Resolutions."
That's really what's happening. The theory of Evolution is one of the most heavily supported things in the scientific world, and passing laws against it speaks exceptionally loudly about the given parties ability to discern fact from fiction, intelligence from hand-waving, and most importantly, critical thinking from anything else. They're not just rejecting evolution, they're rejecting the process of science as a whole.
Re:The best tools stay out of the way...
on
Goodbye Cruel Word
·
· Score: 1
Personally, I like the Word interface. As a writer, I can imagine it might seem stifling, but I much prefer to have a clean slate. Opening that first blank page may be a huge PITA, but once you get started, isn't it better to at least be free of distracting influences? That's why there are a slew of apps that try to force you to cut down on procrastinating - computers are distracting enough.
In something like PowerPoint, though, I like having tons of visual options since that is ALL about the presentation. Word is about producing a readable document, and I find that the interface even helps with that. Some of the toolbars could use some tweaking to bring them up to snuff, but all in all I find the package pleasing.
As an American, it's always annoyed me that we here consider ourselves the so-called "Chosen" descendants of Greek democracy. That rhetoric gets thrown around a lot (especially to children in textbooks and the like) and is used to justify a large portion of our current system. We take what the Greeks did and make it useful and better!
Thanks to some (Russian) programmer a decade or so before me, the college I attended used IRV for all elections. Unlike most people, I actually took an interest in it, helped run some of the elections, and learned a lot about it. It really is a far superior system. It does a far better job of incorporating everyone's opinion effectively into the results. There're a bunch of fairly good flashes out there that explain the process well, which is useful because as previously stated, IRV has two rather serious flaws to implementation.
- Nobody cares enough to vote, let alone learn a complex way of calculating votes. It's not immediately obvious for some that it's MORE democratic.
- Counting. It works when it's electronic but when it's by hand, I can tell you from experience it sucks. Not having committees reduces the terrible horrible math by at least 90%, but it still sucks.
Still, it's heartening to see a number of different places adopt IRV as the voting method. I'd like to see the majority of elections around the world switch to IRV within my lifetime, but I'll settle for the US.
Slashdot Mirror
It's worth noting that they have yet to find any evidence of negative effects. Odds are high, given the content and packaging of sperm, that there will be serious detrimental effects, but as of yet they have proven no such thing. Also, humans are vastly larger creatures than mice, so it is quite feasible that the causal agents can be in far less concentration by the time they reach our bits.
Besides, 60% could easily be 16 mutations instead of 10.
So... now I have to ignore popups in the supermarket instead of just online? Progress++
Not being in the office is plenty distracting. Your standard cubicle and coworkers has a lot less to offer than something like your own home, especially far from supervision. Most annoying people walking by will probably learn after being asked once or twice to only stop by if it's important. I've always seen the personal interactions being far superior to some slight decrease in productivity.
Just as in Biology, a lot of what is observed in Astronomy is what's big, pretty, and easy. Venus and Mercury are two planets that are largely unappealing by normal standards - way too hot, completely dead and barren. It's always good to see good science being done for the sake of science, not public opinion. Cassini and the rovers were fantastic, but the less glamorous missions are just as important to our understanding.
My feeling on any legislation (which this ISN'T) of this sort is sort of how I feel about the draft - anybody would have to be absolutely mental to put it into law. No congressperson wants to have any of their private correspondences probed, not to mention the voting public. It'd be the end of their (political) career in an instant. It's the old analogy of the frog in water - slowly turn up the heat and it will stay, but if you put a frog in extremely hot water, it will jump out. If you're gonna take away freedoms like this, it can't be in one fell swoop. Or, if it is, it needs to be after some big event (e.g. Pearl Harbor, 9/11).
There's no way this will ever even come near coming true.
I think you might find this interesting, if you haven't seen it before. It's a cool little zombie infection simulation. Not complex, but has some cool ideas, such as having non-panicked people becoming panicked when they see another human who is panicked.
Fully equipped with nasally-fitted fire, I hope.
Don't forget to multiply! It's actually 0.01% so it's more akin to throwing a baby at an 18-wheeler. Not a huge effect, but when it's traveling fast it might dent a small portion of it, which is all we would need, really.
However, I was more referencing the ability of the cloud to interact with everything else going on. A baby/bug will either bounce or splat against a truck/car but the gas can and will interact with nearby stars, solar systems, etc. THAT's what would be cool to measure - aside from the fact that it'd be very complex and unpredictable (although, by then, who knows) any minute deviation could give an indication of the amount of dark matter (not) floating around, for example.
Articles state Lockheed will be helping out in that department - it's a complete collaboration and will probably give 'em a chance. Lockheed's got more pull and power than most anyone else, so in this arena their input is good for development. Now, whether you'd rather have this thing drop immediately into the hands of military contractors is another issue, but you've got to admit - they get the job done.
In the field of Astronomy, 10 million years is about as negligible as the plus/minus sign.
It seems to me that something with enough gas to create 1M stars akin to the Sun might have a noticeable impact on the revolutionary nature of the galaxy. Nothing astounding, probably akin to the added wobble of the Earth after the giant 2004 earthquake (the one that caused the tsunami) but it's probably something that, on the off chance we or some other life form is around, would be really awesome to observe. Also, assuming we don't have all the answers yet, seeing how the galaxy responds to such a sudden, massive change compared to our models could really tell us exactly how much mass there is, how it's distributed, etc.
Actually, that sounds kind of like evolution...
Individuals don't evolve. Populations do.
Honestly, if I were God, I'd make a deal with Satan to procure a special place in Hell for the blasphemers who say Evolution has no founding, is "just a theory," etc.
Front row seats to their torture would be MY heaven.
What it comes down to is overall "betterness." Different things produce different results - there's a reason NASCAR doesn't use the same stuff my car does. And you wouldn't want that same exhaust in your house. Using ethanol you get "more better" because 1. the carbon is (as stated) already around so there's no net gain, 2. it's renewable, to an extent - we can just grow more corn/switchgrass while we can't kill more dinosaurs and wait a few dozen million years, and 3. at the very least, ethanol has less carbon than, say, octane or all the aromatics they add to gasoline. Now, if we could just get a methan(e)(ol) engine...
You know, to be honest, I'd really like to suggest a title change for the articles concerned - "12 Florida Schools Pass Anti-Science Resolutions."
That's really what's happening. The theory of Evolution is one of the most heavily supported things in the scientific world, and passing laws against it speaks exceptionally loudly about the given parties ability to discern fact from fiction, intelligence from hand-waving, and most importantly, critical thinking from anything else. They're not just rejecting evolution, they're rejecting the process of science as a whole.
Personally, I like the Word interface. As a writer, I can imagine it might seem stifling, but I much prefer to have a clean slate. Opening that first blank page may be a huge PITA, but once you get started, isn't it better to at least be free of distracting influences? That's why there are a slew of apps that try to force you to cut down on procrastinating - computers are distracting enough.
In something like PowerPoint, though, I like having tons of visual options since that is ALL about the presentation. Word is about producing a readable document, and I find that the interface even helps with that. Some of the toolbars could use some tweaking to bring them up to snuff, but all in all I find the package pleasing.
As an American, it's always annoyed me that we here consider ourselves the so-called "Chosen" descendants of Greek democracy. That rhetoric gets thrown around a lot (especially to children in textbooks and the like) and is used to justify a large portion of our current system. We take what the Greeks did and make it useful and better!
Thanks to some (Russian) programmer a decade or so before me, the college I attended used IRV for all elections. Unlike most people, I actually took an interest in it, helped run some of the elections, and learned a lot about it. It really is a far superior system. It does a far better job of incorporating everyone's opinion effectively into the results. There're a bunch of fairly good flashes out there that explain the process well, which is useful because as previously stated, IRV has two rather serious flaws to implementation.
- Nobody cares enough to vote, let alone learn a complex way of calculating votes. It's not immediately obvious for some that it's MORE democratic.
- Counting. It works when it's electronic but when it's by hand, I can tell you from experience it sucks. Not having committees reduces the terrible horrible math by at least 90%, but it still sucks.
Still, it's heartening to see a number of different places adopt IRV as the voting method. I'd like to see the majority of elections around the world switch to IRV within my lifetime, but I'll settle for the US.