You obviously weren't alive in 1970, or were very young. People were dying from respiratory illnesses and cancers. Children were being mentally retarded by lead paint and lead in gasoline. Think about what you posted yourself: "some rivers were burning". You realize that rivers aren't supposed to be flammable? Can't you imagine how polluted a river has to be before it will actually BURN?
I was born in 1952 and can give an eyewitness account of how fucking nasty the environment was. Remember that this was before many cars had air conditioning. Even if it was 100 degrees outside (that's 38 C) you absolutely had to roll your windows up while driving past the Monsanto plant in Sauget because the air would burn your lungs.
Nixon didn't "push it through", it was not one of his priorities. It was almost the entire American populace who were sick of living in a chemical pigsty.
I wish you could see color aerial photos of the area around that plant then and now. Then, all the vegetation was brown and sickly, now it's green and healthy.
Which is the #1 reason I cannot support the Libertarians. I don't want to go back to living in filthy squalor.
This is a good reason *why* embryonic stem cell research is rightfully vilified. This isn't treading into ethically murky waters, it's heading out to sea in a supercharged Cigarette.
These weren't grown from embryonic stem cells, they were grown from adult skin cells.
it's just a flatly staggering disregard for humanity and ethical norms in the name of "science"
There are no blood vessels and various other reasons why these "brains" will never think. I didn't read the linked FA but I read several others, and I saw no ethical or moral problems.
In the US, you pay for calls made and received (all part of your call allowance).
That depends on your carrier and plan. Some charge for all minutes used, some give you a number of "free" minutes. The one I'm on is a flat $40 per month, no limits on anything except I'm not allowed to tether..
That's what my dad does. He doesn't say "hang on a minute", when they start their spiel he puts the phone down and when it finally goes BEEP BEEP BEEP he hangs it up.
I don't have a landline so I get few of these. I just curse them in the vilest language for calling cell phones when it may cost the person they're calling. I never leave my cell # with any commercial entity, but leave my work # instead. Not sure what I'll do when I retire.
When I was home for lunch today slashdot went down, giving a blank page right before I went back to work, butt it worked from work.
Someone called with a computer problem last night; his computer froze. I told him how to restart it and he called 20 minutes later saying his facebook account was locked because of an unauthorized entry attempt and I had to explain that his account (probably his computer, he's an idiot) had been hacked. Possibly coincidental but strange anyway.
This isn't a subatomic particle, it's multiple atoms. The "spin" here is like a top spinning, not "spin" as when you're talking about subatomic particles.
You knew that, but people reading your comment might not have.
I am more concerned that these devices seem to be full computers themselves.
Not to mention the drain from the screen. Old LCD watches used tiny hearing aid batteries that lasted for months. Of course, the radio would use a lot of power when it was being used as a phone. I don't see a good watch phone having a lot of processing power, but that seems what they're aiming for.
The problem is "The specs are impressive". I want good battery life and only need it to make phone calls and tell time. I'd want a reflectively backlit LCD screen on it so I could tell time in sunlight and the batteries would last.
I had an old original Razr that held a charge for three or four days, depending on how much time I spent watching YouTube videos. It was only a tiny bit too large to be a watch. Something like that only a little bit smaller with a touchscreen rather than buttons with a low power LCD screen would be perfect.
No, atheism is disbelief in something they have no indication that exists or doesn't exist. Atheism takes faith. Agnosticism is the lack of faith; the agnostic says says "I don't know". Religion for someone who has had a near death experience or a religious revelation, takes no faith that the deity exists; he has seen proof. The only faith he needs to have is faith that said deity loves him or her.
If the home is built by the typical zero skill contractor then yes. there are issues inherent in the design. They use 14 gauge wire instead of 12 gague to save money and cut corners. Then they chain a LOT of outlets instead of home running. Then they use undersized distribution panels and order undersized service because they dont want to run the proper wire for 200 amp service to the street connection point.
Maybe in Texas, but everywhere else has building codes and building inspectors.
In the 1920's most homes were built to be as cheap as possible. Today they skimp on electrical for stupid things like marble countertops.
Again, maybe in Texas, but I owned a home built in 1918. Its two by fours were, unlike today's lumber, actually two inches by four inches. It was the most solid house I've ever lived in. Knob and tube was state of the art back then, putting electricity in houses was for rich people's houses.
OTOH in 1957 when I was 5 and we moved into a newly-built house, my grandpa (born in 1894) looked around and said "this house won't be here in 20 years, first strong wind and it'll come right down" (he was wrong, it's still standing and the neighborhood is now a ghetto).
There was a problem with American house wiring in the 1970s when they started using aluminum instead of copper, which caused a whole lot of houses to burn down. Aluminum house wiring is illegal now (and nobody would buy such a house anyway). But in most places, you have to be a certified indoor wireman to wire a house legally.
I have friends who work construction. It seems where you live you need better government.
If you want safety, you should stay inside in your padded safe room.
I assume you're removed the seat belts, ABS, and airbags from your car? There are always dangers, but jumping headfirst into completely unnecessary danger is just retarded. Driving is for transportation. If you want to drive for fun, keep it on the race track.
Not all physical handicaps are readily visible. Someone with a weak heart needs a spot close to the door, even though they may look healthy. I'm pretty sure you don't get handicapped parking spots for mental handicaps.
If you have to ask, you may be at the wrong site. You might as well ask what good robots on Mars are. It's good for advancing mankind's pool of knowledge of physics.
A substance that disappears as soon as it's created can't have much practical value, besides the aformentioned very important one. That's not to say a use for it will never be found.
And whoever gave you that mod point should be ashamed of himself.
I think you completely misunderstand evolution. "survival of the fittest" means that organisms that better fit their environments are more likely to survive long enough to procreate.
You also misunderstand stupidity. Most learning disabilities are NOT hereditary but are environmentally caused -- leaded gasoline, lead paint, other toxins, fetal alcohol syndrome, the baby being oxygen-starved at birth because its umbilical cord is around itd neck, etc.
It doesn't happen in Springfield, IL. The city owns the power company, and if that sort of shit happened the Mayor would lose the next election in a landslide. Power, water, gas, sewer, wired internet, should all be city-run IMO. The poor folks not in the city have electricity like yours, but what can they do, buy their electricity from someone else? The CEO is beholden to the stockholders and has no reason whater to give a flying fuck about customers. Your "free" market at work.
Meanwhile Springfield has the best uptime, lowest rates, and best customer service of any power company in Illinois and makes a profit selling power to other companies, keeping our taxes lower.
I ran across your comment metamoderating and you're 100% incorrect. When people say "radiation" they're referring to ionizing radiation, very little of which comes from the sun. The last time the Cubs won the world series there were no planes high enough to be affected by radiation, but thousands of people do daily now. There were no X-ray machines. There were no nuclear explosions on Earth before 1945, and in the '50s thousands of nuclear bombs were tested above ground, spreading radiation world-wide, and we've had Chernoble and Fukishama..
Consistent easy acceleration saving fuel and safer roads for motorcyclists.
Safer roads for everyone. It could be programmed for optimum acceleration, but that's not where most gas is wasted. Most gas is wasted sitting at red lights, and people are particularly stupid about that, at least here in Springfield. The light ahead is red and they race to it, but slow down if it's green. You could save a lot of fuel if the computer knew when lights were going to change.
So since the link didn't say that, can I assume you're not an atheist? Because that was, if you'll pardon me, a really stupid thing to say. I know for a personally observed fact that that statement was incorrect. There's a fellow I drink with who's an atheist. He is completely illiterate and spent ten years in prison for murder when he was young, neither of which are indicators of superior intelligence. He's in his early seventies, has never paid into Social Security and has no pension and works construction for little more than minimum wage. Now tell me that guy has a high IQ.
What your link said was that there's a correlation between atheism and analytical minds, which makes perfect sense.
Slashdot Mirror
You obviously weren't alive in 1970, or were very young. People were dying from respiratory illnesses and cancers. Children were being mentally retarded by lead paint and lead in gasoline. Think about what you posted yourself: "some rivers were burning". You realize that rivers aren't supposed to be flammable? Can't you imagine how polluted a river has to be before it will actually BURN?
I was born in 1952 and can give an eyewitness account of how fucking nasty the environment was. Remember that this was before many cars had air conditioning. Even if it was 100 degrees outside (that's 38 C) you absolutely had to roll your windows up while driving past the Monsanto plant in Sauget because the air would burn your lungs.
Nixon didn't "push it through", it was not one of his priorities. It was almost the entire American populace who were sick of living in a chemical pigsty.
I wish you could see color aerial photos of the area around that plant then and now. Then, all the vegetation was brown and sickly, now it's green and healthy.
Which is the #1 reason I cannot support the Libertarians. I don't want to go back to living in filthy squalor.
This is a good reason *why* embryonic stem cell research is rightfully vilified. This isn't treading into ethically murky waters, it's heading out to sea in a supercharged Cigarette.
These weren't grown from embryonic stem cells, they were grown from adult skin cells.
it's just a flatly staggering disregard for humanity and ethical norms in the name of "science"
There are no blood vessels and various other reasons why these "brains" will never think. I didn't read the linked FA but I read several others, and I saw no ethical or moral problems.
In the US, you pay for calls made and received (all part of your call allowance).
That depends on your carrier and plan. Some charge for all minutes used, some give you a number of "free" minutes. The one I'm on is a flat $40 per month, no limits on anything except I'm not allowed to tether..
That's what my dad does. He doesn't say "hang on a minute", when they start their spiel he puts the phone down and when it finally goes BEEP BEEP BEEP he hangs it up.
I don't have a landline so I get few of these. I just curse them in the vilest language for calling cell phones when it may cost the person they're calling. I never leave my cell # with any commercial entity, but leave my work # instead. Not sure what I'll do when I retire.
But... but... they're going to RAPE Mama Killa!!!
(seriously, what a loon)
You owe me a beer, I just spilled mine laughing.
Look at some earlier comments -- wikipedia was wrong according to their own citation.
When I was home for lunch today slashdot went down, giving a blank page right before I went back to work, butt it worked from work.
Someone called with a computer problem last night; his computer froze. I told him how to restart it and he called 20 minutes later saying his facebook account was locked because of an unauthorized entry attempt and I had to explain that his account (probably his computer, he's an idiot) had been hacked. Possibly coincidental but strange anyway.
This isn't a subatomic particle, it's multiple atoms. The "spin" here is like a top spinning, not "spin" as when you're talking about subatomic particles.
You knew that, but people reading your comment might not have.
I'm afraid we're being trolled. I bit, too.
Epic math fail! 600 million / 500,000 = 7500. Actually no, epic simple arithmetic fail.
Sure, and it's got an 85" 4K screen too, I bet you didn't expect that!
I didn't expect this, either.
I am more concerned that these devices seem to be full computers themselves.
Not to mention the drain from the screen. Old LCD watches used tiny hearing aid batteries that lasted for months. Of course, the radio would use a lot of power when it was being used as a phone. I don't see a good watch phone having a lot of processing power, but that seems what they're aiming for.
The problem is "The specs are impressive". I want good battery life and only need it to make phone calls and tell time. I'd want a reflectively backlit LCD screen on it so I could tell time in sunlight and the batteries would last.
I had an old original Razr that held a charge for three or four days, depending on how much time I spent watching YouTube videos. It was only a tiny bit too large to be a watch. Something like that only a little bit smaller with a touchscreen rather than buttons with a low power LCD screen would be perfect.
Atheism is just a lack of faith.
No, atheism is disbelief in something they have no indication that exists or doesn't exist. Atheism takes faith. Agnosticism is the lack of faith; the agnostic says says "I don't know". Religion for someone who has had a near death experience or a religious revelation, takes no faith that the deity exists; he has seen proof. The only faith he needs to have is faith that said deity loves him or her.
Life is worth experiencing for it's own sake.
Not if you lack sufficient food, water, fuel, and shelter. Yeah, my life is good but not everyone's is.
If the home is built by the typical zero skill contractor then yes. there are issues inherent in the design.
They use 14 gauge wire instead of 12 gague to save money and cut corners. Then they chain a LOT of outlets instead of home running. Then they use undersized distribution panels and order undersized service because they dont want to run the proper wire for 200 amp service to the street connection point.
Maybe in Texas, but everywhere else has building codes and building inspectors.
In the 1920's most homes were built to be as cheap as possible. Today they skimp on electrical for stupid things like marble countertops.
Again, maybe in Texas, but I owned a home built in 1918. Its two by fours were, unlike today's lumber, actually two inches by four inches. It was the most solid house I've ever lived in. Knob and tube was state of the art back then, putting electricity in houses was for rich people's houses.
OTOH in 1957 when I was 5 and we moved into a newly-built house, my grandpa (born in 1894) looked around and said "this house won't be here in 20 years, first strong wind and it'll come right down" (he was wrong, it's still standing and the neighborhood is now a ghetto).
There was a problem with American house wiring in the 1970s when they started using aluminum instead of copper, which caused a whole lot of houses to burn down. Aluminum house wiring is illegal now (and nobody would buy such a house anyway). But in most places, you have to be a certified indoor wireman to wire a house legally.
I have friends who work construction. It seems where you live you need better government.
If you want safety, you should stay inside in your padded safe room.
I assume you're removed the seat belts, ABS, and airbags from your car? There are always dangers, but jumping headfirst into completely unnecessary danger is just retarded. Driving is for transportation. If you want to drive for fun, keep it on the race track.
Not all physical handicaps are readily visible. Someone with a weak heart needs a spot close to the door, even though they may look healthy. I'm pretty sure you don't get handicapped parking spots for mental handicaps.
what is it actually good for?
If you have to ask, you may be at the wrong site. You might as well ask what good robots on Mars are. It's good for advancing mankind's pool of knowledge of physics.
A substance that disappears as soon as it's created can't have much practical value, besides the aformentioned very important one. That's not to say a use for it will never be found.
And whoever gave you that mod point should be ashamed of himself.
I think you completely misunderstand evolution. "survival of the fittest" means that organisms that better fit their environments are more likely to survive long enough to procreate.
You also misunderstand stupidity. Most learning disabilities are NOT hereditary but are environmentally caused -- leaded gasoline, lead paint, other toxins, fetal alcohol syndrome, the baby being oxygen-starved at birth because its umbilical cord is around itd neck, etc.
That happens everywhere my friend.
It doesn't happen in Springfield, IL. The city owns the power company, and if that sort of shit happened the Mayor would lose the next election in a landslide. Power, water, gas, sewer, wired internet, should all be city-run IMO. The poor folks not in the city have electricity like yours, but what can they do, buy their electricity from someone else? The CEO is beholden to the stockholders and has no reason whater to give a flying fuck about customers. Your "free" market at work.
Meanwhile Springfield has the best uptime, lowest rates, and best customer service of any power company in Illinois and makes a profit selling power to other companies, keeping our taxes lower.
If it's also a phone and doesn't need another phone to work, I want one.
I ran across your comment metamoderating and you're 100% incorrect. When people say "radiation" they're referring to ionizing radiation, very little of which comes from the sun. The last time the Cubs won the world series there were no planes high enough to be affected by radiation, but thousands of people do daily now. There were no X-ray machines. There were no nuclear explosions on Earth before 1945, and in the '50s thousands of nuclear bombs were tested above ground, spreading radiation world-wide, and we've had Chernoble and Fukishama..
Consistent easy acceleration saving fuel and safer roads for motorcyclists.
Safer roads for everyone. It could be programmed for optimum acceleration, but that's not where most gas is wasted. Most gas is wasted sitting at red lights, and people are particularly stupid about that, at least here in Springfield. The light ahead is red and they race to it, but slow down if it's green. You could save a lot of fuel if the computer knew when lights were going to change.
No low IQ people are atheists. :D
So since the link didn't say that, can I assume you're not an atheist? Because that was, if you'll pardon me, a really stupid thing to say. I know for a personally observed fact that that statement was incorrect. There's a fellow I drink with who's an atheist. He is completely illiterate and spent ten years in prison for murder when he was young, neither of which are indicators of superior intelligence. He's in his early seventies, has never paid into Social Security and has no pension and works construction for little more than minimum wage. Now tell me that guy has a high IQ.
What your link said was that there's a correlation between atheism and analytical minds, which makes perfect sense.