And the Templars somehow did this without spreading smallpox to the natives or leaving any tangible evidence of European mining technology or metalwork?I am highly skeptical.
Then they started putting out all these animated films in 3-D- Robots, Beowulf, Up, etc. And I kept paying the extra to see the 3-D versions. Something kept bothering me though. Then, in the middle of Up, I realized what it was: after about 10 minutes, I stopped noticing that it was 3-D at all. I mean, if you get really absorbed in a movie, you don't need it to be 3-D anyway... and frankly, 3-D images never look three dimensional like they do in the real world. They have an otherworldly quality that seems, at least to me, in some ways less natural than 2-D images. Maybe it's that they don't define the subtleties of the true three dimensional world well enough, I don't know. Half the time it almost seems like I'm looking at one of those paper cut-out toy theatres where there's several levels of depth, but everything on each level is flat and it's only the levels themselves that are spaced apart. Am I the only one who feels this way?
Typefaces can define things in a story that mere words sometimes can't. Comic books prove to be an excellent example of this. Take this page from the (admittedly now insane but once genius) Dave Sim's Cerebus- http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/5641/cerebusbiweekly13155gu.jpg
As you can see, the way the text looks is as important to understanding what the character is trying to say as what that character is saying.
To be fair, this is not something that works with every single document on the planet, but it can prove very useful.
Okay, but this is the real world, not an Ayn Rand fantasy utopia. People are not going to realize or want to use their powers as individuals. Many people are perfectly happy being sheep as long as they are in a comfy pasture with plenty of grass. Despite my personal distaste for that behavior, I still feel those people deserve the same basic human rights as I do. The only way to ensure they have those rights is to work within the system, not rebel against it. The only way you will get people to join your self-reliance revolution will be for them to suffer a hell of a lot more than they are now. I, for one, am thankful we don't live in a world that desperate yet.
Imagine the political power struggle for control which would happen if one well-placed nuke took out D.C. when the president and VP were both at home and congress was in session? The surviving administration members, congresspeople and probably a fair number of governors would see this as a chance to grab the power they have craved for so long and things would get very ugly.
Meanwhile, every single federal agency in the entire country has no idea where their funding is going to come from since all the people who allocate it are dead.
it occurs to me that there is a minor flaw in powering a robot clock on household pests- namely that the goal of a pest-eating device is to rid you of said pests. Once it eats all the flies, the clock stops working... so you have to encourage more flies. Or mice in the case of the mouse-eater. That sounds like it might have a down side.
Talk about a nested series of links. I had to go through 3 separate sites- Slashdot, Endgadget, and Hack-a-Day, one linked to the other, until I got to the original New Scientist gallery photos which had many more interesting robot pictures. Oh, and the end link wasn't to page 1 of the photo gallery and the links weren't obvious each time either. For those who don't want to go the long way around, here is the original link.
L.A. times subscription- $156 a year.
Big-Size Kindle - $500.
Think I'll stick with the dead trees for now. By the time the Kindle has paid for itself, there will be a dozen newer, better, cheaper models.
There will always be people who want to preserve obsolete technology for all sorts of reasons and if it does it for 'em, more power to 'em, I guess. I don't really see this as any weirder or more impractical than people learning to make chain mail or speak a dead language.
But it didn't have any problems speaking English and its display showed us that it also had no problem reading English (although why a robot needed to have a display with English on it I don't know)- it just did it with an Austrian accent.
Slashdot Mirror
You can't actually start the surgery until the OR walls load or it just isn't sterile.
And the Templars somehow did this without spreading smallpox to the natives or leaving any tangible evidence of European mining technology or metalwork?I am highly skeptical.
Thanks for the detailed explanation. I don't have any mod points, but if I did, you'd be getting 'insightful' from me.
Then they started putting out all these animated films in 3-D- Robots, Beowulf, Up, etc. And I kept paying the extra to see the 3-D versions. Something kept bothering me though. Then, in the middle of Up, I realized what it was: after about 10 minutes, I stopped noticing that it was 3-D at all. I mean, if you get really absorbed in a movie, you don't need it to be 3-D anyway... and frankly, 3-D images never look three dimensional like they do in the real world. They have an otherworldly quality that seems, at least to me, in some ways less natural than 2-D images. Maybe it's that they don't define the subtleties of the true three dimensional world well enough, I don't know. Half the time it almost seems like I'm looking at one of those paper cut-out toy theatres where there's several levels of depth, but everything on each level is flat and it's only the levels themselves that are spaced apart. Am I the only one who feels this way?
Typefaces can define things in a story that mere words sometimes can't. Comic books prove to be an excellent example of this. Take this page from the (admittedly now insane but once genius) Dave Sim's Cerebus- http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/5641/cerebusbiweekly13155gu.jpg
As you can see, the way the text looks is as important to understanding what the character is trying to say as what that character is saying.
To be fair, this is not something that works with every single document on the planet, but it can prove very useful.
Okay, but this is the real world, not an Ayn Rand fantasy utopia. People are not going to realize or want to use their powers as individuals. Many people are perfectly happy being sheep as long as they are in a comfy pasture with plenty of grass. Despite my personal distaste for that behavior, I still feel those people deserve the same basic human rights as I do. The only way to ensure they have those rights is to work within the system, not rebel against it. The only way you will get people to join your self-reliance revolution will be for them to suffer a hell of a lot more than they are now. I, for one, am thankful we don't live in a world that desperate yet.
Imagine the political power struggle for control which would happen if one well-placed nuke took out D.C. when the president and VP were both at home and congress was in session? The surviving administration members, congresspeople and probably a fair number of governors would see this as a chance to grab the power they have craved for so long and things would get very ugly. Meanwhile, every single federal agency in the entire country has no idea where their funding is going to come from since all the people who allocate it are dead.
Oh, come on. Everyone knows that the Moon landings were filmed in a movie studio... on Mars.
it occurs to me that there is a minor flaw in powering a robot clock on household pests- namely that the goal of a pest-eating device is to rid you of said pests. Once it eats all the flies, the clock stops working... so you have to encourage more flies. Or mice in the case of the mouse-eater. That sounds like it might have a down side.
Talk about a nested series of links. I had to go through 3 separate sites- Slashdot, Endgadget, and Hack-a-Day, one linked to the other, until I got to the original New Scientist gallery photos which had many more interesting robot pictures. Oh, and the end link wasn't to page 1 of the photo gallery and the links weren't obvious each time either. For those who don't want to go the long way around, here is the original link.
He liked it so much, he brought Billy Mays up with him to sell to him personally.
Not only that, it was largely balsa wood (covered by plywood to make it more sturdy).
That's pretty much what got Bush two terms, wasn't it?
L.A. times subscription- $156 a year. Big-Size Kindle - $500. Think I'll stick with the dead trees for now. By the time the Kindle has paid for itself, there will be a dozen newer, better, cheaper models.
In space, no one can hear you grunt.
That's what they said about King Kong.
There will always be people who want to preserve obsolete technology for all sorts of reasons and if it does it for 'em, more power to 'em, I guess. I don't really see this as any weirder or more impractical than people learning to make chain mail or speak a dead language.
I believe you'll find that six photos is really all you require in this situation...
First Constantinople, then this. And I still want to know- why did Constantinople get the works?
I don't know about you, but I generally don't get addicted to the non-fun games.
But it didn't have any problems speaking English and its display showed us that it also had no problem reading English (although why a robot needed to have a display with English on it I don't know)- it just did it with an Austrian accent.
I don't think it was, but it was lip-synched just as poorly.
Hey, I think the company that made the video those government guys are watching also made Hercules in New York.
I still want to know why Skynet gave its main fighting robot the ability to speak English, then programmed it to have an Austrian accent.
You're one of the sci-fi authors they hired, aren't you? Good luck on your novel.