This reminds me of this story written by someone who works at an activity center for kids aged 10-14 in Denmark. His belief (formed by direct experience) is that video games, notably RPGs, help not with learning math or history, but with something much more important...how to work with others as a team and get to know eachother as equals, rather than "bullies" or "nerds."
From the article on teamwork:
They began asking for - and offering - help, and they learned that the best person for a job is not always or necessarily "me". They saw that acting as a group rather than as four individuals sometimes got them through some pretty nasty situations.
And on getting to know eachother:
This did not happen overnight. But as a year passed the changes became visible, not only in game but in the real world too. The bullies bullied less, and the "too quiet" kids began to speak up. The fights subsided and the older boys stopped taunting the younger ("Hey, we're all gamers, right"), and some of the lonely kids became friends with their fellow-gamers. It wasn't all peaches and cream but it definitely got better.
It's trying to create a bitmap that is 999999 by 999999 pixels large. That's about 999999*999999 bytes of memory, if not more depending on its color depth. I guess the OS tries to allocate that much memory and crashes since it can't.
That's what I was thinking at first, but then I realized that it has happened to me to some extent after playing as little as 4+ hours straight of a game. For example, I'm a big fan of the Tribes series of games and when I've been playing that too much, I'll catch myself looking for good hills to ski down.:-/
Something the sci-fi author Kim Stanely Robinson proposed was that you put into Venus' orbit a kind of gigantic shade which would prevent sunlight from reaching the planet, thus cooling it down over time. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this would allow what water there is to liquify, thus allowing the majority of the carbon-dioxide to dissolve in the newly formed oceans; one step closer to creating a more habitable planet.
I live in the USA and you are right...I don't care. Perhaps I'm simply used to it, but I don't see any personal danger in doing this. I know that no one would have any reason to harm me specifically in this way, unless it's a random and rare case of identity theft, so I see no reason to really worry. Although the pizza example you gave does seem a bit over the edge.
Whether we find life or not, I believe we're going to be going to Mars anyway. I think this "search for life" thing is more a publicity stunt than something that we are really interested in. Yes, it would be nice to know if Mars has life (life meaning microscopic life, which, at least for me, isn't that interesting), but that will not stop us from considering a manned mission to Mars in the future. We may be extra careful in terms of sterilization, but, as many people have already said, we will end up contaminating the surface no matter how careful we are.
Slashdot Mirror
This reminds me of this story written by someone who works at an activity center for kids aged 10-14 in Denmark. His belief (formed by direct experience) is that video games, notably RPGs, help not with learning math or history, but with something much more important...how to work with others as a team and get to know eachother as equals, rather than "bullies" or "nerds."
From the article on teamwork:
They began asking for - and offering - help, and they learned that the best person for a job is not always or necessarily "me". They saw that acting as a group rather than as four individuals sometimes got them through some pretty nasty situations.
And on getting to know eachother:
This did not happen overnight. But as a year passed the changes became visible, not only in game but in the real world too. The bullies bullied less, and the "too quiet" kids began to speak up. The fights subsided and the older boys stopped taunting the younger ("Hey, we're all gamers, right"), and some of the lonely kids became friends with their fellow-gamers. It wasn't all peaches and cream but it definitely got better.
It's trying to create a bitmap that is 999999 by 999999 pixels large. That's about 999999*999999 bytes of memory, if not more depending on its color depth. I guess the OS tries to allocate that much memory and crashes since it can't.
That's what I was thinking at first, but then I realized that it has happened to me to some extent after playing as little as 4+ hours straight of a game. For example, I'm a big fan of the Tribes series of games and when I've been playing that too much, I'll catch myself looking for good hills to ski down. :-/
Blast, you foiled my plan! ;)
Maybe they should just build a giant vaccum cleaner, suck up all the atmosphere, and start over.
Something the sci-fi author Kim Stanely Robinson proposed was that you put into Venus' orbit a kind of gigantic shade which would prevent sunlight from reaching the planet, thus cooling it down over time. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this would allow what water there is to liquify, thus allowing the majority of the carbon-dioxide to dissolve in the newly formed oceans; one step closer to creating a more habitable planet.
I live in the USA and you are right...I don't care. Perhaps I'm simply used to it, but I don't see any personal danger in doing this. I know that no one would have any reason to harm me specifically in this way, unless it's a random and rare case of identity theft, so I see no reason to really worry. Although the pizza example you gave does seem a bit over the edge.
Whether we find life or not, I believe we're going to be going to Mars anyway. I think this "search for life" thing is more a publicity stunt than something that we are really interested in. Yes, it would be nice to know if Mars has life (life meaning microscopic life, which, at least for me, isn't that interesting), but that will not stop us from considering a manned mission to Mars in the future. We may be extra careful in terms of sterilization, but, as many people have already said, we will end up contaminating the surface no matter how careful we are.