Read the article. It gives an example of evolving "irreducibly complex" features. The experiment was repeated many times, implying that the irreducible complexity argument may not be a valid criticism of natural selection.
Needless to say, this caused much interest and downloading within the ID community. The article even states that the ID scientists became valuable beta testers for the program.
Not exactly. The shuttle is the only heavy lifter that was powerful enough at the time; maybe it still is. The Hubble was specifically built as large as possible, to go on the largest launcher. It couldn't have gone up on an unmanned rocket, except maybe the Saturn V or Energia... fat chance.
Anecdotally, I recall hearing that the size/weight specs for the Hubble are the same for the last generation KH-?? optical spy satellites; these were also made as large as possible, for the same reason: to make the mirror as large as possible. The last generation radar spy satellites also supposedly looked much like the Magellan radar orbiter that went to Venus.
At the FedEx Kinko's where I work (dig the new name), we use the Canon ImageRunner 105 and scan directly into Acrobat. It's very convenient and pretty fast. We have control over dpi of the scan, pure B/W vs. greyscale, and minimal halftone settings. There's no company-defined pricing for this; we charge $0.25 per page, with a $10 minimum. It creates huge files though, unless you reduce the dpi of the scan.
Another option is to look in the phone book under "litigation copying" or "legal copying". Lawyers often scan thousands of legal documents and have them indexed by keyword. Data entry people get paid to skim each document to record the keywords before the documents are actually scanned. Price quotes are based on the quality of the originals (staples, torn sheets, etc.)
--begin quote--
The Quadrantid meteor shower is due to peak on January 3rd at about 12h Universal Time, which corresponds in North America to 6 a.m. Central Standard Time and 4 a.m. Pacific. This year the first-quarter Moon will pose no interference, for it sets shortly after midnight and leaves the skies fully dark from then on. Toward dawn is when the shower radiant, halfway between the head of Draco and the end of the Big Dippers handle, is highest in the sky.
The "Quads" have a very sharp peak lasting only two hours or so. But if you're watching when it arrives, this can be one of the year's best meteor displays. Between midnight and dawn in good years, 40 or more of these moderately swift meteors may be seen per hour.
--end quote--
Either cnn or msnbc said that this is one of the least viewed showers of the year because it occurs in the dead of winter, when the weather stinks. Since the source in the sky is so far north, those down under don't see much.
Hmm. The forecast for Atlanta is less than 20F. But there's a dark golf course near my house.
Don't think this isn't important. This planet will be uninhabitable someday, whether it's billions of years from now (supernova) or next week (insert favorite doomsday scenario). Don't forget that we might have decades or hundreds of years warning from something like a giant asteroid/comet. Or not. Better to start looking elsewhere as soon as possible for a new home. The only way we won't go out there eventually is if we're wiped out before we're able to go.
Negligence is criminal carelessness or recklessness, and liability is responsibility arising out of breach of contract or trust. (I'm not a lawyer. Corrections welcome.)
To prove negligence, you have to show that someone should have done something that they didn't do, or that they did something that they shouldn't have. The shoulds and shouldn'ts are decided by a judge or jury based on (probably) what a reasonable person believes constitutes negligence.
Therefore, it's gonna be pretty hard for a judge/jury to expect that Windows should never crash, (since people see it crash alot and consider that normal) but it would be much easier to expect that the software controlling your doctor's x-ray machine shouldn't fry you with cancerous levels of radiation the next time you get a mammogram. It's not that cancer couldn't result from a procedure, it's that a reasonable person would require that the software would absolutely prevent it.
The liability issue doesn't apply (usually) because license agreements typically provide an escape hatch. Custom written software is probably another issue, because you have to program to custom specifications.
Finally, (if you're still reading this) consider that it's been shown that no piece of software can be proven to be bug free. (Read it in some Scientific American article.) So eventually you're gonna have some X-ray machine fry somebody, or some mid-air collision, or some criminal released accidentally, etc. because of buggy code. Then the lawyers get to argue whether the bugs should have been foreseen and fixed.
Slashdot Mirror
Read the article. It gives an example of evolving "irreducibly complex" features. The experiment was repeated many times, implying that the irreducible complexity argument may not be a valid criticism of natural selection.
Needless to say, this caused much interest and downloading within the ID community. The article even states that the ID scientists became valuable beta testers for the program.
Not exactly. The shuttle is the only heavy lifter that was powerful enough at the time; maybe it still is. The Hubble was specifically built as large as possible, to go on the largest launcher. It couldn't have gone up on an unmanned rocket, except maybe the Saturn V or Energia... fat chance.
Anecdotally, I recall hearing that the size/weight specs for the Hubble are the same for the last generation KH-?? optical spy satellites; these were also made as large as possible, for the same reason: to make the mirror as large as possible. The last generation radar spy satellites also supposedly looked much like the Magellan radar orbiter that went to Venus.
At the FedEx Kinko's where I work (dig the new name), we use the Canon ImageRunner 105 and scan directly into Acrobat. It's very convenient and pretty fast. We have control over dpi of the scan, pure B/W vs. greyscale, and minimal halftone settings. There's no company-defined pricing for this; we charge $0.25 per page, with a $10 minimum. It creates huge files though, unless you reduce the dpi of the scan.
Another option is to look in the phone book under "litigation copying" or "legal copying". Lawyers often scan thousands of legal documents and have them indexed by keyword. Data entry people get paid to skim each document to record the keywords before the documents are actually scanned. Price quotes are based on the quality of the originals (staples, torn sheets, etc.)
--begin quote--
The Quadrantid meteor shower is due to peak on January 3rd at about 12h Universal Time, which corresponds in North America to 6 a.m. Central Standard Time and 4 a.m. Pacific. This year the first-quarter Moon will pose no interference, for it sets shortly after midnight and leaves the skies fully dark from then on. Toward dawn is when the shower radiant, halfway between the head of Draco and the end of the Big Dippers handle, is highest in the sky.
The "Quads" have a very sharp peak lasting only two hours or so. But if you're watching when it arrives, this can be one of the year's best meteor displays. Between midnight and dawn in good years, 40 or more of these moderately swift meteors may be seen per hour.
--end quote--
Either cnn or msnbc said that this is one of the least viewed showers of the year because it occurs in the dead of winter, when the weather stinks. Since the source in the sky is so far north, those down under don't see much.
Hmm. The forecast for Atlanta is less than 20F. But there's a dark golf course near my house.
Don't think this isn't important. This planet will be uninhabitable someday, whether it's billions of years from now (supernova) or next week (insert favorite doomsday scenario). Don't forget that we might have decades or hundreds of years warning from something like a giant asteroid/comet. Or not. Better to start looking elsewhere as soon as possible for a new home. The only way we won't go out there eventually is if we're wiped out before we're able to go.
Let's not confuse these two terms.
Negligence is criminal carelessness or recklessness, and liability is responsibility arising out of breach of contract or trust. (I'm not a lawyer. Corrections welcome.)
To prove negligence, you have to show that someone should have done something that they didn't do, or that they did something that they shouldn't have. The shoulds and shouldn'ts are decided by a judge or jury based on (probably) what a reasonable person believes constitutes negligence.
Therefore, it's gonna be pretty hard for a judge/jury to expect that Windows should never crash, (since people see it crash alot and consider that normal) but it would be much easier to expect that the software controlling your doctor's x-ray machine shouldn't fry you with cancerous levels of radiation the next time you get a mammogram. It's not that cancer couldn't result from a procedure, it's that a reasonable person would require that the software would absolutely prevent it.
The liability issue doesn't apply (usually) because license agreements typically provide an escape hatch. Custom written software is probably another issue, because you have to program to custom specifications.
Finally, (if you're still reading this) consider that it's been shown that no piece of software can be proven to be bug free. (Read it in some Scientific American article.) So eventually you're gonna have some X-ray machine fry somebody, or some mid-air collision, or some criminal released accidentally, etc. because of buggy code. Then the lawyers get to argue whether the bugs should have been foreseen and fixed.