The best part about Broken Ring was hunting around underneath desks after a cable got disconnected, trying to find the token that fell out into the carpet.
I am very happy that there are artificially imposed restrictions on your access to my personal information. I would be extremely upset to find out that you had full access to my bank statements, health records, and school transcripts.
Suffice it to say that all cultures have information access restrictions. Some are different from yours.
That's not the question that they were asking, and it's certainly not the real outcome of their research. First of all, the research applies to primates, not specifically to humans, since the experimental subjects were nonhuman. Second, treating a tool as a physical extension of the body is not as simple as you might think it is. There's a perfectly good argument that tools are not represented in the brain, but instead the motor actions used to manipulate them are instead what are represented. The research shows that this is not the case, that the brain doesn't process tool use simply in terms of moving muscles in certain ways, but instead actually processes tool use as if the tool is physically part of the body. This is particularly interesting since the tool clearly isn't, it's not ennervated by the nervous system in any conceivable manner. Your flippant comment discredits the huge amount of work that went into this study, as well as the serious questions that are being posed here. Furthermore, arguing that this is a waste of grant money which was probably hard to get in the first place trivializes the effort that they put into convincing others that the study was worth funding. In short, you're being incredbily narrow-minded and short-sighted, exactly like the people in politics who present such a huge danger for scientific research by viewing basic questions as irrelevant.
The only problem with the human intervention theory for this plant is that there needs to be a reason why the proto-Austronesians who settled Madagascar would want to have brought this plant with them. Recall that the Micronesian and Polynesian settlers had a very select group of plants and animals that they brought with them when voyaging to settle new land. Bringing plants across the ocean, or even for long distances along the coast, requires some pretty fancy preservation techniques. Consider, for example, how difficult it would be to bring along breadfruit for cultivation, since breadfruit does not grow from seed. It doesn't seem like the palm is interesting to humans in the vicinity, so it probably wasn't brought intentionally. So unless there's a possibility of this palm's being an advantageous rider like the Polynesian rat, something which would require small seeds to be easily lost aboard ship and to survive some salt water, there's no sensible reason why it should have come along with humans. The botanists have probably already considered this problem and have ruled it out, which is why the idea goes unmentioned.
Star following does not necessitate tracking the path of the star across the night sky. It is generally based on where a certain star appears on the horizon. Read up on traditional Polynesian/Micronesian navigation for the details.
As I recall, toad-licking involves squeezing a certain part of the toad to express some mucosal goop which contains the active ingredient, then licking the goop off of the toad. I don't know for sure, I've never tried it. Probably never will, either. I like to think that I have better things to do than licking amphibians.
You're arguing with someone who explicitly equated reality and Star Wars. Are you trying to pick apart the logical inaccuracies in Star Wars, or are you just being stupid?
It used to be that way. Now health insurance is just part of the health care system in America, unless you're absurdly rich and have wads of cash laying about. Have you tried to get any sort of health care beyond the emergency room without health insurance? Good luck, and enjoy the endless rounds of bill collectors.
Indeed, this is the same principle behind "before and after" tests as used in e.g. cancer chemotherapy, asthma treatment, etc. It's called a "baseline" scan. The same principle is applied in all experimental sciences.
Tell me when the actual research articles are available in a refereed journal. Until then, this is just more unreliable journalistic garbage designed to sell magazines and newspapers.
Someday perhaps scientists will finally rebel against the awful state of science journalism. Until then, it's best to just ignore it.
"A person wouldn't... attempt to ban something if it hadn't had a large impact on them."
What sentient species are you talking about? As far as I can tell, humans have been trying to ban things and activities that don't have a large impact on them since the very first nosy neighbors.
I think the real reason is that engineering is boring for most Americans, they'd rather take something either "harder" like physics, chemistry, meterology, etc., or "softer" like biology, psychology, or linguistics, or into an abstract field like mathematics or computer science. This is particularly true for someone interested in research - why would they want to do research in engineering when they could have a much more significant impact in one of the other fields?
Taiwan has quite a few languages besides Mandarin Chinese. Taiwanese (or Taiyu, Hoklo, Taiwanhua) is one Minnan Chinese language that happens to be widespread. As for other Chinese languages, there's Hakka, a little Cantonese, and maybe a few others. Some older folks in Taiwan speak Japanese learned during the pre-WWII occupation.
But there are also many Formosan languages spoken by the aboriginal people of Taiwan that are completely unrelated to the Chinese family. Instead, Formosan languages are the oldest branch of the Austronesian family, found spread throughout the globe from Madagascar to Easter Island. All of these languages are endangered to some extent, and many are extinct. Among others, Elizabeth Zeitoun, a specialist on Saisiyat, is a notable scholar working on Formosan languages.
Those little bits and pieces that you couldn't figure out how to put back in are part of the design that allows the manufacturer to tell whether or not the laptop has been diassembled previously without the their knowledge. There are a lot of devices out there with little plastic tabs, flimsy metal springs, easily stripped screws, and other functionless mechanical gewgaws which have been designed to be nearly impossible to properly replace, all for the express reason of determining whether a warranty was voided through improper disassembly.
Feel free to start shouldering the costs of shipping American food up there then. Most of the people living there can't: they have no jobs with monetary income. Selling arts and crafts is one of the only sources of money for many Eskimos. That and the PFD.
Standing at the bow of a small open boat with an outboard motor with a non-exploding harpoon and a gun in your hand is probably one of the scariest experiences I can imagine. I've heard some really frightening tales from Eskimo whaling captains.
What is it with you and your "factory killing ships"? Are you some kind of nut? Or do you have Eskimo people confused with the Japanese "scientific" whaling expeditions?
Do some fucking research before you spout off with your nonsense. A Google search for "eskimo whaling techniques" brings up lots of good explanations on how whaling is done in modern Eskimo communities. From http://luna.pos.to/whale/iwc_chair06_6.html see "Regarding the Alaska Eskimo bowhead whale subsistence hunt, it was reported that subsistence hunters make every effort to dispatch the whale as quickly as possible to provide a humane death for the whale, to reduce the chance of losing the whale, and to reduce the amount of time hunters in small boats must spend in the frigid waters of the Arctic Ocean. It was further reported that the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission has undertaken an extensive program to upgrade the safety and humaneness of its traditional weapons used in the hunt."
Blubber isn't dessert. Flipper is. At a hunt, when they cut off the flippers they hand bits of them out to kids who relish them like candy. The taste is somewhat sweeter than ordinary muktuk (blubber), as I recall from my youth.
Another perennial favorite among kids is eyeballs.
Slashdot Mirror
You got modded -1 Offtopic because Statice is an object DB, not a relational DB. Sorry.
I do agree that Statice is awesome and wish we had it on vanilla platforms today.
According to a similar survey, references to surveys are made up on the spot about 86% of the time.
The best part about Broken Ring was hunting around underneath desks after a cable got disconnected, trying to find the token that fell out into the carpet.
I am very happy that there are artificially imposed restrictions on your access to my personal information. I would be extremely upset to find out that you had full access to my bank statements, health records, and school transcripts.
Suffice it to say that all cultures have information access restrictions. Some are different from yours.
That's not the question that they were asking, and it's certainly not the real outcome of their research. First of all, the research applies to primates, not specifically to humans, since the experimental subjects were nonhuman. Second, treating a tool as a physical extension of the body is not as simple as you might think it is. There's a perfectly good argument that tools are not represented in the brain, but instead the motor actions used to manipulate them are instead what are represented. The research shows that this is not the case, that the brain doesn't process tool use simply in terms of moving muscles in certain ways, but instead actually processes tool use as if the tool is physically part of the body. This is particularly interesting since the tool clearly isn't, it's not ennervated by the nervous system in any conceivable manner. Your flippant comment discredits the huge amount of work that went into this study, as well as the serious questions that are being posed here. Furthermore, arguing that this is a waste of grant money which was probably hard to get in the first place trivializes the effort that they put into convincing others that the study was worth funding. In short, you're being incredbily narrow-minded and short-sighted, exactly like the people in politics who present such a huge danger for scientific research by viewing basic questions as irrelevant.
The only problem with the human intervention theory for this plant is that there needs to be a reason why the proto-Austronesians who settled Madagascar would want to have brought this plant with them. Recall that the Micronesian and Polynesian settlers had a very select group of plants and animals that they brought with them when voyaging to settle new land. Bringing plants across the ocean, or even for long distances along the coast, requires some pretty fancy preservation techniques. Consider, for example, how difficult it would be to bring along breadfruit for cultivation, since breadfruit does not grow from seed. It doesn't seem like the palm is interesting to humans in the vicinity, so it probably wasn't brought intentionally. So unless there's a possibility of this palm's being an advantageous rider like the Polynesian rat, something which would require small seeds to be easily lost aboard ship and to survive some salt water, there's no sensible reason why it should have come along with humans. The botanists have probably already considered this problem and have ruled it out, which is why the idea goes unmentioned.
Link
Searching for "iliad" on Google won't work without "-homer".
Star following does not necessitate tracking the path of the star across the night sky. It is generally based on where a certain star appears on the horizon. Read up on traditional Polynesian/Micronesian navigation for the details.
That's not very nice, calling a Vax a mainframe. Vaxen are technically minicomputers, even the beastly 8800 series.
As I recall, toad-licking involves squeezing a certain part of the toad to express some mucosal goop which contains the active ingredient, then licking the goop off of the toad. I don't know for sure, I've never tried it. Probably never will, either. I like to think that I have better things to do than licking amphibians.
You're arguing with someone who explicitly equated reality and Star Wars. Are you trying to pick apart the logical inaccuracies in Star Wars, or are you just being stupid?
It used to be that way. Now health insurance is just part of the health care system in America, unless you're absurdly rich and have wads of cash laying about. Have you tried to get any sort of health care beyond the emergency room without health insurance? Good luck, and enjoy the endless rounds of bill collectors.
Indeed, this is the same principle behind "before and after" tests as used in e.g. cancer chemotherapy, asthma treatment, etc. It's called a "baseline" scan. The same principle is applied in all experimental sciences.
I believe that he meant the "Interweb", not the "Internet".
Tell me when the actual research articles are available in a refereed journal. Until then, this is just more unreliable journalistic garbage designed to sell magazines and newspapers.
Someday perhaps scientists will finally rebel against the awful state of science journalism. Until then, it's best to just ignore it.
"A person wouldn't ... attempt to ban something if it hadn't had a large impact on them."
What sentient species are you talking about? As far as I can tell, humans have been trying to ban things and activities that don't have a large impact on them since the very first nosy neighbors.
The Japanese word you're referring to is "giri", not *"guri". And its opposition is "on", which is uncompensable unlike "giri".
I think the real reason is that engineering is boring for most Americans, they'd rather take something either "harder" like physics, chemistry, meterology, etc., or "softer" like biology, psychology, or linguistics, or into an abstract field like mathematics or computer science. This is particularly true for someone interested in research - why would they want to do research in engineering when they could have a much more significant impact in one of the other fields?
Taiwan has quite a few languages besides Mandarin Chinese. Taiwanese (or Taiyu, Hoklo, Taiwanhua) is one Minnan Chinese language that happens to be widespread. As for other Chinese languages, there's Hakka, a little Cantonese, and maybe a few others. Some older folks in Taiwan speak Japanese learned during the pre-WWII occupation.
But there are also many Formosan languages spoken by the aboriginal people of Taiwan that are completely unrelated to the Chinese family. Instead, Formosan languages are the oldest branch of the Austronesian family, found spread throughout the globe from Madagascar to Easter Island. All of these languages are endangered to some extent, and many are extinct. Among others, Elizabeth Zeitoun, a specialist on Saisiyat, is a notable scholar working on Formosan languages.
http://www.ethnologue.org/show_map.asp?name=TW&seq=20
http://www.ethnologue.org/show_country.asp?name=TW
Those little bits and pieces that you couldn't figure out how to put back in are part of the design that allows the manufacturer to tell whether or not the laptop has been diassembled previously without the their knowledge. There are a lot of devices out there with little plastic tabs, flimsy metal springs, easily stripped screws, and other functionless mechanical gewgaws which have been designed to be nearly impossible to properly replace, all for the express reason of determining whether a warranty was voided through improper disassembly.
Why don't you just teach him not to watch TV?
He *did* screw them over if he is about to die in a few years and doesn't give a wet fart about the creditors coming after his kids when he's dead.
That's the analogy I think the grandparent poster was trying to make.
Feel free to start shouldering the costs of shipping American food up there then. Most of the people living there can't: they have no jobs with monetary income. Selling arts and crafts is one of the only sources of money for many Eskimos. That and the PFD.
Standing at the bow of a small open boat with an outboard motor with a non-exploding harpoon and a gun in your hand is probably one of the scariest experiences I can imagine. I've heard some really frightening tales from Eskimo whaling captains.
/ Research/Multidisciplinary/Whaling_societies.htme vukpaper.html
What is it with you and your "factory killing ships"? Are you some kind of nut? Or do you have Eskimo people confused with the Japanese "scientific" whaling expeditions?
Do some fucking research before you spout off with your nonsense. A Google search for "eskimo whaling techniques" brings up lots of good explanations on how whaling is done in modern Eskimo communities. From http://luna.pos.to/whale/iwc_chair06_6.html see "Regarding the Alaska Eskimo bowhead whale subsistence hunt, it was reported that subsistence hunters make every effort to dispatch the whale as quickly as possible to provide a humane death for the whale, to reduce the chance of losing the whale, and to reduce the amount of time hunters in small boats must spend in the frigid waters of the Arctic Ocean. It was further reported that the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission has undertaken an extensive program to upgrade the safety and humaneness of its traditional weapons used in the hunt."
Other sources of information to help with your prejudiced ignorance:
http://www.uark.edu/misc/jcdixon/Historic_Whaling
http://depts.washington.edu/rural/RURAL/advice/dt
http://www.iwcoffice.org/index.htm
Blubber isn't dessert. Flipper is. At a hunt, when they cut off the flippers they hand bits of them out to kids who relish them like candy. The taste is somewhat sweeter than ordinary muktuk (blubber), as I recall from my youth.
Another perennial favorite among kids is eyeballs.