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User: Machupo

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Comments · 60

  1. Re:15-stories? on SpaceX Conducts First On-Pad Test-Fire of Falcon 9 · · Score: 1

    Americans enjoy non-precise measurement... it hearkens back to measuring length in units of a Monarch's apendage

  2. Re:Our budget deficits are catastrophic, too on Former Astronauts Call Obama NASA Plans "Catastrophic" · · Score: 1

    Beelzebud's point was that while we spent more, we technically didn't have that much money to spend.

  3. Re:Well - Since its Harriet Harman involved on UK Gov't Wants Facebook To Feature Child Safety Button · · Score: 1

    As one of my brahmin friends says: "dude, I'm dot not feather"

  4. Re:4.14GHz? on IBM Releases Power7 Processor · · Score: 1

    Most people running nuclear explosion simulations on a 4GHz processor don't care, people running 30,000 machines in a design center...do care.

    People doing real nuclear blast simulations (and more importantly, effects of long-term nuclear decay) would be using 10k's if not 100k's of these processors and most certainly care :)

  5. Re:Just another day on Where the Global Warming Data Is · · Score: 1

    it would be great if at the end of each quote in a newspaper, ad, whatever there was a requirement to include the p-value and e-value of the words used.

  6. they're too busy... on Flash Vulnerability Found, Adobe Says No Fix Forthcoming · · Score: 1

    working on an x64 version of flash...

    oh, wait...

  7. Re:The judge seems to be entirely right on Judge Rules Web Commenter Will Be Unmasked To Mom · · Score: 2, Insightful

    So what you're saying is that the judge should include an analysis of the anonymous poster's financial portfolio as well? I'm sure that would be a lot more helpful to this woman.

  8. You mean like this NASA fission plant? on VASIMR Ion Engine Could Cut Mars Trip To 39 Days · · Score: 1
  9. Re:goodbye creationists on Observing Evolution Over 40,000 Generations · · Score: 1

    Too true... look at the response to Ardi: "now you have *two* missing links, one on each side of Ardi!"

    sad.

  10. Re:hmmm on Observing Evolution Over 40,000 Generations · · Score: 1

    The easy answer: it depends on the environment and its inherent selection pressure.

    The better answer: It doesn't matter.

    The thing to take away from this experiment is that over the course of 40,000 generations, this population of E. Coli developed mutations which increased its fitness level (as relative to earlier populations). If the selection pressure was higher (up to a certain point, i.e. some bacteria needs to survive the test), the mutation rate would appear faster over your sample time set. If another population was present and was more fit (i.e. "in the wild"), it would have displaced the original population, that's how natural selection works.

  11. Re:Evolutive pressure? on Observing Evolution Over 40,000 Generations · · Score: 2, Informative

    There is a step from "DNA mutation" to "Evolution", and that is adaptation to the medium. Did the mutations change the fenotype (the external aspect/behaviour) to something more adapted? Were set certains goals (for example, putting them in a medium less than ideal for the original strain, but to which its survivors have adapted) or the surviving changes did not affect at all at the species?

    I think what you're trying to ask is: "Was the selective pressure determined to be in response to stimuli versus a random occurance?"

    The authors cover the difference between neutral drift and selective mutations which increase fitness throughout the paper.

    Specifically in answer to your question, though, is the following from the expanded methods & materials:

    "We performed Luria–Delbrück fluctuation tests33 to confirm that the Ara-1 population evolved an elevated mutation rate. Bacteria were revived from frozen stocks by growth overnight in LB medium. After dilution and 24 h of re-growth in Davis minimal medium supplemented with 25 mg l-1 glucose, we inoculated 24 replicate 10-ml cultures of Davis minimal medium with 250 mg l-1 glucose with 100–1,000 cells. After 24 h of growth to stationary phase, these cultures were concentrated by centrifugation and plated on LB agar containing 20 mug ml-1 nalidixic acid."

  12. Significance? on Observing Evolution Over 40,000 Generations · · Score: 1

    While I find some of the reported observations very thought-provoking, I have trouble attaching overwhelming significance to this study due to the way the data is presented. For example, 26 SNPs in the 20k-generational line are non-synonymous. On the surface, I find that a significant departure from the norm, but when you account for 12 total populations and the dataset consisting of only one population, something just feels a bit off.

    Now, the authors may really be on to something here, they do raise quite a few questions in my mind (and as I re-read the paper, i'll probably answer some and generate more), so time (and further experimentation) will certainly expand this discussion.

  13. Change the channel, please on Giant Ribbon Discovered At Edge of Solar System · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    I hate rhythmic gymnastics...

  14. Re:"Junk" = regulatory RNA on Scientists Discover How DNA Is Folded Within the Nucleus · · Score: 1

    good point -- though the DNA is non-coding, it's structural conformation alone can affect the expression of other factors in the coding DNA.

  15. Re:Wow... on Scientists Discover How DNA Is Folded Within the Nucleus · · Score: 1

    On the surface, it is very easy to attribute the complexity produced by natural selection as a non-random or directed process. Unfortunately, if you look at the number of failures which were required to come up with this arrangement (and the subsequent spread of the most fit type), it's still just as random as any other natural mutation process.

  16. Re:So.... on Scientists Discover How DNA Is Folded Within the Nucleus · · Score: 1

    How long until some Akhibara electro-wizard overclocks your DNA with LN?

  17. Meh... on CT Scan "Reset Error" Gives 206 Patients Radiation Overdose · · Score: 2, Funny

    What's a few hundred rem among friends?

  18. Oh God... *SAFE MODE* on Mars Polar Lander Remains Silent · · Score: 3
    ---Attempting to boot Windoze Mars2000---


    *Drivers Version .099

    ***WARNING: FILE NOT FOUND: MPLRLNDR.VXD***

    ***CANNOT CONTINUE BOOT SEQUENCE***
    ---Press F1 to continue booting in *SAFE* mode---

    Next we'll have to launch a microsoft tech to Mars... grrrrr

  19. i coulda talked my way outa this! on China Sentences Bank Cracker/Thief to Death · · Score: 1

    Now, why didn't this guy cop out and say he'd work for the government? After all, the Chinese government recently said that they were going to build a third division of their army as electronic warfare (i.e. computer/internet warfare). Heck, being a cog is better than death!

  20. Woohoo! It's Turkey Day! (tomorrow that is) on Who is Responsible? The Developer? The User? · · Score: 1
    My take on this whole issue (you can call it slanted, misinformed, uninformed, whatever...) is that these little tools are great... 1) They help produce very good coders in the future... i mean, what kid who has used one of these stupid things hasn't ripped it apart to see how it works, then grown up and become a really good coder? 2) They help elucidate security holes that should've been fixed by the last kernel upgrade or custom hack,or in the case of NuT, hot fix. 3)i mean, what serious hacker (one who's going to steal proprietary data) is going to use a tool? he's definately going to write his own stuff. because we all know that if you're going to do something REALLY illegal, you want to be in control of everything (errr, i mean....)


    i mean, c'mon here people, it's not like you can get into anything too secured here (now i said: too secured, not too important... there are always those morons out there who still thing that not having an IDS/honeypot/whatever is ok)


    Just my 2

  21. Don't you remember? on Gore: White House May Get Involved in MS Settlement Talks · · Score: 1
    Al Gore invented the internet, so natch. he has to stick up Micro$haft.

  22. My integrated setup on The Do-It-All Remote? · · Score: 1

    I find that the easiest way to get everything in one package is to consolidate everything onto my computer (computer, TV, stereo / home theater, telephone, lights, fan, etc...) with the help of X10.
    To make this a remote setup, just get a cordless keyboard / mouse from Logitech and whip together a remote program.

  23. Re:ever heard of the 13th planet. on A 10th Planet in Our Solar System? · · Score: 1

    hold on a sec... a guy wrote a DISSERTATION on weird alien stuff? dang! where do i sign up! sounds a lot easier than my PhD stuff!

  24. ermm... can you say false? on "Fastest PC in the World" Runs Athlon at 800MHz · · Score: 1

    check out www.hardwarecentral.com one of the guys there built a 1Ghz PIII a long time ago...

  25. erm... what about this? on The Rise of Technology / The Fall of Trees? · · Score: 1

    what about the Ken Starr report?