I actually recall some article pointing out three aspects of "love" - pure physical attraction (lust, perhaps) which may drive two people towards each other, the "romantic" love which may result in them going crazy about each other long enough to get married and have kids whereupon you get the third part, the "long-term" love which is suitable for raising kids.
Wikipedia has a good article, not on "love" per se, but on what psychologists apparently call Limerence, which is sort of the not-quite-really "infatuation" part of love. The part of love that drives you crazy, in short.
intrusive thinking about the limerent object
acute longing for reciprocation
some fleeting and transient relief from unrequited limerence through vivid imagining of action by the limerent object that means reciprocation
fear of rejection and unsettling shyness in the limerent object's presence
intensification through adversity
acute sensitivity to any act, thought, or condition that can be interpreted favorably, and an extraordinary ability to devise or invent "reasonable" explanations for why neutral actions are a sign of hidden passion in the limerent object
an aching in the chest when uncertainty is strong
buoyancy (a feeling of walking on air) when reciprocation seems evident
a general intensity of feeling that leaves other concerns in the background
a remarkable ability to emphasize what is truly admirable in the limerent object and to avoid dwelling on the negative or render it into another positive attribute.
That's not really a good way to not-release-the-source. It's a rather bad one, really. You need to track down the offenders and take them to court (hope they're not overseas!) and there's always the risk of some random using it somewhere or modifying it in a way so you can't detect it...
A good way to not-release-the-source is some sort of binary distribution that cannot be trivially decompiled. To some extent, you can obfuscate your JavaScript pretty well with various tools that are out there, but if it's meant to be a usable API or toolkit then you can't go renaming all the functions to an unreadable mess- or what's the point of the toolkit, anyway?
Sounds like a plan to me. But as long we're in Politics.slashdot.org, does that mean you won't mind if I take a cheap shot at Bill Clinton, who helped extend them "most favored nation" trading status and who may have (according to some people- conspiracy theorists? or no?) sold them all sorts of military technology?
Actually, I was chatting with a guy the other day who was making something really revolutionary for the Second Life system. Yep, you guessed it: In-game Pong!
Second Life is too commercialized. People say that Linden Labs encourages users to make money from selling their own creations, and that's not inherently a bad thing, but it means there's a lot of in-game advertising all over the place, and LLabs doesn't really help because the in-game "classifieds" are essentially pay-for-top-rank deals. Another symptom of this: All of Top N Most-Popular spots in the game get their popularity by paying people to sit around there in specially constructed chairs doing nothing to boost their popularity. They then put special advertising all over the place to make their money. There are just way, way too many ads, they're everywhere, and they're pretty gaudy.
Somehow this reminds me of the Spock/McCoy exchange in Star Trek II about the Genesis device. Yes, I'm aware that it would be tragic. Terrible, horrible, much wailing and gnashing of teeth... and all of that as understatement.
Do we necessarily _know_ that jihadist Muslims are doing the handiwork? Or could it be a particular Western government's lackeys who are trying to fan flames?
It could be aliens, for all we know, but somehow I suspect not.
Hypothetical situation. Denmark's government commissions twelve suicide bombers and sends them to assorted sites in the middle east. Would this generate more vehement attacks on Denmark, or less vehement ones?
Nope. The protest is actually not that it accuses the religion of violence. It's that it included a picture of Muhammad. As such, it's properly against Islamic law. And it was published by a Danish newspaper with the explict goal of being against Islamic law, since the newspaper was concerned of a sort of "chilling effect" on free speech coming from Islam. As a response, they decided to up the chill...
The mass of the moon is approximately 7.347673e22 kg (sez Wikipedia). A high power hydrogen bomb is 20 megatons - or 20*4.184 petajoules. - say 8.368e16 joules, 8.368e16 newton-meters, 8.368e16 kilogram-meter-per-second-square (kg*m*m/s*s). My limited physics experience has deserted me, and this is/really/ fudging things, but the ratio here gives us 1.13886e-6 m^2/s^2, or.0000013866(m/s)^2. The moon's average orbital speed is about 1022m/s, but it varies from 968 to 1082 m/s. I think it's relatively safe to call that a 'negligible' amount, easily overpowered by the influence of other celestial bodies like the Earth itself and the sun.
My Firefox process is presently running 13 tabs in 2 different windows, most of which involve a plenthora of images (large-format webcomics) and even a little Flash here and there. It's only taking about 88 megs.
It's not the heat caused by expending energy that's at issue here. It's the heat from the Sun- absorbed by the Earth or trapped by the atmosphere or reflected off into space somehow. At high noon, the sun delivers about a billion watts to a square mile of the Earth's surface, give or take (it varies by latitude and stuff like that). That easily eclipses pitiful human energy expenditures.
Now imagine if you could somehow paint that square mile white. It'd reflect a lot of heat back into space. That is the heat we're concerned with here - heat which will no longer be absorbed, but instead reflected. Enough reflection to compensate for the greenhouse gases which are causing absorption of heat? Depends on how much you can paint. And the painting in this case isn't done with paint, it's done by moving water about. I don't have much clue how effective it would be.
How about cities? This article (good lord, this must by my sixth post linking there in this discussion:) notes a potential urban contribution:
A mere 0.5 percent change in Earth's net reflectivity, or albedo, would solve the greenhouse problem completely. The big problem is the oceans, which comprise about 70 percent of our surface area and absorb more light because they are darker than land.
When it comes to increasing albedo, it would be wise to begin the discussion by introducing positive measures that can be easily understood and are close at hand. Reflecting sunlight is not a deep technical idea, after all. Simply adding sand or glass to ordinary asphalt ("glassphalt") doubles its albedo. This is one mitigation measure everyone could see--a clean, passive way to Do Something.
A 1997 UCLA study showed that Los Angeles is 5 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than the surrounding areas, mostly due to dark roofs and asphalt. Cars and power plants contribute, but only a bit; at high noon, the sun delivers to each square mile the power equivalent of a billion-watt electrical plant.
This urban "heat island" effect is common. But white roofs, concrete-colored pavements, and about $10 billion in new shade trees could cool the city below the countryside, cutting air conditioning costs by 18 percent. Cooler roads lessen tire erosion, too. About 1 percent of the United States is covered by human constructions, mostly paving, suggesting that we may already control enough of the land to get at the job.
Paint the cities white, you'll save oil for air conditioning costs AND make for a more reflective Earth.
The article also suggests burning lots of sulfur-rich coal in western Pacific island nations, resulting in more clouds over the ocean and a higher albedo.
Actually, if you burn a rich mixture of jet fuel, the particulate fog that results from the engine spreads out and persists for around three months. The particles eventually come down in the rain, and are not especially toxic, and while they're up there they're reflecting sunlight.
This article (admittedly a little dated, 1997) claims that "for about $10 million, this method would offset the 1990 U.S. greenhouse emissions". (It also explores some potential side effects, and similar measures.)
The human race is slightly more sophisticated right now than it's been in those past ice ages. Supposedly some sort of cave-men made it through the last few ice ages; surely with the aid of neat modern technological tools we can deal with the next one better, whenever it comes. Not that there won't be tragic loss involved or population crashes and all that stuff, but... completely uninhabitable? Unlikely, perhaps.
Slashdot Mirror
I actually recall some article pointing out three aspects of "love" - pure physical attraction (lust, perhaps) which may drive two people towards each other, the "romantic" love which may result in them going crazy about each other long enough to get married and have kids whereupon you get the third part, the "long-term" love which is suitable for raising kids.
A good way to not-release-the-source is some sort of binary distribution that cannot be trivially decompiled. To some extent, you can obfuscate your JavaScript pretty well with various tools that are out there, but if it's meant to be a usable API or toolkit then you can't go renaming all the functions to an unreadable mess- or what's the point of the toolkit, anyway?
Sounds like a plan to me. But as long we're in Politics.slashdot.org, does that mean you won't mind if I take a cheap shot at Bill Clinton, who helped extend them "most favored nation" trading status and who may have (according to some people- conspiracy theorists? or no?) sold them all sorts of military technology?
Actually, according to one of those darned controversial Danish cartoons, they're fresh out!
(actual quote from a certain woman in Philadelphia, regarding an actual cat and an actual baby... )
Actually, I was chatting with a guy the other day who was making something really revolutionary for the Second Life system. Yep, you guessed it: In-game Pong!
This is before we get into the nature of the in-game economy aside from advertising. This guy has already described it more cynically than I ever could.
You mean like how 99% of lawyers give the rest of them a bad name?
Ohmigod. The Semantic Web is finally here!!!
My point stands, however.
It could be aliens, for all we know, but somehow I suspect not.
Hypothetical situation. Denmark's government commissions twelve suicide bombers and sends them to assorted sites in the middle east. Would this generate more vehement attacks on Denmark, or less vehement ones?
Joke time? Well, the one about Stop, stop, we have run out of virgins! was pretty danged funny, if you ask me...
Nope. The protest is actually not that it accuses the religion of violence. It's that it included a picture of Muhammad. As such, it's properly against Islamic law. And it was published by a Danish newspaper with the explict goal of being against Islamic law, since the newspaper was concerned of a sort of "chilling effect" on free speech coming from Islam. As a response, they decided to up the chill...
You know, the usual.
Not much, really...
The mass of the moon is approximately 7.347673e22 kg (sez Wikipedia). A high power hydrogen bomb is 20 megatons - or 20*4.184 petajoules. - say 8.368e16 joules, 8.368e16 newton-meters, 8.368e16 kilogram-meter-per-second-square (kg*m*m/s*s). My limited physics experience has deserted me, and this is /really/ fudging things, but the ratio here gives us 1.13886e-6 m^2/s^2, or .0000013866(m/s)^2. The moon's average orbital speed is about 1022m/s, but it varies from 968 to 1082 m/s. I think it's relatively safe to call that a 'negligible' amount, easily overpowered by the influence of other celestial bodies like the Earth itself and the sun.
My Firefox process is presently running 13 tabs in 2 different windows, most of which involve a plenthora of images (large-format webcomics) and even a little Flash here and there. It's only taking about 88 megs.
Actually, the article I've been linking to left and right across this discussion is also by Gregory Benford.
Now imagine if you could somehow paint that square mile white. It'd reflect a lot of heat back into space. That is the heat we're concerned with here - heat which will no longer be absorbed, but instead reflected. Enough reflection to compensate for the greenhouse gases which are causing absorption of heat? Depends on how much you can paint. And the painting in this case isn't done with paint, it's done by moving water about. I don't have much clue how effective it would be.
The article also suggests burning lots of sulfur-rich coal in western Pacific island nations, resulting in more clouds over the ocean and a higher albedo.
This article (admittedly a little dated, 1997) claims that "for about $10 million, this method would offset the 1990 U.S. greenhouse emissions". (It also explores some potential side effects, and similar measures.)
They use nuclear power on submarines, they use it on battleships, they can use it on barges easily.
The human race is slightly more sophisticated right now than it's been in those past ice ages. Supposedly some sort of cave-men made it through the last few ice ages; surely with the aid of neat modern technological tools we can deal with the next one better, whenever it comes. Not that there won't be tragic loss involved or population crashes and all that stuff, but... completely uninhabitable? Unlikely, perhaps.