Re:Nice Anti-Usian Propaganda, Now Some Facts
on
Cuba Switching to Linux
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· Score: 2, Insightful
I take it those residents wouldn't be the same ones who risk their lives fleeing TO the United States on rickety watercraft?
Are you talking about Cubans risking their lives getting to USA on rafts? Or Mexicans, Guatemalens, Salvadorenos, crossing miles of desert for the same thing? Dick Cheney praised El Salvador in the VP Debates, yet Salvadorans constantly try to cross the border risking their lives. By your logic he just praised Cuba by proxy too, then.
Additionally -
the US Interest Section in Havana (kind of like an embassy, but not really since we don't have official relations) has been spreading propaganda about how great life in the USA is, how bad things are in Cuba, etc. That wouldn't have anything to with it either, would it?
Every single country on the planet has had people emigrate from it. So there
You cannot argue with a straight face that given free choice, the Cuban people would still have Castro in power.
I never made any claim whatsoever.
However you cannot argue with a straight face that the US Embargo makes any sense whatsoever. We trade with China and Viet Nam, which are both communist countries with dictators. We trade with Mexico despite people risking risking their lives trying to cross the border to the USA.
There is no point in defending his dictatorship, and you show a particular ignorance in doing so.
I am not defending his dictatorship, and you know it. You're just knee-jerking that I don't immediately assume everything he does is bad, and that he's an innately evil guy out to manipulate the people, which you seem to think.
At the very least, you need to include some disclaimers or acknowledge that you feel Castro is divine.
I never said he was divine, that reveals alot about your mindset that you interpret this from my post.
Of course he's not perfect that's for sure. Cuba has problems, some of which are due to him, that's for sure too. However he has done ALOT of good for Cuba as well, which you seem incapable of acknowledging.
You were doing well painting Castro as a great guy
I don't see what that has to do with anything. Castro has problems, that's for certain, Cuba has problems in addition to the embargo, that's for certain too. Neither is perfect. But then neither is any government.
What I'm pointing out is two things :
Castro is not the evil manipulative dictator that the US tries to paint him as
The embargo prevents many vital goods from getting to Cuba. People have a tendency to assume that the lower quality of life due to lack of vital goods is due to Castro, and therefore hold him entirely responsible.
Re:Nice Anti-Usian Propaganda, Now Some Facts
on
Cuba Switching to Linux
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
I don't recall the majority of Cuban-Americans including new arrivals saying that the admire Castro.
Brilliant logic, the people that emigrate from a country do tend to hate the government (or economy or other factors). You then extrapolate from extremely specific subset to all people.
The "free" healthcare is worth about as much as you'd expect a dictator's promises to be worth. The capitalist things, like the taxi system, work gloriously.
Ever hear of the Prime Directive from Star Trek? The one industry that brings in the most money in Cuba is the Tourist Industry, where the people have direct contact with visiting tourists. That's why I refused to give our bus driver a tip, like the other Americans I went with wanted to, because it promotes the classification, or basically introduces corruption into the economy that otherwise wouldn't have been there.
So Congratulations for increasing the corruption of the people.
Regarding hotels - where did you stay? My girlfriend and I shared a room in two hotels, there were no problems whatsoever with this. Perhaps you were soliciting prostitutes (as per your comment in the first paragraph)? Maybe you didn't even realize that some women would sleep with you if you bought them dinner or some other relatively cheap things (cheap for you). And this type of behavior, of you interfering with the Cuban economy and stratifying it) is what they don't want. Prime directive.
Regarding the internet - you are right at fancy hotels the internet is expensive (at $3 per hour or whatever). But people there CAN and DO use the internet, I've communicated with several Cubans through it. And these are REAL Cubans I've met on the streets of Havana, people I've gone up to first, not people that came up to me.
Your collection of pictures is nice and also misleading, when I was last there about 2 years ago there were many buildings under renovation in that same area. I didn't see a single nice building in your photoes, leading me to doubt your sincerity. But the majority of the problem with homes is with the embargo - building materials are in very short supply.
You are right that some pro-Cuba tours get shown only the nice areas of Cuba, and similar some anti-Cuba tours get shown only the bad areas of Cuba.
But in any case the embargo is totally unethical, severely hurts the people of Cuba, and is an antiquated relic of the cold war. We trade with other communist countries, such as China and Viet Nam, so that argument is BS. People try to flee Mexico as and other countries to the US, so that argument that Cubans flee Cuba is also BS. Castro's regime of course has many problems, as does any government on the planet. But in light of such hostility of the embargo Cuba does pretty good.
Cuba is poor, but most of that is due to the embargo. Their sugar industry virtually collapsed when the US imposed the embargo, that was a major source of income. That's also why sugar in the USA is priced higher, and why you see high-fructose corn syrup so prominently.
You are right about having political murals around the country.
You don't like improvised crutches, but then you should be against the embargo so they can get proper medicines and other health-care items.
You are also right that the embargo works to Fidel's advantage, in that the tighter the US squeezes the more Fidel can rally the people.
But you are wrong if you claim it's Fidel keeping the people poor, for the resources they have and the limited trading they can do with other countries, Cuba is a far more advanced nation than other similar countries.
And the other thing is that everybody is equally poor - same access to education, health care, food, etc. Unlike nearly every other Latin American country, where the rich are super rich elites and the poor live in total abject poverty.
Not to mention that Cuba has one of the highest literacy rates, and also one of the lowest infant mortality rates.
Also you might mention that while the US doesn't trade with "bad communist Cuba" it has no problems trading with China and Viet Nam.
Re:Can Microsoft even legally sell Windows in Cuba
on
Cuba Switching to Linux
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· Score: 4, Insightful
The US policies against Cuba are bad for Cuba, but great for the rest of the world. It has left a Carribean island with great weather, great beaches, great cigars, affordable accomodations and best of all, NO Americans. It's like vacation heaven. Besides, none of you would like it there. Really.
Well I'm glad you conceited snobs enjoy the embargo while the people of Cuba suffer because of it. The embargo severely cripples the Cuban economy, but hey, let's keep those people in poverty just so a few snobs like yourself can vacation on the Island free of American influences.
Perhaps you're not aware that not only can the USA not trade with Cuba under the embargo, but any international vessel that trades with Cuba cannot trade with the USA on that same trip. So if you are trading anything, you will aim most of your travels to the USA, because the Cuban imports/exports will not add anythign appreciable.
You may love keeping the embargo intact so you can take small vacations there like the conceited snob you are, but Cubans have alot of difficulty buying everyday necessities such as medicines, light bulbs, automobile parts, etc because of it.
You may love great beaches and cigars, which explains your reasons for going. When I (a US citizen) went we brought tens of thousands of dollars worth of medicines that US hospitals were disposing because they were just past their expiration date (but still good for all intents and purposes). The hospitals we visited were extremely gracious for this, medicines are really in short supply there because of the embargo.
You may like not dealing with Americans travelling in your little vacation paradise, but most cities are poorly lit, with only every 3 or 4 streetlights on. I thought at first this was to save electricity, but it's because they have a very short supply of light bulbs they can get through the embargo.
You may love the antique cars still driving around (with ridiculous amounts of air pollution), but Cubans have tough times getting automobile parts through the embargo. That's why they still have many old cars from before the embargo was placed. They have tough times not only buying new cars but even replacement parts for old cars. But hey, let's keep them in this state just so you can go and visit this quaint island.
It's funny how you dislike Americans so much, yet you're in reality far worse than the average American you despise so much.
What happens when cuban sysadmins start submitting patches into linux? is this not then code that is a product of cuba? that would be Illegal to bring into the USA.
As far as I understand from the Office of Foreign Assets, via the US Treasury, and is the office that manages the trade embargo against Cuba - is that it is only illegal to spend American dollars there.
You can actually visit Cuba, that's legit, you just cannot spend dollars there.
But anyway - there isn't anything (AFAIK) wrong with importing Cuban art/culture/music/literature back to the USA, as long as dollars weren't spent on the transfer. Just as there are tons of latino bands using Cuban influences in their music, playing Cuban songs, there should be no problem with patches to Linux submitted by a Cuban.
Re:Nice Anti-Usian Propaganda, Now Some Facts
on
Cuba Switching to Linux
·
· Score: 5, Informative
When have you ever visited Cuba, and how do you claim that you know the 'reality'?
Castro was a rich kid and lawyer, but he only took from that his education, if you knew anything about the revolution you'd know he lived in poverty in the revolutionary camps out in the boonies. You'd also know that the rich folks like his family tended to support the corrupt Batista regime, and that Castro had the courage to fight against the inequality, while nearly ALL other rich families supported Batista.
You complain about the average Cuban living in poverty but you miss the following - ALL Cubans have access to government-issued food, education, and medical care. That's EVERYBODY, from the chauffer who drives Castro around to a dentist in Havana to a farmer in la Isla de Juventud.
You also complain about poverty but neglect to mention 90% of that poverty is due to the trade embargo by the USA. Cuba is a third-world country, that is definitely true. Now if you look at its income and compare to other countries of similar income you'll see that Cuba is far far ahead of other countries. Many residents of Latin America admire Castro for what he has done for Cuba, especially in light of all the aggression the USA has against them.
Why would you run a word processor or spreadsheet on your PDA, much less your phone.
For the same reason someone would want to use it on their laptop. except a PDA is far easier to carry around, I have mine always in my wallet for instance.
what kind of phones are you talking about anyway? if you are thinking of treo or blackberry, then they're basically pda anyway, which is my original point as to why i'd want a pda in the first place.
Can you input data into your cell phone as quickly as a screen keyboard or graffiti?
Can you run word-processors and spreadsheets on your cell phone?
Does your cell-phone have a decent-sized display?
Is there a vast library of both free and commercial software for your cell phone? Including e-books and document readers, dictionaries, map software, etc?
Can you connect to a GPS via bluetooth with your cellphone, have it display real-time maps, such that you can navigate your car with it?
I kind of agree with you that it's annoying having both PDA and Mobile Phone, but there are many reasons why I need a PDA and my phone just doesn't cut it. (I just bought my first PDA about 5 weeks ago, BTW, a Palm Zire 31).
I do hope that within the next few years we'll see a merging of phones and PDA's, like the Treo, but with a better design.
No, Safire's replacement is John Tierney, who does tend to annoy me with his dogged devotion to the Republican agenda. But his columns so far have shown at least a little thought and analysis, even though I disagree with him most of the time.
Brooks ravings, on the other hand, are more like dreamy-eyed droolings consistently worshipping the administration, kind of like an enamored child writing about his favorite super hero.
Most slashdot links to NYT are to articles, not Op-Eds.
I still think the New York Times is of decent journalistic integrity, even after the few debacles of the past year or two. IMHO, the NYT is one of the best 'free' online US news sources.
Now their Op-Ed pages, on the other hand, vary greatly. Some op-eds are worthwhile, some are so-so, while some, especially the refuse spewed out by KarlRove-lite David Brooks, aren't worth the energy of clicking the mouse button. I think this move will not significantly affect how many visitors they get to the rest of the site. I also can't imagine too many people paying $50 just to read the op-ed columns.
All the academic publishers do is marketing, printing, type setting, and mailing to libraries, and none of those are essential for academic journals anymore.
You missed one crucial item - peer review. Any paper submitted to one of these publishers has to make it past a referree committee, which usually serves to weed out the crap. They figure out what area of expertise the author's paper is in, and submit it to peers in a similar field, to make sure the paper is worthy to be published.
In fully free and open journals, you'll lose this important step, and newcomers will be unable to distinguish the real research from pseudoscience.
This is a significant, albeit old, example of the synergy that can exist when information is shared freely rather than traded as a commodity. Unfortunately US industry, judicial, and legislation seem to have forgotten some of these lessons.
You seem to forget entirely about the arXiv, which is a freely accessible scientific database of papers that's been around for many years now. It's also been at least partly funded by US tax dollars, ever since it's inception.
Electron spin is NOT the same phenomenon as orientation of magnetic field. But you can think of it the following way. An electron is a tiny magnetic dipole. The potential energy of a dipole in a magnetic field is the inner product -mu dot B. Where mu is the dipole moment (Bohr Magneton in the case of an electron), B is the magnetic field. The dipole wants to go to the lowest energy state, which is aligned with the field (negative energy).
Quantum mechanics forces a measure of the electron's spin (and hence the direction of the dipole moment) into one of the allowable eigenstates. For a spin-1/2 fermion, such as an electron, there are only two states.
now - if you apply a field in the z direction and measure the spin in the z direction, there is a definite preference for the spin to align with the field.
if you apply the field in the y direction and measure in the z direction, then both states are of equal energies and there is no preference.
If you turn on interactions between electrons, like ferromagnetic or anti-ferromagnetic coupling, you get interesting effects, esecially at points where there the electron-electron interaction is countered by the field, and you have phase transitions at that point. if you allow for different couplings, different field directions, you can build up very rich phase diagrams of such systems, which are actually being studied by top physicists today.
Eg - anti-ferromagnetic interactions (neighbors want to be anti-aligned) on a triangle lattice is a frustrated magnet. A spin will be up, another neighbor will be down, the third is equally frustrated and doesn't know where to go. This makes very degenerate ground states, which have interesting properties.
Nice way to demonstrate your maturity. Makes me wonder if it's worth the time to bother replying to you.
Anyway, I did RTFA, and was responding to the parent's claim (or overextended southpark joke) that merely mentioning a bunch of trendy technobabble words in PhysOrg implies profit. That's why I specifically referred to "real" peer-reviewed journals.
Okay, if you want to get technical you have to look at the Hamiltonian of the problem, to see the change of energy would be to flip a single spin.
Free electrons means without any other interactions, and spin up and spin down have no preference. In fact, the directions up/down don't mean anything unless some non-isotropic disturbance is present in the system. This would usually be the applied magnetic field.
If you have a ferromagnet, the electrons want to align parallel, so flipping one electron costs energy. This energy can come from thermal excitations, so to get the fully aligned state you need to cool the system down to minimize these excitations.
As for your battery, remember you are fundamentally storing chemical potential to drive current (actually, I'm kind of BSing here, so maybe a chemist can correct this), so aligning the spins probably won't do much. In fact, you'd most likely waste 100x or more of the energy the battery would provide just running the fridges necessary to align the spins.
But like I said, you'd really need a spintronic battery, which maybe some scientists are studying somewhere. A standard battery would lose the spin coherence relativly quickly, even if you charged it with a fully spin-polarized current.
Now about your question, if you put the spins all in spin-down state and put an up-pointing magnetic field, that's alot of energy stored there (assuming no other interactions between the spins that would allow this). But that would be very difficult to set up a state like this.
Actually such a state, if you did set it up, is at a negative temperature, believe it or not. Basically meaning there is a population inverions, with more excited states populated than ground states, and is a process fundamental to laser operation.
Too late, quantum physics has long ago settled on the suffix 'on' for representing discrete quanta of various excitations.
Eg - photons, phonons, magnons, ripplons, gravitons, inflatons, solitons, instantons, etc. Although that actually has nothing to do with spintronics, but your post made me think of it.
Of course the buzzword 'spintronics' is is just 'electronics' with the word spin substituted in.
The actual less-trendy synonym for spintronics is Magnetoelectronics, which is what it's usually referred to in the "real" science journals, not popular outlets like PhysOrg.
magnetoelectronics.
BTW - since you mention Greek I thought a better example would be using the suffix Thon, as from Marathon, to refer to any excessivly long activity. Eg Bowl-a-thon, Dance-a-thon, Phone-a-thon, etc.
Science publications only really profit if done in respected peer-reviewed journals. In the research world, PhysOrg and the like don't mean much for getting funding.
No, not if the four basis states are no electrons, spin up electrons, spin down electrons, and both kinds of electrons.
Base four is nice because many hardware/software algorithms can be used since groups of two bits have 4 states, and a base-4 'bit' can be thought of as two independent bits.
I think he's talking about the CPU, in which case each 'transistor' instead of working with presence/absence of charge would operate on the four following states : no charge, only spin up electrons, only spin down electrons, both spin up and spin down electrons. Such a device might be able to switch based on these four states as quickly as current MOSFET's switch on spin-independent voltages.
Slashdot Mirror
Are you talking about Cubans risking their lives getting to USA on rafts? Or Mexicans, Guatemalens, Salvadorenos, crossing miles of desert for the same thing? Dick Cheney praised El Salvador in the VP Debates, yet Salvadorans constantly try to cross the border risking their lives. By your logic he just praised Cuba by proxy too, then.
Additionally - the US Interest Section in Havana (kind of like an embassy, but not really since we don't have official relations) has been spreading propaganda about how great life in the USA is, how bad things are in Cuba, etc. That wouldn't have anything to with it either, would it?
Every single country on the planet has had people emigrate from it. So there
I never made any claim whatsoever.
However you cannot argue with a straight face that the US Embargo makes any sense whatsoever. We trade with China and Viet Nam, which are both communist countries with dictators. We trade with Mexico despite people risking risking their lives trying to cross the border to the USA.
There is no point in defending his dictatorship, and you show a particular ignorance in doing so.
I am not defending his dictatorship, and you know it. You're just knee-jerking that I don't immediately assume everything he does is bad, and that he's an innately evil guy out to manipulate the people, which you seem to think.
At the very least, you need to include some disclaimers or acknowledge that you feel Castro is divine.
I never said he was divine, that reveals alot about your mindset that you interpret this from my post.
Of course he's not perfect that's for sure. Cuba has problems, some of which are due to him, that's for sure too. However he has done ALOT of good for Cuba as well, which you seem incapable of acknowledging.
I don't see what that has to do with anything. Castro has problems, that's for certain, Cuba has problems in addition to the embargo, that's for certain too. Neither is perfect. But then neither is any government.
What I'm pointing out is two things :
Brilliant logic, the people that emigrate from a country do tend to hate the government (or economy or other factors). You then extrapolate from extremely specific subset to all people.
Nice presumptious response. I have been very active the past few years to end the embargo, I don't know why you would assume I haven't.
Ever hear of the Prime Directive from Star Trek? The one industry that brings in the most money in Cuba is the Tourist Industry, where the people have direct contact with visiting tourists. That's why I refused to give our bus driver a tip, like the other Americans I went with wanted to, because it promotes the classification, or basically introduces corruption into the economy that otherwise wouldn't have been there.
So Congratulations for increasing the corruption of the people.
Regarding hotels - where did you stay? My girlfriend and I shared a room in two hotels, there were no problems whatsoever with this. Perhaps you were soliciting prostitutes (as per your comment in the first paragraph)? Maybe you didn't even realize that some women would sleep with you if you bought them dinner or some other relatively cheap things (cheap for you). And this type of behavior, of you interfering with the Cuban economy and stratifying it) is what they don't want. Prime directive.
Regarding the internet - you are right at fancy hotels the internet is expensive (at $3 per hour or whatever). But people there CAN and DO use the internet, I've communicated with several Cubans through it. And these are REAL Cubans I've met on the streets of Havana, people I've gone up to first, not people that came up to me.
Your collection of pictures is nice and also misleading, when I was last there about 2 years ago there were many buildings under renovation in that same area. I didn't see a single nice building in your photoes, leading me to doubt your sincerity. But the majority of the problem with homes is with the embargo - building materials are in very short supply.
You are right that some pro-Cuba tours get shown only the nice areas of Cuba, and similar some anti-Cuba tours get shown only the bad areas of Cuba.
But in any case the embargo is totally unethical, severely hurts the people of Cuba, and is an antiquated relic of the cold war. We trade with other communist countries, such as China and Viet Nam, so that argument is BS. People try to flee Mexico as and other countries to the US, so that argument that Cubans flee Cuba is also BS. Castro's regime of course has many problems, as does any government on the planet. But in light of such hostility of the embargo Cuba does pretty good.
You are right about having political murals around the country.
You don't like improvised crutches, but then you should be against the embargo so they can get proper medicines and other health-care items.
You are also right that the embargo works to Fidel's advantage, in that the tighter the US squeezes the more Fidel can rally the people.
But you are wrong if you claim it's Fidel keeping the people poor, for the resources they have and the limited trading they can do with other countries, Cuba is a far more advanced nation than other similar countries.
And the other thing is that everybody is equally poor - same access to education, health care, food, etc. Unlike nearly every other Latin American country, where the rich are super rich elites and the poor live in total abject poverty.
Also you might mention that while the US doesn't trade with "bad communist Cuba" it has no problems trading with China and Viet Nam.
Well I'm glad you conceited snobs enjoy the embargo while the people of Cuba suffer because of it. The embargo severely cripples the Cuban economy, but hey, let's keep those people in poverty just so a few snobs like yourself can vacation on the Island free of American influences.
Perhaps you're not aware that not only can the USA not trade with Cuba under the embargo, but any international vessel that trades with Cuba cannot trade with the USA on that same trip. So if you are trading anything, you will aim most of your travels to the USA, because the Cuban imports/exports will not add anythign appreciable.
You may love keeping the embargo intact so you can take small vacations there like the conceited snob you are, but Cubans have alot of difficulty buying everyday necessities such as medicines, light bulbs, automobile parts, etc because of it.
You may love great beaches and cigars, which explains your reasons for going. When I (a US citizen) went we brought tens of thousands of dollars worth of medicines that US hospitals were disposing because they were just past their expiration date (but still good for all intents and purposes). The hospitals we visited were extremely gracious for this, medicines are really in short supply there because of the embargo.
You may like not dealing with Americans travelling in your little vacation paradise, but most cities are poorly lit, with only every 3 or 4 streetlights on. I thought at first this was to save electricity, but it's because they have a very short supply of light bulbs they can get through the embargo.
You may love the antique cars still driving around (with ridiculous amounts of air pollution), but Cubans have tough times getting automobile parts through the embargo. That's why they still have many old cars from before the embargo was placed. They have tough times not only buying new cars but even replacement parts for old cars. But hey, let's keep them in this state just so you can go and visit this quaint island.
It's funny how you dislike Americans so much, yet you're in reality far worse than the average American you despise so much.
As far as I understand from the Office of Foreign Assets, via the US Treasury, and is the office that manages the trade embargo against Cuba - is that it is only illegal to spend American dollars there.
You can actually visit Cuba, that's legit, you just cannot spend dollars there.
But anyway - there isn't anything (AFAIK) wrong with importing Cuban art/culture/music/literature back to the USA, as long as dollars weren't spent on the transfer. Just as there are tons of latino bands using Cuban influences in their music, playing Cuban songs, there should be no problem with patches to Linux submitted by a Cuban.
Castro was a rich kid and lawyer, but he only took from that his education, if you knew anything about the revolution you'd know he lived in poverty in the revolutionary camps out in the boonies. You'd also know that the rich folks like his family tended to support the corrupt Batista regime, and that Castro had the courage to fight against the inequality, while nearly ALL other rich families supported Batista.
You complain about the average Cuban living in poverty but you miss the following - ALL Cubans have access to government-issued food, education, and medical care. That's EVERYBODY, from the chauffer who drives Castro around to a dentist in Havana to a farmer in la Isla de Juventud.
You also complain about poverty but neglect to mention 90% of that poverty is due to the trade embargo by the USA. Cuba is a third-world country, that is definitely true. Now if you look at its income and compare to other countries of similar income you'll see that Cuba is far far ahead of other countries. Many residents of Latin America admire Castro for what he has done for Cuba, especially in light of all the aggression the USA has against them.
For the same reason someone would want to use it on their laptop. except a PDA is far easier to carry around, I have mine always in my wallet for instance.
what kind of phones are you talking about anyway? if you are thinking of treo or blackberry, then they're basically pda anyway, which is my original point as to why i'd want a pda in the first place.
what kind of phone do you have? sounds like a treo or blackberry, in which case IMHO it's basically a PDA anyway.
- Can you input data into your cell phone as quickly as a screen keyboard or graffiti?
- Can you run word-processors and spreadsheets on your cell phone?
- Does your cell-phone have a decent-sized display?
- Is there a vast library of both free and commercial software for your cell phone? Including e-books and document readers, dictionaries, map software, etc?
- Can you connect to a GPS via bluetooth with your cellphone, have it display real-time maps, such that you can navigate your car with it?
I kind of agree with you that it's annoying having both PDA and Mobile Phone, but there are many reasons why I need a PDA and my phone just doesn't cut it. (I just bought my first PDA about 5 weeks ago, BTW, a Palm Zire 31).I do hope that within the next few years we'll see a merging of phones and PDA's, like the Treo, but with a better design.
No, Safire's replacement is John Tierney, who does tend to annoy me with his dogged devotion to the Republican agenda. But his columns so far have shown at least a little thought and analysis, even though I disagree with him most of the time.
Brooks ravings, on the other hand, are more like dreamy-eyed droolings consistently worshipping the administration, kind of like an enamored child writing about his favorite super hero.
I still think the New York Times is of decent journalistic integrity, even after the few debacles of the past year or two. IMHO, the NYT is one of the best 'free' online US news sources.
Now their Op-Ed pages, on the other hand, vary greatly. Some op-eds are worthwhile, some are so-so, while some, especially the refuse spewed out by KarlRove-lite David Brooks, aren't worth the energy of clicking the mouse button. I think this move will not significantly affect how many visitors they get to the rest of the site. I also can't imagine too many people paying $50 just to read the op-ed columns.
You missed one crucial item - peer review. Any paper submitted to one of these publishers has to make it past a referree committee, which usually serves to weed out the crap. They figure out what area of expertise the author's paper is in, and submit it to peers in a similar field, to make sure the paper is worthy to be published.
In fully free and open journals, you'll lose this important step, and newcomers will be unable to distinguish the real research from pseudoscience.
You seem to forget entirely about the arXiv, which is a freely accessible scientific database of papers that's been around for many years now. It's also been at least partly funded by US tax dollars, ever since it's inception.
Quantum mechanics forces a measure of the electron's spin (and hence the direction of the dipole moment) into one of the allowable eigenstates. For a spin-1/2 fermion, such as an electron, there are only two states.
now - if you apply a field in the z direction and measure the spin in the z direction, there is a definite preference for the spin to align with the field.
if you apply the field in the y direction and measure in the z direction, then both states are of equal energies and there is no preference.
If you turn on interactions between electrons, like ferromagnetic or anti-ferromagnetic coupling, you get interesting effects, esecially at points where there the electron-electron interaction is countered by the field, and you have phase transitions at that point. if you allow for different couplings, different field directions, you can build up very rich phase diagrams of such systems, which are actually being studied by top physicists today.
Eg - anti-ferromagnetic interactions (neighbors want to be anti-aligned) on a triangle lattice is a frustrated magnet. A spin will be up, another neighbor will be down, the third is equally frustrated and doesn't know where to go. This makes very degenerate ground states, which have interesting properties.
Nice way to demonstrate your maturity. Makes me wonder if it's worth the time to bother replying to you.
Anyway, I did RTFA, and was responding to the parent's claim (or overextended southpark joke) that merely mentioning a bunch of trendy technobabble words in PhysOrg implies profit. That's why I specifically referred to "real" peer-reviewed journals.
Free electrons means without any other interactions, and spin up and spin down have no preference. In fact, the directions up/down don't mean anything unless some non-isotropic disturbance is present in the system. This would usually be the applied magnetic field.
If you have a ferromagnet, the electrons want to align parallel, so flipping one electron costs energy. This energy can come from thermal excitations, so to get the fully aligned state you need to cool the system down to minimize these excitations.
As for your battery, remember you are fundamentally storing chemical potential to drive current (actually, I'm kind of BSing here, so maybe a chemist can correct this), so aligning the spins probably won't do much. In fact, you'd most likely waste 100x or more of the energy the battery would provide just running the fridges necessary to align the spins.
But like I said, you'd really need a spintronic battery, which maybe some scientists are studying somewhere. A standard battery would lose the spin coherence relativly quickly, even if you charged it with a fully spin-polarized current.
Now about your question, if you put the spins all in spin-down state and put an up-pointing magnetic field, that's alot of energy stored there (assuming no other interactions between the spins that would allow this). But that would be very difficult to set up a state like this.
Actually such a state, if you did set it up, is at a negative temperature, believe it or not. Basically meaning there is a population inverions, with more excited states populated than ground states, and is a process fundamental to laser operation.
Of course the buzzword 'spintronics' is is just 'electronics' with the word spin substituted in. The actual less-trendy synonym for spintronics is Magnetoelectronics, which is what it's usually referred to in the "real" science journals, not popular outlets like PhysOrg. magnetoelectronics.
BTW - since you mention Greek I thought a better example would be using the suffix Thon, as from Marathon, to refer to any excessivly long activity. Eg Bowl-a-thon, Dance-a-thon, Phone-a-thon, etc.
Science publications only really profit if done in respected peer-reviewed journals. In the research world, PhysOrg and the like don't mean much for getting funding.
Base four is nice because many hardware/software algorithms can be used since groups of two bits have 4 states, and a base-4 'bit' can be thought of as two independent bits.
I think he's talking about the CPU, in which case each 'transistor' instead of working with presence/absence of charge would operate on the four following states : no charge, only spin up electrons, only spin down electrons, both spin up and spin down electrons. Such a device might be able to switch based on these four states as quickly as current MOSFET's switch on spin-independent voltages.