What does probability have to do with it? So far, the only evidence we have that the probability of life is anything greater than zero for a given planet/-oid/moon/nebula/toroidal gas-cloud/pocket dimension/Jon Katz is the evidence of our own planet.
And don't forget that we may all be evolved from Martian bacteria, or interstellar cooties, or whatever the Space Flavor of the Week is.
Of course, this week's Space Flavor happens to be "salt water on Europa". It doesn't really change anything, except maybe our understanding of the planet. Then again, it does mean that conditions for life as we know it may in fact prevail on parts of that remote sphere.
Not that it's a sphere, natch... but while I'm here, it occurs to me that every time we learn something new about Europa, it seems to be some new condition for terrestrial life that the moon has met. It certainly helps to build the suspense, don't it? Europa will turn out to be the Al Capone's Vault of the new milennium, or else one of the greatest discoveries in human history. Personally, I can't wait.
As for it being a moon, and therefore more extreme, I'll wager 100 interplanetary megabucks (or whatever base unit of currency we and the Europans end up using) that the conditions on Venus are not only more "extreme" than the conditions on Europa, but that the conditions on Venus are more extreme than the conditions on Venus' own moons. Honestly, you make even less sense than I do.
[grin] First, RTFM (or, in this case, the column headers).
The numbers mean that on August 3, at 9:23pm, the ISS will enter the sky from the North-NorthWest, and exit the sky to the North-NorthEast, that it will be visible for about 3 minutes, and will be about 18 degrees above the horizon at the top of its arc.
Actually, they did mention this fact right in the article itself.
Plus, it's nice to have a follow-up article at this point (when they've actually gotten to the wind-tunnel stage - and can boast tech support from NASA).
But hey, thanks for playing.
Re:Is there going to be a FPS from ID based...
on
Personal Helicopter
·
· Score: 1
If it was legal to kill people, then the country would be in a constant state of civil
war...[there] are standards of orderly conduct, not morality...it's simply a practical concern...
Doesn't this boil down to "morality==practicality"? Are you arguing that while there are no absolute moral standards, there are absolute practical standards? It seems to me that standards of practicality are subject to the same logical arguments as standards of morality.
Heh. The rule is: "whatever comment you're planning to make, some other slashdotter has already made it".
Don't bother posting unless a) it's an opinion and you're reasonably sure it's not sufficiently similar to the opinions of other slashdotters, or b) it's a fact that is linked to other websites containing useful and potentially new information.
Remember that before this whole PC thing became so fscking huge, Bill Gates was also a complete nobody, known only to a relatively tiny number of people in a single specialized field.
Now Gates has built a commercial empire out of his expertise and ambition, so of course he's a household name. Surely it's appropriate to wait until Hunkapiller actually has an impact on the community at large before expecting the community to know who on earth he is?
Or should we all spend our days finding obscure people who do stuff and run around yelling "think of the implications!"
Depends how you define codebreaking, and what benefits you expect to obtain through advances in codebreaking.
I think the discovery of intelligent, technologically advanced life somewhere other than on this planet would have implications and effects easily transcending what we now consider to be "important" and "relevant".
Maybe people look for aliens instead of codebreaking tech advancements is because they don't need codebreaking as much as they need aliens--yet.
Isn't this about an NDA? If I had some brilliant idea--say, to implement auto-canceling switches in turn-signal activation controls--and I hired some mechanic to design a prototype, I might reasonably have him sign an NDA.
If, later, the Edsel Rumors Circular published an article alleging that "a certain car company is currently working on a self-canceling turn signal", I expect I could contact ERC and say to them "look, that information was secret, and the only people who knew about it were bound by law and mutual consent to keep it secret, so you really shouldn't have gotten hold of it. We'd like you to please cancel circulation of the article."
And if ERC was a supporter of a "certain car company", they'd probably do it out of regard for me (as the owner|manager|duly-appointed legal counsel of said company).
Not everything is necessarily a free-speech issue. Nor is Apple building an Edsel with self-canceling turn signals. That's just a rumor.
Oh. Well, that's alright, then! I've been thinking of doing the "brain in a vat" thing myself... I figure that if I get ten brains just thinking all day, I'll come up with ten times more crap, but after a while I'll be sure to come up with the one killer meme that will pay for the cost of the whole setup with enough left over to buy a yacht, or something.
There's no limit to what a bunch of monkeys can accomplish--if they're smart enough.
Yes, but this doesn't work. I've thought about it, and realized that it would take just as much resources to maintain a copy of myself as it does to maintain the original. Thus, any extra work my copy does is promptly offset by the cost of feeding and housing him. I am no richer with a copy than I am on my own.
Even if you did have some way to finesse the issue, such as treating the copy as a slave laborer, making him sleep under your bed, eating only ramen, and turning his paycheck directly over to you, the profit would be marginal at best--and that's before counting the cost of making the copy in the first place.
And another thing: what's to stop the copy from taking over your life and making you sleep under the bed?
"...it seems a but hypocritical that we as humans, show so much concern about the potential life on a planet so far away (especially when the likelyhood there is life is so small), when we do not give a damn about our own planet."
Don't overgeneralize. While it's clear that humans as a set often show very callous and shortsighted behavior, NASA as a subset is in a position not only to seriously consider the impact of its actions on others, but also do something about it. The fact that they are taking advantage of their position to act in a humane way is not hypocritical at all. Would that other subsets did as much, or even half as much!
[put on scientist coat, wave finger in air] "Actually, what I think he means is the United States of America as opposed to, say, the United States of Brazil."
If you're going to pick nits, try to do at least a half-assed job of it (or maybe you're having trouble obtaining the necessary.5 donkeys).
Oh, I'm a karma whore alright--just not the kind you're thinking of...
See, this is why I like/. so much--because there is an abundance of people willing to tell me what an idiot I am, and offer constructive criticism to help me remedy this state. What more could anyone ask?
Whee. Clearly, it's their website, and anybody can post anything they damn well please on their own site, so of course I'll look like a clueless jerk if I question that! Like I said, I'm not afraid of that.
But/. does have a stated purpose of covering (usually) a particular type of news. I was interested in seeing some arguments for or against deviating from the stated agenda of a site in order to present issues of X importance (where X is a value greater than the value of the issues normally reported on). My questions seemed topical, while also being off-topic (oh, the irony), and it piqued me, so I brought it up. It looks like my questions simply got filed under "just anonther fscking troll".
So my question is: how appropriate is it for people to use their website as a medium to raise consciousness and solicit donations for whatever cause they are currently supporting?
Follow-up: does it matter if the purpose of the website typically excludes stories about that particular topic, moving though they may be?
And another one: are there some issues which are so important that they should headline any/all forms of media, regardless of the subject matter usually addressed by that media? If so, is this one of those topics?
I ask only because I'm willing to look like a nitpicking, heartless jerk in order to satisfy my curiosity.
Also massive amounts of materiel, incl. 50+ warships, bombers, fighters, rifles, &c. And, IIRC, food, clothing, and other logistical/infrastructural-type stuff.
Oh, and I almost forgot the OSS, which Roosevelt put together long before the "States" got into the war.
Of course, the canonical version of the claim is "if it wasn't for us, [the British] would be speaking German right now", and that actually is crap. Roosevelt supported Britain during that period in spite of great opposition from the Senate and the populace. Some of the things he did, which certainly played a large role in preventing the hypothetical "Deutsch uber alles", were in fact illegal, and could/should have gotten him impeached. The fact is, the Americans at the time contributed very little to the enduring freedom of the British Empire.
A more accurate statement would be, "If it weren't for Roosevelt, you'd all be speaking German right now. The rest of us didn't give a damn then , but we like to pretend you owe us a favor now."
Slashdot Mirror
What does probability have to do with it? So far, the only evidence we have that the probability of life is anything greater than zero for a given planet/-oid/moon/nebula/toroidal gas-cloud/pocket dimension/Jon Katz is the evidence of our own planet.
And don't forget that we may all be evolved from Martian bacteria, or interstellar cooties, or whatever the Space Flavor of the Week is.
Of course, this week's Space Flavor happens to be "salt water on Europa". It doesn't really change anything, except maybe our understanding of the planet. Then again, it does mean that conditions for life as we know it may in fact prevail on parts of that remote sphere.
Not that it's a sphere, natch... but while I'm here, it occurs to me that every time we learn something new about Europa, it seems to be some new condition for terrestrial life that the moon has met. It certainly helps to build the suspense, don't it? Europa will turn out to be the Al Capone's Vault of the new milennium, or else one of the greatest discoveries in human history. Personally, I can't wait.
As for it being a moon, and therefore more extreme, I'll wager 100 interplanetary megabucks (or whatever base unit of currency we and the Europans end up using) that the conditions on Venus are not only more "extreme" than the conditions on Europa, but that the conditions on Venus are more extreme than the conditions on Venus' own moons. Honestly, you make even less sense than I do.
Oh, for the love of god!
Sorry, couldn't resist...
Seriously, though - no, wait...you're obviously trolling, so nevermind. Thanks for playing!
[grin] First, RTFM (or, in this case, the column headers).
The numbers mean that on August 3, at 9:23pm, the ISS will enter the sky from the North-NorthWest, and exit the sky to the North-NorthEast, that it will be visible for about 3 minutes, and will be about 18 degrees above the horizon at the top of its arc.
HTH.
Actually, they did mention this fact right in the article itself.
Plus, it's nice to have a follow-up article at this point (when they've actually gotten to the wind-tunnel stage - and can boast tech support from NASA).
But hey, thanks for playing.
I think you're talking about Smarty Man Game Designer Survivor. HTH.
Once I vest, I'm gonna buy me some acreage out in the middle of nowhere, telecommute to $location, and use my personal copter to survey my domain.
It looks like an excellent walkabout device for people who live in remote locations and don't have to worry about commuters.
It'd never "fly" downtown, though.
Er, corn chips make more sense, according to l337 j0xx0r "Weird" Al Yankovic...
Watch while M$ buys full rights to the Doritos brand identity.
If it was legal to kill people, then the country would be in a constant state of civil war...[there] are standards of orderly conduct, not morality...it's simply a practical concern...
Doesn't this boil down to "morality==practicality"? Are you arguing that while there are no absolute moral standards, there are absolute practical standards? It seems to me that standards of practicality are subject to the same logical arguments as standards of morality.
Dak
Bossk
Zuckuss
4-Lom
Dengar
Captain Needa(sp?)
Moff Jerjerrod
Ponda Baba
Salacious Crumb, the
Boussh, a.k.a. Princess Leia Organa
R5-D4
EV-9D9
Power Droid
Nien Nunb
Mon Mothma
Dewback
Bantha
Gundark
Tusken Raider
Jawa
Discovering which of these additional names are already taken is left as a ("totally lame") exercise to the reader.
Heh. The rule is: "whatever comment you're planning to make, some other slashdotter has already made it".
Don't bother posting unless a) it's an opinion and you're reasonably sure it's not sufficiently similar to the opinions of other slashdotters, or b) it's a fact that is linked to other websites containing useful and potentially new information.
Duh.
Woohoo! As opposed to the dna-based, meat-powered computers currently controlling the missile command computers?
Remember that before this whole PC thing became so fscking huge, Bill Gates was also a complete nobody, known only to a relatively tiny number of people in a single specialized field.
Now Gates has built a commercial empire out of his expertise and ambition, so of course he's a household name. Surely it's appropriate to wait until Hunkapiller actually has an impact on the community at large before expecting the community to know who on earth he is?
Or should we all spend our days finding obscure people who do stuff and run around yelling "think of the implications!"
Depends how you define codebreaking, and what benefits you expect to obtain through advances in codebreaking.
I think the discovery of intelligent, technologically advanced life somewhere other than on this planet would have implications and effects easily transcending what we now consider to be "important" and "relevant".
Maybe people look for aliens instead of codebreaking tech advancements is because they don't need codebreaking as much as they need aliens--yet.
Isn't this about an NDA? If I had some brilliant idea--say, to implement auto-canceling switches in turn-signal activation controls--and I hired some mechanic to design a prototype, I might reasonably have him sign an NDA.
If, later, the Edsel Rumors Circular published an article alleging that "a certain car company is currently working on a self-canceling turn signal", I expect I could contact ERC and say to them "look, that information was secret, and the only people who knew about it were bound by law and mutual consent to keep it secret, so you really shouldn't have gotten hold of it. We'd like you to please cancel circulation of the article."
And if ERC was a supporter of a "certain car company", they'd probably do it out of regard for me (as the owner|manager|duly-appointed legal counsel of said company).
Not everything is necessarily a free-speech issue. Nor is Apple building an Edsel with self-canceling turn signals. That's just a rumor.
Oh. Well, that's alright, then! I've been thinking of doing the "brain in a vat" thing myself... I figure that if I get ten brains just thinking all day, I'll come up with ten times more crap, but after a while I'll be sure to come up with the one killer meme that will pay for the cost of the whole setup with enough left over to buy a yacht, or something.
There's no limit to what a bunch of monkeys can accomplish--if they're smart enough.
Yes, but this doesn't work. I've thought about it, and realized that it would take just as much resources to maintain a copy of myself as it does to maintain the original. Thus, any extra work my copy does is promptly offset by the cost of feeding and housing him. I am no richer with a copy than I am on my own.
Even if you did have some way to finesse the issue, such as treating the copy as a slave laborer, making him sleep under your bed, eating only ramen, and turning his paycheck directly over to you, the profit would be marginal at best--and that's before counting the cost of making the copy in the first place.
And another thing: what's to stop the copy from taking over your life and making you sleep under the bed?
"...it seems a but hypocritical that we as humans, show so much concern about the potential life on a planet so far away (especially when the likelyhood there is life is so small), when we do not give a damn about our own planet."
Don't overgeneralize. While it's clear that humans as a set often show very callous and shortsighted behavior, NASA as a subset is in a position not only to seriously consider the impact of its actions on others, but also do something about it. The fact that they are taking advantage of their position to act in a humane way is not hypocritical at all. Would that other subsets did as much, or even half as much!
"...you mean the US, not América."
Woohoo! Can I play too?
[put on scientist coat, wave finger in air]
"Actually, what I think he means is the United States of America as opposed to, say, the United States of Brazil."
If you're going to pick nits, try to do at least a half-assed job of it (or maybe you're having trouble obtaining the necessary .5 donkeys).
Oh, I'm a karma whore alright--just not the kind you're thinking of...
Didn't we just go through this with Daikatana?
I can see the reviews now:
"Zvezda module lacking in the multiplayer dept., though multiplayer co-op does have some potential..."
"...I can't believe we waited this long for a module full of annoying frogs with weak AI."
"You can't make it to the end of the module if any of your fellow crew members die...and unfortunately, they can't seem to do anything else!"
"I heard the Russians had to close down Looking Glass Studios because they'd already thrown all their money into the Zvezda module."
Heh. Clearly if you post sufficiently troll-like idiotic rambling, you will have no lack of readers :)
See, this is why I like /. so much--because there is an abundance of people willing to tell me what an idiot I am, and offer constructive criticism to help me remedy this state. What more could anyone ask?
Whee. Clearly, it's their website, and anybody can post anything they damn well please on their own site, so of course I'll look like a clueless jerk if I question that! Like I said, I'm not afraid of that.
But /. does have a stated purpose of covering (usually) a particular type of news. I was interested in seeing some arguments for or against deviating from the stated agenda of a site in order to present issues of X importance (where X is a value greater than the value of the issues normally reported on). My questions seemed topical, while also being off-topic (oh, the irony), and it piqued me, so I brought it up. It looks like my questions simply got filed under "just anonther fscking troll".
Thanks for the Kuro5hin link, though!
And now, back to your regularly scheduled penguin/jackass jokes.
So my question is: how appropriate is it for people to use their website as a medium to raise consciousness and solicit donations for whatever cause they are currently supporting?
Follow-up: does it matter if the purpose of the website typically excludes stories about that particular topic, moving though they may be?
And another one: are there some issues which are so important that they should headline any/all forms of media, regardless of the subject matter usually addressed by that media? If so, is this one of those topics?
I ask only because I'm willing to look like a nitpicking, heartless jerk in order to satisfy my curiosity.
Also massive amounts of materiel, incl. 50+ warships, bombers, fighters, rifles, &c. And, IIRC, food, clothing, and other logistical/infrastructural-type stuff.
Oh, and I almost forgot the OSS, which Roosevelt put together long before the "States" got into the war.
Of course, the canonical version of the claim is "if it wasn't for us, [the British] would be speaking German right now", and that actually is crap. Roosevelt supported Britain during that period in spite of great opposition from the Senate and the populace. Some of the things he did, which certainly played a large role in preventing the hypothetical "Deutsch uber alles", were in fact illegal, and could/should have gotten him impeached. The fact is, the Americans at the time contributed very little to the enduring freedom of the British Empire.
A more accurate statement would be, "If it weren't for Roosevelt, you'd all be speaking German right now. The rest of us didn't give a damn then , but we like to pretend you owe us a favor now."
"Who or what is GNU?"
Gnu's Not Unix.
Duh.!