-Market - The Auction house was a total lagfest and a nightmare to browse. Try accessing the AH from one of the less populated satellite sites -- I use Tavnazia, easily accessible (for those that have done the CoP missions) using the Tavn. Ring or the AlTaieu shortcut.
Just curious -- although it is unlikely for an object to actually hit the sun, how likely are objects to be tidally disrupted or boiled away by near-grazes?
How about arming the women with pepper spray? I'm pretty sure it will work as well as it does on human perverts, monkeys will have similar pain receptors. And since most likely the villagers don't have the market access to such items on a routine basis, perhaps some habanero pepper seeds and sprayers would allow them to come up with some sort of homebrew solution.
Ah, that would explain the monkey in the oval office then. Don't see any robots anywhere yet, although if Cheney get into an accident maybe we'll have a chance to see if he really does have a cyborg endoskeleton.
First thing that popped into my mind was Megatokyo's series of strips in which Largo teaches Erika the dangers of static electricity, and why computers should be assembled while minimally clothed:
TFA states that water is the "kryptonite" of the superstrong paper. Doesn't that kill its practicality in things like planes and automobiles? If it rains, then you could have a major catastrophe on your hands... This is exactly the same mechanism that causes Kevlar to lose strength when wet. The strength of the material is in large part dependent on hydrogen bonding between the polymer chains. Water also forms hydrogen bonds, and so it can insert itself between them, weakening the material.
Here's another dearly departed, the 3D graphics company 3dfx. Nothing else came remotely close in performance to a Voodoo2 SLI setup when it first came out, and for quite some time afterwards. Sadly, the company ended up bankrupt due to mis-management, with the remains picked over by nVidia.
As someone who has actually worked on an HIV vaccine (a plasmid-based DNA vaccine), I have to caution that the field is a graveyard of failed attempts, ranging from traditional vaccine methods a century old, to exotic cutting-edge variants. There is considerable skepticism that an HIV vaccine (even given a very elastic definition of "vaccine") is even possible, in part based on the apparently complete absence of any "natural" sterilizing immunity. At best, there exists a small population of non-progressors who are able to hold the virus at stalemate due to genetic variations in certain receptors, a mechanism that seems unhelpful as far as vaccines goes (although relevant to drugs, specifically entry-inhibitors).
While VLPs (virus-like particles) are certainly a promising vaccine technology (the cervical cancer vaccine that's been in the news recently is VLP-based), I really am pessimistic that it is the solution to the substantial problems that any working HIV vaccine would have to overcome. At this point, I don't think anything will work short of somehow granting a patient's immune system innate resistance to HIV through some kind of gene therapy approach (there actually are people working on this sort of approach, but gene therapy as a whole has a long way to go).
[quote]and you really never get to hear what other people say about you in Japan.[/quote]
With the possible exception of drinking parties -- I suspect one of the reasons (besides the actual getting drunk) it's so important to them is that is serves as sort of safety valve, where people can say normally unacceptable things while passing it off on the alcohol.
Another good use for these -- clean rooms. I work in the pharma industry, and always cringe when I see a PC in a clean room. You've got a fan pushing air through the insides of a dust-collecting box, that you can't spray down with disinfectant to decontaminate.
With one of these, you've still got the keyboard/monitor, but you can get sealed keyboards and LCD monitors fairly easily, while sealed PCs are a lot harder to come by.
The tag was even funnier once I realized (as a non-UK person) that it was meant as a dual reference both to their Public TV channel and to the infamous imageboard.
Funny thing about exponential curves: It always looks like you are always on the 'flat' part when you are looking towards the future. It is only when comparing to the past while ignoring the future that it looks like you are on the steep part, and that is true at any point in time. Unless "progress" ends up being a sigmoid curve, we will always be wondering if the Singularity has happened and if so when was the point it occurred. There's one factor that keeps the curve from being completely scale-free though, the (relatively) fixed scales of the human observer. The spans of our lifetimes, reproductive cycle, the speed at which we learn and adapt have changed at linear rates (at best) that haven't kept up with the exponential expansion of our technology. Thus far we have been unable to effect substantial changes in our own selves -- human biology simply wasn't "designed" with upgrades in mind. More importantly, I don't think human psychology was either, and from watching popular and political reactions, further advances may merely change the previous statement from unable, to unwilling.
The speed of sound generally gets lower as the material loses density, higher as the material gains density (think about a wave traveling through a solid block, as opposed to one traveling through water, then one traveling through the air) I believe that's incorrect, the speed of sound is given by sqrt([Bulk Modulus]/[Density]). As density decreases, the speed of sound increases. The speed of sound in water is faster than air despite its greater density, due to its much higher bulk modulus.
So unless you buy a lot of luxury goods, your personal rate of inflation is probably markedly higher than the one the Fed considers. I've heard of this referred to as the "Tchotchke Economy". If you have a market basket which uses Hedonic adjustment, the "quality" of a good is taken into account, as well as it's price. Things like computers, video games, electronic gadgets are constantly getting "better" while the price of the group as a whole stays about the same, thanks to constant design improvements and cheap overseas manufacturing. As a result, the market basket experiences a constant downward drag in inflation.
However, other goods don't experience the same skewing, so over time your market basket ends up being unbalanced, with essential items becoming more expensive compared to the ever cheaper trinkets -- thus, an appearance of rampant "inflation" in areas such as education, housing, medical care, energy, etc...
Did a search for the term, apparently it's been previously discussed on Slashdot here.
From what I could tell by the article, the important advance here is not so much the variable valve timing, but how it's introduction allows for re-mixing of a portion of the exhaust gas into the incoming fuel/air to allow for "HCCL" combustion, which changes the autoignition point and combustion characteristics.
Not being mechanically inclined, I don't think I understood the article completely -- the engines they're working on are diesels, is this (HCCL) even applicable to gasoline engines?
So I think it's about as likely that the email messages in question got "accidentally" deleted as it is that the Chinese embassy in Belgrade was "accidentally" bombed. A friend of mine in the Army who was in the region at the time told me about an interesting theory/rumor that was floating around the troops there. The story was, that the Chinese had intelligence gathering equipment in their building and were passing on information to the Serbs (and presumably weren't willing to stop when asked nicely). The Americans couldn't let it continue, yet couldn't say they intentionally bombed an embassy, so instead it was an "oops". This would also explain why the Chinese were so adamant that it wasn't an accident -- they *knew* why, but couldn't come out and say it in public.
"They do, actually. However, the mechanism that regulates blood oxygen saturation works much, much slower (hours to days) than the one that reacts to excess blood CO2 concentrations. Whooops, sorry. I meant sense as in to feel in a conscious manner, as opposed to the biochemical sensing mechanisms we have for adjusting red blood cell production and such (if that's what you meant. Is there another mechanism you can "feel"?)
Something I've been wondering, being a biologist, is the direct impact on humans of the higher levels of CO2 itself (as opposed to indirect effects such as climate shifts).
Interestingly enough, humans don't have any way to sense the oxygen concentration in air. The air in a nitrogen filled room can feel perfectly fresh right up to the point where you get dizzy and pass out. Instead, we sense CO2 concentrations -- a room with normal levels of O2 but several percent CO2 will be distinctly unpleasant to breath. At about 1000ppm CO2 a room may start to feel stuffy.
I've heard some people speculate about how Iowa could become the Saudi Arabia of Ethanol. While Cellulosic Ethanol applied to Corn or non-food crops might someday become efficient enough to match Sugarcane's ~6-8x energy return (vs. something like 1.3 for Corn), Brazil's in the position of needing minimal R&D investment -- stick sugar in a tank and it ferments with minimal processing.
In other words, Brazil is like Saudi Arabia, and we're more like the Athabasca Oil Sands. While we (the US) have potentially huge capacity, it comes with a requirement for R&D, and then high capital/operating costs.
Just wanted to raise an interesting possibility regarding this Sheep/Human Chimera. Depending on how the Chimera is constructed, there is a small chance that some of the component human cells in the embryo end up in the mature animal as part of the germ cell population in the testicles. In that case, a male sheep could, in theory produce human sperm, and be capable of fathering a human child. (Human cells could also end up in a female sheep's ovaries, but given the much more complex process of ovulation and fetus/mother interface, I doubt a pregnancy could occur).
That is indeed what lots of doctors think. Until you have them bring in the label, and it will say on there "Contains trace amounts of Thiomersal/Thimerosal. If you are ever in the market for a vaccine, take a look at the container. If memory serves me correctly (it might not, haven't been involved in vaccine manufacturing for a while), this is due to Thimerosal being present in the in-process vaccine material to prevent microbial growth (since the vaccine is grown in cell culture, embryonated chicken eggs, or other things yummy to bacteria). The thimerosal is removed as part of the purification process (for instance, one flu vaccine I'm familiar with uses column chromatography, using really big columns), but the vial still must read that it could contain traces.
Slashdot Mirror
Just curious -- although it is unlikely for an object to actually hit the sun, how likely are objects to be tidally disrupted or boiled away by near-grazes?
How about arming the women with pepper spray? I'm pretty sure it will work as well as it does on human perverts, monkeys will have similar pain receptors. And since most likely the villagers don't have the market access to such items on a routine basis, perhaps some habanero pepper seeds and sprayers would allow them to come up with some sort of homebrew solution.
Ah, that would explain the monkey in the oval office then. Don't see any robots anywhere yet, although if Cheney get into an accident maybe we'll have a chance to see if he really does have a cyborg endoskeleton.
First thing that popped into my mind was Megatokyo's series of strips in which Largo teaches Erika the dangers of static electricity, and why computers should be assembled while minimally clothed:
Starting here: Megatokyo #653
Here's another dearly departed, the 3D graphics company 3dfx. Nothing else came remotely close in performance to a Voodoo2 SLI setup when it first came out, and for quite some time afterwards. Sadly, the company ended up bankrupt due to mis-management, with the remains picked over by nVidia.
As someone who has actually worked on an HIV vaccine (a plasmid-based DNA vaccine), I have to caution that the field is a graveyard of failed attempts, ranging from traditional vaccine methods a century old, to exotic cutting-edge variants. There is considerable skepticism that an HIV vaccine (even given a very elastic definition of "vaccine") is even possible, in part based on the apparently complete absence of any "natural" sterilizing immunity. At best, there exists a small population of non-progressors who are able to hold the virus at stalemate due to genetic variations in certain receptors, a mechanism that seems unhelpful as far as vaccines goes (although relevant to drugs, specifically entry-inhibitors).
While VLPs (virus-like particles) are certainly a promising vaccine technology (the cervical cancer vaccine that's been in the news recently is VLP-based), I really am pessimistic that it is the solution to the substantial problems that any working HIV vaccine would have to overcome. At this point, I don't think anything will work short of somehow granting a patient's immune system innate resistance to HIV through some kind of gene therapy approach (there actually are people working on this sort of approach, but gene therapy as a whole has a long way to go).
[quote]and you really never get to hear what other people say about you in Japan.[/quote]
With the possible exception of drinking parties -- I suspect one of the reasons (besides the actual getting drunk) it's so important to them is that is serves as sort of safety valve, where people can say normally unacceptable things while passing it off on the alcohol.
Another good use for these -- clean rooms. I work in the pharma industry, and always cringe when I see a PC in a clean room. You've got a fan pushing air through the insides of a dust-collecting box, that you can't spray down with disinfectant to decontaminate.
With one of these, you've still got the keyboard/monitor, but you can get sealed keyboards and LCD monitors fairly easily, while sealed PCs are a lot harder to come by.
The tag was even funnier once I realized (as a non-UK person) that it was meant as a dual reference both to their Public TV channel and to the infamous imageboard.
However, other goods don't experience the same skewing, so over time your market basket ends up being unbalanced, with essential items becoming more expensive compared to the ever cheaper trinkets -- thus, an appearance of rampant "inflation" in areas such as education, housing, medical care, energy, etc...
Did a search for the term, apparently it's been previously discussed on Slashdot here.
From what I could tell by the article, the important advance here is not so much the variable valve timing, but how it's introduction allows for re-mixing of a portion of the exhaust gas into the incoming fuel/air to allow for "HCCL" combustion, which changes the autoignition point and combustion characteristics.
Not being mechanically inclined, I don't think I understood the article completely -- the engines they're working on are diesels, is this (HCCL) even applicable to gasoline engines?
Something I've been wondering, being a biologist, is the direct impact on humans of the higher levels of CO2 itself (as opposed to indirect effects such as climate shifts).
Interestingly enough, humans don't have any way to sense the oxygen concentration in air. The air in a nitrogen filled room can feel perfectly fresh right up to the point where you get dizzy and pass out. Instead, we sense CO2 concentrations -- a room with normal levels of O2 but several percent CO2 will be distinctly unpleasant to breath. At about 1000ppm CO2 a room may start to feel stuffy.
I've heard of some projections () of 650-970 ppm CO2 by 2100. The change over time will certainly be too slow for anyone to notice, but I find it remarkable that we may be heading to the point where outdoor air will be as high in CO2 as what we now consider stale.
I've heard some people speculate about how Iowa could become the Saudi Arabia of Ethanol. While Cellulosic Ethanol applied to Corn or non-food crops might someday become efficient enough to match Sugarcane's ~6-8x energy return (vs. something like 1.3 for Corn), Brazil's in the position of needing minimal R&D investment -- stick sugar in a tank and it ferments with minimal processing.
In other words, Brazil is like Saudi Arabia, and we're more like the Athabasca Oil Sands. While we (the US) have potentially huge capacity, it comes with a requirement for R&D, and then high capital/operating costs.
Just wanted to raise an interesting possibility regarding this Sheep/Human Chimera. Depending on how the Chimera is constructed, there is a small chance that some of the component human cells in the embryo end up in the mature animal as part of the germ cell population in the testicles. In that case, a male sheep could, in theory produce human sperm, and be capable of fathering a human child. (Human cells could also end up in a female sheep's ovaries, but given the much more complex process of ovulation and fetus/mother interface, I doubt a pregnancy could occur).