Eugenics was evil, and it is my shame that we in this country practised it, but as long as the benefits are spread to all, then genetic engineering holds the promise of a freedom from the myriad of inherited diseases that kill or cripple millions each year.
And how to you intend to ensure that the benefits are spread equally to all?
Don't get me wrong, you essentially have a very nice idea. Sounds rather like communism, in fact, except that it doesn't deal with money or resources. Too bad communism didn't work out...
Unfortunately, I'm willing to bet that human nature would treat genetic superiority as another form of currency. Once a few people got their hands on it, they might not want to share it with those that were "lesser" than them.
An announcement like this coming hot on the heels of Marc Garneau announcing A Canadian Mars Mission doesn't really bode well for the future funding prospects of that mission. It would be a real shame if this failure in the Canadarm spells doom for the Mars mission, because Canada can do good science, and needs this to come out from under the shadow of the USA, at least a little.
I remember an amateur electronics hobbyist suggesting that a great way to get free ICs was to take an old motherboard, expose the back of it to a blowtorch for a few seconds, and let all of the ICs fall through when their solder melted.
The above might sound like a silly idea, but I'm sure that at least some of the old ICs are probably useful to the embedded market in ome way or another. Could you melt the motherboard to separate the copper from the plastic/silicon? Not sure what to do with the old solder, either...
I suppose the easiest thing to recycle are cases: pure sheet steel/aluminium, screws, etc. Some of the power supply components and small fans rarely break and are common in other systems.
The main problem is labour. No matter what recycling/reuse solution you suggest, computers are complex devices, and I think that for the near future, a lot of human processing will be needed to separate the wheat from the chaff. Moreover, the expectation is for cheap computers (at least in North America), and covering the costs of recycling could raise prices considerably. We don't just need good technical ideas about how to recycle, we also need a good way to sell the idea to the consumer. And let's stay away from government controls...
<disclosure>I haven't watched Voyager for at least 4 years.</disclosure>
That being said, all of these suggestions sound like good ways to end the series. However, I'm not sure that they can work, simply because of ratings. STTNG tried something like this by broadcasting Family after the end of Best of Both Worlds, and while I thought it was a good character episode (well, OK, it had a supposedly-French child with an annoying British accent, but still), which brought some closure to the episodes preceding it, they were roundly criticized for releasing something boring. Seems to me like that would be disastrous for a series finale.
We can argue that this project is only meant to store languages, but that's not a true barrier to the disk's use. I suppose we could also argue high cost, but I'm a market economy advocate... ^_^
The right of the people to be armed is very much a powerful check against the possibility of opressive government - something countries who have banned their citizens from owning guns are now susceptible to.
Frankly, this is a silly statement. If you want proof of that, just look north. AFAIK, Canada does not have an equivalent to the 2nd amendment. To say that Canada is in danger of becoming a fascist state is completely ridiculous. Ditto for most Europeans countries, I would suspect.
It would not surprise me to see a semi-fascist state(complete with the loss of any individual rights) with a charismatic leader rise out of the EU.
Your argument ignores the fact that a charismatic leader arising in the US would be just as able to drum up support for his (unlikely to be "her", unfortunately) policies amongst gun owners. In fact, such a leader would be an idiot not to, given the number of gun owners. Assuming that the vast majority of people following the fascist leader now have guns, you're not really any better off than when you started. What you would now have is 80 million+ fascist leader-loving gunowners.
Being an optimist, I would hope that most of these gun owners would not be swayed by this charismatic leader's statements, so as to fulfill the original intentions of the 2nd amendment. We now have civil war involving 80 million+ guns. I think I would prefer the gunless alternative.
You could argue that there seems to be a strong correlation between unhappiness and violence. Unhappiness is a difficult subject to pin down, but a big factor might be income equality. If you look at societies with flatter income distributions, such as Japan and some of Europe, the incidence of reported violence is much lower. If you remove the influence of petty dictators and such, African nations also enjoy these benefits. It is largely in countries where the people have great expectations that violence is a problem. To blatantly plagiarize an article I once read, in a society were everybody can become president, not becoming so makes you a failure.
The lawsuit seems to try to address income distribution, at any rate: the plaitiffs believe that there is an unfair income distribution (the companies are making money off of our children's lives) and are asking for a large sum to provide some equality. They could have (and did, partly) asked for other things, such as mandated ratings on games, stronger copy protection so that adult-themed games don't get shown to minors, etc. But asking for money is a tacit admission that money is where the companies are going to hurt most.
Re:Couple of thoughts on tall buildings
on
First Arcology?
·
· Score: 1
These are some good questions. However, remember that they're planning on burying the roots some 600ft. into the ground. You could presumably construct dedicated sanitation AND power plants in that kind of space.
I'd be a little worried about parking. I would think that your average Chinese citizen granted the privilege to live in this place might have a car for his or her family. That's roughly 25,000 cars, assuming 2.2 kids. ^_^
I also worried about the prospect of pumping clean water UP 3700 ft. How much power is this going to take? Would atmospheric condensers be a viable solution to at least some of this problem?
Luckily, you don't really have to worry much about sewage. If your sanitation plant is down below, just dig a hole and say "Look out below!" Who's to say that what works for outhouses can't work for a huge skyscaper?
Personally, though, I think that the main accomplishment of this project wouldn't be the world's tallest building, or even the world first arcology, but the world's largest artificial sundial.
Remember what you're watching
on
Essential Anime
·
· Score: 1
When you're looking for anime, you should try to keep in mind that it typically plays first in Japan, and then in one of three forms: TV, movies, and original-run video series. I've heard enough complaints about "all that junk on TV" and "Hollywood movies are all the same crap" to think that maybe people might have a point. Japanese anime is the same way: it's TV and movies, for the most part, which means that while you'll find the occasional diamond in the rough, if you watch enough you'll eventually start seeing the same thing over and over again. Remember also that a lot of it is based around trying to sell toys to kids...do any of you have fond memories of G.I.Joe and Transformers? If so, you'll be seeing a lot of that again. That being said, there is, thankfully, a large variety of more mature material available...just don't start trying to convince yourself that anime is an entirely new form of media. Rather than simply give my list of faves, I'd like to list some development houses which do good work. If you see something you like, there's a good chance that you'll like other titles by the same studio/creator. Takahashi Rumiko: She's probably most famous for Ranma 1/2 and Maison Ikoku, although diehard fans probably know about Urusei Yatsura (LUM) as well. She's well known for making cute, romantic anime, but don't let that fool you: Mermaid's Forest and Mermaid's Scar can be rather disturbing. Otomo Katsuhiro: Best-known for Akira, although Roujin Z and Memories were also interesting. If I had to describe his animation style, the word "complex" comes to mind... Tezuka Osamu: The "father" of anime, you might know his work because you've seen Astroboy. His titles appeal primarily to children, although Dr. Slump is a notable exception to this...must watch this. Matsumoto Reiji: Possibly best known for Starblazers, everything I've seen from him seems to involve space travel. Galaxy Express 999 is simultaneously childlike and haunting. Shiro Masamune: Most famous for Ghost in the Shell, although Appleseed and Black Magic M-66 are also fairly well known. All of his anime revolve (loosely) around Cyberpunk genres. Miyazaki Hayao (Studio Ghibli): Probably Japan's most famous animator of the last 15 years, his films are legendary crowd pleasers of all ages. I personally love ALL of his work...what a shame that he has retired. Nausicaa, Laputa, Mononoke Hime...the list goes on. CLAMP: I love work from this studio primarily because I find the art extremely finely drawn. RG Veda is a short series which showcases their work and is easily found in North America. More recently, Card Captor Sakura seems to be on the verge of becoming the next Sailor Moon. Gainax: I suppose their most famous recent work is NG Evangelion. This studio is interesting in that all of their titles are fairly melodramatic, and usually have an interesting psychological element as well. Gunbuster and Nadia of the Mysterious Seas are older works by them. Oh well, I suppose that this has dragged on long enough...happy viewing.
Slashdot Mirror
And how to you intend to ensure that the benefits are spread equally to all?
Don't get me wrong, you essentially have a very nice idea. Sounds rather like communism, in fact, except that it doesn't deal with money or resources. Too bad communism didn't work out...
Unfortunately, I'm willing to bet that human nature would treat genetic superiority as another form of currency. Once a few people got their hands on it, they might not want to share it with those that were "lesser" than them.
An announcement like this coming hot on the heels of Marc Garneau announcing A Canadian Mars Mission doesn't really bode well for the future funding prospects of that mission. It would be a real shame if this failure in the Canadarm spells doom for the Mars mission, because Canada can do good science, and needs this to come out from under the shadow of the USA, at least a little.
The above might sound like a silly idea, but I'm sure that at least some of the old ICs are probably useful to the embedded market in ome way or another. Could you melt the motherboard to separate the copper from the plastic/silicon? Not sure what to do with the old solder, either...
I suppose the easiest thing to recycle are cases: pure sheet steel/aluminium, screws, etc. Some of the power supply components and small fans rarely break and are common in other systems.
The main problem is labour. No matter what recycling/reuse solution you suggest, computers are complex devices, and I think that for the near future, a lot of human processing will be needed to separate the wheat from the chaff. Moreover, the expectation is for cheap computers (at least in North America), and covering the costs of recycling could raise prices considerably. We don't just need good technical ideas about how to recycle, we also need a good way to sell the idea to the consumer. And let's stay away from government controls...
That being said, all of these suggestions sound like good ways to end the series. However, I'm not sure that they can work, simply because of ratings. STTNG tried something like this by broadcasting Family after the end of Best of Both Worlds, and while I thought it was a good character episode (well, OK, it had a supposedly-French child with an annoying British accent, but still), which brought some closure to the episodes preceding it, they were roundly criticized for releasing something boring. Seems to me like that would be disastrous for a series finale.
There already is such a format...well, sort of.
The Rosetta Project
We can argue that this project is only meant to store languages, but that's not a true barrier to the disk's use. I suppose we could also argue high cost, but I'm a market economy advocate... ^_^
The right of the people to be armed is very much a powerful check against the possibility of opressive government - something countries who have banned their citizens from owning guns are now susceptible to.
Frankly, this is a silly statement. If you want proof of that, just look north. AFAIK, Canada does not have an equivalent to the 2nd amendment. To say that Canada is in danger of becoming a fascist state is completely ridiculous. Ditto for most Europeans countries, I would suspect.
It would not surprise me to see a semi-fascist state(complete with the loss of any individual rights) with a charismatic leader rise out of the EU.
Your argument ignores the fact that a charismatic leader arising in the US would be just as able to drum up support for his (unlikely to be "her", unfortunately) policies amongst gun owners. In fact, such a leader would be an idiot not to, given the number of gun owners. Assuming that the vast majority of people following the fascist leader now have guns, you're not really any better off than when you started. What you would now have is 80 million+ fascist leader-loving gunowners.
Being an optimist, I would hope that most of these gun owners would not be swayed by this charismatic leader's statements, so as to fulfill the original intentions of the 2nd amendment. We now have civil war involving 80 million+ guns. I think I would prefer the gunless alternative.
You could argue that there seems to be a strong correlation between unhappiness and violence. Unhappiness is a difficult subject to pin down, but a big factor might be income equality. If you look at societies with flatter income distributions, such as Japan and some of Europe, the incidence of reported violence is much lower. If you remove the influence of petty dictators and such, African nations also enjoy these benefits. It is largely in countries where the people have great expectations that violence is a problem. To blatantly plagiarize an article I once read, in a society were everybody can become president, not becoming so makes you a failure.
The lawsuit seems to try to address income distribution, at any rate: the plaitiffs believe that there is an unfair income distribution (the companies are making money off of our children's lives) and are asking for a large sum to provide some equality. They could have (and did, partly) asked for other things, such as mandated ratings on games, stronger copy protection so that adult-themed games don't get shown to minors, etc. But asking for money is a tacit admission that money is where the companies are going to hurt most.
These are some good questions. However, remember that they're planning on burying the roots some 600ft. into the ground. You could presumably construct dedicated sanitation AND power plants in that kind of space.
I'd be a little worried about parking. I would think that your average Chinese citizen granted the privilege to live in this place might have a car for his or her family. That's roughly 25,000 cars, assuming 2.2 kids. ^_^
I also worried about the prospect of pumping clean water UP 3700 ft. How much power is this going to take? Would atmospheric condensers be a viable solution to at least some of this problem?
Luckily, you don't really have to worry much about sewage. If your sanitation plant is down below, just dig a hole and say "Look out below!" Who's to say that what works for outhouses can't work for a huge skyscaper?
Personally, though, I think that the main accomplishment of this project wouldn't be the world's tallest building, or even the world first arcology, but the world's largest artificial sundial.
When you're looking for anime, you should try to keep in mind that it typically plays first in Japan, and then in one of three forms: TV, movies, and original-run video series. I've heard enough complaints about "all that junk on TV" and "Hollywood movies are all the same crap" to think that maybe people might have a point. Japanese anime is the same way: it's TV and movies, for the most part, which means that while you'll find the occasional diamond in the rough, if you watch enough you'll eventually start seeing the same thing over and over again. Remember also that a lot of it is based around trying to sell toys to kids...do any of you have fond memories of G.I.Joe and Transformers? If so, you'll be seeing a lot of that again. That being said, there is, thankfully, a large variety of more mature material available...just don't start trying to convince yourself that anime is an entirely new form of media. Rather than simply give my list of faves, I'd like to list some development houses which do good work. If you see something you like, there's a good chance that you'll like other titles by the same studio/creator. Takahashi Rumiko: She's probably most famous for Ranma 1/2 and Maison Ikoku, although diehard fans probably know about Urusei Yatsura (LUM) as well. She's well known for making cute, romantic anime, but don't let that fool you: Mermaid's Forest and Mermaid's Scar can be rather disturbing. Otomo Katsuhiro: Best-known for Akira, although Roujin Z and Memories were also interesting. If I had to describe his animation style, the word "complex" comes to mind... Tezuka Osamu: The "father" of anime, you might know his work because you've seen Astroboy. His titles appeal primarily to children, although Dr. Slump is a notable exception to this...must watch this. Matsumoto Reiji: Possibly best known for Starblazers, everything I've seen from him seems to involve space travel. Galaxy Express 999 is simultaneously childlike and haunting. Shiro Masamune: Most famous for Ghost in the Shell, although Appleseed and Black Magic M-66 are also fairly well known. All of his anime revolve (loosely) around Cyberpunk genres. Miyazaki Hayao (Studio Ghibli): Probably Japan's most famous animator of the last 15 years, his films are legendary crowd pleasers of all ages. I personally love ALL of his work...what a shame that he has retired. Nausicaa, Laputa, Mononoke Hime...the list goes on. CLAMP: I love work from this studio primarily because I find the art extremely finely drawn. RG Veda is a short series which showcases their work and is easily found in North America. More recently, Card Captor Sakura seems to be on the verge of becoming the next Sailor Moon. Gainax: I suppose their most famous recent work is NG Evangelion. This studio is interesting in that all of their titles are fairly melodramatic, and usually have an interesting psychological element as well. Gunbuster and Nadia of the Mysterious Seas are older works by them. Oh well, I suppose that this has dragged on long enough...happy viewing.