Jurassic Park is just one example of many. People have countless idiotic notions about "cloning" that have nothing to do with Chrichton's fiction (e.g. it'll lead to overpopulation, a clone will know everything the original does). There's a whole lot of Hollywood (and just plain ignorance about biology) to blame.
It's ironic that some of the people who rant the loudest against humans "playing God" by choosing to discontinue life-support or terminating a pregnancy have no problems with putting someone on life-support to begin with (defying what would seem a rather obvious decision by "God" that the person is ready to die) or engaging in the most "God-like" act of all: willfully creating a new life. It's not so much that they object to people playing God, rather they object to people making God-like decisions that disagree with their own.
I'm more concerned that these biologists will implement a Tron-inspired 3D file browser that pre-teen female Unix haxors will know how to use. Other than that, I'm ready to buy my tickets to Medieval Park.
As time goes on and our culture evolves, there will be fewer people using their work identity as their personal identity for the simple reason that they've changed jobs a few times and understand what a bad idea it is. (Especially when one of those "surprise hostile layoffs" is termination for personal use of a company computer.) Becoming an employee @example.com and remaining there for the rest of your life is a quaint 20th century notion, and I'd be really surprised to see anyone under 30 (or even 40) thinking that they could use their work identity as their personal identity (unless they're the sort of luddite/technophobe who still writes checks at the grocery store).
I nominate Verne's "From The Earth to the Moon", not so much because it needs updating, but because the premise seems to have become science fiction again.
Well, yeah. I learned that one about 20 years later. Hopefully most college-age sysadmins-in-training have a while before this principle kicks them in the balls.
Because a clever 19-21-year-old is (generally) already plenty proud of what he knows how to do. So proud that he'll (random example) upgrade Apache from 1.3 to 2.0 as a treat for everybody as he leaves to go party at his friend's college for the weekend.
"Do note that I'm not saying that there is no privacy issue with a full body scan. It's just that jumping to the child pornography conclusion is absurd."
Right, and it's badly-written, badly-conceived legislation against "child pornography" that brings us there. Laws against cartoon porn and other legislation based on stopping impure thoughts is not properly aimed, at protecting children from abuse.
I don't know if it's because I changed or the magazine did, but my love of OMNI slacked off as I started to see it as a glossy, stapled version of Weekly World News, with stuff about UFOs and yeti being passed off as "science" (or even as serious "science fiction").
Riker? You mean the one that Picard calls "that turgid willy with the mid-life-crisis beard who won't take his own command and get the hell off my ship"?
And to be further pedantic, he's not really a captain, so "Captain Sir" isn't actually appropriate. Appropriate forms of address would also include "Sir Patrick", and "Sir Patrick Stewart", but not "Sir Stewart".
The amount - and type - of pollution varies a lot among motorbikes. A 2-stroke 50cc engine may put out more smog-producing particulate matter than your truck, but far less CO2 (aka "greenhouse gas") per passenger per mile. California already has pretty stringent emissions standards in place (it's why 2-strokes are hard to find there), and they're getting tougher in the rest of the US too, so I don't know why you're calling for them as if they didn't exist.
I'd call it a moped-class motorcycle. It's comparable to a derestricted 50cc moped or scooter in terms of power. It's a little too powerful to qualify as a "moped" for licensing purposes in most of the United States. which means you'd have to register it as a motorcycle and get a motorcycle endorsement on your driver license to ride it. My 50cc scooter does 40mph like this does and meets my needs very nicely, but gets "only" 90mpg.
To sell it in the US, it'd need a styling make-over to give it more of a "fun" look. But that's less than half the price of a good Japanese/Taiwanese moped-class scooter, and a fraction of the price of a Vespa. At that price and with those specs, I would give it some serious consideration if I were in the market (and then a paint job and decals to make it look less purely "practical").
Which of these scenarios is analogous to when foreign military powers draw arbitrary lines on a map, divide societies and put unlike cultures together, disrupt established trade relationships, replace local leaders with clueless governors, take natural resources, then finally get tired of putting down local opposition, and leave the dysfunctional systems they imposed for the locals to try to make work? Is that "buying a gun" or "buying crack"? I'm having trouble oversimplifying the situation.
There are also people who don't have socials skills or enough technical knowledge to figure out why the image on their new widescreen LCD is stretched blurry, who call themselves "nerds" and give those of us with some redeeming intelligence a bad name.
You don't need a DVD drive to watch DVDs on a machine that you don't intend to watch DVDs on. A product design isn't "wrong" just because it doesn't meet your requirements. My only disappointment with the MacBook Air was that mine was too easy to steal.
Slashdot Mirror
Jurassic Park is just one example of many. People have countless idiotic notions about "cloning" that have nothing to do with Chrichton's fiction (e.g. it'll lead to overpopulation, a clone will know everything the original does). There's a whole lot of Hollywood (and just plain ignorance about biology) to blame.
It's ironic that some of the people who rant the loudest against humans "playing God" by choosing to discontinue life-support or terminating a pregnancy have no problems with putting someone on life-support to begin with (defying what would seem a rather obvious decision by "God" that the person is ready to die) or engaging in the most "God-like" act of all: willfully creating a new life. It's not so much that they object to people playing God, rather they object to people making God-like decisions that disagree with their own.
I'm more concerned that these biologists will implement a Tron-inspired 3D file browser that pre-teen female Unix haxors will know how to use. Other than that, I'm ready to buy my tickets to Medieval Park.
What, haven't any nutjobs found Martian images of Moses or Mary or Mohammed or Moroni or Manson that they want a closer look at?
As time goes on and our culture evolves, there will be fewer people using their work identity as their personal identity for the simple reason that they've changed jobs a few times and understand what a bad idea it is. (Especially when one of those "surprise hostile layoffs" is termination for personal use of a company computer.) Becoming an employee @example.com and remaining there for the rest of your life is a quaint 20th century notion, and I'd be really surprised to see anyone under 30 (or even 40) thinking that they could use their work identity as their personal identity (unless they're the sort of luddite/technophobe who still writes checks at the grocery store).
Have you considered asking permission?
I nominate Verne's "From The Earth to the Moon", not so much because it needs updating, but because the premise seems to have become science fiction again.
Well, yeah. I learned that one about 20 years later. Hopefully most college-age sysadmins-in-training have a while before this principle kicks them in the balls.
Because a clever 19-21-year-old is (generally) already plenty proud of what he knows how to do. So proud that he'll (random example) upgrade Apache from 1.3 to 2.0 as a treat for everybody as he leaves to go party at his friend's college for the weekend.
The main thing that people that age need to learn (both professionally and personally) is that Their Actions Have Consequences.
"It's not like they only try to blow up 'Adults only' planes."
There are "Adults only" planes? I'm asking my travel agent to book those!
"Do note that I'm not saying that there is no privacy issue with a full body scan. It's just that jumping to the child pornography conclusion is absurd."
Right, and it's badly-written, badly-conceived legislation against "child pornography" that brings us there. Laws against cartoon porn and other legislation based on stopping impure thoughts is not properly aimed, at protecting children from abuse.
I don't know if it's because I changed or the magazine did, but my love of OMNI slacked off as I started to see it as a glossy, stapled version of Weekly World News, with stuff about UFOs and yeti being passed off as "science" (or even as serious "science fiction").
Riker? You mean the one that Picard calls "that turgid willy with the mid-life-crisis beard who won't take his own command and get the hell off my ship"?
I'm not extinct!
I was just resting!
And to be further pedantic, he's not really a captain, so "Captain Sir" isn't actually appropriate. Appropriate forms of address would also include "Sir Patrick", and "Sir Patrick Stewart", but not "Sir Stewart".
For that price, I want a dial to dial with. And when it rings, I want it to ring, not warble some digital music.
The company does make pure-electrics. They're broadening their line to include a hybrid, presumably for performance/range reasons.
US leadership in engineering and design is a well-documented historical fact.
Note the word "historical".
The amount - and type - of pollution varies a lot among motorbikes. A 2-stroke 50cc engine may put out more smog-producing particulate matter than your truck, but far less CO2 (aka "greenhouse gas") per passenger per mile. California already has pretty stringent emissions standards in place (it's why 2-strokes are hard to find there), and they're getting tougher in the rest of the US too, so I don't know why you're calling for them as if they didn't exist.
I'd call it a moped-class motorcycle. It's comparable to a derestricted 50cc moped or scooter in terms of power. It's a little too powerful to qualify as a "moped" for licensing purposes in most of the United States. which means you'd have to register it as a motorcycle and get a motorcycle endorsement on your driver license to ride it. My 50cc scooter does 40mph like this does and meets my needs very nicely, but gets "only" 90mpg.
To sell it in the US, it'd need a styling make-over to give it more of a "fun" look. But that's less than half the price of a good Japanese/Taiwanese moped-class scooter, and a fraction of the price of a Vespa. At that price and with those specs, I would give it some serious consideration if I were in the market (and then a paint job and decals to make it look less purely "practical").
Which of these scenarios is analogous to when foreign military powers draw arbitrary lines on a map, divide societies and put unlike cultures together, disrupt established trade relationships, replace local leaders with clueless governors, take natural resources, then finally get tired of putting down local opposition, and leave the dysfunctional systems they imposed for the locals to try to make work? Is that "buying a gun" or "buying crack"? I'm having trouble oversimplifying the situation.
There are also people who don't have socials skills or enough technical knowledge to figure out why the image on their new widescreen LCD is stretched blurry, who call themselves "nerds" and give those of us with some redeeming intelligence a bad name.
Yes, but since then the damage has been done, and I think the "developed" world bears some responsibility for cleaning up the mess it created.
You don't need a DVD drive to watch DVDs on a machine that you don't intend to watch DVDs on. A product design isn't "wrong" just because it doesn't meet your requirements. My only disappointment with the MacBook Air was that mine was too easy to steal.