Apparently the laws and rules surrounding these hoards are, according to my source, quite fair. If you find a hoard -- no matter where -- then you are obliged to report it. It belongs to the crown. However, after a qualified examination, those items of no or little scientific interest are returned to you to dispose of in any way you see fit. This encourages amateurs to look -- amplifying the number of finds -- but sends the most scientifically interesting material into the right hands for study. According to my friend quite often the most interesting stuff is not always the most valuable. There is a lively trade in these coins. All for sale quite legally.
Lastly, as another poster has pointed out... The system is fair enough so that it is best to leave the material where you found it so that professional archaeologists can extract it in context -- according to the rules of the 'New Archaeology'. One can still be confident in getting credit for the find and, of course, a fair share of the loot.
I grudgingly use Facebook (Forcebook, Farcebook, Facebroke, Facebork) because so many of my real friends from overseas postings here and there can be found on it. They move around, too, and, well, it just makes sense.. My Android phone just offered me the opportunity to install the FB app when I checked an email message from Facebook -- A friend request from a German pal of mine from my days in Armenia (See?) He's in Uraguay it seems. Well, when I was ready to do the install I read the permissions list.Holy privacy invasion, Batman! It was going to do all the crap I painstakingly don't let the creepy site do on my web browser (it is a battle). And then it was going track my location to boot.
Bondsbw, you so gave them permission to have your phone when you installed that app. Moreover, you also gave them permission to marry your firstborn child off to the evil sorcerer Zuck when he or she comes of age. (The sorcerer swings both ways.) Oh, I forgot F*ckedbook.
A Roundup-ready plant is resistant to the herbicide Roundup. The stuff kills the weeds, but not the crop. Good concept. Part of the green revolution to feed the planet. But I don't like the unrestricted patents, which should have expired by now --- for a lot of crops, anyway. This stuff has been around for years.
I think it was stupid to allow patents for genomes anyway. The self replicating device was found in nature. All that was done was to modify it. There is no invention. You could patent the original modification process, of course, but when the seed replicates itself it is using a process that is clearly not invention, but is, as I said, a process found in nature. Hopefully the court will see this. The current patent situation runs counter to the law's intent and stands firmly against the public good. And anyone with the common sense god gave a parakeet can see it. Okay evolution gave the parakeet its sense, but let's not open that can of soybeans. Okay?
This whole idea of patents for self-replicating devices should be very interesting when we make robots that can build copies of themselves.
He said "Bite my shiny metal Android. I'm usin' my iPhone to order more beer. Oh crap! A touch screen. Metal. fingers. useless. I need a human hand. Where can I get one. C'mere you..." Then I heard screaming and was disconnected.
"In one of the most extreme cases, it [Dubai] reported a man being held after poppy seeds from a bread roll were found on his clothes."
Dubai wants tourism and convention business, but their draconian drug paranoia makes this aspiration ridiculous. How many of the attendees to this conference will be harassed or even imprisoned I wonder? I know this is old news, but any chance I get I take the opportunity to share this BBC article concerning Dubai's absurd reactionary jailing of innocent visitors. I have been there (It's nothing special, people.) But now I shudder to think that I had my OTC allergy medicine with me. I would not go back to Dubai on a bet.
The idea of having an internet conference there is like planning a human rights conference in Damascus. But, I guess since the organizers want anything but transparency, it makes for a terrible logic.
Control supply and stimulate demand. The 'tradition' of a diamond engagement ring is a DeBeers invention that dates to the twenties. Also DeBeers subsidizes advertising. Jewelers can get money from DeBeers to help them place ads provided they stick to certain themes. DeBeers will even supply stock art. Something else few people realize. DeBeers is heavily invested in gold production. They own controlling interest in a lot of mines. So it is not only diamonds that have been manipulated, but gold as well. Same deal: stimulate demand with subsidized ads and control supply. Gold is not as well controlled as are diamonds, but a review of the recent price trend gives a clue. Watch what happens to gold when the world economy goes back on the boil. It may be a while, but trust me. The people who cornered this market will clean TF up.
But no need to charcoal the trees. Just bury them for carbon credit and grow new ones. We could put them in old coal mines. Wait a minute.... thought coming in.....Hmmm. It occurs to me that simply by making paper you are sequestering carbon. When your Sunday Times finds its way into an anaerobic pocket of the landfill (provided you didn't recycle it.) the carbon in it is nicely isolated from the atmosphere, at least for a solid period of time.
Okay. Listen up. Stop recycling. I'm calling my attorney. We're going to bin our paper and get rich from carbon credits. Woohoo!
Paper demand is very sluggish in the developed world. The slow death (or metamorphosis) of the newspaper industry that is directly related to the digital publishing revolution is clearly responsible. The less-paper world is coming. It's coming later than many thought it would, but the paper companies are really feeling it. A friend who follows the paper industry told me that projected paper demand is a full thirty percent lower now than expected in the developed world. Not that demand is actually shrinking, it is just growing slower -- a lot slower -- than earlier trends projected. The developing world is more robust. Corporate investments in forests are by nature long-term. And there is a glut due to demand not growing as projected. Hence intensive research -- as seen in this FA -- into other ways to use pulp in quantity.
I briefly looked for something comprehensive to make my point and found this article from Paper Age. It is pretty general, but the writing is on the wall-mounted tablet display.
The only solution I see is a mandatory license to use the electronics akin to drivers license. Believe it or not, the idiot user is not only a nuisance but a danger to others.
I have often pondered the idea of an internet license. I reject it on philosophical grounds, especially since it would require that at some level one would be forced to forgo anonymity. But one would think it to be a great temptation to the US authorities at the state and federal level.. Not to mention more-repressive governments elsewhere. You need a radio license. And a driver's licence. And, depending on the state, a gun license. Then there is the hunting license the fishing license etc etc. An internet license seems like a natural evolution, especially since an irresponsible wanker with a broadband connection can do a lot of harm simply through ignorance. Also intentional bad actors could have their internet license taken away. Fees could be used to fight cyber crime blah blah blah. Kids could be given kiddie access only to the kiddie net. And so on.
Many security problems would be reduced, but not, of course, eliminated for obvious reasons.. But also customers for PCs, software and broadband would be reduced in number as well. It is interesting, but I rarely see the possibility of a license raised. I hate to even mention it here lest it give people ideas. But you brought it up and I couldn't help but comment. Now a quick Google and I found this.
Keven Whipp of the Montgomery [County Maryland] Amateur Radio Club gave a presentation last April on a very similar topic to the Columbia Area Linux User's Group (CALUG). The radio club has been working with Montgomery County to test various setups of MESH networks on Linksys WRT54GL routers running custom firmware to be used in emergency situations. They have been testing distances and reliability using different frequencies using high gain antennas (which require a license). As I recall the deployments they tested faced a lot of technical and regulatory obstacles. And they were looking at simple static deployments, not mobile. If, say the infrastructure went down after a flood, their objective was to provide basic internet services to Emergency Response Teams working in the area.
Anyway, here is a link to a PDF summary of the presentation. My take away was that even after pretty extensive testing the system was not ready for prime time, but was very promising. To be useful in the situations to which they aspired the Mesh had to be reliable and robust. It was not. I am sure they would be happy to share their experience with you. And I bet they made progress over the summer.
Explain to your wife that people play games (all kinds of games) together in order to make a human connection. Whether it is golf or poker or mahjong or softball or Risk or bridge. So, at root, one participates in a role playing game for the same reason that one plays any game. To be with other people and get beneath the surface, to challenge onesself and take the measure of others. But in a kind of simulation of life. Your social ass is on the line, but not totally on the line. (And any serious golfer or chess player will tell you that their game is life and life is their game.) The truth is that the money in a friendly poker game is usually secondary to the social payoff in winning or even in losing. And even the outcome is subordinated to the experience. And, if one thinks about it, a poker night gives the players an opportunity to undertake roles as well. The focus is admittedly clearer when there is a winner and a loser. And, to an outsider, a player's motivation is more easily understandable because there is money in the picture. But, if you can get across the idea to your wife that you play D&D (or whatever you play) for basically the same reason that other people play golf or Scrabble or pinochle, then you are at a good starting place.
It sounds to me that the long sessions have her worried. But you could point out that when guys go out for 18 holes eight hours is normal if you include the postmortem in the club taproom and pre-lubrication. All in the name of sport, of course.
Mentally healthy people play games with each other and that's a fact. It feeds a pretty deep-seated social need. As to why you find role playing more satisfying than, say, golf. Say it fits your intellect and personality better. Role playing games require a lot of imagination, mental and emotional investment, but no-one (we hope) completely forgets that he or she is gaming. Point out that actors do not forget who they are when they are performing. They successfully suspend who they are, but they don't forget. One of the most popular games of all time is Charades. And what is it but a free-form role playing game? In theater circles it is referred to as simply "The Game." Put in this perspective hopefully she won't think D&D is so weird. It is weird. But not that weird in the scheme of things.
But South Africa, even as the most developed country in Africa, is arguably not a full-fledged member of the developed world. It is a highly divided society still (as we have seen in recent weeks with the miners' strike.) And it has a very high crime rate generally. One can take little comfort in having better statistics than they do -- cultural differences aside.
Culture of course is no excuse for violations of human rights, which include violence against women. There was a time when a broad swath of the US accepted slavery as a cultural norm. Just because a society itself believes something is right does not make it right. Violence in the home is as wrong in Jo-berg and Riyadh and Moscow as it is in New York or Oslo. The same, of course, goes for rape. Everyone has to do better.
These principles are enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. No society is permitted to hide behind its culture in order to protect institutionalized savagery and oppression against any group -- women included.
That is interesting. Where did you find that out? It's too cool. Is the increased activity causing some stem cells to trigger and develop new tissue?. How does the toe somehow know? Thanks sjames.
I don't know if you watched the clip I linked to, but the guy had seemingly had higher functionality in the end with his toe fingered hand than he did with his congenitally disabled hand. Hopefully he stays away from his table saw.
Actually, violence against women in Norway is a major health concern according to an important study done there.
From the study: Results: "In total, 26.8% of 2,143 ever-partnered women had experienced any violence by their partner during their lifetime, and 5.5% in the year before the study."
These rates are on par with most of the developed world. Given these stats (One in four ever-partnered women battered within their relationship) I don't think the Scandinavians are going to get a pass on rates of rape -- insofar as it is defined to include spousal rape, date rape and other forms of coerced sex. If anyone has stats on Scandinavian rape rates (could not easily find any) it would be instructive to post them. I doubt they are much different from those in the developed world. Certainly not one in ten. Where did that figure come from?
As much as many Scandinavians would like to believe that their feet don't stink, it should come as no surprise that their feet do, indeed, stink. Almost as much as mine do.
I saw a documentary once about some poor Chinese guy who lost all his fingers in some kind of accident. The Chinese doctors removed some of his toes (the guy had pretty long toes) and ginned up a three-fingered hand for him with, of course, toes for fingers. It appeared to work really well. The guy seemed damned happy about it. Come to think of it, I would be, too.
I looked briefly for a link to the old China story, but only came up with an upbeat human interest yarn about an American guy born with two fingers on one hand getting this same operation. He was fine with his congenital two-fingered hand but needed a toe transplant only after he cut off one of the two fingers on his defective hand using a table saw. After some physio he is doing better with three than he did with two. Even if two of them were (are?) toes. Which, frankly, comes as no great surprise.
So I guess a robot with three fingers would be pretty functional, too.
The US is perhaps a good place to be polite. Robert A. Heinlein noted, "An armed society is a polite society." Okay. That may be a bit of hyperbolic humor. But, whatever the reason, in my experience your cross-cultural observation is correct.
I once had a French boss. An editor to be exact. He was blunt to the point of cruelty from my point of view. Others also found him so -- especially the Americans. But we published a damned good magazine. And I learned a lot from him. And, to be fair, he was as hard on himself as he was on us. Brits are also a bit more blunt than Americans I have observed.
Personally, I make a distinction between constructive honesty and brutal frankness. That said, people in a workplace need to develop a thick hide or standards never get raised. However, create too much of a negative atmosphere and potentially good ideas are suppressed. Finally, when finishing a product you need somebody in charge with a sharp eye and a sharp tongue.
"Woolman, if you don't come in Sunday and fix this copy, then don't bother to come in Monday. Now get out."
He has gotten a few minutes of glory by killing a sacred cow. In this case The-Math-Is-Vital to-Higher-Education cow. The cow is sacred because it is a good and right cow. An all-the-way-down cow. It is so easy to make a name for yourself by taking contrary positions -- especially if they are outrageous. This specious argument was born to be reported on Cable News. Or *"cough* on Slashdot.
Of course these pay-as-you-go degree mills would like to have more customers. So let's just change these ridiculous standards. This guy has an agenda.
Here is my next book? "The Reading Railroad. Speak Don't Write." The summary: With the advent of text to speech and audio recording reading and writing is an unneeded barrier to many otherwise smart people getting PH.Ds. As long as they can get a student loan they can get a doctorate.
"Here. Let me help you with that wordy loan application."
The brain is a mathematical engine. When you catch a fly ball you are solving a differential equation. Intuitively. When you gauge the speed of an oncoming car to cross the street that is Algebra. Hell, even dogs can do it. Sometimes. Mathematics when taught elegantly is interesting. It is a critical structure for the first of the two main components of Education: 1) The Discipline of the Mind (The ability to think) The other being 2) The Furniture of The Mind (Knowledge). Learning a second language, doing mathematics, reading music, writing computer code are all mental disciplines that require a disciplined mind. Knowledge without mental discipline is furniture without a room.
Okay. Once, when distro hopping to find a system that would install onto a very old PC, I stumbled onto PCLinuxOS. Where others had failed to even install (Ubuntu, Vector, RedHat) this distro installed sweetly, loaded quickly and, much to my amazement, found all the crusty hardware on the POS MOBO that I was reviving in a case mod. (The reason is that the MOBO was installed into the case mod in a customized way. Easier to upgrade the OS than swap the MOBO.) Anyway, I still run this distro on the case mod (an old Russian radio used as a music server). PCLinux has since gone through a decline and rebirth (its repositories tanked a few years back). In recent years it has seen a very substantive revival.
It is now enjoying a solid base with good community support. And is now # 10 on Distrowatch. I recently read a review (sorry, cannot find it) wherein the reviewer expressed mild surprise that this distro was as good as it was. It is good for a Windows user IMHO because it tends to use Windows-like conventions for the GUI. Also the GUI is surprisingly powerful for managing all kinds of settings. Nice for a user who is not comfortable with a terminal program. I confess that it is not pretty to look at out of the box, but it does everything I want it to do on my funky music server.
is arguably the big problem of biology. As a student I had a two-hour discussion on an airplane on the subject with one of the professors at my school -- in 1973. The goal is nearer thirty years later, but far from being realized. The work with scaffolds and viruses is awesome. But until this problem is solved I agree that you would certainly have to stimulate your bio-synthetic heart with a pacemaker.
And, hey, I'm no spring chicken. Any biologists out there working on this better log off Slashdot and get back to work.
Slashdot Mirror
Apparently the laws and rules surrounding these hoards are, according to my source, quite fair. If you find a hoard -- no matter where -- then you are obliged to report it. It belongs to the crown. However, after a qualified examination, those items of no or little scientific interest are returned to you to dispose of in any way you see fit. This encourages amateurs to look -- amplifying the number of finds -- but sends the most scientifically interesting material into the right hands for study. According to my friend quite often the most interesting stuff is not always the most valuable. There is a lively trade in these coins. All for sale quite legally.
Lastly, as another poster has pointed out... The system is fair enough so that it is best to leave the material where you found it so that professional archaeologists can extract it in context -- according to the rules of the 'New Archaeology'. One can still be confident in getting credit for the find and, of course, a fair share of the loot.
twist on something. But then some person points out that someone got there before you. Well, sort of. Ha ha. Thanks for that link. That's funny.
I grudgingly use Facebook (Forcebook, Farcebook, Facebroke, Facebork) because so many of my real friends from overseas postings here and there can be found on it. They move around, too, and, well, it just makes sense.. My Android phone just offered me the opportunity to install the FB app when I checked an email message from Facebook -- A friend request from a German pal of mine from my days in Armenia (See?) He's in Uraguay it seems. Well, when I was ready to do the install I read the permissions list.Holy privacy invasion, Batman! It was going to do all the crap I painstakingly don't let the creepy site do on my web browser (it is a battle). And then it was going track my location to boot.
Bondsbw, you so gave them permission to have your phone when you installed that app. Moreover, you also gave them permission to marry your firstborn child off to the evil sorcerer Zuck when he or she comes of age. (The sorcerer swings both ways.) Oh, I forgot F*ckedbook.
A Roundup-ready plant is resistant to the herbicide Roundup. The stuff kills the weeds, but not the crop. Good concept. Part of the green revolution to feed the planet. But I don't like the unrestricted patents, which should have expired by now --- for a lot of crops, anyway. This stuff has been around for years.
I think it was stupid to allow patents for genomes anyway. The self replicating device was found in nature. All that was done was to modify it. There is no invention. You could patent the original modification process, of course, but when the seed replicates itself it is using a process that is clearly not invention, but is, as I said, a process found in nature. Hopefully the court will see this. The current patent situation runs counter to the law's intent and stands firmly against the public good. And anyone with the common sense god gave a parakeet can see it. Okay evolution gave the parakeet its sense, but let's not open that can of soybeans. Okay?
This whole idea of patents for self-replicating devices should be very interesting when we make robots that can build copies of themselves.
And robots in the Netherlands to build the same shavers.
He said "Bite my shiny metal Android. I'm usin' my iPhone to order more beer. Oh crap! A touch screen. Metal. fingers. useless. I need a human hand. Where can I get one. C'mere you..." Then I heard screaming and was disconnected.
in business class.
"In one of the most extreme cases, it [Dubai] reported a man being held after poppy seeds from a bread roll were found on his clothes."
Dubai wants tourism and convention business, but their draconian drug paranoia makes this aspiration ridiculous. How many of the attendees to this conference will be harassed or even imprisoned I wonder? I know this is old news, but any chance I get I take the opportunity to share this BBC article concerning Dubai's absurd reactionary jailing of innocent visitors. I have been there (It's nothing special, people.) But now I shudder to think that I had my OTC allergy medicine with me. I would not go back to Dubai on a bet.
The idea of having an internet conference there is like planning a human rights conference in Damascus. But, I guess since the organizers want anything but transparency, it makes for a terrible logic.
iThought of it first. Mine!
But will it also photograph and then lase the polyps it finds. Put that in your Instagram.
Okay. I am going no further with this.
Control supply and stimulate demand. The 'tradition' of a diamond engagement ring is a DeBeers invention that dates to the twenties. Also DeBeers subsidizes advertising. Jewelers can get money from DeBeers to help them place ads provided they stick to certain themes. DeBeers will even supply stock art. Something else few people realize. DeBeers is heavily invested in gold production. They own controlling interest in a lot of mines. So it is not only diamonds that have been manipulated, but gold as well. Same deal: stimulate demand with subsidized ads and control supply. Gold is not as well controlled as are diamonds, but a review of the recent price trend gives a clue. Watch what happens to gold when the world economy goes back on the boil. It may be a while, but trust me. The people who cornered this market will clean TF up.
IT millionaires beware! Your sushi is eating you This explains a lot.
But no need to charcoal the trees. Just bury them for carbon credit and grow new ones. We could put them in old coal mines. Wait a minute.... thought coming in.....Hmmm. It occurs to me that simply by making paper you are sequestering carbon. When your Sunday Times finds its way into an anaerobic pocket of the landfill (provided you didn't recycle it.) the carbon in it is nicely isolated from the atmosphere, at least for a solid period of time.
Okay. Listen up. Stop recycling. I'm calling my attorney. We're going to bin our paper and get rich from carbon credits. Woohoo!
Paper demand is very sluggish in the developed world. The slow death (or metamorphosis) of the newspaper industry that is directly related to the digital publishing revolution is clearly responsible. The less-paper world is coming. It's coming later than many thought it would, but the paper companies are really feeling it. A friend who follows the paper industry told me that projected paper demand is a full thirty percent lower now than expected in the developed world. Not that demand is actually shrinking, it is just growing slower -- a lot slower -- than earlier trends projected. The developing world is more robust. Corporate investments in forests are by nature long-term. And there is a glut due to demand not growing as projected. Hence intensive research -- as seen in this FA -- into other ways to use pulp in quantity.
I briefly looked for something comprehensive to make my point and found this article from Paper Age. It is pretty general, but the writing is on the wall-mounted tablet display.
The only solution I see is a mandatory license to use the electronics akin to drivers license. Believe it or not, the idiot user is not only a nuisance but a danger to others.
I have often pondered the idea of an internet license. I reject it on philosophical grounds, especially since it would require that at some level one would be forced to forgo anonymity. But one would think it to be a great temptation to the US authorities at the state and federal level.. Not to mention more-repressive governments elsewhere. You need a radio license. And a driver's licence. And, depending on the state, a gun license. Then there is the hunting license the fishing license etc etc. An internet license seems like a natural evolution, especially since an irresponsible wanker with a broadband connection can do a lot of harm simply through ignorance. Also intentional bad actors could have their internet license taken away. Fees could be used to fight cyber crime blah blah blah. Kids could be given kiddie access only to the kiddie net. And so on.
Many security problems would be reduced, but not, of course, eliminated for obvious reasons.. But also customers for PCs, software and broadband would be reduced in number as well. It is interesting, but I rarely see the possibility of a license raised. I hate to even mention it here lest it give people ideas. But you brought it up and I couldn't help but comment. Now a quick Google and I found this.
Yikes!
Keven Whipp of the Montgomery [County Maryland] Amateur Radio Club gave a presentation last April on a very similar topic to the Columbia Area Linux User's Group (CALUG). The radio club has been working with Montgomery County to test various setups of MESH networks on Linksys WRT54GL routers running custom firmware to be used in emergency situations. They have been testing distances and reliability using different frequencies using high gain antennas (which require a license). As I recall the deployments they tested faced a lot of technical and regulatory obstacles. And they were looking at simple static deployments, not mobile. If, say the infrastructure went down after a flood, their objective was to provide basic internet services to Emergency Response Teams working in the area.
Anyway, here is a link to a PDF summary of the presentation. My take away was that even after pretty extensive testing the system was not ready for prime time, but was very promising. To be useful in the situations to which they aspired the Mesh had to be reliable and robust. It was not. I am sure they would be happy to share their experience with you. And I bet they made progress over the summer.
Explain to your wife that people play games (all kinds of games) together in order to make a human connection. Whether it is golf or poker or mahjong or softball or Risk or bridge. So, at root, one participates in a role playing game for the same reason that one plays any game. To be with other people and get beneath the surface, to challenge onesself and take the measure of others. But in a kind of simulation of life. Your social ass is on the line, but not totally on the line. (And any serious golfer or chess player will tell you that their game is life and life is their game.) The truth is that the money in a friendly poker game is usually secondary to the social payoff in winning or even in losing. And even the outcome is subordinated to the experience. And, if one thinks about it, a poker night gives the players an opportunity to undertake roles as well. The focus is admittedly clearer when there is a winner and a loser. And, to an outsider, a player's motivation is more easily understandable because there is money in the picture. But, if you can get across the idea to your wife that you play D&D (or whatever you play) for basically the same reason that other people play golf or Scrabble or pinochle, then you are at a good starting place.
It sounds to me that the long sessions have her worried. But you could point out that when guys go out for 18 holes eight hours is normal if you include the postmortem in the club taproom and pre-lubrication. All in the name of sport, of course.
Mentally healthy people play games with each other and that's a fact. It feeds a pretty deep-seated social need. As to why you find role playing more satisfying than, say, golf. Say it fits your intellect and personality better. Role playing games require a lot of imagination, mental and emotional investment, but no-one (we hope) completely forgets that he or she is gaming. Point out that actors do not forget who they are when they are performing. They successfully suspend who they are, but they don't forget. One of the most popular games of all time is Charades. And what is it but a free-form role playing game? In theater circles it is referred to as simply "The Game." Put in this perspective hopefully she won't think D&D is so weird. It is weird. But not that weird in the scheme of things.
But South Africa, even as the most developed country in Africa, is arguably not a full-fledged member of the developed world. It is a highly divided society still (as we have seen in recent weeks with the miners' strike.) And it has a very high crime rate generally. One can take little comfort in having better statistics than they do -- cultural differences aside.
Culture of course is no excuse for violations of human rights, which include violence against women. There was a time when a broad swath of the US accepted slavery as a cultural norm. Just because a society itself believes something is right does not make it right. Violence in the home is as wrong in Jo-berg and Riyadh and Moscow as it is in New York or Oslo. The same, of course, goes for rape. Everyone has to do better.
These principles are enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. No society is permitted to hide behind its culture in order to protect institutionalized savagery and oppression against any group -- women included.
That is interesting. Where did you find that out? It's too cool. Is the increased activity causing some stem cells to trigger and develop new tissue?. How does the toe somehow know? Thanks sjames.
I don't know if you watched the clip I linked to, but the guy had seemingly had higher functionality in the end with his toe fingered hand than he did with his congenitally disabled hand. Hopefully he stays away from his table saw.
Actually, violence against women in Norway is a major health concern according to an important study done there.
From the study: Results: "In total, 26.8% of 2,143 ever-partnered women had experienced any violence by their partner during their lifetime, and 5.5% in the year before the study."
These rates are on par with most of the developed world. Given these stats (One in four ever-partnered women battered within their relationship) I don't think the Scandinavians are going to get a pass on rates of rape -- insofar as it is defined to include spousal rape, date rape and other forms of coerced sex. If anyone has stats on Scandinavian rape rates (could not easily find any) it would be instructive to post them. I doubt they are much different from those in the developed world. Certainly not one in ten. Where did that figure come from?
As much as many Scandinavians would like to believe that their feet don't stink, it should come as no surprise that their feet do, indeed, stink. Almost as much as mine do.
I saw a documentary once about some poor Chinese guy who lost all his fingers in some kind of accident. The Chinese doctors removed some of his toes (the guy had pretty long toes) and ginned up a three-fingered hand for him with, of course, toes for fingers. It appeared to work really well. The guy seemed damned happy about it. Come to think of it, I would be, too.
I looked briefly for a link to the old China story, but only came up with an upbeat human interest yarn about an American guy born with two fingers on one hand getting this same operation. He was fine with his congenital two-fingered hand but needed a toe transplant only after he cut off one of the two fingers on his defective hand using a table saw. After some physio he is doing better with three than he did with two. Even if two of them were (are?) toes. Which, frankly, comes as no great surprise.
So I guess a robot with three fingers would be pretty functional, too.
The US is perhaps a good place to be polite. Robert A. Heinlein noted, "An armed society is a polite society." Okay. That may be a bit of hyperbolic humor. But, whatever the reason, in my experience your cross-cultural observation is correct.
I once had a French boss. An editor to be exact. He was blunt to the point of cruelty from my point of view. Others also found him so -- especially the Americans. But we published a damned good magazine. And I learned a lot from him. And, to be fair, he was as hard on himself as he was on us. Brits are also a bit more blunt than Americans I have observed.
Personally, I make a distinction between constructive honesty and brutal frankness. That said, people in a workplace need to develop a thick hide or standards never get raised. However, create too much of a negative atmosphere and potentially good ideas are suppressed. Finally, when finishing a product you need somebody in charge with a sharp eye and a sharp tongue.
"Woolman, if you don't come in Sunday and fix this copy, then don't bother to come in Monday. Now get out."
He has gotten a few minutes of glory by killing a sacred cow. In this case The-Math-Is-Vital to-Higher-Education cow. The cow is sacred because it is a good and right cow. An all-the-way-down cow. It is so easy to make a name for yourself by taking contrary positions -- especially if they are outrageous. This specious argument was born to be reported on Cable News. Or *"cough* on Slashdot. Of course these pay-as-you-go degree mills would like to have more customers. So let's just change these ridiculous standards. This guy has an agenda.
Here is my next book? "The Reading Railroad. Speak Don't Write." The summary: With the advent of text to speech and audio recording reading and writing is an unneeded barrier to many otherwise smart people getting PH.Ds. As long as they can get a student loan they can get a doctorate.
"Here. Let me help you with that wordy loan application."
The brain is a mathematical engine. When you catch a fly ball you are solving a differential equation. Intuitively. When you gauge the speed of an oncoming car to cross the street that is Algebra. Hell, even dogs can do it. Sometimes. Mathematics when taught elegantly is interesting. It is a critical structure for the first of the two main components of Education: 1) The Discipline of the Mind (The ability to think) The other being 2) The Furniture of The Mind (Knowledge). Learning a second language, doing mathematics, reading music, writing computer code are all mental disciplines that require a disciplined mind. Knowledge without mental discipline is furniture without a room.
Okay. Once, when distro hopping to find a system that would install onto a very old PC, I stumbled onto PCLinuxOS. Where others had failed to even install (Ubuntu, Vector, RedHat) this distro installed sweetly, loaded quickly and, much to my amazement, found all the crusty hardware on the POS MOBO that I was reviving in a case mod. (The reason is that the MOBO was installed into the case mod in a customized way. Easier to upgrade the OS than swap the MOBO.) Anyway, I still run this distro on the case mod (an old Russian radio used as a music server). PCLinux has since gone through a decline and rebirth (its repositories tanked a few years back). In recent years it has seen a very substantive revival.
It is now enjoying a solid base with good community support. And is now # 10 on Distrowatch. I recently read a review (sorry, cannot find it) wherein the reviewer expressed mild surprise that this distro was as good as it was. It is good for a Windows user IMHO because it tends to use Windows-like conventions for the GUI. Also the GUI is surprisingly powerful for managing all kinds of settings. Nice for a user who is not comfortable with a terminal program. I confess that it is not pretty to look at out of the box, but it does everything I want it to do on my funky music server.
Thermite
A termite bomb.
is arguably the big problem of biology. As a student I had a two-hour discussion on an airplane on the subject with one of the professors at my school -- in 1973. The goal is nearer thirty years later, but far from being realized. The work with scaffolds and viruses is awesome. But until this problem is solved I agree that you would certainly have to stimulate your bio-synthetic heart with a pacemaker.
And, hey, I'm no spring chicken. Any biologists out there working on this better log off Slashdot and get back to work.
You heard me, bitches. I mean NOW!