Gaining insight to the minds of idiots is often illuminating. Thank you for contributing to my insight.
You don't cite any of his work, any of the reasons why you think he does what you say he does, you just go on and on with baseless insults, and then a totally irrelevant comparison. Your comment is worth exactly as much as my reply to it is.
I could almost feel sorry for you, but I have many more important things to feel bad about.
Go live in your little world, child. It'll bite you someday.
On the other hand, if discovery of non-DNA organisms on other planets is followed by detecting similar non-DNA organisms in some niche environment on Earth, we're back to square one with regard to determining the origin of the organisms.
Precisely. Right now we're discovering literally thousands of new organisms a day on our planet as our ability to find them and look deep into what makes them work improves. From what I've been reading recently it looks like we've barely scratched the surface of what's to find just here on Earth, let alone the solar system or universe.
Are RNA fragments "alive"? Are protein complexes "alive"? We know so little about what really constitutes "life" that for us to say that it doesn't exist elsewhere in many other (possibly related forms) is more than a little bit premature.
It's the most wonderful problem in science - the deeper we look, the more complex the universe is. Kind of puts the question of the existence of supernatural deities in perspective, doesn't it? Most current beliefs are nowhere near as awesomely complex and irritatingly hard to understand as reality is;-)
Not very likely, but when we're talking about timescales of billions of years, that changes the odds somewhat;-)
In addition, we *know* that Mars once had enormous oceans of water, probably at a time when the Earth was fairly hospitable to life as well. Given a few hundreds of millions of years of material transfer, it's pretty likely that there was some transference of biologicals, and that some of them found conducive environments on both planets. Remember that many of the extremophiles on Earth are rare because those environments are "rare" here now - but that wasn't always true. The Earth has undergone many extreme swings in global environment since it was formed, from global volcanic environments to global ice environments.
The question we really need answered is exactly when was Mars hospitable, and for how long? Sample returns from Mars wouldn't hurt, either...
but until we find life that's without a doubt non-terrestrial
It might be difficult to prove that any organisms found elsewhere in the solar system aren't at least distantly related to those on Earth. The solar system being as old as it is, it's entirely possible that over the last three and half billion years or so micro-organisms have traveled between the planets. Deep analysis of their DNA won't necessarily be conclusive, if the organisms were transported between the planetary bodies say three billion years ago it's likely they've evolved and changed significantly since then to fit their environments.
It's also possible that life here on Earth had more than one start - there has been some fascinating research on that subject lately and it's a good point to ponder, our earliest apparent evidence of life here on Earth was back when the planet was still subjected to potential bombardment by very large asteroids, and geological upheavals that could have terminated many early starts. For that matter it's possible that life started elsewhere in the solar system and only gained a foothold here on Earth because the environmental conditions were more suited.
We may never know for certain, unless someone invents a time machine and spends a few thousand years taking samples over large timescales...
That's an excellent policy (except for blank CDs and DVDs, of course *g* - wouldn't THAT be a helluva nice vector for infecting machines, if it can be done...)
I would like to point out that it should apply SPECIFICALLY to external hard drives one buys, especially used ones. I've had three customers in the last four months who bought used(2) and new(1) external hard drives off of Ebay and got infected with malware hidden either in the autorun or in the included software that comes with the drive. All three infections were malware downloaders, two got caught by their AV, one didn't and rendered her laptop unusable in about two hours.
I advise all of my customers to immediately format any new media as well. It's the only way to be sure...
Speaking of that, does anyone know of a way to create an icon on the desktop that can turn on/off the autorun feature, just to make it easier on users?
Without more information as to what exactly the worm does, I can only speculate, but I'd bet that it's a trojan downloader or something else that brings in more malware, and that it was planted on some of those cards by a blackhatass who happens to work in their factory. The fact that it's only on a small portion of the cameras seems to indicate one individual somewhere on the production line.
In any case it's not likely much of a threat if the users who get those cameras have decent AV software installed. Autorun trojans are fairly easy to detect IIRC.
I'll second this. The only accident I've ever been in where I was the driver happened when I was slowing for a turn and the lady behind me wasn't paying attention. I put my signal on a block ahead, slowed down and started to turn and she rear-ended me, sending me across the road and over a snowbank.
If I hadn't been so tired and been checking my six as thoroughly as I usually do I'd have seen that she wasn't slowing, aborted the turn and sped up or changed lanes to avoid her. Although legally she was at fault, I was also at fault, in the sense of not being attentive enough to preserve my life (if it hadn't been winter with snow on the road the hit would have been much worse, as it was I only ended up with minor damage to my '81 Mustang - possibly because it was so lightweight - and she ended up with considerably more damage to her Cherokee.)
She was decent about it and admitted fault to the cop, but I still kicked myself for weeks afterward - if I'd been turning one block further down the road and the accident happened there I would probably have gone over an embankment and into the Mississippi river, as it was I sledded over the snowbank, about sixty feet across a large front yard (it was a 45 mph four lane so I got hit at about 40 mph) and into the snowpile on that yard's driveway, which stopped me; at the turn a block further down there was just a stand of small trees and an 80 foot embankment...
I have a couple hundred thousand miles of cab/delivery driving experience, and I know better than to trust anyone else on the road:-\ Dumb. Needless to say I have never, ever made that mistake again... for many years now I've been biking everywhere, definitely keep my situational awareness at max.
Thanks. I'm a bit too wasted tired to continue the subject further, 38 hours work since I posted that, and I doubt it would make a difference here, but it was always hard for me to believe that there weren't people in the western hemisphere who observed the 1054 supernova back in the 80s. Given the cultural mores prevalent at the time, however, well... Occam's Razor ate their notes...
The latter is more accurate. Parent deserves a mod for that observation; from Wiki (not necessarily the most authoritative on the subject but the most easily available decent compilation)):
SN 1054 (Crab Supernova) was a supernova that was widely seen on Earth in the year 1054. It was recorded by Chinese, Japanese, Native Americans, and Persian/Arab astronomers as being bright enough to see in daylight for 23 days and was visible in the night sky for 653 days.[1][2][3] The progenitor star was located in the Milky Way galaxy at a distance of 6,300 light years and exploded as a core-collapse supernova.
There is also evidence the Mimbres and Anasazi Native Americans saw and recorded SN 1054; an Anasazi cliff painting near the great house of Penasco Blanco may portray it.[4]
It has also been claimed that an obscure entry in a number of Irish monastic annals originally referred to SN 1054 but was subsequently corrupted, becoming in the process an allegorical fantasy based on the legend of the Antichrist.[5]
IIRC I remember reading about some references to it found years ago in older religious tomes, but can't find anything online; anyone have those readily available?
I know the answer -- people are stupid.... and some journalists are not only stupid and ignorant, but greedy and unethical.
Read Rick Shenkman's "Just How Stupid Are We?". He treats the subject of mass media and mass stupidity rather well.
Disclaimer: I'm not affiliated with the author in any way, other than spending a few hundred dollars in the last year or so buying that book and others, so I can send them to family and friends.
Funny intention acknowledged, but even if you were looking at it with an extremely powerful telescope, as long as you are doing it from the surface of the planet, it won't hurt you.
If you were observing it directly from an orbiting telescope, the hard radiation might cause a slight increase in your chances of getting cancer - and not just in your eye.
It's a measure of the overall superstitious silliness of our species that we've actually coined a term for it, not to mention that it's one which very few people have ever heard of.
Not to dilute my point, but the meaning of the term and the logic behind it should be taught in religious schools in addition to secular ones.
Somehow I suspect that few of the kooks would know in what part of the sky Orion is visible in at any time of year, or could even identify Orion without a diagram and directions.;-(
However, when Betelgeuse does let go, it's pretty certain it'll be a naked eye object in daylight. When the supernova that created the Crab Nebula let go - it was observed in 1054 by astronomers all over the known world at the time - it was recorded as being visible in the daytime for weeks and at night for almost two years, and it's approximately 6500 light years distant. Betelgeuse, at around 600 ly distance, will likely be at least five or six magnitudes brighter, if not more.
It's also very possible, depending on how it happens (we don't yet understand all the processes that happen in supernova), that the hard radiation front from it may cause increased auroras planetwide.
It'll be exciting for astronomers. It'll drive the kooks into a frenzy. Although I would love to witness it; just for the kook reason alone, I hope it holds off at least until the human race has reached something approximating maturity, assuming it ever does. However, despite all the silly superstitious nonsense out there, we don't have any control over what the rest of the universe does.
Like I said, for most everyone it'll be a bright light in the sky... actually, given it's proximity and size, it'll probably be easily visible in daylight. That would be awesome, supernova that bright are extremely rare:-)
What's new is that the doomsday tomorrow nuts have something else to latch on to, since 2012 has been thoroughly debunked.
Of course it is possible that it already has gone supernova, and that the light and hard gamma front will reach us tomorrow morning.
Fortunately it's far enough away that the only people who are going to notice anything other than a bright light in the sky are gamma ray astronomers, and astronomers who work on supernova theory.
It'll be a great day for astronomers when it does go, however, a supernova that close and that thoroughly studied will give us a lot of hard information on supernova. For example, IIRC Betelgeuse was the one of the first stars to actually have it's angular diameter measured (1921) and surface imaged using interferometry.
I'm old enough to remember when they imaged it's surface, at the time it was an incredible achievement.
We put people in prison in this country because they smoke a joint, or sell a "feel good" drug to someone else who wants it, or jaywalk too many times, etc. The trials are short, for the most part (excepting celebrities).
Greedy asshats who fuck up thousands+ lives haven't even been indicted.
The "justice" system in the US has been bought and paid for, and those who flaunt it don't even have to hide anymore.
The quote at the bottom of this load of the article is " If you don't drink it, someone else will. "
Slashdot Mirror
Looking at it that way, the whole planet already benefits from the byproducts of our industrial civilization.
SB
Agreed, thanks.
Anyone who finds any cognitive dissonance between my previous post a couple minutes ago and this post really needs to reexamine their assumptions. ;-)
Sorry for being late to the party.
SB
Excuse me if this has been coined before. Probably has, but I'm going to take a stab at it anyway, my definition:
Churchill's Law: The first rebuttal to any discussion about any subject that remotely touches on politics will contain a partisan argument.
I'm sick of this shit.
SB
Gaining insight to the minds of idiots is often illuminating. Thank you for contributing to my insight.
You don't cite any of his work, any of the reasons why you think he does what you say he does, you just go on and on with baseless insults, and then a totally irrelevant comparison. Your comment is worth exactly as much as my reply to it is.
I could almost feel sorry for you, but I have many more important things to feel bad about.
Go live in your little world, child. It'll bite you someday.
SB
Who, exactly, is Doctorow a tool of? Independent free thinkers?
In addition, given that he gives away his work in addition to publishing it, how exactly do you consider him a "shameless self-promoter"?
Sounds like some jealousy is at work here, mister AC Troll.
SB
On the other hand, if discovery of non-DNA organisms on other planets is followed by detecting similar non-DNA organisms in some niche environment on Earth, we're back to square one with regard to determining the origin of the organisms.
Precisely. Right now we're discovering literally thousands of new organisms a day on our planet as our ability to find them and look deep into what makes them work improves. From what I've been reading recently it looks like we've barely scratched the surface of what's to find just here on Earth, let alone the solar system or universe.
Are RNA fragments "alive"? Are protein complexes "alive"? We know so little about what really constitutes "life" that for us to say that it doesn't exist elsewhere in many other (possibly related forms) is more than a little bit premature.
It's the most wonderful problem in science - the deeper we look, the more complex the universe is. Kind of puts the question of the existence of supernatural deities in perspective, doesn't it? Most current beliefs are nowhere near as awesomely complex and irritatingly hard to understand as reality is ;-)
SB
You must not have many repeat customers ;-)
SB
Not necessarily for tech support, however ;-(
"I put the new software disk in my drive and nothing happened. Now what do I do?" - phone calls at four AM...
Microsoft thought they had the answer with UAC - click, click...
SB
Not very likely, but when we're talking about timescales of billions of years, that changes the odds somewhat ;-)
In addition, we *know* that Mars once had enormous oceans of water, probably at a time when the Earth was fairly hospitable to life as well. Given a few hundreds of millions of years of material transfer, it's pretty likely that there was some transference of biologicals, and that some of them found conducive environments on both planets. Remember that many of the extremophiles on Earth are rare because those environments are "rare" here now - but that wasn't always true. The Earth has undergone many extreme swings in global environment since it was formed, from global volcanic environments to global ice environments.
The question we really need answered is exactly when was Mars hospitable, and for how long? Sample returns from Mars wouldn't hurt, either...
SB
but until we find life that's without a doubt non-terrestrial
It might be difficult to prove that any organisms found elsewhere in the solar system aren't at least distantly related to those on Earth. The solar system being as old as it is, it's entirely possible that over the last three and half billion years or so micro-organisms have traveled between the planets. Deep analysis of their DNA won't necessarily be conclusive, if the organisms were transported between the planetary bodies say three billion years ago it's likely they've evolved and changed significantly since then to fit their environments.
It's also possible that life here on Earth had more than one start - there has been some fascinating research on that subject lately and it's a good point to ponder, our earliest apparent evidence of life here on Earth was back when the planet was still subjected to potential bombardment by very large asteroids, and geological upheavals that could have terminated many early starts. For that matter it's possible that life started elsewhere in the solar system and only gained a foothold here on Earth because the environmental conditions were more suited.
We may never know for certain, unless someone invents a time machine and spends a few thousand years taking samples over large timescales...
SB
That's an excellent policy (except for blank CDs and DVDs, of course *g* - wouldn't THAT be a helluva nice vector for infecting machines, if it can be done...)
I would like to point out that it should apply SPECIFICALLY to external hard drives one buys, especially used ones. I've had three customers in the last four months who bought used(2) and new(1) external hard drives off of Ebay and got infected with malware hidden either in the autorun or in the included software that comes with the drive. All three infections were malware downloaders, two got caught by their AV, one didn't and rendered her laptop unusable in about two hours.
I advise all of my customers to immediately format any new media as well. It's the only way to be sure...
Speaking of that, does anyone know of a way to create an icon on the desktop that can turn on/off the autorun feature, just to make it easier on users?
SB
Without more information as to what exactly the worm does, I can only speculate, but I'd bet that it's a trojan downloader or something else that brings in more malware, and that it was planted on some of those cards by a blackhatass who happens to work in their factory. The fact that it's only on a small portion of the cameras seems to indicate one individual somewhere on the production line.
In any case it's not likely much of a threat if the users who get those cameras have decent AV software installed. Autorun trojans are fairly easy to detect IIRC.
SB
I'll second this. The only accident I've ever been in where I was the driver happened when I was slowing for a turn and the lady behind me wasn't paying attention. I put my signal on a block ahead, slowed down and started to turn and she rear-ended me, sending me across the road and over a snowbank.
If I hadn't been so tired and been checking my six as thoroughly as I usually do I'd have seen that she wasn't slowing, aborted the turn and sped up or changed lanes to avoid her. Although legally she was at fault, I was also at fault, in the sense of not being attentive enough to preserve my life (if it hadn't been winter with snow on the road the hit would have been much worse, as it was I only ended up with minor damage to my '81 Mustang - possibly because it was so lightweight - and she ended up with considerably more damage to her Cherokee.)
She was decent about it and admitted fault to the cop, but I still kicked myself for weeks afterward - if I'd been turning one block further down the road and the accident happened there I would probably have gone over an embankment and into the Mississippi river, as it was I sledded over the snowbank, about sixty feet across a large front yard (it was a 45 mph four lane so I got hit at about 40 mph) and into the snowpile on that yard's driveway, which stopped me; at the turn a block further down there was just a stand of small trees and an 80 foot embankment...
I have a couple hundred thousand miles of cab/delivery driving experience, and I know better than to trust anyone else on the road :-\ Dumb. Needless to say I have never, ever made that mistake again... for many years now I've been biking everywhere, definitely keep my situational awareness at max.
SB
who observed the 1054 supernova back in the 80s.
Sorry, nonsensical. Back when I was reading about it in the 80s... etc...
I need to sleep for several days.
SB
Thanks. I'm a bit too wasted tired to continue the subject further, 38 hours work since I posted that, and I doubt it would make a difference here, but it was always hard for me to believe that there weren't people in the western hemisphere who observed the 1054 supernova back in the 80s. Given the cultural mores prevalent at the time, however, well... Occam's Razor ate their notes...
SB
The latter is more accurate. Parent deserves a mod for that observation; from Wiki (not necessarily the most authoritative on the subject but the most easily available decent compilation)):
SN 1054 (Crab Supernova) was a supernova that was widely seen on Earth in the year 1054. It was recorded by Chinese, Japanese, Native Americans, and Persian/Arab astronomers as being bright enough to see in daylight for 23 days and was visible in the night sky for 653 days.[1][2][3] The progenitor star was located in the Milky Way galaxy at a distance of 6,300 light years and exploded as a core-collapse supernova.
There is also evidence the Mimbres and Anasazi Native Americans saw and recorded SN 1054; an Anasazi cliff painting near the great house of Penasco Blanco may portray it.[4]
It has also been claimed that an obscure entry in a number of Irish monastic annals originally referred to SN 1054 but was subsequently corrupted, becoming in the process an allegorical fantasy based on the legend of the Antichrist.[5]
IIRC I remember reading about some references to it found years ago in older religious tomes, but can't find anything online; anyone have those readily available?
SB
I know the answer -- people are stupid. ... and some journalists are not only stupid and ignorant, but greedy and unethical.
Read Rick Shenkman's "Just How Stupid Are We?". He treats the subject of mass media and mass stupidity rather well.
Disclaimer: I'm not affiliated with the author in any way, other than spending a few hundred dollars in the last year or so buying that book and others, so I can send them to family and friends.
SB
Funny intention acknowledged, but even if you were looking at it with an extremely powerful telescope, as long as you are doing it from the surface of the planet, it won't hurt you.
If you were observing it directly from an orbiting telescope, the hard radiation might cause a slight increase in your chances of getting cancer - and not just in your eye.
SB
Well struck :-)
It's a measure of the overall superstitious silliness of our species that we've actually coined a term for it, not to mention that it's one which very few people have ever heard of.
Not to dilute my point, but the meaning of the term and the logic behind it should be taught in religious schools in addition to secular ones.
SB
Heh ;-)
In the year 2100, gravity's value will change radically, and the moon will crash into the Earth, destroying everything.
Thoroughly debunk that. ;-)
SB
Somehow I suspect that few of the kooks would know in what part of the sky Orion is visible in at any time of year, or could even identify Orion without a diagram and directions. ;-(
However, when Betelgeuse does let go, it's pretty certain it'll be a naked eye object in daylight. When the supernova that created the Crab Nebula let go - it was observed in 1054 by astronomers all over the known world at the time - it was recorded as being visible in the daytime for weeks and at night for almost two years, and it's approximately 6500 light years distant. Betelgeuse, at around 600 ly distance, will likely be at least five or six magnitudes brighter, if not more.
It's also very possible, depending on how it happens (we don't yet understand all the processes that happen in supernova), that the hard radiation front from it may cause increased auroras planetwide.
It'll be exciting for astronomers. It'll drive the kooks into a frenzy. Although I would love to witness it; just for the kook reason alone, I hope it holds off at least until the human race has reached something approximating maturity, assuming it ever does. However, despite all the silly superstitious nonsense out there, we don't have any control over what the rest of the universe does.
SB
Like I said, for most everyone it'll be a bright light in the sky... actually, given it's proximity and size, it'll probably be easily visible in daylight. That would be awesome, supernova that bright are extremely rare :-)
SB
What's new is that the doomsday tomorrow nuts have something else to latch on to, since 2012 has been thoroughly debunked.
Of course it is possible that it already has gone supernova, and that the light and hard gamma front will reach us tomorrow morning.
Fortunately it's far enough away that the only people who are going to notice anything other than a bright light in the sky are gamma ray astronomers, and astronomers who work on supernova theory.
It'll be a great day for astronomers when it does go, however, a supernova that close and that thoroughly studied will give us a lot of hard information on supernova. For example, IIRC Betelgeuse was the one of the first stars to actually have it's angular diameter measured (1921) and surface imaged using interferometry.
I'm old enough to remember when they imaged it's surface, at the time it was an incredible achievement.
SB
ended up in a job where no one would notice.
Corporate spreadsheet pushers notice.
SB
We put people in prison in this country because they smoke a joint, or sell a "feel good" drug to someone else who wants it, or jaywalk too many times, etc. The trials are short, for the most part (excepting celebrities).
Greedy asshats who fuck up thousands+ lives haven't even been indicted.
The "justice" system in the US has been bought and paid for, and those who flaunt it don't even have to hide anymore.
The quote at the bottom of this load of the article is " If you don't drink it, someone else will. "
Koolaid.
SB