Does this really work because they're teenagers, or because they just haven't lost the upper levels of their hearing? I remember reading that we can (originally) hear up to 30,000 Hz, but as we get exposed to loud noises, we gradually get more and more deaf as our ears lose more and more of their capability. Something like the first concert you go to cuts out the upper 2000 Hz of your hearing. Which brings up an interesting point - will this work on teens exposed to so much loud noises (music, lots of concerts, construction, trains, etc.) that it just won't work on them?
By the way, a great role model for fathers everywhere:
"Okay honey, how much does this hurt?"
BZZZZT!!!!
"Ah, turn it off, turn it off!!"
"In a second honey. Daddy has to hurt you to show how much he loves you. Now, how about this?"
Fast growth in living organisms isn't that unusual. There's bacteria (with the old example of a single bacteria cell multiplying quickly enough to cover the Earth in a day - under ideal conditions, of course). But even multicellular organisms grow fast, too. Some species of bamboo can grow six inches per day. Giant pumpkins can get 10 pounds heavier each day. In some parts of Alaska, the crops have much less time to grow than in the rest of the country, and yet the produce is HUGE (I'm talking heads of cabbage that are two feet in diameter).
And this holds true with animals, too. A blue whale is only a few hundred pounds when born, but it's weighing a couple tons by the end of its first year. Besides, T-rex was supposed to weigh about eight tons as an adult. Compared to something that big, 4.6 pounds ain't a whole lot.
Any sort of life that would develop on Titan would still be something we'd probably have trouble recognizing as life. IIRC, the role of water is replaced by methane, and so any sort of life that develops on the moon will probably be using that like we use water. Either that, or they'll be something like the tube worms that live next to the methane vents on the sea bottom. But even then, those worms have evolved for extreme pressure and extremely high temperature, the exact opposite of the atmosphere on Titan.
I, for one, am glad to see something like this finally start to happen. Although I have never been a real victim of spam (being paranoid with my email helps), but I've heard many horror stories in which these bastards play a pivotal role. Interesting that he was arrested under a different charge - kinda like Al Capone not being arrested for murder and racketeering, but for tax evasion.
And just think - since he's the Buffalo Spammer, maybe his fellow prisoners will turn him into...Buffalo Wings!! Eh? Eh?
The existence of nannobacteria is one of the most controversial of scientific questions - some experts claim they are simply too small to be life forms.
I suppose it's the same thing as viruses and prions. Do you consider a strand of proteins (or in the case of prions, a protein) a form of life? Though since all life as we know it is just a bunch of proteins, maybe they are.
By the way, does this mean that prions have lost the title of smallest recognizible organism? Anybody?
I would imagine it's just from a practical standpoint. An airplane wing can cause different effects depending on its airspeed (i.e. the most efficient airfoil shape at 150 knots is different than the most efficient shape at 1150 knots). Even though the dimples might create more lift at low airspeed, once you start approaching subsonic/supersonic conditions, the drag they produce would be more trouble then it's worth. And how exactly can you get rid of them? You can't (at least not at our present level of technology), and so we stick with more conventional flaps and spoilers.
It's really not that much money. Most of the time, the spammers act as third-party advertisers - other companies hire them to send out advertisements for whatever crap they're selling at the moment. And when the spammer tells the company, "Oh yes, we can GUARANTEE that word of your company will reach over 200 million email inboxes," the company's eyes just turn into little dollar signs. That initial payment, combined with the low cost (it doesn't take that much effort to send emails, right? And lots of programs probably exist that allow you to mass email easily) makes for an overall profit for spammers. And that's why they should all be shot. Hopefully in the knee.
I can see the purpose of this if it's just for finding planets for the sake of finding planets. But if we're using it to see where the next intelligent life comes from, aren't we going a bit extreme? There is usually a couple billion years between when a planet is still a protoplanet and when it can sustain life. Yes, there can be millions of years between when we actually see the light from the star and the star itself (interstellar travel at the speed of light and all), but what about the systems that are only a few thousand light-years away?
I'll agree with you on most of your points, but there are some times when having famous actors in movies or games can be a major benefit. For instance, the voice acting in GTA3 and Vice City was done by actors well-known for playing in gangster movies - Ray Liotta, Joe Pantoliano (sp?), etc. Now, the games were entertaining since the actors themselves were talented, but their presence also added that gangster-type atmosphere that added to the overall feel of the game. After all, would Tommy Vercetti seem just as cool being voiced by Paulie Shore than Ray Liotta? No, because Paulie Shore is known for his comedic talents, while Ray Liotta is known for his crime-drama movies.
If at possible, rearranging the furniture could work, too. If the light from the monitor is bothering you, just point it in the opposite direction from your bed - the reflected light should be quite a bit dimmer than the monitor itself. Having some extra furniture between yourself and the offending computer might even help dampen the sound a bit. That, combined with the white noise from a fan or radio, might take the edge off of the computer noise.
I think part of the problem is that the game is mostly marketed by casual gamers, who by their very nature aren't going to fanatically follow the game's progress and immediately go out and buy a copy when it becomes available. The casual gamer may see the box when they're in their local Wal-Mart, think, "This looks interesting," and might buy it. The casual gamer sees most of their ads through television or mainstream magazines, sources where I've never seen ads for Uru. If Cyan wants to reach these people, those are the areas they need to advertise in, not on devoted videogame websites or magazines. Granted, once people start hearing about the game, they start telling their friends, their family, etc, who also get the game. Then they start playing the game, and eventually realize that computer games are actually fun. Pandemonium ensues.
I'll have to agree with the article on this one. Yes, buying games online does save alot of time, effort and paper, but it's nice to have something tangible.
Plus, buying a physical thing also allows you to have an actual manual, which is a must. You can have your.pdf and word files for figuring out the game. Give me a nice beefy book anyday. Yes, I know, most books that come with games are usually found inside the jewel case and contain a half-page of useful data, but I can dream, can't I?
What the journalists really need is to start playing the games themselves. I imagine the major news outlets will change their tune when their reporters start playing these games and find that they AREN'T turning into homocidal serial rapists, but instead that these games are [GASP] fun.
Of course, if all the reporters of The New York Post suddenly find themselves playing CounterStrike during their working hours, well...no big loss ^_^.
Of course, none of those probes lasted for more than two hours once on the surface. I would think getting a probe ON Venus would be relatively easy (as planetary landings go) since the atmosphere is so thick and would act as a brake of some sort (of course, the winds could cause a lot of problems). It's just getting the thing to work long enough to take detailed soil samples, long term weather readings, etc. That way we could continue to work on the surface, instead of relying on a quick, massive work spurt before the probe got fried.
I'd like to know how they found someone to get that close to the thing. You're supposed to be able to smell those flowers from a couple hundred feet away, and even then they can make people with sensitive stomachs retch. The guys who study these things must have either cast-iron stomachs or blown their sinuses out. Or both.
Most of the planets we've discovered outside our solar system are gas giants orbiting very close to their parent stars. Is there any theories to how these planets formed? I remember reading somewhere that the gas giants formed in our solar system because they were so FAR away from the sun (something to do with ice crystals, and how they weren't vaporized becuase they were so far away from the sun). So how is it that gas giants in another solar system can be so close? And really close, I mean - the article says this planet is only 4 million miles away from the sun. I'd like to know how stable this solar system is, and if it will rip itself apart in a few thousand years.
When the stock exchange crashed in 1929, the United States' economy collapsed. It also dragged down with it the rest of the world, plunging most countries into a decade-long depression. Yes, the US only has a small percentage of the world's population, but we have a MASSIVE influence on world trade, world production and world consumption. If we go into a depression, we stop buying other countries' products. Sure, they can sell their stuff to other countries, but they sure as hell won't make as much money doing it. And if the countries need that level of money, they're going to be in trouble. Yes, they may just get off with a really tight budget, but there will be a few countries that will go down with us. And those countries will take down other countries, which will take down other countries, etc.
Although we think we're advancing so slowly in interstellar travel, just think - less than 60 years after the first airplane flew, we were walking on the moon. In the long view, much of our technological advances have occurred at lightning speed. Perhaps in a few hundred years we'll have captured the secret of intrastellar space travel and colonized the solar system. Perhaps in a few thousand years we'll have captured the secret of interstellar space travel and colonized every star in the sky. Sure, that's a long time for a single human life. But in the course of human evolution? It's an eyeblink.
Amazing work. Just goes to show that we can still do scientific work on a budget. NASA should take a long, hard look at this project. If they used this approach, we could get next-gen space transports for a hell of a lot cheaper than what we're predicting now.
I'm just surprised it took Lucas this long to release the original movies on DVD in the first place. It's easy money - we'd all like to get the original movies on a nice digital format. Instead they wait nearly a decade before they rerelease. With a track record for milking franchises like LucasArts has, this seems to be a rather foolish missed opportunity.
You'd think the spammers would be more suspicious of someone that seemed so eager to give them her money. With the rate of reply to these things so low, the spammers might figure that the people who do actually bite are actually trying to shut them down. Ah well...we can dream, can't we?
Slashdot Mirror
By the way, a great role model for fathers everywhere:
"Okay honey, how much does this hurt?"
BZZZZT!!!!
"Ah, turn it off, turn it off!!"
"In a second honey. Daddy has to hurt you to show how much he loves you. Now, how about this?"
BZZZZT!!!
"AHHHHHH!"
And this holds true with animals, too. A blue whale is only a few hundred pounds when born, but it's weighing a couple tons by the end of its first year. Besides, T-rex was supposed to weigh about eight tons as an adult. Compared to something that big, 4.6 pounds ain't a whole lot.
If there is life, it'll be...weird.
And just think - since he's the Buffalo Spammer, maybe his fellow prisoners will turn him into...Buffalo Wings!! Eh? Eh?
Ah, hey, what're you doing?!
It's just a bad joke, you bastards!
I suppose it's the same thing as viruses and prions. Do you consider a strand of proteins (or in the case of prions, a protein) a form of life? Though since all life as we know it is just a bunch of proteins, maybe they are.
By the way, does this mean that prions have lost the title of smallest recognizible organism? Anybody?
I would imagine it's just from a practical standpoint. An airplane wing can cause different effects depending on its airspeed (i.e. the most efficient airfoil shape at 150 knots is different than the most efficient shape at 1150 knots). Even though the dimples might create more lift at low airspeed, once you start approaching subsonic/supersonic conditions, the drag they produce would be more trouble then it's worth. And how exactly can you get rid of them? You can't (at least not at our present level of technology), and so we stick with more conventional flaps and spoilers.
It's really not that much money. Most of the time, the spammers act as third-party advertisers - other companies hire them to send out advertisements for whatever crap they're selling at the moment. And when the spammer tells the company, "Oh yes, we can GUARANTEE that word of your company will reach over 200 million email inboxes," the company's eyes just turn into little dollar signs. That initial payment, combined with the low cost (it doesn't take that much effort to send emails, right? And lots of programs probably exist that allow you to mass email easily) makes for an overall profit for spammers. And that's why they should all be shot. Hopefully in the knee.
I can see the purpose of this if it's just for finding planets for the sake of finding planets. But if we're using it to see where the next intelligent life comes from, aren't we going a bit extreme? There is usually a couple billion years between when a planet is still a protoplanet and when it can sustain life. Yes, there can be millions of years between when we actually see the light from the star and the star itself (interstellar travel at the speed of light and all), but what about the systems that are only a few thousand light-years away?
I'll agree with you on most of your points, but there are some times when having famous actors in movies or games can be a major benefit. For instance, the voice acting in GTA3 and Vice City was done by actors well-known for playing in gangster movies - Ray Liotta, Joe Pantoliano (sp?), etc. Now, the games were entertaining since the actors themselves were talented, but their presence also added that gangster-type atmosphere that added to the overall feel of the game. After all, would Tommy Vercetti seem just as cool being voiced by Paulie Shore than Ray Liotta? No, because Paulie Shore is known for his comedic talents, while Ray Liotta is known for his crime-drama movies.
If at possible, rearranging the furniture could work, too. If the light from the monitor is bothering you, just point it in the opposite direction from your bed - the reflected light should be quite a bit dimmer than the monitor itself. Having some extra furniture between yourself and the offending computer might even help dampen the sound a bit. That, combined with the white noise from a fan or radio, might take the edge off of the computer noise.
I think part of the problem is that the game is mostly marketed by casual gamers, who by their very nature aren't going to fanatically follow the game's progress and immediately go out and buy a copy when it becomes available. The casual gamer may see the box when they're in their local Wal-Mart, think, "This looks interesting," and might buy it. The casual gamer sees most of their ads through television or mainstream magazines, sources where I've never seen ads for Uru. If Cyan wants to reach these people, those are the areas they need to advertise in, not on devoted videogame websites or magazines. Granted, once people start hearing about the game, they start telling their friends, their family, etc, who also get the game. Then they start playing the game, and eventually realize that computer games are actually fun. Pandemonium ensues.
Plus, buying a physical thing also allows you to have an actual manual, which is a must. You can have your .pdf and word files for figuring out the game. Give me a nice beefy book anyday. Yes, I know, most books that come with games are usually found inside the jewel case and contain a half-page of useful data, but I can dream, can't I?
Of course, if all the reporters of The New York Post suddenly find themselves playing CounterStrike during their working hours, well...no big loss ^_^.
Of course, none of those probes lasted for more than two hours once on the surface. I would think getting a probe ON Venus would be relatively easy (as planetary landings go) since the atmosphere is so thick and would act as a brake of some sort (of course, the winds could cause a lot of problems). It's just getting the thing to work long enough to take detailed soil samples, long term weather readings, etc. That way we could continue to work on the surface, instead of relying on a quick, massive work spurt before the probe got fried.
I'd like to know how they found someone to get that close to the thing. You're supposed to be able to smell those flowers from a couple hundred feet away, and even then they can make people with sensitive stomachs retch. The guys who study these things must have either cast-iron stomachs or blown their sinuses out. Or both.
Most of the planets we've discovered outside our solar system are gas giants orbiting very close to their parent stars. Is there any theories to how these planets formed? I remember reading somewhere that the gas giants formed in our solar system because they were so FAR away from the sun (something to do with ice crystals, and how they weren't vaporized becuase they were so far away from the sun). So how is it that gas giants in another solar system can be so close? And really close, I mean - the article says this planet is only 4 million miles away from the sun. I'd like to know how stable this solar system is, and if it will rip itself apart in a few thousand years.
Fascinating that the first post can get marked (-1) Redundant...
When the stock exchange crashed in 1929, the United States' economy collapsed. It also dragged down with it the rest of the world, plunging most countries into a decade-long depression. Yes, the US only has a small percentage of the world's population, but we have a MASSIVE influence on world trade, world production and world consumption. If we go into a depression, we stop buying other countries' products. Sure, they can sell their stuff to other countries, but they sure as hell won't make as much money doing it. And if the countries need that level of money, they're going to be in trouble. Yes, they may just get off with a really tight budget, but there will be a few countries that will go down with us. And those countries will take down other countries, which will take down other countries, etc.
Is there anyplace that offers online guides teaching how to speak these languages?
Although we think we're advancing so slowly in interstellar travel, just think - less than 60 years after the first airplane flew, we were walking on the moon. In the long view, much of our technological advances have occurred at lightning speed. Perhaps in a few hundred years we'll have captured the secret of intrastellar space travel and colonized the solar system. Perhaps in a few thousand years we'll have captured the secret of interstellar space travel and colonized every star in the sky. Sure, that's a long time for a single human life. But in the course of human evolution? It's an eyeblink.
Heck, if the kid wants to get rid of the website, they should put a link to it on /. I'd give the servers ten minutes.
Light pollution's pretty much nil down there, so the telescope can get a good view of stars without light from cities and towns drowning them out.
Amazing work. Just goes to show that we can still do scientific work on a budget. NASA should take a long, hard look at this project. If they used this approach, we could get next-gen space transports for a hell of a lot cheaper than what we're predicting now.
I'm just surprised it took Lucas this long to release the original movies on DVD in the first place. It's easy money - we'd all like to get the original movies on a nice digital format. Instead they wait nearly a decade before they rerelease. With a track record for milking franchises like LucasArts has, this seems to be a rather foolish missed opportunity.
You'd think the spammers would be more suspicious of someone that seemed so eager to give them her money. With the rate of reply to these things so low, the spammers might figure that the people who do actually bite are actually trying to shut them down. Ah well...we can dream, can't we?