Old stuff... that piled up with time.
I've been too busy working on improving the Ragnarok Online server software I am a developer at... so that has chewed up my spare time for other things.. such as news. So my /. collection of interesting quotes has been running low as of late. But I still have plenty of stuff I saved there from months ago o.O'
Meh.. I need to clean that file, so let's see what do I have there...
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Not for real men! (Score:5, Funny)
by Chemisor (97276) on Friday May 06, @09:40PM (#12459269)
> Texting is better when I'm in a situation where I
> don't want others to know what I'm talking about.
Real men speak Klingon for this purpose.
> Texting is better when I need to tell someone
> something but I don't want to have to have a full
> conversation with them.
So call them, say it, and hang up. If it's important, they'll call back and use up their minutes.
> I love using Google text (46645) when I'm
> looking for something like a restaraunt
Real men aren't afraid of asking for directions.
> Texting saves minutes.
Sounds like you need to work on your words per minute. Some people speak very slowly at as little as 15 wpm. With a little practice you can work up to 175 wpm. Not only will that save you valuable minutes (although real men buy unlimited calling plans), but it works as an excellent device for winning arguments. Just imagine, being able to say ten words for each one your opponent utters! He'll never be able to come up with a counter argument before you completely devastate him with an astounding verbal barrage and move through seven topics before he gathers enough wits to reply to the first one. If he tries, just sneer and invoke the three-second rule.
Did I mention that women are really impressed by verbal prowess? Typing up these voluminous Slashdot comments is gonna pay off today!
[ Reply to This | Parent ]
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I was actually interested in that, as I am a person who is used to speaking way more than needed to get the point across. Altough I prefer to just type... when I speak I am not clear enough and I usually end up repeating myself 2/3 times before people even get a glimpse of what I meant to say. Typing is for me.. however I loathe texting. In general, I am pretty much against the cellular... not technophobia, but.. just annoyance. I should try to push my wpm meter... I used to do that back in my IRC days, type like frenzy non-stop... I think it actually improved my speed (not to mention accelerated my development of carpal tunnel), altough these days I don't speak alone anymore.. so I just type a sentence or two (more like a paragraph or two) and wait for a reply while doing something else. Ah.. I am just rambling nonsense now, aren't I? I suppose this ain't an interesting topic at all...
How about.... something different? Last month or so, there was an announcement that Ford and Microsoft would team up to make a car that does not crashes. There, I've said enough....
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David Hasselhoff, is that you? (Score:4, Funny)
by autophile (640621) on Tuesday May 03, @04:28PM (#12424566)
Michael Knight: KITT, get ready for Turbo Boost!
KITT: It sounds like you're trying to jump over a construction site. Would you like help?
Michael: Yes! Turbo Boost now!
KITT: There's a grammatical error in that --
Michael: You bastard!
*crash*
A few hours later, in the Knight Travelling Truck...
Michael: Bonnie, KITT has something wrong with him. When I asked him to Turbo Boost, he kept asking for confirmation, and then said that I talked funny.
Bonnie: No problem, let me look under the hood. (pulls vainly on hood) KITT, open up.
KITT: No, Bonnie, you are not authorized to look at my internals.
Bonnie: Devon, what is this crap?! What's going on?
Devon: Oh, we signed a contract with Microsoft for them to provide us with software updates. After all, the Knight Foundation can't afford as many programmers as Microsoft can.
Bonnie: But Devon, I'm the only programmer who ever worked on KITT!
Devon: But look, Bonnie, KITT can now play all these MP3's. Watch. KITT, play "Knight Rider TV Theme Song."
KITT: No, Devon. "Knight Rider TV Theme Song" is owned by Universal Studios. You do not have the right to play that song.
Devon: Bloody hell. KITT, play "Knight Rider 2010 Theme Song".
KITT: No, Devon. "Knight Rider 2010" sucked.
Devon: What cheek! You little wanker!
KITT: It sounds like you're trying to view pr0n. Would you like help?
Michael: See? See?
--Rob
[ Reply to This ]
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Re:And the winner is... (Score:5, Funny)
by Tackhead (54550) on Tuesday May 03, @02:37PM (#12422918)
> For best straight line ever seen on Slashdot:
>
>Microsoft is working with Ford Motor Co towards car that can't crash.
They also get infinite mileage.
In theory, it's like what happens when you take a cat, and strap a piece of toast to its back, buttered-side up. Wrap some wires and magnets around it and launch it into low-earth orbit. As long as there's carpet on the floor of the spacecraft, the cat will spin and generate power indefinitely. You can do this with less than six pounds of butter per year.
Don't try prototyping this. Just about everywhere from ten feet up and low earth orbit, you end up with something that works like the opposite of the Schrodinger's Cat experiment; the waveforms always end up pretty firmly collapsed.
Come to think of it, "Don't try prototyping this" applies just as well to the buttered-cat perpetual mostion experiment as well to the Microsoft car.
[ Reply to This | Parent ]
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I remember the first time I read about the self-impulsing infinite cat-energy source... I couldn't stop laughing. Now, a month afterwards... I just go "heh", jokes grow old quickly with me ^^'.
Dum dee dum... I have no idea where this piece came from... something most likely about guns... but the change of words is mildly amusing:
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Re:A step in the right direction... (Score:4, Funny)
by Jah-Wren Ryel (80510) on Tuesday May 03, @09:01AM (#12419028)
"I'm sorry but the gun was not invented for recreational use. It was invented as a weapon of war to maim and destroy people. You think the gun was created so people can have gun clubs and target practice? Oh dear god I hope not. The vast majority of the times a gun is used in the world is not for fun. Unless you consider killing and scaring people fun then yes its recreational."
I'm sorry but sex was not invented for recreational use. It was invented as a method of procreation to create more people. You think sex was created so people can have sex clubs and kinky orgies? Oh dear god I hope not. The vast majority of the times sex is used in the world is not for fun. Unless you consider making a woman fat for 9 months just to create a new person fun then yes sex is recreational.
[ Reply to This | Parent ]
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Ahem... nice comeback. It's true that guns have long since diverged paths... there are guns to kill, guns to defend yourself, guns to hunt. Personally... I don't like the idea of using a weapon that can accidentally end someone's life. I'd rather just learn other ways of self defense. Of course... fists don't stop bullets.... but when it comes down to it, if the enemy is already that armed, isn't it better to just surrender rather than risk dying in a shootout?
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Re:Uh... a bit severe, no? (Score:5, Insightful)
by Xyrus (755017) on Monday May 02, @08:59PM (#12415120)
Only in western societies (or "advanced") societies is teen sex known as a "bad thing".
Teen sex was quite the norm not all that long ago, mainly due to the fact that you'd be lucky to make it to 30 before you died.
Young marriage was quite common. You were considered an old maid if you weren't married by 20. So on and so forth.
The problem, as you put it, is the fact that our society is so puritanical about anything dealing with sex. Frank discussions about sex are still something very rare in this country.
Mix this with the media with the "sex sells" mentality and you've got a few million horny teenagers who think that scoring is the next best thing to having their own car for their rep.
If their parents don't talk to them, their TV will.
~X~
[ Reply to This | Parent ]
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And that's the whole truth. Make it seem forbidden, then extra propagandize it.. and you make it be such a big deal... when in reality, it shouldn't be. It shouldn't be any different than going skating or skiing or hiking... I mean, it shouldn't really hold "that big of a deal" as people place on it nowadays. We'd need lots of openminded people to bring back the view of "sex" to a normal thing, as it was always meant to be since centuries ago...
When people ask me where I wanna go study, or work abroad, I usually tell them that most places seem fine.. but I don't want to go to the USA. Many people don't get why.. there's many reasons... for one, the economical situation is NOT looking good there, their political stance and world-view ain't that shiny neither... in one of those news about "Intelligent Design" making it's inroads into the education system, someone hit it on the nail with a nice rant that mirrors my views and opinions:
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I'M AFRAID OF AMERICANS (Score:5, Insightful)
by caitsith01 (606117) on Monday May 02, @10:08AM (#12406795)
Excuse the capitalisation, but there are two parts of the world that have these sorts of problems.
1. Nutbag developing world theocracies: Iran, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia
2. The United States of America
I would say on recent form I would rather have my education system run by the average developing nation than the USA. At least the China-Japan textbook dispute, for example, is easily understood in terms of racial and historical tensions. They're not, for example, trying outlaw logic and reason.
Seriously guys. The joke's over. OVER. We're all getting very, very afraid of you. I'm starting to be a lot more comfortable with the notion that China and India may soon be superpowers. I'm actually *glad* Russia still has a massive arsenal of nukes: Putin may be a dictator-by-proxy, but AT LEAST HE'S NOT INSANE.
Since the end of the Clinton era:
- fundamentalists have begun winding back your education system to around the 700-800AD mark
- 'faith based' programs have become legitimate government policy
- it has become abundantly clear that the Whitehouse is controlled by a man who does not understand science but does fervently believe in a very particular type of capital-G God
- you have waged war on two moslem nations
- religious voters have become the dominant force in national US politics
- Americans have apparently accepted on faith the ridiculous argument that there is 'no evidence' of global warming
- America has closer ties to other religious-fundamentalist states (e.g. Israel, Saudi Arabia) than it's secular, liberal-democratic former allies in 'old europe'
Now all this would be fine, except that the religious nutcases that seem to have taken over your country are made incredibly powerful by... why yes, by SCIENCE. That logical, agnostic, provable, testable system we all know and love. Well, those of us outside the US know and love, anyway. SCIENCE has made you rich. SCIENCE has made you powerful. SCIENCE has, unfortunately, given you the weapons to destroy the entire world or precisely targetted bits thereof at the press of a button. Could stealth bombers fly from Missouri to any point on the globe and deliver laser guided bombs based on the teachings of Christ? Why, no - that would be SCIENCE we have to thank for that.
Let us take, as a comparison, Italy. A very religious country, by all accounts, rabid devotion to the Vatican, everyone in sight attending church regularly. Yet the Pope effectively outlaws contraception, but Italy's birth rate is startlingly low. Why? Perhaps Italians are so religious that they really do what they're told? Or perhaps Italians are religious but they understand the difference between faith and allegory on the one hand, and logic and reason on the other. They're not noted for their chaste ways, in any event, and I'm sure Durex and Ansell make hefty sales over there.
So how about we cut a deal? I'll even give you two choices.
1. You let your country go back to theocratic-totalitarianism, by all means. Hound down anyone who uses logic and reason to explain the world. Only, hand over everything that's been developed with science before you do so. Give up all those wonder drugs, all your DVD players that allow you to watch 'The Passion of the Christ', all your giant auditoriums with 100 metre high video screens where you go along to sing your Christian songs. We'll look after them in 'old europe' and the antipodes if you like, and you can burn each other at the stake until the cows come home (only the cows will probably be dead because you rely on science for farming these days).
2. You forget the dogmatic crap and listen to the parts of the bible that actually matter, such as *turn the other fucking cheek, *do unto others, *beams and motes, *the good samaritan, *the FUCKING MONEYLENDERS IN THE TEMPLE YOU STUPID FUCKS. FUUUUUUUUUUCKKK!!!!!!!!!
And if you're not a religious nutcase but you are in the U.S., don't fucking apologise. DO SOMETHING. You are to blame for letting these rabid fundamentalists take over. YOU have to stop them.
Ok, I'll now be modded into oblivion, but I feel slightly better.
####THIS POST BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE WONDERS OF SCIENCE####
[ Reply to This | Parent ]
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I am wondering where the USA will be after 10 years... once they lose their hold on "we are #1 in the world" (which they are working very hard at, it seems) they are definitely not coming back without some heavy changes. May it server to the world as sample that you can't just act as a moron when you are ahead and remain there (here the USA as a whole country, not as individuals, of course. I've known plenty of good people from there, but hey, they can't really DO anything to change their country's fate, I am afraid).
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Clowns and wax figures (Score:5, Insightful)
by Mr Guy (547690) on Monday May 02, @09:25AM (#12406248)
I think they'll find that it's not a matter of familiarity. It's a survival
reflex and it's pretty deep. Your brain flags "almost human" things as
grotesque and something to be avoided. It's why many people are afraid of
clowns and wax figures. They look almost human, but still look wrong.
People would be far more comfortable with Bender-like robots than with "I,
Robot" style robots because they don't try to be human, just humanoid. If it
looks sufficiently non-human to avoid triggering that reflex, they'll be
alright. Other than that it'd have to be completely perfect, like Data.
[ Reply to This | Parent ]
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Oie.. so is THAT the reason why so many are afraid of clowns? They are kinda creepy most of the time, I do admit that... psychology will really find the answer to why we act the way we do most of the time. I think that last sentence just didn't made sense, and also had no relation at all with the posted comment. Hmm... well, I blame my lack of writing in a while for that.
I am usually interested in a variety of controvertial (some shouldn't be) topics such as sex, homosexuality, pedophilia... and time travel (didn't see that coming, huh?). Apparently there's a lot of science theory that says that time travel should be possible. They speak of things like reaching the speed of light, or areas in space where the gravitional pull is so strong that not even light can escape. I've heard stuff that time can be distorted by travelling at very high speeds... and all I can say to that is "NONSENSE". When I read a thread on such topic last month, I was deeply delighted with some of the stuff said. Sometimes the most simple questions can bring very complex answers:
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zerg (Score:5, Insightful)
by Lord Omlette (124579) on Sunday May 01, @07:17PM (#12402064)
Even if someone time travelled into the past for a few seconds, wouldn't they wind up in the icy cold of space while the planet speeds along on its normal course around the sun?
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Indeed... whatever happens to space if you time-travel? Wasn't everything relative? Is there an absolute "x,y,z" coordinate irrelevant of where the planets are? If you time-warp, won't you keep your momentum from the earth's rotation, and be SO thrown out of orbit? And... have anyone ever thought about "how much time will time travelling take"? Now ain't that a warped question? Anyway.. some people think you will not move anywhere if you time warp, as if your inertia did not exist.... or actually, more like time-travelling was instant, so that...
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Re:zerg (Score:5, Informative)
by fprefect (14608) on Sunday May 01, @08:52PM (#12402816)
There are 2 things involved in 4-dimensional translocation:
-- Reaching the exact coordinates at the right instant, considering rotation and revolution of the planet, solar system, and galaxy.
-- Matching the velocity of that location (and timeframe) exactly.
It's not only useless to appear at the right instant in the right room if your body doesn't exactly match the inertial frame -- it would be fatal. Forgetting to account for just the earth's revolution around the sun would slam the traveller against the wall at 30km/sec.
[ Reply to This | Parent ]
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But you know.. my favourite theory behind time-travel still is... that time does not exists, and therefore you can't travel throught it :D
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Re:Hmmm.... (Score:5, Insightful)
by Mattintosh (758112) on Monday May 02, @01:08AM (#12404438)
Better yet... Time travel isn't possible because time doesn't exist.
We speak of "time" because it's convenient. It allows us to measure our lives and our activities against a single background. We keep track of "time" by observing the predictable patterns of celestial objects, as well as by setting mechanical devices to synchronize with those celestial movement cycles.
But what exactly is "time"? Time is a series of events. Nothing more. You can't undo things in real life. A broken vase can't be put back together just by reversing the event that caused it to break. Why? Because events are irreversible. You can cause a negating event for some things (like turning a light on or off), but you can never undo an event once it's done.
So, simply put, time doesn't exist. It's merely perception of a series of events. The fact that it's perception is made clear by the phrase "time flies when you're having fun." Your brain records images of events into your memory, sometimes with a record of celestial body locations or numeric representations thereof.
The more interested you are in what is happening around you, the more things your brain will record. But having limited processing resources, it will skip the "timestamp" on many of those events. The relative difference between each "timestamp" is much farther apart than is expected or normal, so "time flies."
When you're disinterested in events around you, the opposite is true. Your brain records some meaningless drivel and since it has lots of resources available, it slaps a "timestamp" on every one of those mental notes. Boring stuff seems to take much longer because of this.
Let's see the writers for the next Star Trek series (several years from now, I hear) put this tidbit of time-travel logic to work. It'll at least spare us some crappy re-hashes of Nazis in space (spaaaaaaaaaaaace?).
[ Reply to This | Parent ]
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So true.. it's what I've always believed. I know it looks like I am just saying "me too" by not arguing more.. but heck, what's there to argue? Most of the theory behind time-travel is astral stuff beyond me... the few I have understood is just not a proof of time travel. For example, if someone moves away from you at a very high speed, you will see them in slow-motion, as if time was slowed for them. Has time really been distorted? Nope,it's just that the light rays that we register are coming with a greater lapse of time inbetween because of the speed they are going away from us. is like that fancy logic that if you went really fast around the earth you could go back/forward in time. It's but an illusion....
Not to mention all sort of wacky things that would need explaining if time-travel where possible:
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Hmmm.... (Score:5, Interesting)
by carterhawk001 (681941) on Sunday May 01, @07:05PM (#12401919)
hmm...things to remember:
1. if a time travel came back in time and altered the past, no one would know but him/her.
2. it is impossible to prove that our recorded history now is the same as it was 1 second ago due to rule number 1.
3. You may be caught in a temporal causality loop, doomed forever to repeat the same period of time over and over.
4. If time is an expression of entropy, then the only way to travel through time is to prefectly reverse entropy, which is impossible because, iirc, entropy is chaotic.
5. If the universe is nonlinear, or rather, linear is an illusion, then there is no past or future to travel to, but only the present wich exists at any instant as a snapshot in the cascade towards greater entropy.
6. The universe is moving towards a state of pure heat, at which time entropy will cease, as all engery, which drives entropy, will have been used. if you intend to travel through time by altering the universe around you, then you can not go past this point, or ever return. if you time travel by using internal independent means, then you may travel past this point, but you would no longer have any external means of measuring the passage of time in the universe. To time travel through external means you must increase the general entropy of the universe such that all events happen faster outside your time machine. to travel through time internaly you must slow down your own entropy. in both instances you must phase away from the universe such that you do not exist in it, lest you collide with something going faster than you can percieve.
7 If time is a seperate dimension then you must find a way to travel in the direction that is forwards or backwards from where you are now. 4 dimensional travel occurs at a steady, measurable rate. As you approach the speed of light, this rate of passage decreases. Thus, it is logical to assume that by exceeding the speed of light in our universe of spacetime you would travel backwards in time.
8. You may be your own great great grandparent.
9. If you change your own past you can not go back to your own future to reap the benifits because the new future would have a new you to match it.
10. Journeyman Project is t3h roxors!!!!!
[ Reply to This ]
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An almost unrelated note here.. thermal death of the universe. I've head about heat dissipation of astral objects before, but.. this is energy that flows ou of bodies, as far as I know, it is not affected by gravitational fields. So... there's always a bunch of energy that is floating out of the universe... and never comes back? I never got a science/physics teacher to explain that to me. Maybe I should look for more knowledgeable people for an answer. Sometimes I think the bigbang is but a natural event to recycle energy. Perhaps, many zillion of years from now... all usable heat is wasted... the universe is pure entropy... and all that energy will slowly come back together.. as if gravity pulled it all together again.. until a super-densed mass is generated. Perhaps so much energy concentrated eventually leads to a big-bang and boom we are back at the beginning. ^^ Call me a wacko, but that's how I've always thought the big-bang would work... since noone else gives me a better explanation, I just go with my own :P~
Some more time-travel cookies for your thoughts:
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Re:Hmmm.... (Score:5, Interesting)
by DirtyDuck (540166) on Sunday May 01, @07:19PM (#12402086)
Nah, you've been watching too much startrek.
Assuming time travel is possible, it's impossible to alter the past.
Think of it this way, the way something happened, is the way it happened. If you travel back in time, then you're participating in events however, your paticipation would already have happened. Therefore, anything you've already done would already have happened.
Think of it this way. You couldn't go back in time and shoot Hilter before he got into power for the very simple reason that it didn't happen. Say you setup a sniper rifle on a building. You could try to fire but you'd either miss, the gun would jam, you'd get arrested, have a heart-attack etc. etc.
This isn't the universe trying to protect itself or any such mystical mumbo jumbo. It's just the simple fact that a thing didn't happen and your actions in trying to change the past are already part of history.
Probably didn't explain it very clearly. ;)
[ Reply to This | Parent ]
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Re:Hmmm.... (Score:5, Interesting)
by ravind (701403) on Sunday May 01, @07:38PM (#12402258)
Well if you think that it is impossible to change the past, then you have to conclude that it is impossible to change the future too because your future is somebody else's past. Which means the way your life turns out has already been determined and cannot be changed. How do you fit free will into that?
[ Reply to This | Parent ]
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Wee... if you can't change the past, you can't change the future! But wait... somebody THINKS that nothing can be changed...
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Re:Hmmm.... (Score:4, Insightful)
by servognome (738846) on Sunday May 01, @07:57PM (#12402416)
Everything you do and think is based on the electrochemical reactions in your brain. If we understood how all the wiring of the brain works, and understood all the inputs the output could be predicted. There is no freewill, just a reaction to a given series of inputs.
[ Reply to This | Parent ]
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I am always so... disoriented, when I read about people who believe we have no will, no control over our choices, how.. if we knew everything of our enviroment and had enough computational power, we'd be able to predict our every move. The thing is.. that's true. Never noticed how when someone knows you very well, they can pretty much accurately predict your behaviour under a certain situation? We can actually be very predictable even when our first priority is to be unpredictable. The thing is.. as we grow up and get influenced by others and the world... our personality is molded.. we adapt and make criterias of what is right, what is wrong, what is fun, what is not... what earns us the best results, what does not... we do but what anyone would do... pick the best choices given our current knowledge of the circumstances and the alternatives. But our "program" to choose is different from person to person because no two people had the same past experiences... and even if they did, the base of our wiring was born in the DNA of our parents, so it's already decided that different people will act different even when always put under the same enviroment. But is this such a bad thing? We have molded a personality under which criteria we always pick the choices that we believe will lead to the better conclusions (for some, in the short term, for others, in the long term). Even when we take self-destructive decisions such as suicide, we do them because we believe it'll be better for us in the long term than enduring the otherwise painful life that awaits. Yes... we can be predicted... but only if they know us in every sense of the word... because we just are the product of evolution. Like gravity.. why matter attracts each other? Because that's the only way it can be.
On a different topic... ya heard about all the scientific progress on the biological area, haven't ya? ya know, cloning, chimeras, and all the weird stuff? I wonder what kinda neat things will be discovered in the future... (four arms for typing on two keyboards? Tempting...), but there are those who believe it is against the will of *insert predilect deity here*... yet, it's amusing to hear: (these news are about scientists developing a human-like brain on sheep :O)
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I agree completely (Score:5, Insightful)
by mcc (14761) on Sunday May 01, @05:42PM (#12401104)
For fuck's sake. It's pretty much just agreed the world over that science will be constantly used to create new and horrible weapons that could kill increasingly large numbers of people in increasingly horrible ways, but that strangely enough it's expected will never be used. You tell someone about Russia restarting its nuclear weapons research program and people just shrug and go, meh, they do that.
But if it turns out science might be at some point to do something that, rather than being horrific and violent, is merely strange, people freak the fuck out. A bomb that can kill billions in a single moment is shrugged off as normal. But tell someone that someone might be growing sheep with human livers, and what's the response? Oh no! What a horrible perversion of nature! Why do we continue to let such horrible things happen! Never mind that this, you know, has the capacity to save lives or create useful technology on a huge scale. It's "unnatural!" Of course, so is fire and clothing and the internet. But for some reason those are okay and genetic engineering is not.
Mankind has the capacity to do strange and wonderful things, and instead of trying to find exactly where our capacities lie we're holding back everywhere just based on pure grossout factor.
If the reason we're holding back scientific progress is actually "ethics"-- people complaining about genetics and such keep using that word, I am not sure they know what it means-- I want to know why they're worrying so much about sheep in laboratory conditions with some slightly strange DNA in their brains and totally ignoring the relatively horrible conditions that totally normal sheep, chickens, etc are being bred and harvested in on a worldwide scale. The worldwide march of technology and progress has brought a lot of horrible things, but we shrug, decide we don't care, and eat our chicken mcnuggets anyway. So why freak out so much over these sheep? If the rediculously unlikely situation we turn out to have created sheep with thinking, feeling human brains, okay, give them legal rights and a social security card and move on with your lives. I assure you, this isn't worse than what happened to the contents of those chicken mcnuggets, just a little bit wierder.
[ Reply to This | Parent ]
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Re:I agree completely (Score:4, Interesting)
by Fwonkas (11539) on Sunday May 01, @09:30PM (#12403103)
Ok, maybe I'm in the minority here, but I don't eat chicken mcnuggets. ;)
That aside, while I see the validity and importance of most of your points, I think you're setting up a bit of a strawman argument here. Nuclear weapons programs are often implemented to ensure that other nations can't intimidate them with their nuclear arsenals. It's unpleasant, but at this time there are not many other options. I believe that's part of the reason for the so-called "Star Wars" program(s), as much as I question their usefulness.
More importantly, you question the ethics of the opposition to this research. You're brushing off their concerns by saying, "give them legal rights and a social security card". The concern is that when you start to muddy up the distinctions between human and animal, it's less clear what sort of things are ethical. One wouldn't remove a healthy human's heart without their consent. If a sheep is part or mostly human, is it ok to remove their heart for transplant? That is an ethical question. Once it becomes ok to remove a quasi-human sheep's heart, how far a leap is it to remove a human's heart?
That's totally disregarding the question of whether we're justified in doing these sorts of things to non-human animals capable of suffering anyway.
I agree with some of your sentiment overall, and I think this sort of research can benefit humanity tremendously, but I just wanted to point these things out. I think it's unfair to characterize objections as being due to just "grossout factor(s)".
[ Reply to This | Parent ]
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And when we find out that we are just another kind of animal with different brain-activity... will we get people going on compaigns against killing animals for food? Oh wait.. we already have that. But animals kill each other all the time... :/ Maybe someday we'll be able to produce pills that give us all the supplement we need without needing to sacrifice lives... but really, could you quit the taste of a good grilled meat, or roasted chicken?
On a different news... (my do I jump from one topic to another quickly?) There was a site which was a parody of walmart... yet it was taken down. Since when do parodies that look not to reapt, but to merely parody other sites can be taken down? The answer is also another reason why I don't like the States :P
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Ahhh, good old fair-use, remember the days? (Score:4, Insightful)
by garcia (6573) * on Thursday April 28, @10:34AM (#12371563)
"The goal was to make the site look like it could be a real site from a company like Wal-Mart, but have text that was so ridiculous that anyone who read it would realize that it was absurd," Papasian said in a statement on his revamped Web site. "If anyone believed it to be a real Wal-Mart site, that is only a testament to the degree of absurdity that exists within corporate America today." Due to all the retarded behavior that our fellow citizens exhibit on a daily basis I am never surprised when I see people falling for direct parody. I am also not surprised that corporations are allowed to shutdown *what was likely fair use*. Sadly, someday, we will all look back on this and say, "look how free we once were. It survived 400 hits before it was taken down. They didn't even have to approve the webpage before it was posted."
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Re:Ahhh, good old fair-use, remember the days? (Score:5, Funny)
by meringuoid (568297) on Thursday April 28, @10:50AM (#12371811)
Look, don't complain about the corporations. The King, who is appointed by divine right, grants the corporations land, and in exchange they provide him with fighting men in wartime. The corporations in turn grant land to executives, who (in theory) turn out to fight when called upon. In practice, the executives then rent out the land to poor tenant farmers, the serfs, who not only actually do the fighting in wartime but also work the land, paying a portion of their income to the landlord and the Church and keeping back enough to support themselves and their family in moderate means.
You see how the system works to everyone's benefit? Everything fits together tidily. It's called feuda^H^H^H^Hcapitalism, and it's a good thing, despite what Comrade Tyler and his gang of pinko subversives might have you believe.
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Jokes are a good way to tell out the cruel truth without making everyone sad/angst/etc AND protect yourself from anyone who would want you to stop you from making a point. But then again, if they can take down parodies....
You know we all love to hate Microsoft and their Special Windows OS (Broken Unlimited Edition), don't ya? You can't ever customize that OS to you liking... it's just NOT possible.... I always hated windows for that. But why not get a chuckle instead?
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Re:Train wreck indeed (Score:5, Funny)
by loconet (415875) on Tuesday April 26, @10:09PM (#12354413)
Because the Control Panel is tightly integrated into the OS and thus the icon cannot and MUST NOT be changed. You cannot change the icon colours without changing the way the calc.exe does addition, if you change calc.exe, Windows Explorer will change to a maroon colour which then will result in kernel32.dll not being found which is needed by notepad.exe and thus it will not start-up and if notepad doesn't start, Internet Explorer will need to work "Offline" and we know what happens when Internet Explorer is "Offline", you cannot login to MSN Messenger!
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Here's some more random stuff...
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Re:Jack of All Trades, Master of None (Score:5, Funny)
by vacuum_tuber (707626) * on Tuesday April 26, @10:12PM (#12354436)
"This has the makings of a train wreck."
"An unfortunate choice of words, considering what happened in Japan..."
You're right. Let's begin using more sensitive terms for such things and then we won't have to check the news every day for disasters before we open our thoughtless mouths.
"Train wreck" could be "rail transport guidance mishap (RTGM)"
"Plane crash" could be "aeronautic ground avoidance exception (AGAE)"
"Tsunami" could be "exceptional aquatic waveform event (EAWE)"
"Earthquake" could be "sudden geological tension release event (SGTRE)"
"Flood" could be "unexpected hydrological intrusion (UHI)"
"Fire" could be "unwanted thermological surge cause by excessively rapid oxdidation of ambient combustibles (UTSCBEROOAC or UTSCEROAC)"
"Atomic attack" coule be "aggressive chain reaction event unfortunately proximate to valuable life or property (ACREUPTVLOP or ACREUPVLP)"
"Heart attack" could be "biogenic oxidant supply chain problem resulting in catastrophic system pump failure (BOSCPRICSPF)"
"Vomit" could be "retrograde migration of partially processed biological fuel mixture (RMOPPBFM or RMPPBFM)"
By using the abbreviations we could all pretend that nothing ugly happens or exists. "Hey, be careful with that! You could have a BOSCPRICSPF!" "What the fuck did you call me, pissbrain?"
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The following are about AIM Messenger getting an update.. and hopefully TABS and TEXT LOGGING, it sounds like a miracle that they may finally get something decent for a chat client... ;P
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Pretty Interesting (Score:2, Insightful)
by endtwist (862499) on Tuesday April 26, @03:57PM (#12351230)
Pretty interesting stuff. Hopefully it wont suck like the latest AIM versions...
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Re:Pretty Interesting (Score:4, Funny)
by Rei (128717) on Tuesday April 26, @04:12PM (#12351374)
I'm looking forward to AIM being replaced with Triton. I feel that the distant reaches of our solar system are a good place to send anyone who wants to use AIM.
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An aol user was qouted as saying, (Score:4, Funny)
by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 26, @03:58PM (#12351233)
"OMG WTF?!?!?"
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The AOL AIM client is pretty bad.. but the image of the average aol'er is even worse :/
And for something totally out of the blue (as if all else wasn't too), some stuff about planes and black-boxes (take note that in /. the mantra is that all their readers are geeks who can't get laid to save their lives...)...
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Hmmmm... (Score:4, Funny)
by Seoulstriker (748895) on Tuesday April 26, @01:40PM (#12349802)
Except the blackbox on a jet won't (unless I'm woefully uninformed more than usual) tell what you were doing in your own seat when the plane went down.
Pleasuring yourself one last time before you die?
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Low expectations (Score:5, Funny)
by switcha (551514) on Tuesday April 26, @02:09PM (#12350165)
"Pleasuring yourself one last time before you die?"
C'mon, man. If the plane's going down, even a slahdork could probably find some girl on the plane who would be interested in a final go-round. Don't underestimate the power of impending death. It might be your best hope for losing your virginity.
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Re:Low expectations (Score:5, Funny)
by fossa (212602) on Tuesday April 26, @02:41PM (#12350509)
I tried to, but was shot down :(
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Re:Hmmmm... (Score:5, Funny)
by Locke2005 (849178) on Tuesday April 26, @02:16PM (#12350238)
His last words were "Oh God... I'm coming!"
The idea is to die young as late as possible. -- Ashley Montague
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Meh.. my time's up for tonight, I shall continue with this vastly boring entry tomorrow.
Why won't I ever speak of/for myself? Simple enough.. my life is so stable that speaking of anything would seem boring, so I just talk of random topics that have no real connection to my current life.. and /. was a great place to get random topics from.
Ah.. one last thing.. something I wanted to say in another entry but I wasn't allowed (*cough* she knows what I mean, and she also knows whom I mean *cough*). I often like condensing down my believes in small phrases that can be remembered... anyway.. since I have to go, I'll try to be quick..
- Once things come and go, once all has been said and done, once things are no longer what they once were... all which is left are memories. In the end that's all we earn from everything we do. So, I believe life is about building memories worthy of cherishing, enjoying, and learning from.
- There's a time to live, and a time to die... likewise, there's a time to be joyful, sad, depressed, excited, hyper, and all that. Life is not just the same without the balance of all the forces. One most not meddle into others and try to pull them out of their state if it is not time yet, it is only if they linger too long in any state that one should try to bring them back into balance. The one thing one IS allowed to do is to share in into someone else's state. Shared happiness is doubled, shared sadness is halved... but only if you really know how to share, attempting to understand someone when you really don't doesn't leads to any good results, so don't even try.
I know... it's what *you* said, between lines.. the whole knowledge is there, even if it was not directly said. But why do I have the need to say it all again? I don't know.. I always do this... maybe it's my way of saying "I understand". Acknowledgement... comprehension.. things I do all the time, I don't like sitting back idling during important times, even if it is my role to just sit in the background and merely watch.
Meh.. I need to clean that file, so let's see what do I have there...
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Not for real men! (Score:5, Funny)
by Chemisor (97276) on Friday May 06, @09:40PM (#12459269)
> Texting is better when I'm in a situation where I
> don't want others to know what I'm talking about.
Real men speak Klingon for this purpose.
> Texting is better when I need to tell someone
> something but I don't want to have to have a full
> conversation with them.
So call them, say it, and hang up. If it's important, they'll call back and use up their minutes.
> I love using Google text (46645) when I'm
> looking for something like a restaraunt
Real men aren't afraid of asking for directions.
> Texting saves minutes.
Sounds like you need to work on your words per minute. Some people speak very slowly at as little as 15 wpm. With a little practice you can work up to 175 wpm. Not only will that save you valuable minutes (although real men buy unlimited calling plans), but it works as an excellent device for winning arguments. Just imagine, being able to say ten words for each one your opponent utters! He'll never be able to come up with a counter argument before you completely devastate him with an astounding verbal barrage and move through seven topics before he gathers enough wits to reply to the first one. If he tries, just sneer and invoke the three-second rule.
Did I mention that women are really impressed by verbal prowess? Typing up these voluminous Slashdot comments is gonna pay off today!
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I was actually interested in that, as I am a person who is used to speaking way more than needed to get the point across. Altough I prefer to just type... when I speak I am not clear enough and I usually end up repeating myself 2/3 times before people even get a glimpse of what I meant to say. Typing is for me.. however I loathe texting. In general, I am pretty much against the cellular... not technophobia, but.. just annoyance. I should try to push my wpm meter... I used to do that back in my IRC days, type like frenzy non-stop... I think it actually improved my speed (not to mention accelerated my development of carpal tunnel), altough these days I don't speak alone anymore.. so I just type a sentence or two (more like a paragraph or two) and wait for a reply while doing something else. Ah.. I am just rambling nonsense now, aren't I? I suppose this ain't an interesting topic at all...
How about.... something different? Last month or so, there was an announcement that Ford and Microsoft would team up to make a car that does not crashes. There, I've said enough....
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David Hasselhoff, is that you? (Score:4, Funny)
by autophile (640621) on Tuesday May 03, @04:28PM (#12424566)
Michael Knight: KITT, get ready for Turbo Boost!
KITT: It sounds like you're trying to jump over a construction site. Would you like help?
Michael: Yes! Turbo Boost now!
KITT: There's a grammatical error in that --
Michael: You bastard!
*crash*
A few hours later, in the Knight Travelling Truck...
Michael: Bonnie, KITT has something wrong with him. When I asked him to Turbo Boost, he kept asking for confirmation, and then said that I talked funny.
Bonnie: No problem, let me look under the hood. (pulls vainly on hood) KITT, open up.
KITT: No, Bonnie, you are not authorized to look at my internals.
Bonnie: Devon, what is this crap?! What's going on?
Devon: Oh, we signed a contract with Microsoft for them to provide us with software updates. After all, the Knight Foundation can't afford as many programmers as Microsoft can.
Bonnie: But Devon, I'm the only programmer who ever worked on KITT!
Devon: But look, Bonnie, KITT can now play all these MP3's. Watch. KITT, play "Knight Rider TV Theme Song."
KITT: No, Devon. "Knight Rider TV Theme Song" is owned by Universal Studios. You do not have the right to play that song.
Devon: Bloody hell. KITT, play "Knight Rider 2010 Theme Song".
KITT: No, Devon. "Knight Rider 2010" sucked.
Devon: What cheek! You little wanker!
KITT: It sounds like you're trying to view pr0n. Would you like help?
Michael: See? See?
--Rob
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Re:And the winner is... (Score:5, Funny)
by Tackhead (54550) on Tuesday May 03, @02:37PM (#12422918)
> For best straight line ever seen on Slashdot:
>
>Microsoft is working with Ford Motor Co towards car that can't crash.
They also get infinite mileage.
In theory, it's like what happens when you take a cat, and strap a piece of toast to its back, buttered-side up. Wrap some wires and magnets around it and launch it into low-earth orbit. As long as there's carpet on the floor of the spacecraft, the cat will spin and generate power indefinitely. You can do this with less than six pounds of butter per year.
Don't try prototyping this. Just about everywhere from ten feet up and low earth orbit, you end up with something that works like the opposite of the Schrodinger's Cat experiment; the waveforms always end up pretty firmly collapsed.
Come to think of it, "Don't try prototyping this" applies just as well to the buttered-cat perpetual mostion experiment as well to the Microsoft car.
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I remember the first time I read about the self-impulsing infinite cat-energy source... I couldn't stop laughing. Now, a month afterwards... I just go "heh", jokes grow old quickly with me ^^'.
Dum dee dum... I have no idea where this piece came from... something most likely about guns... but the change of words is mildly amusing:
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Re:A step in the right direction... (Score:4, Funny)
by Jah-Wren Ryel (80510) on Tuesday May 03, @09:01AM (#12419028)
"I'm sorry but the gun was not invented for recreational use. It was invented as a weapon of war to maim and destroy people. You think the gun was created so people can have gun clubs and target practice? Oh dear god I hope not. The vast majority of the times a gun is used in the world is not for fun. Unless you consider killing and scaring people fun then yes its recreational."
I'm sorry but sex was not invented for recreational use. It was invented as a method of procreation to create more people. You think sex was created so people can have sex clubs and kinky orgies? Oh dear god I hope not. The vast majority of the times sex is used in the world is not for fun. Unless you consider making a woman fat for 9 months just to create a new person fun then yes sex is recreational.
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Ahem... nice comeback. It's true that guns have long since diverged paths... there are guns to kill, guns to defend yourself, guns to hunt. Personally... I don't like the idea of using a weapon that can accidentally end someone's life. I'd rather just learn other ways of self defense. Of course... fists don't stop bullets.... but when it comes down to it, if the enemy is already that armed, isn't it better to just surrender rather than risk dying in a shootout?
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Re:Uh... a bit severe, no? (Score:5, Insightful)
by Xyrus (755017) on Monday May 02, @08:59PM (#12415120)
Only in western societies (or "advanced") societies is teen sex known as a "bad thing".
Teen sex was quite the norm not all that long ago, mainly due to the fact that you'd be lucky to make it to 30 before you died.
Young marriage was quite common. You were considered an old maid if you weren't married by 20. So on and so forth.
The problem, as you put it, is the fact that our society is so puritanical about anything dealing with sex. Frank discussions about sex are still something very rare in this country.
Mix this with the media with the "sex sells" mentality and you've got a few million horny teenagers who think that scoring is the next best thing to having their own car for their rep.
If their parents don't talk to them, their TV will.
~X~
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And that's the whole truth. Make it seem forbidden, then extra propagandize it.. and you make it be such a big deal... when in reality, it shouldn't be. It shouldn't be any different than going skating or skiing or hiking... I mean, it shouldn't really hold "that big of a deal" as people place on it nowadays. We'd need lots of openminded people to bring back the view of "sex" to a normal thing, as it was always meant to be since centuries ago...
When people ask me where I wanna go study, or work abroad, I usually tell them that most places seem fine.. but I don't want to go to the USA. Many people don't get why.. there's many reasons... for one, the economical situation is NOT looking good there, their political stance and world-view ain't that shiny neither... in one of those news about "Intelligent Design" making it's inroads into the education system, someone hit it on the nail with a nice rant that mirrors my views and opinions:
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I'M AFRAID OF AMERICANS (Score:5, Insightful)
by caitsith01 (606117) on Monday May 02, @10:08AM (#12406795)
Excuse the capitalisation, but there are two parts of the world that have these sorts of problems.
1. Nutbag developing world theocracies: Iran, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia
2. The United States of America
I would say on recent form I would rather have my education system run by the average developing nation than the USA. At least the China-Japan textbook dispute, for example, is easily understood in terms of racial and historical tensions. They're not, for example, trying outlaw logic and reason.
Seriously guys. The joke's over. OVER. We're all getting very, very afraid of you. I'm starting to be a lot more comfortable with the notion that China and India may soon be superpowers. I'm actually *glad* Russia still has a massive arsenal of nukes: Putin may be a dictator-by-proxy, but AT LEAST HE'S NOT INSANE.
Since the end of the Clinton era:
- fundamentalists have begun winding back your education system to around the 700-800AD mark
- 'faith based' programs have become legitimate government policy
- it has become abundantly clear that the Whitehouse is controlled by a man who does not understand science but does fervently believe in a very particular type of capital-G God
- you have waged war on two moslem nations
- religious voters have become the dominant force in national US politics
- Americans have apparently accepted on faith the ridiculous argument that there is 'no evidence' of global warming
- America has closer ties to other religious-fundamentalist states (e.g. Israel, Saudi Arabia) than it's secular, liberal-democratic former allies in 'old europe'
Now all this would be fine, except that the religious nutcases that seem to have taken over your country are made incredibly powerful by... why yes, by SCIENCE. That logical, agnostic, provable, testable system we all know and love. Well, those of us outside the US know and love, anyway. SCIENCE has made you rich. SCIENCE has made you powerful. SCIENCE has, unfortunately, given you the weapons to destroy the entire world or precisely targetted bits thereof at the press of a button. Could stealth bombers fly from Missouri to any point on the globe and deliver laser guided bombs based on the teachings of Christ? Why, no - that would be SCIENCE we have to thank for that.
Let us take, as a comparison, Italy. A very religious country, by all accounts, rabid devotion to the Vatican, everyone in sight attending church regularly. Yet the Pope effectively outlaws contraception, but Italy's birth rate is startlingly low. Why? Perhaps Italians are so religious that they really do what they're told? Or perhaps Italians are religious but they understand the difference between faith and allegory on the one hand, and logic and reason on the other. They're not noted for their chaste ways, in any event, and I'm sure Durex and Ansell make hefty sales over there.
So how about we cut a deal? I'll even give you two choices.
1. You let your country go back to theocratic-totalitarianism, by all means. Hound down anyone who uses logic and reason to explain the world. Only, hand over everything that's been developed with science before you do so. Give up all those wonder drugs, all your DVD players that allow you to watch 'The Passion of the Christ', all your giant auditoriums with 100 metre high video screens where you go along to sing your Christian songs. We'll look after them in 'old europe' and the antipodes if you like, and you can burn each other at the stake until the cows come home (only the cows will probably be dead because you rely on science for farming these days).
2. You forget the dogmatic crap and listen to the parts of the bible that actually matter, such as *turn the other fucking cheek, *do unto others, *beams and motes, *the good samaritan, *the FUCKING MONEYLENDERS IN THE TEMPLE YOU STUPID FUCKS. FUUUUUUUUUUCKKK!!!!!!!!!
And if you're not a religious nutcase but you are in the U.S., don't fucking apologise. DO SOMETHING. You are to blame for letting these rabid fundamentalists take over. YOU have to stop them.
Ok, I'll now be modded into oblivion, but I feel slightly better.
####THIS POST BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE WONDERS OF SCIENCE####
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I am wondering where the USA will be after 10 years... once they lose their hold on "we are #1 in the world" (which they are working very hard at, it seems) they are definitely not coming back without some heavy changes. May it server to the world as sample that you can't just act as a moron when you are ahead and remain there (here the USA as a whole country, not as individuals, of course. I've known plenty of good people from there, but hey, they can't really DO anything to change their country's fate, I am afraid).
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Clowns and wax figures (Score:5, Insightful)
by Mr Guy (547690) on Monday May 02, @09:25AM (#12406248)
I think they'll find that it's not a matter of familiarity. It's a survival
reflex and it's pretty deep. Your brain flags "almost human" things as
grotesque and something to be avoided. It's why many people are afraid of
clowns and wax figures. They look almost human, but still look wrong.
People would be far more comfortable with Bender-like robots than with "I,
Robot" style robots because they don't try to be human, just humanoid. If it
looks sufficiently non-human to avoid triggering that reflex, they'll be
alright. Other than that it'd have to be completely perfect, like Data.
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Oie.. so is THAT the reason why so many are afraid of clowns? They are kinda creepy most of the time, I do admit that... psychology will really find the answer to why we act the way we do most of the time. I think that last sentence just didn't made sense, and also had no relation at all with the posted comment. Hmm... well, I blame my lack of writing in a while for that.
I am usually interested in a variety of controvertial (some shouldn't be) topics such as sex, homosexuality, pedophilia... and time travel (didn't see that coming, huh?). Apparently there's a lot of science theory that says that time travel should be possible. They speak of things like reaching the speed of light, or areas in space where the gravitional pull is so strong that not even light can escape. I've heard stuff that time can be distorted by travelling at very high speeds... and all I can say to that is "NONSENSE". When I read a thread on such topic last month, I was deeply delighted with some of the stuff said. Sometimes the most simple questions can bring very complex answers:
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zerg (Score:5, Insightful)
by Lord Omlette (124579) on Sunday May 01, @07:17PM (#12402064)
Even if someone time travelled into the past for a few seconds, wouldn't they wind up in the icy cold of space while the planet speeds along on its normal course around the sun?
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Indeed... whatever happens to space if you time-travel? Wasn't everything relative? Is there an absolute "x,y,z" coordinate irrelevant of where the planets are? If you time-warp, won't you keep your momentum from the earth's rotation, and be SO thrown out of orbit? And... have anyone ever thought about "how much time will time travelling take"? Now ain't that a warped question? Anyway.. some people think you will not move anywhere if you time warp, as if your inertia did not exist.... or actually, more like time-travelling was instant, so that...
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Re:zerg (Score:5, Informative)
by fprefect (14608) on Sunday May 01, @08:52PM (#12402816)
There are 2 things involved in 4-dimensional translocation:
-- Reaching the exact coordinates at the right instant, considering rotation and revolution of the planet, solar system, and galaxy.
-- Matching the velocity of that location (and timeframe) exactly.
It's not only useless to appear at the right instant in the right room if your body doesn't exactly match the inertial frame -- it would be fatal. Forgetting to account for just the earth's revolution around the sun would slam the traveller against the wall at 30km/sec.
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But you know.. my favourite theory behind time-travel still is... that time does not exists, and therefore you can't travel throught it :D
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Re:Hmmm.... (Score:5, Insightful)
by Mattintosh (758112) on Monday May 02, @01:08AM (#12404438)
Better yet... Time travel isn't possible because time doesn't exist.
We speak of "time" because it's convenient. It allows us to measure our lives and our activities against a single background. We keep track of "time" by observing the predictable patterns of celestial objects, as well as by setting mechanical devices to synchronize with those celestial movement cycles.
But what exactly is "time"? Time is a series of events. Nothing more. You can't undo things in real life. A broken vase can't be put back together just by reversing the event that caused it to break. Why? Because events are irreversible. You can cause a negating event for some things (like turning a light on or off), but you can never undo an event once it's done.
So, simply put, time doesn't exist. It's merely perception of a series of events. The fact that it's perception is made clear by the phrase "time flies when you're having fun." Your brain records images of events into your memory, sometimes with a record of celestial body locations or numeric representations thereof.
The more interested you are in what is happening around you, the more things your brain will record. But having limited processing resources, it will skip the "timestamp" on many of those events. The relative difference between each "timestamp" is much farther apart than is expected or normal, so "time flies."
When you're disinterested in events around you, the opposite is true. Your brain records some meaningless drivel and since it has lots of resources available, it slaps a "timestamp" on every one of those mental notes. Boring stuff seems to take much longer because of this.
Let's see the writers for the next Star Trek series (several years from now, I hear) put this tidbit of time-travel logic to work. It'll at least spare us some crappy re-hashes of Nazis in space (spaaaaaaaaaaaace?).
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So true.. it's what I've always believed. I know it looks like I am just saying "me too" by not arguing more.. but heck, what's there to argue? Most of the theory behind time-travel is astral stuff beyond me... the few I have understood is just not a proof of time travel. For example, if someone moves away from you at a very high speed, you will see them in slow-motion, as if time was slowed for them. Has time really been distorted? Nope,it's just that the light rays that we register are coming with a greater lapse of time inbetween because of the speed they are going away from us. is like that fancy logic that if you went really fast around the earth you could go back/forward in time. It's but an illusion....
Not to mention all sort of wacky things that would need explaining if time-travel where possible:
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Hmmm.... (Score:5, Interesting)
by carterhawk001 (681941) on Sunday May 01, @07:05PM (#12401919)
hmm...things to remember:
1. if a time travel came back in time and altered the past, no one would know but him/her.
2. it is impossible to prove that our recorded history now is the same as it was 1 second ago due to rule number 1.
3. You may be caught in a temporal causality loop, doomed forever to repeat the same period of time over and over.
4. If time is an expression of entropy, then the only way to travel through time is to prefectly reverse entropy, which is impossible because, iirc, entropy is chaotic.
5. If the universe is nonlinear, or rather, linear is an illusion, then there is no past or future to travel to, but only the present wich exists at any instant as a snapshot in the cascade towards greater entropy.
6. The universe is moving towards a state of pure heat, at which time entropy will cease, as all engery, which drives entropy, will have been used. if you intend to travel through time by altering the universe around you, then you can not go past this point, or ever return. if you time travel by using internal independent means, then you may travel past this point, but you would no longer have any external means of measuring the passage of time in the universe. To time travel through external means you must increase the general entropy of the universe such that all events happen faster outside your time machine. to travel through time internaly you must slow down your own entropy. in both instances you must phase away from the universe such that you do not exist in it, lest you collide with something going faster than you can percieve.
7 If time is a seperate dimension then you must find a way to travel in the direction that is forwards or backwards from where you are now. 4 dimensional travel occurs at a steady, measurable rate. As you approach the speed of light, this rate of passage decreases. Thus, it is logical to assume that by exceeding the speed of light in our universe of spacetime you would travel backwards in time.
8. You may be your own great great grandparent.
9. If you change your own past you can not go back to your own future to reap the benifits because the new future would have a new you to match it.
10. Journeyman Project is t3h roxors!!!!!
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An almost unrelated note here.. thermal death of the universe. I've head about heat dissipation of astral objects before, but.. this is energy that flows ou of bodies, as far as I know, it is not affected by gravitational fields. So... there's always a bunch of energy that is floating out of the universe... and never comes back? I never got a science/physics teacher to explain that to me. Maybe I should look for more knowledgeable people for an answer. Sometimes I think the bigbang is but a natural event to recycle energy. Perhaps, many zillion of years from now... all usable heat is wasted... the universe is pure entropy... and all that energy will slowly come back together.. as if gravity pulled it all together again.. until a super-densed mass is generated. Perhaps so much energy concentrated eventually leads to a big-bang and boom we are back at the beginning. ^^ Call me a wacko, but that's how I've always thought the big-bang would work... since noone else gives me a better explanation, I just go with my own :P~
Some more time-travel cookies for your thoughts:
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Re:Hmmm.... (Score:5, Interesting)
by DirtyDuck (540166) on Sunday May 01, @07:19PM (#12402086)
Nah, you've been watching too much startrek.
Assuming time travel is possible, it's impossible to alter the past.
Think of it this way, the way something happened, is the way it happened. If you travel back in time, then you're participating in events however, your paticipation would already have happened. Therefore, anything you've already done would already have happened.
Think of it this way. You couldn't go back in time and shoot Hilter before he got into power for the very simple reason that it didn't happen. Say you setup a sniper rifle on a building. You could try to fire but you'd either miss, the gun would jam, you'd get arrested, have a heart-attack etc. etc.
This isn't the universe trying to protect itself or any such mystical mumbo jumbo. It's just the simple fact that a thing didn't happen and your actions in trying to change the past are already part of history.
Probably didn't explain it very clearly. ;)
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Re:Hmmm.... (Score:5, Interesting)
by ravind (701403) on Sunday May 01, @07:38PM (#12402258)
Well if you think that it is impossible to change the past, then you have to conclude that it is impossible to change the future too because your future is somebody else's past. Which means the way your life turns out has already been determined and cannot be changed. How do you fit free will into that?
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Wee... if you can't change the past, you can't change the future! But wait... somebody THINKS that nothing can be changed...
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Re:Hmmm.... (Score:4, Insightful)
by servognome (738846) on Sunday May 01, @07:57PM (#12402416)
Everything you do and think is based on the electrochemical reactions in your brain. If we understood how all the wiring of the brain works, and understood all the inputs the output could be predicted. There is no freewill, just a reaction to a given series of inputs.
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I am always so... disoriented, when I read about people who believe we have no will, no control over our choices, how.. if we knew everything of our enviroment and had enough computational power, we'd be able to predict our every move. The thing is.. that's true. Never noticed how when someone knows you very well, they can pretty much accurately predict your behaviour under a certain situation? We can actually be very predictable even when our first priority is to be unpredictable. The thing is.. as we grow up and get influenced by others and the world... our personality is molded.. we adapt and make criterias of what is right, what is wrong, what is fun, what is not... what earns us the best results, what does not... we do but what anyone would do... pick the best choices given our current knowledge of the circumstances and the alternatives. But our "program" to choose is different from person to person because no two people had the same past experiences... and even if they did, the base of our wiring was born in the DNA of our parents, so it's already decided that different people will act different even when always put under the same enviroment. But is this such a bad thing? We have molded a personality under which criteria we always pick the choices that we believe will lead to the better conclusions (for some, in the short term, for others, in the long term). Even when we take self-destructive decisions such as suicide, we do them because we believe it'll be better for us in the long term than enduring the otherwise painful life that awaits. Yes... we can be predicted... but only if they know us in every sense of the word... because we just are the product of evolution. Like gravity.. why matter attracts each other? Because that's the only way it can be.
On a different topic... ya heard about all the scientific progress on the biological area, haven't ya? ya know, cloning, chimeras, and all the weird stuff? I wonder what kinda neat things will be discovered in the future... (four arms for typing on two keyboards? Tempting...), but there are those who believe it is against the will of *insert predilect deity here*... yet, it's amusing to hear: (these news are about scientists developing a human-like brain on sheep :O)
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I agree completely (Score:5, Insightful)
by mcc (14761) on Sunday May 01, @05:42PM (#12401104)
For fuck's sake. It's pretty much just agreed the world over that science will be constantly used to create new and horrible weapons that could kill increasingly large numbers of people in increasingly horrible ways, but that strangely enough it's expected will never be used. You tell someone about Russia restarting its nuclear weapons research program and people just shrug and go, meh, they do that.
But if it turns out science might be at some point to do something that, rather than being horrific and violent, is merely strange, people freak the fuck out. A bomb that can kill billions in a single moment is shrugged off as normal. But tell someone that someone might be growing sheep with human livers, and what's the response? Oh no! What a horrible perversion of nature! Why do we continue to let such horrible things happen! Never mind that this, you know, has the capacity to save lives or create useful technology on a huge scale. It's "unnatural!" Of course, so is fire and clothing and the internet. But for some reason those are okay and genetic engineering is not.
Mankind has the capacity to do strange and wonderful things, and instead of trying to find exactly where our capacities lie we're holding back everywhere just based on pure grossout factor.
If the reason we're holding back scientific progress is actually "ethics"-- people complaining about genetics and such keep using that word, I am not sure they know what it means-- I want to know why they're worrying so much about sheep in laboratory conditions with some slightly strange DNA in their brains and totally ignoring the relatively horrible conditions that totally normal sheep, chickens, etc are being bred and harvested in on a worldwide scale. The worldwide march of technology and progress has brought a lot of horrible things, but we shrug, decide we don't care, and eat our chicken mcnuggets anyway. So why freak out so much over these sheep? If the rediculously unlikely situation we turn out to have created sheep with thinking, feeling human brains, okay, give them legal rights and a social security card and move on with your lives. I assure you, this isn't worse than what happened to the contents of those chicken mcnuggets, just a little bit wierder.
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Re:I agree completely (Score:4, Interesting)
by Fwonkas (11539) on Sunday May 01, @09:30PM (#12403103)
Ok, maybe I'm in the minority here, but I don't eat chicken mcnuggets. ;)
That aside, while I see the validity and importance of most of your points, I think you're setting up a bit of a strawman argument here. Nuclear weapons programs are often implemented to ensure that other nations can't intimidate them with their nuclear arsenals. It's unpleasant, but at this time there are not many other options. I believe that's part of the reason for the so-called "Star Wars" program(s), as much as I question their usefulness.
More importantly, you question the ethics of the opposition to this research. You're brushing off their concerns by saying, "give them legal rights and a social security card". The concern is that when you start to muddy up the distinctions between human and animal, it's less clear what sort of things are ethical. One wouldn't remove a healthy human's heart without their consent. If a sheep is part or mostly human, is it ok to remove their heart for transplant? That is an ethical question. Once it becomes ok to remove a quasi-human sheep's heart, how far a leap is it to remove a human's heart?
That's totally disregarding the question of whether we're justified in doing these sorts of things to non-human animals capable of suffering anyway.
I agree with some of your sentiment overall, and I think this sort of research can benefit humanity tremendously, but I just wanted to point these things out. I think it's unfair to characterize objections as being due to just "grossout factor(s)".
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And when we find out that we are just another kind of animal with different brain-activity... will we get people going on compaigns against killing animals for food? Oh wait.. we already have that. But animals kill each other all the time... :/ Maybe someday we'll be able to produce pills that give us all the supplement we need without needing to sacrifice lives... but really, could you quit the taste of a good grilled meat, or roasted chicken?
On a different news... (my do I jump from one topic to another quickly?) There was a site which was a parody of walmart... yet it was taken down. Since when do parodies that look not to reapt, but to merely parody other sites can be taken down? The answer is also another reason why I don't like the States :P
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Ahhh, good old fair-use, remember the days? (Score:4, Insightful)
by garcia (6573) * on Thursday April 28, @10:34AM (#12371563)
"The goal was to make the site look like it could be a real site from a company like Wal-Mart, but have text that was so ridiculous that anyone who read it would realize that it was absurd," Papasian said in a statement on his revamped Web site. "If anyone believed it to be a real Wal-Mart site, that is only a testament to the degree of absurdity that exists within corporate America today." Due to all the retarded behavior that our fellow citizens exhibit on a daily basis I am never surprised when I see people falling for direct parody. I am also not surprised that corporations are allowed to shutdown *what was likely fair use*. Sadly, someday, we will all look back on this and say, "look how free we once were. It survived 400 hits before it was taken down. They didn't even have to approve the webpage before it was posted."
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Re:Ahhh, good old fair-use, remember the days? (Score:5, Funny)
by meringuoid (568297) on Thursday April 28, @10:50AM (#12371811)
Look, don't complain about the corporations. The King, who is appointed by divine right, grants the corporations land, and in exchange they provide him with fighting men in wartime. The corporations in turn grant land to executives, who (in theory) turn out to fight when called upon. In practice, the executives then rent out the land to poor tenant farmers, the serfs, who not only actually do the fighting in wartime but also work the land, paying a portion of their income to the landlord and the Church and keeping back enough to support themselves and their family in moderate means.
You see how the system works to everyone's benefit? Everything fits together tidily. It's called feuda^H^H^H^Hcapitalism, and it's a good thing, despite what Comrade Tyler and his gang of pinko subversives might have you believe.
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Jokes are a good way to tell out the cruel truth without making everyone sad/angst/etc AND protect yourself from anyone who would want you to stop you from making a point. But then again, if they can take down parodies....
You know we all love to hate Microsoft and their Special Windows OS (Broken Unlimited Edition), don't ya? You can't ever customize that OS to you liking... it's just NOT possible.... I always hated windows for that. But why not get a chuckle instead?
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Re:Train wreck indeed (Score:5, Funny)
by loconet (415875) on Tuesday April 26, @10:09PM (#12354413)
Because the Control Panel is tightly integrated into the OS and thus the icon cannot and MUST NOT be changed. You cannot change the icon colours without changing the way the calc.exe does addition, if you change calc.exe, Windows Explorer will change to a maroon colour which then will result in kernel32.dll not being found which is needed by notepad.exe and thus it will not start-up and if notepad doesn't start, Internet Explorer will need to work "Offline" and we know what happens when Internet Explorer is "Offline", you cannot login to MSN Messenger!
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Here's some more random stuff...
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Re:Jack of All Trades, Master of None (Score:5, Funny)
by vacuum_tuber (707626) * on Tuesday April 26, @10:12PM (#12354436)
"This has the makings of a train wreck."
"An unfortunate choice of words, considering what happened in Japan..."
You're right. Let's begin using more sensitive terms for such things and then we won't have to check the news every day for disasters before we open our thoughtless mouths.
"Train wreck" could be "rail transport guidance mishap (RTGM)"
"Plane crash" could be "aeronautic ground avoidance exception (AGAE)"
"Tsunami" could be "exceptional aquatic waveform event (EAWE)"
"Earthquake" could be "sudden geological tension release event (SGTRE)"
"Flood" could be "unexpected hydrological intrusion (UHI)"
"Fire" could be "unwanted thermological surge cause by excessively rapid oxdidation of ambient combustibles (UTSCBEROOAC or UTSCEROAC)"
"Atomic attack" coule be "aggressive chain reaction event unfortunately proximate to valuable life or property (ACREUPTVLOP or ACREUPVLP)"
"Heart attack" could be "biogenic oxidant supply chain problem resulting in catastrophic system pump failure (BOSCPRICSPF)"
"Vomit" could be "retrograde migration of partially processed biological fuel mixture (RMOPPBFM or RMPPBFM)"
By using the abbreviations we could all pretend that nothing ugly happens or exists. "Hey, be careful with that! You could have a BOSCPRICSPF!" "What the fuck did you call me, pissbrain?"
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The following are about AIM Messenger getting an update.. and hopefully TABS and TEXT LOGGING, it sounds like a miracle that they may finally get something decent for a chat client... ;P
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Pretty Interesting (Score:2, Insightful)
by endtwist (862499) on Tuesday April 26, @03:57PM (#12351230)
Pretty interesting stuff. Hopefully it wont suck like the latest AIM versions...
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Re:Pretty Interesting (Score:4, Funny)
by Rei (128717) on Tuesday April 26, @04:12PM (#12351374)
I'm looking forward to AIM being replaced with Triton. I feel that the distant reaches of our solar system are a good place to send anyone who wants to use AIM.
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An aol user was qouted as saying, (Score:4, Funny)
by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 26, @03:58PM (#12351233)
"OMG WTF?!?!?"
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The AOL AIM client is pretty bad.. but the image of the average aol'er is even worse :/
And for something totally out of the blue (as if all else wasn't too), some stuff about planes and black-boxes (take note that in /. the mantra is that all their readers are geeks who can't get laid to save their lives...)...
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Hmmmm... (Score:4, Funny)
by Seoulstriker (748895) on Tuesday April 26, @01:40PM (#12349802)
Except the blackbox on a jet won't (unless I'm woefully uninformed more than usual) tell what you were doing in your own seat when the plane went down.
Pleasuring yourself one last time before you die?
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Low expectations (Score:5, Funny)
by switcha (551514) on Tuesday April 26, @02:09PM (#12350165)
"Pleasuring yourself one last time before you die?"
C'mon, man. If the plane's going down, even a slahdork could probably find some girl on the plane who would be interested in a final go-round. Don't underestimate the power of impending death. It might be your best hope for losing your virginity.
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Re:Low expectations (Score:5, Funny)
by fossa (212602) on Tuesday April 26, @02:41PM (#12350509)
I tried to, but was shot down :(
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Re:Hmmmm... (Score:5, Funny)
by Locke2005 (849178) on Tuesday April 26, @02:16PM (#12350238)
His last words were "Oh God... I'm coming!"
The idea is to die young as late as possible. -- Ashley Montague
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Meh.. my time's up for tonight, I shall continue with this vastly boring entry tomorrow.
Why won't I ever speak of/for myself? Simple enough.. my life is so stable that speaking of anything would seem boring, so I just talk of random topics that have no real connection to my current life.. and /. was a great place to get random topics from.
Ah.. one last thing.. something I wanted to say in another entry but I wasn't allowed (*cough* she knows what I mean, and she also knows whom I mean *cough*). I often like condensing down my believes in small phrases that can be remembered... anyway.. since I have to go, I'll try to be quick..
- Once things come and go, once all has been said and done, once things are no longer what they once were... all which is left are memories. In the end that's all we earn from everything we do. So, I believe life is about building memories worthy of cherishing, enjoying, and learning from.
- There's a time to live, and a time to die... likewise, there's a time to be joyful, sad, depressed, excited, hyper, and all that. Life is not just the same without the balance of all the forces. One most not meddle into others and try to pull them out of their state if it is not time yet, it is only if they linger too long in any state that one should try to bring them back into balance. The one thing one IS allowed to do is to share in into someone else's state. Shared happiness is doubled, shared sadness is halved... but only if you really know how to share, attempting to understand someone when you really don't doesn't leads to any good results, so don't even try.
I know... it's what *you* said, between lines.. the whole knowledge is there, even if it was not directly said. But why do I have the need to say it all again? I don't know.. I always do this... maybe it's my way of saying "I understand". Acknowledgement... comprehension.. things I do all the time, I don't like sitting back idling during important times, even if it is my role to just sit in the background and merely watch.