Even if the software is free it seems to me that the most expensive thing is always the developers...
Yes, and just imagine all of those expensive developers sitting idle because a bug in the proprietary software they use prevents them from doing their job. If they were using open source software, at least they could try to fix it...
Reducing the metal to a "fuel" form would take energy... just as much much energy as you would get out of it in the car...
And, where does gas come from? Wait, it doesn't take energy to drill oil from deep in the earth's crust, ship it to a refinery, process it with lots of heat and manufactured chemicals, ship it to the distribution points, and burn it inefficiently in our vehicles....does it?
Actually, a lot of Hydrogen Economy True Believers need to enroll in that same class.
And a lot of Hydrogen Economy True Skeptics need to stop their "you're all a bunch of fools" knees from jerking at the very mention of fuel cells. You might not have read TFA, but I did. It never mentioned hydrogen as a fuel. Metal was discussed as a fuel, and solar power, both used to produce hydrogen for use in the fuel cell. (Notice no mention of hydrogen as a fuel source?) Why don't you apply your skepticism there, where it's probably warranted?
Life, I suspect, is fairly commonplace. I have no idea if intelligence is.
Here's a question fer ya: Is life a necessary precursor to intelligence?
Here's my stab at an answer: not necessarily. See, I see the evolutionary process as a form of intelligence, one that can create other intelligences. (Even evolutionary ones like itself.) Evolution is a problem solver. It "figures out" which organisms can survive in a certain environment. But, is evolution alive? Dunno.
As for the question of whether we can create intelligence from scratch, the answer is "of course." It was done before, why can't we do it? In my opinion the best way to go about it is to recreate the conditions that produced our own intelligence, i.e. evolution.
Well I believe it'll be the same for Omar Simpson: the original Homer is funny because it deforms and amplifies flaws in the US society.
Which is exactly why it will succeed in the Arab world. Can't you see them loving to laugh at caricatures of Americans?
Now the more conservative crowd may take offense to this, but having them laugh at us is good. There's many funny things about laughter. Over time, laughter endears you to what (or who) you're laughing at. You don't laugh at something you fear. (Or rather, when you laugh you're generally not afraid.) Laughter makes you susceptible to suggestion and acceptance. These are all features we would like in the Arab world's attitude towards us. If our aim is to win over hearts and minds, having the Arab world laugh with us (and even at us) is a vital step.
Here's a product that gets two out of four from think geek. Otherwise, I suggest putting an FM tuner card in a computer and programming the thing yourself...
American broadband blows because it's hard to wire the 450,000 people in Wyoming using the same deployment strategy that wires the millions that live in Chicago.
Then they shouldn't use the same deployment strategy.
Duh.
And, it it's population density, then why don't we have extremely cheap broadband in NYC? Boston? DC? ?
I dunno if I'd count jumping on the Linux/Open Source bandwagon "back on track" or not...
This may be a bit simplistic, but I've got some recent experience navigating between the two. I just built my new dual core Athlon X2 system this weekend. Tried out Solaris 10 on it first. Took about 4 hours to install. Tried out the scimark java benchmark and was quite underwhelmed with a 263 composite score. Installed Gentoo 2005.1, compiling kde and the blackdown-jdk packages. Took about 2 hours. Scimark composite score: 519. Yes, almost twice as fast. Tried the Sun 1.5 JVM, just to compare apples with apples: composite score of 569, well over double of solaris.
I saw Mirror Mask a couple of weeks ago. While it's a great movie to look at, Gaiman needs to leave things like plot and dialog to someone else. Find a good screenwriter! Concept, art, and execution were fantastic, but the plot was fragmented and a complete snooze.
Potentially bad news if it only blasts 99.999999% of the bacteria, thus selecting for super-tough microbes.
Sure, but as long as we're SWAGing, it could also leave bacteria behind who have such thick outer membranes that they were crippled in the first place. (i.e. they were not viable before, and still aren't)
The maxim "whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger" doesn't necessarily apply to evolution. It's too complex.
Yes, and I was on to something before, you're just to blinded by ideology to listen. If you see the world through a filter you'll always be blind. Simple as that.
You can't just throw out a scholarly, obfuscating term like "socioeconomic class"
I find it funny that we're talking on a thread lamenting the decline of education in America, yet you criticise me for using a "scholarly, obfuscating term." Nice.
"Scholarly" is a good term for it, though, because the subject is huge and complex. I'm not obfuscating because the subject is simply to bit to boil down into one post on Slashdot. Sorry. Not going to dumb it down. Try consulting the oracle Google.
However, the tip of the iceberg is that families of lower socioeconomic class must spend more time focusing on survival and less time on education. Also, they're more likely to be in a culture that does not value education, because devaluing education makes them more likely to be in a lower socioeconomic class. (Yes, the dependency is circular.)
You do not understand. Attendees of private school achieve more because they come from a higher socioeconomic level, not just because their status allows them to afford better schools.
Besides, vouchers are pablum. They rarely let students in true economic need afford private school. When a school costs $10k/year and the voucher only provides $5k, what good is it? And aren't conservatives against "just throwing money at the problem"? Seems like a not so veiled attempt to pull money away from the public schools and have the government fund private religious schools. Stop being the snake in the garden and just say what you want.
So if the religious right is so bad about science, how do you explain the better scientific education of kids coming out of religious private schools?
Socioeconomic level, the single greatest positive indicator of educational acheivement. By definition, someone who can afford to attend a private school is of a higher socioeconomic than someone who cannot. QED.
Slashdot Mirror
Even if the software is free it seems to me that the most expensive thing is always the developers...
Yes, and just imagine all of those expensive developers sitting idle because a bug in the proprietary software they use prevents them from doing their job. If they were using open source software, at least they could try to fix it...
Reducing the metal to a "fuel" form would take energy... just as much much energy as you would get out of it in the car...
And, where does gas come from? Wait, it doesn't take energy to drill oil from deep in the earth's crust, ship it to a refinery, process it with lots of heat and manufactured chemicals, ship it to the distribution points, and burn it inefficiently in our vehicles....does it?
Actually, a lot of Hydrogen Economy True Believers need to enroll in that same class.
And a lot of Hydrogen Economy True Skeptics need to stop their "you're all a bunch of fools" knees from jerking at the very mention of fuel cells. You might not have read TFA, but I did. It never mentioned hydrogen as a fuel. Metal was discussed as a fuel, and solar power, both used to produce hydrogen for use in the fuel cell. (Notice no mention of hydrogen as a fuel source?) Why don't you apply your skepticism there, where it's probably warranted?
Methinks you'd be interested in this.
Life, I suspect, is fairly commonplace. I have no idea if intelligence is.
Here's a question fer ya: Is life a necessary precursor to intelligence?
Here's my stab at an answer: not necessarily. See, I see the evolutionary process as a form of intelligence, one that can create other intelligences. (Even evolutionary ones like itself.) Evolution is a problem solver. It "figures out" which organisms can survive in a certain environment. But, is evolution alive? Dunno.
As for the question of whether we can create intelligence from scratch, the answer is "of course." It was done before, why can't we do it? In my opinion the best way to go about it is to recreate the conditions that produced our own intelligence, i.e. evolution.
Well I believe it'll be the same for Omar Simpson: the original Homer is funny because it deforms and amplifies flaws in the US society.
Which is exactly why it will succeed in the Arab world. Can't you see them loving to laugh at caricatures of Americans?
Now the more conservative crowd may take offense to this, but having them laugh at us is good. There's many funny things about laughter. Over time, laughter endears you to what (or who) you're laughing at. You don't laugh at something you fear. (Or rather, when you laugh you're generally not afraid.) Laughter makes you susceptible to suggestion and acceptance. These are all features we would like in the Arab world's attitude towards us. If our aim is to win over hearts and minds, having the Arab world laugh with us (and even at us) is a vital step.
...and has ridiculous interdependencies...
Those interdependencies you speak of...that wouldn't be code reuse and OO design, maybe? And what would be a nonridiculous interdependency?
Already I'm reading posts saying, "The Java problem hasn't been solved! WAAAAA!"
Sorry, you Java bigots. You're just going to have to deal. And, by "deal," I mean "stop bitching and start pitching in."
(Why are the words java and slow always appearing in the same sentence...)
Dunno. Maybe because you keep putting them together?
...some balloon that can get blown, and harmed by the weather
24km high is in the stratosphere. Most weather resides in the troposphere, which ends at 14.5km.
Keep your shoes on, Nancy.
The Pelican sleeps tonight.
He is a up and rising star in the RNC. Keep a eye on him, he will be running for president sooner or later.
I also hear he moonlights as an airplane mechanic.
BTW, could I borrow your Opteron, I need to fry an egg for breakfast.
The 90's called. They need their processor bigotry back.
Here's a product that gets two out of four from think geek. Otherwise, I suggest putting an FM tuner card in a computer and programming the thing yourself...
American broadband blows because it's hard to wire the 450,000 people in Wyoming using the same deployment strategy that wires the millions that live in Chicago.
Then they shouldn't use the same deployment strategy.
Duh.
And, it it's population density, then why don't we have extremely cheap broadband in NYC? Boston? DC? ?
I dunno if I'd count jumping on the Linux/Open Source bandwagon "back on track" or not...
This may be a bit simplistic, but I've got some recent experience navigating between the two. I just built my new dual core Athlon X2 system this weekend. Tried out Solaris 10 on it first. Took about 4 hours to install. Tried out the scimark java benchmark and was quite underwhelmed with a 263 composite score. Installed Gentoo 2005.1, compiling kde and the blackdown-jdk packages. Took about 2 hours. Scimark composite score: 519. Yes, almost twice as fast. Tried the Sun 1.5 JVM, just to compare apples with apples: composite score of 569, well over double of solaris.
So I know what I'm going to use...
I saw Mirror Mask a couple of weeks ago. While it's a great movie to look at, Gaiman needs to leave things like plot and dialog to someone else. Find a good screenwriter! Concept, art, and execution were fantastic, but the plot was fragmented and a complete snooze.
Potentially bad news if it only blasts 99.999999% of the bacteria, thus selecting for super-tough microbes.
Sure, but as long as we're SWAGing, it could also leave bacteria behind who have such thick outer membranes that they were crippled in the first place. (i.e. they were not viable before, and still aren't)
The maxim "whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger" doesn't necessarily apply to evolution. It's too complex.
by CynicalGuy
Seems like an incredibly flawed survey.
Hmmmm... I'm sensing a pattern here...
What is it about insects that they produce such desireable materials?
It's obvious, isn't it? Jesus wanted it that way.
Well now I think you're on to something.
Yes, and I was on to something before, you're just to blinded by ideology to listen. If you see the world through a filter you'll always be blind. Simple as that.
Me, in particular, my family barely made of $30,000 per year
When was that?
You can't just throw out a scholarly, obfuscating term like "socioeconomic class"
I find it funny that we're talking on a thread lamenting the decline of education in America, yet you criticise me for using a "scholarly, obfuscating term." Nice.
"Scholarly" is a good term for it, though, because the subject is huge and complex. I'm not obfuscating because the subject is simply to bit to boil down into one post on Slashdot. Sorry. Not going to dumb it down. Try consulting the oracle Google.
However, the tip of the iceberg is that families of lower socioeconomic class must spend more time focusing on survival and less time on education. Also, they're more likely to be in a culture that does not value education, because devaluing education makes them more likely to be in a lower socioeconomic class. (Yes, the dependency is circular.)
You do not understand. Attendees of private school achieve more because they come from a higher socioeconomic level, not just because their status allows them to afford better schools.
Besides, vouchers are pablum. They rarely let students in true economic need afford private school. When a school costs $10k/year and the voucher only provides $5k, what good is it? And aren't conservatives against "just throwing money at the problem"? Seems like a not so veiled attempt to pull money away from the public schools and have the government fund private religious schools. Stop being the snake in the garden and just say what you want.
So if the religious right is so bad about science, how do you explain the better scientific education of kids coming out of religious private schools?
Socioeconomic level, the single greatest positive indicator of educational acheivement. By definition, someone who can afford to attend a private school is of a higher socioeconomic than someone who cannot. QED.