Good post. This needs reiterated in light of how little most people (judging by the posts here, at least) know about cancer. Cancer is not a disease in the classic form, in the sense that medication, your immune system, and many other factors associated with traditional disease have no bearing whatsoever upon the likelihood of developing cancer.
There has been many instances where cancer has been directly linked to viral infection, most prominently cervical cancer. Basically, being exposed to anything that alters DNA on a mass scale whether it be viruses, exposure to UV radiation, is going to raise a person's risk for cancer. Research is just recently being applied to explore the viral sources of cancer as well as the environmental.
When I read that the controller will have built-in rumble, two things came to mind.
1. I thought they ditched the rumble functionality in the wavebird design because it consumed too much battery power. Hopefully they'll have that issue sorted out by then.
2. Is the rumble feature going to disrupt the tracking ability of the controller? Imagine you're playing an fps and you're getting rocked by some guy with a chaingun or similar rapid-fire gun, your controller rumbling all to hell as you try to draw a bead on them. First of all, is the rumble option going to be mandatory? Because if not, I don't see anyone having it on for that reason, which pretty much makes rumbling useless in FPS games. If not, it's either going to add a new, interesting mechanic to the aiming system, or be extremely annoying. I guess we'll have to wait and see.
Actually, graduating with a BS in Biology last may and taking a graduate course on the genetic basis of evolution, I actually have a pretty good understanding of what that term means. I assumed the term had a meaning somewhat similar when applied to everyday life. Many times those involved in the sciences use words that originally describe scientific phenomena and apply them to everyday things.
Here's my theory as to why the idea of "pro gamers" will never catch on.
In today's society, sports stars are pretty much celebrities. Technical skill helps, sure, but nowadays the average joe watches sports usually because of either team/city loyalty (sports have a leg up of about a century in this respect) or they enjoy watching a certain athlete perform.
One of the biggest reasons that people are drawn to elite athletes are their ability to perform at a level that is pretty much untouchable. No one sitting at home ever seriously thinks they could have gotten a couple more yards than Vick did on a scramble, for instance. This is really not the case with "pro-gaming." Being a semi-competitive CS player for a couple of years, you really get the sense that if you were still in high school or did not have a fruitful real life job (as is the case with the vast majority of "pro gamers") and could afford to spend 8+ hours in front of a monitor playing games you could do just as well as the "elite" players. Having seen players rise to the absolute cream of the crop of gaming in a matter of months justifies this.
Another thing is the personality, maturity, and charisma these "pro gamers" exhibit, which is pretty much none. Real sports are a great way to build social skills at an early age, and most elite athletes have a personality (for better or worse) that is at least interesting, can make conversation and feed the media, are athletically fit, and in general project an image that is marketable, above all else. The environment of the pro-gamer seems to work against all of these qualities.
All in all, sports succeed because they are marketable, and they are marketable because people can either relate to or are impressed by them. I think any sort of professional gaming has severe defecits in these areas and will not be seeing any sort of mainstream penetrance anytime soon.
Quoted from TFA:
You never get a second chance to make a first impression. The Atari 2600, NES, Genesis, and PlayStation were the leaders of their respective generations. They were also the first.
Is this guy crazy? First of all, SNES outsold the Genesis on the worldwide market, with the Genesis barely outselling the SNES in the United States. Also, the PlayStation's launch was predated by the Sega Saturn, so the claim that they were the "first" is clearly wrong. Someone needs to work on their fact checking.
Are you kidding? Have you read any history at all? In fact it was Britain who first divided Palestine and had several movements to relocate Jews to Israel. The UN voted to create the Israel/Palestine country division and it was the UN and all nations therein that collectively stared at their shoes as Israel violated their division by claiming supposedly neutral Jersualem as its capital and a host of other lands in the ensuing wars in the middle east.
As of today Israel's main supporter is the United States but it's ignorant to deny the fact that many European nations are just as responsible for the situation created in the middle east.
Katamari was the epitome of everything that is good about gaming. A low-budget (which thankfully was reflected in the price), addictive, intuitive, fun and creative game that focused on gameplay. A breath of fresh air in a market too often filled with games with huge production values and flashy graphics that attempt to overshadow poorly done game mechanics.
Reuters is reporting that the death toll is now at 12, with two of London's major hospitals reporting taking care of at least 175 patients total, with at least 30 in critical or serious condition.
I think al-Qaeda's motivation is more about the Western World's pro-Israel, pro-Jewish at the expense of Islam (Palestine) stance in the last half century than anything we've ever done in Iraq.
In the nipple vs eye debate, the main reason why ectopic nipples are much more common than eyes is the much complex nature of eye development. Having studied eye development a bit in a developmental biology course, there's a huge number of issues regarding tissue competancy, signalling, precursor tissue placement, and gradients of various signalling molecules that have to align perfectly just for an ectopic eye to form. Not to mention the nightmare of trying to guide an optic nerve with developmental cues from the eye in its ectopic spot to attach to the part of the brain where the eye would actually function so it could be selected for or against.
Also, genes more closely related to the fitness of an organism are more "protected" against mutation, in the sense that if changing the gene in question would severely limit an organism's fitness (or even viability as an embryo), you will see very little change in that gene over time. For example, the genes that code for the histone proteins (necessary for packing DNA in every eukaryotic cell) have remained identical throughout millions of years of evolution.
The environment does have a talk-back mechanism on the nature of mutations. It's called natural selection. Organisms with mutations that make them more fit for their environment will be selected for and the genetic makeup of that population will change.
I think it would be reasonable to assume the article was referring to DNA in somatic cells, as altered gene expression only has the capacity to change an organism in somatic cells, and thusly, would be the only type that would reasonably respond to envionmental pressures. My (somewhat educated) guess is that the gametes would remain untouched.
This really shouldn't come as a big surprise. Differential gene expression is one of the major unexplored areas of genomics, and we're just beginning to scratch the surface of how organisms as complex as humans can develop with a number of genes comparable to that of a roundworm. Changes in the environment controlling gene expression is something that's well documented in many different organisms.
I would think it would be fairly safe to assume the Revolution will have a significantly (relatively) lower price than either console. Remember that the GameCube launched at $199 when both the ps2 and xbox were still retailing for $299. Nintendo has made it clear that they intend to market a pure gaming system instead of the multimedia platform that sony and ms seem to be pushing, and along with that will surely come a lower price point.
I wonder if MS and Sony are creeping up on the ceiling price of what consumers are willing to pay for a new console. With an initial price of $400 and games costing $60 apiece, it'll be interesting to see their sales figures for the first few months after launch.
Also, anyone else think that Nintendo may be a bit more successful at undercutting MS and Sony with MS and Sony both ramping up prices? I would assume that Nintendo will make the Revolution's price point a large issue.
Patent companies like NTP and RIM are the main reason I think the current US Patent system is broken. These companies just sit around thinking of vague ideas that are never going to be implemented in an actual product of theirs and just squat on them until some company comes around that actually wants to _use_ these patents, and then sues them for patent infringement. It's counter-productive to the spirit of inventing, and I would support legislation that makes a company prove and held liable for actually producing and promoting a product based on the patents it files for before one could be issued.
Actually, I believe I misspoke. Realmedia isn't supported by VLC, but RealAlternative is a good non-real player that's worked with every realmedia type I've used. It seems that the way it plays realmedia files (by using realmedia's own.dll files) is illegal, and with all the patent dodging VLC's had to do I believe they're trying at all cost trying not to step on any of the big players' toes.
I don't have experience with wmv10 files specifically, but I do know that the windows version of VLC is the one with the best wmv compatibility, so that may be an issue.
With VLC's ability to play pretty much any codec under the sun (including microsoft and realmedia's proprietary formats), maybe we'll begin to see more out-of-box compatibility with competing video players. I bet a lot of end-users are tired of codec searching any time they want to watch a certain video.
One of the most impressive aspects of this launch is that the part is available now. I mean right now. Order it today and plug it in tomorrow. That's right, not only has NVIDIA gotten the part to vendors, but vendors have gotten their product all the way to retailers. This is unprecedented for any graphics hardware launch in recent memory. In the midst of all the recent paper launches in the computer hardware industry, this move is a challenge to all other hardware design houses.
ATI is particularly on the spot after today. Their recent history of announcing products that don't see any significant volume in the retail market for months is disruptive in and of itself. Now that NVIDIA has made this move, ATI absolutely must follow suit. Over the past year, the public has been getting quite tired of failed assurances that product will be available "next week". This very refreshing blast of availability is long overdue. ATI cannot afford to have R520 availability "soon" after launch; ATI must have products available for retail purchase at launch.
I would assume one of the reasons the price point is higher is the fact that this card was pushed to retail much faster than either nvidia or ati has been able to do before. I would suspect that, given an amount of time comparable to the normal lag between launch and having the card available on shelves, the price will be more comparable to launch prices we're accustomed to seeing.
Or maybe once everybody over there is running Windows, the country's information infrastructure will collapse upon itself, paving the way for the institution of a new open-source government by the people and for the people.
I don't know about anyone else, but as an avid Halo 2 player I find even the big team battles with 16 players to be a bit much. On the moderate sized maps it seems to be overcrowded and the larger maps have too much open space for my tastes. I can't even imagine the maps necessary for a 50 player battle.
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Good post. This needs reiterated in light of how little most people (judging by the posts here, at least) know about cancer. Cancer is not a disease in the classic form, in the sense that medication, your immune system, and many other factors associated with traditional disease have no bearing whatsoever upon the likelihood of developing cancer. There has been many instances where cancer has been directly linked to viral infection, most prominently cervical cancer. Basically, being exposed to anything that alters DNA on a mass scale whether it be viruses, exposure to UV radiation, is going to raise a person's risk for cancer. Research is just recently being applied to explore the viral sources of cancer as well as the environmental.
Same could be said about the DS as well.
Actually, at the end of the video you see the guy turn off the console with the power button on the remote.
When I read that the controller will have built-in rumble, two things came to mind. 1. I thought they ditched the rumble functionality in the wavebird design because it consumed too much battery power. Hopefully they'll have that issue sorted out by then. 2. Is the rumble feature going to disrupt the tracking ability of the controller? Imagine you're playing an fps and you're getting rocked by some guy with a chaingun or similar rapid-fire gun, your controller rumbling all to hell as you try to draw a bead on them. First of all, is the rumble option going to be mandatory? Because if not, I don't see anyone having it on for that reason, which pretty much makes rumbling useless in FPS games. If not, it's either going to add a new, interesting mechanic to the aiming system, or be extremely annoying. I guess we'll have to wait and see.
Actually, graduating with a BS in Biology last may and taking a graduate course on the genetic basis of evolution, I actually have a pretty good understanding of what that term means. I assumed the term had a meaning somewhat similar when applied to everyday life. Many times those involved in the sciences use words that originally describe scientific phenomena and apply them to everyday things.
Here's my theory as to why the idea of "pro gamers" will never catch on. In today's society, sports stars are pretty much celebrities. Technical skill helps, sure, but nowadays the average joe watches sports usually because of either team/city loyalty (sports have a leg up of about a century in this respect) or they enjoy watching a certain athlete perform. One of the biggest reasons that people are drawn to elite athletes are their ability to perform at a level that is pretty much untouchable. No one sitting at home ever seriously thinks they could have gotten a couple more yards than Vick did on a scramble, for instance. This is really not the case with "pro-gaming." Being a semi-competitive CS player for a couple of years, you really get the sense that if you were still in high school or did not have a fruitful real life job (as is the case with the vast majority of "pro gamers") and could afford to spend 8+ hours in front of a monitor playing games you could do just as well as the "elite" players. Having seen players rise to the absolute cream of the crop of gaming in a matter of months justifies this. Another thing is the personality, maturity, and charisma these "pro gamers" exhibit, which is pretty much none. Real sports are a great way to build social skills at an early age, and most elite athletes have a personality (for better or worse) that is at least interesting, can make conversation and feed the media, are athletically fit, and in general project an image that is marketable, above all else. The environment of the pro-gamer seems to work against all of these qualities. All in all, sports succeed because they are marketable, and they are marketable because people can either relate to or are impressed by them. I think any sort of professional gaming has severe defecits in these areas and will not be seeing any sort of mainstream penetrance anytime soon.
I can see the Congressional hearings now on FFXII promoting race-based violence.
Quoted from TFA: You never get a second chance to make a first impression. The Atari 2600, NES, Genesis, and PlayStation were the leaders of their respective generations. They were also the first. Is this guy crazy? First of all, SNES outsold the Genesis on the worldwide market, with the Genesis barely outselling the SNES in the United States. Also, the PlayStation's launch was predated by the Sega Saturn, so the claim that they were the "first" is clearly wrong. Someone needs to work on their fact checking.
As of today Israel's main supporter is the United States but it's ignorant to deny the fact that many European nations are just as responsible for the situation created in the middle east.
Keita Takahashi's speech at the Game Developer's Conference was very interesting, to say the least, and I think more game developers would benefit from listening to what he has to say.
Reuters is reporting that the death toll is now at 12, with two of London's major hospitals reporting taking care of at least 175 patients total, with at least 30 in critical or serious condition.
I think al-Qaeda's motivation is more about the Western World's pro-Israel, pro-Jewish at the expense of Islam (Palestine) stance in the last half century than anything we've ever done in Iraq.
Also, genes more closely related to the fitness of an organism are more "protected" against mutation, in the sense that if changing the gene in question would severely limit an organism's fitness (or even viability as an embryo), you will see very little change in that gene over time. For example, the genes that code for the histone proteins (necessary for packing DNA in every eukaryotic cell) have remained identical throughout millions of years of evolution.
The environment does have a talk-back mechanism on the nature of mutations. It's called natural selection. Organisms with mutations that make them more fit for their environment will be selected for and the genetic makeup of that population will change.
This really shouldn't come as a big surprise. Differential gene expression is one of the major unexplored areas of genomics, and we're just beginning to scratch the surface of how organisms as complex as humans can develop with a number of genes comparable to that of a roundworm. Changes in the environment controlling gene expression is something that's well documented in many different organisms.
I would think it would be fairly safe to assume the Revolution will have a significantly (relatively) lower price than either console. Remember that the GameCube launched at $199 when both the ps2 and xbox were still retailing for $299. Nintendo has made it clear that they intend to market a pure gaming system instead of the multimedia platform that sony and ms seem to be pushing, and along with that will surely come a lower price point.
Also, anyone else think that Nintendo may be a bit more successful at undercutting MS and Sony with MS and Sony both ramping up prices? I would assume that Nintendo will make the Revolution's price point a large issue.
Maybe MS will use gator's spyware tactics to improve its Windows AntiSpyware program.
Patent companies like NTP and RIM are the main reason I think the current US Patent system is broken. These companies just sit around thinking of vague ideas that are never going to be implemented in an actual product of theirs and just squat on them until some company comes around that actually wants to _use_ these patents, and then sues them for patent infringement. It's counter-productive to the spirit of inventing, and I would support legislation that makes a company prove and held liable for actually producing and promoting a product based on the patents it files for before one could be issued.
Actually, I believe I misspoke. Realmedia isn't supported by VLC, but RealAlternative is a good non-real player that's worked with every realmedia type I've used. It seems that the way it plays realmedia files (by using realmedia's own .dll files) is illegal, and with all the patent dodging VLC's had to do I believe they're trying at all cost trying not to step on any of the big players' toes.
I don't have experience with wmv10 files specifically, but I do know that the windows version of VLC is the one with the best wmv compatibility, so that may be an issue.
With VLC's ability to play pretty much any codec under the sun (including microsoft and realmedia's proprietary formats), maybe we'll begin to see more out-of-box compatibility with competing video players. I bet a lot of end-users are tired of codec searching any time they want to watch a certain video.
One of the most impressive aspects of this launch is that the part is available now. I mean right now. Order it today and plug it in tomorrow. That's right, not only has NVIDIA gotten the part to vendors, but vendors have gotten their product all the way to retailers. This is unprecedented for any graphics hardware launch in recent memory. In the midst of all the recent paper launches in the computer hardware industry, this move is a challenge to all other hardware design houses.
ATI is particularly on the spot after today. Their recent history of announcing products that don't see any significant volume in the retail market for months is disruptive in and of itself. Now that NVIDIA has made this move, ATI absolutely must follow suit. Over the past year, the public has been getting quite tired of failed assurances that product will be available "next week". This very refreshing blast of availability is long overdue. ATI cannot afford to have R520 availability "soon" after launch; ATI must have products available for retail purchase at launch.
I would assume one of the reasons the price point is higher is the fact that this card was pushed to retail much faster than either nvidia or ati has been able to do before. I would suspect that, given an amount of time comparable to the normal lag between launch and having the card available on shelves, the price will be more comparable to launch prices we're accustomed to seeing.
Hyperbole, man, hyperbole. Attempting to inject some light hearted discourse here.
Or maybe once everybody over there is running Windows, the country's information infrastructure will collapse upon itself, paving the way for the institution of a new open-source government by the people and for the people.
I don't know about anyone else, but as an avid Halo 2 player I find even the big team battles with 16 players to be a bit much. On the moderate sized maps it seems to be overcrowded and the larger maps have too much open space for my tastes. I can't even imagine the maps necessary for a 50 player battle.