So if you are concerned about a risks as low as 1 in 10,000, which btw, i think is much lower than that, then you think we should invest in much higher risk items that are more certain to kill lots of us off. Threats such as Global Warming (almost 1 in 1 risk), Major Pandemics from earth based diseases (possibly 1 in 10 to 1 in 100), declining fresh water, energy, overpopulation and many other threats that are much higher risk and likely to happen if we don't do anything about them.
It is fine to imagine threats that might come from a Mars rock but in practice you would need to postulate how such a threat would work. If you are using magical threats then unfortunately throw science out the window. But using science show how a microbe could not only survive but somehow be a threat to DNA it has not grown up around. Or if it is going to magically live off earth rocks or metals, then you need to show that Mars lacks the same rocks and metals, given that Mars is formed from the same raw material as the earth.
Yes, it might be something new but DNA has survived on earth for a few billion years so the odds of there being such a scenario seems a little low.
Almost zero. Mars rocks have been hitting earth for some time and in any case microbes have to evolve to infect humans, it is not something likely to happen for a mars microbe. In any case they will use the same quarantine process they used for the moon rocks and in that case the microbes would have had to have been very hardy to survive vacuum and solar radiation, yet they still quarantined them. So you can be sure the risk is close to zero.
On the other hand we have enough risks here on earth that we don't jump up and down enough about. Still, the power of the unknown risk freaks people out more.
> if before, it might explain the problems that they had in WWII and WWI
I am not French and so have no axe to grind but this is a pretty lame anti-french statement. What espionage issues did they have from WWI and WWII?
You know they won WWI don't you? and covered more of the front than the British and late arriving Americans.
In WWII the British and French were defending against the Germans and they BOTH lost initially, both winning later on. Espionage is not the reason they lost initially though knowing the German plans would have helped.
Ever since the French chose, correctly IMHO, to not enter the Gulf war there are these continual attacks on the French. I have no problem attacking the French personally, but these attacks are totally undeserved. It would be the equivalent of attacking the Americans for losing Vietnam, the ware of 1812 and failing to win the Korean war. Are the Americans "surrender monkeys" too?
If i remember that case i think the problem was that to prove it was a problem he dumped down a large number of account details. He was responding as would a technical person to a technical problem but forgetting that these were valuable account details. It is a little like working out how to open your safety deposit box without a key and then testing it by opening up every deposit box in the bank and wondering why they were upset since you were just proving to yourself that the technique worked.
So, agree that the company overreacted and were totally dumb in their response but i can understand their initial misguided kneejerk response.
How often do you think these are these hypothetical questions that someone posts on Slashdot so they can use the great ideas here to write a magazine article or book? There are quite a lot of good answers here...
The Victorian Era scientists struggled with this one as the assumption was that the different layer's were laid down by the flood and this did not match the facts, once they bothered to look. Read up on Strata Smith http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Smith_(geologist) who was able to identify the stratas based on the shells he found in it for exactly that reason. All this contributed to Darwin's discoveries. William Smith was an amazing individual.
Slashdot Mirror
So if you are concerned about a risks as low as 1 in 10,000, which btw, i think is much lower than that, then you think we should invest in much higher risk items that are more certain to kill lots of us off. Threats such as Global Warming (almost 1 in 1 risk), Major Pandemics from earth based diseases (possibly 1 in 10 to 1 in 100), declining fresh water, energy, overpopulation and many other threats that are much higher risk and likely to happen if we don't do anything about them.
It is fine to imagine threats that might come from a Mars rock but in practice you would need to postulate how such a threat would work. If you are using magical threats then unfortunately throw science out the window. But using science show how a microbe could not only survive but somehow be a threat to DNA it has not grown up around. Or if it is going to magically live off earth rocks or metals, then you need to show that Mars lacks the same rocks and metals, given that Mars is formed from the same raw material as the earth.
Yes, it might be something new but DNA has survived on earth for a few billion years so the odds of there being such a scenario seems a little low.
There is risk which is why they quarantine, but it is not something to lose much sleep over.
Almost zero. Mars rocks have been hitting earth for some time and in any case microbes have to evolve to infect humans, it is not something likely to happen for a mars microbe. In any case they will use the same quarantine process they used for the moon rocks and in that case the microbes would have had to have been very hardy to survive vacuum and solar radiation, yet they still quarantined them. So you can be sure the risk is close to zero.
On the other hand we have enough risks here on earth that we don't jump up and down enough about. Still, the power of the unknown risk freaks people out more.
> if before, it might explain the problems that they had in WWII and WWI
I am not French and so have no axe to grind but this is a pretty lame anti-french statement. What espionage issues did they have from WWI and WWII?
You know they won WWI don't you? and covered more of the front than the British and late arriving Americans.
In WWII the British and French were defending against the Germans and they BOTH lost initially, both winning later on. Espionage is not the reason they lost initially though knowing the German plans would have helped.
Ever since the French chose, correctly IMHO, to not enter the Gulf war there are these continual attacks on the French. I have no problem attacking the French personally, but these attacks are totally undeserved. It would be the equivalent of attacking the Americans for losing Vietnam, the ware of 1812 and failing to win the Korean war. Are the Americans "surrender monkeys" too?
In a quantum physics world that is not necessarily true. Either way there is naught but nonsense in the bible.
theory? you mean that there is not one universal truth?
If you think the money in Nigeria goes back to the local community then you are completely deluded.
Roger Bacon?
If i remember that case i think the problem was that to prove it was a problem he dumped down a large number of account details. He was responding as would a technical person to a technical problem but forgetting that these were valuable account details. It is a little like working out how to open your safety deposit box without a key and then testing it by opening up every deposit box in the bank and wondering why they were upset since you were just proving to yourself that the technique worked.
So, agree that the company overreacted and were totally dumb in their response but i can understand their initial misguided kneejerk response.
I don't love you.
I don't hate you.
But i dont think you are kind of nice...
Huh? Who cares...
(joke!)
You forgot to mention cowards who post anonymously.
> better stop reading that too (or financially support it lmao) ...
Yes. No need to burn it though it is often used as cigarette paper so perhaps yes to that too
you are a morman?
How often do you think these are these hypothetical questions that someone posts on Slashdot so they can use the great ideas here to write a magazine article or book? There are quite a lot of good answers here...
Just a (bad) joke. :) pax
As long as we don't have to look at Uranu....... (oops)
Winner of the Nobel Price is Right?
We live on planet #3 of 30,000 and i keep forgetting the names of the others.
We will see Ceres soon. Perhaps we won't think much of it after that... i would hardly think of Vesta as a planet.
Perhaps it was just that they had all these unused costumes and sets around so it was cheap to do.... just saying...
Agree. Most people leave (voluntary) because they are unhappy with their manager. A bad manager can cause a whole lot of damage
I loved Jurassic Bark. That was the best episode they ever did.
...and of course Al Gore never said he invented it. So why try to put words in his mouth.
If it heads for the earth then at least it will be convenient for mining :)
The Victorian Era scientists struggled with this one as the assumption was that the different layer's were laid down by the flood and this did not match the facts, once they bothered to look. Read up on Strata Smith http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Smith_(geologist) who was able to identify the stratas based on the shells he found in it for exactly that reason. All this contributed to Darwin's discoveries. William Smith was an amazing individual.