First off, let me say that I have no formal training or any sort of degree in anything even remotely related to this. I'm not medically qualified to give you professional advice on this sort of stuff. But from using using these things, I would wager that very few kinds pain will actually be cured from this. I don't know how carpal tunnel syndrome responds to this but I thought that was a condition of the nerves and I fail to see how this could help that (I'm totally sold on muscles though and, through that, maybe extremity blood flow). I would be wary of someone selling this to me heralding it as a panacea for all things past your elbow.
Have you used a gyroscope exercise ball?
Yes.
If so, did it help cure a wrist problem or help strengthen your hands and fingers? And which of these brands (if any) did you try?
I had no wrist problems to begin with but a roommate at the time called them "climber balls" and said climbers use them. So, being a software developer with terrible posture by trade and enjoying video games, bass guitar playing, piano playing, more programming, book writing, etc on the side, I felt it was in my interest to try as best as possible to preserve my wrists. So I asked for one for Christmas and received the orange PowerBall pictured here with digital back. I used it for a while and tried to do 10 minutes a day with it, alternating hands as the digital readout would let me see how fast I could get it (I think I got it up regularly to 9,000 RPM and 13,000 RPM once while incredibly intoxicated). Basically I'd burn up right off the bat with each arm and then try to get into a sustaining groove. Definitely more exerting than it looks. I would also alternate between grips. The two most comfortable ones seemed to be palming it from the back and wrapping my thumb and index finger around the grip while supporting with the other fingers. And I noticed a serious burn (a good, like exercise burn) at first in my hand and forearm but then only in my forearm. From my experience, I suspect that once your hand's grip hits a certain point it's good to go whereas the muscles pumping energy into the gyroscope are actually located in the wrist/forearm. So I believe it was working. I was, however, also doing exercises like wrist curls, inverse wrist curls, wrist extensions with a 45 lb. bar at the gym from time to time. And I was also doing other exercises that probably inadvertently helped strengthen these same areas.
So anyway, one day my friend stayed over and brought his dog. He slept on the couch, his dog whimpered in his kennel so he took him out and fell asleep with him. Dog got a hold of the PowerBall and that was that. Recently these NSDs went on sale for $25 for Black Friday (as shown here) and so I purchased two with the intent of having one at my desk in cubeland and one at home. While I'm happily using one, I left the other packaged and might gift it up because no matter how nice these balls are, they do make a good deal of noise (and the ones with revolution powered LEDs look dance-rave in the dark). The digital options on the NSDs aren't as nice or intuitive as the PowerBall LCD functions but I haven't given that a lot of time so that could just be RTFA ignorance on my part. I just use them as a straight up exercise device now with no intent of breaking records on youtube so I've stopped fussing with the electronics part of them. These NSDs are so far seemingly higher construction than the PowerBalls and are much easier to start but also seem more expensive. I suppose I would have to use this for a year before I start reporting on wear and tear. Watch for a sale on an NSD, when you
Okay well I suppose this is going to be a really unpopular post but I don't see anyone else saying anything like this.
First off, I am deeply saddened and distraught that such a prolific person that had already helped the world so much took his own life. I hope his family and friends take solace in the amount of achievements this young man had made before his decision to take his own life.
3% of Americans are under the correctional supervision of their justice system. There are seven times more people in prison in the US as a percentage of the population as there are in Europe.
There is no evidence that this policy is any more effective than things like removing Lead in Gas for reducing overall crime. The rest of the world looks on in horror at prison camp America which locks up slightly more people than the Russians. Ever tried looking in the mirror?
The US Justice System is there to enforce the law. I don't know what relevance this has or what you hoped to achieve with your parroted statistics but I don't find it very helpful here. He was charged with wire fraud, computer fraud among other things and when someone alerts the authorities that this may have taken place, they investigate it. If I bypassed your home's security and installed a laptop in your home that connected to your network and took all your files, would you want there to be laws against that? That's what they were investigating -- is there any evidence of undue or unjust actions in this investigation? I think that's what MIT wants to find out here.
I'm not surprised this guy looked at the options and chose the one he did, it was probably the most rational sane thing to do.
You know, that almost sounds like an endorsement for suicide which is probably one of the most disgusting and vehement posts I've read here so far. There is nothing rational nor sane about taking one's own life. When I was 16 one of my friends committed suicide and more recently a roommate's girlfriend came over while my roommate was gone and committed suicide. As someone who has witnessed the aftermath both to someone who meant so much to me and someone I barely knew, I will tell you right now that it is a terrible act that impacts everyone -- and most often in a profoundly negative way. To call it 'rational' or 'sane' in any case reveals that you do not know anything about suicide.
I didn't know Aaron Swartz although I've been following this case with interest. What I suspect happened was that Swartz wanted to make a statement about opening up journals to the public and he wagered that it would be hard to pin any fallout on himself if he did all of this covertly. And he tried. But at the end of the day they figured out who was taking these articles of information. Did you know he was a Fellow at Harvard University's Center for Ethics? What do you think this meant for his career to be indicted on such charges? How would you, as a student, listen to a lecture on ethics from someone who had broken laws and evaded police? I think that Swartz saw this as a sort of "civil disobedience" but when his peers did not agree, he took the coward's route instead of letting society decide his fate for his actions -- and I think the case was still open!
Let's assume Swartz was completely in the right on all of his actions. What, precisely, would you have MIT and the US Government do differently to prevent this suicide? What actions of theirs do you find culpable for forcing Aaron Swartz into no other choice than to take his own life?
I'm pretty sure internet services providers and the telecommunications market in China is dominated by two or three massive companies just like it unfortunately is in the states.
However, even China is offering something Google and Verizon aren’t here in the US: Open access, and the choice of multiple service providers once the fiber is installed.
Um, yeah so you can pick from China Telecom and China Unicom which are both -- SURPRISE SURPRISE -- state run and controlled providers. So, yeah, go ahead and select between Super Auspicious Provider A and Premium Auspicious Provider B and think you have a choice just like Cox and Comcast are two sides of the same inept coin.
According to the China Daily report, the Chinese government hopes to have “40 million families connected to fiber networks by 2015,” which is almost one-third of the country’s entire population.
Emphasis mine. Anyone see a believable plan on how that's going to happen? I mean, I bet every government hopes to have a third of its nations homes on fiber networks by 2015... that sounds like a rather expensive project that you're not going to see a return on until the state owned providers pay it back though. You've got a state owned and state controlled newspaper telling you about something unbelievably awesome enforcing some totally unrealistic (unless there are few fiber neighborhoods) regulation. Am I the only one saying that I will applaud them when it's actually in place and working?
2015 is two years away. Um, yeah, they had better get crackin'. Well, I guess when you can just force the poorer farming people to work for free it might be possible! That little project was called “Speed up the Roads and Enrich the People” hahaha. Here's your shovel, comrade. Now start digging until you're enriched.
The skeptic in me is just thinking that the home builders in China just need to pay off one more inspector to get a structure standing. Hell, their sheet rock and cement are clearly bribed through quality control -- why not structural, electrical and fiber officials?
If it's not a question, don't use a question mark.
Hey, look, buddy. I'm just the only one here brave enough to ask questions, okay? There's nothing wrong with asking questions, is there? Is it illegal? I'm just asking questions. I'm just wondering if maybe this is the site for China's deathray that Obama gave them the plans for under Jimmy Carter's guidance. I'm just asking questions. I'm not making any statements. You can't get mad at me for that. Is this what unions want? China to be free to build whatever they please in the desert? Again, I'm just asking questions. I mean, if I was going to build a soylent green plant, where do you think I'd do it? I'm just asking questions here. I'm not saying that China is turning its overpopulation and starvation problems into a combined solution. But what do you think? I'm just asking questions.
Disclaimer: I've never done anything like this. Well, this structure is pretty unique in its shape. Judging by the shadow, it's pretty high up and probably serves the most distinct purpose? It almost looks like that might be a prison yard in the middle with a fence in the back? If you're going to make a building that large and use it for office space, why make that shape? Why not just a rectangular or square building? It could also maybe be the beginnings of an airport or air base with that structure being the tower and the field to be built in front of the flat side of the U. The other sites might be hangars?
If it's a prison, the other sites might be places for arrays of solar panels or perhaps mining sites with the intent of prisoners working on those things. I mean, when you're that far out are you going to make a run for it? The electricity and/or ore would be for nearby Kashgar, Xinjiang?
If any of that were true, I have no clue what this stuff would be though. It looks like the upper left of that has had dirt pushed around to level out the ground for something to be built on top of it though. This went up fast but you might have to give it another year or two before it starts to take shape?
No, it's criticism (something I employ during a review) and you're free to actually refute it with empirical examples disproving my stated observation. If you think that you can build a tech library out of Creative Common works that meets or supersedes a library built with traditionally licensed and copyright works then good for you. At this point in time, I sadly cannot.
Is anyone else reviewing Creative Commons books on Slashdot other than me? If it's such a low blow, you're free to jump in with reviews any time you want -- I know I'd appreciate finding new books!
I am a supporter of Creative Common works. I am not, however, a raving lunatic that can't come to terms with our current reality.
What resulted is a good book (amazing by CC-BY-NC standards)
. What exactly does this mean?
Do the C-BY-NC standards say that a book has to be below a certain standard in order to be accepted for the license? Please elaborate.
O'Reilly publishes good to great books. Pragmatic Programmers publish good to great books. But when I flip through Creative Commons titles, you can't find that kind of quality on a regular basis... yet. I was simply trying to say that compared to everything else I've come across as Creative Commons works, this book helps raise the bar. I might even say to the point of competing with major publishers. I think I've reviewed one other CC book (Pilgrim's HTML5?) that was worth reviewing but I still have to say that an entire series like Pragmatic Programmers still outshines 99% of what you find in CC licensing. Now, that's all just my opinion because I know some people that prefer man pages over anything else. Hope that makes that clearer.
I'm the reviewer, I use my standards. Freedom means publish whatever you want, good or bad. There are no standards and that's very important.
After watching their recently acquired film THX 1138, CEO Bob Iger hailed it as a "feel good" movie although the ending had some flaws and promised to turn all Disney parks and resorts into the futuristic "utopia" from the film. Iger announced at a press conference that Mickey Mouse would replace OMM 0910 as the only approved deity of worship. Iger sat upon a chair made of the late Congressman Sonny Bono's remains while wearing his Grand Dragoon Mousekateer helmet although he refused to answer any questions from reporters who had not been taking their performance enhancing medications.
Why do the articles about "Stuff that Matters" get less comments than pointless crap like the article about a Trillion Dollar coin being banned?
Well, I'm not trying to give Slashdot a free pass nor do I think the commentators are the best but to put this into perspective, you should consider these stories. You can have an opinion about the Trillion Dollar coin and you can speak about how you like or don't like and why that is. And it's quite polarizing so it's going to generate a lot of garbage. I think everyone is on board with Curiosity though. It's not polarizing. It's doing things that are far and above what I do in my day to day life so it's really hard for me to make a super intelligent comment about it. Saying how much I love Curiosity just turns into a circle jerk with people one-upping each other about how large their Curiosity tramp stamps are so I remain tacit unless I have something meaningful to add. The Trillion Dollar coin, on the other hand, I was all too eager to call names and engage in ad hominem attacks.
Also, there have been countless Curiosity stories and about two Trillion Dollar coin stories. So even if you assume that the population of readers has equal comments about both stories you're going to exhaust the Curiosity comments quickly. I'm not here to say the same thing over and over on multiple stories -- especially when all I can do is sit here with my jaw agape at how awesome this is.
So what exactly did you have in mind? My armchair NASA administrator posts aren't very productive so I read the story and scan the comments for something good. Nobody can chime in with "Well, when I polished rocks on Mars I used an anodized aluminum brush that got better... blah blah blah." So it's hard to generate worthwhile comments here.
Martian Archie Bunker: *peering through his invisibility blinds out his window* "Awww jeez, Edith, look at it now, it's rolled on to our property!" Martian Edith Bunker: "Relax, Archie, he's probably just lost and looking for directions." Martian Archie Bunker: "Ohhh no, no he's not. Sheesh those gypsy rovers are taking over out here. Look what happened to Earth, it's practically infected with those things! Oh, what's it doing now? It's polishing one of our yard rocks. Oh geez, oh geez, now it's going to come up to the door and ask for money. I didn't ask him to polish no rocks, he ain't gettin' any of my money!" Martian Edith Bunker: "Well, maybe just a couple a' bucks, Archie. Look at this one, he's so slow and lonely looking. You know how slow those Earthlings are and they mean well, they really do." Martian Archie Bunker: "Oh no, not this Martian. No sir. You give one of them a couple of Martian bucks and *BAM* suddenly there's a whole group of 'Thlings with their stupid robots standing outside everyone of our 49 One Twenty One convenience stores tryin' to polish your windshield. I'm not going to be the Martian that starts that invasion, no way."
As long as we cut spending on the freeloading 47% and not the job creators, the Republicans will be for it.
Those are fairly interesting names with an odd number thrown out. I imagine you've researched that quite well and come to the conclusion that all of the 47% you speak of are freeloaders and all of the other 53% are "job creators?" Would you care to cite your sources? Perhaps we should stop spending money on infrastructure since those freeloaders will just mooch off it? I mean, the war in Afghanistan is such a worthy cause compared to our education system, communications networks, interstates, disaster response, etc...
You're free to research and think for yourself instead of parroting what either party says. Why did you call 47% of the country freeloaders? Isn't that someone who contributes nothing and takes takes takes?
“This scheme to mint trillion dollar platinum coins is absurd and dangerous, and would be laughable if the proponents weren’t so serious about it as a solution,” Walden said in a statement. “My bill will take the coin scheme off the table by disallowing the Treasury to mint platinum coins as a way to pay down the debt.”
I couldn't agree more, we need to reign in this insane spending. But, you know, I would like to know why Congressman Walden voted against limiting funding for the war in Afghanistan? Probably because he's actually for spending taxpayer money, increasing the debt and then trying to stick the president with the bill at the end of the night so he looks like a dumbass. Well, too bad, you're all equal dumbasses when it comes to fiscal policy. All of this is just childish. The Republicans made deals with the Democrats to spend spend spend on both sides and now they want to act like they've been trying to stop spending all along. And it's getting ridiculous. And Republicans have a brilliant plan to solve all the problems by blocking any legislation and flirting with a second recession? Burn in hell, you're just as responsible if not more responsible for the insane spending (you're still writing blank checks for one of dubya's religious crusades).
What's up with all these EldavoJohn questions that get approved for every "ask Slashdot"?!
It's not like they are the most interesting questions...
Nope. It's just one of my favorite aspects of Slashdot. They only ever take one or two of my questions no matter how many are +5 or +4. The editors evidently have no time for editing let alone "friendship."
I'm sorry that you don't find my questions interesting but then again as an Anonymous Coward you're probably only interested in questions surrounding GNAA and Goatse.
I just like to ask questions. Is there something wrong with that?:-)
A Swedish team found it relatively easy to select and interbreed
A rotund researcher licked his lips as he continued, "... a delicious side effect that we noticed was that the larger brained fish had an overall higher fat content and therefore made lutefisk that hardly tasted like soap! On a side note, we will have to breed many thousand more fish to make sure that we have not stumbled upon a localized minimum for reproductive abilities. My colleagues would agree with me if they weren't so busy utilizing the restrooms."
Cross contamination & subsequent loss of organic certification isn't an issue then?
How about Monsanto dragging innocent farmers into court?
I would personally advocate slicing GMO issues into separate bins. What you're referring to is the Intellectual Property bin which is a problem with (at least the US) most countries and the ownership (whether an instance of or the general use of) genetic material. Put all those lawsuits and patents and copyright crap in one bin.
Then you have another bin where we analyze the human element of consumption of GMO foods. What is the process to determine when something has undergone enough testing and is ready to push it forward? How many years of human trials must be held before it can be released? We do this with drugs but strangely, I haven't heard of much about this with GMO crops -- why is that?
Lastly we have a more open problem like environmental issues both surrounding the plant's effect on its environment and also the adjusted actions of the humans cultivating this crop. For example: with Roundup ready plants from Monsanto, have we really analyzed what the increased usage of chemicals like Roundup has on the immediate vicinity of the fields? Do we know that these genetic constructs that are taken from an insect and inserted into a plant do not adversely affect the pollen and have indirect affects on hay fever or honey bees? Again, how do we test this and how long should it be tested before it's pushed nationwide.
Lynas raises an interesting point I had not considered -- that my above desires for process and bureaucracy will prevent a small company from venturing into this field. On the other hand, we've been using selective breeding to move past a lot of the hurdles Lynas mentioned that GMO crops are supposed to move us even further past. It's unfortunate but this isn't a black and white issue and I'm against the unfettered proliferation of gene constructs that have been taken from other organisms and inserted into plants without sufficient testing.
The process of DNA -> Amino Acid -> Protein is still a very difficult puzzle for us as humans and I feel we should not openly experiment with inserting stuff at Point A when we don't know the full effects that yields in points B and C. I feel like there is still a lot to be achieved with selective breeding and until we have a better understanding of protein folding, we should shy away from smashing DNA into strands of plants unless it's absolutely critical to humanity. Go ahead and do that stuff in a lab to better understand it but leave it in a lab until there's a process that ensures it is safe.
Man, "justice" sure is fucked up where you're from.
Oh yeah, and Americans are idiots.
Ah yes, it is the entire American populace that are idiots. Yep, we were all part of everything you just said. Not one of us opposes it. All of us act together uniformly. No one protests. Man, for people who like to criticize Americans as racist bigots, they sure could look in the mirror from time to time.
You think an ice age is preferable to a gradually warming climate?
I don't think you understand just how gradual a natural climate cycle has been for Earth. Look at this graph of antarctic temperature changes. Notice how it is windowed to -6 to +4 degrees Celsius within today's temperature and how long those changes normally took. If we speed that same change that took 10,000 years up to 200 years and it only ever increases, what exactly do you think will happen to Earth?
Animals and humans aren't going to have time to adapt or evolve in predicted scenarios.
A lot of people's expectations for the consequences of global warming is the sudden deaths of hundreds of thousands, not wide-ranging low-grade economic impacts that risk hundreds of millions in property damage and puts a strain on global food supply.
We're trained to notice disaster, not statistical drift. There will never be the "event" from global warming, which means denial will continue as the costs keep ramping up.
A second dust bowl would be an "event" and it's a possibility if we enter into a many year drought. Hell, Texas alone lost half a billion trees in the current drought and it's at $8 billion and counting. If that drought rolls into next year and they have a dry winter followed by another drought... well, the topsoil those half billion trees were holding down will be dry and loose. Bad condition worsens and you could be looking at an "event" as meat prices rise in the US.
You might not remember the dirty thirties but my midwestern grandparents talk about it like it was death for everything.
Time magazine & researchers were telling us what to do about the upcoming ICE AGE, and how to survive it.
Now, the same idiots
[citation needed that these are the same people]
are telling us about global warming (whoops...climate change).
Boy you sure are clever. And alone. Climate science and models have progressed extensively since 1975.
The earth goes through cycles....and it is billions of years old. 5-10 years of data is but a blink in cosmic
time.
Those cycles you speak of normally take thousands of years to progress, giving larger life forms enough time to migrate and evolve and gradually change their patterns so that they can, you know, survive. When you start to see those averages change more quickly, you should be worried about the larger life forms (hell, bacteria and cockroaches will probably benefit). But, you know, I'm asking you to pull your head out of your ass and yet even when Fox News reports that things were pretty shitty this year, you dismiss it with parroted narrative.
You're a serious part of the problem when others are trying to discuss rational ways to curb this disturbing trend. But, hey, you read a TIME magazine article in 1975 and that makes you smarter than people who devote their lives to this.
Seems to me that I should be able to let anybody contact me and I can opt in to people being charged a dollar to contact me. I don't want to make long lost friends pay to send me a message but I can see how some people might appreciate this. Also, Facebook isn't doing anything worth $1 to get this money and it's an (in)convenience fee so this money should go to a charity or something, right?
Aren't you past karma whoring with a sub million UID?
Yeah, man, one of these days I am going to hit the bank with all this karma I've accrued and do... um, buy that... uh, what exactly does that get me again? Screw it, moderate my post to -1, I don't care. I do care that some people are informed of more batshit insane politicians. I would love to see Jay Rockefeller, Gingrich and Huckabee never hold office again.
But you offer nothing. Nothing to this thread. No real facts - just comments from moronic politicians..
The origin of this story is moronic comments from politicians. Here are more. They are full of them. What I didn't do was attach my own two cents to that post in the interest of just presenting information about our elected officials who will, in the end, set these laws.
And yet, no one can make a difference.
What kind of attitude is this?
You know what? Shut the fuck up. And the rest of you too. Just shut the fuck up until you have data and a real solution.
You hear that, everyone? You cannot discuss solutions. No discussing whatsoever. Do not repeat what your politicians are saying so people are informed. You can only talk if you have a 100% solution and therefore no one can talk right now. Solutions will just magically appear with no discussion and you should not know what your elected representatives are saying about the matter!
Fuck you.
Ah, sweet sweet rebuttal from presenting statements and information. I love you too!
When you have an anti-religious, secular bureaucracy and secular judiciary seeking to drive God out of public life, something fills the vacuum. And that something, you know, I don’t know that going from communion to playing war games in which you practice killing people is necessarily an improvement.
We ask why there is violence in our schools, but we’ve systematically removed God from our schools. Should we be so surprised that schools would become a place of carnage because we’ve made it a place where we don’t want to talk about eternity, life, what responsibility means, accountability?
Slashdot Mirror
CES: Can a Gyroscope Ball Really Cure Wrist Pain?
First off, let me say that I have no formal training or any sort of degree in anything even remotely related to this. I'm not medically qualified to give you professional advice on this sort of stuff. But from using using these things, I would wager that very few kinds pain will actually be cured from this. I don't know how carpal tunnel syndrome responds to this but I thought that was a condition of the nerves and I fail to see how this could help that (I'm totally sold on muscles though and, through that, maybe extremity blood flow). I would be wary of someone selling this to me heralding it as a panacea for all things past your elbow.
Have you used a gyroscope exercise ball?
Yes.
If so, did it help cure a wrist problem or help strengthen your hands and fingers? And which of these brands (if any) did you try?
I had no wrist problems to begin with but a roommate at the time called them "climber balls" and said climbers use them. So, being a software developer with terrible posture by trade and enjoying video games, bass guitar playing, piano playing, more programming, book writing, etc on the side, I felt it was in my interest to try as best as possible to preserve my wrists. So I asked for one for Christmas and received the orange PowerBall pictured here with digital back. I used it for a while and tried to do 10 minutes a day with it, alternating hands as the digital readout would let me see how fast I could get it (I think I got it up regularly to 9,000 RPM and 13,000 RPM once while incredibly intoxicated). Basically I'd burn up right off the bat with each arm and then try to get into a sustaining groove. Definitely more exerting than it looks. I would also alternate between grips. The two most comfortable ones seemed to be palming it from the back and wrapping my thumb and index finger around the grip while supporting with the other fingers. And I noticed a serious burn (a good, like exercise burn) at first in my hand and forearm but then only in my forearm. From my experience, I suspect that once your hand's grip hits a certain point it's good to go whereas the muscles pumping energy into the gyroscope are actually located in the wrist/forearm. So I believe it was working. I was, however, also doing exercises like wrist curls, inverse wrist curls, wrist extensions with a 45 lb. bar at the gym from time to time. And I was also doing other exercises that probably inadvertently helped strengthen these same areas.
So anyway, one day my friend stayed over and brought his dog. He slept on the couch, his dog whimpered in his kennel so he took him out and fell asleep with him. Dog got a hold of the PowerBall and that was that. Recently these NSDs went on sale for $25 for Black Friday (as shown here) and so I purchased two with the intent of having one at my desk in cubeland and one at home. While I'm happily using one, I left the other packaged and might gift it up because no matter how nice these balls are, they do make a good deal of noise (and the ones with revolution powered LEDs look dance-rave in the dark). The digital options on the NSDs aren't as nice or intuitive as the PowerBall LCD functions but I haven't given that a lot of time so that could just be RTFA ignorance on my part. I just use them as a straight up exercise device now with no intent of breaking records on youtube so I've stopped fussing with the electronics part of them. These NSDs are so far seemingly higher construction than the PowerBalls and are much easier to start but also seem more expensive. I suppose I would have to use this for a year before I start reporting on wear and tear. Watch for a sale on an NSD, when you
First off, I am deeply saddened and distraught that such a prolific person that had already helped the world so much took his own life. I hope his family and friends take solace in the amount of achievements this young man had made before his decision to take his own life.
3% of Americans are under the correctional supervision of their justice system. There are seven times more people in prison in the US as a percentage of the population as there are in Europe.
There is no evidence that this policy is any more effective than things like removing Lead in Gas for reducing overall crime. The rest of the world looks on in horror at prison camp America which locks up slightly more people than the Russians. Ever tried looking in the mirror?
The US Justice System is there to enforce the law. I don't know what relevance this has or what you hoped to achieve with your parroted statistics but I don't find it very helpful here. He was charged with wire fraud, computer fraud among other things and when someone alerts the authorities that this may have taken place, they investigate it. If I bypassed your home's security and installed a laptop in your home that connected to your network and took all your files, would you want there to be laws against that? That's what they were investigating -- is there any evidence of undue or unjust actions in this investigation? I think that's what MIT wants to find out here.
I'm not surprised this guy looked at the options and chose the one he did, it was probably the most rational sane thing to do.
You know, that almost sounds like an endorsement for suicide which is probably one of the most disgusting and vehement posts I've read here so far. There is nothing rational nor sane about taking one's own life. When I was 16 one of my friends committed suicide and more recently a roommate's girlfriend came over while my roommate was gone and committed suicide. As someone who has witnessed the aftermath both to someone who meant so much to me and someone I barely knew, I will tell you right now that it is a terrible act that impacts everyone -- and most often in a profoundly negative way. To call it 'rational' or 'sane' in any case reveals that you do not know anything about suicide.
I didn't know Aaron Swartz although I've been following this case with interest. What I suspect happened was that Swartz wanted to make a statement about opening up journals to the public and he wagered that it would be hard to pin any fallout on himself if he did all of this covertly. And he tried. But at the end of the day they figured out who was taking these articles of information. Did you know he was a Fellow at Harvard University's Center for Ethics? What do you think this meant for his career to be indicted on such charges? How would you, as a student, listen to a lecture on ethics from someone who had broken laws and evaded police? I think that Swartz saw this as a sort of "civil disobedience" but when his peers did not agree, he took the coward's route instead of letting society decide his fate for his actions -- and I think the case was still open!
Let's assume Swartz was completely in the right on all of his actions. What, precisely, would you have MIT and the US Government do differently to prevent this suicide? What actions of theirs do you find culpable for forcing Aaron Swartz into no other choice than to take his own life?
However, even China is offering something Google and Verizon aren’t here in the US: Open access, and the choice of multiple service providers once the fiber is installed.
Um, yeah so you can pick from China Telecom and China Unicom which are both -- SURPRISE SURPRISE -- state run and controlled providers. So, yeah, go ahead and select between Super Auspicious Provider A and Premium Auspicious Provider B and think you have a choice just like Cox and Comcast are two sides of the same inept coin.
According to the China Daily report, the Chinese government hopes to have “40 million families connected to fiber networks by 2015,” which is almost one-third of the country’s entire population.
Emphasis mine. Anyone see a believable plan on how that's going to happen? I mean, I bet every government hopes to have a third of its nations homes on fiber networks by 2015 ... that sounds like a rather expensive project that you're not going to see a return on until the state owned providers pay it back though. You've got a state owned and state controlled newspaper telling you about something unbelievably awesome enforcing some totally unrealistic (unless there are few fiber neighborhoods) regulation. Am I the only one saying that I will applaud them when it's actually in place and working?
2015 is two years away. Um, yeah, they had better get crackin'. Well, I guess when you can just force the poorer farming people to work for free it might be possible! That little project was called “Speed up the Roads and Enrich the People” hahaha. Here's your shovel, comrade. Now start digging until you're enriched.
The skeptic in me is just thinking that the home builders in China just need to pay off one more inspector to get a structure standing. Hell, their sheet rock and cement are clearly bribed through quality control -- why not structural, electrical and fiber officials?
"How shocked?" You ask? Shocked exactly to the point that my water army commanding officer pays me to be -- and not one yuan more!
If it's not a question, don't use a question mark.
Hey, look, buddy. I'm just the only one here brave enough to ask questions, okay? There's nothing wrong with asking questions, is there? Is it illegal? I'm just asking questions. I'm just wondering if maybe this is the site for China's deathray that Obama gave them the plans for under Jimmy Carter's guidance. I'm just asking questions. I'm not making any statements. You can't get mad at me for that. Is this what unions want? China to be free to build whatever they please in the desert? Again, I'm just asking questions. I mean, if I was going to build a soylent green plant, where do you think I'd do it? I'm just asking questions here. I'm not saying that China is turning its overpopulation and starvation problems into a combined solution. But what do you think? I'm just asking questions.
Disclaimer: I've never done anything like this. Well, this structure is pretty unique in its shape. Judging by the shadow, it's pretty high up and probably serves the most distinct purpose? It almost looks like that might be a prison yard in the middle with a fence in the back? If you're going to make a building that large and use it for office space, why make that shape? Why not just a rectangular or square building? It could also maybe be the beginnings of an airport or air base with that structure being the tower and the field to be built in front of the flat side of the U. The other sites might be hangars?
If it's a prison, the other sites might be places for arrays of solar panels or perhaps mining sites with the intent of prisoners working on those things. I mean, when you're that far out are you going to make a run for it? The electricity and/or ore would be for nearby Kashgar, Xinjiang?
If any of that were true, I have no clue what this stuff would be though. It looks like the upper left of that has had dirt pushed around to level out the ground for something to be built on top of it though. This went up fast but you might have to give it another year or two before it starts to take shape?
It's just a low blow at Creative Commons authors.
No, it's criticism (something I employ during a review) and you're free to actually refute it with empirical examples disproving my stated observation. If you think that you can build a tech library out of Creative Common works that meets or supersedes a library built with traditionally licensed and copyright works then good for you. At this point in time, I sadly cannot.
Is anyone else reviewing Creative Commons books on Slashdot other than me? If it's such a low blow, you're free to jump in with reviews any time you want -- I know I'd appreciate finding new books!
I am a supporter of Creative Common works. I am not, however, a raving lunatic that can't come to terms with our current reality.
What resulted is a good book (amazing by CC-BY-NC standards)
. What exactly does this mean?
Do the C-BY-NC standards say that a book has to be below a certain standard in order to be accepted for the license? Please elaborate.
O'Reilly publishes good to great books. Pragmatic Programmers publish good to great books. But when I flip through Creative Commons titles, you can't find that kind of quality on a regular basis ... yet. I was simply trying to say that compared to everything else I've come across as Creative Commons works, this book helps raise the bar. I might even say to the point of competing with major publishers. I think I've reviewed one other CC book (Pilgrim's HTML5?) that was worth reviewing but I still have to say that an entire series like Pragmatic Programmers still outshines 99% of what you find in CC licensing. Now, that's all just my opinion because I know some people that prefer man pages over anything else. Hope that makes that clearer.
I'm the reviewer, I use my standards. Freedom means publish whatever you want, good or bad. There are no standards and that's very important.
After watching their recently acquired film THX 1138, CEO Bob Iger hailed it as a "feel good" movie although the ending had some flaws and promised to turn all Disney parks and resorts into the futuristic "utopia" from the film. Iger announced at a press conference that Mickey Mouse would replace OMM 0910 as the only approved deity of worship. Iger sat upon a chair made of the late Congressman Sonny Bono's remains while wearing his Grand Dragoon Mousekateer helmet although he refused to answer any questions from reporters who had not been taking their performance enhancing medications.
Why do the articles about "Stuff that Matters" get less comments than pointless crap like the article about a Trillion Dollar coin being banned?
Well, I'm not trying to give Slashdot a free pass nor do I think the commentators are the best but to put this into perspective, you should consider these stories. You can have an opinion about the Trillion Dollar coin and you can speak about how you like or don't like and why that is. And it's quite polarizing so it's going to generate a lot of garbage. I think everyone is on board with Curiosity though. It's not polarizing. It's doing things that are far and above what I do in my day to day life so it's really hard for me to make a super intelligent comment about it. Saying how much I love Curiosity just turns into a circle jerk with people one-upping each other about how large their Curiosity tramp stamps are so I remain tacit unless I have something meaningful to add. The Trillion Dollar coin, on the other hand, I was all too eager to call names and engage in ad hominem attacks.
... blah blah blah." So it's hard to generate worthwhile comments here.
Also, there have been countless Curiosity stories and about two Trillion Dollar coin stories. So even if you assume that the population of readers has equal comments about both stories you're going to exhaust the Curiosity comments quickly. I'm not here to say the same thing over and over on multiple stories -- especially when all I can do is sit here with my jaw agape at how awesome this is.
So what exactly did you have in mind? My armchair NASA administrator posts aren't very productive so I read the story and scan the comments for something good. Nobody can chime in with "Well, when I polished rocks on Mars I used an anodized aluminum brush that got better
Martian Archie Bunker: *peering through his invisibility blinds out his window* "Awww jeez, Edith, look at it now, it's rolled on to our property!"
Martian Edith Bunker: "Relax, Archie, he's probably just lost and looking for directions."
Martian Archie Bunker: "Ohhh no, no he's not. Sheesh those gypsy rovers are taking over out here. Look what happened to Earth, it's practically infected with those things! Oh, what's it doing now? It's polishing one of our yard rocks. Oh geez, oh geez, now it's going to come up to the door and ask for money. I didn't ask him to polish no rocks, he ain't gettin' any of my money!"
Martian Edith Bunker: "Well, maybe just a couple a' bucks, Archie. Look at this one, he's so slow and lonely looking. You know how slow those Earthlings are and they mean well, they really do."
Martian Archie Bunker: "Oh no, not this Martian. No sir. You give one of them a couple of Martian bucks and *BAM* suddenly there's a whole group of 'Thlings with their stupid robots standing outside everyone of our 49 One Twenty One convenience stores tryin' to polish your windshield. I'm not going to be the Martian that starts that invasion, no way."
As long as we cut spending on the freeloading 47% and not the job creators, the Republicans will be for it.
Those are fairly interesting names with an odd number thrown out. I imagine you've researched that quite well and come to the conclusion that all of the 47% you speak of are freeloaders and all of the other 53% are "job creators?" Would you care to cite your sources? Perhaps we should stop spending money on infrastructure since those freeloaders will just mooch off it? I mean, the war in Afghanistan is such a worthy cause compared to our education system, communications networks, interstates, disaster response, etc ...
You're free to research and think for yourself instead of parroting what either party says. Why did you call 47% of the country freeloaders? Isn't that someone who contributes nothing and takes takes takes?
“This scheme to mint trillion dollar platinum coins is absurd and dangerous, and would be laughable if the proponents weren’t so serious about it as a solution,” Walden said in a statement. “My bill will take the coin scheme off the table by disallowing the Treasury to mint platinum coins as a way to pay down the debt.”
I couldn't agree more, we need to reign in this insane spending. But, you know, I would like to know why Congressman Walden voted against limiting funding for the war in Afghanistan? Probably because he's actually for spending taxpayer money, increasing the debt and then trying to stick the president with the bill at the end of the night so he looks like a dumbass. Well, too bad, you're all equal dumbasses when it comes to fiscal policy. All of this is just childish. The Republicans made deals with the Democrats to spend spend spend on both sides and now they want to act like they've been trying to stop spending all along. And it's getting ridiculous. And Republicans have a brilliant plan to solve all the problems by blocking any legislation and flirting with a second recession? Burn in hell, you're just as responsible if not more responsible for the insane spending (you're still writing blank checks for one of dubya's religious crusades).
What's up with all these EldavoJohn questions that get approved for every "ask Slashdot"?! It's not like they are the most interesting questions...
Nope. It's just one of my favorite aspects of Slashdot. They only ever take one or two of my questions no matter how many are +5 or +4. The editors evidently have no time for editing let alone "friendship."
:-)
I'm sorry that you don't find my questions interesting but then again as an Anonymous Coward you're probably only interested in questions surrounding GNAA and Goatse.
I just like to ask questions. Is there something wrong with that?
A Swedish team found it relatively easy to select and interbreed
A rotund researcher licked his lips as he continued, "... a delicious side effect that we noticed was that the larger brained fish had an overall higher fat content and therefore made lutefisk that hardly tasted like soap! On a side note, we will have to breed many thousand more fish to make sure that we have not stumbled upon a localized minimum for reproductive abilities. My colleagues would agree with me if they weren't so busy utilizing the restrooms."
Cross contamination & subsequent loss of organic certification isn't an issue then? How about Monsanto dragging innocent farmers into court?
I would personally advocate slicing GMO issues into separate bins. What you're referring to is the Intellectual Property bin which is a problem with (at least the US) most countries and the ownership (whether an instance of or the general use of) genetic material. Put all those lawsuits and patents and copyright crap in one bin.
Then you have another bin where we analyze the human element of consumption of GMO foods. What is the process to determine when something has undergone enough testing and is ready to push it forward? How many years of human trials must be held before it can be released? We do this with drugs but strangely, I haven't heard of much about this with GMO crops -- why is that?
Lastly we have a more open problem like environmental issues both surrounding the plant's effect on its environment and also the adjusted actions of the humans cultivating this crop. For example: with Roundup ready plants from Monsanto, have we really analyzed what the increased usage of chemicals like Roundup has on the immediate vicinity of the fields? Do we know that these genetic constructs that are taken from an insect and inserted into a plant do not adversely affect the pollen and have indirect affects on hay fever or honey bees? Again, how do we test this and how long should it be tested before it's pushed nationwide.
Lynas raises an interesting point I had not considered -- that my above desires for process and bureaucracy will prevent a small company from venturing into this field. On the other hand, we've been using selective breeding to move past a lot of the hurdles Lynas mentioned that GMO crops are supposed to move us even further past. It's unfortunate but this isn't a black and white issue and I'm against the unfettered proliferation of gene constructs that have been taken from other organisms and inserted into plants without sufficient testing.
The process of DNA -> Amino Acid -> Protein is still a very difficult puzzle for us as humans and I feel we should not openly experiment with inserting stuff at Point A when we don't know the full effects that yields in points B and C. I feel like there is still a lot to be achieved with selective breeding and until we have a better understanding of protein folding, we should shy away from smashing DNA into strands of plants unless it's absolutely critical to humanity. Go ahead and do that stuff in a lab to better understand it but leave it in a lab until there's a process that ensures it is safe.
I hope the families of the slain sue and are successful in getting bazzzilions of dollars out of the idiot Americans.
So the Sikhs that were killed in the wake of 9/11 as "blowback" should sue the Taliban and Al-Queda?
Man, "justice" sure is fucked up where you're from.
Oh yeah, and Americans are idiots.
Ah yes, it is the entire American populace that are idiots. Yep, we were all part of everything you just said. Not one of us opposes it. All of us act together uniformly. No one protests. Man, for people who like to criticize Americans as racist bigots, they sure could look in the mirror from time to time.
Really,
You think an ice age is preferable to a gradually warming climate?
I don't think you understand just how gradual a natural climate cycle has been for Earth. Look at this graph of antarctic temperature changes. Notice how it is windowed to -6 to +4 degrees Celsius within today's temperature and how long those changes normally took. If we speed that same change that took 10,000 years up to 200 years and it only ever increases, what exactly do you think will happen to Earth?
Animals and humans aren't going to have time to adapt or evolve in predicted scenarios.
A lot of people's expectations for the consequences of global warming is the sudden deaths of hundreds of thousands, not wide-ranging low-grade economic impacts that risk hundreds of millions in property damage and puts a strain on global food supply.
We're trained to notice disaster, not statistical drift. There will never be the "event" from global warming, which means denial will continue as the costs keep ramping up.
A second dust bowl would be an "event" and it's a possibility if we enter into a many year drought. Hell, Texas alone lost half a billion trees in the current drought and it's at $8 billion and counting. If that drought rolls into next year and they have a dry winter followed by another drought ... well, the topsoil those half billion trees were holding down will be dry and loose. Bad condition worsens and you could be looking at an "event" as meat prices rise in the US.
You might not remember the dirty thirties but my midwestern grandparents talk about it like it was death for everything.
Time magazine & researchers were telling us what to do about the upcoming ICE AGE, and how to survive it. Now, the same idiots
[citation needed that these are the same people]
are telling us about global warming (whoops...climate change).
Boy you sure are clever. And alone. Climate science and models have progressed extensively since 1975.
The earth goes through cycles....and it is billions of years old. 5-10 years of data is but a blink in cosmic time.
Those cycles you speak of normally take thousands of years to progress, giving larger life forms enough time to migrate and evolve and gradually change their patterns so that they can, you know, survive. When you start to see those averages change more quickly, you should be worried about the larger life forms (hell, bacteria and cockroaches will probably benefit). But, you know, I'm asking you to pull your head out of your ass and yet even when Fox News reports that things were pretty shitty this year, you dismiss it with parroted narrative.
You're a serious part of the problem when others are trying to discuss rational ways to curb this disturbing trend. But, hey, you read a TIME magazine article in 1975 and that makes you smarter than people who devote their lives to this.
Seems to me that I should be able to let anybody contact me and I can opt in to people being charged a dollar to contact me. I don't want to make long lost friends pay to send me a message but I can see how some people might appreciate this. Also, Facebook isn't doing anything worth $1 to get this money and it's an (in)convenience fee so this money should go to a charity or something, right?
How does Facebook deserve this money?
This is the patent that won Apple their billion dollar verdict against Samsung.
That's weird, I remember the jury verdict citing six patents. Pinch to zoom was one of them but surely it was only a fraction of the full billion?
Disclaimer: I have no personal experience doing this. I noticed on O'Reilly there is a cheap series of books by Sandy Antunes. I think surviving orbit will be your biggest challenge? No clue on the quality of those books ...
Aren't you past karma whoring with a sub million UID?
Yeah, man, one of these days I am going to hit the bank with all this karma I've accrued and do ... um, buy that ... uh, what exactly does that get me again? Screw it, moderate my post to -1, I don't care. I do care that some people are informed of more batshit insane politicians. I would love to see Jay Rockefeller, Gingrich and Huckabee never hold office again.
But you offer nothing. Nothing to this thread. No real facts - just comments from moronic politicians..
The origin of this story is moronic comments from politicians. Here are more. They are full of them. What I didn't do was attach my own two cents to that post in the interest of just presenting information about our elected officials who will, in the end, set these laws.
And yet, no one can make a difference.
What kind of attitude is this?
You know what? Shut the fuck up. And the rest of you too. Just shut the fuck up until you have data and a real solution.
You hear that, everyone? You cannot discuss solutions. No discussing whatsoever. Do not repeat what your politicians are saying so people are informed. You can only talk if you have a 100% solution and therefore no one can talk right now. Solutions will just magically appear with no discussion and you should not know what your elected representatives are saying about the matter!
Fuck you.
Ah, sweet sweet rebuttal from presenting statements and information. I love you too!
When you have an anti-religious, secular bureaucracy and secular judiciary seeking to drive God out of public life, something fills the vacuum. And that something, you know, I don’t know that going from communion to playing war games in which you practice killing people is necessarily an improvement.
Huckabee:
We ask why there is violence in our schools, but we’ve systematically removed God from our schools. Should we be so surprised that schools would become a place of carnage because we’ve made it a place where we don’t want to talk about eternity, life, what responsibility means, accountability?