I can't claim to understand much about particle physics, but I would guess that this particular arrangement of quarks has a bigger interaction with the Higgs field, thus making it more massive.
The NASA phone number is also conveniently linked in the press release that happens to be in the OP.
You mean the original post, written by me? Yes, I seem to have forgotten that I found that phone number in less than five minutes. Thank you for reminding me.
The NASA experience proved that the journalist didn't need to have his mind read to get decent information
As I pointed out in my original post - what NASA experience?
The article has NO information on how he ended up talking to a NASA scientist, and I made a very reasonable argument that he called the scientist directly, whereas with the NRC he called their media arm.
And while it sounds stupidly reasonable, it really is true that you cannot learn how to fly without flying, just like you cannot learn how to walk without walking, swim without swimming or speak without speaking.
Yet it always amazes me just how many people fails to understand such simple premises when it comes to science. They seem to think that failures aren't science and that nothing is learned from them.
But if you then ask them about gravity, they'll almost always talk about Newton, yet if you point out that Newton got it wrong (mostly right, but still wrong), they will invariably tell you "that's different".
Thank you, but adding this to the summary would be disingenuous.
The summary is a summary of the article, and summarizes article quite well.
My issue is with the article is that it's essentially a journalist getting his panties in a bunch, just because the NRC contact couldn't read his mind.
There is, however, an easy way to deal with this: Don't buy games with DRM. Ever. Period.
Why do that?
Not buying a DRM'ed game doesn't tell the developer or studio anything.
Buying a DRM'ed game, having the store gift wrap it, and then bringing it back (in pristine condition including the shrink wrap) the next week for a refund "due to not wanting DRM'ed games", is going to rack up issues for the retailer.
If enough people do that, to the extent that a retailer thinks they've cleared their inventory of a particular game on or just after release day, only to get 50% of them back a week later, will make the retailers push back against the developers/studios.
Hell, if you can organize it properly, it wouldn't take that big of a group to get the store to constantly have fairly large amount of money tied up in potential refunds.
Suppose a store gets 100 units of game. At a retail price of 60 dollars, that's 6,000 dollars worth of inventory. If we say the mark-up is 50% (it isn't), that means they've paid 3,000 dollars for it. Not a huge amount, but it's still a dent.
You and your group of accomplices get together and buy 50 of them. That's 3,000 dollars, 1,500 of which goes to the store, 1,500 of which goes to the game studio.
The store is now up 1,500 dollars.
A week later those 50 games are all returned in exchange for 3,000 dollars of in-store credit.
Those 3,000 dollars are now spent buying 50 other games. 1,500 dollars of which goes to the store, 1,500 dollars goes to the game studio.
Those 1,500 dollars the store earned are now going to the game studio.
A week later, the same thing. Now the store is missing 1,500 dollars.
Week five they're missing 3,000 dollars.
Week six - 4,500 dollars.
Week seven - 6,000 dollars, but they get their first refund from the game studio, so they're back to only missing 4,500 dollars.
That would pretty much cover the monthly salary for two sales clerks.
Keep it up for a year, and that constant outlay on products is going to tear a hole in the store's pocket.
Once the store manager notices that their DRM'ed games have a massive return rate and outlay like that, they won't be inclined to buying that many of them. If they're corporate, it'll be pushed up the chain across many many stores.
There are currently 275 cities in the US with more than 100,000 inhabitants. If each city can mange to get a group of 50 to participate in this, that's a constant 412,500 dollars outlay for the stores in those cities, assuming an insane mark-up of 50%.
If it's a slightly more realistic 25% it's 618,750 dollars. At 10% it's 742,500 dollars, not to mention the useless stock the stores ends up with.
And all it takes to participate in this fun task is something like twenty minutes a week, a one time fee of 60 dollars and some people you like hanging out with.
While I can't remember First Encounters, I do remember the copy protection for Frontier very well for one very specific reason: It gave a nice incentive to read the short stories based in the universe. Since it's a game without a plot-line of any sort, those stories were the only thing that gave the game a sense of depth.
And I can't remember Frontier ever crashing on me. Not on an Amiga 500, Amiga 1000 or on a PC.
Without knowing the chain they went through with NASA, it isn't really fair to compare the two experiences.
Let's ignore the fact that the journalist decided to call the NRC at the very last minute for a bit of extra information, and look at what happened in the communication internally at the NRC.
The NRC media arm was called, and unless the person at NRC in charge of that initial contact happens to know EXACTLY who to ask, there will invariably a flurry of back and forth communication internally, just as you see in the article.
When you look through the emails (btw, I hate it when you are given a data dump like that - it's close to impossible to figure out where one email ends and another begins), you find that the original call is on March 1st at 09:30
At 11:39 Manya Chadwick has an answer to the journalist, that needs to be signed off on.
That's after 2 hours and 9 minutes. Over email. In my book that's a fantastic turn-around time. Keep in mind that it is extremely unlikely that the involved parties are ignoring everything else on their plate.
Then at 14:03, Jonathan Ward has signed off on the text. That's 2 hours 24 minutes later. Again, for email, that's a fantastic turn-around time.
And at 15:10 Tom Spears is sent his initial answer. That's 6 hours, 12 minutes.
At 16:38 Tom Spears is given an extra update to the lines, pointing out that the NRC forgot to credit their partner CSA.
At 09:47 on March 2nd Tom Spears writes back: "Thanks, but when NRC won't speak to me I can't guarantee to write the story the way you want it.". (Seriously? Less than an hour after he gets his answer, they send a tiny update because THEY MADE A MISTAKE, and he decides to be snarky like that?)
The reporter didn't even bother to write back with a follow-up question or anything after he received the answer (only a "RECEIVED" message at 15:42). He didn't bother to ask if he could call someone or get a quick callback for anything.
---
Let's go back to the question asked (technically no question is asked):
I've read that a NASA mission in Southern Ontario ended yesterday, where they had aircraft taking measurements of snow. It also mentioned that NRC was involved using one of its Convair aircraft to assist with these measurements. I'm looking for someone to speak to this quickly - I already have most of my story, I'd just like to get a feel for NRC's involvement in the project.
Now - since he's talking to Media Relations, he's obviously not going to be directly transferred to someone with intimate knowledge. That's just extremely unlikely to happen, unless (as I mentioned before) the person at NRC in charge of that initial contact happens to know EXACTLY who to ask.
The inquiry, as it's written, is more along the lines of "I'd just like to get a feel for NRC's involvement in the project" (a question that is answered in the mail he received) than "Why do you want to study snow?", as the journalist says the hoped-for interview would have asked.
My question is - what hoped-for interview? The initial inquiry was for information on NRC's involvement.
Now - considering that he received the initial answer at 15:10, there would have been PLENTY of time for him to spend five minutes to compose an email along the lines of:
Jonathan. Thank you for your answer, but I was hoping to get some time to ask some other questions about this study, preferably by phone. Like, say - WHY DO YOU WANT TO STUDY SNOW? Can you please have someone call me back ASAP on 613-596-3700?
But no. Aparently it is not in a journalist's scope of work to ask followup questions. Or at least not Mr. Tom Spears's type of journalism. I mean - imagine the extra work it would take him to add those extra 243 characters to his email. I mean - that's almost two entire Twitter messages! The horror.
If they did that, they could also build such mats into the road - say the 100 meters leading up to intersections, making it possible for vehicles to be charged while they're stuck in traffic.
Hell, if you made those things, you'd make it possible for parking lots to work as automatic charging stations.
Suddenly you can end up with a society, where vehicles do not need to travel to gas stations to increase their range.
If you do that, no-one will ever be able to buy porn magazines, and THAT is the REAL reason why induction charging mats will never be put into reality.
I sure haven't seen any in the last 5 years. I can only think of one movie that was about humans in space: Avatar
Off the top of my head: Star Trek. Seriously - how did you not know about this movie? (Number of Zombies: 0) Prometheus. Granted, it's not released yet, but it's opening in June this year. (Number of Zombies: 0, is my guess) John Carter. Technically that's about A human going into space. 150 or so years ago. (Number of Zombies: I haven't seen it, but I don't think it has any) Iron Sky. Opened two days ago. And it's about Nazis on the Moon. (Number of Zombies: I haven't seen it, but it's Nazis, so you can't ever be sure) Moon. Granted, it's A human on the Moon, but considering the story, I'd say it qualifies. (Number of Zombies: 0) Apollo 18. Horror story based on the cancelled Moon mission. (Number of Zombies: 0) Predators. Granted, it's not humanity travelling into space, but it is about humans in space. (Number of Zombies: 0) Planet 51. Animated comedy. Surprisingly entertaining and endearing view of humanity. (Number of Zombies: 0) Sunshine. Humanity has to reignite the Sun. Definitely not something you can do from your backyard. (Number of Zombies: 0)
the default setup of an iDevice still allows unlimited purchases to be made for 15 minutes after a parent enters their iTunes password without warning them of this.
So don't use an iTunes Store account that is linked to a credit card. Problem solved.
Sharov describes the lack of communication and cooperation as a symptom of a company that has never before had to work closely with the security industry. 'For Microsoft, we have all the security response team's addresses,' he says. 'We don't know the antivirus group inside Apple.'"
Seriously? Is it really that difficult for a security company to search for "security" on apple's website and find this page?
Really puts a whole new perspective on LED clad 'gaming'-machines, which as you know - should have blue LEDs for cooling, and red LEDs for superior overclocking.
You've got that the wrong way around.
Red hot objects are comparatively cooler than blue hot objects.
For instance, compare the temperature of a blue star with that of a red one. Or for a simpler approach, compare the blue part of a flame with the red part.
Seriously - how many people have died because of his work? How many has become ill? How has it affected nature?
Now compare Edward Teller's work to that of Thomas Midgley, Jr. - the inventor of leaded gasoline and CFC!
Yes - the man who brought you lead poisoning from commuting also brought you the hole in the ozone layer.
So I ask again - why the hell is Edward Teller the most vilified US scientist, when Thomas Midgley, Jr., is not only from the US, but is essentially the one single organism responsible for the most environmental damage.
You have to remember the NSA is not new to this game. They are pretty much the best the world has ever seen at signals intelligence, and they were doing encryption back in the days when nobody had heard of such a thing.
Are you suggesting they also invented time travel and ventured back in time to before AD?
Encryption is a VERY old discipline, and was being used for more than a thousand years by the time Leonardo da Vinci was even born.
Slashdot Mirror
So, your problem is with the fact that it doesn't match any known organism, because we don't know what else might be out there?
I can't claim to understand much about particle physics, but I would guess that this particular arrangement of quarks has a bigger interaction with the Higgs field, thus making it more massive.
Because they're greedy bastards who hire migrant workers!
Actually, the question was
And the correct answer to that is odd
You mean the original post, written by me? Yes, I seem to have forgotten that I found that phone number in less than five minutes. Thank you for reminding me.
As I pointed out in my original post - what NASA experience?
The article has NO information on how he ended up talking to a NASA scientist, and I made a very reasonable argument that he called the scientist directly, whereas with the NRC he called their media arm.
On what grounds would the store refuse the returns?
Person A buys the game as a gift, gets person B to return it a week later. Person B gives the money back to A.
A buys another game as a gift, and C returns this a week later.
Rinse and repeat.
Regina Dugan recently did a TED talk in which she says The only way to learn to fly is to fly. Great stuff.
And while it sounds stupidly reasonable, it really is true that you cannot learn how to fly without flying, just like you cannot learn how to walk without walking, swim without swimming or speak without speaking.
Yet it always amazes me just how many people fails to understand such simple premises when it comes to science. They seem to think that failures aren't science and that nothing is learned from them.
But if you then ask them about gravity, they'll almost always talk about Newton, yet if you point out that Newton got it wrong (mostly right, but still wrong), they will invariably tell you "that's different".
Are you saying that meteors start at a much lower velocity, then accelerates to those speeds before falling apart? And that they're engineered?
Why do that when you can just sandblast them?
Thank you, but adding this to the summary would be disingenuous.
The summary is a summary of the article, and summarizes article quite well.
My issue is with the article is that it's essentially a journalist getting his panties in a bunch, just because the NRC contact couldn't read his mind.
Why do that?
Not buying a DRM'ed game doesn't tell the developer or studio anything.
Buying a DRM'ed game, having the store gift wrap it, and then bringing it back (in pristine condition including the shrink wrap) the next week for a refund "due to not wanting DRM'ed games", is going to rack up issues for the retailer.
If enough people do that, to the extent that a retailer thinks they've cleared their inventory of a particular game on or just after release day, only to get 50% of them back a week later, will make the retailers push back against the developers/studios.
Hell, if you can organize it properly, it wouldn't take that big of a group to get the store to constantly have fairly large amount of money tied up in potential refunds.
Suppose a store gets 100 units of game. At a retail price of 60 dollars, that's 6,000 dollars worth of inventory. If we say the mark-up is 50% (it isn't), that means they've paid 3,000 dollars for it. Not a huge amount, but it's still a dent.
You and your group of accomplices get together and buy 50 of them. That's 3,000 dollars, 1,500 of which goes to the store, 1,500 of which goes to the game studio.
The store is now up 1,500 dollars.
A week later those 50 games are all returned in exchange for 3,000 dollars of in-store credit.
Those 3,000 dollars are now spent buying 50 other games. 1,500 dollars of which goes to the store, 1,500 dollars goes to the game studio.
Those 1,500 dollars the store earned are now going to the game studio.
A week later, the same thing. Now the store is missing 1,500 dollars.
Week five they're missing 3,000 dollars.
Week six - 4,500 dollars.
Week seven - 6,000 dollars, but they get their first refund from the game studio, so they're back to only missing 4,500 dollars.
That would pretty much cover the monthly salary for two sales clerks.
Keep it up for a year, and that constant outlay on products is going to tear a hole in the store's pocket.
Once the store manager notices that their DRM'ed games have a massive return rate and outlay like that, they won't be inclined to buying that many of them. If they're corporate, it'll be pushed up the chain across many many stores.
There are currently 275 cities in the US with more than 100,000 inhabitants. If each city can mange to get a group of 50 to participate in this, that's a constant 412,500 dollars outlay for the stores in those cities, assuming an insane mark-up of 50%.
If it's a slightly more realistic 25% it's 618,750 dollars. At 10% it's 742,500 dollars, not to mention the useless stock the stores ends up with.
And all it takes to participate in this fun task is something like twenty minutes a week, a one time fee of 60 dollars and some people you like hanging out with.
While I can't remember First Encounters, I do remember the copy protection for Frontier very well for one very specific reason:
It gave a nice incentive to read the short stories based in the universe. Since it's a game without a plot-line of any sort, those stories were the only thing that gave the game a sense of depth.
And I can't remember Frontier ever crashing on me. Not on an Amiga 500, Amiga 1000 or on a PC.
One of the better things I've heard, was that supposedly piracy supported the drug trade.
Because it's rather obvious that if you can't make money off of drugs, you can definitely make money off of pirated music, movies and games.
Without knowing the chain they went through with NASA, it isn't really fair to compare the two experiences.
Let's ignore the fact that the journalist decided to call the NRC at the very last minute for a bit of extra information, and look at what happened in the communication internally at the NRC.
The NRC media arm was called, and unless the person at NRC in charge of that initial contact happens to know EXACTLY who to ask, there will invariably a flurry of back and forth communication internally, just as you see in the article.
When you look through the emails (btw, I hate it when you are given a data dump like that - it's close to impossible to figure out where one email ends and another begins), you find that the original call is on March 1st at 09:30
At 11:39 Manya Chadwick has an answer to the journalist, that needs to be signed off on.
That's after 2 hours and 9 minutes. Over email. In my book that's a fantastic turn-around time. Keep in mind that it is extremely unlikely that the involved parties are ignoring everything else on their plate.
Then at 14:03, Jonathan Ward has signed off on the text. That's 2 hours 24 minutes later. Again, for email, that's a fantastic turn-around time.
And at 15:10 Tom Spears is sent his initial answer. That's 6 hours, 12 minutes.
At 16:38 Tom Spears is given an extra update to the lines, pointing out that the NRC forgot to credit their partner CSA.
At 09:47 on March 2nd Tom Spears writes back: "Thanks, but when NRC won't speak to me I can't guarantee to write the story the way you want it.". (Seriously? Less than an hour after he gets his answer, they send a tiny update because THEY MADE A MISTAKE, and he decides to be snarky like that?)
The reporter didn't even bother to write back with a follow-up question or anything after he received the answer (only a "RECEIVED" message at 15:42). He didn't bother to ask if he could call someone or get a quick callback for anything.
---
Let's go back to the question asked (technically no question is asked):
Now - since he's talking to Media Relations, he's obviously not going to be directly transferred to someone with intimate knowledge. That's just extremely unlikely to happen, unless (as I mentioned before) the person at NRC in charge of that initial contact happens to know EXACTLY who to ask.
The inquiry, as it's written, is more along the lines of "I'd just like to get a feel for NRC's involvement in the project" (a question that is answered in the mail he received) than "Why do you want to study snow?", as the journalist says the hoped-for interview would have asked.
My question is - what hoped-for interview? The initial inquiry was for information on NRC's involvement.
Now - considering that he received the initial answer at 15:10, there would have been PLENTY of time for him to spend five minutes to compose an email along the lines of:
But no. Aparently it is not in a journalist's scope of work to ask followup questions. Or at least not Mr. Tom Spears's type of journalism. I mean - imagine the extra work it would take him to add those extra 243 characters to his email. I mean - that's almost two entire Twitter messages! The horror.
---
So - what about the NASA thing?
Note that "We phoned a NASA scie
Don't be silly.
If they did that, they could also build such mats into the road - say the 100 meters leading up to intersections, making it possible for vehicles to be charged while they're stuck in traffic.
Hell, if you made those things, you'd make it possible for parking lots to work as automatic charging stations.
Suddenly you can end up with a society, where vehicles do not need to travel to gas stations to increase their range.
If you do that, no-one will ever be able to buy porn magazines, and THAT is the REAL reason why induction charging mats will never be put into reality.
Off the top of my head:
Star Trek. Seriously - how did you not know about this movie? (Number of Zombies: 0)
Prometheus. Granted, it's not released yet, but it's opening in June this year. (Number of Zombies: 0, is my guess)
John Carter. Technically that's about A human going into space. 150 or so years ago. (Number of Zombies: I haven't seen it, but I don't think it has any)
Iron Sky. Opened two days ago. And it's about Nazis on the Moon. (Number of Zombies: I haven't seen it, but it's Nazis, so you can't ever be sure)
Moon. Granted, it's A human on the Moon, but considering the story, I'd say it qualifies. (Number of Zombies: 0)
Apollo 18. Horror story based on the cancelled Moon mission. (Number of Zombies: 0)
Predators. Granted, it's not humanity travelling into space, but it is about humans in space. (Number of Zombies: 0)
Planet 51. Animated comedy. Surprisingly entertaining and endearing view of humanity. (Number of Zombies: 0)
Sunshine. Humanity has to reignite the Sun. Definitely not something you can do from your backyard. (Number of Zombies: 0)
So don't use an iTunes Store account that is linked to a credit card. Problem solved.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2534
Seriously? Is it really that difficult for a security company to search for "security" on apple's website and find this page?
https://ssl.apple.com/support/security/
I can't say for sure if this is an original idea or not, but allow me share it anyway:
"Failure is an inherent part of moving forward, as each successful step is a failure to fall over."
Could use some fine tuning, but I think there might be a motivational poster in there somewhere.
That IS what a warranty is. You seem to be mixing up insurance and warranty.
Otherwise, what's to prevent me from breaking the display and claiming it should be covered by the warranty?
Seriously?
Seriously?!?
Are you honestly of the opinion that it is beneath not only you but also every single moderately intelligent citizen to be on a jury?
You've got that the wrong way around.
Red hot objects are comparatively cooler than blue hot objects.
For instance, compare the temperature of a blue star with that of a red one. Or for a simpler approach, compare the blue part of a flame with the red part.
Seriously - how many people have died because of his work? How many has become ill? How has it affected nature?
Now compare Edward Teller's work to that of Thomas Midgley, Jr. - the inventor of leaded gasoline and CFC!
Yes - the man who brought you lead poisoning from commuting also brought you the hole in the ozone layer.
So I ask again - why the hell is Edward Teller the most vilified US scientist, when Thomas Midgley, Jr., is not only from the US, but is essentially the one single organism responsible for the most environmental damage.
Are you suggesting they also invented time travel and ventured back in time to before AD?
Encryption is a VERY old discipline, and was being used for more than a thousand years by the time Leonardo da Vinci was even born.