Try pressing the "stop" button. The only unfortunate aspect is that everytime you click for the next one, you have to press the "stop" button again or it will move on to the next automatically.
If I have rights because I'm selfaware and human, but my otter friend does not because although he's as smart a small child he's not human what happens when we encounter / create
some thing that is as smart as us?
Personally, I don't see that being in or not in a particular species is all that important. "Species" is just a categorization system we humans devised to help us interpret nature. I think it's a "no-brainer" that if an entity achieves a self-aware state, has a consiousness similar to ours, then that entity deserves the full panapoly of rights we give each other.
The really hard part is defining what a "self-aware" state is. Many people already put animals there (vegans etc) -- I don't. I guess I don't consider emotions or instincts such as those displayed by our happy or feral cows, to be as significant as logical thought. Ironically, I don't have a great argument for why I should think that way - it's more of a gut feeling (instinct). I suppose, I need to do some more thinking on this.
In the end, I still like cows a lot, both on a culinary and social level. Perhaps I'm just a sadist? Perhaps, the reason people fight so hard to say that humans are different from animals, is that they don't want to admit to being mean for personal gain (science... dinner). I'm interested in how this research will play out (meaning I'm not opposed to it - I'm interested in seeing what they make - I always wished I had a cats tail). How's that for a "crazy waffly post"?
I don't know that cow tipping means cows are stupid (and yes, we had cows, amongst other things, when I was a kid). You know, groggy people are easy to tip over too. Anyway, give a cow an apple and you can almost see it become happy - eyes roll up and close just like when a person tastes something painfully delicious. I'm probably anthropomorphising a bit much here, but they sure look happy (I'm also not saying this makes them smart - just saying cow-tipping doesn't prove them stupid). I've always thought cows are really very cute... and yummy...
We're not going to end up with a super-intelligent mouse who could speak if it only had the proper vocal chords. Think about the space a mouse has in its skull, and how much room we have, and this will start to make more sense.
Put this in terms understood on slashdot - it would be like trying to run a full release of linux w/ all the KDE and Gnome stuff on an 8088 with 4k (as in kilobytes - not megabytes) of ram - oh and using a tape recorder for a storage device.
I so wish I had mod points. I for one, appreciate your voice of reason.... sadly, it will be a minority position. I find it dissapointing how even slashdot tends toward a luddit anti-tech position if the knowledge even remotely touches on biology.
Someone in your apartment block deals drugs? Guess it's time for a drug forfeiture sweep. Doesn't matter if you're found innocent, you can kiss your worldly possessions goodbye.
Cite one example from a reputable news source. I believe that they have gone a bit too far on some the accussed, but I don't know of one case where they seize assets just because your a neihibor of a drug dealer.
Happens all the time - I recalled a story from a few years back - googling didn't help me find that one but it found some others on the same pattern:
Police bust down the door to the wrong house.
Innocent resident dies of a heart attack.
Hell - why worry about your property? Worry about grandma. References:
Cato Institute google rendering of PDF - do ctrl-f for "reverend accelynne williams" and see the examples following his.
Alberta Spruill. Thanks Mr. Officer - here's an excerpt: A Harlem woman died of a heart attack after police hurled a flash grenade into her apartment during a mistaken raid yesterday morning.
Heavily armed NYPD Emergency Service Unit cops smashed down the woman's door at 310 W. 143rd St., believing that guns and drugs were in the sixth-floor apartment, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.
Instead, they found Alberta Spruill, 57, a beloved church member and longtime city employee, who was getting ready to go to work when the grenade went off about 6:10 a.m. - creating a deafening boom and a blinding flash.
Cops handcuffed Spruill, who cried as cops began probing her tidy, two-bedroom apartment. A police captain quickly realized cops had hit the wrong location, Kelly said.
Officers immediately uncuffed Spruill and asked if she was hurt. She initially refused medical attention but told cops she had a heart condition.
At 6:32 a.m., Spruill felt chest pains and was rushed to Harlem Hospital. She went into cardiac arrest in the ambulance and died at the hospital about 8 a.m. - less than two hours after her home was invaded.
That's with 5 minutes on google - real research would definitely provide shocking evidence that the war on drugs is harmful to the innocent elderly. Stick their lives in your police state pipe and smoke 'em!
I don't care for WMV files - they are a small step above Realmedia files, but mpegs almost always look better (whether because mpeg is better or because users of the other formats over-compresss, I don't know). You might as well NOT show movies if the quality is too low - it's just frustrating to look at dancing blurry squares - offer hi-res images instead.
Why doesn't the montly fee drop after the contract expires? Presumably you've paid off the phone by then.
That's where the profit comes in. In the parent post, he says his phone is 300£ - the contract 25-30£. At the high rate, he will pay 360£ in a year. It would be shocking if the provider paid full retail, but the provider probably doesn't make a ton of money the first year anyway. It's the second year - the one where you don't switch providers because it is an RPIA - that the provider makes its money.
I suspect that the subsised phone system is rooted in the fact, at least her in the US, that people tend to buy on credit. Why pay $300 when for just 12 easy payments....
The religious right position on life is that life begins at conception (when a sperm and egg unite). Under this definition, any embryo destroyed is most certainly an abortion.
I don't mind when the religious right states an honest position, and saying "I believe that conception is the point of life" WITHOUT going on to make any of the usual silly arguments is just fine - make it a matter of faith and leave it at that. The problem is, when religion controls government too much, life sucks. Life under Al Queda would likely be about as pleasant as life under the extreme Christian Right. Keep the law and the church separate.
Yes yes, the cells are "human". They aren't a person though. For example, my hair is just as much human cells as an embryo - no crime getting it cut. The problem you have is that you want to grant the rights of personhood to the cells. Do the cells have the characteristics of personhood? Thought, logic, will, etc? For quite a period (I think brain activity is absent in the first 2-3 months of preggers) there is none of that. If thought is not important - you won't mind coming in for a labotomy will you?
The above is where the "potential" argument comes from because a dozen cells really don't have the characteristics of a person - so you say "they have potential". But face it, nobody gets squat for potential. You don't go to prison for what you could do, only what you do do. You don't get special privileges for what you could be, only for what you are. Why should a few dozen cells be distinguished from everything else? It's a religious/emotional thing - just admit that there is no rational basis and you will at least be arguing from an honest position rather than trying to wear a cloak of impressive words.
Re:"New stem cell harvesting was outlawed in the U
on
US Stem Cells Contaminated
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· Score: 0, Flamebait
You demonstrate a few dozen cells have human consiousness, and I'll concede your point about "precious" lifeforms.
Hmmm.... precious.... more like disgusting. Childfree now and forever. Sadly though, my business partner is infested meaning I'll have to pick up the slack for a while. Don't see anything precious about that either!
without crossing a fundamental moral line by providing taxpayer funding that would sanction or encourage further destruction of human embryos that have at least the potential for life
This "potential" argument bugs me. Because the cells could become a person, they ought to be treated as such right now when I am not? Hell, I could become millionaire - should I be treated as such? I could become a murderer - should I be put in jail now even though I haven't killed anyone? I favor looking at how something is right now, and making the evaluation - not basing the evaluation on the uncertain future.
There are other more promising routes of research. For instance, the Atkin's diet has been proven to lower blood cholesterol and to reduce the severity of diabetes. Why aren't we spending as much money on that as we are on stem cell research?
Well... there's no need really with millions of people making themselves guinnea pigs.
Yes - I'm along for the ride and I am completely aware that I have no competency to make global weather proclamations. However, I am able to figure out at least who is obviously not authoritative on global warming. People make these judgments all the time. If I want to know what's wrong with my car, I don't ask a baker - I ask a mechanic. If I want to know how to build a shed - I ask a carpenter - not barber. And if I want to know whether there is evidence of global warming, I'd ask an expert on that subject - NOT a politician or businessman. That's awfully darn obvious.
Well, I consider myself a radical moderate (because moderates are so rare - we must be the radicals now). The article you cite is as bad as the one in the article summary but from the other perspective. For example:
While some in the U.S. have offered sharp criticism of the ideology driving the global warming crusade, none of the rhetoric has been as penetrating as Illarionov's, who compared it "with man-hating totalitarian ideology with which we had the bad fortune to deal during the 20th century, such as National Socialism (and) Marxism."
The slam against the global warming crowd by comparing them to militant feminists is just plain silly. But by the same token (from the summary article), there's just as much silliness on the other side:
The countdown to climate-change catastrophe is spelt out by a task force of senior politicians, business leaders and academics from around the world...
As if politicians and business leaders have the expertise to make this pronouncement? Right. I'd be interested in what the acedemics have to say (and interested in their qualifications), but the rest of the group? They're just along for the ride. And although the article makes a statement that 400ppm for CO2 is a critical point - it never explains what evidence supports this number. Now, the report may be correct, but when a news article reports only the conclusions and none of the methods, it is just so much fear mongering. Just as the opposing side is so much head-burying. As someone else said, the original results would be much more interesting.
I'll admit to being a Real skeptic, but... I use RP10 for one purpose: This American Life. Despite being a skeptic, I must say that RP10 takes up little screen space, has nice controls, and I've never been subjected to any ads.
Carpal Tunnel syndrome is now widely thought to be a "brain" problem...
I'd be interested in seeing your sources. I'm not a doctor but I end up dealing with medical issues a lot in my job. The way docs have explained CTS to me is purely physical.
There is a big flat ligament that crosses the hand at the very base of the palm just above the wrist. A bunch of tendons and nerves run through the tunnel between this ligament and the hand's flesh/bones. Tendons are tough cords covered by a slippery sheath. With overuse, the sheath gets inflamed and squeezes out any extra space in the tunnel thus compressing the nerves and causing pain. It is very much a mechanical reaction to overuse and the surgery involves cutting some of the crossover ligament to widen the tunnel.
I built a large kiln a few years ago and developed some overuse problems. One was "trigger finger" - essentially, if I closed my hand, my last two fingers would get stuck in the closed position. On opening (and at it's worst, this meant prying them open with my other hand), my fingers would snap open. If I kept my fingers totally relaxed, and a 3d person had manually opened them, we could both actually see and feel this point where the tendon got stuck - there was nothing mental about it, it was completely objective. It even made a quiet little pop sound. My doctor explained that this was caused by a swollen lump in the tendon sheath around the tendons on the top side of my hand. The tendons are kept in allignment with their respective fingers by "pulleys" - essentially, little ligaments that cross over the tendon to keep it in position. The tendon develops a bulge from inflamation, and pulling it through the pulley is like trying to pull a your finger through a too-small ring - eventually, your knuckle will snap through the ring space.
These types of problems correspond perfectly with the old joke "P: Doc - it hurts when I do this. D: Then don't do that." When I finished my kiln, my problem faded away to nothing after about 6 months. These types of issues aren't "in your head". They are very much mechanical.
Also note, my kiln is a hobby - I wasn't developing these problems to get out of doing the work - I'd dreamed of building this type of kiln for more than a decade. I had zero motivational issues with respect to the work. Which may have been bad in some ways - my right elbow became so painful that I could hardly shake hands or pick up a coffee cup. But like the trigger finger, the problems went away after I finished construction, though now I'm more sensitive to reinjury.
Unles you are illitearte, msot misspellings dont make sense, thats' why their usually catched by spell checkers quiet well.
P.S. As you can see, there are exceptions to that, but it's not on the scale your joke implied.
Well, my joke was meant to be humorous and exageration is a kind of humor. On the other hand, humor always carries with it some kernal of truth (whether in the joke itself, or about the teller). Having once been involved in a writing project that was well over 200 pages long, I can tell you that spell checking was great for spelling mistakes (and I'm subject to them) - but lousy as a means of editing. Spell check does nothing for mistakes in actual syntax. For example, it is very easy to leave out two letter glue words (to, of, in, etc) and when proofing, read those into the sentences - especially after 5 or 6 reads through the document.
The burden of editing large texts is enormous, and spell check, though nice and convenient, is no substitute for an edit by someone who has never read the document before.
Re:you absolutely need Windows for
on
Cooking With Linux
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· Score: 3, Insightful
Re: Linux and gaming
You hear no end to the gaming argument. Fine. I'm still willing to bet that not 100% of computer users are gamers. When I was a kid, I played with my Atari, then my CoCo, and finally PC games. But at some point, at least for some users, there comes a time when games are just dull. Then, what do you use a computer for? Keeping data, analyzing data, email, internet -- stuff like that. There are lots of users who don't game and don't do photoshop. As for movies on the computer - I'm not that interested. I have a very nice TV/DVD setup - why would I want to look at video on a comparatively tiny monitor while sitting at a desk when I can sit back in true comfort (and no fan noise)?
I'm not saying Linux is perfect for everyone. But all these "it won't run photoshop or play games" arguments only prove that it isn't ready for a subset of users. For middle aged farts like me who want to graph data from my kiln firings, surf the net, check my email, and write a few letters, Linux isn't missing anything at all. Subtract viruses and worms from the mix, and Linux is far better. For now though, you gamers and graphic artists will just have to suffer with windows, but for crying out loud, enough already with the "Linux isn't ready" baloney. Although it doesn't meet your particular needs - there are lots of people for whom it would be perfect - they just don't know it.
I suppose 100% of the Windows market uses these programs? Yeah right. For a small group of people, these apps might be the sticking point. That's fine if they really are a requirement, but for what most people do with their computers, Linux is not only adequate - it's better. The sad part is, people just don't know it. The internet experience on Linux may have it's annoyances (e.g., IE only sites), but then again, viruses, worms, etc. - I don't even care.
Slashdot Mirror
Try pressing the "stop" button. The only unfortunate aspect is that everytime you click for the next one, you have to press the "stop" button again or it will move on to the next automatically.
I don't call that "Sci-Fi" --- Sci-Fear --- that's the appropriate term. I avoid that junk as much as possible.
Personally, I don't see that being in or not in a particular species is all that important. "Species" is just a categorization system we humans devised to help us interpret nature. I think it's a "no-brainer" that if an entity achieves a self-aware state, has a consiousness similar to ours, then that entity deserves the full panapoly of rights we give each other.
The really hard part is defining what a "self-aware" state is. Many people already put animals there (vegans etc) -- I don't. I guess I don't consider emotions or instincts such as those displayed by our happy or feral cows, to be as significant as logical thought. Ironically, I don't have a great argument for why I should think that way - it's more of a gut feeling (instinct). I suppose, I need to do some more thinking on this.
In the end, I still like cows a lot, both on a culinary and social level. Perhaps I'm just a sadist? Perhaps, the reason people fight so hard to say that humans are different from animals, is that they don't want to admit to being mean for personal gain (science
I don't know that cow tipping means cows are stupid (and yes, we had cows, amongst other things, when I was a kid). You know, groggy people are easy to tip over too. Anyway, give a cow an apple and you can almost see it become happy - eyes roll up and close just like when a person tastes something painfully delicious. I'm probably anthropomorphising a bit much here, but they sure look happy (I'm also not saying this makes them smart - just saying cow-tipping doesn't prove them stupid). I've always thought cows are really very cute
(cue fat chick jokes)
Put this in terms understood on slashdot - it would be like trying to run a full release of linux w/ all the KDE and Gnome stuff on an 8088 with 4k (as in kilobytes - not megabytes) of ram - oh and using a tape recorder for a storage device.
I so wish I had mod points. I for one, appreciate your voice of reason .... sadly, it will be a minority position. I find it dissapointing how even slashdot tends toward a luddit anti-tech position if the knowledge even remotely touches on biology.
Cite one example from a reputable news source. I believe that they have gone a bit too far on some the accussed, but I don't know of one case where they seize assets just because your a neihibor of a drug dealer.
Happens all the time - I recalled a story from a few years back - googling didn't help me find that one but it found some others on the same pattern:
Hell - why worry about your property? Worry about grandma. References:
A Harlem woman died of a heart attack after police hurled a flash grenade into her apartment during a mistaken raid yesterday morning.
Heavily armed NYPD Emergency Service Unit cops smashed down the woman's door at 310 W. 143rd St., believing that guns and drugs were in the sixth-floor apartment, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.
Instead, they found Alberta Spruill, 57, a beloved church member and longtime city employee, who was getting ready to go to work when the grenade went off about 6:10 a.m. - creating a deafening boom and a blinding flash.
Cops handcuffed Spruill, who cried as cops began probing her tidy, two-bedroom apartment. A police captain quickly realized cops had hit the wrong location, Kelly said.
Officers immediately uncuffed Spruill and asked if she was hurt. She initially refused medical attention but told cops she had a heart condition.
At 6:32 a.m., Spruill felt chest pains and was rushed to Harlem Hospital. She went into cardiac arrest in the ambulance and died at the hospital about 8 a.m. - less than two hours after her home was invaded.
That's with 5 minutes on google - real research would definitely provide shocking evidence that the war on drugs is harmful to the innocent elderly. Stick their lives in your police state pipe and smoke 'em!
I don't care for WMV files - they are a small step above Realmedia files, but mpegs almost always look better (whether because mpeg is better or because users of the other formats over-compresss, I don't know). You might as well NOT show movies if the quality is too low - it's just frustrating to look at dancing blurry squares - offer hi-res images instead.
That's where the profit comes in. In the parent post, he says his phone is 300£ - the contract 25-30£. At the high rate, he will pay 360£ in a year. It would be shocking if the provider paid full retail, but the provider probably doesn't make a ton of money the first year anyway. It's the second year - the one where you don't switch providers because it is an RPIA - that the provider makes its money.
I suspect that the subsised phone system is rooted in the fact, at least her in the US, that people tend to buy on credit. Why pay $300 when for just 12 easy payments
Should any taxpayer be compelled to pay for WAR that he is morally opposed to, and that he considers to be murder?
I don't mind when the religious right states an honest position, and saying "I believe that conception is the point of life" WITHOUT going on to make any of the usual silly arguments is just fine - make it a matter of faith and leave it at that. The problem is, when religion controls government too much, life sucks. Life under Al Queda would likely be about as pleasant as life under the extreme Christian Right. Keep the law and the church separate.
Yes yes, the cells are "human". They aren't a person though. For example, my hair is just as much human cells as an embryo - no crime getting it cut. The problem you have is that you want to grant the rights of personhood to the cells. Do the cells have the characteristics of personhood? Thought, logic, will, etc? For quite a period (I think brain activity is absent in the first 2-3 months of preggers) there is none of that. If thought is not important - you won't mind coming in for a labotomy will you?
The above is where the "potential" argument comes from because a dozen cells really don't have the characteristics of a person - so you say "they have potential". But face it, nobody gets squat for potential. You don't go to prison for what you could do, only what you do do. You don't get special privileges for what you could be, only for what you are. Why should a few dozen cells be distinguished from everything else? It's a religious/emotional thing - just admit that there is no rational basis and you will at least be arguing from an honest position rather than trying to wear a cloak of impressive words.
You demonstrate a few dozen cells have human consiousness, and I'll concede your point about "precious" lifeforms.
Hmmm
This "potential" argument bugs me. Because the cells could become a person, they ought to be treated as such right now when I am not? Hell, I could become millionaire - should I be treated as such? I could become a murderer - should I be put in jail now even though I haven't killed anyone? I favor looking at how something is right now, and making the evaluation - not basing the evaluation on the uncertain future.
Well
Yes - I'm along for the ride and I am completely aware that I have no competency to make global weather proclamations. However, I am able to figure out at least who is obviously not authoritative on global warming. People make these judgments all the time. If I want to know what's wrong with my car, I don't ask a baker - I ask a mechanic. If I want to know how to build a shed - I ask a carpenter - not barber. And if I want to know whether there is evidence of global warming, I'd ask an expert on that subject - NOT a politician or businessman. That's awfully darn obvious.
A very good point - objectivity is an important consideration.
I suppose the cold wind will blow off all the leaves? Or is this a beer reference?
"It's survival of the fittest, Max! And we've got the fuckin' guns!"
The slam against the global warming crowd by comparing them to militant feminists is just plain silly. But by the same token (from the summary article), there's just as much silliness on the other side:
As if politicians and business leaders have the expertise to make this pronouncement? Right. I'd be interested in what the acedemics have to say (and interested in their qualifications), but the rest of the group? They're just along for the ride. And although the article makes a statement that 400ppm for CO2 is a critical point - it never explains what evidence supports this number. Now, the report may be correct, but when a news article reports only the conclusions and none of the methods, it is just so much fear mongering. Just as the opposing side is so much head-burying. As someone else said, the original results would be much more interesting.
I'll admit to being a Real skeptic, but
I'd be interested in seeing your sources. I'm not a doctor but I end up dealing with medical issues a lot in my job. The way docs have explained CTS to me is purely physical.
There is a big flat ligament that crosses the hand at the very base of the palm just above the wrist. A bunch of tendons and nerves run through the tunnel between this ligament and the hand's flesh/bones. Tendons are tough cords covered by a slippery sheath. With overuse, the sheath gets inflamed and squeezes out any extra space in the tunnel thus compressing the nerves and causing pain. It is very much a mechanical reaction to overuse and the surgery involves cutting some of the crossover ligament to widen the tunnel.
I built a large kiln a few years ago and developed some overuse problems. One was "trigger finger" - essentially, if I closed my hand, my last two fingers would get stuck in the closed position. On opening (and at it's worst, this meant prying them open with my other hand), my fingers would snap open. If I kept my fingers totally relaxed, and a 3d person had manually opened them, we could both actually see and feel this point where the tendon got stuck - there was nothing mental about it, it was completely objective. It even made a quiet little pop sound. My doctor explained that this was caused by a swollen lump in the tendon sheath around the tendons on the top side of my hand. The tendons are kept in allignment with their respective fingers by "pulleys" - essentially, little ligaments that cross over the tendon to keep it in position. The tendon develops a bulge from inflamation, and pulling it through the pulley is like trying to pull a your finger through a too-small ring - eventually, your knuckle will snap through the ring space.
These types of problems correspond perfectly with the old joke "P: Doc - it hurts when I do this. D: Then don't do that." When I finished my kiln, my problem faded away to nothing after about 6 months. These types of issues aren't "in your head". They are very much mechanical.
Also note, my kiln is a hobby - I wasn't developing these problems to get out of doing the work - I'd dreamed of building this type of kiln for more than a decade. I had zero motivational issues with respect to the work. Which may have been bad in some ways - my right elbow became so painful that I could hardly shake hands or pick up a coffee cup. But like the trigger finger, the problems went away after I finished construction, though now I'm more sensitive to reinjury.
P.S. As you can see, there are exceptions to that, but it's not on the scale your joke implied.
Well, my joke was meant to be humorous and exageration is a kind of humor. On the other hand, humor always carries with it some kernal of truth (whether in the joke itself, or about the teller). Having once been involved in a writing project that was well over 200 pages long, I can tell you that spell checking was great for spelling mistakes (and I'm subject to them) - but lousy as a means of editing. Spell check does nothing for mistakes in actual syntax. For example, it is very easy to leave out two letter glue words (to, of, in, etc) and when proofing, read those into the sentences - especially after 5 or 6 reads through the document.
The burden of editing large texts is enormous, and spell check, though nice and convenient, is no substitute for an edit by someone who has never read the document before.
Re: Linux and gaming
You hear no end to the gaming argument. Fine. I'm still willing to bet that not 100% of computer users are gamers. When I was a kid, I played with my Atari, then my CoCo, and finally PC games. But at some point, at least for some users, there comes a time when games are just dull. Then, what do you use a computer for? Keeping data, analyzing data, email, internet -- stuff like that. There are lots of users who don't game and don't do photoshop. As for movies on the computer - I'm not that interested. I have a very nice TV/DVD setup - why would I want to look at video on a comparatively tiny monitor while sitting at a desk when I can sit back in true comfort (and no fan noise)?
I'm not saying Linux is perfect for everyone. But all these "it won't run photoshop or play games" arguments only prove that it isn't ready for a subset of users. For middle aged farts like me who want to graph data from my kiln firings, surf the net, check my email, and write a few letters, Linux isn't missing anything at all. Subtract viruses and worms from the mix, and Linux is far better. For now though, you gamers and graphic artists will just have to suffer with windows, but for crying out loud, enough already with the "Linux isn't ready" baloney. Although it doesn't meet your particular needs - there are lots of people for whom it would be perfect - they just don't know it.
Macromedia Studio
I suppose 100% of the Windows market uses these programs? Yeah right. For a small group of people, these apps might be the sticking point. That's fine if they really are a requirement, but for what most people do with their computers, Linux is not only adequate - it's better. The sad part is, people just don't know it. The internet experience on Linux may have it's annoyances (e.g., IE only sites), but then again, viruses, worms, etc. - I don't even care.