rl41

This is true, though you still have to be lucky enough for a civilization to be existing at your destination in both space and time. Perhaps a civilization could exist at your destination in the perceived time when you depart, but upon arrival you end up at a time when they do not.

I think the point of my comment still stands regardless of this revision. If you could choose exactly the position in time at which you'll land, then we have a different story (though this would likely require unreasonable travel speeds).

Extraterrestrial life may not just be separated from us by space -- time is also a huge issue here. Long ago I heard an explanation from Neil DeGrasse Tyson on this, though my google skills are failing to excavate it. I'll make an attempt to explain the idea...

The amount of time for which life exists on a planet, from genesis to extinction, is extremely small on a universal scale. Intelligent life may not persist on a planet long enough to develop a means for intergalactic expansion. Even if they succeed in this endeavor, it is likely that they will be wiped out eventually by some means.

Basically, the likelihood of multiple intelligent species existing simultaneously and within adequate proximity for one to make contact with the other is extremely small. It's hard to overstate how lucky we would have to be.

This is the project that convinced me to enroll in Systems Design Engineering at University of Waterloo!

Adam Sandler really shines in Reign Over Me.

This isn't my field at all, and to be honest I have a very shaky understanding of what's communicated in the article. I find it extremely interesting, though my lack of knowledge leaves me with little to say.

Most of the time when I read the comments of physics articles like this, it's to find criticism that I myself have no chance in hell of producing.

Another discussion here http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2847028

Didn't freeze for my Opera 11.50. Great job, I like musical tools this this a lot!

Does anyone here remember the Mozilla Seabird concept?

If not, here is an overview video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oG3tLxEQEdg

Think it could be related to this?

Hopefully this sort of technology is expanded upon, with two directions possible. The first is creating more self-diagnosis tools for smartphones (more relevant to those who are likely to own one). The second is creating tools for those 99.999% not likely to have an Android phone around (and perhaps to help doctors/nurses/other aides).

This could easily mangle the original meaning of the message, as www.translationparty.com gracefully demonstrates.

I suppose that the user could take a second to approve the recycled message before sending it though.

Homeopathy?

How many generations have you seen?

The aim here isn't to bow to the demands of users, but to maintain the quality of discussion on the site.

Seeing comment scores can easily lead to disproportionate scores as the ones with high scores are read more and consequently voted up more.

Many people may skip over new comments in favour of getting straight to the top scoring ones. I assume this is the rationale here.

The article neglects that facebook is always looking to expand its feature set, with things like email (on top of existing chat) and music [1].

Also neglected are statistics pertaining to new account activations and account reactivations (secondary and post-secondary students make up a giant portion of the user base, and many make it a habit to deactivate temporarily during exam time).

This article just feels overly sensational, giving no credence to counter-arguments.

[1] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2584712

I think that's the joke...

On Grooveshark though, attribution to the artist is actually unavoidable.

Thanks for this, much more informative.

I realized this while typing, but decided to go with it just because it was in the spirit of mocking the comment I was replying to.

Interesting bit about jail times being increased for possessing a firearm while committing a crime though.

Indeed, if these entrepreneurs moved to the US then they could coerce the parking tickets with firearms. Efficiency would skyrocket!

Take the internet tough guy act somewhere else...

"Compared to other illegal activities they might have engaged in such as selling drugs..."

The author didn't really assume they would be dealing drugs, he just wanted to show the advantages of their current scheme over another common illegal alternative.

Listening along with a friend who appreciates music as much as you do is great. Sometimes you don't have the liberty of be with them physically, so facebook is ready to provide the next best thing.

I think that leasing plans (such as the $20/mo student plan) and the fact that all your data is stored on the cloud are bigger factors here.

There's more to Google's new approach than just a browser-based OS. Hardware is completely interchangeable, and the prospect of accessing all your data anywhere has become increasingly popular in recent time.

Turns out the most spectacular part of it was how dedicated he was to it, with apparently hundreds of flash drives full of emails.

Even that isn't so spectacular though, considering this is someone dedicated enough to his cause to successfully plan and execute terrorist acts as a career.

I wonder how the second chart would look if all countries were split into four economic groups, not just the US.