I'm sure all this sounds really good around the college dorm room, and I'm sure the chicks are very impressed. The problem is that your "solutions" either mean nothing or won't work. Let's take them one at a time...
EDUCATE PEOPLE ENOUGH TO STOP OVER-REPRODUCING.
"Education"? Educate them about what? People are going to reproduce if they want to. Any other solution requires the government to regulate whether you can reproduce or not, which is a thousand times worse than anything (look at China).
But beyond that, overpopulation is a way, way, way overblown problem. I heard a study once that the entire population of the world could fit in neighborhood-style homes, 4 per home, in an area the size of Texas. The world is very big.
Distribute resources to feed the billions already on the planet.
The world goes hungry not because of an unequal distribution of resources, but because of an unequal distribution of capitalism. It's a political problem, not a resource problem. If you want to feed the world, change the governments.
Relocate highly pollutive industries to orbit or lagrange points.
Is the king supposed to just decree that this happens? It will happen eventually, when it makes economic sense. But you have to have an economic space infrastructure to support it.
Pour HUGE amounts of money into research for fusion or powersat development.
You seem to think that this has not already been done. Fusion is an immensely complex problem, and just throwing money at a problem does not produce magical solutions. The manhattan project succeeded not because of money, but because the world's smartest people gathered in one place out of patriotism. NOT out of money. Money is not the solution to every problem.
Fusion will happen, but we need some fundamental engineering breakthroughs first.
I'll just ignore all the other alarmist ranting, if you don't mind.
A question to any robotics experts out there... or heck, any mechanical engineer.
Why is walking so hard? It seems to me that the secret is having a balance sensor similar to the inner ear. If it has movable feet, then you use the balance sensor to keep the robot upright. Once you have that, then it seems like it's just a matter of kicking it forward. As long as it keeps one leg moving forward and keeps the other foot adjusting for balance, you should have natural walking motion.
Clearly it's not this easy, otherwise it would have been done long ago. What's wrong with this solution?
If they don't want Nazi memorabilia as part of their culture, then so be it.
That would be fine, except they are asking an American company to control the behavior of their own citizens. Yahoo is not forcing themselves onto their computers, the citizens are choosing to go there.
If France wants to make it a crime to visit the US Yahoo, then fine, make it a crime. But it's not up to us to enforce it.
As opposed to the republicans, who've been trying to block scrutiny of the Florida votes, by attempting to stop recounts ?
"Scrutiny"? Yes, they are trying to stop recounts brought by the Democrats in heavily Democratic counties where the potential for corruption exists. Why do you think the Democrats want recount after recount? It's because they are counting on 300 ballots to "magically" turn up. Why do you think the Florida statute is written the way it is? It's because the longer it takes to count the ballots, the more potential for vote fraud comes in. Come on, you can't be this naive.
Are you a lawyer ? If you're not, you are not qualified to interpret the statute.
Oh, please. I am a thinking, rational human being who can read. I also find it truly frightening that there are some people who just bow down before lawyers and just accept what they say. They are not gods, they are human beings with normal biases -- and yes -- stupidity. In fact, judges have more than the normal bias and stupidity because of the potential for corruption due to the power of the position.
IIRC, the judge upheld the deadline, but gave the secretary discretion to accept corrections to the count after the deadline.
Exactly. That is not in the statute!! Please take civics 101 and notice that judges do not have the power to create law. The only have the power to interpret law where it's ambiguous or contradictory. The judge way overstepped his authority.
I'm not sure which of the two it is, but I have a hunch it's the latter.
The latter (wisdom/Solomonic)? You're joking, right? What the hell is the worth of the law if people can choose whether to ignore it or not?
I don't know about anyone else, but I find it truly frightening that we have a candidate named Al Gore who finds nothing wrong with pressuring a Secretary of State to ignore the law and just "do what we want". The President of the US is supposed to be the ultimate defender of the law and the constitution!
And that idiot judge finds it difficult to read a statute that clearly says that "the state shall certify results by 5pm". The statute is totally unambiguous, but he decided that he didn't like the statute, so hey! Let's just rewrite the law! Why not?
Win or lose, Al Gore has proven he has no business being near the presidency. He is an embarassment to the office.
This reminded me of an old joke line from the early 80s in the Orange County, CA area called Zygot, and I wondered if they were still around. I found this page, which documents a whole slew of the old joke lines, and has a lot of the old material on-line.
If anyone has fond memories of the old dial-a-joke recordings, you might find them here.
With very little training, Keybowl(TM) typists achieve a speed very close to the one at which they used to type before their injuries.
That's crap. Speaking as someone who types very fast, there is no way someone using something like this can type as fast as a touch typist. Maybe they're talking about how fast the marketing department can type.:)
The trolls sit in utter frustration
  And fear and loathing and consternation
Women around them they dare not touch
  They sit in private and dream too much
They tiptoe through forums in anonymity
  throwing stones at Anne Marie
Did she mock, slight or bait?
  No, her crime is to cogitate.
Although her opinions are often odd
  at least her brain is not a pod
Oh my! Imagine that threat of late
  A female geek who states it straight.
Dare I make this non-AC? Such temptation...
this might ruin my reputation.
To me, there's no real difference between Bush and Gore anyway, so why bother?
That is just sheer idiocy. Only through total ignorance can someone believe that.
When Dubya wins, and if the republicans hold the house and senate, I guarantee we will see some changes. Mostly good, some bad, but change we will see.
This is simply ridiculous. Why would a dinosaur have a long neck if it was not going to use it for any purpose? Evolution rarely encourages traits that have no function, particularly one that would create such a huge negative surivivability trait -- slows them down, more mass = more food required, more awkward to escape predators, etc.
This guy must be a Libertarian -- all focusing on the theoretical details, no focus on the objective, practical reality:). [Hey, gotta use some election day metaphors!]
You know, I used to wonder who these parents are that sic the ACLU on a school when the school tries to enforce discipline.
I will never understand parents who think their kids should be able to disrupt school however they want. Well, that's why I'll be sending my kids to private school -- to get away from YOUR kids.
Or you can overcome societies problems by showing how screwed up it is, just as this kid did.
Right. Let's just blame society, that makes a lot of sense. It's society's fault that this kid is socially backward. We should eliminate all sports, because some kids are not athletic. We should eliminate dances because some kids are too shy or too socially awkward to get a date.
If everyone can't have fun, then no one shall have fun.
An example of "normal social skills" at play... My 16 year old step daughter is being pilloried by her "friends" at the moment. Why? Because the guy that she likes has a new girlfriend.
There are a couple of things to be said about this. First of all, you don't know what the real story is. No, you don't.
Second of all, this is High School. Kids are still developing, and they can be mean and cruel. What else is new?
In any case, what does this have to do with the point? You think everyone should be shy and afraid to interact with other people? Or do you equate the ability to interact easily with other people with being mean and cruel? That is simply bigotry/jealousy/sour grapes.
I was a geek in high school. I know it sucks. But I don't blame others, I blame myself. I worked hard to overcome my shyness and social awkwardness. It's stupid to try and justify social problems as "not worse, just different".
While I have no plans to become a school administrator, I would hope to be the man that you attempt to stomp.
"Mr Sdo1, your son deliberately and willfully disrupted festivities that he voluntarily joined. If he didn't want to participate, that would be fine, but it is not fine to spoil everyone else's fun. But you're right about one thing -- 2 days is not an appropriate punishment. Make it a week. Now get the hell out of my office and teach your child 1) some manners, and 2) that the world does not solely revolve around his needs."
...the Natural Law candidate actually comes accross as an intelligent, rational human being next to the Republican candidate.
Come on! You may disagree with Bush on various issues, but at least he doesn't issue meaningless babble like this:
The conclusion of these 25 years of research is that human consciousness, at its deepest level, and the unified field which underlies the whole of Nature, are one and the same. This means that human awareness, fully expanded, naturally comprehends the ultimate unity underlying all of humanity, earth's complex ecosystems, and indeed, the entire universe.
Good God! I've always believed scientists are mostly politics-foolish (Einstein was a socialist, for example), but this guy is completely wack.
Simple question: What is the nature of time? [heh]
Since the collision is 206 million light years away, then did what we're seeing occur 206 million years ago? Does the expansion of the universe affect that amount of time?
[Warning: I'm not sure exactly how to phrase what I'm thinking for the following] And more esoterically, I know that time and space are intertwined in complex ways. Does it make sense to talk about what is happening at that point in space "now" in time, relativistically speaking? In other words, is our "now" the same as the "now" currently at that point in space?
I guess what I'm trying to ask is can you compare clocks that are 206 million light years apart, or does the nature of space/time make it that two clocks are considered synchronized when you can compare the signals from two clocks received at light speed? [ugh -- I don't know if I'm phrasing this comprehensibly].
I have the right to defend my womb from foreign agents who would suck my life force for their own benefit.
The fundamental flaw in your reasoning is that you can't separate your body from its fundamental function of reproduction. Your body is more than the vessel for your brain. Part of being human means reproduction, and being a woman means you have the potential to host a new human being.
What this means is that a woman is NOT totally a sovereign entity. Once your womb is carrying a new human being, your body has temporarily become "owned" by that new human being.
I know you don't like to think about it this way, but you can't separate your brain from your biology. New humans come into existence through the sharing of another body, and thus they have a fundamental right to the use of "their" host.
Bottom line, your womb is not only your womb. Your womb becomes joint property once a new sovereign human being starts growing within it. Now, if that new life really was a real and imminent threat to the life of the host (kind of like violating the terms of the "joint ownership", so to speak), then there is a justification for aborting the new human.
You're probably angry at this, but don't get angry at me. This is biology, pure and simple. You can't separate your brain from your biology.
And by the way, yes, if I was capable of having children, I would feel exactly the same way. It's not a question of whether society (or "me") have dominion over another person's body, it's whether the new human life does. And it does.
Well, I should say that Americans don't like "hard" socialism. Unfortunately, they often fall prey to the "socialism lite" practiced by the Democratic Party. But much like the frog that will jump out of boiling water, but will happily boil to death if the temperature is turned up gradually, the American people would reject the Green Party platform as much too radical.
I think that the Transmeta stuff has just gotten out of hand.
While I agree with you that Transmeta is probably getting too much attention, I think there is something to see here. It is a fairly unique experiment to build relatively high-level translation at the silicon level. I'm dubious whether they can pull it off with reasonable performance, but it's still interesting.
Torvalds is not a reason they should get extra attention, but it's not a reason they should be ignored either (i.e., in the name of "objectivity").
In fact, it's a good reason for Gore to withdraw from the race; Nader can beat Dubya hands down.
Come on, you don't believe that. All GWB would have to do is wave around the green party platform, and he would win 95%/5%. Socialism is not popular in this country (thank God).
Slashdot Mirror
I'm sure all this sounds really good around the college dorm room, and I'm sure the chicks are very impressed. The problem is that your "solutions" either mean nothing or won't work. Let's take them one at a time...
EDUCATE PEOPLE ENOUGH TO STOP OVER-REPRODUCING.
"Education"? Educate them about what? People are going to reproduce if they want to. Any other solution requires the government to regulate whether you can reproduce or not, which is a thousand times worse than anything (look at China).
But beyond that, overpopulation is a way, way, way overblown problem. I heard a study once that the entire population of the world could fit in neighborhood-style homes, 4 per home, in an area the size of Texas. The world is very big.
Distribute resources to feed the billions already on the planet.
The world goes hungry not because of an unequal distribution of resources, but because of an unequal distribution of capitalism. It's a political problem, not a resource problem. If you want to feed the world, change the governments.
Relocate highly pollutive industries to orbit or lagrange points.
Is the king supposed to just decree that this happens? It will happen eventually, when it makes economic sense. But you have to have an economic space infrastructure to support it.
Pour HUGE amounts of money into research for fusion or powersat development.
You seem to think that this has not already been done. Fusion is an immensely complex problem, and just throwing money at a problem does not produce magical solutions. The manhattan project succeeded not because of money, but because the world's smartest people gathered in one place out of patriotism. NOT out of money. Money is not the solution to every problem.
Fusion will happen, but we need some fundamental engineering breakthroughs first.
I'll just ignore all the other alarmist ranting, if you don't mind.
--
A question to any robotics experts out there... or heck, any mechanical engineer.
Why is walking so hard? It seems to me that the secret is having a balance sensor similar to the inner ear. If it has movable feet, then you use the balance sensor to keep the robot upright. Once you have that, then it seems like it's just a matter of kicking it forward. As long as it keeps one leg moving forward and keeps the other foot adjusting for balance, you should have natural walking motion.
Clearly it's not this easy, otherwise it would have been done long ago. What's wrong with this solution?
--
If they don't want Nazi memorabilia as part of their culture, then so be it.
That would be fine, except they are asking an American company to control the behavior of their own citizens. Yahoo is not forcing themselves onto their computers, the citizens are choosing to go there.
If France wants to make it a crime to visit the US Yahoo, then fine, make it a crime. But it's not up to us to enforce it.
--
As opposed to the republicans, who've been trying to block scrutiny of the Florida votes, by attempting to stop recounts ?
"Scrutiny"? Yes, they are trying to stop recounts brought by the Democrats in heavily Democratic counties where the potential for corruption exists. Why do you think the Democrats want recount after recount? It's because they are counting on 300 ballots to "magically" turn up. Why do you think the Florida statute is written the way it is? It's because the longer it takes to count the ballots, the more potential for vote fraud comes in. Come on, you can't be this naive.
Are you a lawyer ? If you're not, you are not qualified to interpret the statute.
Oh, please. I am a thinking, rational human being who can read. I also find it truly frightening that there are some people who just bow down before lawyers and just accept what they say. They are not gods, they are human beings with normal biases -- and yes -- stupidity. In fact, judges have more than the normal bias and stupidity because of the potential for corruption due to the power of the position.
IIRC, the judge upheld the deadline, but gave the secretary discretion to accept corrections to the count after the deadline.
Exactly. That is not in the statute!! Please take civics 101 and notice that judges do not have the power to create law. The only have the power to interpret law where it's ambiguous or contradictory. The judge way overstepped his authority.
--
I'm not sure which of the two it is, but I have a hunch it's the latter.
The latter (wisdom/Solomonic)? You're joking, right? What the hell is the worth of the law if people can choose whether to ignore it or not?
I don't know about anyone else, but I find it truly frightening that we have a candidate named Al Gore who finds nothing wrong with pressuring a Secretary of State to ignore the law and just "do what we want". The President of the US is supposed to be the ultimate defender of the law and the constitution!
And that idiot judge finds it difficult to read a statute that clearly says that "the state shall certify results by 5pm". The statute is totally unambiguous, but he decided that he didn't like the statute, so hey! Let's just rewrite the law! Why not?
Win or lose, Al Gore has proven he has no business being near the presidency. He is an embarassment to the office.
--
This reminded me of an old joke line from the early 80s in the Orange County, CA area called Zygot, and I wondered if they were still around. I found this page, which documents a whole slew of the old joke lines, and has a lot of the old material on-line.
If anyone has fond memories of the old dial-a-joke recordings, you might find them here.
--
I therefore suggest they call it a breast board, since that is what it most closely resembles.
Hmmm. And I can see that they may want to release different sizes for different hands. You know, sizes "A" through "DDD".
--
With very little training, Keybowl(TM) typists achieve a speed very close to the one at which they used to type before their injuries.
That's crap. Speaking as someone who types very fast, there is no way someone using something like this can type as fast as a touch typist. Maybe they're talking about how fast the marketing department can type. :)
--
The trolls sit in utter frustration
  And fear and loathing and consternation
Women around them they dare not touch
  They sit in private and dream too much
They tiptoe through forums in anonymity
  throwing stones at Anne Marie
Did she mock, slight or bait?
  No, her crime is to cogitate.
Although her opinions are often odd
  at least her brain is not a pod
Oh my! Imagine that threat of late
  A female geek who states it straight.
Dare I make this non-AC? Such temptation...
this might ruin my reputation.
--
To me, there's no real difference between Bush and Gore anyway, so why bother?
That is just sheer idiocy. Only through total ignorance can someone believe that.
When Dubya wins, and if the republicans hold the house and senate, I guarantee we will see some changes. Mostly good, some bad, but change we will see.
--
Great Troll! Start with something reasonable...
words "separation of church and state" appear nowhere -- nowhere in the Constitution or its amendments.
Then add a little flamebait...
to mean that American citizens should be free to practice any branch of Protestant Christianity that they desire,
Finally finish up with some anti-Republican sentiment.
I'm voting for George W. Bush.
I give it, oh, a 7.5. You need to be a little more subtle if you want people to buy in.
--
This is simply ridiculous. Why would a dinosaur have a long neck if it was not going to use it for any purpose? Evolution rarely encourages traits that have no function, particularly one that would create such a huge negative surivivability trait -- slows them down, more mass = more food required, more awkward to escape predators, etc.
This guy must be a Libertarian -- all focusing on the theoretical details, no focus on the objective, practical reality :). [Hey, gotta use some election day metaphors!]
--
A great example of reading what you want to see, rather than what is actually there.
--
Screw the kid; I think some of the parents could use a good paddling. :)
--
"Miss Smith, bring me my paddle. I think someone needs to meet Mr. Redbutt."
--
You know, I used to wonder who these parents are that sic the ACLU on a school when the school tries to enforce discipline.
I will never understand parents who think their kids should be able to disrupt school however they want. Well, that's why I'll be sending my kids to private school -- to get away from YOUR kids.
--
Or you can overcome societies problems by showing how screwed up it is, just as this kid did.
Right. Let's just blame society, that makes a lot of sense. It's society's fault that this kid is socially backward. We should eliminate all sports, because some kids are not athletic. We should eliminate dances because some kids are too shy or too socially awkward to get a date.
If everyone can't have fun, then no one shall have fun.
--
An example of "normal social skills" at play... My 16 year old step daughter is being pilloried by her "friends" at the moment. Why? Because the guy that she likes has a new girlfriend.
There are a couple of things to be said about this. First of all, you don't know what the real story is. No, you don't.
Second of all, this is High School. Kids are still developing, and they can be mean and cruel. What else is new?
In any case, what does this have to do with the point? You think everyone should be shy and afraid to interact with other people? Or do you equate the ability to interact easily with other people with being mean and cruel? That is simply bigotry/jealousy/sour grapes.
I was a geek in high school. I know it sucks. But I don't blame others, I blame myself. I worked hard to overcome my shyness and social awkwardness. It's stupid to try and justify social problems as "not worse, just different".
--
While I have no plans to become a school administrator, I would hope to be the man that you attempt to stomp.
"Mr Sdo1, your son deliberately and willfully disrupted festivities that he voluntarily joined. If he didn't want to participate, that would be fine, but it is not fine to spoil everyone else's fun. But you're right about one thing -- 2 days is not an appropriate punishment. Make it a week. Now get the hell out of my office and teach your child 1) some manners, and 2) that the world does not solely revolve around his needs."
--
Come on! You may disagree with Bush on various issues, but at least he doesn't issue meaningless babble like this:
Good God! I've always believed scientists are mostly politics-foolish (Einstein was a socialist, for example), but this guy is completely wack.
--
Simple question: What is the nature of time? [heh]
Since the collision is 206 million light years away, then did what we're seeing occur 206 million years ago? Does the expansion of the universe affect that amount of time?
[Warning: I'm not sure exactly how to phrase what I'm thinking for the following] And more esoterically, I know that time and space are intertwined in complex ways. Does it make sense to talk about what is happening at that point in space "now" in time, relativistically speaking? In other words, is our "now" the same as the "now" currently at that point in space?
I guess what I'm trying to ask is can you compare clocks that are 206 million light years apart, or does the nature of space/time make it that two clocks are considered synchronized when you can compare the signals from two clocks received at light speed? [ugh -- I don't know if I'm phrasing this comprehensibly].
--
I have the right to defend my womb from foreign agents who would suck my life force for their own benefit.
The fundamental flaw in your reasoning is that you can't separate your body from its fundamental function of reproduction. Your body is more than the vessel for your brain. Part of being human means reproduction, and being a woman means you have the potential to host a new human being.
What this means is that a woman is NOT totally a sovereign entity. Once your womb is carrying a new human being, your body has temporarily become "owned" by that new human being.
I know you don't like to think about it this way, but you can't separate your brain from your biology. New humans come into existence through the sharing of another body, and thus they have a fundamental right to the use of "their" host.
Bottom line, your womb is not only your womb. Your womb becomes joint property once a new sovereign human being starts growing within it. Now, if that new life really was a real and imminent threat to the life of the host (kind of like violating the terms of the "joint ownership", so to speak), then there is a justification for aborting the new human.
You're probably angry at this, but don't get angry at me. This is biology, pure and simple. You can't separate your brain from your biology.
And by the way, yes, if I was capable of having children, I would feel exactly the same way. It's not a question of whether society (or "me") have dominion over another person's body, it's whether the new human life does. And it does.
--
Well, I should say that Americans don't like "hard" socialism. Unfortunately, they often fall prey to the "socialism lite" practiced by the Democratic Party. But much like the frog that will jump out of boiling water, but will happily boil to death if the temperature is turned up gradually, the American people would reject the Green Party platform as much too radical.
--
I think that the Transmeta stuff has just gotten out of hand.
While I agree with you that Transmeta is probably getting too much attention, I think there is something to see here. It is a fairly unique experiment to build relatively high-level translation at the silicon level. I'm dubious whether they can pull it off with reasonable performance, but it's still interesting.
Torvalds is not a reason they should get extra attention, but it's not a reason they should be ignored either (i.e., in the name of "objectivity").
--
In fact, it's a good reason for Gore to withdraw from the race; Nader can beat Dubya hands down.
Come on, you don't believe that. All GWB would have to do is wave around the green party platform, and he would win 95%/5%. Socialism is not popular in this country (thank God).
--