The problem with "the way it was meant to be" arguments is that they presuppose an intelligent designer. There's little evidence for such in biology, and even less in computer science.:p
There's a surplus that won't be exhausted before 2037. By then, nearly all the boomers will be quite dead. The options for dealing with the system after the surplus is gone are many and not terribly troubling. But by all means, if your favorite politician needs to manufacture a crisis, pretending Social Security has some serious problem looming seems to be a favorite one...
You're picking at semantics and missing the point. If you're standing in a room and shining two beams of light away from each other, the photons appear to have a net velocity of 2c. Nobody's exceeding c. If you were inside of one of the beams, the other would look weird to you...
Actually, no, they don't, and from the perspective of either photon, the other appears to be moving at exactly 1c. That's how relativity works. You move off in one direction at 0.9c and I move off in the opposite direction at 0.9c, and I measure your velocity relative to mine, I get a result of less than 1.0c, not 1.8c as you might assume if you don't know/understand relativity.
So, does that mean there is atleast one Earthlike planet with life on it every 250 million light years?
No. Statistics don't work that way. It might mean there is, on average, one Earthlike planet per given volume of space, but certainly no "at least" guarantee, and indeed if the average is that low, there will be many instances of zero in said volume.
Right. Ultimately, BitCoins can become (and in fact have become, to a limited extent) a commodity. They can never really function effectively as a currency.
I dunno... I'm normally skeptical of patents, but if they've come up with a good method of distinguishing a genuine, intentional "whack" from a bit of jostling or other causes of sudden acceleration, which doesn't seem at all obvious how to do, then that strikes me as something that might genuinely be patentable.
Also, for most non-techies, it is easier to remember "Tiger" than "10.4"
I'd disagree on the latter. Which came first, Debian Potatoe or Debian Sarge?
First of all, why would I care, and second of all, I'm not sure how the point is relevant to your disagreement on the unrelated point. "Tiger" is easier to remember than "10.4". The fact that I can't tell you whether "Tiger" came before or after "Jaguar" in no way contradicts this, although it does expose an advantage numbers have over names. How big of an advantage is questionable. I know neither "Tiger" nor "Jaguar" are the latest version. Knowing their relative release dates to each other is maybe a great geek trivia question, but I don't see why I would otherwise care beyond knowing neither is current. I'll bet more users can tell you whether "Mountain Lion" is the latest version of their OS or not than can tell you whether "10.8" is or isn't latest.
Only on Slashdot can you find a comment better than the article. Someone give him a modpoint.
With the proviso that the comment would be utterly incomprehensible to the target audience of the original article. "Better" is thus a relative term, and an assessment the BBC would rightfully disagree with in this case.
...not anything actually provable in the mathematical sense as you get with real encryption. That does not hinder a log of gullible fools to hail it as the new thing.
Almost every technological breakthrough that has made life better and some people quite rich was based on things not actually "provable in the mathematical sense" (which is nearly everything we think we know, including the whole of empirical science).
Many, many asteroids are remnants of planets, so this isn't exactly a massive leap of logic.
If by that you mean, "no asteroids are known or believed to be the remnants of planets, but are believed to be formed from left over proto-planetary disk material that never successfully formed into a planet", then you are correct.
We spend so much time complaining, yet it is us - the people, the voters - who opted to sit around and watch television and let politicians warp the constitution to serve their need for power. The right and the left serve the same master. But it isn't the people.
Read the last sentence you posted. Then read the first I quoted without rejecting the last as false. Hopefully you can see the contradiction. Blaming the voters here is like blaming the Senate for the rise of Caesar....
I am not touting the Nuclear Energy is Clean, Safe, too Cheap to meter. However right now the effects of Fossil fuels is worse then the effect of nuclear energy.
We should expand our Nuclear Energy usage.
If it's true that fossil fuels and nuclear energy are the two and only two alternatives available, then your second statement logically follows from the first. If there are any other forms of energy, your second statement simply does not follow.
Forgive me, IANAPG but didnt Mars cease to be geologically active long ago.
That's what we thought, which makes this finding surprising.
Also, if earth is the only planet with active tectonics why is Venus literally covered with active volcanoes and an atmosphere thousands of times denser than earth?
It's literally covered with active volcanoes, rather than having them occur largely along narrow zones near fault lines, precisely because it appears to lack plate tectonics, which would cause it to vent its internal heat more like Earth does rather than it's peculiar Venusian way...
A liter of espresso may contain as much as 2254 milligrams of caffeine. But when filtered through a human gut 5 to 10 milligrams/liter in urine is the usual norm for a three cup a day coffee drinker.
And do you filter your left-over coffee grounds through your gut, too?
Slashdot Mirror
The problem with "the way it was meant to be" arguments is that they presuppose an intelligent designer. There's little evidence for such in biology, and even less in computer science. :p
There's a surplus that won't be exhausted before 2037. By then, nearly all the boomers will be quite dead. The options for dealing with the system after the surplus is gone are many and not terribly troubling. But by all means, if your favorite politician needs to manufacture a crisis, pretending Social Security has some serious problem looming seems to be a favorite one...
You're picking at semantics and missing the point. If you're standing in a room and shining two beams of light away from each other, the photons appear to have a net velocity of 2c. Nobody's exceeding c. If you were inside of one of the beams, the other would look weird to you...
Actually, no, they don't, and from the perspective of either photon, the other appears to be moving at exactly 1c. That's how relativity works. You move off in one direction at 0.9c and I move off in the opposite direction at 0.9c, and I measure your velocity relative to mine, I get a result of less than 1.0c, not 1.8c as you might assume if you don't know/understand relativity.
So, does that mean there is atleast one Earthlike planet with life on it every 250 million light years?
No. Statistics don't work that way. It might mean there is, on average, one Earthlike planet per given volume of space, but certainly no "at least" guarantee, and indeed if the average is that low, there will be many instances of zero in said volume.
Right. Ultimately, BitCoins can become (and in fact have become, to a limited extent) a commodity. They can never really function effectively as a currency.
People should be allowed to choose any money they want...
They can. Just no one is required to accept it.
The benefit is that the citizens are allowed to save money in a safe and secure manner of their choice...
There are countries where you can't do this? I can do this in the US.
I dunno... I'm normally skeptical of patents, but if they've come up with a good method of distinguishing a genuine, intentional "whack" from a bit of jostling or other causes of sudden acceleration, which doesn't seem at all obvious how to do, then that strikes me as something that might genuinely be patentable.
"Good news everyone, we weren't compromised. We're just incompetent!"
To be fair, everyone who uses their hosting is already well aware of that, so this doesn't really hurt them to say...
Also, for most non-techies, it is easier to remember "Tiger" than "10.4"
I'd disagree on the latter. Which came first, Debian Potatoe or Debian Sarge?
First of all, why would I care, and second of all, I'm not sure how the point is relevant to your disagreement on the unrelated point. "Tiger" is easier to remember than "10.4". The fact that I can't tell you whether "Tiger" came before or after "Jaguar" in no way contradicts this, although it does expose an advantage numbers have over names. How big of an advantage is questionable. I know neither "Tiger" nor "Jaguar" are the latest version. Knowing their relative release dates to each other is maybe a great geek trivia question, but I don't see why I would otherwise care beyond knowing neither is current. I'll bet more users can tell you whether "Mountain Lion" is the latest version of their OS or not than can tell you whether "10.8" is or isn't latest.
Why are we discussing something so pointless?
Like you have something better to do. (If you did, you wouldn't be here...)
One of the places where amateurs still make many observations and discoveries.
I'm wondering, given the fact that scientific results are by definition falsifyable...
Duhem and Quine have made some points you might want to review before continuing to spread that particular fallacy...
Only on Slashdot can you find a comment better than the article. Someone give him a modpoint.
With the proviso that the comment would be utterly incomprehensible to the target audience of the original article. "Better" is thus a relative term, and an assessment the BBC would rightfully disagree with in this case.
...not anything actually provable in the mathematical sense as you get with real encryption. That does not hinder a log of gullible fools to hail it as the new thing.
Almost every technological breakthrough that has made life better and some people quite rich was based on things not actually "provable in the mathematical sense" (which is nearly everything we think we know, including the whole of empirical science).
Just 30 years? I want to blame all of them at least back to Nixon.
Wait a minute, it's been over 30 years since...? Aw frak...
Many, many asteroids are remnants of planets, so this isn't exactly a massive leap of logic.
If by that you mean, "no asteroids are known or believed to be the remnants of planets, but are believed to be formed from left over proto-planetary disk material that never successfully formed into a planet", then you are correct.
We spend so much time complaining, yet it is us - the people, the voters - who opted to sit around and watch television and let politicians warp the constitution to serve their need for power. The right and the left serve the same master. But it isn't the people.
Read the last sentence you posted. Then read the first I quoted without rejecting the last as false. Hopefully you can see the contradiction. Blaming the voters here is like blaming the Senate for the rise of Caesar....
inorite? Kids these days...
Whenever someone goes on a killing rampage, people always dig up all this stuff and say, "Why didn't we stop this?"
Whenever they act on this stuff to prevent it, people always say, "But he never did anything, just talked about it!"
Somedays, you just can't win...
I am not touting the Nuclear Energy is Clean, Safe, too Cheap to meter. However right now the effects of Fossil fuels is worse then the effect of nuclear energy.
We should expand our Nuclear Energy usage.
If it's true that fossil fuels and nuclear energy are the two and only two alternatives available, then your second statement logically follows from the first. If there are any other forms of energy, your second statement simply does not follow.
Regardless, it looks obvious
I dunno... plate tectonics on Mars? Seems faulty to me... ;)
Forgive me, IANAPG but didnt Mars cease to be geologically active long ago.
That's what we thought, which makes this finding surprising.
Also, if earth is the only planet with active tectonics why is Venus literally covered with active volcanoes and an atmosphere thousands of times denser than earth?
It's literally covered with active volcanoes, rather than having them occur largely along narrow zones near fault lines, precisely because it appears to lack plate tectonics, which would cause it to vent its internal heat more like Earth does rather than it's peculiar Venusian way...
That's brilliant! /me adds eyespots onto my backpack.
A liter of espresso may contain as much as 2254 milligrams of caffeine. But when filtered through a human gut 5 to 10 milligrams/liter in urine is the usual norm for a three cup a day coffee drinker.
And do you filter your left-over coffee grounds through your gut, too?
Why do I have to decrypt the summary?
You could try reading the article, perhaps?