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Mars Rover Stuck in a Dune
Bamfarooni writes "The NASA Mars rover Opportunity has gotten stuck in a dune, buried up to the hubs of the wheels. While they haven't given up yet, it doesn't look good for the little guy who's now 359 days into the extended mission." From the article: "The Mars machinery had been cruising southward across the open parking lot-like landscape of Meridiani Planum, full of larger and larger ripples of soil. Opportunity has been en route to its next stopover, Erebus crater, nestled inside an even larger crater known as Terra Nova."
A musty atmosphere of neglect pervaded the subbasement of University Library. The books on the shelves were covered in a fine layering of dust. There were dim lights over the small study cubicles at the end of each aisle between the towering shelves. The lights produced only enough illumination for the top of the desks, leaving the surrounding stacks and central walkway shrouded in a perpetual twilight.
I had finally found the copy of the heavy API guide I needed for my work connecting my SQL database to the graphical front end I had been slaving over all weekend. However, the intricacy of the cover of the neighboring book drew my attention and I brought it along to the desk for better inspection under the light. The cover looked a lot newer than the heavily thumbed volumes beside it. Emblazened
across the front was the title "Linux - Unleash the Power of your PC" together with a picture of a fat cartoonish looking penguin. As I opened the book I felt a strange buzzing in my head that quickly passed. I shrugged it off as my attention was drawn to a CD which dropped out and landed on the desk in front of me. It bore the same title as the book, together with something about 'Knoppix' which was a word I did not recognise.
I had heard of Linux though. The University ran Unix on some of their servers, although I rarely chose to interact with those systems. Perhaps I should broaden my horizons though. I liked to think I knew just about everything there was to know about using Windows, but you could never have too many strings to your bow. Almost without thinking I slipped the CD into my pocket and returned my attention to my work.
A date with my girlfriend Paige followed the work in the library. I was one of the few students on my CS course to actually have a partner since, although computers interested me and would one day be my means of making a living, I was careful not to get drawn into the geek subculture that seemed to pervade the department. Some of the guys with their nerdish glasses and unwashed t-shirts grunted at me strangely when I declined to join in their games of Counterstrike, but I reminded myself that while they were shut up in a grimy computer lab scoffing Cheetos I was getting laid on a regular basis.
That night in my dorm room while I was getting ready for bed, I remembered the CD in my pocket and fired up my laptop to take a look. I still couldn't make out what the strange messages flowing across the screen meant. Perhaps if I sounded them out their meaning would become clear. I tried to phonetically pronounce the words but they disappeared too quickly to be replaced with a blank screen. I gave up, turned off the light and climbed into bed.
The erotic dream started with Paige slowly caressing my back and buttocks. The caressing transitioned into an incredibly gentle massage starting at my neck and shoulders and running down my back. My butt cheeks were being massaged apart and I spread my legs and raised my rear as her hand reached underneath me from behind to stroke my erection. Her hand was very warm and felt wonderful as I started to slowly thrust into her hand as she started jerking me off. A huge long warm and moist tongue started playing over my testicles and anus. It felt fantastic. No one had ever licked me there before. I never knew how sensual it felt.
As her hot hand was expertly running up and down my rigid penis something started probing my anus. It snaked its way into my anal opening and it started slowly expanding. Suddenly I had the urge to move my bowels, but I didn't care, as my attention was totally focused on my imminent orgasm. My penis was released as Paige suddenly grabbed my sides and jammed her hips against my butt.
I woke up to find myself with my rear in the air. Someone was grabbing my sides and hitting my butt. I jolted fully awake as I felt something expanding in my rectum and realized I was being fucked. The cock in my butt was still expanding and was becoming painfully large. I thought I could actually feel it movin
I laughed, I cried... I went and installed Linux right away
Bill Gates is gripping the rim of his porcelain bowl, trembling, paralyzed and waiting...
Maybe they have already found it :
project hello (work safe link, agecheck is because there is an advertisement for heineken alcohol in there)
and click "play movie"
Time for nasa to join project H.E.L.L.O
http://www.h-e-l-l-o.org/
Be sure to watch the movie!
It's gonna get pissed and come back as Op'nity, I swear it.
Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.
Come back my child, lay your head down. There's no real threat, only rovers on Mars.
Such a better problem then the one here on Earth!
We all dance, we all sing.
-The Streets
When the freeways are not filled to capacity, then leaving more following room does not slow you down at all, this is true. However "not filled to capacity" does not describe LA freeways in the slightest. If the freeway system has all the cars it can fit, then leaving more following room effectively reduces the carrying capacity of the road, leading to all sorts of other traffic jam problems.
(Consider this example: A 1000 meter section of road, with 6 lanes and each car occupies 15 meters of space, can carry (1000/15)*6 = 296 cars.. but now stretch that out and leave twice as much following distance (so each car occupies 30 meters of road), and now the same chunk of freeway only holds half as many cars (1000/30)*6 = 198 cars.)
Leaving more following distance equals reducing the carrying capacity of the freeway. This is not a problem in cities where traffic isn't congested and the freeway isn't already at its maximum capacity. LA is not in that situtaion, though.
Don't label something "offtopic" unless you know the topic well enough to tell what's on topic.