The last time I was in England I noticed most British historical sites were staffed by volunteers who work basically for tips. Perhaps changing their pay scale would help attract qualified tour guides?
That's because of the National Trust which is a typically British hybrid of charity/monopoly/collection of mostly retired amateurs. It owns most 'historical' stuff and you're right the staff they get are not too bright.
And they already know how to make flat paper speakers so they damned things will be talking whenever somebody is in range.
If they had video cameras, they'd be vandal resistant too.
"Watch Big Brother! Tonight of ABC! Watch Big Brother Tonight on ABC! Mr Morris, please do not touch this advert, it is the property of Orwell Advertising Inc. Mr Morris, video of the incident has been sent to law enforcement"
The problem is that in the interim, Bill, who runs the landfill, took Hal, who was supposed to inspect the landfill, to Tig ol' Bitties and Hal signed off on the liner, and now, all that shit has a chance to leach into someone's drinking water.
That's true but a bit of lithium in the drinking water looks like it wouldn't go amiss for some of the posters here.
You can't display Goatse on these things. Each letter is one segment, even from the summary that's clear "The top screen has 11 segments, the bottom has 3".
"And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof."
Makes you wonder:)
I'm not sure what you point is. Your story has a very complex entity (God) creating life. My story has something much simpler than life doing it.
Clays will be formed on a sterile planet spontaneously with a probability of 1, DNA/RNA based cells have a much lower chance of forming spontaneously. God seems even more improable. In fact the point of my story is that you need something simpler than current life as a bootstrapping device. The point of your story is that you need something much more complex to explain everything. Even if it were true it would still raise the question of how that more complex entity came to exist.
Don't you think not having any way to get humans into space might be an defence issue? The fact that they need to depend on Russia or China to get to the ISS really worries me, it implies that there might be other things they can't do in house.
We're talking about space launch capacity. I think the US needs an independent one, in case they need to launch a spy satellite or something for defense reasons that the Russians might object to. In fact given that missile defense is heavily dependent on satellite tracking and the Russians are very hostile to it, it's almost certain that the US can't rely on Russia for all its space launch needs.
I couldn't care less about the ISS, as far as I'm concerned its a white elephant.
Have you heard of Cairn's-Smith's clay theory of abiogenesis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_Cairns-Smith#Clay_theory In simplified form, clay theory runs as follows: Clays form naturally from silicates in solution. Clay crystals, as other crystals, preserve their external formal arrangement as they grow, snap and grow further. Masses of clay crystals of a particular external form may happen to affect their environment in ways which affect their chances of further replication â" for example, a 'stickier' clay crystal is more likely to silt a stream bed, creating an environment conducive to further sedimentation. It is conceivable that such effects could extend to the creation of flat areas likely to be exposed to air, dry and turn to wind-borne dust, which could fall at random in other streams. Thus by simple, inorganic, physical processes, a selection environment might exist for the reproduction of clay crystals of the 'stickier' shape.
There follows a process of natural selection for clay crystals which trap certain forms of molecules to their surfaces (those which enhance their replication potential). Quite complex proto-organic molecules can be catalysed by the surface properties of silicates. The final step occurs when these complex molecules perform a 'Genetic Takeover' from their clay 'vehicle', becoming an independent locus of replication - an evolutionary moment that might be understood as the first exaptation.
Richard Dawkins said of this that he doesn't believe this particular theory of abiogenesis but something like this must have happened.
He memorably said that one day a robot equivalent of Cairns Smith may note wryly that silicon based machines like him eventually took over from carbon based life like us that built them as tools in the same way that carbon based replicators took over from silicon based clay lifeforms that built them as tools.
It's like every/. article is an opportunity to espouse the same posts in a previous article. Let me save all the future posters their breathe...
Dirty energy is bad. Global Warming. Creationists are dumb. DMCA is stoopid. OMG zero day is here!
There, someone e-mail me when there's a comment worth reading.
I think there's some inherent vulnerability of internet discussion sites to virulent memes. If you look at Digg at the moment it's got to the point where 50% of the stories on the front page are some dubious looking slur on Palin. A few months ago 50% of them where dubious looking slurs on Hilary. And a few months before that they were all posts containing that 09 F9 magic key. 4chan is plagued by self replicating javascripts because it doesn't have a CAPTCHA, but digg and slashdot get a different sort of replicator, one which needs human interaction to spread.
It's like someone posts a meme, people mod/digg it up, there is a backlash, then more people digg it up and post it. People that disagree are eventually forced out. Eventually the meme uses up 50% of the bandwidth.
If some rogue state did that they'd get glassed unless the nukes were disarmed. In fact even if they did back down and disarm the nukes they'd get invaded and regime changed. Plus you could evacuate the city, and send in people to find the nukes.
Any danger the arsenal represents probably wouldn't even double if it increased 100 fold.
And exactly how many does it take to devastate a major city?
Drive one across the mexican border, park in downtown NYC. Game Over.
For everyone talking about "Missile defense", no one seems to even mention the Timothy McVeigh approach.
That's because smuggled bombs have no deterrent effect. You can use them in a surprise attack, but you can't say "We will use them if you do X". So unlike a bomb mounted on an ICBM you can't use them to control your opponent's behaviour.
Except that in the real world the FBI bust you because they have other evidence. If your Truecrypt partition doesn't have any trace of the stuff they know you've done they'll know it's the outer one, not the inner one.
The best way to avoid this sort of thing is to not do the sort of things that cause the FBI to go after you in the first place and not try to use your intelligence as a way to be completely immoral. Because we all know how well that worked out for Hans Reiser.
From the article you linked to http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gV5jvU52RD3WBflzbmSu5l6zwOqAD92V3VQG0 Creationism is the belief that the Earth and its creatures were created by a deity. It's an alternative to the origin of life explanation taught in public schools under the theory of evolution, which puts forth that all living organisms descended from a common ancestral gene pool.
Palin said during her 2006 gubernatorial campaign that if she were elected, she would not push the state Board of Education to add creation-based alternatives to the state's required curriculum, or look for creationism advocates when she appointed board members.
At a GOP presidential debate in May 2007 in Simi Valley, Calif., McCain said he believed in evolution.
"But," he added, "I also believe, when I hike the Grand Canyon and see it at sunset, that the hand of God is there also."
Palin's children attend public schools and Palin has made no push to have creationism taught in them.
Neither have Palin's socially conservative personal views on issues like abortion and gay marriage been translated into policies during her 20 months as Alaska's chief executive. It reflects a hands-off attitude toward mixing government and religion by most Alaskans.
"She has basically ignored social issues, period," said Gregg Erickson, an economist and columnist for the Alaska Budget Report.
The cold boot attack is possible if the FBI cuts the power before breaking down the door, then you won't be able to overwrite the memory. Unless you have a UPS, in which case you could have it auto-unmount all encrypted drives after a few seconds warning.
If the FBI is breaking down the door then they'll grab you and just lock you up for contempt of court until you provide them with an unencrypted copy of whatever information they subpoena.
Funny how with manufacturing everyone says "you must manufacture yourself, you can't survive selling services". But with software it's the opposite "you shouldn't write it yourself, you should survive selling services for GPL code"
I know it's probably quite shocking to many people here, but internet audience != majority of the american public. On a site like/. it's even much less so.
It is worth wondering if the at large public does consider these tactics a failure, or is even aware of them, or if they are if they even care. That's where this battle is to be fought, not amongst a (more) informed internet audience that is savvy to technological issues.
At most they will have heard of people getting sued for tens of thousands of dollars for downloading movies rather than renting them and decide it is safer not to break the law.
Slashdot Mirror
IOPS. Thousands of them.
Ever since he submitted that story about mind control and manipulation.
The last time I was in England I noticed most British historical sites were staffed by volunteers who work basically for tips. Perhaps changing their pay scale would help attract qualified tour guides?
That's because of the National Trust which is a typically British hybrid of charity/monopoly/collection of mostly retired amateurs. It owns most 'historical' stuff and you're right the staff they get are not too bright.
And they already know how to make flat paper speakers so they damned things will be talking whenever somebody is in range.
If they had video cameras, they'd be vandal resistant too.
"Watch Big Brother! Tonight of ABC! Watch Big Brother Tonight on ABC! Mr Morris, please do not touch this advert, it is the property of Orwell Advertising Inc. Mr Morris, video of the incident has been sent to law enforcement"
The problem is that in the interim, Bill, who runs the landfill, took Hal, who was supposed to inspect the landfill, to Tig ol' Bitties and Hal signed off on the liner, and now, all that shit has a chance to leach into someone's drinking water.
That's true but a bit of lithium in the drinking water looks like it wouldn't go amiss for some of the posters here.
You can't display Goatse on these things. Each letter is one segment, even from the summary that's clear "The top screen has 11 segments, the bottom has 3".
I.e. it's not a matrix display.
Privacy advocate(n): Someone so boring no one would bother spying on them.
Yeah, we can all go boldly into a happy future of the United Federation of Planets, soaring round the universe in the International Space Station ;-)
What was that on the news about Russian tanks in Georgia again?
Genesis 2:19
"And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof."
Makes you wonder :)
I'm not sure what you point is. Your story has a very complex entity (God) creating life. My story has something much simpler than life doing it.
Clays will be formed on a sterile planet spontaneously with a probability of 1, DNA/RNA based cells have a much lower chance of forming spontaneously. God seems even more improable. In fact the point of my story is that you need something simpler than current life as a bootstrapping device. The point of your story is that you need something much more complex to explain everything. Even if it were true it would still raise the question of how that more complex entity came to exist.
Don't you think not having any way to get humans into space might be an defence issue? The fact that they need to depend on Russia or China to get to the ISS really worries me, it implies that there might be other things they can't do in house.
We're talking about space launch capacity. I think the US needs an independent one, in case they need to launch a spy satellite or something for defense reasons that the Russians might object to. In fact given that missile defense is heavily dependent on satellite tracking and the Russians are very hostile to it, it's almost certain that the US can't rely on Russia for all its space launch needs.
I couldn't care less about the ISS, as far as I'm concerned its a white elephant.
The Russians are reliable as long as we pay them to be.
Right. Why does the US even need its own fleet of ICBMs. They could just pay the Russians or Chinese to provide and outsourced deterrent facility.
Can anyone else understand what this guy is saying?
Have you heard of Cairn's-Smith's clay theory of abiogenesis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_Cairns-Smith#Clay_theory
In simplified form, clay theory runs as follows: Clays form naturally from silicates in solution. Clay crystals, as other crystals, preserve their external formal arrangement as they grow, snap and grow further. Masses of clay crystals of a particular external form may happen to affect their environment in ways which affect their chances of further replication â" for example, a 'stickier' clay crystal is more likely to silt a stream bed, creating an environment conducive to further sedimentation. It is conceivable that such effects could extend to the creation of flat areas likely to be exposed to air, dry and turn to wind-borne dust, which could fall at random in other streams. Thus by simple, inorganic, physical processes, a selection environment might exist for the reproduction of clay crystals of the 'stickier' shape.
There follows a process of natural selection for clay crystals which trap certain forms of molecules to their surfaces (those which enhance their replication potential). Quite complex proto-organic molecules can be catalysed by the surface properties of silicates. The final step occurs when these complex molecules perform a 'Genetic Takeover' from their clay 'vehicle', becoming an independent locus of replication - an evolutionary moment that might be understood as the first exaptation.
Richard Dawkins said of this that he doesn't believe this particular theory of abiogenesis but something like this must have happened.
He memorably said that one day a robot equivalent of Cairns Smith may note wryly that silicon based machines like him eventually took over from carbon based life like us that built them as tools in the same way that carbon based replicators took over from silicon based clay lifeforms that built them as tools.
That's just hippy propaganda. Meat makes you a bit staggery, that's all.
It's like every /. article is an opportunity to espouse the same posts in a previous article. Let me save all the future posters their breathe...
Dirty energy is bad.
Global Warming.
Creationists are dumb.
DMCA is stoopid.
OMG zero day is here!
There, someone e-mail me when there's a comment worth reading.
I think there's some inherent vulnerability of internet discussion sites to virulent memes. If you look at Digg at the moment it's got to the point where 50% of the stories on the front page are some dubious looking slur on Palin. A few months ago 50% of them where dubious looking slurs on Hilary. And a few months before that they were all posts containing that 09 F9 magic key. 4chan is plagued by self replicating javascripts because it doesn't have a CAPTCHA, but digg and slashdot get a different sort of replicator, one which needs human interaction to spread.
It's like someone posts a meme, people mod/digg it up, there is a backlash, then more people digg it up and post it. People that disagree are eventually forced out. Eventually the meme uses up 50% of the bandwidth.
If some rogue state did that they'd get glassed unless the nukes were disarmed. In fact even if they did back down and disarm the nukes they'd get invaded and regime changed. Plus you could evacuate the city, and send in people to find the nukes.
Any danger the arsenal represents probably wouldn't even double if it increased 100 fold.
And exactly how many does it take to devastate a major city?
Drive one across the mexican border, park in downtown NYC. Game Over.
For everyone talking about "Missile defense", no one seems to even mention the Timothy McVeigh approach.
That's because smuggled bombs have no deterrent effect. You can use them in a surprise attack, but you can't say "We will use them if you do X". So unlike a bomb mounted on an ICBM you can't use them to control your opponent's behaviour.
This is madness.
THIS ... IS ... SLASHDOT!
Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like yelling.
If you explained this in court they'd probably lock you up for destruction of evidence, contempt of court or something like that.
Except that in the real world the FBI bust you because they have other evidence. If your Truecrypt partition doesn't have any trace of the stuff they know you've done they'll know it's the outer one, not the inner one.
The best way to avoid this sort of thing is to not do the sort of things that cause the FBI to go after you in the first place and not try to use your intelligence as a way to be completely immoral. Because we all know how well that worked out for Hans Reiser.
From the article you linked to
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gV5jvU52RD3WBflzbmSu5l6zwOqAD92V3VQG0
Creationism is the belief that the Earth and its creatures were created by a deity. It's an alternative to the origin of life explanation taught in public schools under the theory of evolution, which puts forth that all living organisms descended from a common ancestral gene pool.
Palin said during her 2006 gubernatorial campaign that if she were elected, she would not push the state Board of Education to add creation-based alternatives to the state's required curriculum, or look for creationism advocates when she appointed board members.
At a GOP presidential debate in May 2007 in Simi Valley, Calif., McCain said he believed in evolution.
"But," he added, "I also believe, when I hike the Grand Canyon and see it at sunset, that the hand of God is there also."
Palin's children attend public schools and Palin has made no push to have creationism taught in them.
Neither have Palin's socially conservative personal views on issues like abortion and gay marriage been translated into policies during her 20 months as Alaska's chief executive. It reflects a hands-off attitude toward mixing government and religion by most Alaskans.
"She has basically ignored social issues, period," said Gregg Erickson, an economist and columnist for the Alaska Budget Report.
The cold boot attack is possible if the FBI cuts the power before breaking down the door, then you won't be able to overwrite the memory. Unless you have a UPS, in which case you could have it auto-unmount all encrypted drives after a few seconds warning.
If the FBI is breaking down the door then they'll grab you and just lock you up for contempt of court until you provide them with an unencrypted copy of whatever information they subpoena.
Funny how with manufacturing everyone says "you must manufacture yourself, you can't survive selling services". But with software it's the opposite "you shouldn't write it yourself, you should survive selling services for GPL code"
I know it's probably quite shocking to many people here, but internet audience != majority of the american public. On a site like /. it's even much less so.
It is worth wondering if the at large public does consider these tactics a failure, or is even aware of them, or if they are if they even care. That's where this battle is to be fought, not amongst a (more) informed internet audience that is savvy to technological issues.
At most they will have heard of people getting sued for tens of thousands of dollars for downloading movies rather than renting them and decide it is safer not to break the law.