The problem here is not the drug companies themselves; they are only behaving as any corporation would, and attemping to maximize their profits. At core, these Third World generic manufacturers are simply engaging in capitalism: a state of pure competition for drug prices. If they were allowed by the Western governments to compete with these government supported pharmaceutical oligopolies, there wouldn't really be a problem. This is where it makes little sense globally for IP regulations to be forced upon non-developed nations like Uganda: the U.S. is actually undermining global competition in order to preserve the interests of large multinationals. It is not likely that these large corporations are best suited to meeting the needs of local markets in the Third World: how do we know a local startup couldn't do the job better for local condition, and at a reasonable price locally? We need to stop allowing global IP to cut off the air supply of these startups.
Although the article states that maglev technology has been criticized as energy inefficient, I was under the impression that the technology could actually be very efficient, at least in theory. In the future, it may be possible to create large superconducting electromagnets that would suspend the train without consuming energy. Then the only energy consumed would be energy used by seperate propulsion magnets (to overcome air resistance as the train moves forward) and energy consumed to keep the superconductors frozen. This technology could in the future decrease fuel consumption, especially if higher-temperature superconductors are developed.
You should read the book "The Diversity of Life" by Edward Wilson, a Harvard entomologist. While written for a popular audience, and albeit with a bit of a poltical slant, this book gives one of the most coherent scientific arguments for evolution that I have seen. Wilson explains how the vast diversity that results from speciation and macroevolution is essential to the very stability of the global ecosystem. In short, you wouldn't exist without evolution, and humanity could not continue to survive without its continued existence. "Creationists" and others trying to impose their agenda on science forget that science has no agenda other than the search for truth, which happens to be the goal of most religion. If your religious beliefs are correct, then science will eventually support them.
I just finished with a class that touched on the genome mentioned here. Most of the gene functions are, as has been mentioned earlier, deduced by comparison to other genes of known function in other species. This is usually done using algorithms like BLAST/PSI-BLAST/Gapped BLAST (Basic Local Alignment Search Tool) that compare sequences in question to data stored in a large database like GenBank. More information on these topics can be found at the National Center for Biotechnology Information, run by the National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health.
I have to say that the one feature I really miss the most from 4.7x is support for LDAP directories. I don't really know that much about mozilla, but I thought I heard that this hadn't made it in yet. Any word on when it will be available?
I think that fragmentation is only bad if it is done in a haphazard manner. If we could implement logically divided gnutella-nets grouped by reasonably specific topics, then we could address both the scalability problems and the fact that it is becoming harder and harder to find what you are looking for in the constant stream of crap that gnutella spews. Whenever a particular segment becomes too popular, it could be further divided into more specific subtopics. Divide and conquer can solve the problems we are seeing with gnutella.
From what I hear, less than 1200 votes seperate Bush and Gore in Florida, and 5000 more have yet to be counted. There is NO WAY you could make any sort of prediction about how 5000 ballots will fall. It is simply too small of a sample in too large of an electorate. Basically, it just comes down to blind luck now.
Open up the two-party system: PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION
This is absolutely foolhardy. How many times do slashdotters need to be reminded that the two-party system is a GOOD THING? Proportional representation allows any radical able to muster a modicum of support into the government. Think abou t what this really means for a second. Along with your Greens and Libertarians, you would also allow Neo-Nazis, Aryan Nations, and a whole boatload of other psychopaths into Congress. While the idea might seem good at the present, it would eventually lead to a breakdown of order and stability in the government. Witness the Israeli government. Barak is being forced to ally himself with the radical fundamentalist Likud party just to stay in power, and that gives these minority viewpoints enormous power disproportionate to their support. Do we really want this situation in the U.S.? I think not!
We have chosen stability over the right of minority viewpoints to force their ideas on the majority, and we have made a wise choice.
It makes absolutely no sense to tax speculation in the stock market. The speculators are making money simply because they are willing to take an enormous risk that most people are not willing to. That's called the spirit of capitalism, people. Take that risk-return incentive away, and the drive to invest in the economy collapses. Nader's position betrays both ignorance of basic economics and a deep-seated class jealousy.
This would be really cool for playing games on a Linux port of the various game consoles. Does anyone know much about Linux ports to the various popular game consoles?
I don't think that all "high quality" LCD displays exhibit the ghosting effect you describe. Quake III is quite playable on my Thinkpad, and looks as good or better than most CRT displays.
You may believe that it is a "problem with our electoral system" that the major parties are favored. The plurality vs. majority issue and the whole concept of single-member districts do support this conclusion. However, it is a good thing that third parties are marginalized in our system; this setup is responsible for much of the stability we enjoy (just look at say, Russia). It is helpful for third parties to exist; they inject new ideas and reforms into the political debate that, if popular with large segments of the population, will be absorbed by the major parties. However, it is best that they not actually make it into office. Third-parties tend to be much more radical than major parties; this is the reason they are not elected. No matter how much you agree with their position, it is not a Good Thing to have radicals from either wing running the government. The system we have, with the two major parties deadlocked for power, is best for everyone in the long term. The system is not broken; our power is the envy of the world.
The poor should bear the greatest proportion of the country's tax burden - it is they who benefit the most from government services, ergo they should pay the most. It is not fair for the rich to be taxed more heavily just because they can pay. Sorry, but that's capitalism for you.
i don't know if you're joking, but if you're not, you are making the same mistake all the creationists do. You are equating evolution with making something "better". Evolution does NOT do that; a cockroach and a human are equally highly evolved. They are both better for the environment in which they evolved.
While I completely agree with the overall message of your comment, I have to take issue with the statement that there are no absolutes. Scientists obviously can never be absolutely sure about any theory/law, but that does not mean that absolutes do not exist. It merely means that we do not understand them. And it certainly possible to have an absolute faith in God and still believe in evolution. One merely needs to figure out that, like natural laws, human understanding of God is imperfect and can never be absolutely proven.
Slashdot Mirror
The problem here is not the drug companies themselves; they are only behaving as any corporation would, and attemping to maximize their profits. At core, these Third World generic manufacturers are simply engaging in capitalism: a state of pure competition for drug prices. If they were allowed by the Western governments to compete with these government supported pharmaceutical oligopolies, there wouldn't really be a problem. This is where it makes little sense globally for IP regulations to be forced upon non-developed nations like Uganda: the U.S. is actually undermining global competition in order to preserve the interests of large multinationals. It is not likely that these large corporations are best suited to meeting the needs of local markets in the Third World: how do we know a local startup couldn't do the job better for local condition, and at a reasonable price locally? We need to stop allowing global IP to cut off the air supply of these startups.
Although the article states that maglev technology has been criticized as energy inefficient, I was under the impression that the technology could actually be very efficient, at least in theory. In the future, it may be possible to create large superconducting electromagnets that would suspend the train without consuming energy. Then the only energy consumed would be energy used by seperate propulsion magnets (to overcome air resistance as the train moves forward) and energy consumed to keep the superconductors frozen. This technology could in the future decrease fuel consumption, especially if higher-temperature superconductors are developed.
You should read the book "The Diversity of Life" by Edward Wilson, a Harvard entomologist. While written for a popular audience, and albeit with a bit of a poltical slant, this book gives one of the most coherent scientific arguments for evolution that I have seen. Wilson explains how the vast diversity that results from speciation and macroevolution is essential to the very stability of the global ecosystem. In short, you wouldn't exist without evolution, and humanity could not continue to survive without its continued existence. "Creationists" and others trying to impose their agenda on science forget that science has no agenda other than the search for truth, which happens to be the goal of most religion. If your religious beliefs are correct, then science will eventually support them.
I just finished with a class that touched on the genome mentioned here. Most of the gene functions are, as has been mentioned earlier, deduced by comparison to other genes of known function in other species. This is usually done using algorithms like BLAST/PSI-BLAST/Gapped BLAST (Basic Local Alignment Search Tool) that compare sequences in question to data stored in a large database like GenBank. More information on these topics can be found at the National Center for Biotechnology Information, run by the National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health.
Here's something you can do about it - DON'T USE IIS!
I have to say that the one feature I really miss the most from 4.7x is support for LDAP directories. I don't really know that much about mozilla, but I thought I heard that this hadn't made it in yet. Any word on when it will be available?
I think that fragmentation is only bad if it is done in a haphazard manner. If we could implement logically divided gnutella-nets grouped by reasonably specific topics, then we could address both the scalability problems and the fact that it is becoming harder and harder to find what you are looking for in the constant stream of crap that gnutella spews. Whenever a particular segment becomes too popular, it could be further divided into more specific subtopics. Divide and conquer can solve the problems we are seeing with gnutella.
From what I hear, less than 1200 votes seperate Bush and Gore in Florida, and 5000 more have yet to be counted. There is NO WAY you could make any sort of prediction about how 5000 ballots will fall. It is simply too small of a sample in too large of an electorate. Basically, it just comes down to blind luck now.
Open up the two-party system: PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION This is absolutely foolhardy. How many times do slashdotters need to be reminded that the two-party system is a GOOD THING? Proportional representation allows any radical able to muster a modicum of support into the government. Think abou t what this really means for a second. Along with your Greens and Libertarians, you would also allow Neo-Nazis, Aryan Nations, and a whole boatload of other psychopaths into Congress. While the idea might seem good at the present, it would eventually lead to a breakdown of order and stability in the government. Witness the Israeli government. Barak is being forced to ally himself with the radical fundamentalist Likud party just to stay in power, and that gives these minority viewpoints enormous power disproportionate to their support. Do we really want this situation in the U.S.? I think not! We have chosen stability over the right of minority viewpoints to force their ideas on the majority, and we have made a wise choice.
It makes absolutely no sense to tax speculation in the stock market. The speculators are making money simply because they are willing to take an enormous risk that most people are not willing to. That's called the spirit of capitalism, people. Take that risk-return incentive away, and the drive to invest in the economy collapses. Nader's position betrays both ignorance of basic economics and a deep-seated class jealousy.
Isn't this company also doing something that "infringes" on the patent?
This would be really cool for playing games on a Linux port of the various game consoles. Does anyone know much about Linux ports to the various popular game consoles?
I don't think that all "high quality" LCD displays exhibit the ghosting effect you describe. Quake III is quite playable on my Thinkpad, and looks as good or better than most CRT displays.
You may believe that it is a "problem with our electoral system" that the major parties are favored. The plurality vs. majority issue and the whole concept of single-member districts do support this conclusion. However, it is a good thing that third parties are marginalized in our system; this setup is responsible for much of the stability we enjoy (just look at say, Russia). It is helpful for third parties to exist; they inject new ideas and reforms into the political debate that, if popular with large segments of the population, will be absorbed by the major parties. However, it is best that they not actually make it into office. Third-parties tend to be much more radical than major parties; this is the reason they are not elected. No matter how much you agree with their position, it is not a Good Thing to have radicals from either wing running the government. The system we have, with the two major parties deadlocked for power, is best for everyone in the long term. The system is not broken; our power is the envy of the world.
The poor should bear the greatest proportion of the country's tax burden - it is they who benefit the most from government services, ergo they should pay the most. It is not fair for the rich to be taxed more heavily just because they can pay. Sorry, but that's capitalism for you.
i don't know if you're joking, but if you're not, you are making the same mistake all the creationists do. You are equating evolution with making something "better". Evolution does NOT do that; a cockroach and a human are equally highly evolved. They are both better for the environment in which they evolved.
While I completely agree with the overall message of your comment, I have to take issue with the statement that there are no absolutes. Scientists obviously can never be absolutely sure about any theory/law, but that does not mean that absolutes do not exist. It merely means that we do not understand them. And it certainly possible to have an absolute faith in God and still believe in evolution. One merely needs to figure out that, like natural laws, human understanding of God is imperfect and can never be absolutely proven.
Does anyone know if there is anyone trying to create an RBL-style list for cookies instead of spam?