Cerebral Stasis

It depends, Plenoptic. Since she would have been unconscious after childbirth, the doctors would not have had to ask her permission for a life-threatening disease. I am a lifeguard, and if one is in danger of dying but is conscious, one must ask the person drowning if he or she will allow the lifeguard to help (sounds stupid, I know, but it's to protect the lifeguard from lawsuits), but if the victim is unconscious, it is automatically as if the victim granted the lifeguard permission. The same would apply in this case. She had a life-threatening illness, but she was unconscious, so as such, the doctors did not have to wake her up to ask her permission, and the excuse that explaining would violate another patient's privacy is certainly legit, since there is a very strong rule concerning doctor-patient secrecies. I know that, in this case, it sounds very twisted, and it probably is, but from where I'm standing, it's all perfectly legal.

The original article can be found here. I'm really not surprised that it's being cut. Although Aibo and Qrio look cool, they are very expensive (over a thousand dollars for Aibo, and I'm sure Qrio would be around 3-5 thousand at least), so not very many people can, or care to, own one. even that such a steep price, Sony was probably selling at a loss already (as is the common practice of Japanese businesses), and they probably realized that they would never own a large enough market to make the loss worthwhile.

I almost always have my torrent client running, and on top of that, I have a feeling there wouldn't be much remaining bandwidth for this. Besides, I'm not overly comfortable with someone using my computer to do something, no matter how noble they may say it is (or stuipd, as is the case for the "largest prime number" or "highest digit of pi" research, which is compeletely useless).

Unfortunately, the lack of fancy special effects, the crappy conversation system, and the strange storyline turned me off to this game. Perhaps I will have to reinstall it and give it another chance, but most likely I'll just wait until Oblivion comes out, and then see what it holds.All in all, I'm too shallow for Morrowind.

You spelled "hygiene" wrong.I have pleanty of free time and am avaliable to help, if you find yourself so desperate you need to call on me (that's not just related to this GFX Trap incident, but any other problems you may have).Have a good vacation, Saint.

May I ask for more information about what these responsibilities entitle? What exactly will one be doing, how often will one do it, etc.?

According to this article, the lady had streptococcus, which is a flesh-eating bacteria. However, it seems to me that such a think could be treated with penicillin. I have a feeling someone is going to lose their jobs and/or license over this one. On an unrelated note, reading about how Streptococcus is spread (simply by touching things an infected person has touched) almost makes me understand how Monk feels.

I'm afraid I have to agree with snipe. With this technology, one can make rips of games or programs that appear to be completely legit. I have a feeling that, due to this, piracy will soar (more than it is soaring already, that is).

And I always thought life was all about how good one looks and how popular they are, in contrast to just how wealthy they are (although that helps). I don't have a LOT of money, but I get by just fine. I buy my clothes at second-hand stores and garage sales (discounts on what is practically new), and I smart-shop so I get quality for a fair price. If one has any talent in anything at all, it seems to me one can make money, whether it be over the Internet or in real life. The world is full of monetary opportunities - one has only to reach out and grasp one.

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What really scares me is that this guy is supposedly a highly educated medical technitian with at least four years of training and an above-average IQ. It seems colleges are letting any dimwit get past the final exam these days.

The source was mentioned on the opening post of this thread! It's only in plain sight. Try squinting and bobbing your head - maybe you'll see it. It's the only underlined text in his post. The planet was probably found using the Terrestrial Plant Finder, which is a powerful array of telescopes that are devoted to finding planets similar to Earth.

But there are so many possible theories aside from Intelligent Design and Evolution. What about those? What if I believed that there were two boulders sitting on two hills, and then they suddenly started rolling downhill toward eachother, knocking together and shattering, and from them all life suddenly popped out? Shouldn't I have MY concept of the beginnings of life taught as well?No, the best way to avoid this fiesta is to avoid it COMPLETELY - do not teach any theory at all concerning how life or the Universe started/was created. It is not necessary knowledge for one to have in order to get a good career and succeed in life, so what is the point of teaching it? It only opens huge cans of worms. If kids want to know where everything came from, they should be told to ask their parents, and then their parents can teach them anything they like. Just keep it out of school.

The only way for an image to appear 3D would be to have a slightly different image being transmitted to each eye, and in order to get the correct effect, one would have to have screens on each side of the sunglasses that completely covered the lens, obscuring one's view of the real world. It would be difficult, not to mention it would take some heavy computing power that I'm not sure something as small as sunglasses could hold (not to mention power - one would have to recharge the glasses every five to ten minutes).

I'm not saying that NASA knows how to conserve money (they practically wipe their butts with a roll of $100 bills), nor am I saying that this whole lift concept is a good idea; I'm just saying that it's possible, and it probably would save money in the long run.True, a lift that would climb all the way to space would cost money, but not near as much as it costs in fuel for a craft as large as a space shuttle to overcome Earth's gravitational pull. Although the tether and station would no doubt be very costly to build and keep running, over time the saved money would outweigh the original cost of construction. Thus is the reason people upgrade (in most cases) - to save money over time.Now, as I said, if a lift stopped halfway up, another lift could be sent up after it, and a repairman in a suit and tethered to a lift could repair it within a few minutes (unless something major happens, like a motor burnout, in my opinion, would be unlikely) - far before the oxygen in the lift would run out, causing everyone inside to suffocate (furthermore, it would probably be equipped with some kind of air scrubber/recycler).As for weather being a problem, I'm pretty sure that a tether that can hold the weight of a lift and spacecraft can withstand hurricane-strength winds, especially since it would be tethered by something as gigantic as a space station. Besides, in order for it to remain in geosynchronous orbit and not just wrap the tether around the planet, it would have to be tethered on an island somewhere along the Equator, and in that latitude (depending, of course, on which island is used), hurricanes usually aren't too much of a problem (at least *I've* never heard of any hurricanes go as far south as to the Equator).I'm pretty sure that the idea is quite sound. It is, after all, being worked over by minds far greater than any of ours (at least in some aspects), so I'd expect that, for the most part, they know what they are doing/talking about.

elevinmil, did you even read any of the posts before yours? I mentioned in the post right above yours what the benefits would be - millions of dollars saved in fuel required to lift off, heat shielding would no longer be an issue, and those two things are the main (if not only, thus far) causes of failed manned space missions.And in order to fix a stopped lift, all one would have to do would be send up another lift after it, have some "spacewalkers" repair the lift, and then you're good to go again. Of course, that's assuming a lift would break down, which, considering how much service the lift would have, wouldn't be a problem, since it would be constantly being upgraded, repaired, etc. before being used.

I read an article in a science magazine about this a few years ago. Let me see if I can smooth out a few wrinkles in the posters' brains. First of all, there is no "ring of fire" as you so call it. As was mentioned in an earlier post, the only reason things burn up while entering Earth's atmosphere is because of the extreme friction resulting from falling at high speeds through the mesosphere. That is why Burt Rutan's Space Ship One does not need heavy thermal shielding for reentering Earth's atmosphere (it instead uses a wing technique that allows it to lose enough speed to safely reenter the Earth's atmosphere without creating enough friction to cause the vehicle to be incinerated). The tether would be composed of thousands of carbon nanotubes, which are able to hold enormous amounts of weight. These nanotubes would be woven one at a time by robotic "rovers" that would roll up and down the tether, adding an extra thread each time it went up or down. Although this would take awhile, eventually the tether would be strong enough to hold a lift that could carry something as gigantic as a space shuttle up to the counterweight spacestation, from which it would be launched, greatly reducing the amount of fuel necessary for it to lift off (those savings, in and of themselves, would make the cost of making such an elevator worthwhile). Elevators, whether self-powered or powered by a current running through the tether cable, would be able to move at enormous speeds, yet avoid being burned up in the atmosphere when going to or from the counterweight. Now, the counterweight for the tether wouldn't fall to Earth if the tether snapped - that would defeat the whole purpose of it's being a counterweight. It would fly off into space and would eventually be retrieved, although it may be difficult and take quite a bit of time. Since the elevator itself wouldn't be run by the complicated and unreliable mechanics that normal elevators are run by, they would rarely break down (and would never break down at all, if they were regularly given maintenance). The elevator itself wouldn't require any more energy to lift an object clear to the counterweight than it would take to lift the same object on an elevator completely within Earth's atmosphere the same distance. The energy required to lift the object will only decrease as the craft gets higher (since gravitational pull will decrease), and going down, little or no energy would be required at all, save to hold the elevator back so it does not descend too fast. Contrary to what many of you have been saying, while there would be risks involved, as there always are, this space elevator would be a much more efficient and much safer means of transporting people and equipment to outer space. What would you prefer to use to get into space - an elevator that pulled itself up along an anchored tether, or a gigantic bomb that exploded downward to push you up? In any case, I doubt anyone here has much to worry about at the moment, since such a technology, if it's ever attempted, won't be economically feasible for a few decades, at least.

I don't see how being a bit neglected as a child would be the one factor that would make one a homosexual. There has to be a lot more to it than that, whether it be genes or upbringing, depending on what you want to believe.For example, if neglegence caused homosexuality, then why aren't all neglected kids homosexuals, and why haven't all homosexuals been neglected as a child? There are too many factors to decide what it is at the moment, but as I said, I don't see how being neglected would cause that (if anything, I'd think it would make one into a self-righteous brat).

Thanks for correcting my misunderstanding. And I agree the sticky labels are a pain to put on a disk, since one needs a device to place them on the disk correctly. However, with this technology won't the label be perminant? Once a disk has been labeled once, it doesn't seem like it can be labeled again, unless one would use a sticky label, after all.

Well, this would mean that Germany is violating the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which would put it right up there with the rest of the violators, such as Isreal and the United States of America. Here is a Wikipedia article on this subject.

Wikipedia is the tool of the Gods. It seems to me that pretty much closes up this topic, unless someone feels the urge to post something useless like "oh, wow" or "cool."

This certainly sounds like a neat idea, but I have a feeling that overpowered lasers will be a problem at first (lasers that don't just cut through the first layer of a disk, but cut all the way through it). There is a lot of fine calibration that would need to take place. I certainly wouldn't want to purchase this thing when it's hot off the market.

There's a mistype on their index page. Should be: Anyway, it looks like a great idea, but it only sounds useful if one is within a very large city with a free wireless internet connection, and free wireless internet connections tend to be a bit slow. This would probably work great for audio, but I can't really see it working very well for video, unless it is inside some hotel with a free high-speed wifi network that it can tap into.

I don't believe temperature affects whether or not a planet has oxygen in it's atmosphere, but chances are that bodies as far out as Pluto and beyond are just hunks of round rock that are orbiting Sol, as is Pluto itself.And I'm not sure if there is enough to say about the 10th planet to make it worth buying brand new books. For all we know at the moment, one could sum it up in a paragraph.

Strange. I recall not too long ago hearing about a claim by Pixar that they would no longer work with Disney, because Disney kept requiring them to add content that they did not wish to add, such as fart jokes. I have a feeling that Disney will only mess up Pixar's reputation, unless they intend to keep the same producers/animators/script writers as have currently been on the team.By the way, I did not know that Alias/Maya had been bought by Autodesk/Discreet (who own the 3D software program 3D Studio Max). I kind of think it's almost too bad that the competition is being bought out to create all-powerful companies. However, hopefully this will mean that 3D Studio Max is a little more user-friendly when it comes to video rendering, NURMS modelling techniques, and built-in features, such as fur and particle effects.