I do not envy Mr. Weaver in this case. IANAL but as I understand Canadian libel law, not only must he prove false claims were made, he must also prove they did damage to his reputation. So he will essentially be required in open court to trash himself.
In addition, I believe this sort of lawsuit is counter productive. I agree that the science should stand on its own, and now, despite his lawyers claims that the libel has 'gone viral,' the supposedly libelous story will witness a new level of exposure.
Also, according to the article, he is suing the paper, three writers and will attempt to sue commentors on the paper's website. I say to him, good luck.
The article doesn't mention http://www.sharedtalk.com/ - a free service offered by Rosetta Stone that allows you to chat via text or voice with other people. You enter your native languages and practicing languages, and find people to talk to. Works quite well.
I've been meaning to get through some more rosetta stone mandarin lessons...
If you're interested in mandarin in particular, this guy also has some cool info including a list of the 3000 most used characters, ranked by how common they are. Supposedly 3000 is the magic number for reading your average Chinese newspaper.
http://www.zein.se/patrick/3000char.html
As hard as it is for this crowd to hear, Microsoft is very much synonymous with technology for those who have no clue. Unfortunately, many of those people still hold a great deal of sway in the `real world` of politics and corporations. If I was the US military realizing I had no control over the internet and freaking out, the next best way I can think of to dominate global communication again is to create my own, slightly different internet, where the differences are mostly to do with the level of control I have over it. Then all I need to do is get everyone else to start using my network, and a good way to start is with the big corporations whose interests already somewhat align with my own.
I can't believe nobody has mentioned this petition yet. http://www.petitionproject.org/
31,000 scientists including 9000 PhDs who aren't yet convinced that we're even harming the planet, let alone humans.
I think public debate is always a good thing.
Mod parent up. This is exactly right. Hundreds of accidents are caused every day by perfectly sober people who are just terrible drivers to begin with. Why should I be held to a higher standard because I was actually a better driver at some previous point. Shouldn't the definition of acceptable safety be uniform across the board?
Is this a joke? I remember laughing in high school physics about the absurdity of electrolysing water into hydrogen and oxygen, and then recombining it again in an attempt to have a net gain of energy from the process. It would be a perfect solution if not for that pesky first law of thermodynamics.
There is a lab at school with about 30 boxes all running scientific linux but each one is named after a different distro... kubuntu, fedora, yellowdog etc etc. Why? I suppose someone thought it would be funny to those in the know and confusing as hell to anyone trying to learn linux. Took me a few days even.
I'm only an undergrad heading towards immunology, but from what I can tell from that paper you posted, the idea is not so much to stimulate an immune response in the patient, per se.
The immune 'response' is generated in another animal, in this case antibodies in a rabbit, to a protein resembling CCR5 receptor. This antibody is only injected back into the patient after numerous purification steps, to ensure as little cross reactivity as possible. The idea is that an antibody will bind very tightly to the exact molecule it's raised against, thereby blocking the entry of HIV. Any response to this new 'drug' antibody by the normal immune mechanisms is both unnecessary and unwanted.
The study looks promising but since they don't know exactly what CCR5 actually looks like, they are still trying to find out what the best blocker will be. Again I have very little experience with these matters, but once this is discovered I don't see why a monoclonal antibody could be grown that would be extremely specific and likely eliminate cross reactivity.
Any immunologists please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned this video yet. My prof showed it to us on the first day of cell biology and it really genuinely created an interest in biology that I didn't have before. More detailed version is here: http://multimedia.mcb.harvard.edu/media.html
Really quite amazing, even if you know absolutely nothing about biology
I disagree. I paid about $300CAD for my Ti-89 and not only is not allowed on tests neither at the grade 12 level nor first year college, mine's already broken after only about 2 years of seldom use. I have to apply significant pressure to the panel above the screen to get any image at all, otherwise its just random lines. It's a good calculator if it works for you, it can do algebra, calculus, and 3d graphing, but I haven't had a good experience with mine.
I just started a first year biology course at a fairly large university in western canada, and we were told on the first day that all hard-copy labs must be accompanied by an emailed version to make it easier for them to check for plagarism. I think the anti-cheating measures are being taken too far when they are placing the responsibility on the student to ensure their work can be checked for cheating. Like many people have already said, base the bulk of the grade on short, pointed exams, and don't bother checking how the student learned the materal.
The FBI has said the device, which was lighted but failed to ignite, was powerful enough to have killed the occupants.
These people are as much terrorists as as anyone else blowing up something to make a statement, either in the USA or the Middle East. It's really sad, and just a bit scary, how distorted the definition of terrorism has become.
I was under the impression that most guitar tabs were legal because they were not in any way copies of the original work, and in fact most state: This is an interpretation of the original song by the author of this tab, and should not be taken to be accurate.
Either way, as an amateur guitar player I think this is really sad, but fortunately there are a multitude of other guitar tab sites out there to fill the void. I like Ultimate Guitar
What you don't seem to realize is that it's not the actual loss of the product, but the businesses that depend on the infrastructure that the product (ie. Windows) provides. Your cell phone analogy would only really work if someone had written their master's thesis on their cell phone notepad application. And while that seems like a rediculous idea, you might be surprised to find out how many businesses have a very large stake in their computers not crashing and destroying all their data; whether Windows is licensed or not is not a concern of theirs, at least until now.
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I do not envy Mr. Weaver in this case. IANAL but as I understand Canadian libel law, not only must he prove false claims were made, he must also prove they did damage to his reputation. So he will essentially be required in open court to trash himself.
In addition, I believe this sort of lawsuit is counter productive. I agree that the science should stand on its own, and now, despite his lawyers claims that the libel has 'gone viral,' the supposedly libelous story will witness a new level of exposure.
Also, according to the article, he is suing the paper, three writers and will attempt to sue commentors on the paper's website. I say to him, good luck.
Maybe just me, but (XP / Google chrome) when I highlight text on the new KDE site, it has a faint aura around the letters. Very cool
I've been meaning to get through some more rosetta stone mandarin lessons...
If you're interested in mandarin in particular, this guy also has some cool info including a list of the 3000 most used characters, ranked by how common they are. Supposedly 3000 is the magic number for reading your average Chinese newspaper. http://www.zein.se/patrick/3000char.html
Can we tie it into this somehow? http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/blaise_aguera_y_arcas_demos_photosynth.html
If I was the US military realizing I had no control over the internet and freaking out, the next best way I can think of to dominate global communication again is to create my own, slightly different internet, where the differences are mostly to do with the level of control I have over it.
Then all I need to do is get everyone else to start using my network, and a good way to start is with the big corporations whose interests already somewhat align with my own.
whoops, forgot I had that foil hat on, never mind
I can't believe nobody has mentioned this petition yet. http://www.petitionproject.org/ 31,000 scientists including 9000 PhDs who aren't yet convinced that we're even harming the planet, let alone humans. I think public debate is always a good thing.
Mod parent up. This is exactly right. Hundreds of accidents are caused every day by perfectly sober people who are just terrible drivers to begin with. Why should I be held to a higher standard because I was actually a better driver at some previous point. Shouldn't the definition of acceptable safety be uniform across the board?
I don't think I've seen any other government websites that don't use the .gc.ca domain. Why is this different I wonder.
How bout an alarm clock that lights up a bulb slowly over a half hour. I've been looking for a good schem for one of those for like a month now.
Is this a joke? I remember laughing in high school physics about the absurdity of electrolysing water into hydrogen and oxygen, and then recombining it again in an attempt to have a net gain of energy from the process. It would be a perfect solution if not for that pesky first law of thermodynamics.
Sat on a chesterfield, perhaps?
There is a lab at school with about 30 boxes all running scientific linux but each one is named after a different distro... kubuntu, fedora, yellowdog etc etc. Why? I suppose someone thought it would be funny to those in the know and confusing as hell to anyone trying to learn linux. Took me a few days even.
Hang on a minute, have you played Frozen Bubble 2? Obviously not or you'd realize it is well worth making the switch.
The immune 'response' is generated in another animal, in this case antibodies in a rabbit, to a protein resembling CCR5 receptor. This antibody is only injected back into the patient after numerous purification steps, to ensure as little cross reactivity as possible. The idea is that an antibody will bind very tightly to the exact molecule it's raised against, thereby blocking the entry of HIV. Any response to this new 'drug' antibody by the normal immune mechanisms is both unnecessary and unwanted.
The study looks promising but since they don't know exactly what CCR5 actually looks like, they are still trying to find out what the best blocker will be. Again I have very little experience with these matters, but once this is discovered I don't see why a monoclonal antibody could be grown that would be extremely specific and likely eliminate cross reactivity.
Any immunologists please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.
Why can't we run a big copper wire around the entire circumference of the planet, and attach solar panels every few miles?
And then if the show doesn't take off, they can always recoup their losses by suing the pirate...
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned this video yet. My prof showed it to us on the first day of cell biology and it really genuinely created an interest in biology that I didn't have before. More detailed version is here: http://multimedia.mcb.harvard.edu/media.html
Really quite amazing, even if you know absolutely nothing about biology
I disagree. I paid about $300CAD for my Ti-89 and not only is not allowed on tests neither at the grade 12 level nor first year college, mine's already broken after only about 2 years of seldom use. I have to apply significant pressure to the panel above the screen to get any image at all, otherwise its just random lines. It's a good calculator if it works for you, it can do algebra, calculus, and 3d graphing, but I haven't had a good experience with mine.
I didn't think it was that bad - How implausible is it to take video capture and feed it into an OCR system to 'steal' code from someone elses screen?
I just started a first year biology course at a fairly large university in western canada, and we were told on the first day that all hard-copy labs must be accompanied by an emailed version to make it easier for them to check for plagarism. I think the anti-cheating measures are being taken too far when they are placing the responsibility on the student to ensure their work can be checked for cheating. Like many people have already said, base the bulk of the grade on short, pointed exams, and don't bother checking how the student learned the materal.
The FBI has said the device, which was lighted but failed to ignite, was powerful enough to have killed the occupants.
These people are as much terrorists as as anyone else blowing up something to make a statement, either in the USA or the Middle East. It's really sad, and just a bit scary, how distorted the definition of terrorism has become.
I'm sorry, but if you're adopting a child to make a political statement then you're not a fit parent.
I was under the impression that most guitar tabs were legal because they were not in any way copies of the original work, and in fact most state: This is an interpretation of the original song by the author of this tab, and should not be taken to be accurate.
Either way, as an amateur guitar player I think this is really sad, but fortunately there are a multitude of other guitar tab sites out there to fill the void. I like Ultimate Guitar
If he was going to fake his death to avoid punnishment, he could have at least come up with a real condition.
What you don't seem to realize is that it's not the actual loss of the product, but the businesses that depend on the infrastructure that the product (ie. Windows) provides. Your cell phone analogy would only really work if someone had written their master's thesis on their cell phone notepad application. And while that seems like a rediculous idea, you might be surprised to find out how many businesses have a very large stake in their computers not crashing and destroying all their data; whether Windows is licensed or not is not a concern of theirs, at least until now.