That's not just a commentary on the whorishness of American media (which is widely regarded by execs in the biz as infotainment rather than journalism). It's also a commentary on the sad state of public interest in copyright and fair use issues. It's going to take legislation that overturns Betamax and outlaws VCRs and PVRs to finally get the general public's attention on this issue, and by then it could be too late to turn things around.
One particular Congressman has been working for some time on a plan that would wholly replace the federal income tax with a federal sales tax. Not add it on, not sneak both into place at one time, but replace. He includes an annual rebate equal to the tax that would be paid on expenditures up to the poverty line. And you don't actually have to spend that much money to get the full rebate - everybody just gets the money in their pocket. (The amount is, I believe, dependent upon number of dependents, but that's the only factor.)
I personally prefer a system where the necessities of life are exempted from the sales tax by category - food, clothing, utilities (gas, water, electricity, *not* phone or cable, hehe), public transportation, medical expenses, that sort of thing. Most (not all) states with sales tax have exemptions for certain items, especially groceries. But either way, the concept of a *properly implemented* federal sales tax, replacing the monstrous income tax system we have today, is very appealing to me.
Why is a sales tax "just plain evil"? Having the Left come down on Bush for making the merest suggestion that a federal sales tax should be investigated was the biggest piece of Democrat bullshit I'd seen in a long time. There are multiple ways to ensure that a sales tax is applied fairly, including providing an annual sales tax rebate each year or exempting any item considered to be necessities of life. Not only does a federal sales tax *greatly* reduce the paperwork burden on the government and the public, and not only does it close the countless loopholes present in the current nigh-undecipherable tax code, but it also encourages savings, investment, and charity by making all those things tax-deferred by nature. That's good for the economy, and what's good for the economy is good for the people.
As the article mentions, the detection of glycolaldehyde is of interest because it is a precursor to ribose. We're not talking about metabolic processes here - we're talking about the availability of the very basic chemicals that formed the first nontrivially self-replicating collections of molecules.
Glycolaldehyde is also of interest because it is involved in an autocatalytic reaction that essentially converts formaldehyde into glycolaldehyde. As such, it is one of the most fundamental examples of self-replicating molecules. Certainly not nearly as complex as those seen in biology (prions, for example), but the fact that this reaction might take place in the depths of space is interesting - particularly when one considers the possibility of a glycolaldehyde/formaldehyde cloud entering the atmosphere of a planet such as Earth, where conditions are likely much better to sustain the autocatalytic reaction.
But this technology is intended to increase the accuracy of the information presented to the jury, and will not only help make trials shorter, but will help make them fairer as well. There's no "random element" purported to be added here. And the faster each trial goes, the shorter the wait will be before a person gets their day in court, as well.
You make it sound like the technology described in the article is a bad thing. But the right to a speedy trial is guaranteed by the Constitution, and giving juries a greater level of effectiveness in their ability to review evidence can only be an improvement.
Hey, now, I only once ended up outside the playable game space in Morrowind (Tribunal, actually), and that was because I managed to jam myself in behind a big pile of rocks Real Good Now and get stuck underneath them. Say what you want about Arena or Daggerfall, but Bethesda released a solid game in Morrowind.
Not surprisingly, chaos follows the presidential race wherever it goes. For example, for the VP debates at CWRU on October 5, classes are cancelled for the entire day, and faculty, staff, and students are discouraged from going to any of the buildings on the same quad as the building where the debate is to be held. The field in front of that building already has a bunch of prefab platforms laid out on it, presumably to provide extra parking for the event (despite the presence of a six-story parking garage immediately next to that building). There is also no guarantee that any students will receive tickets to the event.
Rumor has it that the school also paid $4 million to host the VP debate, and the only seeming benefits for this are a small boost in name recognition (likely to be surrounded by confusion regarding the school's rather cumbersome name, "Case Western Reserve University"), and the opportunity to have two advertisements on CNN situated in an almost-relevant context.
Is it Starforce 3 copy "protection" that they added to the game (which, btw, installs driver-level software to do its dirty work), or is it a different widget causing these problems?
I guess my terminology was poorly chosen, my being acquainted with the field but not an expert within it. In any case, I had more in mind robots wherein the center of pressure is not always within the support polygon (and for some robots, almost never is). The MIT Leg Lab has several examples, and in any case, this is in stark contrast to the equilibrium methods used in any of the Honda or Sony robots I've seen so far.
A lot of work in the walking robot field is going into dynamic stability - at least in U.S. academia. The various bipedal robots produced by the Japanese corporate world (Asimo, for example) are all statically stable - meaning that the center of mass is always kept directly over the support base. If you watch videos of those robots carefully, you'll see that this is the case.
Animals don't work like that. In fact, human walking gait is often described as continually falling forward, saved only by the swinging foot meeting the ground before you face-plant. As for insects, some gaits are statically stable simply by virtue of having so many legs, but the info posted by the parent concerning cockroaches using dynamic stability in tripod gait is really interesting.
No, their status would still be unknown, just like it is with every other judge who has been filibustered by the Democrats. Without the Constitutionally-required advisory vote, the status of those nominees is up in the air - and a filibuster prevents that vote from ever happening.
I'd rather see WH40k developed into a turn-based tactical game, much as the tabletop game was. But barring that, real-time tactical would be better (a la Myth 1, 2, and 3), and would solve the issues with squad reinforcement being unbalancing (since you wouldn't reinforce your squads in combat). Strategic issues could be taken up in a meta-game of sorts, in between combats, and the results of those combats would affect the outcome of the strategic game.
This is probably an overture to the military as much as to anyone else, as the DoD takes a lot of steps already to ensure that their data stays secure (whether or not it works is another question).
"If we can't ever read it, we'll use the paper trail as the backup," said Nye County deputy clerk Laura Zubia, who helped recover the data shortly after midnight. "That's the whole point of the paper trail, isn't it?"
There is still the issue of the machine failing to properly tabulate votes due to technical glitches. While someone could later look at the paper ballot and determine the intent of the voter, there is (as far as I know) no way with these systems for the voter to ensure that the machine correctly read their vote off the form while they are still at the polling place.
There is also an issue with stupid people not following directions (e.g., not filling in the circle completely, not erasing completely, marking outside the designated areas, etc.).
Slashdot Mirror
Maybe, but the radioactive waste to be stored in Yucca Mountain is already in solid form.
It wasn't Fox News (tm). It was a local station's news staff, and the station just happened to be a Fox affiliate.
That's not just a commentary on the whorishness of American media (which is widely regarded by execs in the biz as infotainment rather than journalism). It's also a commentary on the sad state of public interest in copyright and fair use issues. It's going to take legislation that overturns Betamax and outlaws VCRs and PVRs to finally get the general public's attention on this issue, and by then it could be too late to turn things around.
One particular Congressman has been working for some time on a plan that would wholly replace the federal income tax with a federal sales tax. Not add it on, not sneak both into place at one time, but replace. He includes an annual rebate equal to the tax that would be paid on expenditures up to the poverty line. And you don't actually have to spend that much money to get the full rebate - everybody just gets the money in their pocket. (The amount is, I believe, dependent upon number of dependents, but that's the only factor.)
I personally prefer a system where the necessities of life are exempted from the sales tax by category - food, clothing, utilities (gas, water, electricity, *not* phone or cable, hehe), public transportation, medical expenses, that sort of thing. Most (not all) states with sales tax have exemptions for certain items, especially groceries. But either way, the concept of a *properly implemented* federal sales tax, replacing the monstrous income tax system we have today, is very appealing to me.
So does Randall Burns get to put being mentioned on /. on his CV as a publication in a peer-reviewed journal?
Why is a sales tax "just plain evil"? Having the Left come down on Bush for making the merest suggestion that a federal sales tax should be investigated was the biggest piece of Democrat bullshit I'd seen in a long time. There are multiple ways to ensure that a sales tax is applied fairly, including providing an annual sales tax rebate each year or exempting any item considered to be necessities of life. Not only does a federal sales tax *greatly* reduce the paperwork burden on the government and the public, and not only does it close the countless loopholes present in the current nigh-undecipherable tax code, but it also encourages savings, investment, and charity by making all those things tax-deferred by nature. That's good for the economy, and what's good for the economy is good for the people.
Fortunately, I pay all my bills through my bank's online banking system, and they don't seem to mind that I use Firefox.
As the article mentions, the detection of glycolaldehyde is of interest because it is a precursor to ribose. We're not talking about metabolic processes here - we're talking about the availability of the very basic chemicals that formed the first nontrivially self-replicating collections of molecules.
Glycolaldehyde is also of interest because it is involved in an autocatalytic reaction that essentially converts formaldehyde into glycolaldehyde. As such, it is one of the most fundamental examples of self-replicating molecules. Certainly not nearly as complex as those seen in biology (prions, for example), but the fact that this reaction might take place in the depths of space is interesting - particularly when one considers the possibility of a glycolaldehyde/formaldehyde cloud entering the atmosphere of a planet such as Earth, where conditions are likely much better to sustain the autocatalytic reaction.
But this technology is intended to increase the accuracy of the information presented to the jury, and will not only help make trials shorter, but will help make them fairer as well. There's no "random element" purported to be added here. And the faster each trial goes, the shorter the wait will be before a person gets their day in court, as well.
You make it sound like the technology described in the article is a bad thing. But the right to a speedy trial is guaranteed by the Constitution, and giving juries a greater level of effectiveness in their ability to review evidence can only be an improvement.
Could someone please post a link to the Elder Scrolls web page after the Flash intro? They neglected to include a "bypass intro" link on that page.
Hey, now, I only once ended up outside the playable game space in Morrowind (Tribunal, actually), and that was because I managed to jam myself in behind a big pile of rocks Real Good Now and get stuck underneath them. Say what you want about Arena or Daggerfall, but Bethesda released a solid game in Morrowind.
Well, for looking up words like grok, Wiktionary is the way to go for me.
Not surprisingly, chaos follows the presidential race wherever it goes. For example, for the VP debates at CWRU on October 5, classes are cancelled for the entire day, and faculty, staff, and students are discouraged from going to any of the buildings on the same quad as the building where the debate is to be held. The field in front of that building already has a bunch of prefab platforms laid out on it, presumably to provide extra parking for the event (despite the presence of a six-story parking garage immediately next to that building). There is also no guarantee that any students will receive tickets to the event.
Rumor has it that the school also paid $4 million to host the VP debate, and the only seeming benefits for this are a small boost in name recognition (likely to be surrounded by confusion regarding the school's rather cumbersome name, "Case Western Reserve University"), and the opportunity to have two advertisements on CNN situated in an almost-relevant context.
Is it Starforce 3 copy "protection" that they added to the game (which, btw, installs driver-level software to do its dirty work), or is it a different widget causing these problems?
You never know when your ass and the seat post tube are going to have a close encounter, though. Ouch.
I guess my terminology was poorly chosen, my being acquainted with the field but not an expert within it. In any case, I had more in mind robots wherein the center of pressure is not always within the support polygon (and for some robots, almost never is). The MIT Leg Lab has several examples, and in any case, this is in stark contrast to the equilibrium methods used in any of the Honda or Sony robots I've seen so far.
A lot of work in the walking robot field is going into dynamic stability - at least in U.S. academia. The various bipedal robots produced by the Japanese corporate world (Asimo, for example) are all statically stable - meaning that the center of mass is always kept directly over the support base. If you watch videos of those robots carefully, you'll see that this is the case.
Animals don't work like that. In fact, human walking gait is often described as continually falling forward, saved only by the swinging foot meeting the ground before you face-plant. As for insects, some gaits are statically stable simply by virtue of having so many legs, but the info posted by the parent concerning cockroaches using dynamic stability in tripod gait is really interesting.
Read about competitive work here.
No, their status would still be unknown, just like it is with every other judge who has been filibustered by the Democrats. Without the Constitutionally-required advisory vote, the status of those nominees is up in the air - and a filibuster prevents that vote from ever happening.
I'd rather see WH40k developed into a turn-based tactical game, much as the tabletop game was. But barring that, real-time tactical would be better (a la Myth 1, 2, and 3), and would solve the issues with squad reinforcement being unbalancing (since you wouldn't reinforce your squads in combat). Strategic issues could be taken up in a meta-game of sorts, in between combats, and the results of those combats would affect the outcome of the strategic game.
:p
Too late now, I guess
This is probably an overture to the military as much as to anyone else, as the DoD takes a lot of steps already to ensure that their data stays secure (whether or not it works is another question).
The option I'm waiting for? ..."Han shoots Luke"
"If we can't ever read it, we'll use the paper trail as the backup," said Nye County deputy clerk Laura Zubia, who helped recover the data shortly after midnight. "That's the whole point of the paper trail, isn't it?"
There is still the issue of the machine failing to properly tabulate votes due to technical glitches. While someone could later look at the paper ballot and determine the intent of the voter, there is (as far as I know) no way with these systems for the voter to ensure that the machine correctly read their vote off the form while they are still at the polling place.
There is also an issue with stupid people not following directions (e.g., not filling in the circle completely, not erasing completely, marking outside the designated areas, etc.).