I've noticed in recent years that weather forecasting has greatly increased its false alarms.
This is a result of changes in Journalism. 25 years ago we had far fewer sources of information, so they could afford to stick to the real forecast. Today, there are more cable channels, and many more online weather and news sources. So they have to sensationalize to attract an audience, and generate clicks and link sharing.
Bad idea. The death plunge into the Jovian atmosphere is NOT "junking" it. Plenty of data will be collected during the descent, and there are many instruments on board solely for the plunge.
Delaying the plunge is reasonable. Cancelling it is not.
Juno was originally budgeted for $700M in 2003 and the full cost is now estimated to be $1.1B. That is not much of an overrun when you correct for inflation, and for added capabilities that were not part of the original budget.
Overall, the cost is about $3 per citizen. I am happy to pay my share, even if it means I have to skip a Starbuck's latte and brew a cup of tea in the microwave at work instead (Earl Grey, hot).
In fairness to NASA, they had to do all they did first, before this was possible.
As a proxy war with the Soviet Union, the space race was WAY better than a real war.
But otherwise it violated the basic principle of sharpening your ax before cutting down the tree. We should have spent the first decade pouring billions into better computers, better alloys, better robotics, better polymers, etc. before shooting for the moon.
Fifty years later, we are finally getting close to the point where going to the moon actually makes sense.
That may make sense for the upper stage, but not the main booster.
H2 has low volumetric energy density, which means a big tank with a big surface area, that all needs to be kept at 20K with lots of insulation that adds to the cost and the weight (which adds to the cost).
That doesn't make sense for fuel that is going to be mostly burned within 20 km of earth's surface.
Solid fuel for humanned flights is a bad idea because there is no way to throttle or abort. Once they are lit, they run until the fuel is exhausted.
The only exception was the solid fueled boosters on the Space Shuttle, which was so super-duper safe that failure was unthinkable, so there would be no need to abort.
Job number one for the Olympics, though, should be getting their women to trim that bush
The reason Japanese women don't trim their chitsus is that for many years Japanese censors banned the display of pubic hair in pornography. So porn stars (and many prostitutes) shaved, but "nice girls" did not.
The ban has been repealed, but the cultural expectations are still around.
Japanese streets are narrow, but they don't allow on-street parking, so the full street is available for driving.
Before you can buy a car in Tokyo, you need to provide proof that you own or are leasing an off-street parking space.
I can see self-driving taxis working well there. There are lots of people who don't own a car, and they are already short on labor so "robots stealing jobs" is not an issue.
an already existing intelligence directing some new inteliigence's course may be able to expedite that duration by many orders of magnitude.
Indeed. Moore's Law is driving increases in complexity at a rate about TEN MILLION TIMES faster than Darwinian evolution.
Evolution is undirected, converges on local minima, and does a lot of overfitting to narrow niches, and retrograde movement. There is little evidence that greater intelligence leads to more procreation, which is the only thing evolution cares about.
"Intelligent Design" can do way better. Unless you believe in some sort of "vital life essence", it is hard to argue that computers won't achieve sentience in the next century or so.
Immunotherapy is not breast cancer specific. It can be used on most types of cancer.
Cancer is really an immune system malfunction. Most tumors are detected and destroyed by your immune system when they are still microscopic. It is only when the immune system fails that they grow and spread. So it is much better to focus on the root cause by fixing the immune system rather than just trying to kill the tumor with surgery, radiation, or chemicals.
No it isn't. Humans can generalize and understand plenty of things they have not seen directly.
I can show a child three pictures of rowboats, and then show her a sailboat, and she will know that this is also a "boat" because it floats on water and is used for transportation.
ML doesn't work that way (yet). Even to recognize a rowboat, it would need THOUSANDS of examples, and it would not generalize by understanding the purpose and function.
There are many privately owned army tanks in the US.
Indeed. Privately owned tanks exist, and have never been a problem. Privately owned flame throwers consist of a hose, nozzle, igniter, and compressed air tank. Anyone can put one together, yet there are very few "school flamings".
What is really slick is the combination of the two: The flame tank. These were very effective at close-in destruction bunkers and entrenched positions. They were used on Iwo Jima and Okinawa.
No they aren't. They are just saying they are not an exception to the general rule that resellers are not responsible for products they sell. Should you be able to sue the corner grocery store because you got cancer from the cigarettes you bought there?
If every reseller has to do independent testing of every product they sell, our economy will grind to a halt.
Finland tried it and didn't expand it when they said they would, and instead ended it. There's probably a reason for that: it didn't work.
Finland's program was run by politicians, not economists or sociologists. The reason it was canceled was that it was unpopular, and the political balance of power shifted.
It was canceled before it was clear if it was "working" or not.
Slashdot Mirror
I've noticed in recent years that weather forecasting has greatly increased its false alarms.
This is a result of changes in Journalism. 25 years ago we had far fewer sources of information, so they could afford to stick to the real forecast. Today, there are more cable channels, and many more online weather and news sources. So they have to sensationalize to attract an audience, and generate clicks and link sharing.
You know, however, that Earl Grey is not the best tea for your health?
Only if you consume in excess, or combine with certain pharmaceutical drugs. Even then, it is no worse than grapefruit juice.
But instead of junking it . . . sell it instead!
Bad idea. The death plunge into the Jovian atmosphere is NOT "junking" it. Plenty of data will be collected during the descent, and there are many instruments on board solely for the plunge.
Delaying the plunge is reasonable. Cancelling it is not.
Juno was originally budgeted for $700M in 2003 and the full cost is now estimated to be $1.1B. That is not much of an overrun when you correct for inflation, and for added capabilities that were not part of the original budget.
Overall, the cost is about $3 per citizen. I am happy to pay my share, even if it means I have to skip a Starbuck's latte and brew a cup of tea in the microwave at work instead (Earl Grey, hot).
flees to... *pauses... squints at script...* Russia."
What was his alternative? Residing in Russia does not imply endorsement of Russia's policies.
Monsanto name is gone, however their genetically modified crops that only grow with their products remains.
Their patents on both glyphosate (Roundup) and RR crops expired long ago.
Liability?
Liability is only an issue for the first 90 seconds. After that, they are outside of American legal jurisdiction.
In fairness to NASA, they had to do all they did first, before this was possible.
As a proxy war with the Soviet Union, the space race was WAY better than a real war.
But otherwise it violated the basic principle of sharpening your ax before cutting down the tree. We should have spent the first decade pouring billions into better computers, better alloys, better robotics, better polymers, etc. before shooting for the moon.
Fifty years later, we are finally getting close to the point where going to the moon actually makes sense.
What about just using hydrogen and oxygen?
That may make sense for the upper stage, but not the main booster.
H2 has low volumetric energy density, which means a big tank with a big surface area, that all needs to be kept at 20K with lots of insulation that adds to the cost and the weight (which adds to the cost).
That doesn't make sense for fuel that is going to be mostly burned within 20 km of earth's surface.
Space-x uses liquid fuel.
Solid fuel for humanned flights is a bad idea because there is no way to throttle or abort. Once they are lit, they run until the fuel is exhausted.
The only exception was the solid fueled boosters on the Space Shuttle, which was so super-duper safe that failure was unthinkable, so there would be no need to abort.
Job number one for the Olympics, though, should be getting their women to trim that bush
The reason Japanese women don't trim their chitsus is that for many years Japanese censors banned the display of pubic hair in pornography. So porn stars (and many prostitutes) shaved, but "nice girls" did not.
The ban has been repealed, but the cultural expectations are still around.
Japanese streets are narrow, but they don't allow on-street parking, so the full street is available for driving.
Before you can buy a car in Tokyo, you need to provide proof that you own or are leasing an off-street parking space.
I can see self-driving taxis working well there. There are lots of people who don't own a car, and they are already short on labor so "robots stealing jobs" is not an issue.
an already existing intelligence directing some new inteliigence's course may be able to expedite that duration by many orders of magnitude.
Indeed. Moore's Law is driving increases in complexity at a rate about TEN MILLION TIMES faster than Darwinian evolution.
Evolution is undirected, converges on local minima, and does a lot of overfitting to narrow niches, and retrograde movement. There is little evidence that greater intelligence leads to more procreation, which is the only thing evolution cares about.
"Intelligent Design" can do way better. Unless you believe in some sort of "vital life essence", it is hard to argue that computers won't achieve sentience in the next century or so.
these are personal devices. Normally meant for one person.
Not if you have MoviePass. Then you need to loan your phone to other people all the time so they can watch free movies.
Immunotherapy is not breast cancer specific. It can be used on most types of cancer.
Cancer is really an immune system malfunction. Most tumors are detected and destroyed by your immune system when they are still microscopic. It is only when the immune system fails that they grow and spread. So it is much better to focus on the root cause by fixing the immune system rather than just trying to kill the tumor with surgery, radiation, or chemicals.
But after 25 years it'll only produce 70.7% of the output
The fraction of remaining power = exp(-t * ln(2)/100)
So after 25 years, it will be a 84%. It will be at 70.7% after 50 years. If that isn't enough, then just make the battery 40% bigger.
It's a shame they can't make one that's powered by body heat.
That won't work until Congress repeals the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics.
Much better is a biobattery that is powered by glucose extracted from the blood.
If you have a diabetic roommate, you could use a large biobattery to power your laptop.
Yes, that's how learning works.
No it isn't. Humans can generalize and understand plenty of things they have not seen directly.
I can show a child three pictures of rowboats, and then show her a sailboat, and she will know that this is also a "boat" because it floats on water and is used for transportation.
ML doesn't work that way (yet). Even to recognize a rowboat, it would need THOUSANDS of examples, and it would not generalize by understanding the purpose and function.
There are many privately owned army tanks in the US.
Indeed. Privately owned tanks exist, and have never been a problem. Privately owned flame throwers consist of a hose, nozzle, igniter, and compressed air tank. Anyone can put one together, yet there are very few "school flamings".
What is really slick is the combination of the two: The flame tank. These were very effective at close-in destruction bunkers and entrenched positions. They were used on Iwo Jima and Okinawa.
Alas, flame tanks were banned by the Geneva Convention in 1983, so they don't make 'em anymore.
amazon is acting like Uber
No they aren't. They are just saying they are not an exception to the general rule that resellers are not responsible for products they sell. Should you be able to sue the corner grocery store because you got cancer from the cigarettes you bought there?
If every reseller has to do independent testing of every product they sell, our economy will grind to a halt.
The fact that he modified his cache of weapons to go above and beyond stock performance does not diminish that
Military-grade assault weapons don't need after-market "bump stocks".
back in the day, conferences were smaller, less "markety"
I don't think so. 20 years ago, Comdex had a quarter million attendees, and Cebit had twice that. The dotcom era marketing glitz was dazzling.
Today, tech conferences are much smaller and nerdier.
Finland tried it and didn't expand it when they said they would, and instead ended it. There's probably a reason for that: it didn't work.
Finland's program was run by politicians, not economists or sociologists. The reason it was canceled was that it was unpopular, and the political balance of power shifted.
It was canceled before it was clear if it was "working" or not.
able to conveniently buy military-grade assault weapons without any background checks.
Number of people killed in America last year by military-grade assault weapons purchased without background checks: 0.
Number of people killed in America last year by handguns: 25,227
"Universal" "You keep on using that word. I do not think that word means what you think that word means.
It means more money for ammo, and more time for target practice.