So it turns out Panda DNA contains great biological secrets? No wonder they often refuse to mate in captivity, and when they do the offspring dies quickly. They're afraid we'll see them bestowing the magic on their young, and their secret will be out.
The information may have been obtainable through a FOIA request, but the requester's name would have been attached to that request, and when a crime spree occurs that seems to target handgun owners, the police could have looked at who has recently requested this information for these counties. The newspaper irresponsibly did four things:
It made the information more readily available to people who might not have known how to obtain it, while masking the identities of people who have access to it.
It created a map of homes to rob. Handguns are significantly harder to obtain than rifles or shotguns, and easier to hang onto once they're stolen because they're concealable. Criminals are less likely to purchase a gun through legal channels because they don't want them traced back to them when used in a crime. They don't want their fingerprints on file. They could purchase a gun through illegal channels, but the person who sold it knows they have that gun, which carries ongoing risk. Or they could take a one-time risk and steal a gun from someone's home while they're at work, so no one can ever connect that gun with them. I've talked to a number of people who have had guns stolen from them... one guy came home to find that his 500-lb gun safe had been ripped out of the wall. Another came home to find that the drywall had been cut and taken with the safe. Criminals want to steal guns, and they go to some pretty extreme lengths to do so.
It created a map of who is likely to be armed and who is not likely to be armed. Realistically, just because someone has a permit to own a handgun doesn't mean that they do, and just because someone doesn't have a permit doesn't mean they don't have a rifle or shotgun. The greatest risk in a home invasion is uncertainty. A criminal intent on robbing a house can watch the house to see how many people are there, when they are there, and whether those people present more than an acceptable risk. What he doesn't know is whether that person has a firearm handy and knows how to use it. But the map creates the illusion of certainty, and that's dangerous because it emboldens the criminal to believe he knows what is and is not in the house. A lot of law-breaking is deterred even at the most basic level by the creating enough uncertainty about the outcome. Would you speed on the freeway if you thought it was safe to do so and had reason to believe there weren't any police cars or speed traps on the route? Most people would. Likewise, a person who wants to commit a premeditated crime is more likely to do so if they believe they have enough information to get away with it, whether they are right or not.
It capitalized on the current fear of guns to ostracize legal firearm owners. In ancient Athens, the people were asked each year if they wanted to hold an ostracism. If they voted yes, the people would then each write the name of a person they wanted to banish from the city. Whoever got the most votes was then given 10 days to leave the city and not return for 10 years, under penalty of death. There was no trial and no accusations. The process did not even start as a reaction to anything. It was simply a forum to use popular fear to find someone to expel from the city with a specific absence of a reason. In the same way, the newspaper is painting targets on the homes of people without any trial or accusation of wrongdoing. A lot of police officers use PO boxes on their driver's licenses to protect their homes and families from reprisal for doing their jobs, and the newspaper just revealed all their addresses.
I would consider the publishing of the map to be a crime against the counties, endangering the safety of both gun owners and non-gun owners, and particularly targeting law enforcement officers. The district attorneys for those counties should prosecute the publisher, editors and reporters involved for large-scale reckless endangerment.
The real reason this is news is because it means some day, when Microsoft kills the now-free product, Slashdot can publish the headline "Microsoft Finally Kills Free Expression" without being a troll or libelous.
Does it fall with style? Will Disney scribble its name on the underside of the feet in permanent ink? Does it have a laser, or just a little light that blinks?
I support human cloning. Why not? Maybe some of us are too valuable to waste by mixing our genetics with an inferior being. I'm sure there are people who think like that.
If you should run into such a person, ask them if they think inbreeding with their cousins is wrong. Then ask them if inbreeding with their siblings is wrong. Then ask them to imagine the kind of genetic disaster that would result if they inbred with themselves.
But to replace a child? Not only would the kid always worry about whether or not he was "wanted" or "playing his role" correctly, but the parents would quite likely overcompensate in one way or another. Would you really want to be a "replacement" whose parents either spoiled you stupid for being someone that isn't "you" or neglect you because you don't "match" the way you should?
Any parent who is so selfish that they value the genetic attributes of their dead kid more than the relationship they shared with that unique individual should have their cloned kid taken away. And then the cloned kids should be permitted to clone their parents so they can raise them properly. And some day when their parent clones are grown up they can introduce them to their original parents and let Jerry Springer decide which one turned out better.
The scientists also used brain-scanning (fMRIs) on some of the subjects. “If there is something in the brain that is IQ, we should be able to find it by scanning."
That's like saying talent doesn't exist because your brain activity looked like Michael Bolton's. Or watching a traffic jam from space and concluding that the inhabitants of that city are unproductive.
That said, I don't think you can quantify intelligence, because you can't quantify a lack of intelligence. Every time someone tries, we find a new depth we didn't know existed.
Eschatology is simply a matter of your particular brand of religion.
Every Unix user knows the world doesn't end until January 18th or 19th, 2038.
Mac users know the world doesn't end until February 6, 2040, at 6:25:15 a.m.
Windows users know that the world ended at the dawn of the Ballmerzoic Epoch in January 2000.
(I couldn't remember when the Ballmer Epoch began, so I asked Google and somehow got "Did you mean: when did batman take over Microsoft?")
So... It's just like DOS except you have to hit the windows key before you type the name of the program you want to launch.
Obligatory:
"Their operating system is a mess. Thank goodness I remember DOS... Trust me, that was hilarious."
Rodney McKay, trying to grok a computer system on an alien organic spaceship. Stargate Atlantis episode "No Man's Land"
Prison Warden Says Prisoners Getting Used to Sodomy
"We've installed microphones throughout the prison that listen for screams but filter out conversations to protect them and help us identify problem areas while respecting their privacy. We're finding that new inmates scream less after the first month, which suggests they're getting used to the sodomy. In fact, we suspect they are beginning to enjoy it. Bear in mind, the screaming program is totally voluntary. No one is forcing them to scream, but we encourage them to for the good of the community. When an individual voice is not heard to have screamed for a certain interval of time, it indicates that the inmate has died and we know who to look for, which has turned out to be an unexpected benefit of the system. Being able to locate and remove corpses faster has improved the smell of the prison in general."
It's the modern equivalent of the phone company playing a recorded message while you are talking to someone on the phone. Or the post office opening your mail and gluing a message to the contents, ransom-note-style, about your mail carrier being out sick. It wouldn't happen. But cox wants to condition people to think of the web like cable TV, where thy can cover part of the picture with service announcements. The FCC needs to weigh in on this and stop it.
Last year National Geograhic posted a nice video on YouTube to talk up their theme for the year: there are 7 billion people on the planet. A few highlights:
It would take 200 years to count from 1 to 7 billion.
7 billion steps would take you around the globe 133 times.
It took thousands of years to get to 1 billion, but just 130 years to double that, and just 44 years to double that. In the last 12 years, we've added a number of people equivalent to the entire global population in 1800.
1800: 1 billion
1930: 2 billion
1960: 3 billion
1974: 4 billion
1987: 5 billion
1999: 6 billion
2011: 7 billion
It's leveling off, but we may still hit 9 billion in 2045.
Every second 5 people are born and 2 die. There are over 100 more people on the planet now than when you started reading this post.
In 1960, the average person lived to be 53. In 2010, the average was 69.
In 2008, for the first time ever, more people lived in cities than in rural areas.
In 1975 there were three cities in the world with populations of over 10 million: Mexico City, New York, and Tokyo. Now there are 21 cities that size.
By 2050, 70% of us will live in urban areas, but we don't take up as much space as you'd think. Standing shoulder to shoulder, all 7 billion of us would fill an area the size of Los Angeles.
So it's not space we need. It's balance.
5% of us consume 23% of the world's energy. 13% of us don't have clean drinking water. 38% of us lack adequate sanitation.
Imagine a future where this ban is lifted. Phone/tablet manufacturers would probably do away with "airplane mode" in software. There is so much going on below the surface on these devices, you don't always know what it's doing.
Whether out of concern for being able to use the device without being tracked by your cell carrier, or without phoning home data to an app developer, or without using pulling any data when you are close to your monthly cap (which is becoming increasingly common... To the point where I hear non-techies saying they're afraid to upgrade their device because they might lose their old unlimited data plan... Which isn't necessarily true), or to quickly turn off power-hungry components to extend battery life, or some other reason... I for one like the idea that I have control over the device's connection to the outside world.
Without an FAA ban, this option will go away, or be replaced by an option that looks like it cuts off all communication but secretly gives the manufacturer or carrier and its "special partners" exclusive access. The carriers make more money if you blow through your data cap. Amazon has an interest in being able to delete content from your device without your permission whenever they want, wherever your device is.
Digitally embedded in the photo was the location where it was taken, and it placed McAfee in Guatemala -- just across the border from Belize. Now the world knew where John McAfee was hiding.
So you're saying McAfee got owned by embedded Intel inside? I thought that already happened like 2 years ago.
In the "birth" chapter of Monty Python's Meaning of Life, a hospital administrator walks in on a woman giving birth and is excited to see that they are using the most expensive machine in the whole hospital: the useless "Machine That Goes Ping." He explains to the doctors, nurses and students, who have forgotten all about the woman in labor, the twisted accounting brilliance this machine represents:
You see, we leased this back from the company we sold it to, and that way it comes under the monthly current budget and not the capital account.
It's interesting that we're suddenly seeing all these stories about engineered foods that don't behave like real food so soon after the collapse of Hostess. It's almost as though there is a perception that the world will be more accepting of new food-substitutes that last forever to fill "the Hostess void" and take the place of the Twinkie in our bomb shelters. Perhaps we will find that the new 60-day bread maintains a constant temperature of 105 degrees F, hot enough to ward off mold and melt the new chocolate, so you can have Nutella in your bunker. Because the comforts of chocolate offset the creepiness of bread that toasts itself.
We're talking about a group whose defining characteristic is that they're antisocial. What this really tells you is that people with Asperger's -- as a group -- were not socially-connected enough to wrangle the politics needed to retain the title. They didn't have friends on the rewrite committee. Being brilliant is one thing. Having the social connections to impose your brilliance on others is another.
After all, how many iPad minis come with sandpaper for filing fingers down.
I've been using an iPad mini daily for about three weeks now, and I've had this subject raised by smartass coworkers and passers-by. I couldn't find any official smart covers for it in stores, so I made a "smartass cover" out of glue, magnets and sandpaper. It's a lot cheaper than paying $40 for an official cover that doesn't even include sandpaper! Now I tell them the iPad 3 (which I was using daily until I got the mini) should include sandpaper so you can grip it with one hand and type with the other.
A few months ago North Korea's young new leader was seen on TV with Mickey Mouse. It was bizarre, and Disney had no part in it. The best theories I've heard suggest that he is trying to bring some hope and light into the lives of his people. I'm not sure if announcing that unicorns are real and that they're native to North Korea is the best way to do that, but that's probably what's going on here.
I only counted five in the summary. Heres the full list of the 7 Circles of Facebook Hell:
1. Friends who were known from offline environments
2. Extended family
3. Siblings
4. Friends of friends
5. Colleagues
6. Corporations like Zynga you've given access to your data (unwittingly or otherwise)
7. Corporations Facebook has given access to your data
You'll hear about recalls that affect Windows 2015, 2017, and 2018
but luckily, I'm still running Windows 2014
people in 2029 will brag about how they wish they'd bring back "classic Windows 2019, but not that crappy POS Windows 2021 that had the noise problem"
You don't understand Microsoft's logic. Back when they only released an operating system every few years, they included the year in the version. Now that they will be switching to an annual release cycle, they're switching to colors, using the ROYGBIV order, which is why they are starting with blue. You see, Blue comes after 8, which comes after 7, which comes after Vista, which comes after XP, which comes after 2000, which comes after the millennium edition, which comes after 98, etc. They found that people were very confused about Windows 8 following Windows 7. It didn't fit the pattern at all. Hence, they are moving to colors. After ROYGBIV they're moving to Pantone color numbers, in order from Ballmer's least favorite Pantone to his favorite.
Slashdot Mirror
So it turns out Panda DNA contains great biological secrets? No wonder they often refuse to mate in captivity, and when they do the offspring dies quickly. They're afraid we'll see them bestowing the magic on their young, and their secret will be out.
On my computer, the r and the n ran together and read like Pom, so I saw this: "Child Gets Nintendo 3DS Full of Pom For Christmas"
My initial reaction was, "and no one noticed it leaking? Wonderful."
Why drill a hole in in the Antarctic ice when it's so much cheaper to make a hole in the antarctic ozone layer?
I would consider the publishing of the map to be a crime against the counties, endangering the safety of both gun owners and non-gun owners, and particularly targeting law enforcement officers. The district attorneys for those counties should prosecute the publisher, editors and reporters involved for large-scale reckless endangerment.
The real reason this is news is because it means some day, when Microsoft kills the now-free product, Slashdot can publish the headline "Microsoft Finally Kills Free Expression" without being a troll or libelous.
Does it fall with style? Will Disney scribble its name on the underside of the feet in permanent ink? Does it have a laser, or just a little light that blinks?
I support human cloning. Why not? Maybe some of us are too valuable to waste by mixing our genetics with an inferior being. I'm sure there are people who think like that.
If you should run into such a person, ask them if they think inbreeding with their cousins is wrong. Then ask them if inbreeding with their siblings is wrong. Then ask them to imagine the kind of genetic disaster that would result if they inbred with themselves.
But to replace a child? Not only would the kid always worry about whether or not he was "wanted" or "playing his role" correctly, but the parents would quite likely overcompensate in one way or another. Would you really want to be a "replacement" whose parents either spoiled you stupid for being someone that isn't "you" or neglect you because you don't "match" the way you should?
Any parent who is so selfish that they value the genetic attributes of their dead kid more than the relationship they shared with that unique individual should have their cloned kid taken away. And then the cloned kids should be permitted to clone their parents so they can raise them properly. And some day when their parent clones are grown up they can introduce them to their original parents and let Jerry Springer decide which one turned out better.
The scientists also used brain-scanning (fMRIs) on some of the subjects. “If there is something in the brain that is IQ, we should be able to find it by scanning."
That's like saying talent doesn't exist because your brain activity looked like Michael Bolton's. Or watching a traffic jam from space and concluding that the inhabitants of that city are unproductive.
That said, I don't think you can quantify intelligence, because you can't quantify a lack of intelligence. Every time someone tries, we find a new depth we didn't know existed.
Eschatology is simply a matter of your particular brand of religion.
Every Unix user knows the world doesn't end until January 18th or 19th, 2038.
Mac users know the world doesn't end until February 6, 2040, at 6:25:15 a.m.
Windows users know that the world ended at the dawn of the Ballmerzoic Epoch in January 2000.
(I couldn't remember when the Ballmer Epoch began, so I asked Google and somehow got "Did you mean: when did batman take over Microsoft?")
So... It's just like DOS except you have to hit the windows key before you type the name of the program you want to launch.
Obligatory:
"Their operating system is a mess. Thank goodness I remember DOS... Trust me, that was hilarious."
Rodney McKay, trying to grok a computer system on an alien organic spaceship. Stargate Atlantis episode "No Man's Land"
I need to put that on a T-shirt and sell it:
Windows Customer Experience Improvement Program
The screaming program is totally voluntary. No one is forcing them to scream.
So, effectively...
Prison Warden Says Prisoners Getting Used to Sodomy
"We've installed microphones throughout the prison that listen for screams but filter out conversations to protect them and help us identify problem areas while respecting their privacy. We're finding that new inmates scream less after the first month, which suggests they're getting used to the sodomy. In fact, we suspect they are beginning to enjoy it. Bear in mind, the screaming program is totally voluntary. No one is forcing them to scream, but we encourage them to for the good of the community. When an individual voice is not heard to have screamed for a certain interval of time, it indicates that the inmate has died and we know who to look for, which has turned out to be an unexpected benefit of the system. Being able to locate and remove corpses faster has improved the smell of the prison in general."
It's the modern equivalent of the phone company playing a recorded message while you are talking to someone on the phone. Or the post office opening your mail and gluing a message to the contents, ransom-note-style, about your mail carrier being out sick. It wouldn't happen. But cox wants to condition people to think of the web like cable TV, where thy can cover part of the picture with service announcements. The FCC needs to weigh in on this and stop it.
Last year National Geograhic posted a nice video on YouTube to talk up their theme for the year: there are 7 billion people on the planet. A few highlights:
It would take 200 years to count from 1 to 7 billion.
7 billion steps would take you around the globe 133 times.
It took thousands of years to get to 1 billion, but just 130 years to double that, and just 44 years to double that. In the last 12 years, we've added a number of people equivalent to the entire global population in 1800.
1800: 1 billion
1930: 2 billion
1960: 3 billion
1974: 4 billion
1987: 5 billion
1999: 6 billion
2011: 7 billion
It's leveling off, but we may still hit 9 billion in 2045.
Every second 5 people are born and 2 die. There are over 100 more people on the planet now than when you started reading this post.
In 1960, the average person lived to be 53. In 2010, the average was 69.
In 2008, for the first time ever, more people lived in cities than in rural areas.
In 1975 there were three cities in the world with populations of over 10 million: Mexico City, New York, and Tokyo. Now there are 21 cities that size.
By 2050, 70% of us will live in urban areas, but we don't take up as much space as you'd think. Standing shoulder to shoulder, all 7 billion of us would fill an area the size of Los Angeles.
So it's not space we need. It's balance.
5% of us consume 23% of the world's energy. 13% of us don't have clean drinking water. 38% of us lack adequate sanitation.
Imagine a future where this ban is lifted. Phone/tablet manufacturers would probably do away with "airplane mode" in software. There is so much going on below the surface on these devices, you don't always know what it's doing.
Whether out of concern for being able to use the device without being tracked by your cell carrier, or without phoning home data to an app developer, or without using pulling any data when you are close to your monthly cap (which is becoming increasingly common... To the point where I hear non-techies saying they're afraid to upgrade their device because they might lose their old unlimited data plan... Which isn't necessarily true), or to quickly turn off power-hungry components to extend battery life, or some other reason... I for one like the idea that I have control over the device's connection to the outside world.
Without an FAA ban, this option will go away, or be replaced by an option that looks like it cuts off all communication but secretly gives the manufacturer or carrier and its "special partners" exclusive access. The carriers make more money if you blow through your data cap. Amazon has an interest in being able to delete content from your device without your permission whenever they want, wherever your device is.
Digitally embedded in the photo was the location where it was taken, and it placed McAfee in Guatemala -- just across the border from Belize. Now the world knew where John McAfee was hiding.
So you're saying McAfee got owned by embedded Intel inside? I thought that already happened like 2 years ago.
You see, we leased this back from the company we sold it to, and that way it comes under the monthly current budget and not the capital account.
Everyone applauds.
It's interesting that we're suddenly seeing all these stories about engineered foods that don't behave like real food so soon after the collapse of Hostess. It's almost as though there is a perception that the world will be more accepting of new food-substitutes that last forever to fill "the Hostess void" and take the place of the Twinkie in our bomb shelters. Perhaps we will find that the new 60-day bread maintains a constant temperature of 105 degrees F, hot enough to ward off mold and melt the new chocolate, so you can have Nutella in your bunker. Because the comforts of chocolate offset the creepiness of bread that toasts itself.
We're talking about a group whose defining characteristic is that they're antisocial. What this really tells you is that people with Asperger's -- as a group -- were not socially-connected enough to wrangle the politics needed to retain the title. They didn't have friends on the rewrite committee. Being brilliant is one thing. Having the social connections to impose your brilliance on others is another.
After all, how many iPad minis come with sandpaper for filing fingers down.
I've been using an iPad mini daily for about three weeks now, and I've had this subject raised by smartass coworkers and passers-by. I couldn't find any official smart covers for it in stores, so I made a "smartass cover" out of glue, magnets and sandpaper. It's a lot cheaper than paying $40 for an official cover that doesn't even include sandpaper! Now I tell them the iPad 3 (which I was using daily until I got the mini) should include sandpaper so you can grip it with one hand and type with the other.
A few months ago North Korea's young new leader was seen on TV with Mickey Mouse. It was bizarre, and Disney had no part in it. The best theories I've heard suggest that he is trying to bring some hope and light into the lives of his people. I'm not sure if announcing that unicorns are real and that they're native to North Korea is the best way to do that, but that's probably what's going on here.
This is why poor countries shouldn't develop nuclear weapons. Sooner or later your horses start to look like unicorns.
I only counted five in the summary. Heres the full list of the 7 Circles of Facebook Hell:
1. Friends who were known from offline environments
2. Extended family
3. Siblings
4. Friends of friends
5. Colleagues
6. Corporations like Zynga you've given access to your data (unwittingly or otherwise)
7. Corporations Facebook has given access to your data
You'll hear about recalls that affect Windows 2015, 2017, and 2018 but luckily, I'm still running Windows 2014
people in 2029 will brag about how they wish they'd bring back "classic Windows 2019, but not that crappy POS Windows 2021 that had the noise problem"
You don't understand Microsoft's logic. Back when they only released an operating system every few years, they included the year in the version. Now that they will be switching to an annual release cycle, they're switching to colors, using the ROYGBIV order, which is why they are starting with blue. You see, Blue comes after 8, which comes after 7, which comes after Vista, which comes after XP, which comes after 2000, which comes after the millennium edition, which comes after 98, etc. They found that people were very confused about Windows 8 following Windows 7. It didn't fit the pattern at all. Hence, they are moving to colors. After ROYGBIV they're moving to Pantone color numbers, in order from Ballmer's least favorite Pantone to his favorite.
Oh, and if Sun looks purple, that's just because Ellison is busy choking it to death in Redwood Shores.