In that Apple actually pays computer scientists, engineers, etc. a decent wage. And they are run by managers that actually give a damn about the job that their team does.
So we get things that actually work better out of the box, and mature well over time. Hell, each apple product I have bought has lasted me 4+ years. And then I only "upgrade" because I can afford to upgrade the storage of the laptops myself, increase the RAM significantly, and a fresh install, and give it to a member of my family. Who are shocked that the finest computer in their house was not the dell running vista, but the four-year-old mac... Gaining new Apple users, and when they will buy a new computer in a few years, they might decide to go with the brand that has lasting value.
Seriously, if you want to pay less, then you devalue their employees. Make 'em more like Microsoft minions, expendable and not working together at any point. Sure you get the product eventually... And its cheaper.... But customers will most spend the rest of that products life complaining about it.
And no, I am not bashing the "free" concept of Linux, because Linux is a passion. One might spend a few days working out a glitch they encountered and submitting the fix. Then they feel great about accomplishing something no one else has done, and might go on to mend other things, or add other features. By keeping it a hobby that all are free to contribute to, people contribute for free.... And if we added up all those man hours on our favorite distro in a given year, it would be a fortune to pay.
There are a few science fiction magazines out there, such as Asimov's, that are worth subscribing. http://www.asimovs.com/
Admittedly, the short stories are a mix. Some great, some good, some decent, and some mind-raping-awful ones. But its a great way to sample new/unknown to you talent. If you find a serial in the magazine you really enjoy, the author tends to also write books... And bingo - instant reading list.
And then, there is your local science fiction and fantasy bookstore (A dying breed, unfortunately. Almost all of the independent specialized bookstores I once went to are gone.). Now I know you are short on time, but if you live near one, and the bookseller is the type that thrives on customer interaction, you are all set. After buying there for a year, you will never really need to spend more then a minute in the store... My local bookseller pulls a pile in advance these days for me when I go in (about once every three months), and it has been tailored to my reading taste. With something new thrown in every now and then that I might enjoy. In, out, and when I pop in in three months we discuss which ones I liked the best and the refining process continues. And if you're an excellent customer on good terms with the owner, then there is a chance you may be blessed with free "Advanced reader's editions -Do not sell"... Which are much like the stories in Asimov's, now I think of it...
The most important aspect in choosing the style of beer you brew: Water. The profile of your water will impact your beer far more then the hops or the malt. Which is why traditional regional beers are just that, regional.
John Palmer's book (which the first edition is now free online for personal use... I highly suggest if you like it, you might want to buy the new edition...) Has a page on how to chart your water to the best beer it is suited for: http://howtobrew.com/section3/chapter15-3.html
And this is one of the reasons the microbrewery across state lines might not have any issue in sharing recipes and advise, your beer, unless you open next door, will never come out the same.
What your missing is that the hydrogen economy is actually a nuclear economy. It would be a seamless transition from whatever energy source is used to derive the hydrogen. Most hydrogen proponents know this, and simply promote hydrogen because there is a good chance that with proper research you could get a greater energy density packed into a fuel cell then a battery, and fuel cells refuel faster then many batteries recharge, enabling the 'pumps' to still be scattered across the landscape.
Remember, "Hydrogen" supporters are "Nuclear Energy" supporters, even if they do not know it yet...
Well further reading and research has given me the answer to this probing question:
The contest is to provide an indistinguishable cut of chicken, grown in vitro, that is identical in taste, texture, and the like to the real thing. All produced on the mass scale by 2012.
Does the winner get the prize for hamburger, or a steak? Now the first one can be done both cheap, easy, and in vast quantities. The second requirers a bit more work, but would make the meat nearly indistinguishable. And speaking of indistinguishable, what level of tenderness is required? If the steak has to pass for 'normal' it needs to be worked. More work.
Can it be done? Sure. Hell, if they gave a bunch of biology graduate students a grant of half-up-front, and the rules in place, one of us would be happy to preform the research and development. So long as they are willing to spend the time and money getting the product approved for consumption (I know a general approval has been made, but I am willing to wager there are inspections, tests, and other things I do not know of.. All of which will take time and money.) And the benefit of doing it that way instead of a "prize"? You get exactly what you ask for on a time-line you approve, and you also get the focused attention of a few biologists and engineers at their cheapest and most obsessive state...
The problem is, most of the Newspapers just no longer try to report news, so much as sell it, and they have all merged (thanks to Murdoch, I suspect) into one single venue, just written towards different levels.
Right now the only papers I read in the morning are the Financial Times (which does not count as an American Paper for reports like this, right?) And once a week I get the Sunday Times from a newspaper importer. While I feel the Times has fallen harder then all the others, it still has my crossword, and gives me the Murdoch point of view for the world.
I mainly get my news from reading the BBC website daily, and 20 minutes on Slashdot.
I have two solutions if your little ones are paranoid about being spied on. Either give them a knoppix disk and a thumbdrive to keep all their important files with them at all times, or give them total control over their machine...
It might not be the best and fastest, but its damn good... Give it enough time, code, and wire, your girl could do most anything.... Build a chip for sd cards for storage... Figuring some way to connect to the world wide web.... It'll be like getting a UGO into the grand prix and winning... And in this case, less is more... You still need to spell, and the most of the memory included is in the users brain... Nothing like building your own machine to give a sense of accomplishment...
While the corn lobby is as powerful as it is now. The embargo goes down, and the first thing that will start coming out of Cuba, after the cigars, is sugar. Cuba mainly works on cigars because of the embargo, they get more money per gram of cigar then they ever could with sugar. But without the embargo, the much more profit-per-acre is sugar. Which would allow sugar, tariffs included, to go down in price. Which will make it harder for the government to force high-fructose corn syrup down our throats. (Or at least Canadian and Mexican soda will be a little cheaper for us to import...)
So I guess it really is "news of nerds", as what else is more relevant then out beloved caffeinated beverages and sweet snacks?
And while I agree that Cuba is probably much different then the tourist section I love, to bring back the sugar economy would solve a lot of the economic issues... It, and an increase in tourism from the blockade going down, would possibly allow the comforts of the tourist region to grow, and eventually envelop the entire country with general comfort and success... Or a massive crystal meth addiction like those below the poverty line in Hawaii... Either or really.
I bet I could get a much larger, completed database, for less then half of that...
Just put some homeland security squeeze on Disney, and offer them a pittance, and buy their database. Done. Largest fingerprint database in the world of public citizens and criminals.... Every walk of life loves Disney World...
Could I have my million dollar consulting fee now?
1.) This is an argument against all those advocating to ban same sex marriage, because they "cannot reproduce". Quite the common argument recently. Despite my second point.
2.) THEY DID THIS FIVE YEARS AGO. Really. While I was still in high school I cheered the first time someone pulled this off. I used it in a debate with someone on the case of gay marriage. Its in my old Science News... I mean this might be a team doing it again, or doing it better, but they are still not the first.
Who gives two shits what a kook who believes in invisible super-beings things? The man is irrational and would gladly have us living back in the dark ages.
Such a comment just confirms what I've said before about Atheists. They don't want people to really have an open mind. Yet they won't agree that everybody is open-minded until they agree with them!
I don't know if you wanted to have sarcasm tags there, but you both are right and wrong. Every group of people have there overpowering zealots. I am an atheist and I cringe when one of my own goes on a tirade against others for their belief structure. And I am sure a lot of you agree, regardless of your religious beliefs, that your group has a few assholes. And its the assholes that the rest of the world sees, because they make themselves seen. But without these assholes, the assholes running the country would most likely ignore our groups entirely... Not something I want.
But because we would rather not kill a dying person to find out if we'll kill them or save them, my father will never get benefit of this.
Actually, while a compound is still going through FDA trials, it is easier to get ahold of to the lay person then if it "passes" the trial. The chemical manufacturers are now churning out those compounds for research trials, and anyone can buy them for "non-human research only". As well as some license a "research supplier" to also handle sales of these compounds to individuals. Case in point: I am very pale, and do not tan well... So I buy Melanotan II (was mentioned in Wired a few years back)... Now I'm tanned, thinner, more muscular, and have a much greater sex drive (the pleasant side effects of this compound.. A great drug if the FDA would get off its ass and approve it.). So hunt down the drugs you have heard about, and see if its been killing any animals. Call the scientists and say you are doing a research piece on their companies work, and ask how the drug, and how much of it, is to be administered. Call them at home if possible... Most scientists love talking about their work for hours, without thinking of the consequences of the information given... I know I do...
The only thing is, if you do that, and something goes wrong... You are kinda out of luck. But it beats a slow death without your mind any day.
And you can find out if the company has any other offices. If they have a manufacturing branch in either India or China, then you can buy there much easier then in the USA... Though you might have customs trouble.
You might of forgotten this one, it was in the news a long time ago, but it shows that the virus can become airborne. And this is why it is so important that this strain be developed: We need to make a vaccine for this asap.
And on another point: frankly I am a little pissed that once a virus is considered "beaten", we stop mass vaccinations for it, allowing it the chance of it to slowly spread back. If I didn't have cowpox as a kid, I would be demanding my smallpox vaccine... I just hope if that one is accidently released, I still have a small measure of protection.
Automakers had vehemently opposed legislation in June that contained the same mileage requirements and Fortune magazine reported that American automakers were starting the miles-per-gallon race far behind Japan and that the new standards could doom US automakers.
Not to be heartless, but "so what"? I would rather buy a Japanese or German car made in America (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CEFDF1F39F937A15757C0A963958260) then an "American" car that is only assembled here out of primarily Mexican or Chinese components. Frankly, these days buying "foreign" is more American then buying Ford or Chevy. That and the higher standards, and far more expensive fuel in the engineers native lands, translates into higher quality and more MPG vehicles.
No. No. You are not going to use that argument here. That is the argument that is killing science. You want to stop someone making deadly gas? Here, not even using the classic "Chlorine" form household chemicals one. How about some phosphene gas? Colourless, odorless, tasteless, kills with low concentration. Can be made with urine (collected, aged, and distilled with charcoal to extract phosphorus), and a some natural gas from a line. Want to ban the action of urination?
Yes, the knowledge and ability to make some deadly compounds have always existed. Its the blight of the scientist; no one trusts us. Scientists are not the heroes, we are always portrayed as either bumbling and accidentally unleashing a horror onto the world, or a megalomaniac bent on global conquest. But the benefit of being able to learn at home far outweighs one or two people that accidently injure themselves. The best way of combatting these accidents? Promoting more science at home. With knowledge instilled at a young age, then its less likely that someone will get hurt, and with learning responsibility at a young age, less likely to hurt others. Its kinda like taking karate, no mater how pissed you get, you don't whip out the years of honed skills for revenge. Its just not polite.
As a young lad I had seven layers of shit beaten out of me, almost on a daily basis. What did I do? Did I take my gun and shoot everyone? Did I make explosives and take everyone out with me? Did I gas my tormentors? Did I use my historical knowledge of poisons craft a unique death? Nope. Wouldn't. Because all life is important, even the life of the dick that is kicking you in the skull. On the other hand, my former tormentors might have notice they went through tires and cars in general faster then their classmates... Never said I was above all forms of petty vengeance...
Well, many reasons. When you begin the cloning process, you could halt it and harvest the stem cells, to repair your damaged tissues. Have only half a liver? Put in a scaffold impregnated with the triggers for liver development, saturate it with the cells, and watch your liver grow into a virgin hunk of meat that can once again keep you alive. Of course if we got to the point the scaffold works that well, then you can clone pretty much any organ.
So lets step back, and try another reason: Technology does not enable the scaffolding method well enough to get you your lungs, but through developmental science we know, by applying markers to the cells, what cells become what in the end. So you take a blastocyst of a normal pig, and another of a human (your cloned self). No remove the cells of the pig that will become your internal organs with that of the pig. Heck, even blood for usage in the surgery. Then culture the blastocyst further down the line, make sure its healthy, and implant it into a swine. If all goes well, you have a living organ bank to draw from.
Better then having the stress of waiting for someone to die to get an organ, will kill the black market trade in organs, no anti-rejection drugs needed, and you wouldn't need to bother a family member for a kidney.
I still take time to write snail mail letters to all those I care about, be it people or causes. It adds a display of thought and caring that email lacks.
And on another note; only with snail mail can you take the time and loving effort to compose it entirely from words and letters clipped from a selection of gun magazines, to give it that little extra something....
To paraphrase, "I can't tell what it is in this picture, so it must be a ghost." That's their most solid evidence is a picture that they're not sure what it is. What the hell is a "reverse shadow" anyway? Light?
The only thing I can think of is one of the oddest instances of my life. Ball lightning (rare enough as it is) that seemed black. Not an absence of light, but it was either a really dark purple, or giving off light out of the visible spectrum.
I am one of six people who saw it that night... Of those, half share my theory that it was ball lightning, and the other half believe it was a ghost. I guess its all about the division of the rational vs. those that preffer "truthiness"...
Looking at the larger picture, this gives precedent towards the teleco's having to pay for a lie. Now lets look at this larger: The United States payed a total of 200 BILLION to the telicos to roll out a new broadband infrastructure by, well, now.
Thats 200 Billion of our money. Which, given there are 301,139,947 people as July of 2007, would mean we are all due $6.64... With inflation of both people and currency, lets make it an even seven... Trust me, if we were all payed $7, the telecos would start hurting something fierce... They might even band together and deliver on the promises they made all those years ago... Particularly if a fraud charge is added towards all the executives that spent that money on a place in the Hamptons instead of where it should of gone...
The other problem is the U.S. doesn't exactly have a permanent place to dump all the nuclear waste already in temporary storage unless Yucca Mountain gets going. There is already 77,000 tons of spent fuel in temporary storage, all of which has to be shipped to Yucca mountain.
Correction, partially spent fuel. America does not reprocess its fuel. If we did that, we would reduce the amount significantly. And the resultant waste would not only be "hotter", reducing alot faster, but it could theoretically be used in breeder reactors.
And France is not binge building, they build two models, large and small. Have been doing so for years. True not much progress in research is made, but its stable and all can be assembled quickly, without having to write the plans as they go along.
And reactors can use other fuels then highly refined uranium. Plutonium. Thorium. And rising price aside there is a lot more then coal and oil. Hey, there is another source, we could try to capture the tons of radioactive waste the coal plants spew into our air...
And when these fuels are depleted in a couple centuries, the benifit of having a primarily hydrogen/electrical consumer system, is any energy source can fuel it. Good news all around, eh?
The best thing about moving to a hydrogen fuel, is that it can be produced by all of our energy production. So when the fossil fuels run out, we can keep using our technology with the nuclear plants generating the gas, as well as the hydrogen and electric hybrids that look very promising. (Zeppelin jokes aside).
Though for this to be a realistic goal, we (America) need to start building new plants now, to the scale of France. And funding fusion research as well wouldn't hurt. At this moment, Nuclear energy is stagnate in America. We haven't built a new reactor in ages, and the old ones are being bought by those running them 24/7 at full load, just begging for a meltdown.
And have it play "Orange Crush" by REM... It would drive the RIAA totally insane if there is a pirate signal from space they can't find to take down... Heck, some solar panels expanding from the altoids tin, and an ipod shuffle, it could really be an achievment...
So naming an operating system in the same order as german tanks, is "gay"? And please explain how an operating system having a cheerful name is bad thing?
Slashdot Mirror
In that Apple actually pays computer scientists, engineers, etc. a decent wage. And they are run by managers that actually give a damn about the job that their team does.
So we get things that actually work better out of the box, and mature well over time. Hell, each apple product I have bought has lasted me 4+ years. And then I only "upgrade" because I can afford to upgrade the storage of the laptops myself, increase the RAM significantly, and a fresh install, and give it to a member of my family. Who are shocked that the finest computer in their house was not the dell running vista, but the four-year-old mac... Gaining new Apple users, and when they will buy a new computer in a few years, they might decide to go with the brand that has lasting value.
Seriously, if you want to pay less, then you devalue their employees. Make 'em more like Microsoft minions, expendable and not working together at any point. Sure you get the product eventually... And its cheaper.... But customers will most spend the rest of that products life complaining about it.
And no, I am not bashing the "free" concept of Linux, because Linux is a passion. One might spend a few days working out a glitch they encountered and submitting the fix. Then they feel great about accomplishing something no one else has done, and might go on to mend other things, or add other features. By keeping it a hobby that all are free to contribute to, people contribute for free.... And if we added up all those man hours on our favorite distro in a given year, it would be a fortune to pay.
CROOOOOOOOOM!!!
There are a few science fiction magazines out there, such as Asimov's, that are worth subscribing. http://www.asimovs.com/
Admittedly, the short stories are a mix. Some great, some good, some decent, and some mind-raping-awful ones. But its a great way to sample new/unknown to you talent. If you find a serial in the magazine you really enjoy, the author tends to also write books... And bingo - instant reading list.
And then, there is your local science fiction and fantasy bookstore (A dying breed, unfortunately. Almost all of the independent specialized bookstores I once went to are gone.). Now I know you are short on time, but if you live near one, and the bookseller is the type that thrives on customer interaction, you are all set. After buying there for a year, you will never really need to spend more then a minute in the store... My local bookseller pulls a pile in advance these days for me when I go in (about once every three months), and it has been tailored to my reading taste. With something new thrown in every now and then that I might enjoy. In, out, and when I pop in in three months we discuss which ones I liked the best and the refining process continues. And if you're an excellent customer on good terms with the owner, then there is a chance you may be blessed with free "Advanced reader's editions -Do not sell"... Which are much like the stories in Asimov's, now I think of it...
The most important aspect in choosing the style of beer you brew: Water. The profile of your water will impact your beer far more then the hops or the malt. Which is why traditional regional beers are just that, regional.
John Palmer's book (which the first edition is now free online for personal use... I highly suggest if you like it, you might want to buy the new edition...) Has a page on how to chart your water to the best beer it is suited for: http://howtobrew.com/section3/chapter15-3.html
And this is one of the reasons the microbrewery across state lines might not have any issue in sharing recipes and advise, your beer, unless you open next door, will never come out the same.
What your missing is that the hydrogen economy is actually a nuclear economy. It would be a seamless transition from whatever energy source is used to derive the hydrogen. Most hydrogen proponents know this, and simply promote hydrogen because there is a good chance that with proper research you could get a greater energy density packed into a fuel cell then a battery, and fuel cells refuel faster then many batteries recharge, enabling the 'pumps' to still be scattered across the landscape.
Remember, "Hydrogen" supporters are "Nuclear Energy" supporters, even if they do not know it yet...
Well further reading and research has given me the answer to this probing question:
The contest is to provide an indistinguishable cut of chicken, grown in vitro, that is identical in taste, texture, and the like to the real thing. All produced on the mass scale by 2012.
Does the winner get the prize for hamburger, or a steak? Now the first one can be done both cheap, easy, and in vast quantities. The second requirers a bit more work, but would make the meat nearly indistinguishable. And speaking of indistinguishable, what level of tenderness is required? If the steak has to pass for 'normal' it needs to be worked. More work.
Can it be done? Sure. Hell, if they gave a bunch of biology graduate students a grant of half-up-front, and the rules in place, one of us would be happy to preform the research and development. So long as they are willing to spend the time and money getting the product approved for consumption (I know a general approval has been made, but I am willing to wager there are inspections, tests, and other things I do not know of.. All of which will take time and money.) And the benefit of doing it that way instead of a "prize"? You get exactly what you ask for on a time-line you approve, and you also get the focused attention of a few biologists and engineers at their cheapest and most obsessive state...
The problem is, most of the Newspapers just no longer try to report news, so much as sell it, and they have all merged (thanks to Murdoch, I suspect) into one single venue, just written towards different levels.
Right now the only papers I read in the morning are the Financial Times (which does not count as an American Paper for reports like this, right?) And once a week I get the Sunday Times from a newspaper importer. While I feel the Times has fallen harder then all the others, it still has my crossword, and gives me the Murdoch point of view for the world.
I mainly get my news from reading the BBC website daily, and 20 minutes on Slashdot.
I have two solutions if your little ones are paranoid about being spied on. Either give them a knoppix disk and a thumbdrive to keep all their important files with them at all times, or give them total control over their machine...
Like: http://www.achatz.nl/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=3&products_id=38
It might not be the best and fastest, but its damn good... Give it enough time, code, and wire, your girl could do most anything.... Build a chip for sd cards for storage... Figuring some way to connect to the world wide web.... It'll be like getting a UGO into the grand prix and winning... And in this case, less is more... You still need to spell, and the most of the memory included is in the users brain... Nothing like building your own machine to give a sense of accomplishment...
While the corn lobby is as powerful as it is now. The embargo goes down, and the first thing that will start coming out of Cuba, after the cigars, is sugar. Cuba mainly works on cigars because of the embargo, they get more money per gram of cigar then they ever could with sugar. But without the embargo, the much more profit-per-acre is sugar. Which would allow sugar, tariffs included, to go down in price. Which will make it harder for the government to force high-fructose corn syrup down our throats. (Or at least Canadian and Mexican soda will be a little cheaper for us to import...)
So I guess it really is "news of nerds", as what else is more relevant then out beloved caffeinated beverages and sweet snacks?
And while I agree that Cuba is probably much different then the tourist section I love, to bring back the sugar economy would solve a lot of the economic issues... It, and an increase in tourism from the blockade going down, would possibly allow the comforts of the tourist region to grow, and eventually envelop the entire country with general comfort and success... Or a massive crystal meth addiction like those below the poverty line in Hawaii... Either or really.
I bet I could get a much larger, completed database, for less then half of that...
Just put some homeland security squeeze on Disney, and offer them a pittance, and buy their database. Done. Largest fingerprint database in the world of public citizens and criminals.... Every walk of life loves Disney World...
Could I have my million dollar consulting fee now?
1.) This is an argument against all those advocating to ban same sex marriage, because they "cannot reproduce". Quite the common argument recently. Despite my second point.
2.) THEY DID THIS FIVE YEARS AGO. Really. While I was still in high school I cheered the first time someone pulled this off. I used it in a debate with someone on the case of gay marriage. Its in my old Science News... I mean this might be a team doing it again, or doing it better, but they are still not the first.
Just my 2 cents.
Who gives two shits what a kook who believes in invisible super-beings things? The man is irrational and would gladly have us living back in the dark ages.
Such a comment just confirms what I've said before about Atheists. They don't want people to really have an open mind. Yet they won't agree that everybody is open-minded until they agree with them!
I don't know if you wanted to have sarcasm tags there, but you both are right and wrong. Every group of people have there overpowering zealots. I am an atheist and I cringe when one of my own goes on a tirade against others for their belief structure. And I am sure a lot of you agree, regardless of your religious beliefs, that your group has a few assholes. And its the assholes that the rest of the world sees, because they make themselves seen. But without these assholes, the assholes running the country would most likely ignore our groups entirely... Not something I want.
But because we would rather not kill a dying person to find out if we'll kill them or save them, my father will never get benefit of this.
Actually, while a compound is still going through FDA trials, it is easier to get ahold of to the lay person then if it "passes" the trial. The chemical manufacturers are now churning out those compounds for research trials, and anyone can buy them for "non-human research only". As well as some license a "research supplier" to also handle sales of these compounds to individuals. Case in point: I am very pale, and do not tan well... So I buy Melanotan II (was mentioned in Wired a few years back)... Now I'm tanned, thinner, more muscular, and have a much greater sex drive (the pleasant side effects of this compound.. A great drug if the FDA would get off its ass and approve it.). So hunt down the drugs you have heard about, and see if its been killing any animals. Call the scientists and say you are doing a research piece on their companies work, and ask how the drug, and how much of it, is to be administered. Call them at home if possible... Most scientists love talking about their work for hours, without thinking of the consequences of the information given... I know I do...
The only thing is, if you do that, and something goes wrong... You are kinda out of luck. But it beats a slow death without your mind any day.
And you can find out if the company has any other offices. If they have a manufacturing branch in either India or China, then you can buy there much easier then in the USA... Though you might have customs trouble.
Actually Ebola, like all viruses, mutate.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebola_Reston
You might of forgotten this one, it was in the news a long time ago, but it shows that the virus can become airborne. And this is why it is so important that this strain be developed: We need to make a vaccine for this asap.
And on another point: frankly I am a little pissed that once a virus is considered "beaten", we stop mass vaccinations for it, allowing it the chance of it to slowly spread back. If I didn't have cowpox as a kid, I would be demanding my smallpox vaccine... I just hope if that one is accidently released, I still have a small measure of protection.
Automakers had vehemently opposed legislation in June that contained the same mileage requirements and Fortune magazine reported that American automakers were starting the miles-per-gallon race far behind Japan and that the new standards could doom US automakers.
Not to be heartless, but "so what"? I would rather buy a Japanese or German car made in America (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CEFDF1F39F937A15757C0A963958260) then an "American" car that is only assembled here out of primarily Mexican or Chinese components. Frankly, these days buying "foreign" is more American then buying Ford or Chevy. That and the higher standards, and far more expensive fuel in the engineers native lands, translates into higher quality and more MPG vehicles.
downside: hello nerve gas
No. No. You are not going to use that argument here. That is the argument that is killing science. You want to stop someone making deadly gas? Here, not even using the classic "Chlorine" form household chemicals one. How about some phosphene gas? Colourless, odorless, tasteless, kills with low concentration. Can be made with urine (collected, aged, and distilled with charcoal to extract phosphorus), and a some natural gas from a line. Want to ban the action of urination?
Yes, the knowledge and ability to make some deadly compounds have always existed. Its the blight of the scientist; no one trusts us. Scientists are not the heroes, we are always portrayed as either bumbling and accidentally unleashing a horror onto the world, or a megalomaniac bent on global conquest. But the benefit of being able to learn at home far outweighs one or two people that accidently injure themselves. The best way of combatting these accidents? Promoting more science at home. With knowledge instilled at a young age, then its less likely that someone will get hurt, and with learning responsibility at a young age, less likely to hurt others. Its kinda like taking karate, no mater how pissed you get, you don't whip out the years of honed skills for revenge. Its just not polite.
As a young lad I had seven layers of shit beaten out of me, almost on a daily basis. What did I do? Did I take my gun and shoot everyone? Did I make explosives and take everyone out with me? Did I gas my tormentors? Did I use my historical knowledge of poisons craft a unique death? Nope. Wouldn't. Because all life is important, even the life of the dick that is kicking you in the skull. On the other hand, my former tormentors might have notice they went through tires and cars in general faster then their classmates... Never said I was above all forms of petty vengeance...
Well, many reasons. When you begin the cloning process, you could halt it and harvest the stem cells, to repair your damaged tissues. Have only half a liver? Put in a scaffold impregnated with the triggers for liver development, saturate it with the cells, and watch your liver grow into a virgin hunk of meat that can once again keep you alive. Of course if we got to the point the scaffold works that well, then you can clone pretty much any organ.
So lets step back, and try another reason: Technology does not enable the scaffolding method well enough to get you your lungs, but through developmental science we know, by applying markers to the cells, what cells become what in the end. So you take a blastocyst of a normal pig, and another of a human (your cloned self). No remove the cells of the pig that will become your internal organs with that of the pig. Heck, even blood for usage in the surgery. Then culture the blastocyst further down the line, make sure its healthy, and implant it into a swine. If all goes well, you have a living organ bank to draw from.
Better then having the stress of waiting for someone to die to get an organ, will kill the black market trade in organs, no anti-rejection drugs needed, and you wouldn't need to bother a family member for a kidney.
Thats why.
I still take time to write snail mail letters to all those I care about, be it people or causes. It adds a display of thought and caring that email lacks.
And on another note; only with snail mail can you take the time and loving effort to compose it entirely from words and letters clipped from a selection of gun magazines, to give it that little extra something....
To paraphrase, "I can't tell what it is in this picture, so it must be a ghost." That's their most solid evidence is a picture that they're not sure what it is. What the hell is a "reverse shadow" anyway? Light?
The only thing I can think of is one of the oddest instances of my life. Ball lightning (rare enough as it is) that seemed black. Not an absence of light, but it was either a really dark purple, or giving off light out of the visible spectrum.
I am one of six people who saw it that night... Of those, half share my theory that it was ball lightning, and the other half believe it was a ghost. I guess its all about the division of the rational vs. those that preffer "truthiness"...
Looking at the larger picture, this gives precedent towards the teleco's having to pay for a lie. Now lets look at this larger: The United States payed a total of 200 BILLION to the telicos to roll out a new broadband infrastructure by, well, now.
Thats 200 Billion of our money. Which, given there are 301,139,947 people as July of 2007, would mean we are all due $6.64... With inflation of both people and currency, lets make it an even seven... Trust me, if we were all payed $7, the telecos would start hurting something fierce... They might even band together and deliver on the promises they made all those years ago... Particularly if a fraud charge is added towards all the executives that spent that money on a place in the Hamptons instead of where it should of gone...
The other problem is the U.S. doesn't exactly have a permanent place to dump all the nuclear waste already in temporary storage unless Yucca Mountain gets going. There is already 77,000 tons of spent fuel in temporary storage, all of which has to be shipped to Yucca mountain.
Correction, partially spent fuel. America does not reprocess its fuel. If we did that, we would reduce the amount significantly. And the resultant waste would not only be "hotter", reducing alot faster, but it could theoretically be used in breeder reactors.
And France is not binge building, they build two models, large and small. Have been doing so for years. True not much progress in research is made, but its stable and all can be assembled quickly, without having to write the plans as they go along.
And reactors can use other fuels then highly refined uranium. Plutonium. Thorium. And rising price aside there is a lot more then coal and oil. Hey, there is another source, we could try to capture the tons of radioactive waste the coal plants spew into our air...
And when these fuels are depleted in a couple centuries, the benifit of having a primarily hydrogen/electrical consumer system, is any energy source can fuel it. Good news all around, eh?
The best thing about moving to a hydrogen fuel, is that it can be produced by all of our energy production. So when the fossil fuels run out, we can keep using our technology with the nuclear plants generating the gas, as well as the hydrogen and electric hybrids that look very promising. (Zeppelin jokes aside).
Though for this to be a realistic goal, we (America) need to start building new plants now, to the scale of France. And funding fusion research as well wouldn't hurt. At this moment, Nuclear energy is stagnate in America. We haven't built a new reactor in ages, and the old ones are being bought by those running them 24/7 at full load, just begging for a meltdown.
And have it play "Orange Crush" by REM... It would drive the RIAA totally insane if there is a pirate signal from space they can't find to take down... Heck, some solar panels expanding from the altoids tin, and an ipod shuffle, it could really be an achievment...
So naming an operating system in the same order as german tanks, is "gay"? And please explain how an operating system having a cheerful name is bad thing?
10.0 Cheetah - Gepard(German for Cheetah)
10.1 Puma -Puma
10.2 Jaguar -Jaguar
10.3 Panther -Panther
10.4 Tiger -Tiger
10.5 Leopard -Leopard
It might just me being a history nerd, but I think naming an operating system after some of the finest tanks in the world is kinda bad-ass...