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What about fractal antennas?

This problem happened because AMD was caught by surprise with AVX doubling the register size over SSE once the Bulldozer design was well advanced. Then Intel pulled their little FMA4 to FMA3 switcheroo on top of it ensuring that code compiled for future Intel processors such as Haswell (FMA3) won't run at top speed on Bulldozer (FMA4). Piledriver supports FMA4 and FMA3.

Bulldozer has problems but AVX isn't one of them. AVX isn't that commercially important yet -- it's still a fairly new instruction set and not yet widely adopted. But more importantly, it isn't actually bad at AVX. Here's one test where AVX and non-AVX versions of the x264 codec were compared on both Sandy Bridge and Bulldozer. The AMD FX-8150 actually gained more from the AVX binary than Sandy Bridge i5/i7 did.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4955/the-bulldozer-review-amd-fx8150-tested/7

AMD could double the number of FP units but changing the decoder and load/store units to cope is non-trivial.

Bulldozer already has dual "128-bit" FP units which are ganged together to do AVX calculations.

A lot of people diss Bulldozer but the fact is making the leap to a four issue processor is bloody hard. It hadn't been done before and both Intel and AMD were the first to implement this in an actually working and available processor. It is hard to extract ILP to keep such a processor fed and it is hard to design the decoders. Compare an Alpha 21264 to an AMD Bulldozer block to see the difference. Look at the number of arrows coming in and out of the instruction decoder. The processor is flexible enough that a single-threaded application can use both integer cores in Bulldozer, while a multi-threaded application may use one integer core per thread.

Bulldozer doesn't work that way. That diagram doesn't make it clear, but the dispatcher issues thread #1 exclusively to integer cluster 1, and thread #2 exclusively to cluster 2. Bulldozer isn't 4-issue, it's dual 2-issue. (On the integer path, that is; the FP path is shared between both threads.)

That's actually why they even bother to call them "cluster 1" and "cluster 2" -- if either thread could issue to either one, that diagram would have just one integer block with a "shared int scheduler" much like how the FPU block has a "shared FP scheduler".

AMD's hope for Bulldozer was that it would be a game-changer in the server space. They hoped that by sharing most resources between two threads except for integer execution units, integer register file, load/store units, and L1 data cache, they could get ~1.8x the single thread performance for a modest 10-20% increase in die area over a similar single-threaded core design. (This is possible because integer EUs and so forth are relatively small.) Such a design would, in theory, give them a huge advantage over Intel when building CPUs with lots of cores for the server market.

Running two threads on a Bulldozer "module" does actually give about 1.8x the performance of running a single thread on the same module. The problem is, the single thread int performance is pretty bad to begin with because it's a fairly narrow machine, the L1 data caches are tiny, and a bunch of other problems.

This problem happened because AMD was caught by surprise with AVX doubling the register size over SSE once the Bulldozer design was well advanced. Then Intel pulled their little FMA4 to FMA3 switcheroo on top of it ensuring that code compiled for future Intel processors such as Haswell (FMA3) won't run at top speed on Bulldozer (FMA4). Piledriver supports FMA4 and FMA3.

Bulldozer has problems but AVX isn't one of them. AVX isn't that commercially important yet -- it's still a fairly new instruction set and not yet widely adopted. But more importantly, it isn't actually bad at AVX. Here's one test where AVX and non-AVX versions of the x264 codec were compared on both Sandy Bridge and Bulldozer. The AMD FX-8150 actually gained more from the AVX binary than Sandy Bridge i5/i7 did.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4955/the-bulldozer-review-amd-fx8150-tested/7

AMD could double the number of FP units but changing the decoder and load/store units to cope is non-trivial.

Bulldozer already has dual "128-bit" FP units which are ganged together to do AVX calculations.

A lot of people diss Bulldozer but the fact is making the leap to a four issue processor is bloody hard. It hadn't been done before and both Intel and AMD were the first to implement this in an actually working and available processor. It is hard to extract ILP to keep such a processor fed and it is hard to design the decoders. Compare an Alpha 21264 to an AMD Bulldozer block to see the difference. Look at the number of arrows coming in and out of the instruction decoder. The processor is flexible enough that a single-threaded application can use both integer cores in Bulldozer, while a multi-threaded application may use one integer core per thread.

Bulldozer doesn't work that way. That diagram doesn't make it clear, but the dispatcher issues thread #1 exclusively to integer cluster 1, and thread #2 exclusively to cluster 2. Bulldozer isn't 4-issue, it's dual 2-issue. (On the integer path, that is; the FP path is shared between both threads.)

That's actually why they even bother to call them "cluster 1" and "cluster 2" -- if either thread could issue to either one, that diagram would have just one integer block with a "shared int scheduler" much like how the FPU block has a "shared FP scheduler".

AMD's hope for Bulldozer was that it would be a game-changer in the server space. They hoped that by sharing most resources between two threads except for integer execution units, integer register file, load/store units, and L1 data cache, they could get ~1.8x the single thread performance for a modest 10-20% increase in die area over a similar single-threaded core design. (This is possible because integer EUs and so forth are relatively small.) Such a design would, in theory, give them a huge advantage over Intel when building CPUs with lots of cores for the server market.

Running two threads on a Bulldozer "module" does actually give about 1.8x the performance of running a single thread on the same module. The problem is, the single thread int performance is pretty bad to begin with because it's a fairly narrow machine, the L1 data caches are tiny, and a bunch of other problems.

I'm old enough to remember when MMUs and FPUs were sold as separate chips. The additional integration will happen in due time. It always does. In fact it is happening now across the board. Whether it is Intel, AMD, or ARM everyone has a CPU+GPU solution. You can reduce bandwidth requirements by increasing on-chip cache and using memory compression. If eDRAM is used the on-chip cache will be large enough to fit the pixel buffer and z-buffer in core with the same area used for L3 cache in present processors.

This problem happened because AMD was caught by surprise with AVX doubling the register size over SSE once the Bulldozer design was well advanced. Then Intel pulled their little FMA4 to FMA3 switcheroo on top of it ensuring that code compiled for future Intel processors such as Haswell (FMA3) won't run at top speed on Bulldozer (FMA4). Piledriver supports FMA4 and FMA3. AMD could double the number of FP units but changing the decoder and load/store units to cope is non-trivial. Things will only get worse once Haswell comes out since it not only has FMA3 but gather-scatter support like the old Cray vector processors or GPUs.

A lot of people diss Bulldozer but the fact is making the leap to a four issue processor is bloody hard. It hadn't been done before and both Intel and AMD were the first to implement this in an actually working and available processor. It is hard to extract ILP to keep such a processor fed and it is hard to design the decoders. Compare an Alpha 21264 to an AMD Bulldozer block to see the difference. Look at the number of arrows coming in and out of the instruction decoder. The processor is flexible enough that a single-threaded application can use both integer cores in Bulldozer, while a multi-threaded application may use one integer core per thread.

I'm old enough to remember when MMUs and FPUs were sold as separate chips. The additional integration will happen in due time. It always does. In fact it is happening now across the board. Whether it is Intel, AMD, or ARM everyone has a CPU+GPU solution. You can reduce bandwidth requirements by increasing on-chip cache and using memory compression. If eDRAM is used the on-chip cache will be large enough to fit the pixel buffer and z-buffer in core with the same area used for L3 cache in present processors.

This problem happened because AMD was caught by surprise with AVX doubling the register size over SSE once the Bulldozer design was well advanced. Then Intel pulled their little FMA4 to FMA3 switcheroo on top of it ensuring that code compiled for future Intel processors such as Haswell (FMA3) won't run at top speed on Bulldozer (FMA4). Piledriver supports FMA4 and FMA3. AMD could double the number of FP units but changing the decoder and load/store units to cope is non-trivial. Things will only get worse once Haswell comes out since it not only has FMA3 but gather-scatter support like the old Cray vector processors or GPUs.

A lot of people diss Bulldozer but the fact is making the leap to a four issue processor is bloody hard. It hadn't been done before and both Intel and AMD were the first to implement this in an actually working and available processor. It is hard to extract ILP to keep such a processor fed and it is hard to design the decoders. Compare an Alpha 21264 to an AMD Bulldozer block to see the difference. Look at the number of arrows coming in and out of the instruction decoder. The processor is flexible enough that a single-threaded application can use both integer cores in Bulldozer, while a multi-threaded application may use one integer core per thread.

2. If you require would-be voters to pay for their IDs, then this is a poll tax, which was ruled unconstitutional decades ago. If you don't, then this is an unnecessary (see point 1) expense, both for the government budget (and ultimately the people who pay taxes) and for the individuals who have to go get a free photo ID (which is only free if you don't count the transportation to the place to get it and the time to wait for it).

Wrong. Poll taxes were originally ruled constitutional. It wasn't until the 24th Amendment was ratified that they became unconstitutional in federal elections. Some time after that the Supreme Court changed their minds and put them under the 14th Amendment.

For whatever the "intended purpose", attempts at gerrymandering can backfire. The more extreme the attempted gerrymander, the more disastrous the outcome can be (at least, in a fair election). The result can even be Tullymandering.

I eat fish nearly every day

You might consider cutting back on the fish. Contaminants are a concern, things like PCBs, dioxins, and mercury. I recommend omega-3 supplements for brain health.

How did it work for you? 1080p extracts would be somewhat lower than the recommended resolution for 123D

The final model/output was about the same as using my still camera, but there was the huge 'cost' of doing the frame extraction and conversion.

It was just a test. I was imagining doing "drive-by modeling" with my video car-cam.

I did a model of Vasquez_Rocks with a simple P&S. That really made me appreciate that you it let you model big things that would be impossible without LIDAR.

What I never understood though is why every show went for the WWII "fighters and carriers" motif when I think a MUCH better comparison, when you are talking about space where you can't just turn on a dime and where you'd need thick armor to keep from getting crew blown out into space during a battle would be the classic battleship. Its big, its heavily armored, and its got several big ass cannons on swivels. Since you are in space and you aren't gonna be landing the thing you could make the bottom almost a mirror of the top and have common elevators feed the upper and lower cannons and have a constant barrage from the alternating upper and lower cannons just pounding the hell out of a target.

And since we are talking sci-fi you also have to figure in the cool and intimidation factors and I think all would agree that seeing this in space firing full broadsides with shells the size of VW Bugs racing toards your ass? Something you'd want to avoid.

ASIC Seeks Power To Read Your Emails

In best Yakoff Smirnoff voice: "Wow, what a chip!"

All they've announced is an old soviety carrier is now seaworthy. They don't have any aircraft for it or anything.

It's a long way from having an active carrier battlegroup, let alone a number of them like the US has and that's before you consider that they have no one to do any serious wargames with to get some proper experience and practice in meaning that in a real standoff they'll likely be easy fodder for any western submarines.

Even if they get two or three carriers round towards Europe then what? Europe doesn't even have to engage with boats or planes, they'll be in cruise missile range to boot and one carrier group doesn't carry even a fraction of the troops needed to launch any kind of land invasion.

If they had an airforce and navy the size of the US I'd be concerned, but right now they're still in a weak position. You only have to look at this chart to also see that they wont even be close to a threat any time soon because their expenditure isn't even close to the US. It's barely even above just France and the UK, let alone the whole of the EU combined:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/timeline/9b6b4ac6234a38d7f61757290055617d.png

Yeah, like the printing press used to engrave Trajan's column? Dumbass.

Yes you can, last winter a busy road here got completely covered in snow in just a few minutes so lots of cars got stuck in the snow. Luckily the defense forces reacted quickly and rescued the people with these guys: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e2/Hagglunds_BV-206_Bandvagn_zijaanzicht.jpg/800px-Hagglunds_BV-206_Bandvagn_zijaanzicht.jpg

That's the population density if you take everyone out of the cities and spread them thin across all the land. Where the people actually are is what matters

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0e/Population_map_of_Finland.svg

http://www.cast.uark.edu/local/catalog/national/images/maps/Population.dir/USpop1990.gif

Not only is it relatively stable (though a halo or Lissajous is usually used), but the relative sizes are such that the moon does not fully eclipse the earth, so continuous communication is available.

A minor correction: orbits which are stable with respect to minor perturbation are possible at the L4 and L4 points. Some powered correction is needed for any orbit at L2 and L3, since they are only stable for the 3-body case, not for the real n-body Solar System.

Also, at the Earth-Moon L2 point, the Earth is fully eclipsed. The Earth's umbral cone extends just over 100000km past the Moon at their average separation of 384000km, but the umbral cone for the Earth is quite thin, and has a diameter of less than 1500km at the L2 point. An orbit which goes occasionally outside the umbra may be possible, but it might involve a fair amount of fuel burn.

Not only is it relatively stable (though a halo or Lissajous is usually used), but the relative sizes are such that the moon does not fully eclipse the earth, so continuous communication is available.

A minor correction: orbits which are stable with respect to minor perturbation are possible at the L4 and L4 points. Some powered correction is needed for any orbit at L2 and L3, since they are only stable for the 3-body case, not for the real n-body Solar System.

Also, at the Earth-Moon L2 point, the Earth is fully eclipsed. The Earth's umbral cone extends just over 100000km past the Moon at their average separation of 384000km, but the umbral cone for the Earth is quite thin, and has a diameter of less than 1500km at the L2 point. An orbit which goes occasionally outside the umbra may be possible, but it might involve a fair amount of fuel burn.

.... particularly a departmental one, where there's been a history of ad hoc development that met the needs of the staff well when the applications were first developed but there is no management buy-in to maintenance of a code base and no culture of rigour in the developers who may have been brought in and out to do piecework. It's also a standard approach for a manager in an academic position to want a justification, which is fine, although sometimes they want to make insightful comments/recommendations from their academic disciplinary perspective which is often not useful. Academics also ask for a lot of information - after all, their job predisposes them to be analytical - whether they really need to or not. If you really need to sell it, the image in the first reply is helpful - http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/af/Revision_controlled_project_visualization-2010-24-02.svg talk through that, explaining how branches and versions are used in the development process - contrast with the opposite scenario when versioning is not used.

She suggested that we try to write up a brief description of what we wanted and how much it would cost ...

I don't understand why this story is tagged with git and svn then asks how much it will cost. Check out Gitstack, roll your own git on Linux, or any of a million ways to do svn or cvs ... I mean, every version control system I've used in the past ten years has been free. I mean, if you're talking about ... what, SourceSafe? Is there some crappy IBM like ClearCase thing? You think you need to pay for an online service? I don't think you need to move this off your own personal servers unless you want it open sourced. What features are the tagged version control systems missing that you need to request funds for?

Here's how I explain version control to non-techies: "Remember that time you had to work on a group project and you started writing a word document in MS Office and then you passed it out to the group while you still worked on it and then you got four more versions back with corrections and updates and you just started cursing out your computer? Yeah. Believe it or not, they fixed that problem for software a very long time ago and it's dirt cheap. In fact, if developers follow simple rules, those versioning nightmares you had with your group's powerpoint and other Microsoft files never happens."

People have dealt with this problem in other realms for a long time so you just need to find something to relate it to that they've experienced and it'll start clicking much faster. Failing that, wikipedia has visuals.

You'd think anyone with a head for engineering would realize that "five nines" is an expensive standard to meet -- expensive meaning, among other things, that an enormous amount of energy is consumed to maintain redundant hot spares -- and that it's reasonable to ask if the services supported by these datacenters really require such a large commitment of resources.

Wikimedia hosts some of the most valuable public resources on the Internet, but they need fewer servers than some services Microsoft runs out of the Quincy datacenter that you've probably never even heard of and will never use.

Everyone I know with 2 cars have 2 drivers (such as my oldest boy in his S10 while I have my Ranger) so it isn't like the second car is only used occasionally and having a vehicle with such limited range just wouldn't be practical. I mean at first glance it would look like my oldest could trade his S10 for something like an electric, since 90% of his driving is the 10 miles round trip to the local college, but it is that 10%, like when he recently had to drive a friend to another state to attend her grandma's funeral, that would create a real hardship if he didn't have any way to go long distances.

Or you have drivers like me who owns 2 vehicles, One is a 98 Ford Contour that has been totaled out twice by the insurance companies (neither time my fault, bought the car back both times.) and the other is a 1990 Ford Ranger with 240,000 miles. I can insure them both for under $500 PER YEAR and I own both outright. Wooptie do, I have to spend $200-$400 per year on maintaining each one. A car payment is that much PER MONTH.

As for battery tech catching up, that is literally impossible. Physics dictates energy density and physics says that batteries will always suck compared to gasoline and diesel. A look at an energy density chart makes that painfully clear. Our best current batteries are at about half of the theoretical maximum dictated by physics. Batteries need to increase by about a factor of forty to break even with gasoline.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c6/Energy_density.svg

Actually being a noble gas doesn't mean it doesn't form molecules. helium-hydride ions do exist and xenon-difluoride is modestly stable.

Actually being a noble gas doesn't mean it doesn't form molecules. helium-hydride ions do exist and xenon-difluoride is modestly stable.

"A memory is interpreted, cognitively, as a sincere belief."

But not JUST as a sincere belief. That JUST is where you fall into error.

And I repeat : belief encompasses recollection (memory): since everything we know, we also believe. Some things we believe are also objectively true, some things are not. In addition, truth and belief overlap: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2b/Classical-Definition-of-Kno.svg See main article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epistemology To quote

"to believe something" simply means any cognitive content held as true in spite of the absence of proof or even evidence.

Some propositions we believe are also true (these are labelled on the diagram "knowledge") and some are not. In addition some truths we don't know.

"And belief is stored in exactly the same way."

Nuh uh. Citation please.

You think the things we believe don't need to be remembered by the brain? All knowledge is stored in synapses and neurons in the brain, regardless of whether is is held true by empirical means, or not.

"all information in the brain is stored in exactly the same way."

The key word is INFORMATION. Belief is not information.

Belief is information, since we need to remember the propositions we hold to be true (that is, what we believe).

"It tells us that since we accept some things to be true based on cognitive/memory/belief means alone,"

Remove the "belief" part, and your statement has merit.

I think this might be confusion about word usage.

Are you seriously arguing that the USA never stopped its colonial advance?

Of course not! Don't be silly. There's no need to circle the globe more than once. But notice, nothing stopped them from planting a flag on the moon.. symbolic, at least..

Now, if you're trying to tell me that the US doesn't maintain a set of client states around the world through some form of economic/military coercion, just like Europe, Russia and China (though Russia and China mostly control only border states), that would indeed be absurd. Colonialism is far from dead

So was it ever concluded to be the clock?

I believe I saw it in BBC's Horizon, but I've seen Michael Persinger several times in different TV documentaries, so it's hard for me to provide a reference. YouTube was a bust. Web search indicates that what I described is practically a daily activity for this guy... Psychological effects of EM fields on human brains is what he's all about.

Now I know it lacks proper rigor, but I'm going to tentatively assume that Persinger vetted the clock radio, that supernatural phenomena were not at play, and that BBC or PBS wasn't trying to yank my crank. ;o)

Every country has enumerated highways if it has highways,

Presumably by "enumerated" you mean "labeled with an alphanumeric label", given that if you mean "given a pure number" you are mistaken (and, yes, the letters are used on the signs).

Anyone would know it's a highway sign.

As a followup to your post noted, that is a false statement, unless "would" is subjunctive in that claim and you failed to indicate what needs to change in order to make it true.

It looks like Roger Bamkin has been convincing his clients that he's a powerful person regarding the management of Wikipedia sites, so...

[citation needed]

Actually, forget the citation -- this is simply untrue. GLAM outreach was envisioned by a longtime Wikipedian, implemented by another longtime Wikipedian, and supported by a number of longtime Wikipedians (among others). The Wikimedia Foundation has supported the work of the GLAM outreach community, but never driven it.

If people want links to support this background, I'll find some in the morning. They're all over the Outreach wiki, Meta, etc. http://outreach.wikimedia.org/ http://meta.wikimedia.org/

[citation needed]

Actually, forget the citation -- this is simply untrue. GLAM outreach was envisioned by a longtime Wikipedian, implemented by another longtime Wikipedian, and supported by a number of longtime Wikipedians (among others). The Wikimedia Foundation has supported the work of the GLAM outreach community, but never driven it.

If people want links to support this background, I'll find some in the morning. They're all over the Outreach wiki, Meta, etc. http://outreach.wikimedia.org/ http://meta.wikimedia.org/

Try the wikimedia traffic analysis instead: http://stats.wikimedia.org/wikimedia/squids/SquidReportOperatingSystems.htm

Oh no, desktops and laptops are all the way down to 84%. Clearly their time is over.

---

Sent via my PC

I'm not sure what you mean by "marked according to magnetic north", but topographical maps will generally have one of these or these somewhere to indicate true north, grid north, and magnetic north.

Not sure how you can claim it to be a continuation when the the years between the cold war and 9/11 (approximately twelve years) showed steady decline in per capita defense spending.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/PerCapitaInflationAdjustedDefenseSpending.PNG

By that account the 2012 olympic logo should have been banned - it was well known that this depicts Lisa Simpson giving someone a blowjob.

The ground can't support a rail system at the cape. The whole point of the crawler is to spread the weight in such a way that it doesn't cause the stack to sink while being transported. The soviets/russians, launching from what is essentially hard pack desert, can use rail.

While researching a while ago when working for something or other I have long since forgotten, these exact details stuck in my head. Its the simple truth. They would have done it cheaper if the ground wasnt a bloody swamp. The crawler doesnt need to be the way it is because it carries a rocket. It was built and designed because it was needed to carry a rocket to a the hard concrete launch pad, over several miles of soft Florida ground.

They did use rails where they found it applicable. Such as Cape Canaveral Air Force Station - Launch Complex 41 and nearby Launch Complex 40. These 2 launch pads used rail lines to transport Titan family rockets to the pad in a vertical orientation and here is photo of them in use doing just that

Too often the forensic office is friends with and/or pressured by the police or DA to get results.

More likely they are willing to do whatever they can to "fight crime". As an example, I give you the case of Joyce Gilcrist. From the Wilipedia entry

"Joyce Gilchrist is a former forensic chemist who had participated in over 3,000 criminal cases in 21 years while working for the Oklahoma City police department, and who was accused of falsifying evidence. Her evidence led in part to 23 people being sentenced to death, 11 of whom have been executed."

We'll never know how many of those 3000 were actually innocent, while the guilty walked free. She should have been charged with conspiracy to commit murder through depraved indifference, but that's just my opinion.

While the researchers claim to have some interesting insights, there is other overwhelming evidence that Mars did in fact have lots of water concentrated in lakes and rivers in the past. How do we know that? How about the fact that we can see them from orbit? Or that we see river deltas.

It's important to mention that the ballots were redesigned after the 1995 referendum so that the voter's choice is clear and unambiguous. See here: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bc/2011_ballot.jpg/800px-2011_ballot.jpg Mark one of the circles only (an X, fill the circle in, whatever), and it's OK. Mark more than one, the ballot is spoiled. In addition, by law, each citizen gets four continuous hours to vote. That is, somewhere in the twelve hours that the polls are open, your employer has to schedule you so that you can get four uninterrupted hours to vote. So if you local poll open times are 8:30 am - 8:30 pm, and your work schedule is 9:00 am to 6:00 PM, your employer MUST either start your day at 12:30 PM, or end it at 4:30 PM. In all the voting I've done in Canada, the whole process, from the time I've walked into a polling station to the time I've walked out, has seldom been longer than half and hour and never longer than an hour. No, I've never had to queue outside.

I don't remember the parties having any colors when I was a kid, though according to WP, the Dems and Reps did indeed sometimes use Red and Blue respectively. And of course everywhere but here, the left is "Red" and the right is "Blue". I think this has to do with the left being fond of waving red flags (an old symbol for a fight to the death) and the right usually being associated with asserting traditional hierarchies, which originally meant rule by so-called Blue Bloods — people who had the right ancestors.

But the red flag became the symbol of the socialist movement, which has always been unpopular in the U.S. I think American liberals consciously avoided using red, so as to avoid assisting those who defined a commie as anybody to the left of Genghis Khan. So the standard color scheme never really caught on here. Meanwhile, the world socialist movement fell out of favor after the biggest Marxist state collapsed and the second-biggest basically switched over to intensive capitalism — pretty much destroying the whole red-versus-blue image. Since Americans aren't great at historical memory, they were now free to re-invent the color scheme.

It's true that the current Red-State/Blue-State thing started out on TV. (WP says it was first used in the 2000 presidential coverage). But I think the main credit for its spread goes to the right, which embraced an image that neatly illustrated their claim that liberals represent a group of people living in a few prosperous coastal states, and who completely ignore the needs of Americans in flyover states.

Note that redstate.com is an influential political blog, while bluestate.com belongs to an obscure lighting and design firm whose web site has been in parking mode since 2007.

Uh huh...

N1 rocket rollout.

FYI, the cycle is 22 years, not 11.

Mod up this AC, please. The sunspot cycle of about 11 years is only one half of the solar magnetic cycle of about 22 years. And as a side note, the cycle is on average about 22 years. Observed cycles have varied by up to a few years from this.

Volvo(cars) is owned by Ford

Bzzzzt wrong. Volvo cars is owned by Geely.

Volvo(cars) is owned by Ford

Bzzzzt wrong. Volvo cars is owned by Geely.

You should check up on PAE kernels.

Microsoft's flawed implementation (or lack of implementation) of PAE modes means that 32bit Windows can access and manage only 4GB of address space in total, even on a 64bit processor. Linux, BSD, and others implemented PAE correctly, and 32bit Linux can access and manage 64GB of RAM on a 64bit machine. Since it is rare for a single process to require more than 4GB of its own address space, there is not much reason to migrate from i386 to amd64 on Linux. On 32bit Windows, however, the total address space of all processes including the base OS and hardware I/O space cannot exceed 4GB. Hence the rapid shift from 32bit to 64bit in Windows, but the much more leisurely migration on Linux and BSD.

[...] a privilege, not a right.

This well-worn thought-terminating cliché, used often by authoritarians and their apologists, is essentially meaningless... It is handy, however, both for the aforementioned scum who utter it, but especially for those among us who value liberty in identifying those who seek to control the freedom and actions of other people.

Cambridge and Oxford may not be entirely typical, but they only have 20 weeks/academic year of lectures. Yet they don't seem to have trouble teaching people things.

Exactly this. Finland has one of the shortest school years in Europe (based on hours at school per year), both for grade school and for high school. However, it consistently comes near the top in the PISA rankings for 15-year-olds. Some of the school hours appear to be fruitless time wasting in those countries with a lot more hours in the school year.

What is needed is not shorter holidays for the kids, but longer vacations for their parents. How much of your work time is productive, how much is socially useful (as opposed to directly useful), and how much is just wasted?

Man, you're really pretty stupid aren't you? Do you realize OS X is BSD UNIX? No, I guess you don't realize that because you're a fucking noob who doesn't know dick. Get a clue retard.

Do you realize that BSD Unix is not the same as Linux?

Man, you're really pretty stupid aren't you? Do you realize OS X is BSD UNIX? No, I guess you don't realize that because you're a fucking noob who doesn't know dick. Get a clue retard.

morningstar?

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

A Morning Star is a spiked mace-like weapon. The aircraft in question looks much more like a hira shuriken, aka. a "ninja star" or "throwing star".