It's hard enough to even get past a human nose. A friend of mine who used to work at a courier company smelled out a small package containing ~30g of marijuana in a pile of ~100 other packages. It was wrapped in three zip-loc bags, then a plastic VHS case, wrapped in about half a roll of packing tape followed by a whole roll of duct tape, then the sealed plastic courier bag. Needless to say, that package was 'lost in transit'....
No, must be pre TOS. In TOS, you'd give the computer any vague, ambiguous vocal command, so long as it was preceded by "Computer:" and followed by "Compute".
Exactly. In addition, how much is it going to cost governments/insurance companies to actually analyse all this data? I'm no DNA expert, but I don't think it's the kind of thing that fits on a two sided A4 page! More like thousands and thousands of pages. And for what benefit? So as an insurance company can charge 'better' people slightly lower premiums to undercut their competitors? I very much doubt it would be even close to worth the cost. And if it were, whats the problem? There will still be insurance available to even the most horribly mutated people, just at a higher premium. This is no less fair than car insurance companies charging young drivers more.
As I stated in my original message, most of the corruption stories that the media throws around are of little consequence. Real, high level corruption, still goes largely unreported, in part for the reasons that the above AC mentions.
As for me being a 'soviet shill'.... umm.. what? Really don't know how you got that from my post.
I thought the comment more implied that by timing the complaint in such a manner, the boss would have two suspects: You, and the 'framed' individual. Since there would be no way for the boss to know which one was guilty, he could not take action against either of them. Well, in theory....
I've been pretty happy with KDE since about 4.2, but I simply couldn't put up with Amarok 2.0, so made the effort to revert back to 1.4.x. However, I'm now using Kubuntu 9.10, which comes with Amarok 2.2, and I've found it much more usable. The major improvement in my opinion is the ability to configure the layout properly -- including removing the 3rd panel, which takes up far too much room on my 1280x768 TV. Most of the notable gripes about 2.0 have also been fixed. As with KDE, the x.0 version was just rubbish and should never have been included in distros like Kubuntu.
I've learned years ago, that journalists are the *only* true force opposed to corruption.
Please inform me where I can find all these uncorrupted journalists. Certainly, in an ideal world, journalists would be a great group of people to expose corrupt behaviour, but I don't see much evidence of it working. There is the odd corruption story that gets milked for all the publicity they can get, but they seem to be mostly things of little consequence that will nonetheless invoke a sense of outrage in people. When it comes to the real issues, journalists seem to be horribly biased. The Palestine/Israel conflict is a good example of this.
I would think that the spread of the internet to the general population is a more powerful weapon against corruption, although it has the major problem of being filled with conspiracy theorists effectively 'crying wolf'...
I'm saying that eugenics, which was behind Hitler/Nazi thought and to some extent behind racism - at least, if the racism is born out of other things (including religion, e.g., antisemitism) - seems to be a logical progression from evolutionary thought.
That doesn't make sense. The only concept that is required to 'justify' eugenics is that a child inherits traits from his/her parents. I'm pretty sure even the most nutty creationist doesn't dispute this. The fact that this concept pretty much implies that evolution must occur is irrelevant.
Now, if the Nazis had selectively killed off people with skinny, hairless arms with the aim of developing a new human like species with wings, your argument would perhaps be slightly more valid. But seeing as their aim was just to make the population, stronger, smarter, and blonder (traits which are well known to be inherited from parents, even by creationists), a belief in evolution isn't required at all.
OK, so maybe space solar is a silly idea. But what exactly is wrong with "a bunch of space nerds trying to dream up ways to make cool new rockets"? If Japan wants to throw money at these guys, why shouldn't they? At the very least, there will doubtlessly be many advancements to current technologies during the project, which will be of use in other fields.
Just a thought -- I wonder how much effect removing 72TW from the atmosphere would have on the climate. I'm assuming that the figure takes into account the fact that you cannot remove all the energy from the wind... Even so, it could have drastic consequences to weather patterns!
I live in a city of ~400,000 people, and somewhere around 300,000 pet cats. I agree with your point about the risk of car accidents, but I have to say that I've never heard of cats causing significant property damage. Nor do i see/hear more than two or three cat fights every year. This despite living in a suburban street where almost every house has one or more cats, all free to roam the neighborhood. It is almost unheard of to restrain cats in any significant way here.
I can only assume that neutering is not so ubiquitous in the cat population where you are. It is considered highly irresponsible to even own an un-neutered adult cat here, unless it is specifically wanted for breeding purposes. This seems to prevent the worst of the territorial behavior you describe.
OK, if your god is such a 1337 haxxor, answer me this:
Why did he create time before the rest of the universe? This meant it took him 7 days to create the rest. Any reasonably competent deity would create everything else first, then create time, thus allowing him to brag that he created the universe in no time at all.
Such a n00b mistake.
Of course there is heat generated, the parent never said otherwise -- but just using rough figures, an electric motor, IIRC, can easily reach in excess of 90% efficiency, whereas a reciprocating gasoline engine would be lucky to get 30% efficiency. That is a significant difference, even before you take into account the losses in the multi stage transmissions that are required with an IC engine that are redundant with an electric motor. I can't remember off the top of my head how much is lost in a typical vehicle gear train, but it is of the order of ~10%.
The weight issue is certainly much less clear cut. The motor itself will likely weigh less than the equivalent IC engine, and a heavy power transmission system isn't required with electric motors, but a battery pack will certainly weigh much more than the equivalent amount of petrol/fuel oil for quite a while yet....
Go ask a physicist to explain why two objects in relative inertial motion remain in motion. You will get either one or both of the following answers.
1. Nothing is needed to keep them in motion. Newton proved it already.
2. Physics is not about the why of things but the how.
Wow. I'm pretty sure most high school students could give you a much better explanation than that.... That's quite enough to put me off reading the rest of that article...
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It's hard enough to even get past a human nose. A friend of mine who used to work at a courier company smelled out a small package containing ~30g of marijuana in a pile of ~100 other packages. It was wrapped in three zip-loc bags, then a plastic VHS case, wrapped in about half a roll of packing tape followed by a whole roll of duct tape, then the sealed plastic courier bag. Needless to say, that package was 'lost in transit'....
No, must be pre TOS. In TOS, you'd give the computer any vague, ambiguous vocal command, so long as it was preceded by "Computer:" and followed by "Compute".
Exactly. In addition, how much is it going to cost governments/insurance companies to actually analyse all this data? I'm no DNA expert, but I don't think it's the kind of thing that fits on a two sided A4 page! More like thousands and thousands of pages. And for what benefit? So as an insurance company can charge 'better' people slightly lower premiums to undercut their competitors? I very much doubt it would be even close to worth the cost. And if it were, whats the problem? There will still be insurance available to even the most horribly mutated people, just at a higher premium. This is no less fair than car insurance companies charging young drivers more.
As I stated in my original message, most of the corruption stories that the media throws around are of little consequence. Real, high level corruption, still goes largely unreported, in part for the reasons that the above AC mentions.
As for me being a 'soviet shill'.... umm.. what? Really don't know how you got that from my post.
I thought the comment more implied that by timing the complaint in such a manner, the boss would have two suspects: You, and the 'framed' individual. Since there would be no way for the boss to know which one was guilty, he could not take action against either of them. Well, in theory....
I've been pretty happy with KDE since about 4.2, but I simply couldn't put up with Amarok 2.0, so made the effort to revert back to 1.4.x. However, I'm now using Kubuntu 9.10, which comes with Amarok 2.2, and I've found it much more usable. The major improvement in my opinion is the ability to configure the layout properly -- including removing the 3rd panel, which takes up far too much room on my 1280x768 TV. Most of the notable gripes about 2.0 have also been fixed. As with KDE, the x.0 version was just rubbish and should never have been included in distros like Kubuntu.
I've learned years ago, that journalists are the *only* true force opposed to corruption.
Please inform me where I can find all these uncorrupted journalists. Certainly, in an ideal world, journalists would be a great group of people to expose corrupt behaviour, but I don't see much evidence of it working. There is the odd corruption story that gets milked for all the publicity they can get, but they seem to be mostly things of little consequence that will nonetheless invoke a sense of outrage in people. When it comes to the real issues, journalists seem to be horribly biased. The Palestine/Israel conflict is a good example of this.
I would think that the spread of the internet to the general population is a more powerful weapon against corruption, although it has the major problem of being filled with conspiracy theorists effectively 'crying wolf'...
Probably not too exciting. The linked story states that it was a slow moving, small headed herbivore. Maybe akin to being killed by a large cow...
Not sure about your example of a basalt cliff... How exactly does a cliff evolve?
Hmmm, I wonder what parameters give a mutation of ID/creationism an advantage.... A higher degree of logical circularity maybe?
I'm saying that eugenics, which was behind Hitler/Nazi thought and to some extent behind racism - at least, if the racism is born out of other things (including religion, e.g., antisemitism) - seems to be a logical progression from evolutionary thought.
That doesn't make sense. The only concept that is required to 'justify' eugenics is that a child inherits traits from his/her parents. I'm pretty sure even the most nutty creationist doesn't dispute this. The fact that this concept pretty much implies that evolution must occur is irrelevant.
Now, if the Nazis had selectively killed off people with skinny, hairless arms with the aim of developing a new human like species with wings, your argument would perhaps be slightly more valid. But seeing as their aim was just to make the population, stronger, smarter, and blonder (traits which are well known to be inherited from parents, even by creationists), a belief in evolution isn't required at all.
Obviously they have decided it's best to start from scratch this time...
OK, so maybe space solar is a silly idea. But what exactly is wrong with "a bunch of space nerds trying to dream up ways to make cool new rockets"? If Japan wants to throw money at these guys, why shouldn't they? At the very least, there will doubtlessly be many advancements to current technologies during the project, which will be of use in other fields.
Just a thought -- I wonder how much effect removing 72TW from the atmosphere would have on the climate. I'm assuming that the figure takes into account the fact that you cannot remove all the energy from the wind... Even so, it could have drastic consequences to weather patterns!
I live in a city of ~400,000 people, and somewhere around 300,000 pet cats. I agree with your point about the risk of car accidents, but I have to say that I've never heard of cats causing significant property damage. Nor do i see/hear more than two or three cat fights every year. This despite living in a suburban street where almost every house has one or more cats, all free to roam the neighborhood. It is almost unheard of to restrain cats in any significant way here.
I can only assume that neutering is not so ubiquitous in the cat population where you are. It is considered highly irresponsible to even own an un-neutered adult cat here, unless it is specifically wanted for breeding purposes. This seems to prevent the worst of the territorial behavior you describe.
Strike one off your list of letdowns: The Martin Jetpack is almost ready to market, and a novice can learn to fly it in no time:
OK, if your god is such a 1337 haxxor, answer me this: Why did he create time before the rest of the universe? This meant it took him 7 days to create the rest. Any reasonably competent deity would create everything else first, then create time, thus allowing him to brag that he created the universe in no time at all. Such a n00b mistake.
Of course there is heat generated, the parent never said otherwise -- but just using rough figures, an electric motor, IIRC, can easily reach in excess of 90% efficiency, whereas a reciprocating gasoline engine would be lucky to get 30% efficiency. That is a significant difference, even before you take into account the losses in the multi stage transmissions that are required with an IC engine that are redundant with an electric motor. I can't remember off the top of my head how much is lost in a typical vehicle gear train, but it is of the order of ~10%. The weight issue is certainly much less clear cut. The motor itself will likely weigh less than the equivalent IC engine, and a heavy power transmission system isn't required with electric motors, but a battery pack will certainly weigh much more than the equivalent amount of petrol/fuel oil for quite a while yet....
Go ask a physicist to explain why two objects in relative inertial motion remain in motion. You will get either one or both of the following answers. 1. Nothing is needed to keep them in motion. Newton proved it already. 2. Physics is not about the why of things but the how.
Wow. I'm pretty sure most high school students could give you a much better explanation than that.... That's quite enough to put me off reading the rest of that article...