Even if it is gravity that causes the bone loss (seems likely) I don't think we can have any idea what 1/6th gravity will do over long term until we actually try it. One might think that 1/6th gravity would mean 5/6ths of the boneloss that occurs in 0g but that assumes the relationship is linear. For all we know there could be no extra bone loss at all until gravity gets quite close to 0 or maybe anything less than Earth gravity is just unlivable over the long term for humans.
With a dataset of only 2 values of gravity we can do nothing but guess. Now, the question I think is, is it better to go try it by sending people far away to moon(s) or planet(s) with different masses or build a rotating space station which we can rotate at different speeds to try different levels of gravity.
I think the station makes more sense but given our rate of progress I vote to just go to the Moon and Mars. If they start on another space station most of us alive today will be dead before anyone gets back to actually exploring any other world in person.
How does the fact that it happens on Earth prove that microgravity isn't the only reason it happens to astronauts in space? Sure, maybe microgravity accelerates the natural process which also happens on Earth. I hope so because that would imply that research on preventing one might prevent both! But.. why couldn't it also be a totally unique mechanism that just has the same effect.
Hmm... GP is either a bigot, a troll or both and his statement is assinine but I don't see the racism. Is it because he writes about the president? He doesn't say anything about his race. He could just not like that one person for all we know. Is it because he mentions Chechens? Again, he doesn't say anything to imply they are all like the bombers. Or maybe it's because he refers to muslims as 'mozzie'. Sorry, Islam isn't a race it's a religion. He may be bigoted but that does not imply racism. Let's not bring out the 'r' card where it doesn't belong. It only serves to dilute it's meaning.
Actually, I bet a sperm bank will be a huge part of the first self-sustaining multi-generational colonies or colony ships. It will probably be needed in order to have wide enough of a gene pool.
I say sperm banks because eggs don't keep so well.
Generational colony ship leaves. Several generations later some form of FTL is invented. Colony ship is still generations away from any star system. People on Earth remember the colony ship from their history books. there is a huge public concern over their fate. The people of Earth regret having sent those poor people on this now 'pointless' mission. One of the first FTL ships is sent to 'rescue' their descendants.
The descendants are happy to have visitors, see some new faces, get news of Earth. However, much to everyone else's surprise they have adapted. The ship is their home and they have their own way of life. Few return.
In the very long run the colony ships (yes plural now) colonize more worlds than the Earthlings with their FTL. When they finally arrive at a star system with a usable planet they orbit for some generations. They gather supplies, repair and upgrade their ship. They allow their population to grow. They build more ships. A fraction do stay behind on the new planet but since ship life is now their nature many more fly on to the next worlds.
Yes, because after you stop poluting everything goes clean again very quickly. I bet they will even be able to handle a lifetime of eating fish from their urban rivers with no ill-effects in less than a decade!/s
Sure. And purchasing new insulation and a new metal roof only requires pocket change right? Oh.. and new siding too since the old will have to be ripped off to get at the insulation.
And then it's an easy one afternoon project that the building owner can get his teenage son to do for mere allowance money right?
Definitely not very hard for a contractor who is getting paid his living for doing it. It's quite a different thing to be at the other end of that transaction.
Still can't see why it would be very tempting to go out and buy a jammer?
Even if there was an antitrust investigation the furthest it would ever go is to make Mickeysoft 'donate' their software to a bunch of schools. The 'side effect' of course being further indoctrinating yet another generation into buying their crap years down the road when the kids grow up and enter the workplace.
Ok. Let's see you do it. Pick a comercial building, even a small one. Go buy enough metal to make a box around it. Move every thing in the store or other business around, maybe close the place for a week or two to do this. Of course.. you have to make it pretty or you start losing shoppers. So.. probably you need to tear out all the drywall, add your metal layer, now put in new dry wall. Oh, it's plaster? That will be fun. I hope you really like dust! Hey, there isn't any asbestos in it is there?
Oh, and by the way, you got permits for that right? Everything you did is up to code right? Has the inspector been out to see it yet?
Gee, that was fun. How much did you spend by the way? How much business was lost during the construction?
Now go do it with a bigger building.
See... what would be easy to do in your garage on a small scale as a simple experiment is not necessarily so easy for a real world application. This is why a little inconspicuous box that only needs sat somewhere and plugged in is so much more attractive to actual business owners. Unfortunately, that really is illegal for a good reason. If radio waves from the cell tower can get in your building your jammer signal can get out. Even if you take care to adjust the power output so that it isn't a problem today, radio waves are finicky things and tomorrow you might be blocking the neighbor's 911 call.
I can totally understand brick and morter stores not wanting their shoppers to come in, look at goods, only to do their actual purchasing online from someone else.
But..
I also use my phone in the store for other kinds of research. Stores selling computer parts and even hardware should try to make it easy to get online. On more than one occasion I have not bought things because I couldn't get online to see it it was compatible. This has happened with computer parts, I wanted to see if there were Linux drivers. It has happened with electronic components.. which part did I need again... The schematic is online.
I think that if Bitcoin was all about mining then a pyramid scheme is exactly what it would be. Mining bitcoin isn't the only way to get it though. It's actually meant to be used as a currency. That means you can get someone to give it to you in exchange for goods or services. In fact mining isn't intended to be around forever. Eventually that method of getting coin is supposed to go away.
Mining is just a way to initially get money into the system. Every currency has to have somebody to initially 'print' the money. And.. if they print too much then the money becomes worthless. Mining as I understand it is a scheme to spread the initial minting derived 'wealth' around and also limit the amount plus the rate at which it is introduced.
Yes, mining was set up to favor early adopters. What's wrong with that? They took the greater risk. They could have spent all that electricity just to get credits that nobody ever accepts for anything in return. Now that it is harder to get money from mining the bitcoin economy can become more dominated by actual transactions. Or.. it can fail. Time will tell.
This is my imperfect understanding of bitcoin. Take it with a grain of salt, I don't think I am qualified to even consider myself an 'arm-chair economist'! And no, I do not have any bitcoin myself. I just have been watching it and am interested to see where it is going.
If the courts decide that the genes employees discover on behalf of these drug companies really should be considered company 'property' then so be it. Real property (in the US anyway) is subject to imminent domain. If the government feels that the people 'need' a new road that happens to travel across your property they give you what somebody deems is a fair price for your home and they bulldoze it. If shaving a couple of minutes off of somebody's morning comute is worth disregarding personal property then why isn't saving somebody's life even more so? Instead of giving the 'discoverers' of life saving information an monopoly and the power to decide who lives and dies how about just giving them some cash, an 'attaboy' and then free the information up to help people.
Um.. so we are all going to be able to look up our genes online and the information we find will be sufficient for us to make our own tests and treatments?
I'm all for burying the whole 'intellectual property' idea but your statement doesn't make any sense to me.
Bah, all that these kids have no work ethic today stuff is just crap.
In my grandparent's generation one parent stayed home and took care of all the many things that needed done. The other worked 40 hours. They may not have had as much to spend on toys but at the end of the day the work was done, they could spend time together and relax or have fun.
In my parent's generation people were obsessed with overtime. Not only would one parent be at work most waking hours, often both would. They were paid well for it but that just made them greedy. The money poured in but who can say where it all went? They certainly didn't have much time or energy to enjoy it.
In my generation it would seem that we are expected to work like our parents for the pay of our grandparents and far too many of us seem to feel it is a privilege to do so.
What is the point? Why work so many hours when you will not have the time or energy to enjoy the money? Why should most of one parent's pay go to paying a stranger to raise the kids just so both parents can come home tired at night ot a dirty house full of unfinished chores? (I'm not being sexist here, I don't care which parent stays home)
Note, I am not necessarily talking about myself, my wife, my parents or grandparents. Some of it fits us, some of it doesn't. Rather, I am making generalizations about 3 generations based on my own anecdotal observations. Take it for what it is worth.
Oh, and about loyalty? Yeah our parent's generation were more loyal. Where did it get them? How many were laid off short of retirement age when large companies moved their manufacturing to developing nations where they didn't have to pay a real living wage? How many lost their pensions when their corporations declared bankruptcy yet the executives took home large bonuses? We watched this happen to our parents. We don't want to sit back and watch it happen to ourselves.
Used to be popular? Don't EE degrees usually require some sort of internship to even graduate? I was thinking about going back for a new degree but decided not to in part because the universities around me require internships. I'm past my student years. I have a family now and quitting a perfectly good, well-paying job to go work for free is a non-option.
That sounds like the software industry. When I was looking on the job I saw job postings that listed requirements with more years experience with various programming languages and other items than the software in question even existed! Were they looking for time travelers? I suppose people just lied on there resumes to get the jobs. I didn't want to do that. I eventually found a good employer. We are a small company, not a lot of room to go up but I have no interest whatsoever in dealing with that job market again! I intend to stay.
Why shouldn't Universities do that? In a perfect world, where University seats are plentiful I would like to see 100% admission for everyone who applies. That's not the same as 100% graduation nor does it mean everyone gets a good grade! It just means that anybody who wants to 'turn over a new leaf' and study harder has a chance.
Sure, past high performers are going to statistically be more likely to make it and vice versa but this will not determine the fate of every individual student. Who's to say one particular student for whatever reason just didn't thrive in a high school environment, or at one particular high shool but might do great at a university. Or maybe he/she has had an epiphany and will apply his/her self like never before. Likewise an over-achiever might finally burn out or may have done well before because mommy and daddy where there to force it but has no motivation when alone.
I say.. if they have the seats.. FILL THEM! Anything less is just academic snobbery.
That being said, it might be nice in such a hypothetical 'perfect world' a guidance councelor could speak frankly and tell the students "It's your time and money to 'waste' but I don't think you will make it". Maybe even ask the question "why DO you think you will do better here than you did previously?" Selling them ideas that they will be rich and succesful when they will likely not even graduate would be kind of low.
So? Every time I 'hear' that complaint I wonder why the focus on ENTRY requirements.
If a University lowers their entry requirements w/o lowering the content of their classes and difficulty of their tests then that just means incoming students will have to work harder to catch up or they will come out with lower grades which would be apparent in their transcripts.
Now, if universities are lowering the content of their classes and/or exams then that is another thing. This year's graduates with similar transcripts might not be as prepared as past ones. But that wasn't A/C's statement.
I don't understand why an employer would want to focus on a potential new hire's performance 4+ years ago in high school when they could be focussing on recent performance in college.
Slashdot Mirror
Even if it is gravity that causes the bone loss (seems likely) I don't think we can have any idea what 1/6th gravity will do over long term until we actually try it. One might think that 1/6th gravity would mean 5/6ths of the boneloss that occurs in 0g but that assumes the relationship is linear. For all we know there could be no extra bone loss at all until gravity gets quite close to 0 or maybe anything less than Earth gravity is just unlivable over the long term for humans.
With a dataset of only 2 values of gravity we can do nothing but guess. Now, the question I think is, is it better to go try it by sending people far away to moon(s) or planet(s) with different masses or build a rotating space station which we can rotate at different speeds to try different levels of gravity.
I think the station makes more sense but given our rate of progress I vote to just go to the Moon and Mars. If they start on another space station most of us alive today will be dead before anyone gets back to actually exploring any other world in person.
How does the fact that it happens on Earth prove that microgravity isn't the only reason it happens to astronauts in space? Sure, maybe microgravity accelerates the natural process which also happens on Earth. I hope so because that would imply that research on preventing one might prevent both! But.. why couldn't it also be a totally unique mechanism that just has the same effect.
Hmm... GP is either a bigot, a troll or both and his statement is assinine but I don't see the racism. Is it because he writes about the president? He doesn't say anything about his race. He could just not like that one person for all we know. Is it because he mentions Chechens? Again, he doesn't say anything to imply they are all like the bombers. Or maybe it's because he refers to muslims as 'mozzie'. Sorry, Islam isn't a race it's a religion. He may be bigoted but that does not imply racism. Let's not bring out the 'r' card where it doesn't belong. It only serves to dilute it's meaning.
Actually, I bet a sperm bank will be a huge part of the first self-sustaining multi-generational colonies or colony ships. It will probably be needed in order to have wide enough of a gene pool.
I say sperm banks because eggs don't keep so well.
I can imagine how that could work out.
Generational colony ship leaves.
Several generations later some form of FTL is invented. Colony ship is still generations away from any star system.
People on Earth remember the colony ship from their history books. there is a huge public concern over their fate. The people of Earth regret having sent those poor people on this now 'pointless' mission. One of the first FTL ships is sent to 'rescue' their descendants.
The descendants are happy to have visitors, see some new faces, get news of Earth. However, much to everyone else's surprise they have adapted. The ship is their home and they have their own way of life. Few return.
In the very long run the colony ships (yes plural now) colonize more worlds than the Earthlings with their FTL. When they finally arrive at a star system with a usable planet they orbit for some generations. They gather supplies, repair and upgrade their ship. They allow their population to grow. They build more ships. A fraction do stay behind on the new planet but since ship life is now their nature many more fly on to the next worlds.
Pointless mission indeed!
The Romans had writing.
Yes, because after you stop poluting everything goes clean again very quickly. I bet they will even be able to handle a lifetime of eating fish from their urban rivers with no ill-effects in less than a decade! /s
Be glad that Microsoft fails. Can you imagine what would happen if Microsoft succeded at strong AI?
<queues up terminator music>
Hey, what's wrong with GNU/Hurd? Slashdot has been great since it's hosting moved from GNU/Linux to GNU/Hurd.
How true, all us Mickeysoft bashers are sooo dissapointed!
Well.. The US was like that once...
Sure. And purchasing new insulation and a new metal roof only requires pocket change right? Oh.. and new siding too since the old will have to be ripped off to get at the insulation.
And then it's an easy one afternoon project that the building owner can get his teenage son to do for mere allowance money right?
Definitely not very hard for a contractor who is getting paid his living for doing it. It's quite a different thing to be at the other end of that transaction.
Still can't see why it would be very tempting to go out and buy a jammer?
Ha Ha, Yeah, like those still happen anymore.
Even if there was an antitrust investigation the furthest it would ever go is to make Mickeysoft 'donate' their software to a bunch of schools. The 'side effect' of course being further indoctrinating yet another generation into buying their crap years down the road when the kids grow up and enter the workplace.
I'm sure you are but we really don't want to know what you are doing tonight.
>>It's not that hard.
Ok. Let's see you do it. Pick a comercial building, even a small one. Go buy enough metal to make a box around it. Move every thing in the store or other business around, maybe close the place for a week or two to do this. Of course.. you have to make it pretty or you start losing shoppers. So.. probably you need to tear out all the drywall, add your metal layer, now put in new dry wall. Oh, it's plaster? That will be fun. I hope you really like dust! Hey, there isn't any asbestos in it is there?
Oh, and by the way, you got permits for that right? Everything you did is up to code right? Has the inspector been out to see it yet?
Gee, that was fun. How much did you spend by the way? How much business was lost during the construction?
Now go do it with a bigger building.
See... what would be easy to do in your garage on a small scale as a simple experiment is not necessarily so easy for a real world application.
This is why a little inconspicuous box that only needs sat somewhere and plugged in is so much more attractive to actual business owners. Unfortunately, that really is illegal for a good reason. If radio waves from the cell tower can get in your building your jammer signal can get out. Even if you take care to adjust the power output so that it isn't a problem today, radio waves are finicky things and tomorrow you might be blocking the neighbor's 911 call.
I can totally understand brick and morter stores not wanting their shoppers to come in, look at goods, only to do their actual purchasing online from someone else.
But..
I also use my phone in the store for other kinds of research. Stores selling computer parts and even hardware should try to make it easy to get online. On more than one occasion I have not bought things because I couldn't get online to see it it was compatible. This has happened with computer parts, I wanted to see if there were Linux drivers. It has happened with electronic components.. which part did I need again... The schematic is online.
I think that if Bitcoin was all about mining then a pyramid scheme is exactly what it would be. Mining bitcoin isn't the only way to get it though. It's actually meant to be used as a currency. That means you can get someone to give it to you in exchange for goods or services. In fact mining isn't intended to be around forever. Eventually that method of getting coin is supposed to go away.
Mining is just a way to initially get money into the system. Every currency has to have somebody to initially 'print' the money. And.. if they print too much then the money becomes worthless. Mining as I understand it is a scheme to spread the initial minting derived 'wealth' around and also limit the amount plus the rate at which it is introduced.
Yes, mining was set up to favor early adopters. What's wrong with that? They took the greater risk. They could have spent all that electricity just to get credits that nobody ever accepts for anything in return. Now that it is harder to get money from mining the bitcoin economy can become more dominated by actual transactions. Or.. it can fail. Time will tell.
This is my imperfect understanding of bitcoin. Take it with a grain of salt, I don't think I am qualified to even consider myself an 'arm-chair economist'! And no, I do not have any bitcoin myself. I just have been watching it and am interested to see where it is going.
If the courts decide that the genes employees discover on behalf of these drug companies really should be considered company 'property' then so be it. Real property (in the US anyway) is subject to imminent domain. If the government feels that the people 'need' a new road that happens to travel across your property they give you what somebody deems is a fair price for your home and they bulldoze it. If shaving a couple of minutes off of somebody's morning comute is worth disregarding personal property then why isn't saving somebody's life even more so? Instead of giving the 'discoverers' of life saving information an monopoly and the power to decide who lives and dies how about just giving them some cash, an 'attaboy' and then free the information up to help people.
Um.. so we are all going to be able to look up our genes online and the information we find will be sufficient for us to make our own tests and treatments?
I'm all for burying the whole 'intellectual property' idea but your statement doesn't make any sense to me.
You just didn't want to slow down your own supply of bitcoin! :-)
Bah, all that these kids have no work ethic today stuff is just crap.
In my grandparent's generation one parent stayed home and took care of all the many things that needed done. The other worked 40 hours. They may not have had as much to spend on toys but at the end of the day the work was done, they could spend time together and relax or have fun.
In my parent's generation people were obsessed with overtime. Not only would one parent be at work most waking hours, often both would. They were paid well for it but that just made them greedy. The money poured in but who can say where it all went? They certainly didn't have much time or energy to enjoy it.
In my generation it would seem that we are expected to work like our parents for the pay of our grandparents and far too many of us seem to feel it is a privilege to do so.
What is the point?
Why work so many hours when you will not have the time or energy to enjoy the money?
Why should most of one parent's pay go to paying a stranger to raise the kids just so both parents can come home tired at night ot a dirty house full of unfinished chores? (I'm not being sexist here, I don't care which parent stays home)
Note, I am not necessarily talking about myself, my wife, my parents or grandparents. Some of it fits us, some of it doesn't. Rather, I am making generalizations about 3 generations based on my own anecdotal observations. Take it for what it is worth.
Oh, and about loyalty? Yeah our parent's generation were more loyal. Where did it get them? How many were laid off short of retirement age when large companies moved their manufacturing to developing nations where they didn't have to pay a real living wage? How many lost their pensions when their corporations declared bankruptcy yet the executives took home large bonuses? We watched this happen to our parents. We don't want to sit back and watch it happen to ourselves.
Used to be popular? Don't EE degrees usually require some sort of internship to even graduate? I was thinking about going back for a new degree but decided not to in part because the universities around me require internships. I'm past my student years. I have a family now and quitting a perfectly good, well-paying job to go work for free is a non-option.
That sounds like the software industry. When I was looking on the job I saw job postings that listed requirements with more years experience with various programming languages and other items than the software in question even existed! Were they looking for time travelers? I suppose people just lied on there resumes to get the jobs. I didn't want to do that. I eventually found a good employer. We are a small company, not a lot of room to go up but I have no interest whatsoever in dealing with that job market again! I intend to stay.
Why shouldn't Universities do that? In a perfect world, where University seats are plentiful I would like to see 100% admission for everyone who applies. That's not the same as 100% graduation nor does it mean everyone gets a good grade! It just means that anybody who wants to 'turn over a new leaf' and study harder has a chance.
Sure, past high performers are going to statistically be more likely to make it and vice versa but this will not determine the fate of every individual student. Who's to say one particular student for whatever reason just didn't thrive in a high school environment, or at one particular high shool but might do great at a university. Or maybe he/she has had an epiphany and will apply his/her self like never before. Likewise an over-achiever might finally burn out or may have done well before because mommy and daddy where there to force it but has no motivation when alone.
I say.. if they have the seats.. FILL THEM! Anything less is just academic snobbery.
That being said, it might be nice in such a hypothetical 'perfect world' a guidance councelor could speak frankly and tell the students "It's your time and money to 'waste' but I don't think you will make it". Maybe even ask the question "why DO you think you will do better here than you did previously?" Selling them ideas that they will be rich and succesful when they will likely not even graduate would be kind of low.
So? Every time I 'hear' that complaint I wonder why the focus on ENTRY requirements.
If a University lowers their entry requirements w/o lowering the content of their classes and difficulty of their tests then that just means incoming students will have to work harder to catch up or they will come out with lower grades which would be apparent in their transcripts.
Now, if universities are lowering the content of their classes and/or exams then that is another thing. This year's graduates with similar transcripts might not be as prepared as past ones. But that wasn't A/C's statement.
I don't understand why an employer would want to focus on a potential new hire's performance 4+ years ago in high school when they could be focussing on recent performance in college.