the path to commercial Mars trips has finally been cleared now that the Ministry of Transportation and the Surgeon General have reached an agreement on policies for in-flight smoking.
While fuel cells are very promising, there still remain enormous challenges before they can compete with normal batteries, for example in terms of price, performance, weight and so on. When (if) they become a competitive alternative, then surely airline regulations wont be a significant hurdle for commericial success.
...although I'm betting on a ton of false positives--after all, what sort of people do you expect to be looking in the sky for more planets? It's to be expected that some of them might be overeager to "see" planets that aren't there
This is probably not a big issue, because the discovery is not done at the whim of the amateur, but rather at the discration of a relatively complicated piece of software.
And of course interesting results will be scrutinized by more sophisticated equipment.
Are there any paid links _to_ his site? I mean it would be very unfortunate if he had to pay a couple dime per visit of a million./ers comming in through his paid advertisment...
If a 'cure' is something that removes the disease from the face of the earth, then yes, the drug companies could potentially not be very interested in going there (although I still don't think they reason this way - they are too shortsighted and competitive).
But if a 'cure' is just removing the problem from one patient when the illness has already started, then your reasoning does not hold. For example, a super-efficient cancer drug would not make cancer disappear. It would just save the people getting cancer. The innovating company would corner the market, could charge very high prices and make huge profits.
For once I actually RTFA, in particular I was looking for explanations for how patents could actually harm research. These can be summarized as:
1 Companies put a lot of effort into getting patent protections extended and generalized, without really improving the product.
2 Companies are reluctant to start completely new research because there is a great risk of infringing on somebody else's patents.
I am a proponent of patent protection, but these two arguments actually made me think again. As the comment goes: it's much easier to argue that `patents support innovation' than to try to explain that some patents are good for innovation while others are bad.
That being said, I think we should stay with a few solid principles rather than laying out a complicated network of legislation to maximize some utility function. The latter is an invitation to a situation much worse than today.
If so, then we can start breeding mules from mules, and we have a new species.
How do you know that these fertile mules are not able to breed with horses and/ or donkeys? If they could, it would rather be an example of our 'species' definition breaking apart.
The truth is that speciation is not very well understood. In many ways 'species' is a convenient abstraction - we humans like to put horses and donkeys into two discrete buckets and not think much about anything in between. In reality there is no law of nature that says that all living entities must belong to exactly one of our convenient buckets.
The 'infertile children' definition works pretty well, but it is not perfect. Another problematic example is that of a species of birds that live in different territories around the globe. The birds can mate with other birds in their own or in adjacent territories. In other words, the birds in the first territory can mate with those in the second territory, and those in the second with those in the third, and so on all the way around the globe - and finally the birds of the last territory can again mate with those in the first. However, it turns out that the birds cannot mate with birds several territories away. Our convenient species definition breaks apart.
This explanation assumes that software development is a major part of the costs involved. But let's say that the cost structure is 99% satellite (either launching one or renting the bandwidth) and 1% software. Then developing the software twice (once for PC and once for Mac) would increase the total cost of the project with 1%, but increase revenues by 5%. A great deal!
I guess we can suspect that software development is at least 5% of the cost involved. Of course there are alternative explanations, perhaps the original investment projections were flawed, or (as somebody else suggested) people who use satellite links are Mac users to a disproportionately low degree.
Even if many schools insist on good GRE scores they usually make exceptions. As an undergrad at Caltech, I had a prof from abroad who had checked the answer 'b' on every question on the GRE verbal - but he was still admitted to grad scool at Caltech.
I got invited to stay as a grad student there because of the research I did as an undergrad - I did not have time to take the test.
Merit-based admissions are difficult. How do you compare the ability of different students?
As you rightly point out, the GRE scores are largely affected by how much preparation was made (e.g., by working through cheap guides). It is thus a measure of both talent and motivation (and perhaps free time available).
The GRE is good, not because it is perfect but because it can complement other imperfect alternatives. Grades are very difficult to compare and letters of recommendations all tend to be extremely positive.
I completely disagree with the scam suggestion. It is certainly true that the 3rd party makes money on the test, but are you suggesting that the universities get a commission - and that that is the reason why they use the test?
So say that this is approximately right. Furthermore let's assume that as other have pointed out this happens 250 times a decade.
Then the probability of one person being hit in this period is around 0.00025.
So what if it happens? Does it indicate divine intervension? I would say no, but the reason is somewhat subtle. The set of all conceivable freak accidents is very large. I could list quite a few ways to die which are extremely unlikely. If any one of them were to happen, we would immidiately see it in the news, and perhaps people would calculate the odds. It is easy to forget that one would have reacted exactly the same way for a large number of other weird accidents. The probability that one of them happen might not be small at all.
If the price goes too high, then sales decrease. This is kind of a self-regulating process that doesn't require a referee or lawyers or judges.
In a competitive market, if you put your price to high, you loose almost all your customers to the competition, which has the lowest possible price. For example, if Dell set their prices just a bit higher, they would loose a lot of their business to Gateway and others.
The allegation here is that the market is not competitive, and that the music industry jointly sets a high ('artifical') price. They had used an advertising scheme to prevent stores from selling below a certain price.
If this is true, then there is a need for lawyers and judges. What I don't understand is why no new records companies emerged, selling CDs at lower prices. They could have made a killing.
I had laser surgery and now 20/20 vision. 2 things to consider:
1 How old are you? Young eyes are stronger and will more easily adapt. If a 20-year old and a 50-year old have exactly the same vison, and go through exactly the same procedure, then the 20-year old is more likely to reach 20/20 vision.
2 If your eyes are getting worse for every year, then they will probably continue to do so after an operation. In other words, the surgery does not have a big impact on the development of your vison, only on the vison itself.
1 As many others have pointed out, watt is per second. But this is probably OK, the laser won't fire for that long.
2 How do you quickly conduct all the generated heat out to the 1000 kg of water? If you just put the thing in a swimming pool, then you risk having the water in immidiate contact with the laser boil in an explosive manner, rather than having the whole pool warmed a tiny bit. And now, we were talking about jet fuel...
Slashdot Mirror
the path to commercial Mars trips has finally been cleared now that the Ministry of Transportation and the Surgeon General have reached an agreement on policies for in-flight smoking.
While fuel cells are very promising, there still remain enormous challenges before they can compete with normal batteries, for example in terms of price, performance, weight and so on. When (if) they become a competitive alternative, then surely airline regulations wont be a significant hurdle for commericial success.
Tor
The announcement clears the way for the commercialisation of fuel cells as an alternative to batteries in notebook computers.
Fuel cells are very promising but do not yet perform on par with normal batteries (in terms of life/ cost / weight).
When they do, I am sure that airline safety will be the smallest of concerns.
Tor
... we may very well know of earh-sized planets around other stars, through means such as this NASA project.
I think I have a decent chance of being alive the day when we can see the first continent on a extra-solar, earth-sized planet.
Tor
...although I'm betting on a ton of false positives--after all, what sort of people do you expect to be looking in the sky for more planets? It's to be expected that some of them might be overeager to "see" planets that aren't there
This is probably not a big issue, because the discovery is not done at the whim of the amateur, but rather at the discration of a relatively complicated piece of software.
And of course interesting results will be scrutinized by more sophisticated equipment.
Tor
How about adding to the criteria that its orbit isn't too eliptical? That would disclude Ceres
And Pluto.
Tor
Are there any paid links _to_ his site? I mean it would be very unfortunate if he had to pay a couple dime per visit of a million ./ers comming in through his paid advertisment...
Tor
I hope they call them Episodes 4, 5 and 6
... here is the evidence.
Tor
So, what is a signature and when is it needed?
What is 'self-signing'?
Tor
Yes, they also cover them with nasty chemicals (bromide, I think) to prevent fires.
Tor
That's like giving away 2 apples for every one you sell! Kind of a sad business model...
No, because your cost of the additional 2 copies is zero.
And it is not like a lot of people today buy several copies of the same CD, is it?
Tor
If a 'cure' is something that removes the disease from the face of the earth, then yes, the drug companies could potentially not be very interested in going there (although I still don't think they reason this way - they are too shortsighted and competitive).
But if a 'cure' is just removing the problem from one patient when the illness has already started, then your reasoning does not hold. For example, a super-efficient cancer drug would not make cancer disappear. It would just save the people getting cancer. The innovating company would corner the market, could charge very high prices and make huge profits.
Tor
For once I actually RTFA, in particular I was looking for explanations for how patents could actually harm research. These can be summarized as:
1 Companies put a lot of effort into getting patent protections extended and generalized, without really improving the product.
2 Companies are reluctant to start completely new research because there is a great risk of infringing on somebody else's patents.
I am a proponent of patent protection, but these two arguments actually made me think again. As the comment goes: it's much easier to argue that `patents support innovation' than to try to explain that some patents are good for innovation while others are bad.
That being said, I think we should stay with a few solid principles rather than laying out a complicated network of legislation to maximize some utility function. The latter is an invitation to a situation much worse than today.
Tor
If so, then we can start breeding mules from mules, and we have a new species.
How do you know that these fertile mules are not able to breed with horses and/ or donkeys? If they could, it would rather be an example of our 'species' definition breaking apart.
Tor
The truth is that speciation is not very well understood. In many ways 'species' is a convenient abstraction - we humans like to put horses and donkeys into two discrete buckets and not think much about anything in between. In reality there is no law of nature that says that all living entities must belong to exactly one of our convenient buckets.
The 'infertile children' definition works pretty well, but it is not perfect. Another problematic example is that of a species of birds that live in different territories around the globe. The birds can mate with other birds in their own or in adjacent territories. In other words, the birds in the first territory can mate with those in the second territory, and those in the second with those in the third, and so on all the way around the globe - and finally the birds of the last territory can again mate with those in the first. However, it turns out that the birds cannot mate with birds several territories away. Our convenient species definition breaks apart.
Tor
This explanation assumes that software development is a major part of the costs involved. But let's say that the cost structure is 99% satellite (either launching one or renting the bandwidth) and 1% software. Then developing the software twice (once for PC and once for Mac) would increase the total cost of the project with 1%, but increase revenues by 5%. A great deal!
I guess we can suspect that software development is at least 5% of the cost involved. Of course there are alternative explanations, perhaps the original investment projections were flawed, or (as somebody else suggested) people who use satellite links are Mac users to a disproportionately low degree.
Tor
US/South Africa treaty
Tor
Even if many schools insist on good GRE scores they usually make exceptions. As an undergrad at Caltech, I had a prof from abroad who had checked the answer 'b' on every question on the GRE verbal - but he was still admitted to grad scool at Caltech.
I got invited to stay as a grad student there because of the research I did as an undergrad - I did not have time to take the test.
Tor
Merit-based admissions are difficult. How do you compare the ability of different students?
As you rightly point out, the GRE scores are largely affected by how much preparation was made (e.g., by working through cheap guides). It is thus a measure of both talent and motivation (and perhaps free time available).
The GRE is good, not because it is perfect but because it can complement other imperfect alternatives. Grades are very difficult to compare and letters of recommendations all tend to be extremely positive.
I completely disagree with the scam suggestion. It is certainly true that the 3rd party makes money on the test, but are you suggesting that the universities get a commission - and that that is the reason why they use the test?
Tor
I think you are right - you have to sit in the right position. I wonder how sensitive it is.
Prediction: a few years down the line they will be able to track the exact location of your eyes and adjust for an optimal 3D experience.
Tor
So say that this is approximately right. Furthermore let's assume that as other have pointed out this happens 250 times a decade.
Then the probability of one person being hit in this period is around 0.00025.
So what if it happens? Does it indicate divine intervension? I would say no, but the reason is somewhat subtle. The set of all conceivable freak accidents is very large. I could list quite a few ways to die which are extremely unlikely. If any one of them were to happen, we would immidiately see it in the news, and perhaps people would calculate the odds. It is easy to forget that one would have reacted exactly the same way for a large number of other weird accidents. The probability that one of them happen might not be small at all.
Tor
People are not spread evenly accross the surface of the planet. They are concentrated in urban areas; those living out futher are spread out widely.
But this does not affect the probability of one person being hit - unless falling ice chunks are more (or less) common in urban areas.
Tor
If the price goes too high, then sales decrease. This is kind of a self-regulating process that doesn't require a referee or lawyers or judges.
In a competitive market, if you put your price to high, you loose almost all your customers to the competition, which has the lowest possible price. For example, if Dell set their prices just a bit higher, they would loose a lot of their business to Gateway and others.
The allegation here is that the market is not competitive, and that the music industry jointly sets a high ('artifical') price. They had used an advertising scheme to prevent stores from selling below a certain price.
If this is true, then there is a need for lawyers and judges. What I don't understand is why no new records companies emerged, selling CDs at lower prices. They could have made a killing.
Tor
I think you are right. The correct term is sublimation - transformation immediately from solid to gas.
Tor
I had laser surgery and now 20/20 vision. 2 things to consider:
1 How old are you? Young eyes are stronger and will more easily adapt. If a 20-year old and a 50-year old have exactly the same vison, and go through exactly the same procedure, then the 20-year old is more likely to reach 20/20 vision.
2 If your eyes are getting worse for every year, then they will probably continue to do so after an operation. In other words, the surgery does not have a big impact on the development of your vison, only on the vison itself.
Tor
Two problems
1 As many others have pointed out, watt is per second. But this is probably OK, the laser won't fire for that long.
2 How do you quickly conduct all the generated heat out to the 1000 kg of water? If you just put the thing in a swimming pool, then you risk having the water in immidiate contact with the laser boil in an explosive manner, rather than having the whole pool warmed a tiny bit. And now, we were talking about jet fuel...
Tor