It's easy for us to wonder how "evil" or monstrous someone is for flying drone planes that drop bombs on people, but I think it's important to remember exactly where the finger should be pointed. The guy flying the drone is, after all, doing a job that he is required to fulfill whether he wants to do so or not.
So how evil do you have to be to tell that guy to do his job? Or, to sit back in your office thousands of miles away and calmly discuss the likelihood of "collateral damage" while someone else does your dirty work for you, and consequently spends the rest of their life dealing with the emotional and physical ramifications of that decision?
All of this reminds me of a livestock study I read in Vet school, where pigs were genetically engineered to be more muscular in order to maximize the proportion of lean meats to sell to the public.
Problem is, it came with some very bizarre side-effects, including the propensity for heart attacks. Any loud noise, and 20 pigs would drop dead in an instant. Seriously, you couldn't yell at the pig. The project was dropped because it wasn't very cost-effective.
I wonder what kind of crazy side effects this pill would have, and worse yet, will people really care? I mean, how many men and women were willing to tolerate "uncontrollable bowel movements" in order to try the latest diet pill?
The "brave new world" aspect to all of this is really creeping me out.
There are so many good options for parental control software today that this kind of stuff is totally unnecessary.
Then again, I guess that means that parents will actually have to buy it, and pay attention to what their kids are doing online.
Where are they going to store all that urine? I remember a study on pregnancy where they needed real urine, which apparently breaks down rather rapidly, so they kept it all in the fridge.
It's a bit scary to think of NASA working out of a giant refrigerator of pee.
And I feel sorry for the guy who got an advanced degree, got a job at NASA, and is now the pee handler.
As a grad student, I am concerned. When processes like these are automated, people like me are left without direction. How else am I going to fritter away my youth on work for which I'll get neither credit nor compensation?
Haven't they had enough problems with this before? Seriously, there's one poor guy out there who's already spent most of the last year trying to keep vandals out of wikipedia pages for Clinton, Obama and McCain.
(http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/nation/5808949.html)
And weren't there more issues last year with everyone from major corporations to the Vatican rewriting their pages?
Are they just going to employ an army of editors to make sure we're not getting false info? What's the use of information that no one can trust?
I'm not sure that the only graphic novel to win the Hugo Award could be made into a mass-marketed movie that could do it justice. Already Zack Snyder (director of the upcoming film) has to trim 4 1/2 hours of film down to a puny 2 at best. Can you really cover it all in that short period of time?
And BTW - the entire Tales of the Black Freighter will be released separately on DVD by Warner Bros right after the film comes out.
Get out your pocket books, people!
These commercials are funny, but unfortunate that they're misleading. They make it seem like no pc owner has every made movie on their machines, never uploaded a picture, or ever created a webpage. The commercials talk down to their consumers and make them look like they aren't even smart enough to question the lies they (mac) are filling their customers with. Case in point: two mouse buttons (pc) vs one (mac). I guess left and right were too complex an idea for mac users. I'm not saying that...Mac is by the mere fact that they are dumbing down the market and keeping themselves in a box whereas PC users/producers are always innovating.
"Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and 5 other Middle Eastern dictators share a summer beach house in Ft. Lauderdale. Can they survive the summer without blowing each other up? Find out this season on MTV's new series: "Confessions of a Mujahideen Surfer""
The whole controversy is actually quite over-emotionalized. Simply put, most people opposing stem cell research don't even realize what they are talking about. When the opposition hears the word "embryo" it is only natural to instantly picture a curled up little pre-human organism. But in reality, the stem cell scientists don't want this. They only want a cell mass called a blastocyst that is merely a few days old. Tell me earnestly, which would you cry over the most: the loss of your newborn child, or some microscopic cells? They are not the same and shouldn't be treated the same.
Here's a great visual demo about what embryonic stem cells actually are:
http://www.sumanasinc.com/webcontent/anisamples/st emcells.html
There will be two major effects of this phenomenon:
1. Minor candidates will get their message heard at relatively no cost.
2. Come election time, someone will spoof every podcast on the net, thus getting viraled far more than the big candidates, thus making it harder for everyone, big or small, to get their message out.
But overall, I think it's a great strategy. It really evens the playing field, and will make the candidates more personable.
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It's easy for us to wonder how "evil" or monstrous someone is for flying drone planes that drop bombs on people, but I think it's important to remember exactly where the finger should be pointed. The guy flying the drone is, after all, doing a job that he is required to fulfill whether he wants to do so or not. So how evil do you have to be to tell that guy to do his job? Or, to sit back in your office thousands of miles away and calmly discuss the likelihood of "collateral damage" while someone else does your dirty work for you, and consequently spends the rest of their life dealing with the emotional and physical ramifications of that decision?
All of this reminds me of a livestock study I read in Vet school, where pigs were genetically engineered to be more muscular in order to maximize the proportion of lean meats to sell to the public. Problem is, it came with some very bizarre side-effects, including the propensity for heart attacks. Any loud noise, and 20 pigs would drop dead in an instant. Seriously, you couldn't yell at the pig. The project was dropped because it wasn't very cost-effective. I wonder what kind of crazy side effects this pill would have, and worse yet, will people really care? I mean, how many men and women were willing to tolerate "uncontrollable bowel movements" in order to try the latest diet pill? The "brave new world" aspect to all of this is really creeping me out.
There are so many good options for parental control software today that this kind of stuff is totally unnecessary. Then again, I guess that means that parents will actually have to buy it, and pay attention to what their kids are doing online.
Where are they going to store all that urine? I remember a study on pregnancy where they needed real urine, which apparently breaks down rather rapidly, so they kept it all in the fridge. It's a bit scary to think of NASA working out of a giant refrigerator of pee. And I feel sorry for the guy who got an advanced degree, got a job at NASA, and is now the pee handler.
As a grad student, I am concerned. When processes like these are automated, people like me are left without direction. How else am I going to fritter away my youth on work for which I'll get neither credit nor compensation?
Haven't these people read The Island of Dr. Moreau?
wow, I'm surprised California hasn't jumped in to do it first. Suddenly I feel so....environmentally unsound.
$300 million for a spacesuit? Seriously? You know the first person to try it on is going to tear a big hole in it. Do'h!
Haven't they had enough problems with this before? Seriously, there's one poor guy out there who's already spent most of the last year trying to keep vandals out of wikipedia pages for Clinton, Obama and McCain. (http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/nation/5808949.html) And weren't there more issues last year with everyone from major corporations to the Vatican rewriting their pages? Are they just going to employ an army of editors to make sure we're not getting false info? What's the use of information that no one can trust?
I'm not sure that the only graphic novel to win the Hugo Award could be made into a mass-marketed movie that could do it justice. Already Zack Snyder (director of the upcoming film) has to trim 4 1/2 hours of film down to a puny 2 at best. Can you really cover it all in that short period of time? And BTW - the entire Tales of the Black Freighter will be released separately on DVD by Warner Bros right after the film comes out. Get out your pocket books, people!
These commercials are funny, but unfortunate that they're misleading. They make it seem like no pc owner has every made movie on their machines, never uploaded a picture, or ever created a webpage. The commercials talk down to their consumers and make them look like they aren't even smart enough to question the lies they (mac) are filling their customers with. Case in point: two mouse buttons (pc) vs one (mac). I guess left and right were too complex an idea for mac users. I'm not saying that...Mac is by the mere fact that they are dumbing down the market and keeping themselves in a box whereas PC users/producers are always innovating.
"Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and 5 other Middle Eastern dictators share a summer beach house in Ft. Lauderdale. Can they survive the summer without blowing each other up? Find out this season on MTV's new series: "Confessions of a Mujahideen Surfer""
The whole controversy is actually quite over-emotionalized. Simply put, most people opposing stem cell research don't even realize what they are talking about. When the opposition hears the word "embryo" it is only natural to instantly picture a curled up little pre-human organism. But in reality, the stem cell scientists don't want this. They only want a cell mass called a blastocyst that is merely a few days old. Tell me earnestly, which would you cry over the most: the loss of your newborn child, or some microscopic cells? They are not the same and shouldn't be treated the same. Here's a great visual demo about what embryonic stem cells actually are: http://www.sumanasinc.com/webcontent/anisamples/st emcells.html
There will be two major effects of this phenomenon:
1. Minor candidates will get their message heard at relatively no cost.
2. Come election time, someone will spoof every podcast on the net, thus getting viraled far more than the big candidates, thus making it harder for everyone, big or small, to get their message out.
But overall, I think it's a great strategy. It really evens the playing field, and will make the candidates more personable.
I think free wireless is the wave of the future. I just hope it's sucure and Big Brother won't have his hands in it.
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