http://www.kuro5hin.org/ technology and culture, from the trenches en-us Copyright 1999-2002 - Kuro5hin.org 2005-10-30T08:00:03Z Kuro5hin.org The readers of Kuro5hin.org http://www.kuro5hin.org/images/kuro5hin.png http://www.kuro5hin.org/ http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2005/10/27/19408/317 Life, I've been told, is a school. I've always thought that it was more like a college, where your participation determines what you get out of it. I never made it through college, but I've learned a lot in life, and over the past year, I've been engaged in a sort of group learning experience - one of me, thousands of them. They are honeybees, and they teach the lessons of the hive. http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2005/10/25/6750/9089 During the spring semester of my sophomore year at the University of Colorado Boulder, I took an entry-level sociology class called Deviance in Society. I registered for the course after a long pot smoking session with this sociology major named Ruthie who'd taken it her freshman year. "Is that class really as cool as it sounds?" I said, passing the green plastic bong down to where she was sitting barefoot on the rug. I'd been burned before on courses that had cool sounding names, like the Chaos Theory and Non Linear-Systems class that actually expected you to do some pretty intense math. "Hell yeah," Ruthie said before taking a hit. I watched the brown bong-water bubble at the bottom and realized I really needed to change it. "I loved that class. You learn a lot of neat stuff," she said as she exhaled. http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2005/10/25/113243/00 Perhaps it sounded good on paper, but Intel's latest ad campaign "Experience Entertainment in Your Lap" doesn't really go where you want to go today. http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2005/10/22/224816/73 Software engineering is not just a technical domain, but also an intensely social one. Once a project team grows beyond a single developer, the need arises to coordinate the parallel efforts of multiple contributors. To this end source code management tools exist. http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2005/10/23/203049/48 The science of genomics is the study of genes and their function. Recent advances in genomics are bringing about a revolution in our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of disease, and are providing new ways for scientists to develop pharmaceuticals by targeting the specific genes, or the corresponding proteins responsible for the disease. The details of the process are summarized at Decision Resources. They write "Genomics-based drug discovery now offers the improved ability to identify greater numbers of drug targets. Genomics is based on the concept that a gene's function is to generate a certain effect or group of effects in the body. Genes achieve this functionality through the proteins they produce. Although the genes themselves might become therapeutic targets, the pivotal rationale behind this approach is that, by linking public genomic data with proprietary genomic sequence information, pharmaceutical companies can then launch a focused search for proteins expressed from these genes, providing additional therapeutic targets." The new genomic approach to drug design may have a significant impact on the quality and scope of pharmaceuticals available, it also raises some important questions with regard to social justice, that is, how can you insure that certain groups of people are not disadvantaged with regard to drug development? It is conceivable that the pharmaceutical industry, driven either by profit or prejudice, will avoid developing drugs that will be vital to a minority population. http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2005/10/21/8259/7598 There comes a time in everybody's life when you realise that you've accumulated too much crap over the years, and that some of it just got to go. You need to make room for the new crap, especially if you are like me and a bit anal about keeping every single thing that you ever bought/got as a gift/found in the street. So, I decided to go through a few boxes filled with assorted stuff. And I found some books that I last read when I was 8. http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2005/10/20/10247/599 In recent years there has been growing concern over media violence and its effects on our society. Various groups have lobbied governments and regulatory bodies, rating systems have been implemented, and thousands of studies have been conducted regarding the possibility of adverse effects, specifically with regards to adolescents or children. This paper argues that there is no evidence supporting a direct causal relationship between violence in the media and aggressive or deviant behavior. While briefly discussing the merits of media regulation, this paper will focus on the effects of video game violence, using the 1999 shootings in Littleton Colorado as a case study. http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2005/10/20/14852/856 After many hours of playing the worlds best MMORPGs progress quest ,hearing rumours about some game called second life and reading that article about the new abuse reporting system, it occurred to me that kuro5hin could be turned into a MMORPG. http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2005/10/19/193648/40 On this day 224 years ago, the British General Lord Charles Cornwallis offered his sword in surrender to the French General Rochambeau and General Lafayette, ending the Battle of Yorktown, Virginia. The defeat of the British to the combined French and American forces, coupled with the defeat of the British fleet by French Admiral de Grasse in the Battle of the Chesapeake, was a devastating blow to the British war effort and effectively ended the American Revolutionary War. A century later, the Statue of Liberty, the ubiquitious symbol of American liberty and freedom, was unveiled in New York Harbor on October 28, 1886 as a gift from the Fench to their "sister republic". Grover Cleveland accepted the statue with a speech: "It is a token of the gratitude and appreciation of France, assuring us that in our efforts to commend to the world a government by a free people, we have a steadfast ally, and can demonstrate the kinship of republics. We are not met to bow before a severe and warlike god, but to honor our own peaceful deity".A century after that, France is the most universally reviled Western country in the United States. http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2005/10/17/94936/061 In a flash of political genius, the American Family Association has threatened to boycott American Girl, a manufacturer of dolls, books, clothes, and accessories for 7-12 year old girls, over the company's support of Girls Inc., a national nonprofit organization that "inspires girls to be strong, smart, and bold". Much as the misogynists among us would argue with the feasibility of some of these goals, their benevolence seems beyond doubt. So what's the deal here? string http://www.kuro5hin.org/search/