Perhaps you are right, and they may save on calls for spyware infections. But think how many calls they will get from people complaining about web pages that don't work - because of lack of ActiveX, or just simply that the page doesn't work with anything but IE (like my stupid bank).
It seems to me that this isn't obviously a good idea. Add on the risk of annoying Microsoft, and it seems downright silly. I wonder why in the world Dell would do this.
Hopes are high, I agree. But we have next to no idea why this gene is needed for regeneration. For all we know, it could be a minor but crucial role. For example, perhaps this gene merely acts as a signal, telling cells "regenerate now!", whereas the highly complex machinery that actually carries out regeneration is contained in some other genes. Note that if this were true, the results of the experiments would be the same. Further research is needed.
I also try to do everything in moderation. I even moderate in moderation, so I end up doing some stuff to the extreme, just so I won't be an extremist at moderation, also known as an extremist moderationist.
Or is that a moderate extremist. I give up, time for another cup of coffee.
Exactly. So you need to listen to a 15-second ad before starting your call? How long before we all install code that just blanks out the sound for those 15 seconds, and writes meanwhile "call commencing in 15...14...13...12...11...", while playing a musical choice of our own?
"the humanities haven't really moved forward at all, except to invent cultural relativism, which exists largely as a pooh-pooh reaction against science."
After he complains about humanities graduates poorly presenting science, he poorly presents the humanities. Sadly, I must suspect that the cause is exactly the mirror image of what he stated in his article, i.e. that he just doesn't understand the humanities. To 'pooh-pooh' centuries of development in, say, philosophy (since he mentioned relativism) probably implies a lack of knowledge regarding that field.
The problem, as I see it, is the lack of people qualified in both areas, science AND the humanities. Now, the burden should rest mostly on the scientific community, since it is easier for them to learn the humanities than vice versa.
"Yes four thousand people were killed in 9/11 but four times as many die per year in US due to gun fatalities. In terms of a threat to the average citizen of any particular state, the threat posed by terrorism is right down in the noise level."
Only if you equate 'threat' with 'death'. But as its name hints, terrorism is not just aimed at killing people. The number of people emotionally traumatized is far greater than the death toll. And virtually the entire US was influenced by 9/11 in some way. The same can not be said for gun fatalities, I don't think (although they do have a large negative effect as well, beyond those killed or wounded).
The call for reduction of civil liberties just proves this point. The killing of 4,000 people (or 50) was enough to cause an entire nation to reconsider the way it runs itself. The far greater death toll of gun fatalities has not done so, as of yet. Yes, you can see this as irrational behavior, because 'the threat is in the noise level'. But the fact that a such a threat so affects a country says something about the threat's power. I'm not sure what the correct response is to such dangers, but I wouldn't call them 'noise'.
"They don't know it necessarily makes people smarter, but it's hard to think what else it might be."
Actually, it is easy to think of alternatives. All we know is that the gene is somehow related to brain SIZE. Size doesn't mean quality. Perhaps it just enlarges the brain by altering non-intelligence-related areas (for example, motoric or sensory areas). Perhaps it multiplies glia ('supportive' cells) and not neurons ('computational' cells). Perhaps it just copies brain areas instead of improving them (thus providing redundancy, a benefit against brain damage).
There are more things than can be done to the brain, and that improve survivability, than raising intelligence.
I'm a right-hander, but I use my mouse with my left hand, just because it's more convenient due to my table arrangement.
Although it would be nice of them to produce mirror-versions of their mice, I agree.
Slashdot Mirror
Since you remain at Score:0, I conclude that only a small club of people got that joke.
Perhaps you are right, and they may save on calls for spyware infections. But think how many calls they will get from people complaining about web pages that don't work - because of lack of ActiveX, or just simply that the page doesn't work with anything but IE (like my stupid bank).
It seems to me that this isn't obviously a good idea. Add on the risk of annoying Microsoft, and it seems downright silly. I wonder why in the world Dell would do this.
Yeah, maybe you live with a friend on Paper Street after your apartment blew up. And you have this sort of club that you two started.
Hopes are high, I agree. But we have next to no idea why this gene is needed for regeneration. For all we know, it could be a minor but crucial role. For example, perhaps this gene merely acts as a signal, telling cells "regenerate now!", whereas the highly complex machinery that actually carries out regeneration is contained in some other genes. Note that if this were true, the results of the experiments would be the same. Further research is needed.
I also try to do everything in moderation. I even moderate in moderation, so I end up doing some stuff to the extreme, just so I won't be an extremist at moderation, also known as an extremist moderationist. Or is that a moderate extremist. I give up, time for another cup of coffee.
Exactly. So you need to listen to a 15-second ad before starting your call? How long before we all install code that just blanks out the sound for those 15 seconds, and writes meanwhile "call commencing in 15...14...13...12...11...", while playing a musical choice of our own?
How long before they start sending data that has the correct hash? Just how strong ARE the hashes used by Bittorrent?
I agree.
The article writes:
"the humanities haven't really moved forward at all, except to invent cultural relativism, which exists largely as a pooh-pooh reaction against science."
After he complains about humanities graduates poorly presenting science, he poorly presents the humanities. Sadly, I must suspect that the cause is exactly the mirror image of what he stated in his article, i.e. that he just doesn't understand the humanities. To 'pooh-pooh' centuries of development in, say, philosophy (since he mentioned relativism) probably implies a lack of knowledge regarding that field.
The problem, as I see it, is the lack of people qualified in both areas, science AND the humanities. Now, the burden should rest mostly on the scientific community, since it is easier for them to learn the humanities than vice versa.
"Yes four thousand people were killed in 9/11 but four times as many die per year in US due to gun fatalities. In terms of a threat to the average citizen of any particular state, the threat posed by terrorism is right down in the noise level."
Only if you equate 'threat' with 'death'. But as its name hints, terrorism is not just aimed at killing people. The number of people emotionally traumatized is far greater than the death toll. And virtually the entire US was influenced by 9/11 in some way. The same can not be said for gun fatalities, I don't think (although they do have a large negative effect as well, beyond those killed or wounded).
The call for reduction of civil liberties just proves this point. The killing of 4,000 people (or 50) was enough to cause an entire nation to reconsider the way it runs itself. The far greater death toll of gun fatalities has not done so, as of yet. Yes, you can see this as irrational behavior, because 'the threat is in the noise level'. But the fact that a such a threat so affects a country says something about the threat's power. I'm not sure what the correct response is to such dangers, but I wouldn't call them 'noise'.
"They don't know it necessarily makes people smarter, but it's hard to think what else it might be."
Actually, it is easy to think of alternatives. All we know is that the gene is somehow related to brain SIZE. Size doesn't mean quality. Perhaps it just enlarges the brain by altering non-intelligence-related areas (for example, motoric or sensory areas). Perhaps it multiplies glia ('supportive' cells) and not neurons ('computational' cells). Perhaps it just copies brain areas instead of improving them (thus providing redundancy, a benefit against brain damage).
There are more things than can be done to the brain, and that improve survivability, than raising intelligence.
I'm a right-hander, but I use my mouse with my left hand, just because it's more convenient due to my table arrangement. Although it would be nice of them to produce mirror-versions of their mice, I agree.