"Shoots cations" is as ridiculous as when you hear hippies talking about "bad ions" and "good ions" with respect to some stupid lava lamp.
Ah, but unlike 'good ions', cation has a proper scientific meaning. Cations are simply positively charged ions. As they're charged they're fairly easy to direct using magnetic fields and *waves hands* what-not. An example is a helium nucleus, which has a charge of +2, also known as alpha-radiation. So, some smoke detectors work by 'shooting cations' across a small gap.
Of course, the problem with this is that alpha-radiation is stopped by a few centimetres of air, and larger particles are probably even less effective. I've no idea if they actually 'shoot cations' thousands of feet into the air or not - it seems more likely that a large charge would propagate through the air, without any individual particle travelling very far, if they could produce enough of a potential difference.
I wouldn't say it's baloney but it does sound somewhat exaggerated.
Since when are cinemas run by the state [in Britain]?
Try the British Board of Film Classification, who decide what ratings each film gets, and in extreme cases can ban films (actually the local authorities have the final say).
Since when did 'debate' become a bad thing? What is Slashdot, after all?
It's worth pointing out the line from the top of the article (I've not seen anyone quote it yet:
Giving governments control of the net is the worst possible idea... apart from all the other ideas which are worse.
This whole story seems to have sparked a "I don't trust the US government, the Chinese government or any other government" reaction from most people. But how many Internet users trust an American corporation? At least with politics, and debate, we have the opportunity to get involved.
but why don't they just give you two extra copies of album instead of CD-Rs?
In that case the band/song-writer(s) would be owed three times the royalties they'd usually receive for each album (unless I am much mistaken). That'd probably lead to the price of the album going up a few Euros which would be entirely counter-productive.
Anyway, if you sell three copies of the disc, you've sold three discs, each of which the customer can choose what to do with*. They can keep one (and make a personal back-up of it) and sell or give-away the other two, for example. This isn't really what they want to do.
* depending on what your local laws say about such things.
I distrust this story on several levels. The machines in question would have been punch card sorters and probably much more likely to have been installed in some anonymous office in Berlin rather than onsite in the camps.
I've read the book mentioned by the grandparent poster, but unfortunately I don't have it to hand.
The Germans had a large number of punch-card machines installed all over the 3rd Reich. Dehomag (the German subsidiary of IBM) kept records of each machine and its location - naturally, they wanted to know how much to charge the various organisations using them. The census forms were processed at large government offices, but there were a number of machines based onsite at the concentration/work/death camps which were used for tracking the movements of prisonsers. Given the vast numbers involved (~10 million prisoners) it made sense to process the data locally.
PS. The book is well worth reading but it's, obviously, very depressing.
Indeed. It also means you won't have many cases of different actors playing the same characters in different movies because the original actor died/wanted too much money/fell out with the rest of the cast and crew etc.
But there aren't many studios that would let you do such a thing, in case the first movie is a flop and the whole trilogy makes an enormous loss as a result.
As long as any metric favours one particular manufacturer, the rest will try to replace it with a new one. The result will be more FUD and ore confused users ("I've finally worked out what GHz are and you tell me I have to look at the number of flops?!?")
In the film A Bridge Too Far, mention was made of the role played by the Poles at Arnhem, and how much they were shat on by the British generals, despite the brilliant leadership of General Sibi... General Sikiwo... General Szlokw... Gene Hackman.
He WAS an idiot. Even when ignoring all the rest of what his deranged mind produced, attacking the Soviets was pure madness right from the start.
And what about declaring war on the US??? Complete lunacy.
<TONGUE IN CHEEK>
That Napolean, eh? Now he WAS an idiot. Attacking the Russians was pure madness right from the start. They barely made it back alive from Moscow. And what about his foolish delayed attack at Waterloo? Lunacy!
Yet Napolean is still considered a military genius on the basis of his previous campaigns and victories.
Militaristic leaders seem to crack after a certain length of time in command (corrupted by power or age?), and start making more and more poor decisions. Most of what Hitler did prior to 1941 made sense (even if it was a somewhat twisted sense). From 1941 his ratio of good ideas to bad dropped dramatically but this doesn't mean he was always an idiot.
Of course, we all agree* Hitler was a mad/evil man.
do you think the incessant dropping of "give up" leaflets on the German troops would have caused them to surrender?
I was hoping someone would mention leaflets... During the early stages of the war, British bombers were restricted from civilian targets, so they spent much of their time dropping leaflets. They were even instructed to make sure the leaflets were scattered from the planes, as a block of leaflets falling together 'could kill someone'. Naturally, they had little impact.
When someone suggested firebombing the Black Forest, I believe the initial response was "but that's private property!" The first British bomb to land on German soil was released by accident.
Churchill wasn't particularly happy about authorising attacks on German cities, but at the time it was the only way of striking back at Germany. By 1944/5, Bomber Command was firebombing city centres in the hope that it would kill so many Germans (any Germans) to end the war. This shows how attitudes and priorities change during a total war.
Reproduced under licence from Football Dataco Limited. All rights reserved. Licence no.INTERNET/ALL/BBCON103.
These fixtures are copyright of the Football DataCo Ltd and must not be reproduced in whole or in part without consent of the Football DataCo Ltd and without the acquisition of a copyright licence.
So, I would be infringing their copyright if I told you who Wolves were playing tonight, and the kick-off time. Instead, I have to direct you to the BBC (or any other site who've stumped up some cash)
The guy won the case, now the National Electrical organization, and joined by the Building Code organization are pushing this bill to overturn that case.
I didn't think you could do that - get a new law, or have an existing one altered, and then retroactively apply it to previously settled cases.
I think what was meant was "overturn the precedent set by that case", not the case itself.
I don't know about freezing them, but storing batteries in a fridge (well wrapped to avoid condensation issues) is recommended by many places. The lower temperature slows down the chemical reaction inside the battery, meaning less leakage. It also makes them less effective if you try to use them before they've warmed up. You'll want to let them thaw before grabbing them and shoving them inside your favorite appliance.
My father stores photographic film in his freezer. Again, that's a case of slowing down a chemical reaction - in this case the one that causes the film to deteriorate over time.
The probe's had a fair amount of good publicity in the UK - getting Blur and Hurst in on the project was a great move. Scheduling the landing for Christmas Day was another, although I think that was upto the ESA team on whose probe Beagle is piggybacking a ride. I'm sure the British government would step in with a large dollop of cash if it felt it would make it look good^W^W^W^W^W was necessary.
Fingers crossed Beagle lands safely... Colin (the guy wrote the book the article's lifted from) always seems so enthusiastic when he's on TV - it'd be a shame to see him disappointed.
Slashdot Mirror
Ah, but unlike 'good ions', cation has a proper scientific meaning. Cations are simply positively charged ions. As they're charged they're fairly easy to direct using magnetic fields and *waves hands* what-not. An example is a helium nucleus, which has a charge of +2, also known as alpha-radiation. So, some smoke detectors work by 'shooting cations' across a small gap.
Of course, the problem with this is that alpha-radiation is stopped by a few centimetres of air, and larger particles are probably even less effective. I've no idea if they actually 'shoot cations' thousands of feet into the air or not - it seems more likely that a large charge would propagate through the air, without any individual particle travelling very far, if they could produce enough of a potential difference.
I wouldn't say it's baloney but it does sound somewhat exaggerated.
Try the British Board of Film Classification, who decide what ratings each film gets, and in extreme cases can ban films (actually the local authorities have the final say).
Having said that, the best bet is to read the Wikipaedia entry.
Since when did 'debate' become a bad thing? What is Slashdot, after all?
It's worth pointing out the line from the top of the article (I've not seen anyone quote it yet:
This whole story seems to have sparked a "I don't trust the US government, the Chinese government or any other government" reaction from most people. But how many Internet users trust an American corporation? At least with politics, and debate, we have the opportunity to get involved.
Bah: -1, Angry!
In that case the band/song-writer(s) would be owed three times the royalties they'd usually receive for each album (unless I am much mistaken). That'd probably lead to the price of the album going up a few Euros which would be entirely counter-productive.
Anyway, if you sell three copies of the disc, you've sold three discs, each of which the customer can choose what to do with*. They can keep one (and make a personal back-up of it) and sell or give-away the other two, for example. This isn't really what they want to do.
* depending on what your local laws say about such things.
I've read the book mentioned by the grandparent poster, but unfortunately I don't have it to hand.
The Germans had a large number of punch-card machines installed all over the 3rd Reich. Dehomag (the German subsidiary of IBM) kept records of each machine and its location - naturally, they wanted to know how much to charge the various organisations using them. The census forms were processed at large government offices, but there were a number of machines based onsite at the concentration/work/death camps which were used for tracking the movements of prisonsers. Given the vast numbers involved (~10 million prisoners) it made sense to process the data locally.
PS. The book is well worth reading but it's, obviously, very depressing.
Won't somebody please think of the children!
Indeed. It also means you won't have many cases of different actors playing the same characters in different movies because the original actor died/wanted too much money/fell out with the rest of the cast and crew etc.
But there aren't many studios that would let you do such a thing, in case the first movie is a flop and the whole trilogy makes an enormous loss as a result.
Didn't AMD try to organise this and recently concede it wasn't going to happen?
As long as any metric favours one particular manufacturer, the rest will try to replace it with a new one. The result will be more FUD and ore confused users ("I've finally worked out what GHz are and you tell me I have to look at the number of flops?!?")
</Pessimist>
Don't forget the Poles! They landed on D-Day too.
In the film A Bridge Too Far, mention was made of the role played by the Poles at Arnhem, and how much they were shat on by the British generals, despite the brilliant leadership of General Sibi... General Sikiwo... General Szlokw... Gene Hackman.
<TONGUE IN CHEEK> That Napolean, eh? Now he WAS an idiot. Attacking the Russians was pure madness right from the start. They barely made it back alive from Moscow. And what about his foolish delayed attack at Waterloo? Lunacy!
Yet Napolean is still considered a military genius on the basis of his previous campaigns and victories.
Militaristic leaders seem to crack after a certain length of time in command (corrupted by power or age?), and start making more and more poor decisions. Most of what Hitler did prior to 1941 made sense (even if it was a somewhat twisted sense). From 1941 his ratio of good ideas to bad dropped dramatically but this doesn't mean he was always an idiot.
Of course, we all agree* Hitler was a mad/evil man.
* YMMV - this is Slashdot after all
I was hoping someone would mention leaflets... During the early stages of the war, British bombers were restricted from civilian targets, so they spent much of their time dropping leaflets. They were even instructed to make sure the leaflets were scattered from the planes, as a block of leaflets falling together 'could kill someone'. Naturally, they had little impact.
When someone suggested firebombing the Black Forest, I believe the initial response was "but that's private property!" The first British bomb to land on German soil was released by accident.
Churchill wasn't particularly happy about authorising attacks on German cities, but at the time it was the only way of striking back at Germany. By 1944/5, Bomber Command was firebombing city centres in the hope that it would kill so many Germans (any Germans) to end the war. This shows how attitudes and priorities change during a total war.
This is the kind of thing I abhor:
Reproduced under licence from Football Dataco Limited. All rights reserved. Licence no.INTERNET/ALL/BBCON103.
These fixtures are copyright of the Football DataCo Ltd and must not be reproduced in whole or in part without consent of the Football DataCo Ltd and without the acquisition of a copyright licence.
So, I would be infringing their copyright if I told you who Wolves were playing tonight, and the kick-off time. Instead, I have to direct you to the BBC (or any other site who've stumped up some cash)
Stupidity like this should be eradicated
I think what was meant was "overturn the precedent set by that case", not the case itself.
"Open the living room door, HAL."
"I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that."
I don't know about freezing them, but storing batteries in a fridge (well wrapped to avoid condensation issues) is recommended by many places. The lower temperature slows down the chemical reaction inside the battery, meaning less leakage. It also makes them less effective if you try to use them before they've warmed up. You'll want to let them thaw before grabbing them and shoving them inside your favorite appliance.
My father stores photographic film in his freezer. Again, that's a case of slowing down a chemical reaction - in this case the one that causes the film to deteriorate over time.
Well would you need one if your face was on every stamp and note?
The probe's had a fair amount of good publicity in the UK - getting Blur and Hurst in on the project was a great move. Scheduling the landing for Christmas Day was another, although I think that was upto the ESA team on whose probe Beagle is piggybacking a ride. I'm sure the British government would step in with a large dollop of cash if it felt it would make it look good^W^W^W^W^W was necessary.
25 million quid is not a lot in astronomical terms. Plus the ESA have had to cancel / downgrade a couple of other missions due to lack of funds / problems with the upgraded Ariane 5.
Fingers crossed Beagle lands safely... Colin (the guy wrote the book the article's lifted from) always seems so enthusiastic when he's on TV - it'd be a shame to see him disappointed.
When are the other probes due to land?
5a. They get dropped by their label for not having enough 'mass-market appeal'
5b. They get dropped by their label when 'the next big thing' comes along
6. They get sued by some artist they've never heard of who says they've clearly based one of their songs on his 1958 classic Give Me All Your Money.
Never misunderestimate the bandwidth of a Euro-Star full of hard disks ;)