I wonder whether the cannibalism model might be applied to lawyers? Trace the path of destruction from law schools all over the country to Washington, New York and Los Angeles. They seem to be feeding happily enough at present, but I'd keep a sharp eye out in those cities for evidence of a new swarm...battered briefcases discarded in alleys like nibbled wing casings, a Givenchy shoe mysteriously abandoned near the Capitol steps, that sort of thing.
In no particular order: several varieties from the Upper Canada brewery, Cameron Auburn or Cream Ale, Creemore Lager or Urbock, Robert Simpson (I think Confederation is the only widely-available one, and it's not their best, unfortunately), Muskoka Premium Dark, Northern Cream Ale and Premium Lager, Steam Whistle (a tasty but quite light lager), Stone Hammer Pilsner, Wellington Arkell Best Bitter or Special Pale Ale. These are all good (I've had every one of 'em myself), and represent a range from almost stout to light lager (though not Lite Beer, if you get my drift). There's also zillions of little microbreweries that make some pretty spectacular beer in smaller quantities.
These beers are a bit off the beaten path (I imagine you'll get a lot of people recommending Alexander Keith's. It's good if you like a really light-tasting pint. Otherwise, not so much.)
I get the impression you're after something a bit different. Hope this helps.
Brilliant post! Gave me a really good chuckle.
My friend, you are welcome in my igloo any time to put your feet up on the coffee table, pet the moose and join me in a few Upper Canada ales.
The reason there's never been a "skycar" has always been computing, not engineering. I look at the idiots I see every day on the roads and the idea of letting them get a thousand or so pounds up where it can do some real damage scares the crap out of me. I'll even allow that I haven't been perfect. Though I've never been in an accident that was my fault, I'm sure that's because some other driver was more alert than I was at some time.
Bottom line: until there was a computer that could fly a plane safely, there's no way any sane person would hand the keys to anything flyable to an everyday driver. We've got that now, so just maybe we can give it a try.
I think you may have misunderstood me a bit. My point wasn't what the X-15 did then, but what the X-15 approach would have yielded by now. The X-15 program was intentionally limited as part of the decision to use adapted ICBM's for launching manned space vehicles.
At least some (maybe all) X-15 pilots have their astronaut wings because the higher flights achieved altitudes defined nationally and internationally as "space" (The service ceiling is officially reported at 67 miles). The pilots were given very clear orders about how high they were allowed to go. Even the original model was space-capable, and if reports are correct, in one case the pilot was threatened with career death if he allowed his vehicle to achieve orbit. That would have brought the program into direct competition with Mercury, and that was deemed unacceptable.
The real story is that the original 1959 edition could, as you put it, "scratch space a little bit" repeatedly and land with no big deal. If allowed, even the original configuration could have done much more. Blown the doors off its competition, Project Mercury, without even cracking a sweat.
The X-15 flew 200 times for only $300 million. That was nearly half a century ago. I think it's reasonable to assume that they could have made an improvement or two to make the thing truly space-capable if we'd gone down that road.
For an apples-to-apples comparison, put the X-15 up against its direct competition, the Project Mercury space vehicle. You could barely shoehorn an astronaut into Mercury, it flew only 6 times (two of those sub-orbital). The program cost a billion and a half dollars.
If they want to be practical about getting to space, the old X-15 program had it down pat. Three vehicles, 200 flights in less than 10 years. One fatal crash. You launched the thing from a plane or a balloon. No waste, no fuss. And because you're not constantly throwing something the size of a young apartment building into orbit, a single accident doesn't effectively knock you out of space for years. It couldn't carry much more than the pilot, but only an idiot would doubt that by the third generation (the original RFP's went out in the mid-50's) it would have carried a reasonable payload.
I think it all started to go wrong for NASA when politicians were allowed to their poke their long, ratlike noses into the business of scientists and engineers. If not for the damned shuttle program, there'd be a crew drinking beer on Mars by now.
So to those Slashdotters out there who have a girlfriend, or know what a girl is, here's your chance. Addict her to the joys of cutting-edge tech with the new take on that hoary old standby, the soap opera. Just think...one exposure to this and she'll be dragging you back to the scene of the crime again, and again, and again. You'll even be able to justify canceling that holiday in the Bahamas to buy the AR display and software.
Then, the minute her back's turned, you can use the set-up for it's REAL purpose: interactive pr0n!
By this time tomorrow, I'll be invested up to my neck in Vaseline and Kleenex futures. I'm gonna be RICH!!!!!!!!!!!
We have a similar problem up here in Canada. Why is it that unless the picture on your license looks like a pair of spread ass cheeks, it's almost impossible to get elected on this continent? Whatever party you tend to vote for is guaranteed to pick the candidate most likely to trigger your gag reflex and tell you, "Them or nobody".
How can anyone possibly expect another moronic prick like Bush to get elected if they can't rig the vote? If there's any community that knows how poisonous to democracy those voting machines are, it's the people who hang out here. I REALLY hope somebody manages to get into a few of them and ensure that 100% of the vote goes to a single candidate in at least a few districts.
See what happens when you cheap out? A few million bucks in the Swiss bank accounts of some high government officials would, I'm sure, have smoothed the shiny golden road to a stunning African Vista.
If you call it a stalemate when you're being held face-down on your bunk by five or six prisoners while the one they call "Anaconda" is pulling your pants down, then maybe Sony is right.
On the other hand, the next time I yell, "Hey bitch, get me a beer," I bet a Sony exec comes running with my pint.
The most profound question you can ask in science, philosophy and religion is the same: "Are we alone?"
To hell with the Luddites and to hell with the bean counters. They suck up all the benefits of science and technology without having the slightest clue about it. And they have the audacity to claim a voice in where and how research should be conducted. Screw 'em!
If we can't spare a few bucks looking for an answer that would truly change everything about how we look at the stars, we should go back to living in caves and dying of old age at 35.
I've always found Adobe's programs useful, but for some reason I've found their interfaces to be counterintuitive, messy time-wasters. PhotoShop is just the worst of a truly horrible bunch in that respect. I absolutely love what you can do with images in PhotoShop, but I can't count the number of times I've had to get up and walk away from the computer in a rage because something that should be dead-simple is buried where no sane person would look for it.
I can't wait to see what the re-design looks like. I only wish to hell they'd asked me first. Not that I'm a world-class expert, it's just that I have a feeling some guy from Adobe sneaks in every so often and has Audition or PhotoShop or Acrobat report on how I use them just so the next version can piss me off all over again.
Thanks, but based on their track record, I think I'd prefer it the way it was. Have they fired that one scientist who spoke up yet, or did he go public in time to embarrass them out of it?
How long 'til some little Einstein writes a crack for this or makes a mod chip on daddy's workbench and Microsoft winds up dragging a five-year-old into court?
And the odds of the terms "Global Warming" or "Climate Change" being used in connection with any of this data will be about the same as the odds of me getting into a three-way with Jessica Alba and Angelina Jolie.
Yeah, that's just what I want...Google giving up my name and address to some prick so they can spam me in my own house. If I give Google my personal info for ANY reason, I expect them to keep in under lock and key, not make it part of a "detailed sales report".
Basically, if I didn't give you that information myself or direct Google to let you have it, you aren't entitled to it and you can fuck off.
Ah, CRAP!!! I get busy and don't look at Slashdot for a while. So I miss that a Microsoft Hive Queen has been deleted from the Collective until there's already about a zillion comments on it. And a lot of the comments are funny. And most of the writers came up with the same ideas I did...earlier (and probably funnier).
Caught using Linux/Apple/Firefox/Whatever: check.
Caught having an affair: check.
Caught dumping Vista for XP Pro: I didn't see it, but it's too good to miss. So check.
Caught pirating: See above.
Has a better arm than Ballmer: check.
Theft/Murder/Coveting his neighbor's ox: check
Coveting his neighbor's (cough) ass (cough): check.
Damn it, I WILL NOT BE DENIED! What's left? Interspecies sex? Are Bill Gates' kids old enough to date?
Wait, wait.....I got it! He photocopied his bum and mistakenly hit "Reply All" when the e-mail should have gone to Ballmer as part of the secret Microsoft submission ritual.
Does this have anything to do with the "Intergalactic missing mass" in the other story? Perhaps the astronomers and the BBC should get together and compare notes. Maybe they'd find enough mass to account for the formation of galaxies and locate all those missing Linux visitors in one easy step.
Slashdot Mirror
I wonder whether the cannibalism model might be applied to lawyers? Trace the path of destruction from law schools all over the country to Washington, New York and Los Angeles. They seem to be feeding happily enough at present, but I'd keep a sharp eye out in those cities for evidence of a new swarm...battered briefcases discarded in alleys like nibbled wing casings, a Givenchy shoe mysteriously abandoned near the Capitol steps, that sort of thing.
Support Yahoo. Send a dissident to camp.
Just make sure they aren't all wearing those red "Security" shirts. Then you'd just KNOW none of them were going to make it back.
In no particular order: several varieties from the Upper Canada brewery, Cameron Auburn or Cream Ale, Creemore Lager or Urbock, Robert Simpson (I think Confederation is the only widely-available one, and it's not their best, unfortunately), Muskoka Premium Dark, Northern Cream Ale and Premium Lager, Steam Whistle (a tasty but quite light lager), Stone Hammer Pilsner, Wellington Arkell Best Bitter or Special Pale Ale. These are all good (I've had every one of 'em myself), and represent a range from almost stout to light lager (though not Lite Beer, if you get my drift). There's also zillions of little microbreweries that make some pretty spectacular beer in smaller quantities.
These beers are a bit off the beaten path (I imagine you'll get a lot of people recommending Alexander Keith's. It's good if you like a really light-tasting pint. Otherwise, not so much.)
I get the impression you're after something a bit different. Hope this helps.
Brilliant post! Gave me a really good chuckle. My friend, you are welcome in my igloo any time to put your feet up on the coffee table, pet the moose and join me in a few Upper Canada ales.
The RCMP doesn't prosecute anybody. That's the job of the Crown.
The reason there's never been a "skycar" has always been computing, not engineering. I look at the idiots I see every day on the roads and the idea of letting them get a thousand or so pounds up where it can do some real damage scares the crap out of me. I'll even allow that I haven't been perfect. Though I've never been in an accident that was my fault, I'm sure that's because some other driver was more alert than I was at some time.
Bottom line: until there was a computer that could fly a plane safely, there's no way any sane person would hand the keys to anything flyable to an everyday driver. We've got that now, so just maybe we can give it a try.
I think you may have misunderstood me a bit. My point wasn't what the X-15 did then, but what the X-15 approach would have yielded by now. The X-15 program was intentionally limited as part of the decision to use adapted ICBM's for launching manned space vehicles.
At least some (maybe all) X-15 pilots have their astronaut wings because the higher flights achieved altitudes defined nationally and internationally as "space" (The service ceiling is officially reported at 67 miles). The pilots were given very clear orders about how high they were allowed to go. Even the original model was space-capable, and if reports are correct, in one case the pilot was threatened with career death if he allowed his vehicle to achieve orbit. That would have brought the program into direct competition with Mercury, and that was deemed unacceptable.
The real story is that the original 1959 edition could, as you put it, "scratch space a little bit" repeatedly and land with no big deal. If allowed, even the original configuration could have done much more. Blown the doors off its competition, Project Mercury, without even cracking a sweat.
The X-15 flew 200 times for only $300 million. That was nearly half a century ago. I think it's reasonable to assume that they could have made an improvement or two to make the thing truly space-capable if we'd gone down that road.
For an apples-to-apples comparison, put the X-15 up against its direct competition, the Project Mercury space vehicle. You could barely shoehorn an astronaut into Mercury, it flew only 6 times (two of those sub-orbital). The program cost a billion and a half dollars.
If they want to be practical about getting to space, the old X-15 program had it down pat. Three vehicles, 200 flights in less than 10 years. One fatal crash. You launched the thing from a plane or a balloon. No waste, no fuss. And because you're not constantly throwing something the size of a young apartment building into orbit, a single accident doesn't effectively knock you out of space for years. It couldn't carry much more than the pilot, but only an idiot would doubt that by the third generation (the original RFP's went out in the mid-50's) it would have carried a reasonable payload.
I think it all started to go wrong for NASA when politicians were allowed to their poke their long, ratlike noses into the business of scientists and engineers. If not for the damned shuttle program, there'd be a crew drinking beer on Mars by now.
So to those Slashdotters out there who have a girlfriend, or know what a girl is, here's your chance. Addict her to the joys of cutting-edge tech with the new take on that hoary old standby, the soap opera. Just think...one exposure to this and she'll be dragging you back to the scene of the crime again, and again, and again. You'll even be able to justify canceling that holiday in the Bahamas to buy the AR display and software.
Then, the minute her back's turned, you can use the set-up for it's REAL purpose: interactive pr0n!
By this time tomorrow, I'll be invested up to my neck in Vaseline and Kleenex futures. I'm gonna be RICH!!!!!!!!!!!
We have a similar problem up here in Canada. Why is it that unless the picture on your license looks like a pair of spread ass cheeks, it's almost impossible to get elected on this continent? Whatever party you tend to vote for is guaranteed to pick the candidate most likely to trigger your gag reflex and tell you, "Them or nobody".
How can anyone possibly expect another moronic prick like Bush to get elected if they can't rig the vote? If there's any community that knows how poisonous to democracy those voting machines are, it's the people who hang out here. I REALLY hope somebody manages to get into a few of them and ensure that 100% of the vote goes to a single candidate in at least a few districts.
See what happens when you cheap out? A few million bucks in the Swiss bank accounts of some high government officials would, I'm sure, have smoothed the shiny golden road to a stunning African Vista.
If you call it a stalemate when you're being held face-down on your bunk by five or six prisoners while the one they call "Anaconda" is pulling your pants down, then maybe Sony is right.
On the other hand, the next time I yell, "Hey bitch, get me a beer," I bet a Sony exec comes running with my pint.
The most profound question you can ask in science, philosophy and religion is the same: "Are we alone?"
To hell with the Luddites and to hell with the bean counters. They suck up all the benefits of science and technology without having the slightest clue about it. And they have the audacity to claim a voice in where and how research should be conducted. Screw 'em!
If we can't spare a few bucks looking for an answer that would truly change everything about how we look at the stars, we should go back to living in caves and dying of old age at 35.
I've always found Adobe's programs useful, but for some reason I've found their interfaces to be counterintuitive, messy time-wasters. PhotoShop is just the worst of a truly horrible bunch in that respect. I absolutely love what you can do with images in PhotoShop, but I can't count the number of times I've had to get up and walk away from the computer in a rage because something that should be dead-simple is buried where no sane person would look for it.
I can't wait to see what the re-design looks like. I only wish to hell they'd asked me first. Not that I'm a world-class expert, it's just that I have a feeling some guy from Adobe sneaks in every so often and has Audition or PhotoShop or Acrobat report on how I use them just so the next version can piss me off all over again.
Thanks, but based on their track record, I think I'd prefer it the way it was. Have they fired that one scientist who spoke up yet, or did he go public in time to embarrass them out of it?
How long 'til some little Einstein writes a crack for this or makes a mod chip on daddy's workbench and Microsoft winds up dragging a five-year-old into court?
And the odds of the terms "Global Warming" or "Climate Change" being used in connection with any of this data will be about the same as the odds of me getting into a three-way with Jessica Alba and Angelina Jolie.
1910 feet. My eyes have gone all weird, and I twitch when I walk. Last night I dreamed about cats.
Yeah, that's just what I want...Google giving up my name and address to some prick so they can spam me in my own house. If I give Google my personal info for ANY reason, I expect them to keep in under lock and key, not make it part of a "detailed sales report".
Basically, if I didn't give you that information myself or direct Google to let you have it, you aren't entitled to it and you can fuck off.
Ah, CRAP!!! I get busy and don't look at Slashdot for a while. So I miss that a Microsoft Hive Queen has been deleted from the Collective until there's already about a zillion comments on it. And a lot of the comments are funny. And most of the writers came up with the same ideas I did...earlier (and probably funnier).
Caught using Linux/Apple/Firefox/Whatever: check.
Caught having an affair: check.
Caught dumping Vista for XP Pro: I didn't see it, but it's too good to miss. So check.
Caught pirating: See above.
Has a better arm than Ballmer: check.
Theft/Murder/Coveting his neighbor's ox: check
Coveting his neighbor's (cough) ass (cough): check.
Damn it, I WILL NOT BE DENIED! What's left? Interspecies sex? Are Bill Gates' kids old enough to date?
Wait, wait.....I got it! He photocopied his bum and mistakenly hit "Reply All" when the e-mail should have gone to Ballmer as part of the secret Microsoft submission ritual.
TA DA!!!!!
I swear to God I'll get you for this.
Only 792 feet and I KNOW it would have gone further if the plant hadn't eaten it.
CBC (Canada's version of the BBC) is still a going concern on short wave, as far as I know. You might give them a try.
Does this have anything to do with the "Intergalactic missing mass" in the other story? Perhaps the astronomers and the BBC should get together and compare notes. Maybe they'd find enough mass to account for the formation of galaxies and locate all those missing Linux visitors in one easy step.