I am reminded that the "15" puzzle was set up to be impossibleby the inventor. As is stated on this page and other places the way the puzzle was set up made it impossible to solve. This is because there was a prize for the first person to solve it. It looked possible but wasn't. What a scam eh?
Yeah, and I'm an Aussie, we were quick to adopt your favorite mode of transport. The city I came from (Perth Western Australia) apparently had more cars per capita than any city in the world in the 80s
WOuld we pay for a car if every billboard we passed was capable of taking control of the vehicle and making it drive to other billboards? I don't think so. Why then will we pay for windows.
Here in Australia one of the biggest killers of birds is the heat and drought (8 years and counting) and cats (of course). I have seen birds just fall out of the sky dead on 40c plus days. With global warming we can expect to see that even more... therefore wind farms might save the lives of the birds in an indirect way.
It concerns me that the people who complain about wind farms might be funded by the producers of fossil fuel power. There are anti-windfarm people here in Oz and a lot of their propoganda is funded by a company that owns a coal-fired power plant. Bah.
I didn't say the behavious of birds didn't arise from evolution, only that it doesn't effect evolution. That is, once the birds have no medical science to keep them alive when their body tells them they should be dead.
Don't get me wrong please, I never have or will advocate removal of rights from anyone based on their genetics or upbringing. Everyone deserves the same rights as everyone else.
If you say that you are somewhat lacking in your sense of natural selection. Natural selection occurs when an individual dies before breeding or otherwise fails to breed, thus not handing on their genes. Among humans pretty much everyone lives long enough to breed, and thus genetics that do not select for survival are passed on. I am not saying that we should stop people with genetic diseases from breeding, just that by removing selective pressures from the species we might be stopping evolution.
Birds do indeed feed their young but if the parents believe that the young are incapable of surviving adequately they are thrown out of the nest to die in a lot of cases. People thriving because of hospitals is not natural selection, it's artificial - a kind of eugenics.
Many things effect evolution... Medical science has been effecting evolution for a very long time as people who would have died because of genetic illness have lived on through medical science. The human species has not had real natural selection for a long time because we do not die from genetic problems as often.
The only evolution humans are likely to undergo is a scary one. Stupid people are having more children than smart people, therefore people are going to get stupider. Maybe it's already happened
It is interesting that once again sex became the big reason many people have jumped on to a new technology. As that article said, blogging got a big boost from a sex blog, the sex increased visibility for the blog server and introduced many new users to blogging. It just seems to be a pity to me that people can't find something better than sex to get people to assert their collective voice.
Ever read Jennifer Government by Max Barry? (yay Australians) It has a government and a Police force run on capitalism. Before they can chase a criminal or investigate a crime they have to ask the victims for money to fund the hunt. Scary.
In My opinion, the most interesting thing about rabies is that it virtually doesn't exist in Australia. That is, our animal quarantine laws and methods mean that there are no infected animals to give the disease to people. I love my country for that and other reasons.
A comic book called "Zero Assasin" (made in Australia) had these, they were developed using nanomachines to build anything. Companies could fax each other prototypes and presents. Then one day a company faxed a nuclear weapon to a competitor.... Boom!
That would be fun.
I care not about religion, you can believe in whatever god/s you like. However, a literal reading of the bible cannot be reconciled with science. Ever. My favorite question "where is the firmament". If there is a wall between the waters of the sky and the waters of the sea how then do people leave the atmosphere?
When I studied Biology at my first foray to university it was believed by academics at my uni that it is impossible to pin down a single cause for the extinction of dinosaurs. There were many factors that could have contributed.
By far my favorite theory for a contributing factor is that the evolution of angiosperms (flowering plants) allowed for the development of defensive poisons for the first time (few if any non-angiospems produce toxins except for fungi which are not plants anyway). Evolving slowly, the herbivorous dinosaurs had no way to evolve defences against poisons and hence were in the crap. If they died, so did the large carnivours.
I can't believe that people still believe without question that a meteor hit killed the dinosaurs when many researchers disagree. I think there will never be a "smoking gun" for what killed the big lizards.
Hang on, let's complain about the real villians in the spam industry then, those annoying people who wrote the e-mail servers and e-mail clients. Without them there would be no spam!
Land trains without tracks, sounds like the trains in the Amtrak wars books by Patrick Tilley. As you may or may not know those books featured a mobile base/habitat on wheels that was set up like a trackless train.
Slashdot Mirror
I am reminded that the "15" puzzle was set up to be impossibleby the inventor. As is stated on this page and other places the way the puzzle was set up made it impossible to solve. This is because there was a prize for the first person to solve it. It looked possible but wasn't. What a scam eh?
some companies have these blocked on their pcs. Nobody blocks floppies though.
Will Bill Gates soon be inventing a product with the Acronym "B.I.L.L" for the product name?
I don't see how this system will stop theft of data. If you want to steal the data just copy the data and leave the machine there.
I can see the security department scratching their heads while saying "who would have thought of putting all that data on a floppy disk"!
good to see that nobody is immune to the /. effect
Yeah, and I'm an Aussie, we were quick to adopt your favorite mode of transport. The city I came from (Perth Western Australia) apparently had more cars per capita than any city in the world in the 80s
WOuld we pay for a car if every billboard we passed was capable of taking control of the vehicle and making it drive to other billboards? I don't think so. Why then will we pay for windows.
wooo wooo the bandwagon is going past *jump*. Phew it almost went without me
Here in Australia one of the biggest killers of birds is the heat and drought (8 years and counting) and cats (of course). I have seen birds just fall out of the sky dead on 40c plus days. With global warming we can expect to see that even more... therefore wind farms might save the lives of the birds in an indirect way.
It concerns me that the people who complain about wind farms might be funded by the producers of fossil fuel power. There are anti-windfarm people here in Oz and a lot of their propoganda is funded by a company that owns a coal-fired power plant. Bah.
I would have thought they could both find more productive ways to spend their time. "I love mummy more! no I do! no i do" etc.
my apologies, by "effect" I actually meant "prevent". Once again unclear language bit me on the butt
I didn't say the behavious of birds didn't arise from evolution, only that it doesn't effect evolution. That is, once the birds have no medical science to keep them alive when their body tells them they should be dead.
Don't get me wrong please, I never have or will advocate removal of rights from anyone based on their genetics or upbringing. Everyone deserves the same rights as everyone else.
If you say that you are somewhat lacking in your sense of natural selection. Natural selection occurs when an individual dies before breeding or otherwise fails to breed, thus not handing on their genes. Among humans pretty much everyone lives long enough to breed, and thus genetics that do not select for survival are passed on. I am not saying that we should stop people with genetic diseases from breeding, just that by removing selective pressures from the species we might be stopping evolution.
Birds do indeed feed their young but if the parents believe that the young are incapable of surviving adequately they are thrown out of the nest to die in a lot of cases. People thriving because of hospitals is not natural selection, it's artificial - a kind of eugenics.
"How will this affect evolution?"
Many things effect evolution... Medical science has been effecting evolution for a very long time as people who would have died because of genetic illness have lived on through medical science. The human species has not had real natural selection for a long time because we do not die from genetic problems as often.
The only evolution humans are likely to undergo is a scary one. Stupid people are having more children than smart people, therefore people are going to get stupider. Maybe it's already happened
It is interesting that once again sex became the big reason many people have jumped on to a new technology. As that article said, blogging got a big boost from a sex blog, the sex increased visibility for the blog server and introduced many new users to blogging. It just seems to be a pity to me that people can't find something better than sex to get people to assert their collective voice.
The sound of one hand blogging
Police force based on capitalism?
Ever read Jennifer Government by Max Barry? (yay Australians) It has a government and a Police force run on capitalism. Before they can chase a criminal or investigate a crime they have to ask the victims for money to fund the hunt. Scary.
In My opinion, the most interesting thing about rabies is that it virtually doesn't exist in Australia. That is, our animal quarantine laws and methods mean that there are no infected animals to give the disease to people. I love my country for that and other reasons.
A comic book called "Zero Assasin" (made in Australia) had these, they were developed using nanomachines to build anything. Companies could fax each other prototypes and presents. Then one day a company faxed a nuclear weapon to a competitor.... Boom! That would be fun.
This could be used to give new meaning (and new weight) to the term "obscene phone call"! eeeeeeeew
I care not about religion, you can believe in whatever god/s you like. However, a literal reading of the bible cannot be reconciled with science. Ever. My favorite question "where is the firmament". If there is a wall between the waters of the sky and the waters of the sea how then do people leave the atmosphere?
When I studied Biology at my first foray to university it was believed by academics at my uni that it is impossible to pin down a single cause for the extinction of dinosaurs. There were many factors that could have contributed. By far my favorite theory for a contributing factor is that the evolution of angiosperms (flowering plants) allowed for the development of defensive poisons for the first time (few if any non-angiospems produce toxins except for fungi which are not plants anyway). Evolving slowly, the herbivorous dinosaurs had no way to evolve defences against poisons and hence were in the crap. If they died, so did the large carnivours. I can't believe that people still believe without question that a meteor hit killed the dinosaurs when many researchers disagree. I think there will never be a "smoking gun" for what killed the big lizards.
Hang on, let's complain about the real villians in the spam industry then, those annoying people who wrote the e-mail servers and e-mail clients. Without them there would be no spam!
Land trains without tracks, sounds like the trains in the Amtrak wars books by Patrick Tilley. As you may or may not know those books featured a mobile base/habitat on wheels that was set up like a trackless train.