Steph

i would think nothing really special (aside from the distance you travelled and the fact that you would be very very lonely) happens.

I want to state that China grew technologically faster than any other place in the world. the things that made the difference in the 1700s when the western caught up and passed asia, was the discovery of the new world and the will to conquer lands. this simply gave Europe a huge boost in wealth enabling them to conquer more lands, etc.

The chinese model worked for nearly (or more... always forget the dates) 2000 years before a slight (and not that long if you think about it) setback in the 1700s.

^^ I lol'd' date=' thats classic.

 

 

 

 

Whatever happened to the economical idea of using a sock? Somebody get Jeffrey Sachs on the phone![/quote']

 

Socks cost more than condoms

 

My only question is' date=' if one of the criteria now for a planet is that the object must have "cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit," then does this mean that Neptune technically isn't a planet because it hasn't cleared Pluto, which crosses its orbit? [/quote']

 

I have the same question... but maybe its if there are two objects, you take the larger one?

 

also... is the moon considered a dwarf planet? if Ceres is...

But then again' date=' a chicken is generally regarded as being the domesticated variation of the Red Jungle Fowl, which is [i']not[/i] called a chicken (though most people probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference). That domestication thing quickens and sort of clarifies the issue in my mind.

In that particular case... wouldn't it depend whether or not the first chicken farmer abducted a fowl, or simply stole eggs that he kept for himself?

Gnerally when someone contacts the newspaper first, instead of the CDC, you know they haven't found anything interesting.

Or they just don't know how to contact the CDC (or even what the CDC is?). I think that in a population, most people, when confronted to something weird will call the newspapers first.

about the title quote... wasn't it originally used for a moose? (well the first time i heard it was in a documentary about the moose invasion of PEI).

Uhm... if we have a cure for something, why is it a problem if more people have it. there may be some economical repercussion, but in the case of glasses at least, those are good. our quality of life is WAY better than it was 50000 years ago.

Personally I rather enjoy them' date=' The Future is Wild, Alien Planet, the dragon thingy, but for the same sorta reason someone would watch "Snakes on a Plane!!!" just watch for simple sci-fi fun.

 

The only thing that irritates me is that everytime they suggest the program is real theoretical science rather than just for fun. Most educated folks certainly are not going to take it seriously, but they should do a bit better at making it clear that the whole thing is nothign but wildly speculative, generally innaccurate [i']entertainment[/i] for the lamens.

I also enjoy them... They are actually well done. at least well done enough that someone made the mistake! and they have nice visuals (I really like the giant weird ocean going thing in alien planet).

"constantly stare at you, as if watching and judging you, just waiting for you to fail."

And that's why we like them. we can take the heat!

"What I can't stand are people who say that we only dream in black and white. That's such bullshit. I get a whole lot of colour in my dreams."

 

I only dream in black and white...

I wonder what that means about me. Probably that I secretly want to be a woman.

I've been reading some Freud recently

really? wow... I actually never read anything Freud said... but i'll have too...

dreams are cool... especially when you have lucid ones!

about the blind dreams. I just have a question, is there a hierarchy. because normally, sight and hearing are the main things we have in dreams, with the rest being nearly irrelevent. so would blind people usually have, i guess hearing and touch dreams? does anyone know someone who's been blind from birth to ask them?

 

And if you think God is not a dangerous idea' date=' I suggest you tally the dead who fought for him in his vast pantheon. If you think God is not a dangerous idea, I suggest you go meet the terrorists who are securing nuclear weapons and other WMDs for use against the enemys of Allah.

 

I also think I have spent more then enough time on this. [/quote']

 

You can't really tally deaths in wars like this. The Crusades were not religious expeditions. God was merely an excuse. really, if christianity didn't exist, such adventures would still have happened. Actually the Viking invasions bear resemblance to the Crusades up to a point. The 4th (i think) crusade did not even leave europe as the crusaders pillages villages on their own lands.

 

Then if you count the deads... shouldn't you also count the hospitals and scientific discoveries?

Humans are an evolutionary dead-end and are meant to get more stupid and go to extinction. It is AI robotics that will have the ability' date=' if built properly, to replace humans are explore the universe and beyond.

 

The only humans that may have a chance of joining the super-robots, even integrating with them, are us Chinese and the Jewish people, both of whom prefer invitro fertilization/genetic screening over "natural" reproduction, and both of whom have very strong cultural practices ensuring that reproduction is based on quality, not quantity, and ensuring partners have high IQ genes and good health genes.[/quote']

 

 

Erm, you statement actually makes some sense but the "Us Chinese and Jewish People" makes it sound like a joke. Really, its not only you guys and the jews that prefer invitro or genetic engineering.

The Singularity idea is a good one though.

do you mean... as in becoming the Hulk??

why would you say that?

The point of these experiments is that, people will hear : "Flies in space" and go "wow this is pretty cool". this will look as if NASA is doing something important (although incomprehensible to them). This conversation that we have now is the proof of that. Its useless for science, but great for PR.

I'm not an expert in neurology, but i recall reading some articles (or talking to a neurologist?) saying just that. I don't know if it worked or not, or even if people are still looking into it... mmm i'll try to find more info though.

The closest thing I have is I get a little nervous when there is a bee within a six inch invisible bubble around me. If I have a phobia' date=' it's one I haven't found out about yet.

 

With you being a vegan, I thought you'd me more like me about bugs. I won't kill them, but I'll move them. In fact, it gets on my nerves when people kill spiders just because they are spiders.[/quote']

 

I'm the worst carnivore there is and I won't kill an insect intentionally. I too hate people who just kill insects because they are there. I mean, i could understand someone killing a bee (I won't... i actually petted one once ) but why care about the three ants that happened to walk in your kitchen? and they spend fortunes to do so too!

 

Me, insects bigger than 2 inches scare me though. in Haiti, cockroaches are that big, and I became terrified when i found out they could fly! This was about the same time that I found a mygale (sp?) in my room, which prompted me to use another room for about a month until we found it dead later on. even the big butterflies scare me...

Basically I see it as a question of our responsibility in the matter based on extinctions caused by our own rather ravenous exploitation of resources we don't really need to exploit' date=' vs the more natural extinction of one species being outdone by another in the very arms race that shapes life on earth, just trying to survive.

[/quote']

 

not at all... an deleterious infection is the exact same thing. Using too many resources to support growth. Sometimes, a lot of those resources are wasted. This is no different than human expansion. This is solely from a human point of view. Think, you said that if an animal were to go extinct by natural means, we should let go. what if we'd find a planet with human-like beings doing what we are doing?

 

I think people should understand that what we are doing right now IS natural. I'm not saying it is a good thing. but it's natural.

If you define that it is natural, you have to come to the conclusion that extinctions are bad, no matter what the cause and they, in the short term, remove diversity.

I have a question...

what is the difference between extinction due to an infectious disease or extinction due to human expansion... I can think of two : the fact that we are part of the agent, and the scope of it...

at any rate... the natural Vs human part is irrelevent. Extinction should be prevented. I mean, If a meteorite was heading for antartica or another uninhabited area with the possibility of wiping out a species, should we let it go (assuming we have the means to stop it)?

Oh My God! We're impossible!

 

I wonder what the probablity of the whatevers self-assembling into God.

Yea.. I came to that conclusion long ago. However if we are impossible, its impossible for me to actually come to that conclusion. therefore, I exist.

Man... I forgot the name of the product, but it was a patch that was basically "guaranteed to make you loose weight if used in conjunction with a good diet and exercise". Well, at least it was true.

I think the funniest/scariest ad I ever saw is the AdSense ad I attached here. It was displayed on one of my articles related to the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster. It just goes to prove you really can get anything on eBay.

!!!

the new VW ads they are showing here (with the, its not because someone has a Jetta 2.0T that they drive fast, etc.) are pretty cool.

... so, you want to sterilize people because they are poor?? its seems awfully complicated though. I have a MUCH simpler idea. why not just spray the planet with agents that would sterilize everyone. then sell some sort of antidote at about 10K a piece??

seriously though. You need to look it up more. it's BECAUSE of the lack of food that people make more children. if you have 8 kids, one of them is bound to survive no? and kids can work the farms, etc. also, how many kids did you great grandparents have?

The case doesnt come with a PSU' date=' im getting a Rosewill RP500-2 500W. (i think p160w is just the model name)

This is the Mobo, im not sure if thats the deluxe.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131524

the link i give you is the SLI (non-deluxe) one... its not much of a price difference and even if youdon't want two videocards its a better performing one. I personally have a SLI-Deluxe but i can't recommand it to people since there seems to be a lot of problems with it (although It worked fine for me). If you aren't a diehard Asus fan, you might wanna check MSI since they have pretty neat boards for rather cheap.

oh and for the Antec, my mistake... at any rate, Antec is a GREAT company (and the case is nice too...). for your PSU, i don't know much about it.

i already ordered part with the help of a friend

Mobo- ASUS A8N-E

Case- Antec Performance I P-160W

Burner- BenQ 16X DVD�R DVD Burner With LightScribe

Video card- SAPPHIRE 100106L Radeon X850XT

CD/DVD- BenQ Black E-IDE/ATAPI DVD-ROM Drive

CPU- AMD Athlon 64 3800+ Venice

Harddrive- Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB

 

the main problem im having is deciding on an OS

i have a copy of XP pro' date=' but i really want to put on Linux. But i have a lot of compatability concerns[/quote']

 

pretty good... but two things... The Asus A8N-E has a slower HTT. you might want to get the deluxe version (i don't think the price difference is too big). the second thing is... Antec does really good power supplies, but 160Watts is not going to be enough for your setup. you will need at least 400W (or 380... or close to that). and those are the minimum requirements.

not sure if I can reference other websites and forums... but this is the one I used the most when building my computer. http://www.anandtech.com their forum is quite full of good ideas.

I also suggest waiting for the Conroe processors, if only to get the HUGE price cuts that will come with it (from both AMD and Intel). if you aren't buying a Conroe, I would start with an Athlon X2 and an AM2 motherboard and choose compatible parts. RAM, i suggest Value Ram from Kingston or other named companies unless you want to overclock. Video cards... go with mid-range but the newest possible, as the highest range offers benefits in benchmarks, but those are nearly irrelevent unless you have a 23inch screen (well, they are relevent but the price premium is to high relative to it). I gotta go so I can't say more... but... anandtech has some neat price guides and all... (oh... and I'm against buying computers from Dell or Compaq and anything, but, if you want something cheap, it would be the best choice).