... and if there were as high chance as 1 in a million you would have expected life to have developed multiple times here on Earth. There should be some chemicals making the jump from amino acids to self replicators right now in some slime pond somewhere.
"If the development of life were as improbable as you say, you would have to explain why it happened so quickly."
Because it did? If it didn't we wouldn't be asking the question. That tells us nothing about the relative likleyhood of such things happening. It's like someone bought you a lottery ticket once for your birthday and you won. You can calculate the odds as being infantisimal, but you still won.
Extrapolating from a sample space of one doesn't generally give very reliable results.
So why has it only happened once on Earth? I think quite likely is optimistic. We know it happened once, because it happened. But that doesn't mean it's likely. In fact given that it's only happened the one time you'd think that would indicate that it's quite unlikely to happen.
It's also worth considering that given that our planet is an ideal location for life to develop how many times has life developed here? Seems like just the one time. Maybe life is a lot rarer that we assume.
Talking about beating... Beating terrorists would be nice, but it would be even nicer to beat Kevin Andrews... and as for the clowns in the Federal Police, back to the beat for them. Hope they remember how to keep them shoes shiny.
So is the three strikes law an effective deterrent? Or does it just make people act nuts? Are there many more people on their second strike than ever make it to three?
Actually, while they may not be posting about it on Slashdot, I would venture to guess that most car-thiefs are in favor of protecting our civil liberties and "freedom from tracking". Assuming that they are aware enough to actually have an opinion or even know that such things are being discussed at all.
That's not such a bad response. Its been reported that juvenile offenders can actually grow comfortable to juvenile detention, and it can become a way of life. So they do incredibly silly things knowing that they have a community of sorts to go back to once they get caught.
It's funny that the people most in favor of civil liberties and freedom from tracking are the people who are probably least likely to commit a crime, like stealing a car.
Except, perhaps, for some of the seemingly less offensive crimes such as partaking in the consumption of certain herbaceous materials.
Imagine hundreds of patrol cars registering the positions of every car on the road that they can see at sub-second intervals. Imagine this data being entered into a database. Now can you see the powerful tool this could become? You could effectively trace people's movements without them knowing.
The upside is that you might actually have some chance in finding your car again once it gets stolen. It's funny that it's the people that are least likely to steal a car that are most likely to object to this system.
As an aside, why is it that the country that has possibly the best airborne police service is also the country that has the most high speed police chases. I mean your chances of actually getting away from the cops in the USA in a chase are so marginal why do people bother?
"The Los Angeles Times reports that the explosion was 'ignited by a tank of nitrous oxide.'"
Just goes to show that nitrous oxide is no laughing matter.
it must be coming to the point where it's almost worth it to rip the copper up and sell it and then put something else like bits of inexpensive glass in it's place.
You'd have to be happy to be in the top 10 countries in the world, and the USA is.
I guess what you don't see in that table is that most of the top 10 countries have universal health care. That's payed for out of taxes so the US income numbers should be adjusted for that.
I don't see what it has to do with being advanced either. Sure income distribution might be fairer in Australia than in Germany, France and Italy, but I doubt you'd say the country is more "advanced".
The difference is that Tolkien was a crazy academic who believed his literary works were merely a justification to the fantasy languages that he had created, and Rowling is a mum telling a mediocre fairy story about no-one special.
Slashdot Mirror
... and if there were as high chance as 1 in a million you would have expected life to have developed multiple times here on Earth. There should be some chemicals making the jump from amino acids to self replicators right now in some slime pond somewhere.
That doesn't seem to be the case.
"If the development of life were as improbable as you say, you would have to explain why it happened so quickly."
Because it did? If it didn't we wouldn't be asking the question. That tells us nothing about the relative likleyhood of such things happening. It's like someone bought you a lottery ticket once for your birthday and you won. You can calculate the odds as being infantisimal, but you still won.
Extrapolating from a sample space of one doesn't generally give very reliable results.
So why has it only happened once on Earth? I think quite likely is optimistic. We know it happened once, because it happened. But that doesn't mean it's likely. In fact given that it's only happened the one time you'd think that would indicate that it's quite unlikely to happen.
It's also worth considering that given that our planet is an ideal location for life to develop how many times has life developed here? Seems like just the one time. Maybe life is a lot rarer that we assume.
Before a ton of posts show up bitching about the last sentence, you should ask yourself, "Is I as much grammar of think an issue as ?"
Fucked.
correction:
black magic woman" as played by Carlos Santana...
Please forgive my irreverence.
Talking about beating... Beating terrorists would be nice, but it would be even nicer to beat Kevin Andrews... and as for the clowns in the Federal Police, back to the beat for them. Hope they remember how to keep them shoes shiny.
Australian "security experts" (aka Federal Police) being particularly vulnerable right now.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohamed_Haneef
Whenever I use VI I always sing along to "black magic woman" by Carlos Santana...
That's a lot of Santana...
So is the three strikes law an effective deterrent? Or does it just make people act nuts? Are there many more people on their second strike than ever make it to three?
This is the best response to the question.
I'd have modded you up if I had any points...
That's not such a bad response. Its been reported that juvenile offenders can actually grow comfortable to juvenile detention, and it can become a way of life. So they do incredibly silly things knowing that they have a community of sorts to go back to once they get caught.
It's funny that the people most in favor of civil liberties and freedom from tracking are the people who are probably least likely to commit a crime, like stealing a car.
Except, perhaps, for some of the seemingly less offensive crimes such as partaking in the consumption of certain herbaceous materials.
Imagine hundreds of patrol cars registering the positions of every car on the road that they can see at sub-second intervals. Imagine this data being entered into a database. Now can you see the powerful tool this could become? You could effectively trace people's movements without them knowing.
The upside is that you might actually have some chance in finding your car again once it gets stolen. It's funny that it's the people that are least likely to steal a car that are most likely to object to this system.
As an aside, why is it that the country that has possibly the best airborne police service is also the country that has the most high speed police chases. I mean your chances of actually getting away from the cops in the USA in a chase are so marginal why do people bother?
don't Europeans drive on the same side as you guys?
"The Los Angeles Times reports that the explosion was 'ignited by a tank of nitrous oxide.'" Just goes to show that nitrous oxide is no laughing matter.
Man, that's the best publicity I've seen given to SL ever. You make it sound like entering some kind of living version of "The Naked Lunch".
Unfortunately I don't even have enough time to do everything I need in my First Life, let alone start a Second one...
I'm inclined to agree with your sentiments.
How long have you been diagnosed with Tourette syndrome?
it must be coming to the point where it's almost worth it to rip the copper up and sell it and then put something else like bits of inexpensive glass in it's place.
c'mon... I'm facinated. Do tell!! ;-)
You'd have to be happy to be in the top 10 countries in the world, and the USA is.
I guess what you don't see in that table is that most of the top 10 countries have universal health care. That's payed for out of taxes so the US income numbers should be adjusted for that.
I don't see what it has to do with being advanced either. Sure income distribution might be fairer in Australia than in Germany, France and Italy, but I doubt you'd say the country is more "advanced".
My cell also works as a telephone!
Maybe you have an imaginary friend. Does Mr Hand count?
Also: "it did not even matter if the friend was hundreds of miles away - the influence remained."
Spooky fat action at a distance? Sounds like we need physicists on this one, rather than physiologists...
The difference is that Tolkien was a crazy academic who believed his literary works were merely a justification to the fantasy languages that he had created, and Rowling is a mum telling a mediocre fairy story about no-one special.