hkmaly

Star Trek: TOS communicators can reach orbit. Which smartphone can do that? Main computers on ship ARE likely to take a big amount of space, because they will have big capacity AND redundancy for reliability. Of course they wouldn't be only computers available on ship. Yes ; 32TB disks tend to have better interfaces than USB 3.0. Like SAS. And they seem to be in the "if you need to ask for price, you can't afford it" area.

I would argue that this present flaw in the method. But, based on chicken not being extinct yet, it's not a serious flaw.

Meh. I'll settle for having a net positive effect on the species. If I can manage that, I'll consider myself ahead of the game. That's in principle same strategy, just with "close relatives" not being so close. Success of pack animals suggests that helping even members of species who are not your relatives is beneficial. And considering some challenges before our species, cooperation on level of whole species seem like good idea. On the other hand, after we overcame those challenges, the people who managed to get more children to that point would be in better position than you ... (If we DON'T overcame those challenges, it will probably not matter.) Oh yes. That's also good idea, but I'm afraid J. K. Rowling is way ahead of us. Current internet-fad usage memes ARE special cases of original sense memes.

Hmmm ... considering it's plans for battlestation sized as small moon, it is actually quite believable that it's bigger than common devices ... presumably, at no part of construction anyone even needed to have full copy of plans on single device. ... in fact, maybe the issue with the exhaust port would be addresses more securely if the plans would fit on single device. Still, you should consider connecting the phone by USB or WiFi.

Sure thing. Mind you, I still feel safe in stating that both Genghis and that hypothetical proto-eukaryote made a good go at it. Cyanobacteria also made a good go at it, but ... Or alternately Huge Bollocking Asteroid From Outer Space. Our ancestors already survived several. Or, get the children of close relatives (who share a fair portion of your genes) to reproductive age. Getting your own children to reproductive age is better, but yes, this helps too.

On US disks and tapes a FBI warning comes very first thing when the disk spins upB before main title, before ads for other movies or disks, before the logo animations for all the production companies. First. Thing. Did you TRIED? Download mplayer and play the medium with it (there IS windows version somewhere as well). On tapes, sure. But on DVD, they rely on players cooperating to make it come first and be unskipable. Any player which don't care can skip it just fine. Players on linux tend to not care, as the big companies didn't care about linux so the community wrote their own players ... based on DeCSS. (Disclaimer: I'm not lawyer, so I can't confirm nor deny if the code is still illegal in US under DMCA.) Maybe. The only way would be if I could hack C3P) and put the files on his drive without him knowing with a little program that would pop up and tell him if the need arose. He'd sell the Rebellion out without even intending to, just by blurting the wrong thing out at the wrong time. Yes. You think C3PO will be hard to hack? The previous ship. I DID saw episode 4. I didn't saw the new movie but based on what was said here, there was known rebel ship suspected from having the plans which gave them to Leia. THEY should try to give the plan to everyone.

Genghis Khan made a pretty good go at it. Apparently 2% of all modern humans can trace their bloodlines back to him. Give it a few more centuries and he may at least have the majority of all humans. He will still lose if we manage to go extinct. There are no aquatic animals descendant from him for example ... as I say, long term. For now, hypothetical ancestor of all eukaryotes still don't have their victory secured. Yes. They should go for chase.

Autocratic regimes also tend to choose leaders for loyalty rather than ability, often relying on family ties. (Some NSFW language) Good point. I'm the sure the Rebels would have been stopped by that opening "FBI Warning" screen you can't FF past... (which come to think of it you may not see in European region disks or tapes, but probably see something similar) I must admit I have no idea. I always played just the main title. (EDIT: Just tried LOTR:ROTK DVD. That screen is not even video - it's just still image. Without special support in player - which mplayer lacks - it's hard to read it. And it's on title 15. And yes FBI is not mentioned.) Exactly. Senate is bureaucracy. Things like Leia's ship speeding away from the doomed known-Rebel ship might NOT pass muster, no matter how obvious it looks for non-politicians. Well if you didn't told him what those are ... Hmmm, that makes sense. I meant when already followed. The data trail pointing back at point which Empire already KNOWS contained the plan doesn't need to be hidden. (Did I mentioned I didn't saw the movie?) BTW, didn't we talked about torture recently?

It's interesting that the elections AFTER that seem to get worse and worse. Hopefully executive branch don't get distracted so easily now - oh wait. Perhaps the torture used to be more necessary in past because nowadays people are spoilt rotten? The issue is that autocratic regimes ARE usually more obsessive and paranoid than democratic ones. So, I would consider it more example of resting on their laurels ... Hollywood still has major problems with this, as obvious from their stance on copyright violation. Maybe they think the plans have very good copy protection? On the other hand, that diplomatic vessel cover didn't worked well in episode 4 ... I would consider viral tactic. EVERY SINGLE REBEL should get his own copy of plans as soon as possible. It was completely irresponsible from R2D2 he didn't copied the plans to C3PO - what if something happened to him? Wait, something DID happened: Jawas captured him (although they captured C3PO as well). Along with bunch of other robots. Who he AGAIN failed to copy the plans to.

What Lisa accused her of was "act like lesbian on party and then leave with man" ... but seems Heidi is more like "act like bisexual on party and don't leave with anyone ever". Apparently, existing feelings for guys enhanced with TF gun and supported by second life memories were still weaker than her feeling for girls. Or at least Nanase specifically. If there is so serious shortage of therapist Susan still didn't get appointment, maybe she can get license easily? Well, maybe Mother Nature does consider crime not being attracted to opposite gender, but it definitely doesn't consider crime being attracted to the same gender. Dude, Don Juan can tell you right away that that IS the definition of 'fittest.' The definition of fittest is that you get biggest number of your children to reproduction age. Getting laid often doesn't help if your children don't survive. So it's not so simple, but as you said, Also note that it's long term game. You can only consider yourself winner if EVERY living organism on planet descended from you. Talk about awarding posthumously ... (And that's still only winner of first round. Galaxy awaits.)

I would argue that finding out the ones which are actually happening would be simpler if they didn't eavesdropped in MMORPGs ... but I doubt informations obtained there are considered credible anyway.

102199 * 103573 * 103993 EGS readers proved they are not "most people" on multiple issues already. (Also, good luck to find out without computer.)

Us. Oh. Right. That works. It definitely got out of us.

You really think grass on golf course ENJOYS being so short? Maybe it did started as an attack of grass on trees, but their victory seem very Pyrrhic. Seems it got out of their hands long time ago. I mean ... hmmm ... what does grass use instead of hands?

Note that I specified "small children," who have a lot in common with animals, such as being non-verbal and having very different response to a great many drugs than adult humans have. Maybe you should be more specific (like, what ages you speak about). Although it's true that children rarely sue for rape ... But in cases like this, not only people generally assume they were sleeping, they are informed well in advance that they will receive drugs which would alter their mental state - in advance enough that they REMEMBER they were informed. In the "stop the person from eating the wall, beds, and chairs" case, you actually MUST surprise the person. And they would be even MORE surprised if the drug effect hit memory from before the administration (which I believe is happening - if the drug inhibits conversion from short term memory to long term memory, the memory gap starts before you get it). Also, interesting. Didn't realize this would be an option, on the other hand especially in case of dental operations making person unconscious would be risky. (I'm probably lucky that my wisdom teeth went out relatively easily, so local anaesthesia was sufficient). Planed procedures, yes. All the more reason to listen to the testimony of interrogators such as the one TOH was quoting, people who are experts in the field. If you look at cases of torture like Guantanomo, it's generally people who weren't professionals, but rather sadistic amateurs who are either looking for an excuse to make their "enemy" suffer or think they know more than they do about how to get information. Especially the published case ; professionals wouldn't be careless enough to get published like this. Also, there are much more sadistic amateurs than professionals. Let's keep revenge/punishment/deterrent apart from what will actually get the job done. If giving the kidnapper a nice meal and a pleasant conversation will get the information out of them better than torture, would you refuse to wine and dine them just becase they don't deserve it? Of course not. In fact, I believe in concept of last meal. And I even mentioned that other forms of interrogations should be tried before (especially considering that they wouldn't be possible after ; remember that if violence isn't your last resort, you failed to resort to enough of it). Just as I specifically mentioned that the guilt must be determined beforehand - although I agree that the fact there will be not enough time for the usual process of determining guilt (that is, in court) is troublesome. Is slippery scope argument even allowed in this forum? If we disallow torture because we are afraid innocent people will be tortured, we shouldn't pretend we are doing it because torture is not effective. Also, while the court obviously must provide binary verdict (guilty or innocent), the real situation is not so binary. Ah, but either method takes time to work, and at any given moment, you have a choice between sticking with what you've already invested considerable time and effort into, or switching to something completely different which will be starting from square one. How can you really tell whether the interrogator won't get the information if given just a little more time? Why do you ask ME? Am I the interrogator? Obviously, the answer wouldn't be simple, it will depend on the kidnapper, the situation AND on what interrogators and what torturers you have available. Considering usually you don't have experienced torturer available (in some cases, the best person available would be parent, which doesn't mean they would be that good but just that you are really short of alternatives) while your interrogator should be at least usable, turning to torture might be bad idea unless it's very likely the person will break extremely easily. Buuut ... the kidnapper should definitely NOT know this. The good cop/bad cop method suggest you should mention "Jack is already on the way" in right moment instead. Another concept I believe in is that criminals should always fear it will be worse. Even people guilty of multiple murder should fear that they will get WORSE verdict if they kill few more people as well. Meanwhile, our law system seems to be heading to point where person who committed copyright violation would basically get same sentence no matter if he also kill few police officers while attempting to flee, which is not really good argument for surrendering, is it? (Of course, with most copyright violators being college kids, the risk of them being armed is not so big, but still ; we should stop pretending that copyright violation has anything to do with attacking ships, killing crew and stealing their cargo. Pirates DID resisted arrest by killing people, because they couldn't be hanged twice anyway.)

If the fruit is bred and grown by humans, then from a genetic/biological fitness perspective, humans eating the fruit is good for the plant, because it gives money to the farmers who will then plant the plant's offspring and water, fertilize, etc. them. Well, probably not offspring of that specific plant but it's close relative, so, yes. On the other hand, the same will be true for human-bred animals. Well, I also agree with and there was also nice clever quote about using brains for philosophy mentioning what it evolved for ... I think that 7,505,280,000 will be good estimate. If you ask for how many exist in give moment, I mean ; if you mean in general, then we may reach infinity. Why not both? Seriously: how ok you feel being the gender you is may not be directly related to how would you feel if you would be the other gender. I believe they did. Sure, you couldn't actually program computer before they went invented, but Ada Lovelace did much more computer programming than she was able to actually try on any computer she had access to (this observation is trivial, as she died in 1852 and the Analytical Engine was not actually build yet). You can have interest in something without ever seeing that thing - and in fact, many inventions started like this.

Shoot to stop the threat. As a civilian or police officer, if another person isn't posing a threat sufficient to justify administering a potentially-fatal wound to stop the threat, you aren't justified in shooting the guy at all. And you're far more likely to stop that threat by attempting to shoot the center of the body than by attempting to hit an arm or leg. If you aren't a marksman with lots of recent training, some combat-like experience, and a weapon you're extremely familiar with, you definitely shouldn't try to shoot a weapon out of a person's hand. Also, you need to be cognizant of what's behind your target. Because there's a good chance at least one bullet will miss, and some chance that a bullet will go through - then whatever's behind your guy gets hit. Yes. You continued my sentence much better than I would be able to, but it's exactly what I had in mind. This doesn't prove torture doesn't work ; even if the torture didn't revealed anything useful, it would just prove that normal interrogation works better. Yes, unfortunately just magic is working like magic ... What makes sense for animals makes considerably less sense for people ; people are MUCH better at analysis and are therefore able to REALIZE they are missing some memory. And people are also very good at imagining dangers ; it's quite likely that what they IMAGINE happened in that missing time will be WORSE than what really happened. I would be surprised if no woman sued for rape after losing memory. And, unlike various other claims patient might be inclined to make, this one would be hard to defend against. I would say that cases like WTC proves only that if intelligence agencies fail to realize the danger more than 24 hours in advance, they are also likely to not realize it in the last 24 hours. Analyzing some case where the attack WAS discovered will be better, but ... those tend to be top secret. Generally, I doubt we can reach any useful conclusion here as best arguments both for and against torture will be unknown to general public (which presumably includes us). Yes. In how many of these have torture managed to save the child's life where conventional interrogation provably could not? Please link me to respectable real world sources. Note that in cases like this, I think that the kidnapper deserves it. Also, paying ransom is VERY bad idea as it encourages others to try to do the same. And, the information needed can be relatively easily verified. So, if the proofs that the caught person is really the kidnapper are solid enough and normal interrogation doesn't seem to work ...

I noticed only one change on this script: Bill got hat in third panel. Based on this strip, I would say that the shirt did change but it wasn't deliberate from Dan.

Both true: fruit is intended to be eaten BUT fruit is not intended to be eaten by human, who sometimes cut the seeds out (apple) or crunch them with teeth and even in the lucky case when he eat it with the fruit he then flush it to toilet which is rarely good condition for growth. Especially if the fruit was transfered hundreds of kilometres out of zone it's able to grow in. And her clone knows exactly how she feels ... and decided to be female. Bell's theorem and few related quantum physics properties suggest it does care. Still, even with superposition theoretically holding infinite amount of data in single particle, humans are more complicated ... because we ARE from particles, and lot of them. Personally I believe that brain includes system for amplifying quantum effects which produces free will ... You can never get the truth out of someone, no matter if by torture or bribe. Most you can get is what he knows or thinks he know, but truth? Most people will not even tell you the factorization of 1100771835408811 ! It will, until someone point out the problem to him. I think he never though about pirating so much to realize that copying dress may be copyright violation (although ... quick google search suggest that it isn't, unless it's jewellery or pattern ; and trademark is separate issue). Funny that the same doesn't work for mass produced music or software. Well, someone got good lawyers and lobbyists soon enough, someone didn't ... But we are not talking about what's legal or moral ; we are talking about Elliot and he will be likely to overthink it and get guilt trip no matter of what makes sense ... Note that those clothes don't last long. I would say that they would work as nice demos.

I would consider the dart gun guy position if there is telescopic and/or laser sight on it. Note that there is example in EGS how you are SUPPOSED to do it. No memory loss, only light confusion. Sadly, medical professional are unlikely to obtain this ... especially the ones in our world.

http://www.egscomics.com/egsnp.php?id=615 I think that the last image proves Grace is deliberately trolling them.

I... may have to grant you that one, and that is impressive given how many incredibly stupid excuses I have heard for sending undressed women into combat zones. In fact, I cannot offhand think of anything else that stupid right now. o.O I will say that I liked the reason for the Elmore art showing a woman in a chainmail suit that left her chest and cleavage almost entirely exposed. As it turned out, that was not actually armour. It was ceremonial garb she was forced into prior to being sacrificed ritually to the Dark Gods. It does make sense in that case to leave an opening exposing the heart. (It also made sense that she declined the 'privilege' and cut the head priest's throat and made her escape. And that she ditched the 'armour' first opportunity she got.) Personally, I like the "the armor is actually magical and/or partially transparent and is covering much more than it seems" solution, although it often leaves out the "and also, the designer was pervert and/or really liked the trope". Regarding the WORST excuses, I think there is only one more stupid: none. Meaning, pretending that there is nothing to be excused or explained on that armor because it's obviously just fine. Except with no excuse, at least they can claim they didn't realized it.

True ; usually, it only spreads existing misinformation instead of creating it, but the effect is very similar. Note that torture was simplified in fiction long before "24". I think that experienced torturers can get useful informations, but it's definitely not as simple ... or as quick ... and generally not worth it. Also, yes, torture is totally useless for "confessing": you can get useful information from torture only if it's something torturer don't know. Questions like "did you do it" are useless ; "where did you hide the bodies/the bomb" may work, but has the unfortunate problem that you will never be sure if the tortured is just that good at resisting torture or really don't know ; you would need to be verifying multiple claims, because the tortured will CERTAINLY try to say something which is not true, and it can be both BEFORE and AFTER the true information. Certainly. Unfortunately, this kind of entertainment is rare. In fact, I would argue that it can educate in apolitical way, but some people tend to disagree because their personal prejudices are not compatible with scientific view of world and often education in general. Gun control SHOULD be about gun safety. I remember some quote (or was it joke?) about parent teaching gun control every week at firing range. Also, I didn't heard convincing counterargument against "If it would be against the law to have gun, then only outlaws will have guns" yet. I, too, live in country where carrying gun is not popular, and I wouldn't want it changed too quickly, but I don't believe it's good in long run. Kill or harm. But usually, it's simpler to do the one you DONT want to do, so ... It's definitely better than what most cartoons do - avoiding the guns to the point of stupidity. Heroes and villains are allowed to fight by any means and with any amount of collateral damage but neither is allowed to draw gun. Hey, maybe they had calcium deficiency and eating the wall is GOOD for them! Note that I wasn't objecting about chemically sedating them in general, but against using drug with specific sideefect. They should be using something with CLEAR effect.

There isn't really a pattern to it, it's just a two-toned shirt. Previously we saw it go from having the lighter part going over the shoulder as if Drake's wearing a tank top over a T-shirt, to having the lighter part stay below the armpits, and back again. But this time, there's still the light band going over the shoulder, but his pose is distorting it. I'm still calling it a pattern (although simple one) until I learn better word for it. I think the lighter part is more distorted than what could be explained by difference in pose. But as I said, I'm not completely certain of it ...

The correct reply is "I do and therefore I'm not a vegan" Human is not able to survive without eating other lifeforms or at least parts of them. Arguably least "violent" food is milk and eggs (unfertilized of course), despite many vegans not eating it. Even just recognizing that animal is expressing desire against something is not so easy. Starting with the relatively common knowledge that cats and dogs have almost opposite body languages ...