^_^ If I knew you IRL as a good friend, I'd probably be smiling and saying, "Sure you are... you just don't know it." However, given not all people are cool with confrontational theology as my friends are, I'll just point out that one can be christian (embodying the ideals of Christ) without being Christian (believing in the actual and metaphysical existence of Jesus Christ). Personally, I try for both.
Well, you may want to consider that the Christians have a head-start of two millenia.
Really? I always got the impression that the Jedi existed a long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away... *shrug* Then again, a "long, long time" could be just any period. For a child, it can be a matter of minutes.
Another thing to consider is that the statutory limits often include parental consent and are really there for the sake of young marriages. Most states have a law about "corruption of a minor" which can cover anything from sex to dirty jokes to kissing and often has a higher age limit. I wonder if it still invokes the Sexual Offender label...
Anyhow, for those looking for a quick chart, http://www.ageofconsent.com/ has a chart with links to the applicable state and/or country laws.
Two of the articles linked say that he accidentally touched a live wire with both arms. One has said that he was repairing a transformer when lightning struck it. *shrug* Doing electrical work when lightning is in the area isn't exactly the brightest move either, but I'm sure you, like most people, curse every minute that a blown transformer deprives you of power and people on life support probably like it even less.
First of all, aren't robbers people? If you prick them, do they not bleed? But enough sniping...
There are some structural limitations for partial replacements. An extra-strong grip wouldn't be that difficult, as all of the mechanics are located in the wrist and hand area. Something like lifting a heavy weight, though, and not only your arm is bearing the strain, but so is the shoulder (or whereever you attach the things) and the rest of the body. It would probably be more likely that you rip an artifical arm out of the socket trying than to actually rip apart the safe.
The other general issue with mechanical amplification is the lack of feedback. Look at the discussions of exoskeletons and you'll find that it's not as easy as multiplying the force or speed of a motion. On the other hand, with the neural feedback they're getting with this guy, it may yet be possible to solve the feedback problem.
As I understand it, this case is notable for a handful (no pun intended) of reasons:
This guy lost his arms up to the shoulder. Most nerve-sensing prosthetic arms rely on the bicep and tricep muscles, as it is not feasible to directly interface the nerves with the equipment as of this time. In this case, they were able to reroute the nerves to another seemingly unrelated muscle group in the chest.
The nerve part of the process is obviously getting better.
The amount of feedback he's getting from this arm's sensors is orders of magnitude greater than what was available before.
A good deal of this is simply better technology, everything from lighter materials to using a computer to sort out signals. *shrug* No, it's not revolutionary, but it is evolutionary and the goal of making a replacement arm as good as a real one looks like it may be coming into sight.
As haphazard as bodily construction sometimes seems to us (Why build a recreational area next door to a waste dump?), there is a reason for the existing skeletal and muscular structure. You need a lot of support to properly manipulate your limbs. What do you plan on attaching this third arm to? Planning to build another shoulder joint? Create new shoulder blades? A new clavicle attached lower on the spine? Where are the muscles going to go and to what will they attach? By the time you finish adding an extra arm, I suspect you will have practically rebuilt the torso.
Och... and don't even get me into the sci-fi phenomena of the guy with a bionic arm being able to easily heft tons. The rest of the body can't support that kind of weight, let alone the sheer problem with the immediate point of connection between the bionic and organic parts.
I can't answer from a biomedical engineering standpoint, but from a physiological standpoint, the nerves in your skin detect only two things, heat and pressure. Everything else is interpretation of those.
One of Microsoft's favorite techniques is to price their product(s) below all the competition and wait until they have won (i.e. the competition folds), and then they put the prices at whatever they want. They can do this over and over again every time a new competitor emerges.
And addressing the topic on hand, Linux has the advantage of being free, but only if you consider your time to be free. I know people who are quite happy with it. Me, I need my games and while there are a lot of options out there for running Windows games under Linux, it seems to take a lot of time and guesswork, and some programs just plain won't run.
I know that this post will probably get lost to the back pages, but I couldn't find a high-value post to attach it to and still have it sound relevant. Meh...
I think one of the reasons people are willing to pay for pirated software even though they know it's illegal and that they could probably download it for free on their own, is that it adds a shade of legitimacy to the process. Even though no money is seen by the actual producers of the software, the person gets to think in their mind, "I paid money for this. This is a valid transaction. It's obviously not stealing because money exchanged hands." They're wrong, but I suspect that's their train of thought. And, at that, some of them may actually be able to believe that the process is legitimate. I know that the first time I bought a copy of Windows XP, I didn't blink tiwce when I saw XP Pro advertised for $79. I figured that it had to do with extra copies being ordered for some office out there which they couldn't use, and which were therefore being dumped on the market. *wry grin* Somewhere in there, the blurry logo on the front of the disc and the fact that there was no license paper that came with it should have tipped me off. Knowing now what I didn't know then, the fact that it didn't require a product activation code should have rung more alarm bells; back then, I thought XP Pro didn't require an activation code, on of the reasons it was more expensive. *shrug* Then again, Microsoft avows that my copy is legit when I checked, so maybe that should just be good enough for me.
Even outside of ramen and such college survival fare, you can easily buy spaghetti materials as part of it. Or, for the really lazy, there's always frozen dinners. While "tv dinners" have been villified for years, most of them actually package a fairly complete meal. As a bonus for those dieting, you always get the same caloric value every time you eat a meal of a particular variety, so that's one less area of calorie counting that you have to do. If you get one of the cheaper varieties like Banquet or the generic at the particular supermarket, it's about $1 per meal.
But yeah, I don't spend that much on DVDs unless it's a gift for someone else. I tend to buy a lot of things used, and I do a lot of library borrowing. I'm the same way about books. As for computer games, I'm the type of person to play a game to the ground, trying everything before moving on to the next one. ^_^ And, at that, I buy those used unless the game is being self-published and I really feel the game company needs rewarding. Bethesda and Irrational Games are in this category. I bought Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic at full price at Wal-Mart too, but in my defense I was drunk at the time. I mean, good game, but $50 of good game where I know a fraction of that is going to the game deelopers and the rest was supporting Wal-Mart? Ick!
To be perfectly honest, the last time I bought a game at full retail price before that was Sim-Life by Maxis. That was worth every penny.
I suspect he tried to delete his porn collection and had someone check the thumbs.db file and find miniaturized image of everything he's been viewing. Huh... makes you wonder how often something simple like this catches the child porn people...
Hmmm... on the other hand, they now have a list of all of the people who are being UnAmerican and opposing government control of the airwaves. First against the wall, anyone?
Don't give me any excuses about there not being any other jobs. They're out there. Wal-Mart cannot run without gullible associates, as much as they'd like that to be so. (After all, they can't seem to get around those pesky minimum wage laws that the dirty liberals have put in place to undermine American capitalism and support terrorism.)
*wry grin* Actually, they do often get around the minimum wage laws. It's possible there are locations where this doesn't happen, but every Wal-Mart worker I've known has had to go through the situation where they're required to clock out after a specified number of hours, then are "asked" to stay and work for a few more hours. How do they get away with it? Quite frankly, if you're in an area that has more unemployed people than jobs they're qualified for, the workers go along with it because there are a dozen people waiting in the wings for that underpaid job. As for unions, Wal-Mart will fire you for even mentioning the possibility of organizing. I've got to admit that they're good at what they do.
^_^ My favorite is where they put out a full-page ad equating refusing to have a Wal-Mart in your area with participating in Nazi book burnings.
Big crime happens all the time by power structures like governments, organized religions, corporations, etc. The tools for fighting these nasties don't involve tights. They involve activism, raising awareness, getting others involved in politics, and other things that don't look real cool in graphic novels.
I forget exactly which set of books it was from -- it was the one where there was the sonic-based bad guy who turned out to be a mind-controlled soldier and Batman was using a blonde-haired guy who'd been involved in the mind control as a stand-in because Bruce was injured and Ducard was investigating him -- but there was a bit where Ducard was monologuing about Batman and essentially stated that Batman existed because the people who really committed crimes, big business and politicians, realized that Batman, by taking on small crime, distracted people from the true crimes.
Not to mention if you had insane wealth, you're probably part of the problem. Check the holdings of some wealthy people, they sometimes fund some very shady companies or governments which do some fairly nasty things. Real world problems are rarely fixed with just a punch in the face and a snazzy batmobile.
Again, it's been covered in the comics. There've been numerous issues where Bruce has had to face where his money's coming from or found that Wayne Industries has some unsavory ties, either in the present or in the past.
You see that last one? How NINJAS work! That's worth any amount of adviews, dude!
A decent enough article, although they lose points for perpetuating the "black pajamas" garb myth.
Interesting. I've fixed one article so far and will write up a few of the requests tonight. A lot of silly vandalism so far, but that seems endemic to wikis.
Well, you also have to look a bit into how the (pseudo-)mechanics of comic book powers work. For instance, how does Superman fly? I've heard explanations from telekinesis to warping gravity around him to happy thoughts. Each of those (with the exception of happy thoughts) could probably be used in the stopping of a bus, quite possibly even on a subconscious level. ^_^ Although I greatly enjoyed that one Mad Magazine short where superman stops the train to save the baby carriage stranded in the middle. Next panel, he looks over to where the crumpled train is smoking and oozing crushed passengers...
To get around this, even superheroes with nominally great powers are nerfed. So that Superman, despite his mighty strength, super-speed, super-knitting and so forth, has the brain of a tapeworm. He's a tool, an ingenue, ready to follow whatever flag or president comes along to give him orders. See Superman: Red Son.
He is a bit too much the boy scout, and I particularly enjoyed the arc in the No Mans Lands chronicles where Superman comes in to try to clean up town and Batman grimly smiles and tells him he's welcome to try. And, of course, human nature prevails and Superman fails. Interesting commentary by Eric Burns about Shazam being the real boy scout in Justice League Unlimitted, though.
And, of course, if we're counting up other weaknesses of Superman, there's always kryptonite, magic, and Superdickery (really, it's work safe).
In one of the episodes, Batman gets hit by Mister Freeze's cold spray. Mist clears and he's perfectly fine. "Thankfully, I was wearing my thermal Bat-skivvies today," the caped crusader quips.
In early comics, he was more of a prankster, committing odd themed crimes that revolved around pranks or clowns. Over time, he's become more bloodthirsty, although the level fluctuates depending on who's writing him. Yes, Joker killing Jason Todd was indeed a very effective plotline. I mean honestly, what would you do if you had a superhero at your mercy?
Slashdot Mirror
I know you're just making a joke, but it was Indiana that proposed making pi equal to 3 and that was in 1897.
No, but the American people do own the airwaves. Where do I get to have input on what they're being used for?
^_^ If I knew you IRL as a good friend, I'd probably be smiling and saying, "Sure you are... you just don't know it." However, given not all people are cool with confrontational theology as my friends are, I'll just point out that one can be christian (embodying the ideals of Christ) without being Christian (believing in the actual and metaphysical existence of Jesus Christ). Personally, I try for both.
Really? I always got the impression that the Jedi existed a long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away... *shrug* Then again, a "long, long time" could be just any period. For a child, it can be a matter of minutes.
Anyhow, for those looking for a quick chart, http://www.ageofconsent.com/ has a chart with links to the applicable state and/or country laws.
Two of the articles linked say that he accidentally touched a live wire with both arms. One has said that he was repairing a transformer when lightning struck it. *shrug* Doing electrical work when lightning is in the area isn't exactly the brightest move either, but I'm sure you, like most people, curse every minute that a blown transformer deprives you of power and people on life support probably like it even less.
There are some structural limitations for partial replacements. An extra-strong grip wouldn't be that difficult, as all of the mechanics are located in the wrist and hand area. Something like lifting a heavy weight, though, and not only your arm is bearing the strain, but so is the shoulder (or whereever you attach the things) and the rest of the body. It would probably be more likely that you rip an artifical arm out of the socket trying than to actually rip apart the safe.
The other general issue with mechanical amplification is the lack of feedback. Look at the discussions of exoskeletons and you'll find that it's not as easy as multiplying the force or speed of a motion. On the other hand, with the neural feedback they're getting with this guy, it may yet be possible to solve the feedback problem.
- This guy lost his arms up to the shoulder. Most nerve-sensing prosthetic arms rely on the bicep and tricep muscles, as it is not feasible to directly interface the nerves with the equipment as of this time. In this case, they were able to reroute the nerves to another seemingly unrelated muscle group in the chest.
- The nerve part of the process is obviously getting better.
- The amount of feedback he's getting from this arm's sensors is orders of magnitude greater than what was available before.
A good deal of this is simply better technology, everything from lighter materials to using a computer to sort out signals. *shrug* No, it's not revolutionary, but it is evolutionary and the goal of making a replacement arm as good as a real one looks like it may be coming into sight.Och... and don't even get me into the sci-fi phenomena of the guy with a bionic arm being able to easily heft tons. The rest of the body can't support that kind of weight, let alone the sheer problem with the immediate point of connection between the bionic and organic parts.
Really, there is no subject in here, although Slashdot requires me to put one in...
I can't answer from a biomedical engineering standpoint, but from a physiological standpoint, the nerves in your skin detect only two things, heat and pressure. Everything else is interpretation of those.
Predatory pricing is not that uncommon in business. Heck, Wal-Mart has been found guilty in lower courts for it repeatedly. *sigh* The problem with capitalism is that it ensures that the goal of any business will be to make money, not to provide a service. It's one of the reasons I see red when people talk about how privitizing government functions will make sure people will get their services on time and at a low price. *shrug* If you want an interesting perspective on the idea of a truly privitized government, check out Jennifer Government by Max Barry.
And addressing the topic on hand, Linux has the advantage of being free, but only if you consider your time to be free. I know people who are quite happy with it. Me, I need my games and while there are a lot of options out there for running Windows games under Linux, it seems to take a lot of time and guesswork, and some programs just plain won't run.
I think one of the reasons people are willing to pay for pirated software even though they know it's illegal and that they could probably download it for free on their own, is that it adds a shade of legitimacy to the process. Even though no money is seen by the actual producers of the software, the person gets to think in their mind, "I paid money for this. This is a valid transaction. It's obviously not stealing because money exchanged hands." They're wrong, but I suspect that's their train of thought. And, at that, some of them may actually be able to believe that the process is legitimate. I know that the first time I bought a copy of Windows XP, I didn't blink tiwce when I saw XP Pro advertised for $79. I figured that it had to do with extra copies being ordered for some office out there which they couldn't use, and which were therefore being dumped on the market. *wry grin* Somewhere in there, the blurry logo on the front of the disc and the fact that there was no license paper that came with it should have tipped me off. Knowing now what I didn't know then, the fact that it didn't require a product activation code should have rung more alarm bells; back then, I thought XP Pro didn't require an activation code, on of the reasons it was more expensive. *shrug* Then again, Microsoft avows that my copy is legit when I checked, so maybe that should just be good enough for me.
But yeah, I don't spend that much on DVDs unless it's a gift for someone else. I tend to buy a lot of things used, and I do a lot of library borrowing. I'm the same way about books. As for computer games, I'm the type of person to play a game to the ground, trying everything before moving on to the next one. ^_^ And, at that, I buy those used unless the game is being self-published and I really feel the game company needs rewarding. Bethesda and Irrational Games are in this category. I bought Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic at full price at Wal-Mart too, but in my defense I was drunk at the time. I mean, good game, but $50 of good game where I know a fraction of that is going to the game deelopers and the rest was supporting Wal-Mart? Ick!
To be perfectly honest, the last time I bought a game at full retail price before that was Sim-Life by Maxis. That was worth every penny.
I suspect he tried to delete his porn collection and had someone check the thumbs.db file and find miniaturized image of everything he's been viewing. Huh... makes you wonder how often something simple like this catches the child porn people...
Hmmm... on the other hand, they now have a list of all of the people who are being UnAmerican and opposing government control of the airwaves. First against the wall, anyone?
*wry grin* Actually, they do often get around the minimum wage laws. It's possible there are locations where this doesn't happen, but every Wal-Mart worker I've known has had to go through the situation where they're required to clock out after a specified number of hours, then are "asked" to stay and work for a few more hours. How do they get away with it? Quite frankly, if you're in an area that has more unemployed people than jobs they're qualified for, the workers go along with it because there are a dozen people waiting in the wings for that underpaid job. As for unions, Wal-Mart will fire you for even mentioning the possibility of organizing. I've got to admit that they're good at what they do.
^_^ My favorite is where they put out a full-page ad equating refusing to have a Wal-Mart in your area with participating in Nazi book burnings.
I forget exactly which set of books it was from -- it was the one where there was the sonic-based bad guy who turned out to be a mind-controlled soldier and Batman was using a blonde-haired guy who'd been involved in the mind control as a stand-in because Bruce was injured and Ducard was investigating him -- but there was a bit where Ducard was monologuing about Batman and essentially stated that Batman existed because the people who really committed crimes, big business and politicians, realized that Batman, by taking on small crime, distracted people from the true crimes.
Not to mention if you had insane wealth, you're probably part of the problem. Check the holdings of some wealthy people, they sometimes fund some very shady companies or governments which do some fairly nasty things. Real world problems are rarely fixed with just a punch in the face and a snazzy batmobile.
Again, it's been covered in the comics. There've been numerous issues where Bruce has had to face where his money's coming from or found that Wayne Industries has some unsavory ties, either in the present or in the past.
Alternatively, a relationship based on money, which I think describes most marriages out there.
You see that last one? How NINJAS work! That's worth any amount of adviews, dude!
A decent enough article, although they lose points for perpetuating the "black pajamas" garb myth.
Interesting. I've fixed one article so far and will write up a few of the requests tonight. A lot of silly vandalism so far, but that seems endemic to wikis.
Well, you also have to look a bit into how the (pseudo-)mechanics of comic book powers work. For instance, how does Superman fly? I've heard explanations from telekinesis to warping gravity around him to happy thoughts. Each of those (with the exception of happy thoughts) could probably be used in the stopping of a bus, quite possibly even on a subconscious level. ^_^ Although I greatly enjoyed that one Mad Magazine short where superman stops the train to save the baby carriage stranded in the middle. Next panel, he looks over to where the crumpled train is smoking and oozing crushed passengers...
He is a bit too much the boy scout, and I particularly enjoyed the arc in the No Mans Lands chronicles where Superman comes in to try to clean up town and Batman grimly smiles and tells him he's welcome to try. And, of course, human nature prevails and Superman fails. Interesting commentary by Eric Burns about Shazam being the real boy scout in Justice League Unlimitted, though.
And, of course, if we're counting up other weaknesses of Superman, there's always kryptonite, magic, and Superdickery (really, it's work safe).
In one of the episodes, Batman gets hit by Mister Freeze's cold spray. Mist clears and he's perfectly fine. "Thankfully, I was wearing my thermal Bat-skivvies today," the caped crusader quips.
In early comics, he was more of a prankster, committing odd themed crimes that revolved around pranks or clowns. Over time, he's become more bloodthirsty, although the level fluctuates depending on who's writing him. Yes, Joker killing Jason Todd was indeed a very effective plotline. I mean honestly, what would you do if you had a superhero at your mercy?