Aging occurs because getting old is not evolutionarily beneficial (on the genetic level) in the original environment.
It's not so much that old age was selected against, it's that old age was not selected for. Obviously, as an organism grows older, its likely survival decreases due to predators, accidents, etc. Thus, those humans who had the gene "good health at old age" were just as likely to reproduce as those humans who did not have such a genetic advantage.
This is easily demonstrated at the bottom of the food chain, where prey organisms have very short lifespans but reproduce in large quantities quickly.
As to stopping aging, humans spend tons of effort and money on that (cosmetics, medicine), but it's not as simple as one quick fix, and short of genetically engineering our progeny, there's not going to be an immortal human.
Further, many genes that deal with aging probably have negative consequences later in life. Simple example: When we're young and learning, rapid growth and pruning of our neural networks is beneficial, but such cellular behavior could be negative for functioning in society at a later age.
In all honesty, I don't want to live forever. I want to get old and die, and I'd much rather know the secrets of the universe than work for hundreds of years and never retire. I think most people would agree - we all just want to age more comfortably.
No, it's because most of the time people just want their browsing history cleared (so people don't see what naughty perverts they are), yet don't want their logins/preferences to be lost. Choice is good, checkboxes are good.
I think trouble is...we all overestimated the intelligence and abilities of the Iraqi people. Most people, I guess, figured once they were rid of Saddam, that they'd jump at the chance to unite, and form a rational, somewhat freedom enbracing government. I mean, considering the dictatorship they'd endured, you'd think, eh? "...the irrationality of Middle Eastern politics forced us to rethink our policy there." - Ronald Reagan
btw, (and OT) just why are our cities are designed so damned poorly?? 1. Some are designed to minimize vertical growth, and along with poorly planed roads are ordinances that buildings can't be taller than X. 2. Indian trails and trading posts 3. Politics
Worse, Democrats seem bent on picking the one candidate who could possibly lose to a republican in the next presidential election. Yeah, a woman or a black man. Those things won't affect my decision, but they will definitely get a lot of bigots to the polls.
Ever since I started voting years ago, I noticed that Democrats do everything in their power to lose. They don't state clear positions, they pick handicapped candidates, they don't do anything when they actually hold office, etc. Most of the time they seem out of touch and/or easily convinced to go along with Republican schemes.
I would imagine that most people who buy this don't honestly think this is a nintendo wii. They think it looks a lot like one, and for kids toys so often that's "enough". You brought up a good point there, but I think you failed to bring it into perspective.
How is this any different than a fake cell phone toy that can't dial, or a toy gun that can't shoot, or a toy computer, or a toy sword?
Sure, this toy sucks and is capitalizing on the success of the Wii, but most people aren't going to buy it thinking it's a Wii. Maybe some family has a Wii and they want the little brother who's too young to have something similar so he doesn't feel left out. Or it's a toy to tide over an imaginative child until his family gets the real thing.
The point is that this is a "toy" and not the "real thing" and, by definition, that's pretty much what a toy is. Try remembering what it was like to be a kid with an imagination, and from that perspective it doesn't seem like such a horrible concept.
I bought a PS2 and an Xbox, both of which are gathering dust. I have both as well. The thing that really pisses me off is that new PS2 games still cost $30 to $50. On the one hand, I really am glad they still make PS2 games (as opposed to XBox games), but on the other hand, do they really expect me to pay that much for PS2 games when the PS2 is on the verge of obsolete? I keep imagining the breaking point when the PS3 has momentum and all the remaining PS2 games in stock drop to $10 - $20. But maybe that point will never come. Maybe I will never get to play GoW2. That's okay, cause I never beat GoW1.
Why is everyone so opposed to taking MS's technology and running? They put a bunch of R&D into C# and its standard libraries, and then released it as an open specification.
Mono is not and should not be treated as a compatibility layer.
People complain that you'll never run Windows.Net apps properly on Linux... well, so? Does that make C# and.Net technology completely garbage? Not at all, and to believe that is foolish.
Having a C# implementation in Linux, with a decent C# widget toolkit, is a good way to invite developers into the open source world. Going from [Visual Studio + C# + Windows.Forms] to [MonoDevelop + C# + GTK#] is a lot less daunting than to [emacs + C + GTK], etc.
And it might just blow your mind, but using C# on Linux is sometimes the best language for the job, especially if you have to use C# at work.
Which brings up a good question: Does this Prism app include adblock/plugin support? If so, is it on a per-web-app basis or globally? It's virtually worthless if it doesn't.
I'm sure someone would make a fuss about the Simpsons being a "gateway drug" to more mature games like GTA. It's in R*'s best interest to keep minors away from their mature games: 1. so that they don't get sued over kids acting stupid and 2. so that the government doesn't deem the ESRB ineffective in stopping children from playing mature games.
I don't necessarily think that was their motive, but I can see where the gp post is coming from.
I understand the retarded, half-coherent post about Microsoft supposedly Google-bombing the open source EMR system. They have no motive though, because, like I said, everyone with MONEY buys into the big integrated systems like Cerner and Epic. There's no money in going after VistA, so there's no reason for them to do it. It just so happens to be a good name, so take off your tin foil hat.
Maybe you should learn about the healthcare IT industry before blathering about "Google bombing".
Why would MS go after VistA? That makes no sense. You're saying they declared their entrance into the health software market just to harm some open source project's standing in Google? lol
Regardless, if MS wanted a chunk of the EMR market, they'd go after Cerner, Epic, McKesson, et al. VistA is the poor man's EMR (it was created by the VA after all), so there is no money in that market.
While I still sit and work at a proper desk, I prefer doing everything possible on the laptop. Do you prefer looking at two documents side by side on a laptop? Have you ever used a dual monitor set up?
The keyboard is better You must not have large hands. Does anyone remember back in the day when Apple II computers had those tiny keyboards?
I agree with all your other points. However, here are additional things I find wrong with laptops:
- battery life
- fragile
- they get really freakin hot
- any external peripherals are a pain
- easily stolen or lost
My laptop has its uses, but it's not my "base". It's not my workstation where I keep all of my "important documents". It's definitely not as comfortable or ergonomic as a natural keyboard at a proper desk, and I'm not going to kill my eyesight looking at a small screen all the time.
A lot of electric guitar players play with low action and thin strings. When they have to play on a high action guitar with thicker strings, they complain their hand hurts from pressing down the frets.:(
A couple other things I forgot to mention: 3. Use thicker strings (stop being a pansy, it'll stop hurting after awhile) 4. If you're into guitar modding, change the bridge and tuners because they cause most tuning problems. Fixed bridge, preferably tune-o-matic.
1. Don't use vibrato (whammy bar) 2. Get a good guitar
I have a Garrison acoustic guitar, which they construct with laser precision and a graphite frame (key to stable tuning on an acoustic). Never goes out of tune, and it's my favorite, best-sounding guitar ever.
On the electric side, my Gibson SG holds tune almost just as well. My Fenders, not so much.
Ron Paul also believes that it's not the federal government's constitutional place to legislate and enforce such issues. He's an OB/GYN so of course he'd have a different view. But that's not really relevant to this discussion.
My point was that if Giuliani wins the nomination (and he is leading the polls...), then the Republican party will have ceded that it's more important to be a Republican in the White House than pro-life in the White House, which is a great win for the secularism this country was founded on. It's also a great win for the American people, since it will force the Democrat to go economically left and the Republican to go economically right, rather than relying on non-issues to differentiate each other. Roe v Wade was decades ago, and people still vote solely on this one issue, which is preposterous since it's not going to change.
Of course, I'm not too thrilled about the possibility of having two New York panderers fight each other for the presidency... but still, it's exciting to see what the religious right will do.
Slashdot Mirror
Aging occurs because getting old is not evolutionarily beneficial (on the genetic level) in the original environment.
It's not so much that old age was selected against, it's that old age was not selected for. Obviously, as an organism grows older, its likely survival decreases due to predators, accidents, etc. Thus, those humans who had the gene "good health at old age" were just as likely to reproduce as those humans who did not have such a genetic advantage.
This is easily demonstrated at the bottom of the food chain, where prey organisms have very short lifespans but reproduce in large quantities quickly.
As to stopping aging, humans spend tons of effort and money on that (cosmetics, medicine), but it's not as simple as one quick fix, and short of genetically engineering our progeny, there's not going to be an immortal human.
Further, many genes that deal with aging probably have negative consequences later in life. Simple example: When we're young and learning, rapid growth and pruning of our neural networks is beneficial, but such cellular behavior could be negative for functioning in society at a later age.
In all honesty, I don't want to live forever. I want to get old and die, and I'd much rather know the secrets of the universe than work for hundreds of years and never retire. I think most people would agree - we all just want to age more comfortably.
No, it's because most of the time people just want their browsing history cleared (so people don't see what naughty perverts they are), yet don't want their logins/preferences to be lost. Choice is good, checkboxes are good.
Try this: Click "Tools" -> "Remove tin foil hat"
How many times do we have to learn this lesson?
2. Indian trails and trading posts
3. Politics
Ever since I started voting years ago, I noticed that Democrats do everything in their power to lose. They don't state clear positions, they pick handicapped candidates, they don't do anything when they actually hold office, etc. Most of the time they seem out of touch and/or easily convinced to go along with Republican schemes.
How is this any different than a fake cell phone toy that can't dial, or a toy gun that can't shoot, or a toy computer, or a toy sword?
Sure, this toy sucks and is capitalizing on the success of the Wii, but most people aren't going to buy it thinking it's a Wii. Maybe some family has a Wii and they want the little brother who's too young to have something similar so he doesn't feel left out. Or it's a toy to tide over an imaginative child until his family gets the real thing.
The point is that this is a "toy" and not the "real thing" and, by definition, that's pretty much what a toy is. Try remembering what it was like to be a kid with an imagination, and from that perspective it doesn't seem like such a horrible concept.
Just pretend they invented cancer.
I'm sure some people here would believe that.
Why is everyone so opposed to taking MS's technology and running? They put a bunch of R&D into C# and its standard libraries, and then released it as an open specification.
.Net apps properly on Linux... well, so? Does that make C# and .Net technology completely garbage? Not at all, and to believe that is foolish.
Mono is not and should not be treated as a compatibility layer.
People complain that you'll never run Windows
Having a C# implementation in Linux, with a decent C# widget toolkit, is a good way to invite developers into the open source world. Going from [Visual Studio + C# + Windows.Forms] to [MonoDevelop + C# + GTK#] is a lot less daunting than to [emacs + C + GTK], etc.
And it might just blow your mind, but using C# on Linux is sometimes the best language for the job, especially if you have to use C# at work.
Which brings up a good question: Does this Prism app include adblock/plugin support? If so, is it on a per-web-app basis or globally? It's virtually worthless if it doesn't.
I'm sure someone would make a fuss about the Simpsons being a "gateway drug" to more mature games like GTA. It's in R*'s best interest to keep minors away from their mature games: 1. so that they don't get sued over kids acting stupid and 2. so that the government doesn't deem the ESRB ineffective in stopping children from playing mature games.
I don't necessarily think that was their motive, but I can see where the gp post is coming from.
I understand the retarded, half-coherent post about Microsoft supposedly Google-bombing the open source EMR system. They have no motive though, because, like I said, everyone with MONEY buys into the big integrated systems like Cerner and Epic. There's no money in going after VistA, so there's no reason for them to do it. It just so happens to be a good name, so take off your tin foil hat.
Maybe you should learn about the healthcare IT industry before blathering about "Google bombing".
Here
http://histalk.blog-city.com/
are
http://www.healthcomputing.com/
some links
http://www.himss.org/
n00b
I would mod this up, but I think I should explain why it's not off-topic instead.
The guy who wrote this patch actually works on ReactOS. http://www.reactos.org/wiki/index.php/KJK::Hyperion
I knew I remembered the name from somewhere.
Why would MS go after VistA? That makes no sense. You're saying they declared their entrance into the health software market just to harm some open source project's standing in Google? lol
Regardless, if MS wanted a chunk of the EMR market, they'd go after Cerner, Epic, McKesson, et al. VistA is the poor man's EMR (it was created by the VA after all), so there is no money in that market.
I had the same thing happen to me. Except I was polite and assertive, and afterward she told her superior that I swore at her.
People are afraid of assertiveness in general, and they use swearing as a scapegoat.
It's good for business, though. Imagine, the candidates all have to hire someone to monitor their articles now.
I should start an Interweb Public Relations Firm.
Because what is the point of broadband? Pretty much video and pirating. It's low on the American priority list.
I agree with all your other points. However, here are additional things I find wrong with laptops:
- battery life
- fragile
- they get really freakin hot
- any external peripherals are a pain
- easily stolen or lost
My laptop has its uses, but it's not my "base". It's not my workstation where I keep all of my "important documents". It's definitely not as comfortable or ergonomic as a natural keyboard at a proper desk, and I'm not going to kill my eyesight looking at a small screen all the time.
I wonder if this is a legitimate reason to move to a different country. I mean, is "Fleeing from RIAA persecution" a valid reason for citizenship?
Shitty journalists are set up and fooled every day, but it doesn't get the same amount of media attention. I wonder why...
That could be due to high action as well.
:(
A lot of electric guitar players play with low action and thin strings. When they have to play on a high action guitar with thicker strings, they complain their hand hurts from pressing down the frets.
A couple other things I forgot to mention:
3. Use thicker strings (stop being a pansy, it'll stop hurting after awhile)
4. If you're into guitar modding, change the bridge and tuners because they cause most tuning problems. Fixed bridge, preferably tune-o-matic.
1. Don't use vibrato (whammy bar)
2. Get a good guitar
I have a Garrison acoustic guitar, which they construct with laser precision and a graphite frame (key to stable tuning on an acoustic). Never goes out of tune, and it's my favorite, best-sounding guitar ever.
On the electric side, my Gibson SG holds tune almost just as well. My Fenders, not so much.
Ron Paul also believes that it's not the federal government's constitutional place to legislate and enforce such issues. He's an OB/GYN so of course he'd have a different view. But that's not really relevant to this discussion.
My point was that if Giuliani wins the nomination (and he is leading the polls...), then the Republican party will have ceded that it's more important to be a Republican in the White House than pro-life in the White House, which is a great win for the secularism this country was founded on. It's also a great win for the American people, since it will force the Democrat to go economically left and the Republican to go economically right, rather than relying on non-issues to differentiate each other. Roe v Wade was decades ago, and people still vote solely on this one issue, which is preposterous since it's not going to change.
Of course, I'm not too thrilled about the possibility of having two New York panderers fight each other for the presidency... but still, it's exciting to see what the religious right will do.