Ask anyone whose life has been saved by chemotherapy, like my mom, and she can give you her doctor's name. It's a blunt instrument, but it has its uses. Seriously though, I did couch my conjecture with terms like "could", "eventual", "perhaps" and "eventually". My thinking was that nanotech and related fields could someday find a way to identify and modify or destroy cells we don't want floating around in us (cancer, viruses, etc.).

Your suggestion about basically creating a DNA checksum of the original then comparing that to newly created cells, I imagine, would be the ultimate solution. Might even help out with long term space travel and such.

It sounds like this sort of research could be the eventual answer to "curing" cancer. As has been discussed extensively here on /., it's looking like there's really no cure but that it can perhaps eventually be treated so effectively that we'll think of it more as the common cold than the ultimate horror it is today.

It wouldn't be straight, but it would be straighter. I was thinking of automobile racing as an analogy. The straighter your racing line the faster you accelerate and the greater your top speed because less energy is wasted on lateral correction. Similar rules should apply to moving particles through a vacuum by electromagnets (or however they move them). I wonder if that would be a compromise between the advantages and disadvantages of linear and ring accelerators. It'd be insanely expensive, though, so I don't think it'll happen soon.

This will happen eventually, but there will be a lot of dirty genetic algorithms under the surface to make it efficient and it will still require seemingly endless tweaking with unexpected results. People will even call the software "stupid" and "unintuitive" as it crunches out insane iterations of what it thinks might meet your requests (based on non-scratched previous requests). Give computer science and AI another 100 years (shit; we'll all be dead), and you'll probably see some laymen programming away by giving directives to "Computer" like TNG.

Wouldn't the optimal path to increase the speed of matter as rapidly as possible be a straight line? Perhaps it's impractical, but they could conceivably build an accelerator that wrapped the surface of Earth. Go for the gold or go home. :)

My bad; I thought they were all called Dear Leader. Sorta like Big Brother, where he wasn't an individual but more of an idea. I feel bad for the citizens there. Apparently not even being a high-ranking official keeps you safe, as they recently executed some old man "by dogs". When the government uses "execution by dogs" as a political tool, you know you have some serious fucking problems!

If not, Dear Leader is going to get some serious f-bombs dropped on him by Linus and Richard.

As someone who's lived in Atlanta for the past 15 years, I have to agree with you on all points.

Seems this has been happening since May of 2013. More information may be found here:

http://slickdeals.net/f/6018544-rakuten-buy-com-customers-getting-fraudulent-credit-card-charges
http://consumerist.com/2013/06/06/heres-everything-we-know-about-the-rakutenbuy-com-credit-card-breaches/
http://dealnews.com/features/Have-You-Experienced-Credit-Card-Fraud-After-Buying-at-Rakuten-/748035.html
http://consumerist.com/2013/06/10/rakuten-is-taking-credit-card-fraud-complaints-very-seriously/
http://rakutenfraud.com/

It amazes me that despite the apparent breach their customers weren't notified or asked/required to change their passwords. The last time I ordered something from them was in 2010 and I'd forgotten I even had an account with them.

At least they didn't shoot someone then leave the goods laying there on the floor like idiots. Good for them, and go to jail. There are laws against that kind of griefing in this MMO.

Try going to war, now or 2000 years ago, without a helmet. It's better to have one, even if it's made of paper or similar. Same goes for protecting other body parts such as the torso or legs. Even cloth or leather armor will help you. The difference between wearing cotton jeans, leather pants, or no pants at all will become readily apparent as you slide across asphalt. Fuck the studies, just think about the physics for a moment. Failing that, use your imagination.

With respect to the Oculus Rift, the biggest feature this could be used for is controlling depth of field. The game would calculate the point in 3D space your eyes are focused on and allow everything outside that area to become progressively less-focused.

"Tech Companies" for allowing the NSA infiltration for fear of the federal and state governments frowning upon them and shifting their privileges to other industries and companies. It's like a no-choice NDA; it's just put on you without your agreement or consent, but with an expectation of fulfillment or consequence. For shame no decent leaks came from Google, Apple, Microsoft, random users/hackers/crackers, designers and manufacturers, etc. before Snowden. Only now companies position themselves with the product/customer, saying they were forced but are glad they can admit to (and hopefully reform) it. Strange and mistrustful times.

Dude, seriously? We stand on the shoulders of giants. Choosing people from earlier times who made great advances in science, philosophy, mathematics, etc., but who had no access to current-day knowledge, scientific evidence, research, experiments and theories is a misdirected argument. Do you also ask brilliant programmers for legal advice? I'm beginning to think you're just trolling here, or you've missed my previous point that it's those who FAIL TO APPLY REASON in making their decision to reject the theory of evolution that I think are idiots. Holy shit man, you're wasting my time. Or more accurately at this point I'm wasting my own time by responding. Back to work...