I wonder how soon until ISP's tiered pricing packages will become indistinguishable from those for cable TV, with grouped together services that vary not just in throughput or quality guarantees, but in what sites you can reach at each service level, or which sports teams are subject to a local blackout order.
Not long. The cable guys are, in this way, just like the Bellheads. They see their real moneymaker as these blasted tiered services (never mind their historical roots in equipment limitations). Soon you will probably have to buy the Disney package to be able to get the Google package to be able to get slashdot.
What I think of the judges that thought this was a good idea is not fit for slashdot, much less polite company.
Even if you hate Apple look what happened to Apple since 1997 when Steve Jobs came back who is considered one of the best CEOs? CEO's get paid a lot because they have a HUGE impact on stock price and company performance.
Steve Jobs had a salary of $ 1 per year. He shared in the success of the company because he owned a good chunk of it.
You may want to read the article before jumping to conclusions. The authors have identified many of the plants and animals as those of the New World, including specific breeds of cattle introduced from Spain, animals like the Ocelot, and others. Their study is very thorough, and it includes study of texts they have found with similar scripts and languages. Their conclusion is that it came from 16th century Spain, and was written in an Aztec language by natives who had been educated by the Spanish (and their evidence for this is quite convincing).
Read this for a contrary (and, I think, better informed) view.
I remember reading an article long ago that said that the Voynich manuscript was made by a con man that wanted to make some quick cash by writing down some gibberish in a book, claiming that it had mystical origins, and selling it off to someone with more money than common sense. (In this case, that person would be Emperor Rudolf II.) Some linguists have said that the statistical patterns of the text match what would be expected of a natural language, but the article that I read suggested that it is possible to create a random text that looks like a natural language by randomly choosing syllables with a special table. This table of syllables is constructed in such a way that the probability of a certain syllable occurring depends on the syllable that precedes it.
His name was John Dee, or maybe his buddy Edward Kelley, both pretty interesting characters.
I also believe that you are referring to the hoax theory of Gordon Rugg, but I found that unconvincing (such ciphers were popular 100 to 150 years after the creation of Voynich, and even if someone independently invented it earlier, manually it is a lot of work for a 240 page hoax).
The entropy and other statistical measures of the Voynich language is different from Indo-European languages. Zandbergen goes through this in some detail. To quote
Voynichese is nearly as information-rich as Julius Caesar's Latin, and significantly more so than the Vulgate version of Genesis.
Voynichese is less information-rich than Latin in the first two characters of each word, but compensates by greater variability in the trailer.
and
The statistics of Voynichese and a Mandarin text written in the Pinyin script (using a trailing numerical character to indicate tone) are very different.
There is actually a lot more of this in this and other papers. The Voynich language, for another example, has a lot more repeated words than (say) English. I seem to remember that the closest match in terms of word repetitions was with Vietnamese, and there was some speculation that it might be an invented script for that language, but that didn't pan out in detailed examination. The upshot is that it is just not realistic to just assume that Voynich is a common language written in some weird script (and, also, that these substitution games have been played before).
"Music streaming services, forced to give from 60% to 70% of their revenue to the record industry, will never be profitable in their current state, a new report shows."
That has been obvious to anyone associated with this business since about 2002.
I think this is a feature, not a bug, from the point of view of the record labels.
It has been obvious to me for a while that Snowden did not act alone, and that he probably represents a surface manifestation of deep divisions within the intelligence community.
Helium-3 is actually in such short supply that is described as a "supply crisis", and a "White House He-3 Interagency Policy Committee (IPC) Steering Committee" was set up to deal with it.
I'm pretty sure the outer space treaty DOES bar NASA from regulating moon mining. According to the treaty, nations are expressly forbidden from claiming natural resources on the moon, and if you forbidden from claiming it, then you are also forbidden from regulating it (you can't regulate something that isn't yours)
US government agencies have no authority outside US territory, and the moon is definitely NOT US territory. While NASA would be within it's rights to regulate space travel that leaves from, or arrives in, the US, it has no authority over space itself.
No, it does not. Read Article 8 of the Outer Space Treaty.
Again, the 1967 Outer Space Treaty (Article VIII):
A State Party to the Treaty on whose registry an object launched into outer space is carried shall retain jurisdiction and control over such object, and over any personnel thereof, while in outer space or on a celestial body.
The US is responsible for what you do (assuming you are a US National), so the US makes you get a license to launch. By the Commercial Space Launch Act of 1984, that is done by the FAA's Office of Commercial Space Transportation. While there is AFAIK no specific mining license, look for that in due course.
One or more private companies will win a contract to build prospecting robots, the first step toward mining the moon.
Look, IANAL and TINLA and all that, but no, that is not what is on offer here.
NASA "seeks to facilitate the development of one or more robotic lunar lander capabilities."
It will do that by "entering into one or more no-funds-exchanged Space Act Agreements (SAAs) with U.S. private-sector partners as a result of this Announcement."
Space Act agreements are not procurement contracts and "no-funds-exchanged" means, well, no funds will be exchanged.
So, no-one is going to (as a result of this) "win a contract" to build anything, and NASA is interested (in this announcement) in cargo transport, not prospecting.
I have come to the conclusion that the charter school movement was conceived in sin. born in corruption and is too full of conmen and grifters to give it any support.
There may be some decent, honest people trying to make things better in the movement, but it is not the way to bet.
For comparison, we should see the statistic for how many robberies involved a wallet, and then perhaps some legislation to require mandatory kill switches on our money.
Oh, they would love to do that too, by getting rid of cash.
Yes, I have now read the article, and they were indeed talking about small primordial black holes. The trouble with that is
- there is no evidence that any black hole with a mass less than 2 solar masses exists. - there is no mechanism to form small black holes except primordially - there is good evidence that smaller primordial black holes do not exist
I stand by my statement. There is no harm in pointing out the theoretical possibility, but in reality this is not going to be found buried in some the data for some astronomical explosion.
Yes, I have now read the article, and they were indeed talking about small primordial black holes. The trouble with that is
- there is no evidence that any black hole with a mass good evidence that smaller primordial black holes do not exist
I stand by my statement. There is no harm in pointing out the theoretical possibility, but in reality this is not going to be found buried in some the data for some astronomical explosion.
The idea is that quantum gravity stops the singularity from forming. It would still look like a black hole from the outside, for at least 10^100 years or so.
Quick elimination round :
Is it like a regular star? No Does this mean that we won't eventually end up with a universe full of black holes? No (but it would affect how these BH evaporate). Does this mean that there matter can actually escape from a black hole - yes, in their theory and that there are no white holes? - not unless you view the end explosion as a white hole
Bonus question : What this does for wormholes is unclear. They need exotic matter to survive; maybe that could be done on the quantum gravity level
Slashdot Mirror
I really need this. Whenever I say
sudo make me a sandwich
I never get any food. And using it in bed! Let's just draw a curtain over that!
So, I am convinced I need help with using access control on real people. Maybe this book would be just the thing
http://xkcd.com/149/
Actually, from the evidence, I think our economy is run by monkeys. It would explain a lot.
Not long. The cable guys are, in this way, just like the Bellheads. They see their real moneymaker as these blasted tiered services (never mind their historical roots in equipment limitations). Soon you will probably have to buy the Disney package to be able to get the Google package to be able to get slashdot.
What I think of the judges that thought this was a good idea is not fit for slashdot, much less polite company.
For those puzzled by the description here, this is a software contest, with a 300 Euro prize :
Another word JOBS.
Even if you hate Apple look what happened to Apple since 1997 when Steve Jobs came back who is considered one of the best CEOs? CEO's get paid a lot because they have a HUGE impact on stock price and company performance.
Steve Jobs had a salary of $ 1 per year. He shared in the success of the company because he owned a good chunk of it.
That, I have no problem with.
Because ownership has been replaced by control, and leadership has been replaced by management.
Shocking! Who would have ever guessed before the advent of complicated math models that food riots tend to occur when food prices go up !
Next up, complicated fluid dynamics models that show that when it rains, you may get wet.
You may want to read the article before jumping to conclusions. The authors have identified many of the plants and animals as those of the New World, including specific breeds of cattle introduced from Spain, animals like the Ocelot, and others. Their study is very thorough, and it includes study of texts they have found with similar scripts and languages. Their conclusion is that it came from 16th century Spain, and was written in an Aztec language by natives who had been educated by the Spanish (and their evidence for this is quite convincing).
Read this for a contrary (and, I think, better informed) view.
I remember reading an article long ago that said that the Voynich manuscript was made by a con man that wanted to make some quick cash by writing down some gibberish in a book, claiming that it had mystical origins, and selling it off to someone with more money than common sense. (In this case, that person would be Emperor Rudolf II.) Some linguists have said that the statistical patterns of the text match what would be expected of a natural language, but the article that I read suggested that it is possible to create a random text that looks like a natural language by randomly choosing syllables with a special table. This table of syllables is constructed in such a way that the probability of a certain syllable occurring depends on the syllable that precedes it.
His name was John Dee, or maybe his buddy Edward Kelley, both pretty interesting characters.
I also believe that you are referring to the hoax theory of Gordon Rugg, but I found that unconvincing (such ciphers were popular 100 to 150 years after the creation of Voynich, and even if someone independently invented it earlier, manually it is a lot of work for a 240 page hoax).
The entropy and other statistical measures of the Voynich language is different from Indo-European languages. Zandbergen goes through this in some detail. To quote
and
There is actually a lot more of this in this and other papers. The Voynich language, for another example, has a lot more repeated words than (say) English. I seem to remember that the closest match in terms of word repetitions was with Vietnamese, and there was some speculation that it might be an invented script for that language, but that didn't pan out in detailed examination. The upshot is that it is just not realistic to just assume that Voynich is a common language written in some weird script (and, also, that these substitution games have been played before).
That has been obvious to anyone associated with this business since about 2002.
I think this is a feature, not a bug, from the point of view of the record labels.
They didn't reject it (or not). They are unable to grant it, so the issue is moot.
It has been obvious to me for a while that Snowden did not act alone, and that he probably represents a surface manifestation of deep divisions within the intelligence community.
Will South Carolina now "teach the controversy" with astrology the way they say they say they want to do with creationism?
No, of course not, as what they are really trying to do is promote their religion in public schools, and astrology is not part of their religion.
Helium-3 is actually in such short supply that is described as a "supply crisis", and a "White
House He-3 Interagency Policy Committee (IPC) Steering Committee" was set up to deal with it.
And, yes, fusion has nothing to do with it.
I'm pretty sure the outer space treaty DOES bar NASA from regulating moon mining.
According to the treaty, nations are expressly forbidden from claiming natural resources on the moon, and if you forbidden from claiming it, then you are also forbidden from regulating it (you can't regulate something that isn't yours)
US government agencies have no authority outside US territory, and the moon is definitely NOT US territory. While NASA would be within it's rights to regulate space travel that leaves from, or arrives in, the US, it has no authority over space itself.
No, it does not. Read Article 8 of the Outer Space Treaty.
Again, the 1967 Outer Space Treaty (Article VIII) :
The US is responsible for what you do (assuming you are a US National), so the US makes you get a license to launch. By the Commercial Space Launch Act of 1984, that is done by the FAA's Office of Commercial Space Transportation. While there is AFAIK no specific mining license, look for that in due course.
Look, IANAL and TINLA and all that, but no, that is not what is on offer here.
NASA "seeks to facilitate the development of one or more robotic lunar lander capabilities."
It will do that by "entering into one or more no-funds-exchanged Space Act Agreements (SAAs) with U.S. private-sector partners as a result of this Announcement."
Space Act agreements are not procurement contracts and "no-funds-exchanged" means, well, no funds will be exchanged.
So, no-one is going to (as a result of this) "win a contract" to build anything, and NASA is interested (in this announcement) in cargo transport, not prospecting.
No, it won't.
Read the 1967 Outer Space Treaty. No one may own the Moon, but you get to exploit it. You just can't stake a claim without working it.
I have come to the conclusion that the charter school movement was conceived in sin. born in corruption and is too full of conmen and grifters to give it any support.
There may be some decent, honest people trying to make things better in the movement, but it is not the way to bet.
For comparison, we should see the statistic for how many robberies involved a wallet, and then perhaps some legislation to require mandatory kill switches on our money.
Oh, they would love to do that too, by getting rid of cash.
Yes, "involve" is a favorite police weasel word, as it means more or less whatever they want it to mean.
Sorry, without the typo
Yes, I have now read the article, and they were indeed talking about small primordial black holes. The trouble with that is
- there is no evidence that any black hole with a mass less than 2 solar masses exists.
- there is no mechanism to form small black holes except primordially
- there is good evidence that smaller primordial black holes do not exist
I stand by my statement. There is no harm in pointing out the theoretical possibility, but in reality this is not going to be found buried in some the data for some astronomical explosion.
Yes, I have now read the article, and they were indeed talking about small primordial black holes. The trouble with that is
- there is no evidence that any black hole with a mass good evidence that smaller primordial black holes do not exist
I stand by my statement. There is no harm in pointing out the theoretical possibility, but in reality this is not going to be found buried in some the data for some astronomical explosion.
The idea is that quantum gravity stops the singularity from forming. It would still look like a black hole from the outside, for at least 10^100 years or so.
Quick elimination round :
Is it like a regular star? No
Does this mean that we won't eventually end up with a universe full of black holes? No (but it would affect how these BH evaporate).
Does this mean that there matter can actually escape from a black hole - yes, in their theory
and that there are no white holes? - not unless you view the end explosion as a white hole
Bonus question :
What this does for wormholes is unclear. They need exotic matter to survive; maybe that could be done on the quantum gravity level