You really need to educate yourself if you honestly believe Einstein, a man who graduated in 1900 with a physics degree from ETH Zurich with a physics degree, was a layman.
Are you saying he was secretly a professional physicist? His alter-ego was Relativity Man, and along with Niels Bohr (Atomic Model Man), Max Planck (Quanta Man), and a host of others, he met in the Halls of Physics to save the world from the photoelectric paradox, non-atomic theory, and other science evil-doers? My comic book on Einstein said he didn't join the Physics League until late 1905.
Seriously though, he was less than five years out of school and working at the Patent Office when he published his first orthodoxy-shattering theory. He wasn't a layman like you and I are, but he was hardly a member of the physics establishment.
(My apologies if you're less than five years out of school and and this touched a sensitive nerve.)
Yeah, if the history of physics has shown us anything, it's that laymen have never had anyspecialinsight into areas that professional physicists do not. They should stick to their own line of work, like clerking at the Patent Office. Sheesh.
While this guy didn't have anything new to add, people who've been studying something for their entire lives tend to not be the ones that successfully overturn the orthodoxy. Einstein himself fell into the orthodoxy, and published very little of significant value after 1916--unless you count the EPR thought experiment, which advanced physics greatly, but only by being proven wrong.
It disgusts me every time I hear some liar like Dick Cheney saying if we pull out of Iraq, we're going to find terrorists in our supermarkets.
Terrorists? Aisle 2, between the pomegranates and baby-democracies. Frankly though, the terrorists are always pretty rotten, and sometimes they spoil the baby-democracies. At least the pomegranates aren't usually affected.
It is quite racist to assume based on name alone that someone might be a terrorist. Or have we forgotten Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, Theodore Kaczynski, or Eric Robert Rudolph?
Exactly how does "science and useful arts" not include Intellectual Property? The whole US Patent and Copyright systems are based on giving limited ownership to original ideas--granting IP rights--as specifically encouraged by this clause of the Constitution.
Sure, it's not "mandated", and the "for limited times" clauses really does need to be enforced, but don't confuse what "IP" actually is with what the mega-corps want you to think it is.
But the US government is doing it! Not only does that mean it is the right thing to do, but we can rest assured that it will be done right the first time!
The government can't even secure their own networks from people stealing personal data off machines, they expect me to believe they'l implement IPv6... Right. Then again wasn't Bush promising to put someone on Mars too...
Actually, it was the guy on Mars that came up with this idea!
This is based on how much time I spend reading science fiction, vs how much time I spend reading slashdot.
Half of what I read on slashdot IS science fiction.
I have to say that the trailer to polar express has some of the creepiest looking animation I have ever seen. Please, if you are thinking about seeing this with your kids, make sure they see the trailer and ask them if they want to see it first. I know I would have been scared as hell seeing that when I was a kid.
I just saw a Sneak Preview of the actual film, and there were tons of kids in the theater. I didn't hear any of the kids get creeped out. Actually, for as many kids were there, I heard very little out of them period.
A phenomenal movie. See it.
The "creepiness" of the animation disappears after the first 5-10 seconds of watching. The stuff in the trailer just isn't long enough. Periodically, I would notice something that reminded me it wasn't live-action, but mostly I was sucked in. The non-actor CG effects were phenomenal as well. The movie has a lot more action than the book, so don't expect the same feeling a reading of The Polar Express before bed might evoke. But the movie is as true to the book as a movie could be, I think, while keeping the kiddies interested.
And no, I do not work for WB, though I am married to someone working with WB on a partnership.
Slashdot Mirror
You really need to educate yourself if you honestly believe Einstein, a man who graduated in 1900 with a physics degree from ETH Zurich with a physics degree, was a layman.
Are you saying he was secretly a professional physicist? His alter-ego was Relativity Man, and along with Niels Bohr (Atomic Model Man), Max Planck (Quanta Man), and a host of others, he met in the Halls of Physics to save the world from the photoelectric paradox, non-atomic theory, and other science evil-doers? My comic book on Einstein said he didn't join the Physics League until late 1905.
Seriously though, he was less than five years out of school and working at the Patent Office when he published his first orthodoxy-shattering theory. He wasn't a layman like you and I are, but he was hardly a member of the physics establishment.
(My apologies if you're less than five years out of school and and this touched a sensitive nerve.)
Yeah, if the history of physics has shown us anything, it's that laymen have never had any special insight into areas that professional physicists do not. They should stick to their own line of work, like clerking at the Patent Office. Sheesh.
While this guy didn't have anything new to add, people who've been studying something for their entire lives tend to not be the ones that successfully overturn the orthodoxy. Einstein himself fell into the orthodoxy, and published very little of significant value after 1916--unless you count the EPR thought experiment, which advanced physics greatly, but only by being proven wrong.
If your "Plastic" skin is damaged, wouldn't it be easier to just switch to a different skin, like "Sky Blue" or "Metal"?
Exactly how does "science and useful arts" not include Intellectual Property? The whole US Patent and Copyright systems are based on giving limited ownership to original ideas--granting IP rights--as specifically encouraged by this clause of the Constitution. Sure, it's not "mandated", and the "for limited times" clauses really does need to be enforced, but don't confuse what "IP" actually is with what the mega-corps want you to think it is.
But the US government is doing it! Not only does that mean it is the right thing to do, but we can rest assured that it will be done right the first time!
Or a disco ball! Then EVERY night can be Saturday Night Fever!
This is based on how much time I spend reading science fiction, vs how much time I spend reading slashdot. Half of what I read on slashdot IS science fiction.
Yeah, try as they might, I doubt MIT will ever be able to write anything that decodes STTNG references nearly as well as /. readers.
I've heard that traffic in Southern California is bad, but geez!
I have to say that the trailer to polar express has some of the creepiest looking animation I have ever seen. Please, if you are thinking about seeing this with your kids, make sure they see the trailer and ask them if they want to see it first. I know I would have been scared as hell seeing that when I was a kid.
I just saw a Sneak Preview of the actual film, and there were tons of kids in the theater. I didn't hear any of the kids get creeped out. Actually, for as many kids were there, I heard very little out of them period.
A phenomenal movie. See it.
The "creepiness" of the animation disappears after the first 5-10 seconds of watching. The stuff in the trailer just isn't long enough. Periodically, I would notice something that reminded me it wasn't live-action, but mostly I was sucked in. The non-actor CG effects were phenomenal as well. The movie has a lot more action than the book, so don't expect the same feeling a reading of The Polar Express before bed might evoke. But the movie is as true to the book as a movie could be, I think, while keeping the kiddies interested.
And no, I do not work for WB, though I am married to someone working with WB on a partnership.