a) as usual, one of the favorite caveats of Slsahdot: correlation != causation
b) it would be interesting to see if choice of abstinence (not forced due to alcoholism or previous medical condition) is actually undertaken by people with higher level of general stress or those who are less social. As in, moderately consumed alcohol is basically being a "have reasonable fun" catalyst, which probably should increase life expectancy at least slightly.
I was thinking the same thing. I have recently finished Graham's book "The Intelligent Investor", and buying a company for $2bn that has not even once generated any profit is like straight out of the chapter "what to watch out for". A very speculative move, especially by a company without a CEO. Not to mention that bidding is not yet completely over, right?
I love the general manager's remark regarding some other invention: "We're not sure what we're going to do with it, but it's cool, isn't it?" This clearly shows that people in there truly enjoy their work:D And it also seems, they can at some point turn the coolness factor into profit.
Depending on computational complexity, I guess glass breaking in computer games that is (almost?) indistinguishable from the real thing.Maybe also large-scale special effects, when the physical objects are too large to be used as props. But I didn't know it was such a big issue in the first place...
The part about the shuttle is obviously a joke, right? It can barely make it to the LEO, it is not able to reach a very highly located geosynchronous orbit. + why would you want to risk the lives of the crew and send a completely crazy unscheduled mission? And for some cheapo (in space terms) comms satellite? If they will send anything, it will be an unmanned mission, but even this is unlikely.
Are we talking illegal or legal? Because to do it according to the law, your friend should probably pay at least the import / duty taxes, and maybe even VAT to the Her Majesty's.
If we are talking illegal, then one might wonder how much will it cost to find someone who found an iPad that "fell of a truck". Or maybe do a snatch and run by yourself. Where would you like to draw the line?
Some neuroscientists still work with the giant squid axon. And yes, it was used extensively in neuroscience, an elegant collection of works by Hodgkin and Huxley (foundation of modern electrophysiology) comes to mind. They even received a Nobel prize for their work in 1963 (the research was published in the early 50s).
I come from a non-China nation (EEurope) and I am in "upper academia". If you can please show me any of the money "my nation" is giving me (or has been giving me since I started college, as I finished HS back home) I would be appreciative. Oh, wait! yes, I receive a stipend of $100 / month. Almost missed it:-/
On the other hand, Uncle Sam (through some money-academia-laundering) has been more than welcome to help me out, but my stipend is pretty much the same as the one of American-born peers.
Of course there is an English translation. This is a SF classic after all... Actually, the book has even its own Wikipedia page (if we can use it as a measure of merit)
Hmm, how good of a professor you are?:-)
A prof (big name in the field) where I used to go to college wrote a chapter of a textbook (commercial) and also posted it as a PDF on his website. It all depends on your negotiation skills with the publisher - if you are not being paid a penny, make your point and demand the right to publish what you write online. Your students will appreciate that.
eradicating a disease - that's healh policy topic, not much to do with science
finding cure for a disease - science
Scientists will never eradicate a disease - politicians and administrators will (if they want to, and the scientists give them methods to do that).
No way! I am a scientist myself (not even an armchair scientist) and I know that if NSF of NIH got suddenly, lets say, extra 100 billions - there would be no way to spend it!
It's not like there is a machine where you put money it and it outputs scientific truths on the other side. Science is not about throwing lots of money at once - it's a long distance thing. You need skilled manpower, you need equipment (that has to be produced) etc. etc.
DO increase the budget, use billions to do that, but don't expect that the year you throw 100 billions on science you will suddenly cure cancer. However, a promise of extra 5 billions, guaranteed and inflation adjusted for the next 20 years, would FOR SURE make a difference.
Of course, if you decide to give science extra 100 billions for the next 20 years, I won't protest either:)
Sure, they are quite popular in Poland (where I was born, and where it happened). Especially the more sophisticated ones (planes & rails) get lots of attention, however buses have a couple of fans too. Bunch of guys renovated a little steam-train with their own funds and now are running it on an unused piece of track that they have fixed a bit by themselves too. All non-profit and stuff. Same goes for renovation of old trams or buses. I guess the price of any "cool" and relatively "old" plane (and subsequent maintenance) is prohibitive, because I haven't heard of any.
The rail enthusiast's website (the English version is very poor though).
Another one (Polish only).
Warsaw public transport enthusiasts website.
They guys there are very often people who did related stuff before but had to change profession due to transformation, or just plain enthusiasts.
I read on one of the Polish websites about this guy, and he contacted the local public transportation club and was asking way too many questions (either during a meeting or on a webforum). As he didn't join the club / pay the fees and he disappeared immediately, it seemed a bit awkward. When the trams started behaving strangely, the authorities suspected outside interference and contacted the club leader for any information. The club leader recalled this strange guy asking too many questions, and the rest is history.
It's nice to see a voice of a reason from time to time. However, we have to remember, there is not one type of Israelis and one type of Palestinians. There are Israelis that think that the land was given to them by the God, not by the UN, and God decides how large it is (through the downstream messengers) and they are also reasonable Israelis.
There are Palestinians, who would gladly sign in for a one-way ticket to Israel with too much explosive stuff in their backpack and there are Palestinians who would gladly put those backpackers into prison for long years.
Unfortunately, the problem is that radical elements on both sides have simply more power / shout louder:-( Because I don't think that blowing yourself on a bus is a solution for one side, the same way I do not think that concrete fencing off (accidentally pushing the border in the only correct direction) others is a good idea either...
Actually, I was also thinking about it. The freaking thing is burning so much fuel and producing so much CO_2 that it gives me creeps.
However, idea of fitting private ships with nuclear engines (and we are not talking about Russian ice-breakers here - AFAIK there a few of those with nuclear power) is also a bit scary. There have to be very strict rules when it comes to pollution / security / etc, and i guess lots of costs to fit / maintain those aboard those ships...
The main problem is that they have to be launched first. Although I understand that we are not talking about 5 years here but more like 50 or even 100, but there is this huge anti-nuclear-whatever trend in the world (and I am talking power-plants, research(!), etc.) so that launching any nuclear device into space may be put between the fairy tales at the moment...
However, they definitely used to do it - look at Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 satellites for example - they were equipped with RTG generators. And I think some fairly recent NASA mission too (Cassini?).
If I understood correctly ("oxygen atoms") the author was not refering to O2 nor O3 but simple free oxygen radicals. At high altitudes (ozone layer height and above) the UV radiation is strong enough to split O2 and O3 molecules into free radicals (homolytic cleavage). The product is represented in chemistry as O. (O with a dot). This is a relatively stable molecule, but very reactive. And I mean very. It will do anything to bind to something and get back to favourite 8 electrons in valence shell configuration.
And as we are not really able to produce material that would be strong enough and light enough to support the space lift even in perfect conditions (there are really nice Internet-available articles and research papeers on this issue), producing a practical model is still much more thing of fiction, than of science. Therefore any coating or protection from whatever may be hazardous for our lift needs also to be developed and is a topic for the future. But may be in far future...
Oh, and there was extensive research done on many different earth-to-orbit propulsion systems, some more possible than the others. My biggest enthusiasm got the nuclear-engine, but for obvious reasons research in this area is right now strongly inhibited (if there is any at all).
Slashdot Mirror
a) as usual, one of the favorite caveats of Slsahdot: correlation != causation
b) it would be interesting to see if choice of abstinence (not forced due to alcoholism or previous medical condition) is actually undertaken by people with higher level of general stress or those who are less social. As in, moderately consumed alcohol is basically being a "have reasonable fun" catalyst, which probably should increase life expectancy at least slightly.
I was thinking the same thing. I have recently finished Graham's book "The Intelligent Investor", and buying a company for $2bn that has not even once generated any profit is like straight out of the chapter "what to watch out for". A very speculative move, especially by a company without a CEO. Not to mention that bidding is not yet completely over, right?
I love the general manager's remark regarding some other invention: "We're not sure what we're going to do with it, but it's cool, isn't it?" This clearly shows that people in there truly enjoy their work :D And it also seems, they can at some point turn the coolness factor into profit.
Depending on computational complexity, I guess glass breaking in computer games that is (almost?) indistinguishable from the real thing.Maybe also large-scale special effects, when the physical objects are too large to be used as props. But I didn't know it was such a big issue in the first place...
The part about the shuttle is obviously a joke, right? It can barely make it to the LEO, it is not able to reach a very highly located geosynchronous orbit. + why would you want to risk the lives of the crew and send a completely crazy unscheduled mission? And for some cheapo (in space terms) comms satellite? If they will send anything, it will be an unmanned mission, but even this is unlikely.
Are we talking illegal or legal? Because to do it according to the law, your friend should probably pay at least the import / duty taxes, and maybe even VAT to the Her Majesty's.
If we are talking illegal, then one might wonder how much will it cost to find someone who found an iPad that "fell of a truck". Or maybe do a snatch and run by yourself. Where would you like to draw the line?
A pocket sized RT-PCR HIV detector would be ultra awesome... but it's yet beyond our reach...
Some neuroscientists still work with the giant squid axon. And yes, it was used extensively in neuroscience, an elegant collection of works by Hodgkin and Huxley (foundation of modern electrophysiology) comes to mind. They even received a Nobel prize for their work in 1963 (the research was published in the early 50s).
I absolutely love the iLiad. It's old by today standards, yet without real competition. Unfortunately, it's pricey as hell.
On the other hand, Uncle Sam (through some money-academia-laundering) has been more than welcome to help me out, but my stipend is pretty much the same as the one of American-born peers.
I am pretty confident that as soon as they announce it, we will be able to find your summary surprisingly accurate.
Actually the AC above me is right. It's the Final Circle of Paradise, not the Noon, 22nd Century. My bad, sorry.
Of course there is an English translation. This is a SF classic after all... Actually, the book has even its own Wikipedia page (if we can use it as a measure of merit)
Oh, stupidity....those are voltage traces... anyway, point still stands.
They are not. In addition to Tufte, they've been used since 70ties (??) in Neuroscience and Physiology to describe currents (i.e. http://jp.physoc.org/content/574/2/415/F7.large.jpg
Hmm, how good of a professor you are? :-)
A prof (big name in the field) where I used to go to college wrote a chapter of a textbook (commercial) and also posted it as a PDF on his website. It all depends on your negotiation skills with the publisher - if you are not being paid a penny, make your point and demand the right to publish what you write online. Your students will appreciate that.
eradicating a disease - that's healh policy topic, not much to do with science finding cure for a disease - science Scientists will never eradicate a disease - politicians and administrators will (if they want to, and the scientists give them methods to do that).
It's not like there is a machine where you put money it and it outputs scientific truths on the other side. Science is not about throwing lots of money at once - it's a long distance thing. You need skilled manpower, you need equipment (that has to be produced) etc. etc.
DO increase the budget, use billions to do that, but don't expect that the year you throw 100 billions on science you will suddenly cure cancer. However, a promise of extra 5 billions, guaranteed and inflation adjusted for the next 20 years, would FOR SURE make a difference.
Of course, if you decide to give science extra 100 billions for the next 20 years, I won't protest either :)
Sure, they are quite popular in Poland (where I was born, and where it happened). Especially the more sophisticated ones (planes & rails) get lots of attention, however buses have a couple of fans too.
Bunch of guys renovated a little steam-train with their own funds and now are running it on an unused piece of track that they have fixed a bit by themselves too. All non-profit and stuff. Same goes for renovation of old trams or buses. I guess the price of any "cool" and relatively "old" plane (and subsequent maintenance) is prohibitive, because I haven't heard of any.
The rail enthusiast's website (the English version is very poor though).
They guys there are very often people who did related stuff before but had to change profession due to transformation, or just plain enthusiasts.Another one (Polish only).
Warsaw public transport enthusiasts website.
I read on one of the Polish websites about this guy, and he contacted the local public transportation club and was asking way too many questions (either during a meeting or on a webforum). As he didn't join the club / pay the fees and he disappeared immediately, it seemed a bit awkward. When the trams started behaving strangely, the authorities suspected outside interference and contacted the club leader for any information. The club leader recalled this strange guy asking too many questions, and the rest is history.
- Europe: 10,180,000 km^2 (3,930,000 sq mi)
- European Union: 4,324,782 km^2 (1,669,807 sq mi)
- Texas: 678,051 km^2 (261,797 sq mi)
- USofA: 9,826,630 km^2 (3,794,066 sq mi)
All data after Wikipedia. Densities differ - true, but still, don't use such exaggerations to support your argument (which is not bad in itself).It's nice to see a voice of a reason from time to time. However, we have to remember, there is not one type of Israelis and one type of Palestinians. There are Israelis that think that the land was given to them by the God, not by the UN, and God decides how large it is (through the downstream messengers) and they are also reasonable Israelis. There are Palestinians, who would gladly sign in for a one-way ticket to Israel with too much explosive stuff in their backpack and there are Palestinians who would gladly put those backpackers into prison for long years. Unfortunately, the problem is that radical elements on both sides have simply more power / shout louder :-( Because I don't think that blowing yourself on a bus is a solution for one side, the same way I do not think that concrete fencing off (accidentally pushing the border in the only correct direction) others is a good idea either...
Actually, I was also thinking about it. The freaking thing is burning so much fuel and producing so much CO_2 that it gives me creeps.
However, idea of fitting private ships with nuclear engines (and we are not talking about Russian ice-breakers here - AFAIK there a few of those with nuclear power) is also a bit scary. There have to be very strict rules when it comes to pollution / security / etc, and i guess lots of costs to fit / maintain those aboard those ships...
Is the move really worth the effort?
The main problem is that they have to be launched first. Although I understand that we are not talking about 5 years here but more like 50 or even 100, but there is this huge anti-nuclear-whatever trend in the world (and I am talking power-plants, research(!), etc.) so that launching any nuclear device into space may be put between the fairy tales at the moment...
However, they definitely used to do it - look at Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 satellites for example - they were equipped with RTG generators. And I think some fairly recent NASA mission too (Cassini?).
And as we are not really able to produce material that would be strong enough and light enough to support the space lift even in perfect conditions (there are really nice Internet-available articles and research papeers on this issue), producing a practical model is still much more thing of fiction, than of science. Therefore any coating or protection from whatever may be hazardous for our lift needs also to be developed and is a topic for the future. But may be in far future...
Oh, and there was extensive research done on many different earth-to-orbit propulsion systems, some more possible than the others. My biggest enthusiasm got the nuclear-engine, but for obvious reasons research in this area is right now strongly inhibited (if there is any at all).