The Russians have forgotten more about practical long-term space travel than NASA ever knew. Considering all the factors working against it, Mir was a huge resounding success for remaining functional so long past its original design specs. If NASA is truly dedicated to being "faster, cheaper, better", then they would do well to study and learn as much as possible from Russians designs and techniques.
I've never had much of an appetite and am quite skinny, yet I've always had an incredibly fast recovery rate from diseases and injuries. I guess I'm a mutant freak. ^_^;;
Whether it was done under good, "helpful" intentions (shyeah, right) is irrelevant. Good intentions aren't worth jack when the resulting actions are all f*cked up.
Bring on the information deluge, rife with its so-called immorality and crassness. We'll strain it like baleen whales do to seawater, growing strong off the supposedly worthless scum of the ocean. Intellectual and moral elitism will only lead to "mental inbreeding," a weakening of the mind due to a narrow range of stimulus to develop from.
Of what worth is the vote when the candidates are never held accountable to their promises? Or when their shortcomings in doing so are easily covered up with a flurry of propaganda PR? Heck, they all bend over to the transient whims of the popular opinion polls anyway. Presidents are fast becoming mere figureheads, someone who rubber-stamps the popular issue of the week, not someone who wields any substantial power stemming from any real sense of honor, justice, or knowledge.
"What I need are more hours in every day and more days in every year to get everything done. Of course that would mean I would be living on a larger planet with a higher gravity which would cause me to have a shorter life span so I still wouldn't get anything done! I can't win!"
-Reality Check
Haven't gotten any sleep, unstructured babbling ahead.
Not too thrilled about the whole implanted GPS tracking thingy, but having an implanted chip powered by human muscle motion intrigues me a bit. Though it seems a bit low-tech to me; I mean we've already developed machines that can derive power from sugars, meats, and other foods; why not have implants use the same fuel we use?
How about going in the opposite direction, people that can live off electricity? Actually, that's somewhat descriptive of people with pacemakers...
Mankind has already been engineering, customizing, and "building" ourselves for years, it's just that so far it's been largely through biochemical (ie: vaccines, food additives) or mental (ie: schooling, mass media) methods. We may be more comfortable with those means, and they do have positive benefits, but they've proved throughout history that they can be just as harmful as whatever we can dream of for technological augmentation. Plagues, biochemical warfare, brainwashing, hate propaganda, etc. Nothing new, nothing new under the sun.
Nanotech blurs, and may even one day completely erase, any distinctions between technological and biochemical human augmentation. Many chemical processes are essentially just interactions between shell electrons; what of a nanobot that can simulate different configurations of electron shells? A multitude of them would be something like a multi-purpose chemical. And what is the difference between a virus and a nanobot other that whether it was designed by the whims of nature or man? After all, neither is considered to be alive.
In an effort to be natural, people act unnaturally. In acting unnaturally, people are natural.:P Most of human civilization and progress seems to be getting ourselves as far out from under the thumb of nature as possible. 'Cause while people may be good or evil, nature is just 100% callous and indifferent, and no one likes being ignored.:P
Then the "herbivores" must starve the "carnivores." Instead of merely waiting for them to attack, instead of letting them choose the battles, they must never be given the opportunity to attack in the first place. One can't be left alone in peace unless one creates security for it beforehand.
In short, one must have clear foresight, as well as the willingness to act on said foresight even before any harm actually happens in the first place. A mere reactionary, short-range defensive posture isn't enough for anything but a slow, stifling death.
The way I see it, aggressive != macho. One can be plenty aggressive (and a lot more effective)without a lot of macho posing, by virtue of not wasting energy on it.
I'm probably going to come off as insulting to a lot of people here, but a related idea has been sitting in the back of my mind for the past few years and the less-than-warm reception of the Anime topic here is a convenient trigger for me to let it out. And I'm in a less-than-nice mood right now, so...
/*begin rant*/
Why is there such vocal opposition to anime articles here on Slashdot, even when there is an opt-out function? One reason, IMNSHO, is because many geeks are overly sensitive to appearing wussy or less-than-manly. Heck, one complaint even described Slashdot as being "officially gay" upon the introduction of the anime topic.
(A shame, because many anime and manga creators take a very hackish, geek-like approach towards the creation of their work, using the same general sense of elegant efficiency that good programmers use, as opposed to the bloated corporate committee approach so prevalent in American cartoons and comics.)
Anyway, back to my original point, look at well-accepted geek hobbies such as Star Trek, fantasy rpgs, computer games, comic books, etc. Most of them just _bleed_ machismo, if not through physical depictions (ie: swords and dark necromancy, gunfights in dank dungeon-style arenas, overmuscled superheros) then through the mental equivalent of penis-waving (ie: important-sounding sci-fi technobabble). For insecure geeks, anime is an easy target (given its cute, animated nature), a chance for them to reciprocate the social abuse they suffered for not being football team material, as well a chance to feel "macho" and superior by beating down on something (this also applies to trolls in general).
Now, I'm _not_ saying "if you don't like anime, you're insecure of your masculinity." Neither am I saying that anime is free of such stupid machismo (it's got plenty of its own kind), nor am I dissing macho entertainment (I probably enjoy booting skulls more than the next guy does). What I _am_ saying is "if you INSIST on trashing anime, even going out of your way to post complaints to a topic you could easily opt-out of, then maybe you're trying to compensate for something."
And people wonder why there are so few female geeks... maybe 'cause most females in general don't enjoy senseless macho posturing? Heck, the one-upsmanship and egotism I've seen around programmers rivals that of jocks (Ion Storm ring a bell?).
/*end rant*/
My apologies to geeks that don't mimic dumb jock mentality. I haven't eaten well in days, and I'm in a bit of a nasty mood right now.
Get off your high horse. Speaking as someone who's had plenty of experience living in both Asian and Western culture, I say you're putting traditional Asian culture on a much higher pedestel than it deserves. Just because it's so oddly different from Western culture doesn't automatically make it any better (or worse). Difference is merely difference, it has no innate correspondence to worth or specialness.
"The writings of the great authors are wine, my writing is water. Everybody drinks water." -Mark Twain (paraphrased)
"Image is nothing. Thirst is everything. Obey your thirst." -wise words from a crass commercial
And anyway, "low culture" entertainment eventually becomes "high culture," given enough time. Great writers such as Mark Twain, Shakespeare, and Salinger were all reviled as uncouth hacks in their time. If everyone merely followed in the footsteps of "the great ones", then culture would stagnate and die. I'd rather have a chaotic morass of crudeness and commercialism, because such humble, rude fodder is _needed_ to keep the soil of creativity fertile and rich, so that something stronger than the old can grow. I'm not willing to sacrifice growth just so one I can maintain a useless image of refinement and feel oh-so-superior. Like living creatures, when a culture feeds and grows, when times change, it's always _ugly_. It's impossible to be otherwise, simply because it's changing to something different from old standards of beauty.
"May you live in interesting times." -ancient Chinese curse
'Sides, if you're really looking for artsy anime titles, then the paltry few you mentioned sure as hell aren't going to cut it. Try out Mononoke Hime, Patlabor Movie #2, Gasaraki, Grave of the Fireflies, or Tale of Genji (yes, there's an anime adaptation). You won't find most of these right off the rental rack at Blockbuster, but if that's all the effort you're willing to expend in your search, then you certainly don't deserve the highfalutin', pseudo-scolarly studious attitude you're displaying, especially when it comes to anime. Can you say in all seriousness and honesty that you've watched a thousand different anime titles? Then you're in no position to judge it, no more than anyone who hasn't read a thousand different books is for judging literature.
I think I need to lie down and relax now. Where are my encyclopaedias?
Let's see, things like Star Trek, comic books, computer games, Lego Mindstorms sets, the latest high-tech toys and gadgets, science-fiction, etc etc, are all universally embraced by geeks, often with a bit of pride to boot. Yet whenever an anime topic pops up on Slashdot we have some geeks here sincerely dismissing it as childish, stupid, dorky, etc etc.
Yes, there is awful anime out there, but there are also awful computer programs, Star Trek movies, useless gadgets, etc etc. For a geek to be so blindly dismissive towards anime smacks of hypocrisy; to adopt the same narrow mindset found in mainstream society that derides geeks as inept social misfits stuck in childhood. How Nietzsche.
After all, aren't geeks supposed to pride themselves as being more inquisitive, playful, and willing to experiment, no matter how supposedly "stupid" or "worthless" the subject may appear be? Aren't geeks supposed to be above proving how "cool" and "macho" they are, above tearing down others because they are different and "wierd"?
Don't slam anime unless you're willing to slam all the other geek hobbies on the same criteria.
3. There is little practical reason to own a swastika or other Nazi or neo-Nazi symbol. Chances are about 99.99999999% that if you own such a symbol, you're a hate-mongering, jew/black/gay beating fascism-loving jerk.
You know, you should take your own advice and not jump to conclusions.
In the 2D animation biz, ACME is one of the pegboard standards used to line up paper and cels for drawing and camera shooting. So its usage in the Road Runner cartoons is a small inside joke for 2D animators.
..."kung fu" is not a style, but a category of geographical orgin. Specifically, it refers to the thousands of different Chinese martial art styles, many of which are completely at odds in terms of what techniques and strategies are taught and emphasized. For example, Wing Chun style (very grounded and punch oriented) is completely different from Wu Shu style (highly acrobatic with lots of kicks), but both are Chinese martial arts, and thus fall under the category "kung fu". Escrima, Savate, and Jujutsu aren't Chinese styles (they're Filipino, French, and Japanese, respectively), so they aren't "kung fu". Besides, it's not the style that matters, but how it's used. Different styles exist because different things work for different physiques and body types.
When computers can consistently pass the Turing Test (or some equivalent response-based criteria) over a wide range of testers, I'll consider them as sentient as humans. Because when you get down to it, everyday life is nothing more than an extended version of the Turing Test. Think about it, why do we consider humans to be sentient? We are nowhere near understanding how the human mind truly works. All we really have to base our ideas of sentience on are people's actions, reactions, and flesh. And frankly I don't think the flesh is all that special. Figuratively speaking, it's just the medium on which the code is stored on.
Slashdot Mirror
The Russians have forgotten more about practical long-term space travel than NASA ever knew. Considering all the factors working against it, Mir was a huge resounding success for remaining functional so long past its original design specs. If NASA is truly dedicated to being "faster, cheaper, better", then they would do well to study and learn as much as possible from Russians designs and techniques.
I've never had much of an appetite and am quite skinny, yet I've always had an incredibly fast recovery rate from diseases and injuries. I guess I'm a mutant freak. ^_^;;
Whether it was done under good, "helpful" intentions (shyeah, right) is irrelevant. Good intentions aren't worth jack when the resulting actions are all f*cked up.
Bring on the information deluge, rife with its so-called immorality and crassness. We'll strain it like baleen whales do to seawater, growing strong off the supposedly worthless scum of the ocean. Intellectual and moral elitism will only lead to "mental inbreeding," a weakening of the mind due to a narrow range of stimulus to develop from.
The cult of the child is the new mainstream religion. And like so many other religions, it only serves to blind its worshippers to their god.
Of what worth is the vote when the candidates are never held accountable to their promises? Or when their shortcomings in doing so are easily covered up with a flurry of propaganda PR? Heck, they all bend over to the transient whims of the popular opinion polls anyway. Presidents are fast becoming mere figureheads, someone who rubber-stamps the popular issue of the week, not someone who wields any substantial power stemming from any real sense of honor, justice, or knowledge.
'nuff said. ^_^
"What I need are more hours in every day and more days in every year to get everything done. Of course that would mean I would be living on a larger planet with a higher gravity which would cause me to have a shorter life span so I still wouldn't get anything done! I can't win!"
-Reality Check
Haven't gotten any sleep, unstructured babbling ahead.
:P Most of human civilization and progress seems to be getting ourselves as far out from under the thumb of nature as possible. 'Cause while people may be good or evil, nature is just 100% callous and indifferent, and no one likes being ignored. :P
Not too thrilled about the whole implanted GPS tracking thingy, but having an implanted chip powered by human muscle motion intrigues me a bit. Though it seems a bit low-tech to me; I mean we've already developed machines that can derive power from sugars, meats, and other foods; why not have implants use the same fuel we use?
How about going in the opposite direction, people that can live off electricity? Actually, that's somewhat descriptive of people with pacemakers...
Mankind has already been engineering, customizing, and "building" ourselves for years, it's just that so far it's been largely through biochemical (ie: vaccines, food additives) or mental (ie: schooling, mass media) methods. We may be more comfortable with those means, and they do have positive benefits, but they've proved throughout history that they can be just as harmful as whatever we can dream of for technological augmentation. Plagues, biochemical warfare, brainwashing, hate propaganda, etc. Nothing new, nothing new under the sun.
Nanotech blurs, and may even one day completely erase, any distinctions between technological and biochemical human augmentation. Many chemical processes are essentially just interactions between shell electrons; what of a nanobot that can simulate different configurations of electron shells? A multitude of them would be something like a multi-purpose chemical. And what is the difference between a virus and a nanobot other that whether it was designed by the whims of nature or man? After all, neither is considered to be alive.
In an effort to be natural, people act unnaturally. In acting unnaturally, people are natural.
Och, I still can't sleep. -_-
In short, one must have clear foresight, as well as the willingness to act on said foresight even before any harm actually happens in the first place. A mere reactionary, short-range defensive posture isn't enough for anything but a slow, stifling death.
The way I see it, aggressive != macho. One can be plenty aggressive (and a lot more effective)without a lot of macho posing, by virtue of not wasting energy on it.
I'm probably going to come off as insulting to a lot of people here, but a related idea has been sitting in the back of my mind for the past few years and the less-than-warm reception of the Anime topic here is a convenient trigger for me to let it out. And I'm in a less-than-nice mood right now, so...
/*begin rant*/
Why is there such vocal opposition to anime articles here on Slashdot, even when there is an opt-out function? One reason, IMNSHO, is because many geeks are overly sensitive to appearing wussy or less-than-manly. Heck, one complaint even described Slashdot as being "officially gay" upon the introduction of the anime topic.
(A shame, because many anime and manga creators take a very hackish, geek-like approach towards the creation of their work, using the same general sense of elegant efficiency that good programmers use, as opposed to the bloated corporate committee approach so prevalent in American cartoons and comics.)
Anyway, back to my original point, look at well-accepted geek hobbies such as Star Trek, fantasy rpgs, computer games, comic books, etc. Most of them just _bleed_ machismo, if not through physical depictions (ie: swords and dark necromancy, gunfights in dank dungeon-style arenas, overmuscled superheros) then through the mental equivalent of penis-waving (ie: important-sounding sci-fi technobabble). For insecure geeks, anime is an easy target (given its cute, animated nature), a chance for them to reciprocate the social abuse they suffered for not being football team material, as well a chance to feel "macho" and superior by beating down on something (this also applies to trolls in general).
Now, I'm _not_ saying "if you don't like anime, you're insecure of your masculinity." Neither am I saying that anime is free of such stupid machismo (it's got plenty of its own kind), nor am I dissing macho entertainment (I probably enjoy booting skulls more than the next guy does). What I _am_ saying is "if you INSIST on trashing anime, even going out of your way to post complaints to a topic you could easily opt-out of, then maybe you're trying to compensate for something."
And people wonder why there are so few female geeks... maybe 'cause most females in general don't enjoy senseless macho posturing? Heck, the one-upsmanship and egotism I've seen around programmers rivals that of jocks (Ion Storm ring a bell?).
/*end rant*/
My apologies to geeks that don't mimic dumb jock mentality. I haven't eaten well in days, and I'm in a bit of a nasty mood right now.
Please. No more Star Trek stories. If I want Star Trek news, I'll go to a site more suited to such a thing.
Please. No more computer hardware stories. If I want computer hardware news, I'll go to a site more suited to such a thing.
Please. No more astronomy stories. If I want astronomy news, I'll go to a site more suited to such a thing.
Please. No more legal-issue stories. If I want legal-issue news, I'll go to a site more suited to such a thing.
etc etc etc...
Get off your high horse. Speaking as someone who's had plenty of experience living in both Asian and Western culture, I say you're putting traditional Asian culture on a much higher pedestel than it deserves. Just because it's so oddly different from Western culture doesn't automatically make it any better (or worse). Difference is merely difference, it has no innate correspondence to worth or specialness.
"The writings of the great authors are wine, my writing is water. Everybody drinks water."
-Mark Twain (paraphrased)
"Image is nothing. Thirst is everything. Obey your thirst."
-wise words from a crass commercial
And anyway, "low culture" entertainment eventually becomes "high culture," given enough time. Great writers such as Mark Twain, Shakespeare, and Salinger were all reviled as uncouth hacks in their time. If everyone merely followed in the footsteps of "the great ones", then culture would stagnate and die. I'd rather have a chaotic morass of crudeness and commercialism, because such humble, rude fodder is _needed_ to keep the soil of creativity fertile and rich, so that something stronger than the old can grow. I'm not willing to sacrifice growth just so one I can maintain a useless image of refinement and feel oh-so-superior. Like living creatures, when a culture feeds and grows, when times change, it's always _ugly_. It's impossible to be otherwise, simply because it's changing to something different from old standards of beauty.
"May you live in interesting times."
-ancient Chinese curse
'Sides, if you're really looking for artsy anime titles, then the paltry few you mentioned sure as hell aren't going to cut it. Try out Mononoke Hime, Patlabor Movie #2, Gasaraki, Grave of the Fireflies, or Tale of Genji (yes, there's an anime adaptation). You won't find most of these right off the rental rack at Blockbuster, but if that's all the effort you're willing to expend in your search, then you certainly don't deserve the highfalutin', pseudo-scolarly studious attitude you're displaying, especially when it comes to anime. Can you say in all seriousness and honesty that you've watched a thousand different anime titles? Then you're in no position to judge it, no more than anyone who hasn't read a thousand different books is for judging literature.
I think I need to lie down and relax now. Where are my encyclopaedias?
Let's see, things like Star Trek, comic books, computer games, Lego Mindstorms sets, the latest high-tech toys and gadgets, science-fiction, etc etc, are all universally embraced by geeks, often with a bit of pride to boot. Yet whenever an anime topic pops up on Slashdot we have some geeks here sincerely dismissing it as childish, stupid, dorky, etc etc.
Yes, there is awful anime out there, but there are also awful computer programs, Star Trek movies, useless gadgets, etc etc. For a geek to be so blindly dismissive towards anime smacks of hypocrisy; to adopt the same narrow mindset found in mainstream society that derides geeks as inept social misfits stuck in childhood. How Nietzsche.
After all, aren't geeks supposed to pride themselves as being more inquisitive, playful, and willing to experiment, no matter how supposedly "stupid" or "worthless" the subject may appear be? Aren't geeks supposed to be above proving how "cool" and "macho" they are, above tearing down others because they are different and "wierd"?
Don't slam anime unless you're willing to slam all the other geek hobbies on the same criteria.
Change that icon, please! Heck, I'll even draw a new one for you guys if necessary!
In the 2D animation biz, ACME is one of the pegboard standards used to line up paper and cels for drawing and camera shooting. So its usage in the Road Runner cartoons is a small inside joke for 2D animators.
Idealogy and entertainment don't mix. Nothing ruins a game more than getting preached at, no matter what the message may be.
..."kung fu" is not a style, but a category of geographical orgin. Specifically, it refers to the thousands of different Chinese martial art styles, many of which are completely at odds in terms of what techniques and strategies are taught and emphasized. For example, Wing Chun style (very grounded and punch oriented) is completely different from Wu Shu style (highly acrobatic with lots of kicks), but both are Chinese martial arts, and thus fall under the category "kung fu". Escrima, Savate, and Jujutsu aren't Chinese styles (they're Filipino, French, and Japanese, respectively), so they aren't "kung fu". Besides, it's not the style that matters, but how it's used. Different styles exist because different things work for different physiques and body types.
When computers can consistently pass the Turing Test (or some equivalent response-based criteria) over a wide range of testers, I'll consider them as sentient as humans. Because when you get down to it, everyday life is nothing more than an extended version of the Turing Test. Think about it, why do we consider humans to be sentient? We are nowhere near understanding how the human mind truly works. All we really have to base our ideas of sentience on are people's actions, reactions, and flesh. And frankly I don't think the flesh is all that special. Figuratively speaking, it's just the medium on which the code is stored on.