I mean, it would be pretty dickish of me to leave my cat to starve, wouldn't it?
Hopefully the gods of all the different species are coordinating the times of their respective raptures. Worst case, dog-rapture and cat-rapture will happen as soon as the relevant gods notice the people flying up.
The problem I have with this Mayan and other silly calendar based EOD prophecies. Since I was indoctrinated by Roman Catholic values (thanks mom and dad!) one thing I know is that the Caesar occupation of Rome lead to the butchering of our 10month calendar... October is the 10th month of the year FFS and July and August was introduced out of some need to satisfy a bunch of ancient egotistical usurpers.
Actually January and February were the late additions. The early Roman agricultural year started in March (named after the God of war, of course - this is Rome we're talking about). The Sept- Oct- Nov- Dec- are off because we start our year at (approximately) the solstice rather than the beginning of spring.
Timezones were created so everyone sees the sun rise and set at the same (approximate) time. Timezones don't obey Man's law, they obey God's law.
Actually, they were created so people would *not* go by solar time. In the age of transcontinental railroads it was real inconvenient when every stop had its clocks set by the local meridian.
The point I'm trying to make, as others have: correlation != causality.
However, we have a good understanding of the chemistry and physics. Neither the ozone hole nor global warming are explained by 'correlation' with something.
Looks like for this and the tax breaks for billionaires our Congress is going to pretend it isn't permanent, but still make it last forever with endless extensions.
Kinda like copyrights too, I suppose. I was just referred to a site that had the individual tracks of "Gimme Shelter" so you could hear the details of what was going on, but this recording from 42 years ago had been pulled down because of the copyrights.
A bunch of planets floating around in space without orbiting a star
Come to think of it, why are we working on the assumption that basically every object in the universe is on fire*? As a personal bet, £5 says that the vast majority of mass in the universe is in solar systems where the central object either wasn't on fire, or has burnt out billions of years ago
* Yeah, AFAIK the official explanation for this assumption is "because that's all we can see", but maths says there must be more - the explanation for the rest always seems to have dark matter being some mysterious meta-mass unlike anything we know about, rather than simply being planets with no nearby light source...
And your PHB says it shouldn't take so long to write programs.
How come everyone around here knows more than the experts? Do you really think astronomers are too dumb to think of all the non-stellar matter in and between the galaxies?
I teach a graduate-level cryptography course with no assigned textbook --- the reading assignments are almost entirely based on research papers. These are mostly available on line "for free", but this is only because academic publishers haven't aggressively pursued their copyright claims and locked this material down.*
[...]
* Incidentally, academic publishers play almost no role in the production or even the typesetting of this material. Even book layout is handled by unpaid volunteers. However, to publish in the top conferences and journals you have to sign your life away. It's ridiculous.
Most respectable publishers for the CS field have a "self archiving" policy that lets people put their papers on their web site. When they do, all you have to do is give the students the link and tell them to read the paper. No infringement involved.
Over the planet's transit over the face of the star, from our angle, the light interacts with the atmosphere of the planet before passing through to be seen by our telescopes. The light is broken down into component frequencies to determine the chemicals present and their relative concentrations in the atmosphere. Some chemical signatures can be understood as the the result of natural processes, while others do not seem to occur without the influence of biological processes. We are looking for 'unnatural atmospheres' modified by exotic processes that cannot be readily explained under natural conditions.
Hope they're looking at some seriously red-shifted planets, if they're trying to look at light with a radio telescope.
It's obviously a project being run by an alien bureaucratic agency of some kind. Probably has been running for centuries to keep the "wooden board and rope" skilled aliens employed.
LoL. I get an image of a flying saucer hovering over a farm and beaming down a team of Greys with ropes and boards, who quickly press out the design they've been given. Then it's beam-them-up, and a smoke break while on the way to the next farm.
So the aliens are coming down to Earth from hundreds of light years away, and leaving hints in crop circles about what planets they are coming from instead of just saying hi?
They wanted to make sure they only had to deal with the smart people.
It's kind of scary. At many big non-IT companies, IT costs have risen to as much as 6% to 10% of their cost of doing business. This is simply unsustainable.
Wouldn't that judgement kind of depend on how much IT is contributing to their business? If it reduces your payroll, multiplies the number of customers you can reach, allows you to give those customers faster or otherwise better service at reduced cost, and allows you to make better business decisions, 10% might be a helluva bargain.
The real question when do we get a government that is more concerned about the welfare of the population than corporate profits?
Shortly after people start voting for good government instead of knee-jerk issues or whoever promises the best combination of tax cuts and handouts for yourself.
From the perspective of someone who prefers their privacy I'm not seeing a problem.
Only problem I see is why we don't have laws like this. With teeth.
Why haven't we seen an article titled "New US Law Will Cripple Data-Centric Outsourcing (and intrusive/careless management of data at home)"? And about 15 years ago?
I'd be curious as to whether someone has a better model in mind on how this should be done.
Given:
The Amazon Kindle Terms and Conditions: “We are entitled to determine what content we accept and distribute through the Program in our sole discretion.”
That's an easy one: don't buy a media device controlled by a single content provider.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm planning on setting piles of clothes out on the sidewalk. Should be good for a laugh :)
Surely God isn't going to fill Heaven up with nekkid people. He'd have to kick most of them right back out for lascivious thoughts.
I mean, it would be pretty dickish of me to leave my cat to starve, wouldn't it?
Hopefully the gods of all the different species are coordinating the times of their respective raptures. Worst case, dog-rapture and cat-rapture will happen as soon as the relevant gods notice the people flying up.
Finding People ...who thought the rapture would come, and asking them the obvious question, "Where is your god now?"
Or even better... ask them why they didn't ascend when some of your other Christian friends did.
Or even bester, ask them why they're still here and your Hindu friends aren't.
The problem I have with this Mayan and other silly calendar based EOD prophecies. Since I was indoctrinated by Roman Catholic values (thanks mom and dad!) one thing I know is that the Caesar occupation of Rome lead to the butchering of our 10month calendar ... October is the 10th month of the year FFS and July and August was introduced out of some need to satisfy a bunch of ancient egotistical usurpers.
Actually January and February were the late additions. The early Roman agricultural year started in March (named after the God of war, of course - this is Rome we're talking about). The Sept- Oct- Nov- Dec- are off because we start our year at (approximately) the solstice rather than the beginning of spring.
July and August were merely renamed.
Timezones were created so everyone sees the sun rise and set at the same (approximate) time. Timezones don't obey Man's law, they obey God's law.
Actually, they were created so people would *not* go by solar time. In the age of transcontinental railroads it was real inconvenient when every stop had its clocks set by the local meridian.
The point I'm trying to make, as others have: correlation != causality.
However, we have a good understanding of the chemistry and physics. Neither the ozone hole nor global warming are explained by 'correlation' with something.
In two days it will be judgement day anyways.
Can I have your toys?
Looks like for this and the tax breaks for billionaires our Congress is going to pretend it isn't permanent, but still make it last forever with endless extensions.
Kinda like copyrights too, I suppose. I was just referred to a site that had the individual tracks of "Gimme Shelter" so you could hear the details of what was going on, but this recording from 42 years ago had been pulled down because of the copyrights.
What manner of fuel do expect to find on the "homeless" planet?
More importantly, what do you find to *eat*?
I don't mind burning mummies to power my spaceship, but when it's dinnertime I expect fresh sapient brains on the plate.
A bunch of planets floating around in space without orbiting a star
Come to think of it, why are we working on the assumption that basically every object in the universe is on fire*? As a personal bet, £5 says that the vast majority of mass in the universe is in solar systems where the central object either wasn't on fire, or has burnt out billions of years ago
* Yeah, AFAIK the official explanation for this assumption is "because that's all we can see", but maths says there must be more - the explanation for the rest always seems to have dark matter being some mysterious meta-mass unlike anything we know about, rather than simply being planets with no nearby light source...
And your PHB says it shouldn't take so long to write programs.
How come everyone around here knows more than the experts? Do you really think astronomers are too dumb to think of all the non-stellar matter in and between the galaxies?
tomorrow we will have homeless moons, rocks, asteroids etc etc etc... and dark matter will be reduced in a big 0.000001%.
Except that they have to account for five times as much as what astronomers can see or infer exists.
Did it ever occur to you that the experts might actually know what they're talking about?
I guess the economy's bad *everywhere*.
I teach a graduate-level cryptography course with no assigned textbook --- the reading assignments are almost entirely based on research papers. These are mostly available on line "for free", but this is only because academic publishers haven't aggressively pursued their copyright claims and locked this material down.*
[...]
* Incidentally, academic publishers play almost no role in the production or even the typesetting of this material. Even book layout is handled by unpaid volunteers. However, to publish in the top conferences and journals you have to sign your life away. It's ridiculous.
Most respectable publishers for the CS field have a "self archiving" policy that lets people put their papers on their web site. When they do, all you have to do is give the students the link and tell them to read the paper. No infringement involved.
The other was a recreational option on our part.
But there has been talk of doing what you described. Do you know whether we're "there yet" with the necessary technology?
a cluster of jackasses on the Information Superhighway. Shouldn't be too hard for anyone that ever sat an open channel on IRC.
Yes, but in this case the asses are carrying the messages rather than creating them.
Doesn't even seem to be enough NATO planes to stop Gaddafi
It baffles me that the Western Powers would think that "a little bit" of intervention would work. What's the end game for this scenario?
Or is this another one that's intended to last forever?
Over the planet's transit over the face of the star, from our angle, the light interacts with the atmosphere of the planet before passing through to be seen by our telescopes. The light is broken down into component frequencies to determine the chemicals present and their relative concentrations in the atmosphere. Some chemical signatures can be understood as the the result of natural processes, while others do not seem to occur without the influence of biological processes. We are looking for 'unnatural atmospheres' modified by exotic processes that cannot be readily explained under natural conditions.
Hope they're looking at some seriously red-shifted planets, if they're trying to look at light with a radio telescope.
It's obviously a project being run by an alien bureaucratic agency of some kind. Probably has been running for centuries to keep the "wooden board and rope" skilled aliens employed.
LoL. I get an image of a flying saucer hovering over a farm and beaming down a team of Greys with ropes and boards, who quickly press out the design they've been given. Then it's beam-them-up, and a smoke break while on the way to the next farm.
So the aliens are coming down to Earth from hundreds of light years away, and leaving hints in crop circles about what planets they are coming from instead of just saying hi?
They wanted to make sure they only had to deal with the smart people.
It's kind of scary. At many big non-IT companies, IT costs have risen to as much as 6% to 10% of their cost of doing business. This is simply unsustainable.
Wouldn't that judgement kind of depend on how much IT is contributing to their business? If it reduces your payroll, multiplies the number of customers you can reach, allows you to give those customers faster or otherwise better service at reduced cost, and allows you to make better business decisions, 10% might be a helluva bargain.
The real question when do we get a government that is more concerned about the welfare of the population than corporate profits?
Shortly after people start voting for good government instead of knee-jerk issues or whoever promises the best combination of tax cuts and handouts for yourself.
IOW, never.
From the perspective of someone who prefers their privacy I'm not seeing a problem.
Only problem I see is why we don't have laws like this. With teeth.
Why haven't we seen an article titled "New US Law Will Cripple Data-Centric Outsourcing (and intrusive/careless management of data at home)"? And about 15 years ago?
Oh, wait. I forgot who owns Congress. Silly me.
I'd be curious as to whether someone has a better model in mind on how this should be done.
Given:
The Amazon Kindle Terms and Conditions: “We are entitled to determine what content we accept and distribute through the Program in our sole discretion.”
That's an easy one: don't buy a media device controlled by a single content provider.
That's why there is a link to the wikipedia article in the summary. So you can find out.
So now we're expected to RTFWL too, huh?