My wife and I got married this past January, and we went with Ti bands for several reasons. Most have been mentioned by other people already (virtually indestructable, really light, geek factor, etc.) but we also had our own twist to it. The ring style we bought
http://titaniumera.com/order/order-goldinlays-he ar tofgold-hs.html
was called the "Heart of Gold," and to continue with the HHGTG theme we had "DON'T PANIC" inscribed on the inside. We figure that getting married is about as predictable as hitchhiking, and no matter what may come those two words will be the single most useful piece of advice to remember.
A friend of my fiancee's family has a very rare heart condition, and is currently on the waiting list for the artificial heart. I'm glad to hear that the transplants are moving ahead, because each one means that this friend has a little more hope that he can lead a mostly normal life someday.
I got my Dark Side Developer Kit 2 months ago...
on
Lego Mindstorms AT-AT
·
· Score: 1
although I had to pay $120 for it at FAO in New York. anyway, right now my AT-AT model is perched on top of my computer monitor. I never really had a lot of trouble getting it to walk.
And for those people who say that the lego "developer kits" aren't true mindstormes because they use the Microscout controller... just wait. Sometime within the next 3-6 months, LEGO is going to release hardware to allow you to program the microscout (but only up to 15 instructions *sigh*). I remember reading about this on a LEGO reverse engineering site, but unfortunately I didn't bookmark the link.
If you've got $100 to spare, and already own some mindstorms sets, it's a good set to buy.... Otherwaise, I'd suggest saving the money for one of the Hyperdetail sets that LEGO just came out with.
I live here in Kansas, and I have to start by saying just how pissed off I am about the way the media (including Slashdot) has managed to mangle this issue from the time it first came up almost a year ago.
Anyway, on to what I was intending to post...
A couple weeks back, I had the opportunity to hear Linda Holloway speak about the Kansas BOE decision, and how the world has reacted to it since then. Now, some of the highlights of her speech:
First off, contrary to popular belief, Kansas has not outlawed evolution. It can still be freely taught. Nor did the board touch microevolution - a phenomena which is well observed and documented. At the same time, the board did not force creationism into the schools. the idea that it has done so is purly fictional and concocted by those who wanted to make an incindiary story of the issue.
What the board's decision did do was remove macroevolution from the SCIENCE standards. The justification behind this decision is that macroevolution is not natural science, but is instead natural PHILOSOPHY.
Secondly, this is not a matter of religion vs. government. Linda stated that pretty much everyone on the (then) board would describe themselves as christain, regardless of how they voted on the standards decision. This was a decision which was made in the best interest of education. (see above)
Finally, one of the other things she talked about was the fact that the BOE spent more time debating math standards than they did science standards... primarily, the use of calculators in elementary schools. I know this seems a bit odd and off topic at first, but if you take a moment to think rationally, the BOE decision on math is just as important and socially impacting as the decision on science. Ask yourself, would you like to live in a society where people are unable (or more so than they are today) to perform simple everyday arithmetic claculations without the aid of a machine? at the same time, would you like to have people who can only regurgitate information which has been fed to them, without any processing going on from the brain? Of course not!
(and now back to my thoughts on this)
Those kids should be educated, and that's exactly what the board was trying to in both subjects. By putting evolution in it's proper place (the area of natural philosophy) the Kansas BOE opened the door for true science education, one where students are allowed to look at ALL the facts and make their own conclusions without being forced into one viewpoint or another.
Sometimes I really wish I could turn a clue into a good solid object and smack people upside the head with it. This issue has been blown waaaay out of proportion (stupid election years!) and the vast majority of those who express their opinions on it are trying to force their dogmatic viewpoints on others. All I know is that I've heard it from the source now, and I encourage others to find the facts as well.
Slashdot Mirror
My wife and I got married this past January, and we went with Ti bands for several reasons. Most have been mentioned by other people already (virtually indestructable, really light, geek factor, etc.) but we also had our own twist to it. The ring style we bought
e ar tofgold-hs.html
http://titaniumera.com/order/order-goldinlays-h
was called the "Heart of Gold," and to continue with the HHGTG theme we had "DON'T PANIC" inscribed on the inside. We figure that getting married is about as predictable as hitchhiking, and no matter what may come those two words will be the single most useful piece of advice to remember.
I just spotted SSX Tricky at my local Target store last night!!!
A friend of my fiancee's family has a very rare heart condition, and is currently on the waiting list for the artificial heart. I'm glad to hear that the transplants are moving ahead, because each one means that this friend has a little more hope that he can lead a mostly normal life someday.
although I had to pay $120 for it at FAO in New York. anyway, right now my AT-AT model is perched on top of my computer monitor. I never really had a lot of trouble getting it to walk.
And for those people who say that the lego "developer kits" aren't true mindstormes because they use the Microscout controller... just wait. Sometime within the next 3-6 months, LEGO is going to release hardware to allow you to program the microscout (but only up to 15 instructions *sigh*). I remember reading about this on a LEGO reverse engineering site, but unfortunately I didn't bookmark the link.
If you've got $100 to spare, and already own some mindstorms sets, it's a good set to buy.... Otherwaise, I'd suggest saving the money for one of the Hyperdetail sets that LEGO just came out with.
I live here in Kansas, and I have to start by saying just how pissed off I am about the way the media (including Slashdot) has managed to mangle this issue from the time it first came up almost a year ago.
Anyway, on to what I was intending to post...
A couple weeks back, I had the opportunity to hear Linda Holloway speak about the Kansas BOE decision, and how the world has reacted to it since then. Now, some of the highlights of her speech:
First off, contrary to popular belief, Kansas has not outlawed evolution. It can still be freely taught. Nor did the board touch microevolution - a phenomena which is well observed and documented. At the same time, the board did not force creationism into the schools. the idea that it has done so is purly fictional and concocted by those who wanted to make an incindiary story of the issue.
What the board's decision did do was remove macroevolution from the SCIENCE standards. The justification behind this decision is that macroevolution is not natural science, but is instead natural PHILOSOPHY.
Secondly, this is not a matter of religion vs. government. Linda stated that pretty much everyone on the (then) board would describe themselves as christain, regardless of how they voted on the standards decision. This was a decision which was made in the best interest of education. (see above)
Finally, one of the other things she talked about was the fact that the BOE spent more time debating math standards than they did science standards... primarily, the use of calculators in elementary schools. I know this seems a bit odd and off topic at first, but if you take a moment to think rationally, the BOE decision on math is just as important and socially impacting as the decision on science. Ask yourself, would you like to live in a society where people are unable (or more so than they are today) to perform simple everyday arithmetic claculations without the aid of a machine? at the same time, would you like to have people who can only regurgitate information which has been fed to them, without any processing going on from the brain? Of course not!
(and now back to my thoughts on this)
Those kids should be educated, and that's exactly what the board was trying to in both subjects. By putting evolution in it's proper place (the area of natural philosophy) the Kansas BOE opened the door for true science education, one where students are allowed to look at ALL the facts and make their own conclusions without being forced into one viewpoint or another.
Sometimes I really wish I could turn a clue into a good solid object and smack people upside the head with it. This issue has been blown waaaay out of proportion (stupid election years!) and the vast majority of those who express their opinions on it are trying to force their dogmatic viewpoints on others. All I know is that I've heard it from the source now, and I encourage others to find the facts as well.