It's a "CHEMICAL"! Wow, damn, shit, holy crap, I can't believe it. They actually used a CHEMICAL. Who would have thought. You do know that everything in our life is made from CHEMICALS? While you're at it, maybe check out this deadly chemical.
I just love it when people just use the word "chemical" to scare everyone away. So, where to start? first of all, Morgellon's Disease:
"Current scientific consensus holds that Morgellons is not a new disorder and is instead a new and misleading name for a well known condition. Most doctors,[2] including dermatologists[3] and psychiatrists,[4] regard Morgellons as a manifestation of known medical conditions, including delusional parasitosis..."
Yes, the sentence continues to say that some believe it may be a real condition, but the consensus is that it is some sort of Psychiatric condition. Regarding Titanium Dioxide health issues - there are studies in animals that it can be carcinogenic if inhaled, and some studies argue that small particles can be absorbed by the skiin, but studies in humans have yet to show a similar effect, though it has been researched. Again, this is all from Wikipedia, this is not my area of expertise - if you have a different (credible) source, I'll be happy to hear about it. Anyhow, I don't think that if it would be part of a CD-like medium it would be toxic, in the same way that asbestos is only dangerous if it is broken and thus small particles are freed into the environment and are inhaled.
I just realized that in my rush to be relevant, I VTFA but also ITFA (Ignored TFA) and my comment was irrelevant, but I think I can be excused because: a) It was just an itsy-bitsy car analogy, only one slide. b) To paraphrase: "Don't let the Facts distort a good argument" [citation needed].
I liked what the designer said in the video she showed: "The knockoff customer is not our customer". Let's say Apple has a new design (e.g. iPhone OS). So some Chinese company "steals" the design and manufactures a device that looks the same. Obviously it has a cheaper overall build. Who would buy it? Probably not the people who would pay the big(er) bucks for an iPhone/iPad. Of course, there isn't a clear cut distinction between the 2 populations, but I believe the loss suffered by Apple is minimal, while the gain to the entire industry (and also for Apple - because it is forced to innovate) is huge. Note: Apple is just an example. This could work for Google, HP, RIAA, MPAA, you-name-it. This video is the first argument that really convinced me that software IP is damaging and music piracy isn't such a bad thing. I believed in it for a long time, but here I got a good example of how a different culture has bred a better (and more profitable) industry.
He can't. First post is reserved for "First Post! Google is Evil!" comments. Btw, even if you don't go to "About Google Chrome", the browser automatically updates itself (in a period of hours/few days).
Bacterial conjugation is often incorrectly regarded as the bacterial equivalent of sexual reproduction or mating. Loosely, and misleadingly, it can be considered to be a limited bacterial version of sex, since it involves some genetic exchange.
While you are correct that bacteria have more advanced mechanisms than just binary fission, it is not considered sexual reproduction. In sexual reproduction you have 2 genomes (with more or less the same genes) from 2 different individuals, thus allowing the propagation of (hopefully) useful mutations and allowing greater diversity in the species. In bacterial conjugation, OTOH, one bacteria has a beneficial gene (AKA plasmid) that is copied and transferred to another bacteria that does not have it. This mechanism is used, for example, to pass antibiotic resistance genes from one bacteria to another (see ESBL).
P.S. I was going to say something about "pretty darn hot", but Pojut said it better (+1 Funny from me).
10 Yep, I think we can all safely say that The Genome is the mother of all Prior Art! 20 30 P.S. 40 No, I didn't read the patent application, so I don't really know how broad their application is and if the summery doesn't stretch the truth a bit in Prof. Sulston's direction. Assuming the summery is correct - Go To 10
Actually, many that have used WebOS claim it is better than iPhone OS interface-wise, but that is a matter of opinion. I suggest you try it out, maybe you'll be pleasantly surprised...
If you "hold it" doesn't that effect the out come of the experiment? Is this a bad test or just bad reporting?
After years of observing experimentations and reporting, I would venture to guess that the later is more probable than the former... but I may be wrong.
WebOS is very open: you can develop apps, like in all ecosystems, but also you can hack the OS, an act that is not frowned upon by Palm and is even encouraged ( http://www.precentral.net/palm-hearts-homebrew-community ), although I agree they have not gone so far as to call it Open-Sourced.
Did you ever see the WebOS? If you want aesthetically-pleasing, you don't want Android, you want WebOS. I know you were talking about the tablet itself, but if you have a beautiful tablet, you want it running the most aesthetic mobile OS possible, and right now it is the WebOS, IMHO. The fact that it not a success (yet) in smartphones is more a testament to Palm's horrible marketing skills than to WebOS's faults. Hope HP does better.
It always amazes me the power of buzz-words. I work in medicine and every few years you have a new buzz-word. A few years ago it was "anti-oxidants", and now angiogenesis is starting to pop-up, promising to cure everything from cancer, through impotence all the way to ingrown nails. And then some time passes, and you have some studies done and you find out that "Yes, it is good for some stuff, but isn't a Panacea." The same thing is happening in IT. You get some concept, in this case open-source, that is good for some things. But then comes along someone who claims it is good for everything! For OS, and file systems, and backup, and web servers, and netbooks, and economy, and biology, and social science, and history (cue Texas joke), and sports, and sex (that should be an xkcd comics). Of course open source is good for some of those things, and it may be good for what the article is proposing, but please, people, try to use some common sense and see when it is useful and when it isn't.
When dealing with infectious diseases in general, and viri especially, you need to make a distinction between infecting and pathogenic (http://www.answers.com/topic/infection - notice the word may in the first definition)). When someone has Influenza, most, if not all, of the people around him will be infected, but few will develop an overt disease. For the virus this is a good thing, because people who are infected and are asymptomatic (or mildly symptomatic) pass on the virus better than someone who dies from the virus. The Influenza virus mutates a lot, but it still very infectious - just not very pathogenic (disease causing). On top of that, very few of those infected died, with about a 3% mortality rate in the 1918 pandemic and less than 1% in the H1N1 pandemic ( http://general-medicine.jwatch.org/cgi/content/full/2009/521/1?q=etoc_jwgenmed ).
So, for women 15-24 you have about 6 per 100,000 per year suicide rate and for 25-44 you have 15, which comes out to about about 10 per 100,000 per year (assuming there are the same amount of people in both age groups; I know it isn't necessarily so, but I'm not off by much). If they have 400K workers, this comes to about 40 suicides per year. btw, for males the suicide rates are higher for people 25 and older, so the fact that not all the workers are female doesn't weaken my case. Anyhow, I am not trying to downplay the workers' condition in those factories, I'm just saying that 9 suicides in a year isn't so much, statistically speaking.
[Brian is writing graffiti on the palace wall. The Centurion catches him in the act] Centurion: What's this, then? "Romanes eunt domus"? People called Romanes, they go, the house? Brian: It says, "Romans go home. " Centurion: No it doesn't ! What's the latin for "Roman"? Come on, come on ! Brian: Er, "Romanus" ! Centurion: Vocative plural of "Romanus" is? Brian: Er, er, "Romani" ! Centurion: [Writes "Romani" over Brian's graffiti] "Eunt"? What is "eunt"? Conjugate the verb, "to go" ! Brian: Er, "Ire". Er, "eo", "is", "it", "imus", "itis", "eunt". Centurion: So, "eunt" is...? Brian: Third person plural present indicative, "they go". Centurion: But, "Romans, go home" is an order. So you must use...? [He twists Brian's ear] Brian: Aaagh ! The imperative ! Centurion: Which is...? Brian: Aaaagh ! Er, er, "i" ! Centurion: How many Romans? Brian: Aaaaagh ! Plural, plural, er, "ite" ! Centurion: [Writes "ite"] "Domus"? Nominative? "Go home" is motion towards, isn't it? Brian: Dative ! [the Centurion holds a sword to his throat] Brian: Aaagh ! Not the dative, not the dative ! Er, er, accusative, "Domum" ! Centurion: But "Domus" takes the locative, which is...? Brian: Er, "Domum" ! Centurion: [Writes "Domum"] Understand? Now, write it out a hundred times. Brian: Yes sir. Thank you, sir. Hail Caesar, sir. Centurion: Hail Caesar ! And if it's not done by sunrise, I'll cut your balls off.
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Damn, he said "CHEMTRAIL" not "CHEMICAL". Silly me. Guess I have a knee-jerk reaction to all the tin-foil hat guys.
Oblig. xkcd:
http://xkcd.com/123/
It's a "CHEMICAL"! Wow, damn, shit, holy crap, I can't believe it. They actually used a CHEMICAL. Who would have thought.
You do know that everything in our life is made from CHEMICALS? While you're at it, maybe check out this deadly chemical.
I just love it when people just use the word "chemical" to scare everyone away. So, where to start? first of all, Morgellon's Disease:
"Current scientific consensus holds that Morgellons is not a new disorder and is instead a new and misleading name for a well known condition. Most doctors,[2] including dermatologists[3] and psychiatrists,[4] regard Morgellons as a manifestation of known medical conditions, including delusional parasitosis..."
Yes, the sentence continues to say that some believe it may be a real condition, but the consensus is that it is some sort of Psychiatric condition.
Regarding Titanium Dioxide health issues - there are studies in animals that it can be carcinogenic if inhaled, and some studies argue that small particles can be absorbed by the skiin, but studies in humans have yet to show a similar effect, though it has been researched. Again, this is all from Wikipedia, this is not my area of expertise - if you have a different (credible) source, I'll be happy to hear about it. Anyhow, I don't think that if it would be part of a CD-like medium it would be toxic, in the same way that asbestos is only dangerous if it is broken and thus small particles are freed into the environment and are inhaled.
I just realized that in my rush to be relevant, I VTFA but also ITFA (Ignored TFA) and my comment was irrelevant, but I think I can be excused because:
a) It was just an itsy-bitsy car analogy, only one slide.
b) To paraphrase: "Don't let the Facts distort a good argument" [citation needed].
I liked what the designer said in the video she showed: "The knockoff customer is not our customer". Let's say Apple has a new design (e.g. iPhone OS). So some Chinese company "steals" the design and manufactures a device that looks the same. Obviously it has a cheaper overall build. Who would buy it? Probably not the people who would pay the big(er) bucks for an iPhone/iPad. Of course, there isn't a clear cut distinction between the 2 populations, but I believe the loss suffered by Apple is minimal, while the gain to the entire industry (and also for Apple - because it is forced to innovate) is huge. Note: Apple is just an example. This could work for Google, HP, RIAA, MPAA, you-name-it.
This video is the first argument that really convinced me that software IP is damaging and music piracy isn't such a bad thing. I believed in it for a long time, but here I got a good example of how a different culture has bred a better (and more profitable) industry.
I think in this case you didn't VTFA (View TFA) not RTFA. And yes, it is probably a flawed analogy, but only because it has no cars in it.
He can't. First post is reserved for "First Post! Google is Evil!" comments.
Btw, even if you don't go to "About Google Chrome", the browser automatically updates itself (in a period of hours/few days).
I stand corrected. I should have said: "...beneficial gene (usually carried on a plasmids)..."
Do you want it in Library of Congress units? (Well... you knew it was coming)
Bacterial conjugation is often incorrectly regarded as the bacterial equivalent of sexual reproduction or mating. Loosely, and misleadingly, it can be considered to be a limited bacterial version of sex, since it involves some genetic exchange.
While you are correct that bacteria have more advanced mechanisms than just binary fission, it is not considered sexual reproduction. In sexual reproduction you have 2 genomes (with more or less the same genes) from 2 different individuals, thus allowing the propagation of (hopefully) useful mutations and allowing greater diversity in the species.
In bacterial conjugation, OTOH, one bacteria has a beneficial gene (AKA plasmid) that is copied and transferred to another bacteria that does not have it. This mechanism is used, for example, to pass antibiotic resistance genes from one bacteria to another (see ESBL).
P.S.
I was going to say something about "pretty darn hot", but Pojut said it better (+1 Funny from me).
Actually, Bacteria do asexual reproduction, or more specifically binary fission. So, no, bacteria can't do it.
10 Yep, I think we can all safely say that The Genome is the mother of all Prior Art!
20
30 P.S.
40 No, I didn't read the patent application, so I don't really know how broad their application is and if the summery doesn't stretch the truth a bit in Prof. Sulston's direction. Assuming the summery is correct - Go To 10
Actually, many that have used WebOS claim it is better than iPhone OS interface-wise, but that is a matter of opinion. I suggest you try it out, maybe you'll be pleasantly surprised...
If you "hold it" doesn't that effect the out come of the experiment? Is this a bad test or just bad reporting?
After years of observing experimentations and reporting, I would venture to guess that the later is more probable than the former... but I may be wrong.
Well, you do have a point, sadly enough. I only hope reality will prove you wrong, but only time will tell...
WebOS is very open: you can develop apps, like in all ecosystems, but also you can hack the OS, an act that is not frowned upon by Palm and is even encouraged ( http://www.precentral.net/palm-hearts-homebrew-community ), although I agree they have not gone so far as to call it Open-Sourced.
Did you ever see the WebOS? If you want aesthetically-pleasing, you don't want Android, you want WebOS. I know you were talking about the tablet itself, but if you have a beautiful tablet, you want it running the most aesthetic mobile OS possible, and right now it is the WebOS, IMHO. The fact that it not a success (yet) in smartphones is more a testament to Palm's horrible marketing skills than to WebOS's faults. Hope HP does better.
It always amazes me the power of buzz-words. I work in medicine and every few years you have a new buzz-word. A few years ago it was "anti-oxidants", and now angiogenesis is starting to pop-up, promising to cure everything from cancer, through impotence all the way to ingrown nails. And then some time passes, and you have some studies done and you find out that "Yes, it is good for some stuff, but isn't a Panacea."
The same thing is happening in IT. You get some concept, in this case open-source, that is good for some things. But then comes along someone who claims it is good for everything! For OS, and file systems, and backup, and web servers, and netbooks, and economy, and biology, and social science, and history (cue Texas joke), and sports, and sex (that should be an xkcd comics).
Of course open source is good for some of those things, and it may be good for what the article is proposing, but please, people, try to use some common sense and see when it is useful and when it isn't.
When dealing with infectious diseases in general, and viri especially, you need to make a distinction between infecting and pathogenic (http://www.answers.com/topic/infection - notice the word may in the first definition)).
When someone has Influenza, most, if not all, of the people around him will be infected, but few will develop an overt disease. For the virus this is a good thing, because people who are infected and are asymptomatic (or mildly symptomatic) pass on the virus better than someone who dies from the virus.
The Influenza virus mutates a lot, but it still very infectious - just not very pathogenic (disease causing). On top of that, very few of those infected died, with about a 3% mortality rate in the 1918 pandemic and less than 1% in the H1N1 pandemic ( http://general-medicine.jwatch.org/cgi/content/full/2009/521/1?q=etoc_jwgenmed ).
Actually, you can find instructions on setting Google SSL as your search engine here: http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2010/05/google-secure-search.html
Have fun!
It's OK, I know it was fake news story. Just tried to end my post on a humoristic note. I resist the temptation to use the W-word.
P.S.
Actually, where I am living it was really early not really late (GMT+2).
So, here are the statistics for Taiwan (as of 2005, but I bet it hasn't changed by much):
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2259336/
and the most relevant figure:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2259336/figure/F2/
So, for women 15-24 you have about 6 per 100,000 per year suicide rate and for 25-44 you have 15, which comes out to about about 10 per 100,000 per year (assuming there are the same amount of people in both age groups; I know it isn't necessarily so, but I'm not off by much). If they have 400K workers, this comes to about 40 suicides per year. btw, for males the suicide rates are higher for people 25 and older, so the fact that not all the workers are female doesn't weaken my case.
Anyhow, I am not trying to downplay the workers' condition in those factories, I'm just saying that 9 suicides in a year isn't so much, statistically speaking.
OTOH, this I think is much more disturbing:
http://www.bbspot.com/News/2007/10/xkcd-comic-reenactment-leads-to-100-deaths.html
MS Bob!
actually, nowadays even microsoft is an oxymoron. They should be renamed Bloatsoft (which is easily shortened to BS).
And to make it clearer:
[Brian is writing graffiti on the palace wall. The Centurion catches him in the act]
Centurion: What's this, then? "Romanes eunt domus"? People called Romanes, they go, the house?
Brian: It says, "Romans go home. "
Centurion: No it doesn't ! What's the latin for "Roman"? Come on, come on !
Brian: Er, "Romanus" !
Centurion: Vocative plural of "Romanus" is?
Brian: Er, er, "Romani" !
Centurion: [Writes "Romani" over Brian's graffiti] "Eunt"? What is "eunt"? Conjugate the verb, "to go" !
Brian: Er, "Ire". Er, "eo", "is", "it", "imus", "itis", "eunt".
Centurion: So, "eunt" is...?
Brian: Third person plural present indicative, "they go".
Centurion: But, "Romans, go home" is an order. So you must use...?
[He twists Brian's ear]
Brian: Aaagh ! The imperative !
Centurion: Which is...?
Brian: Aaaagh ! Er, er, "i" !
Centurion: How many Romans?
Brian: Aaaaagh ! Plural, plural, er, "ite" !
Centurion: [Writes "ite"] "Domus"? Nominative? "Go home" is motion towards, isn't it?
Brian: Dative !
[the Centurion holds a sword to his throat]
Brian: Aaagh ! Not the dative, not the dative ! Er, er, accusative, "Domum" !
Centurion: But "Domus" takes the locative, which is...?
Brian: Er, "Domum" !
Centurion: [Writes "Domum"] Understand? Now, write it out a hundred times.
Brian: Yes sir. Thank you, sir. Hail Caesar, sir.
Centurion: Hail Caesar ! And if it's not done by sunrise, I'll cut your balls off.