I agree. Another aspect is that one will never see Gamestop getting exclusive rights on truly mainstream big sellers such as Final Fantasy, GTA, Zelda, Mario, Halo etc. so why does it bring up such a furor that they have exclusive rights on games that will not be blockbusters?
I would like to know where you get your numbers...but at the same time you are vindicating the use of the vaccine by the numbers you are giving. Yeah, there are hundreds of serotypes of the human papilloma virus, and there are more than the four that cause cancer, but the fact that this vaccine covers the four serotypes that most commonly cause cervical cancer (90%) is a great boon to society. HPV is the most common STD. The serotypes that do not cause cancer can be treated and are usually no more problematic than cosmesis. There are 15 serotypes that cause cancer (HPV 16, 18, 31, 33, 35, 39, 45, 51, 52, 56, 58, 59, 68, 73, and 82). But just because the vaccine does not have the other 11 does not mean one should not vaccinate. Furthermore, cervical cancer is LINKED to HPV infection-there are women who get cervical cancer without HPV infection (there are rare reports of women, such as nuns, who get cervical cancer with no history of sexual contact and the HPV DNA probes are negative). So the argument "it only covers four and not the rest means no vaccination does not stand up." Fortunately, cervical cancer in the US is not a big killer because of preventitive medicine (pap smears) and it can be cured easily if caught early. HOWEVER, the greatest reason why this vaccine needs good US marketing is because of places like Africa, where cervical cancer is one of the biggest killers of women due to lack of adequate preventitive medicine. If the vaccine is not used in the US, many of the nations of Africa will think that it is not useful (the whole "if not good enough for the US not good enough for us prinicple"). The root of the argument in the US is religious fundamentalism-that the vaccine will promote promiscuity-that is a load of crap! What is going to happen when (and I am being hopeful by saying when not if) a cure and/or vaccine is found for HIV-will it never reach the market because it will promote promiscuity? Promiscuity cannot be controlled by anyone but the person who is promiscuous and the fact that things like HPV infection and the risk of cervical cancer and potentially fatal diseases such as HIV (a true misnomer because people do not die from HIV, they die from opportunistic infections due to waning immune system) have not curbed promiscuity, how is the lack of those diseases going to change that-in other words I think people will be no less promiscuous than they are now.
Most people do not know what Rett's is...
on
Mice Cured of Autism
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
While Rett's syndrome falls into the rubric of pervasive developmental disorders, it is not technically considered a form of autism, but in fact often mistaken for autism at time of diagnosis. This is because the victims develop normally for the first 12-24 months of life then have rapid loss of social and cognitive skills. Another point is that the overwhelming majority of the patients are female because it is felt the genetic defect is lethal in utero in males and those males that are born generally die in the first year of life. Additionally, unlike autism and Aspergers, Rett's has a definitive genetic link (note they say the the genetic defect _MAY_ be linked to classic autism). Therefore, it is not surprising that someone eventually found a treatment. The etiology of autism is less clear, more likely due to a combinatorial effect of genetics and environment, and is much less likely to be "cured." People in this forum need to get the facts straight before talking about WoW players,/.ers, etc because Rett's is a serious disease.
yeah, all Nintendo has to do is make "Return to Maniac Mansion" for the Wii...Wiimote, 3-D graphics, purple tentacles...wiill make it even harder to get a Wii...
I think the Wii AND the DS both have potential to revive this genre. The fusions-such as Zelda-an action adventure game simply do not catch the meaning of a true adventure game. I think the problem with the genre is that it is too cerebral for most players. The problem is that the Wiimote is a stand up throwin' controllers at the TV hit right now and adventure games, well, would require less action. Additionally, most true adventure games are very one-player oriented and the true purpose of the Wii is to be a family thing, of course this could be remediated, but it is harder for CS major Hal to play on level in a game like Myst with his 1st grade sister Sal...
First, I think we need to elaborate on certain aspects of hitting the wall. You need separate hitting the wall on simply beating the game versus hitting the wall trying to "do it all." I think (from personal experience on seeing the ending credits on at least 1000 games, including many titles people are dicussing in this forum) that it is rare to find a game that _truly_ frustrates people simply to play the game. Deadly Towers for the NES (which is on my beaten list) was truly frustrating...falling into pits, small weapons, etc. Ghosts and Goblins too was a pain to beat...going through the game once is a pain, but to beat it you must do it twice...
Then there is the do it all: "bosses" in Final Fantasy X? please! none of the bosses necessary to beat the game are difficult, but the leveling up and other garbage to beat the optional bosses or dodging all the lighting bolts to get the weapons is sick mad at causing a crash. But...RPG's were not designed to be whiz-bang action all the time!
I think another thing IMHO is that games have gotten EASIER since the days of the earlier systems because we have more control over our on screen identities. First, almost all games now allow players to save partway through the game which allows the player to walk away, that was not an option on Battletoads. Games are also less linear now as well: if you are having a hard time with one thing in GTA you can go waste time venting on some poor soul in another part of the city and then come back to try again at what was hard...no so in Castlevania. Then there is "cheating devices" I hate them! never-owned-never-used! I am sure that many would be responders to this message will give examples of hard games today, and I am sure you are right, but in general games are easier today, plain and simple.
At least the fire department is not burning the libraries...yet. And according to the paper, we are getting more chocolate ration this week than last week.
I totally disagree with the games being too complex just to sell strategy guides. I think it is laziness regarding the realm of "I found everything on my first pass through the game without a strategy guide and I did it in 5 hours." Yes games have gotten more complex, but so has the technology allowing them to do so. Part of the fun of the game is experimenting to find the right combination of events to get the desired effect. And there are plenty of older games that have complexities beyond the realm of "one pass find everything gaming." I think I played through Final Fantasy IV (as Final Fantasy II on the SNES) before I found a rare artifact (it was the Imp Call). And the "Pink Puff" of lore in Final Fantasy IV...there are no hints anywhere regarding this elusive creature, but they exist! Then there is Final Fantasy V...there are hidden weapons that are nearly impossible to find, but that does not mean that no one found them without a strategy guide, I know I found all of them without such aid. These are two examples of older games with nearly impossible to find on your own items. But that is part of the fun of the game! To look in every nook and cranny and to save often in different slots of the memory. I had close to twenty Final Fantasy X-2 slots to tweek the 100% completion on one play through...without a strategy guide. That was three months of well spent money on a great game. And like said in another comment, if you have to do the strategy guide thing, there is a whole host of websites dedicated to strategies and they are all free. In fact, places like gamefaqs are better than any strategy guide you can buy in a store. This alone makes the arguement a moot point. End of story.
It honestly does not matter where she got her PhD or that she has her PhD. They put that in there to keep us arguing about her credentials rather than the subject itself. Having a PhD in astrophysics does not mean you cannot do research in the mating habits of meerkats. By arguing her creditials you are only bolstering the reason she makes sure that she puts her credentials down. Read the literature critically and prove her wrong. Allow her own mistakes to discredit her. Pac Man violent? I do not even have to read the paper to realize the problems with that statement. If that is to be the watermark for violence, then the evening news should be Pay Per View like the Spice Channel. The problem with violent video games are not the makers of the games. It is the parents for failing to be good parents if they are putting the violent games in the hands of their children. And this is also a case by case situation. Some 11 year olds are mature enough to understand the fantasy of video games. The only people who can make that decision is the parents but it is apparent they do not want the burden of that responsibility. Even though there are politicians fighting to get violent games banned, the government actually supports violent video games. In fact President Bush supports them. He is commander in chief of the US military. The US military has worked with many video game companies in producing the military genre of video games in order to desensitize its target demographic to violence and death and killing. That demographic is the teenage male. When the army has a TV commercial showing a young male soldier operating a Predator drone as if he is playing a video game, young males think they can be paid to play video games, and they can! This is just an example of the dual nature of our government. Now that I have digressed, I have read the article. It speaks some truths about violence in video games, but I do not think it solves the problem and the problem is violent video games are getting into the hands of children because their parents are letting them have the games.
Finally, someone that agrees with me! I oppose the cruelty to plants. If you listen real close when people throw them into a boiling pot of water you can hear them scream. And those poor carrots, they are wailing as they are ripped from the soil. At least when a cow take a bullet to the head (or whatever they do now) it is an instantaneous death. The produce aisle is lined with thousands of starving dying leaves plucked from the good Earth forced to die a slow agonizing death. Imagine if we starved and suffocated our meat products in order to eat them. Processing of meat is humane. Processing of vegetables is inhumane. For all you vegetarians out there...may the screaming carrots haunt your dreams!
Your quite on the mark. Meat does have nuances to the flavor based on diet, exercise, etc. Those would be the "social" aspects of its upbringing. There are genetic factors as well, and I think the thing is more that they are looking to clone the perfect head of cattle rather than just the meat in a jar. With a standard diet intake and standardized exercise and standardized genetics, you could come close to producing the same piece of meat over and over again. IMO, I think wild game that has fed on what nature has intented it to feed on and survived based on evolutionary prinicples (another arguement for a different forum) has the best taste and is the best for us. The reason why cow farms use antibiotics is because anything living in such close proximity is prone to massive disease outbreak. The reason for Mad Cow is close proximity living conditions and feeding cows feed processed with bovine neural tissues (brain and spinal cord). I think the answer to safer better beef is not cloning or cow farms or meat in a test tube factories. It is harvesting wild animals. The problem is that this would be expensive and difficult. M
And so they don't find it unusual that the most sucessful primate in the world has more built-in flaws than a pre-alpha build of Windows. Hang on a second!!! Doesn't evolution select the MOST fit?
Yes, nature does seek the most fit, but unlike every other species of animal on the planet, we live beyond our typical reproductive lives. This longevity takes us into the realm of where genetic mutations causing cancer have their biggest effects and also the things you mentioned, such as heart disease.
The most likely liquid chemical they are suggesting as a liquid explosive would be methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) peroxide. It is an oily liquid that could be make by the peroxidation of MEK. How effective and pure the chemical product if made ON the plane, I am not sure, but I guess it would be possible. The highly unstable solid acetone peroxides are longtime favorites of home explosive makers. Nitroglycerin tablets (as in the things people take for chest pain) are stabilized and would probably make a poor candidate for on-board explosives making, as would making homemade nitroglycerin. Nitration is generally done by heating the glycerin or toluene with nitric acid and sulfuric acid. Adding the nitrate groups can take a long time, especially for aromatics like toluene (anyone who has had organic chemistry would know why). Even after the nitration, the products are still impure. The original labs where nitroglycerin was made had on legged stools so the technicians watching the production would not fall asleep and cause a major explosion in the facility (it unfortunately still happened on occasion). The problem with cesium is getting the pure metal that detonates with contact with air...and it has to be stored under inert liquid or gas whereas MEK can be bought at your local hardware store as can oxidizers to peroxidate the MEK and neither would need any special holding containers.
Hmmm. The answer lies in the software not the hardware. I think as long as Sony holds the title of being the system to get Metal Gear, Final Fantasy, and the Grand Theft Auto games, people will buy their system. Nintendo needs to do something with the launch of Wii that it did not do with the previous two systems: have a good batch of games at launch. Apparently that is so because Zelda is going to be released for Wii. I know I bought a gamecube simply to play Wind Waker (and it was worth every penny!) and I got to experience some other great Nintendo games as well including the Metroid Prime series. Now, with that in mind, a Wii with Zelda will still be far cheaper than simply buying a PS3. Many people like me are going to go for a Wii and save some cash. I predict, with Square-Enix making Final Fantasy III for DS and a new Mana for DS, that Final Fantasy ### may return to the realm of Nintendo if Nintendo can show that it is worthy. Now if Nintendo got over the fear of "adult" games and lobbied Rockstar to make GTA for the Wii (imagine actually swinging the baseball bat at your prey!) I think Nintendo could take back its rightful throne as top video game system in America. Oh, and another thing that Wii has is that you will be able to play a virtual library of congress of great games from Sega, Nintendo, and NeoGeo.
Poor Charles Darwin is rolling over in his grave. I believe the problem with evolution and creationism is that people who believe in latter feel that evolution denies the existence of God. Guess what, no where in Darwin's Origin of Species does he state that God does not exist. In fact Darwin educational background was Theology. Evolution does not confirm or deny the existence of God. I do not understand people's angst with believing that we evolved from "lesser" beings. As a scientist, I am worried about the attack on science in America. Has anyone read Carl Sagan's Cosmos? Remember the last time that science was attacked. It started the Dark Ages. And for all of you out there that deny evolution, there is an area of science that can show you that it exists: microbiology. Resistance of microbes to antibiotics is well known to people in America. How did this happen? The microbes EVOLVED, i.e. obtained the new ability, to resist certain antibiotics. Another example: why do we need a new flu shot every year? Because the viruses undergo genetic drift (or in some cases shift) making them slightly different than before, this, once again, is evolution. I could go on and on with insect resistance to pesticides, the vestigal remains of feet in snakes, and even humans: during certain stages of embryogenesis we have gills, a tail, flippers, etc. As I digress...none of this means that God does not exist! In fact if God exists then it was this being that CREATED EVOLUTION!
Taking precautions? If we really wanted to take precautions we would not be driving. More people will die this year in automobile accidents than in the entire history of commercial airline disasters. I am not saying we should not have scanners and the such at airports, nor am I saying we should not be vigilant, but we are giving the terrorists successful missions (even if they are foiled) by splaying it all over the media for the purpose of our own political leadership's agendas when if we educated ourselves that the materials to undertake a terrorist attack are everywhere we realize something. What is that something? That most people want to live in the middle road, not in the life of an extremist. Most people do not want to mix up a homemade bomb and kill themselves. The answer to terrorism is not giving them what they want. What is the want? Media coverage. Silence their message. Silence the terrorist. Another way to reduce terrorism: show them we are not scared. We do not need to bomb, kill, and maim like they do. All we need to do is come out of our bunkers and realize that we have a greater chance of being hit on the head with a meteorite than be killed by a terrorist...well maybe we should stay in our bunkers!
First of all, there is no such thing as eradicating all possible terrorism in any subject area. Flying? Even if they shipped everyone's luggage is separate planes, allowed no carry-ons, and made everyone wear paper clothes on the plane given to us on the tarmac, a terrorist or group of terrorists could still undertake a suicide bombing of a plane.
Second, look under your kitchen sink. All the chemicals (liquid or solid) one needs can be found there. Look in your garage. Ditto. Go to your local megahardware store. Ditto. Go to your local grocer. Ditto. Everyone everywhere has access to everything necessary to be a terrorist. Even if a terrorist mixes pool shock and aluminum foil and makes a whole bunch of noxious fumes over the Atlantic and does not succeed in blowing the plane up, they still have instilled fear and done their job.
The answer: live out your life because living in fear of tomorrow is worse than dying today.
Slashdot Mirror
Malaria is a protozoan not a virus.
I agree. Another aspect is that one will never see Gamestop getting exclusive rights on truly mainstream big sellers such as Final Fantasy, GTA, Zelda, Mario, Halo etc. so why does it bring up such a furor that they have exclusive rights on games that will not be blockbusters?
I would like to know where you get your numbers...but at the same time you are vindicating the use of the vaccine by the numbers you are giving. Yeah, there are hundreds of serotypes of the human papilloma virus, and there are more than the four that cause cancer, but the fact that this vaccine covers the four serotypes that most commonly cause cervical cancer (90%) is a great boon to society. HPV is the most common STD. The serotypes that do not cause cancer can be treated and are usually no more problematic than cosmesis. There are 15 serotypes that cause cancer (HPV 16, 18, 31, 33, 35, 39, 45, 51, 52, 56, 58, 59, 68, 73, and 82). But just because the vaccine does not have the other 11 does not mean one should not vaccinate. Furthermore, cervical cancer is LINKED to HPV infection-there are women who get cervical cancer without HPV infection (there are rare reports of women, such as nuns, who get cervical cancer with no history of sexual contact and the HPV DNA probes are negative). So the argument "it only covers four and not the rest means no vaccination does not stand up." Fortunately, cervical cancer in the US is not a big killer because of preventitive medicine (pap smears) and it can be cured easily if caught early. HOWEVER, the greatest reason why this vaccine needs good US marketing is because of places like Africa, where cervical cancer is one of the biggest killers of women due to lack of adequate preventitive medicine. If the vaccine is not used in the US, many of the nations of Africa will think that it is not useful (the whole "if not good enough for the US not good enough for us prinicple"). The root of the argument in the US is religious fundamentalism-that the vaccine will promote promiscuity-that is a load of crap! What is going to happen when (and I am being hopeful by saying when not if) a cure and/or vaccine is found for HIV-will it never reach the market because it will promote promiscuity? Promiscuity cannot be controlled by anyone but the person who is promiscuous and the fact that things like HPV infection and the risk of cervical cancer and potentially fatal diseases such as HIV (a true misnomer because people do not die from HIV, they die from opportunistic infections due to waning immune system) have not curbed promiscuity, how is the lack of those diseases going to change that-in other words I think people will be no less promiscuous than they are now.
While Rett's syndrome falls into the rubric of pervasive developmental disorders, it is not technically considered a form of autism, but in fact often mistaken for autism at time of diagnosis. This is because the victims develop normally for the first 12-24 months of life then have rapid loss of social and cognitive skills. Another point is that the overwhelming majority of the patients are female because it is felt the genetic defect is lethal in utero in males and those males that are born generally die in the first year of life. Additionally, unlike autism and Aspergers, Rett's has a definitive genetic link (note they say the the genetic defect _MAY_ be linked to classic autism). Therefore, it is not surprising that someone eventually found a treatment. The etiology of autism is less clear, more likely due to a combinatorial effect of genetics and environment, and is much less likely to be "cured." People in this forum need to get the facts straight before talking about WoW players, /.ers, etc because Rett's is a serious disease.
yeah, all Nintendo has to do is make "Return to Maniac Mansion" for the Wii...Wiimote, 3-D graphics, purple tentacles...wiill make it even harder to get a Wii... I think the Wii AND the DS both have potential to revive this genre. The fusions-such as Zelda-an action adventure game simply do not catch the meaning of a true adventure game. I think the problem with the genre is that it is too cerebral for most players. The problem is that the Wiimote is a stand up throwin' controllers at the TV hit right now and adventure games, well, would require less action. Additionally, most true adventure games are very one-player oriented and the true purpose of the Wii is to be a family thing, of course this could be remediated, but it is harder for CS major Hal to play on level in a game like Myst with his 1st grade sister Sal...
First, I think we need to elaborate on certain aspects of hitting the wall. You need separate hitting the wall on simply beating the game versus hitting the wall trying to "do it all." I think (from personal experience on seeing the ending credits on at least 1000 games, including many titles people are dicussing in this forum) that it is rare to find a game that _truly_ frustrates people simply to play the game. Deadly Towers for the NES (which is on my beaten list) was truly frustrating...falling into pits, small weapons, etc. Ghosts and Goblins too was a pain to beat...going through the game once is a pain, but to beat it you must do it twice...
Then there is the do it all: "bosses" in Final Fantasy X? please! none of the bosses necessary to beat the game are difficult, but the leveling up and other garbage to beat the optional bosses or dodging all the lighting bolts to get the weapons is sick mad at causing a crash. But...RPG's were not designed to be whiz-bang action all the time!
I think another thing IMHO is that games have gotten EASIER since the days of the earlier systems because we have more control over our on screen identities. First, almost all games now allow players to save partway through the game which allows the player to walk away, that was not an option on Battletoads. Games are also less linear now as well: if you are having a hard time with one thing in GTA you can go waste time venting on some poor soul in another part of the city and then come back to try again at what was hard...no so in Castlevania. Then there is "cheating devices" I hate them! never-owned-never-used! I am sure that many would be responders to this message will give examples of hard games today, and I am sure you are right, but in general games are easier today, plain and simple.
At least the fire department is not burning the libraries...yet.
And according to the paper, we are getting more chocolate ration this week than last week.
I totally disagree with the games being too complex just to sell strategy guides. I think it is laziness regarding the realm of "I found everything on my first pass through the game without a strategy guide and I did it in 5 hours." Yes games have gotten more complex, but so has the technology allowing them to do so. Part of the fun of the game is experimenting to find the right combination of events to get the desired effect. And there are plenty of older games that have complexities beyond the realm of "one pass find everything gaming." I think I played through Final Fantasy IV (as Final Fantasy II on the SNES) before I found a rare artifact (it was the Imp Call). And the "Pink Puff" of lore in Final Fantasy IV...there are no hints anywhere regarding this elusive creature, but they exist! Then there is Final Fantasy V...there are hidden weapons that are nearly impossible to find, but that does not mean that no one found them without a strategy guide, I know I found all of them without such aid. These are two examples of older games with nearly impossible to find on your own items. But that is part of the fun of the game! To look in every nook and cranny and to save often in different slots of the memory. I had close to twenty Final Fantasy X-2 slots to tweek the 100% completion on one play through...without a strategy guide. That was three months of well spent money on a great game. And like said in another comment, if you have to do the strategy guide thing, there is a whole host of websites dedicated to strategies and they are all free. In fact, places like gamefaqs are better than any strategy guide you can buy in a store. This alone makes the arguement a moot point. End of story.
It honestly does not matter where she got her PhD or that she has her PhD. They put that in there to keep us arguing about her credentials rather than the subject itself. Having a PhD in astrophysics does not mean you cannot do research in the mating habits of meerkats. By arguing her creditials you are only bolstering the reason she makes sure that she puts her credentials down. Read the literature critically and prove her wrong. Allow her own mistakes to discredit her. Pac Man violent? I do not even have to read the paper to realize the problems with that statement. If that is to be the watermark for violence, then the evening news should be Pay Per View like the Spice Channel. The problem with violent video games are not the makers of the games. It is the parents for failing to be good parents if they are putting the violent games in the hands of their children. And this is also a case by case situation. Some 11 year olds are mature enough to understand the fantasy of video games. The only people who can make that decision is the parents but it is apparent they do not want the burden of that responsibility. Even though there are politicians fighting to get violent games banned, the government actually supports violent video games. In fact President Bush supports them. He is commander in chief of the US military. The US military has worked with many video game companies in producing the military genre of video games in order to desensitize its target demographic to violence and death and killing. That demographic is the teenage male. When the army has a TV commercial showing a young male soldier operating a Predator drone as if he is playing a video game, young males think they can be paid to play video games, and they can! This is just an example of the dual nature of our government. Now that I have digressed, I have read the article. It speaks some truths about violence in video games, but I do not think it solves the problem and the problem is violent video games are getting into the hands of children because their parents are letting them have the games.
Finally, someone that agrees with me! I oppose the cruelty to plants. If you listen real close when people throw them into a boiling pot of water you can hear them scream. And those poor carrots, they are wailing as they are ripped from the soil. At least when a cow take a bullet to the head (or whatever they do now) it is an instantaneous death. The produce aisle is lined with thousands of starving dying leaves plucked from the good Earth forced to die a slow agonizing death. Imagine if we starved and suffocated our meat products in order to eat them. Processing of meat is humane. Processing of vegetables is inhumane. For all you vegetarians out there...may the screaming carrots haunt your dreams!
Your quite on the mark. Meat does have nuances to the flavor based on diet, exercise, etc. Those would be the "social" aspects of its upbringing. There are genetic factors as well, and I think the thing is more that they are looking to clone the perfect head of cattle rather than just the meat in a jar. With a standard diet intake and standardized exercise and standardized genetics, you could come close to producing the same piece of meat over and over again. IMO, I think wild game that has fed on what nature has intented it to feed on and survived based on evolutionary prinicples (another arguement for a different forum) has the best taste and is the best for us. The reason why cow farms use antibiotics is because anything living in such close proximity is prone to massive disease outbreak. The reason for Mad Cow is close proximity living conditions and feeding cows feed processed with bovine neural tissues (brain and spinal cord). I think the answer to safer better beef is not cloning or cow farms or meat in a test tube factories. It is harvesting wild animals. The problem is that this would be expensive and difficult. M
And so they don't find it unusual that the most sucessful primate in the world has more built-in flaws than a pre-alpha build of Windows. Hang on a second!!! Doesn't evolution select the MOST fit? Yes, nature does seek the most fit, but unlike every other species of animal on the planet, we live beyond our typical reproductive lives. This longevity takes us into the realm of where genetic mutations causing cancer have their biggest effects and also the things you mentioned, such as heart disease.
The most likely liquid chemical they are suggesting as a liquid explosive would be methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) peroxide. It is an oily liquid that could be make by the peroxidation of MEK. How effective and pure the chemical product if made ON the plane, I am not sure, but I guess it would be possible. The highly unstable solid acetone peroxides are longtime favorites of home explosive makers. Nitroglycerin tablets (as in the things people take for chest pain) are stabilized and would probably make a poor candidate for on-board explosives making, as would making homemade nitroglycerin. Nitration is generally done by heating the glycerin or toluene with nitric acid and sulfuric acid. Adding the nitrate groups can take a long time, especially for aromatics like toluene (anyone who has had organic chemistry would know why). Even after the nitration, the products are still impure. The original labs where nitroglycerin was made had on legged stools so the technicians watching the production would not fall asleep and cause a major explosion in the facility (it unfortunately still happened on occasion). The problem with cesium is getting the pure metal that detonates with contact with air...and it has to be stored under inert liquid or gas whereas MEK can be bought at your local hardware store as can oxidizers to peroxidate the MEK and neither would need any special holding containers.
Hmmm. The answer lies in the software not the hardware. I think as long as Sony holds the title of being the system to get Metal Gear, Final Fantasy, and the Grand Theft Auto games, people will buy their system. Nintendo needs to do something with the launch of Wii that it did not do with the previous two systems: have a good batch of games at launch. Apparently that is so because Zelda is going to be released for Wii. I know I bought a gamecube simply to play Wind Waker (and it was worth every penny!) and I got to experience some other great Nintendo games as well including the Metroid Prime series. Now, with that in mind, a Wii with Zelda will still be far cheaper than simply buying a PS3. Many people like me are going to go for a Wii and save some cash. I predict, with Square-Enix making Final Fantasy III for DS and a new Mana for DS, that Final Fantasy ### may return to the realm of Nintendo if Nintendo can show that it is worthy. Now if Nintendo got over the fear of "adult" games and lobbied Rockstar to make GTA for the Wii (imagine actually swinging the baseball bat at your prey!) I think Nintendo could take back its rightful throne as top video game system in America. Oh, and another thing that Wii has is that you will be able to play a virtual library of congress of great games from Sega, Nintendo, and NeoGeo.
Poor Charles Darwin is rolling over in his grave. I believe the problem with evolution and creationism is that people who believe in latter feel that evolution denies the existence of God. Guess what, no where in Darwin's Origin of Species does he state that God does not exist. In fact Darwin educational background was Theology. Evolution does not confirm or deny the existence of God. I do not understand people's angst with believing that we evolved from "lesser" beings. As a scientist, I am worried about the attack on science in America. Has anyone read Carl Sagan's Cosmos? Remember the last time that science was attacked. It started the Dark Ages. And for all of you out there that deny evolution, there is an area of science that can show you that it exists: microbiology. Resistance of microbes to antibiotics is well known to people in America. How did this happen? The microbes EVOLVED, i.e. obtained the new ability, to resist certain antibiotics. Another example: why do we need a new flu shot every year? Because the viruses undergo genetic drift (or in some cases shift) making them slightly different than before, this, once again, is evolution. I could go on and on with insect resistance to pesticides, the vestigal remains of feet in snakes, and even humans: during certain stages of embryogenesis we have gills, a tail, flippers, etc. As I digress...none of this means that God does not exist! In fact if God exists then it was this being that CREATED EVOLUTION!
Taking precautions? If we really wanted to take precautions we would not be driving. More people will die this year in automobile accidents than in the entire history of commercial airline disasters. I am not saying we should not have scanners and the such at airports, nor am I saying we should not be vigilant, but we are giving the terrorists successful missions (even if they are foiled) by splaying it all over the media for the purpose of our own political leadership's agendas when if we educated ourselves that the materials to undertake a terrorist attack are everywhere we realize something. What is that something? That most people want to live in the middle road, not in the life of an extremist. Most people do not want to mix up a homemade bomb and kill themselves. The answer to terrorism is not giving them what they want. What is the want? Media coverage. Silence their message. Silence the terrorist. Another way to reduce terrorism: show them we are not scared. We do not need to bomb, kill, and maim like they do. All we need to do is come out of our bunkers and realize that we have a greater chance of being hit on the head with a meteorite than be killed by a terrorist...well maybe we should stay in our bunkers!
First of all, there is no such thing as eradicating all possible terrorism in any subject area. Flying? Even if they shipped everyone's luggage is separate planes, allowed no carry-ons, and made everyone wear paper clothes on the plane given to us on the tarmac, a terrorist or group of terrorists could still undertake a suicide bombing of a plane. Second, look under your kitchen sink. All the chemicals (liquid or solid) one needs can be found there. Look in your garage. Ditto. Go to your local megahardware store. Ditto. Go to your local grocer. Ditto. Everyone everywhere has access to everything necessary to be a terrorist. Even if a terrorist mixes pool shock and aluminum foil and makes a whole bunch of noxious fumes over the Atlantic and does not succeed in blowing the plane up, they still have instilled fear and done their job. The answer: live out your life because living in fear of tomorrow is worse than dying today.