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Comment Re:Evolution - NOT! (Score 1) 347

This may be evolution, but it is a type of evolution that even intelligent design people would agree occurs. The idea that comes into my head when I hear the word "evolution" is a process by which life as we know it developed from very, very simple organisms.

The process mentioned in the article is not this. No new genetic information has been added to the gene pool. All that has occurred is that existing genes have been rearranged. You cannot continue the same process and get a cow or an elephant. The way mutations are worked into the gene pool seems, to me, to be the main interesting thing about evolution, and this article has nothing to do that.

Also, now I really want a pet fox.
Networking

Submission + - Will Windows 7 finally get IPv6 deployed?

Esther Schindler writes: "As Steven Vaughan-Nichols writes in his article at IT Expert Voice, Windows 7 and IPv6: Useful at Last?, we've had so many predictions that this is "the year of IPv6" that most of us stopped listening. But the network protocol may have new life breathed into it because IPv6 is a requirement for DirectAccess. DirectAccess, a feature in Windows 7, makes remote access a lot easier — and it doesn't require a VPN. (Lisa Vaas interviews security experts and network admins to find out what they think of that idea.) The two articles examine the advantages and disadvantages of DirectAccess, with particular attention to the possibility that Microsoft's sponsorship may give IPv6 the deployment push it's lacked."

Comment Re:Why? (Score 1) 820

No, that seems reasonable. I just have a hard time believing that this artificial meat is going to get to the point where it tastes better than a good vegetarian meal. I'm not a vegetarian, but it does seem to me that meat is frequently added to meals by habit, even though it often has little to bring to the flavors and nutrients of the rest of the meal. This artificial meat seems like it would only worsen that problem.

Comment Why? (Score 1, Interesting) 820

I'm not sure why this product is even necessary. Is a vegetarian diet really that awful that we need to market meat that doesn't come from animals to supplement it? If eating the flesh of previously living creatures is disgusting to you, why is fake meat any more appetizing? It's easy to say that it's takes less resources to produce than real meat, but how does it compare to the vegetable foods that we already have, and that are already quite delicious? Furthermore, from a culinary standpoint, it doesn't seem likely that it will ever match meat from a real animal.

Comment Re:5 and 2 years old? (Score 1) 799

By that logic, negative numbers and fractions are cop-outs. Fractions came about because people defined away the limitations on division, even though it doesn't make sense in some cases (1 1/4 cows doesn't make sense.) Negative numbers came about because we have defined away the limitations on subtraction (-3 cows makes even less sense than 1 1/4 cows.)

I don't know what would make it ok to define away those limitations, but not ok to define away the limitations on roots. Just like negative numbers and fractions, complex numbers are full of meaning in some situations, and completely meaningless in others.
The Courts

Submission + - 'You're Both Wrong', Says Photog to AP & Faire (blogspot.com)

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: "In Fairey v. Associated Press, the Associated Press said artist Shepard Fairey's painting had infringed its copyrights in a photo of then-President Elect Barack Obama. Fairey said no, it was a 'fair use'. Now, the freelance photographer who actually took the AP photo — Manuel Garcia — has sought permission to intervene in the case, saying that both the AP and Fairey are wrong. Garcia's motion (PDF) protests that he, not AP, is the owner of the copyright in the photograph, and that he never relinquished it to AP. And he argues that Fairey is not entitled to a fair use defense. According to an article in TechDirt, this intervention motion by Mr. Garcia represents a changed attitude on his part, and that his initial reaction to Mr. Fairey's painting was admiration, and a desire for an autographed litho. Maybe Mr. Fairey should have given him that autographed litho."
Security

Submission + - Scientists Discover How to Recover Lost Wallets

The Narrative Fallacy writes: "The Times reports that researchers left 240 wallets on the streets of Edinburgh last year to see how many were returned to their owners. The wallets were planted at random about a quarter of a mile apart and snapshots were inserted into a clear plastic window inside the wallets, none of which contained money. However, some of the wallets contained photographs of a baby, a cute puppy, a family or a portrait of an elderly couple while others contained a card suggesting the owner had recently made a charity donation. A control batch was also left containing no additional items. Those containing the picture of the infant were most likely to trigger an honest reaction from the finder, with 88 per cent being returned, followed by those containing pictures of the puppy at 53 per cent. Wallets containing the charity cards and the control sample were least likely to be returned, with rates of 20 and 15 per cent respectively. "The baby kicked off a caring feeling in people, which is not surprising from an evolutionary perspective," said Richard Wiseman, a psychologist who supervised the experiment. "We were amazed by the high percentage of wallets that came back.""
Google

Submission + - Toting Up The Google Juggernaut (bnet.com)

Michael_Curator writes: "There's now something called the Google stack: it starts with an operating system called Chrome, a browser of the same name, the forthcoming Wave productivity, communications and collaboration application, a separate set of Google Apps (which includes secure email and chat), and a burgeoning developer community. The importance of the latter cannot be overemphasized, because as we've seen with smartphones in general and the iPhone in particular, apps drive adoption. Microsoft succeeded in propagating its operating system in large part by making it easier for developers to build applications for its ecosystem than, say, for the Apple ecosystem. Now it's Google's turn."
Google

Submission + - Google to Launch OS (wsj.com)

olyar writes: "The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Google has announced their intent to launch their own operating system.

Initially they'll target low end netbooks."

Operating Systems

Submission + - The Google OS is Announced (blogspot.com) 2

popdookey writes: "It's true, it's real, and it's announced. Google will have an OS aimed at netbooks, and it will co-exist with Android. It will be fast booting, all applications will run over the web, and they will be supported through any standards-compliant web browser. The announcement is here, http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/introducing-google-chrome-os.html"

Comment Re:Bible 0.1.1-beta (Score 1) 568

Actually, these newly released manuscripts shed no new light on the subject. I don't think it has ever been disputed that the contents of the New Testament were canonized "by committee." Furthermore, it is generally assumed that "fallible men" were not only involved in the canonization, but also the actual writing. These things have never been contradictory to orthodox Christian belief.
GNU is Not Unix

Submission + - Are Richard Stallman's Views Still Relevant? (computerworlduk.com) 1

Glyn Moody writes: "The joint KDE/GNOME Gran Canaria Desktop Summit — the first time GUADEC and Akademy have been held together — opened on Saturday with some keynote speeches. The most controversial was one from Richard Stallman, a characteristic warning about the threats to free software, in which he criticised both the KDE and GNOME communities: the former for their past reliance on Qt, originally proprietary, and the latter for the increasing use of Microsoft's C#. He also suggested that it might be better if one day the KDE and GNOME environments became simply two settings of a common desktop. There were some hostile questions from the audience afterwards, and it was clear that some people at the summit felt Richard Stallman's views were becoming increasingly irrelevant, despite his undoubted historic achievements. Is this the end of an era?"
Businesses

Submission + - The Peter Principle: Revisited (arxiv.org)

heptapod writes: Laurence Peter once stated "All new members in a hierarchical organization climb the hierarchy until they reach their level of maximum incompetence." Now it's been proven to be unavoidable and has a negative impact on the world economy by adversely affecting efficiency. Fortunately Alessandro Pluchino, the author of the abstract, has suggested possible approaches as solutions to avoid decreased productivity.

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