Asteroids make more sense. It will be much more practical to mine asteroids because there is very little expense in escaping the gravity well of an asteroid to get the mined material back here.
From what I understand about drug addiction and attempts to kick the habit, you won't just "lose interest", you'll be going through living hell for quite a while - your body is looking for something you're not giving it, it's going to be pretty mad at you.
I believe that you misunderstand the mechanism for cocaine addiction. Heroine withdrawl is like you describe. Cocaine is not physically addictive, but it is potently psychologically addictive. You don't go through withdrawal but you probably feel flat and listless due to the absence of all those stimulants.
Also relapses tend to occur because of renewed or continued association with people who use cocaine exposes the former user to social pressure and temptation. Relapses also occur because most former users still have the underlying psychological issues that led them to 'self medicate' in the first place, in other words, their life is still shitty and they still want an escape.
The medicine cabinet of so-called cognitive enhancers also includes Ritalin, commonly given to schoolchildren for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and beta blockers, such as the heart drug Inderal. Researchers have been investigating the drug Aricept, which is normally used to slow the decline of Alzheimer's patients.
Sharon Morein-Zamir, a psychologist at Cambridge University who writes about the ethics of brain enhancement, said her interest in the medications was largely academic. But when someone she knew who had been taking Provigil for a neurological condition offered her some pills, Morein-Zamir's curiosity was piqued.
"I knew the literature and wondered what it felt like," she said.
The drug helped her focus as she worked at her computer for hours straight. But she wondered if it was a placebo effect.
Prescriptions for Inderal and other beta blockers can be readily obtained from physicians. Tuck said some doctors had told her they used the drugs themselves to calm their own nerves before making presentations at medical meetings. Musicians say their drug use is all aboveboard.
and finally a few comments on negative side effects...
But cosmetic neurology, as some call it, has risks. Ritalin, Adderall and other ADHD drugs can cause headaches, insomnia and loss of appetite. Provigil can make users nervous or anxious and bring on headaches, while beta blockers can cause drowsiness, fatigue and wheezing.
One Stanford University study found that low doses of Aricept improved the performance of healthy pilots as they tried to master new skills in a flight stimulator, but the side effects -- dizziness and vomiting -- were less than desirable in a pilot.
A dish with 2 LNBs is about 60 bucks To be more accurate that's $60 per month. Which is $720 per year. So you pay $720 a year to have a few hundred channels of rotten tripe, and admittedly a few gems, and lots of sports. I am constantly astonished that people will pay that much money to have 2/3s programming and 1/3 advertising per hour, beamed straight into their brain stem. Not only are you paying for the device to inject the high potency consumer brainwashing, but then you actually pay for the advertising too! I think our whole nation would benefit greatly from a Tubal Detox program. TV-12-Step.
I just wish I could stand all high and mighty and declare that I am totally free of the boob tube. I'm not. I have managed to eliminate commercials from the tube. I get 2 DVDs at a time and 14 hours a month of WatchNow from Netflix. Since I watch the DVDs on a linux box I can even skip the previews. The only TV commercials I have to watch are on that !@#$% TV in the pump at the gas station. It all payed off over Thanxgiving at Grampa's house when my 4 year old first encountered a commercial. After I explained it to him, he said, "I don't like commercials." Of course after just a day or two he was saying, "I want that." to every commercial that came along. Perfect proof of how potent and damaging advertising can be.
The first Windows XP was something that was avoided by most for over a year. Win2k was stable, rock solid, why upgrade for the eye candy? That's a silly thing to say. The user base for Win2k was miniscule compared to the user base for Win9x. I jumped on the XP bandwagon as soon as I could. I was not alone. There was some real enthusiasm for a much more reliable and stable OS that supported networking in a reasonably sane fasion, and didn't rely on an ancient WINSOCK cludge to connect to the internet, and supported USB, and supported multiple processors, and could be set up with something that sort of approximated security, and didn't need to be rebooted once a day to remain usable, and I could go on...
Of course I had resisted jumping on the Win9x bandwagon until 1999. I was still using DOS and Win3.1 until about 1 year before XP came out.
I never used Win2k but I did use WinNT, and I remember the relatively short hardware compatibility list, and the fact that it didn't run games very consistently. I thought that Win2k shared some of those shortcommings, because it wasn't designed for the consumer market.
This reminds me a lot of those new gas pump TVs that play nothing but commercials. Now I hate commercials sooo much that I got rid of the TV. I get my occasional boob tube fix through netflix and netflix instant watching. No commercials. I don't listen to commercial radio. Even NPR type commercials are starting to drive me nuts. So when I pull up to the pump on my way into work in the morning, before my first caffeine fix, and I have to hear that same stupid !@#$%!@# Jack-n-the-Box commercial, I do get a little crazy. I've been thinking for weeks now how I could mute the speakers on those things without being seen on the security cameras. It's not the flickering image of the idiot tube that bugs me it's the blaring sound trying to sell me a slab of shit on a sesame seed bun.
Evolution has TWO parts. Only one is taking place at a faster rate recently. Like TFA says genetic mutation may be on the increase. However for a species to evolve the species has to be put under stress. In other words lots of people have to die off, leaving only those of us with the adaptive gene to survive and reproduce. That's the natural selection part. We've gone through almost uninterrupted population growth for 10,000 years so we haven't really been evolving, just mutating.
Facebook continues to refuse to let users just turn off Beacon. Instead users have to individually refuse Beacon for each partner site, and they cannot do this in advance; they can only do it at the moment a partner site is about to publish a story on Facebook. Again, they are clearly trying to maintain as many obstacles as possible for users who simply don't want this information shared.
I've just been on FB trying to cripple my account. Some time ago, I thought I'd see what the buzz was about. Didn't do too much for me, so I figure no loss to delete the account (I can't). Anyway if another site isn't already reporting back to FB about you you can't opt out. So if you want to actually control your information you'll have to remain constantly engaged with facebook to prevent new Beacon users from reporting on you.
Here is the lesson for the day: If you care about this sort of thing, and you haven't already signed up on Facebook. DON'T.
I've sent a customer support to FB asking to have my account deleted. I've heard of people who were banned. I wonder if they continue to track your activity if you've been banned? If so I'll dedicate my FB page to criticizing Beacon.
The problem with MS's plan for world media domination is that it requires people to buy their hardware. In the past (and present) people bought computers that came with Windows, and MS leveraged that into controlling part of the software market. Zunes aren't free. Xboxes aren't free. I know Windows was never free either, but it was just there when you bought your computer and was included in the cost. Last I checked the large majority of adults that I know don't buy game consoles, but they do buy DVD players.
See this button? DON'T TOUCH IT! It's the History Eraser Button you fool ! --so what'll happen ? That's just it! We don't know. Maybe something bad...maybe something good I guess we'll never know. Cause you're going to guard it. You won't touch it, will you?
[narrator] Oh, how long can trusty Cadet Stimpy hold out? How can he possibly resist the diabolical urge to push the button that could erase his very existence? Will his tortured mind give in to it's uncontrollable desires? Can he withstand the temptation to push the button, that even now, beckons him ever closer? Will he succumb to the maddening urge to eradicate history, at the mere push of a single button? The beautiful shiny button. The jolly candy-like button. Will he hold out, folks? Can he hold out?
Worrying about who would replace an impeached Bush is beside the point. The point is that Bush, Cheney, et. al. BROKE THE LAW. Repeatedly. The congress has a responsibility to impeach such behavior because failing to do so condones the illegal behavior. A terrible precedent has been made. A cabal can steal two presidential elections, trash the constitution, and start illegal agressive wars of conquest, and that's a-okay.
--
Democracy in America
July 4, 1776 - September 11, 2001
R I P
The Symbian guy calls mobile applications development "deeply unsexy" and by association calls Symbian unsexy. I think that this sums up Symbian's problems perfectly. Nearly ALL cell phone UIs are awful and unsexy. I want my cell to be easy to use and Sexy! You go google!
Future Noir quotes Katherine Haber, the Production Executive, as saying, "Bud Yorkin supervised that session, and Harrison hated it. He hadn't wanted to do voice overs in the first place and by now I think he was sick of the whole movie anyway. Harrison also didn't like what Kibbe had come up with. So he purposefully, I think, recited that narration badly. I think he was hoping they wouldn't be able to use it. And of course they did - that third narration was the one they released with the finished film."
Harrison was quoted in the same section of the book as saying, "It was in my contract that I do the voice-overs, but I hated them. Ridley hated them as well, but when the film went over budget, they made me do it. I went kicking and screaming to the studio to record it."
His attitude may have had an impact on the reading but I don't believe that he intentionally sabotaged the session.
I suspect the best balancing point would be something like four 9-hour workdays per week. Longer days to minimize the productivity drain of mornings, but a shorter total work week to allow occasional bursts of extra effort without creating long-term burnout.
I'd definitely go for four nine hour days per week! But here's the schedule I'd want 8-12 then lunch and siesta until 2 work to 7. Wednesdays off so I never have to work more than 2 days in a row.
I am one of those people who sleeps at work (but I'm not in IT). I cannot help it. After lunch my energy level plummets until 2 or 3 unless I nap. I stay late about 3 days a week to make up for it and to make up for leaving early to pick up my son at preschool twice a week. Getting to work a bit early and leaving late lets me miss the worst of traffic. My most productive hour is often from 5-6 after people leave and the phones stop ringing. My office is pretty tolerant of tweaking our schedules to fit our lives.
The HP33s, HP49G+, and 48gll all have a tiny enter key in a weird spot. The HP35s is more along the lines of what I was thinking about. Thanks for the suggestion. It'd be nice to be able to see more than one number in the stack, and it's too bad that the stack is only 4 deep, but I'm glad they have gone back to a calculator designed for RPN use instead of having an optional RPN mode. I guess for now it's stick with my old 48 even though it's more of a calculator than I need. I'd certainly consider a 35s in the future.
Does anyone know of a decent currently made RPN calculator? Two years ago when my old 48sx wore out, I started looking for one. Everything HP made looked like a cruddy TI. In a panic I found a 48g in good shape on craigslist. Eventually it will wear out. I cannot tolerate an algebraic calculator or a calculator without a nice big stack.
Agreed. The only way that Google can claim they loose a billion $ due to fraudulent clicks is if they are actually spending a billion $ on checking for false clicks. I'm sure that false clicks do cost them some money, but I'd be shocked to find out that google spends a billion $ a year vetting adsense clicks.
A more interesting statistic would be, how many fraudulent clicks get past google and are charged to the advertisers?
Years of satellite photos of the Arctic = ~30. Years of knowledge of Arctic ice pack >400.
The Navy has kept very detailed surveys of ice thickness in the Arctic since the advent of nuclear submarines. The Navy has also patrolled the Arctic for decades with ice-breaker ships. Another poster pointed out that people have tried to navigate these waters since the 16th century. Of course 400+ years is just a blink of the eye geologically. The fact remains that this is one of many positive feedback situations taking place right now. The more ice melts, the more heat is absorbed in the Arctic Ocean which melts more ice etc. Another example is the melting of the Alaskan and Siberian permafrost which releases methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Of course there is considerable evidence that the permafrost has been frozen since at least the last ice age.
The problem with this or any other completely computer based, is that it is still a black box to me. Plus being able to verify that my vote was counted correctly doesn't prove anything. It doesn't prevent votes from being added. People keep missing the point. The paper ballots aren't the ends they are the means to conducting a statistically meaningful audit of the election.
Of course as things stand now, windoze based machines with trivially hackable databases are used to count your votes. Audits are NOT conducted. Real recounts are NOT conducted. HR811 would change that and provide a physical audit trail, and require statistically valid audits of elections. HR811 is the only thing standing between us and another election that we cannot prove was or wasn't stolen. Please call your representative and beg them to vote yes on HR811, and no on the unfunded mandate amendment (which would gut the 2008 deadline.) 202-225-9091
Slashdot Mirror
Asteroids make more sense. It will be much more practical to mine asteroids because there is very little expense in escaping the gravity well of an asteroid to get the mined material back here.
I believe that you misunderstand the mechanism for cocaine addiction. Heroine withdrawl is like you describe. Cocaine is not physically addictive, but it is potently psychologically addictive. You don't go through withdrawal but you probably feel flat and listless due to the absence of all those stimulants.
Also relapses tend to occur because of renewed or continued association with people who use cocaine exposes the former user to social pressure and temptation. Relapses also occur because most former users still have the underlying psychological issues that led them to 'self medicate' in the first place, in other words, their life is still shitty and they still want an escape.
Sharon Morein-Zamir, a psychologist at Cambridge University who writes about the ethics of brain enhancement, said her interest in the medications was largely academic. But when someone she knew who had been taking Provigil for a neurological condition offered her some pills, Morein-Zamir's curiosity was piqued.
"I knew the literature and wondered what it felt like," she said.
The drug helped her focus as she worked at her computer for hours straight. But she wondered if it was a placebo effect.
Prescriptions for Inderal and other beta blockers can be readily obtained from physicians. Tuck said some doctors had told her they used the drugs themselves to calm their own nerves before making presentations at medical meetings. Musicians say their drug use is all aboveboard.
and finally a few comments on negative side effects...
But cosmetic neurology, as some call it, has risks. Ritalin, Adderall and other ADHD drugs can cause headaches, insomnia and loss of appetite. Provigil can make users nervous or anxious and bring on headaches, while beta blockers can cause drowsiness, fatigue and wheezing.
One Stanford University study found that low doses of Aricept improved the performance of healthy pilots as they tried to master new skills in a flight stimulator, but the side effects -- dizziness and vomiting -- were less than desirable in a pilot.
I just wish I could stand all high and mighty and declare that I am totally free of the boob tube. I'm not. I have managed to eliminate commercials from the tube. I get 2 DVDs at a time and 14 hours a month of WatchNow from Netflix. Since I watch the DVDs on a linux box I can even skip the previews. The only TV commercials I have to watch are on that !@#$% TV in the pump at the gas station. It all payed off over Thanxgiving at Grampa's house when my 4 year old first encountered a commercial. After I explained it to him, he said, "I don't like commercials." Of course after just a day or two he was saying, "I want that." to every commercial that came along. Perfect proof of how potent and damaging advertising can be.
This reminds me a lot of those new gas pump TVs that play nothing but commercials. Now I hate commercials sooo much that I got rid of the TV. I get my occasional boob tube fix through netflix and netflix instant watching. No commercials. I don't listen to commercial radio. Even NPR type commercials are starting to drive me nuts. So when I pull up to the pump on my way into work in the morning, before my first caffeine fix, and I have to hear that same stupid !@#$%!@# Jack-n-the-Box commercial, I do get a little crazy. I've been thinking for weeks now how I could mute the speakers on those things without being seen on the security cameras. It's not the flickering image of the idiot tube that bugs me it's the blaring sound trying to sell me a slab of shit on a sesame seed bun.
Evolution has TWO parts. Only one is taking place at a faster rate recently. Like TFA says genetic mutation may be on the increase. However for a species to evolve the species has to be put under stress. In other words lots of people have to die off, leaving only those of us with the adaptive gene to survive and reproduce. That's the natural selection part. We've gone through almost uninterrupted population growth for 10,000 years so we haven't really been evolving, just mutating.
The problem with MS's plan for world media domination is that it requires people to buy their hardware. In the past (and present) people bought computers that came with Windows, and MS leveraged that into controlling part of the software market. Zunes aren't free. Xboxes aren't free. I know Windows was never free either, but it was just there when you bought your computer and was included in the cost. Last I checked the large majority of adults that I know don't buy game consoles, but they do buy DVD players.
The best off button EVER:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhzvCyhkg8c
See this button?
DON'T TOUCH IT!
It's the History Eraser Button you fool !
--so what'll happen ?
That's just it! We don't know.
Maybe something bad...maybe something good
I guess we'll never know.
Cause you're going to guard it.
You won't touch it, will you?
[narrator]
Oh, how long can trusty Cadet Stimpy hold out?
How can he possibly resist the diabolical urge to push the button that could erase his very existence?
Will his tortured mind give in to it's uncontrollable desires?
Can he withstand the temptation to push the button, that even now, beckons him ever closer?
Will he succumb to the maddening urge to eradicate history, at the mere push of a single button?
The beautiful shiny button.
The jolly candy-like button.
Will he hold out, folks?
Can he hold out?
I like translating a sentence back and forth between languages.
english->spanish->english
I have taste to backwards translate an oration forwards and between the languages.
english->german->english
I may translate a sentence between languages back and forth.
english->russian->english
I love to transfer proposal back and forth between the languages.
english->greek->english
I wish a proposal back and forth between the languages.
Worrying about who would replace an impeached Bush is beside the point. The point is that Bush, Cheney, et. al. BROKE THE LAW. Repeatedly. The congress has a responsibility to impeach such behavior because failing to do so condones the illegal behavior. A terrible precedent has been made. A cabal can steal two presidential elections, trash the constitution, and start illegal agressive wars of conquest, and that's a-okay.
-- Democracy in America July 4, 1776 - September 11, 2001 R I P
The Symbian guy calls mobile applications development "deeply unsexy" and by association calls Symbian unsexy. I think that this sums up Symbian's problems perfectly. Nearly ALL cell phone UIs are awful and unsexy. I want my cell to be easy to use and Sexy! You go google!
Future Noir quotes Katherine Haber, the Production Executive, as saying, "Bud Yorkin supervised that session, and Harrison hated it. He hadn't wanted to do voice overs in the first place and by now I think he was sick of the whole movie anyway. Harrison also didn't like what Kibbe had come up with. So he purposefully, I think, recited that narration badly. I think he was hoping they wouldn't be able to use it. And of course they did - that third narration was the one they released with the finished film."
Harrison was quoted in the same section of the book as saying, "It was in my contract that I do the voice-overs, but I hated them. Ridley hated them as well, but when the film went over budget, they made me do it. I went kicking and screaming to the studio to record it."
His attitude may have had an impact on the reading but I don't believe that he intentionally sabotaged the session.
Gee I thought the idea was to moderate the post not the author of the post.
Tell me that this thing doesn't look like Inspector Clouseau's "Silver Hornet"
compare:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/10/10/transition_flying_car_quite_realistic/page2.html
to:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEFfISdA8LQ
Agreed, this approach causes problems with virus scanning as well.
You think that making nasty comments on youtube and giving videos bad ratings is WAR? Give me a break, it's not even going to be an effective protest.
Does Jury Nullification have any applicability to civil cases?
I'm asking because I honestly don't know, not because I'm trying to make a point.
Is that a first for slashdot?
I'd definitely go for four nine hour days per week! But here's the schedule I'd want 8-12 then lunch and siesta until 2 work to 7. Wednesdays off so I never have to work more than 2 days in a row.
I am one of those people who sleeps at work (but I'm not in IT). I cannot help it. After lunch my energy level plummets until 2 or 3 unless I nap. I stay late about 3 days a week to make up for it and to make up for leaving early to pick up my son at preschool twice a week. Getting to work a bit early and leaving late lets me miss the worst of traffic. My most productive hour is often from 5-6 after people leave and the phones stop ringing. My office is pretty tolerant of tweaking our schedules to fit our lives.
The HP33s, HP49G+, and 48gll all have a tiny enter key in a weird spot. The HP35s is more along the lines of what I was thinking about. Thanks for the suggestion. It'd be nice to be able to see more than one number in the stack, and it's too bad that the stack is only 4 deep, but I'm glad they have gone back to a calculator designed for RPN use instead of having an optional RPN mode. I guess for now it's stick with my old 48 even though it's more of a calculator than I need. I'd certainly consider a 35s in the future.
Does anyone know of a decent currently made RPN calculator? Two years ago when my old 48sx wore out, I started looking for one. Everything HP made looked like a cruddy TI. In a panic I found a 48g in good shape on craigslist. Eventually it will wear out. I cannot tolerate an algebraic calculator or a calculator without a nice big stack.
Agreed. The only way that Google can claim they loose a billion $ due to fraudulent clicks is if they are actually spending a billion $ on checking for false clicks. I'm sure that false clicks do cost them some money, but I'd be shocked to find out that google spends a billion $ a year vetting adsense clicks.
A more interesting statistic would be, how many fraudulent clicks get past google and are charged to the advertisers?
Years of satellite photos of the Arctic = ~30. Years of knowledge of Arctic ice pack >400.
The Navy has kept very detailed surveys of ice thickness in the Arctic since the advent of nuclear submarines. The Navy has also patrolled the Arctic for decades with ice-breaker ships. Another poster pointed out that people have tried to navigate these waters since the 16th century. Of course 400+ years is just a blink of the eye geologically. The fact remains that this is one of many positive feedback situations taking place right now. The more ice melts, the more heat is absorbed in the Arctic Ocean which melts more ice etc. Another example is the melting of the Alaskan and Siberian permafrost which releases methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Of course there is considerable evidence that the permafrost has been frozen since at least the last ice age.
The problem with this or any other completely computer based, is that it is still a black box to me. Plus being able to verify that my vote was counted correctly doesn't prove anything. It doesn't prevent votes from being added. People keep missing the point. The paper ballots aren't the ends they are the means to conducting a statistically meaningful audit of the election.
Of course as things stand now, windoze based machines with trivially hackable databases are used to count your votes. Audits are NOT conducted. Real recounts are NOT conducted. HR811 would change that and provide a physical audit trail, and require statistically valid audits of elections. HR811 is the only thing standing between us and another election that we cannot prove was or wasn't stolen. Please call your representative and beg them to vote yes on HR811, and no on the unfunded mandate amendment (which would gut the 2008 deadline.) 202-225-9091