And then sue net nanny when it doesn't prevent me from visiting a particular website that I find obscene, and would previously have been covered by obscenity law, due to its filters being imperfect?
So instead of allowing judges to be the ones who interpret the law, you would have this fall to politicians? Sadly, law always requires interpretation. Best that those doing the interpretation at least have as much training as possible... as long as they're all accountable.
I suspect that this ruling only considers communities within the USA. But presumably, if (e.g.) an amish community decided that the very concept of a website was obscene (rather than just objectionable or undesirable), it would be valid under this precedent for them to sue everyone who ever produced a website.
You poor chaps over the pond really do seem to have the most bizarre legal decisions made for you, sometimes.
NASA-level? I'd go for civil aviation level, for a much better safety record. But frankly, no one is going to go to the effort of having multiple redundant computer systems to control an accelerator pedal unless regulated to do so.
Surely Bioshock should count as RPG elements creeping out of the game, rather than into it? Compare it to System Shock 2, which it is supposedly a "spiritual successor" to. Which has lots more RPG elements? Its the one more convincing and compelling story.
[Grumpy rant]
Every time I play bioshock, even when I force myself, I get bored with it and eventually give up. Maybe its just me, and I'm well aware of all the people that go on about how great it is, but it never felt compelling, and things like pretty unbelievable characters (that artist who froze people sticks in my mind), and the freakin cheap cop out of little sisters leaving teddy bears for you usually quickly ruin the immersion (and fun) for me. I still play Shock 2 however, even though I know the location of every scare. Ah damn, does the immenant release of Bioshock 2 mean I'll have to stop referring to Shock 2 as... Shock 2? [/Grumpy rant]
I'm not familiar with the author of the parent comment, but interpreted the "you" in your comment as collectively representing all those who would suggest that the USA spent more on foreign aid - if this was not the case, and it was actually targetted solely at doconner, then fair enough, though I'll continue to assume that the motivations behind the parent post are as simple and fundamentally decent as they sound, unless convinced otherwise.
I didn't put any words in your mouth, though, you'll notice the "if" qualifier at the start of my comment. As for the words I quoted, they did indeed come from your mouth. But perhaps "your reading skills seem to be a bit lacking" - oh sorry, is that rather condescending and insulting?:)
The only problem with this argument is that the USA (and the rest of the world, mind) is quite obviously not alleviating all povery, or even most extreme poverty, curing AIDs, throwing out the corrupt dictators, etc.
Contrary to what you seem to think, a desire for justice for the poor is not formed largely from a dislike of America, or a desire to hurt Americans. Its actually mainly focused on the people in need.
You're serious? Oh dear.
If your world view consists of a triumphant and mighty USA, and the rest of the world largely consisting of a bunch of slackers who "just want to piss it away," then your world view is messed up and rather inaccurate. Good day to you.
3? Good? Never!! Do you remember the dancing? The dancing, I say! And the much lauded "plot continues during the special effects rather than during them" just meant "more random and pointless and hard-to-follow special effects scenes!"
I've read that there is less stress when you are just working what ever odd jobs come your way instead of pushing to be at a higher level. Is this true or are these articles (and as a result now me) talking out of their a$$.
Well, the stress comes from pushing yourself really hard, right? If you're not pushing as hard... you're exposing yourself to less of the stressor, so unless the alternate situation involves additional, greater stressors, it would seem to me like it would be true. YMMV.
That's more or less exactly what I was going to ask without being bothered to RTFA, so thanks. Frankly, I'm suprised its as low as 8%, I'd have expected more.
There's always a 1 in ?????. There's a 1 in ????? of me turning into a chicken at any given moment, but the ????? is small enough that I can say with certainty that it won't happen.
The plan, as it stands, is to look at it very closely on the 2013 pass, which is expected to give enough accuracy to say with absolute certainty that it won't impact before 2070. If it emerges that the 2036 impact becomes more likely, rather than less, then the plan will be to give it a nudge somehow during a pass in the 2020s. A similar process will presumably be operated upon for any later potential collision events.
No doubt the specifics of such a plan (long-term ravitational attractor, impactor, or nuclear detonation) will only be able to be worked out once they have the 2013 data, even if such a plan were to prove necessary.
Actually, I believe they're expecting to enormously improve their predictions on its future paths after its 2013 flyby. More info on wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/99942_Apophis
They do think of that sort of thing! IIRC, this pass is the last time we need worry about it for the forseeable future, but I forget what specifically the simulations actually suggest.
It amazes me that we think as a people that our lives on this planet are somehow more significant than other life forms. Yes we are evolved, and that would lead many to argue this point, but the reality is we are like ant to this planet.
Thats a bit of an underestimate of our impact on the planet. We've spread across and drastically altered much of its surface far quicker than any other lifeform I can think of. The original oxygen-producing bacteria, mosses, trees, and grass may all have had more significant effects than we have, but we've been rushing to catch up pretty well so far.
but I do feel that by messing with nature we will cause more problems than if we don't. But hey, this is only my take on the situation described. Meh!
Well, in the face of extinction, its usually ok (as far as I'm concerned) to mess with stuff you don't understand in the hope of avoiding it. If said extinction is reasonably certain.
Well, to pick the most significant one from the OP's list, if there's a GRB that threatens Earth, I'd like to see the spaceship that's gonna take you far enough away to escape its effects.
Unfortunately, your double points are revoked on account of your mocking being pointless on both counts.
Firstly, you used American spelling, I used international spelling. Woop de doo, I'm most impressed.
Secondly, it really makes bugger all of a difference what the cubic centimetre is composed of; unless there's a miniature black hole in it (and its my damn space ship, i assure you that there isn't), then the accelerating force is still waaaay beyond feeble.
But if it makes you feel better, we can say that it has a mass of 10g.
Until we find out that if you leave it on for a million years, it might just accelerate a space ship of one cubic centimetre up to a few millimetres per hour.
With due apologies to the authors if this estimate turns out to be a gross underestimate.
Slashdot Mirror
And then sue net nanny when it doesn't prevent me from visiting a particular website that I find obscene, and would previously have been covered by obscenity law, due to its filters being imperfect?
So instead of allowing judges to be the ones who interpret the law, you would have this fall to politicians? Sadly, law always requires interpretation. Best that those doing the interpretation at least have as much training as possible... as long as they're all accountable.
I suspect that this ruling only considers communities within the USA. But presumably, if (e.g.) an amish community decided that the very concept of a website was obscene (rather than just objectionable or undesirable), it would be valid under this precedent for them to sue everyone who ever produced a website.
You poor chaps over the pond really do seem to have the most bizarre legal decisions made for you, sometimes.
NASA-level? I'd go for civil aviation level, for a much better safety record. But frankly, no one is going to go to the effort of having multiple redundant computer systems to control an accelerator pedal unless regulated to do so.
Surely Bioshock should count as RPG elements creeping out of the game, rather than into it? Compare it to System Shock 2, which it is supposedly a "spiritual successor" to. Which has lots more RPG elements? Its the one more convincing and compelling story.
... Shock 2?
[Grumpy rant]
Every time I play bioshock, even when I force myself, I get bored with it and eventually give up. Maybe its just me, and I'm well aware of all the people that go on about how great it is, but it never felt compelling, and things like pretty unbelievable characters (that artist who froze people sticks in my mind), and the freakin cheap cop out of little sisters leaving teddy bears for you usually quickly ruin the immersion (and fun) for me. I still play Shock 2 however, even though I know the location of every scare.
Ah damn, does the immenant release of Bioshock 2 mean I'll have to stop referring to Shock 2 as
[/Grumpy rant]
What way did the other one go? Time to call Bruce Willis, methinks.
I'm not familiar with the author of the parent comment, but interpreted the "you" in your comment as collectively representing all those who would suggest that the USA spent more on foreign aid - if this was not the case, and it was actually targetted solely at doconner, then fair enough, though I'll continue to assume that the motivations behind the parent post are as simple and fundamentally decent as they sound, unless convinced otherwise.
:)
I didn't put any words in your mouth, though, you'll notice the "if" qualifier at the start of my comment. As for the words I quoted, they did indeed come from your mouth. But perhaps "your reading skills seem to be a bit lacking" - oh sorry, is that rather condescending and insulting?
The only problem with this argument is that the USA (and the rest of the world, mind) is quite obviously not alleviating all povery, or even most extreme poverty, curing AIDs, throwing out the corrupt dictators, etc.
Contrary to what you seem to think, a desire for justice for the poor is not formed largely from a dislike of America, or a desire to hurt Americans. Its actually mainly focused on the people in need.
You're serious? Oh dear.
If your world view consists of a triumphant and mighty USA, and the rest of the world largely consisting of a bunch of slackers who "just want to piss it away," then your world view is messed up and rather inaccurate. Good day to you.
Not to mention dead people unrelated to the project, killed by the radiation from the launches.
3? Good? Never!! Do you remember the dancing? The dancing, I say! And the much lauded "plot continues during the special effects rather than during them" just meant "more random and pointless and hard-to-follow special effects scenes!"
Gah, I must be getting old.
I've read that there is less stress when you are just working what ever odd jobs come your way instead of pushing to be at a higher level. Is this true or are these articles (and as a result now me) talking out of their a$$.
Well, the stress comes from pushing yourself really hard, right? If you're not pushing as hard... you're exposing yourself to less of the stressor, so unless the alternate situation involves additional, greater stressors, it would seem to me like it would be true. YMMV.
That's more or less exactly what I was going to ask without being bothered to RTFA, so thanks. Frankly, I'm suprised its as low as 8%, I'd have expected more.
I may be wrong, but I can still say it :P
Ok, effective certainty.
There's always a 1 in ?????. There's a 1 in ????? of me turning into a chicken at any given moment, but the ????? is small enough that I can say with certainty that it won't happen.
The plan, as it stands, is to look at it very closely on the 2013 pass, which is expected to give enough accuracy to say with absolute certainty that it won't impact before 2070. If it emerges that the 2036 impact becomes more likely, rather than less, then the plan will be to give it a nudge somehow during a pass in the 2020s. A similar process will presumably be operated upon for any later potential collision events.
No doubt the specifics of such a plan (long-term ravitational attractor, impactor, or nuclear detonation) will only be able to be worked out once they have the 2013 data, even if such a plan were to prove necessary.
Actually, I believe they're expecting to enormously improve their predictions on its future paths after its 2013 flyby. More info on wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/99942_Apophis
They do think of that sort of thing! IIRC, this pass is the last time we need worry about it for the forseeable future, but I forget what specifically the simulations actually suggest.
Not on the far side, or at the poles. And frankly, even if they crashed right into an old probe or LM lower stage, the quanties would be miniscule.
It amazes me that we think as a people that our lives on this planet are somehow more significant than other life forms. Yes we are evolved, and that would lead many to argue this point, but the reality is we are like ant to this planet.
Thats a bit of an underestimate of our impact on the planet. We've spread across and drastically altered much of its surface far quicker than any other lifeform I can think of. The original oxygen-producing bacteria, mosses, trees, and grass may all have had more significant effects than we have, but we've been rushing to catch up pretty well so far.
but I do feel that by messing with nature we will cause more problems than if we don't. But hey, this is only my take on the situation described. Meh!
Well, in the face of extinction, its usually ok (as far as I'm concerned) to mess with stuff you don't understand in the hope of avoiding it. If said extinction is reasonably certain.
Well, to pick the most significant one from the OP's list, if there's a GRB that threatens Earth, I'd like to see the spaceship that's gonna take you far enough away to escape its effects.
Unfortunately, your double points are revoked on account of your mocking being pointless on both counts.
Firstly, you used American spelling, I used international spelling. Woop de doo, I'm most impressed.
Secondly, it really makes bugger all of a difference what the cubic centimetre is composed of; unless there's a miniature black hole in it (and its my damn space ship, i assure you that there isn't), then the accelerating force is still waaaay beyond feeble.
But if it makes you feel better, we can say that it has a mass of 10g.
Until we find out that if you leave it on for a million years, it might just accelerate a space ship of one cubic centimetre up to a few millimetres per hour.
With due apologies to the authors if this estimate turns out to be a gross underestimate.
They're not launching these spinning particles into the vacuum, they're just spinning while attached on the ass-end of your space ship.
Alternatively (if you're talking about the other particles), see the other response.
I was hoping for something like system shock 2. We got it in some ways. Story and characterisation weren't among them.
Thanks for the suggestions, I'll bear them in mind for the next rainy day :)