Speaking as a physicist I'm not well enough versed to comment on their historical research but their science background varied between 'ok' to total garbage. But so what? The show was/is great! What I find particularly fun is that they often poke fun at themselves by asking in show questions which pointed out the absurdities (and not just science ones). I think that is part of what made/makes it such a great show: they did not take themselves too seriously, but seriously enough that it does not dissolve into a farce.
Just in case you really wanted to know: it tracks particles. When a charge particle moves through a gas it knocks off electrons. These are then accelerated by an electric field towards the end of the chamber. The location where the electrons hit the ends gives a 2D projection of the track. By measuring the time of arrival you can determine how far they travelled (if you know the electron drift velocity) and obtain the third dimension. Hence the name time projection chamber. Nothing to do with Dr. Who I'm afraid!
A couple days of using the backhoe to dig the ditch would pay for itself.
Ottawa is a city. There tend to be pavements, roads, concrete etc. in the way not to mention a city council that will get rather ticked off if you dig a large trench into the middle of the street. While the idea seems nice in principle is the city going to give homeowners the right to dig up the street to fix their connection if it fails? Are there really going to be multiple companies connecting to the streets central hub to provide a real choice of service? On the face of it it seems rather impractical.
The 4th Amendment applies to EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE!
No it does not. Like the rest of your constitution it applies ONLY to the US government(s) and restricts the laws which they can pass. It does not restrict the laws of other governments. Hence it cannot possibly be said to apply to everyone, everywhere.
But, if you are not in the US, under what authority are they acting?
Entering the US from Canada there is a Canadian law which requires that you tell the truth to US customs officers because you pass through US customs while still in Canada. While you may voluntarily surrender your laptop for them to search you have the legal right to withdraw from the process at any point without any repercussion other than you will not be allowed into the US (possibly ever again!).
Since moving to Canada I've found entering the US far more reasonable. The US immigration and security in Canada seem to be extremely competent (and even friendly sometimes!). Far more so than those I used to encounter when flying to the US from Europe (perhaps a little of Canada is rubbing off on them?). In addition to that I very much like the balance it strikes: you have to tell the truth, they get to set whatever rules and procedures they like to protect their country and if you find that too objectionable you get to chose not to comply but then not enter the US. Seems like a sensible compromise.
...and used some of the only known constant temperature sources of the time.
Except for body temperature which was known to vary. All units are arbitrary since, at best, nature only defines a single point (like absolute zero, zero force, zero pressure etc). The question is whether the definitions are useful. By basing itself on water at 1 atmosphere and using a metric scale Celsius is undoubtedly more useful than an arbitrary choice of endothermic reaction, body temperature and choices of 32 and 64 because you can divide them by 2 a lot.
For the early 18th century it was great contribution to science. But we have learnt a lot since then and can define temperature far more accurately using common physical processes like freezing and boiling of pure water. Hence this scale should be, and has been, replaced by almost every country on the planet.
It's the only body other than Earth that has running liquids, lakes, shorelines, rivers...
So it looks superficially like Earth but is actually nothing like it. As I said it will be very interesting to explore and study because it does have liquid but it will only look like Earth. It would be like saying that a real apple has more in common with a wax replica than it does with a pear because the two look the same.
That's because you would have to accelerate the Titan-oil from 9.7 km/sec (orbital speed of Saturn) to 29.7 km/sec (orbital speed of Earth).
...but some fraction (most?) of that can be offset from the change in gravitational potential between Titan and Earth. (I agree it is still a stupid idea though!)
This place is probably the one place in the Solar system that has the most in common with our planet!
How do you figure that? It may have liquid on the surface but it isn't water, the temperature makes a Canadian winter seem hot and any oxygen would be explosive.
The surface of Mars or the clouds of Venus are much more similar to Earth, despite the lack of water. In fact it is likely that some types of terrestrial bacteria could survive on Mars. I don't think the same could be said of Titan.
I agree it would be really interesting to explore Titan and study the effects of the liquid ethane on the surface but that does not make it like the Earth.
I think one theory is that he originally picked 12 - a number that humans seem to like.
So nobody is certain exactly where he pulled some of the numbers from to define his scale? Sounds pretty much like the definition of nonsensical to me!
How is that allowable as damages? If you commit a crime then certainly you should pay for it (in the country you were in when you committed the crime) but it is not your responsibility to pay the costs of preventing someone else from committing the same crime. If a burglar breaks into my house surely I can't sue him for the cost to install a burglar alarm and build a higher fence?
Possibly, but more likely this is intended to intercept counterfeit goods like bulk produced CDs, clothing and other fashion accessories, DVDs, etc.
Just like the DMCA was intended to stop people circumventing DRM but was also used by companies to silence people revealing information about them or their products which they wanted to keep quiet? I'm all for giving people the benefit of the doubt but I don't have any doubt at all that this will be abused.
Math in OpenOffice is even uglier than in MS Word.
While OO math is slightly more limited than MS it has one incredibly useful feature: a text editor. I can edit my equations in a text box rather than have to play with the GUI. You can also get OOLatex but that would probably be missing the point.
Where do you think these countries get the money for that and other social[ist] programs? They tax the hell out of companies, imports (and individuals)
Actually that is not true. I was listening to CBC radio yesterday where they were discussing the results of an international report (I forget by whom) which indicated that taxes (taken as a whole) paid by companies in Canada were less than in many areas of the US. While prices are not as bad as the EU vs. the US, Canadian prices are roughly 30% higher than the US. Something that is very noticeable now that the US$ is ~ 1 CA$.
It is localization in the UK as well. The preferred ending according to the OED is -ize although -ise is acceptable and seems to be very common in modern usage. An Inspector Morse episode once hinged on the fact that en English professor would not write a suicide note using -ise because -ize is the more correctending. This is why I always get really irritated with spell checkers: the UK versions refuse to accept -ize as valid.
No, a fair price is one which recompenses you reasonably for the amount of effort that you put into the item/service which you sell. "whatever the marker will bear" is a price that people will pay you regardless. Most, if not all, businesses will charge the latter because they can. However this does not make it fair.
When I ask my phone company to fix the phone, does that give them explicit permission to enter my house and "fix it"
That is a bad analogy. A better one would be that you rent a flat in a block and the landlord enters your flat to check the gas piping/electrical cables/water pipes/phone etc. because the system failed. The Landlord may well see your private belongings when checking the pipes just like the sysadmin may see your data. However I hope you agree that it would be completely unreasonable for the Landlord to postpone the fixing things while they waited to track you down and ask permission! Apart from the safety concern all the other residents are being inconvenienced by lack of gas/electricity/water/... while they wait for you to respond.
I hope you agree that this is a far better analogy than your house owner example: Flat=machines, possessions=data, gas/water/...=OS services, safety=security.
I have to agree mainly because viewed at a distance in my default Firefox font the 'i' looks like an 'l' so I was left trying to figure out why a search engine cull was bad for Google!
Slashdot Mirror
I hope not - I actually work on ATLAS at the LHC!
Speaking as a physicist I'm not well enough versed to comment on their historical research but their science background varied between 'ok' to total garbage. But so what? The show was/is great! What I find particularly fun is that they often poke fun at themselves by asking in show questions which pointed out the absurdities (and not just science ones). I think that is part of what made/makes it such a great show: they did not take themselves too seriously, but seriously enough that it does not dissolve into a farce.
If you are looking for a picture of a Higgs try this one which shows a Higgs at ATLAS.
Just in case you really wanted to know: it tracks particles. When a charge particle moves through a gas it knocks off electrons. These are then accelerated by an electric field towards the end of the chamber. The location where the electrons hit the ends gives a 2D projection of the track. By measuring the time of arrival you can determine how far they travelled (if you know the electron drift velocity) and obtain the third dimension. Hence the name time projection chamber. Nothing to do with Dr. Who I'm afraid!
A couple days of using the backhoe to dig the ditch would pay for itself.
Ottawa is a city. There tend to be pavements, roads, concrete etc. in the way not to mention a city council that will get rather ticked off if you dig a large trench into the middle of the street. While the idea seems nice in principle is the city going to give homeowners the right to dig up the street to fix their connection if it fails? Are there really going to be multiple companies connecting to the streets central hub to provide a real choice of service? On the face of it it seems rather impractical.
The 4th Amendment applies to EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE!
No it does not. Like the rest of your constitution it applies ONLY to the US government(s) and restricts the laws which they can pass. It does not restrict the laws of other governments. Hence it cannot possibly be said to apply to everyone, everywhere.
But, if you are not in the US, under what authority are they acting?
Entering the US from Canada there is a Canadian law which requires that you tell the truth to US customs officers because you pass through US customs while still in Canada. While you may voluntarily surrender your laptop for them to search you have the legal right to withdraw from the process at any point without any repercussion other than you will not be allowed into the US (possibly ever again!).
Since moving to Canada I've found entering the US far more reasonable. The US immigration and security in Canada seem to be extremely competent (and even friendly sometimes!). Far more so than those I used to encounter when flying to the US from Europe (perhaps a little of Canada is rubbing off on them?). In addition to that I very much like the balance it strikes: you have to tell the truth, they get to set whatever rules and procedures they like to protect their country and if you find that too objectionable you get to chose not to comply but then not enter the US. Seems like a sensible compromise.
...and used some of the only known constant temperature sources of the time.
Except for body temperature which was known to vary. All units are arbitrary since, at best, nature only defines a single point (like absolute zero, zero force, zero pressure etc). The question is whether the definitions are useful. By basing itself on water at 1 atmosphere and using a metric scale Celsius is undoubtedly more useful than an arbitrary choice of endothermic reaction, body temperature and choices of 32 and 64 because you can divide them by 2 a lot.
For the early 18th century it was great contribution to science. But we have learnt a lot since then and can define temperature far more accurately using common physical processes like freezing and boiling of pure water. Hence this scale should be, and has been, replaced by almost every country on the planet.
It's the only body other than Earth that has running liquids, lakes, shorelines, rivers...
So it looks superficially like Earth but is actually nothing like it. As I said it will be very interesting to explore and study because it does have liquid but it will only look like Earth. It would be like saying that a real apple has more in common with a wax replica than it does with a pear because the two look the same.
That's because you would have to accelerate the Titan-oil from 9.7 km/sec (orbital speed of Saturn) to 29.7 km/sec (orbital speed of Earth).
This place is probably the one place in the Solar system that has the most in common with our planet!
How do you figure that? It may have liquid on the surface but it isn't water, the temperature makes a Canadian winter seem hot and any oxygen would be explosive.
The surface of Mars or the clouds of Venus are much more similar to Earth, despite the lack of water. In fact it is likely that some types of terrestrial bacteria could survive on Mars. I don't think the same could be said of Titan.
I agree it would be really interesting to explore Titan and study the effects of the liquid ethane on the surface but that does not make it like the Earth.
No, Venus's surface is a desert.
In that it doesn't have any water. However it does rain pure liquid sulphuric acid from time to time
I think one theory is that he originally picked 12 - a number that humans seem to like.
So nobody is certain exactly where he pulled some of the numbers from to define his scale? Sounds pretty much like the definition of nonsensical to me!
Have you ever actually *been* to Northern Alberta?
I don't know. Does living there count? :-)
...it was the cost of "securing" these systems
How is that allowable as damages? If you commit a crime then certainly you should pay for it (in the country you were in when you committed the crime) but it is not your responsibility to pay the costs of preventing someone else from committing the same crime. If a burglar breaks into my house surely I can't sue him for the cost to install a burglar alarm and build a higher fence?
Possibly, but more likely this is intended to intercept counterfeit goods like bulk produced CDs, clothing and other fashion accessories, DVDs, etc.
Just like the DMCA was intended to stop people circumventing DRM but was also used by companies to silence people revealing information about them or their products which they wanted to keep quiet? I'm all for giving people the benefit of the doubt but I don't have any doubt at all that this will be abused.
Bike to work. (Make living close enough to bike a priority.)
I want to start doing, but I work in an office where they'd care if I came to work sweaty and stinky. What's the solution to this?
Make living somewhere cold enough that you don't get hot and sticky a priority. Northern Alberta is really good.
OpenOffice on MacOS X requires you to have X installed.
Actually the new version 3.0 has native Aqua support but it is still in alpha/beta stage.
Obviously I wouldn't push OOo as a viable substitute for LaTeX
Have you tried OOoLatex?
Math in OpenOffice is even uglier than in MS Word.
While OO math is slightly more limited than MS it has one incredibly useful feature: a text editor. I can edit my equations in a text box rather than have to play with the GUI. You can also get OOLatex but that would probably be missing the point.
Where do you think these countries get the money for that and other social[ist] programs? They tax the hell out of companies, imports (and individuals)
Actually that is not true. I was listening to CBC radio yesterday where they were discussing the results of an international report (I forget by whom) which indicated that taxes (taken as a whole) paid by companies in Canada were less than in many areas of the US. While prices are not as bad as the EU vs. the US, Canadian prices are roughly 30% higher than the US. Something that is very noticeable now that the US$ is ~ 1 CA$.
It is localization in the UK as well. The preferred ending according to the OED is -ize although -ise is acceptable and seems to be very common in modern usage. An Inspector Morse episode once hinged on the fact that en English professor would not write a suicide note using -ise because -ize is the more correctending. This is why I always get really irritated with spell checkers: the UK versions refuse to accept -ize as valid.
A fair price is "whatever the market will bear."
No, a fair price is one which recompenses you reasonably for the amount of effort that you put into the item/service which you sell. "whatever the marker will bear" is a price that people will pay you regardless. Most, if not all, businesses will charge the latter because they can. However this does not make it fair.
When I ask my phone company to fix the phone, does that give them explicit permission to enter my house and "fix it"
That is a bad analogy. A better one would be that you rent a flat in a block and the landlord enters your flat to check the gas piping/electrical cables/water pipes/phone etc. because the system failed. The Landlord may well see your private belongings when checking the pipes just like the sysadmin may see your data. However I hope you agree that it would be completely unreasonable for the Landlord to postpone the fixing things while they waited to track you down and ask permission! Apart from the safety concern all the other residents are being inconvenienced by lack of gas/electricity/water/... while they wait for you to respond.
I hope you agree that this is a far better analogy than your house owner example: Flat=machines, possessions=data, gas/water/...=OS services, safety=security.
"Cuil" is a really dumb name.
I have to agree mainly because viewed at a distance in my default Firefox font the 'i' looks like an 'l' so I was left trying to figure out why a search engine cull was bad for Google!