If I were them, I'd make the required adjustments to the doctrine as soon as I realize that intelligent life is close to being discovered. The most likely reaction would be to say: "There is only one God, but he appears to different people in different ways. And so does Jesus. For his Earth appearance, picked the Israelites. Seven days / 6000 years are all metaphorical, not literal."
2010 -- Scrap all manned Moon/Mars missions for a decade. Fast-track Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF) and similar missions.
2014 -- Launch TPF and/or alternatives; First visible spectrum images of extra-solar planets that are not blurry specs
2015 -- First image of an earth-sized planet in the habitable region of a star
2016 -- First spectroscopic confirmation of an extra-solar oxygen-rich atmosphere and/or evidence of surface liquid water
-- World realizes we're now only one step away from detecting extra terrestrial life. NASA gets more funding.
2025 -- First grainy images of landmasses/clouds/seas on extra-solar planets. Vatican revises some of its positions. Other countries join the planet/life hunting race
2030 -- Image of kilometer-scale rectilinear structure in orbit around extra-solar planet. Alien life, alien intelligence and alien technology all more or less confirmed.
2031+ --- ??
TFA: "...Google uses a huge number of virtual machines running completely unpatched versions of Windows and Internet Explorer that they point at potentially malicious URLs."
ouch.
The idea of Wikileaks (i.e. the ability to anonymously expose government secrets) is valid and needs to survive. Currently Wikileaks is the only working instance of that idea. We cannot kill it simply because it is a bad implementation. In the years to come, there may be others and one of them may work better.
Using a typewriter/pen and paper usually results in a more unbroken flow because there is no mental backtracking. Once you write a sentence or a logical block of text (say, a scene or a dialog) you've psychologically committed it until you're ready for the first edit. The problem with word processors is that what you've written a minute ago is right up there at the top of the the screen, taunting you to come back and tweak it / perfect it / double check it. A few writers do not have this problem, but most of the perfectionists do.
The same effect can be achieved with a text editor that write-protects a block of text once you've written it, until you begin an editing session.
Argh! code_swarm is the previous visualization scheme. Source is not yet available on this one. And I've already lost hope. As I unzipped the archive, I thought I saw.jar files. File extensions beginning with that letter are not welcome where I work...
On a more serious note, C, H, O and N are so abundant that they should be present on almost any planet that has the right temperature and sufficient gravity. And the scientists' estimates of the last two shouldn't be too far off. If O is present in the atmosphere (and not geologically locked in), CO2 and H2O are almost certain to be present (one might even say it is "almost 100%" certain). The only question is whether there are sufficiently energetic processes to create amino acids and the like (lightning? volcanic activity?)
It's the Revenge of the Nerd, a variant of the quiet nerd who, after passively enduring the ridicule of his classmates for years, snaps one fine day and goes Columbine.
Ideological terrorists (especially the how-dare-you-insult-my-religion-die-die-die types) are often driven by uncontrolled rage. Nerds who've taken the brunt of their classmates' humor with no emotional outlets usually accumulate a good supply by the time they hit 20.
Haha I see what you mean. At least now if you don't trust your software to switch off the built in camera, you can at least put tape over it (I for one *never* trust software over mechanical switches -- mainly because I write software for a living and I know what's usually inside. i also use a 'dumb phone' because when I hit 'OFF' I want it to bloody TURN OFF)
On the other hand though, can it capture actual images as opposed to shadows, and if so, how would it do that without a lens?
Slashdot Mirror
If I were them, I'd make the required adjustments to the doctrine as soon as I realize that intelligent life is close to being discovered. The most likely reaction would be to say: "There is only one God, but he appears to different people in different ways. And so does Jesus. For his Earth appearance, picked the Israelites. Seven days / 6000 years are all metaphorical, not literal."
You need to account for Von Braun and co. They were working long before 1958
I'd rather see:
2010 -- Scrap all manned Moon/Mars missions for a decade. Fast-track Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF) and similar missions.
2014 -- Launch TPF and/or alternatives; First visible spectrum images of extra-solar planets that are not blurry specs
2015 -- First image of an earth-sized planet in the habitable region of a star
2016 -- First spectroscopic confirmation of an extra-solar oxygen-rich atmosphere and/or evidence of surface liquid water
-- World realizes we're now only one step away from detecting extra terrestrial life. NASA gets more funding.
2025 -- First grainy images of landmasses/clouds/seas on extra-solar planets. Vatican revises some of its positions. Other countries join the planet/life hunting race
2030 -- Image of kilometer-scale rectilinear structure in orbit around extra-solar planet. Alien life, alien intelligence and alien technology all more or less confirmed.
2031+ --- ??
The Boa Jesus is Born!
TFA: "...Google uses a huge number of virtual machines running completely unpatched versions of Windows and Internet Explorer that they point at potentially malicious URLs." ouch.
So the liberals end up being the Eloi, am I right?
how many libraries-of-congress-burned-per-second would the energy requirement for that be?
...according to McGregor - TFA
Why does that sound so familiar?
The HDD on my almost-4-year-old dell laptop is still working fine.
The idea of Wikileaks (i.e. the ability to anonymously expose government secrets) is valid and needs to survive. Currently Wikileaks is the only working instance of that idea. We cannot kill it simply because it is a bad implementation. In the years to come, there may be others and one of them may work better.
What next? Universal helm control interfaces? Standard hailing frequencies? Translation matrices? Uniform plasma injectors sockets? Stun mode?
The writer has a point.
Using a typewriter/pen and paper usually results in a more unbroken flow because there is no mental backtracking. Once you write a sentence or a logical block of text (say, a scene or a dialog) you've psychologically committed it until you're ready for the first edit. The problem with word processors is that what you've written a minute ago is right up there at the top of the the screen, taunting you to come back and tweak it / perfect it / double check it. A few writers do not have this problem, but most of the perfectionists do.
The same effect can be achieved with a text editor that write-protects a block of text once you've written it, until you begin an editing session.
And yes, despite my many digit UID, I actually started coding in the 10 PRINT GOTO era.
Argh! code_swarm is the previous visualization scheme. Source is not yet available on this one. And I've already lost hope. As I unzipped the archive, I thought I saw .jar files. File extensions beginning with that letter are not welcome where I work...
We've got a CVS repository of about half a million lines of C++ code, running back at least 5 years. I'm almost afraid to run code_swarm on it.
His argument doesn't really hold water.
Doesn't matter as long as the planet does!
On a more serious note, C, H, O and N are so abundant that they should be present on almost any planet that has the right temperature and sufficient gravity. And the scientists' estimates of the last two shouldn't be too far off. If O is present in the atmosphere (and not geologically locked in), CO2 and H2O are almost certain to be present (one might even say it is "almost 100%" certain). The only question is whether there are sufficiently energetic processes to create amino acids and the like (lightning? volcanic activity?)
Not if we go with the headline Divine Light makes cripples walk!
Does anybody use that anymore? Let me know when iTunes is infected
duuuuude! i know right? it totally looked like it was about to do one at one point
It's the Revenge of the Nerd, a variant of the quiet nerd who, after passively enduring the ridicule of his classmates for years, snaps one fine day and goes Columbine. Ideological terrorists (especially the how-dare-you-insult-my-religion-die-die-die types) are often driven by uncontrolled rage. Nerds who've taken the brunt of their classmates' humor with no emotional outlets usually accumulate a good supply by the time they hit 20.
It's rather unlikely that Google didn't learn *anything* from Buzz and is making the same mistake again.
Haha I see what you mean. At least now if you don't trust your software to switch off the built in camera, you can at least put tape over it (I for one *never* trust software over mechanical switches -- mainly because I write software for a living and I know what's usually inside. i also use a 'dumb phone' because when I hit 'OFF' I want it to bloody TURN OFF) On the other hand though, can it capture actual images as opposed to shadows, and if so, how would it do that without a lens?
Relieved to see i'm not the only one thinking of remotely rechargeable sharks.
Didn't the Mayans predict wireless charging millennia ago?
Actually the Theravada school does believe in the supernatural: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhahood#Buddha_as_a_supreme_human