or maybe he just means community collaboration, which only works if all information is publicly available and can be exchanged freely.
chances are the security issues discovered aren't unique to MBTA. it would make more sense to discuss the problem and its potential solutions out in the open, this way others may contribute their own experiences or perhaps detect similar vulnerabilities in their own systems.
well, genetics certainly have a lot to do with it, and studying why that is might allow us to exploit these genetic differences through medical technology.
but it might also be wise to take a holistic approach to the problem. as we can see from this discussion, there are a wide range of factors that can influence one's life span. stress certainly has something to do with it, and while we can't all live stress-free lives, at least one can learn how to cope better with the inevitable stress that we face.
you're missing the point of biological evolution. the end goal isn't the reproduction of offspring. reproduction is merely a means for genetic information to be spread and passed on. natural selection occurs at the genetic level, not the organism level. so it doesn't matter to evolution whether the genes are passed down for 1000 years through 1000 generations of short-lived organisms or 10 generations of long-lived organisms. there's no inherent advantage to either system.
so why aren't there amortal species? well there are. viruses for one are neither living nor dead, and many bacilli can exist indefinitely in spore form. but since there's no advantage to either having extremely long lifespans where a single generation goes through many reproductive cycles or having extremely short lifespans with just a single reproductive cycle for each generation, we see a large spectrum of timescales for living and reproduction cycles.
actually, opiate drugs, while highly addictive, have been shown to actually slow down aging. in extreme cases where heroin addicts began using at a very young age, many grow into adults looking like they still haven't hit puberty yet. but even in less extreme circumstances opiates attenuate the effects of aging by reducing one's stress levels and through its hypotensive effects--as most vertebrate species' lifespans seem to correspond to how fast their heart rate is or how hard their cardiovascular system is strained.
although, depending on where you live the positive effects of regular opiate consumption may be outweighed by the legal/social consequences, which might add stress to your life rather than relieve it.
dying from an unknown cause is quite different from dying from nothing--which implies having no cause at all.
many people have died in the past from, what were at the time, unknown ailments. and from the perspective of the physicians in that era, it might have _appeared_ that the victims died mysteriously from nothing. but eventually as medical science progresses, we learn that there _was_ an underlying cause--and often a preventable one.
saying that people can get to be so old that they just die spontaneously for no reason at all is like labeling a new phenomenon as "supernatural" just because it has yet to be fully understood.
I often wonder if the North defeating the South in the Civil War was really a good thing.
I'm not great with history, or the extrapolation of alternate historic time lines, but it seems to me that part of the reason why the U.S. is so reactionary compared to other developed nations is due to the fact that we have significant rural populations that exert a disproportionately large influence on the far more populous, and coincidentally much more progressive, urban population centers spread throughout the nation.
Not only that, but the shear size of our nation and government dilutes the efficacy of our democracy. Democratic action is most feasible at the municipal level, where the fluid nature of local government allows the public to easily change public policy to more or less reflect the political consensus of the community. But as you get to the state level, the political system becomes less and less fluid due to the increasing layers of bureaucracy between the public and policy makers. This is all the more apparent in the fact that, while independent candidates often win in local elections, there are virtually no 3rd party or independent politicians in government offices beyond the state level, as the bipartisan system is so rigidly entrenched at higher levels of government. This trend continues until you reach the federal level, where government becomes so rigid and disconnected from their constituency that it becomes almost impossible for democratic action to influence public policy.
The scales are further tipped towards the reactionary end of the political spectrum by a system whereby political representation is weighed by geographical area rather than purely by population size. The result of this is that rural populations that are smaller but more spread out receive much more political voice than densely populated metropolitan areas. So instead of progressive cultural centers where the majority of the population lives leading our society, we instead have a reactionary rural minority determining the political direction of our nation.
Sure, children in Louisiana deserve to share the benefits of a real scientific education, and women in Georgia should have the right to get an abortion and have access to pharmaceutical contraceptives. But our moral obligation to bring these ass-backward states into the 21st century seems to be outweighed by the cost of creating such a geographically overstretched nation. in order to maintain a cohesive nation in such an overstretched area, there is a necessary forcible cultural/political homogenization to create a unified national cultural. but as a result of all the aforementioned factors, the existing hegemon is one of a largely reactionary nature.
It seems to me that if we had allowed the South to secede from the Union, or perhaps even let the union dissolve altogether, there'd be much more political and cultural diversity in North America. Politically conservative rural states may be even more reactionary, but the liberal northern/coastal states would also be much more progressive. And at the very least, the ID/creationist camp wouldn't have any political influence outside of their own state. We'd be much better off having the reactionary population culturally/politically quarantined rather than letting them choose our president.
while i don't disagree that our government leadership is incompetent, i think that the blame isn't solely on politicians. we did at one point live in a free and democratic society. a large part of the blame therefor rests on the the public. we have developed a culture of apathy, and as such no revolution could ever take place.
the reason for public apathy is two folds. firstly, the bipartisan system that our democracy has evolved into is inherently broken. but more importantly the 4th estate has failed to uphold its duty to the public. the reason why freedom of press is so important to a free society is because the press plays a crucial role in the democratic process. democracy only works when the citizenry is well informed and educated. and when the press neglects its duty to report government/political corruption, voters can not make informed votes to provide the negative feedback you mentioned.
so unless the nature of our press changes fundamentally, i don't see any desperately needed widespread reforms taking place. perhaps the internet is the key. i don't know. but maybe one day we'll see direct participatory democracy being realized in the U.S. with the advent of the the internet and the information age, perhaps government records could be placed directly online so that the public can stay informed about government without the press. likewise, with internet access being near ubiquitous today, i don't see why we even need legislative representatives to pass legislation and form public policy. why couldn't we just conduct mass referendums over the web and bypass congress altogether?
i mean, if poor illiterate Venezuelans can draft their own constitution via referendum, why can't Americans pass legislation the same way? with today's communications technology, we don't have logistical problems getting in the way of direct democracy.
the -caine suffix is simply used for any drug with properties of a local anesthetic. however, novacaine, lidocaine, cocaine, etc. are not actually chemically related or remotely similar in molecular structure to each other, so there shouldn't be a problem with this vaccine interfering with the other *caine anesthetics.
it's said that Paul Erdos was a habitual coffee drinking and user of amphetamines and was one of the most prolific mathematicians of his time because of it. however, you can't just expect to use stimulants to automatically make yourself smarter--just ask all the burnt out meth/crack addicts at NA meetings.
stimulants are definitely proven to improve one's general cognitive abilities, but only if used correctly. while moderate amounts of CNS stimulation can improve one's thinking, after a certain point you reach the point of over-stimulation and productivity drops dramatically with the increase of stimulation.
so if you're using meth to get high you're probably not going to gain the positive cognitive effects of stimulant use. but if you're drinking 1-2 cups of a coffee a day, then it probably does help increase your productivity. but then there are still other trade-offs, such as hypertension/insomnia/dependency. for some people it's hard to strike the perfect balance, and it may be easier to just go the natural route altogether.
that wouldn't be a bad idea. it'd be like reverse-gestapo tactics. the nazis were able to keep the public in line, not with surveillance or domestic spies, but by simply placing gestapo offices in every town and encouraging the public to spy on each other and rat each other out to the local gestapo offices. most of the information they gathered was through public denouncements, and this system was quite effective in controlling the population. so why couldn't we turn the same idea around and use public denunciations to control our government officials/civil servants?
i chose to respond to you because your post was a continuation of a false premise laid by the poster before you--i understand that. i figured you and the original poster would both read my post if i responded to you rather than the first post.
secondly, the position the chinese government takes on many issues diverge from reality. that was the point i was making.
ah yes, maybe we should take away wheelchair access ramps too. i mean, if the disabled don't like it, they're free to not shop at those stores after all. brilliant!
for the rest of us who think that a public-funded media corporation should provide equal access to all users who've already paid into the content, this challenge is long overdue. considering the BBC's reputation for being a progressive organization that's usually very in touch with its viewers/users, it's actually kinda odd that they would have ignored this issue for so long.
from my understanding (from the BBC Backstage mailinglist), this has been brought up by developers before. the BBC is actually pretty good at responding to user feedback, and work closely with the open source community through BBC Backstage. they typically support using open standards, but there's a lot of pressure from content producers to lock it down and cripple its usage with DRM. so i can understand that they're in a tough position, but i have faith that they'll reach some sort of compromise that will be better than the current arrangement.
this article is about a factory in Taiwan run by a Taiwanese company. also, please get a clue about Taiwanese history and its political situation. i happen to be Taiwanese and have lived in Taiwan for many years. i also have a Taiwanese passport coincidentally and have had to travel on it before I received my American passport. i know all about the nominal dispute between Taiwan and China. the fact is they are, and have always been, two completely different political entities and independent societies with very different cultures. both claims that Taiwan is a province of China or that the Taiwanese government is the political leadership of China are a complete joke to anyone familiar with Taiwanese/Chinese history.
when has the China collected any taxes from a single Taiwanese citizen? when has Chinese law ever been enforced in Taiwan? aside from a few political threats made against Taiwan openly declaring independence, China has never exerted any direct or indirect political influence on Taiwan and has never intervened in Taiwanese affairs. i did not want to get into this debate, but it's annoying when someone completely ignorant of the situation tries argue about it.
also, i wasn't trying to take an adversarial tone with you, just correcting a misconception that you and many other posters seem to share. otherwise, why bring up Chinese sweatshops on an article about a Gigabyte factory in Taiwan? Do a search on human rights violations in Taiwan and do a similar search on China if you do not believe me. better yet, travel to Taiwan and China to see the difference in cultures yourself.
Taiwan isn't China. The average quality of life in Taiwan is much much higher than in China, and I don't think that there are sweatshops in Taiwan. They most just manufacture lots of computers. If you thought the Gigabyte factory was a sweatshop, then you have no idea what a real sweatshop is--watch Walmart: The High Cost of Low Prices if you don't understand.
There are sweatshops in China because there's lots of low skill cheap labor from the countryside and cheap land for foreign companies to build large factories on. These conditions simply don't exist in Taiwan. I'd venture to say that there are more sweatshops in the US than there are in Taiwan (yes, there are hidden sweatshops in the U.S.).
all medicine is unnatural then i guess, we should just let people die from sicknesses naturally?
i highly doubt fertility treatments are the cause of overpopulation. also, people on extended life-support aren't likely to be having kids. overpopulation is typically caused by traditionally agrarian cultures where families are encouraged to have more kids to help with the farm work. it's a survival tactic. in other cultures it's a problem that can be solved with education, as educated couples tend to have fewer kids than uneducated couples.
but maybe i'm missing something. please enlighten us as to how taking people off of life-support and not allow infertile couples will combat the population boom occurring in China and India?
dumping money into it doesn't necessarily guarantee a good product. there are far more pragmatic solutions for this type of issue. perhaps a change in project management style or to the development process might improve the project.
they don't need to make a federal case out of the matter. it's municipal wifi, but municipal government is still answerable to the citizens of boston as we live in a democratic society. they need to write to their city officials or take it to the city council directly with a petition. there should be municipal policies regulating the administration of public wifi access that prevents city officials from employing political censorship. it's the tax payer's wifi system, so ultimately they have control over how it's run.
it's an idea/concept, not a belief system. just like "god" is a concept, and i can use/reference that concenpt without subscribing to a particular belief system. i've always found the concept of a godhead machine to be interesting to think about. i don't know if it'll ever happen, and i don't know if it'd even work, but it certainly incorporates some really interesting premises on the nature of the universe, life, information, and humanity.
that would be so awesome. i'd be able to get prescription painkillers, sedatives, and other tightly controlled drugs so easily then!
it's easy to see why doctors don't trust the diagnosis of diseases to computers. you can already look up symptoms online at sites like webmd, etc. but to make it a trusted establishment to replace doctors with would be foolish--and not just for the reason in the example above.
Slashdot Mirror
ohhhh.... i get it. because of the 49er's, right? or something to do with trollies?
you forgot the biggest one:
no talking in the library!
or maybe he just means community collaboration, which only works if all information is publicly available and can be exchanged freely. chances are the security issues discovered aren't unique to MBTA. it would make more sense to discuss the problem and its potential solutions out in the open, this way others may contribute their own experiences or perhaps detect similar vulnerabilities in their own systems.
well, genetics certainly have a lot to do with it, and studying why that is might allow us to exploit these genetic differences through medical technology.
but it might also be wise to take a holistic approach to the problem. as we can see from this discussion, there are a wide range of factors that can influence one's life span. stress certainly has something to do with it, and while we can't all live stress-free lives, at least one can learn how to cope better with the inevitable stress that we face.
you're missing the point of biological evolution. the end goal isn't the reproduction of offspring. reproduction is merely a means for genetic information to be spread and passed on. natural selection occurs at the genetic level, not the organism level. so it doesn't matter to evolution whether the genes are passed down for 1000 years through 1000 generations of short-lived organisms or 10 generations of long-lived organisms. there's no inherent advantage to either system.
so why aren't there amortal species? well there are. viruses for one are neither living nor dead, and many bacilli can exist indefinitely in spore form. but since there's no advantage to either having extremely long lifespans where a single generation goes through many reproductive cycles or having extremely short lifespans with just a single reproductive cycle for each generation, we see a large spectrum of timescales for living and reproduction cycles.
actually, opiate drugs, while highly addictive, have been shown to actually slow down aging. in extreme cases where heroin addicts began using at a very young age, many grow into adults looking like they still haven't hit puberty yet. but even in less extreme circumstances opiates attenuate the effects of aging by reducing one's stress levels and through its hypotensive effects--as most vertebrate species' lifespans seem to correspond to how fast their heart rate is or how hard their cardiovascular system is strained.
although, depending on where you live the positive effects of regular opiate consumption may be outweighed by the legal/social consequences, which might add stress to your life rather than relieve it.
dying from an unknown cause is quite different from dying from nothing--which implies having no cause at all.
many people have died in the past from, what were at the time, unknown ailments. and from the perspective of the physicians in that era, it might have _appeared_ that the victims died mysteriously from nothing. but eventually as medical science progresses, we learn that there _was_ an underlying cause--and often a preventable one.
saying that people can get to be so old that they just die spontaneously for no reason at all is like labeling a new phenomenon as "supernatural" just because it has yet to be fully understood.
I often wonder if the North defeating the South in the Civil War was really a good thing.
I'm not great with history, or the extrapolation of alternate historic time lines, but it seems to me that part of the reason why the U.S. is so reactionary compared to other developed nations is due to the fact that we have significant rural populations that exert a disproportionately large influence on the far more populous, and coincidentally much more progressive, urban population centers spread throughout the nation.
Not only that, but the shear size of our nation and government dilutes the efficacy of our democracy. Democratic action is most feasible at the municipal level, where the fluid nature of local government allows the public to easily change public policy to more or less reflect the political consensus of the community. But as you get to the state level, the political system becomes less and less fluid due to the increasing layers of bureaucracy between the public and policy makers. This is all the more apparent in the fact that, while independent candidates often win in local elections, there are virtually no 3rd party or independent politicians in government offices beyond the state level, as the bipartisan system is so rigidly entrenched at higher levels of government. This trend continues until you reach the federal level, where government becomes so rigid and disconnected from their constituency that it becomes almost impossible for democratic action to influence public policy.
The scales are further tipped towards the reactionary end of the political spectrum by a system whereby political representation is weighed by geographical area rather than purely by population size. The result of this is that rural populations that are smaller but more spread out receive much more political voice than densely populated metropolitan areas. So instead of progressive cultural centers where the majority of the population lives leading our society, we instead have a reactionary rural minority determining the political direction of our nation.
Sure, children in Louisiana deserve to share the benefits of a real scientific education, and women in Georgia should have the right to get an abortion and have access to pharmaceutical contraceptives. But our moral obligation to bring these ass-backward states into the 21st century seems to be outweighed by the cost of creating such a geographically overstretched nation. in order to maintain a cohesive nation in such an overstretched area, there is a necessary forcible cultural/political homogenization to create a unified national cultural. but as a result of all the aforementioned factors, the existing hegemon is one of a largely reactionary nature.
It seems to me that if we had allowed the South to secede from the Union, or perhaps even let the union dissolve altogether, there'd be much more political and cultural diversity in North America. Politically conservative rural states may be even more reactionary, but the liberal northern/coastal states would also be much more progressive. And at the very least, the ID/creationist camp wouldn't have any political influence outside of their own state. We'd be much better off having the reactionary population culturally/politically quarantined rather than letting them choose our president.
I guess I stand corrected. Thanks for the clarification.
while i don't disagree that our government leadership is incompetent, i think that the blame isn't solely on politicians. we did at one point live in a free and democratic society. a large part of the blame therefor rests on the the public. we have developed a culture of apathy, and as such no revolution could ever take place.
the reason for public apathy is two folds. firstly, the bipartisan system that our democracy has evolved into is inherently broken. but more importantly the 4th estate has failed to uphold its duty to the public. the reason why freedom of press is so important to a free society is because the press plays a crucial role in the democratic process. democracy only works when the citizenry is well informed and educated. and when the press neglects its duty to report government/political corruption, voters can not make informed votes to provide the negative feedback you mentioned.
so unless the nature of our press changes fundamentally, i don't see any desperately needed widespread reforms taking place. perhaps the internet is the key. i don't know. but maybe one day we'll see direct participatory democracy being realized in the U.S. with the advent of the the internet and the information age, perhaps government records could be placed directly online so that the public can stay informed about government without the press. likewise, with internet access being near ubiquitous today, i don't see why we even need legislative representatives to pass legislation and form public policy. why couldn't we just conduct mass referendums over the web and bypass congress altogether?
i mean, if poor illiterate Venezuelans can draft their own constitution via referendum, why can't Americans pass legislation the same way? with today's communications technology, we don't have logistical problems getting in the way of direct democracy.
the -caine suffix is simply used for any drug with properties of a local anesthetic. however, novacaine, lidocaine, cocaine, etc. are not actually chemically related or remotely similar in molecular structure to each other, so there shouldn't be a problem with this vaccine interfering with the other *caine anesthetics.
it's said that Paul Erdos was a habitual coffee drinking and user of amphetamines and was one of the most prolific mathematicians of his time because of it. however, you can't just expect to use stimulants to automatically make yourself smarter--just ask all the burnt out meth/crack addicts at NA meetings.
stimulants are definitely proven to improve one's general cognitive abilities, but only if used correctly. while moderate amounts of CNS stimulation can improve one's thinking, after a certain point you reach the point of over-stimulation and productivity drops dramatically with the increase of stimulation.
so if you're using meth to get high you're probably not going to gain the positive cognitive effects of stimulant use. but if you're drinking 1-2 cups of a coffee a day, then it probably does help increase your productivity. but then there are still other trade-offs, such as hypertension/insomnia/dependency. for some people it's hard to strike the perfect balance, and it may be easier to just go the natural route altogether.
or maybe he just has really strong hands?
the world will never know...
that wouldn't be a bad idea. it'd be like reverse-gestapo tactics. the nazis were able to keep the public in line, not with surveillance or domestic spies, but by simply placing gestapo offices in every town and encouraging the public to spy on each other and rat each other out to the local gestapo offices. most of the information they gathered was through public denouncements, and this system was quite effective in controlling the population. so why couldn't we turn the same idea around and use public denunciations to control our government officials/civil servants?
i chose to respond to you because your post was a continuation of a false premise laid by the poster before you--i understand that. i figured you and the original poster would both read my post if i responded to you rather than the first post.
secondly, the position the chinese government takes on many issues diverge from reality. that was the point i was making.
ah yes, maybe we should take away wheelchair access ramps too. i mean, if the disabled don't like it, they're free to not shop at those stores after all. brilliant!
for the rest of us who think that a public-funded media corporation should provide equal access to all users who've already paid into the content, this challenge is long overdue. considering the BBC's reputation for being a progressive organization that's usually very in touch with its viewers/users, it's actually kinda odd that they would have ignored this issue for so long.
from my understanding (from the BBC Backstage mailinglist), this has been brought up by developers before. the BBC is actually pretty good at responding to user feedback, and work closely with the open source community through BBC Backstage. they typically support using open standards, but there's a lot of pressure from content producers to lock it down and cripple its usage with DRM. so i can understand that they're in a tough position, but i have faith that they'll reach some sort of compromise that will be better than the current arrangement.
this article is about a factory in Taiwan run by a Taiwanese company. also, please get a clue about Taiwanese history and its political situation. i happen to be Taiwanese and have lived in Taiwan for many years. i also have a Taiwanese passport coincidentally and have had to travel on it before I received my American passport. i know all about the nominal dispute between Taiwan and China. the fact is they are, and have always been, two completely different political entities and independent societies with very different cultures. both claims that Taiwan is a province of China or that the Taiwanese government is the political leadership of China are a complete joke to anyone familiar with Taiwanese/Chinese history.
when has the China collected any taxes from a single Taiwanese citizen? when has Chinese law ever been enforced in Taiwan? aside from a few political threats made against Taiwan openly declaring independence, China has never exerted any direct or indirect political influence on Taiwan and has never intervened in Taiwanese affairs. i did not want to get into this debate, but it's annoying when someone completely ignorant of the situation tries argue about it.
also, i wasn't trying to take an adversarial tone with you, just correcting a misconception that you and many other posters seem to share. otherwise, why bring up Chinese sweatshops on an article about a Gigabyte factory in Taiwan? Do a search on human rights violations in Taiwan and do a similar search on China if you do not believe me. better yet, travel to Taiwan and China to see the difference in cultures yourself.
Taiwan isn't China. The average quality of life in Taiwan is much much higher than in China, and I don't think that there are sweatshops in Taiwan. They most just manufacture lots of computers. If you thought the Gigabyte factory was a sweatshop, then you have no idea what a real sweatshop is--watch Walmart: The High Cost of Low Prices if you don't understand. There are sweatshops in China because there's lots of low skill cheap labor from the countryside and cheap land for foreign companies to build large factories on. These conditions simply don't exist in Taiwan. I'd venture to say that there are more sweatshops in the US than there are in Taiwan (yes, there are hidden sweatshops in the U.S.).
all medicine is unnatural then i guess, we should just let people die from sicknesses naturally? i highly doubt fertility treatments are the cause of overpopulation. also, people on extended life-support aren't likely to be having kids. overpopulation is typically caused by traditionally agrarian cultures where families are encouraged to have more kids to help with the farm work. it's a survival tactic. in other cultures it's a problem that can be solved with education, as educated couples tend to have fewer kids than uneducated couples. but maybe i'm missing something. please enlighten us as to how taking people off of life-support and not allow infertile couples will combat the population boom occurring in China and India?
dumping money into it doesn't necessarily guarantee a good product. there are far more pragmatic solutions for this type of issue. perhaps a change in project management style or to the development process might improve the project.
they don't need to make a federal case out of the matter. it's municipal wifi, but municipal government is still answerable to the citizens of boston as we live in a democratic society. they need to write to their city officials or take it to the city council directly with a petition. there should be municipal policies regulating the administration of public wifi access that prevents city officials from employing political censorship. it's the tax payer's wifi system, so ultimately they have control over how it's run.
make a gym sweat cologne. now you can tell people you just got back from the gym even if you haven't!
it's an idea/concept, not a belief system. just like "god" is a concept, and i can use/reference that concenpt without subscribing to a particular belief system. i've always found the concept of a godhead machine to be interesting to think about. i don't know if it'll ever happen, and i don't know if it'd even work, but it certainly incorporates some really interesting premises on the nature of the universe, life, information, and humanity.
i've got the kurzweil reader and it's pretty interesting. i think i found it on either mininova or piratebay if anyone else is interested.
that would be so awesome. i'd be able to get prescription painkillers, sedatives, and other tightly controlled drugs so easily then! it's easy to see why doctors don't trust the diagnosis of diseases to computers. you can already look up symptoms online at sites like webmd, etc. but to make it a trusted establishment to replace doctors with would be foolish--and not just for the reason in the example above.