look: elephants eat plants. so do ants. is that a valid system for classifying elephants and ants together, and keeping elephants apart from lions?
Yes, in fact it's done all the time. There are many classification systems for most things, and you chose the one relevant to the phenomenon which you are interested in.
Yes, yes it does. Precision of technical terms is always desirable, so the trick is to find one that no one else is already using.
I suggest we look for some distinctive feature of Pluto and form the new word around that. Lesseeeeeee, it' been variously suggested that it's either an ex-moon of Neptune, or an ex-Kuiper belt object, so I suggest:
Exxon.
That one should be safe. I can' imagine anyone else wanting such an obviosly made up; and utterly stupid, word.
. ..the other party was a 30-something on their cell phone with their laptop open, swerving to avoid the teenagers joyriding in the wrong lane with their lights off.
Technically, the company is correct. Generators produce electricity by moving metal through a magnetic field. The trick is making the metal move through the magnetic field.
I've been doing research in this field myself and I've actually been able to eliminate the the need for the metal. I have constructed a "device" which actually does provide perpetual motion by electromagnatism. It takes energy to get it started, but so long as you do not interfere with it thereafter it will run forever.
There are a few engineering problems still to work out though (please send money):
The "device" by its very nature; moves. In fact it moves rather fast. Fast enough that I haven't yet figured out a way to even keep up with the "device," which makes it kinda hard to extract energy from it.
The "device" transfers energy to anything it happens to bump into along the way, which makes it kinda hard to store the energy. You can get usable energy transfer easily enough by simply putting something in its way when you start it, but that's about it. One or two shots, "bump, bump!"; and you're done. The energy transfered remains in whatever it bumped into, but that thing isn't the device itself and so follows the Second Law.
However, I am still encouraged, because in a vacuum (where there's nothing for the "device" to bump into) I have achieved true perpetual motion; all I have to do now is figure out how to get juuuuuuuuust a bit more. . .
they have been swindled with one of the oldest cons in the book . ..
Yeah, it is, isn't it? Here's the scarey part though, some of these people are absolutely sincere in their belief that it will actually work if only they had the resources to do more "research" and the "scientific establishment" were all against them.
Or at least they start out that way, the swindle part coming later in the game when they've dug themselves into a hole they can't figure out how to get out of, so they just keep digging, hoping to come out the other side.
Having looked at their web page:
"Our technology has been independently validated by engineers and scientists - always off the record, always proven to work."
Emphasis mine; however these people started out they are clearly in full con mode at this point.
They talk in circles and can't provide any definite explanations as to how something like this would work.
Have I not been bitching in these very pages, for years and years, about the magnet people driving me nuts?
These are just the latest who are pushing the same scheme that has been pushed since the discovery of the loadstone. Magnets repel and attract. Ooooooooooooo, free energy from spooky action at a distance.
Once these people get going there is absolutely nothing you can say to them, nothing you can do, no demonstration you can make to persuade them that no matter how clever they are in arranging their magnets they cannot derive free energy from them; and they're all convinced that they are the first to discover the wonderful properties of them; and thus convinced that there is some sort of plot against the "new paradigm."
And yet the equation is very simple. To get work out of a magnet you must first put energy in; make an investment in potential energy (voltage is electric potential energy).
By the Second Law when you extract that energy you retrieve less than you put in and the device will stop running until you invest in more potential.
No more Perry Como forced down our soldier's throats (ala Good Morning Vietnam).. they get to hear the music they bring . ..
The article is a bit disingenuous. The claim is made that soldiers, once upon a time, only carried a rifle and a pack, two items, right?
But what do you suppose the pack was for? That's right, to put things in. The modern soldier goes to war with . ..that's right, a rifle and a pack, with things in it.
So, what did the soldier of yor have in that pack? Well, even before the rifle came on the scene there would be some personal items, the most common of which was. ..gaming equipment. Gambling is the traditional soldier's pastime. If he could play some small musical instrument that would likely be along as well; and the musician was a treasured member of the unit. You might well also find personal writing materials if the soldier were of a literate society.
After the introduction of the rifle as the standard arm something else had been introduced to society at large; cheap printed books.
So, our soldier in the field circa 1800 had, gaming equipment, music reproduction equipment and story based entertainment equipment in that pack.
By the Vietnam era something else had come on the scene, the transistor radio. Pocket sized if necessary and durable. During the hot phase of American involvement (involvment started in 1947, supporting the French in attempting to suppress independent democracy. Gee, I wonder how the communists came to power in the first place). Broadcasting Perry Como would have been of little use if the soldiers didn't have a device to listen to the broadcast with.
Even a pocket transistor radio was larger and heavier than an iPod; and as you note offers no choice in what you hear. You're stuck with what's pushed. (At the beginning of the hot phase that was Perry Como. Barry McGuire's Eve of Destruction was banned. By the end the soldiers were hearing CS&N's Ohio).
. ..our interaction with dolphins off Tiputa Pass and Trousers Point (you can find both easily on Google) was qualitatively different from any with fish.
Bearing in mind that you have far more in common with a dolphin than with any fish, whatever the intelligence of either is.
Perhaps I should make my point a bit more explicitly. I'm actually sympathetic to the OP's point.
I think, however, the point is more relevant when comparing something like skyscrapers and termite mounds than it is when comparing televisions to precious bodily fluids.
Slashdot Mirror
look: elephants eat plants. so do ants. is that a valid system for classifying elephants and ants together, and keeping elephants apart from lions?
Yes, in fact it's done all the time. There are many classification systems for most things, and you chose the one relevant to the phenomenon which you are interested in.
KFG
I'm just tickled pink that my Big Ass Round Things might yet live to be in the running.
At least until the residents of the Bay Area and the Wal-Mart shoppers join up to beat me senseless;
Which would obviously be redundant anyway.
KFG
. . . does it actually merit a new word?
Yes, yes it does. Precision of technical terms is always desirable, so the trick is to find one that no one else is already using.
I suggest we look for some distinctive feature of Pluto and form the new word around that. Lesseeeeeee, it' been variously suggested that it's either an ex-moon of Neptune, or an ex-Kuiper belt object, so I suggest:
Exxon.
That one should be safe. I can' imagine anyone else wanting such an obviosly made up; and utterly stupid, word.
KFG
Everytime I think I've finally seen absolutely every idiotic thing that could be done while driving they go and find a better idiot.
KFG
Any logic-based theories as to what technologies might be developed as a result of this?
Dark technologies. Really, really dark technologies. Trust me, if you're a Jedi you won't like them.
KFG
. . .the other party was a 30-something on their cell phone with their laptop open, swerving to avoid the teenagers joyriding in the wrong lane with their lights off.
Oh, right, like that happens.
KFG
I won't mention any names here...
Bill Joy?
KFG
Technically, the company is correct. Generators produce electricity by moving metal through a magnetic field. The trick is making the metal move through the magnetic field.
I've been doing research in this field myself and I've actually been able to eliminate the the need for the metal. I have constructed a "device" which actually does provide perpetual motion by electromagnatism. It takes energy to get it started, but so long as you do not interfere with it thereafter it will run forever.
There are a few engineering problems still to work out though (please send money):
The "device" by its very nature; moves. In fact it moves rather fast. Fast enough that I haven't yet figured out a way to even keep up with the "device," which makes it kinda hard to extract energy from it.
The "device" transfers energy to anything it happens to bump into along the way, which makes it kinda hard to store the energy. You can get usable energy transfer easily enough by simply putting something in its way when you start it, but that's about it. One or two shots, "bump, bump!"; and you're done. The energy transfered remains in whatever it bumped into, but that thing isn't the device itself and so follows the Second Law.
However, I am still encouraged, because in a vacuum (where there's nothing for the "device" to bump into) I have achieved true perpetual motion; all I have to do now is figure out how to get juuuuuuuuust a bit more. . .
KFG
they have been swindled with one of the oldest cons in the book . . .
Yeah, it is, isn't it? Here's the scarey part though, some of these people are absolutely sincere in their belief that it will actually work if only they had the resources to do more "research" and the "scientific establishment" were all against them.
Or at least they start out that way, the swindle part coming later in the game when they've dug themselves into a hole they can't figure out how to get out of, so they just keep digging, hoping to come out the other side.
Having looked at their web page:
"Our technology has been independently validated by engineers and scientists - always off the record, always proven to work."
Emphasis mine; however these people started out they are clearly in full con mode at this point.
KFG
Man, if it's true. . .
The little people who live under my bed are going to love it.
KFG
Yeah, yeah, it's "lodestone." I know.
KFG
They talk in circles and can't provide any definite explanations as to how something like this would work.
Have I not been bitching in these very pages, for years and years, about the magnet people driving me nuts?
These are just the latest who are pushing the same scheme that has been pushed since the discovery of the loadstone. Magnets repel and attract. Ooooooooooooo, free energy from spooky action at a distance.
Once these people get going there is absolutely nothing you can say to them, nothing you can do, no demonstration you can make to persuade them that no matter how clever they are in arranging their magnets they cannot derive free energy from them; and they're all convinced that they are the first to discover the wonderful properties of them; and thus convinced that there is some sort of plot against the "new paradigm."
And yet the equation is very simple. To get work out of a magnet you must first put energy in; make an investment in potential energy (voltage is electric potential energy).
By the Second Law when you extract that energy you retrieve less than you put in and the device will stop running until you invest in more potential.
KFG
No more Perry Como forced down our soldier's throats (ala Good Morning Vietnam).. they get to hear the music they bring . . .
.that's right, a rifle and a pack, with things in it.
.gaming equipment. Gambling is the traditional soldier's pastime. If he could play some small musical instrument that would likely be along as well; and the musician was a treasured member of the unit. You might well also find personal writing materials if the soldier were of a literate society.
The article is a bit disingenuous. The claim is made that soldiers, once upon a time, only carried a rifle and a pack, two items, right?
But what do you suppose the pack was for? That's right, to put things in. The modern soldier goes to war with . .
So, what did the soldier of yor have in that pack? Well, even before the rifle came on the scene there would be some personal items, the most common of which was. .
After the introduction of the rifle as the standard arm something else had been introduced to society at large; cheap printed books.
So, our soldier in the field circa 1800 had, gaming equipment, music reproduction equipment and story based entertainment equipment in that pack.
By the Vietnam era something else had come on the scene, the transistor radio. Pocket sized if necessary and durable. During the hot phase of American involvement (involvment started in 1947, supporting the French in attempting to suppress independent democracy. Gee, I wonder how the communists came to power in the first place). Broadcasting Perry Como would have been of little use if the soldiers didn't have a device to listen to the broadcast with.
Even a pocket transistor radio was larger and heavier than an iPod; and as you note offers no choice in what you hear. You're stuck with what's pushed. (At the beginning of the hot phase that was Perry Como. Barry McGuire's Eve of Destruction was banned. By the end the soldiers were hearing CS&N's Ohio).
The more things change. . .
KFG
. . .our interaction with dolphins off Tiputa Pass and Trousers Point (you can find both easily on Google) was qualitatively different from any with fish.
Bearing in mind that you have far more in common with a dolphin than with any fish, whatever the intelligence of either is.
KFG
In a goldfish's behavior when you approach it for feeding. Believe me, they remember what your behavior indicates is about to happen.
KFG
Does that make the fly smarter than me?
Who won?
I guess a rat brain in a pilot's uniform doesn't pick up as much skirt though.
No, but I'd hazard that a rat brain in a rat picks up a fair bit of tail.
KFG
Surely goldfish don't eat themselves.
Surely, they do. Well, not themselves actually. Other goldfish. They're very good at not eating anything bigger than their heads though.
KFG
mister Kentucky Fried Garbage :P
Hey, your garbage is my free food.
Perhaps I should make my point a bit more explicitly. I'm actually sympathetic to the OP's point.
I think, however, the point is more relevant when comparing something like skyscrapers and termite mounds than it is when comparing televisions to precious bodily fluids.
KFG
. . .but the mortality rates of HIV infected vs not HIV infected is exactly the same: 100%
OMG!!!!111!1, Dude, we're all going to . . .
Now, let's not always see the same hands.
KFG
How is milk produced by cow any or thread prduced by spider any more "natural" than iPod produced by human?
Can you pull an iPod out of your ass?
I mean one you haven't put there first.
KFG
A lot of them don't.
.retroviruses never cause disease.
Produce one that doesn't.
. .
Go back and read carefully.
KFG
But enzymes _are_ nanomachines by the definition you use.
I almost wrote, "A nanomachine has to do something," but thought better of it.
KFG
. . .see if people infected with HIV actually die.
Yes, indeed they do. I guarundamntee it.
KFG
. . . the reason I think Dwave Systems is full of bullshit is that any approach thus far is good at (a) or (b), but not both.
You'd almost think that there was some sort of undetermanism at work or something.
KFG
... What have I missed here?
For starters; a link to the company's website instead of somebody's "See Spot run" blog post:
http://www.dwavesys.com/quantumcomputing.php
KFG