You reduced the morality of current events to "kill or not kill", while only a hippy could reduce everything to that kind of absolutism. I'm not reinterpreting what you said, that was something I put together for you. Christians don't look at things in terms of life and death but instead good and evil, which by the way is not necessarily religious in nature. Evil is a concept as old as humanity itself. I don't hear George Bush saying things like "the power of Christ compels me!"
I don't need to reflect on myself, I'm not even taking a position on the issue, I'm just pointing out whats wrong with your argument.;) You know nothing about Christianity, that's what's wrong.
All truth arose from belief. There is no undeniable foundation for truth, at least not from your perspective.
If you disagree with this, then just tell me something that you and everybody can KNOW, without a shadow of a doubt, and I will play the part of the radical skeptic.
You took the words right out of my mouth man, reading his comment he sounded like such a true skeptic, then he says it flat out, like a true Prophet, "Metal furniture CAN self assemble! I know this to be true, according to Quantum Mechanics!" He might as well be reading straight from the Bible. According to Quantum Physics you can blip out of existence and re-appear a billion light years from here, but common sense will tell you that that can't happen!
I like the next guys comments, trying to explain how quantum mechanics works because we obviously don't understand why teleportation is so rational, and easy to accept.
Oh well, you're quite an admirable person DavidPesta, I can't argue politics or religion, I honestly don't take any one position. My hat goes off to you for trying. It sounds like you share the same attitude as me, starting an arguement just to say "Look maybe you guys don't know everything about everything?"
Follier, I'm disappointed. You've apparently put a label on Pesta here, just another stupid Christian that doesn't know his science, the science you studied in school, while the man has obviously educated himself quite well demonstrating an inner desire for knowledge, nevermind his formal training. At the end of it all, you apparently agree with him that the primordial soup self-replicator is hard to believe, which would lead me to believe you agree with ID in a sense. Seems you could use a few more courses in ethics!
Too often I'll hear someone equate Christians with hippies, while if you open up the bible you'll find plenty of instances of God killing or ordering someone to kill for the greater good. Is stoning someone to death torture? Come on, everybody knows where stoning is best documented.
I'm not a Christian anymore (raised Mormon but quit going to church at age 15). I've seen some die-hard Mormons in my day, my grandparents won't buy a house without asking God if its the one they should buy. But the sort of brainwashing that Atheists are capable of doing is truly stunning. I guess if you throw around the weight of science you can go a long way. Your view of religion is warped, to say the least. You're brainwashed, kid. Bet you never saw yourself like that, huh?
Go study religion and maybe you'll quit blaming Christians for everything that sucks.
Anyhow, the point of all this is: just because something like the periodic table looks arbitrary or unexplainable at first glance doesn't mean it is.
I've never taken a course in QM, but I had assumed that you could explain it all with a few simple equations, electron orbitals and what not. I'm not saying the PT is like some ancient mystery, I'm talking about the way it all works together, the atoms involved with DNA, the way hydrogen fuses together in the sun. I once pointed out to a friend that the distance between stars makes it difficult to travel back and forth. It may seem random to you, but in addition to the things like this that I've identified as having some sort of purpose, is the obvious fact that the universe is even there.
HT = HandiTalkie. A small low power handheld radio. "Rubber Duck" is a cheap flexible antenna with little or no gain, basically the bare minimum to recieve a radio signal.
Handheld Transciever, that's the technical definition.
I'm not trained in logic or philosophy or any of that, but here's my view.
The fact that evolution took a "natural" course and ended up where it is is evidence that the universe itself was designed to facilitate life, which is why the search for E.T. life seems so pertinent to me. There may be intelligent life out there, and it may be remarkably similar to us, it may be based on DNA and the idea of intelligent design would make more sense. I think it's stupid for people to swear the idea off because you can't apply simple logic to it. The periodic table didn't just evolve on its own. Something must have created it, or its just some unexplainable thing that has always existed?
I wasn't raised Christian and my definition of Intelligent Design may not be the same as theirs, or yours. Once you bring the Bible into the picture and start saying the earth was created in 7 days, reason goes out the window (although I do think the Bible has historical significance, I would not build my life around it.)
It'd be a better place if everyone was like him, including atheists.
I believe in a creator but I don't think his name is Jesus. It would be nice, I think, if there were a politically correct way for religion/spirituality to be discussed in schools. I think its a big part of the world we live in, it would be nice to have a "spirituality" class where everyone could get up and present their view of god and the universe while the rest of the class practices tolerance and open-mindedness. It could be one of those classes you really like to go to, like P.E. where there is no right and wrong answers.
Perhaps, any comcast ip address would fall into a "low quality" category, but there are plenty of big bandwidth resellers, for example here at the company I work we have a 1.1mbit frame relay connection, and after about 9pm we maybe will use 10kbps average, *nobody* visits our site. That bandwidth is ours to sell and currently its too much work to sell it, but we're guaranteed that bandwidth all the time so that would probably be "medium quality", whereas high quality would be OC-n links that go under-utilized.
I came up with this idea a year or two ago, when I first discovered bittorrent. I don't suppose I could commercialize it, so I'll part with it.
First you set up a seamless transmission network, sortof like bittorrent but closely monitored. The monitoring would be the hard part. The goal would be for people to sell their bandwidth, in an priceline style auction, they put their bandwidth up for sale, I've got a cable connection at home that can serve about 500kbps upstream that I want to make available in the evenings, perhaps my cable provider limits me to serving only those people on my comcast network, fine, I put that into the app. The app uses complex heuristics to give people the bandwidth they need, at the quality they need (comcast being LOW quality) and at the price they want, while actually PAYING the people for their bandwidth. I don't suppose I could make more than 10 or 20 dollars each month in this manner, while comcast continues to charge $50/month. It could even be set up to serve encrypted content, completely secure, although I'm not aware of a security system that supports translatable keys, where a client sends its key to a server, the server sends a transformed version of that key to a middle distribution point, which then transforms the already encrypted content to match the key the client originally sent, using the transformed key the server sent to it, and then send it back to the client. That's the future of DRM right there, perhaps an encryption expert could tell me if something like that is possible.
The point of all the complexity would be to allow a website to distribute a significant portion of their bandwidth needs, while unloading bottleneck links. If a tv ad for the latest as-seen-on-tv widget goes up in Los Angeles, and the company expects a significant amount of traffic from that area, a node could be set up in LA and all the images on the website sent to it for 10,000x redistribution, which makes even more sense if the server is located in australia and the intercontinental links represent a bottleneck. The heuristics server would be the key aspect of a system like this.
White Dune - one of the best VRML editors - but, then, who uses VRML?
Ah yes, VRML. I remember when I first installed a VRML viewer plugin in netscape 3.0 GOLD (!!!) edition, so I could see what the fuss was about. I went into this virtual city with ads everywhere, everything you clicked on brought you to some other page. I thought to myself "So this is the future!"
Not here, I work for a smaller company, I'm the only computer guy besides the boss. People come and go over the years, some better than others. I'm training a new guy right now.
50% come right before functions/methods to explain what they do.
20% insulting someone else or their code.
20% the word "TODO".
5% useful bits of information.
Re:When do we start terraforming?
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Ice Lake on Mars
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· Score: 1
Oh Yeah, Russia too. Sure. China may not have much technological know-how, but they have a rapidly growing economy which they could contribute to the effort.
Now in terms of technology, there is no technological hurdle, you just need heavy, heavy, heaaaaavy lifters to bring a lot of equipment over there. Start producing methane or something.
Re:When do we start terraforming?
on
Ice Lake on Mars
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· Score: 1
There are a lot of microorganisms on earth that live at the bottom of the ocean in near freezing temperatures, they produce methane which is a potent greenhouse gas. Perhaps something like that could be adapted to make mars a bit warmer, and who knows what the result would be.
Re:Of course Mars lost its water long ago.
on
Ice Lake on Mars
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· Score: 1
Didn't Larry Nivel write a good book about something like that, Rainbow Mars? I think they were trees that somehow flew into orbit and landed on earth, somehow, or something. Heh.
They will need a nuclear reactor, regardless
on
Ice Lake on Mars
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· Score: 1
I can't imagine any mission to mars that didn't involve a nuclear reactor, it is the only practical way of providing heat for long periods of time. Any mission that involved actually drilling or digging for water ice, and processing material which is mostly earth with a small percentage of ice sounds like it would be very risky. If the process was not successful, it would mean the explorers would be dependant on the supplies they brought, which would make a return trip urgent. In this case, a nuclear reactor would be the only critical factor, since they water ice is right there to be picked up right on the surface. Food is another matter, but I suppose a 2 or 3 year stockpile of food would be necessary, while they experiment with greenhouses on the surface.
Re:When do we start terraforming?
on
Ice Lake on Mars
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· Score: 1
Yeah, I'm not sure what is possible, if it can't maintain an atmosphere then maybe an artificial environment could be created on the surface using inflatable domes or something. I don't think the word "terraforming" is too specific.
I know that it has a solidified core and that is presumed to be the reason why there is no magnetic shield, the planet is heavily bombarded with radiation and that may prevent any life from growing there.
Re:What if we're being baited by the evil martians
on
Ice Lake on Mars
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· Score: 1
What is that dark stuff on the edge of the ice? Maybe that is some sort of micro-organism growing...
What if we're being baited by the evil martians?
on
Ice Lake on Mars
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· Score: 1
Now everyone is going to want to land right there, and then the evil machines rise out of the ground and vaporize us!
Seriously, doesn't it look a little strange? This perfectly round circle in the middle of a hostile desert, and in it is this nice clean chunk of pure water.
Or maybe thats left over from the last people who visited Mars.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't need to reflect on myself, I'm not even taking a position on the issue, I'm just pointing out whats wrong with your argument. ;) You know nothing about Christianity, that's what's wrong.
If you disagree with this, then just tell me something that you and everybody can KNOW, without a shadow of a doubt, and I will play the part of the radical skeptic.
You took the words right out of my mouth man, reading his comment he sounded like such a true skeptic, then he says it flat out, like a true Prophet, "Metal furniture CAN self assemble! I know this to be true, according to Quantum Mechanics!" He might as well be reading straight from the Bible. According to Quantum Physics you can blip out of existence and re-appear a billion light years from here, but common sense will tell you that that can't happen!
I like the next guys comments, trying to explain how quantum mechanics works because we obviously don't understand why teleportation is so rational, and easy to accept.
Oh well, you're quite an admirable person DavidPesta, I can't argue politics or religion, I honestly don't take any one position. My hat goes off to you for trying. It sounds like you share the same attitude as me, starting an arguement just to say "Look maybe you guys don't know everything about everything?"
Follier, I'm disappointed. You've apparently put a label on Pesta here, just another stupid Christian that doesn't know his science, the science you studied in school, while the man has obviously educated himself quite well demonstrating an inner desire for knowledge, nevermind his formal training. At the end of it all, you apparently agree with him that the primordial soup self-replicator is hard to believe, which would lead me to believe you agree with ID in a sense. Seems you could use a few more courses in ethics!
Like every application I ever wrote, it was intelligent at first then "EVOLUTION" came along and fucked it all up.
I'm not a Christian anymore (raised Mormon but quit going to church at age 15). I've seen some die-hard Mormons in my day, my grandparents won't buy a house without asking God if its the one they should buy. But the sort of brainwashing that Atheists are capable of doing is truly stunning. I guess if you throw around the weight of science you can go a long way. Your view of religion is warped, to say the least. You're brainwashed, kid. Bet you never saw yourself like that, huh?
Go study religion and maybe you'll quit blaming Christians for everything that sucks.
I've never taken a course in QM, but I had assumed that you could explain it all with a few simple equations, electron orbitals and what not. I'm not saying the PT is like some ancient mystery, I'm talking about the way it all works together, the atoms involved with DNA, the way hydrogen fuses together in the sun. I once pointed out to a friend that the distance between stars makes it difficult to travel back and forth. It may seem random to you, but in addition to the things like this that I've identified as having some sort of purpose, is the obvious fact that the universe is even there.
HT = HandiTalkie. A small low power handheld radio. "Rubber Duck" is a cheap flexible antenna with little or no gain, basically the bare minimum to recieve a radio signal. Handheld Transciever, that's the technical definition.
Tell that to the amateur rocket enthusiasts, heh.
The fact that evolution took a "natural" course and ended up where it is is evidence that the universe itself was designed to facilitate life, which is why the search for E.T. life seems so pertinent to me. There may be intelligent life out there, and it may be remarkably similar to us, it may be based on DNA and the idea of intelligent design would make more sense. I think it's stupid for people to swear the idea off because you can't apply simple logic to it. The periodic table didn't just evolve on its own. Something must have created it, or its just some unexplainable thing that has always existed?
I wasn't raised Christian and my definition of Intelligent Design may not be the same as theirs, or yours. Once you bring the Bible into the picture and start saying the earth was created in 7 days, reason goes out the window (although I do think the Bible has historical significance, I would not build my life around it.)
I believe in a creator but I don't think his name is Jesus. It would be nice, I think, if there were a politically correct way for religion/spirituality to be discussed in schools. I think its a big part of the world we live in, it would be nice to have a "spirituality" class where everyone could get up and present their view of god and the universe while the rest of the class practices tolerance and open-mindedness. It could be one of those classes you really like to go to, like P.E. where there is no right and wrong answers.
Perhaps, any comcast ip address would fall into a "low quality" category, but there are plenty of big bandwidth resellers, for example here at the company I work we have a 1.1mbit frame relay connection, and after about 9pm we maybe will use 10kbps average, *nobody* visits our site. That bandwidth is ours to sell and currently its too much work to sell it, but we're guaranteed that bandwidth all the time so that would probably be "medium quality", whereas high quality would be OC-n links that go under-utilized.
First you set up a seamless transmission network, sortof like bittorrent but closely monitored. The monitoring would be the hard part. The goal would be for people to sell their bandwidth, in an priceline style auction, they put their bandwidth up for sale, I've got a cable connection at home that can serve about 500kbps upstream that I want to make available in the evenings, perhaps my cable provider limits me to serving only those people on my comcast network, fine, I put that into the app. The app uses complex heuristics to give people the bandwidth they need, at the quality they need (comcast being LOW quality) and at the price they want, while actually PAYING the people for their bandwidth. I don't suppose I could make more than 10 or 20 dollars each month in this manner, while comcast continues to charge $50/month. It could even be set up to serve encrypted content, completely secure, although I'm not aware of a security system that supports translatable keys, where a client sends its key to a server, the server sends a transformed version of that key to a middle distribution point, which then transforms the already encrypted content to match the key the client originally sent, using the transformed key the server sent to it, and then send it back to the client. That's the future of DRM right there, perhaps an encryption expert could tell me if something like that is possible.
The point of all the complexity would be to allow a website to distribute a significant portion of their bandwidth needs, while unloading bottleneck links. If a tv ad for the latest as-seen-on-tv widget goes up in Los Angeles, and the company expects a significant amount of traffic from that area, a node could be set up in LA and all the images on the website sent to it for 10,000x redistribution, which makes even more sense if the server is located in australia and the intercontinental links represent a bottleneck. The heuristics server would be the key aspect of a system like this.
Ah yes, VRML. I remember when I first installed a VRML viewer plugin in netscape 3.0 GOLD (!!!) edition, so I could see what the fuss was about. I went into this virtual city with ads everywhere, everything you clicked on brought you to some other page. I thought to myself "So this is the future!"
Not here, I work for a smaller company, I'm the only computer guy besides the boss. People come and go over the years, some better than others. I'm training a new guy right now.
I wonder if the discharge stains make it more or less valuable.
$200,000 is a small price to pay, I'd pay that much for the nuclear power cell alone.
Now in terms of technology, there is no technological hurdle, you just need heavy, heavy, heaaaaavy lifters to bring a lot of equipment over there. Start producing methane or something.
There are a lot of microorganisms on earth that live at the bottom of the ocean in near freezing temperatures, they produce methane which is a potent greenhouse gas. Perhaps something like that could be adapted to make mars a bit warmer, and who knows what the result would be.
Didn't Larry Nivel write a good book about something like that, Rainbow Mars? I think they were trees that somehow flew into orbit and landed on earth, somehow, or something. Heh.
I can't imagine any mission to mars that didn't involve a nuclear reactor, it is the only practical way of providing heat for long periods of time. Any mission that involved actually drilling or digging for water ice, and processing material which is mostly earth with a small percentage of ice sounds like it would be very risky. If the process was not successful, it would mean the explorers would be dependant on the supplies they brought, which would make a return trip urgent. In this case, a nuclear reactor would be the only critical factor, since they water ice is right there to be picked up right on the surface. Food is another matter, but I suppose a 2 or 3 year stockpile of food would be necessary, while they experiment with greenhouses on the surface.
I know that it has a solidified core and that is presumed to be the reason why there is no magnetic shield, the planet is heavily bombarded with radiation and that may prevent any life from growing there.
What is that dark stuff on the edge of the ice? Maybe that is some sort of micro-organism growing...
Seriously, doesn't it look a little strange? This perfectly round circle in the middle of a hostile desert, and in it is this nice clean chunk of pure water.
Or maybe thats left over from the last people who visited Mars.
Just throwing out wacky ideas here...