This has nothing to do with the Photosynth/seadragon project, other than the fact that both teams use a whole bunch of different photos of the same object/setting.
This approach tries to make the actual 3D objects from a bunch of 2D photos of varying quality. Photosynth just tried to MAP the photos in a rough 3D space. Making the actual 3D model to any degree of accuracy is really a challenge when you can't control the input images.
The goal is different in the two cases, but they should definitely get together and exchange technologies and algorithms, because I SO much want this tech built into Google Earth!!
Re:%75 as effective as a prescription 3% the price
on
Science vs. Homeopathy
·
· Score: 1
Did he by any chance have surgery in the 30 years he had Crohns? Statistically he did - several times. If he didn't, his disease wasn't very serious, and it's completely possible that it's become dormant. I have the disease myself, and I haven't had symptoms now for 8 years. I didn't go see a witch doctor though... I'm just counting myself lucky to have a good REAL doctor who can actually explain to me how the disease works. He also knows when he can help me, and what can be done. That's far more than any of the alternative healers can. They have absolutely no evidence of anything other than coincidental "I think I feel better" anecdotes from the select people who just happened not to be ill...
Re:%75 as effective as a prescription 3% the price
on
Science vs. Homeopathy
·
· Score: 1
What you're experiencing there is the classic "My friend uses it, and it works" manipulation. First you have to realize, that the natural course of any chronic disease is "up and down". There a perfectly good times, and there are times that may kill you. Usually people seek out alternative medicine because they can't take it anymore, and the regular medicine doesn't help. That's when the disease is "up" - at a peak. It doesn't get any worse than that, the disease is maxed out. Naturally, in the following time, the disease will get better (or he will die). This is NOT because of the alternative medicine healing him in magical ways. It might be because of the conventional medicine, as this has been shown to actually work with Crohns.
What conventional medicine can do for your friend, is to make the peaks smaller. Conventional medicine can actually save his life, as a very tall peak will kill him. His witch doctor can only give him a sense of cosmic wholeness or some such notion, not mess with the actual disease.
I hope your friend seeks out medical attention before he dies, the next time his Crohns acts up.
Eating cholesterol WILL raise your blood cholesterol, but not very much, and especially not if you have a well functioning liver. You can also lower your blood cholesterol by not eating it. But again, not very much, because the liver will make more, if you eat less. Other factors can also lower your cholesterol. Still, some people with very high cholesterol can lower it enough through diet, that it makes a difference for their expected life-span. So, if you eat a lot of fat and protein, you will put an unnecessary strain on your liver and kidney, and possibly raise your blood cholesterol if your body happen to be unable to handle that strain.
There's no proof that some people have more need of a low-carb diet than other people. Our body is physiologically built to handle large amounts of carbs, and anything else we eat are converted to carbs, for internal fuel. Other nutrients, like vitamins and the like, we get from fat and protein. The body CAN surely live from fat and protein alone, converting it to carbohydrates internally. But then again, why put vodka in your truck when you can give it gasoline? Surely not because it's good for the motor... Perhaps people eat less when they can only eat meat and butter, but most everyone agree that on the long run, it's not very healthy, even though they loose weight. The most healthy diet is still the food pyramid, especially when combined with Mediterranean diet. That means a lot of vegetables, bread rich in fiber, olive oil, and less processed meat. Somehow they don't have heart diseases on Crete...
And your anecdotes are, as you suggest, worth nothing. I respond very well to McDonald's food too, as I'm usually happy after eating it. I respond well to chocolate, as I've eaten a lot of chocolate my whole life and I am very lean. Global warming is also a direct consequence of the dwindling number of sea pirates... http://www.seanbonner.com/blog/archives/001857.php
But eat what makes you happy! I still eat my chocolate, and I know it's not healthy, but who gives a sh*t?!
Getting fat, diet, appetite, hunger, psychology, exercise, loosing weight is a tad more complicated than "eat as much steak you want and loose weight". You can choose to focus on the studies that focus on a very limited potion of that complexity, and extrapolate from that all kinds of hypothesis. Fact remains that people are getting fatter, while a LOT of people earn wast amounts of money from both the pro-fat camp (wich are both the fat people and the slim atkins-people) and the no-fat camp.
Eating only butter all day, you can loose weight. Eating only dry bread all day, you can gain weight. Neither is very healthy. The easiest way for normal people in their everyday life to loose some weight, is to cut down on the fat used. Simply because fat is the most energyrich food. Heart-disease IS indeed relatet to cholesterol, and cholesterol IS indeed relatet to saturated fat, but it's not 100% - there are a multitude of other factors. Journalists just never really understood science very well...
Animal protein is bad news and one should not consume more than 21 grams of it a day. You are better off not eating it at all.
Stating such nonsense in a book writes it off as nonsense. Human physiology is deeply DEPENDANT on animal protein. We simply get ill (and possible die from complications of malnutrition), if we don't get the essential nutrients only found there (b12 vitamin is an example).
Vegetarians and vegans are not healthier as a result of NOT eating animals, but because of the huge amount of fruit and vegetables they consume. Most responsible vegetarians and vegans make sure to get their B12 and vitamin supplement regularly, to avoid getting ill. Those who don't fight with fatigue, infections, anemia, etc. untill they finally go to a doctor and get their vitamins.
Other than that, yes - diet is more important to your health than exercise. If you don't eat, you die. If you don't move, you fall asleep...
yeah, I agree that the equation is far from as simple as I put it. Proteins in milk satiate more, but quenches thirst less as absorbtion of the liquid is slower. And there's wide variety in the influence that the satiety-signals have on appetite in different people.
Buttom line is, that exercise remains very healthy, but in real life settings it's difficult to use as a weapon against obesity. Or so, at least, says the statistics, we are tought at med-school:-D. If a person works out and eats less, they loose weight and gain fitness. But almost every obese person will view it as impossible to work out and keep a diet, to such an extend. That's were motivational psychology comes in, and we have to suggest the simplest but most effective dietary regulations, walks in the park, etc. Suggesting to a fat man that he should start running, will only keep him away from the "that stupid doctor"...
You don't need a degree to figure out that if you eat more calories than you burn you get fat.
True - the real challenge here is to figure out WHY some people eat more than they burn. Some people will eat more that they burn through sports, as sports tend to increase appetite.
The truth of it is, that you can't fight obesity with sports and exercise, as the amount of kilojoule used is negligent compared to the amount eaten.
Exercise is extremely healthy though, but on so many different accounts that it's next to impossible to put hard numbers on it.
An obese person (say 100 kg, 170 cm, woman) burns 10000 kJ/day working at an office (8000 kj/day lying in he bed all day, 12000/day working at a warehouse, hauling wares).
This person would have to run 5 km every day to burn enough kJ to loose weight through exercise alone without changing her diet. Now ask yourself: would a fat little woman, who never in her life ever ran more than after the bus, be able to run 5 km every single day for a prolonged period?
Also, those 5 km is the same amount of energy found in the 100g chocolate bar she'll eat afterwards as a reward... Better just to leave out the regular chocolate bar she eats every day anyway and then NOT forcing her to run. Change of diet is the most efficient way, combined with daily walks, work in the garden, purchase of a dog that has to be walked etc. Exercise is worth nothing weight-wise, if not combined with change in diet, and change in diet is usually enough. Why torture yourself with the pain of running, when you can just exchange regular coke with light coke?
Great post, thrawn_aj! I Was frowning quite a bit before stumbling over your post, which made me raise my eyebrows. This IS actually an interresting study, obliterated by popular media as it so often happens...
guess you're right... For the unknowing international user, it's just frustrating that you can see the damn road, but it doesn't turn up on a search.
"You're the new intern? Well, we have this map - put the names of all the roads on the map and their coordinates into this database. Have a nice time here with us in Google HQ!":-)
But what about they fix the search-engine for regular adresses?? They seem to work in USA, but I live in Denmark, and I can only search for a few very specific cities. Even though the map plainly shows a street-name or a city, it remains unsearchable... Which means that the location can't be saved, and no route can be planned for it (and I can't find anything I didn't allready know where is!).
So - fix the damn core functionality, before going about making wierd advertisement functions!
Apart from actual testing of equipment and technology, launching from the moon will be a lot easier than from earth, with it's low gravity and all.
So establishing a base on the moon would be a great way to begin manned flights to Mars.
Also - we need to get up there to find the stuff left over by the Appollo missions, to thwart those "we never went to the moon" kooks!
With refresh times measured in seconds, this tech isn't ready for any mobile phone. Only for tablet readers is it any good, when you actually hae time to wait for the page to turn.
The States truly amaze me over and over! Here's a country that harbors both cutting edge intellectuals and visionaries of progression, while in the middle of it all - there's a whole state who are held deep in the dark middle ages! And to top it off - this strange community, that defies all reason and logical thinking, has the right to vote and choose the president of USA. And right now, that man is doing his best to ruin my little speck of a paradise because of his war on terror...
Watch the South Park episode about the Mormons: "DumbDumbDumbDumb Duuumb". Oh, and don't get me started on Scientology! Damn, I hate when people take advantage of general mass stupidity to manipulate people into believing their stupid books (except Calculus - that one is OK:-D)
i think the comments were purely meant to be humerous, with a lot of irony. While much of this irony and humor is lost on a few select individuals, many of the slashdotters will nod in nostalgia to old scifi classics like "Barbarella", and quite a few of the original Star Trek episodes - and see the relevance of the topic discussed and talks of "all female groups visited by male away-crew" and "all male crew visited by Barbarella".
The idea of long periods alone in space and the intersocial implications it has, have spawned a lot of litterature over time (including a lot of Star Trek episodes), most of which the classic nerdy slashdotter has read or seen.
Oh, and we're mostly men - when it comes to sex in space, we go all "Uga uga arrrh, theehee!":-D
Actually not a bad idea! Apart from the fact that all female groups tend to be emotionally unstable - especially if there's only one male (unless he rules them with a stern hand!). What about All-male crew and only one female, but this time it's agreed that she must provide sexual relief for the rest of the crew? Hmmm... mmmmhmm... Also a good script for a movie:-D
Well, Just install some device to take sexual stress off the crew, and give them pills to lower testosterone/androgen levels...
We've had chip and pin here in Denmark for a number of years now. Before that we had magnetic cards and pins, with a photo on the back of the card and a signature. The photo was paramount, because if the pin wasn't used in transactions with only a signature, the photo would ensure that the person using the card was the owner - simple enough and pretty effective.
Then they went and removed the photo... They also added a chip and hailed it's superior security, but didn't remove the magnetic stripe, and still allowed for signature-only transactions...
One can only wonder... Maybe the banks WANT people to loose money to criminals, so they have to lend money at insane interests?
Just put the damn photo back on, so anyone can see when a criminal tries to use my card!
And I'm still amazed that you use signature only transactions in USA to this date. We've only used that here in Denmark as a backup when there was no electricity, and we're phasing it out now. Hilarious that you also print the actual signature directly ON the card, for anyone to copy - HAH, that's like writing your PIN on your card (which, sadly, some people also do...).
Well, I just looked at a few of the free reviews, and they use bias in the statistical sense which is not the same as the lack of impartiality which is implied up thread. Bias has multiple meanings. Does that matter? Any bias, be it lack of impartiality, selection bias or interpretation errors, is bad bias. Actually this is a discussion about philosophy of science. How can we ever say anything without being biased by our imperfect perception, language, culture etc. That is why we have randomized blinded trials and peer reviews - to eliminate bias in 4 steps. You could say that the entire purpose of science is to eliminate bias from perceived events.
So when you purposefully ignore bias, then it's not science.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy_of_science
An interesting note: The word "bias" is not mentioned at all on that Wiki:-D Who made that page anyway?! (which reminds me; some danish acupuncturists have claimed that cochrane's review staff is biased, because they didn't find much evidence of acupuncture having an effect. So who can be said to be without bias? Is it bias to point out bias in those who points out bias? Those questions lead to the conclusion that everything is opinion - which is fallible, because that just leads to relativism and solepsism...)
Any scientific document is rated according to bias. Heavy bias makes it worth very little, no matter how scientific the results and methods are. Check cochrane.org - they always talk about bias.
So when Exxon want to pay some lowlife, selling his soul, to come up with a viable scientific report with extreme bias (maybe the most bias possible i science), with the clear purpose of IGNORING that bias - then it's out of hand!
Pro-oil lobbyists will have nothing against ignoring the bias of such a report, and will be able to use it for PR in the public (where no-one understands bias - as long as it's science it's gotta be da truth (or at least an opinion that smart people have, and that the public wanna have too because then they can drive SUV's)!).
It's not that there isn't bias in other research - but at least it's usually accounted for and acknowledged.
The trend that "research and science isn't a matter of fact, it's a matter of opinion - and my opinion is as good as yours", is sickening. That's when opinion that are fabricated and paid for by political players get really dangerous.
wow, I have no idea what that just meant!
on
Lisp and Ruby
·
· Score: 5, Funny
This is just one of those stories that us non-linux, non-programmers have absolutely no idea of what means! Which insidentally makes it rather funny to read:-)
I mean, adding Lisp to Ruby's SmallTalk?
Well, the problem is that with a headline like "happiness = cure", anyone in the alternative medical business will use the news-reporter-interpretation-misinformation articles, to promote most anything related to elevated happiness. The alternative medical sector is very hungry for pseudo-scientific material, to just give them the tiniest of credibility. This article gives them enough to feed Africa, had they chosen to spend their money wisely...
The "Happy = cure" idea is the one that drives fx. holism, in which "happy cells" communicate better and therefore rid the body of ailments and cancer. Love is the key to making your cells happy... These guys have a whole lot of pseudoscientific studys at hand (most of which they do themselves), so it's a fast growing movement - and a dangerous one too, because they preach that medicine should not be taken.
Note that I do not blame the/. editor for the headline - just the reporter community in whole, who usually takes a study and twist it to make it news - even if it means interpreting scientific stuff they don't know jack about. Scientists: Please write better press-releases!
What about the kind of people who know nothing about polotics, but think it's cool that we kill muslims in the middle east? They will probably vote. Are they informed?
What about a very simple test at the start of each vote to verify that the voter has a minimal knowledgde of what he's voting for. People who fail that test will only have their vote count for ½:-). That would make a better world!
The human embryo indeed has a very developed central nervous system that transmits pain and causes the embryo to react to the pain as per reflex.
Whether the pain is percieved by any kind of consciousness is at debate here. I haven't in my short medical career (I'm half through med school) heard of anyone boasting to know when consciousness and ability to percieve cognitively arises in the human embryo/child. Without consciousness (prerequisit for pain transmission to perception centers in the nervous system) or ability to percieve cognitively (prerequisit for the pain to actually be felt by anyone), there cannot be perception of pain.
So when can the embryo/child feel pain? Does a tree feel pain when I burn it? Does a computer feel pain if I program it to scream when I hit it? Does a singlecell organism feel pain when eaten by your immune system? Does an ant feel pain when stamped upon?
If you say that an embryo feels pain - then you have to accept all the above statements as true also... How much conscoiusness and cognitive ability does it take for an organism to be able to percieve pain, and afterwards as an individual, to actually feel it hurting? Can an ant do that? Does it have mental capabilities to cognitively percieve that someone is hurting it, or is it just a few nerves that trigger a reflex? I'd say the latter, but if some people by their beliefs think that God almighty gave the ant the ability to think "auch, you rotten bastard!" about the Evil Big Shoe, so be it. I can't change your beliefs, nor should I.
Lol, well - we don't have too much to show. Depends on what you're looking for really. We have some nice old buildings in Copenhagen and Odense (where we have some HC.Andersen related stuff too). There's always Skagen which is great for ocean/nature-scenery admiring. You could also throw eggs on our prime minister, that's always fun! Might get you a free ride home too:-)
Slashdot Mirror
This has nothing to do with the Photosynth/seadragon project, other than the fact that both teams use a whole bunch of different photos of the same object/setting.
This approach tries to make the actual 3D objects from a bunch of 2D photos of varying quality. Photosynth just tried to MAP the photos in a rough 3D space. Making the actual 3D model to any degree of accuracy is really a challenge when you can't control the input images.
The goal is different in the two cases, but they should definitely get together and exchange technologies and algorithms, because I SO much want this tech built into Google Earth!!
Did he by any chance have surgery in the 30 years he had Crohns? Statistically he did - several times. If he didn't, his disease wasn't very serious, and it's completely possible that it's become dormant. I have the disease myself, and I haven't had symptoms now for 8 years. I didn't go see a witch doctor though... I'm just counting myself lucky to have a good REAL doctor who can actually explain to me how the disease works. He also knows when he can help me, and what can be done. That's far more than any of the alternative healers can. They have absolutely no evidence of anything other than coincidental "I think I feel better" anecdotes from the select people who just happened not to be ill...
What you're experiencing there is the classic "My friend uses it, and it works" manipulation. First you have to realize, that the natural course of any chronic disease is "up and down". There a perfectly good times, and there are times that may kill you. Usually people seek out alternative medicine because they can't take it anymore, and the regular medicine doesn't help. That's when the disease is "up" - at a peak. It doesn't get any worse than that, the disease is maxed out. Naturally, in the following time, the disease will get better (or he will die). This is NOT because of the alternative medicine healing him in magical ways. It might be because of the conventional medicine, as this has been shown to actually work with Crohns.
What conventional medicine can do for your friend, is to make the peaks smaller. Conventional medicine can actually save his life, as a very tall peak will kill him. His witch doctor can only give him a sense of cosmic wholeness or some such notion, not mess with the actual disease.
I hope your friend seeks out medical attention before he dies, the next time his Crohns acts up.
There's no proof that some people have more need of a low-carb diet than other people. Our body is physiologically built to handle large amounts of carbs, and anything else we eat are converted to carbs, for internal fuel. Other nutrients, like vitamins and the like, we get from fat and protein. The body CAN surely live from fat and protein alone, converting it to carbohydrates internally. But then again, why put vodka in your truck when you can give it gasoline? Surely not because it's good for the motor... Perhaps people eat less when they can only eat meat and butter, but most everyone agree that on the long run, it's not very healthy, even though they loose weight. The most healthy diet is still the food pyramid, especially when combined with Mediterranean diet. That means a lot of vegetables, bread rich in fiber, olive oil, and less processed meat. Somehow they don't have heart diseases on Crete...
And your anecdotes are, as you suggest, worth nothing. I respond very well to McDonald's food too, as I'm usually happy after eating it. I respond well to chocolate, as I've eaten a lot of chocolate my whole life and I am very lean. Global warming is also a direct consequence of the dwindling number of sea pirates... http://www.seanbonner.com/blog/archives/001857.php
But eat what makes you happy! I still eat my chocolate, and I know it's not healthy, but who gives a sh*t?!
http://www.reason.com/news/show/28714.html
Getting fat, diet, appetite, hunger, psychology, exercise, loosing weight is a tad more complicated than "eat as much steak you want and loose weight". You can choose to focus on the studies that focus on a very limited potion of that complexity, and extrapolate from that all kinds of hypothesis. Fact remains that people are getting fatter, while a LOT of people earn wast amounts of money from both the pro-fat camp (wich are both the fat people and the slim atkins-people) and the no-fat camp.
Eating only butter all day, you can loose weight. Eating only dry bread all day, you can gain weight. Neither is very healthy. The easiest way for normal people in their everyday life to loose some weight, is to cut down on the fat used. Simply because fat is the most energyrich food. Heart-disease IS indeed relatet to cholesterol, and cholesterol IS indeed relatet to saturated fat, but it's not 100% - there are a multitude of other factors. Journalists just never really understood science very well...
Stating such nonsense in a book writes it off as nonsense. Human physiology is deeply DEPENDANT on animal protein. We simply get ill (and possible die from complications of malnutrition), if we don't get the essential nutrients only found there (b12 vitamin is an example).
Vegetarians and vegans are not healthier as a result of NOT eating animals, but because of the huge amount of fruit and vegetables they consume. Most responsible vegetarians and vegans make sure to get their B12 and vitamin supplement regularly, to avoid getting ill. Those who don't fight with fatigue, infections, anemia, etc. untill they finally go to a doctor and get their vitamins.
Other than that, yes - diet is more important to your health than exercise. If you don't eat, you die. If you don't move, you fall asleep...
Buttom line is, that exercise remains very healthy, but in real life settings it's difficult to use as a weapon against obesity. Or so, at least, says the statistics, we are tought at med-school :-D. If a person works out and eats less, they loose weight and gain fitness. But almost every obese person will view it as impossible to work out and keep a diet, to such an extend. That's were motivational psychology comes in, and we have to suggest the simplest but most effective dietary regulations, walks in the park, etc. Suggesting to a fat man that he should start running, will only keep him away from the "that stupid doctor"...
True - the real challenge here is to figure out WHY some people eat more than they burn. Some people will eat more that they burn through sports, as sports tend to increase appetite.
The truth of it is, that you can't fight obesity with sports and exercise, as the amount of kilojoule used is negligent compared to the amount eaten.
Exercise is extremely healthy though, but on so many different accounts that it's next to impossible to put hard numbers on it.
An obese person (say 100 kg, 170 cm, woman) burns 10000 kJ/day working at an office (8000 kj/day lying in he bed all day, 12000/day working at a warehouse, hauling wares).
This person would have to run 5 km every day to burn enough kJ to loose weight through exercise alone without changing her diet. Now ask yourself: would a fat little woman, who never in her life ever ran more than after the bus, be able to run 5 km every single day for a prolonged period?
Also, those 5 km is the same amount of energy found in the 100g chocolate bar she'll eat afterwards as a reward... Better just to leave out the regular chocolate bar she eats every day anyway and then NOT forcing her to run. Change of diet is the most efficient way, combined with daily walks, work in the garden, purchase of a dog that has to be walked etc. Exercise is worth nothing weight-wise, if not combined with change in diet, and change in diet is usually enough. Why torture yourself with the pain of running, when you can just exchange regular coke with light coke?
Great post, thrawn_aj! I Was frowning quite a bit before stumbling over your post, which made me raise my eyebrows. This IS actually an interresting study, obliterated by popular media as it so often happens...
guess you're right... For the unknowing international user, it's just frustrating that you can see the damn road, but it doesn't turn up on a search. "You're the new intern? Well, we have this map - put the names of all the roads on the map and their coordinates into this database. Have a nice time here with us in Google HQ!" :-)
But what about they fix the search-engine for regular adresses?? They seem to work in USA, but I live in Denmark, and I can only search for a few very specific cities. Even though the map plainly shows a street-name or a city, it remains unsearchable... Which means that the location can't be saved, and no route can be planned for it (and I can't find anything I didn't allready know where is!). So - fix the damn core functionality, before going about making wierd advertisement functions!
Apart from actual testing of equipment and technology, launching from the moon will be a lot easier than from earth, with it's low gravity and all. So establishing a base on the moon would be a great way to begin manned flights to Mars. Also - we need to get up there to find the stuff left over by the Appollo missions, to thwart those "we never went to the moon" kooks!
With refresh times measured in seconds, this tech isn't ready for any mobile phone. Only for tablet readers is it any good, when you actually hae time to wait for the page to turn.
The States truly amaze me over and over! Here's a country that harbors both cutting edge intellectuals and visionaries of progression, while in the middle of it all - there's a whole state who are held deep in the dark middle ages! And to top it off - this strange community, that defies all reason and logical thinking, has the right to vote and choose the president of USA. And right now, that man is doing his best to ruin my little speck of a paradise because of his war on terror... Watch the South Park episode about the Mormons: "DumbDumbDumbDumb Duuumb". Oh, and don't get me started on Scientology! Damn, I hate when people take advantage of general mass stupidity to manipulate people into believing their stupid books (except Calculus - that one is OK :-D)
Insightful? Flattering, but I opted for funny, not being serious and all... Maybe the pills to take away sexual stress was a good idea?
i think the comments were purely meant to be humerous, with a lot of irony. While much of this irony and humor is lost on a few select individuals, many of the slashdotters will nod in nostalgia to old scifi classics like "Barbarella", and quite a few of the original Star Trek episodes - and see the relevance of the topic discussed and talks of "all female groups visited by male away-crew" and "all male crew visited by Barbarella". The idea of long periods alone in space and the intersocial implications it has, have spawned a lot of litterature over time (including a lot of Star Trek episodes), most of which the classic nerdy slashdotter has read or seen. Oh, and we're mostly men - when it comes to sex in space, we go all "Uga uga arrrh, theehee!" :-D
Actually not a bad idea! Apart from the fact that all female groups tend to be emotionally unstable - especially if there's only one male (unless he rules them with a stern hand!). What about All-male crew and only one female, but this time it's agreed that she must provide sexual relief for the rest of the crew? Hmmm... mmmmhmm... Also a good script for a movie :-D
Well, Just install some device to take sexual stress off the crew, and give them pills to lower testosterone/androgen levels...
We've had chip and pin here in Denmark for a number of years now. Before that we had magnetic cards and pins, with a photo on the back of the card and a signature. The photo was paramount, because if the pin wasn't used in transactions with only a signature, the photo would ensure that the person using the card was the owner - simple enough and pretty effective. Then they went and removed the photo... They also added a chip and hailed it's superior security, but didn't remove the magnetic stripe, and still allowed for signature-only transactions... One can only wonder... Maybe the banks WANT people to loose money to criminals, so they have to lend money at insane interests? Just put the damn photo back on, so anyone can see when a criminal tries to use my card! And I'm still amazed that you use signature only transactions in USA to this date. We've only used that here in Denmark as a backup when there was no electricity, and we're phasing it out now. Hilarious that you also print the actual signature directly ON the card, for anyone to copy - HAH, that's like writing your PIN on your card (which, sadly, some people also do...).
Any scientific document is rated according to bias. Heavy bias makes it worth very little, no matter how scientific the results and methods are. Check cochrane.org - they always talk about bias. So when Exxon want to pay some lowlife, selling his soul, to come up with a viable scientific report with extreme bias (maybe the most bias possible i science), with the clear purpose of IGNORING that bias - then it's out of hand! Pro-oil lobbyists will have nothing against ignoring the bias of such a report, and will be able to use it for PR in the public (where no-one understands bias - as long as it's science it's gotta be da truth (or at least an opinion that smart people have, and that the public wanna have too because then they can drive SUV's)!). It's not that there isn't bias in other research - but at least it's usually accounted for and acknowledged. The trend that "research and science isn't a matter of fact, it's a matter of opinion - and my opinion is as good as yours", is sickening. That's when opinion that are fabricated and paid for by political players get really dangerous.
This is just one of those stories that us non-linux, non-programmers have absolutely no idea of what means! Which insidentally makes it rather funny to read :-)
I mean, adding Lisp to Ruby's SmallTalk?
Well, the problem is that with a headline like "happiness = cure", anyone in the alternative medical business will use the news-reporter-interpretation-misinformation articles, to promote most anything related to elevated happiness. The alternative medical sector is very hungry for pseudo-scientific material, to just give them the tiniest of credibility. This article gives them enough to feed Africa, had they chosen to spend their money wisely...
i cine
/. editor for the headline - just the reporter community in whole, who usually takes a study and twist it to make it news - even if it means interpreting scientific stuff they don't know jack about. Scientists: Please write better press-releases!
The "Happy = cure" idea is the one that drives fx. holism, in which "happy cells" communicate better and therefore rid the body of ailments and cancer. Love is the key to making your cells happy... These guys have a whole lot of pseudoscientific studys at hand (most of which they do themselves), so it's a fast growing movement - and a dangerous one too, because they preach that medicine should not be taken.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holism#Holism_in_med
Note that I do not blame the
What about the kind of people who know nothing about polotics, but think it's cool that we kill muslims in the middle east? They will probably vote. Are they informed? What about a very simple test at the start of each vote to verify that the voter has a minimal knowledgde of what he's voting for. People who fail that test will only have their vote count for ½ :-). That would make a better world!
The human embryo indeed has a very developed central nervous system that transmits pain and causes the embryo to react to the pain as per reflex. Whether the pain is percieved by any kind of consciousness is at debate here. I haven't in my short medical career (I'm half through med school) heard of anyone boasting to know when consciousness and ability to percieve cognitively arises in the human embryo/child. Without consciousness (prerequisit for pain transmission to perception centers in the nervous system) or ability to percieve cognitively (prerequisit for the pain to actually be felt by anyone), there cannot be perception of pain. So when can the embryo/child feel pain? Does a tree feel pain when I burn it? Does a computer feel pain if I program it to scream when I hit it? Does a singlecell organism feel pain when eaten by your immune system? Does an ant feel pain when stamped upon? If you say that an embryo feels pain - then you have to accept all the above statements as true also... How much conscoiusness and cognitive ability does it take for an organism to be able to percieve pain, and afterwards as an individual, to actually feel it hurting? Can an ant do that? Does it have mental capabilities to cognitively percieve that someone is hurting it, or is it just a few nerves that trigger a reflex? I'd say the latter, but if some people by their beliefs think that God almighty gave the ant the ability to think "auch, you rotten bastard!" about the Evil Big Shoe, so be it. I can't change your beliefs, nor should I.
Lol, well - we don't have too much to show. Depends on what you're looking for really. We have some nice old buildings in Copenhagen and Odense (where we have some HC.Andersen related stuff too). There's always Skagen which is great for ocean/nature-scenery admiring. You could also throw eggs on our prime minister, that's always fun! Might get you a free ride home too :-)