'The human nose can be an extremely strong tool for some individuals, perhaps this is more than just psychosomatic? It would drive me crazy to never investigate this if I were in his shoes.'
The lunar astronauts have several theories on the (perhaps related) phenomenon of the smell of 'fresh' moondust, and seem quite interested in having this investigated further:
'There are greater threats to USA's security than these mach 6 planes will address. Things like terror are far worse. Imagine six 9-11's on our [critical] infrastructure.'
Here in the UK, we're already (controversially) deploying hypersonic weapons against the most dangerous enemies of our society:
Note sure about the original contract, but here's part of a transcript from one of their recent rounds of negotiations:
'These are the terms,' said the Messenger, and smiled as he eyed them one by one. 'The Tolkien Estate and its deluded allies shall withdraw at once beyond the Atlantic, first taking oaths never again to assail New Line with lawyers, open or secret. All Lord of the Rings (TM) prequel revenue shall be New Line's for ever, solely. Related mechandising including the Misty Mountains diorama and anything else we knock out to fill a Gap in the Market shall be tributary to New Line, and purchasers shall bear no unauthorized weapon replicas, but shall have leave to be governed by the relevant license agreements. But the Estate shall help to promote the movie which they have wantonly threatened, and that shall be New Line's, and its lieutenant shall direct: not Peter Jackson, but one more worthy of trust.'
Of course a private, rather than state-funded, terrorist group wouldn't have these sorts of resources to draw on, but judging by some of the documented incidents with 'orphaned sources', lethal quantities of nasty isotopes can be frighteningly easy to get hold of, sometimes even by accident:
I wonder. If the intention is to make the news and send a message out of all proportion to the number of injuries or fatalities caused, a dirty bomb could make 'sense' to the terrorists. In London we've already had what amounts to a terrorist attack with a radioisotope:
This grotesque method may well have been chosen to instill fear into others with similar sympathies to Litvinenko, though more conventional poisons would have been equally effective at killing him.
'Having it determine what isotope it's looking at would drastically reduce the number of false hits you might get.'
On the other hand, if anyone tries to make a 'dirty bomb' they'll probably use common medical or industrial isotopes. And a dirty bomb attack is much more likely than a terrorist nuclear weapon.
'Since I know the chemical profession best, I devised two questions, for instance, to tell a chemist from a nonchemist. Here they are:
(1) How do you pronounce UNIONIZED? (2) What is a mole?
In response to the first question, the nonchemist is bound to say "YOO-yun-ized," which is the logical pronunciation, and the dictionary pronunciation, too. The chemist, however, would never think of such a thing; he would say without a moment's hesitation: "un- EYE -on-ized."
In response to the second question, the nonchemist is bound to say, "A little furry animal that burrows underground," unless he is a civil engineer who will say, "A breakwater." A chemist, on the other hand, will clear his throat, and say, "Well, it's like this -" and keep talking for hours.
There's my cue. Shall we talk about the chemical version of the little furry animal?"
'I am not a biologist, so I'll just ask; "Is it reasonable to assume that there even is a fear scent in humans?". Is there any evidence of it's exsitence in closely related species?'
Well, with that kind of defeatist reality-based reasoning, how can we ever hope to complete the development of the Gay Bomb?:
'Will the sequel be an original story? Or is there an existing (unfinished?) story to base it on?'
Jackson isn't really bothered either way. He pretty much wrote a new story for The Two Towers, with a few set pieces from the book (mainly battles) inserted to let us know which film we were watching. And a Hobbit sequel will give him plenty of time to explore the history of Lurtz:
'A raid on ESR is likely to have look like a gameplay video from "Soldier of Fortune 2" (with the Ninjas being used for target practice).'
Nah, Ninjas have Real Ultimate Power and would cut his head off long before he could even reach for the.357 magnum under his pillow. His only effective defence would be start reading from this:
'I'm sure that since this will all be patented, then the ability to grow it will be subject to various fees and "subscriptions" eventually. I wouldn't be surprised if eventually ou would need to buy a special chemical, without which, the wheat or whatever crop will not grow.'
Pretty similar things are happening already. See this for a sample:
'Roundup Ready' plants are GMOs modified to confer resistance to a herbicide sold (of course) by the same company. And yes, there's an annual license and an anonymous hotline to report violators (PDF):
'Presumably there's an Americanism at play here and the iPod was in his trousers rather than his pants, if not then i've a that feeling Apple could claim improper use.'
A PAYG iPhone would be a pretty attractive proposition for quite a lot of people. UK PAYG tariffs allow free incoming calls and typically have non-expiring credits and a nominal (if any) sign-up charge for the SIM, so anyone using an iPhone mainly for the wifi and iPod features but needing light cellular access could find this ideal. If this turns out to be readily available without commitment to a non-PAYG contract, the UK iPod Touch may well sink without trace!
I don't think this fine distinction will be sufficient to evade strong consumer protection laws in countries that have them. In practice, you're buying a brick until you sign up with the monopoly service provider. Not requiring sign up at the point of sale isn't fooling anyone.
Going by the linked postings, there probably is such a law if you try to sell both in the same (Belgian) market - the contract package would fall foul of the 'cross-marketing' law since the phone would clearly be subsidised. You could offer the phone alone at a notional 'phone + contract' price, but this would price even Apple out of the market. More reasonably, you could probably sell the phone alone at a modestly increased price compared to other markets to cover the loss of revenue from the lack of contract lock-in (if this sort of deal were available where I live, I'd probably buy one).
Yes, but if the above interpretation of the Belgian law is correct, the purchaser will have the option of buying an unlocked phone without any contract, and then just shopping around for the best GSM deal, so there'd be no link between the service provider and Apple, and no reason to hike the price beyond what the market will bear (just as with every other phone).
Slashdot Mirror
'The human nose can be an extremely strong tool for some individuals, perhaps this is more than just psychosomatic? It would drive me crazy to never investigate this if I were in his shoes.'
The lunar astronauts have several theories on the (perhaps related) phenomenon of the smell of 'fresh' moondust, and seem quite interested in having this investigated further:
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2006/30jan_smellofmoondust.htm
'There are greater threats to USA's security than these mach 6 planes will address. Things like terror are far worse. Imagine six 9-11's on our [critical] infrastructure.'
Here in the UK, we're already (controversially) deploying hypersonic weapons against the most dangerous enemies of our society:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7240180.stm
Note sure about the original contract, but here's part of a transcript from one of their recent rounds of negotiations:
'These are the terms,' said the Messenger, and smiled as he eyed them one by one. 'The Tolkien Estate and its deluded allies shall withdraw at once beyond the Atlantic, first taking oaths never again to assail New Line with lawyers, open or secret. All Lord of the Rings (TM) prequel revenue shall be New Line's for ever, solely. Related mechandising including the Misty Mountains diorama and anything else we knock out to fill a Gap in the Market shall be tributary to New Line, and purchasers shall bear no unauthorized weapon replicas, but shall have leave to be governed by the relevant license agreements. But the Estate shall help to promote the movie which they have wantonly threatened, and that shall be New Line's, and its lieutenant shall direct: not Peter Jackson, but one more worthy of trust.'
'It doesn't matter if you are atheist, christain, or muslim, or a jedi. You've got the same ability as any one else to try to control others.'
These aren't the religions you're looking for. We can go about our business. Move along to the next article.
I now plan only to fly with this German tour operator, which will use an innovative alternative to standard security screening procedures:
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3094108,00.html
Of course a private, rather than state-funded, terrorist group wouldn't have these sorts of resources to draw on, but judging by some of the documented incidents with 'orphaned sources', lethal quantities of nasty isotopes can be frighteningly easy to get hold of, sometimes even by accident:
http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/nuclear/radevents
I wonder. If the intention is to make the news and send a message out of all proportion to the number of injuries or fatalities caused, a dirty bomb could make 'sense' to the terrorists. In London we've already had what amounts to a terrorist attack with a radioisotope:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Litvinenko_poisoning
This grotesque method may well have been chosen to instill fear into others with similar sympathies to Litvinenko, though more conventional poisons would have been equally effective at killing him.
'Having it determine what isotope it's looking at would drastically reduce the number of false hits you might get.'
On the other hand, if anyone tries to make a 'dirty bomb' they'll probably use common medical or industrial isotopes. And a dirty bomb attack is much more likely than a terrorist nuclear weapon.
This kind of thing is already happening with existing anti-terrorist radiation detectors, e.g.:
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/03/nuclear_terrori.html
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4176/is_20041221/ai_n14588366
http://environment.newscientist.com/article/dn3150
Well, some bloggers like to think of themselves as free radicals!
Incidentally:
http://membership.acs.org/W/WNY/db2005/db0305.html
'Since I know the chemical profession best, I devised two questions, for instance, to tell a chemist from a nonchemist. Here they are:
(1) How do you pronounce UNIONIZED?
(2) What is a mole?
In response to the first question, the nonchemist is bound to say "YOO-yun-ized," which is the logical pronunciation, and the dictionary pronunciation, too. The chemist, however, would never think of such a thing; he would say without a moment's hesitation: "un- EYE -on-ized."
In response to the second question, the nonchemist is bound to say, "A little furry animal that burrows underground," unless he is a civil engineer who will say, "A breakwater." A chemist, on the other hand, will clear his throat, and say, "Well, it's like this -" and keep talking for hours.
There's my cue. Shall we talk about the chemical version of the little furry animal?"
~~"To Tell a Chemist" Isaac Asimov 1965'
'I am not a biologist, so I'll just ask; "Is it reasonable to assume that there even is a fear scent in humans?". Is there any evidence of it's exsitence in closely related species?'
Well, with that kind of defeatist reality-based reasoning, how can we ever hope to complete the development of the Gay Bomb?:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_bomb
'I can respect having an obsessive hobby. Especially when it produces such spectacular results.'
Though with some people, this sort of thing can get just a bit _too_ obsessive:
http://www.sandia.gov/LabNews/LN02-13-98/cherry_story.html
'The switch mechanisms Kaczynski used were hand-made switches that he would spend weeks building...He machined his own screws.'
Who said anything about not enjoying it? I'm just disappointed we didn't get to see this idea in the final cut as well:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IAYNYaNCz8
Though even Jackson has yet to achieve anything approaching the level of inspiration shown in an earlier adaptation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdXQJS3Yv0Y
'Will the sequel be an original story? Or is there an existing (unfinished?) story to base it on?'
Jackson isn't really bothered either way. He pretty much wrote a new story for The Two Towers, with a few set pieces from the book (mainly battles) inserted to let us know which film we were watching. And a Hobbit sequel will give him plenty of time to explore the history of Lurtz:
http://archives.theonering.net/movie/char/lurtz.html
explain how the Elves developed the art of Shield Surfing:
http://www.theonering.net/scrapbook/view/7427
tell the sad story of how Denethor became such a messy eater:
http://www.tk421.net/lotr/film/rotk/img/rotk0911.jpg
get Bilbo's friends out of a tight situation with a hilarious dwarf tossing scene:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwarf_tossing#Popular_culture_references_to_dwarf_tossing
and have Agent Elrond turn up with a sword at random moments:
http://productimages1.colony1.net/5851/Elrond%20Bust.jpg
just in time for a bit of gratuitous decapitation:
http://en.wikipedia.org/?title=The_Mouth_of_Sauron
Ian McKellen will be excellent, though.
'It's saying Steve Jobs is trying to make customers pay more for the right to do something that's already a right.'
And the concept is old news - it's really just an extension of this program:
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/itunes_to_sell_your_home_videos
The journals may not give out grants, but the learned societies that publish and derive income from some major journals do, e.g.:
http://www.aacr.org/
http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/
Even so, unrestricted Open Access publication seems (to me) to be the best model by far for the distribution of new research.
"Television? The word is half Greek, half Latin. No good can come of it." - CP Scott.
'A raid on ESR is likely to have look like a gameplay video from "Soldier of Fortune 2" (with the Ninjas being used for target practice).'
.357 magnum under his pillow. His only effective defence would be start reading from this:
Nah, Ninjas have Real Ultimate Power and would cut his head off long before he could even reach for the
http://catb.org/~esr/writings/sextips/bedplay.html
and watch them run away with their hands over their ears, silently screaming.
'I'm sure that since this will all be patented, then the ability to grow it will be subject to various fees and "subscriptions" eventually. I wouldn't be surprised if eventually ou would need to buy a special chemical, without which, the wheat or whatever crop will not grow.'
Pretty similar things are happening already. See this for a sample:
http://www.monsanto.com/monsanto/ag_products/crop_protection/roundup_rewards.asp
'Roundup Ready' plants are GMOs modified to confer resistance to a herbicide sold (of course) by the same company. And yes, there's an annual license and an anonymous hotline to report violators (PDF):
http://www.monsanto.com/monsanto/ag_products/pdf/stewardship/stewardship.pdf
'Presumably there's an Americanism at play here and the iPod was in his trousers rather than his pants, if not then i've a that feeling Apple could claim improper use.'
Or improper accessories, at any rate:
http://www.ohmibod.com/
A PAYG iPhone would be a pretty attractive proposition for quite a lot of people. UK PAYG tariffs allow free incoming calls and typically have non-expiring credits and a nominal (if any) sign-up charge for the SIM, so anyone using an iPhone mainly for the wifi and iPod features but needing light cellular access could find this ideal. If this turns out to be readily available without commitment to a non-PAYG contract, the UK iPod Touch may well sink without trace!
According to several reports, a big chunk of Apple's profit is coming from the locked-in service providers:
http://www.thestreet.com/s/huge-iphone-fees-juice-apple/newsanalysis/techtelecom/10369581.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/sep/17/mobilephones.apple
To make the same profit without a lock, Apple would have to raise the retail price significantly. Looks like a subsidy to me.
I don't think this fine distinction will be sufficient to evade strong consumer protection laws in countries that have them. In practice, you're buying a brick until you sign up with the monopoly service provider. Not requiring sign up at the point of sale isn't fooling anyone.
Going by the linked postings, there probably is such a law if you try to sell both in the same (Belgian) market - the contract package would fall foul of the 'cross-marketing' law since the phone would clearly be subsidised. You could offer the phone alone at a notional 'phone + contract' price, but this would price even Apple out of the market. More reasonably, you could probably sell the phone alone at a modestly increased price compared to other markets to cover the loss of revenue from the lack of contract lock-in (if this sort of deal were available where I live, I'd probably buy one).
Yes, but if the above interpretation of the Belgian law is correct, the purchaser will have the option of buying an unlocked phone without any contract, and then just shopping around for the best GSM deal, so there'd be no link between the service provider and Apple, and no reason to hike the price beyond what the market will bear (just as with every other phone).